Expanded Perceptions

Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

Lighthouse believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.

We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.

Take your Bible tonight.

Look at John chapter 15, please.

John 15 · chapter mention

John chapter number 15.

And uh great to be back and good to see you all.

And let's jump right in tonight.

Hope you had a good day.

If not, the trumpet may blow tonight and it'll all get better.

Amen?

We never know.

John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

I want to give you a scripture that I've been pondering for probably a few months.

I've certainly talked about it just a couple of times, but uh I want to ask you to look at a couple of words at the end of this verse.

It's just uh it's just two verses, and notice John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Look at verse 14, please.

Verse 14.

Ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.

Henceforth, because you're my friends, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth.

But I've called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my father, and here's what I want you to focus in on tonight.

I have made known unto you.

I'd like you to focus in on the uh two words there, made known.

Let's go back just for a moment.

You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.

We're certainly trying to be obedient.

Henceforth, he says, I'm not gonna call you servants anymore.

We know we're still servants of the Lord, but he says, I'm gonna bring you in closer.

The servant doesn't know what his Lord doeth.

But I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna make sure that you know all that my father, and may I say what I heard of him, I want to make that known unto you.

And the concept is make known.

Look at Luke 24, please.

Luke chapter number 24.

Make known, make known, give understanding to, give revelations to, uh, open your eyes, your spiritual eyes to, and because it's made known to us, I want to say something, it may not be clear or evident to others.

Luke chapter number 24, if you would.

Luke 24, and you know what the Lord is able to do, but I want you to see in Luke 24, look at verse number 36.

Verse 36.

Verse 36 gives you the context of the chronology, if you would, of what's going on, and you'll know this when you hear the words, peace be unto you.

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, saith unto them, peace be unto you.

Now, if I read carefully, the last time they saw him was uh being crucified on a cross.

Is that right?

What a difference between being crucified on a cross in a human body, uh ripped apart, if you would, the his back ripped, his visids marred.

You could barely tell he was a man.

That's the last time they saw him, and now he's standing in the midst of them saying, Peace be unto you.

It's the same Jesus we know in the book of Acts, chapter one, but uh he's in a little different form now.

Peace be unto you.

That's on the first day of the week, and then notice verse 45.

Verse 45 is making known.

Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.

That's making known.

Brethren, if he doesn't open our understanding, the make known doesn't happen.

What do you mean?

We don't make ourselves known.

I'm gonna say that again.

I don't care who's the greatest intelligence, I don't care if you're menses, it doesn't matter.

If you got a high IQ, if God doesn't make it known, you don't get it.

May I say you could have a low IQ and God could still make it known.

It's so good that he's no respecter of persons.

It's good for all of us who uh don't think we're so smart, but I want to tell you, if we walk in the Spirit, he can make known because we're his friends.

Amen?

Making known.

So he says, then open to you their understanding, they might understand the scriptures, verse 46.

Then it says this, that thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day.

Now they understood that.

Now they understood that.

They didn't for a long time, but now they understood it.

And brethren, don't take for granted and say, Well, I know that.

You wouldn't know it, I wouldn't know it unless it was made known.

Unless it was revealed to us.

And then he talked about the remission of sin that must be preached.

Then he said, Your witnesses to everything, the death, the burial, resurrection.

And then notice verse 49.

Verse 49.

Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you.

Now I want to make this clear, they didn't quite know that yet.

He opened their understanding and said, Now you understand that Christ must rise from the dead.

But when he gets to verse 49, he says, I'm going to send the promise of the Father on you, that's something he hadn't made known quite yet.

But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

We've read that in the book of Acts, chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We know kind of what they're waiting for, but they don't know.

All they know is they're told to go to Jerusalem and wait right there, which by the way, they do.

What my point is, is in verse 46, that was made known.

In verse 49, that was something promised that wasn't quite made known yet.

Statement.

But there are still things in this life that hasn't been revealed yet.

There's still things that we have in the future in our lives on earth that he has not revealed that unto us yet.

The making known is a progressive thing.

Brethren, walking in the spirit.

Uh-oh, uh, please, I want to be careful what I say, but it's better to be in church tonight than in some bar getting drunk.

Why?

Because in the bar, the bartender might chat with you a little bit and say, you know, fellowship with you a little bit so you buy more drinks, but there's not going to be a whole lot be made known in there.

If we walk in the if we walk in the flesh, even though we're saved, that that doesn't guarantee us that things will be made known.

What am I saying?

If I'm in a bar tonight and getting drunk versus being in church, probably the only thing that's going to be happening in the bar is I'm going to get convicted about being there.

