Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your Son.
We thank You, Jesus, that You have died on the cross, that You rose from the dead.
And that You are the reason that we gather here together, corporately.
Holy Spirit, we honor You in this place. We welcome You to come and move on our hearts.
Move on our minds that we would receive Your Word today, that it would mark us,
that it would cut us deep in Jesus' name. Amen?
Amen.
I want to conclude this series that we've been in, which is Revival Is.
If you've been tracking with us, awesome.
If you have not, some of the stuff that I might be saying to you today may sound a little foreign.
But I want to conclude it and it's awesome. Let me just share this part.
It's awesome to be a part of a church. Not that the church, I wasn't like this,
but I'm just, I'm trying to honor you guys here. So just follow me.
It's awesome to be a part of a church where the congregation is engaged.
And what I mean by that is that there's multiple times that I'll get off the pulpit on a Sunday
and you got people coming up to you and they're sharing revelation.
They're sharing things. They're asking questions.
They're sending you things during the week. They're giving you printed out. I love it.
I've had so many times where people come up and they give me what they may have spent hours,
maybe even a week of like a printed out sheet of a revelation or of a thought
or of something that they got from the message and they're sharing that.
So I share all this to say as an honor to you as a congregation. I love that.
I really do love that. That tells me you're listening.
That tells me you're engaged.
And I've had so many people regarding this series of Revival Liz.
I've had so many people share wonderful stuff with me.
Honestly, let me just say that.
I've had so many of you share wonderful stuff with me.
And I would like to share everything that everybody's sharing with me,
from song to scriptures to books to whatever, to their revelation, to their insights.
I would love to have each of you come up here and share that.
But that would be about a month's worth of just sharing.
And I want to also give us some food so that we can chew and digest.
But I had two individuals that have been now for a time.
It's not just a month. It's not just two months.
But over a span of this series, and even before this series began,
I had two individuals that have been sharing things with me that I'm like,
wow, that really bears witness with my spirit.
And I want them to share today and then after they share,
I'm going to bring in the last message of revival is on and so forth.
So can I have Dave and Cheryl Rogers?
Can I have them come up? Can we honor them?
Can we just give them a round of applause as a sign of honor?
I'm going to have Cheryl...
You're going to share first. Dave, you probably want to sit down.
This may take a little bit, but you can sit up here.
We let ladies go first, right?
So give a little bit of the background of just some of this.
I know you have all of it written out,
but just whatever is on your heart, I'm going to let you go at it.
Thank you, Lord. Dave's used to me...
Is this on?
Is it on?
It should be good.
Dave's kind of used to me being a little long-winded, so yeah.
So I went into...
I like to at the beginning of the year just go before the Lord
and ask him direction for the year of what he wants to do,
where he's going, and then also we have open heavens here.
So I'd like to kind of align with that.
And so I believe that probably all of us have looked back
into our family lineage and looked for the curses,
looked for the things that we need to bind
and we need to break off of our family.
Well, early in January, the Lord spoke to me.
He said, look at the blessings in your family line.
Look at the wells of revival in your area
where you have lived and where you have been planted
and start praying that word over your family
versus just breaking curses.
And I thought, well, that's a very interesting perspective to do.
And so I started doing that and that led me into a...
I won't say an in-depth study
because I'm sure you've done an in-depth study on revival.
Knowing you, you probably studied this thing out to you.
I love to study things.
But anyway, I've never studied that in my life
and I thought it was really interesting.
And I do recall in my family line,
I had a great grandfather
who was a prayer warrior in Spencer Brook Princeton over here.
I had a... for any of you that are familiar with Baxter,
Baxter Lake, Blue Lake, that's where my family is from.
I was a Baxter from that lineage.
And I had a great aunt who was a revivalist pastor
in the Methodist Church in Spencer Brook.
And so I thought, you know, what did she pray?
What did she do? What was she about?
And so that led me on to my journey.
And one of the things, some of my conclusions were
true revival transforms individual hearts and society.
It is all about God changing a culture,
God moving and changing the culture of the people in an area.
And the passion that they had was based
on personal revelation of God.
And what was God teaching and what was God telling them?
And revelation was birthed out of their encounters with God.
And I know in my personal life it's those encounters
that have changed me.
Passion drove the local church movement.
And assume, I think the thing is we need to assume
positive intent of other believers in our area.
Many are living under the passion and the revelation
of their forefathers that were in our area,
in our nation, in our world.
And so we need to look at those blessings,
pray for authentic encounters from the Lord.
That's what I pray for in my life.
I really want authentic times with the Lord.
And it's been really interesting to go through
the teachings of Pastor Vernon, Pastor Igor this year,
because going into the deep, quiet place,
going into him, we are in him, he's in us.
What revelation is the Lord teaching me?
And I've had a lot of really great ones,
so thank you for that, you guys.
So there's different mantles for the needs
of the different times and cultures that we've had.
And some of the themes and revelations that I found
was the Holy Spirit activation, global evangelism,
empower local lay people, faith and power,
transformation, prayer, worship,
hymns mixed with preaching, reckless faith,
the gospel longs in the streets,
booming voice projections, social reform,
the altar, justice, holiness, hunger for God,
evangelists to the masses, discipline and discipleship,
prayer, outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
and then an intense love of the Word of God.
Here's one thing, can you explain,
maybe somebody doesn't know,
what is empowering a lay worker?
I just felt the Lord on that.
Can you just explain a little bit of what that means?
I have an example of empowering a lay worker
and for any of you that know Sam, Molly's daughter, Sam,
Sam has started a Bible study in her townhouse area.
And I don't know how many kids does she have coming?
Eight or nine kids and they've given their heart to the Lord.
That's empowering a lay evangelist.
That's us, all of us having our hearts open
and listening to the Lord and saying,
what do you have for me today?
