Posts Tagged ‘notes’
CoFI Break Video: Is worship music an idol?
Based on my recent Charisma Magazine article, this message deals with the trend to run to worship events and away from prayer events.
People run to powerful worship music events and tend to run from prayer events. Is it possible that the music has become an idol? Can those who are living sinful, compromised lives blend in without any difficulty in a worship music driven church culture? Yes. But, develop a culture of prayer and the unrepentant will flee.
WATCH THIS VIDEO AND DOWNLOAD THE TEACHING NOTES HERE.
Video and Notes: Transition Commission–A call to be “too severely committed”
I preached my last message at Revival Church last night—and it’s a MUST WATCH!
Last night’s service and message were intense from beginning to end. BY ALL MEANS watch my last message at Revival Church.
I discuss the critical call for the remnant to prepare for a shock to the church and to the earth.
Will American Christianity finally rid itself of a casual approach? Will we reject an independent spirit? Will we pray continually or just focus on nice church services?
It’s time for fire to erupt! That fire must explode out of God’s remnant people who are ready for massive change—a shift that will result in the old model of church giving way to an extreme, demanding and troubling new wineskin.
I bless Detroit as I move on to Branson, Missouri. Amy Smith has been prepared for such a time as this and I’m excited about her continuing leadership at Revival Church!
Join her and the team of passionate warriors every Saturday at 7pm!
Revival Church is located at 26091 Sherwood, Warren, MI 48091.
Here’s the video:
Here’s the notes:
Teacher: John Burton
Teaching Title: Transition Commission
- A Prophetic Company
- Six years of sounding the same message seems like a long time, but this group is barely getting started.
- The prophetic word of reformation that God is delivering to this region is critical, and until there is response the alarms must continue to sound.
- Remember, this ministry is called to awaken the church and call it into revolution—don’t ever lose that.
- Leonard Ravenhill: The greatest need tonight in America is prophets!
- Leonard Ravenhill: There is a terrible vacuum in Evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally other-worldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable.
- The call is for the pavement people—those who are found on their faces crying out day and night for revival.
- Their focus isn’t on crowds, polished worship or programs for the whole family.
- The focus is on the groan. Until people are seen on their face and heard groaning in intercession we will know the assignment is not complete.
- Rare China video: www.johnburton.net/messages
- The reformed model of church is not only shunned, it’s renounced and soundly rejected by even some of the most zealous Christians. They consider them opinions or suggestions instead of mandates.
- The cost is too high.
- It’s radically uncomfortable.
- It’s seen as extreme and too far reaching.
- Will the church heed the word of the Lord?
- Six years of sounding the same message seems like a long time, but this group is barely getting started.
8. Leonard Ravenhill: “In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery”. The prophet is God’s detective seeking for lost spiritual treasures. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by the measure of his unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him. He has no price tags. He is totally “otherworldly”. He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile. He marches to another drummer!”
b. The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: For twenty-three years–from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day–the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. Jeremiah 25:1-3
- For 23 years, the Lord had spoken to His people through His prophet but to no avail.
- Jeremiah means: whom Jehovah appoints
- Jeremiah lived to see his nation go down into sin, war, and, finally, judgment. Through it all, he was faithful to preach the Word of God.
c. And though the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your fathers for ever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.” “But you did not listen to me,” declares the LORD, “and you have provoked me with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.” Jeremiah 25:4-7
- For over two decades, the prophet has warned God's people to repent or perish.
- Jeremiah's message fell on deaf ears and defiant hearts.
- Will you still boldly call people to response as Jeremiah did?
- Leonard Ravenhill: “Our pulpits today are occupied with puppets rather than with prophets, with organizers rather than with agonizers.”
- Pastor Dan Parton of Manitou Springs: Twenty-three years is a long time for a man to preach with no results. Twenty three years is a long time for a man to preach to deaf ears. Twenty-three years is a long time to be ridiculed and punished for your ministry, yet Jeremiah remained faithful.
- Commissioning
- Those who know their purpose and who are burning with a message rarely quit. Will you quit?
b. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
- Like Jeremiah you were formed, you are known, you are sanctified and you are ordained.
c. “Ah, Sovereign LORD,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the LORD. Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:6-10
- This is what Detroit needs.
- You are the prophetic voices.
New series starting tonight! 20 Elements of Revival at the School of Revival
Join us locally or online TONIGHT at 7pm for the beginning of our brand new series 20 ELEMENTS OF REVIVAL!
Discover how to live in a state of white hot, continual revival—and how to see it spread into a city wide inferno!
Join us locally in Detroit for prayer, worship, teaching and then a time of discussion:
theFurnace is located at 26091 Sherwood, Warren, MI 48091
If you aren’t near, you can watch online beginning at 7pm at www.thefurnace.tv/live.
DOWNLOAD NOTES
You can download tonight’s notes to follow along as you watch HERE.
20 ELEMENTS OF REVIVAL
The contention of this book is simple: The extreme manifest presence of God is the biblical norm for New Testament believers. We label it many ways: revival, an outpouring, renewal, and certainly different moves of God have distinct flavors to them. However, regardless of the descriptive term we attach to it, we simply are not experiencing it. As we investigate a simple and powerful formula for revival, we will find ourselves deeply provoked and advancing with extreme momentum toward the goal of a city-wide outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
20 Elements of Revival- I just finished reading 20 Elements of Revival. Everyone should read this book! I wish I had the cash for a case of this book. Seriously! I keep thinking of more people who NEED a copy of it! It’s very, very, very rare for me to feel this way about a book other than the Bible. -Kathi
Just finished reading the two books you gave me…and I am buzzing in the Holy Spirit! My wife and I had an hour conversation about the depth of their implications. You have nailed it my friend. I have met few people who have put all this together….and I am in awe and grateful. I want all our leadership team to especially read 20 Elements of Revival. -Tim
Live video streaming at theFurnace | The Main Event is tonight at 7pm ET
Watch our primary service TONIGHT via video streaming at 7pm ET!
First, watch last night’s School of Prayer. It was a powerful night with practical teaching on how to have extreme success in prayer.
We then modeled what was taught in prayer. You are SURE to learn a lot! WATCH HERE.
Watch tonight’s service at www.thefurnace.tv/live!
theFurnace exists to gather forerunners who are united in the mandate to initiate reformation in the church and revival in the region. As carriers of the fire of God, we are single-minded in our mission to rally a generation that will embrace the cross of Christ, pursue radical holiness, engage in fervent prayer, live a life of repentance and experience both the freedom and the fear of the Lord.
You can DOWNLOAD NOTES and follow along with tonight’s message by clicking on “Extravagant Intimacy” under the Teaching Notes section next to the media player at www.thefurnace.tv/live.
“The coming moves of God will require nothing short of a revolution of our current structures, models and mindsets. Not an adjustment or an enhancement, but deep reform. The resulting fire and presence of the Holy Spirit will cause us to marvel and wonder why we ever resisted at all.”- John Burton, based on his book 20 Elements of Revival
Prophetic Messengers Notes
Here are the notes for TONIGHT’S teaching on Prophetic Messengers
Listen LIVE TONIGHT at 7pm EDT here: www.detroitprayerfurnace.com/live
If you stumble across this after the fact, go to http://media.johnburton.net and search for the first teaching in the series Prophetic Messengers!
If you are within 100 miles of Detroit—LEAVE HOME NOW and join us! The fire of God is all over me! Tonight is going to be significant.
**After the notes, I will include info about joining our leadership team at the Detroit Prayer Furnace. We are seeking 40+ people who will give leadership to the prayer movement!
