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| Y.O.L.O. 'YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE' |
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| Dates: |
July 27-29 |
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| Days of the Week |
Saturday,Friday,Sunday |
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| Target Audience: |
General Audience |
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| Time: |
7:00pm - 10:00pm |
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| Phone: |
817-692-1271 |
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| Email: |
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| Event Website: |
http://revivaltimeupci.org/revival_time_website_6-3-12_005.htm |
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| Location: |
Y.O.L.O. (You Only Live Once)
201 N. SCOTT STREET
BURLESON, TX 76028 |
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| Ticket Price: |
FREE |
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| Ticketing Phone: |
817-899-8263 |
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| Event Details: |
“What If”
This past week we were blessed to attend “Because Of The Times” conference in Alexandria LA hosted by the Pentecostals of Alexandria and Pastor and Sister Anthony Mangun, G.A. and Sister Mangun and Terry and Sister Shock. What an incredible time of worship, preaching and being challenged!
So many life changing messages were preached, I would not possibly be able to tell you of them all so I encourage you to order the DVD or CD of the services. You will be blessed to hear the word of the Lord that was spoken in this conference!
The conference allows ministers to be challenged and refreshed. It gives us the encouragement to keep fighting the fight of faith! I trust that many were renewed this week as I was.
As I was driving to the church one night I looked up to see a billboard that said simply “What If”. The billboard was placed there by the Pentecostals of Alexandria. I’m sure there could be many thoughts that come from the question and possibly a different meaning to each person reading the sign. I would like to ask that you would allow me to share what I gained from the question “What If”.
I have had a heavy burden from the Lord lately about reaching the world. I have been praying that God will help us as a body open our hearts and souls to grow in soul winning and reaching the lost.
My “What If” is summed up in this way, What if we as the body of Christ has the truth, we live a good life in Christ, we give and bless the work of the Lord we go to church and do our best to live right but somehow we have missed the most important part of being born again.
Often I have watched as a message is preached and people are stirred and the powerful presence of God begins to challenge us and convict us. We respond by putting out faces to the carpet and crying out for repentance. We feel the need to do more, to answer the call from God to pray more, fast more, live more godly lives only to carry that burden for a few days and go back to life as usual.
How many stirring messages have we heard? How many times have we been preached to until we fell to the floor in repentance? Yes, these messages have stirred us all. But could it be possible that the preaching has become only a part of our movement? Could it be that we have become accustomed to being hearers of the word but not doers?
You see, I feel as if our only mission on this earth is to reach the lost. Our only cause, if you will, is to win souls and help keep others from that terrible place called Hell. I also see where from time to time we get side tracked. I see where the Lord allows us to come to a place of hunger and possibly the word is preached and we feel like we must go out and do more, only to have the burden disappear in a few days under the cover of the cares of life.
Could our trials and tribulations be more to bring us to the realization that we must reach the lost? But what if we are going through this trial and we come through and never obey the voice of God to reach more souls? What if we have good church and great preaching and anointed singing and worship and we all just leave feeling better while the world goes to hell? Have we accomplished our mission?
What if the Devil allows us to be deceived into believing we are all right as long as we come to church and live right and speak in tongues every night? Could it be that we have been tricked?
I often hear about winning the lost, I hear many say we need to reach the lost. I have talked to thousands of people who would agree we must reach the lost, but what if we just talk about it and agree we must do it, but very seldom do?
Recently I polled over 100 people from the Everyone’s Apostolic web site. I asked the question have you ever personally won a soul, and if so, when is the last time you personally won a soul. To my surprise after hearing back from 100 people only 2 had ever personally won someone to God!
Many had been on outreach, many had passed out cards many had invited people to church, but only TWO people had actually won a soul.
You see, we must not be satisfied with only sowing seed or planting, YES, WE MUST PLANT, we must water, but we also MUST WIN SOULS! If we only plant seed, but never harvest the crop, what good did we do? Some believe that there is an option, using the scripture of some plant and some water as a choice. We must all plant, we must all water, and we must all win souls! Sometimes you may hand out a church card, that’s planting, sometimes you may pray for someone that’s watering, but sometime you must compel someone to repent and be baptized and when God gives them the Holy Ghost that’s the increase and you have won a soul!
