The Glory: Faith for the Glory

Faith is more than a feeling or a theory. It's

a decision that moves your feet, opens your hands,

and activates God's promises. In our brand new

book, Faith Act, Jeffrey and I take you on a

powerful journey through some of Scripture's

most transforming moments, where ordinary people

dared to obey and saw heaven move on their behalf.

Order your copy of Faith Act today on Amazon.

This is week number two. Everybody say week number

two. Who was here last week? Wave at me if you

were here last week. If you were not here last

week, this series is going to continue to build

upon itself. So I encourage you, because we can't

go back and re -preach the messages, and we're

going somewhere. Look at the person beside you

and tell them we're going somewhere. We're going

somewhere. We're not unloading the whole truck.

in one week. It's going to be five weeks before

you get the full benefit of this series. So I

believe it's going to last through the rest of

January, but I encourage you, if you were not

here last week, please go to the podcast and

listen to last week. Someone in Singapore thought

it was worth 122 people listening to it. So I

encourage you, even if you were here last week,

you may need to listen to it again to take hold

of it. This is week number two in the series

that we're talking about the glory. I do want

to begin by reading some verses that we focused

on last week. I'm not reading all the verses,

but where we started at. This is Moses talking

to God when it's time to leave Mount Sinai and

go to the promised land. Because I'd never really

seen this verse. this way before. I know I've

read it quite a few times. But Moses said something

to God. And how many of you know if it's in the

Bible, the Holy Spirit inspired it. Moses said

this, for your presence, God, your presence among

us sets your people and me apart from all other

people. On the earth. Now we've looked at the

verse in the New Testament where it said that

people will know that we are Christ's followers

by our love. Everybody say love. And that's true.

But it's also true that people will recognize

us as being God's people by His presence. I'm

going to go ahead and throw this out there. We

were doing a senior citizens conference in Myrtle

Beach. We didn't only do teenage conference.

We did a senior citizen conference called the

Joy Retreat in Myrtle Beach. And we had three

groups on the program, and one of them had parents.

I don't know if you have ever heard of the Hoppers

before. Have you heard of the Hoppers? So that

was one of the groups on the program. We had

Karen Peck and New River, the Hoppers, and the

Down East Boys on the program. But I just want

to tell you something. Claude and Connie, who

are the parents of the Hoppers, they didn't start

out the concert. It was their kids, their son,

their two sons, and then the wife and their kids.

They started out the concert. And then Claude,

who sings bass, got up and sang with them a little

bit. But then Connie got on the stage. And I

just want to tell you something. The whole atmosphere

of the room changed when she walked out on the

stage. It wasn't because of her overwhelming

voice. I mean, she's sang her whole life and

she's a good singer. But in my, I guess I would

call it my discernment, the reason why the whole

atmosphere changed is because there was something

different about her than anybody else. And the

only way I could describe it is this. She was

a carrier. of the presence of God. And I say

that because even when I was spending time with

her, when she wasn't on the stage, there was

just something about her that was different than

everybody else. Now, the room was filled with

Christians, right? The room was filled with Christians.

But there was just something different about

her. And I believe it was because of how serious

she was about the presence of God and the glory

of God. And here's what I want to share with

all of us. If she can be a carrier of the glory

and the presence of God, you can too. You can

too. And last week we talked about hunger. Because

it's going to take each one of us being hungry

for the glory and hungry for the manifested presence

of God before any of us are even going to experience

it ourselves. But I believe there's a level of

hunger that we can have that will cause us to

just be carriers of the presence of God. And

I hope I'm not running over future weeks of the

series. I probably am. I just had that on my

heart as we started because Moses recognized

something and we need to recognize something.

