Robert Morris - Evangelists

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TOPICS: The Gifts of Jesus, Evangelism, Spiritual Gifts

I just want to remind you ladies that Pink Impact is coming up, and this is our first time in two years to be able to have it live again where we gather. And if you want to wear a mask, please feel welcome. No one's going to look down on you for that here. If you want to sit way away from everyone, that's fine. Do whatever you feel to feel comfortable and safe, but there's something about being in the room, in the atmosphere. I was going to say, "I've been here". And you're thinking, "Yeah, but it's the women's conference". But I get to slip in because my wife gives me permission. But it is amazing to hear thousands of ladies praising the Lord, just like it is for the Men's Summit, to hear thousands of men praising the Lord.

So if you haven't signed up, ladies, please sign up. I want to tell you to just continue to pray for, ask you to continue to pray for Ukraine. We are always on the ground. We are always doing things. We don't get to tell you, obviously, what we're doing all the time. We have multiple ministry partners we've been working through since day one. I know NBC and Fox have covered this last week what we're doing just in what some of our ministry partners are doing. We've had an elder over there this last week, literally went into Ukraine. So on Sunday, March 13, this Sunday, Governor Abbott has declared a day of prayer in the state of Texas, and any other state, all of our Gathering groups.

So if it comes to your mind or you make a note or you do whatever you need to on your phone. Can you imagine if... And there are hundreds of thousands that actually watch online every week. If we would just pray because God's the answer. Isn't that right? I mean, no man has the answer for what's going on when a nation invades another nation. So God has the answer. But I saw the Fox News report, and someone sent it to me, and I just thought I would just show you. So this is one of our ministry partners that we've been working with, actually for many, many years. They were even a part of Shady Grove, which is our Grand Prairie campus, and Debbie and I have known them personally for years, but we've been working with them since the beginning of this. So let me just show you what was on Fox 4 this past week.

— And missionaries from North Texas have helped several hundred refugees escape Ukraine. And their loved ones here know while the work is important, their lives are at risk. More now from Fox 4's David Sentendrey. He's live in Dallas. David?

— Yeah, these missionaries in Ukraine have woken to sounds of explosions and gunshots. Their number one priority is to get refugees out of the country safely, but once that happens, a whole new struggle begins. This is like the first album that they've done that is actually in Ukrainian, that was written by Ukrainians.

— Music producer David Sviontek was born in the US but grew up in Ukraine, the son of Messianic Judaism missionaries. We're Jews that believe in Jesus.

— The 31-year-old moved back to North Texas at age 19. His parents stayed in Ukraine.

— Now they're helping refugees.

— Now they are helping more than 700 refugees and counting get out of Ukraine to get support.

— To me, it's very encouraging to see how many lives my parents are impacting.

— We grew up in the former Soviet Union.

— Valentin and Tatiana Sviontek came to the US in 1989. They became citizens, but moved back to Ukraine in 1996 for mission work. They've lived there ever since. Now, in the midst of war,

— You can leave. We can help you.

— They're facilitating refugees to multiple countries like Romania. But there's a new dilemma once refugees arrive.

— People calling us right now because they left Ukraine and they said, "Help us. We don't know where to go, what to do, and we have no money".

— So with the help of North Texas' Gateway Church, its ministry partner, they're getting money and supplies to one's fleeing.

— So we're here to save people's lives. Even if it's one life,

— That one life could change the whole world. My parents, they literally just packed one suitcase in their car and left. And that's the story of a lot of people, too.

— David Sviontek says it's scary to know what his parents are doing 6000 miles away.

— Sometimes it feels like a dream.

— But he believes their actions highlight a greater message.

— That's one more person that sees God's love through their actions.

— The Sviontek's say they travel back to North Texas for the holidays each year. We have posted more information on their missionary efforts on our website. That's fox4news.com. You can go check it out. Steve.

