One of the Three
Source URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jX1y7wVGPk
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YouTube upload date: 2025-05-18
Video duration: 01:25:48
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[00:00:13] In all of us, Lord, lead us and guide us, Lord, draw us closer and closer, we pray, Lord.
[00:10:27] Lord, give us the hunger, the desire, Lord, give us, Lord, the want to, to be with you,
[00:10:36] to obey you, to walk with you, to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
[00:10:40] Lord, really, at the end of the day, that's all that matters is how much we love you.
[00:10:46] We don't have to question whether you love us or not.
[00:10:51] Do we love you with all of our heart?
[00:10:54] Help us, Lord, with that, I pray in Jesus' name.
[00:10:59] Amen, amen.
[00:11:00] You may be seated this morning.
[00:11:02] Welcome, everyone.
[00:11:04] Hallelujah.
[00:11:08] Everybody feeling all right today?
[00:11:11] All right.
[00:11:13] Well, I hope you have your Bibles with you today.
[00:11:15] The Lord definitely gave me a word for you today.
[00:11:20] Actually, it's not really something I think I've ever preached on or talked about.
[00:11:27] But yesterday, it's funny how some of these things happen sometimes.
[00:11:32] I was working out, lifting weights out in a shop by myself.
[00:11:37] And I just started talking to the Lord.
[00:11:40] And some of these things started coming out.
[00:11:42] And I realized how important this is because he just made me remember things.
[00:11:52] We were watching a documentary, a Brownsville documentary.
[00:11:56] I think it was really focused on lindall and worship.
[00:11:59] And didn't it just come out?
[00:12:01] Did it just come out?
[00:12:03] It was really good.
[00:12:06] But Steve Hill's first message at the Brownsville Revival
[00:12:10] was remembering the deeds of the Lord, or what the Lord has done, from Psalm 77.
[00:12:16] And then several years into the revival,
[00:12:19] he redid that message with an update, but remembering the deeds of the Lord.
[00:12:25] And I was there when he did the update that night.
[00:12:28] And it's one of the most powerful nights that I've ever been there.
[00:12:32] But I was on the bottom floor in the very back row.
[00:12:39] And I remember the Holy Spirit hitting me so hard that I was just weeping my eyes out.
[00:12:44] That's how powerful it was.
[00:12:48] But it all comes back to what I'm going to talk about.
[00:12:51] So y'all can put up the title today is one of the three.
[00:13:00] I want you to turn with me.
[00:13:02] We're going to go to Luke first.
[00:13:05] Luke chapter nine.
[00:13:10] We're going to be a lot of places here, probably.
[00:13:16] I'm going to try to convey something to you that I hope you can grab ahold of.
[00:13:23] Because we live in a crazy, crazy world.
[00:13:27] The deception's only going to grow.
[00:13:29] The animosity towards Christians is going to grow.
[00:13:35] There's going to be a falling away.
[00:13:36] It's going to be that falling away apostasy.
[00:13:39] People falling away from Jesus is going to grow.
[00:13:42] The love of Christians is going to grow cold.
[00:13:44] And that love that's going to grow cold is not just for their fellow man, but the
[00:13:50] love that grows cold first is the love for God, for Jesus.
[00:13:57] And we hear that word love a lot.
[00:14:02] And I think we think we know what it means.
[00:14:05] But most of the time, we do not know what it means.
[00:14:08] Because love is not passive.
[00:14:11] It's not always sweet.
[00:14:14] Sometimes it has to be corrective.
[00:14:15] I mean, anything you see Jesus doing is a manifestation of love because he always walked
[00:14:21] in love.
[00:14:22] He was the only one perfect that never sinned and always walked in love.
[00:14:26] So the day he made the whip and drove people and animals out of the temple and flipped the
[00:14:31] tables over, that was love.
[00:14:33] The day he looked on the Pharisees with anger after he healed the man with the withered
[00:14:38] arm, that was love.
[00:14:40] Because if you love people enough, you will bring correction.
[00:14:44] And it's not always going to be pleasant.
[00:14:48] There is righteous anger that has to be demonstrated at times and patience.
[00:14:55] You have to know when those things are needed.
[00:15:00] Sometimes you can talk sweet all day long to a child, but they finally need to get a good,
[00:15:06] nice rebuke and yell and correction into their face.
[00:15:11] I've noticed kids sometimes over the years as I've been raising children that I can say
[00:15:15] real sweet voice, you know, don't do that.
[00:15:18] Don't do that, honey.
[00:15:20] Don't do that.
[00:15:21] And they'll just keep doing it.
[00:15:23] And then I say, hey, stop.
[00:15:26] I said don't do that.
[00:15:27] They'll jump and then guess what, they'll stop, all right?
[00:15:32] And that's not being mean, that's love.
[00:15:34] If I saw one of my children, especially when they were a little running out into this
[00:15:38] busy road, I can assure you I wouldn't be going stop, honey, right?
[00:15:43] And I'm only saying this because, again, we have in our minds what we think love is.
[00:15:49] And because we base it all in human emotions, we tend to think God is like us.
[00:15:56] And one of the things he says over and over again is I'm not like you.
[00:15:59] I don't think like you.
[00:16:00] I don't do like you do.
[00:16:04] And you need to understand that, okay?
[00:16:07] So when I throw out the word love today, agape has much more meaning than it just
[00:16:13] feeling fondness for someone.
[00:16:17] Maybe the Greek phileo means having a fondness or brotherly love towards someone.
[00:16:23] But agape means that you love somebody or someone enough that you are willing to do
[00:16:31] what's best for them even if it harms you.
[00:16:37] That's why Jesus said greater love is no man than this than a man laid down his life
[00:16:40] for his friends.
[00:16:42] So this is something that a love that does not take its self-preservation,
[00:16:49] self-satisfaction into account.
[00:16:54] It's a total abandon of that.
[00:16:57] Remember what Paul said?
[00:16:58] He said, I don't even count my life dear to me anymore.
[00:17:01] I am here for one reason and one reason only,
[00:17:04] and that is to do the will of the one who sent me.
[00:17:09] That's it.
[00:17:11] And Paul was doing the will of God in his life and laying down his life
[00:17:18] and giving up his life he could have had because he loved the Lord Jesus Christ
[00:17:25] with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
[00:17:27] It didn't matter to him whether he was famous or whether he was popular
[00:17:32] or whether he was loved by people, whether he suffered,
[00:17:36] whether he was beaten or imprisoned or shipwrecked or even dead.
[00:17:44] None of that bothered him because he loved the Lord so much.
[00:17:47] And that's why he said, I have such a desire to be with Jesus.
[00:17:52] He said, but.
[00:17:53] I can just see him saying, but to remain here with you
[00:17:58] is more needful at the time.
[00:18:03] He loved Jesus.
[00:18:06] And that's the mark really that we see,
[00:18:09] and I'm going to show you of the three disciples.
[00:18:13] You say the three?
[00:18:14] Yeah.
[00:18:17] The nine weren't there yet.
[00:18:19] The 70 weren't there yet.
[00:18:22] The multitudes weren't there yet.
[00:18:26] Let's read this.
[00:18:28] Luke 9, and we're going to go down to verse 28.
[00:18:38] The transfiguration is what it says in my Bible here.
[00:18:42] This is also in Matthew 17 and Mark 9.
[00:18:47] But it says here, and it came to pass about eight days
[00:18:49] after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James.
[00:18:53] Say Peter, John, and James.
[00:18:56] Three, the three, not the 12, the three.
[00:19:02] He took Peter and John and James and went up
[00:19:04] into a mountain to pray.
[00:19:06] And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered,
[00:19:11] and his raiment or his clothing was white and glistening.
