Book of Acts Part 10

Alright, we are going to pray and then we're going to get back into the book of Acts. Let's pray Lord Jesus as we open up your word

We ask through your Holy Spirit to help us to rightly understand what is revealed there

Especially as it relates to the early history of the Christian Church and the gospel going forward We pray that we may learn from these apostles whom you have sent out so that we may have the same faith that they have the faith that is in you for the forgiveness of sins and By the same

Holy Spirit that you would produce in us True repentance and produce the fruit of the

Spirit in good works. We ask in Jesus name. Amen Okay, hang on a second here.

I'm gonna change my screen share share thing. Okay, hold on I need to change this to that.

How's that? Very good Okay, we have gotten through the day of Pentecost You'll note that I Intentionally went on a bunny trail because we wanted to look at what the scriptures especially what

Christ revealed that the work of the Holy Spirit would be Oftentimes I get accused and then

Lutheran's kind of an extension get accused of somehow not believing in the Holy Spirit We absolutely 100 % believe in the

Holy Spirit and we believe in the Holy that the Holy Spirit works today Still gives gifts today as he wills

Full stop But just because someone claims to have a special anointing or a special gift or something like that Doesn't mean that they are exempt from the biblical requirement

But put on us by the Holy Spirit to test all of that being said you'll note that we talked about baptism

Last week. So let me kind of give you the resolve with Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost When they that's the crowd when they heard that they this they were cut to the heart

You can see the Holy Spirit is working to convict them of their sin in their unbelief So they said to Peter and the rest of the

Apostles brothers What shall we do Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ For the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit The promise the promise of the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit is for you

It's for your children all who are far off Everyone whom the

Lord our God calls to himself and with many other words He bore witness continuing to exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation

So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about three thousand souls

They went from a very small church to a megachurch in one afternoon

And there were no skinny jeans, that's correct, you'll note that Peter did not have a liturgical disco ball

And they didn't even there was no smoke machine and there wasn't even PowerPoint a

World without PowerPoint, I remember that world. Oh And then and then there was

Excel and that just ruined everything Harvard Graphics was the first that's

I okay. Got it. Okay. Yeah, you're not wrong Okay, so now let's take a look at this next portion.

They these newly minted Christians devoted themselves to the

Apostles teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and The prayers

I would note that This is what disciples of Jesus Christ also should be devoted to as well

Note that they are devoted to the Apostles teaching which begs this question

Where is the only place I can go? To find the Apostles teaching today

The Bible. Okay, so you'll note that's gonna require us to you know

You read the word this this I know this doesn't sound like rocket surgery, but but over and over and over again that people seem to lose sight of this and I would note within Particular churches.

This is not any particular movement that but there are there are very interesting things some of you have come out of churches where those who took the

Bible seriously and like like studied it and started saying things like hey that what you just said in your sermon isn't what the

Bible teaches that they were looked at with great suspicion or Contempt or worse told stupid things like touch not

God's anointed Right, you know and just crazy things like that.

If you have if you are attending a church where Questions are not welcome and the

Bible is held in suspicion or derision Run That's Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Don't don't wait for Mark Driscoll to drive the bus over you and kill you with it Jump off immediately, you know, it's like, you know, and don't wait for it to even hit a red light just Go for it.

Just leave you got you are in deep trouble, right? But then notice this also they were also developed they were absolutely devoted to the fellowship

So you'll note that in in the true church it is not some mere devotion to abstract teaching and things like this this

Results in things happening Okay as James puts it, you know

Just as the body that is not breathing is dead Faith without works is dead.

So who do we do our good works for? Like each other right and I would note

Get to know each other because you're gonna be spending a long long

Really long time with these people. Okay, and I'm not talking about this lifetime because there's a world coming

We're all gonna be raised from the dead and it's just gonna be glorious Okay, so who do you think

I'm inviting over to barbecues at my house? Okay If you're thinking well, it might be us right, okay

Because I don't know Abraham Isaac and Jacob, you know, I know you guys So you poor fellows are gonna be the ones

I have to invite, you know, this is how this works and I expect Reciprocation on these things right that but you get the idea.

