Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Chroma Church podcast.
[00:00:05] It's wonderful to see you again.
[00:00:07] How are you? You hungry for God?
[00:00:10] Praise the Lord.
[00:00:12] Well, Paul and Sue, it's so special to be here with you. And also, of course, Steve, Juliet and Joel, you are like family to me. And I wonderfully can come back here for the first time in, I think, nearly two years. I lost a few chickens since I came last time, and I'm ready to see the Lord move in your life. Are you ready for God to move tonight in your heart? Praise the Lord.
[00:00:33] Well, this event is about the word of God and the Spirit and the truth marrying one another, which your famous evangelist said, the last great move of God will be a move of the spirit and a move of the word. Smith Wigglesworth said that, and I believe it with all my heart.
[00:00:49] So I want tonight, I want to set up a little bit of a posture here.
[00:00:53] The posture I want is a posture of vulnerability and of hearing as if you've never heard the word of God before.
[00:01:00] A posture of laying down all assumptions. Forget that I look like John the Baptist. Forget all that stuff. Forget all the other things.
[00:01:07] Just listen to what God is saying to you. Because I have a sense when I was praying today, and I've got my team, a few of them here from Germany with me, we were praying and just preparing for this time. And I really sense the Lord wants to touch you very deeply tonight.
[00:01:21] Yes, there'll be some exhortation, yes, there'll be scripture, just the pure truth of God. But I sense the Lord wants to do a deep work in many people. And when we were in worship tonight, the Lord confirmed that to me because up the back here, as I was standing here, I looked over the crowd and I just sensed a very deep weariness and a weariness that's in people's soul.
[00:01:43] That doesn't mean like tiredness, like, I'm tired. I had a rough day.
[00:01:47] I mean, a weariness, perhaps from ministry, perhaps from life.
[00:01:51] You know, the worries and cares of this life are real. Jesus talked about it. He just said, don't pay attention to it, but they are real. And that's why he said. And I love that Paul released that. He said, my burden is easy. My yoke is light. And he said, my peace I leave with you. It's a different kind of peace. And so I really believe tonight there's going to be a lot of freedom at the end of what you hear me speak about.
[00:02:14] But just take off any mask or anything you came here with, you know, I'm a leader. We have several churches and all that stuff. And I've done all the stadiums and all those things. I still do them.
[00:02:23] I'm by no means an expert. I've only been in ministry for 13 years and so I feel like I'm still just putting my boots on properly. I don't understand so much about God. I feel very humbled. I was recently in a very, very big event in America and there was another speaker who's like a world known speaker who you would know. And he said to me, how do you feel right now? Because the lady who was doing the announcements took 35 minutes and he said, how do you feel that she's cutting into your time? And two things went through my head. I was like, well, I don't know if she is number one, because the leader of this big event is going to be the one who determines that. But the second thing that came straight to my mind, I said this to him. I said, you know what? I don't deserve to be here.
[00:03:04] I don't deserve this pulpit. And I'm speaking on behalf of God.
[00:03:09] I can speak about a number of things that I was passionate about. I grew up playing electric guitar four to six hours a day. I grew up in a whole bunch of different, you know, modes of my life, trying to find my identity. I could speak about those things with some level of passion or expertise or something, but I'm talking about God. And I said, I consider every time I enter a pulpit a gift.
[00:03:29] So I'm here to serve you the word of God and to serve you a piece of the vulnerability that God has operated in my own heart with. And honestly, it's a bit scary sharing some of this stuff, but I feel it's right to share. So would you open your Bible first and foremost to John chapter eight?
[00:03:44] We're going to go on a bit of a journey here.
[00:03:46] And John 8:32.
[00:03:49] If you're a preacher in this room, man or woman of God, or if you're a Christian, you should know this verse.
[00:03:57] Pastor Steve and Juliet didn't know this when they invited me to speak here, but I got up at the pulpit of our church a few weeks ago. I said, guys, God has told me for us and for our other church plants that this year we'll focus on knowing the truth that will set us free.
[00:04:14] And so then when I found out about the name of this event, I was like, praise the Lord. This would be wonderful.
[00:04:19] All right, so let's read it together. And then we're Going to read a bunch of verses, and then I'm just going to talk to you about what God has shown me.
[00:04:26] John 8:32. And by the way, the reason I mentioned to you that I told that person it's an honor to be there is because I know there's many people in this room who are in ministry tonight. And I even heard there's many denominations. That's wonderful, isn't it, that we're in the same room together? I always say to people in the stadium events, we do. I say, what denomination will you enter when you move into heaven?
[00:04:49] And the truth is, all of us will be one.
[00:04:53] Our church loves denominations. We have 50s, hundreds, 20s, whatever anyone wants to give.
[00:05:00] But the reason I said that in America, that I take off the mask and say, God, it's just a privilege to serve, is because sometimes we come into meetings and it's wonderful to see each other. And I never assume bad motives of people, but I just know the bad motives that have been in my life at times. And I come in to kind of like who's who in the Christian zoo kind of thing sometimes, you know, and we just have to come before the throne and go, God, change me.
[00:05:26] And in preparation for this event, I felt that God wants to baptize people in the Spirit again, because Ephesians 4 is really clear that you go on being filled. It's continually in fillings, but you've got to make room. And I heard the Lord say this word to me for you, for the UK specifically, it's time to adjust.
[00:05:46] You're going to have to make adjustments in the next season. I'm not saying that I know what's coming. Maybe a financial thing, a war, maybe it gets better financially, I don't know. But that's not the point.
[00:05:56] It's not the world's things that make us adjust. It's God's stuff that should make us adjust.
[00:06:01] You know, I remember reading or hearing about D.L. moody, and he was really, really amazing as a young preacher. He had this massive church, and he was only 24, and he started with working with the poor. In fact, where he started was a suburb named Hell in the city that he was in. Like, you know, in New York, you have this area called Hell's Kitchen, I think. Yeah. And so there's suburbs. Where D.L. moody began was a place in Chicago, the same name, Hell. And when he was there in his early 20s, he already had a church of hundreds of people. But then one lady came to him at the end of service and she Said, whenever you preach, it feels like DL Moody, not the Holy Spirit.
[00:06:40] It feels like human effort. And she said, you're already young, and you look like you're burning out. You look like you're tired, and you're young.
[00:06:47] And he got real convicted by that. And then he set himself on this path of asking God because he had been filled, as in, like, the sense of, I'm a Christian, I'm born of God. And he was burning for Jesus. Prayed like three hours a day, but he wasn't filled.