Prophetic Messengers
I. The voices must be heard! The power of life and death is in the tongue!
a. Now, more than ever, the remnant must get a clue! Rise up! Open your mouths!
i. This means you! You are a prophetic messenger! You declare truth!
ii. Wake up with the call to impact burning in you!
iii. The church is silent. Christians are posting sweet nothings on Facebook when we must be provoking and awakening a numb church that has no sense of spiritual violence and is little threat to the enemy.
iv. Most don’t post truth for two reasons:
1. They don’t want to offend friends and family.
2. They don’t hear from the Lord.
v. Joe Sazyc: Prophets are always victims of those who didn't like their message.
vi. Generally, prophetic churches don't get very big. The prophetic ain't popular. People like prophets from a distance. That doesn't mean they don't have impact. ~Joe Sazyc
1. The impact you have may not draw the people you want to you. It will probably repel people you care about from you. But you WILL have impact!
2. Some friends and family will probably cut off relationship with you!
vii. Luke 14:25-28 (ESV) 25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
1. ESV Study Bible : “Hating” is a Semitic expression for loving less.
2. Scofield: All terms which define the emotions or affections are comparative. Natural affection is to be, as compared with the believer's devotedness to Christ, as if it were hate.
3. We see the same expression when God said, “Jacob I have loved but Essau I have hated.”
a. We must proclaim truth knowing that it will absolutely enrage people you love! It is for their freedom!
4. Follow people like Isaiah Saldivar. His entire Twitter feed is one provoking prophetic decree after another! He’s on a mission! He’s 22!
5. Some of his posts:
a. “If you don't think being holy is important than you don't think seeing God is important.”
b. “No amount of false teaching will be able to widen the narrow road.”
c. “Not being on time is saying your time is more important than someone else's.”
d. “God cannot trust you with a stage if you struggle to show up to church on time.”
e. “Don't envy those who God promotes and expect a promotion.”
f. “We have lost the spirit of conviction due to fear of condemning people.”
g. “I know countless people who preach on revival and awakening. I know few who are willing to pay the price.”
h. “If your revelation of joy is laughter in church you have sold yourself short.”
i. “We should be more sensitive to how the Holy Spirit feels than how people feel.”
j. “If we were really sensitive to seekers our services would be longer not shorter.”
k. “Jesus is coming back for a church not a relevant movement.”
l. “Lukewarm people lack spiritual discernment so holiness will always look like legalism.”
m. “It would be interesting to see people express their opinions in real life and not just behind a keyboard.”
viii. Messengers arise! Get the word of the Lord hour after hour! Burn! And shout those messages from the rooftops!
1. Every Christian on the planet should have a Twitter and Facebook and Youtube account…and should take media over with never-ending proclamations of truth!
ix. With the situation in Syria upon us, we have no option but to open our mouths!
1. Saw a vision of a sudden Revolutionary War…a shaking that provoked the people who were working in their fields to pick up their guns and fight.
2. Are you ready?
3. You have the authority to DEMAND COMPLIANCE and to decree order!
II. Break Down and Build Up
a. Jeremiah 1:4-10 (ESV) 4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” 9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
i. Number One: The word of the Lord came to me.
1. This must happen now for the remnant!
2. The prophetic atmosphere must skyrocket!
3. Sheep must hear God’s voice!
4. The prayer movement is key!
ii. Number Two: We are known by God and appointed by God.
1. We are assigned!
2. Do you participate in church or ministry due to assignment or opportunity?
3. Your answer will determine your readiness.
iii. Number Three: We have no excuse!
1. Don’t say I’m only a youth, I’m only a housewife, I’m not educated, I can’t speak!
iv. Number Four: We will speak what the Lord commands us to
v. Number Five: Have no fear
vi. Number Six: God has touched our mouths and appointed us over nations!
III. Jeremiah Continued
a. Jeremiah 1:11-19 (ESV) 11 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” 12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”
i. Dake: A staff for striking, made from an almond tree. Here it symbolizes a watchman, a vigilant officer looking for the invasion of Judah by Babylon.
ii. God is setting up watchmen!
iii. We can’t be an echo, we must be a voice. What is God saying?
iv. His Words are being delivered…are you receiving them?
1. He’s watching over his word, not ours! We can’t pray amiss!
v. ESV Study Bible : Jeremiah can expect that when he speaks God’s words, the words will come true.
vi. Do you have that confidence?
b. 13 The word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” 14 Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15
i. Life Application Study Bible: The pot of boiling water tipping from the north and spilling over Judah pictured Babylon delivering God's scalding judgment against Jeremiah's people.
ii. Boiling pot: An Oriental symbol of a raging war.
iii. How can America oppose the chemical massacre of 426 Syrian children & support the chemical massacre of 4000 American children a day?
c. For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the LORD, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.
i. God so loved his people that their rebellion put his eternity with them at risk.
ii. If God’s methods of allowing enemies of his people to attack were valid then, certainly it’s valid now.
iii. It’s interesting that God sent enemies to the gates.
1. Cindy Williams: The Lord said; “an unholy triad of deception is forming, watch Russia, Iran and North Korea.”
2. Prov. 8:34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.
3. Rick Warzywak: The Lord is supernaturally rousing intercessors and watchmen from their sleep and giving them the charge to fulfill their calling to stand alert and serve as “early warning systems” in the spirit.
4. James Goll: We urged our state leaders to call their states to focused prayer over ports and naval bases, including Annapolis, and the eastern gate of the US.
5. Cindy Jacobs: It is clear that we are in need of better “intelligence,” greater clarity, and the need for those who stand guard over our nation to be awake and alert. This is not a time to be asleep, confused or distracted!
6. Cindy Jacobs: Please agree with us in prayer and continue to decree a supernatural watchman anointing over our intelligence community, border agents, customs, the coast guard, the military, and police, in particular for those who stand guard over our ports along the eastern seaboard. In addition to this, please pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and that war would be averted in the Arab world.
7. Cindy Williams: I'm looking at the earthquake world map. I studied this area for a year, so am a little familiar with what it normally looks like and it's trends so what caught my eye today was that ALL the major plates have been shaking and are 6.0 or 6.6 (number of man).
d. 16 And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me. They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands.
i. Dake: God always makes the reasons for His judgments clear, in time for men to avoid them if they will listen. Four reasons for judgment here:
1. Wickedness
a. Holiness!
2. Forsaking God
a. Leonard Ravenhill: We have forsaken God, we have forsaken the prayer rooms.
3. Burning incense to other gods
a. Burning Man: Aug 26-Sept 2
b. 50,000 people
4. Worshiping the works of their own hands
ii. Ephesians 5:3-17 (ESV) 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. [THIS IS HUGE! WE MUST EXPOSE DARKNESS!] 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
1. This is huge!
e. Jer 1:17 But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
i. It’s time to work!
ii. It’s about the assignment not the opportunity!
1. ESV: He must not be dismayed by them (his foes) as he works, or God will give him over to their terrors.
f. 18 And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.”
i. God is purging, purifying, and he will prevail if we aren’t dismayed!
JOIN THE CORE AT THE DETROIT PRAYER FURNACE
Special Events: Powerful week of prophetic impartation, end-times teaching & more!
Chris Ferguson from IHOP and prophetic messenger Julia Palermo will be at Revival Church and theLab School of Fire THIS WEEK!
First: Listen to Sunday’s teaching on the Joshua Generation and hear about the shock that’s coming to our nation and the call of the church to move with passion into position! Listen here (notes will be included below): http://media.johnburton.net/7637627
THE COMING CHURCH
What is coming to and through the church? That’s the theme this week as very special guests Chris Ferguson and Julia Palermo minister in fire at Revival Church and theLab School of Fire!
THURSDAY: END TIMES TEACHING
Julia and Chris will be ministering prophetically over everybody in attendance, and then a key teaching on the end-times and the church’s role in the Tribulation will be presented.
This is a MUST attend event!
We normally charge $25 to audit a class at theLab, but we are opening this class to everybody at NO CHARGE! FREE!
Simply show up at 7pm on Thursday! Revival Church & theLab meet at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
FRIDAY: INTERCESSION IN DETROIT
Julia and Chris will be joining theLab and other revivalists and intercessors at Apostle Londen Winters Ministries THIS FRIDAY, March 22nd at 7pm.