We need to acknowledge and recognize the presence

and the glory of God and recognize that that

is something, not only our love, but the presence

of God will set us apart from everybody else

on the earth. I'll wait for future weeks for

that. And then, this is the other verse that

I've known and I've recognized, but Moses asked

God, he said, God, show me your glory. Show me

your glorious presence. Now listen, this is a

man who had already spent 40 days at a time with

God. This is a man who, when he went up on the

mountain to spend time with God, clouds and lightning

and thunder would surround the mountain. I mean,

has he not seen the glory of God? I believe he's

seen the glory of God before. Listen, just seeing

the glory of God one time is not enough. I can

look back over my life and see times when the

manifested presence of God and the glory of God

overwhelmed me. But you know what? I shouldn't

be satisfied with something that happened in

the past. You shouldn't be satisfied with something

that happened in the past. If you've encountered,

see, that encounter should make you hungry. It

shouldn't satisfy you. It should increase your

hunger. He said, show me your glorious presence.

And then we see that God passed by and wouldn't

let him see his face. This is old covenant, all

right? His sins weren't forgiven. He wasn't the

righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So God

covered him with his hand, and his goodness passed

by. As I was listening last week, I said, that

wasn't in my notes, but that's worth repeating

again. The goodness of God is so good, you can

see it. His goodness passed by. And then Moses

saw his glory again. But Moses experienced the

glory of God a lot during this time. I'm going

to be talking about that a little bit more. But

the glory is the Hebrew word kalbod. And the

literal translation is wait. Everybody say wait.

This version of the word, because there's other

versions of the word, but this version is always

used figuratively in a good sense. It's translated

in our English Bible as glory, splendor, honor.

The glory of God. God, show me your glory. Show

me your splendor. Show me your honor. The word

wait is a really good word because when you experience

the glory of God, it's not just a mental concept

that I'm talking about. It's something that,

well, every time I've experienced it, I've felt

it. I know we don't go by feelings, but you feel

the weight of the moment, the glory. Let's continue.

We also looked at David. Well, let's finish this

up. Moses wasn't hungry for better circumstances.

See, most of us, when we go to God, to talk to

God, to ask him for something, we're asking him

for something for us. God, you see what I'm going

through, and I need your deliverance. You see

what I'm going through, I need your peace. You

see what I'm going through. I need your joy.

We're asking for something for us. But we see

that Moses wasn't asking God for something for

him personally. He wasn't asking for better circumstances,

for relief. He was asking for God himself. God,

I want you. God, I need you. God, I want to experience

you. What a different mindset. Hello? What a

different mindset than most of us when we go

to God, we're asking for something for us. When's

the last time you went to God and you just said,

God, I need you. I want you. I don't want to

go through today without you. And then we read

this from David, man after God's own heart. Oh

God, you are my God. I earnestly search for you.

My soul thirsts for you. David was in the wilderness

at this point while he's writing this. He needs

physical water, right? But that's not what he's

asking for. He's saying, oh God, you're my God.

I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for

you, God. My whole body longs for you. In this

parts and weary land where there's no water.

He's not saying, God, give me water, water. God,

I need water. Show me some water. Help me find

water. No, he's saying, God, my soul thirsts

for you. I'm hungry for you. In verse 2, it says,

I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon

your power and glory. Everybody say glory. You

know why he was hungry? For God? Because he had

seen God. He had experienced the power and the

glory of God. And that time in the past wasn't

enough. He wanted that today. David was hungry

because he had seen something before that time.

The glory of God is the manifested presence of

God. I don't want you to forget that God is omnipresent.

Everybody say omnipresent. Omnipresent. What

does that mean? He's everywhere all the time.

You can't go hide from God. You cannot escape

his presence. But then there are verses in the

Bible that say where two or more gather together

in his name, then he's here. He's there. Now,

why would the Bible say that? If he's omnipresent

and he's already there anyway, why would the

Bible say that? That two or more come together

to lift up the name of Jesus. Why does the Bible

say that God inhabits the praises of his people?

If he's already there, why would the Bible say

that? Well, that's because that there are times

when God is more here than other times. More

here. Where we can experience and know not just

his promised presence, but his manifested presence.

And listen, this doesn't just only happen at

church. It can happen for individuals. It doesn't

just happen at a worship service with multiple

people. It can happen with you by yourself. With

God, again, I'll say it again, in your car, even

while you're driving, you don't have to close

your eyes to experience the glory of God. We

can experience the manifested presence of God

where we know. We can feel His presence and know

His presence and be in awe of His presence. Today

we're going to the New Testament, Ephesians 5.