Because the spirit's going to be grieved.

But in church, something could be made known to me that I need to know tomorrow.

That I need to know for the next day.

And I'm not certainly not trying to condemn anybody that, you know, is out there, but I'm just saying it's better for us to walk in the spirit and be here tonight and make this a priority, and God might make known something.

I was uh I was over in a service overseas and uh uh I was interviewing a pastor that's been coming to this conference over there for a couple of years, just been there a couple years.

And I was interviewing this pastor in front of everybody, and I said, uh, you've been coming a couple years.

Uh what specific things do you remember over the last couple of years that you got at this conference?

Without hesitation, he said, a year ago, a person got up and sang a song, and God spoke to me through that song about something in my ministry that I needed.

He said it was in the song.

That's the first thing he said.

I said, We didn't even get to the preaching.

He said, You didn't even get to the preaching.

The song edified him.

You never know when you hear a song or something said by somebody that you go, that's what I needed right there.

And God uses that.

So the making known is something God does, and there's still more to be made known.

I want you to stay with me now.

Look at Genesis.

Please pick up Genesis chapter 45.

Genesis 45 · chapter mention

There's a reason for this, uh, for this context tonight, uh, something current.

Genesis chapter number 45.

The making known.

You're my friends, and because you do what I command you, try to do what I command you, henceforth, I don't call you servants because I want to make known to you what my father has shown me to show you.

Now I understand when Jesus told them, they didn't get it right away.

And we don't get it right away, but if we stay with it, sooner or later in the right timing, he shows us, and there's different ways that he shows us.

Genesis 45, if you're unfamiliar with the story, it's kind of a famous, famous little phrase in here, and it really is important.

Joseph's been gone from the family for a couple of decades, if you would, and following uh God's plan for his life.

In verse number three, he's going to reveal himself to his brethren.

In verse number three, he reveals himself to his brethren.

And then Joseph uh explains to them what they must do, tells his brethren to go back and tell his father, his dad, that he's still alive.

Remember, it's been years and his dad feels like he's dead, his dad feels like he's the cause of it.

And one of the things Joseph does is very important.

And Joseph does something that we would relate to.

Notice verse number 19, verse number 19, and he says, Now, thou art commanded this to you.

Take you wagons out of the land of Egypt.

Take those wagons for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come.

Now, I want you to know there's 66 people left, if you would, down there.

Joseph's got four in his family, his wife and two children, the perfect 70, if you would.

And 66 people are gonna travel up or around, if you would, to come back into the land of Egypt.

And they don't know it yet, but they're going into the land of Goshen.

That's the land where God has, and it's all gonna be there.

And we know there's gonna be all kinds of uh uh good uh grazing land over there for their uh, if you would, uh livestock.

And notice verse 21.

And the children of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

And then to all of them he gave them uh changes of raiment.

Uh to Benjamin, that's uh Joseph's brother.

He gave 300 pieces of silver, five changes of raiment to his father.

He sent after this matter uh the donkeys there and the and the all the different uh corn and bread and meat and provisions.

And may I say that uh his brethren departed with these wagons full of goods, full of provisions, and uh many people speculate that these wagons were kind of unique in that uh uh they were from Pharaoh's uh fleet, and maybe they were uh very classy in some way, shape, or form, because when they get back and they tell their father Joseph is alive, it's hard for their father to believe that.

After all those years, and he's already decided in his mind that's done, that's he's gone.

When they tell him he's alive, well, look at verse 26, stay with me, verse 26, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive.

And then they says, and he's the governor over all the land of Egypt.

Brethren, that'd be hard to believe.

That'd be tough to believe.

That'd be like a long-lost brother, and you find out, uh, yeah, he's leading a country.

What do you mean he's leading a country?

Him?

Well, they come back and say, Joseph's alive.

He's governor over all the land of Esau, and Jacob's heart, that's dad.

Israel Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.

And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them, and then it says this.

And when he saw the wagons, a little famous little phrase there.

When he saw the wagons, when something materialized in front of his eyes, which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived.

Brethren, you ever hear the saying, seeing is believing?

And those wagons represented something, whether they were classy or fancy, I don't know.

But I do know this.

Uh, all those provisions, all those changes of raiment, uh all those animals and everything, when you relate to what's going on, look at verse 6.

Please relate it to verse 6.

When Joseph sent him, he said, These two years hath the famine been in the land.

So there's two years into famine.

There's five years left.

Brethren, two years of famine.

They haven't been harvesting.

