← Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
What Is Keeping the American Church From the Power of the Holy Spirit | 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. Good morning. Good morning, Lake Point family. Amen. You guys got your Bibles? Head over to Acts, chapter 20. That's gonna be today. And, man, I'll be honest, I'm still just a little bit aglow from encounter this last Wednesday. Who's that Encounter? Where y' all at, you guys? Amen, man. It was incredible. Listen, it's a pretty special thing when tens of thousands of people are gathering to pray together and just never seen anything like that. Now, I do wanna give a heads up about today's message. Today's message is a little different. And let me give a little background to this. I typically plan what I'm gonna preach about 18 months in advance, and I do the same thing. Here's how I write a sermon. Been doing the same thing for about 18 years, is I get the passage I'm gonna preach and I take a walk and I pray the same thing almost every week. I say, God, they're your people, not my people, so give me what you need for them to grow into your glory. And I take a walk, I start praying, and the Holy Spirit starts speaking to me, and I stick a little iPhone note, and I just aggregate that throughout the week, and there we go. Sermon pops out at the end. This week, it was like, Tuesday. And that's when I start. And it was like I took my walk and, like, the first time in, like, 18 years. Like, it just. I didn't feel like God was giving me anything. Then Wednesday I woke up, and Wednesday I started realizing, man, Wednesday morning, it feels like the Holy Spirit's asking me to do something different. And that doesn't typically happen. I sent this text message to our team and note the time that I sent it. It was 9:29am on Wednesday. And I just said, confirmed, I'm gonna switch out the Jude series. That's what we were gonna do for five weeks in. There is more. Go back to the Book of Acts. First Time. I've done this at Lake Point, I think, but call it intuition or the Holy Spirit, either one. I just have a really strong sense. Back to the Book of acts now. 9:29am within four hours, it was about four hours, three to four hours later, we witnessed in our nation the assassination of the highest profile. Honestly, I'll talk about this later and you may actually, I'll just say it and then I'll explain it later. Honestly, what you witnessed was a martyrdom about four hours later in our country. And immediately after that happened, when I went back to sermon prep, I knew exactly why. The Holy Spirit had told me three hours before that I need you back in the Book of Acts. And so if you got your Bibles, would you please buckle up? And here we go. We're gonna be in Acts today. Now, we're doing this with an expectant heart. And here's why I say this. The reason we shifted that is because we believe in the power, presence and leadership of the Holy Spirit. That's what we do. Okay, so let's go right at it. And here we are. We're going back in the Book of Acts. This is, I think, week 33 or something like that, verse by verse in the Book of Acts. The title of the series is There is More. And the reason that I'm titling this series There Is More is because it doesn't matter to me if you've been a Christian for decades or if the events of the week shook you and this is your first time in church in decades. I've gotten a ton of messages from people like that this week. It doesn't matter which camp you're in. I have a promise for you. It doesn't matter how much of God you've experienced. There's more. He wants more for you. He has more for you. In fact, it's really interesting. Jesus. I'm going to get a running start into the passage. Jesus, what he does is he tells us is in John 16 is super counterintuitive, but he tells his disciples very truly. I tell you, he said, it's better for you that I go away. And that sounds weird. It's like, hey, Jesus, it's pretty awesome. Think about being his disciple. I think it's pretty awesome you're here with you right next to me. Three years, like in Jesus life group, in the Bible study, seeing the miracles, all this stuff. I mean, I. Can you just try to imagine what it would have been like to have Jesus next to you for three years. Any hard theological, philosophical, Question you ask Jesus, he answers it. You're at any party, they run out of checks, mix, and he just multiplies it. And whatever that's just immediately, you know, your beloved dog dies and Jesus snaps his fingers, resurrects it. Your cat dies. Jesus digs a hole to help you bury the body. You know, whatever it is, I say, you gotta, Gotta work it in there. It would've been amazing. None of us could ever imagine what it would be like to have Jesus next to us. But there's a reason Jesus said it's better for you if I go away. Watch what he said. He said, here's why. Because unless I go, the advocate, the Greek word is paraclete, is talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit won't come unless I go. But if I go, I. I'm gonna send him to you. And what Jesus is saying, and this doesn't make sense to us in our natural minds, he's saying, the spirit inside of you is better and more powerful than me beside you. And the entire witness of the Scriptures tells us that's the case. Think about this for a second. Jesus disciples have him next to them for three years doing ministry, doing all the things. And at the end of three years of ministry, without the Holy Spirit inside of them, 120 disciples. Then in Acts chapter two, the spirit falls. Divided tongues of fire come to rest on all of those men. The same men who ran From Little girls 50 days earlier are standing in front of the same men. Listen to me. Are standing in front of the same men who assassinated Jesus in a public forum for speaking truth and declaring his lordship. He's standing in front of those same men. There's. And they're in there preaching boldly the truth of the Gospel. And in that one day with the Spirit inside of them, 3,000 people are saved. So no Holy Spirit. Three years, 120. One day with the Holy Spirit. 