[00:07:02] There was a different determination that had to be made or a different adjustment, let's say.
[00:07:07] And he just studied the Scriptures and studied the Holy Spirit and cried out to God for months and months and months and months, sometimes hours and hours a day. And the Lord eventually answered him, and he answered with fire. And D.L. moody was set on fire. And everybody. The church exploded from like hundreds to overnight, thousands. And the guy ended up leading over a million people to Jesus Christ. Back then, that was like. That was without communication. The way that we have it, that would be like you leading 100 million people to the Lord today.
[00:07:34] Just phenomenal. And so he led that. And people would come to him at the end of service, and they'd say, I was here in the beginning of our church, or, I remember when you used to preach, but it sounds different now.
[00:07:45] What's the difference? Spirit life. The difference is who's in his voice, not the technique of his voice or something. So we need to really pray that tonight God can adjust our life no matter what he wants to do. You didn't come here to just hang out, right, and learn a few principles on how to have the church welcome, team Better and all that. You didn't come here for that. You can read that somewhere. ChatGPT can tell you that you came because you want God and we need him to mark us.
[00:08:13] In fact, we need to be like kids sometimes and go, I've become too serious. I need to be on that floor, and you must move me again.
[00:08:21] So tonight, I believe that's going to happen.
[00:08:24] It's also going to happen through this verse, verse 32.
[00:08:29] Jesus said, in the context here, obviously, John 8, talking to his disciples. And after, he's just. After this, he's about to deliver a woman who. Sorry, before this, he delivered the woman who was accused. So here he says, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.
[00:08:46] This isn't just a movie. This isn't just stuff out of. You can't handle the truth. This is not a Truth, he says. The truth. There's only one.
[00:08:54] It's just the word of God. That's why I admire Wigglesworth. He wouldn't read another book. We'd call that fanatic today. We'd call that somebody who's probably a little bit, you know, unstable or imbalanced. But actually he was right. He understood that everything else is polluted. It has some mixture in it. But the word of God, the living truth, is Jesus, and there's zero mixture.
[00:09:15] In James, it says, every good and perfect gift comes from above. It also says pure religion. It also talks about an undefiled life.
[00:09:24] Every good and perfect thing comes down from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no variation or shadow or anything unclean at all. So everything you receive from God is exactly perfectly pure and the way it was meant to be.
[00:09:38] If you receive the word of God, you receive the undiluted truth that nothing in this world could ever give you. Not even a prophetic word. Prophetic word is still the rhema word of the Lord, but it's different.
[00:09:50] This is what God's foundation is on. So he says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Well, I've heard a lot of people talk about this and preach this, and I've preached this myself wrongly. I had a dream recently about our church, actually. It was probably about a year or so ago now, and I was preaching about the Bible and we went through this whole thing where I was like, culturally, guys, I want you to love the Bible like you love worship. And so whenever I open the scriptures, let's open to Philemon. I want you to be like, excited for the Bible. So when people visit our church and we go, let's turn to Revelation, they're like, woohoo. They say that they get excited. And I thought, yeah, our people love the Scriptures. We love the Bible now. And I started doing these things where I'd mentor people just through the Bible, like take eight or nine people and just teach them the word of God every week. And I was like, man, our people are starting to love the Word. Then I had this dream, and in the dream I was preaching again. I was like, the truth, you know, you've got to know the Bible. The word of God's amazing. And people were nodding in agreement.
[00:10:47] They were just going, yes, like that. But then straight away they're on their phone and then they were talking and then they were yes. Yeah, but it was like it didn't have them.
[00:10:58] The truth didn't possess them.
[00:11:00] It was like Just part of their life, just something. And to be honest with you, that's kind of. That's what we've created. Like we have the Bible, but this is not the way Jesus saw this. He didn't go here. I'm going to talk to you about the Bible. You're going to have a book soon, just a couple of hundred years. They're going to write all the books of what I'm saying, and that's what you're going to be able to stand on. What are you saying to them? He's looking them in the eyes. He's going, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And they're looking at the eyes of zeal, the eyes that formed the universe, the eyes that said, I'll enter a body and be crucified on behalf of you.
[00:11:39] They're looking at the person who created mankind, who's saying, you're going to know me. You're going to know the truth and it will set you free. And what we think immediately, freedom. We think pornography, sexual. Oh, yeah, it's all true.
[00:11:50] But the truth really is that Jesus sets you free of you and your truth.
[00:11:56] He sets you free of your perverted way.
[00:11:59] That's why it says in Hebrews, chapter four, when it says, the word of God divides soul and spirit, joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. What does that mean? I come before the Lord, the Spirit reveals himself to me. I look into Jesus, I stay there and the truth cuts things away and goes, that was your soul believing all that hopelessness every day when you woke up. And now here's the truth.
[00:12:23] Spirit, soul. It makes it clear.
[00:12:26] They've done studies, though, in America that even pastors, they read the Bible on an average of 30 minutes a week.
[00:12:36] I'm not saying any of this to condemn you, but in my dream of our church that I thought I was doing really well of, like, getting him into the Bible, and I thought that I sort of had the understanding, you know, know the state of your flocks. I kind of thought I had my finger in the air and I. I could tell the wind of God's on the Word. And everybody loves the Word. I was wrong. In the dream. They were so distracted, and so I began to sort of pray and carve out this journey with God. Like, they must know. It's urgent for them to know. Not because of Sunday, not because of the moment. They'll be encouraged because of the moment. They'll be tempted to sin with their girlfriend.
[00:13:09] Because of the moment, they're going to be tempted to be at work and somebody says, you know, I just love the fact that we can marry anybody now and anybody can become anything and it doesn't matter. And then all of a sudden, that Christian who's supposed to look at the truth, know the truth, and be set free from everybody else is bent and their soul once again becomes corrupted by this world.
[00:13:30] What happens then is the knife or the sword of the Spirit becomes blunt and the message becomes blunt and the truth becomes blunt. And then it's everybody's truth instead of the man.
[00:13:42] And I used to preach this, that you just got to know the truth, but I didn't even understand it myself. And then God revealed to me. Verse 31 is the answer of verse 32. Verse 31 is the key. Look backwards. Verse 31 says this. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, which means they were religious people and they were in the Word. And he says this. If you abide in my Word, abide not visit, not read, not Bible plan, abide in My Word. You are my disciples indeed. Then.
[00:14:19] Then you shall know the truth.