So they devoted themselves to the fellowship. That's to each other The breaking of bread.

What is that talking about? Could it possibly be the Lord's Supper? No, it couldn't possibly be that.

Yeah, it really is Okay, and here's the one That that seems to be missing in a lot of churches today the prayers

Fascinating to me that as I watch, you know, I I don't know if you know this I ingest copious amounts of really bad sermon age

And stuff like this, but when I watched kind of like the standard American megachurch evangelical ish quasi charismatic kind of church services

Many of them have zero place in the service for any kind of like meaningful prayer

And I remember it was a couple years ago. Now. I legitimately heard One of the demon slayers.

I think it was signorelli complaining about the fact that he had visited a church and The pastor are you?

Check this out. He says you're not gonna believe this but the pastor he spent an entire two and a half minutes praying

And he says my my eyes glazed over and I was so bored. I'm thinking two and a half minutes.

Whoa Don't come to Consinger man, you know

Just Two and a half minutes that we're about a third of the way there, you know, that's crazy talk, right?

No, no meaningful time for prayer at all And I would note this is where a little bit of a bunny trail is gonna be helpful.

Okay I've said it before and I will continue to say it when Satan Deceives you and Satan sends you theologically off the rails

Like any good horror movie plot Satan cuts lines of communication

Okay, you got to think this out. The last person Satan wants you to talk to is

God And so you think about what happens in the Roman Catholic Church, who are they praying to Dead people

Okay, I Legitimate, you know, I'm so on X we do we have to call it

X now or can I be old -school and call this? So call it Twitter Okay. Okay What?

Nobody cares. Okay on that platform. I You know I don't know why it is that Twitter seems to think that I want to see what

Roman Catholic priests are posting on social media but God admit the algorithm knew because of this this was something

I went. Whoa I had taken a screenshot of it this Roman Catholic priest puts in there and goes

I have these Protestants are so stupid They tell us that we're not supposed to pray to dead people When are they gonna come to realize that the people who died in the faith aren't dead?

They're still alive And by implication that means we can still pray to them Yeah Yeah, right, so here's the issue, okay

Let's just do basic Greek, you know Definitions of words.

Okay So the word for prayer prosuke its first primary meaning to a petition

Addressed to deity Okay Does this begin to give you a hint of certain people that we can just automatically begin to rule out now

You know like humans Okay, anybody who's a unless of course they've somehow attained to deity

Okay Kenneth Copeland never thought that he was never a deity.

So, you know so you're gonna note that just the basic definition of the word prosuke means that this is a and note what the first Partition You know that's gonna require you to do something that a lot of people aren't doing anymore

And that's gonna require you to are you ready for this? ask Okay Let me live this is hilarious, this is absolutely hilarious

I Taught on this in one of my videos a while back put a post up on social media about it and James chapter 4.

I want you to listen to what James says. Are you ready? He says what causes quarrels what causes fights among you?

Is it not this that your passions are at war within you you desire you do not have so you murder

Does that sound sane to you by the way? Okay, that sounds a little crazy you covet you cannot obtain

So you fight and you quarrel here we go. You have not because you ask not so I posted this on social media and I had some crazy charismatics come out of the woodwork and say you're

Quoting it out of context And Then I said well

Please provide me the context that would then basically say I need to decree and to declare Because here's the thing.

There's a lot of churches nowadays that are running around and they've substituted prayer Obviously we talked about Rome substituting actual prayer and we're not praying to the

Virgin Mary We're praying to dead saints and and things like this, but the charismatic and Pentecostal movement

There's whole portions of it that they believe prayer is You know is tearing down Stronghold, so you remember that whole

Kenneth Copeland kovat debacle kovat 19 I blow the wind of God on you.