The lands are getting more barren.

There's not a lot of provisions out there.

Think about that for a moment.

There's been two years of famine.

There's already five years more, the seven years total.

And when those wagons show up with all those provisions, all those items, all that, all that which was on those wagons, uh, Jacob had nothing he could say but believe.

And gather everybody together and get them in the wagons.

But when he saw the wagons, brethren, sometimes God sends something in our life and says, See that?

See that?

I'm gonna make it known.

I'm gonna show you what's coming.

See that?

Now do you believe?

See that?

See what?

That it could be a lot of different things.

It could be a person that you haven't seen in a while.

It could be a person in some way, shape, or form.

It could be an opportunity, see that?

It could be something physical, see that?

God sometimes sends something and says, There, now do you believe?

See that?

I know it's hard to believe.

I know you can't believe it.

I know it's it's impossible.

I know it's a miracle, but see that?

Hey, you haven't saw somebody saved in a while, and you go out and the person's just ready to go, just heart prepared, and you talk to them and they say, Yeah, I'm ready.

I've been, this has happened, this happened, this and happened, and I mean you just you just pray with them and it just all flows, and it's not you did anything, but the Lord says, See that?

See that?

I can still do that.

Sometimes it's the present of the presence of God in our life and something we're doing.

See that?

Have you ever been talking to somebody?

And God gives you special wisdom for that person, and just kind of flows out of your mouth, and you're even surprised.

And God says, See that?

I'm still with you.

See that?

I made known to you, I'm still with you.

See, my presence is still with you.

You ever been reading in the Bible?

And God says, See that?

Do you see that?

You see the wagons right there?

They're not wagons, I know, but I just showed you from something from the scripture for provision.

See that?

Do you get that?

Yeah, but I've read that so many times.

I know, but I didn't show it to you yet.

I didn't reveal that to you yet.

I know you read it a hundred times.

Glad you kept reading.

There it is.

I just want to show it to you.

See that?

It's in the right timing.

See that?

And the idea is when God makes something known to us, sometimes He'll show us something and go, there.

Don't miss that.

Now look, I gotta, I we gotta be careful about conjuring up it in our mind.

Like if that cloud moves that way.

Be careful now.

That cloud was already moving that way.

You might say to yourself, see that?

Come on, you still with me or not?

Like, you know, if this happens, then I'll know.

Careful.

Be careful about that stuff.

You know, don't, don't, don't try to figure that out like, Lord, if this person walks from this point to this point, then I'll know that's you.

Ah, come on.

Careful.

If you're not careful, you'll be patting yourself on the back.

You know, like you prophesied that.

Careful about that stuff.

Just watch what God does naturally, and sometimes naturally in this world, He'll say, See that?

See how I took care of that?

And by the way, it could be a negative, a negative, a negative, a negative, a negative, a negative, and then he turns it around and says, There's the positive in there, and you go, see that?

Come on, is that right?

Did you ever have negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative?

And you go, I can't see anything good in this.

And the Lord says, Now that you said that, see that.

You didn't see me doing that, did you?

The idea is he's able to do that still, and it's something that he makes known to us in just the course, if you would, of our lives.

Uh let me show you another uh uh the concept of uh made known.

Look at Judges real quick.

Stay with me.

Judges chapter number seven.

I'll bring this to something practical in a moment.

I hope it's already practical.

Judges chapter number seven.

Judges chapter number seven.

And you know the story of Gideon.

Gideon has been uh had fleece these put down, and fleece twice, if you would, and that's in Judges chapter six.

And if if you don't know what the fleece story is, it starts there in verse 36, read it sometime.

You can read it now while I'm preaching if you want, or you can read it later.

The idea is that it's the fleece, and he's asking for God's to show himself, and God does all that, and then because Gideon is going up against such a great multitude, which with such a small number, with with no weapons, and God does one other thing.

In Judges chapter 7, look at verse 9.

Judges 7 · chapter mention

Verse number 9.

And it came to pass that night, this is made known, made known, that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down to the host.

Now, what that means is I want you to rise, and I want you to go down, and I want you to sneak towards the enemy.

I want you to go down, and brethren, the enemy is scattered over acres and miles possibly of land.

I mean, the enemy is without number down there, it's huge.

Arise, get thee down into the host.

For I have delivered them into thine hand.

If thou fear to go, so I'm telling you to go.

It's time.

But if you're still a little fearful and need some confirmation yet, if thou fear to go down, uh go down with Furah, thy servant, down to the host.

Now notice what he says.

