In this sermon we discuss Acts 3 & 4, emphasizing a call for obedience and intimacy with God. We outline our church's vision, stress the importance of humility and radical generosity, and highlight the significance of prayer and community.

Listen on Spotify | Watch on YouTube

Transcript:  

 If you'll grab your Bibles, go with me to Acts chapter 3.

We're going to be in Acts chapter 3 this morning, and 4. I've got a lot to cover, but I know the Lord will say what He wants to say. So, I'm not going to try to cover everything. If I could, that's great, but I want to just cover what the Lord releases. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I believe that in Acts 3 and 4, Not only are we going, not only are there divine blueprints, I believe, in these two chapters that we're going to pull out, but I really believe that there's a word from the Lord to our body this morning out of these two chapters.

I believe there's a few things the Lord really wants to highlight and illuminate and give us revelation concerning out of these chapters this morning. Uh, we're in a series called Building a Dwelling Place. And if you're new here, Our name is Dwelling Place. Building a Dwelling Place is something the Lord spoke to us about.

We released the vision and the culture of the house back in April. And then the Lord began to speak to me about us building into that culture. Us taking the culture that we've talked about and talking about how That gets applied. And so the Lord said, I want you to begin to talk. Hello? How that, that's alright, come on.

The Lord said, I want you to begin to talk about how to instruct. Alright, how to instruct, how to teach, so that the people would know how to build. You would begin to lay out what this looks like practically. What does it mean to be a house for him? What does it mean to be a house for the harvest? What, what does, what does culture mean?

What does it, Look like if we, when we say with our words, we desire to build a house Jesus calls home. What does that look like? How many know that the Bible says that all scriptures profitable? But we need the Spirit of God married to the Word of God. So I believe the Lord wants to say something to us that's going to help us to build.

The Lord told Moses, and just quickly, the Lord told Moses to build a dwelling place in the wilderness. And he said, so that I might dwell with my people. But he told Moses, he said, make sure that you build according to the pattern or blueprint that I gave you on the mountain. Amen. So in other words, in the place of encounter and intimacy, Moses, I'm gonna give you a blueprint.

So that you can build me a house in the wilderness so that I might dwell with my people. So, God desired a dwelling place, alright, and, and he was calling Moses to build it, but Moses couldn't build it in his own human wisdom, right, in his own ideas. God was going to give him the instructions to do it, right?

Amen? And so we can mean well, Right, but not be in the spirit and not build accordingly. Do you follow me? We can mean well, but not be in the spirit and not build accordingly. Not build how God wants us to build. Consider David. David had a desire and a right heart for the presence. And I'm gonna mention that again in a moment.

He had the right desire to get the presence to Israel, but he was wrong in his obedience. And it cost the man his life. So we gotta be careful how we build. Are you with me? Amen. Amen. The Lord gave me a couple of words, spoke really specific, two specific words since December to me. The first one was that this was a year of building and battling.

This was a year of the builders, this was the year of building, and this was a year that God was going to teach us how to build and how to fight. Remember that word? God said, I want to teach you how to build, but I also want to teach you how to battle. Alright, and I believe that we see in the book of Nehemiah a great example of a people that had a, had a call to build, and they came up against opposition, and they didn't let the opposition stop them from building.

Why? Because they knew how to battle. So we're in the, we're in a season of building. Can I tell you that God confirmed that word? So we were with some dear friends of ours who go to church here, and they gave me a book last week. And the book literally is about building and battling. But catch this, it's not just a general book like written for 30 years ago.

The book was written about the word for 2024 was building and battling. And one of the main passages is out of the book of Nehemiah. You can't make that stuff up. A trusted prophetic voice, Bobby Connor wrote a book about building and battling. The year of 2024 was about building and battling. And that's confirmation of what the Lord spoke to me back in December.

The second word the Lord gave me was, and this was posed in a question, but it was because the Lord wanted me to get to thinking. He said, What if the dwelling place was bigger than what you thought it was? What if the assignment was more than just these four walls? And I, I said, Okay, Lord, what do you mean?

He said, Consider David. And so I, I began to ponder David. It's something I've been studying since 2017 is the life of David. And so I began to think about and ponder David. And the Lord said, what did David build? I said, well, he, he desired to build you a house, and he, he went and got the presents back, and he brought the presents back to Jerusalem, and he, he set the ark under a tent, and, and then there was night and day worship and prayer, and he said, yes, he said, but what did that do?

So I just began to read through the Old Testament of David, and what it did is it united Israel. See, Israel was in disarray because during Saul's leadership, they didn't seek after the presence of God. But the first thing David desired was to get the presence back into Israel. And when he did, it united all of Israel.

And the Lord said, what if the dwelling place is about uniting the church? What if it's about uniting God's people? What if it's about breaking past denominational walls and years of religion that has bound people up and has kept us at two sides of the aisle? What if the presence of God, alright, was for uniting God's people?