[00:14:22] That's why getting to the article every week, Please pray for me again. We just break that off. That's cool. That's compassion. But that's not the truth.
[00:14:30] You might have uprooted something, but you planted nothing.
[00:14:34] And that's the difference. That's why there's such shallow and weak Christianity in our day. Because many people are uprooting stuff, because breaking stuff, counseling stuff. But it's the planting of the truth that is necessary. Because what you put inside you, it's gonna come out. And when the world pokes a stick into your flesh or pokes at your life or your convictions, or even just not even just the world. Your husband, your wife, relationship, whatever sharpens you when they squeeze that part of your life, what's meant to come out is the Lord.
[00:15:03] And I'm telling you right now, guys, the church itself, the church just call it, all denominations are starving.
[00:15:11] Like a skinny woman crawling in the desert with a frazzled dress, crying out for fresh bread and for true water.
[00:15:20] She is the bride of Christ. Starving. We're like, she's so beautiful. What we mean by that is, let's not judge her because it's God's precious daughter. It's true, it's God's precious bride. But the word of God is lost in many people now. It's just catchphrases. We're speaking a whole bunch of intimate language from pulpits we don't even live.
[00:15:37] We're saying stuff like this sounds cool. Here's my three point. Blah, blah, blah. And then the minister is at home and he's broken through hopelessness. That weariness has to come off us.
[00:15:46] That joy, that peace that Paul talked about, he's not lying. That's true. We misrepresent the Lord when we don't have that. I'm not saying we can't go through storms. I'm not saying any of this without a sense of empathy and sympathy about seasonal things in our world. But what I am telling you is this. If you don't know the truth, you will not be free. And if you're not free, your people won't be free. And if your people aren't free, it just once again dilutes the value of all that. God created the bride to be in the earth and how he created her to destroy the principalities and powers that hang over the air and to publicly make a spectacle by manifesting Jesus in the church to those powers.
[00:16:25] And that is diluted because we don't abide.
[00:16:29] We read, we visit.
[00:16:31] Bible verse of the day. We don't abide.
[00:16:35] Some of you do, many of us don't. And that's why our soul is starving. Because the enemy knows the duplicity of a man makes him just crazy inside.
[00:16:46] It's the simplicity of life that makes you free.
[00:16:50] These are the truths that set us free. And you know what? When I had that dream and, and when I started preaching more truth from our pulpit, our church grew massively. It's the biggest church in the whole region in the south of Germany. I don't know how that's happened within like two years because I'm preaching sermons that are very strong, like leave sexual sin. It's an abomination against God. The Bible actually says don't even eat with people who are Christians who sexually sin. Do you reckon we'd obey that today? That's what the truth says. That's what the book says. So I don't point at me. I go, this is what your Bible says. And our church is growing because of that. I've had men come up to me and say thank you so much for correcting me and telling me I'm not fit to be in ministry.
[00:17:25] Because the second you said that to me, my eight year porn addiction disappeared because finally I felt some truth and consequence in the truth. And I want to tell you my testimony, my testimony at Bethel Church was when I came into BSSM the school of ministry. Everybody saw the anointing on my life because I was burning.
[00:17:47] I was up the front of the altar call. I was fasting. I was knocking out long fasts. I was doing real good. But because my dad committed suicide when I was 10, I latched onto as a little kid without a sex drive, pornography. As I latched to that, it became a major stronghold in me, which turned into much further sin. Then when I was born again, the sin is gone, let's say the majority, because I'm flipped. I'm a new creation, right? So now my conscience feels it.
[00:18:14] So then I'm departing sin. But I kept one. I kept this little sort of hand behind my back for a bad day. And what I mean by a bad day is this. I'll resist it. It's wrong. I know it's wrong. My conscience says it's wrong. But if the pressure of life gets strong enough, once every three months, I just looked at it. And then I would dull it down. I'd tell my friends, I'd tell my brothers, because my brothers were no threat to me. And they got this. We just prayed grace and it was all good. Like, very loving, very friendly. But none of it changed me at all. It was just Band Aid after Band Aid, after Band Aid. It was really cool that they did that. Very nice. They're like, yeah, me too, bro. I had terrible sexual things last week. And I'm like, that's just us comparing our strongholds.
[00:18:55] And, yeah, at least we're praying. At least there's some accountability. But I felt nothing inside that that had power.
[00:19:02] No truth, nothing. Cut me.
[00:19:07] It comforted me. But when you're deep in sin, is it the moment for comfort? If a woman walks in here and says, my husband has died and I have three children, that's what happened to my mom, and I don't know what to do. That's the moment of comfort. That's the James 2 moment of this is true religion. James 1:28. Sorry. That's the moment. But when someone comes to church and says, how you doing? Lifts their hands, raises their eyes, and those same eyes yesterday were flooded with darkness for four hours and watching what Satan tries to do on a woman's body.
[00:19:41] See, we don't talk like this. And the reason we don't is because, like, that'll offend somebody. No, no, no. It doesn't actually offend. That's why my church. I don't know about yours, but ours is growing because of two reasons. God's presence is everywhere. And I get out of the way, I get out of the way, I throw the sermon away gladly. I had my worship leader about three months ago in the 10am prayer time. I walked into the service and he was screaming out to God in his knees going, God and just screaming. I got on my knees. God said, go down the front, let them see you bow down before me and just let them see you surrender. The moment I got on my knees it went for hours. They were screaming out to God. Nobody led, nobody opened, nobody closed, nobody did anything. The church, Hundreds and hundreds, 900 people or something. Now eight or 900 people just screaming out to God. In Germany it sounds like very little here. I know in Europe, in Ukraine, but in Germany that's a lot of people for a church. So they're screaming out to God for three something hours. And the weight of God's presence came down and people just started the conviction, the change.
[00:20:38] What's the church for?
[00:20:40] What are we there for? Christianity isn't 52 events a year.
[00:20:46] Christianity is. It's Christ in our midst. It's the spirit inside our life. It's. It's God in spirit inside the room.
[00:20:56] So part of my job as a minister, as a leader, I get out of the way. I yield, I yield a lot. I yield a lot because I don't want to interrupt God to talk about God.
[00:21:06] I think he's going to do a better job.
[00:21:10] And then the other side of the reason why it's growing is because the truth is hitting him square in the face. The fastest growing church in America right now is Philip Anthony Mitchell's church 28:19.
[00:21:20] And I didn't get my ideas from him, I got them from here. But I'm glad somebody else over there is listening to the same Bible because he's preaching full on messages. And now they have lines at 5am and every service is packed 5,000 plus people. Why? How come these churches, 20,000 or whatever it is now? Why, why did it grow since 2021 to 20,000 people?