Because he has something for each of us every single day
and we will impact our communities.
So that's a lay evangelist.
A lay worker is somebody that isn't necessarily
called into the full ministry.
It's somebody who might own a bit.
It's right here.
It's all of us.
It doesn't matter if you're a homemaker or teacher,
nurse, doctor, business owner, it's all of us.
That's the lay workers.
So revival movements throughout history,
they were not perfect human beings if you studied them,
but gave them a message.
And some of them that I wrote down,
it started in the 1600s, 1700s,
that impacted the world.
John G. Lake, the Healing Rooms,
Catherine Coleman, the Holy Spirit Surrender,
prophetic accuracy, A.A. Allen,
faith and power, Jack Cole, reckless faith,
even though he died at 38 years old,
Oral Roberts, the Healing Evangelist,
Oral Roberts University, Pentecostal Movement,
TL Osborn, Global Evangelism,
Empowering the Local Church Miracles,
Amy Templeton McPherson,
Angelus Temple, and she started using costumes
and props and broadcasts, radio, creativity,
courage, Fort Square Church healings,
John Wesley Methodism,
40,000 sermons, holiness, discipline,
transformation, discipleship, prayer and sacrifice.
And along the same time, his brother, Charles Wesley,
was a hymn writer and revivalist in the area of worship.
So it was worship moving with the holiness of God.
George Whitfield, the voice of the great awakening,
booming voice that could reach 30,000.
I know we had the film in the theaters this year,
and I hadn't...
That was really cool to have that come out
when I'm doing the study.
England and the U.S. were affected by that.
They were weeping and fainting.
The gospel belongs in the streets.
And he was a friend of Ben Franklin
who influenced American culture and American history.
Charles Finney, the father of modern revivalism.
He was a lawyer, convert the courtroom,
and they came with the anxious bench.
And that brought us the altar,
where we could bring our things to the altar.
And that was from the altar calls came out of that.
Prayer is the engine of revival,
social justice and reform, anti-slavery and justice.
Dwight L. Moody, shoe salesman,
who became an evangelist to the masses.
He affected U.S. and Britain music
and preaching Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
Evan Roberts, the Welsh revival,
coal miners' prayer and hunger for God,
meetings, repentance, weeping, outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
They say that he affected 100,000 souls.
William Booth, Salvation Army, the poor,
the slums, brothels, bars, uniforms,
go to the poorest souls, God invades the darkest corners of society
to the end of the earth missionaries.
William Carey, who was a father of modern missions.
And then we had Billy Graham.
Personal relationship with God and Salvation.
Hagen and Copeland. Faith.
YWAM. Cunninghams were missions.
Missions to the world.
YWAM has affected the whole world.
International House of Prayer, IHOP.
Then we had Brownsville, Toronto,
the Jesus People Movement.
And so it's just really fun to see
how all of those influenced culture
throughout all the years.
So I was thinking then, what about our area?
And we have diverse cultures.
Swedish, German, Norwegian, Native Americans,
English, Catholic, Protestants.
We have Bruts in all of these.
And each of the churches in our area
have a strong influence because of the revelation
that was brought through one of these people.
You even have Russians now.
And I was going to say that.
And we're so glad you're here.
They're just invading Princeton.
And there's more coming.
Good.
I don't know if that's good, but...
So then I asked the Lord,
what do you want to do with the mantles and wells
in our areas?
And he said that we should be in prayer
for each of the churches in our area.
And I go on Facebook and I look at sermons
from other churches and I pray over them.
And I just ask the God to move in might and power,
move for our culture, move for our area.
And he really wants to bring a unity,
a love, truth, revelation, encounters, understanding.
No pride, friendships through all of that.
And to just stir up that hunger
along with desperation for a move of God.
So just praying over...
praying over the churches in the area,
praying over the people in our area,
that they would just be moved
and that God's Holy Spirit would just desperate...
that they would have a desperation for Him.
Yes, yes.
A reverential fear of the Lord and holiness
stirred up hunger for God and His Word.
And fill me and all the churches with His presence,
His power, signs, wonders, love, excitement, friendship,
community, a place to belong, authenticity.
And then he said, how would you feel
if true revival fell in another church rather than yours?
And I just have to say, I would be jealous.
I would be jealous because I think that all of us,
all of us in our community,
revival can affect everybody
if we really are those lay people.
And you know that, pick me, pick me, you know?
That when you're on a team and you're standing in the corner
and you're waiting, you just say, pick me.
You're kind of... I'm competitive.
I like to be picked.
But boy, there's a price.
There's a price for revival.
Are you willing to pay the price?
And then, so then I said,
is this the time of the mosaic move of God?
Is this going to be revival
that is a comprehensive picture
of all the past revivals and purposes,
all things for the end time harvest,
a supernatural alignment with His working?
And I just thought of that.
And I got that just before Open Heavens.
And if you remember last year for Open Heavens,
we had different speakers on different nights.
And I was able to go into my journal and go,
yep, this one's talking about the altar.
Yep, this one's talking about the holiness.
Yep, this one's talking about the
reverential fear of the Lord.
I think in the revival that the presence
and the power of the Lord Jesus,
the moving of the Holy Spirit
and the Father is going to be so powerful
that that is what I think is going to fuel the next revival.
And I just appreciate Jim.
New season, fresh fire.
New season, fresh fire.
I think that's what God wants to do.
And He wants to just make His manifest presence
so powerful and strong that we won't...
Let me ask you this...
Stay up here. Let me ask you this question
because I think you're not the only one that's thought this.
When the Lord was asking you,
what if your next...
the church in your neighborhood had revival,
but you didn't?
Can you share to the extent that you can
that conversation that you had with the Lord
when He asked you that?
