With His Authority

Amen.

It's good to be able to worship the Lord again.

Amen, together in his house, with friends and family and strangers.

Strangers are good.

Like Brother Vernon said.

We welcome you all today.

We're so thankful that you are here.

If you came to hear me, sorry, you can't get your money back.

Brother Vernon said we welcome you all today.

We're so thankful that you are here.

If you came to hear me, sorry, you can't get your money back.

Sorry, you've already spent it.

Now you're here, you might as well stay.

I have a great privilege today that I never thought in my entire life that this ex-drug addict and alcoholic would have a church to invite his father.

That kicked him out of the house when he needed it the most, but was the first person to come see me during visitation and still love me after me, cursing him out on the phone.

He was the greatest example of what a man and a husband should be and what a preacher should be.

So if you have any complaints, you're about to see where I come from.

So if y'all will help me, it's an honor to welcome to the stage my father and Reverend Larry Tillman.

Somebody say praise the Lord, hallelujah, man, it's.

I had to wait up here this morning.

The presence of God has been so rich in this place.

If it gets any thicker, I'm just going to sit down and weep Hallelujah.

Now you're going to have to help me preach today.

I don't do it by myself.

I love the Lord today and I listen to y'all online and Stephen's messages, whatever, and all the things that y'all do in the songs and I appreciate the program every week.

I really do.

It's amazing how far things have come.

Since I pastored, we did a TV program every week, four or five times a week.

It was on the local cable channels and and, uh, uh, we had to edit everything and do all this stuff.

You know the old.

Anybody remember videotapes?

That's the way we did it then.

But anyway, it's come so far now and you can reach so many more people and and you never know when you click on there how many people's going to be viewings've preached in some churches 1,500, 2,000 people viewed.

Other times three people viewed.

So you never know how many people is going to be viewing today.

But I know one that's viewing and one that is present and his name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Hallelujah.

I tell you what, ever since the first note hit this morning, the shekinah glory began to come down in this room, and I'm so thankful that it has, because it just makes my job a little bit easier.

I was planning on being here easter sunday and called steve or text him or something, and and uh, just so happened.

Uh, my favorite grandson wasn't going to be here.

That well, he's my only, but he wasn't going to be here.

So I decided to change the trip and we kept asking each other about dates.

I said, well, I've got to preach that week and I've got to preach that week, and we finally settled on the 22nd.

Then he takes me back and said, how about preaching that weekend?

And I said, well, if you want me to, I will, but I don't feel like it's an accident.

I am here on assignment.

I'm here and sent by the most holy God because he's in control of this service today.

Amen, amen.

We tried to work out a song, a trio song, last night.

We just didn't get it just critiqued just exactly like we wanted it.

So I may just do one that I wrote many, many years ago when Stephen was a whippersnapper in diapers or whatever.

But I'm so thankful to know that Jesus is still alive.

It's good to have some good friends here this morning.

Across town Mary Reinhart, her daughter and two grandsons.

I've never met her two grandsons.

The last time I saw Alicia, her little baby, was her oldest, is now 21.

He was about two months old, so that's how long it's been.

But Mary and her husband came and preached us revivals when we pastored and I think you did in Palestine and I think maybe even in Archie.

I'm not sure, but I pastored for almost 30 years and I know I don't look that old, but I really am.

But you know what?

It's a privilege to be in God's house and have good friends and service with us today.

It's good to have Donna with us too, and good to be with my family and Jessie she's a good cook.

You better watch Stephen.

He'll be plumping up big if you don't watch him there.

But I'm going to try a song, and it's got a very, very simple message.

Years ago, when they nailed my Savior to the cross, his blood began to ooze out to the ground and make a puddle of bread at the bottom of the cross.

And when I was 14 years old I walked to an altar bench and it was full that morning because it was the last service of a revival and I walked up on the platform where they used in those days had choir benches, and I knelt with the pastor's wife at a choir bench and I asked Jesus to come into my heart.

And guess what?

I've never been sorry since that day, been a lot of ups, a lot of downs, I failed a lot, but I keep going back to that same place, at that pull of red and dipping into the blood of Jesus and applying it to my heart, knowing that my life is just filthy rags but through him I'm made holy and righteous Amen.