I I I've told you it's ready, it's time, and I want you to rise, get thee down.

It's time for you to go, do what I told you to do.

But if you're still afraid and need one more bit of confirmation, which by the way, can you relate to that?

Once in a while we need one more little confirmation.

And I'm not saying that, you know, we back God into a corner, but it's like, Lord, I could use one of those fura things.

I could use one more little before I take this step.

I could use one more little something if you don't mind.

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but you know I'm still afraid and apprehensive about this thing.

Come on, is that right?

It's too big for me.

Um I know who I am.

I'm one of the poor, you know, of Manasseh, and I know who I am, and so I'm still a little afraid, but but but if you'd just give me one little more if you would, if you don't, then I understand.

But he says, go with Furah, go down to the host.

Verse 11, and thou shalt hear what they say.

Man, think about the expansive multitude of places he could have snuck in where the enemy was.

And afterwards shalt thine hand be strengthened to go to the host.

Well, he said, if you still fear, verse 10, if you're still afraid.

God already knew he was.

He went, he went right to Furah.

What do you mean?

He didn't even hesitate.

He just went right to Furah and said, Come on, we're going down.

And they went down to the R men, and you know what happens next if you've read the story.

Uh there's uh, there's just just they're laying out there, look at verse 12.

They're out there laying in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude.

Now look, I know we've never seen a group of grasshoppers coming at us, but if you've ever seen the plague that can happen, if you've ever seen them in real life and saw any of the videos of the massive amount of grasshoppers that can be in a in a, what would you call it?

A grasshopper herd?

I don't know what you call it.

The grasshopper cloud.

Uh if you ever seen those pictures when they come in a multitude, and their camels were without number.

Think about that.

All these camels, you couldn't even number them as the sand by the seaside.

Why is that important?

In this expansive miles of enemy, Gideon's going down.

God says, just go on down there, and you'll hear something.

And I'll make something known to you, I'll confirm something.

I'll make it known.

I don't know about you.

Listen, you say, did God guide his path to the right one?

Well, God guided his path.

I don't know if Gideon followed the right path, or God just said, whichever you go down, I'll give the dream to that guy.

I don't know.

God can do anything he wants.

Come on, is that right?

Or did God guide his path to the right place?

Well, they they got hooked up.

God knows what he's doing.

And the idea was, he said this, verse 13, this miles of expansion of enemy, when Gideon was come, excuse me, came into a tent, smote it that it fell and overturned that the tent lay along.

And notice his fellow, the one he's talking to, told this dream.

The guy interprets it and said, This is nothing else.

Save the sword of Gideon.

And then the guy kind of makes sure he kind of explains which Gideon it is.

The son of Joash.

A man of Israel.

In the hand of the God delivered Midian and all the hosts.

Notice he said, this is the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash.

That pretty well narrows it down.

What is he saying?

He's being real specific and he's making something known to Gideon.

Something that Gideon needed.

Gideon needed one more persuasive evidence to go, risking, you know, his life and the lives of those 300.

And notice when he hears this thing said, made known, the sword of Gideon, the son of Joas, notice what he does in verse 15.

And it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he say it, worshiped.

Worshiped.

What do you mean?

Did you ever worship when God reveals something to you and confirms something to you?

Did you ever worship and exalt him in your mind and say, Thank you, Lord?

He worshiped and returned to the host of Israel and said, Arise.

Well, God told him to do that in verse 9.

Arise.

But he wasn't quite ready.

Need one more confirmation.

When he got that conversation confirmation, he went back to the Israelites and says, Okay, arise.

It's time.

For the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midianite.

Now I want to make this statement to you.

God's about ready to get much glory.

God is about ready to get glorified.

Why?

Three companies.

They're going to break the pitcher, hold up their torches, hold up their lambs, lamps, sound their trumpets, and shout the sword of the Lord and Gideon.

And when they do that, God's going to turn the enemy against each other and they're going to start killing each other.

God gets the glory.

Come on, is that right?

When these things happen and something is made known, let us remind ourselves the reason it's made known is for God to get glory.

The reason it's made known is direction for us, but it's for God to get glory.

We're down here for his pleasure.

Would you agree with that?

And when he makes something known to us and confirms it because we're his friends, may I say it's for his glory.

He's going to get glorified.

Now, somebody else is going to get blessed.

In this case, the Israelites are going to get blessed.

So I want to give you something kind of practical, and I hope you'll pray about this just a little bit.

We're getting ready on Saturday to have our yearly planning meeting, and we've invited the leaders, we've invited the whole church.

Don't know if you'll be able to make it or not.