I decree it and declare and I command control and cancer I command you to leave this building right now right

Huh? Are they asking God for Anything Prayer is a petition

Addressed to deity Tacitly asking for judgment.

Okay, so now then watch this so you have not because you do not ask

You ask and you don't receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions Well now we know the theology of Lord won't you buy me a

Mercedes Benz? I didn't gonna work. Okay, right So you'll know that the earliest

Christians Devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching we can do the same today by you know reading and studying and preaching and understanding the

Apostles teaching which is found still in the scripture and The fellowship they're devoted to each other the

Lord's Supper and to petitions addressed to the deity That's pretty simple, right?

Okay, and I would note that this is all you need for church Legitimately, okay.

Yes were they

Norwegian and that those would have been hot dishes by the way, not potluck. Okay Yeah It's yeah.

No, the breaking of bread here is is a reference to on the night that Jesus was betrayed He took bread and when he broke it

He said okay, and you'll note that that that it's not this isn't talking about Love meals with your people in your fellowship, although Eating with each other is a great idea that but this is actually a reference to the

Lord's Supper With the by the breaking of bread that's shorthand for the Lord's Supper Right.

Okay. So and I coming back here. This is super portable Do you need a big building?

Do you need a smoke machine million -dollar budget? Do you need a praise band? You don't need any of that okay, a and you'll note this means that like one or two guys could like go on a mission trip and Legitimately end up planting churches and If the church is as long as they have a place to meet to do these things

They're gonna be by they're gonna be vital. They're gonna be alive and thriving right

Mm -hmm, right Exactly, and you know what that's gonna require a team of volunteers to put it together and then break it down That's not a problem.

It's not a big deal You know and so highly portable and I would note that so much money is

Wasted on What it can only be described as like worship entertainment Okay As soon as you put a stage up then you want to have entertainment on that stage

You'll know we don't have a stage here at Kongsvinger Okay, don't have one of those beware of the worship entertainment kind of concept

You don't you don't need that What you just need these things which means you're also gonna need a pastor who knows how to rightly handle the word and Yield that being the case then wherever this is happening.

You got a church does the attendance matter? Okay, we're two or more.

Okay, so church is going to be minimally two people You need a pastor and you need a congregant if you got that you got a church

And if someone were to ask me so what's the what you know when you know and you're preaching

What's the smallest church you've ever preached to somebody one? I've actually done that Okay, I've actually done that.

Yes Uh -huh, so I would note that we absolutely believe that two or more are gathered

When you're using the internet and it's live, you know Isn't the whole concept behind zoom is that this is an actual live meeting

We're all gathering together. So the internet is just a medium for this. So I would note that as things get to Warm up in the persecution department and Christians are driven out of society and driven underground.

Oh, just we can be super clever okay, you know and and there's all kinds of options available to us and I Remember Don said, you know

He thought that the kovat and what we had to go through was through kovat was a good dry run for what's coming in the future, so You know

Yeah Yeah, oh, yeah, we can always pray by ourselves

And yeah, you don't need two or more wouldn't when that's concerned you in that case you and God constitute the two

Okay, you know that that that that's absolutely the case. So All right, let's keep going here ah came upon every soul many wonders and signs were being done through who the

Apostles Many wonders and signs were being done through the

Apostles You'll note that they aren't the only ones who can perform miracles in the

New Testament They aren't the only ones but the vast majority of signs and wonders listed in the

New Testament are performed by an Apostle the vast majority and Anybody who was able to operate in signs and wonders like they had some kind of an actual gift from the

Holy Spirit given them To do so they were able to do so after an Apostle laid hands on them so you'll note that this claim that every

Christian needs to be out there performing signs and wonders is baloney Okay, you might as well scream in my face and say man.