Whatever you have grace to share,
there might have been some personal things there.
But what do you have...
because I'm sure you're not the only one
that has probably had that run through your head.
Well, my first thought is
because I'm very competitive is like Lord,
please, we work so hard.
We're trying. We are spending time.
I just be...
I just want...
I want it to be us.
But then the other part of it is
Thy kingdom come, they will be done.
Thy kingdom come, they will be done.
Let us be part.
Let us not be in competition.
Let us love those in our area.
Let's fan the flame. Let's pray for them.
And because that's what's going to get the work done.
And I know...
I went to New Hope with my father.
He was 88 years old when he started going to New Hope.
And it changed his life.
And I was sitting there one Sunday morning
and I just said,
my grandma prayed this prayer for my dad
almost 100 years ago.
Wow.
And New Hope Church reached his heart
in a way that had never been reached before.
And that's what we need to trust
where God's planting people.
Yes.
And that's...
So that gets rid of my competition.
It's just like fan the flame everywhere, Lord.
Good. I like it.
Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you.
Dave, I want you to come up here.
You guys can give a round of applause.
Now before you speak, I got to share.
Every time Dave...
This is the way that I discern.
Every time Dave has a revelation from God,
his eyes are wide
and he'll approach me.
Usually it's like right here in this aisle
and he goes,
Pastor Igor.
And he comes up and he's looking at me,
I'm moved and his face is shining.
And I'm like,
I'm about to get hit with something.
So go for it, Dave.
Unleash it, man.
I just want to take off on what's your closest.
Just a moment.
Yeah, yeah.
And that is...
I look forward to being in heaven
and standing in line
and waiting to...
Is there a line in heaven?
I think there is.
To set my crown
before the feet of Jesus.
Amen, come on.
When they say to cast it to him,
it just sounds kind of flippant.
And I think it's going to be a much more
holy, reverential thing.
That this is a crown, Jesus,
that you have allowed me to build for you.
And I set it before your feet.
And I'm going to turn around.
I don't know who I'm going to see behind me,
but somebody's going to have a bigger, better crown
than me.
And I'll just be excited for their...
Look at the crown that God allowed...
Jesus allowed you to build
and set before him.
It's just a point of honor.
Amen.
I was reading in Ephesians one night
and I got to Ephesians 527.
And the Lord opened things up for me
that I'm just going to...
I hope you don't mind.
I wrote it down at the time
because it was so significant
and I didn't want to forget any of it.
Ephesians 527 says
that he might present to himself
a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle,
but that it should be holy
and without blemish.
Now, presenting to himself
is an interesting concept.
I don't know how he's going to do that, but...
wrinkle.
It speaks of unpreparedness.
If I show up at church
and my shirt is all wrinkled,
that's on me.
I didn't take the time
to make myself fully presentable.
It's like a lack of oil.
I'm just not prepared.
I haven't done the work
without spot or wrinkle.
Spot.
Do you remember the Passover lamb?
It had to be perfect,
not sickly or feeble.
It was the best of the flock.
I can just see an Israelite
looking through his flock
for the perfect lamb.
Nope, that one's no good.
Joseph's it aside.
Next, until his eyes light
upon the perfect, unblemished lamb.
Okay, he says, I can use this one.
Jesus is wanting a bride
who understands what he paid for
on the cross
and has appropriated that
into their lives.
He wants us to be healthy,
whole, complete,
prosperous in all things,
in all ways,
and at all times.
Think about it.
Jesus has the Holy Spirit
grooming us
to be a bride for himself,
having no spot or wrinkle.
That's good. Yeah, that's good.
Can we give Dave a round of applause
for the both of them?
Let me leap off of
what the both of them said.
Let me just share this quick,
because it's on my heart.
During worship,
I heard it, like, deep within me.
And then, as I was watching
Dean worship,
and the cry, and then Cheryl was
sharing about all the different
generations of revival
that we've experienced,
and just something that ran through me
during worship, as I was just
literally watching Dean worship, was
there has been generations
that have gone before me.
There has been generations that
have gone before even you
that are a little older than me.
Okay, I'm calling you young.
Amen.
I'm just doing what Pastor said.
You might be 70,
but call it like you're 45, man.
There has been generations
that have cried for revival,
for God to come and move.
I've settled this in my heart,
and time will tell,
but I've settled this in my heart
that we are so close
to that which the Scripture
speaks about.
Not because I feel it.
That's part of it, but that's
not the main reason.
But when you read the Scriptures,
and you literally start seeing the Scriptures,
the prophetic word of God
fulfilled before your eyes,
not only does it excite you,
but it brings about a fear of the Lord.
I'm sorry?
I said yes.
Yeah.
It's like, my God,
we are far closer
to what I'm going to be talking about today
than we even realize.
I mean, it's in me.
It's like,
I'll share with you something personal
that I've been telling my wife for a time now.
But for the past,
it's been about a year.
It's been about a year I shared this with you.
I've been sharing with her.
I said, I don't know why,
but eternity,
to me,
feels far more closer
than it's ever in my lifetime.
I'm not saying that to scare you.
I'm not saying that to scare you.
But it's like,
my spirit inside me is just,
man, I am sensing eternity.
I've never sensed it this way in my life.
Yes, I'm young. I'm only 33.
But I've lived through some things.
And the sense of eternity
that I've been experiencing in this past year,
friends, I can be honest with you,
I have not sensed the urgency of it
or the desire even.
It's all these different emotions,
but the main thing
that it's far closer
than I even realize.
Like that eternity
of what I want to talk about today
and Dave already let us off
in Ephesians 5,
this thing about the bride of Christ,
the church being prepared.
I mean, we are coming
to a moment
of where Earth is going to experience
the greatest wedding
that Earth has ever seen.
