Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.
You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.
We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the
cross. Now let's join the service.
Going to be in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 25 and going to preach
on a little verse in here that's mysterious to a lot of people
can mean different things, but yet it means one thing.
But I spend a lot of my days and late nights wee morning hours
whenever the Holy Spirit wakes me up and I guess for 16 going
on 17 years now trying to keep the world out of the church.
That's my goal and trying to keep the church to being the
church. I heard a pastor one time preach
a message and he said let the church be the church.
But can I tell you church is much different?
When I was growing up, churches were much different that I
attended than they are today. We have so many functions, we
have so many different things going on and I've just, I've
been on the church has been on my heart lately.
The the body of Christ, not just this church, but the things that
go on in the church. And I believe as Christians, we
all long for a move of God. There's a lot of people that
haven't seen someone get up out of a wheelchair and walk.
There's a lot of people that haven't experienced someone with
stage 4 mesothelioma, cancer instantly healed instantly.
There's lots of people that I've seen broken bones and I've seen
those things healed instantly in the arena.
And there's one common denominator that has always been
present. It's always been the Spirit of
the Lord, the Holy Spirit that moves upon his people.
But today I fear that it's absent in a lot of churches.
It's absent here a lot of times. And with new people and new
growth, there's, you know, there's, there's things that
that we have to adapt and change here.
But I heard this message years ago and it spurred me to this
tonight. It said let the church be the
church. But there's so many in the
church today that don't know anything about church and what
the church was for. Many people today go to church
and they seek to think about what the church can do for them,
never thinking of what they could do to for the church.
They don't know anything about a fivefold ministry.
And the church was designed to equip those that attend, to
equip us, right? Not always meet the problems and
meet the needs, but to equip us. And we're to go out and work as
we have a lot of people here that do.
And I'm so thankful for that. But it's also to produce
spiritual growth within the church, right?
I got lots of spiritual sons. I got some that, you know, I
look back 16 years ago here and, and some of these old messages
was probably hard for Tony to swallow when he first started
coming, right? But we just kept spurring.
We kept kicking people. We kept spurring them on.
And now he's the state president of a ministry got brother
Charlie and him going out and preaching.
I'm so proud of those things. Amen.
Because it I watch people grow and it's a great thing to to
watch people grow. But we can never become
complacent. And when I first started this
church, I asked my my grandma, when she spoke memo, she was she
was like EF Hutton. Everybody listened and I asked
her, I said back in those days they, they didn't have any
salaries at the church. People showed up and they and
they worked. And I asked her, I said back in
those days, y'all worked a lot harder during the day than we
do. And I look around tonight, it's
not a full house, but how many could say it's way better than
Wednesday nights? Used to be a man, yes.
But I said, I know y'all worked a lot harder with the mules and
doing those things and then you showed up at church and and I
said she always had a simple answer to everything.
And I said how did y'all do it? She said we just knew what we
had to do and we showed up and did it.
It was much simpler back then. We knew what we had to do.
We showed up and did it. But today it seems a little
lopsided when we look at the church and beyond the church.
The what is the church? It's the body of Christ.
It's not a building. It's not about the functions at
the church. It's the body of Christ and what
they are doing and how they're rolling.
And today I see the body of Christ a little bit lopsided.
It's only what can the church do for me.
But see, when it's lopsided, it doesn't roll.
Very good things don't work very good, right?
But I'm so proud of these things that are going on here and the
things that are happening. But we can never become
complacent because the devil's not going to stop sticking his
head up. Amen.
So stand with me in the reading of the Word.
Want to talk about the church tonight?
And I believe this passage of Scripture, it can hit home to us
in a lot of ways in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 25 here in
about 7 verses, it can change your life.
But the apostle Paul, he titled this, this starting at verse 25.
It's, it's about not grieving, say grieving the Spirit,
grieving the Spirit. A lot of people I've been asked,
what does it mean to grieve the Spirit?
I'm going to explain that tonight.
But in Ephesians 4 and 25, he says, therefore put away lying.
Wow. That'll happen in the church.
I've confessed many times as a pastor.
I've done lots of business, still have my own business.
I've done been retired twice from two different things and I
have been lied to more at that back door than I ever have in
the world by people coming by and saying I'll see you next
week pastor. Best church ever been to.
It's so good here. I feel the Spirit.
I've never felt that life and never to see him again.
But that's not truth right? Either they were lying to me or
they were lying to their self. I just I'm an honest guy.
Y'all have learned that but put away lying.
Whatever it is we lie about, put it away right.
Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor for we are
members of one another makes it different.
When you think like that be angry.