Pretty cool, isn't it? So thank you for what you do by giving to the church and praying, but let's continue to pray because there are people dying, innocent people dying. I saw a school was bombed, a hospital was bombed. So we need to be in continual prayer. Alright, we are in a series called The Gift of Jesus, based out of Ephesians 4. Many, many times these gifts are kind of lumped in with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but these are not gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let me just state again emphatically, we believe in all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the work and the Person of the Holy Spirit, but the gifts in Ephesians 4 are the gifts of Jesus: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And I was praying about this, and I want to say something because you might say, "Well, Pastor Robert, the reason I've never really studied about this is because I'm not one of these. These gifts really don't concern me. I'm not an apostle or an evangelist. I'm not a Billy Graham. I'm not a pastor. I'm not paid full time to teach, although I do some teaching in a small group or whatever. And so really, these... And the Bible even says 'some.' He just gave some gifts, and so these gifts really don't concern me".

Here's the problem with that. He gave these gifts, it says, to mankind, to humanity. In other words, he didn't give these gifts to apostles; apostles themselves are the gifts, and he gave them to us. So you need to know, these gifts concern you because when Jesus ascended, he only gave five, and he gave these for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. So he gave,"Jesus Himself". We're going to see those words. Jesus Himself gave these gifts to you and me. So it's pretty important to figure out, maybe read the owner's manual, like if you get a gift at Christmas, and you try to put it together yourself, and you got a whole box of parts left over. Okay. It would be pretty important to figure out, why did Jesus give me an apostle? Why did he give me prophets? Why did he give me evangelists, pastors, and teachers, okay?

So this week we're on Evangelists. That's the third one. If you've missed one, last week was Prophets, the week before, Apostles. If you've missed one, please go back and listen. And here's the reason. Not because I shared it, but because it's God's Word, and what you need right now might have been spoken in the one that you missed. There could be warfare against you, and when I say there could be, you understand that's a joke. You do have an enemy. You realize that, right? And so what you're going through could be the week that Satan said, "Don't go this week or don't tune in because you're too busy". And you missed that word from God. Pastor Josh did four weeks on humanity. Maybe you heard two of them or three of them. You need to go listen to the ones you didn't hear because there could be something there that you really need right now. Alright?

So Ephesians 4:11-12, "And He Himself," speaking of Jesus, "gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry". So here's our first point: What is an evangelist? I mean, this is a gift. What is an evangelist: We think of, probably Billy Graham would be the first name we come to, and Billy Graham was one of the greatest evangelists ever. But what does an evangelist do? Where did the word, from where did the word come? Where did the word come? You know, things like that. So if you remember back in August, I did a series called Good News, and we talked about "good news" is what the word gospel comes from. And that's what it means. Gospel means "good news". And I actually went into the Greek. So I'm going to go into the Greek a little bit again just to show you how close the word "gospel" and "evangelists" are.

Now, in the English, you wouldn't think they're close, but they're right beside each other in the Greek dictionary. So the Greek word for gospel is euangelion. I'm putting it on the screen so all of you can write this down and memorize it this week because it may come up in conversation this week. Euangelion. But I want you to notice right in the middle is the word angel. Many of you heard about the Greek word angelos. We say angelos, but angelos, and it means "a messenger". That's all an angel is is a messenger. So here we have a word again that has this word, this angel, right in the middle. So what euangelion means is "a messenger with good news". Again, I did a whole series on this in August, and the first message, I covered this. But you saw this euangelion. Let me show you the Greek word now for evangelist, euangelist. And look how close it is. This is where we get our word, evangelist. There it is, right there, evangelist.

And again, right in the middle, you'll see the word angel. But what's the difference? The first word, gospel, means... it's referring to the person who has the good news. An evangelist is a person who delivers the good news or who announces the good news. A gospel is the person,it's referring to the messenger, who carries the good news. But an evangelist is the person who delivers the good news. Now please hear me. Please hear me. All of you who have met Christ carry the good news. In other words, you now know the good news. The problem is getting you to announce it to someone. That was really good. In other words, don't be like the postal worker who carries the letters with him or her all day and never delivers them. And a whole bunch of Christians are that way.

You have a message from God that God sent His Son to die for people, that they don't have to work their way to heaven, and you've carried it with you, and you're not announcing it to anyone. Gosh, this is good. I don't know. I didn't take any uppers or anything before I got here, but it must just be the high of the Holy Spirit. I'm just telling you, so many Christians carry the good news and never deliver it, never announce it to anyone. Years ago, there was a young lady cutting my hair, and there's a lady that has cut my hair for over 30 years, and she couldn't do it with her schedule, and so she had this young lady do it. And it was January 31. The reason I remember that is because for some reason, at the first of the new year, I don't really make resolutions, but I ask the Lord for goals for that year.