The level of prophecy in this ministry is high and the atmosphere is hot! Bring friends or come alone!
This special prayer event is being held at: 8316 Dexter Blvd., Detroit 48206.
SUNDAY: THE COMING CHURCH
Get ready for powerful worship and an unusual night of prophetic fire!
Chris, Julia and I will be tag team teaching on what we see coming for the church in the end-times.
There is a great shock that’s coming, and we need to be prepared for this amazing upcoming season in the church of our nation!
We begin with IHOP worship on the screen and intercession in the sanctuary at 5:15pm.
The service begins at 6pm. You can let us know you are coming and we’ll give you a FREE copy of my book SIX ENEMIES! Go here: www.explorerevival.com/plan-your-visit
JOSHUA GENERATION NOTES
http://media.johnburton.net/7637627
Joshua Generation
I. The Great Mission
a. Threefold Strategy of God
i. Salvation & Deliverance: The initial goal in the Exodus was to escape captivity. (inward)
ii. Intimacy & Offering: The secondary goal was to worship God in intimacy in the desert. (upward)
iii. Warfare & Possession: The ultimate goal was to take their new culture of intercession and worship into the Promised Land and conquer demonic strongholds on cities that stand in the way. (outward)
b. This is our focus at Revival Church: get you free, encounter God in intimacy, rise up as warriors and fulfill a mission. All three must be active!
i. The house of prayer must come before we take the city!
c. That’s the great mission, and now let’s look at a great mistake.
II. The Great Mistake
a. They had been slaves there for over 400 years, and God went to great lengths to deliver them from bondage.
i. They appreciated the deliverance, but they didn’t transfer their gaze from inward to upward, from them to God.
b. Shortly after their salvation form Egypt, due to their persistent unbelief that God would faithfully and safely take them into a land of their own, the Promised Land (Canaan–or Israel), God brought judgment and chastisement upon them (Numbers 13–14). He sent them into the desert to wander for 40 years. (This is most Christians!) All of the people aged 20 years or older were destined to die in the desert and to never enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief (Numbers 14:26–35, Hebrews 3:16–19).
c. The great mistake? The Israelites were known for their complaint!
i. What a legacy!
ii. Their complaining led to unbelief which led to wandering and then death.
1. If you wander too long, you will not see your promise!
iii. One of the most tragic mistakes we can make is to assume our attitudes and personal dispositions don’t have much of an impact.
iv. Check this out:
d. Numbers 11:1 (ESV) 1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
e. 1 Corinthians 10:8-10 (ESV) 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
i. Dang! What is that! To be destroyed by serpents! Hard core! The Destroyer!
ii. Why? Just for sexual immorality? Grumbling?
iii. Yes, our attitudes and actions reap consequences!
f. Numbers 14:1-10 (ESV) 1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” 10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
i. Do not rebel.
ii. Do not fear.
iii. You would think the complaining would end…but no! Check it out!
1. Numbers 16:1-3 (NIV) 1 Korah …became insolent 2 and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3 They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD‘s assembly?”
2. Numbers 16:31-33 (NIV) 31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.
iv. This is getting serious!
1. Today it’s expected that leaders make it easy for people to follow.
2. I disagree. Leaders are called to lead you into the most challenging, risky and humanly impossible adventure!
3. We should make it easy for leaders to lead!
4. Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ.
5. If you are going to follow apostolic leaders, you better have your running shoes on!
6. Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV) 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
7. 1 Corinthians 9:24-26 (ESV) 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
a. Apostolic leaders lead into a difficult, costly mission with a sharp prophetic edge.
b. Pastors mostly lead you into comfort, and there is a place for that… and apostles lead you into mission, into movement.
c. This is why churches are usually best led by apostles and small groups are usually best led by pastors, or the regional church led by apostles, and local bodies led by pastors. They must work together.
d. We equip people to work, to move, to fulfill a mission.
e. Ephesians 4:11-12 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
f. It’s time to move!
III. The Great Movement
a. From the Great Mistake to the Great Movement.
b. From dead in the desert to moving into destiny!
c. The older generation complained, grumbled, sinned sexually, had idols, etc… but the younger generation was humbled, tested and disciplined by the Lord during their desert sojourn.
d. They were ready to move into their mission.
i. Only 10% of Christians know what their calling is…their mission!
1. This means that precious days are being lost wandering and surviving instead of advancing!
2. Just because you are moving, doesn’t mean you are advancing in your mission!
3. Psalm 107:4-5 (NIV) 4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
4. The only way to discover your calling is to be fully given to it!
a. This is why thelab and other ministry schools are so powerful.
b. It requires a complete surrender of time, dreams, comfort in a movement of radical unity!
c. God is isn't coming back for a church with scattered believers. He's coming back for a company of people with a common vision. ~Mike Bickle
d. The highest blessing, the commanded blessing, comes when God's people gather together in unity.~Mike Bickle
5. This end-time passage gives us the critical secret to fulfilling our mission.
a. Revelation 12:10-12 (ESV) 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
b. Salvation, power, the Kingdom, authority!
c. How do we live in that and conquer?
i. The blood of the lamb
ii. The word of our testimony
1. JFB: Their testimony evinced their victory over him by virtue of the blood of the Lamb. Hereby they confess themselves worshippers of the slain Lamb and overcome the beast, Satan's representative.
iii. Death to self
iv. This is such an important step…today most are looking for ‘life to self’…but don’t realize that life doesn’t come before death.
v. If we emphasize the benefits while ignoring the cost, people will run from Jesus when their cross is presented to them.
1. Romans 8:35-36 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
2. Matthew 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
3. John 12:24-25 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Those who love their life will lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
4. Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
a. Die daily! It’s worth it because of the power of the resurrection!
5. 1 Corinthians 15:30-34 (ESV) 30 Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
e. Our church’s key verses:
i. Joshua 3:4-5 (ESV) 4 …Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.” 5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
1. Verse 4 is why we must embrace apostolic leadership—we have never been this way before…apostles are ‘sent ones’…they are pioneers.
a. You need a Daniel Boone leading you!
b. Despite some resistance from American Indian tribes such as the Shawnee, in 1775 Boone blazed his Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee into Kentucky. There he founded the village of Boonesborough, Kentucky, one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians.
c. Boone was a militia officer during the Revolutionary War (1775–83), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between the American settlers and the British-aided Native Americans. Boone was captured by Shawnee warriors in 1778, who after a while adopted him into their tribe.
d. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 European people migrated to Kentucky/Virginia by following the route marked by Boone.
2. The only way we can survive such a dangerous mission is if we follow verse 5 instructions: Consecrate yourselves and prepare for wonders!
a. The call to movement means that we have to leave what is familiar into what is risky!
b. We can’t add God’s supernatural assignment to our human dreams. We have to leave our dreams and lay down our lives!
i. The non-negotiable price of supernatural mission is the surrender of convenience, comfort, and control.
3. Consecrate: Prepare, sanctify, clean, dedicate, purify
a. The older generation who died in the desert complained because they were lacking, and because they had unbelief.
b. Notice the remedy: The younger generation embraced a fasted lifestyle as they consecrated themselves…and also embraced ridiculous faith as they were called to step into the waters of the Jordan and march around the walls of a fortified city.
i. The requirements? Anybody can do it!
1. Don’t complain.
2. Be holy.
3. Believe.
4. Respond in extreme unity and precision.
ii. We are moving into the uncharted, impossible, not into the predictable and casual! Daniel Boone! Joshua! How about Peter Pan?
1. Peter Pan Jesus
2. It’s time to follow! To blaze a new trail!
3. Now, you have to understand, you are either living in the camp or dying in the desert!
a. You can’t just live between the two in some imaginary safe place.
f. Boldly following
i. If you really want to advance, you will have to literally face trouble and threatening situations.