I'm made holy and righteous Amen.

Now, if I fall out off this stool, just believe I fell out in the spirit.

Just keep praying.

Amen, I'm going amen, get my pedal here, right?

as a man out in this world Living in sin, I had no joy to find and no peace within a lot of people that way today.

I had no joy at all and I didn't care what happened to me.

I beheld a sight one day that set me free.

And there I saw the man Nailed to that old lucky tree.

I saw the look in his eyes as he looked down at me he had a crown of thorns upon his head.

There I knelt at the cross in that puddle of rain.

Now if you've been living this way.

Now, if you've been living this way and you've been living wrong, listen to this message my friend contained in this simple song how Jesus hung upon the tree With nails in his hands and his feet.

Come and kneel at the cross my friend in that puddle of red, and there I saw the look in his eyes as he looked down at me.

He had a crown of thorns upon his head.

There I knelt at the cross in that puddle of rain.

There I knelt at the cross In that puddle of rain.

In that puddle of rain.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Blessed is the Lord.

Blessed is the Lord, hallelujah, hallelujah.

I realize I'm probably the only man here in a suit, but I told my son the anointing's in the tie.

No, I like to be prepared.

I wear a suit to preach.

In case I ever die Preaching the morticians, you can come and get me.

Take me as I am.

We sing that song just as I am.

So here I am.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

I know Stephen has shared with you throughout the last several months and on occasion in his messages about some of the dark times in his life, and he's mentioned it was not easy in my life as well.

It was probably one of the darkest times in my life as well, not just because of him but all surrounding circumstances.

A lot of people got the idea that ministers are made out of iron and you know, indestructible and inemotional and so on and so forth.

But guess what?

We're made out of flesh and bone, just like you.

We hurt just like you.

We suffer just like you.

Just like you, we hurt just like you.

We suffer just like you.

But the good news is Jesus is still on the throne and he's the same yesterday, today and forever.

He's the Lord, god and he changes, not Hallelujah, I'd like to say through tough times, boy, I was a giant in the word, I was a giant in the prayer closet.

I was just everything that I was supposed.

Giant in the word, I was a giant in the prayer closet, I was just everything that I was supposed to be.

But I'll have to admit, sometimes I couldn't even pray.

All I could do is say Jesus, those songs you sung a while ago, boy, they just lined things up for me this morning because it's the name of Jesus, it's not Tillman's power, it's not Connectman's power, it's not connect church's power, it's the power in the name of Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Glory to his name, glory to his name.

I told Steve, I said I just love the Lord, just to break out and just I wouldn't even get to preach, just to move his power in this service Like we've never seen before.

I believe, church, you're on the verge of one of the greatest revivals you have ever witnessed in your life.

Why?

Because we're primed and we're ready for revival.

In America, sister Mary's talking to me about our country needs revival, friend.

If there's ever a need for revival in the land, it's the land we live in today, jesus wants to pour out his spirit upon all flesh.

If you have your Bibles, your phone, your device, whatever you have to get your Bible on, today would you stand with me for the reading of God's word in Acts, chapter four, verse five through 13.

I want to read this text this morning.

I want you used to.

In Pentecostal churches we would point everything in the service to the altar service.

Some churches are taking their altars out, some don't call anybody to the altar, some people don't see a need for it anymore.

But I'm just old fashioned enough to know that when we get to that altar it's time to die.

When we get to that altar, it's time to resurrect and live again through the power of Jesus' name.

Hallelujah, anytime through this message that you feel compelled by the Spirit to move out of your seat and come to this altar, there will be some saints of God, will follow you right up here and they'll help you pray through whatever your need is.

I believe, as the song said a while ago, god is here to break the chains and I want to hear some chains falling this morning.

Amen, hallelujah.

Acts, chapter 4, verse 5.

Acts 4:5

And it came to pass on the next day.

I'm reading from the New King James Version that their rulers, elders and scribes, as well as Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, john and Alexander and as many of the family of the high priest, were gathered together in Jerusalem, and when they had set them in the midst, they asked here's a question.

They asked by what power or what name have you done this?