Understand if you can't, but if you can, come in on Saturday.

We're going to do some planning for the year.

And brethren, what we're going to talk about is what we believe God has made known to us.

What do you mean?

As a church, we're going to talk to you about what we feel as a staff that God has made known to us.

What the church is supposed to do next, what the plans are.

And maybe, no doubt, in most of our planning meetings, God makes something known to us.

What do you mean?

Somebody says, what about this or what about that?

We say there's something.

Okay, let's check into that.

And God makes known to us.

Why?

Because He wants us to know what His plan is for us.

Now we understand the plan's always flexible.

Even though we make a yearly calendar, it's always flexible.

Why?

Because the Holy Ghost can shift it around a little bit.

But we're going to make some planning, and if you can come out, do so.

And we're praying that we can edify and that God will make known to us.

And the reason for this planning meeting, please listen, is so number one, God gets glorified.

And we ought to have a plan.

We ought to have some things we're doing and have some goals as far as dates of doing things.

And you say like goals, like, well, sometimes we set uh you know financial goals and different things like that, and uh goals to accomplish something or finish something or fix something or uh do an outreach on that day, and you gotta have a plan.

Come on, you gotta have a plan.

If you don't have a plan, it's uh it's chaos.

If you don't have a plan, it's uh the book of Judges.

Everybody doing that which is right in their own eyes.

We've got to have a plan, and we're gonna try to make known uh a plan.

But the reason for that is that God gets glory out of his church, out of Lighthouse Baptist Church.

Uh the next thing, the reason for the plan, is it will affect somebody that we don't know yet.

I'll say that again.

It's gonna affect somebody that we don't know yet.

We got a plan for Easter.

We're praying that Easter affects somebody that we don't know yet, that God's already working on.

We believe that.

We believe God has a plan.

He's gonna make known unto his friends, and we want to make known.

And so it glorifies God.

It helps somebody else, but then I'll say this last thing, and maybe this is not the most important priority, but it will affect our judgment seat of Christ.

God gets glory.

Others are affected, but one of these days we give an account.

Come on, is that right?

I don't want to give an account and say, well, we just all kind of did with that which is right in our own lives.

You'll get something done, but it's better when you collectively use some energy to gather.

Two are better than one.

Come on, you agree?

A three-fold core is not easily broken.

Now, one will chase a thousand, two will chase ten thousand.

And it might be, well, we're gonna make sure we pray before this event, and make sure we put prayer on the calendar.

We say, why do you put it on the calendar?

Sometimes, brethren, it's good to gear up in prayer before you do the event.

And then sometimes in our planning, we we we share ideas with each other of different ministers of what's going on, and you get to see the big picture.

You get to see the big picture of what God might do.

Uh, let me make this statement.

It's not to bring a skeptical attitude to the planning meeting because what we're doing, we're trying to follow God.

This is not any men or women's plans.

This is what we hope is the Holy Ghost giving men and women plans.

We hope it's it's the Holy Ghost putting things in our heart that we collectively come together to do, and then doing them together, God gets glory.

And we hope that's the case.

Then we hope others are affected, but then may I say to you, I want to be a part of a church where where the judgment seat of Christ goes well for people.

As well as possible when we face the austere living God.

And I'm not saying that to put a negative on it, but brethren, we ought to we ought to work diligently, following the Spirit, collectively together.

And I know people that don't go to church, they can have a plan, do something for God.

But we're in a local church, and the local church body being run by the Lord God, we get together and we talk a little bit and have a plan for what we're gonna do.

And may I say, anything successful often in this world has some kind of a plan.

Whether it's a business, a military.

Ships don't just go out and say, well, we don't have a plan yet.

Man, they got a they got a course, they got a plan, they got a mission, they got a time schedule.

Certainly they're flexible to what's happening out there, but but they got a plan.

And they got operation orders.

And maybe when the captain leaves of the ship and the fleet or whatever's going out that particular segment, maybe they don't know everything.

Maybe the powers to be haven't told them everything, but uh there's a plan.

And then the plan gets flexed a little bit from time to time.

My point being is churches ought to have a plan.

But we ought to be flexible with what happens, yet we ought to have something where the Holy Ghost is, hey, I've been thinking about this.

All right, great.

We'll talk about that, see what God has.

And we've already been talking and praying and got some things we're going to present to you.

So this concept of making known is important.

We've already studied one where the making known was a revelation where he said, uh, here's what just happened.

And sometimes it's good to review what just happened.

What do you mean?