[00:19:15] And behold, there talked with him two men,
[00:19:19] which were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory
[00:19:22] and spake of his decease, which he should
[00:19:25] accomplish at Jerusalem.
[00:19:27] But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep.
[00:19:31] And when they were awake, they saw his glory
[00:19:34] and the two men that stood with him.
[00:19:36] And it came to pass as they parted from him,
[00:19:38] Peter said unto Jesus, master, it is good for us to be here.
[00:19:42] Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses,
[00:19:46] and one for Elijah, not knowing what he said.
[00:19:49] And while he thus spake, there came a cloud
[00:19:52] and overshadowed them, and they feared
[00:19:55] as they entered into the clouds.
[00:19:56] Somebody say they entered into the cloud.
[00:20:00] Think about this.
[00:20:01] The three of them entered into the same cloud
[00:20:04] of God's glory and presence as Moses did on Mount Sinai.
[00:20:10] And there came a voice out of the cloud,
[00:20:12] saying, this is my beloved son.
[00:20:15] Hear him.
[00:20:16] And when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone,
[00:20:20] and they kept it close and told man in those days
[00:20:24] any of the things which they had seen.
[00:20:27] Now I wanna go to Matthew 15, I mean, 17, I'm sorry.
[00:20:33] I wanna read it there too,
[00:20:35] because we get different viewpoints
[00:20:39] and different things that the Holy Spirit
[00:20:41] wanted to emphasize.
[00:20:46] So Matthew 17, verse one, it says,
[00:20:48] and after six days, Jesus taketh Peter,
[00:20:50] James, and John, his brother,
[00:20:52] and bringeth them up into the high mountain
[00:20:56] and was transfigured before them,
[00:20:58] and his face did shine as the sun,
[00:21:00] and his raiment was white as the light.
[00:21:03] And behold, there appeared unto them
[00:21:05] Moses and Elijah talking with him.
[00:21:08] Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus,
[00:21:10] Lord, it is good for us to be here.
[00:21:12] If thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles,
[00:21:14] one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
[00:21:18] And while he spake, behold,
[00:21:20] a bright cloud overshadowed them,
[00:21:22] and behold a voice out of the cloud,
[00:21:24] which said, this is my beloved son,
[00:21:27] and whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.
[00:21:30] And when the disciples heard it,
[00:21:31] they fell on their face and were sore afraid
[00:21:34] of the fear of God upon them.
[00:21:37] And Jesus came and touched them,
[00:21:39] and said, arise, be not afraid.
[00:21:41] And when they had lifted up their eyes,
[00:21:42] they saw no man save Jesus only.
[00:21:46] And as they came down from the mountain,
[00:21:47] Jesus charged them, saying,
[00:21:49] tell the vision to no man
[00:21:51] until the son of man be risen from the dead.
[00:21:54] And his disciples asked him, saying,
[00:21:57] why then say the scribes that Elijah must first come?
[00:22:01] And Jesus answered and said unto them,
[00:22:03] Elijah truly shall first come and restore all things.
[00:22:07] But I say unto you that Elijah is come already,
[00:22:09] and they knew him not,
[00:22:11] but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.
[00:22:13] Likewise, shall also the son of man suffer of them.
[00:22:18] Then the disciples understood,
[00:22:20] and he spake unto them of John the Baptist.
[00:22:24] Now, this right here, as I was praying yesterday
[00:22:31] and just talking to the Lord, this just came to me.
[00:22:34] And see, let's just say this.
[00:22:38] The Lord Jesus died on that cross for all mankind.
[00:22:43] And it says, the Bible tells us very clearly
[00:22:46] that he loved us even before, right?
[00:22:51] Before he went to the cross,
[00:22:53] before he, you know, we ever came into being,
[00:22:56] he's loved us, all right?
[00:22:59] That is not, again, that is not the question,
[00:23:01] ever the question.
[00:23:03] And though he loves us,
[00:23:05] and though all of us can be saved
[00:23:08] in the same manner by grace through faith,
[00:23:13] it doesn't mean that we all have
[00:23:15] the same relationship with the Lord.
[00:23:19] And that comes from what we decide to do,
[00:23:23] the choices we make from the time we get saved on,
[00:23:30] and whether or not we let things distract us,
[00:23:35] the devil dangle the little carrot in front of us,
[00:23:41] or we start to love the world
[00:23:43] and the things that are in the world more than we love him.
[00:23:48] I find it very interesting
[00:23:51] that Jesus would call these three aside,
[00:23:55] and he did this more than once,
[00:23:57] as later on in the Garden of Gethseman,
[00:23:58] he calls them aside.
[00:24:00] Now, let me just share with you
[00:24:03] that I believe these three had a different
[00:24:05] relationship with Jesus than the nine,
[00:24:09] than the 70, but why is that?
[00:24:13] Were they perfect men?
[00:24:14] No, remember James and John, the sons of thunder,
[00:24:18] they wanted to call fire down on people.
[00:24:20] Be like Elijah, we wanna kill a bunch of folks.
[00:24:23] The Lord said, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:24:24] That's not what we wanna do here now.
[00:24:27] We got a different plan now than that, right?
[00:24:31] That's why he called them the sons of thunder.
[00:24:33] It's like, you guys are something else.
[00:24:36] Y'all need to chill.
[00:24:38] Y'all need to learn that's not the mission right now, okay?
[00:24:43] And then, of course, there's Peter.
[00:24:46] Everybody knows about Peter's issues, right?
[00:24:49] I mean, Peter was a little, just like in this incident,
[00:24:52] the only one that opened their mouth was Peter,
[00:24:55] making suggestions that was not even part of the plan, right?
[00:25:00] Talking when he should have been listening, right?
[00:25:05] In fact, this right here in Matthew 17,
[00:25:10] and it also shows you in Luke nine,
[00:25:12] but this was right after Jesus had to rebuke Peter
[00:25:16] and call him Satan, all right?
[00:25:19] So it doesn't mean, none of this means
[00:25:23] that you have to be a perfect person.
[00:25:24] You are not going to be a perfect person.
[00:25:27] You're not going to do everything right as you seek
[00:25:30] to follow the Lord and draw near to him and get to know him.
[00:25:35] But what I really, as studying the Bible
[00:25:37] and looking at the disciples and looking at the prophets
[00:25:42] and looking over these things,
[00:25:44] I just found that there were some people
[00:25:47] that really just absolutely fell in love with God.
[00:25:53] And you can see it with John wanting to lean on him
[00:26:01] at the Last Supper, even though among menly men,
[00:26:06] that's kind of weird, right?
[00:26:13] If it was just a group of men,
[00:26:14] anybody trying to lean on me, it would be like,
[00:26:16] hey, hey, hey, hey, you got the wrong person for that.
[00:26:25] Personal space, dude, personal space, right?
[00:26:30] Especially in our society today, okay?
[00:26:36] But see, that tells me,
[00:26:38] because they were men, they were real men,
[00:26:40] they were fishermen, they were tough,
[00:26:42] they were your blue collar folks.
[00:26:46] And for John to be doing that and the rest of them
[00:26:50] to not think it's weird is because they knew
[00:26:54] he wasn't just another man.
[00:26:57] They knew who he was.
[00:26:59] They knew he was the Messiah.
[00:27:02] They knew he was the Lord of all.
[00:27:04] They knew he was the creator.
[00:27:06] And you see John wanting to just be right up on him.
[00:27:10] You see them arguing about who's gonna be the greatest.
[00:27:13] And really, yeah, there was a little pride in there,
[00:27:16] but can you blame them?
[00:27:19] They wanted to be close to him.