1. There are giants to take down, city walls to march around.
2. “I've found that great leaders are comfortable making other people uncomfortable.” JD King
a. Look at Joshua. He was leading people into sure drowning in the river, sure defeat at Jericho!
b. Today we are looking for comfort when God is calling us to challenge!
c. 1 Kings 18:21-22 (ESV) 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.
i. Will you follow those you are in relationship with, even if they lead you astray? Are you with the 450 or the 1? It’s time to lock in! Don’t be tossed around! Don’t waver any longer!
ii. If you live a decisive life, you will have to move, and you will have to break away from comfort and what is familiar.
1. Never be afraid to stand with the minority which is right, for the minority which is right will one day be the majority; always be afraid to stand with the majority which is wrong, for the majority which is wrong will one day be the minority.—William Jennings Bryan
2. A wrong choice results in death in the desert!
3. The following quotation is from the “Cadet Prayer.” It is repeated every Sunday in chapel services at West Point: “Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be contented with half truth when whole truth can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when right and truth are in jeopardy.”
4.
iii. Ephesians 4:11-14 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
d. The mission is not one of personal satisfaction, but one of full surrender.
i. If you are looking for comfort and personal satisfaction, you are primed to fall into whatever false-doctrine provides that.
e. You can’t just soak in the river!
f. You are either dead in the desert or advancing into destiny!
i. Revelation 3:1-2 (ESV) 1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
ii. Revelation 3:5-6 (ESV) 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
g. If you just soak, the river will carry you away into death:
i. The Jordan river flows to the salt sea, the dead sea!
ii. If you stay still, you will be carried away into death! The salt sea has no outlet. No movement! Death!
iii. The Dead Sea is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea.
iv. We are to be salt to the earth, not in our place of comfort! If we carry salt, we must move!
v. When Lot’s wife stopped advancing, she turned to salt. Sodom was located next to the Salt Sea, the Dead Sea.
vi. The only way to live as salt is to move! To obey!
1. Lot’s instruction: Genesis 19:17 (ESV) 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
vii. Not only can’t you complain, you can’t look back! You must advance!
3. Joshua 3:2-3 (ESV) 2 At the end of three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
4. God is raising up trailblazing leaders who carry the presence of God into the land of promise! Dare you follow?!
5. Joshua 3:9-13 (ESV) 9 And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.” 10 And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. 13 And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”
ii. Joshua 6:1-2 (ESV) 1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
iii. Joshua 6:3 (ESV) 3 You shall march around the city…
iv. It’s time to move!
IV. Conclusion
a. If you want your city, you have to conquer your river.
b. If you want your Goliath, you have to conquer your lion and your bear.
c. If you are not interested in taking the city, you’ll waste away in the desert on the wrong side of promise.
d. If you aren’t interested in taking on Goliath, you’ll be bait for a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
e. We have no option. We must fight. We must believe. We must advance.
Screencast: How to prepare a 10 minute teaching in 10 minutes or less
In this video for theLab School of Fire, I choose a random scripture and then develop a teaching on it—and then teach it.
Watch as I teach on how to prepare a 10 minute teaching in 10 minutes or less!
After revealing some public speaking keys, watch as I grab a random scripture and then develop a teaching in 10 minutes—and then teach it in 10 minutes.
If you are called to minister, to teach, to declare the Word of the Lord or to even speak in the secular realm, this short screencast will help immensely!
I’ll include both the notes on how to deliver a message AND the notes from our spontaneous teaching below.
Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/VCxcYTkB8KA
Teaching Tips Outline
- speaking requires both preparation and technique.
2. You can teach on any topic regardless of if you burn with the message or not, but you do have to own it.
a. TMobile
b. I delivered it as if I wrote it; my confidence was high.
c. “Depth of conviction counts more than height of logic, and enthusiasm is worth more than knowledge.” David Peebles
d. People only retain about 10% of what you say. But, they'll always remember how you made them feel!…and most decisions are based on emotions – not logic. Logic is how decisions are later justified.
e. This is why professional speakers put so much emphasis on how their message is delivered – cause context, (how it's said) can be more important than content, (what is said).
3. Passion, poise and confidence
a. Your audience wants you to succeed!
b. Be relaxed.
c. Don’t apologize or highlight your lack of confidence.
d. Don’t take cues from the audience.
e. “no-one can intimidate me without my permission.” Elanor Roosevelt
f. Over the last ten years, general attention spans have dropped from 12 minutes to 5 minutes.
g. Average continuous attention span is 8 seconds.
i. People need fresh and new input continually to stay focused.
ii. The average office worker checks their email 30-40 times an hour.
iii. Adrenaline is released when we respond to a sudden change in environment—your goal is to keep changing the environment.
h. You have to convince your audience to ‘sign up again’ every 3-5 minutes.
i. Use passion and enthusiasm
ii. Entertain!
iii. Enroll the audience (ask questions to be considered, calls to action)
1. EX: “How many of you…”
2. Physically demonstrate the response you want
3. Your goal is 100% enrollment!
iv. Get in their zone
v. Break it up into short punchy segments
vi. Having the same pace, tone and mode of delivery can only last you several minutes!
vii. Body language!
viii. Dramatic pauses
ix. Use shock and awe
1. Quotes
2. Stats
3. Stories
4. Inflection and volume
5. “Come on!”
i. Anchor text!
i. Write your teaching the way you talk!!!
1. Your teaching should be rabbit trail proof.
2. If you waver, jump right back in asap and read your text.
3. It will calibrate you quickly.
j. Sources
i. Internet
ii. Books
iii. Commentaries
iv. Bible
v. Personal stories
vi. Stories of other people
vii. Stats
viii. Calls to action
Spontaneous Teaching
Is It Time?
I. Is it time?
a. Haggai 1:2 (ESV) 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.”
i. How could we ever presume that it’s not time to build God’s house?
ii. What would cause us to believe this?
1. JFB: This people—”This” sluggish and selfish “people.” He does not say, My people, since they had neglected the service of God.
2. Epidemic!
3. Scofield: The prophet calls upon the old men who remembered Solomon's temple to witness to the new generation how greatly that structure exceeded the present in magnificence.
b. Haggai 1:3-4 (ESV) 3 Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
i. khaw-rabe': parched or ruined :- desolate, dry, waste.
ii. V.3 is critical! We must hear the word of the Lord!
iii. God’s redundant rebuke as he defends his house.
c. Haggai 1:5-6 (ESV) 5 Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
i. It’s time to consider our ways.
1. Adam Clarke: Consider your ways—Is it fit that you should be building yourselves elegant houses, and neglect a place for the worship of that God who has restored you from captivity?
ii. How’s life working out for you?
d. It’s time now to give ourselves to the house of prayer, to facilitating God’s presence!
God rocked us tonight at Revival Church… listen to the teaching now.
The atmosphere was charged as God rocked us with a call to discover the spirit of prayer.
Listen NOW to tonight’s message, Ten Threats to Revival #6: A Lack of Intercession. media.johnburton.net/5614333
I’ll include my personal notes below so you can follow along.
Threat 6. A Lack of Intercession
1. It’s time to work!!!! It’s time to establish a foundation that will support revival!
1. Satisfaction with the present is fatal to the future!
2. God told me in Colorado that our ministry was going to be a model of revival for the nations.
1. I hesitated sharing that for quite some time.
2. One day God pressed the issue… and I agreed to cast that vision. I wrote it on the white board… and that very day I met someone who drove down from Denver to see me.
3. He said God spoke to him about our ministry… that it was to be a model of revival for the nations!
4. In San Diego I irritated a group of young leaders in the youth group… I was unrelenting in my focus on prayer… one day one of them came to me… he said, I don’t like the way you do things, but I had to tell you… I can’t deny that it works.
5. Prayer!!!!!!!!! If nothing else… prayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6. We must be with God, hear God and declare his Word!
7. Isaiah 58:1-3 (ESV) 1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.”
8. Amos 3:6-8 (ESV) 6 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? 7 “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. 8 The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?”