[00:21:41] Because all the guy does is he just wipes his rag. He'd love it here with all the rags.
[00:21:46] He just wipes his rag and he's like, the Bible says, you shall not live in compromise and stand in front of this holy God. And he preaches, fear the Lord, fear the Lord.
[00:21:58] But when I got to Bethel, I heard a lot about the goodness of God and it was holy. The message was right. There was nothing wrong with the sermons I heard.
[00:22:08] But the way I processed the goodness of God, the way I Processed grace was, according to Ben, my version of the truth.
[00:22:16] Not the truth.
[00:22:20] And so what? I. Pray for me, brother. Pray for me, brother. Well, here's what happened to me.
[00:22:25] I had an amazing leader at the time named Mark Brooks.
[00:22:30] And this man was leading the bssm, first year school of ministry. And Bill and another man named Chris Overstreet, they saw the hand of God on my life. And Bill told this man, Chris, he said, I want us to keep Ben Fitzgerald. Keep this man. And I heard that. When I heard Bill said that, I'm like, yes, God, I want to be. I want to be kept, you know, And. And I was like, I want to be here. And then I met Paul and Sue. I remember the first time I went into a staff meeting and I shared a little thing, and Paul and Sue came up to me and just were so kind to me. And. And then when I shared a vision of what I wanted to do for God, Paul chased me out of the room. And I knew. I was like, this man sees it. He's got the heart of the Father. I can feel it in him. And. And I was just so blessed to be in this environment where the glory of God was physically there.
[00:23:15] Physically.
[00:23:17] I was under this thing that people say, oh, it came through the vents. It was fake. You can look. I don't give a rip how where they've been on there. I don't care what keyboard cowboys in a basement. I was there.
[00:23:28] I was there. I saw it with my own eyeballs. I took a non Christian, two weeks saved Christian. Sorry. Two weeks saved Christian from my house church in Clay street in the drug neighborhood of Reading. I took him to the service, and a cloud came over, covered in gold, over the top of him. And he looked at me and he started shaking. He goes, what is that? And I was like, I don't know.
[00:23:46] And then. And I said, it's God. It's God. And he's like. He goes, I feel something. I go, what do you feel? He goes, I feel I'm gonna fall over.
[00:23:53] He didn't understand falling out in the power of God. Nobody talked to him. He's two weeks saved. The cloud went over his head, and all of a sudden he starts praying in tongues. Nobody baptized him. The cloud baptized him.
[00:24:05] Oh, but I've. I've seen. Oh, yeah, but I've watched the YouTube. There's a ventilator. Well, if you're such an expert, become a plumber, become an air conditioning person, because you're no good at theology.
[00:24:19] The first point, the first sign of A dumb theologian is saying, I watched a YouTube clip instead of. I understood context. I asked questions. I. I researched. Like the Bereans.
[00:24:33] I researched. I watched YouTube.
[00:24:36] Anyway, sorry, holy Spirit, I lost what you were doing, and I entered into my own truth.
[00:24:43] Back to the point.
[00:24:45] I was at Bethel, anointed by God, casting out demons, healing the sick. I started leading the biggest neighborhood outreach thing that they'd seen in years. They were like, we want to keep this guy.
[00:24:57] So they said, we're going to appoint you as a pastor now. The dream of my Christian life is right in front of me. And I was like, this is amazing. I'm telling all my friends I'm going to become a pastor finally. I'm going to become a minister for the Lord. This is like my dream.
[00:25:10] This is my everything. You don't understand. If you knew, like, my wall of my bedroom in Reading, I'd wake up, my wall was covered in, like, these pictures and postcards of William Booth, Wigglesworth Stadium events of Bonnke. My whole life was like, this is who I'm going to be for God. And I knew that I wasn't a good preacher. I knew I didn't have the talented voice mechanisms or whatever. I knew that. But I was like, God, I want you to use me. Please use me.
[00:25:36] And I wasn't trying to be something good. I just wanted to be used by God. But I had this thing where every three months or so, if the day was hard enough, I'd just look. And it went down from like, looking for four hours to looking for only 10 minutes. And so what I was able to do is construct language that showed how much better that was. Now let me ask you a question. If today you know that I'm leading these churches, all these places and stadium events in Germany, and now I've got a few churches, so now the responsibility is even bigger. And I just told you that. Don't worry. After tonight when I get to the hotel room, I'm just gonna inject a little bit of heroin and I'll be back to preach to you tomorrow.
[00:26:15] Would you trust me?
[00:26:17] Why do we do this with sin?
[00:26:19] Why do we do this with gossip?
[00:26:22] Why do we do this with even a lack of scripture reading? I've just been so busy lately. No, you haven't. Look at your screen time. You haven't.
[00:26:31] You haven't been busy. It's priorities. And for my life in reading, I had a major priority of I'll serve God. But I had another priority.
[00:26:40] If the day is bad enough, I know where to go.
[00:26:43] So here's what happened to me, okay?
[00:26:45] I get to the interview to become a pastor. By this point, I've been there for maybe five and a half years.
[00:26:51] And Mark Brooks just asked me a simple question.
[00:26:54] I heard that sometimes you have wrestled with purity. How's your purity? And I dressed it up so well. It's been amazing. It's so amazing. Like I used to look for four hours, it was, you know, it was porn. Now it's just occasionally on Instagram, I'll check out people. What do you mean check out people? Well, is it. Are they naked? Well, a little bit. I just dressed it up.
[00:27:16] Like I made it sound like what people call softhorn.
[00:27:20] And I go, but it's only occasionally. And I've gotten so much better.
[00:27:25] And so he said, okay, okay. Well, Ben, we see the hand of God on your life.
[00:27:30] It's quite amazing. A lot of people see God's hand on your life.
[00:27:34] We believe that you're going to do great things for God. And so I walked out of the interview and left. And I thought pretty confidently that God is going to use me. And I thought, well, I'm going to become appointed as a pastor for Bethel Church and who knows what will happen then? And I was just so excited. Well, I had to go back to Australia visa. Two weeks later, I received an email.
[00:27:54] Hey, Ben, we love you. It's Mark. Thanks so much for everything that you've been doing, preparing the neighborhoods, the way you've been pursuing God.
[00:28:03] Thank you for the interview. It's been such a joy to watch you grow.
[00:28:07] But because we see the hand of God on your life and because we cannot trust you with women, we will not be appointing you as a pastor.