Now, I don't know how, to what degree or how big that'll be, that's up to the Lord. But I believe we have an assignment that's bigger than just the local church. I believe it's a city and a regional, for sure, a city and a regional assignment. How much bigger than that, I don't know. And I believe it's to help unite the body of Christ around the presence of God.

Come on, you should clap because you're a part of that.

You are a part of that. So I want you to keep those words in the back of your mind of when we're building, why we're getting into the world, why we're being instructed. It's because God is calling us to build in this season. It's a critical season to build. But we've got to be aware of the enemy's tactics to come against us in that building.

So we've got to learn to battle. And then we've got to understand, beloved, and I want you to listen and watch here. We've got to understand that the assignment is bigger than what we think, beloved. And our obedience, come on, our yes, what could it do for a generation?

Alright, let's go to Acts chapter 3.

Acts chapter 3, we're going to look at verse 1. We're going to begin here.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. Now I want us to see here in chapter 3 and chapter 4, there are some prophetic things that God wants to speak to us. Now let me just quickly tell you, the book of Acts, beloved, is the blueprint, or it is a blueprint, for what a dwelling place looks like in a city.

The book of Acts was the first New Testament dwelling place in a city. So don't you think that if we, if, if it was a, if it was a dwelling place, and we have it in the scriptures, we should look to it as an example. So the book of Acts is an example for God's church becoming a dwelling place. Alright, and the book of Acts shows us how when God's spirit and presence becomes priority, it's poured out.

And how it becomes priority, and how the church stewards the presence of God so that it doesn't die out. Because I'm telling you, again, I've been meeting with people in the body, and we're talking about revival and awakening. And one thing about Central Florida is that we have had revivals come here, but for some reason, the enemy shuts down.

And I believe that we're in an hour right now where there are spirits that have come and have sat down, they have taken a seat, again, talking to people in this body, and they are influencing their demonic agendas that is coming to try to stop and thwart what God wants to do. So we need a blueprint.

Alright, we need a blueprint. So here in verse 1 of Acts chapter 3, now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. I want to start here because what we're seeing here in verse 1 of chapter 3 is we're seeing a continual culture being practiced. We're seeing a heart posture of two of the leaders of the first dwelling place, alright, in Jerusalem.

Called the church at Jerusalem. We're seeing two of the leaders committed to continually stewarding what God did in Acts 2. 1. They're going up to the temple, to the house of prayer. To pray. They're going. There's determination. And it reminded me of David in, in, in Psalm 27 verse 4. What did David say? He said, this is the famous verse.

He said, one thing I desire. So he had desire, but then he turned it into action. That will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire of Him in His temple. David loved the presence of God. He understood, come on, follow me, the importance of the house of God.

And I'm telling you, this spiritual dwelling place, it's not a game, it's not a joke, beloved. There's serious things going on. And we need to value and love the presence of God. This is more than just Sunday services, right? This is more than just three songs and a message. There's something more the Lord is wanting to do in our heart, right?

He's wanting, He's wanting to mark us by, by times of encounter where He pours His Spirit out and He touches us in a deep way so that we would be like Peter and John and we would begin to be a people of action and we would begin to go right into the house of God. And I don't mean just This place, I mean, spiritually speaking, we would create an environment in our life where we want to be intimate with God continuously.

And so we see Peter and John were going. And this is something the Lord began to speak to me about, is that David said, first of all, he said, the one thing I desire. I believe there's a lot of us that have desire, but it's just emotions. Amen? We've got to move it from just emotions, and we've got to get going, which is actually action.

What God is after is obedience. We can say all day long, I want the presence of the Lord, right? And our words mean nothing, what matters is our actions. If you read all the letters to the churches in Revelation, what was the Lord saying? I saw your works. Jesus is coming to examine our works. He's coming to examine what we're doing, how we're living.

Amen? Our obedience is important, beloved. And we see here Peter and John were going. They were a people of action and they were continuing to carry a culture. They were so marked and they so valued the presence of God. They were going to do everything in their power to make sure they stewarded what God poured out.

This has got to be determination in our heart, beloved. We've got to be determined and a people of action in this season. God is requiring obedience from us.

This is, come on beloved, this isn't a game. We've He's coming back. He's returning. And we've got to be a people of action. We've got to get going. And I don't mean just doing stuff. I mean doing what God wants us to do. You see, again, let me mention David. David had the right heart. He wanted to get the presence of God back to Jerusalem.

So he went and got the ark, but he put it on a cart. And so he wanted to bring the presence in his way, rather than God's way. Right? So we can have the right heart, the right desire, but it means nothing if we don't mix it with obedience. Right? We can have the right heart, but God has a certain way for the presence of God to be stewarded.

And He's trying to teach us, beloved, that it's not just about Derek or a few leaders, but every one of us play a responsibility and a role in stewarding the presence of God.

We really do play a part, and we, our lives can either, come on, we can either create an atmosphere of encounter, Or we can attract the demonic. We can either be a hinderer and hinder what God is doing, or we can be a conduit for the flow of the presence of God. And so we gotta get going. And not just to, just to just go to go, but there's There's a purpose in our going, and it's to encounter the Lord.