3,000. And can I just tell you the same? True for you. The Spirit inside of you is better than Jesus would be beside you. And what he's saying to his disciples in Acts chapter one, we'll go back there and then we'll get to Acts chapter 20 is. They're like Jesus just finished saying to them, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He gives them a mission, and they're probably like, let's go. I'm in. We did the miracles. We read the Bible studies, we heard the sermons. Let's Go. And they're like, okay, we're ready to go. And Jesus goes, don't go. Actually, don't go anywhere. He says, stay. Because in Acts, chapter one, he says, for in a few days, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you have been my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth. So what he says is, don't go. Here's why. Listen. Because he's going, there's more. There's more that I need you to have. And for every person here, whether you're a Christian or you're not a Christian, I promise you there's more. There's more I want you to have. Now, the rest of the Book of Acts is a description of the more. Now, I'm gonna start here, and then you're gonna see. This is a bit of an odd sermon. I'm gonna take a hard turn in the middle of the sermon. And there's a reason that the Spirit took us back to Acts. I'm gonna talk about some things going on in our nation. So just let's get a running start into the passage with me. So check this out. This is the beginning of Acts, chapter 20, and it starts like this. It says, when the uproar. Now, really quick. I never do this. I'm actually not talking to Lake Point. I'm talking to every other church and every other pastor right now. Because what I've learned is that, especially in the last few weeks, I'm learning there's lots of Christians and lots of pastors from other churches who you're tuning into Lake Point. Watch what's going on here. I want to talk to you really quick. Some of you have pastors, and it feels like every now and then they say something, and there's an uproar when they say it. And you might not be spiritually mature or discerned enough yet. And you think, man, because people are angry at my pastor, he must have done something wrong. And I want to point out to you that everywhere the Apostle Paul went in the Book of Acts, everywhere he went, there were riots and uproars. There's a reason for that. And you need to understand the spiritual math behind that. But because, listen, in the Bible, there is a Holy Spirit, and then there are opposite spirits. There are unholy spirits. The Bible calls demons. And whenever there is an action of the Holy Spirit, there is always going to be a reaction of unholy spirits. The Bible calls demons. That's why the pattern of the Book of Acts, the Entire thing is this revival riot, revival, riot, revival riot. In fact, if there's never any uproar when your pastor clearly teaches the Bible, there might be something wrong. So this is what he's saying. He's going, hey. He had just been in Ephesus and there was this massive revival and then a riot. There was an uproar that ended. And then Paul sent for the disciples. Now, when it says disciples here, not Talking about the 12, that's just a word for anybody that follows Jesus. So he calls them, and after encouraging them, he said goodbye and he set out for Macedonia. Now, for you Bible nerds, I want you to get this in your head. So I got a little map for you. You know, check this out. So here's where it is. Is Paul starts in where it is. There it is, right down. Let me be a weatherman for a second. I'm gonna look up there. He starts right here. This is harder than you think, honestly. He starts right here in Ephesus. So this is where the uproar happened. Then. We just said, he just said he goes up here and he goes to Macedonia. So this goes all the way across here. Now he's gonna travel around in Greece. The passage mentions him in Greece, but he's going to Macedonia. Now, before I tell you where he goes next, what's really interesting, we don't always know this. What's really interesting is Bible scholars say that Paul probably spent 18 months, a year and a half in Macedonia. A lot of times you'll read these verses and just he was in Macedonia and you don't. That verse represents one and a half years of ministry. So he's in Macedonia. What's interesting is we know what was happening during this time because the passage later mentions Illyricum. Now there's another passage that mentions Lyricum. So we know what was happening. Check this out. This is Romans 15, 18, 19. So here's what Paul's doing in this time of Macedonia. This is really important. He says, I won't venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles. That's just like an old Bible word for people who don't know Jesus yet, people who are not yet on Team Jesus. Some of you are here and you're investigating Team Jesus, but you're not on Team Jesus yet. That may happen at the end of today's sermon, but Paul's talking about somebody like that leading the Gentiles to obey God. Now watch this. A threefold ministry that Paul has. Here's how I'm going to help lost people coming to know Jesus. Watch this by what I've said. So he's going to preach some things by what I've done. So I'm going to help some people. I'm going to heal some hurting people by what I've done. But then he says this. And by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. He says there are three ways that the church was engaged in reaching lost people and helping them know Jesus is Lord and Jesus is real and Jesus is alive and Jesus has been raised from the dead and Jesus will someday return to judge the living and the dead. And he goes, there's three things that testify to those things. The preaching of the word of God, the love of the people of God and the power of the Spirit of God. And then watch what he says. Check. Check this out. He says about this. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. That's why we know it was in this same time. I have. What's this yellow word right here that I have to jump to point at? I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. In other words, what he's saying is if I didn't have all those things preaching the word of God, the love of the people of God and the power of the Spirit of God, he's going to. That's how you fully proclaim the gospel. And if we only have two out of three, then we're not giving the world the full witness to the truth and the living power of Jesus. That is why Lake Point Church, we need the more that the there is more is about in the Book of Acts. We must have it. In fact, I'll just say this, you know, sometimes. Here's what'll happen. Let me show you this. This is in first Corinthians. It says this. It says, for the kingdom of God is not just a matter of talk, but of power. And let me just like there's a burden for me, like as a pastor, as I look out at the church in America. If you're at. Think about this. Why is it that in America we have all the resources, the best resources in the world, the church in America, we have the biggest churches, the biggest conferences, the best seminaries, the most publishers, the most books, the most theologians. We have all that in America. But everywhere else in the world, Christianity is growing faster than it is in America. Do you know why? Because we have settled for a gospel of merely words and no power. And what it's saying is this Gospel. This kingdom is not merely talk. It's power. And you need that power. Now this is what he says right here. You need that power in your life and your family. Now check this out. Okay, Verse six. Now here's. So that all leads to this thing that happens and is recorded in Acts 20. So here's what happens next. We sail from Philippi after the festival at unleavened bread. Five days later, we join the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Go back to that map one more time. I just want you to see this, and then we'll get into it. So we just went over here to Macedonia. Now we're going, ooh, follow this all the way over here. Now we're in Troas. This is where we are. I'm rick steves. That's a 5% of you know that joke. Here we go. Now here's what happens. Let's go. Here's what happens to the passage. Go to the passage. So on the first day of the week. So now they're worshiping on Sunday, not Saturday, because they're Christians. And Jesus has been raised from the dead. That's the day he was raised from the dead. We came together to break bread. Now, when it says break bread, check this out. Remember, these are house churches at this time. So what they would do is they come together, they'd worship, and then they'd have a meal together. And at the end of the meal, they'd. This is actually referring to communion. They'd finish their little meals with breaking bread and doing communion together. That's what it's talking about when it says break bread. So Paul speaks to the people. And because he intended to leave the next day, I love this so much. He kept on talking until midnight. So if I go over my timer by six minutes, you're going to be okay. You know, you're going to be okay. I talk for a long time about the things I'm passionate about. I. I'm passionate about the Bible. We like the Bible at Lake Point. So now check this out. I like that guy right there. Okay, now, seated in a window was a young man named. If you need baby names, Uticus is available. It's available. And he was sinking into a listen. Let me just say this. Luke is savage in this passage when he records what listening to Paul's preaching was like. Uticus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on and on. You know, this is really interesting. I'll just point this out. The book of Second Corinthians. Did you guys know this? Paul was not a good speaker. The book of Second Corinthians records Paul's critics said about him. Oh, his letters are weighty and forceful, but his speech amounts to nothing. Dagger. I'm just. That's a dagger man. That's a rough face. I'll delete that Facebook comment. Okay. Okay, so this is what happens. He talks on and on. Now watch what happens. Here we go. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story, 25ft, hits the stone pavement, and he was picked up dead. Now, this is not. If you've seen the Princess Bride. This is not mostly dead. Luke is. That's a weird applause. Luke is a doctor. So Dr. Luke, trained physician. When he says picked up dead, like he's dead dead. I almost made the subtitle of the sermon, the Perils of Falling Asleep in Church. Okay, that's it. I see it every week. There you go. Okay, so he gets picked up dead. Now watch what Paul does. This is incredible. Okay, so now Paul goes down and he threw himself on the young man. If you. You Bible nerds, you remember in the Old Testament, Elijah actually does this. He puts his body on top of a dead boy to raise from the dead. For some reason, Paul does the exact same thing Elijah did. Why? Okay, so he throws himself on the young man, put his arms around him, and he said, don't be alarmed. He's alive. Now, I don't know what Paul said when he wrapped up that boy. He may have whispered a prayer in his ear. He may have just. He may have just said, jesus. All I know is that as soon as Paul whispers something in his ear, the boys raised from the dead in front of everybody. Now, here's how powerful and normal the powerful working of the spirit was in Paul's life. If I in this service, like, you fell asleep, fell out of your chair, broke your neck, and you died. And then I walked out there and I raised you from the dead, okay? By the power of the spirit. People don't do miracles. God does miracles through people. If I did that. Listen, service is over, bro. We're gonna sing All Hail King Jesus and call it a day. I'm going out on a high note. I'm constanzing