Then, peter, this ought to be our position, being filled with the Holy Ghost said, or the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people, of the elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for the good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made, well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that, by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, not by Peter, by him, this man stands here before you whole, hallelujah.

Skip on down to verse 13, if you will.

Well, let's go ahead and read it.

This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.

Nor is there salvation in any other, not in buddha, not in hara krishna, not in muhammad, not in larry tillman, not in joe biden.

Not in Joe Biden, not in Trump, not in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men which we must be saved Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men meaning in the law, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Heavenly Father, we come to you today in the name of Jesus and I pray as your servant.

Anoint me richly, as you already have this service.

Preach the powerful word, the delivering word, the word that will set people free.

I pray, go forth in this auditorium and look into our hearts and let the chains fall today, in the name of Jesus.

Now give me your words, use me as your glove up on your hand today, and we thank you for this opportunity to proclaim your word one more time.

And everybody said amen.

In the name of Jesus, you may be seated.

Thank you, stephen, for the opportunity.

I count it the greatest privilege of my life to preach in my son's pulpit.

Amen, amen.

God's always had his hand on Stephen, all of his life.

I don't know if you know this or not.

He used to bring kids home from school when he was junior high and freshman in school and he'd get them back in the bedroom.

He'd get them on their knees and pray them through.

He'd get them under the bleachers at the football stadium.

He'd pray them through.

He'd say you got to get out on your knees, get saved, amen.

He told one kid one time when he was in grade school.

Some kid said the word gosh or something like it, not, not really a cuss word, but uh.

He said.

Uh, you shouldn't say that.

The kid said who said?

He said my dad says so.

Well, who's your dad?

He's an assembly of God preacher, and he hears from God.

I thought you know what?

I never had a better compliment in my life than that, right there, from a little guy at that age.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

I want to preach to you this morning A few moments.

God's been dealing with me all week about this subject and every song is just lined it up for me.

So that's one reason I know this is God ordained.

This is not just company being called to preach on my friend.

We're living in a day that the church is going to do one of two things they're going to become more worldly or they're going to draw to the cross, they're going to get closer to God.

There are pockets of revival that are breaking out across the land.

I've been hearing about them more and more and it's kind of amazing.

When I was a little bitty kid, a lot of tent revivals were going on, and now there's pockets of revival and most of them are happening in tents, and that's fine with me.

I've always wanted to be a tent evangelist.

I want to take one to Mexico one of these days and pitch a tent and preach in Mexico, and maybe God will let that happen someday.

But regardless, there are pockets of revival that are spreading across this land.

Every time I hear about another one, every time I hear somebody prophesy that God's going to stop this Roe versus Wade and get this killing babies out of our land and we're going to repent of it.

And guess what's going to happen on the tail of it?

There's going to be the greatest revival and spiritual awakening that America's ever seen.

Folks, we need to see the power of God in our churches like we've never seen before.

I grew up around the altars, I grew up in Pentecostal churches, but I'm here to tell you I'm back in my home area again, in the Boot Hill of Missouri.

Been there almost two years now and I've visited and preached in most, not most of it some of the churches that I preached in as a young man when I first got called in the ministry.

I preached youth rallies in them and they would be packed out.

I preached in their regular services.

They'd be running over 100, at 150, including my home church.

And now I go back to them and, after Corona and all the other stuff that Satan has thrown their way, they're barely running 20.

They're barely running 30.

They're barely running 40.

And my cry out to God, ever since I've been in the boot hills Lord, bring revival to the boot hill of Missouri one more time.

And, lord, if you can use me in the last day, revival anyway.

Anyhow, I'm available.

I want to be used of you, lord.

This passage of scripture if you go back to chapter 3, you'll find out what's really taking place here.

It was an hour of prayer and they was going to pray and there was a man at the gate of beautiful.

They brought him every single day.

He was crippled from birth and they laid him at the gate of beautiful.

And the reason he was there?

There was no welfare system.

There was no social security or medicare or disability or anything like that.

And they laid him there and he was begging.

Every single day people give him alms and monies and so on so forth.

And here come Peter and John.

And Peter and John were just two freshly called, freshly filled with the Holy Ghost men of God, and they didn't have any money.