I'm going to start with verse 25. Like I said,

we're going to continue unfolding and learning

more about the glory of God during this series.

So many times in the New Testament, we just read

right through that word glory and we don't even

think about what it is or what it means. I mean,

I'm surprised. I surprise myself. on verses that

I've even memorized that have the word glory

in them that I don't even, I've never even acknowledged

that it was talking about the glory of God. Christ

loved the church. He gave up his life for her.

Now, to keep it in context, this is right after

it says, Husbands, love your wife like Christ

loved the church. But now we find out details

of Christ's love. Christ loved the church. He

gave up his life for her to make her holy and

clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word.

He did this to present her to himself as a glorious

church. Everybody say glorious. How many of you

can just figure out on your own that that's a

version of the word glory? It's glorious, right?

We'll get the definition in just a minute. Well,

there it is. That word glorious. Glorious church.

Remember, church is not a meeting. It's not an

organization. That word church is a compound

Greek word that means called out once. Called

out once. So, what does it say? He did everything

he did to present the called out ones to himself

as glorious called out ones. What does glorious

mean? The word is indoxos. You say it. And the

Greek en is just like our English word in. So

it's a compound word. Glorious means in glory.

In glory. So, Jesus did everything he did to

present the called out ones to himself as called

out people who are in glory. Glad one of you

got it. Glory is doxa. It means glory. It means

splendor. It means honor. When you look it up

in word studies, it's connected. It corresponds

to the Old Testament word kalbo. I'll just make

up my own pronunciation for that. To be heavy.

Both terms convey God's infinite intrinsic worth,

his infinite intrinsic substance, his... Infinite

and intrinsic essence. His essence. Everybody

say glory. Glory. Here's what we need to understand.

Jesus is coming back for a glorious church. Caught

out people who are in glory. In the glory. Jesus

has come back for a glorious church. He's not

coming back for a weak church. He's not coming

back for a bored church. He's not coming for

a distracted church. He's not coming for a church

that's just trying to survive the weak. He's

coming back for a glorious church. Not a church

that's just satisfied with going through religious

activity. No, he's coming back for a glorious

church. In glory. He's coming for a glorious

church. People who walk by faith. He's coming

for people with a confident expectation. He's

coming for people who are hungry. A church in

glory. In glory. Let's take a look at this because

we talk about being in Christ a lot. What does

it mean to be in Christ? To be in Christ means

that we have access to experience everything

that is available to us in Christ. Everything

that he did for us, everything that he promised

to us, we have access to it. We can walk in it.

We can know it. We can experience it. So in glory,

Means that we have access to everything that

comes along with the glory. The manifested presence

of God. He's coming back for us who are in glory.

Somebody smile. That should make you smile. I

know it makes you think, but when it makes you

think, it should make you smile when you think

about it. What is the glory? The manifest presence

of God. The weight of who he is. His goodness

revealed. His reality made known. Should I say

that again? Don't zone out on me. Don't zone

out. The glory is the manifest presence of God.

The weight of who he is. His goodness, remember?

Moses asked to see the glory. Show me your glory.

What's involved in the glory of God? What did

God say? He said, my goodness will pass by. The

goodness of God is found in the glory of God.

His reality made known. In the manifested presence

of God, good things happen. Good things happen.

When we're in his manifested presence, when we

acknowledge it, when we experience it, good things

begin to happen. Talk about me so much, I'm going

to talk about Ganna. Ganna had a car wreck. That

was before Jeffrey was born, right? You were

pregnant with Jeffrey. She was at a stoplight

in Greenville, South Carolina. And the lady's

testimony that hit her said that she never saw

her and never touched the bricks. She rear -ended

her, stopped at a stoplight at 45 miles an hour.

That's pretty hard to hit. So again, I had a

lot of pain from that car wreck. She went through

it, going to, you know, physical therapy, chiropractic

care. I mean, months and months and months. Hurting

bad. Like crying bad most days. Hurting. And

then we went to a worship seminar. It wasn't

even a service. It was a seminar. It was put

on by Lamar Boschman. I don't know if you've

ever heard him or not. He wrote a lot of the

early praise and worship music. Lamar Boschman.