It's to be with the Lord. We've got to fall in love with Jesus. There's got to be a deep love. Beloved, listen. This is not just about us having a bunch of ministries, and having a great vision plan, and a great website. All of those are only supporting things to really what matters. And the depth of our heart is we really do want to build a house that Jesus calls home.

We really do want to make it about Him. We really want to, we really want the eyes of our heart to receive the beauty of the Lord. Like, we really want Him to be worshipped, right? We really want to create an atmosphere where He's pleased to dwell, and where He desires to come and remain. Are you with me?

And it's going to take a culture and a lifestyle of intimacy with God. You can tell those who are intimate with God because of the fruit in their life.

Good fruit. Come on. If we do the things of the kingdom, we'll bear good fruit. A tree planted with the Lord will bear ripe fruit.

So I want us, listen, I want us to move from just desire to obedience. And I believe we are. I just want to encourage us this morning that it's not just lip service, amen, but our hearts are postured after Him. Like, really, everything that I'm doing and everything that I'm after, and again, we're imperfect, we make mistakes, but the deep desire of my heart is that Jesus would be lifted up.

And so what does that mean? That means I'm dead. to myself, to my feelings, right? That means, that means it doesn't matter if I'm in the center of what God's doing or if I'm not, I just want Jesus to be lifted up. I just want to serve Him. All that I'm doing, I'm on, I'm on the worship team, I'm on the ushering team, I'm on the preaching team, I'm on the prayer team, I'm on all these things only simply because I want to serve Jesus.

I want to worship Jesus. I want to glorify Jesus. I'm not worried about a pat on the back or any rewards. I just want him to be pleased. I just want him to say, Job well done, good and faithful servant. I, I, I'm so marked by the presence of God, I so value God moving, that I want to make sure my flesh doesn't get in the way at all.

And this takes community, this takes family, this takes intentional going into the house of God, into the place of prayer, into the place of fellowship and intimacy with God so that He might transform us, beloved. And you better believe the demons, come on, you better believe the flesh wants to rage against the things of God.

But we really are in a, we are in a critical hour right now. And Jesus, come on, Jesus does have a fan in His hand. He really is fanning the Holy Spirit. Come on, this weekend we were listening, uh, to a conference. And the brother was talking about Jesus coming. And, and, and He's fanning the Holy Spirit fire to burn out and to purge out all the things that need to be burned out.

Why? Not because He's angry with us, but because He loves us. Because He loves us, because He's getting a bride ready for His return, beloved. And He wants nothing in the way of intimacy.

Consider the, and I don't know why I'm hanging here, but that's okay. Consider the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Jesus rebuked them consistently because they were good at doing things, right, but their heart was far from Him. They were good at doing deeds, but their heart for righteousness was wrong, right?

It's about simple obedience. I'm telling you right now, if I can say one thing to us today, what's going to attract the abiding presence of the Lord? What's going to build a house that Jesus calls home is obedience. Radical obedience. All through scripture and through Christian history. This is not a popular word in America.

But radical obedience. Great, willing to endure under hardship like a good soldier. It is the way of the kingdom, beloved. But it is glorious for what those who do it, what we get to receive as a result of it. Are you with me this morning? Oh, obedience produces the outpouring of the Spirit of God. Not only does it produce it, but it maintains it, is radical obedience.

So I believe God is wanting to put feet to our walk. He's wanting to put feet to our talk. He's wanting to put feet to our words and make us a people of action. And like Peter and John, we're going to get going. And we're going to be intentional. We're going to be determined about what we're doing. We're going to be a determined people.

That when we gather and when we're in our own homes, we're determined. We're determined to know Him and make Him known. We're determined to fellowship with Him, right? We're determined to press through the pull of the culture, and we're going to ask the Lord, what pleases you, God? Come on, what pleases you?

Come on, beloved, I believe we need a fresh baptism of the fear of the Lord. And we need to understand that we will stand before Him one day. Amen? This isn't to, this isn't to put worldly fear, but the fear, the awe of God, that the majestic one, right? The all knowing one, right? That we're going to stand before Him, and what's gonna be tested?

Our works, our obedience, or lack thereof. Paul likens in 1 Corinthians 3. He calls us a building. He calls us a temple, a tabernacle. And then he talks about, be careful how you build, for there's on that day, what you build is going to be tested by fire. And it's either wood, hay, and stubble, or it's precious stone, gems, right?

Stuff that will sustain the fire.

Lord, I just pray right now you would break into hearts. So we see here in chapter, excuse me, in verse 2, that as they're going, look at verse 2, and a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along. A man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along whom they used to, what, sit down, take a seat, every day at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful.

In order to do what? What? Beg alms of those who were entering the temple. A man, here's a man that the Bible says in chapter 4 that he had been lame for 40 years. And every day they would take him and they would sit him down at this gate. What gate? The gate to the temple. And he sat on the outside of the gate.

And beyond that gate was where the presence of God would dwell. And he never got, he never was able to make it beyond the outside of the gate because he was lame. Are you with me? I believe this is a prophetic gospel. picture, beloved, of the spirit of religion that tries to come and bind up the church in this hour and make us lame.