We're going to get mad, but do not sin.
Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, verse 27 nor give
place to the devil. Let him move stole still no
longer, but rather let him labor working with his hands what is
good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good
for necessary and for the edification that it may impart
grace to the hearers. It's what you say.
What comes out of your mouth. Does it impart grace?
Does it edify? I hear a lot of things just in
the passing by here coming out of some mouths.
Hello. That doesn't edify.
It doesn't edify. We must edify.
We must build up, right? But in verse 30 here he says
this. And this is what I want to
preach to you tonight. And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath,
anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all
malice, and be kind to one another, tender hearted,
forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you.
Father, we thank you for Your Word tonight.
Father, I pray this message is not a easy one for me to preach.
It's it's kind of a, a hard one, God, but I know you're going to
give me the grace, you're going to give me the strength, you're
going to give me the anointing to relay that to this church.
What you've given to me tonight. I pray you'd use it to change
our lives. I pray you'd use it to help us
to never become complacent with that what you've blessed us with
never to be satisfied, but always reaching and pressing on
toward the upward call of Christ Jesus realizing that the
adversary the devil is a roaring lion.
He's he's going to and fro seeking whom he may devour.
Help us to be aware of those things in Jesus name.
We pray you may be seated the utterance or the Speaking of
evil or even worthless or idle words can grieve.
The Holy Spirit doesn't necessarily have to be a bad
word a bad thing. He says that a idle word can
grieve. In Matthew 1236 and and seven,
Jesus spoke of this, he says, but I say to you that for every
idle word that a man speaks, they will give an account in the
day of judgment. And that's powerful, isn't it?
We'll give an account for an idle word, a word that's not
edifying, a word that's not lifting up.
And you know all those words really do that spew out of our
mouth many times about someone else is they pull us down when
we met. Ain't it cool how that God put
this together tonight we talked about throwing stones in the
song service, but them idle words, you know, after we and
sometimes it feels really good to spill them.
It feels really good to get it off your chest and talk about
how somebody else is. But it would accomplish more if
you would just go to them right. But the utterance of the
Speaking of evil, even worthless idle words.
He says that we will be judged and in verse 37 he says for by
your words, think about this by my words, not your words, but by
my words, I will be justified and by my words I can be
condemned. What does this mean?
Because see, this means that the the way that you become born
again, the way that you become in Christ, the way that you
become part of the body of Christ is how the confession we
have to confess that Jesus is Christ and the price that he
paid upon the cross of Calvary justifies any person.
So by our words we shall be justified or by our words we
shall be condemned, right? There's going to be a lot of
people that simply go to hell because they could not believe
that Jesus came to planet earth and he died on a cross.
And many can believe that he died, but then they have trouble
thinking that he rose again, right?
And then if they believe He, I hear the stuff all the time, and
then they believe He hung on the cross and he died and He rose
again. They can believe that, but they
can't believe that He was getting that a virgin gave
birthright. So by their words they will be
condemned. But he says, he says, let know
we go back to the verse 29 of Ephesians.
He says let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but
what is good for necessary edification, and that means
instruction or improvement. And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit. So see if my unkind words can
grieve the Holy Spirit. I got a question.
How much more can my actions right?
Sometimes we act some ways, but we don't say it and we get
justified through that. But people are watching your
actions really more than they're watching your words because we
become a society that's so good at saying, I'll call you back
later, never to call. All right, let me, I, I get in a
bad habit of that, say I'll holler at you later and I never
call them back. So is it true that I'm going to
call later? I mean, a day or two, we get in
these little deals, but if you're not careful, the enemy
will use it as a foothold. So how much more are my actions
held accountable? I'm going to preach to you a
little bit Now you got your steel toes on.
You know I love you before I go here, but I'm going to go here,
especially in the House of God. What about our actions in the
House of God? What about the way we act in the
House of God? If we believe this is a place
that we come, that that the Spirit of the Lord abounds, that
we can experience the presence of God, but yet when we step in
here, we're doing everything contrary to invite His presence.
Amen because as we preach about the Holy Spirit, see we can
short circuit or stop the flow of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Not saying you're not saved, not saying you're not going to
heaven, but saying that what you experienced in the here and now
can be stopped. It can be short circuited.
The Holy Spirit in a church service or a setting.
Y'all ready for this? I see this a lot.
A lot. You know when I grew up there,
you know there's some churches that don't talk at all.
They don't holler, they don't shout, they don't praise.
You know I think there's a happy medium there.