He opened the understanding to the scriptures after he was risen, and he said, Here's what was written, and here's what just happened, here's what you observed, and you are witnesses.

And then he said, Now go into Jerusalem and wait.

There's something more coming.

Man, their life wasn't boring.

When they were praying, waiting, they were reflecting on what God has been doing in their scriptures, was open.

Why?

The Holy Ghost was now in them.

He breathed on them.

When he breathed on them, understanding came.

When he said, Peace be unto you, that's the key, because that's the night he breathed on them and said, Receive you the Holy Ghost.

And the Holy Spirit's in them, and now he opens up their understanding and says, Now go to Jerusalem and wait.

There's more coming.

Was there more coming?

Oh, yeah, Acts chapter 2 was going to happen.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You talk about excitement.

You talk about people from uh different uh languages getting saved.

You talk about what's gonna happen in Acts 3 and Acts 4 and Acts 5.

They were all gonna be a part of that.

And it was exciting what God was unfolding to them.

And then we already talked too about when uh when uh Jacob saw the wagons.

Sometimes you see something and it's a confirmation.

Sometimes it's like that's unbelievable.

Then you see something, you go, man, maybe that's possible.

And you got to get on the wagons and see what's gonna happen.

Come on, is that right?

If they didn't get on the wagons, they would have never seen Goshen.

Goshen was a special place.

Goshen was their promised land of the time.

Would you agree with that statement?

Goshen was at that day and that year and that age, for those 70, what do you mean, those 70?

66 come out, Joseph and his family.

Uh Joseph certainly remained still, but may I say that those 66 lived in the land of Goshen?

I don't know if the other four went over there or not, but my point is that God had a plan.

And God's very specific in his plan.

And their herds were very well taken care of, if you know the story.

And may I say to you that uh that maybe God has something special for us that that comes out of these times where we're praying and asking and seeking and we get together and collectively look at what God's showing us.

Because, brethren, this is not a one-man show, a two-man show, a three women, five men show.

This is a collective effort.

Come on, is that right?

Stay with me.

You say you're looking for guidance.

God, the Holy Ghost, gives us guidance.

He really does.

And I appreciate the Holy Ghost through Jesus' commandment to him, giving us the commands that we're to obey.

And then sometimes, if you would, when we talk about these things, you don't come out of here with, well, we're gonna just do that.

We might say, Well, we just need a little more confirmation on that.

Let's just kind of wait and watch the timing on that.

We we may need to have a furrow moment.

Come on, is that right?

What do you mean?

Here's a big plan.

Well, you know, I'm not sure I got the confirmation on that.

You know, and I know you do, but let me have a furrow moment, please.

Let us all collectively play a little bit so we don't mess the timing up on what God might be doing, and and maybe we go down and we hear about the vision.

And I'm not saying he says the sword of the Lord in lighthouse, but you know what I'm saying.

Sometimes it's like the timing needs to be confirmed, and things need to happen that way.

And so this is exciting, and I hope you're excited about it too.

Uh look at one more thing, and I want to show you this.

Look at Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

We'll be done tonight.

Acts chapter number 11.

A new thing that gets made known.

I want to make this known to you, and look at Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

The concept is making known, manifesting, opening understanding.

Why?

For our future.

Uh may I say this, Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Our planning that we do on Saturday, praying that the Holy Ghost leads us, we all walk in the Spirit, will affect our children.

It'll affect our grandchildren.

It is going to affect families who've not yet walked into our door with children.

We have families gonna walk into our door, get saved in July, and what we do now will affect what they experience when they come.

You have to look at it that way.

What we do now could affect a family walking in our door five years from now.

That's a true story.

Brethren, as humans, we gotta we gotta we gotta get past this small time thing.

As humans, we need to think like, try to think, by God's grace, how God looks at it.

Like, not just, you know, next month or two months.

Sometimes you need to think, well, maybe five years from now.

You know, and sometimes it's nothing wrong with thinking a decade from now.

Well, how do you think a decade from now?

By looking at the past decade and the decade before that.

And you start learning for the future.

And so you're not operating in in months anymore, although you still are.

Now you're thinking, well, about two years from now, we might be able to do this.

And let's start working up towards that with the plan.

You say, why do you say that?

Look at Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And here's the story.

Uh, this was the conversion of the Gentiles, and when uh when Peter's coming back, he's gonna face some contention.

Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And notice that contention, verse number one, if you read it, they're a little upset that the Gentiles have received the Word of God.

Now we look at that and say, come on.

You know, come on.

There's neither Jew nor Greek.

Yeah, yeah.