You can look him up and maybe listen to some

of it if you want to. But he was there teaching

worship leaders about worship. And during the

seminar, he would say, okay, we're going to have

a worship break. That was our break. It wasn't

a break to go get coffee. He taught for an hour,

hour and a half. And then he'd say, okay, everybody

stand up. It's time for a worship break. And

then we would sing for about 45 minutes. Him

just playing the piano and just moving into different

songs and things like that. And there were times,

and I mean, this is something that he taught

us. I wasn't planning on talking about this.

But he says, as a worship leader, you need to

see the windows. He says, during a service, there

are windows that come across. And they're windows

to step into the glory of God. And he said, your

job as a worship leader is to try to get as many

people through those windows when they come as

possible. To recognize it and to bring as many

people as you can with you. Well, during one

of those sessions, all of a sudden, all the pain

left, all the pain never came back. Didn't have

to go back to the doctor another time. Right?

It's your testimony, right? Instead of talking

about myself, I'm going to share that. But in

the glory, good things happen. Good things happen.

Good things happen. I keep wanting to say more

than I probably need to say because we have three

more weeks. If the end, if Jesus is coming back

for a church that is in glory, if the end of

the church's story is glory, then our journey

should be filled with increasing glory. We need

to be more hungry for the glory today than we

were last week. It should be increasing glory.

2 Corinthians 3, 7 -11. There's some more glory

in the New Testament. The old way, with laws

etched in stone, led to death. Though it began

with such glory that the people of Israel could

not bear to look at Moses' face. Everybody say,

that's a lot of glory. For his face shone with

the glory of God. Even though the brightness

was already fading away, shouldn't we expect

Far greater glory under the new way. Now that

the Holy Spirit is giving life, look at the person

beside you and say, shouldn't we expect greater?

Shouldn't we expect far greater? I mean, we read

these stories in the Old Testament and we just

say, wow, right? But the Word of God is saying,

you can experience more glory than Moses did.

Greater. And most of the time we look at it and

say, wow, look what happened way back then. But

the Bible says, shouldn't we expect far greater?

See, if we don't expect it, we're not going to

experience it. We need to be expecting not just

the same level, But far greater. Some of you

need to smile. I promise it won't hurt you to

smile. I know this is deep. This is in a direction

that we've never understood or heard before probably.

But it should make us smile. If the old way,

which brings condemnation, was glorious, how

much more glorious is the new way? which makes

us right with God. In fact, that first glory,

listen, was not glorious at all compared with

the overwhelming glory of the new way. So if

the old way, which has been replaced, was glorious,

How much more glorious is the new which remains

forever? Can you see it? Can you see it? Remember,

glorious means in glory. Still the glory. Still

the manifested presence of God. There are three

truths in these verses. The old covenant had

real glory. It was a glory that faded, but it

was still a very real glory. Just in case you're

not familiar, when Moses would spend time with

God, and then when he would come out, just like

these verses say, and just like the Old Testament

say, his face radiated with the glory of God.

Now, if you were here last week, you remember

that God's... God's glory appeared to everybody

and God spoke to everybody at the mountain, but

the people couldn't handle it. They said, this

is too much. Hey Moses, go tell God that we don't

want him to speak to us directly anymore. God's

always wanted his people to be a kingdom of priests

unto their God. But they said, nope. We'll just

let Moses and the Levites be the priests. We

don't want God to speak to us. We want God to

speak to you, Moses, and then we want you to

tell us what God said. But when Moses would spend

time with God, when he would come out, I mean,

it wasn't just a sunburn. It wasn't that he was

just red -faced. Okay? The very glory of God,

had imprinted on him to where the glory of God

was radiating from his face. The glory of God

was radiating from his face. And it was so much.

I mean, the people already said, you know, we

don't want to see God's glory. We don't want

you to talk to us. But now they don't even want

to see Moses' face because it's radiating the

glory of God. So they put a cloth over his face.