[00:27:24] I think about that.
[00:27:25] Lord, who's gonna sit next to you in the kingdom?
[00:27:28] I want it to be me.
[00:27:29] I wanna be right there with you.
[00:27:31] Hold on, you need to chill, buddy.
[00:27:33] That's not for me to give you.
[00:27:37] But they wanted to be there.
[00:27:42] And we know what Peter did,
[00:27:46] cutting off the high pre-servant's ear,
[00:27:50] zealous, but not according to knowledge, right?
[00:27:55] Wasn't discerning that this wasn't the right time for that.
[00:27:59] Peter saying, I'll never deny you, but then he does.
[00:28:03] And then we look at Peter and say,
[00:28:06] well, Peter denied him three times,
[00:28:08] but Mark's real clear.
[00:28:10] Mark 14 says that when it all went down
[00:28:13] and they came and got him,
[00:28:14] he says they all forsook him and fled, right?
[00:28:18] So not one of them was perfect.
[00:28:21] At different times, he rebuked them for their unbelief,
[00:28:26] right?
[00:28:28] He told them sometimes you won't believe
[00:28:29] unless you see miracles.
[00:28:32] The only reason you believe he told them at times
[00:28:34] is because you saw the miracles
[00:28:37] of the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:28:40] How long shall I suffer you?
[00:28:42] He told the nine,
[00:28:44] because the three were with him on the mountain.
[00:28:45] The nine couldn't cast the demons out of somebody.
[00:28:50] He's like, what am I dealing with here?
[00:28:56] My point is, this is not about being perfect,
[00:29:01] but it is about having a heart
[00:29:03] that loves the Lord completely.
[00:29:08] And see, there's a lot of people
[00:29:11] that have a divided heart.
[00:29:13] They go to church, they read the Bibles, they pray,
[00:29:18] but their heart's really not fully set
[00:29:22] on loving the Lord with all their heart.
[00:29:24] And the reason I'm going here is because, you know,
[00:29:27] after the interview with USA Today,
[00:29:30] and the article came out yesterday,
[00:29:32] and a little bit of the back and forth,
[00:29:34] and then, you know, just some of the crap
[00:29:37] that's been going on,
[00:29:38] the attacks that I've been getting in the press
[00:29:40] for this, what I believe about the Bible, about creation.
[00:29:48] When I was out there working out
[00:29:49] and just praying about this,
[00:29:50] the Lord just told me, he said,
[00:29:52] not everybody is meant to see these things
[00:29:56] or understand them or to know them.
[00:29:59] I didn't take them all on the mountain, he told me.
[00:30:07] And some people aren't meant to know
[00:30:09] because they just don't have a heart to know.
[00:30:14] God reveals things to those who draw near to him,
[00:30:19] and others don't get the same thing.
[00:30:27] I mean, and that's, you can say that's unfair all you want.
[00:30:32] The Lord knows whose heart is fully surrendered,
[00:30:37] not who's perfect on the outside.
[00:30:39] He knows whose heart is fully surrendered to him,
[00:30:46] who is chosen to be his servant,
[00:30:55] who loves him no matter what they go through.
[00:31:01] A lot of people get mad at him
[00:31:02] when things don't work out the way they want.
[00:31:10] I was thinking about that how many times,
[00:31:14] y'all just don't know how many times I thank God
[00:31:18] that I had somehow had the grace from him
[00:31:25] to hold onto him through my darkest times,
[00:31:31] to not let go, to not wanna lose him.
[00:31:37] And I don't know about y'all,
[00:31:38] but this is a regular prayer I pray.
[00:31:42] Lord, I don't want to miss being with you for eternity.
[00:31:45] So if you see me in the future doing something
[00:31:50] that would take me away from being with you,
[00:31:54] I'd rather you kill me.
[00:31:57] I'd rather you let me die than I should fall away from you
[00:32:02] and not get to be with you for eternity.
[00:32:06] You ever prayed that prayer?
[00:32:12] See, that's where you have to be.
[00:32:18] I love my family, but I wanna be with him.
[00:32:22] I love y'all, but I wanna be with him.
[00:32:25] I don't really love this world very much.
[00:32:27] I'm talking about the system.
[00:32:30] It's kind of annoying,
[00:32:35] but there's a whole lot of people out here
[00:32:39] that is needful for us to stay here for a little bit.
[00:32:45] You know, I thought about Stephen,
[00:32:49] the Lord's first martyr after he started the church,
[00:32:51] and I thought, you know, he didn't get too long.
[00:32:54] His ministry wasn't very long at all.
[00:32:56] Yet you hear the Lord talking about him later,
[00:33:00] my faithful martyr Stephen.
[00:33:03] And I think Stephen was one of those,
[00:33:05] the Lord said, this man's heart is completely mine.
[00:33:11] So I'm gonna allow him to be my first martyr.
[00:33:13] He can just come on up here and be with me
[00:33:15] and be the example that you're not always gonna escape
[00:33:20] the pain or the persecution and even death.
[00:33:24] You're not always gonna escape that.
[00:33:28] Death's part of life now.
[00:33:30] That's part of our lives
[00:33:31] until we move into eternity.
[00:33:36] But this right here, I wanna show you something.
[00:33:40] Jesus had several groups of people that listened to him.
[00:33:56] He had the religious leaders that,
[00:33:58] they listened to him from afar in the multitudes,
[00:34:02] sometimes up close, but they didn't know him at all.
[00:34:08] In fact, they rejected him.
[00:34:10] They thought they had it figured out.
[00:34:11] They thought, this can't be the Messiah
[00:34:14] because Elijah's gotta come.
[00:34:16] They didn't understand John the Baptist
[00:34:18] came in the spirit of Elijah to fulfill that prophecy.
[00:34:24] They thought Jesus came out of Galilee.
[00:34:26] They didn't understand he was born in Bethlehem.
[00:34:29] They didn't look hard enough.
[00:34:34] Their pride, their hardness of heart,
[00:34:36] their religious pride.
[00:34:39] And let me tell you, if you don't think we have a problem
[00:34:41] with religious pride in the Christian church world,
[00:34:46] you better wake up and smell the roses
[00:34:48] because it's everywhere.
[00:34:50] And what boggles my mind is that these theologians out here
[00:34:53] that know so much of scripture,
[00:34:56] but they don't know the Lord of scripture.
[00:34:59] Nor do they love him.
[00:35:01] They love their knowledge.
[00:35:04] They love their degrees.
[00:35:06] They love their seminaries.
[00:35:08] They love the sound of their voice,
[00:35:12] of their hermeneutics and, not hermeneutics,
[00:35:16] hermeneutics and, what is it,
[00:35:18] elocution lessons that they took, right?
[00:35:22] Oh, you can hear the ones that been taught
[00:35:25] how to preach in certain ways, you know what I'm saying?
[00:35:30] It's annoying because it's fake as the day is long, right?
[00:35:36] Don't, I can't stand a preacher that preaches
[00:35:40] with some kind of, you know, what do we call it, hoo-ha?
[00:35:46] I don't know.
[00:35:47] What's that, drama, made up drama?
[00:35:49] Yeah, I don't know.
[00:35:52] Sing song in it.
[00:35:54] Some of you say, well, I love that.
[00:35:56] Well, okay, enjoy yourself.
[00:35:58] I don't, I'd rather somebody talk plainly to me, you know?
[00:36:06] Now there's nothing wrong getting fired up,
[00:36:08] but you can tell again when it's made up, right?
[00:36:12] But Jesus had these religious leaders,
[00:36:14] but they didn't know him.
[00:36:16] And then there were the multitudes.