1. These secrets only come through crazy levels of deep prayer!
2. God has secrets he wants to share with you, but he doesn't shout his secrets. Get closer. ~Leonard Ravenhill to Steve Hill
3. Evan Roberts declared that revival hinges on our obedience to pray and wait.
1. These two primary disciplines are so hard for Christians, but they should not be!!
2. Christians are prayer-sick… it’s shocking!!!
1. “I'm soliciting your thoughts about how one's heart begins to engage with God. It seems so few people claim they have experience a deep encounter with The Lord on an ongoing basis. Is it taught, or caught? Is it initiated by God or man? How is it sustained?”
1. There is a HUGE price to pay if you want to encounter God on an ongoing basis!!!! MASSIVE!!!
4. Undrai Fizer-
The Things that your spirit believes in will get you in trouble, and I want to know– “Are you alright with that?” Believing in, as well as becoming and being transformed into an expression of the Kingdom, will definitely produce “words against you.” Are you alright with that?
Are you alright with being put on the spot, wondered about, and misunderstood? Are you cool with the fact that you no longer are being empowered to please men, nor their opinions, and to suffer ridicule for being one with God? Are you ready to become friends with seeming “loneliness” in order to be one with God and His beliefs?
Are you ready to believe and become a thing that the world cannot label, neither can religion control? Are you ready to live with that type of fearlessness and power? Are you ready to eat Words of God that produce this kind of dominion? Are you ready to become best friends “with a sword” that will bring division between beliefs of the Kingdom, and beliefs of religion and the mundane?
5. Are we going to boldly and sometimes violently advance against a lukewarm society, against the spirit of Jezebel, against Absalom and take what God has called us to possess? If so, there is a price to pay- and we must pay it!
1. I keep hearing stories about how hard it is in various cities to gather a remnant who's devoted to prayer & warfare. This has to change!
2. Steve Gray- “God is looking for a people who do not have anything better to do than be in His presence.”
2. A pastor of a large church installed as a part of his counseling process a simple instruction:
1. Pray two hours a day for the next week and then call to setup your counseling appointment.
2. 75% of the people never set an appointment.
2. The first two elements in my book, 20 Elements of Revival, are to be agreed in the house of prayer, and to contend together.
3. Acts 2:46 (ESV) 46 And day by day, attending the temple together…
4. Today it’s nearly impossible for prophetic voices and apostolic leaders to sound alarms and gather people together… the upper room concept… 10 days in constant prayer… would be impossible in today’s church!
1. People have lives to live… kids to take care of… games to play!
2. Steve Gray- “The problem is that we have tasted of the good things of God and decided we want something else.”
3. Joel 2:15-16 (NKJV) 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; 16 Gather the people, Sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children and nursing babes; Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, And the bride from her dressing room.
1. Bring the kids! Gather the children! Gather the babies! Everybody gather at the sound of the alarm!
2. We as leaders are to blame. We have set up churches that are devoid of prayer… churches that people can be involved in even if they don’t have a vibrant connection with God! We must repent!
3. The church is a Believers ministry! It’s not for the lost! It’s to be a place of burning, raging intercession!
1. Acts 5:12-16 (ESV) 12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
4. When we gather together and pray, the power will come to heal the sick in the streets!
5. Dutch Sheets said, “I know this is going to bother some of you, and some of you may leave our church…but the truth remains that the church is not a house of teaching, a house of evangelism, or a house of anything else… it is a house of prayer for all nations.
1. The true church could not have become the “institution” it has, if the watchmen had not been rendered impotent (John Martin).
2. The reason the prayer rooms are nearly empty is because prayer is not the main thing!
3. It’s secondary! It’s non-essential! It can be skipped! What??!!!
1. While other religious are praying 5 times a day and signing up for martyrdom, Christians can't put the wine glass down! ~Steve Hill
2. Steve said there’s a movement of ‘freedom seekers’ that are focused on their own condition rather than repentance, holiness and the call to impact the world!
3. I've have it up to here with drinking Christians! There's a philosophy of ‘freedom' that's on the rise in the church. ~Steve Hill
4. The unapologetic call to prayer as the primary purpose of every Christian will result in backlash!
5. I saw it with Mike Bickle. I’ve seen it in the Colorado Springs prayer movement I helped lead. Check out what Jesus dealt with!
1. Mark 11:15-18 (ESV) 15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.
2. There is a rising remnant that is looking for a place where they can go deep in zealous, fervent prayer, but they can’t find that place!!! Other activities are getting priority!
1. Life Application Commentary: Obviously Jesus’ actions stunned the many people crowded into the Temple area. Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56:7 and explained God’s purpose for the Temple: a place of prayer for all nations. These were important words in light of Jesus’ concern for the Gentiles who had come to worship, and considering the Gentile audience to whom Mark was writing. God welcomed the Gentiles into his Temple to worship, but they were unable to do so because of the animals bellowing and merchants haggling. Not only that, but all these merchants were no more honest than thieves who had turned the Temple into their den. This was a horrible desecration. No wonder Jesus was so angry.
2. So many are rising up against the call to prayer because it threatens what they are trying to get out of the church!
3. I’ve never, in my life, ever seen a group of people who were more on fire, more devoted and more in love with Jesus… more serious and sober about their mission on earth, then the people at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.
1. Yet, people continually denounce that ministry. What??!
2. Their love of God is extreme and deep… well beyond any other group I’ve ever seen… and people assault them for that?
3. IHOP is called a cult because of their singular devotion!!!!
4. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.
3. The call in Detroit is for 1000 intercessors to gather and release fire and cover this great mission. If we don’t respond, we probably don’t want the consuming fire of revival to come. We won’t be prepared for such a fearful burning.
6. The Tribes are being formed in response to this mandate.
1. We need YOU to start a Tribe!!!!
2. After the 2 Chron 7 fire that hit the temple, we have the famous passage in 2 Chron 7:11-14:
1. 2 Chron 7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
3. We must pray!
God’s judgment, a flaky prophetic movement & the problem of the local church
Ten Threats to Revival: Listen to parts one and two online now and get ready to get rocked!
Yesterday’s teaching was part two in the series, and it will provoke you to prepare for judgment and to align yourself for revival.
Go to http://media.johnburton.net and listen right now.
You can follow along with my personal notes here. I hit on the first threat to revival—the local church.
TEN THREATS TO REVIVAL
I. Revival
1. We have to understand what revival is.
1. The simplest definition is wide scale calibration to biblical normalcy.
2. The stuff you read in the Bible will regularly manifest and be a part of our identity.
1. Acts 2:17 17 v“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
wthat I will pour out my Spirit xon all flesh,
and your sons and yyour daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
2. Acts 5:16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.
3. Acts 5:19 19 But during the night tan angel of the Lord uopened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,
4. Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and zthere were added that day about three thousand souls.
5. Acts 4:31 31 And when they had prayed, hthe place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and ithey were all filled with the Holy Spirit and jcontinued to speak the word of God with boldness.
3. Arthur Wallis defines revival this way: It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed, and human programmes abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm, and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.
1. Does it not bother anybody that we are at great risk of living our entire lives outside of the normalcy of irresistible power?
1. We live in a day where most Christians have not be blown away by the supernatural force of the Holy Spirit!
1. Brownsville!
2. Toronto!
3. Lakeland!
4. An invisible God was encountered!
5. The spirit of revival will awaken an entire nation!
2. One day when you Google “Detroit revival” the results won't be about the economic revitalization. It will be about the dead being raised.
1. Douglas Shields wrote in 1905 ‘There is a theory that all social and moral advance may be traced to religious revivals. If these comments are true then seeking continuous ‘revival’ should be the major aim of every Christian, in every church and in every age. Revival should be at the top of our prayer lists and preaching programmes. It is how God works.