Y'all ready for this? You want the Holy Spirit to
move? Talking to your neighbor
excessively. Lord just laid this on my heart
today. Some of these things talking to
your neighbor excessively while someone that God has laid a song
on for that week, they've been singing it all week and we can't
reverence enough to zip it and listen.
Or while someone's preaching we say oh I'm still listening.
Oh really? Y'all ready for this?
A phone goes off automatically. What happens?
Anybody agree with that when the phone goes off?
So I know people use if I'm not saying don't use it for
scripture, but figure out a way to turn it off because when the
phone goes off, it's much more than just a phone going off.
It quenches the spirit automatically.
People's attention go to you, right?
Phone's a great thing, but know how to use it.
Turn it off. If yours just went off, I'm
preaching to you because they go from listening to a sermon to
the phone. Then the mind begins to spin.
I wonder what they were on. I want they they miss about 5
verses right there or five sentences of what the pastor had
preached because of mine. I wonder what they're doing.
What are they looking at? They can't be looking at the
scripture because it's going on. I wonder how that happened.
What are they looking at? So therefore what has really
happened? It's way deeper than the phone.
What the enemy's doing through the phone is way deeper than
what you and I can see. So therefore, have I grieved,
have I quenched the Holy Spirit of God?
Have I even stopped it? Not only for you, but for
someone else too #2 I don't see this a lot in the church, and it
could be why we don't see the healings and miracles that we've
once seen. It's called reverence.
What is reverence? It's the deepest respect, deep
respect for someone or something.
This is a House of holiness. The Bible speaks of your earthly
temple. You're a House of holiness
because the Holy Spirit dwells and is within you, right?
But we grieve the Holy Spirit when we act unreverently in the
House of God. We know this, but yet many
choose the opposite. See, Paul lived when he was
writing to the church at Ephesus.
He lived and ministered to the to the people of Ephesus for two
years and his ministry had a powerful impact on the entire
city. But as you read the book of
Ephesians, you will find that many times he had to go and
remind the Christians right to do the things that are common.
They had to remind them to do the things I thank God for the
discipline that my father give me from the time I was 13 until
my, my, my stepfather, he raised me in a in a strict fashion.
I mean, I had freedom, but I knew my boundaries.
I had freedom, but I knew what I knew what respect was because if
I didn't, it was it wasn't time out.
It was knock you out. It was with a belt.
And when I was 14 or 15, he said, you're big enough and it
ain't going to be a belt no more.
And I knew what he was talking about.
I never thought about challenging.
I never called my dad my old man because until he was probably
75, I still could not whoop him. Probably that's the kind of man
he was. I never thought about it.
I hear people say I got my old man.
I could take him now. I never thought that I had seen
him before. I, I didn't want none of that.
He was very, very strong man. But see, that's the problem
today. We don't know our place in the
Kingdom because there's many, many among non Christians that
that don't know about the House of God and we just let things
happen. But Paul had to remind
Christians not to do things common among non Christians.
We shouldn't be common. The House of God should be
different as if we had to go back to square 1.
The apostle Paul did too. When those that know better than
that than to break some of the obvious things of God's
commandments that causes sorrow, it causes the Holy Spirit to
grieve and in effect with ungodly behavior breaks the
heart of God. Think about that.
You know how you grieve when anybody ever had a teenager that
got their driver's license and got that car and you knew how
they took care of things around the house.
And man, when they was pulling out that driveway, I walked
over, laid hands on my John's truck because he couldn't drive
a four Wheeler without flipping it or doing something.
I laid hands on it. I knew what he was going to do
when he got around the corner. And you know that you know how
that feels. Or you get that call and they
done, done something crazy and you know how and the next time
they go out, that hurt, that grieving that's with inside.
You see, that's how our heavenly Father feels when we begin to do
things and and they're like he grieves us.
We grieve the Holy Spirit of God, but it's so important not
to grieve the spirit. John 424 Why is this?
We must get this verse. It says God is a spirit.
God is a spirit and his worshippers must worship him in
spirit and in truth. So what does that mean if I got
to worship God in spirit and in truth, that means that true
worship comes from the inside. You know, there's a lot of
people think it comes from here. They, they worship with one hand
up, one eye open. That's not true worship.
Hey, man, I've seen it. And we've got so complacent with
it in the house. We, we can wave our hands and we
can shout and we can do those things.
But if it's not from the heart, it grieves the Spirit of God.
It grieves him. It's so true that worship, what
it means is it comes from the inside with a genuine heartfelt
reverence, right? Because we know that God is in
the house and we know that His presence is passing by.
True worship is a spiritual connection with God and not
worrying about anything else around you that transcends your
physical location. I like that.
It doesn't have to happen in the House of God.