[00:36:18] You see that in Matthew 23 and other places
[00:36:21] where it says he spoke to the multitude.
[00:36:23] The multitudes were there.
[00:36:25] And the multitudes are people that wanted to hear him.
[00:36:27] This reminds me of the mega church world.
[00:36:31] The multitudes want to hear him.
[00:36:33] They'll go hear him.
[00:36:34] They'll go hear some 30 minute sermon.
[00:36:37] They'll go hear these things or 20 minutes
[00:36:42] and a video and three songs.
[00:36:45] They'll go hear it.
[00:36:46] And, but, and the multitudes are the ones too.
[00:36:51] They're the ones that want their needs met.
[00:36:57] They like the bread and the fish he provides.
[00:37:01] They want their needs met and they come to be healed,
[00:37:08] but they don't really love him and know him.
[00:37:10] They're not ready to lay down their lives for him.
[00:37:16] Does that describe most of the American church world to you?
[00:37:25] They would fall in the category of the multitude.
[00:37:29] And think about it.
[00:37:30] When Jesus asked in Matthew 16,
[00:37:32] right before the amount of transfiguration,
[00:37:34] when he said, who do men say that I am?
[00:37:36] And what did they say?
[00:37:37] Some say you're John the Baptist raised from this.
[00:37:39] Some say you're Jeremiah.
[00:37:40] Some say you're Elijah.
[00:37:42] So the crowd, the multitudes had all these opinions
[00:37:45] of who he was.
[00:37:46] They knew he was doing miracles
[00:37:47] that no other man had ever done.
[00:37:49] And they knew he was providing for us
[00:37:52] and he knew he could heal people
[00:37:54] and we could get our miracle.
[00:37:57] Think about the church and come get your miracle.
[00:38:01] I mean, Lord, that's how they advertise.
[00:38:03] Come get your miracle.
[00:38:08] I'm just like, if that's all you come to Jesus for,
[00:38:15] you don't love him.
[00:38:17] Oh, money, yeah.
[00:38:20] Yeah, you don't get that miracle without that seed money.
[00:38:26] Yeah, but that's the multitude.
[00:38:32] And then there was the 70.
[00:38:36] Let me see this in Luke chapter 10.
[00:38:37] Did he sent out 70?
[00:38:42] And they were closer than the multitudes, of course.
[00:38:44] And they were given some responsibility
[00:38:48] and they started trying to obey
[00:38:50] and do ministry for the Lord.
[00:38:52] But remember when they came back
[00:38:54] from casting out demons and healing the sick,
[00:38:56] they were still called babes by Jesus.
[00:39:01] He rejoiced that they got this thing about authority
[00:39:05] in the name of Jesus to cast out demons and heal the sick.
[00:39:08] Jesus was excited about that.
[00:39:09] He was happy that babes could get this.
[00:39:12] He's always happy when we understand stuff
[00:39:14] and go do it and we come back fired up about it.
[00:39:18] But this right here is the group of people
[00:39:21] that I believe have drawn a little bit closer to the Lord.
[00:39:25] They're starting to try to do some ministry.
[00:39:28] They found out, hey, as a believer in Jesus Christ,
[00:39:31] I do have power to cast out demons,
[00:39:33] to lay hands on the sick, to speak with new tongues.
[00:39:36] I do have these things and get excited about it.
[00:39:39] And that's all good.
[00:39:43] But I see people like that still,
[00:39:49] maybe they have the understanding of spiritual warfare
[00:39:52] and some deliverance principles,
[00:39:54] but it doesn't mean that they're mature
[00:39:57] in their walk with Jesus.
[00:39:59] They're still babes.
[00:40:01] And they get excited about this newfound ministry
[00:40:06] they're doing and they pretty much dwell there
[00:40:12] because they like the excitement of it.
[00:40:16] They like people going, wow, you cast out demons, man.
[00:40:20] You do deliverance ministry, man.
[00:40:25] See, we just had some babes that's enamored
[00:40:27] with deliverance ministry, but they're not mature yet.
[00:40:35] And you can fall in love.
[00:40:36] And this is where you have to be very careful
[00:40:39] that you don't fall in love with ministry
[00:40:44] because a lot of people find their worth
[00:40:46] and satisfaction in ministry.
[00:40:51] And ministry becomes an idol in front of loving the Lord
[00:40:59] and obeying the Lord.
[00:41:03] Are y'all understand what I'm saying today?
[00:41:08] See, I've been through all this.
[00:41:09] You know why I've been through all?
[00:41:10] Because I did all this.
[00:41:13] I did all this.
[00:41:15] I've grown up through this whole mess.
[00:41:17] I made all the mistakes.
[00:41:20] Ministry became an idol to me.
[00:41:22] Ministry became who I was as a person, as a man.
[00:41:29] And I remember one of the best things
[00:41:31] that ever happened to me
[00:41:33] was it all being ripped away from me.
[00:41:37] And when it's all ripped away from you, everything.
[00:41:43] Then you gotta find out who you are again.
[00:41:48] What's important, and I wanna tell you something.
[00:41:50] If something becomes an idol in your life,
[00:41:56] like ministry, becomes an idol,
[00:42:00] you better hope the Lord rips it away from you.
[00:42:06] Because if he lets you continue that way,
[00:42:08] you're in trouble.
[00:42:12] I think that all ministers at some point,
[00:42:14] if they're called to the ministry,
[00:42:16] they need to be sat down at some point by the Lord.
[00:42:19] Sit down, shut up, do something else.
[00:42:25] It's the best thing that ever happened to me.
[00:42:28] Because in that time of not being in the ministry,
[00:42:36] not having that to, you know, stroke my ego,
[00:42:40] make me feel like I was something,
[00:42:42] make me feel like I was special, blah, blah, blah.
[00:42:49] And when I was all alone, forsaken by my family,
[00:42:53] friends, fellow pastors,
[00:42:56] I had to find me and Jesus again.
[00:43:05] Just me and Jesus.
[00:43:06] Because, you know, before that, right before that happened,
[00:43:10] I would be honest with the Lord in my prayer time.
[00:43:13] Because there were times that I would be in prayer,
[00:43:17] study, getting ready for Sunday morning,
[00:43:20] and I would admit to the Lord,
[00:43:22] if I was not preaching tomorrow, I would not be doing this.
[00:43:27] I would not be praying.
[00:43:30] I would not be studying.
[00:43:33] And I knew I was in a bad spot.
[00:43:37] But you gotta be honest with yourself.
[00:43:41] See, sometimes we think just because we're doing ministry,
[00:43:43] like we're gonna get up preaching,
[00:43:46] that means I'm right with God.
[00:43:47] I know it doesn't.
[00:43:50] The gift will still work while your heart's far from me.
[00:44:02] And my problem at the time
[00:44:03] was not that I didn't love the Lord,
[00:44:06] I was just loving ministry and life more than Him.
[00:44:14] And because He didn't wanna let me
[00:44:16] keep going down that road,
[00:44:18] He allowed the devil to come in
[00:44:20] and strip it all the way from me.
[00:44:25] My income, my church, my church family,
[00:44:34] it was rough, but needful.
[00:44:41] But I just kept saying, Lord,
[00:44:43] if I never preach again, I'm yours.
[00:44:49] I'll do whatever you want me to do.
[00:44:51] I still want you if I'm never a preacher.
[00:45:02] You wanna know why I got through that,
[00:45:04] why it didn't destroy me?
[00:45:06] It's because of that right there,
[00:45:07] because I was like, Lord, I'm hanging on to you
[00:45:11] and I want you and I don't care if I ever preach again,
[00:45:14] I don't care if I ever get married again, I don't care.
[00:45:17] None of these things are idols anymore to me.