You need to get skinny right now I'll work on that Okay, I'm sure it'll happen by give me give me till tomorrow

Okay It is this is not how this works Okay You can't you can't force somebody or put pressure on them to perform signs and wonders

It leads to the nonsense that we see with like Todd White where he goes out and lengthens people's legs and calls it a miracle

It just it's just nonsense Okay, but many signs and wonders were being done through the

Apostles and the Apostle Paul himself describes His ability to perform miracles as one of the signs of the the signs of the

Apostles. Let me show you that real quick I'm gonna look for signs and Apostles hang on a second here and I Think okay.

Hang on a second. I think it's gonna be in 2 Corinthians 11

I think hold on a second here and do this

Hang on a second here,

I'm gonna check that really good Bible search engine called

Google, you know, if I were to go Bible Sign The signs of the

Apostles Okay When did

AI now starts to get in there and give you some kind of a summer summary True signs of Apostles 2nd

Corinthians 12 to I was in the right. I was one chapter too early 2nd Corinthians 12

Alright, here's what Paul says Says I must go on boasting though. There's nothing to be gained by it

I'll go on divisions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man 2nd Corinthians 12 to hang on a second here

Hold on. I missed something here 2nd Corinthians 12

Okay Okay, here we go verse 12 2nd

Corinthians 12 12 The signs of a true Apostle were performed among you with the utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works you're gonna note that I've made this claim before and I'll make it again that in the scriptures

The ability for a human being at Will to be able to perform miracles is a rarity legitimately a rarity

Abraham Isaac Jacob They didn't perform miracles. That is not to say that God didn't do miracles on their behalf

He did so the Bible is full of miracles. But what the Bible isn't full of is miracle workers

Okay, so the very first miracle worker really legitimately in Scripture is

Moses and God gave him signs that were specifically intended for the purpose of validating his his

Calling to prove to people that he was truly sent from God In fact, this is a good place to kind of tuck this in here if I were to go to Exodus chapter 3 and I Don't want to go through the entire

Exchange, but you're gonna note that when God calls Moses Moses isn't really that keen on the assignment

He even legitimately gets to the point of saying please send somebody else. It's kind of annoying

Okay, he by doing this Moses single -handedly destroyed the entire presupposition of the purpose -driven life

Okay Just saying okay so Moses Moses said

Exodus 4 says Moses answered but behold they will not believe me or Listen to my voice they will say

Yahweh did not appear to you So Yahweh said to him. What is that in your hand?

He said a staff He said throw it on the ground So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it

But Yahweh said to Moses put out your hand and catch it by the tail So he put out his hand and caught it and it became a staff in his hand

That they may believe that Yahweh the God of the Fathers the

God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has appeared to you So no

God says what the signs are for. Okay. Now you'll note that there are many charismatic

Pentecostals who believe that signs and wonders are kind of the point and They lust after them and push for them and claim that anybody who is isn't, you know

Any church that's not operating in signs and wonders is somehow has a gospel. That's without power. I Would note here.

Okay Again, miracles are throughout the scripture miracle workers are not

So Moses is your miracle worker first the first in the scripture and how much of human history has gone by without there being miracle

Workers, he shows up and God gives him signs for the purpose of validating that he was sent by God the next miracle workers in scripture after Moses are not until you get to Elijah and Elisha and They are representative of the prophets who put the rest of the

Old Testament together Okay So you're gonna note that authors of scripture usually have signs and wonders going along with them

Or at least at least in a token way Then we get to the Apostles and you'll note the

Apostles are Operating in signs and wonders and I would remind you Not that I'm I'm trying to like, you know ruin the story by telling what's gonna happen

But I'm assuming you guys have read the book of Acts before there's a story about a woman by the name of Dorcas who dies in the book of Acts and They send to Peter to come and raise her from the dead and when

Peter arrives He doesn't scold those Christian women and sit there and go you have the ability to do signs and wonders yourself

Why'd you make me travel all the way over to here for me to do what you should be doing all for yourself anyway

Okay Yeah, he doesn't do that, you know what he does he raises her from the dead and So the idea then is this is that when we see it that that many signs and wonders were being done through Apostles the point isn't the signs and wonders

The point is that the signs and wonders validate a very important thing and that these men were sent by Jesus Christ and that they are operating on his authority by his command and That is exactly what you would expect.

