“An Awakening” One Part Only

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 921 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Tony Talbert: Praise the Lord! I trust the Lord will help me with what I’ve got on my heart. I appreciated that…let me say this first of all. I don’t believe that what happened here tonight was no accident. And the Word that was going forth was for us. If it wouldn’t have been for us, God would have seen fit for us to have heard the other tape there. And this is the scripture I had on my heart. Turn to John 15.

Let me just say this--I’m gonna speak out of my heart before I read anything. Beloved, we have a need here, in our midst here. Listen, the enemy has snared us in places and holds in our lives that we’re in right now. And we’re not free to do what His will and His purpose is for us. I believe that He’s allowed it to happen. But I believe that in this hour that we’re in, God is setting us free because His Word is gonna go forth and it’s gonna accomplish what He has purposed it to go. And He don’t work through the ether waves. He works through a people!

But I believe He’s allowed us to be snared…and it’s snared in our jobs. You can judge me…judge me, praise God, if I’m wrong…what I’m saying. I want us to have our eyes opened. We need to be free to allow God’s Word to flow…just to flow with…not fettered by nothing. And the problem is, we are in places of snares in our jobs, where we have…listen, there’s a reason why the enemy tries to make us give more, and more, and more, and more on us. He’s trying to distract us from the purpose that God has called us into.

We have been called. There’s no happenstance that part of the ministry…I know God has others, but I’m not concerned about them right now. I’m concerned about his calling for us. There has to be a people to make the midnight cry! You don’t leave it up to one or two. God wants us to be free. And the problem is, the enemy has snared us in traps, ensnared our lives to where he’s drawing us away captive through our work, through this thing or that thing. We’ve got our interest in this problem, in this thing…making money. I don’t know what all the situations are. I don’t know your heart. We need to examine our own selves, but I want to expose his lie.

( congregational amens ).

We need to be free of these things, beloved. Let’s don’t be caught in darkness by these things. I know some of you brethren, I know what you’re going through…Ron and Carl, and I know what you’re going through. The enemy through our bosses is taking us and they’re putting more and more, and demanding more. That’s not from God, beloved, and God will help us to get out of those things.

But I believe first of all, he wants us to recognize that there’s a need there. Listen, we’ve got brethren--older saints that have been here a long time that need to be visited…to encourage ‘em. I had something happen here this week that really caused this to come to my heart. We went over a visited a couple…they’re not here tonight. I appreciate ‘em. It’s Bill West and Melva Dean. They love the Lord. They love God’s people. They need to be ministered to. You can’t wait for the elders and the deacons to do it. We are all members of one another.

( congregational amens ).

If part of a body is hurting, does all the other parts of the body back off and wait on just a few to go to and help it? Beloved, our lives need to be laid down one for another that we might serve one another. If a brother’s in a trap…it was already mentioned here, Jimmy mentioned it. What are we doing? Are we standing back…well that’s not me? If God has put that on your heart, you’re the one that he wants to go talk to that brother. Pull him up out of the mire and the pit. You might be in that position next time. Who are you going to depend on to help you? If it ain’t Christ in our brethren, who are we dependent upon, brother, sister?

Let me read this and I’ll sit down. I appreciate this Word tonight. I believe it’s what God is wanting to speak to us. Let me…John 15, I’m gonna start down in verse 8. It says, “Herein is my father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the father hath loved me, so have I loved you.” (KJV). So is that the end of it? He says, “Continue ye in my love.” Where is that gonna happen at? Between us and the ether waves, the sky? It’s to our brethren. Do you know it’s not just to brethren sitting here tonight? It’s wherever God may lead us! The Philippines being one of them, but that’s not the only place.

Beloved, is our lives laid down? Are they laid down? Are we surrendered or have we been taken captive by the cares of this world? We want better things. We want better houses, better cars. What if we…we ain’t gonna take it with us! If the Lord calls us tonight, are we gonna take it with us? What we need to have is being in his will and having fruit that God can only bring and he has to bring it through a willing vessel. And that’s a surrendered vessel. We’re so busy that God ain’t got time…He can’t get a way in edgewise to us. How’s He gonna use us? We’re so busy, we’ve got to go here tonight, we’ve got to go there, we’ve got to go here.

We don’t even have time even hardly enough to stop and pray. Even in our prayer meetings, a lot of times I believe we’re hindered because of cares of this life pressing on our minds. We can’t even be free when we come together. I’m not condemning you, beloved. I want us to be delivered from these things…me included. I’m not preaching down on you. I need this.