They was pastor of church of God.

There might have been assembly of God in those days, I don't know whatever it was.

And here they come.

They said well, we don't have any money, but what we have we're going to give you Church.

That's where we need to be today.

Hallelujah, yes, the church has more money today.

The church has a flow of income today, but I'm here to tell you what we need to offer, even more than money, is what Peter and John had.

Peter and John says I don't have any money, but what I have I give unto you.

Arise in the name of Jesus and walk.

And you know what the word says.

It says he jumped up, he started leaping and praising God.

He didn't even have to be taught how to take steps.

The miracle hand of God took place and they didn't like what happened.

The Sanhedrin court hated them for it and they was going to try them and they brought them to court and you heard the answers.

Who gave you this power to do this?

Who gave you this power?

And old Peter spoke up.

The Bible says being full of the Holy Ghost Church.

It pays to be full of the Holy Ghost because it says, when they deliver you up, he'll tell you what to say.

He'll tell you what to say.

He'll tell you what to say Hallelujah.

Now I want to think about this a minute.

This is what he wants the church to say.

He'll tell you what to say Hallelujah.

Now.

I want to think about this a minute.

This is what he wants the church to be.

He wants us to be an authoritative body.

He wants us to be full of the authority of the Holy Ghost.

Matter of fact, the title of my message today is he has given the church authority.

What is authority?

It's the right to act or speak in certain ways in accordance with the authorization of a higher power.

I have been authorized this morning by a higher power to preach the gospel this morning.

I've been authorized this morning, higher power, to preach the gospel this morning.

I've been authorized this morning to kick devil's heads.

I've been authorized this morning to pray for the sick and see them recover.

I've been authorized this morning by a higher power to see signs and wonders.

Follow them that believe.

I've been authorized this morning to know that the King of kings has walked in the room and he's here to help his folks.

He's here to heal wounds and hurts and diseases.

My friend, they looked at Jesus when he walked the earth and he said you speak as one that has authority.

You're not like the Pharisees.

What was the Pharisees like?

If you go over into the Bible, the scripture says Jesus pointed at them.

You know, I like the way Jesus mixed words.

He went to the religious crowd.

He pointed his finger right in their face and said you hypocrites, I know you don't grow churches that way, but devils flee, they said.

Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said you clean up the outside of the cup real good.

You whitewash the tomb on the outside and you make it look new, he said, but inside your dead men's bones.

You see, that's what the Pharisees were.

They wore their hair right.

How many of you grew up the days that Pentecostal worshiped beehives?

I did.

You ladies couldn't wear slacks or pants in church.

You had to wear dresses and I'm not against that, whatever.

But, my friend, there was days gone by that you had to wear certain things.

You couldn't wear jewelry, you couldn't wear a wedding ring, you couldn't wear a watch.

There's certain things you couldn't do In my early days.

You couldn't play basketball.

You couldn't do In my early days.

You couldn't play basketball, you couldn't do anything.

And if that's what somebody wants to do, that's fine, I'm not against that.

But the fact is, these men did all those things.

They said you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't work on the Sabbath, and they had a long list of things and they wanted to stand on the street corner and pray real loud so everybody would think they were super religious.

Church, we don't need people that everybody thinks they're super religious.

We don't need a whitewashed tomb.

We don't need a child of God that looks religious on the outside or looks holy on the outside.

What we need is what Jesus was.

He was that one that had the authority inside of him that devils took flight when he came into the room.

Hallelujah, we can be religious.

Matter of fact, I was talking to Stephen about this kitchen table here, and there's nothing wrong.

It actually works out pretty good, stephen.

I don't bump myself on any corners no corners.

But some folks would quit the church if you removed the pulpit.

Or quit the church if you moved a green plant that they had given to the church 42 years ago.

Or quit the church if you took a green plant that they had given to the church 42 years ago.

Or quit the church if you took the song books out.

You know what we're living in, a technology stage, man.

I got a Bible, a Logos Bible.

If you don't have it, download it, man.

It's got so many references and dictionaries, and I mean several different languages, bibles, greek, hebrew, whatever you want on there.

I've had a long time on there.

We're in an age of technology.