And it's keeping us by a gate, which is a place of authority and a place of entrance. And it's trying to rob us from encounter from the Lord. But I, come on, I believe the Lord is raising up a people. He's raising up a church in this hour that loves the presence of God, that loves the person of Jesus. And they actually, they don't have religion.

Religious works which does nothing, they have the power of the Holy Spirit through encounter with God to actually do something about what's going on in that man's life. We see Peter and John, they came and they said silver and gold, we don't have. But what we do have, what I do have is Jesus, what I do have is the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I give it to you freely, now rise up and walk. And I believe there's an authority that the Lord is wanting to release through this house, But he's got to start with us dealing with it. First, all right, of these spirits that come to try to sit down and have authority in our life and have authority in our church and are trying to, the spirit of religion wants to come and the spirit of religion can us just doing things routinely, right?

Us just getting used to it's treating the presence of God as common.

It's interesting that in this same verse, we see a contrast of two temples. We see the old system, the old temple which God was doing away with, and we see the emerging, what, spiritual temple of Peter and John in the New Testament church. And we see the old system was unable to deliver this man, but the new temple, the new tabernacle had the authority to deal with the lameness of this man.

And we cannot be afraid of change in this season, beloved. We cannot be afraid of change in this house. We cannot be afraid of change of the way that we have viewed even Scripture, the way we viewed the Spirit of God, the way we viewed the presence of God. We cannot, come on, be afraid of the wind of the Spirit and the ways of God.

Now I'm telling you, it always lines up with the Word of God, but it might not line up with your natural thinking. And we've got to allow our natural thinking to be dealt with so that we can have the mind of the spirit. And God is doing something new in this hour. And the wind, the authority is on what He is doing.

He is releasing a new wine in a new wineskin. He's moving us away from one man ministry. He's moving us away from one man doing something and he's looking for a body that he wants to pour his spirit out upon. He's moving away from the systems of men that has been religious and that has bound up a man.

And all it's done is. It's pet. Come on. It's just petted that lameness. It's just felt sorry for that instead of an authority to say, I don't have silver and gold. I'm not going to continue to sow into your dysfunction, but rise up and walk in the name of Jesus.

And it's interesting that Peter and John were going to the place. Of prayer and on their way to do what is, I believe, one of the most important things we can do is spend time in the presence of God that they encounter the man at the gate and they've got the authority to deal with his issue. And I believe these two things are connected, beloved.

This is why we're building a house for him. This is why we're building a culture of prayer and worship. Beloved, this is why I'm encouraging you to get together. to the place of prayer, corporately and individually, because God is forging something in us collectively and individually, beloved. And it's more than us.

It's more than just about me. It's more than just about my breakthrough. It's more than just about what I can receive. It's about a city. It's about a region. It's about spirits that have come in this region and they have taken a seat of authority and God wants to release through the church a new authority to uproot these things.

Please hear me by the Spirit. I'm telling you, the Lord is marking you. You are here, whether you believe it or not. He is doing something in you. He wants to do something through you as priests that know how to get a hold of heaven and know how to have purposeful prayer and intercession that moves heaven to earth.

And we see, continuing on in chapter 3, this opens up. I love this because the man gets healed and it sends the city into an uproar. That's what we need, beloved. We need the type of miracles and moves of the Spirit that awakens the city. That begins to get the city's attention, beloved. We need the type of move of God.

We need the type of presence, by the way, that fell in the book of Acts. The presence was so heavy, that it says that the whole city was in awe of God. The whole city knew that God had touched down in that city, and they dare not join, yet the church was being added to daily. Come on guys, hear me, hear me.

We are not in this for dead, stale religion. God wants to do something. God wants to birth an awakening and a revival. I feel it so deep into my spirit. The Lord is wanting to do it through the vehicle of the local church that becomes the dwelling place of God. of God and host the presence of God rightly so that we can begin to see our cities transformed.

If you don't think cities are not on Jesus's mind, why did he say you'll be like a city set upon a hill? Why did he say in Isaiah, why did Jesus quote Isaiah 61, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor. What to heal the sick, to, to, to release the sick.

It's the prisoners. And then it goes on in verse four and it says to what rebuild ruined cities. God's after cities. God is after cities and I'm believing, I'm believing what the Lord spoke to me 10 years about in Acts chapter 8, Samaria was filled with joy on the other side of the preaching of the gospel.

I believe the Lord is going to raise up proclaimers and messengers that are your everyday moms and dads. Dads, come on, beloved, come on. That, that, that, that are not popular. Come on. They're, they, they don't have a thousand degrees, but oh, they know how to intercede. They know how to get before God. They know how to move the heart of God and God move their heart.

They know about devotion and intimacy and they carry with them and authority in the spirit that begins to transform.

And I love this, that as God begins to move and the city is impacted, the man's clinging to Peter and John in verse 11. They're all full of amazement. And what happens? What does, what does, what does the flesh do? It wants to begin to praise the man for the work and the action. But I love the humility, which by the way is one of our values.