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you…” that you might be bound and not be able to do anything…is that why he told us this truth? The Word of God is to set his people free, to deliver us. He says, “ These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy…” that’s you and me, “…might be full.

This is my commandment…” oh God, here we go, “…that ye love one another….” Do we love one another or do we love ourself--do we love one another or do we love ourself? We are a selfish people. That’s the snare that I want to get a hold on, a grasp on. We are selfish, beloved. That’s a trick of the enemy to cause us to be that way. God can’t help us…He can’t help nobody else by us always being focused on me and my four and no more. Examine yourself. We’re all in the same boat.

You can’t say this don’t apply to you. It’s part of the flood that’s been cast out by the enemy, a trick to try to ensnare us. God is bringing light on us, beloved, to deliver us. It says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants.”

Why does He not call us servants? He ain’t trying to hide nothing from us. He wants to give us light. So what does He call us? He calls us friends. He says, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto you.”

He’s making known to us tonight, beloved. He’s speaking to us in love, delivering us from the snare that the enemy…well snares. I’m gonna put it in plural because there’s more than one that the enemy has cast upon us to captivate us in our own mind to where all we see is us, and we can see no more from that. It says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the father in my name, he may give it you.”

And I want to read…I want to quote one more scripture. It says. “Except a corn of wheat fall…and die, it abideth alone.” God wants fruit out of us, beloved. Each of us is a corn of wheat. We need to die that fruit might come forth and come forth abundantly. I love you and I’m not talking down to you. I need this just as much as you do. But we need to be delivered from self! And that’s what this world is all about. Think about it. It’s all about what you can do for yourself. God, we need to see what we can do, Lord, to be yielded to what we can do for Him. And that ain’t us doing nothing. That’s us being yielded.

We don’t choose who we are, what place in the body of Christ we do. My God, it’d be easy to be a part that just prayed. You wouldn’t have to have no responsibility. But that’s not it. We have to be surrendered to what His will is, beloved. And if we’re surrendered to Him--if we’re surrendered to Him then He can take this unworthy…and that’s what we all are. You could put all of us together and we’re no better than dirt. But He can take it and He can begin to use it to bring forth fruit, and fruit in due season.

I believe that He is calling a people that’ll surrender themselves and yield our vessels for his will, to glorify Him, that He may get the glory, not us. For Him to get the glory, it has to be a vessel that’s dead, because if there’s any life in it, we’re gonna take credit for it. I challenge you in this meeting here, God wants our lives. I believe it’s not…this is just the first service and I believe God’s already speaking in a mighty way.

( congregational amens ).

He’s trying to help us, deliver us from ourself and from this world. May God give us an open heart, one that’s open. Oh God, that he may come and wash. We need that filth washed from us.

( congregational amens ).

We need Him to come like a mighty water and wash…we need to be raging going through because some of this stuff is so deep in us that we need something to knock it loose. May we be open, beloved. And I want to remind you again, I’m talking to myself. I love you, but God has called us together in this hour for a purpose. Let’s be surrendered and submitted to His will.

( congregational amens ).

-- Brother Ron Peters: I’m like Tony. You know I was sitting back there when Jimmy said the other CD didn’t work and we had to play this one. It’s not an accident this CD was played tonight. Not at all. You know the scripture says, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” They see Him in everything that happens and I really believe this was the Lord. I wanted to get up and share something because of what Phil was saying right there at the end before we left about having a form of Godliness…because I know a couple of Sundays ago that was my real burden for the service when I came up.

I couldn’t…you know I was able just to see how religion is and what a form religion has created and put around their structure for their services. And that’s not God at all. And you look back to the original church and you say, where did this come from? Where did it come from? It’s just a form of Godliness that denies the power. And the power is God’s power. And how important it is for us when we come into…when we gather together…I’m not even gonna say when we come into the services. When we gather together, we’re gathered together and we are gathering together to hear…not just hear from God, but to bless Him.

( congregational amens ).

And you know our prayer should be, God what can we do to bless you when we gather together? What can we do to bless one another, because there’s Christ in your brother that needs to be lifted up and edified. And this thought that you had about this form that we’ve got to get away from, and I’m finding that from service to service, since the Lord showed me that in that service, you come back into the next service and there’s just such a tendency to just want to just give up and draw right back to the form that you were in.