I'm thankful that we've got something like this we can see once in a while.

But, my friend, we cannot get religious and be like the Pharisees and think well, my grandpa didn't do it that way.

Now my mom and dad are still alive.

They're 84 years old and they would hate a screen.

We gotta have hymn books, and there's nothing wrong with hymn books, that's fine.

But, my friend, we can't make a religion out of those things.

We can't make a religion out of those.

That's what the Pharisees did and what happened?

When it was time to deliver people's lives, nothing took place.

When it was time to change people's lives, nothing took place.

When it was time to change people's hearts, nothing transpired.

But when Jesus come on the scene, he broke the mold.

He turned them running because he changed a lot of things.

But my friend, he did one thing.

He may not use the strategy they used, but my friend, when he come in the room, he came in with one ass authority.

I'm talking about we, the church.

We have been given authority, authority, authority.

He calls the church to be different.

Now, matthew 23,.

I know they probably got on screen, I won't turn to it just for time's sake, but it talks about the Pharisees and their whitewashed tombs and so on and so forth.

If you want to look it up later, matthew 23, 25 through 28.

But he calls the church to be different.

What's the difference in the Pharisees, in the church today?

Well, some churches are pharisaical churches.

He calls the church to be different.

The Pharisees, he said inside your dead man's bones.

That meant they were spiritually dead inside.

There are people sitting on the church pews of today that are spiritually dead inside.

They go to church because the rest of the family goes, or they go to church because they've always done it, or they go to church because they like the preacher, or they go to church because they like the music, or they go to church because it's right next to the house, and the list goes on and on and on.

But, my friend, inside they're dead men's bones.

They're not alive.

But what's different in the church and the Pharisees was the church had Jesus living in them.

We are alive.

We are not dead men's bones.

We've got the king of King living in us, my friend.

That that's a big difference.

We're not dead, but we're alive, hallelujah.

Look at Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20, galatians 2 and 20.

Galatians 2:20

I'll get the right chapter here in a second.

There it is Okay.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live.

Larry Tillman died a long time ago.

He died, he got crucified.

But Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

What's the difference in a Pharisee and a child of God?

The Pharisee's a hypocrite and they're dead, but the child of God has the Holy Ghost living within them and they are alive forevermore.

And guess what?

The same spirit that quickened Jesus out of the tomb is going to quicken us one of these days, because we are alive.

We're different, hallelujah.

Every other religion serves a dead God.

Buddha died a long time ago, muhammad died a long time ago, and all the gods that they serve?

In India, in the Hindu gods, there's thousands of them, and in various places around the world they're man-made.

Isaiah talks about them carrying the God on your back, using the shavings to warm the room with and burning the fire because you've carved it out of wood.

And, my friend, the list goes on and on.

But the church?

Today we're not serving a statue of Jesus, we're not serving a statue of Mary, we're not serving a statue of St're not serving a statue of st Patrick.

We are serving the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and he lives within us.

We serve a living God.

When you face your troubles, it's always easier to say that you've been through it, but when you're right in the middle of it, and when you face your troubles, stand up and know that that God that lives within you, several thousand years ago stood on the brink of time and beginning and said let there be light.

And there was light.

That same God spoke into existence the moon, the stars, the earth.

Then he created the animals and the fish.

Some ask which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I know the answer to that the chicken.

God created the chicken, then it had an egg to reproduce itself.

You see, that's easy enough.

That's Bible 101.

But God spoke those things in existence and when he got to man, he didn't just speak man in existence, he wanted a personal touch.

So he took that first Adam and created him and breathed in his nostrils and he became a living soul.

The Bible says you see, that's what I'm talking about is living within me.

A dead God's not living in there, that can't do anything.

Some people don't have enough power of God and blow fuzz off a peanut, amen.

Some people don't have enough power of God and blow fuzz off a peanut, Amen.

But we have Jesus living within us and he was there at creation and participated.

So I, you know what, like I said earlier, if we're going through trouble, we got to keep in mind we have the King of Kings living within us and there's not anything he and I can't go through.

Amen, he gave us authority.

A few years ago I was driving a charter bus out of Little Rock, arkansas.

I drove it into Washington DC.