So back in the time of the Lutheran Reformation Some rascally

Roman Catholic basically said to Luther so what miracles do you perform to validate the gospel that you preach and Luther said

The gospel I preach was validated with the miracles that were performed by the Apostles. It's in the scripture.

Oh Yeah, okay

God's patience that allows the miracles to happen I would note that God is patient with us and I I wouldn't

I've never connected the concept of patience with miracles, although it Hang on a second, which which one?

Okay, so the sign okay, so the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience with signs and wonders and mighty works

That's that it would be the patience of the Apostle Paul It it's it's it's almost like this, you know,

Paul says I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ and they said, all right Well, what sign or wonder do you have to perform?

And so Paul performs a sign and a wonder and they go All right do that again All right, do another one.

They were that you know, how many did Moses had he had three? Moses had three signs.

So the idea here is that they were performed among you without most patience, which basically means that that They they didn't accept them the first one

They probably were getting close to thinking okay after two, but they probably wanted another one And so he performed them multiple signs and it's not just a sign but multiple signs and wonders

Performed with patience and things like that. That's the idea behind it Yeah The the the plagues of Egypt are considered signs.

They're considered signs of God's judgment Correct.

Moses was still the conduit Right, yeah, yeah, but he had three signs to validate his call him being sent by God that he performed for For his own kinsmen for the

Israelites, okay So when we see here in Acts when it says that ah

Came upon every soul many wonders and signs were being done through the Apostles You'll note that there's there's a function here.

It's the same function that Moses had it Validates the fact that these men were sent by Jesus Christ and that the claims that they were making you got to understand they are making ginormous claims

God sent us. Oh, did he now? Yes, and he sent us through his son.

God has a son. Yes, he does Okay, and Jesus was crucified and he rose from the grave right and What signs do you perform to validate this nonsense?

Okay. Well, I can raise people from the dead. I Can heal people of diseases?

What do what would you like to see? You kind of get the idea. So the signs and wonders are being done through the

Apostles and it's validating What they're proclaiming because you got to admit what they're proclaiming on some sense sounds just like too good to be true

Or it's a sounds Looney Tunes Right, you believe a guy died and rose from the grave after he'd been dead for three days.

Are you kidding me? Right, so that's a very important thing here

So all who believe were together and they had all things in common now a little bit of a note here

We are not going to become communists. Okay? That's not the point of this text.

I have seen it used in this way by the woke left Okay, of course they will point to this and say therefore we need to abandon capitalism and go communist and I would say you don't

Have to wait for that. Go ahead You go right ahead sell everything you have and you guys can survive communally go for it

It's well the thing is they can't live, you know communists can't live unless they're basically stealing other people's money

Okay, this is how this works But the you're gonna note communism is take is basically stealing other people's money at gunpoint

Okay, there is no gun here They are doing this out of their love for Christ and their love and devotion to each other

Okay so they they were had all things in common they were selling their possessions and their belongings and Distributing the proceeds to all as any had need

I would note that the entire time I have been at Kongsvinger Kongsvinger has done a very good job of setting aside a portion of what comes in For the purpose of meeting the needs of other people and they still do to this day

I've never seen a church take in so little and give so much Okay, and day by day

Attending the temple together and Breaking bread in their homes. They didn't have church buildings they received their food with glad and generous hearts break praising

God having favor with all the people and watch this and The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved

Who added? The Lord, okay. Well there goes all the church growth gurus

All right, this is when it comes down to growing the church whose job is to grow the church

Right. Okay. What's the job of a pastor to preach the word right preach the word minister the sacraments when a pastor thinks it's his job to become a vision casting

CEO and That you know He needs to go out and do a sociological survey to find out what the world wants so that we can change the church to Make it more attractive to the world.