3. This breakthrough has been prophesied! However, we must handle prophecy correctly.
4. Julia Palermo: “Prophetic words are not automatic guarantees but invitations from the Lord. Faith and obedience bring the manifestation of the promise.”
1. We must go after God and surrender all!
2. Our current calendar, our current focus is insufficient!
3. We can't just hope to show up at an event and see revival break out!
4. Michael Brown: You can no more “hold a revival” than you can hold a hurricane, and that you can no more “schedule a revival” than you can schedule an earthquake.
5. First, consider this quote by Evan Roberts, the hero of the Welsh Revival, as he shares the simple formula for revival: “Congregate the people who are willing to make a total surrender. Pray and wait. Believe God’s promises. Hold daily meetings.”
1. We must give our entire lives to revival!
2. That's what theLab is doing—calling the remnant, the revival hungry people who will make a total surrender!
3. We have come to believe that we can squeeze the hope of revival into our busy lives. We cannot.
4. Revival will reform calendars. The remnant will initiate this reformation by forcibly changing now.
5. Acts 1:4 And while staying1 with them ghe ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for hJohn baptized with water, hbut you will be baptized iwith1 the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6. Everything changed not by the power of the Holy Spirit at that point, but by intentional and sudden change of life.
7. It's worth it!
5. Brian Edwards-A true Holy Spirit revival is a remarkable increase in the spiritual life of a large number of God’s people, accompanied by an awesome awareness of the presence of God, intensity of prayer and praise, a deep conviction of sin with a passionate longing for holiness and unusual effectiveness in evangelism, leading to the salvation of many unbelievers. Revival is remarkable, large, effective and, above all, it is something that God brings about.’
II. Threat 1. The Local Church
1. This first threat is a bit provocative.
1. I love the local church!
1. I love pastors and honor their missions!
2. And, we must have an extreme level of devotion to our local church missions!
2. However, the alarm must be sounded. We must be on the ready to lead people throughout the city to tend to the various fires of revival that will star sparking.
1. This is one reason theLab will be moving from Tribe to Tribe each week… we'll be fanning the flames of revival all over the city!
3. The leadership of Revival Church has their radars on, and we will be leading you into the fire, no matter where or when it is!
1. 40 days of fire! We were there every night! I took only one night off! I was disturbed when I heard rumblings of resistance against what God was doing there through Brian Simmons, who is emerging as an apostle to our city.
2. Keep in mind, in scripture the church, when mentioned, referred to the church of the city. We must be city minded always.
3. Acts 5:11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
1. That wasn't a local church, it was the church in the city.
2. Acts 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
3. We also see the seven churches in Revelation.
1. To the church at Ephesus
2. To the church in Smyrna
3. To the church in Pergamum
4. Not to first Baptist church, to Revival Church, etc.
4. Since we are the church of Detroit, we must understand our role on a city level.
5. the fear driven competition between so many churches in Detroit is an embarrassment to this city. And we think revival is near? Not until repentance is deep and unity is strong.
1. I believe its time that we are willing to lose our people, lose our salaries, lose our reputations, lose it all for the sake of blessing other churches and ministries in Detroit.
2. We must stop building our own kingdoms.
3. Brian Ming wrote a chilling worship song that included these words: God forgive us for building kingdoms of man on doctrines of demons in your name.
III. Threat 2. A Belief in Fate
1. Many people tend to believe that they have little effect on whether revival breaks out or not.
1. They may say things like, “Nothing will stop God if he wants to pour out in a region,” or “If God wants to bring revival, he will.”
2. A belief in fate minimizes the radical importance of our participation.
3. Additionally, the many prophecies that have been revealing God’s plans for an outpouring in Detroit are conditional.
1. In order to see them come to pass, we must involve ourselves in the process.
2. As Mike Bickle says, “Prophecy isn’t a guarantee, it’s an invitation.”
3. The Great Commission!
4. Matt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
1. From cover to cover in scripture, man had to do it!
2. We are commissioned and empowered by God to do it!
1. Noah had to build the boat.
2. Moses had to confront Pharaoh.
3. Paul had to start churches.
4. Peter had to preach.
5. The churches of Revelation were indited because of their lack of works.
1. We have to pray, serve, feed the hungry, win the lost, do the work.
2. If you are called to translate the Bible like Brian Simmons, you can't just sit back on the couch and wait for the biblical knowledge to overtake you!
3. You study!
IV. Threat 3. Taking a “Wait and See” Approach
1. Many are sitting back waiting to see if this current outpouring in Detroit is in fact a move of God. The problem? God’s moving is largely dependent on you and me! We have been instructed to tend to the fire, and in our unwitting arrogance we have reassigned that job back to God!
1. We believe God is to do our job of keeping the fire burning when he explicitly requires us to do it. If we don’t build the fire, the fire will go out—even though God’s prophesied plans are to bring the fires of reformation to Detroit.
2. Are you so sleepy that you aren’t active and vibrant enough in the spirit to hear the alarms? Wake up! Wake up!
3. Never again treat the call to battle casually. Never again participate in your local church casually. It’s time to awaken and advance with an alert and ready spirit! If you don’t know how to connect, ask! Ask again! Show up! Be a warrior! Serve!
4. Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.” 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
1. No more waiting! No more gazing! Go!
V. Threat 4. The Scattering Movement
1. We are in the end-times, and it’s clear in scripture that we must gather together even more during this historic season.
2. Satan’s plans to overthrow God were well on track as the greatest movement of unity in history was advancing.
3. Gen 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
1. That unity gave strength to the building of a tower that would reach the heavens.
2. God realized the threat and initiated ‘operation scattering’.
3. The language was confused and they scattered all over the Earth.
4. Now, Satan is using God’s own strategy against the most powerful governmental system on the planet—the Church.
5. Instead of gathering in unity that would be strong enough to overthrow Satan’s kingdom, we are being scattered. We are not together.
6. This is why stadiums will be critical in this next season. We must have the city church literally together, in the same place, consistently.
7. Remember, a key element of revival, which is emphasized by Evan Roberts, is daily meetings. Yes, it will be normal for people to be in church, together, under apostolic leadership most every day of the week.
VI. Threat 5. The Seeker Sensitive Movement
1. I’ve often told the people in my church that I will never tone down the activity of the Holy Spirit out of respect of those less hungry.
2. We need burning churches that result in people falling to their faces and crying “Holy!” when they walk through the door.
3. 2 Chron 7:7 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
4. It’s arrogance to presume that our human strategies are more potent than the supernatural capabilities of the Holy Spirit.
5. When people are in desperate need they don’t look for Clark Kent, they are don’t want someone who looks just like them to come to their rescue. They need to experience the superpowers of the Burning Holy Spirit.
VII. Threat 6. A Lack of Intercession
1. Evan Roberts declared that revival hinges on our obedience to pray and wait.
2. The call in Detroit is for 1000 intercessors to gather together in the same place every Friday night as we release fire and cover this great mission. If we don’t respond, we probably don’t want the consuming fire of revival to come. We won’t be prepared for such a fearful burning.
3. The Tribes are being formed in response to this mandate.
1. We need YOU to start a Tribe!!!!
2. After the 2 Chron 7 fire that hit the temple, we have the famous passage in 2 Chron 7:11-14:
1. 2 Chron 7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
3. We must pray!
VIII. Threat 7. Fear of Loss
1. A key reason pastors don’t advance their churches into the experiential realm of encounter with God is that the risk of losing people, money and their reputation is high.
1. It’s clear that a instituting a marginalized church culture is a much less risky option to develop a growing church in America. However, it’s also clear that such a culture is void of power and miracles.
2. The world isn’t looking for another man-made system to join. In fact, the world does a much better job of building humanistic kingdoms than the church does.
3. We’ll only see revival when we have the guts to call people into the wilderness of extreme encounter where the Fire and the Cloud leads them into a supercharged adventure.