That's a foolish thing to do, but I did that anyway right after I come out of New York City.

And so 45 foot bus down Times Square on a Friday night.

You've got to have your head examined seven times a day.

I guarantee it.

I'm turning right at a stoplight.

The crosswalk has don't walk, and so I'm turning right to go around the block, come back around and park where I had just been because a bus just pulled out.

I'd let a group off to go to the White House to take pictures, and so I start into that right-hand turn.

I let some people cross and it was vacant and all of a sudden this woman starts at a trash can halfway down the street and cuts a catty corner across there, and all of a sudden I hear this whistle blowing like some crazy guy.

And it was a DC policeman standing there on the street corner blowing his whistle at my bus.

Well, number one, my bus is a hundred times bigger than him.

Number two, I can probably drive it faster than he can run.

Number three, I didn't like the way he's blowing that whistle.

But the thing was he stood there and he had an insignia on his chest and he had a badge over his pocket and he had something else strapped to his waist and he had a hat on his head and a grim look on his face and a whistle blowing and I knew that that man had some authority.

So I stopped, opened the door and he chewed me out and out and I told him.

I said the lady wasn't in the crosswalk.

Well, she might have been a crazy person.

I thought, yeah, she would pulled out in front of a bus.

She's not too smart.

But my thinking was and he, you know, gave me all these kind of charges, I can take away your CDL.

I thought, ooh, go for it.

So I pulled off and I didn't like the way he treated me.

But I knew he had some authority because he was a policeman.

You think about that this morning.

The child of God that's been given authority has an insignia and it's the cross of Calvary.

He wears a badge and that badge is an empty tomb Hallelujah, proving victory forever.

And every badge has engraving on it and it has on that engraved names and so on, the city or the authoritative entity that is charging them with the job to hold up the traffic or to do whatever they need to do.

I know in Texas we've got several branches of police.

We've got Texas Rangers, you've got Highway Patrol, you've got sheriffs, you've got all kinds of constables I don't know what all.

When I came to Texas years ago I thought how many levels of police do they have?

I found out DC had seven or eight different police forces there.

They've got a post office police.

Lord, help us speeding in a post office.

What are you going to do about that?

But on that badge it's engraved whose authority they're standing in and the flag that waves over different areas.

It gives them their empowerment.

Matter of fact, the scripture calls it a banner.

And guess what?

The banner is moving by the wind.

In the Greek, the numis or pneuma meant wind.

It also translated Holy Ghost.

And guess what we need?

The Holy Ghost?

Wind breathing in our services today.

Wind breathing in our services today and breathing in our hearts today.

And when people come in broken, which they will and do.

And when people come in hurting, which they will and they do.

When people come in crippled and blind and deaf and kidney failure and AIDS and all kinds of other stuff.

We, the church, have been given the authority death and kidney failure and AIDS and all kinds of other stuff we, the church, have been given the authority to lay hands upon the sick and watch them recover.

Hallelujah, that's the word he gave us.

Authority.

He said Jesus taught with authority, not like the Pharisees, not like that dead bunch.

Matter of fact, what kind of reputation do you think your church is getting?

Every church has a reputation.

Well, that church down there they make fine meals.

That church down there they put on a good yard sale, they have a fine bingo game.

Every church has a reputation.

When I pastored in Archie, missouri, we bought an old, old Christian church building and it was the first assembly of God in town and I was the first pastor there, small congregation.

But the building was so old it had true cut lumber in it.

If you don't know what what that means, that means when you put a tape measure on two, before it was exactly two inches wide and four inches wide and but and had no insulation that building whatsoever.

So when we're singing on Sunday night, those walking down the street next to the parking lot of the church could hear singing or they could hear me preaching.

Well, they got a hold of mayor and Mayor, that church is getting too loud, you need to shut them down.

He says I'm not going to bother that church, y'all just go on and leave them alone.

And we had a reputation in church for being, I guess, a loud bunch because we preached and we sang, but they could hear it through the building.

But guess what?

People got saved there.

People got delivered there.

We saw a mighty move of the Holy Ghost and at 10 years we were there.

Why?

Because the Lord is authoritative.