Any wedding that you have been to,
it could have been a bougie wedding,
what we are about to experience
is going to surpass that.
We are coming to that.
And here's what I want to emphasize
on when Dave came up to me
and Dave shared that revelation with me.
His eyes were lit up
and what stood out for me.
And then, because he shared this with me,
probably, I don't know Dave,
maybe five months ago you shared this with me.
It was a while ago.
And not long after when Dave shared that with me,
the Lord emphasized
the word wrinkle.
And he told me this.
He said, son, he said, the church,
and I'm calling it what he told me.
You can have other preachers, pastors call it
whatever the Lord's telling them.
But here's what I felt the Lord tell me,
is he said, son, he said,
the church is in a season
of removing the wrinkle.
I said, Lord, I said,
what are you talking about?
And then he brought me back
to what Dave was sharing with me.
Because Dave came in that morning
and he had a little wrinkle on his shirt
and he blamed Cheryl, just like Adam.
He blamed Cheryl.
That wife you gave me, God,
she didn't hire my shirt.
Do you remember that, Dave?
It was something like, he's like, look,
it was hilarious.
It was like, back to Adam.
It's like blaming the wife again.
It's like, come on, man, take ownership.
I'm just kidding, Dave, I love you.
But Dave gave the analogy.
He said, look, he said,
I am unprepared and my shirt is wrinkled,
not because I didn't have time this morning
to iron it, but because
a lack of whatever the case
caused me now to come to church
unprepared and now my shirt is wrinkled.
Not that I didn't have the resources,
not that I didn't have an iron,
not that I didn't have the time,
but it was a lack of many different things
that combined together,
that brought him to a moment
to now have a wrinkle on his shirt
and now he goes into public
and it's like, oh, it's too late now.
I have to be with this wrinkle now.
Are you following what I'm saying?
So I truly do believe that we as a church,
not just Word of Life, but as a church,
we are in a season of removing the wrinkle.
In other words,
God is trying to prepare us
by the Holy Spirit
and by the washing of His Word,
I'll read it here out of Ephesians,
so that we would be prepared
and ready for that day.
That when Jesus returns,
when the bridegroom comes back,
we are not the five foolish
saying, wait, let us go get oil
and then we'll meet you.
But we would be a church
or we would be a people
that would be ready with oil in our lamps
saying we've been longing
for this day.
We've been desiring
to meet you
and be with you face to face.
We were longing
to come in to the supper
of the wedding of the Lamb of God.
We've been longing for this day, Lord.
We've read about it.
We've heard about it.
We've prayed for it.
We've fasted for it.
We've wept for it.
We've done everything under the sun
and now it's here
and the wrinkle has been removed
and I'm prepared to meet you, God.
Friends, that is where we are.
Pastor Vern said it today.
There is a push of the Holy Spirit.
There is an emphasis
of the Holy Spirit in this day
and time that we're in
of you gotta get ready
for what's ahead.
You don't get ready when it comes
because it's too late.
You make sure your shirt is ironed
maybe even the night before.
I remember being a kid
and going to like middle school
and I remember I would always...
it's a characteristic in me.
I don't know, maybe mom and dad
taught me this.
But I would literally
lay out my clothes for school
the night before.
And I did that for years
because I didn't want to wake up
and put on a pants and a shirt
and realize, oh, there is a stain.
People in school are gonna laugh at me.
I'm gonna look like this, that and the other.
And there is an aspect of that
where I was growing up.
You know, I'm still developing.
I'm, you know, peer pressure and all that stuff.
But beside all of that,
I wanted to be prepared
for what was ahead.
I didn't want to wake up and scramble
and then run out of the door
with my hair looking like this.
I wanted to come to a place
to present myself.
And that's what the scriptures say.
Jesus says what?
To present
to himself
a bride
that is without spot,
blemish, or wrinkle.
And I want to develop on those three things a little bit.
Let's read Ephesians.
Because I can just keep going and going.
Let's read Ephesians starting at verse...
I'm gonna start at verse 25
because husbands, I'm reading this to you.
So listen very carefully, husbands.
I'm being serious. All jokes put aside.
All jokes put aside.
It says husbands, love your wives
just as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for her.
And if you're a young man sitting in this place
and you're thinking of getting married
or maybe you're already engaged,
let this scripture
sear your heart before you
put the ring on the girl's finger.
Let it sear your heart.
This is the standard of marriage right here.
Amen.
Okay, I'm gonna let that sit.
And then I'm gonna keep reading
to really get to what I want to say.
I just felt like I needed to read verse 25
for some of the husbands here.
Verse 26.
That he might...
This is talking about Christ.
That he might sanctify
and cleanse her
with the washing
of water by the word.
That he might present her.
This is regarding the bride, the church.
This is regarding us
to himself a glorious church.
Not having spot, wrinkle, or any such thing
but that she should be holy and without blemish.
Let me quickly just develop.
Dave already talked about it a little bit.
I just want to develop on it a little bit more.
A spot means it could be
a physical stain
and let me apply it to more
of maybe a spiritual state
being that we are spirit beings.
We are made of three bodies, soul, and spirit.
So in the natural, a spot could represent
a stain.
Like maybe you have
a spaghetti stain.
Maybe you have whatever.
Just...
It's a spot.
It's visible
to the naked eye.
Like if you have a spot on you
people could see it.
It's visible.
It could be dirt.
It could be a defect
or it could even be disgrace
that is visibly shown.
So to put it in a spiritual
or let's apply it in the spiritual sense
if somebody is living
and practicing sin
it begins to be a spot on their life.
People can walk by you
and they can realize
there is something on your life.
It just emanates off of you.
You know when the Holy Spirit came
and he baptized them
and then we read Corinthians
and it talks about the nine gifts of the Spirit.