But they don't have that quite yet.

It's a shift that's going on, it's a transition.

You can almost say it's a dispensational change.

That the Gentiles are going to start getting saved in multitudes now.

And they're not sure how to handle that.

Verse 2, when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were other circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised and did eat with them.

Now, we criticize them a little bit, but come on, they're they're going through a transitional, a transitional change.

Peter, he knew what he was gonna face.

And so he'd already been rehearsing it.

Did you ever rehearse something in your mind?

He he rehearsed the matter from the beginning.

But brethren, as he's going back after what happened with the Gentiles, he's already thinking, oh, they're not gonna like this.

Who's they?

Well, you know.

No, who's they?

You know who they are.

You mean you mean them?

No, no, them now.

What do you mean?

Some people just don't like change.

Some people.

Some people just don't like change.

And I'm not talking about like changing doctrine and changing the Bible and changing this or changing that, but but some people can't transition into the next, if you would, new beginning.

Now we hadn't, they hadn't changed anything, it's just God led them to Cornelius and his group of people that got saved.

Come on, is that right?

And then they had to explain all this, he had to explain all this.

So he's rehearsing this.

Like, like we we heard you went and ate with the Gentiles, and he's thinking, I know, but I had sheets coming down from heaven, saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

And I said, Not so, Lord.

I don't do that.

So he had to rehearse all that, what God had shown him.

Come on, is that right?

And by the way, sometimes God changes us.

Why?

For the glory of God.

Come on, he changes us for the glory of God.

I used to be a Marine.

I'm a former Marine.

And Marines don't like Navy.

I had to change.

Come on, are you still with me?

You say that's ridiculous.

In your mind, it's ridiculous.

In my mind, it was a transition.

Oh, come on, I can't believe that.

Yeah, I got saved and God made me a pastor of a Navy town.

Amen.

I like the Navy now.

I know all the junk and all that, and I'm just telling you, we were we were indoctrinated.

You know, come on, you understand.

We all had names for each other, and we joked about it, but come on, in the background, in our mind, we're kind of like, yeah.

Like we would have called Brother Cheney and the Coast Guard a knee-deep sailor, amen.

Yeah, he knows that, but he has names for us too.

And we halfway joke about it and halfway believe it.

Yeah, it's just one of those things.

You when you get indoctrinated and get programmed, it yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

And if that bothers you, come on.

I'm just using that as an example because you had more serious things to change.

Some of us had serious things to get through.

Come on, is that right?

When I went in the Marine Corps, I had to fight figure out that everybody was green.

What do you mean everybody's green?

They're a Marine, everybody's green.

That's the way it works, right, brother?

Yeah.

Everybody's green.

I don't know what what the Navy does, but you know, everybody in the Marine Corps is green.

You say, I don't get it.

Once you put camouflage on, everybody's green.

And you gotta get through because everybody has equality and everybody is important.

And everybody is in the unit is equally, equally important and very, very valuable.

Come on, is that right?

And that's the way it should be in the church.

Everybody is valuable, everybody is God's child.

Everybody should should have a place if they want it to be needed and to be used if they want it.

We're not gonna force anybody to do anything, but everybody ought to get an opportunity.

Come on, is that right?

Doesn't matter your IQ.

That way we all get included, amen.

The idea is there was a change going on.

Stay with me on this.

And so he knew and he began to rehearse it, began to go over it.

So he gets to verse number uh, he goes on down and we're going through the whole thing, but he gets to verse number uh 15.

And he's talking about when he begins when he begins to preach to Cornelius and his group.

And as I began to preach, the Holy Ghost fell on them.

Please look at the next little phrase.

As on us at the beginning.

Here's what he just said.

I saw what happened when I spoke, that the Holy Ghost fell on them like we experienced at our beginning.

What are you saying?

He was saying, I had already experienced this once, and it was happening again.

Therefore, I recognized it.

Sometimes God has something happen back here in a smaller way in our lives, and out here it happens in a bigger way, and we look back and say, I've seen that before, but not at this magnitude.

Come on.

And he makes something known.

That's why it's good to stay walking with the Lord a long time on this earth.

And I gotta tell you, 70 years on this earth is nothing compared to heaven.

We know that.

It's called a vapor, it's called a moment.

But the 70 years that we have, we ought to be able to look back and say, you know what?

The Holy Ghost says, 20 years ago, did you see I did this back here on a much smaller scale?

On a much smaller scale.

Now I'm doing this out here in your life on a much larger scale.

Trust me, it's the same.

Trust me, you've seen this before.