[00:45:25] But that's the 70.
[00:45:31] Then there was the 12.
[00:45:35] His inner circle, the circle of trust, remember?
[00:45:44] Yet, in that circle of trust, there was a Judas, right?
[00:45:51] So even in the 12 who got closer to Jesus,
[00:45:56] spent more time with him, talked to him more,
[00:46:00] knew him more, got more explanations
[00:46:02] of what he was talking about,
[00:46:03] meaning they got more understanding.
[00:46:06] They saw more of the miracles than anybody else.
[00:46:08] They got to do more of the miracles themselves.
[00:46:14] You still had someone there with their own agenda,
[00:46:21] someone there that their idea
[00:46:25] of the way the ministry should go,
[00:46:29] Judas' idea of what he thought Jesus should be doing,
[00:46:32] becoming king of Israel,
[00:46:35] delivering them from Roman authority.
[00:46:41] That agenda there became an idol
[00:46:45] even to one that close to the Lord.
[00:46:49] Remember, Jesus picked him.
[00:46:52] I've chosen you.
[00:46:54] One of you is a devil.
[00:46:58] But at that moment, Judas was not,
[00:47:02] well, that's not in Judas' mind to betray the Lord.
[00:47:06] It just was in Judas' mind
[00:47:10] that he was in this for his own benefit.
[00:47:15] Boy, there's a lot of people that think,
[00:47:17] well, if I can get close to Jesus, then I will benefit.
[00:47:23] That's why the prosperity, word of faith,
[00:47:26] prosperity movement took off.
[00:47:31] Because you know what?
[00:47:33] You can be close to Jesus and have another agenda.
[00:47:42] And what gets me is even the other eight
[00:47:48] did not get it when Jesus would say,
[00:47:50] I'm going to be taken, crucified,
[00:47:54] but I'm gonna rise from the dead the third day.
[00:47:55] He told them many times,
[00:47:56] it was like, went over their heads.
[00:48:01] And remember in John 15, he told them,
[00:48:03] I have many things to say unto you now,
[00:48:05] but you cannot grasp them at this moment.
[00:48:10] And they were the close ones.
[00:48:11] They were the inner circle.
[00:48:14] And he said, I got things you need to know,
[00:48:16] but you can't handle the truth yet.
[00:48:24] I think about some of these Christians out here.
[00:48:26] There's Christians that I know if I get around
[00:48:30] that there's certain things I can't talk about
[00:48:32] because they will lose their minds
[00:48:38] or get angry and start foaming at the mouth.
[00:48:46] And it's not just biblical cosmology.
[00:48:50] It can be the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
[00:48:52] It can be correcting them about their once saved,
[00:48:56] always saved doctrine.
[00:48:57] It could be Christians having demons.
[00:49:00] It could be, I mean, you name it.
[00:49:02] I got so many that offend people.
[00:49:03] I've lost count.
[00:49:04] I mean, I'm not a pre-trib rapture guy.
[00:49:07] So, you know, just why I don't have any pastor friends,
[00:49:11] y'all, except for this guy, I'm sorry.
[00:49:17] I forgot about this guy.
[00:49:19] I'm just talking about others in this region here.
[00:49:25] I'm sorry, Troy.
[00:49:33] You know what I'm saying?
[00:49:34] There's not one.
[00:49:35] I even went to a pastor's meeting,
[00:49:37] a local pastor's meeting in this area a few years back.
[00:49:41] And the first meeting I went to was a bunch of Baptists,
[00:49:43] Presbyterians, I don't know.
[00:49:46] I was in there.
[00:49:46] So they asked me to share my testimony.
[00:49:48] Mistake.
[00:49:51] I shared about how I got saved,
[00:49:54] how the Lord appeared to me,
[00:49:56] how he gave me a choice, how he spoke to me.
[00:49:58] He said, son, you can have everything
[00:49:59] the world has to offer and go to hell,
[00:50:01] surrender your life to me and live forever.
[00:50:04] How I repented of my sins,
[00:50:05] how I realized I wasn't once saved, always saved.
[00:50:08] How shortly thereafter I got baptized in the Holy Spirit
[00:50:11] with the evidence of speaking in other tongues
[00:50:12] and the gifts of the Spirit started operating in me
[00:50:15] and my first convert was a Satanist,
[00:50:17] high priestess in training.
[00:50:19] Yeah.
[00:50:21] So the next meeting,
[00:50:24] I was gonna come back to the next meeting.
[00:50:26] They told me where it was gonna be.
[00:50:27] They told me the time and I got there
[00:50:29] and they weren't there.
[00:50:32] They didn't bother to tell me they had moved it.
[00:50:35] I said, hmm, I wonder if that was an accident
[00:50:38] and I never heard from them again
[00:50:43] but I shared my testimony.
[00:50:46] Now can you imagine?
[00:50:47] I mean, I have people, I led to Jesus
[00:50:49] that won't have anything to do with me
[00:50:52] because I don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture.
[00:50:55] They actually haven't spoken to me in years.
[00:50:58] One of my best friends, I led to Jesus
[00:51:00] and the baptism of the Holy Spirit years ago
[00:51:03] and taught him how to witness to people on the street,
[00:51:08] hasn't spoken to me in years.
[00:51:13] It's just because about the pre-tribulation rapture
[00:51:17] and I don't even know how many out there
[00:51:19] are just like stepping away because it's a flat earth.
[00:51:26] I mean, there's people they're afraid of,
[00:51:27] they're even afraid to have dinner with me,
[00:51:29] lunch with me, but Troy's not.
[00:51:32] Pastor Troy's not.
[00:51:36] Pastor Troy and I have known each other so long.
[00:51:39] It's just kind of like,
[00:51:41] I just think of him as a friend, not a fellow pastor.
[00:51:45] Pastor Johnson, Pastor Wong.
[00:51:47] Now I'm not talking about these guys
[00:51:48] that are graduating from our school
[00:51:50] and becoming, I'm just talking about over the years.
[00:51:57] I've had some too that I've lost,
[00:51:59] that just walked away.
[00:52:01] But I mean, and that's with people, think about that.
[00:52:06] That's with people that I know know Jesus too.
[00:52:10] My own brother.
[00:52:13] I love my brother.
[00:52:15] We did a lot of great things together over the years.
[00:52:20] But man, when I got into biblical cosmology,
[00:52:23] he stepped away from me.
[00:52:27] Y'all can listen, go back,
[00:52:28] listen to some of the old prophecy quake shows.
[00:52:29] He would come on with me.
[00:52:34] We had it out last year, a good one, about the firmament.
[00:52:40] Faith got to see that.
[00:52:42] Got a little heated in there, didn't it?
[00:52:45] Everybody was like, oh God, what's gonna happen next?
[00:52:51] And I know he's uncomfortable around me and I hate that.
[00:52:57] I mean, he's always afraid.
[00:52:58] I guess when we get together, it might come up.
[00:53:05] And I'm not trying to be difficult,
[00:53:07] but you know, and that wasn't me starting that.
[00:53:10] That was Ben and Mary, my nephew and his fiancee at the time,
[00:53:14] who's now his wife, they started it.
[00:53:17] And that's the colonel's daughter.
[00:53:18] So the colonel, you know where he stands.
[00:53:20] So I was looking at them like,
[00:53:24] oh, I can't believe y'all just did this, but here we go.
[00:53:28] And I went from Genesis to Revelation
[00:53:30] about what the firmament is.
[00:53:36] But you could tell, I mean, it got hot in there
[00:53:42] and it wasn't me getting heated, but I hate it.
[00:53:46] I hate it.