1. Fear of loss must be replaced by an expectation of loss!
2. I surrender all! It's not, “I hope I don't have to surrender all!”
3. I die daily! It's not, “I hope I can avoid the death part of the program!”
4. I take up my cross! It's not, “I take up my blessing!”
IX. Threat 8. Unbelief
1. Evan Roberts reveals one of the elements of revival is simply to believe God’s promises.
2. It’s stunning how little the church believes in the supernatural. Healing, freedom, power and abundant life are tragically rare.
1. A barometer of our position in Christ has to be whether we can hear or not!
1. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
2. This is the only way we can believe!
3. Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
4. The only way to be united with Christ in the pursuit of revival is to hear and believe!
5. Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
6. We can't just wait around in doubt, it's time to move!
3. Its no wonder that people are avoiding the church today. We are a people who are living on the wrong side of the Ascension.
4. In Acts 1, the disciples were waiting for Jesus to snap his fingers and work more wonders. They wanted him to establish his Kingdom. But Jesus gave them clear instructions that would shock them to their core. They weren’t to wait and hope for something to happen (hope deferred makes the heart sick)—they were to do it themselves!
5. They transitioned from disciples on one side of the Ascension to apostles on the other. Now, they, as ‘sent ones’, were to believe and act.
6. They were to be the answer to people’s impossible situations. They waited for the necessary power to change the world, and when they received the Holy Spirit, they went everywhere in fiery belief healing, delivering and preaching the Kingdom.
X. Threat 9. Seeking an Enhanced Life
1. People generally want God to make their current lives better. They want an enhancement, an upgrade.
2. However, the demands of revival include the willingness to embrace a fire that won’t warm your flesh—it will consume your flesh.
3. Evan Roberts called for people to gather—but not all people—only those who were willing to make a total surrender.
1. Revival doesn’t enhance lives, it crushes them. If we attempt to advance with a semi-surrendered people, the fire simply will not fall.
4. Since I’ve been in Detroit I’ve heard a lot about revival. It seems the whole region is crying out for it. However, this is where the root of the disturbance in my spirit exists.
1. Most every time revival is mentioned, the intent of that desire is to experience some sort of breakthrough, blessing or restitution.
2. It’s time we STOP crying out for God to revive the economy, for resolved issues, for racial tensions to subside, for a fixed city… and START crying out for God and God alone!
3. God is jealous and he won’t allow Detroit to be satisfied by money, security or anything else until we are satisfied in Him and no one or nothing else!
5. DO NOT expect revival until we return to our first love. It WILL NOT COME! In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the situation in this region got dramatically worse. The choice is ours, however.
6. It’s absolutely shocking to me that so much emphasis is placed on the pursuit of breakthrough yet the call to breakthrough into a pursuit of God falls on deaf ears.
7. Will we only gather and pray if we have a hope of personal blessing?
1. Where are all of the hungry people in Detroit? The stadiums should be filled with zealous, praying people every night of the week! Have the cares of life and entertainment so bewitched us that we have become convinced that being with God is not worth it?
8. I propose starting a movement of encounter which only has one goal—to be fully satisfied in enjoying and responding to the Lover of our souls. Nothing else matters. If we all have to live in a cardboard box on the streets of Detroit to encounter God, so be it! Our goal is not financial! It’s not selfish! It’s to be with God! That is all!
XI. Threat 10. A Lack of Immediate Response
1. Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
1. We live in a day where there's Twitter, email, Facebook, video and more… in every house in the city!!! We have phones that are many times smarter than the computer that took a rocket to the moon!
2. There is no excuse to not hear and respond to the prophetic decrees moment by moment!
3. We must be alert and ready! Alarms are being sounded, yet are any hearing?
4. The call a couple of years ago was for every church to gather at Fire in February. Few responded. The same thing with The Call. Few responded. The prophets are calling the church of Detroit to respond, and immediately!
2. This is one reason why church schedules must be flexible.
3. It’s also a reason why daily meetings are critical.
4. When prophetic instruction is received, the entire region must know about it right away, and the people must respond.
1. We have to learn to do two things:
1. Embrace key prophets in the region
2. Stay tuned in, stay in your email, stay ready for an urgent message that just may require you respond in hours time!
5. In Joshua 3, the instructions were clear, and everybody responded in unison.
6. There’s no way to fulfill this mighty mission if we are only together one day a week (actually 2 hours a week!).
1. There’s way too much work to be done!
2. As an example, Mike Bickle recently called an urgent meeting. Most of the departments at IHOP in Kansas City were immediately closed and the people all gathered together to receive an urgent prophetic message.
3. In Detroit, we must promote extreme alertness and flexibility so we can respond moment by moment to the demands of regional revival.
If we are mostly focused on our local, personal ventures, we’ll stay disconnected from the greater, regional mission.
Five Shifts: Changes and shifting at Revival Church
Five Shifts at Revival Church: You’ll want to know what our fresh focuses and key changes are!
FIRST: Listen to a key message on core doctrine and the risk of deception in the church from this past Sunday. I deal with the law, homosexuality, tithe, shellfish and more! I’ll include my notes at the bottom of this message. Listen here:
As many of you know, God has hit me hard regarding the crisis of the cross-less church this year.
There has been an awakening at Revival Church as I’ve refocused our attention to the foundations of scripture, including the call to the cross, to surrender and to repentance. The Bible tells us to judge ourselves now so we are not judged later. It’s time to take a microscope to our hearts and allow God to reveal every hidden thing for the sake of love and healing.
Orthodox Christianity has been compromised by a desire for something new—and this is a serious threat to the mission of Kingdom advance on the Earth. If the new thing ever minimizes the old thing—the eternal thing—the gospel, you can be sure that there is error in the message. We do want the new wine, but the new will always emphasize the ancient and non-negotiable truths of the Bible. The blood, the cross and our call to die daily must be in front of us night and day.
I have received remarkable reports from people who have been deeply convicted, troubled and awakened by these messages. Especially provoking and liberating for many was my XPmedia teaching on the False Grace movement. I want to STRONGLY recommend you block out one hour and watch this video that deals with the sober reality of our eternity. Watch it here: http://www.xpmedia.com/JK9d86jAPOyr
- SHIFT ONE: Revival Church will be more intent then ever on solid and deep foundational teaching of the Word. I believe a true prophetic ministry is one that is rooted in scripture and allows the truth to explode out of us with power. Prophetic ministries are also to be alarms and warning systems that alert the world to eternal danger, and I am more devoted than ever to slow the flow to Hell.
- SHIFT TWO: theLab Prayer Events have shifted on Friday nights! We are developing teams that will be hitting the streets most Friday nights through the summer on strategic prayer assignments. This is a GREAT way to connect in what I consider the most vital ministry of the church. At 10pm at Port Detroit (most Friday’s, see the schedule at www.revivallab.com) we start in violent and fervent corporate prayer as we overlook Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and then we break up into our teams, led by some amazing captains, and hit the streets! We are collecting spiritual intelligence so we can pray and act in a much more focused fashion.
- SHIFT THREE: Social Networking! Not Facebook or Twitter… old school, face to face relationships! (What a brilliant idea!) We value friendships and want to make it EASY for you to thrive at Revival Church! The third Sunday of every month is our Meet, Greet and Eat social event right after service. We also are having a blast with our new softball teams and I’m very excited about our Culture Groups which are a great way to grow deeper in the Lord with other men and women of God!
- SHIFT FOUR: theLab School of Fire is being reworked as a six month school (and ultimately a nine month school). This year I am investing in training a team of about 20 leaders every Thursday and Friday night. This infusion of Revival Church DNA and vision into this phenomenal team of leaders will be carried and released into our next class of students in January, 2013!
- SHIFT FIVE: Our prophetic mandate is, with love and tears, to trouble people into freedom. I’m humbly embracing the call of God to awaken the church and sound the alarm regarding anything that keeps people away from God. Over the last couple of years, every single prophetic dream I’ve had has been quite sobering, severe and troubling. God is preparing the church to react when crisis comes to our nation and the world, and this demands we live as prophetic alarmists. This is driven by a deep love and passion for people—many of who think they are safe yet are in extreme danger. We must see them saved.