And so one of the goals I set was to actually lead someone to Christ once a month, twelve people to the Lord that year. And so it was July 31, and I was thinking, "Well, I'm probably not going to make this goal, but if I normally lead three to the Lord a year," I mean, personally, not through the pulpit, but just personally ",maybe I'll lead six and that will be better than three. That's my goal. But it's July 31, and so I probably won't make this one". So anyway, I went to get my hair cut, and it wasn't the lady normally does it, and it was a young lady. And about halfway through the haircut, she said, "You're a pastor, aren't you"? And I said, "Yes, I am". And she said, "Well, you're going to be really proud of me then for one of my New Year's resolutions". And I said, "So what's your New Year's resolution"? She said, "I made a New Year's resolution to go to Church every week, and I've been every week since January 1". And I said, "Oh, I'm very, very proud of you. That's great".

And then I did what I'm about to share with you because an evangelist equips people to be able to deliver the message. And I function in multiple probably of these gifts as a pastor of the church, and so I may explain that in one of the other, probably under pastor, but the point is I'm trying to equip you today to deliver the message. And so what I did was I just started with my story, which is what you always start with. It's what Paul started with as well. And so I just said to her, I said, "That is so wonderful. I'm so proud of you". I said, "You know, I went to Church many years before I actually got saved". And she said, "I've heard that expression, 'getting saved,' but I don't understand it". And so I shared it with her. Well, by the end of the haircut she accepted Christ. So she gave her life to the Lord. But all I did was deliver the message. Are you following me?

So apostles equip us to be sent with the message, prophets equip us to deliver a message of encouragement, and evangelists equip us to deliver the message of Christ and what he did on the cross. So it is a message. So number one is, What is an evangelist? Here's number two: What is my message? And I'm going to tell you what your specific message is. And the gospel itself, according to one Corinthians 15, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But there's a prelude to the gospel, okay, and it is your message. So let me tell you what your message is, alright? It is simply your story. That's all it is. It's that simple. What is my message? It's your story.

Now, here's what the devil tells everyone, so don't think you're alone in this. The devil tells everyone, "You don't have a good story". The devil told Debbie that for years. I was saved at 19, delivered from drugs. She was saved at nine, delivered from bubblegum, you know. And she's served the Lord ever since. Okay. Can I tell you something? Being saved at nine and serving God ever since is a great story. It's a great story. That's a wonderful story. So you have a story. Now, there's a word in Christianity that gets us all mixed up and scares us when we hear this word. It's the word "witnessing," but I want to take the fear out of it. Alright? So witnessing is not something you do; a witness is someone you are. Jesus said, "You shall be My witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes upon you".

By the way, we're talking about the gifts of Jesus and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is going to be really, really good. Okay? This is, as the young folks say, tweetable. The gifts of Jesus equip us, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit empower us. I told you it was good. You just have to think about it for a while. The gifts of Jesus equip us, but the gifts of the Holy Spirit empower us to do it. Okay? So we're empowered to witness by the Holy Spirit, but you are a witness. The question is, do you do it? Do you deliver the message? Do you tell anyone? So let me tell you what a witness is. A witness is someone who has personally seen and heard something. You say, "Well, a witness is someone who tells what he's seen and heard". No, because some witnesses take the fifth. Some Christians take the fifth, and I'm asking you not to do that anymore. Just tell your story. And a lot of times people say, "Well, I don't know how to work my story in".

It's the most simple thing in the world. They will ask you about your story, I promise, if you just do one thing. It's simple. Ask them their story first, and then just out of politeness, they will say, "So what's your story"? Just because they feel like, "Oh, I've been talking on and on about me. Tell me something about you". "Well, since you asked..." it's simple. So a witness is someone who tells what he personally or she personally has seen and heard. Let me just show you this. This will blow you away. The shepherds were witnesses. Luke 2:20. "Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen". The disciples of John the Baptist were witnesses. Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard". The disciples of Jesus were witnesses. In Acts 4, they told him to stop talking about Jesus, and in verse 20, they said, "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard".