Is he being faithful in his office in his calling? No, and I can hear somebody say yeah

But if you expect me to go out there and preach the word then our church is going to become irrelevant and it's going to die right, so Decades ago now boy, it's getting to be a long time.

I was the guest of Rick Warren He invited me as one of his critics to come to a purpose driven conference

He was on I'm being a purpose driven preacher Okay, that was the concept that he was teaching.

So I I went I attended I attended the whole thing took copious notes. Okay, and While I was there taking notes

Rick Warren gave a long lecture on purpose driven preaching and Here's what he said.

He said your unbelieving neighbors are

Not willing to sit through 30 minute long Bible centered exegetical sermons mm -hmm, and so you need to get rid of those and You need to learn how to preach repentance without saying the word repent and what you're unbelieving

Unbelieving pagan neighbors what they want are Messages that are going to be useful for them to make their lives better Your unbelieving neighbors struggle with getting a raise at work

Being promoted they have difficulties in their marriages. They have children that behave poorly and They struggle with a sense of meaninglessness in their life and what you should do according to Rick Warren is

Not exegete the scriptures but piece together different Verses that will give them advice that will result in making their lives better because once their lives are made better by biblical advice

They'll believe in God and they'll want to become a Christian. This is exactly the opposite of what we're commanded to do

Okay You I want this is gonna sound just like crazy talk

Okay, the reason why your unbelieving neighbors do not attend church is because they're unbelievers

Does that make sense? Okay that being the case

Unless God changes their heart and Regenerates them they are not

Going to want to come to church They have better things to do with their time

They're not going to want to hear about the bride of Christ They're not gonna want to talk about the forgiveness of sins

They're definitely want not going to want to do an extensive study of the exegesis in the

Greek in any given text They don't care No, they will instead engage in such futility as rooting for the

Minnesota Vikings Okay, and consider that a better spent part of their day and their time

Okay, we should pray for them Especially for that because that last part. Okay, I Will not vouch for the

Chargers, I'm sorry Okay, but you get the idea what

I'm saying here, right So, how is it that the Lord adds day into their number day by day?

It's through the preached word. What are the Apostles doing? They're preaching they're teaching they're praying and and people are hearing the gospel and they're being

Regenerated and God is adding those people to the church day by day

Okay. Now I would note something here. Okay, we are not a mega church

Despite the fact that some have actually accused us of being such. Okay, we are not Okay I I'll tell you later.

Okay, we've been accused of being a mega church. I don't know how we get that church, but Here's the deal.

Okay, I I'm gonna ask you guys this Okay, when I first got here,

I can only describe Kongsvinger as on life support. It really was okay that you know, there was there was a few anchor families that were descendants from the original families of this church and And The the kid there weren't any kids here

But the younger adults that were here couldn't date each other because they were all related to each other. Okay It and attendance was not at a all -time high

Okay, it was it was Really pretty spotty and there were times when if we had 12 14 people on a

Sunday. That was a big deal. Okay now Has Kongsvinger grown

Yeah How much vision casting have I engaged in for Kongsvinger to grow

Zero Okay, I can legitimately say we have made no effort

None whatsoever to somehow strategically find a way to grow this church You know what we did

We just preached the word Preached Christ and him crucified Forgave people's sins administered the sacraments and then did it again and Then did it again and then did it again?

right Who has brought the people that are here here? Amy Amy God has added to our number right and now we have kids that can actually date each other

This is a good thing. Okay Yeah, we're gonna we're gonna water down the

Norwegian, you know gene pool here, but that's okay All right

All of that being said it is God who adds it is God who does these things and So the the the job of a church is to be devoted to the things that we talked about The Apostles teaching the fellowship the breaking of bread the prayers

Let me find another word real quick here supplications, okay I want you to consider what the

Apostle Paul says in this regard. Okay. No, I'm not looking for the book called supplications.