[00:28:19] It was the greatest gift outside of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Han. You are my Hun, Father, Son, Holy Spirit and my Bible that I received from Christians.
[00:28:32] They said, we will not be appointing you now. I did this. I went email. How dare they. Next thought, that's not even. They didn't even bother to communicate with you. The devil comes fast, man. The flesh comes quick.
[00:28:48] I said they didn't even bother a phone call. Do they know my struggle?
[00:28:53] See, this is the whole thing that we need. We need to look truth in the face and go, jesus, on the other side of this sword, on the other side of looking at you. It's not. I don't even have to try and give up all this stuff and I just need to come and look and look into the sword and love the truth. I just need to drop all these options and just finally love the truth.
[00:29:15] And it could be the truth that you're weary and, and you're self sufficient as a person.
[00:29:22] That could be the truth. You're a pastor who loves everybody to love you instead of God. You do the Holy Spirit's job and you're weary and you've gotta go, I'm broken. I'm a broken man. And leading.
[00:29:34] But the truth can free you.
[00:29:36] God does. He looks at you with compassion. God didn't look at me at that time and go, I hate you. God wasn't looking through mark books saying, we don't like you. He, he said, because we love you. And look right now, Paul mentioned it today, all these orphans that had the chance to repent, but they didn't because they said, God, I love you. I love the Bible, I'll even teach it. But I'm not so sure that I want all of its truth in all of my life.
[00:30:06] There's compartments.
[00:30:08] And that's what I had. I had a compartment.
[00:30:12] So I wrestled just full on. And guess what happened? I fell into the worst pornography in terms of like the way I just was like, that's it. I just. And I just watched it for four hours again.
[00:30:23] And then something happened to me that scared the living daylights out of me. Would you turn to Ephesians, chapter five?
[00:30:33] Now I'm going to help you to preach the truth. My goal in this message is twofold. My goal is not about sexual purity. The goal is whatever in your life that isn't baptized in the spirit that isn't filled with the truth.
[00:30:46] It can be.
[00:30:48] And the second goal is you should preach the truth. Because by preaching the truth, God anoints the truth and the truth sets free.
[00:30:56] And you should be unashamed. You should be louder than you've ever been. You should not be politically correct. You, you should do everything you can do to not be.
[00:31:05] You don't live under the fear of man. I'm not talking about talking politics. I'm saying you should stand in the word of God and say, I'm gonna read you somebody else's opinion today and just read it as it is and say, don't you love how God thinks? And say, if this offends you, it means you're offended by God's thinking. You need to take that up with God. Have a wonderful Sunday.
[00:31:26] That's what you say to people.
[00:31:28] This isn't about us.
[00:31:30] You don't have the right to present your gospel.
[00:31:34] I don't have the right to be in My church planting more churches going, let's preach the prophetic sense that we feel.
[00:31:42] I can preach prophetic things, but I have to preach and land on what plants. The only thing that can change.
[00:31:52] Here's Ephesians 5, verse 1. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also loves us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.
[00:32:10] You ready for this?
[00:32:12] But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. I'm going to read that again.
[00:32:26] But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints.
[00:32:40] Ephesus was probably the most sexualized church in the world.
[00:32:44] Them in Corinth society wise. I mean, Paul was like, hey guys, writing this letter, can't wait to see you in six months. When I get there, I expect that there won't be anybody in this church who's in sexual sin.
[00:33:00] I expect there's not going to be one covetous person who lives with jealousy, contentment in their heart where they have contempt and ought against somebody else. I can't wait. Because we're saints, I expect that God would feel at home.
[00:33:14] Now the question that runs to the other side of my mind. I don't know about your mind, but it's like, hang on. But God has compassion on broken people.
[00:33:20] Bingo. You're 100% right. The Lord has one hand that is a staff and one hand that is a rod. And what he does, that shepherding Father, he brings people into the house of God. And there's this patient process. And that's why Jesus said to Peter, he said, do you love me? Three times. And he said this. He said, feed my sheep. But then he said, tend, which means softly caress or pull the weeds out the dirt out of my lambs.
[00:33:46] Sheep and lambs are different. One's a babe, one's just been saved, the other's a Christian who's strong, who's supposed to be strong. But Paul's saying here, don't let it even be named. That's not me. That's your Bible.
[00:34:00] That's in a sexual culture.
[00:34:02] And sometimes I hear young guys come to me. It's tough today, you know, there's so much distraction.
[00:34:08] No, God has the same grace in this generation as he had to the Ephesus church. Wherever there's sin, there's more grace that abounds. That's what the word of God says. God has the perfect grace for the environment that we live in.
[00:34:25] So what Mark said to me was this, because I believe in your calling, because I don't want to see another guy grow up, lead a big movement, do all this big stuff, and then go cheat on his wife for eight years. Because we believe in you, you will not be a pastor. And I dwelt and reveled. In consequence, for the first time, the truth actually felt true.
[00:34:51] Because where it says that you shouldn't do that in 1 Timothy 3, that an elder or a leader cannot be this way, I actually felt the truth is sticking to itself. The principle's not dropping for me.
[00:35:04] So. But I begged. I said, chris, O. I said, please, Chris, please. This is my life dream. I beg you, please let me come back to Bethel. Let me work in the outreach department. I beg you. I'll just work, I'll serve. I'll do another interview. Just. I beg you. They let me come back, but they wouldn't anoint me as a pastor. Second day, I think it was that I was back. There's a coffee shop there called Hebrews Coffee Shop. One of the senior team was there. I said, hey, Dan. And he turned around and said, hey. I said, my name's Ben. He goes, yeah, Ben, right? He goes, ben. And he looked at me, shook my hand. I don't even really know him at all at this point. And he shook my hand. He said, how's your purity?
[00:35:35] And I was like, my heart just sank.
[00:35:38] See, we walk around, we go, we just break that shame.
[00:35:41] God says, let the one who's in sin be ashamed.
[00:35:44] That's the Bible.
[00:35:46] We just break that off. No, you break off condemnation. That. That's unnecessary, harsh holiness.
[00:35:52] That's different. Shame or the shame of, like, I don't feel I've done enough with my gifts or something. You don't break off the shame of partnership with Satan.
[00:36:00] You reveal it.
[00:36:02] You reveal truth. You expose it.
[00:36:05] You say, this is darkness, that is light.
[00:36:09] That's what they did.
[00:36:10] People are like, Bethel. Such a grace church. Oh, oh, oh, oh. They are. And they know grace so well that they coupled it with truth. And they pierced me.