[00:53:47] You know, I realize though,
[00:53:51] I still think my brother is one of the nine.
[00:53:55] He just went and called up on the mountain
[00:53:56] to get this revelation.
[00:53:59] You understand?
[00:54:00] And that doesn't mean he don't love Jesus
[00:54:02] and he's not ready to go to heaven
[00:54:03] and he's not being used by God.
[00:54:04] None of that means that.
[00:54:06] It's just, some of us are gonna go.
[00:54:09] The Lord's gonna say, come on with me
[00:54:10] and we're gonna go.
[00:54:13] And he's gonna show us things
[00:54:14] that the others don't get to see.
[00:54:17] Just the way it is.
[00:54:19] And people often think it's not fair,
[00:54:22] but he will invite you.
[00:54:24] Come on.
[00:54:26] Just like he invited, he said to all of them,
[00:54:28] come out and walk on the water.
[00:54:30] Come on, everybody, come on.
[00:54:33] Only one did, right?
[00:54:37] Have to be that same fella named Peter.
[00:54:42] See what I wanna be and what I,
[00:54:44] I think I am and what I wanna continue to be
[00:54:47] because you can fall away from this.
[00:54:51] But I wanna continue to be one of the three.
[00:54:56] I want the Lord to go, you know, I know.
[00:55:00] He loves me.
[00:55:01] So hey, come up here on this mountain.
[00:55:02] Let me show you something.
[00:55:07] See, the secret of the Lord, Psalm 25 says,
[00:55:10] the secret of the Lord is to them that fear him
[00:55:13] and to them he shows his covenant.
[00:55:20] John 17, seven, I think, 17, 17, I think.
[00:55:24] What is it where it says that if any man will do his will,
[00:55:30] he will know the doctrine.
[00:55:32] See, the difference between the religious crowd,
[00:55:37] the multitudes, even the 70, even the nine,
[00:55:44] the difference between the three is, I believe,
[00:55:48] it's like they are literally deep down in their hearts
[00:55:54] obsessed with being close to the Lord,
[00:55:58] not praying for the sick, not casting out demons,
[00:56:02] not preaching a sermon.
[00:56:06] Remember when it said he called the 12,
[00:56:07] the first thing it says, he called them to be with him
[00:56:14] and to cast out demons and he was sick.
[00:56:17] That's what I like that part, to be with him.
[00:56:22] Now there it is, seven, 17, if any man will do his will,
[00:56:27] he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God
[00:56:30] or whether I speak of myself.
[00:56:34] You see, and let's go to John 14 real quick.
[00:56:41] John 14, see, I don't even know if I'm conveying this
[00:56:48] to the level I want to or need to,
[00:57:00] but go with me to, let's go down to verse 15.
[00:57:08] And Jesus said here, if you love me,
[00:57:12] speaking to his disciples, he said,
[00:57:13] if you love me, keep my commandments
[00:57:17] and I will pray the Father and he will give you
[00:57:19] another comforter that he may abide with you forever,
[00:57:21] even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive
[00:57:24] because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him,
[00:57:27] but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you
[00:57:29] and shall be in you.
[00:57:31] I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
[00:57:34] Yet a little wild, the world seeth me no more,
[00:57:37] yet you see me because I live, ye shall live also.
[00:57:40] At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father
[00:57:43] and ye and me and I in you.
[00:57:45] He that hath my commandments and keepeth them,
[00:57:48] he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me
[00:57:52] shall be loved of my Father and I will love him
[00:57:55] and will manifest myself to him.
[00:58:00] And Judas saith in him, not the Judas Iscariot,
[00:58:04] Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself
[00:58:06] unto us and not unto the world?
[00:58:07] And Jesus said unto him, again, if a man love me,
[00:58:11] he will keep my words and my Father will love him
[00:58:14] and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
[00:58:23] When the Lord says here, I will manifest myself
[00:58:31] to those who love me and you love him
[00:58:36] by showing your commitment to obey him
[00:58:40] and not just the written word of God,
[00:58:44] but what he says to do for your life,
[00:58:47] showing that you're willing to lose everything,
[00:58:50] lay down your life to do his will,
[00:58:55] that your family's not an idol,
[00:58:58] that your job's not an idol,
[00:59:01] that ministry is not an idol,
[00:59:03] the knowledge you have is not an idol.
[00:59:11] And he says I will manifest myself.
[00:59:12] This word here, I think it's actually emphasizeo,
[00:59:19] or emphasize, where we get our word emphasize,
[00:59:23] but the Greek word means that he says
[00:59:28] it means he will make apparent, he will appear.
[00:59:33] Somebody say appear.
[00:59:34] Appear.
[00:59:38] You see, what he did to them
[00:59:40] on the Mount of Transfiguration is he said,
[00:59:43] the rest of them know just this physical side of me
[00:59:47] that they think is just a man.
[00:59:50] That's what they see and that's what's embedded
[00:59:52] in their heart.
[00:59:53] Now, there's a side of them that knows
[00:59:55] there's something different, he's a Messiah,
[00:59:59] but they were still dealing with,
[01:00:01] just looking at a regular man and going,
[01:00:04] it's hard for me to conceive that this man in front of me
[01:00:10] from Galilee is God Almighty.
[01:00:14] But when he went up on that mountain,
[01:00:16] he showed him who was God Almighty, didn't he?
[01:00:23] Because the glory came out of him.
[01:00:26] The power, the cloud overshadowed them.
[01:00:32] Moses and Elijah stood there showing, guess what?
[01:00:36] He was greater, the greater one than Moses or Elijah,
[01:00:42] showing that all the law and the prophets
[01:00:47] talked about this one.
[01:00:52] They got to see, they got to the full revelation
[01:00:58] of what he was gonna accomplish in Jerusalem.
[01:01:02] He heard them talking about his crucifixion
[01:01:06] and his resurrection, that he was the Lamb of God,
[01:01:11] that he was the atonement for our sins.
[01:01:13] They got to hear Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus
[01:01:18] about what was about to happen.
[01:01:22] The nine didn't get that, the 70 didn't get that,
[01:01:27] the multitudes didn't get that, are you with me?
[01:01:30] The Pharisees and the Sadducees did not get that.
[01:01:34] The great teacher Gamale did not get that.
[01:01:38] No, three fishermen who loved him
[01:01:41] with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength
[01:01:46] got called up on the mountain.
[01:01:52] You gotta decide.
[01:01:55] Because see, I believe now he invites us all
[01:02:01] to come up on this mountain with me.
[01:02:04] Somebody said, well, I'm too busy.
[01:02:15] See, throughout my life, there's been times
[01:02:21] the Lord has actually appeared to me.
[01:02:27] I had him in, I was in a church service, I've shared this.
[01:02:30] I had him one time, there was a lady preaching
[01:02:34] on the ministry of Jesus Christ
[01:02:37] and what we are supposed to do
[01:02:38] in the five-fold ministry and all that.
[01:02:39] And I was a very young man
[01:02:43] and Jesus was behind her and he stepped out.
[01:02:46] And I was in the, I was sitting in the aisle,
[01:02:51] you know, it was pews, but I was in right on the aisle
[01:02:55] and he walked out like this in front of the podium,
[01:02:58] walked down the aisle, walked straight up to me
[01:03:00] like about where Gary is.
[01:03:02] And he was telling me, I've called you to this
[01:03:05] and you're gonna be all right.
[01:03:07] I'm gonna be with you.
[01:03:09] Now I could see through him
[01:03:12] because I could still see the woman that was up preaching.
[01:03:20] One time I was going through a really painful time
[01:03:24] and I had my head down on my desk
[01:03:25] and I was just kinda depressed
[01:03:28] and in agony about some things.