But God doesn’t want that. God really wants us to seek his face for every opportunity that we have to get together, because it’s an opportunity to share Christ with one another. Not just…I mean God, sure God can come down and share his word with us and, God how we need his word this hour. But I’m gonna tell you something, it’s just sharing Christ with each other and what a blessing that is. Just in one of our little marriage get-togethers downstairs a couple of weeks ago…what a blessing that was…just to hear different ones talking and sharing about what God’s bringing ‘em through and what God’s done for ‘em. You know those things are a blessing.

And I’ll tell you what they do. They invoke praise in you to God. They give Him the glory because it’s not individuals, it’s not persons. But I just wanted to get up and share that because I believe this is the Lord and I believe God wants us to really take this seriously, because He doesn’t want us to play church. You know, I am so sick of church and just playing church. I don’t want to come in and just be trapped in a dead form. I think our church is…when compared to the rest of the churches in the world, we have a little more freedom and a little more liberty to let God…we know that He’s our head, we need Him to guide us and lead us, and we have more tendency to allow that to happen our services.

But I’m gonna tell you, it’s real easy to get stuck in a form, even for us and for our churches. You know, come in and think well, we do this first, then we do this, then we do this…bam, bam, bam, bam, bam down the line…okay, we leave and we’ve served God. No, that’s not serving God…that’s not at all. That’s not worshiping Him. That’s not allowing him to have our…like Tony was saying to have our lives. That’s what God wants…our lives to be laid down for one another and to serve one another, and not just our assemblies, but people out here in the world that need God desperately…to have a burden for them.

I think somebody mentioned that. We need to have a…you did. We need to have a burden for people--we need to have a burden for people out here. I don’t know who God’s dealing with and neither do you. But I’m gonna tell you, our God is big enough to direct us to those that He’s dealing with. And if we’ll just let our light shine…not make it shine, but be in a place where we’re free in our spirit, where regardless of the trials, the work-load, whatever the devil tries to put on us, regardless of any of that, be free in our spirit…to be able to just let the glory of the Lord be seen through us. That’s gonna speak to people.

You mentioned that too, about our lives being a living testimony to people. That’s the scripture, that’s the Word of God that most people are ever gonna see…is the Word of God that’s coming out in you in your life, and I want that to happen. I want people to see and then be drawn to you and then you can give reason for the hope that lies within you. That’s what it’s all about. And God’s doing that for us and I just appreciate it so much.

I just want to say to you guys, I appreciate the Lord using you over there. I know that God answered prayer…and it was the Word of God. But I just wanted to get up and share that. And I agree with you, Tony. We need to really ask God to help us. I’ve been concerned for a long time about people…just people in the church here that I know…I want to go visit and you get so frustrated because you’ve got a million things you’ve got to do and you can’t get to ‘em and you want to and you feel bad because you end up feeling condemned because you can’t and…we need the body to start working like a body.

( congregational amens ).

If the body can make…actually in Ephesians it says, the body makes increase of itself in love. That’s what has to happen. I think that…I’m encouraged because I see the people starting to do that and it’s just a blessing. It’s a blessing to hear how some are going here and going there and visiting. That’s great. That’s wonderful. Just keep it up. Let’s do more of it. Let’s lay our lives down for each other. That’s what it’s about. Amen.

-- Brother Robert Dyer: Praise God! This has really been good. What Ron just said there reminded me of something. You know, there is no condemnation, but there’s conviction. I’m convicted. I have been. Just like Ron said over…seem like the last few services, months and weeks, the Lord has been convicting us about things. You know, we are our brothers’ keeper. It’s a burden God’s called us to.

I was thinking of a scripture there when Jimmy was…first started tonight on the video there. I think it’s in Revelation…maybe it’s 2. Yeah…there in Revelation 2, verse…let’s just start with the 1st verse there. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.”

That’s exactly what Ron was just talking about. God has given us a unique ability as a people to see the hypocrisy in this religious world. That’s what He’s talking about right here. But God wants us to be more than that. He wants us to go further. “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee…” He didn’t say everything. He just said somewhat. “…because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent…” that’s what Tony’s reminding us of tonight…where we’ve come from…the foundation that God has laid here. “…and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” Help us to repent, Lord.

( congregational amens ).

Help us to have a heart for the people. A heart that goes beyond our own little old life, our own little jobs, our work. You know we all have to make a living. I’ll tell you what, we do get consumed. If we’re not careful, all of our decisions are based on that living. Everything that we do is based on what’s good for me. That the furtherest thing from what God’s called us and we’re here this week, these four days…let’s enamor the fellowship that God’s placed with us.