[00:36:19] They said, there's grace for you to change, but are you going to live pure? So here's what happened to me.
[00:36:25] I was in my bedroom. I watched porn one more time.
[00:36:29] Now I'm a real failure.
[00:36:31] Now. I'm like, for sure my calling's out the door, but God is the God of 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, 15th, chances he is extreme in mercy and he fashions ways. 2 Samuel 14:14. To find mercy on men.
[00:36:49] I watch porn. I get up in the morning, I go to the bathroom. The best way I can describe this is this. I bumped into Jesus.
[00:36:56] I walked back into my bedroom like this. I just walked back in, tired. And I went. And the Lord spoke through me. From second Timothy, chapter two. He just spoke the Bible to me and he said this. Those who name the name of Christ must depart from inequity.
[00:37:13] I'm going to say something that I hope it doesn't confuse you.
[00:37:17] I felt there was no more mercy.
[00:37:21] I know.
[00:37:23] My mind, too. I'm like, but that's not possible.
[00:37:26] I know, but the feeling was, here's the fork.
[00:37:32] Where are you going to go?
[00:37:33] That was the feeling. I'm not saying.
[00:37:36] In fact, by him telling me that that was mercy.
[00:37:51] So I stared this thing in the face.
[00:37:57] Whether it's porn, restlessness, control.
[00:38:02] Some of you leaders, you just need. God just wants to blast you.
[00:38:06] He wants to wreck you because you've become controlling.
[00:38:10] He wants to lead the church again and you'll be his under shepherd, and he'll lead through you, but he needs to fill you again. And you've got to let the truth come in.
[00:38:21] You gotta love the Scriptures, you gotta love the man.
[00:38:25] You've gotta fall in love with what hurts because it heals.
[00:38:29] You've gotta come to your senses and go, hang on, whoa, whoa, what am I doing? It's been 10 years and we see one person saved a year.
[00:38:37] What is going on here?
[00:38:39] We have to look at the UK and go. Instead of going, you know, this is amazing. There's been a bit of a rise. Great. When Charlie Kirk died, I'm not saying this politically, but when he died, everyone in America's like, there's gonna be a revival. Then it just. The news just came a couple of weeks later and it just falls, rolls away, Just another flash of inspiration.
[00:38:58] This is the problem.
[00:39:00] We're so duplicitous and multiplied with 50,000 things in life. But the one thing that's needed, we don't have.
[00:39:09] We need to understand. You can't be in ministry. You can't walk with God properly.
[00:39:14] You're corrupted, you're crippled. If Satan has a foothold and I grab the edge of your ankle and I say, go for a walk and I've got the edge of your ankle, ankle, you're not gonna go very far.
[00:39:23] And if the edge of your ankle's a handy, a phone.
[00:39:27] If the edge of your ankle's tv. If your edge of the ankle is idolatry to money, whatever it might be, you just gotta get filled.
[00:39:34] Just get it out of the way. Just love the truth. But perhaps it's not just a sin.
[00:39:40] Perhaps the idolatry in your life is being loved.
[00:39:46] And you love being loved more than loving the truth.
[00:39:50] And so you're afraid to speak the truth in love because you think you won't be loved. Not understanding when you speak the truth in love, that is the only way to be loving.
[00:40:03] And it's the only way to truly love the one who calls himself the truth.
[00:40:10] Not a truth.
[00:40:11] The truth.
[00:40:14] It must be preached. It must be proclaimed. But first, it must be loved. He must be loved. In Revelation, he says, those who didn't inherit the kingdom were those who didn't love the truth. In Second Thessalonians, it says, jesus is returning in flames of fire to punish those who did not receive him and those who didn't obey the gospel. That means Christians who were not right with God, who lived a double life.
[00:40:39] That's what the truth does. It sets you free. You're like, it's oxygen. I can be free. So when Jesus said to me, he said, those who name my name must depart.
[00:40:50] He didn't go. But for you, it's different. You're on a journey.
[00:40:56] He's like, you've been on a journey. This is the end of that road.
[00:41:00] I was patient with you, Ben, for 10 years as a Christian. 10 years.
[00:41:07] I had a man come to me recently, and he said this to me.
[00:41:15] He said, would you pray for me? I have a bit of an Internet struggle. He was 65.
[00:41:22] And I looked at him, and the anger and wrath of God came over me.
[00:41:28] I didn't want to touch his skin. He looked so defiled.
[00:41:32] I said, I'll pray, but I didn't even know what to do. And I felt the anger of the Lord.
[00:41:37] And then I said, how long have you been watching pornography? He's married, he's in ministry. And he said, decades.
[00:41:46] But I have an Internet problem.
[00:41:50] When I prayed for him, it was like the holy fear of God.
[00:41:54] I wasn't angry. I felt this righteous. I felt that in front of the throne. See, this is what we can't get this in our understanding. It's too limited. What we think is God's always just looking at. Like, it's okay, it's not love.
[00:42:09] But is God longing?
[00:42:11] Yes.
[00:42:12] But there's a moment where people frustrate, as Paul said, the grace of God. So Much that God actually begins to turn and put the sword at them.
[00:42:23] If you don't believe this, read the first two chapters of Revelation where he commends the good and then he puts the sword right at the jugular of what is evil, sinful, the deeds of the Nicolations, the Jezebel, the control. He puts the sword out and goes, that's enough.
[00:42:37] And he says, if you don't repent, he says, be zealous. He said, those I convict and correct, I love.
[00:42:43] He's talking from love, but at the same time he's like, repent. Now Listen to me, D.L. moody. He comes to my mind again. There's another story about him when he was preaching and there was a fire in Chicago.
[00:42:58] And he said he preached, but he didn't do an altar call.
[00:43:02] And then that night, the same people that were in the building, many of them burned to death.
[00:43:09] Bonnke had the same. He told one woman, she was at a church, Reinhardt was there in Germany, preached to this girl. She said, I do want Jesus, but I love this boyfriend of mine. I want Jesus, but I love. And he said, please, he said, I beg you, turn to God. Turn to God. She said, no, I just can't yet. I just can't do it now.
[00:43:28] And see, God is the God of due process.
[00:43:31] He sets up mercy after mercy after mercy. And it's not a little lamb we're talking about. This was a man who's 65 watching porn for 40 years, 18 year old girls, and he's 65.
[00:43:44] The stats in America, and I didn't even plan on talking about purity tonight. The stats in America say that, that most Christian men, most pastors, sorry, 60 to 70% of them watch porn once a year.