One of the gifts of the Spirit is discernment.
And we can actually...
I'm just taking a little rabbit hole here.
We can actually discern
by simply walking by somebody.
If we couldn't mature
in that gifting to that level
it would be very beneficial to us
of who we would hang out with
of who we would spend time with.
I'm not saying to avoid the world
but let's begin to influence the world.
Following me?
So a spot is something that is
literally visible to the naked eye.
Now on the other spot
or on the other flip side
when Jesus is saying
that he's going to cleanse the church
by the washing of the word
you could build a whole series on that.
You literally could build a whole series
on what it means to be washed by the word.
But let me give you just a quick snippet of it.
The Scriptures literally
wash us
both
physically
emotionally
mentally
every aspect the Scriptures
wash us.
It washes the way that we think
literally the Scriptures will wash over us
and it changes
our thinking patterns.
If you actually read the Bible
and you spend time in the Bible
when you actually eat the scroll
when you are studying the word
it literally changes
the way that you begin to think.
Take a 30-day challenge
and come back to me and testify
and tell me that I'm wrong.
I honestly
I challenge you
take 30 days
in not missing a beat
of reading the Scriptures
and when I say read them
not like those
you ever seen that talent show
of where the guy's talent is to read
books really really fast
you guys ever seen that where the guy comes up and he's like
and that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about actually
pausing
and not so much caring that you read
well I read five chapters today
but walking away
until you've been marked by something
that you just read.
And it could be one verse.
It could be one word.
But the fact that you sat there
and you waited for the Lord
to imprint that that's what I'm talking about
take a 30 day challenge by doing that
then come back to me
and tell me that I'm wrong.
I'm challenging you
and come back and tell me that I'm wrong.
The scriptures wash over us
it changes the way that we think
it begins to literally
change the way that we view
the world.
The scriptures begin to change the way
that we view people
and even the people that hurt us
and backstabbed us.
The scriptures have the power to do that.
So when
when Paul is writing
saying that he is going to
wash over the bride
the church
by the washing of the word
he's talking about that the bride is going to be
so in love with the scriptures.
Why? Because the scriptures talk about Jesus.
And in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God
and the word was God.
God.
The very scriptures
are talking about the Lord.
So when the church would again fall in love
with the scriptures and the simplicity
the fundamentals of it
we begin to be washed over
we change the way that we view
we change the way that we think
and those spots
that have embedded us
begin to be now washed away.
Literally
more than half of these spots
begin to be washed away
supernaturally.
You look back three months and people start telling you
you've changed.
There was something about you that's
changed. What is it?
And your response is like, I don't know. I just
I took Pastor Igor's advice
and I took the 30 day challenge of reading my Bible.
I'm different now.
It's that simple.
Friends, I'm telling you
it's that simple.
So to be without
spot
is that right there?
It is divine health.
It is to be virtuous.
It is to be sinless
and full of holiness.
You know that the Bible actually tells us
it's a command given to us
that you have to be holy? Do you guys know that?
Peter actually records that.
Peter writes that.
He says he quotes
Old Testament and he says
be holy
for I am holy. It's a command.
It's not a choice. It's not like
well, maybe you should be holy.
No, he says listen
if you want to be my bride
you got to be holy like I'm holy.
Following me still?
A wrinkle
I literally looked it up
in the Strongs and it literally just translates to
it's a fold.
And it oftentimes refers to
a wrinkle or a fold on the face.
And I'm like well that's interesting.
But
a wrinkle like David already talked to today
a wrinkle can represent
being unprepared.
Not that you can iron out your face
sorry that thought just ran through me.
I'm like ouch
but you're getting what I'm saying.
So now the flip side of it
to be without wrinkle
is to be prepared
and ready with lamps full of oil.
Now I want to touch on what a blemish is
because
it is very similar
to a spot very similar
even when I studied out the word there's so many similarities
but the conclusion that I came to
where the greatest difference
between a spot and a blemish
is that a spot
can be visible to the naked eye.
Yet a blemish is oftentimes
hidden
and rooted in deep and covered up
that very few can see.
A spot is something
that can be covered up.
You can come to church on a Sunday
and you can play your part.
I'm telling you I'm going to keep saying this
it's easy to be a Christian on a Sunday
super easy.
The easiest thing we got half of America
doing more than half of America doing it.
It's easy to be a Christian.
I can come in here.
I can give you the sermon.
You walk away. I can shake hands.
I can smile. La La Land.
Everything is great.
Everything is covered up.
I'm playing the part.
But when I go home on Monday
or even when I go home on Sunday night
then the real you comes out.
That's why I tell people all the time
you want to get to know me
coming out with me and my family.
Come spend time with me and my wife.
Come get to know us.
Am I the same person at the pulpit
and off the pulpit wife?
Now is the time to tell the truth.
She's not saying nothing.
Now I'm nervous.
I am okay.
That's why I have the anchor chip.
She wasn't saying something there for a second.
Is it hot in here?
Blemishes are oftentimes
something that we can cover up.
We can cover up our blemishes
with our makeup.
We can cover up our blemishes with our clothes.
We can cover up our blemishes
by acting. I mean there's
numerous ways that blemishes
can be covered.
But I've learned something
with God that you can absolutely
hide nothing from Him.
You can't hide the intent
of your heart.
You just...
You can't.
And the Lord is saying
in Ephesians 5 through Paul
he's saying, I want a bride
that is without
spot.
Meaning there's not a speck
of sin on her.
She is completely washed
in my word. She is
full of holiness.
Without wrinkle
meaning that with
anticipation
she is prepared.
Even though the hour has not yet
come, she continues
to put oil in her lamp.
Lord, this might be
100 years.
This might be thousands of years.
God, I am going to continue
putting oil in my lamp because
you said a day is coming
where you're going to come and you're going to meet with me.