I love the humility. of Peter and John. They said, Why do you assume by our own strength we did this? And they took the opportunity for the moving of the Spirit to glorify Jesus. Did you hear me? They took the opportunity to take that moving of the Spirit revival and glorify Jesus. There are, the reason why revivals get shut down is because the glory gets off God and gets put on man.

And God is wanting to raise up a revival that is hosted, rightly, that what, puts its attention on the beautiful man, Jesus, and keeps the attention on Jesus, keeps the glory on Jesus, and is willing to say, if you think I had any strength or ability to do anything to anybody apart from Jesus, you're wrong.

It was Jesus Christ of Nazareth who raised that man up. That's the house Jesus is attracted to. That's the people that Jesus is, this is called walking it out. This is called, I'm deflecting all attention to Jesus. I'm gonna take opportunities when God uses me to deflect it to Jesus.

And out of their mouth comes the precious gospel of Jesus. Something I want you to just note real quickly about this, New Testament dwelling place, we see a lot of what God was doing moving through the streets. There was an outward focus, do you understand? There was an inward desire, there was an inward commitment.

Community and family, but it didn't stay there. There was a focus to what God was doing out into the streets. And I believe God wants to grip our hearts with this. That we would begin to get compassion and a burden for our city. And we would begin to contend for the Lord to break through in that. Come on, are you here?

As they're preaching Jesus, they take the opportunity to say, Repent and return. Repent and return. This is going to be a necessary heart posture in this season with the Lord. Just quickly, is that as the revelation of Jesus is proclaimed to our lives, as we sing about Him, as we pray to Him, as we worship Him, as we encounter Him together in community through fellowship, and as Jesus becomes freshly baptized.

Renewed into our mind, and fresh revelation concerning Him comes to our heart. And, and the ways of Jesus begin to pierce our hearts. And Jesus comes as, as the mighty Lord and Savior to, to pluck out and to deal with things in our heart. Only, only so that we could be a house that He remains in. As He comes, it's going to be necessary that we have the heart of repentance.

Jesus said in Matthew 3, that there is the fruit of repentance. Come on, the fire of God, the presence of God is the fruit of repentance.

It's a necessary place, God. I'm telling you, I'm in this season, and I believe most people are in this season. God is coming, and He's highlighting things, and there's a heart of repentance. There's a, there's a, and, and repentance isn't just saying, I'm sorry. It's a desire to turn and to begin to walk in.

Walk out what God is calling me to walk out. I no longer walk in this way. Amen? But I walk in a way worthy, in a manner worthy of Jesus Christ. Right? That's the house that Jesus is attracted to. Is the people that say, I want to walk in a way that's worthy of Jesus. I want to please the Lord in all that I do.

I want to lift up holy hands to the Lord. I want to sing and worship Jesus from a pure place, right? I want to come in to the house of God with my brothers and sisters, and I don't want to treat the presence of God as common, right? I want to treat it as holy, and I want to come in with a heart posture to encounter Him.

I want Him to come. I want Him to transform. There is nothing greater than Him. There is nothing better than Him. There is nothing above Him. And this is what Jesus is wanting to mark in our hearts right now. Ask, let's ask ourselves, What do I mean when I say, I want to build a house Jesus called home? What do I mean?

Listen to what the promise is. To those that repent and return. He'll wipe away our sins. He'll take away whatever, those things in our life that would be a hindrance to being a conduit for the dwelling presence of God in my life. He'll wipe those away. And, this needs to happen in order. Everybody say in order.

In order that what happens? Verse 19. Times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. So we want to know how to attract. We want to know a blueprint how to build a dwelling place that attracts the continual abiding presence of the Lord. What do we do? We have a heart posture of repentance before the Lord.

I'm not saying every single minute you're in that place. I'm not saying that we don't mature and grow up and we begin to live a life that, that, that we're not continually, uh, struggling with a sin. God breaks through in those lives. But, and, and there's a maturing that must come. to get to that place, but until we get to that place, He will long suffer with us.

He will put His Spirit in us and His Word in us to transform us. Come on, hallelujah. He will sanctify us. He will purge those things in our life, if we'll allow Him. If we'll receive. And the promise is, I'm not just going to come in and snatch away and rip out things. Oh, I'm going to fill you with my divine presence.

I'm going to saturate you with my presence.

I just feel this by the spirit. There's a couple things and I'm gonna just go here. I got to just go here There's a couple of things that I that I feel the Lord Wants to deal with this morning and man, I've just I'm like Lord. Why don't help me Jesus? But I believe there's a couple of things the Lord really wants to put his finger on in this house as a whole.

And if the shoe fits, wear it. If it doesn't, then don't. Right? Amen? But I have to be, I have to be obedient to the Lord. This is no longer, I cannot and I will no longer live in a place where I'm looking for the approval of man over my messages. I'm only looking for the approval of heaven. I mean, I only, I must only look for the, I'm telling you, there was a, there was a day as a, even as a young leader where I just, I, I could not wait for the, and I love encouragement.