[00:43:55] It's no different here.
[00:43:57] So Paul's like, don't even let it be named.
[00:44:01] Maybe a baby Christian, maybe.
[00:44:04] Okay, cool. So now we see the porn, the sexual sin, clear. What about the unforgiveness?
[00:44:11] What about coveting? I don't like that person. I feel they're this. I feel they're that gossip.
[00:44:16] The only thing I can know of with a double tongue is a snake.
[00:44:20] And God doesn't want these things in his house, you see? So when I went to pray for that man, I couldn't even pray. I felt like throwing up.
[00:44:28] But at the same time, I had one lady come to me and she said, would you pray for me, Pastor Ben? And she said, I'm the prayer coordinator of this church. I said, sure. She was 55 years of age. I said, sure. She goes, please see if you have a word. I said, okay, I'll pray. I'll check the mail. I prayed for her. I said, I feel God saying something about relationship. She opened her eyes, thank you so much. That's the confirmation I need to divorce my husband.
[00:44:49] I said, that's not what I said to you. And she goes, no, no. I feel it's right. We've had a terrible relationship. I feel it's. I feel it's right.
[00:44:57] I said this to her. I said, it's not right because the word of God says it's not right. The truth says it's not right. And she said, well, it doesn't matter anyway. I already have another man.
[00:45:07] And I said, are you sleeping with that man? She said, yes. And I said, where is your husband? And she said, he's here. He's serving in the church. I said, get him over here right now. I sent one of my team to get him. He comes over here, and she's looking at him. He looks at her. And I said, do you know about your wife? I said, and she's like, looking at her. I said, she has another man. Do you know that? And he goes, yes, I have another woman.
[00:45:27] She was the prayer coordinator of the entire church.
[00:45:30] Out of my mouth came the word of God. What does it say in the Book of Jude? They can be twice dead. People are like, no, you can never lose your salvation. God's a big papa. It doesn't matter how you live.
[00:45:42] Book of Jude, twice. This is why you've got to know this.
[00:45:47] There's so many opinions.
[00:45:50] My opinion doesn't get to beat Jesus.
[00:45:53] Neither does yours if you want to live with your opinion. I'm not saying you can't go on a journey. You can go on a wrestle. Ananias and Sapphira, what happened to them? You can go on a wrestle. God's cool with questions. God's a dad. He's not like, get out of here. You don't believe me? God's not like that. I hope I'm not presenting that wrongly. God's a father.
[00:46:12] He looks with the lens of a father. You can ask questions, but you can't march up there and become the judge and jury of God. That's a sure sign of the risen flesh.
[00:46:20] And say, no, the word of God doesn't mean that.
[00:46:23] I said to this woman, you're in danger of hell because the book of Jude says you'll be twice dead. Pulled up by the roots. How can you be dead twice? You're dead in Sin. You meet Jesus, born again, then you're dead the second time pulled up out of Christ.
[00:46:37] These people are abominable. It says the blackest of darkness is reserved for them forever because they won't love the truth.
[00:46:45] The blackest of darkness is reserved for preachers who won't preach the Bible because they think, oh, it's just me choosing what I do and don't say in the Bible.
[00:46:56] No, you manipulate God's people and you put them to sleep with Bible verses.
[00:47:03] It doesn't matter if you're in a relationship. You know, love is. It's, it's. It's been misdefined in history. They've got the Greek, the Greek of this, the this of that. They don't understand a thing about the heart of God. God will never enter his church and not even for one second will he validate sin in any of your lives. Do you know why? Because that would be like you having your little daughter coming to you with a glass full of cyanide saying, I'm just going to take one sip. You'd grab the. You'd snatch it. You'd smash it on the ground and say, don't ever touch that again because of love.
[00:47:36] That's what Bethel did for me.
[00:47:39] I learned that God's good there. So you don't just need this on your plate.
[00:47:43] This is just for you tonight. You need the goodness of God most of the meal.
[00:47:48] But this woman with her husband, I said, you are in danger of the fire of hell because if you continue in this rebellion against God, your soul may be cut off from God. And then as soon as I spoke those words, it just came out of my mouth like a sword. She did this in a male voice. She went like that and fell as hard as she could on the ground. This is the prayer coordinator with blonde, curly hair, 55 of the entire church.
[00:48:13] Now, you could see the whole church turned around. You can imagine them like, she prayed for me last week. You can imagine. You know, it was not good. She's like.
[00:48:25] And then I looked at the husband and he's like this. I said, see what Satan. See what demonic serpent of lust is in your lives? I said, repent. He gets on his knees. The woman I said, come out of her came out screaming. And then she burst into tears. And she grabbed like this with her feet the side of the stage and said, like this without me telling her to. Just as soon as the demon left, she said, jesus, forgive me.
[00:48:49] Both of those people ran, those people off. And they got remarried. They Came back together. They came back to their relationship. It saved their marriage.
[00:48:58] Hey, Jesus, why?
[00:49:02] The truth shall set you free.
[00:49:05] Set them free.
[00:49:09] So what I did was at Bethel.
[00:49:12] I said, that's enough.
[00:49:14] The fork in the road is here again.
[00:49:19] Weariness, self seeking, whatever it might be, just love the truth. Just walk into the sword and go, God, I try so hard, but I'm not flooded with the spirit. My life's in control. I'm scared of the floor. I love the pulpit. I love everyone to hear me talk. I'm scared of the floor. Just be real, get flooded with God. And then tomorrow you'd be like, ah. Everyone be like, what happened to you? I don't know. I just got filled with God. You look amazing. Your face is shining like a light bulb. Do I look. I feel kind of weird because I've been crying for 10 hours. My eyes feel puffy. And everybody's going to be like, whenever you hug me, I just feel love vibrating out of you. Or you could go back to church next Sunday.
[00:49:52] Excuse me. The offering buckets were supposed to be passed. Two minutes. This is not Christianity.
[00:49:58] The peace, the truth.
[00:50:03] Don't God's people deserve the full meal? They deserve the Michelin of the word of God.
[00:50:09] I felt good just to say those two together.
[00:50:15] I said, okay, that's it. I went to the Bethel bookstore. I bought a book on sexual purity. Everyone knew me as the revivalist who heals the sick, who starts house churches in reading, and who casts out demons. I could cast out demons and have demons in me. Isn't that amazing?
[00:50:28] Why? There's authority in the name of Jesus, but that authority, that sword I used has to sword me.