I Hate when that happens, okay First or second supplications, you're funny.

That's actually pretty that that's pretty good Okay, you know what

I've set a bad example for you guys you sound too much like me, okay okay in in the in the in Ephesians chapter 6 when it's talking about the the armor of You know the

Christian armor right the armor of the spirit, right? We are to take up the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.

Here we go praying at all times again prosuke Prosuke, you know, it's the same word that means to petition deity

Praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer here. So note with all prayer and Supplication now,

I I've said it before but I'm gonna point this out supplication is one of the fancy church words

But here's what it means an urgent request to me to need exclusively addressed to God. Here we go again a supplication

It's an urgent request. So so when we pray for each other, you know pray for me I've you know, I've got this letter to the other thing going on.

That's prayer But when somebody has had an emergency they've gotten into an auto accident and they're there

They're in the emergency room and they're in their life is hanging on by a thread and we call each other and we get each

Other praying right? Those are supplications. Those are those urgent things but note again even supplications are urgent requests

Okay, no decreeing no declaring no commanding no controlling It's we are making our requests made known to God Praying at all times with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the

Saints We have to pray for each other Constantly Philippians says it this way.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone That should be like as far as I'm concerned that should be like the mission statement of certain churches

I'm just saying because they their Unreasonableness is everybody knows about it.

And this would be a good corrective. Okay, let's put that one on everyone's mirror, right? Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand Do not be anxious about anything. Tell me how easy that is

That's not easy but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your

Requests be made known to God right You know, I think of Bill Johnson from Bethel Church.

He says to pray thy will be done as a prayer of unbelief and My question for Bill is how'd that decreeing and declaring work when your wife was dying of cancer?

They had a prayer service for Benny Johnson at Bethel Church a few months before she died and There was a lot of decreeing

There was a lot of declaring, you know what? There was a little very little of Asking very little asking the primary

Prayers that were offered were all decrees and declares but note what Paul says well by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus First Timothy Paul says first of all,

I urge the supplications Prayers intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.

No nothing here in the list about declarations right It's almost as if God expects us to treat him as God We his creatures and since he's our father in heaven, you know what we have to do with dad

We've got to ask him for things dad. Can I borrow the keys to the car dad?

Can I take my girlfriend out on a date to the movies dad Will you pay me the money that you owe me for mowing the lawn, you know things like this, right?

Yeah How many of you with your father's just decreed and declared I decree and declare the car

Okay Okay now real quick There was a quick question and then

I got to answer it and then I got to go Barry says pastor Chris if you see this it would be a good idea to draw a distinction between signs and wonders and the

Manifestations of the Spirit described in 1st Corinthians 12s. It doesn't dispute your point

I would note that the manifestations of the Spirit Given in 1st Corinthians 12 are talking about the gifts of the

Spirit for the purpose of building up in edifying the church Now there are manifestations of the

Spirit also listed in 1st Corinthians 12 13 and 14 That are specifically designed to be signs for unbelievers

So for instance the gift of tongues is a sign to unbelieving Jews and a fulfillment of a prophecy from Isaiah but Signs and wonders are not the same as manifestations of the

Spirit Those are actually two different things all together And then if you were to read carefully through 12 13 and 14 the manifestations of the

Spirit we are going to include You know preaching God's Word boldly and you know and things like this and help and administration and and and there's there's other

Manifestations of the Spirit that all of them are for the purpose of the building up and edifying of the church or in a couple

Of instances some of the signs and wonders are specifically to be signs for unbelievers That's what tongues is but that's a different that's way different than the signs and wonders that the

Apostles Engaged in because their signs and wonders are going to be undeniable miraculous signs and wonders like being able to heal people of diseases and stuff

Like this on command and always being able to do so. So, all right, very good

We are going to pause there and Lord willing we will pick up For we'll pick up on this next week.