And Peter says, it happened to us as it happened at the beginning.

Now watch what he said.

He says, uh, as it happened at the beginning.

Verse 16, then remembered I the word of the Lord.

God ever bring a scripture back to you that you haven't thought about in a while.

I had that happen to me a couple times over the last couple of weeks.

What do you mean?

Somebody texts me and a scripture came to mind, and I text them back a scripture that I hadn't thought about in a long time.

A long time.

What do you do?

I write it in my little memo section in my phone.

Study this.

Come on, you ever have that?

I had it just happened two days ago.

Somebody said something about uh uh I'll just I'll just say it this way.

This is this is a little ridiculous, but somebody texted me and said, uh Hey, Pastor, just wanted you to know you preached here a few uh months ago, and I just want you to know there's more fasting going on around here than ever I've ever seen.

I preached one little message on fasting.

He said a lot of people are fasting.

And uh so what came to my mind was in Jonah.

What came to your mind in Jonah?

Where the king proclaimed the fast, not just for the people, but for all the animals.

And I said to him, brother, you'll know it'll get good if they start starving the dogs.

Amen?

I'm just kidding.

And I know that's ridiculous, but it made me want to go back and study Jonah again.

I want to go look at that whole thing again, because the king complained, proclaimed, he said, I want everybody in sackcloth and ashes.

We're about ready to be judged, nobody's eating.

Uh, and they stopped drinking too, and they even stopped feeding the animals for a while.

It was a it was a fast, amen.

You know, that's really fasting when you go home and say, honey, we're fasting and don't feed the dog, amen?

That's a fast.

That's that's conviction, amen.

I'm not proclaiming that, I'm just saying, you know what I'm talking about.

So the idea is I thought I'm gonna go back and study that.

I'm not proclaiming that fast for our church, all right?

He said this, then I then remembered I.

I remember what happened in the beginning, then remembered I the word of the Lord, verse 16.

And how that uh John said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.

Don't be afraid of that.

For in then, as God hath given them the like gift, the like gift, just like I saw and we saw at the beginning, that like gift.

He said, uh, he goes on to say, What was I that I could withstand God?

Brother, that's like standing up and saying, What was I gonna do, guys?

I didn't cause this to happen.

I just gave you the whole story.

I just told you I went with three men who the Spirit told me to go with, and I knew they were Gentiles, but I just had this sheep come down, and I thought I was just supposed to not be respecter to the Gentiles, and he sent a Roman soldier and two servants, and I knew they were Gentiles, I knew they weren't Jewish.

So I took some of the brethren and I went with him, not knowing what was going to behall me.

I just thought that God's no respecter person.

I was supposed to go with him.

I didn't know I was gonna get there, and Cornelius had this vision, and then he had all these people assembled saying, We're here to hear what God has to say to you, to us through you.

Well, I just preached Jesus Christ to him.

And when I did, what could I do?

Things started happening, people started getting saved.

You know, then then we needed to go on with it.

And uh, and after he explained that whole thing, verse number 18, when they heard these things, they held their peace.

Glorified God.

Remember, God always gets the glory.

Saying, Then God, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted life, repentance unto life.

What do you mean?

There was a couple of Gentiles that had believed before.

We know a Samaritan here and there that had believed before.

We know a few that had believed before, but not on this magnitude, not on this scale, not like this.

I go back and say this the hath made known was something that happened before.

That gave confirmation to what Peter had happened out here, and then when he looked back, God gave him a scripture.

And that scripture explained, and he said, I remembered that John was going to baptize with water, but Jesus was gonna baptize with the Holy Ghost, and that's what we experienced, and that's how I knew, and God had made known that this was right.

I'm just saying to you, Knight, sometimes God makes known in unusual ways, and we're praying at our planning meeting that God will make something known to us for what reasons?

That God gets the glory.

Number two, listen, that people that we haven't yet met get affected.

And then for us that we get affected, and then in our judgment seat of Christ, God's at least hopefully saying, Well done, our good and faithful servants.

We do more collectively as a church than we do individually.

I'll say it again.

An individual can do more collectively being a part of a church.

That's why God ordained a local church.

We do more two and two.

We do more two and two.

What do you mean?

We do something individually, that's okay.

We do it with someone else, that's even better.

And when we can do it collectively, that's even better.

But God uses the local church, He uses families, I'm not against that.

So individuals, marriages, families, ministries, church.

God uses all of that.

And I pray that you'd pray that we have a good, productive, half-main-known planning meeting so we know what to do next for those reasons.

Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619 461 5561.