He gave us authority to go there and plant a church and we did Hallelujah.

When he gives us authority, then he don't just say, okay, you got a badge, now what.

He steps up and he gives us the power.

Every child of God ought to be full of the Holy Ghost.

If we haven't received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we ought to start seeking him.

We ought to say Lord, I want more of you.

The song that said more of you, lord, nothing but you, nothing less, nothing less.

We want more of the Lord, holy Ghost.

Come in this room today and every person that is not full of the Holy Ghost empower them with an infilling of the Holy Ghost.

Paul was walking along one time and this little weird girl was following him.

Oh, these men are men of God, wonderful men of God.

Listen to these preachers.

They're men of God.

What she was saying was true, but she was a fortune teller, she was demon possessed.

What did Paul do?

He turned around and said Woman, would you please not bother me?

And he went on.

No, he didn't.

He turned around and said In the name of Jesus, come out of her.

And that spirit left.

What did he do?

He turned around and said in the name of Jesus, come out of her.

And that spirit left.

What did he do?

He acted in authority.

He told that devil what to do in the name of Jesus.

And it happened.

David, when he stood before Goliath, he didn't come there and say well, we've had a meeting, we had a board meeting.

I think we're going to tackle what you're doing here.

No, sir, he'd a board meeting.

I think we're going to tackle what you're doing here.

No, sir, he'd come up there.

He wouldn't even put on at least Saul's armor on.

And he says I come to you one way, goliath.

I don't come to you with swords and spears like you got, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.

And when he got that slingshot out and put that first stone in it and started going round and round and round and Goliath was probably getting angry and mad at him All of a sudden he let that slingshot loose and the power of the Holy Ghost took over from there and the authority went with it and it hit Goliath right in the forehead.

You know the story.

He came tumbling down and God gave a great defeat that day because he took authority.

There was a lady who came forward for prayer several years ago in that church in Archie, missouri that I pastored I was just talking about, and she had come from California.

Her family lived there, but she had come back from California after being there many, many years and she got right with God.

But then she started back from California after being there many, many years and she got right with God.

But then she started dabbling in things.

Make a long story short.

She started committing adultery and doing some things she shouldn't be doing and entertaining spirits and what have you?

She'd come to my office one night right before service and she used to call me all the time, two or three times a week asking me biblical questions or questions about this.

And she used to call me all the time, two or three times a week, ask me biblical questions or questions about this, and she was ignorant of the Word of God totally.

And she came in my office just before I was getting ready to preach and said I want to be fixed, I want to be like I was when I came back from California with the Lord.

I said tell you what, tonight when I call people for prayer, you come up and I'll pray for you.

So sure enough I don't know if Stephen remembers this, I don't know.

Do you remember that?

That night I called people up for prayer and we had a little organ sitting over here on the edge of the platform.

It had a bottle of oil sitting there and the Holy Spirit told me this and he's never told me before or since.

He said take that bottle of oil and pour it on her head.

I grew up in the dippy to do stage of life.

You know little dab will do.

That's why we always anointed just a little dab on the forehead you know whether the finger and what have you.

And sure enough, I opened that bottle and when I poured it on her head, a guttural voice said no, boy, you talk about getting out of a deep sleep.

I woke up.

I said there was something rose up within me.

I can't explain it really.

It was like a boldness I'd never had before in the ministry.

And I said in the name of Jesus.

And I touched her forehead and when I did, she fell down like a load of bricks.

I can't say she was delivered immediately, but for over two hours I told my children's church leader.

I said you get all the kids out of here right now.

Take them.

What do you mean?

I said get all the kids out.

She didn't know what was going on Because I said we're getting ready to see a deliverance.

And for over two hours she would try to levitate and she had her eyes closed.

I'd place my Bible on the floor right next to her head and she'd wither away like a snake and I knew what we was dealing with.

But I also knew that I was there under the authority and the authorization of the Spirit of God and that woman was not going to go out there bound.

And sure enough, two hours later, that thing come out.

It was almost like she died and we heard it leave and God set her free.

Hallelujah.

I'm telling you, church, I don't care if the devil has you by the ears and pounding you and trying to destroy you or working on your mind or working on your body.