Even if I pass away
I'm going to tell my children
children, you got to keep
waiting on the Lord.
So a bride
or a church without spot, without
wrinkle, without sin, fully
prepared, which I believe this is where
we're at right now. We as a church
are in a season of removing
the wrinkle.
God is like, wake up guys.
Wake up
to the things of me. Would you
once again love me with all your heart?
And then the third is
the blemishes.
Going in deep to remove
the deep root
of the intent of our hearts.
What is the purpose
of what you're doing? Why?
The why to what you're doing.
If you were to ask me, I'm going to get
really transparent with you here. You ready?
If you were to ask Igor
10 years ago, actually even more
when I was 17,
when the Lord gave me,
when he spoke to me directly and he said
this is what I've destined you to.
If you were to ask me
what is the purpose
of why you want to do that?
I'll be completely honest with you. At the age of 17
I would have told you I'm excited
to go preach at a bunch of different churches.
I'm excited to go meet new people
on and so forth. And the Lord's like,
alright, and he had to work on my heart.
So my question is, if
I'm asking you the same question
that maybe the Lord asked me, it's
if God has called you
or has given you an assignment to do
something, what is the why
to why are you doing it?
That's the blemish.
You might give me all the
right answers. Well, God told
me I got to do it.
Well, we need it done.
Well, and you can give me all
the right answers. But
the blemish that God is after
is that he is wanting to remove
from the church is that you might
be able to tell me all the right things.
But deep within
your heart, there may be a root
of selfishness that you're doing
that you're doing it because
it brings you pleasure.
Because it brings you notoriety.
Because it brings you
approval from people.
I'm regarding this to people.
The Lord
wants a church
that doesn't care
of the approval of man.
My wife doesn't
care if you approve
what she wore today. Why?
Because she ain't your wife.
She
asks her husband. She only
cares what her husband
gives approval for or
insights or
perspective. She don't care what
you think she wears or should she wear it.
Why? Because she's married to me.
God is desiring a church
to have the same
intent towards him.
We don't care
what other churches are doing. Good!
Let him do it.
Let him do it that way.
We only care what
what our bridegroom is telling
us to do. And this is
how he's telling us to do it.
We have come to this place
in the church world
where we are competing. I'm like,
we're looking like Hollywood.
We got competition in the
churches. Well, my church,
they did their creative team
this way. I don't care!
I don't care
the way that your church did it.
Well, my pastor, I
don't care. I'm sorry, I don't care.
Maybe I can glean
from it, but that's not
the way that God is asking me to do it.
Would we be more
mindful of what
he says about this
than the people that are even
around you?
We are
often times, listen to me, listen.
We are
often times held
back in our worship
on to God because of the
people that are around us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What are they going to say about me?
Who cares?
Who cares what they're
saying about you?
What is he going to say about you
when you see him face to face?
When you get alone with
him,
when you go home after a Sunday
and you get before the Lord,
what are you going to tell him then?
Oh Lord, I was too shy because
well this and this person were
around me and they know my past
and
who cares?
God is after making
a bride with that attitude.
We want his approval.
What are you saying about me, God?
This is all about revival, by the way.
I'm still talking about revival here.
This is why he has to revive us
because we have so hit a ditch
in the church world that
he's like, y'all got to come back.
We've hit a ditch and then
we get into a ditch and then we make our own
ditch and then the Holy Spirit is yelling
and saying, put the shovel down.
Put the shovel down.
That's enough. You've dug too deep.
In the book of Esther,
I'm going to get into what I believe the Lord is doing
right here in this season.
In the book of Esther, open up to
chapter 2.
Is this still good, by the way?
Okay.
Where's the book of Esther?
See, when you don't read it
as often, you're like, man,
put it up on the screen for me.
Esther chapter 2,
verses 12.
In the book of Esther, we find
something very
significant that I want to correlate
to this season that we are in
as a church.
But we read
in the story of Esther that there was
a king
and he had a wife
and the wife
was not the best wife.
Just make it
simple as that. So
the king basically calls for
I'm giving you a brief story.
The king basically calls
for a whole bunch of young virgins.
And he basically tells the servants
bring virgins
and I want them to basically
be prepared
six months in
oil of myrrh
and then six months
in perfumes
and preparations of beautifying
before they come
and enter into my courts.
I will spend time with them
and then we'll basically see if I like
them I'll call them back.
It's basically what it is.
And all the 21st century modern women
are like no he didn't.
That's
alright. Your feelings
can get hurt once in a while.
So the king makes these commands
and then we find this young girl
Esther who
is a representation basically
she's representing Israel
and she's standing before a king
on behalf of a people in other
words. And what I'm trying to
really emphasize here is
three things. It's
the fact that it took
it took 12 months
so a year
but there is significance in that
because the question that
will arise is well why does it have to take
that long? Why does it have to be
a year
of preparation
before one young woman
can enter in
to the king's courts?
There's so many significance
in that that I can apply to you
and I'm only going to hit a few of them. The other thing
is the six months of oil of myrrh
Am I saying that right? Is it myrrh? Am I
pronouncing that? Okay. I'm still
learning English.
Then there are six months
of perfumes
and the preparations for beautifying.
It's interesting because
when I studied it out
the six months of
oil of myrrh
first of all it was of great value
that that type of oil of myrrh was of
great value. It wasn't something that was
cheaply bought. It wasn't
a perfume that you go and buy at a garage sale.
It was something that was
that was of great
value. There was
there was significance on it
on and so forth but they also
they also used that
type of oil as
an ointment
and an ointment often times
will
deal with a spot
you know let's say you got a rash
or something on you it's like a spot
you go and you get ointment and you begin
to put ointment on that rash
or that spot and all of a sudden
that ointment begins to
empower and it begins to cleanse
whatever rash or whatever thing you have.