the thing. I'm done. So that's it. But this was so normal for Paul. Here's what Paul does. Check this out. He goes, hey, where were we? In communion again? Let's just keep going. He just goes back upstairs and he broke bread and he Ate after talking until daylight. Six more hours of teaching. No complaints from y'. All. I don't wanna hear anything. He leaves. And the people took the young man home alive. And they were what? They were greatly comforted. And I want you to be greatly comforted today. Now listen, here's what I want to point out. The Holy Spirit is alive. He is active and he is still working miracles in power today. He is still doing that. Okay? In fact, listen, for some of you when you see this and you hear about miracles and the power of the spirit, there's stuff in you that's like, ah, somebody praying for somebody raised from the dead. I'll be honest with you. This Wednesday afternoon I took a walk and I prayed for that and God did not answer my prayer. I want to talk about that in a second. But I just want to say to you, if you ever see the miraculous power of the spirit or you see people preaching from the Bible and asking God to do these things they see in the Bible and something in you is like, ah, feels weird, little incredible. I just want to remind you what the Bible says in Acts 26:8. Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? In fact, the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is at work in you. The Bible says, let me just make this one little point. Let me hard turn this sermon. So listen, here's my deal. I'm not a faith healer, but I am a Bible believer and my Bible says this in James chapter five it says is anyone among you sick? It's talking about does anybody have like a life threatening illness, like a super serious thing? Is anyone among you sick? Then it says, let him call to the elders of the church and they will come to him and they will pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And then it says the prayer of faith. There's a theology behind that I don't got time to get into will sometimes make the sick person well. Now I got a weird job. My job is weird. It's different than yalls. Doing that is like literally part of my job. I'm one of the elders of our church and we actually do that. We did it at encounter. We anoint people with oil in the name of the Lord as a sign of the Spirit's presence. We pray for them to be healed. I have. And listen, when the elders do that, we assault heaven and ask Jesus to stretch out his hand and perform signs and wonders to heal the sick person. We do that. And can I Tell you what, we do that. What happens sometimes? Nothing. Nothing. Sometimes he doesn't do anything. In fact, I explained to every person we pray for. Here's what I say every time I'm tell you what I say. I explained to the person, hey, God's going to heal every Christian in one of three ways. Immediately through miracle, gradually through medicine, or eventually in glory. But today we're praying for number one. That's what I do every single time. So sometimes God doesn't heal them in the minute, he heals them in glory. But then other times. You know what else happens other times? I'm at Encounter this week and I'm standing and worshiping in between somebody whose cancer got healed and somebody who last year was praying for their infertility. And this year they're worshiping, holding the baby that God gave them. Sometimes I do that. Sometimes. Listen, sometimes. I'm in the lobby last night after the 4pm service and a mom walks up to me who has a prodigal son. She explains I have her permission to share this. Didn't get this in the other sermons. She explains she's praying in here at 7:45. Her son has had vertigo for a long, long, long, long time. Vertigo, long time. Almost incapacitated. Her unbelieving son calls her, not knowing she was at encounter with, not knowing that she had come forward, praying for her son, not knowing she was there. Her unbelieving son calls her and says, mom, my vertigo stopped during dinner. She said, wait, wait, wait. She says, what time? He was in a different time zone. He says, 6:45, she thinks. And she's like, 7:45 this time. That's the exact time I was praying for him. I'm just telling you, man, this stuff is real. And listen, can I say this to you? You need that power in your life. You need that power in your family. You need that power not to change your. Not just to change your life, but your lineage and your legacy as he works through you as a father or a mother, a grandfather or a grandmother. A praying widow. You need that power in your life. Now, hard right turn. Here's why I say this. And this part of the sermon is why I think the Holy Spirit said back to the Book of Acts. Because it has never been more obvious in our world that you need the Holy Spirit's power in your life. Let me explain why really quick. Okay? Now, heads up. If you're not a Christian in the next three to five minutes, you might think I'm insane. Like, no joke, I'm not Joking. In the next three to five minutes, you may be like, bro, you need to start preaching with a tinfoil of hat on. Like, give me a heads up. Somebody didn't warn me. But here's what I would say to you. The book of Hebrews, listen really close. If you're not a Christian, here's what I'm asking for you to do. The book of Hebrews says, by faith we understand. And I have a deep suspicion that there's a lot of you who are here that are not Christians this week. And you just stumbled into church because you're seeing more and more things happen in our world that you don't understand. And can I just say to you, by faith you can understand. Actually, it's by faith you can understand. In fact, I'd say this. The Bible says this, that the natural man does not accept spiritual things because he is not spiritually discerned. What that means is there are some things in this world that you actually can't understand unless you accept the reality of the unseen and the spiritual realm. It's the only thing that will make sense of things. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm giving you a heads up. I'm gonna put my little tinfoil hat on for a second. I wanna explain to you, I'm gonna, I wanna connect some dots for you, some things that are happening in our world. And I'm believing by faith, the Holy Spirit is gonna open your eyes to this. Okay? So check this out. Let me explain some things really quick. Here's my thesis. It's never been more obvious that you need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. Now here's why I'm gonna connect some dots. So two and a half weeks ago, about three weeks ago, there was a transgender shooter that walked into Annunciation High School. By the way, a few things I'm getting ready to say. Here's why I'm doing this. The Bible says, don't take part in deeds of darkness. But it says, do expose them. Do expose them. So let me do that for you really quick. So two and a half weeks ago, a transgender shooter walks into Annunciation High School. And really quick, I want to say a few things about this. Let me give a caveat. Not all people who struggle with gender dysphoria, that's not all necessarily demonic. But I do think some of what's behind the transgender thing. I, I do think some of it is. And listen, you may again, I got my tinfoil hat on. But you explain to Me why we keep hearing and seeing the same things. So just notice this guy walks into that school, identifies as transgender. The pronouns are they, them, that kind of thing. Think about when Jesus finds the Garrison demoniac in the Book of Mark and he asked the guy that's full of a demon, and he says, hey, what's your name? And the demon's response was, oh, we are legion. In other words, he goes, oh, here's our name. We're a they. We're a them. I'll go a little off script here really quick. Again, not all gender dysphoria, transgenderism do I think is demonic. I do think some of it is interesting. In the Bible, God creates humans as male and female, biological male and biological female. But in the Bible, angels and demons are genderless. They're spirits. And in the Bible, demons appear as both male and then they manifest as female. So for them, it's a little fluid, It's a little non binary. I just wanna point this out to you. So he walks into the school and think about who he's targeting. He's walking into a church, Annunciation, Catholic, deal church, and he wants to kill Christian children. If you go to the book of revelation, Revelation chapter 12 shows us what's going on in the spiritual realm behind the scenes throughout human history. And it says what the dragon Satan does is he makes war on the woman representing the church and her children. That's what Revelation 12 says. So why is it that a transgender person walks in to a church with a gun targeting children? I just want to point that out. As he walks in later, after his death, they recover the magazine clips from his gun. And here's some of the things that were written on the magazine clips for the children. Ha, ha, ha, ha ha. Okay, here's the second one. The other one said this. Where is your God? Just openly taunting the living God. Okay, here's the next one. It says, Israel must fall. Now, I just want to point this out. All throughout the Bible, what Satan works to do is to attack the lineage and the legacy of the Lord who. Who. Who was a Jewish man. So you got it right here. There's a weird. Just a weird. Where did that come from? Just this weird hatred of Israel. You have this. Now, some of this I can't show, but I do want to show this one thing. Some of it's too dark to show, but this one thing I do want to show. In that shooter's journal, they recovered a picture that he had drawn of himself looking into a mirror. And as he draws A picture of himself looking into a mirror. A demon is looking back. Now you'll see the writing at the top of this picture. And it's like some scrawling, the translation of that scrawling that the demon is saying back to him. Here's how that's translated. Who. When will this end? Help me. I don't want to help. And then the demon responds. In his picture, kill yourself, kill. Jesus said that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. That's all he does. Now in that dude's journal. And I'm not going to show the whole journal entry, it's a little too dark. I'm going to read one quote from it. What he said before he committed that shooting was this. I feel like there is some kind of God or higher force controlling me. Sometimes I notice. Sometimes I sometimes notice how I suddenly start writing things that I don't even think of myself. Like these thoughts are coming from somewhere else. It's as if somebody is putting these thoughts in my head. I used to think that all of this was nonsense, but now I'm not so sure. Now let me connect another dot. A week later, there's a dude in Charlotte, North Carolina, been arrested 14 times, violent criminal in and out of prison that knifed an innocent Ukrainian girl to death on public transit. My friend Frank Turek sent me this. That when that guy was in court hearings, it was testified. Go ahead and toss it up there. And you can't read it, it's too small, but I'll read it to you. He testified in the court hearings that one of the things he was saying was, let me find it. He repeatedly called to complain that his brain was being controlled by someone else. Now am I, hey, was that demonic activity or was that mental illness? I don't know. I don't know. But there's a possibility because we do not wage war, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and spiritual forces of evil in high places. Possibility. Now let me go fast forward to just this Wednesday. This Wednesday, obviously was the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who is a prominent public Christian. And I'm going to talk about this here in a second. Just stay with me. Two days before the assassination of Charlie Kirk. This