[01:03:33] And I had my eyes closed this time.
[01:03:34] That time I saw him with my eyes open,
[01:03:37] but I had my eyes closed
[01:03:38] and I had my head down like this
[01:03:40] and he walked up behind me.
[01:03:41] I saw him walk up behind me
[01:03:44] and put his hands on my shoulders.
[01:03:51] He appeared to me, I saw what I imagine
[01:03:55] the amount of transfiguration was like
[01:03:57] in the open vision of him in October of what was it?
[01:04:05] 1987.
[01:04:09] And there's been many times that I've seen him.
[01:04:14] And some of you think, well, that's just,
[01:04:17] that's weird, that's odd.
[01:04:19] No, and none of it came through visualization or chanting
[01:04:27] because sometimes my eyes would be open
[01:04:29] and I would see through him.
[01:04:35] Why is this important?
[01:04:37] Because Ezekiel 13 says the false prophets
[01:04:40] have seen nothing.
[01:04:45] They've only seen the imaginations of their own heart.
[01:04:50] But true men and women of God
[01:04:52] who get caught up on the mountain get to see him.
[01:04:58] They get to experience him come in fullness.
[01:05:01] They get to know the peace and the joy
[01:05:04] and the sheer power that is almost overwhelming.
[01:05:08] And when you know him like that,
[01:05:12] you don't want anything else.
[01:05:15] You don't want the world.
[01:05:17] You don't want a mistress, an adulteress.
[01:05:21] You don't want to be famous.
[01:05:23] You don't want to be rich.
[01:05:25] You don't want anything other than that.
[01:05:31] And that is the great problem we have.
[01:05:34] Remember the parable Jesus told the pearl of great price.
[01:05:39] When the man discovered the pearl of great price
[01:05:43] in this field, he wouldn't sold everything he had.
[01:05:46] And he came back and he bought that field
[01:05:50] because he wanted that pearl.
[01:05:55] Is Jesus precious to you?
[01:06:01] See, I believe you don't have to backslide.
[01:06:03] You don't have to fall away.
[01:06:06] You don't have to stay in darkness.
[01:06:12] And I believe that the things that I've learned
[01:06:14] over the years that God has revealed to me
[01:06:16] through sometimes telling me to fast
[01:06:18] and then at the end of the fast
[01:06:19] or somewhere in the fast, God would reveal to me
[01:06:22] something that he wanted me to teach you.
[01:06:27] Most of this stuff I didn't figure out of my own at all.
[01:06:36] No, I've been on the mountain with him.
[01:06:39] Have you?
[01:06:43] Are you still on the multitude?
[01:06:46] Are you still the religious crowd?
[01:06:49] Are you maybe the 70?
[01:06:52] Are you maybe the nine?
[01:06:54] You gotta figure out where you are in this.
[01:06:59] Are you one of the three?
[01:07:03] That's where I always wanna be, is one of the three.
[01:07:07] Because that's where you find out secrets.
[01:07:14] That's where you really find out the plan of God.
[01:07:17] Not just the plan for you, but the big plan.
[01:07:26] And there's nothing like it, y'all.
[01:07:28] There's nothing like the glory of God.
[01:07:31] See, I've been in that cloud.
[01:07:32] I remember that cloud when I got saved at 11 years old.
[01:07:38] I remember that cloud.
[01:07:40] I didn't know what it was then, but I walked in it, man.
[01:07:42] The moment I let go of that pew and stepped into that aisle,
[01:07:46] I was walking, I was inside of a cloud
[01:07:48] that was so intensely powerful
[01:07:51] that I didn't have words for it.
[01:07:56] That's why even when I fell away in my teenage years
[01:07:59] and didn't understand what it meant to walk with Jesus
[01:08:01] and ended up in college and had my big brothers
[01:08:04] in the fraternity trying to turn me into an atheist,
[01:08:07] agnostic, trying to give me all these arguments
[01:08:10] against the Bible, against Jesus,
[01:08:11] nothing was gonna convince me that Jesus was not real
[01:08:19] and that the Bible was not the truth
[01:08:22] because I had been on the mountain at 11 years old.
[01:08:31] That's how Sal got saved, the mountain.
[01:08:34] He didn't deserve it.
[01:08:35] He didn't earn it.
[01:08:37] He wasn't doing anything right.
[01:08:39] The demons were about to kill him.
[01:08:40] The drugs were about to kill him.
[01:08:42] Or one of his cartel members were about to kill him.
[01:08:46] He was in a bad place.
[01:08:47] Or he was gonna end up in prison for life.
[01:08:52] But Jesus appeared to him, revealed himself to him,
[01:08:56] gave him understanding, took him up on the mountain,
[01:08:59] said, come up here, and Sal said,
[01:09:01] okay, I'm gonna come up here.
[01:09:03] What I feel sorry for is the people in this world
[01:09:07] that have never encountered Jesus Christ of Nazareth like that.
[01:09:15] But can I tell you, it's because they have chosen not to.
[01:09:24] See, Jesus did not drag Peter and John
[01:09:30] and James up the mountain.
[01:09:32] That's not how they got there.
[01:09:34] They walked.
[01:09:36] They climbed.
[01:09:38] Probably the reason they were sleepy and tired
[01:09:40] was because they climbed up that mountain.
[01:09:47] They're fishermen.
[01:09:48] They used to be in boats not climbing mountains.
[01:09:56] Are you willing to climb the mountain?
[01:10:03] And what it is, it's a mountain of love for God.
[01:10:08] This is something, if I had to,
[01:10:14] and I've said this many times,
[01:10:15] so people are gonna go back one day
[01:10:18] when I'm gone and they're gonna go,
[01:10:20] he said this many times it'd be his sermon,
[01:10:23] but this is one of them.
[01:10:24] I mean, if I had to pick three or five things,
[01:10:28] if I knew this was my last sermon I was ever gonna preach,
[01:10:34] or if I wanted to leave a last word to my children
[01:10:40] or my grandchildren,
[01:10:42] it would be love Jesus with all of your heart.
[01:10:48] If you will give him your whole life,
[01:10:51] he will manifest himself and reveal himself to you
[01:10:55] and you will know him.
[01:10:58] You will experience him.
[01:10:59] You will gain understanding.
[01:11:01] You will have revelation of his secrets in his heart.
[01:11:05] You will understand the scriptures.
[01:11:07] You will understand sound doctrine.
[01:11:10] You have to love him with all your heart,
[01:11:13] soul, mind, and strength,
[01:11:14] willing to die to yourself and everything else
[01:11:17] and live for others and live for him.
[01:11:26] I just want, I want my children to know him like I do.
[01:11:32] And see, they see just a regular man every day.
[01:11:34] They see a man that's still not perfect,
[01:11:38] that makes mistakes and does things he shouldn't do,
[01:11:44] but I know him.
[01:11:49] And my daughters know this.
[01:11:54] Even the ones being stubborn right now, they know it.
[01:12:00] Because God has spoken to me
[01:12:01] such specific things about their lives
[01:12:03] and I've told them, and then it's come to pass
[01:12:08] and they just like, they think,
[01:12:18] not talking to me or trying to hide somewhere.
[01:12:21] I'm not gonna know what's going on.
[01:12:23] Wrong.
[01:12:28] But I want them to know.
[01:12:31] I want them to answer the call to the mountain.
[01:12:40] I want them to be one of the three.
[01:12:44] I want you to be one of the three.
[01:12:48] Everyone watching and listening,
[01:12:49] I want them to be one of the three.
[01:12:53] I want one day for us all to be standing in heaven
[01:12:55] talking about how we climb that mountain.
[01:13:05] There's nothing here.