There is good biblical encouragement. How many know we need the spirit of encouragement in the house? It is an absolute, uh, it is good to honor Jesus, honored people. It's good to honor in a healthy way, uh, but, but it can be overdone as well, right? And, and there was a day where I needed a lot of that encouraging, right?

But I'm telling you, no more do I feel that I need that encouraging. I just simply want to please the Lord in what I'm doing. Right, because, because listen, I've got to hear from the Lord of how God wants to build the house and, and then He puts others around us to receive revelation and direction. But how many know, right, how many know if we got in a room with a hundred people, there could be a hundred ways of doing it.

But we've got to dial in to what is the Spirit of God saying. Right, what is the Spirit of God saying? And He'll say it through others, and we've got to be sensitive to that. But we've got to say, God, what are you saying? And even if it upsets half the apple cart, so be it. Right? And not wanting to do it for that purpose, but that he would be honored.

So I just want to say a couple of things, come on, as a father of this house, that I really feel like the Lord wants to go after in this season, that it's going to help us be a dwelling place, and I'm far from my notes, but in chapter 4, and we see it in chapter 5, and one of the things that I didn't say, Is that we see from chapter 2 through the book of Acts is we see a few patterns that are consistent.

Uh, we're seeing like the move of the Spirit of God. It was poured out in Acts 2. We see it again in Acts 4. That they're praying and the whole place is filled again. We see notable signs and wonders and miracles throughout the book of Acts. We see the preaching of Jesus throughout the book of Acts. We see community, a commitment to family, uh, throughout the book of Acts.

We see some patterns through there. And one thing that we see as a pattern is humility. But we also see the ability for pride to enter in even when God's moving. How do I know that? Well, consider Peter. Here's Peter in Acts chapter 3, that was full of humility in that moment, and he put all attention over to God.

But when, when God began to speak to him through an open vision, about essentially going to eat meat and eat with the Gentiles so that the gospel could go to the Gentiles, he rejected that. In his pride, because again, the fullness of the old ways, the old systems had not yet been purged fully out of him.

And when God began to speak to him about something that was not customary for a Jew to practice, alright, although it was God, he didn't feel like it was God, and his pride caused him to almost miss God moving. Are you with me? So even the Apostle Peter had the opportunity or the ability, alright, through pride to miss what God was doing.

So I would say we could, that could happen to us, right? And I, I feel that the greatest enemy in this house, the greatest enemy, and the, and this thing is attracted to, or excuse me, religion is attracted to it. I believe they coexist. It's pride. It's pride. And I just quickly want to touch on that. Pride, beloved, will shut down what God is doing.

Pride will shut down what the Lord wants to do. And I believe we all wrestle with that at times. We all, we can all wrestle with that at times. But pride will shut down what God is wanting to do. We have got to keep a heart posture of humility and brokenness before the Lord.

It was, it was a common practice in the early church to walk in humility. And we see there with Peter the possibility of him missing a move of God to Cornelius house. Because of his pride in his heart. I don't want us to miss what God's doing.

Pride can be like, I, I, I won't receive. I won't be teachable. I won't, I won't, I won't be a part of a family. I won't, I won't this. I won't, I won't, it's my way or it's no way. Pride can manifest in many different ways. It, it can be false humility as well. Pride can manifest in many, many different ways. And God wants to come in His precious presence and deal with the pride and soften our hearts.

Here, here's a way that we know pride is really ruling in our life. Alright, cause there's a hardness to us. There's a hardness to us. And I can tell you from experience that pride will make you hard. It'll make you hard. You're no longer sensitive to the Spirit of God. You're not, you're not feeling the wind of God.

You're not, you're not, your heart isn't moved by Him anymore. And it can be a sure sign that pride is ruling in our life. And God wants to deal with pride. Why? So that we might be a conduit for His continual presence. Are we okay?

And then the second thing I want to point out that we see here in the book of Acts. Matter of fact, go start, go with me over to chapter 2. I want to read a few places to you just quickly and I'm going to, I'm going to pray for us. And then we'll pick up with, if Lord willing, with this next week or wherever God wants to take us next week.

Acts chapter 2, just dial in with me for a minute because I believe the Lord wants to release a breakthrough this morning.

Look at verse 44, Acts 2, and verse 44. Now let me just give you a background what's going on here if you don't know. The Holy Spirit was just poured out. I mean, they are in full fledged revival. They are in a move of God. God is moving. Among the people of God, there's over 3, 000 that were added to the church instantly, would you say that's God moving?

I mean, God is moving. The Holy Spirit is turned up in a radical way here. Alright, and what I love about Acts 42 through 47 is we see the early church, the wisdom of the leaders of the early church to realize It was God who put it on their heart, but their obedience to it. God put upon their heart a certain pattern and a plan of wisdom to know how to steward what God was doing.

So the Holy Spirit was poured out, and I believe Acts 2 42 through 47 is part of God's divine plan that he gave to the church as a blueprint of how we're going to steward the presence of God so that he doesn't just come and leave, but he actually wants to stay and find a home.