Paul, the greatest apostle who ever lived, this is eight years before his death, 25 years after becoming a believer, standing before a crowd at Jerusalem, Acts 22:15: "'For you will be His...'" He's telling about what Ananias and I said to him. "'For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.'" And then five years before he dies, he's before Felix, and he says,in Agrippa,and again he shares his testimony. You're talking about a guy that was called up to the third heaven. And he said in here, "Some of the things that I've seen, I can't tell you because they're too weighty for you". We can't even understand some of the things he did tell us. And there are some things that he couldn't tell us because they were too wavy for us. And yet when he's standing in front of unbelievers, he goes back to, "See, I was riding this horse, and this bright light shone..." He always went back to his story. And Agrippa says, "You're almost persuading me to become a Christian". But it wasn't doctrine that persuaded him, it was his story.

Do you understand, no one can argue with your story? Do you realize, you might be able to argue with me on all sorts of points of theology; you can't argue with my story. I was thinking about this today. You go to the police department where I grew up, there's a record of my story. Okay? Actually, there's not. I found out it was all juvenile, and it went off at the age of 18, so I'm grateful for that. Alright? But it's your story. No one can argue with it, alright? Listen to this. 60 years, 60 years after the resurrection, John was the only living disciple left, And the Gnostics were arguing, saying they had other revelation, and that the revelation that the disciples had wasn't true, and that's the reason he wrote 1 John to the Church at Ephesus.

And here's what he said, 1 John 1:1-3. Watch for these words, "seen and heard". 1 John 1:1, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you". All you have to do is tell your story. If you were standing on a street corner, and you saw a car wreck, and you were called to court to be a witness, you would not have to go to traffic school. You wouldn't have to go to automotive school so you can talk about brakes. They just want to know, what did you see and... Hear. That's all they want to know. That's what a witness is.

And by the way, if you share something that you personally did not see and you personally did not hear, it's called hearsay, and it's inadmissible evidence. And there are a whole bunch of Christians talking about a bunch of stuff, and the one thing that they cannot dismiss,inadmissible, that they cannot dismiss is your testimony because it happened to you. And you're not trying to shove religion down their throat. You need to understand that. We have a natural gag reflex. When someone tries to shove something down our throat, we naturally gag. And yes, I said the word "gag" in church. In the Greek, it's gagos. There's no Greek word for it. You don't have to even talk about religion. It's just your story. That's all you're doing is you're telling your story.

So I have a friend of mine. He's a pastor, been a pastor many years now, involved in drugs in his teenage years, in his early 20s, and this guy had been witnessing to him that he got saved, but he was like all of us many times, "Well, I'm too bad. I can't change. I need to straighten up and come to God". All those things, all those lies Satan tells you. And finally he decided to just end it all. And so he turned his oven on, and he put his head in the oven. And when he put his head in there it's like the Holy Spirit just came, and he just started crying and saying, "God, I can't change. I need you, and I do believe. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I believe! I believe"! And he gets saved with his head in the oven. Okay?

About three or 4 hours later that he's only been saved... Then he gets out, by the way, of the oven and he says to God... He's only been saved like 1 minute now, and he thinks, "I need to read the Bible". And he says, "God, where did I read"? And he says this voice came to him,just inside, not out loud, and said, "Read the book of John". And he had to look up in the table of contents what page the book of John was. And he read John, and then he was reading in Acts, And he kept just thinking, "Jesus is real. He's real". So this guy comes over a few hours later to do drugs with him. He says, "I don't do drugs anymore. I don't even desire drugs. I got saved. God changed me. I got saved"! And this guy says, "Well, I want to get saved, too". He says, "Come here. Put your head in the oven. Put your head right here". That's the only way he knew how to get saved. And he had this guy, "Yeah, put your head in the oven. Now just watch what happens. Watch what happens". And the guy starts saying, "God, I need to be saved. I need to be saved". And he got saved.

It wasn't theology that saved him; it was the guy's story. You see what I'm saying? He told me, he said, "And Robert, that's not even the funny part of the story". I said, "What do you mean, what's the funny part"? He said, "I didn't even think about it 'til years later. It was an electric oven". It may take some of you, you might have to ask someone. Alright, here's number three: Stick to your story. You don't have to know where the dinosaurs went. You don't need to know how old the Earth is. Don't argue about religion. Religion,listen to me carefully, okay, religion is a systemized set of beliefs about God. Listen again, this is the definition: a systemized set of beliefs about God. That's why there are false religions. There are false systemized sets of beliefs about God. That's why the Bible tells us true and undefiled religion is to care for widows and orphans. In other words, true and undefiled systemized sets of beliefs about God is to care for widows and orphans. You follow me?