[01:13:06] There's no sin, there's no pleasure,
[01:13:10] there's no ministry, there's nothing here
[01:13:15] that's worth missing out on knowing Jesus
[01:13:19] and having him manifest himself and reveal himself to you
[01:13:23] and to be in the cloud of his glory and his presence
[01:13:26] and to hear from him.
[01:13:29] You know what I was saying, I did that interview
[01:13:31] the other day, off the cuff interview.
[01:13:37] And while I was talking about the ether,
[01:13:40] I was just thinking about that whole revelation
[01:13:43] which is both spiritual and scientific all at the same time
[01:13:50] and I'm not a scientist.
[01:13:52] But that revelation came straight from me
[01:13:56] on the mountain with the Lord when I said,
[01:13:58] what is that that I'm seeing through this camera
[01:14:00] that looks like water around the moon?
[01:14:05] And the Lord said, that's the ether.
[01:14:09] So I started studying the ether
[01:14:11] because I didn't know what that was.
[01:14:15] And that led to a whole discovery.
[01:14:21] But that's one of those secrets.
[01:14:22] It's like, Lord, what is that?
[01:14:25] Can you tell me that?
[01:14:28] See there up on the mountain.
[01:14:29] Lord, why do they say,
[01:14:31] why do the scribes in the first,
[01:14:33] why do they say Elijah must come first?
[01:14:35] Why do they not believe?
[01:14:37] Now we know you're the Messiah,
[01:14:39] now we know you're here,
[01:14:40] but Elijah must come first.
[01:14:42] We don't understand.
[01:14:43] There's scripture, says Elijah comes first.
[01:14:46] And he has to explain it to him, he has.
[01:14:51] They just didn't understand it.
[01:14:54] See, think about it.
[01:14:56] They knew what scripture said,
[01:14:58] but they didn't understand it.
[01:15:00] But with him in that glory on that mountain,
[01:15:05] that's where he gives you understanding of the scripture.
[01:15:09] Cause he's the one that wrote it.
[01:15:13] So he knows exactly what he meant.
[01:15:14] That's like somebody asking me,
[01:15:16] pulling one of my books out and reading me part of it
[01:15:18] and say, what'd you mean here?
[01:15:19] I can fully explain that.
[01:15:21] Cause I wrote it, right?
[01:15:28] Be one of the three.
[01:15:33] That's all that's going to matter.
[01:15:34] I don't care what happens in the world,
[01:15:35] what ends up going on in the United States,
[01:15:40] be one of the three.
[01:15:43] If you're one of the three,
[01:15:44] you're not going to take the mark of the beast.
[01:15:47] The Judas's will,
[01:15:51] what's sad is many of the multitude will,
[01:15:55] cause many of them aren't going to be willing to die.
[01:15:58] They're going to try to preserve their life.
[01:16:02] Many of the religious will take the mark,
[01:16:08] but one of the three won't.
[01:16:09] I can tell you those three won't.
[01:16:12] They'll be like, you're going to chop my head off.
[01:16:17] Chop away.
[01:16:20] Let me stretch out.
[01:16:21] See, get it good right here.
[01:16:25] I don't want you to miss.
[01:16:25] I'm ready to go.
[01:16:28] Say, Pastor Dean, you want to die?
[01:16:30] No, not at all.
[01:16:33] I want to be with Jesus.
[01:16:36] I hate that there's times he makes me walk by faith
[01:16:38] and not by sight.
[01:16:40] I hate it.
[01:16:42] So I said, Lord, sometimes I just hate this
[01:16:46] because I've been sitting next to you
[01:16:48] with my head on you many times.
[01:16:50] And that's where I'd rather be.
[01:16:54] But now I got to walk through this sewer-filled world
[01:16:59] by faith when I feel rotten spiritually, mainly emotionally.
[01:17:04] I got to just keep walking by faith and not by sight.
[01:17:07] And then, you know, I'll be walking through all that,
[01:17:11] just going through all kinds of crap.
[01:17:13] And then all of a sudden, because I just
[01:17:15] keep climbing the mountain all the time,
[01:17:18] boom, the glory of God, the presence of God,
[01:17:23] the revelation and understanding.
[01:17:27] And when you're in his presence like that, guess what?
[01:17:30] You fall in love with him even more.
[01:17:35] I've cried my eyes out there saying,
[01:17:38] I don't want you to leave.
[01:17:42] Don't want you to leave.
[01:17:44] And he doesn't leave, but that cloud
[01:17:47] and the glory of his presence, it fades back to reality.
[01:17:54] And it's like, I got to deal with this place again.
[01:18:04] Be one of the three.
[01:18:06] Let's stand.
[01:18:07] I want to do that last song that we did there again.
[01:18:14] It's only four minutes, y'all.
[01:18:22] And I didn't start preaching to almost 15 after.
[01:18:24] So guess what?
[01:18:25] It's been short message.
[01:18:28] I'm getting back to an hour.
[01:18:31] Maybe that'll help some of the heathens out there.
[01:18:38] Let's pray.
[01:18:39] Father, we thank you for your love.
[01:18:42] Thank you for your mercy.
[01:18:43] We thank you for your truth.
[01:18:45] We love you.
[01:18:46] We want to draw near to you.
[01:18:49] And I think most everybody here and those listening
[01:18:52] understand that it's up to us if we're
[01:18:55] going to be one of the three, climb the mountain
[01:19:01] to experience the fullness of who you are,
[01:19:06] that you are the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
[01:19:10] that you are the glorious creator,
[01:19:14] the almighty, all powerful one, the only Savior,
[01:19:20] the only Redeemer, the Lamb of God that came and died on that
[01:19:26] cross, took away our sins, and that you made the way where
[01:19:30] we could be forgiven, cleansed, and receive eternal life.
[01:19:35] You rose from the dead to prove that we who follow you will,
[01:19:40] our bodies will also be raised up.
[01:19:46] And I look for that day, Lord.
[01:19:47] I long for that day to be with you,
[01:19:49] and I don't have to leave the mountain.
[01:19:56] But Lord, help us do, help me do, all
[01:20:02] that we need to do here before that.
[01:20:06] None of us want to die before our time, Lord.
[01:20:10] We want to accomplish your will here and be with you forever.
[01:20:16] I pray this in Jesus' name.
[01:20:40] Is I to honor you.
[01:24:23] Have your way in me, I pray.
[01:24:27] Lord, help me get up that mountain
[01:24:29] to be with you every possible time I can.
[01:24:31] Help us all to love you and come to know you
[01:24:35] and be in that place where you can manifest yourself to us,
[01:24:39] where you can make your abode with us,
[01:24:42] where we can dwell with you and you dwell with us,
[01:24:46] where we can understand the scriptures and the future
[01:24:50] and your calling upon us, your purpose, your plan.
[01:24:56] We want to be in that place in the secret place
[01:24:58] of the Most High.
[01:25:00] We want to be in that place, Lord,
[01:25:01] where you reveal secrets and give understanding to doctrine
[01:25:05] and we just see you, know you, experience you,
[01:25:12] where no wonder can change our mind
[01:25:14] and no sin and temptation can pull us away.
[01:25:19] We pray this, Father, in Jesus' name.
[01:25:22] Amen.
[01:25:23] All right, you know the drill.
[01:25:26] Hug some necks before you leave.
[01:25:28] Good to have everybody next time.
[01:25:32] Happy birthday to our, what month is this, May?
[01:25:38] Who's May today?
[01:25:39] Oh, one, two, three.
[01:25:41] May, all right, cool.
[01:25:43] Happy birthday, May folks.
[01:25:44] We'll say happy birthday to you out there as well.