It don't make me any difference because I'm here in the authority of the Holy Ghost and fire and whatever you need prayer for.

I'm here to help you get that answer.

Why?

Because I have been given by the Lord, jesus Christ, the authority, and so have you.

We've all been to places where the devil, like a bully, has got us down and has beaten us, while we're laying on the ground and we just don't know what to do but just to cover our face up, and we feel like we're getting weaker and weaker.

But it's time the child of God stand up and say Ah, devil, you're not doing it anymore, you're no longer going to bully me because I'm a child of the king, I'm a son of the living God, I've been washed in the blood of the lamb and you can't touch me.

I'm healed, I'm delivered, I'm set free because of the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

He empowers his church.

He don't expect us to sit on the pew and warm the pew and be bench warmers.

He called every one of us to be warriors of the cross.

Every one of us to be warriors of the cross, every one of us.

You say, preacher, I'm going through too much.

Every soldier goes through basic training.

Every soldier goes through strengthening moments and when you go through that trial, my friend, that's the time that God is exercising your spiritual muscles to the place that you can stand up and stomp devil's heads.

Hallelujah, I'm in the devil head stomping business.

Lastly, I hadn't been seeing the time.

There's the time right up there.

You didn't tell me we had a clock.

Not only does he empower us, first of all he calls the church to be different.

He gives us authority, then he gives us the power to do it and lastly I'm thankful it's not up to Larry Tillman he moves and honors his word, hallelujah.

We were in revival with a friend of mine who actually lives in Dallas, robbie Mitchell, known Robbie ever since he started in the ministry 30 some odd years ago and in Trinity Assembly of God there.

He had a weekend revival there and their Sunday morning altar service lasted until after two o'clock.

The reason was it didn't last three o'clock.

He had to catch a plane get back to Dallas.

But that morning Donna was there and that morning was a three or four people that God opened their deaf ears At least three that we witnessed.

One of them had been deaf since she was a child and God opened that ear instantly.

There was another older lady there that had what was it called immaculate degeneration.

I probably don't have that term right, it's close to it.

I'm preaching, so it don't matter.

She could not see faces up close because they were blanked out in her sight.

But while the evangelist prayed for her, all of a sudden she could see his face.

God healed that eye problem instantly and that morning we saw several things like that take place.

You say why are you bringing that up?

I'm saying God doesn't think Little Rock is any more special than Longview Texas.

That think Little Rock is any more special than Longview Texas.

And God don't think Robbie Mitchell's any more special than Stephen Tillman or whoever else is gonna lay hands on the sick and pray for them.

What am I saying?

It's not about Tillman, it's not about Connect Church, it's not about Little Rock Church, it's about Jesus and when we come in his authority, my friend, with his authorization.

My friend, he's already said if two or three agree together, how many of you are going to agree with me today?

I believe, whatever needs are here, I believe the Holy Ghost is in this place to do it and he's strong enough.

I don't care if you're being tormented by devils.

There is no devil in hell can even come close to Jesus.

Not a one, not a one, not a one, not a one, not a one.

We're to move and act on the authority of God.

We're the church.

We're called to act on his authority.

Even in Matthew, chapter 18, he mentioned the fact of whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

What's that talking about?

That's talking about the church has been given the authority, the authorization, the authorization.

Up in Missouri I'm on a job I've never had before when I'm not preaching.

I was driving a dump truck for my brother.

He has a trucking company and when the corona hit I was in Little Rock and I moved up there during that time because everything down there in Little Rock shut down and so I just kept working, didn't miss one paycheck.

I thank the Lord for that.

Didn't miss one, never draw unemployment one time ever in my life and I'm bragging on Jesus for that Not Larry Tillman, but Jesus.

But I have the authority as a dump truck driver and the authorization by the state patrol and the highway departments and everybody else involved to pull that dump truck inside those orange cones when nobody else can, because I'm going to dump some asphalt in there in that paving machine and give them some asphalt to pave the road.

I've been given authorization.

Now in my car I can't do that, but because I'm on the job and authorized I can do it.

Hallelujah, I can't do anything this morning on my own, but because I've been authorized, I can pray for you and see God set you free, whatever it might be.