Put a cloth over his face. So the glory was very

real. Here's something else that cloth did. Because

when Moses came out from the presence of God,

his face would glow, but it came time where the

glory would fade. So he would keep that cloth

over his face so people couldn't tell if the

glory was not on him. So the glory was real,

but the glory faded under the old covenant. The

new covenant, however, brings access to a greater

glory. Everybody say greater. Greater. Greater

than Moses on the mountain. I mean, have you

even considered this? That you can experience

the manifested presence of God in a greater way

than Moses did when he was on the mountain. It's

available. Greater glory. And then the other

truth is this, we should expect that glory. Not

just admire it, not just study it, but Hunger

for it and expect it. That's what the text said,

right? That we should expect a greater glory.

Because we have a greater glory under a better

covenant. Moses' face shone with fading glory.

Ours is a greater lasting glory. It doesn't have

to fade. Now we're going to Haggai. Your pages

might be stuck together in your printed Bible

in Haggai. You don't read out of Haggai a lot.

Haggai 2 .9. This is prophetic. Even before it

happened, the final glory of this house will

be greater than the first, says the Lord of hosts.

The final glory is greater than the first. You've

got the wilderness tabernacle. You've got the

temple. You've got the holy of holies. But the

final glory of this house will be greater than

the first, says the Lord of hosts. So where are

we going to go from here? 1 John 5 .14 says this.

We are confident that he hears us whenever we

ask him for anything. that pleases Him. Remember,

our prayer life is not just us figuring out what

we want to beg God for and just keep begging

Him for it. It has to be an agreement with Him.

Everybody say agreement. We are confident that

He hears us whenever we ask for anything that

pleases Him. And since we know He hears us, When

we make our requests, we also know, everybody

say confidence, we also know that He will give

us what we ask for. When we pray powerful prayers.

See, we can't have faith for things God has not

clearly promised to us. But when we know what

God has said, then we have a place to anchor

our faith. When we know what God has said. So

even though most of us are looking like we're

looking at a, like a calf looking at a new gate,

it's like, where'd that come from? When we're

talking about the glory of God, what has God

said about it? See, we're going to have to have

faith for the glory, a hunger and an expectation.

Got to have faith for the glory instead of just

living our lives like even if we knew about the

glory, it's just if it happens, it happens. Just

like a lot of things we talk about around here,

it's not always just up to God. God's saying

it's according to our faith. And we're saying

it's just up to God. And God's saying it's according

to your faith. So if we're going to experience

the glory of God, we can't live our lives by

if it happens, it happens. It's just all up to

God. What has God said about his glory? We've

looked at it. We've looked at the word of God,

right? So this is God speaking about his glory.

He's saying the latter glory will be greater.

Everybody say greater. Here's what he said. The

new covenant glory exceeds Moses's glory. Everybody

say exceeds. He says he's coming for a glorious

church. He's coming for a called out people who

are in the glory. That's what he said. So God's

will is clear. When we know what God has said,

then we know what his will is. We don't have

to ask him, God, if it's your will, show me your

glory. Because he's already told us his will

in what he said. You got to smile again. You

got to help me. You got to smile. God wants glory

in His house. What do I mean by His house? I'm

not talking about a gymnasium in Davenport. I'm

talking about people. I'm talking about all of

us coming with hunger and expectation to encounter

the glory of God, to experience the manifest

presence of God, to expect to see His goodness

flow. When we're here. He wants his glory in

his people. He wants his glory in this generation.

That's what God wants. That's his will. What's

it going to take? What's it going to take? Us.

Coming to the point in our faith where we have

confident expectation of all the promises that

God has given us and we're receiving those and

walking in those. Everybody say, grow up. See,

at some point in our spiritual growth, We move

in our faith from what I need or what I can get

to the point where we're coming together and

saying, what can we carry together? I know I

need to say that again. We need to come to a

point. We need to come to a place where we are

mature in our faith to a point where we have

already, we've taken hold of what God has promised

us. We're experiencing what God has promised

us. We're living in what God has promised us.