[00:50:35] That sword you use on a Sunday or use in a home group has to sword you.
[00:50:39] And so I got this book, I filled it all in, and then I went to a men's purity group. And then I said to my mentor, Chris, I said, I'll do anything now. Anything. I fasted a long time.
[00:50:48] To cut a very long story short, this is what happened to me.
[00:50:52] The Lord Jesus threw me basically on the floor of my bedroom and I wept uncontrollably for 45 minutes or so. And what came out of my mouth was a prayer that I'd never prayed before.
[00:51:03] You see, I'd run up on the fields in Australia in Reading, there's no fields really, but up near like a drive through area, drive parking area. I'd just been crying out to God in Reading. I cried out to God in Australia. I cried out to God on planes Forgive me, Father. Forgive me. Forgive me, Father. Forgive me, Father. But never did this sentence come out of my mouth. This is what came out of my mouth as I'm screaming out with tears. You know those tears, they come from here.
[00:51:28] I said this, God, like this. I said, I'm sorry that I've hurt you.
[00:51:36] All my repentance was even self focused.
[00:51:40] You fix me, you do this for me, my terms are gonna win.
[00:51:44] I'm in a struggle, I'm in a battle, I'm in a this, I'm in a that. And now I said this. I said, I cannot believe how patient you've been. And I hurt you over and over and over.
[00:51:58] I must have watched pornography as a Christian probably two to 300 times.
[00:52:05] And forgiveness, mercy, mercy. But someone stood with Jesus and said, don't anoint him because he's going to grow up and then he's going to blow up.
[00:52:17] They saved my life.
[00:52:20] And now I'm. I felt like when I preached at Bethel a few months ago, Mark was in the front row, the one who denied me. I felt like giving. I felt like buying him a car. Like he saved my life through Jesus.
[00:52:36] And here's what happened on that floor. It came gushing out of me, this real repentance where I said this and I said these words. I give you my sexuality.
[00:52:45] I got up off the floor and for the next two, three weeks with my phone. Every time I look at my phone, I was like, I don't feel tempted.
[00:52:52] And then I saw a girl and a guy kissing in an Arby's parking lot. Applebee's, sorry, parking lot. And they were kissing near a car. And I went, that's disgusting. And then halfway through the thought, I was like, I'm free.
[00:53:03] I knew. I was like, that's disgusting. And I was like. And my mind was like changed. I was like, I'm pure. And I. And I was delivered. Since that day, I never looked at pornography. Not even one time. Not one time.
[00:53:18] Because I surrendered to the truth.
[00:53:22] You shall know the truth. And the truth which is holy, the truth which is liberty, shall set you free.
[00:53:30] Now there's people in here tonight who need to be free.
[00:53:34] But again, it's not just sin.
[00:53:36] It could be self sufficiency. Some of you might be afraid what will really happen if I'm flooded with the spirit. I know it feels scary, doesn't it? To kind of let go and let God just flood you.
[00:53:46] Oh, he might have me pray more. He will, definitely. I just. Don't, don't even say Might. He's going to kill that thing. He's going to be like, you're not going to just be praying more. I'm going to have you in a furnace of oil and prayer. God is going to baptize you in life, though life.
[00:54:00] And all of a sudden, when I got free of sexual sin, I just felt alive. I just felt pure. And nine months later, Bill, all these guys, all these elders and senior leaders laid hands on me. And I sat there under the pleasure of God as they anointed me as a pastor.
[00:54:15] And I've loved every day since. And I've loved the power of purity. But the power of purity was married to the truth.
[00:54:23] Somebody spoke the word of God to me.
[00:54:26] And tonight I speak it to you. And I exhort you. You are going to need to adjust.
[00:54:32] You're going to need to adjust something.
[00:54:34] And if you're a minister in here, adjust your church.
[00:54:38] Make more room for God.
[00:54:40] How is this continent, how is England going to have a revival if the Spirit is not heavily welcomed in the church?
[00:54:47] How are they going to feel him?
[00:54:49] How are they going to know him?
[00:54:51] I finished with this story. There was a young preacher.
[00:54:54] This isn't just about Bible reading, by the way. Like Paul said. I love that he quoted Bill.
[00:54:58] He said, don't read to teach, read to know. Bury your life between the covers of this book. You'll be a completely different person.
[00:55:07] There's this preacher who is young, and two preachers that were going to ask to come up and read Psalm 23 in the church. And so they asked the young guy to come first. And he was young, fiery, zealous. Probably a bit like I used to be. I used to be up here trying to impress you. Honestly, I used to struggle hard with the fear of man. Used to be back behind there praying in tongues. God used me. But there was this little stream, and the little stream was, I need your validation. Praise the Lord for his freedom.
[00:55:34] And so now I have such a feeling of freedom, I can just be a bit more myself with you.
[00:55:40] And so this young preacher got up to read Psalm 23. And then the old guy was going to do it. It's like a generation's day kind of thing.
[00:55:46] The young guy comes up. The Lord is my shepherd, you know, power I shall not want.
[00:55:52] He makes me lie down in green pastures. I'm not trying to judge anybody, but have you ever been to churches like that and you feel like there's no spirit in this?
[00:56:01] Have you ever felt that? I'm not trying to judge them. They probably have good hearts. They just need to be flooded with God. Someone just needs to walk up to that guy like DL Moody did and go. It feels like it's more of you. Needs to be God.
[00:56:13] That's what a woman did for him.
[00:56:15] So this young preacher, you shall walk. God will lead you by streams, you know, streams.
[00:56:23] And he finished his thing and everybody, he walks off stage and then the old 80 year old man hobbled onto the stage, opened his old Bible and he just started to say like this in a croaky, weird voice, the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:56:40] He makes me lie down in green pastures.
[00:56:44] He leads me beside still waters. And the whole church starts. The spirit fell, everyone starts weeping.
[00:56:51] Everybody starts just open their hearts, fling open, and the heaviness of life comes off them. As the stream of God's presence hits their heart, it just opens up and people walk off. He walks off the stage and the young guy comes and says, what happened there?
[00:57:07] When I preached, everybody clapped. But when you preached, the Lord came and he said, oh, son, he said, you know the psalm, I know the shepherd.
[00:57:18] That's the difference.
[00:57:20] You need to know the truth.
[00:57:23] You must know.
[00:57:26] You must say, yes, the Lord, not just England. The Lord deserves the truth in his house, because it's his house.
[00:57:36] Thanks for listening to the Chroma Charge podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship, and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