Ointment is often
times used when
when you need a type of
healing like if
again it's
ointment is used in so many different
facets. I'm sure your guys's minds
are running with what ointment can be used
but ointment
is used to remove
spots it actually
in a spiritual sense
it's used to remove
blemishes things that are rooted deep
it's for healing
like I said that already
it's to restore
whether it's restoring a skin
whether I'm just giving you these applications here
it's to recover it's to bring
something back and it is also
to bring a purification
when you have
rashes
or whatever on your body
there's
there's an indication
that something
Something somewhere is causing some kind of impurity.
Maybe it's in your blood. Whatever the case may be.
Pastor was talking about parasites today. That's what's running through my mind.
I'm like, man, can we take ointments orally?
We can. See, there you go. Learn something new every day.
So it's... the oil is given so that we would be cleansed from our spots,
our blemishes, all these things.
And it's interesting to me, and where I want to bring that application to now,
is that six months, these young women would be bathed in this oil of myrrh.
In other words, they would be bathed so that they would be divinely healed and restored,
that they would be completely purified.
There's all these preparations that occurred in the six months of being bathing
and a purpose of it so that when they come before the king,
they're not coming before him with rashes and with defects and with disgrace
and all these different things, but they're actually brought before this king,
completely made whole, not a spot, not a blemish.
They are literally made perfect before they're brought before him.
Now, the other six months that they spend is the perfumes,
which again is another great value, and the preparations for beautifying.
And this is more because when we think of preparations of beautifying in our modern world,
I don't know, my mind goes there, maybe yours doesn't,
but we think of a woman, you know, putting on makeup.
We think of, well, that's a tool of, you know, looking prettier.
It's, you know, we put on jewelry, we adore ourselves,
and we call those as things of tools or a way of preparing to be beautified.
But when I was studying it out, it's more than just the external view of,
I'm wearing a necklace, I have makeup on, my hair is done,
but the preparations of beautifying were actually a strict protocol
that these young women had to follow in that six month period.
There was a strict, there was strict things that they could probably eat or not eat,
things that they could do or not do, things that they could be involved in or not.
It's all, there was a strict protocol that fell in line with the preparation of being beautified
before, before she could walk in to the king's palace.
When we think about, when we think about the church and certain things that we do in services,
the purpose of it, and Pastor has talked about this,
the purpose of it is we want to guard the anointing,
because, let me share this, I've learned this with the Lord.
It could take you, it's not every time, but it could take you an hour to two hours to three hours.
And so the Lord comes where it's tangible, where you feel it.
It can take you that long for the Lord to come and actually meet with you.
But in a moment, if you act incorrectly, it'll lift.
So when we make certain, I'll call it protocols,
when we act a certain way in the service, when our ushers at the door,
when you're walking in and there's prayer going on and you're laughing out there,
and our ushers are telling you, hey, be quiet, don't act that way.
It's not because they love power and they're trying to exercise their power on you.
No, the ushers know the standard that as pastors that we have set,
and they are simply following a protocol.
Because we understand, you could wait years, years for something
that God has promised you, that you can literally lose in a moment.
If you act incorrectly.
So in the six months of these young women being prepared in perfumes
that they would smell good, that they would be literally...
it would like, I don't know, be full of it, that when you walk by
and you're like, man, you smell like Gucci.
Because they've bathed in it.
I'll make this application.
If we abide in the Lord, if we truly abide in the Lord,
I've heard testimonies that there is a fragrance that comes off of people.
You literally, you smell it.
I think pastor, you were sharing it with me.
You guys have had times in the modular
where you had numerous people that were like,
it was in the middle of winter, right?
Or something like that.
And everybody was smelling flowers in the parking lot.
And it was cold. There was no flowers there, right?
Pastor married in plant any new flowers.
So there is a fragrance of heaven.
So here these young women were prepared in the perfumes.
Yet at the same time in the preparation of beautifying
these young women had to follow a strict protocol.
They had to know how to act before they met the king.
We got a bunch of churches that don't know how to act
when the presence of God comes.
I was in Nebraska.
My wife and I, this is some years ago.
I'm going to share with you a testimony.
We were traveling and I was speaking at a church in Nebraska.
And the presence of God came.
It was heavy. It was like, whoa.
And all of a sudden I'm looking around the congregation.
It was probably a congregation.
I don't know about maybe 600 people or something.
It was a large church.
And all of a sudden you had a bunch of people that were awkward.
You could just see it on their faces.
Like people didn't know what to do with themselves.
They're like...
And I'm like, Lord, why?
Why do people get awkward
and freeze up when the presence of God comes?
It's like, I don't know if there's a spirit of awkwardness.
I don't know. Maybe there is.
I'm going to cast that devil out.
But it's like people get awkward
when the presence of God comes heavy.
And the Lord just spoke to me simply.
He said, they don't know how to act when I come.
They don't know the strict protocols
of how to act, of how to talk,
of how to respond when the presence of God comes.
So I believe that in the season that we are in
in removing the wrinkle,
God is doing all these things.
God is trying to saturate us
in the Holy Spirit, which is the oil.
The Holy Spirit comes.
He convicts us.
He begins to remove the spots.
And the deep, I said, deep, deep blemishes
that are in our hearts.
The intense of our hearts
that the Holy Spirit is removing.
Because he says, the bride of Jesus can't have those.
And he is bathing us.
He is bathing us.
He's beckoning.
He's saying, come.
Respond to what I'm telling you to do.
Come.
Come be washed by the Word.
Come.
Abide in the Word.
Come.
Abide in Christ.
Let me wash over you.
I'm trying to prepare you for something
that is coming sooner than you even know.