Because we know what he's promised us. In every

area of our lives, every need that you ever face,

God has a promise that he's already supplied

that need. No matter what it is. So we get to

the point where we've... We've grown in our faith

to where we're experiencing everything we need

to experience personally. We're taking hold of

it. We're experiencing it. It's happening in

our lives. God wants us to get to that point

so that we can move from that instead of what

I can get to what we can carry together. God

wants his manifested presence to be in this room

to such a degree that if people who've never

been here, when they walk in the door, they're

going to leave saying, I don't know what's going

on in Lation Church, but I met with God today.

I didn't even know I could meet with God, but

I met with God today. But it's going to take

corporate to do that. What can we carry together?

Our personal faith victories are not the destination

of a glorious church. They're the training ground

so we can believe for an outpouring of God, a

move of God. Some people label that as revival.

Demonstrations. Of the goodness of God. We're

in the manifested presence of God. We find out

that we have everything we need. In the glory.

Lives being transformed. Our personal victories.

Are just the training ground. For us to get to

the point where we see this. manifest together

as the called out ones. So we're going to have

faith for the glory. Faith knows. Everybody say

faith knows. Because faith is about being fully

convinced that it's God's will to reveal His

glory to His church. And we become fully convinced.

Based on what he said. And knowing his will.

So faith knows. What does faith do? Faith asks.

Everybody say faith asks. Zechariah 10 .1. Those

pages might be stuck together too. It says this.

Ask the Lord for rain. In the time of the latter

rain. It's not just talking about. Rain coming

out of the sky to water the earth. He's talking

about the glory of God. Ask the Lord for rain

in the time of latter rain. We pray to God. God,

reveal your glory among us in this house. Manifest

your presence in our worship because we're all

worshiping you. We're not just going through

the motions. It's coming from our hearts. The

songs that we sing, the things that we say, the

prayers that we pray, it's radiating from our

spirit to you, God. Manifest your presence in

our worship. Let your glory rest on these called

out ones. To where when we walk in the room,

somebody goes, it's just something different.

When you walked in here, something changed. The

atmosphere shifted. And then faith speaks. Everybody

say faith speaks. Psalm 145, 11. What does that

say? It says, they will speak of the glory of

your kingdom. Look to the person beside you and

say, that's you. That's me. We're supposed to

be speaking of the glory of the kingdom of God.

They're not only going to speak of the glory,

they're going to give examples of your power.

Let me tell you what happened in the manifested

presence of God last Sunday when we got together.

You know, I see that you're going through some

stuff. Come on, come to church with me next week.

Come worship with me next week. Let me tell you

what happened in the glory of God in this person's

life, in this person's life. Hello? Just like

I shared with you what happened in Gana's life

in the glory. That needs to be happening every

week. God is moving. God is moving. Oh, that

Elation Church would be marked by the presence

of God. Oh, that we would come expecting a manifestation

of His glory. And then we'll see His goodness

flow. You might just receive something you didn't

even ask for. And that faith prepares. Everybody

say, faith prepares. We talked about preparing

last week a little bit. Just touch on it again.

Here's the deal. If we believe something is coming,

we get ready. If you really believe something's

coming, you get ready. Right? I believe a baby's

coming. Someday. But when the baby's coming,

what do you do? You prepare. You get ready. Expecting

a baby, you prepare a nursery. Expecting company

to come to your house. Especially company that's

allergic to the cat. Expecting company. You clean

the house. Bless their hearts, they even got

to vacuum the curtains every time I come. When

you're expecting company, you clean the house.

When you're expecting rain, you bring an umbrella.

You forget the umbrella. Well, it's because you

weren't expecting. If you were expecting the

rain, you don't forget the umbrella. It's just

when you kind of forget about it and say, I knew

it was going to rain. After, But you lost the

expectation or never formed the expectation before

you went out that day. If you had the expectation,

you would have carried the umbrella. You would

have took your raincoat. How do we prepare the

way? Genuine praise and worship to God. Not just

going through the motions. Not just singing the

songs. Genuine praise and worship. How do we

prepare the way? By being hungry for it. You

know, these verses, these stories, hopefully

it'll make you hungry. Like if I started talking

about some really good food right now, some of

you would start getting hungry. So we're talking

about the glory of God and what's available.