was posted on X. This account is called Jezebel. It's like a huge account. It's got like 900,000 followers. Now let me just point this out. First of all, Jezebel is mentioned in the Bible twice. That's a biblical name. It's mentioned in 2 Kings 4, and then Revelation chapter 2 and 3, when Jesus references that woman Jezebel, in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, he's speaking about a woman that was active in the church, and he calls her Jezebel because he wasn't addressing the woman. He was addressing the demonic spirit that was empowering the woman. So Jezebel in the Bible is literally the name of a demonic entity, and that's what this account names itself. And then they post, two days before the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we paid some Etsy witches to church to curse Charlie Kirk. Now, again, am I saying that that necessarily had something to do with his assassination? I don't know. I'm pointing out things that you that spiritually discerned people ought to be able to see and understand. That's what I'm doing. Now, before I show this last picture, right after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I've got a friend that's a pastor in Seattle. He sent me this picture. Before I throw it up there, you're gonna see the words hell. You're gonna see the words hell, yes on a sign. And you may see that and go, oh, dude, why would we use a curse word in church? Hey, actually, I actually think in this context, it's not a curse word. I actually think what was happening is Satan was ripping off his mask and revealing himself for who he is. I actually think it was literal is what I think. So Pastor Buddy in Seattle sends me a picture of what's happening in his city right after this public prominent Christian was assassinated, and he sends me this picture. And it's this guy celebrating in the streets. Charlie Kirk shot. Exclamation, exclamation, exclamation point, exclamation point, Hell, yes. Now, why do I show that to you? Why am I going to show you something that says hell, yes? Here's what I would say to you. Was that hell. Was that from Hell? Yes, it was. And listen to me. I pray that you live so aggressively for the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that when you die, hell rejoices too. I pray that that happens for you. I pray that that happens for you. So listen, here's my point. My point is that when that man died, the demons were rejoicing. Now, are you seeing this? You see all these things again? You got it? By faith. We understand it's by faith in these things. Here's my point. It has reached a point in our culture where you can no longer credibly deny that there are unholy spirits and darkness in the world. But listen to me, if there are unholy spirits, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And if there is a darkness, there must be a light. And his name is Jesus Christ. That is his name. He is the light. Jesus said this in John chapter 8. He said, I am the light of the world. That's what he said. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. He will have the light of life. This is what Jesus said about himself. And we, Lake Point Church, we do not fear because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. That's what we do. Okay, now let me just say a few things about this because it's, I, I, I do want to address the just kind of what happened in our nation this week. And you may be going here, here's what's weird about being a pastor of a church our size. Some of you walked in and like the whole Charlie Kirk assassination thing is all you've been thinking about all week. Some of you, you like, didn't even know who he was. And then some of you knew who he was and you were like, I don't know what I think about that guy. Okay, so like, here's why I want to talk about this for a second. First of all, you may have heard something that Charlie Kirk said that you didn't agree with about what he said about the government. But here's what I would say. I beg you to consider his God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I beg you for that. Number two, it's simply a fact that whether you like it or not or whatever, Charlie Kirk may have testified to Christ to more people on college campuses in our generation than anyone alive. The other thing I would say, the other thing I would say, and I do not use this word lightly, I do not think it's incorrect to call Charlie Kirk a modern American martyr for the faith. Some of Charlie Kirk. Listen. Some of Charlie Kirk's last words. I'm going to read this to you. Some of Charlie Kirk's last words were to look out at a crowd of hostile, unbelieving college students and say this. It's not just intra biblical evidence, but extra biblical evidence that Jesus Christ was a real person. He lived a perfect life. He was crucified, died and rose on the third day. And he is Lord and God over all. Those were some of his final words. Now let me say a few words about that man's death, assassination and martyrdom. First of all, some of you may see something like that and you even see some of the like the dots I just connected for you, and you may feel a rising fear inside of you. Can I just be, like, super vulnerable and honest? Jan and I took a long walk on Wednesday, and my wife looks at me and Janice says, man, Josh, honestly, sometimes I'm nervous about you being on stage in front of thousands of people because you're saying and you believe the same things they killed him for. And I just want to remind you of this, my fellow disciples. Jesus said if any. Listen, he said if anyone would follow him, they should count the cost and figure out whether they were prepared to pick up their cross. And a cross was an instrument of death. Every Christian. I did this this week. Every Christian. At various points in your life, you should take a long walk and ask yourself the question, am I prepared to die for this? And you need to make sure the answer is yes. Because we are people who have counted the cost. And we have come to the conclusion that to live is Christ and. And to die will be gain. To die will be gain. Billy Graham said this a few years before he went to hug Jesus. He said, someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it, because I shall be more alive than I am now. I will have just changed my address. Listen, you can't kill a Christian. You can only change his address. That's all you can do. That's all you can do. Okay? So we are not afraid. And we do not fear death. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, grave, where is your sting number two? Some of you, depending on, like, your vibe, you honestly may have been looking out at, like, the rising darkness in our world and our culture. And honestly, you're just like, you just want vengeance. It's like, bro, I want revenge. Like, get him. Okay? But I must remind you that you are following the Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified because of his love for his enemies. We, as Christians, we are called to enemy love like our Lord Jesus, who think about this. He looked out at his assassins, at his mart, the people who martyred him. He looked out at them. And one of his final prayers was, was, father, forgive them. And then he answered his own prayer by paying the penalty for their sins and dying on the cross for them. Throughout all of Christian history, when Christians have been killed from Nero to Isis, from Persia to now modern secular progressivism, what Christians have said is, we will love our enemies and we will pray for those who persecute us. And you listen to me. Listen. Do you want revenge? You want revenge? Listen to Me. Do you know what Christian vengeance is? Our vengeance will be. Revival. Revival. That's our vengeance. Revival. The an awakening to the things of God in our nation. Okay, now some of you, you read a passage like Acts chapter 20. Like I just walked through real quick and you're like, man, why didn't God raise that dude? Like he raised that guy in Acts 20. Why didn't he raise somebody on Wednesday? Why not? Well, can I just like do. This is like so deep in my spirit. This is why right here, why I think the Holy Spirit said back to the Book of Acts. All right, if you go back to the Book of Acts, we're reading about a man named Paul. He was not always called Paul. He was originally called Saul. The first time we're ever introduced to Saul is in Acts chapter seven. And it's actually, he's a footnote in somebody else's story. It's the story of a public assassination, the public martyrdom of another Christian, a man named Stephen in Acts chapter seven. Stephen, he was a deacon. Like that just means servant. It literally means like a volunteer on a volunteer team at the church. But he was a spirit filled man. He was a Jesus man, he was a Bible man. He was a courageous man. He was a cross carrying man. He was a spirit filled man. And Stephen is gathered in front like, honestly, eerily a little bit similar to like being on a hostile college campus. He's gathered before the Sanhedrin, like a place of public hostility against this new thing called Christianity. And the Sanhedrin gathers him and he publicly argues with them. He and argues, I mean, like debates. He boldly testifies to the truth of the lordship, the reality, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says they got so mad that he wouldn't shut up that they tear their clothes, they gnash their teeth, they rush at him, grab him, and they publicly stone him to death while he looks towards the heavens and prays, just like Jesus, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. Now while he's dying, while he's bleeding out on camera in public. The camera in Acts chapter 7 pans from Stephen over to a guy we meet for the very first time that was then named Saul. Saul is holding the cloaks of the people who are killing Stephen. And Saul watching Stephen publicly assassinated is the thing that shakes him and makes him go. Maybe there's something to this Jesus thing. That, and listen, that is the turning point in the Book of Acts. It was the moment, that was the moment he gives his life to Jesus. And from then on he's this. He's the primary character seeing the gospel go forward. Let me say this some of you like again, I got messages like this all week. You're only here for the first time because you're shook. And here's who, some of you, some of you are watching in the public death of a Christian man this week. That was your Stephen and you, God has raised you up to be the next Paul, the next spirit filled Christian who watched somebody else give their life for the faith. And now it's your turn to go forward and take the gospel to the nations, take the gospel to your family to make your vengeance revival. You should be praying just like Acts 4 and make Jesus your Lord. Bend your knee to the lordship of Jesus. Believe that Jesus was crucified for your sins, that Jesus was raised on the third day, that Jesus will return, I think very soon to judge the living and the dead. You believe that in your life and then what you do is you say, and now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant your servants boldness to preach the truth without fear. This will happen to some of you. Jesus said, I will build my church and he's going to use some of you to do it. Now, last thing I want to finish just like kind of like speaking to like, what's going on in our culture in general right now. You must understand. You must understand. I'm going to say it three times. You must understand. Our problem is so deep. If sin is our problem, then repentance is the only solution. Now listen, I'm not saying politics don't matter. It actually drives me crazy when pastors do that. Politics affect policies. Policies affect people. People matter to God. So that's not what I'm saying. But listen, politics cannot fix what politics did not break. We were broken in our hearts and in our souls long