It can transcend your physical location or formality to worship
in spirit and truth. What is it?
This is a call to go or to move beyond the external actions.
It's an inward thing, like just singing songs or reciting
prayers to a deeper inner worship.
That is a sincere devotion, not one hand up and one eye open.
And I'm preaching this because I feel a lot of quenching today.
I feel a lot of quenching of the Spirit of the Lord.
And I want the Spirit to move in our lives.
Our worship effects others greatly.
Sunday morning, man, I was up here and there was some, I think
it was about seven or eight people standing and Brother Gene
was over there, new guy coming on that backseat.
I was over there. I just happened to catch him.
I usually don't notice things but man when the when that song
started he got up and he took his hoodie off.
All right, he took his hoodie off, he pulled the sleeves off
and he laid it down. He like he's rolling his sleeves
up, Man, he went to worship and I thought, man, he's ready to
worship. I saw him.
It got me pumped. I was like he's expecting God to
do something. But as I close Sunday, I begin
to state these healings of cancer, these crippled people
walking that many of us have have witnessed here.
The list goes on and on that on beyond my my memory.
And I begin to think it seemed in the early days that crossed
power, there was more healings. It seemed in the early days
there was more miracles of God. And I began to look at those
things. You know, we got a lot more
coming. We got a lot more people every
week than we've had. But with more people comes more
grieving, with more quenching, and without the Holy Ghost
present, without the Holy Spirit present.
I've said many times I cannot preach at a place like that.
But it's easy to get complacent and worship.
It's easy. But see, without the anointing,
guess what? You really ain't got a preacher.
You've just got empty words. Because I can't do it without
the anointing. Because he's my helper.
Did you hear me tonight? I said he's my helper.
He's my God. He's the way, the truth and the
light. And in John 16 and 13, Jesus
repeatedly referred to the Holy Spirit as what?
As the spirit of truth. Let's read that John 16 and and
13. It says, however, when he can
you Can you imagine Jesus being there after that, knowing he was
going to the cross, knowing what he was fixing to lay down,
knowing that he was going to rise again, knowing that he was
going to send to the right hand of the Father and be in heaven.
But yet he's looking at them people and he's saying, I've
been here, but there's something that's even greater than me
that's coming to you because I can't be here no more.
You know, they were scratching their head, man.
Look at all the things Jesus, he messed.
He messed up all the rules at the pool when he told the guy he
was healed to get up and quit wearing him out the pool.
Hey, man, he when he stooped down and wrote on the dirt,
whatever it was that made everybody just shut up and walk
off. He did some cool things.
But he said, however, when he the spirit of truth has come, he
will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own
authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will
let he will tell you things to come.
Isn't that neat? That's what the Holy Spirit
does. He's the Spirit of truth.
Let's go to that next verse. He will glorify me.
He'll bring glory to to Christ, for he will take of what is mine
and he will declare it to you. He will guide you into all
truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever
He speaks, He will speak and He will tell you things to come.
The Holy Spirit, an inner compass in our lives, always
pointing us to the cross, always pointing us to the Father,
always point us to the things we could say or do.
In Acts 10 and 19, Peter had had a vision and he was trying to
figure it out, and it says the Spirit spoke to him.
The Spirit speaks. We got to fight, we got to
contend, because if not, we just become an empty, we just become
a church full of people, but yet empty of the Spirit, right?
Empty of the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
And I fight this all the time for the move of the Holy Ghost,
the move of the Spirit. It tends to not move when it's
grieved or when it's unwanted. Do you want it?
Will you help me?
Because there's a whole world out there that they were called
to make disciples of, and they don't want it.
They don't want no change. They want the cross, they want
the forgiveness, they want the fire insurance, but they really
don't want God meddling in their personal lives.
I long to see people healed. I long to see people set free.
That doesn't. But that doesn't happen without
the Spirit. If the Holy Spirit doesn't do
it, guess what? The addiction comes back.
If the Holy Spirit doesn't do it, the anger is not kindled.
I want people to feel the Spirit as they walk in this place.
I want people just to feel Jesus as we reach out to shake a hand.
It's possible, but not without the Holy Spirit, not without
love, not without the Holy Spirit.
How many got How many got their taxes in the last few days?
Anybody get taxes? Nobody already got mine.
How many is going to pay them taxes?
We're going to give them to a government, right?
Because it's required. Praise is required.
Praise and worship and accepting the Holy Spirit.
But what gets me is, man, we can't wait to get a mail because
if we don't pay it, what happens?
It goes up. It goes up, it goes up here at
this church. All I had to do is sign a little
paper and turn some authority over to the government.