So, things like, they had a sense of awe, that's the fear of the Lord. Things like, they had all things in common. Things like, they were continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house. Those types of things, that family, that community, prayer, fellowship, the devotion to the Word of God.

These things was part of God's blueprint for the early church of how to build a dwelling place that houses the abiding, continual outpouring of the Spirit and presence of God. That's what they're doing here. These are blueprints for that and we see right dab in the middle of it God is moving mightily.

God is pouring out. We see the fear of the Lord. We see devils being casted out We see the awe and wonder we see Signs wonders and miracles moving we see the community coming to each other's house and breaking bread But we also see in verse 45 a radical what commitment to giving

A radical commitment to giving. Their finances, their giving was radical to the Lord. Do you see that? Acts 2 44, I mean 45, flip over now to Acts 4 and look. At verse 34. Now again, same thing, Acts 4, the Holy Spirit is poured out fresh again upon them. Acts 4, 31 mentions that as they were praying, the Holy Spirit was poured out again and the place was shaken.

Now they're experiencing another outpouring of the Spirit of God. And on the other side of the side, The second outpouring of the Spirit of God, what happens? Verse 34. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales, and lay them at the apostles feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.

There was a radical commitment, amen, in their finances. God touched them deeply in this area. I just want to speak for a minute on this because I've mentioned King David a lot. How many have heard me mention King David? Several times. And, King David was, was, had a heart to build God a house. And he put up this per this, this temporal place called the tent that he put the ark under.

But his desire to build God a permanent house, God would not allow him to do it. He called his son to do it, Solomon. Now most people, right, who want to do something and then they don't get the opportunity to do it, they'll check out, right? They wouldn't invest into that, they wouldn't have anything to do with that, but what does David do?

David pours his entire life into seeing the house of God built. He pours his entire life and he, what, puts his, money where his mouth is, and he gives, some theologians believe, the equivalent to twenty billion dollars to the construction of the temple of God. Radical! Come on, help me beloved. Radical. What happens to Abraham when he came across Melchizedek?

What happened to him when he, when he sees him coming? He offers up an offering, right? He gives him a 10 percent of what he had to what I believe was a, was a pre incarnate Christ showing up there. And him standing before Abraham and Abraham gives of an offering to Melchizedek. And what does he do? He blesses him.

He blesses him. And I believe that the Lord takes us all the way through scripture, alright, and we get hung up on the little things, but God has designed a plan in scripture to be radically generous with our giving, and to give it over to the Lord. Why? Because it's an act of worship, it's a place of obedience, and also He wants to move through our lives and bless us as a result.

And I want to repent to you, as a leader in the house, I want to repent to you, for the past six years, we have failed to equip the body on giving properly. And it's time that we acquit because God wants to break off the spirit of poverty. Come on, He wants to break off the fear of finances. Beloved, we're not talking about, listen, we're not talking about a treasury box so people can drive around in Mercedes and, and, and, and Rolexes.

Watches. I mean, if that's what God tells somebody to do, that's up to them. That's, that's not what I'm talking about here, but beloved, come on finances and the, and the radical giving. There's a great purpose for that beloved. There's a great need for that, for the constructing of the building of God's house.

There's liberty. There's freedom in that. Are you with me? I want us to get some liberty in this. I Come on, I, I, I, I, I don't need anybody's money. The Lord has always taken care of this. This is only out of absolute obedience to Jesus. This is only because I desperately want to see you blessed. I wanna see God begin to move.

I wanna see God begin to touch businesses and give radical ideas. I want, I wanna see God begin to fund the vision and the plan that he has to touch the nations of the earth. Beloved.

In Matthew 23 and verse 23, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees about their giving. Now, he told them, he said, you tithe, but you reject mercy and justice. He didn't say, stop doing the giving. He said, give, keep doing what you're doing, but also make sure that you are walking in mercy and justice, right? Don't just be worried about money, but make sure you're walking in the fruit of the Spirit.

Amen? Like, like, like, it, it, you, I don't want you to eliminate one to do the other. They're both important, is what Jesus was teaching us.

Jesus, the Lord. I love this. I, I, I've done a lot of reading up and I don't have a lot of time today, but we're going to begin to break down this to you, but I want to read this to you from a quote from Several trusted, I believe, uh, theologians of the scriptures who have done a lot more studying on this subject than me.

But I want to read you, I want to quote what they said. Listen to this. Many believers who don't want to tithe say that there are no scriptures in the New Testament that tell us we must tithe. And I say there wasn't any scriptures for Abram and Jacob either. Why would there be scriptures to repeat for us to do something that God has already called us to do?

And to do it of our own free will in exchange for a blessing. So, just, just so we know, write this down. Genesis chapter 14. Abram's encounter with what I believe the pre incarnate Christ. Which, which, Hebrews talks about, Melchizedek, he encounters him, this was before the institution of the law, right, and what does Abram do when he comes upon, alright, this high royal priest, what does he do?