before that. Our problem is so deep that we cannot simply vote our way out of it. This nation and this culture, we will have to repent our way out of it. There are two choices that stand before us as a culture right now. A prodigal culture can come back to Christ or we can continue to descend into chaos. Those are the two choices. So what I would say to our culture is choose this day whom you will serve. If the Lord is God, follow him. If BAAL is God, follow him. You make a choice. That choice stands before you right now. So now you may be asking the question, like, okay, dude, okay, I'm seeing it. I see the rising darkness. If there's unholy spirits, I need a holy Spirit, if there's darkness, I want to be on the light side. And you may be going, well, what do I gotta do? Okay, well, check this out. The people in the book of Acts, they asked that same question right after they saw people killed for their faith, saw Jesus killed for their faith. Check this out. They say this in Acts, chapter two. They ask the question you're asking, okay? They go, brothers, what shall we do? They saw the boldness of Peter and the other apostles. What shall we do? They say. And then Peter answers the same question. He answers your question. Okay, what do I gotta do? He says this, he says, repent, and repent just means turn. That's all it means. Here's all it just means you're going, man, I have been living my life for other things besides Jesus. And now, as best as I know how, I don't got it all figured out. But as best as I know how, I'm gonna go that way and I'm gonna try to follow Jesus. That's what repentance means. Okay? So repent. And then he says, and be baptized. That's why we're having a baptism Sunday next week. We're gonna big party. Be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you're going. Well, I need that Holy Spirit because the reality of unholy spirits. And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, all that happens. So listen, if you're here and you're one of the people sending me messages, I've been in church in years. What I want you to do is I want you to hear the gospel that somebody was killed in part for proclaiming this week. You were not born a good person. You were born a sinner by both nature and choice. And knowingly or unknowingly, you have spent your entire life living in open rebellion against God and living for other things besides him. But God loved you so much that he sent his only son that God became a God man, Jesus Christ. And he lived the perfect life that not one of you has lived. The Bible says no one is righteous. No, not one. No one seeks for God. Everyone has turned their back on him. He lived the life you have not lived and accomplished righteousness that you have not accomplished. And then he went to the cross and he died in your place to pay the penalty for your sins. And when he was looking out on the cross and praying, father, forgive them. You were part of the them because you killed Jesus. And I killed Jesus. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. And then the Bible says that Jesus Christ, three days later, he rose from the dead and he conquered the only enemy that no human has ever figured out how to conquer, death itself. And then now he lives to give life to anybody who will call on his name. And this very second, what Jesus is doing is he is seated at the right hand of our Father in heaven, and he is waiting to return, and he is ruling right now, and he is reigning right now, and he is alive right now, and he is saving right now. And he will return very soon to judge the living and the dead. And every single person will stand before him and give an account of what they did with their life. Listen to me. Hell is not a place that God just sends people he's mad at. Hell is a place where if you want to choose to pay the penalty for your own sin, you can choose to do that. You can go to hell and do that, or you can choose to let Jesus pay the penalty for your sin on the cross by believing in him. And the Bible says this, that God loved, so he gave. And if you believe, you will receive the gift of eternal life. And so I want you to have a chance to do that this week. So at all of our campuses, would you bow your heads and close your eyes. And if you're realizing you need to cross the line of faith right now and give your life to Jesus, just pray this prayer from a sincere heart, silently in your seat, just pray. God, I know I'm a sinner and I have lived for other things besides you first, but I believe you died for my sin. I believe that somehow, in some way, the cross counted for me. And I believe you rose from the dead and that you live to give life to anybody who would call on your name. From a sincere heart, pray this from this day forward, as best as I know how, I will live for you. First, today I receive the free gift of the forgiveness of sin apart from anything I've ever done, just as a gift. Thank you, God, for adopting me as a son or a daughter. Now, keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed. And if you prayed that prayer to cross the line of faith and give yourself to Jesus, then here, in a second, I'm going to count to three. And on the count of three, I want you to put your hand up in the air boldly. Listen to me. Don't ever let somebody make you ashamed of what God is doing in your life in church. Don't you ever do that. I want you to put your hand up boldly. And the reason I'm asking for that is because I believe something solidifies in you spiritually when you respond physically. So on an account of three, if that's you, let's go. Number one, God loves you. Two, you came here for a reason today. Three, right now, in your seat. Lift your hand in the air right now. Amen. Wow. Right now. Keep them up, like. Lock that elbow, like, man, I'm coming home. I need that in my life. I'm all yours, Jesus. Right? Keep him up. Lock that elbow, man. With a boldness, man. All over the room, man. Amen. Amen and amen.