Okay, so it is systemized. Don't get into it. They have a whole system worked out of their belief. Do not argue about it. Stick with your story. Now, I'm going to show you just a few verses from the funniest chapter in the Bible, and it's a guy that gets healed who sticks with his story. Okay? John 9:1, "Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'" Now think about how sad that question is. They were trying to figure out how it fit into their systemized set of beliefs instead of saying, "Lord, could you help this guy? Look at him, Lord, he's been blind from birth. We've watched you walk on water. We've watched you heal people. We've watched you raise the dead. Can you help this guy"? They were more concerned about their systemized set of beliefs than a person. That's what religion does for you. And so Jesus basically says, It's neither this man nor his parents. That's not the point. But God's going to get glory out of this anyway. Alright, then watch. Verse 6. "When He had said these things, He spat..."

Alright, let's stop. Remember, Pastor Josh just preached four weeks on humanity and one week on the humanity of Jesus. I just wanted all of you to see that Jesus spat. You've probably never had this picture of Jesus in your mind. You probably never thought of Jesus going, but he was a human, and he spat on the ground. "When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva;" So he rubbed his fingers in his spittle. "And He anointed", that's a biblical word for smeared, "the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And He said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam'". I've always wondered why he said, "I didn't need to wash before you spread mud on my face". "...(which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing". Look how simple his story is, but watch all of the confusion and the arguing that starts.

Watch the word "said" specifically. Verse eight. "Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, 'Is not this he who sat and begged?' Some said, 'This is he.' Others said, 'He is like him.'" He said, "I'm him. It's me. I'm him". Next verse. "Therefore they said to him, 'How were your eyes opened?'" Watch him stick to his story. "He answered and said, 'A Man called Jesus made clay'", he left out the spatting, "'and anointed my eyes and said to me, "Go to the pool of Siloam and wash". So I went and washed, and I received sight.' Then they said to him, 'Where is He?' He said, 'I do not know.'" Next verse, verse 13. "They brought him who formerly was blind to the [religious people] the Pharisees". Because it didn't fit into their beliefs. "Now it was a Sabbath", that really didn't fit into their set of beliefs, "when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight". I love this. Watch this. "He said to them, 'He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.'"

He didn't change the story. He's just getting tired of telling the same story, and he just made it a little more simple so maybe they could understand. Next verse. "Therefore some of the Pharisees said, 'This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.' Others said, 'How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?' And there was a [denomination] among them". Now, I'm not saying anything critical about denominations, but you might not know this: denomination comes from the word denamo. Let me ask the mathematicians here. What do you do when you have a common denominator? You divide. The word denomination means to divide. I'm not saying something critical about denominations, but look how divided the body of Christ is now. And there was a division among them. Another denomination started. "They said to the blind man again, 'What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?' He said, 'He's a prophet.'"

That was the only way they knew to identify a man of God as a prophet, a woman of God as a prophetess. Next verse, verse 18. "But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight," It didn't fit into their systemized set of beliefs. "Until they called the parents of him who had received his sight". This is amazing. "And they asked them, saying, 'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?' His parents answered them and said, 'We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know.'" Now I love this. "'He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.'"

They didn't want to ask him because they didn't like his answer. You know why they didn't like his answer? Because his answer was, I met Jesus and I'm different now. No one can argue with you about that fact. They can't argue with you. They can argue with you about the dinosaurs. They can argue with you about whether you have to be baptized or not, or christened and all that, but they can argue with you that you were goofed up and you're not as goofed up anymore. They can't argue with you about that. I love this. Verse 24, "So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, 'Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.'" Now remember I told you how the evangelists equip us, the gifts of Jesus equip and the Holy Spirit enables? Watch the enabling of the Holy Spirit here. This is called a word of wisdom because they can't answer it. "We know this man is a sinner". Verse 25, "He answered and said, 'Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: ...I was blind, now I see.'" That's what I know. In the Greek this reads, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it".