Tony, I appreciate your burden. I believe you hit the nail on the head. I believe it started with Jimmy, when he started with the midnight cry…when I looked across the banner and saw the ‘midnight cry’, that’s exactly what it’s about. And you know, I was thinking about Linda and that alarm clock she used to have…how it used to go off in the mornings. You know, God’s waking us up and sometimes that thing needs to just really keep going. You know, you slap it and it keeps on running, keeps on going. God is not…thank God that He’s giving us place to repent.

( congregational amens ).

Praise God that He’s waking us up. He’s given us ears to hear, eyes to see. He’s opening our hearts, our understanding and He’s given us conviction, not condemnation. This is not…I’m not condemned, not whatsoever. I’ll tell you what, I’m convicted. My heart is stirred to love those that God has placed over us…not just over us, but around us, beside us, beneath us.

And I’ll have to agree, we’re all made out of the same stuff. We all have the same…we all got to breathe the air, we’ve got to walk the life that get our feet dirty. Sometimes it comes up between your toes and we need our brother to tell us it stinks. We need someone to say, hey it’s time to get that stuff cleaned off. Let’s be thankful for it when it comes.

( congregational amens ).

And when our brother comes and wants to wash our feet, let’s find that humble place and let ‘em. And then, let’s turn around and wash their feet with love and understanding, realizing that, like was said earlier, if it wasn’t for the grace of God we’d be right there. And when we see our brother in the ditch, tomorrow we might be there in that ditch, looking right up from the same place he was.

God give us the heart, compassion, the love and understanding so we can see our brother and our sister as the Lord sees them. That’s what this first love is. It’s for the first time in our lives when God calls us, seeing this world different, seeing what God has created for us to give him glory…a people that He’s called to Himself. You know we’re called in particular, not just randomly, but in particular. Praise God.

-- Brother Carl Johnson: Praise God! What a wonderful service. You know some of us have been sharing in the services and in our homes what a special thing we feel like the Lord is doing for us in this hour and over the last few months and weeks. He’s speaking very specifically and I believe He’s awakening us more and more to our need and I’m just praising God and thanking God for it.

And you know a lot of times you find yourselves wrestling with, what do I need to do here, what do I need to do there? You know, we need to seek Him and we need to rest in Him, and we need to know that He’s got to do the work. He’s got to make the changes. He’s the only one that can perform the heart operations that need to be done. I’m just praising God and thank Him.

You know it’s the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. It’s His goodness. And however He orders it, it is His goodness that brings us to repentance. His word, His truth, His love never brings condemnation. It does bring conviction. And I thank God…I desire that conviction to be worked deeper and deeper in my heart, and in every one of our hearts, that as His body, His word will be fulfilled that will bring Him glory and honor for He is so worthy. Praise God!

--Brother Ben Johnson: Praise God! I appreciate this. I believe we’ve heard from the Lord tonight. Does anybody else have anything on your heart you feel like the Lord wants you to share with us tonight? I appreciate this. I pray the Lord will help us to take it to heart. You know when we get these conditions where we’re wrapped up with things, when we’re captive to something or other, it’s kind of easy to find yourself in that kind of a little bit like when Jesus talked about the sower who goes out and sows the seed and some of it falls on that real hard ground and before you can turn around the birds have come down and eaten it. And then off they go and there it was.

I know we’ve all experienced it where you come in a service and the Lord says something and it’s anointed, but we’re in such a condition at the time that it’s…that’s sort of what happens to the Word. It just kind of lays there and before you know it, it’s just sort of gone and it never really made the impact God really wanted it to have in our hearts.

There’s a reason why in the Old Testament where it talked about the law…Moses said it, God said it through the prophets on different occasions. But you can read different places where he would say, think about this Word, talk about it, have it in your mouth. Think about it when you get up in the morning. Think about it when you go to bed. Bind it around your neck. Write it down…over and over and over again. Well, I believe the Lord would have us take what we’ve heard here tonight and to dwell on it. Think about it. Take it to Him in prayer.

You know we’ve got another opportunity tomorrow. You know we were encouraged tonight about praying before the service downstairs, before we come. We’ve got opportunities and these are just cases where that corn of wheat is gonna have to fall on the ground and die if there’s gonna be life come out of it. But I believe the Lord is helping us with that. I believe He’s given us that conviction. I appreciate it. God, I’m so thankful He’s willing to do the work in us. And like a father that pities His children, that loves His children, that patiently works with them and…His patience is never-ending. His love doesn’t fail. I’m just so thankful for that tonight. I appreciate it.

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