We wouldn't have to pay them, but we paid them for 16 years
because I don't want the government messing with the
church. Hey, man, I don't believe the
government's qualified to run the church.
I don't believe the government's qualified to tell us in this
continuation of this Church of what what it could be and where
it could go and what it could do.
And if you're a 501-C3, that's what it does a man.
So we choose to pay property tag.
Well, what if we don't have the money?
I don't have it anyway. God's got it.
It's all his, right? But it amazes me.
We're going to pay them taxes and we pay them taxes.
We have faith. If we pay them taxes and we send
it to the government, we have faith that we're going to drive
on a smooth Rd. Hello.
You see that lie every day? We have faith, right?
But we'll go send it to the government and we'll lay down at
night. We voted somebody in and we have
peace with that. We have peace with giving that
to the government, right? I don't because I don't we, they
prove they can't run things up there, right?
We have a government that's doing what right now?
What is it another word for that failing?
Could it be failing because they can't agree, because they can't
come across lines because of little, little issues?
I don't know. I don't get into all that.
But what I do know is, is we we don't have a problem just
sending. Ain't nobody got to come by your
house and tell you to pay the government, right?
But you let a preacher, I don't know how many agrees I'm not a
preacher. You have never heard me preach
on money and and say I need money, right?
I've never done that 16 years. We'll never do it because God
supplies all of my needs according to his riches and
glory. But the Bible requires us to
give a 10th holy. But yet we can't do that because
see, we put so much faith in the government, right?
We get on United Airlines, and now during the holidays, they
can't pay their traffic controllers, if I understand it
right. But they still people smart
enough in this world that's going to get on the plane and
trust that somehow it's just going to work out.
We put our faith in them. We put our faith in taxes.
But yeah, come on, get me, Holy Ghost.
We have trouble giving any of our time, our talents or our
treasures to God. And I got news for you.
He's never failed. He's never shut down.
Amen. I've never known the sun to not
come up in the morning. Amen.
I've never know my heart, as long as I live to not keep
beating and supplying the air of my lungs.
So I have no trouble believing in a God that's never failed.
Hey, man, the oceans have never run dry.
I'm telling you can trust in God.
Hey, man, if you can even think about trusting in the
government, you can trust in God.
He's never made a promise that he couldn't keep, and he's not
going to fail now. But the question is, do you want
it? Do you want it, man?
I, I, you know, I like to tell stories and I like to preach and
be funny and do all those things, but I'm not seeing much
growth out of that. You'll see people come in the
doors, but that's not growth. Hey, man, growth is a state
president attending the church that you know, the first time
you when you come over here and I was painting, you couldn't
have been a state president then, right?
If they'd asked you, you probably wouldn't have done it.
But as it begin to grow, he heard the voice who'll go as
Isaiah said, he said send me, I'll go.
Do you want it? You got to help me.
You got to help me keep it out because so many people had
rather just not do anything. Come to church and be patted on
the back and tell him how God's going to bless him this week.
I've never found the blessing is in the breaking when God begins
to break you down of this world and begin to break your to break
your wants and the things of your mind and the purpose and
your plans and he begins to move in your life.
He will guide you into all truth.
I challenge you keep your faith in God.
Don't grieve the Holy Spirit by not obeying the the promptings
and the voice of the Holy Spirit and we must walk in love and
verse 5, chapter 5 of Ephesians, let's stand and we'll close.
Therefore be imitators of God, his dear children and walk in
love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us as an
offering and a sacrifice to God. A sweet smelling aroma.
You know, there's things sometimes as I, as I read
earlier that that come out of our mouth that's not so sweet to
God. There's some actions in our life
that's not so sweet to God. So don't grieve the Holy Spirit.
Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Don't grieve him. What I say, y'all heard me say
it. Just receive him.
Father. We receive your spirit tonight.
Father, we realize that the place we're standing tonight,
see the thing about the church, it should be a it should be holy
ground. You know what old boy named
Moses? One time God was taking him
through the wringer to bring him to be a great leader, and he was
standing out there. Where was it?
At the burning Bush. He was standing there and the
Can you imagine God speaking to him?
What did he say? He said take your shoes off.
Take your shoes off. He said you're standing.
We're standing on holy ground. See where the presence of the
Lord is as holy, But it's my responsibility and your
responsibility as a church to reverence that He's here
tonight. We all grieve the Holy Spirit of
Godfather. Forgive us when we grieve the
Holy Spirit of God. We receive it tonight.
Thanks for listening to the Cross Power Church podcast.
May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be
found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we
would love for you to join us in person.
You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.