How does that fit into your systemized set of beliefs about God? I was blind, and now I see, and you can't argue with that. It goes on though. Verse 26, "Then they said to him again, 'What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?' He answered them, 'I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?'" That's called the enablement of the Holy Spirit. And then it says, they said, Well, you were born in sin. You trying to teach us? Here's what they basically said, Why you didn't even go to seminary, and you think you're going to teach us? And it says they kicked him out. They cast him out of the synagogue. Now watch what happens if you get kicked out for getting healed by Jesus. Verse 35, "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of God?'" Just to paraphrase what happened next, he said to him, "Who is he, Lord, that I may believe"? And Jesus said, "He's talking to you right now". And he said, "Lord, I believe".

Stick to your story. The Holy Spirit will enable you. The gifts of Jesus will equip you: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. Evangelists equip us how to share our story, but also how then to talk about some of those questions that might come up. Remember I told you how that we believe in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Well, some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like a word of knowledge, that you know something about someone without having ever met the person before. Debbie and I were sitting in a restaurant one time, and this couple walked in, and he was just huge, muscle, a bodybuilder, obviously. Huge. And as soon as he walked in, I knew something, just like that. And she even said, "You got a word, don't you"? I said, "Yeah, I do". So we prayed, "Lord, let him receive it". And I remember saying, "Lord, give me a way to start the conversation". Because you don't want to just walk over and say, "Thus saith the Lord". You know? So I walked over and I said, "Hey, I don't want to bother y'all or disturb you or something". I said, "I just have a question for you". And he said, "Okay". I said, "Have you ever worked out"?

Of course he laughed. You know what I do now, because I talked to a lot of sometimes guys that really have these huge bodies, and I'll just, because I just like to start conversations and see where they go. But I'll say to them, now I've got a great opening line. I say, "You know, if you followed my workout routine, you could have a body like this". Anyway. I said to him, I said, Well, and they laughed, kind of broke the ice. I said, "I don't want to bother you". I said, "but when you walked in, I know this sounds strange, but I feel like the Lord spoke something to me that I'm supposed to share with you". And they looked at each other like a Mack truck had hit them. They just were like, "I can't believe this". And he reached over and took his wife's head, and I said, "Do you mind if I share it with you"? He said, "Would you please sit down and share it with us because we're talking about some things about this right now".

And so I sat down and I said to him, "I saw a vision when you walked in today". I said, "I saw a vision of a little boy who was sitting in his grandmother's lap". And he put his head down like that when I said that. And I said, "And his grandmother had a Bible in her lap, and she told the boy about Samson. And she said, 'If you'll give your life to God, he'll make you as strong as Samson.'" Do you know what I found out later? He was a former Mr. Universe. I said, "She told you, if you'll give your life to God, he'd make you as strong as Samson, and you gave your life to God, right there sitting in your grandmother's lap". He looked back up at me and I said, "But the Lord told me to tell you that he's kept up his end of the deal, but you haven't kept up your end of the deal".

Now you better know you hear God when you tell Mr. Universe that. But he put his two fingers and his thumb like that, and he started weeping at the table. His wife started crying. He said to me, "I was raised by my mom. She was a single mom, so my grandmother kept me a lot growing up". He said, "One day I was walking home and these boys threw rocks at me, and one hit me in the head and it started bleeding". He said, "When I got home, my grandmother took care of me". And he said, "She got her Bible, and she read the story of Samson to me. She told me if I'd live for God, he'd make me as strong as Samson. And I made a commitment that day to do it". And he said, "I told my wife that story for the first time on the way to the restaurant today".

And I led both of them back to the Lord right there at that table. You know why we need these gifts from Jesus? Because they equip us for the work of the ministry, and then the Holy Spirit enables us. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I want you to just ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, what are You saying to me"? Just ask him. You're never too young to be a witness. You're never too young to deliver the message. You're never too old to deliver the message. You carry the message. You have a message. I'm just asking you to deliver it when you feel prompted to deliver it. So just let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now.

Lord, we want to tell You thank You, thank You, thank You. Thank You, Jesus that when You ascended, You gave these gifts to us to equip us to be able to carry and deliver Your message. And then You gave us the Holy Spirit to enable and to empower us. And I pray, Lord, we make a commitment, all of us, every campus and online right now. We make a commitment to be Your vessels with Your message, in Jesus' name, amen.