He gives a 10 percent to him. Why did God put that in there? Jesus is trying to teach us a pattern. He's trying to teach us a pattern, and there's a fear, and there's, there, there, when you begin to talk about finances, it, it, in some instances, it sucks the air out of the room, and there's such a fear over it, right?

But there's so much freedom in radical generosity. And I know that there are many in here that have been radical, uh, radically generous, but I also know that there is more that the Lord wants to do in the hearts of us all. Do you agree? Not out of manipulation, not out of control, but out of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

I love Malachi. How many love the book of Malachi? Alright, well go there with me, just quickly.

Malachi chapter 3.

Again, we're talking about wanting to steward the presence of God. Right? And there's many ways that our life must line up with that. And we, we're, we're good with talking about prayer, fasting. You know, we're good. About a lot of things, but the minute we start talking about finances or money, the devil wants to come in, our flesh wants to come in and rob us of what God really wants to do.

I want to ask you, I want to ask you to not listen to the opinions of men. I want to ask you to wrestle through the scriptures yourself. I want to ask you to wrestle through the scriptures yourself. Look at Malachi chapter 3 in verse 8.

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me, but you say how have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

Now I want the word of God to pierce our hearts, alright? And I want it to pierce us like it did, I want us to be pierced like Abraham was pierced. So jump with me and I'm going to pray. Over to Genesis, and I'm just, uh, I'm just kind of, I'm pouring a light, a light foundation of concrete this morning. One little brush over.

That's it, this morning. Go to Genesis chapter 14, just quickly. And I want to show you what true encounters with Jesus does.

Look at verse 17,

or excuse me, verse 18. Look at verse 18. This is Abram, alright, who becomes Abraham. In verse 18, listen to this. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. Come on. Now he was a priest of God most high. High. He brought out bread and wine to Abram. So this is the heart posture of of the Lord.

He always comes after us first, right? He always comes to bring something to us first. And this is what, what Mikel, this is what IC is doing. He is bringing bread and wine. He is bringing something to Abram as Abram is coming to him and in this encounter. In this encounter, verse 19, it says, He blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of God most high, Possessor of heaven and earth.

Do you see what happens? You see this type and shadow here? He first blesses Abram. He first encounters Abram. He first stirs the heart of Abram. And look at Abram's response. And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tenth. Then King of Sodom said to Abram, Give the people to me and take the goods for yourself.

You see what happened here. Melchizedek stands here, he brings bread and wine. What is, what is bread? The body, right, of Jesus. It's the bread of life. He's, he, Jesus offers up the bread of life, the wine, come on, representing his blood and the spirit of God and he's coming and he's bringing the bread of life.

He's bringing the, the blood of his body, the wine of his spirit. He's encountering Abram with these truths. And as he, as Abram is encountering him, there's this divine exchange. And what happens is Abram responds in worship. And it's not just words. But his worship is demonstrated, right, in his physically giving.

Amen.

And I believe this is a posture that the Lord wants to teach us. Captivate our hearts with it will take us to a new and fresh place in giving is when we do it unto the lord When we understand that my giving even to this house as a family member, right and my my responsibility Not out of obligation, but but out of a free will desire.

All right, but out of responsibility as a I'm sowing in, I'm giving regularly into the house of God. And I'm taking my responsibility, but I'm not doing it just to put money in a bucket. But I'm doing it as worship to Jesus. I'm doing it as an offering to the Lord.

Thank you, thank you.

And it's got to begin with, for me, in my house, the way we posture it, is that I'm, I'm not doing it first and foremost with hoping to get something back. Although, I, we pray for breakthrough in our finances. We ask God to move, and He has, and He does, and He's been so faithful, but it's, it's just out of great joy to sow.

We just do it out of great joy, out of worship to Him because He has ravished our hearts. He is, I'm telling you, beloved, when me and Jess first started out, we didn't have this revelation. It was hard. We didn't get it. It hadn't sunk into our hearts. But when, when it, when it got turned on the right way, that it was worship to Jesus, pure worship to Jesus, it transformed everything.

How many believe God's called this house to a purpose? Just three of you. How many? Come on, raise your hand. How many really believe? If you really believe, raise your hand. There's a purpose. Amen.

It, it's, and I'm just talking to you. And it, we're not, there's no issues with the finances. There, this has absolutely. It's funny because when there was struggle, right? When there was struggle, the Lord didn't have me talk about it, but when God is beginning to move and bless, that's when He has me talk about it.

And so, honestly, I live in a place where I know, and I'm saying this as loving as I can, in a place where I know the Lord is going to take care of things. But I have a responsibility to also to instruct and to teach, because I know where God wants to take us. And, beloved, we understand it takes money to keep the AC running in your house, right?

I mean, it takes money for things to move and it takes money to take care of things and, and, and it takes money to fund the kingdom of God and to do what He wants to do in the dreams that He has put on our heart, which are His dreams. It takes money to do that. And I believe the Lord wants to come in and begin to bless individuals and bless homes and to begin to do things in the most radical of ways.

And touch finances in such a radical way.