So, I want to INVITE and ENCOURAGE you to run this fun and important race with us! We will do everything we can to help connect you and enjoy your church family! You are valuable!
Revival Church meets at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
Here’s my personal notes that I used to teach from this past Sunday. Again, you can listen to the teaching here: media.johnburton.net/2588973
a. Review
i. The word Bible simply means ‘book’. (biblos)
1. It’s also called scripture and the Word of God.
2. 66 books, 55 of which it’s clear who the authors are.
a. 39 OT books
b. 27 NT books
c. Over 40 different authors
d. Moses authored the most OT books. (first five, the Pentateuch)
e. Paul wrote the most NT books (14, over half of the NT).
f. The NT was canonized in 375 AD.
g. It became the collection of books or writings accepted by the apostles and leadership of the early Christian church as a basis for Christian belief.
h. The KJV isn’t the original Bible!
i. The first English version was translated in 1382 A.D., by John Wycliffe.
j. The Holy Bible has been translated into 2,018 languages.
k. The Bible was printed in 1454 A.D. by Johannes Gutenberg who invented the "type mold" for the printing press. It was the first book ever printed.
3. Jesus wrote it all.
4. 2 Tim. 3:16—"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." (God breathed)
5. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" (Ps. 33:6)
6. 2 Pet. 1:21—"For not by the will of man was prophecy brought at any time, but being borne by the Holy Spirit, the holy men of God spoke."
7. The Holy Ghost was especially and miraculously present with and in the writers of the Scriptures.
8. FofPT: God is a God who desires to reveal Himself. He does not remain silent like the gods of the heathen, both ancient and modern. The Lord takes pleasure in making Himself known to His creatures. He is pictured as a God of love; love must always communicate itself, and that revelation must come from God Himself.
ii. The word testament means covenant.
iii. By the end of the 2nd century, the terms OC and NC were established.
iv. The Old Testament deals with the record of the calling and history of the Jewish nation, and as such it is the Old Covenant. The New Testament deals with the history and application of the redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, and as such it is the New Covenant.
1. Now, it’s a serious mistake when we presume the OT is no longer valid.
a. We’ve discussed that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
b. He didn’t change OT to NT.
c. He has always loved, has always been just, has emotions of anger, has always wanted us to know him intimately.
2. When considering what was fulfilled and is no longer applicable, ask whether it’s part of the Mosaic ceremonial, moral or civil laws or not. Ceremonial and civil laws no longer apply. There are moral laws in the OT that absolutely do still apply.
a. This is critical!
i. The call to morality doesn’t cease in the NT—it increases!
ii. Remember, in the OT you couldn’t commit adultery. In the NT you can’t WANT to commit adultery!
iii. Acting on sin was prohibited in the OT… desire to sin is prohibited in the New! This is why we need to know what is and what is not sin!
b. The Mosaic law came 430 years after the Abrahamic covenant. This is the law that was fulfilled.
3. Some people try to interpret biblical laws with this rule: "Old Testament laws are valid unless the New Testament specifically says they are not." But this rule is not true. It’s opposite. It is proven false by Hebrews 8:13.
a. Hebrews 8:13 (ESV) 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
b. "If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Gal. 2:21)
4. Michael Morrison The laws we keep today may be in the old covenant, but if so, we keep them not because they are in the old covenant, but because they are also in the new.
a. For example, both homosexuality and the eating of shellfish were prohibited in the OT.
i. Leviticus 18:22 (ESV) 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
ii. Shellfish: Leviticus 11:11 (ESV) 11 You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses.
iii. In the NT Jesus ended the prohibition of shellfish, but reaffirmed sexual morality.
iv. Mark 7:14-23 (ESV) 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 16 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” ( Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
v. Also: Acts 10:9-16 (ESV) 9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
vi. God wanted him to eat snakes and lizards! (Alligator is great!)
vii. So, the OT law on sexual purity remains.
viii. 9 of the 10 commandments remain. (some people get tripped up about the Sabbath.)
5. The OT is critical for us to understand holiness.
6. In fact, in the NT we see that all scripture… which includes fulfilled laws… is profitable for instruction in righteousness:
a. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
b. Hebrews 13:20-21 (ESV) 20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
c. The Bible cover to cover reveals how to live, while the NT reveals that we are empowered in Christ to actually fulfill the mandate.
d. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown: The Law elicits the consciousness of sin and the need of redemption; it only typifies the reality. The Gospel, on the contrary, actually communicates reality and power from above
7. The law of Moses included laws of ritual purification, prophecies about the Messiah, rules about treating livestock, and civil laws about penalties for religious crimes.
8. The Abrahamic covenant was characterized by God’s promise while the Mosaic was characterized by God’s law.
a. The law was temporarily necessary to deal with sin… it revealed how common sin is…
b. Romans 7:7 (ESV) 7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
i. This is powerful! The OT helps us with analyzing our lives, being aware of sin.
ii. There’s a skewed teaching out there that says we must not have sin consciousness, but this is in opposition to what we see in the Word of God.
iii. It’s the law that is good, and sin that is bad, not the other way around.
iv. Today we hear that the law is bad and that sin is not an issue!
v. Just because the law cannot sanctify does not make it sinful or unnecessary.
vi. The law reveals sin, then the applied blood of Jesus heals us of it.
1. The law is the xray or the MRI and then the blood of Great Physician deals with that issue.
c. Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV) 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
i. Here’s an example of how sin can be dormant instead of eradicated… and how the OT brings revelation to that issue:
ii. Romans 7:8-9 (ESV) 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
iii. Sin lies dead means that sin was latent rather than nonexistent.
iv. Revelation of God’s commands are critical! Is there any dormant sin in us that would surface if we let the Word of God deal with us?
1. Life Application Notes: Where there is no law, there is no sin, because people cannot know that their actions are sinful unless a law forbids those actions. God's law makes people realize that they are sinners doomed to die, yet it offers no help.
2. Dake: I do not blame the law, for it is just and good in its demands.
b. Now see how the fulfillment of the law is addressed by Jesus in Matthew…this is a long passage, but Jesus felt it was important to explain this clearly:
a. Matthew 5:21-48 (ESV) 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. 31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. 33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
d. The part of the OT that was addressed in the NT is quite limited. The law of Moses, with its worship rituals, civil laws and other customs, was temporary. In the NT, the ceremonial law was dealt with by Jesus.
e. The clearest way to understand what still applies is by studying to see what is re-emphasized in the NT. What OT law was reaffirmed in the NT?
f. Example: Tithing was both pre-law and affirmed in the NT:
i. Matthew 23:23 (NIV) 23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
g. Nine of the Ten Commandments were reaffirmed in the NT (all except to keep the Sabbath).
i. For example, in the OT, stoning was the penalty for those caught in adultery (based on the Mosaic covenant)…
1. Leviticus 20:10 (ESV) 10 “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
ii. …but in the NT Jesus affirmed that the sin of adultery was not acceptable, but he would be the one to take their punishment… if they repented.
1. In the OT, physical death was often the most obvious penalty… in the NT, spiritual death is.
iii. In the OT, wrath of God was on that person. In the NT, Jesus took the wrath on himself… UNLESS the individual is unrepentant!
1. John 3:36 (ESV) 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
2. Living without Christ in the NT is very similar to living pre-Christ in the OT.
h. The OT is an excellent resource to learn how God feels about certain activities, sins, behaviors.
i. God never changes. He still hates sin. He hates murder. He hates adultery. He hates sexual sin.
ii. However, his wrath was placed on Jesus instead of us, which should compel us to make Jesus our Lord and Master with expedience!
i. In the OT if you see regulations and ordinances that are a part of the law, you can be sure they no longer apply—unless they are either reaffirmed in the NT or are covered by the Great Commandment—to love God and others.