That's to make you hungry and then to have an

expectation. Have an expectation. That is preparing.

That's preparing. One more thing. Almost every

Sunday, one of the boys asked me, Anybody sit

on the stool today? Who sat on the stool today?

When we're loading up the trailer, they say,

did anybody sit on the stool? Mason talked about

this stool. You know, I was, back was hurting

a little bit. He said, you need to get you a

stool. I'd kind of been wanting a stool to match

anyway. So I got a stool. But how many of you

know? There's probably not going to be a Sunday

when I just sit here. I've got to move my arms.

I've got to move my feet. If I don't move my

feet, my brain quits working and I don't even

know what to say. I've got to move. So me just

sitting here, you know. But in this series, I

was reminded of a story that I heard. by a guy

named Paul Young -gi Cho from South Korea. Has

anybody ever heard of him? If you've heard of

him, raise your hand. Just an amen corner over

here. That's the only people who's heard of him.

In the 70s, Paul Young -gi Cho, he later changed

his name to David Young -gi Cho, but I met him

when he was Paul, so I'm going with the name

I met him by. During the early 70s or mid -70s,

Paul Young -Hee Cho started an Assembly of God

church in South Korea. And it started with five

people. Everybody say five. It started with five

people. It was him, his family, and his mother

-in -law. Five people. When Gayna and I met Paul

Youngichow, first time I heard him tell this

story that I'm about to tell you, we were in

the Greenville Memorial Auditorium. There were

3 ,000 people there. Churches had got together

and flew him in to come speak for one service

to the pastors in Greenville. And at that point,

He had the largest church in the world. Started

with five people in the 70s. I believe when,

I think he was over 300 ,000 people in the, what

would that have been? Mid 80s when we met him.

Over 300 ,000 people. The church. grew to a point

where it got over 800 ,000 people. Right now,

it's closer to 500 ,000. He passed away in 21.

But he said this story. I don't know if it's

a story for him or if it's just something that

he heard, but he said a visiting speaker, I don't

know if the visiting speaker came to his church

to preach. Or if he just knew the story from

somewhere else. So I'm not going to... I don't

know. It was in the 80s. How am I supposed to

remember? But there's a visiting preacher who

came to the church. And he walked up on the platform

with the pastor and the worship team. And there

were chairs. And he walked up and he's like,

well, there's this big chair right here in the

middle. Has a higher back than the rest of them.

And maybe since I'm the special guest speaker

today, maybe the pastor is not going to sit in

that seat and he wants me to sit in that seat.

So the special visitor walked over to that seat

and began to sit down. And I think it might have

been Paul. Paul is in the seat beside, and there

was another seat there. He said, no, no, no,

no, no. He said, do not sit on the Holy Spirit.

He said, you sit here. Do not sit on the Holy

Spirit. So, from now on, If you ask who sat on

the bench from the day forward to help us with

our expectation, let's just say that we're reserving

this one for God. We're going to reserve it for

God. Now, after the service is over and we're

taking it to put it in the trailer, you can still

sit on it if you want to. Because he's, you know.

But I want you to picture that as part of your

hunger, as part of your expectation. I want you

to, because see, I didn't even put my junk on

it today. I've been using it as a table. Not

anymore. Because I expect the glory of God. I

expect his manifested presence. I expect for

him to come sit right there every Sunday in our

presence. I expect to see his goodness flow and

his glory fill this place. And I believe if we

all expect it together, I believe we will see

it in increasing measure. Let's pray. God, thank

you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your

truth. Thank you for revealing things to us that

we've seen but not seen. Help us to see it. Help

us not just read through and read past your word

as you're trying to communicate something to

us. But we've just gotten so religious that we

don't get it. Help us to see it. Give us revelation

of your truth. Thank you for what you're doing.

Thank you for what you're going to do. In Jesus'

name, amen. This online worship experience was

brought to you by the friends and partners of

Eulation Church.