And then at the same time,
that same Holy Spirit is now preparing us
with the fragrance of heaven.
In other words, he is gracing us
with this presence and glory
where we can bask,
where we can actually find strength
in the areas where we are weakened.
We can actually find strength in his presence
and then in that he's working on our character
and he's preparing us.
It's the preparations of beautifying.
He needs us to know how the kingdom operates.
We learn how the kingdom of God operates
not when we just get there.
But it's actually our duty to know
how the kingdom operates down here.
We have to know the protocol of the kingdom down here.
The strict protocol actually of the kingdom.
The holiness, the reverence, the glory.
We have to learn that down here
because if we don't, we will find ourselves
coming unprepared and blown away.
You following me?
Yeah.
Friends, the purpose of revival is
and all these things,
and I've given you the purposes of it,
but at the end of all of this,
yes, it's first love,
yes, it's creating a place for the Lord to dwell.
This is why I made that first statement
in the first series,
that the Holy Spirit is going to and fro,
and there is an emphasis on local churches
like never before.
Because he understands that it's within the local body
that he can do the preparations of beautifying,
that he can do the basking in his presence,
all these things that you really don't get at a conference.
In a conference, you just get injected with something
and then you run.
But in a church, in a local body
is where you actually grow.
This is where growth happens.
This is where we grow.
We come into conflict with one another.
We come into different disagreements with one another.
It's all these things. We're growing.
That's why there is an emphasis on the local body
like never before.
He's preparing us for something that is coming sooner
than we even realize.
So revival is first love,
preparing a place for the Holy Spirit.
Revival is salvation.
Revival is the supernatural.
Revival is all of these things.
But all of these things, they add up to this moment
that Revelation 19 talks about.
Let me read it for you and we're going to come to a conclusion.
Let me read Revelation 19 for you.
This is Revelation 19. Let's start at verse 6.
Friends, this is what we're coming to.
This is what's more closer than we even realize.
I'm telling you.
And you're like, Igor, we've heard that so many times.
Good. Keep hearing it.
Keep hearing that.
I thank God for the men and women that have gone before me
that have sounded the alarm.
I thank God for the generations that were before me,
my grandparents, my parents,
and the generations before them that sounded the alarm.
I thank God for John the Baptist.
He sounded the alarm.
Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
That message of the kingdom coming
is not something that all we've heard.
It was even before our grandparents' time.
John the Baptist sounded that alarm.
And then Jesus followed.
This is what we're coming to.
Revelation 19.
Starting at verse 6.
This is John having this heavenly experience.
The angel is showing him all these things.
It says,
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude.
As the sound of many waters
and as the sound of mighty thundering saying,
Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.
Verse 7.
Let us be glad and rejoice
and give him glory
for the marriage of the Lamb has come
and his wife has made herself ready.
I want you to pay attention to something here.
It says,
The wife has made herself ready.
The wife has made herself ready.
You're saying, why does that have significance?
I believe the way we make ourselves ready
is by responding to what he's asking us
or he's telling us to do.
You're saying what the scripture says
that he's going to get ready.
Yes, he's going to get ready by speaking.
She's going to get herself ready by responding.
It didn't say,
I want you to pay attention to this.
It didn't say
that he made the wife ready,
but his wife has made herself ready.
Friends, the purpose of everything
all these revival is and what it's coming to,
it's coming to a moment
of the greatest wedding that we will ever experience.
That's what we're coming to.
That's what we're coming to.
Revival is
all these things,
the greatest wedding
that we are to ever experience.
That's the ending goal of it.
And then for eternity, I don't know.
The Bible gives us ideas of it,
but I don't know what we're going to do for eternity.
Feast with the Lord,
sit in our saunas.
I don't know, man.
Hang out with... I don't know.
But what I do know
and what's our future
is that there is a wedding
that's a lot closer.
Listen to me.
There is a wedding
that is a lot closer
than we even realize.
I want to remind us something
and then we'll pray.
Open Heavens 25, I spoke this,
where I talked about the four years
with Trump coming into office
and then the four years that I heard the Lord
speak to me about
and that I just want to remind us of this
is that he said
the way that we treat these four years
and the way that we prepare ourselves
in these four years,
the years to follow
will be a result of it.
I don't know what's ahead.
There's...
Yeah, I'm not going to get into that.
But I also want to make another marking
and we'll pray here.
This November, this November
is going to be the halfway point
of the four years.
So I want to remind you
whatever you're doing in your life
right now, whatever you're doing,
I want you to go home today
and really think about
what I'm doing right now in my life
is that beneficial to eternity.
Now, I'm not saying stop living.
Yes, there's duties that we have to do.
I'm talking about the other things
that we have placed upon ourselves.
That we have placed upon ourselves.
That we have taken charge.
God never even asked us to do it.
I want you to go home tonight
and I want you to think about
what am I doing
and should I be doing it?
Following me?
Let's stand for prayer.
Pastor, do you want to say anything after
or can I dismiss?
Father, we thank you.
Father, we thank you for your word
and the washing of it.
We thank you
that you even now
are sounding the alarm by your Holy Spirit.
You even now are speaking to our hearts
and you are awakening our hearts
to see in a new perspective,
to think in a new perspective
so that we would be prepared
and ready to enter into
the supper and the marriage of the Lamb.
Lord, I pray that you would keep us ready
that you would continue
to put the pressure on this church
that we would not lose sight
and we would continue to ready ourselves.
Wash over us by your word.
Be graceful to us, Lord.
Be graceful to us.
And may you show your mercy
and compassion in the areas
that we may still be weakened in, Lord.
Would you show your mercy and grace
in those areas to us?
We're asking you.
We are asking you, Lord,
because there is areas in our life
that we need your mercy and your grace
like never before.
We thank you, we bless you
in Jesus' name.
Amen.