No person can be totally responsible for winning a soul. It takes you, a lost soul, and God. You see you must go and compel, the sinner must repent and accept, and God must fill them with the Holy Ghost. It can happen everyday of your life if you go out to win souls. We should not set small goals when it comes to reaching our world. We should not compromise by saying lets all win one soul. We must all do everything we can to win as many as we can every day!
EVERY PERSON WITH THE HOLY GHOST SHOULD BE WINNING SOULS. Acts 1:8 says: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
That’s right the power of the Holy Ghost is more than just speaking in tongues, it gives us power to become witnesses!
The other part of the story is very sad, you see the word also says in 2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. HAVE WE BECOME THOSE THAT HAVE DENIED THE POWER TO WITNESS?
We must be honest here. When is the last time you personally went out to win a soul? You went out to try and find someone who is lost to help compel them into the kingdom? How many times did you go to church for you and how many times did you go out to the streets and world for reaching them?
The Bible says we can know if we love the Lord because we will keep his commandments, Jesus commanded us to go into all the world. The second greatest command is to LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES. How can we say we love our neighbor or people we come into contact with if we don’t try and get them saved like we are?
How much time and energy should we give to reaching the lost? WHAT IS A SOUL WORTH?
I believe if we humble ourselves before God and sincerely begin seeking his will in our lives we will hear him say follow me and I will make you fishers of men. You see He only came to seek and save that which is lost. We must WAKE UP and realize the trick of the enemy is to keep us focused on us and not the lost.
I truly believe that all of our problems can be solved by reaching others; I believe that we will never be stronger in God than when we do his will. You see, we need prayer, fasting consecration, and study to serve God but our real strength comes when we win souls. We must pray, fast, read the word, and seek the face of God but we are missing the key to strength if we do not win souls.
Many times we hear the preacher say the angels are rejoicing over one sinner. The Bible does not say it’s the angels it says: Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
This tells us that it’s not the angels, its God himself getting great joy! So when you go out and win someone, you get them to come and repent God gets great joy in the presence of the angels!
So here is the point. When we win a soul, it gives God great joy. What happens when we give God joy? For the joy of the LORD is your strength.
A few years ago I came across the story of the “Fishless Fisherman” It was published on a Baptist Evangelist web site. I want to share it with you here.
[ PARABLE OF THE FISHLESS FISHERMEN ]
Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fishermen. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact, the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry.
Year after year these who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing.
Continually they searched for new and better definitions of fishing. They sponsored costly nationwide and worldwide congresses to discuss fishing and to promote fishing and hear about all the ways of fishing.
These fishermen built large, beautiful buildings called "Fishing Headquarters." The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they didn't do, however; they didn't fish.
They organized a board to send out fishermen to where there were many fish. The board was formed by those who had the great vision and courage to speak about fishing, to define fishing, and to promote the idea of fishing in far-away streams and lakes where many other fish of different colors lived.
Also the board hired staffs and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But the staff and committee members did not fish.
Expensive training centers were built to teach fishermen how to fish. Those who taught had doctorates in fishology, but the teachers did not fish. They only taught fishing. Year after year, graduates were sent to do full-time fishing, some to distant waters filled with fish.
Further, the fishermen built large printing houses to publish fishing guides. A speaker's bureau was also provided to schedule special speakers on the subject of fishing.
Many who felt the call to be fishermen responded, and were sent to fish. But like the fishermen back home, they never fished.
Some also said they wanted to be part of the fishing party, but they felt called to furnish fishing equipment. Others felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishermen.
After one stirring meeting on "The Necessity for Fishing," a young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honored for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it.
So he quit his fishing in order to have time to tell about the experience to the other fishermen. He was also placed on the Fishermen's General Board as a person having considerable experience.
Now it's true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fishermen's clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fishermen yet never fished.
They wondered about those who felt it was of little use to attend the weekly meetings to talk about fishing. After all, were they not following the Master who said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men?
Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who didn't catch fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if year after year he never catches a fish?
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