The Anointing Changes Everything

Hello and welcome to the Arise Church Podcast.

We are so glad you're here and want to thank you for joining us

today for the audio version of our Sunday morning message.

We want to invite you to join us in person at our Sunday morning

celebration every Sunday at 10 AM.

We are located on Old Jenks Rd. in Apex, NC.

Actually, Pastor Tim is going to be bringing the Word.

This is his first time of ministering the Word of God to

us this morning. And so he's been a huge blessing

to us and to our church already. But would you please help me

welcome Pastor Tim Barcelona to bring the Word?

Well, good morning again everybody.

How we all doing? It's a good day to be in God's

house. Amen.

Amen. Let me get my prop here because

I do have a prop. You might be like, it's the set

of keys. I'll explain later.

So hold tight. I want to ask, would you turn

with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 12, very first book of

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

the Bible as you're turning there, like Pastor Ty said, my

name is Tim. I'm the senior associate pastor

and I was, I met somebody last week and they said, are you the

senior associate pastor? Because that means you're old.

And I said absolutely not, and you're about to get rebuked, so

God bless you for saying that. Next month is my birthday, but

I'm going to let you guess how old I'm going to be.

I'm not going to tell you, but I will give you a snapshot of my

story. When Pastor asked me to speak

today, he said that he'd like me to share some of my testimony

and what I sense the Lord is doing at Arise Church.

And I got to tell you, I am so honored anytime I have the

opportunity to be on any platform doing anything really

at the end of the day, I'm just, I just want to hear the Lord say

well done. You handled well with what I

entrusted you to handle. And so, so with your finger

there in Genesis 12, I'm going to ask you to stand with me as

we read the word of God. I like to do this not out of a

traditional thing and out of it. You've got to stand if you

really want to be holy. But we believe in honoring the

Lord, Amen, in in whatever way we can.

I'm going to ask, would you read this passage with me?

We'll have it up on the screen. If you don't have a Bible, I

want to encourage you. It's a great time to bring your

Bible to church. So if you don't have a Bible,

let us know. We can get one for you.

We're happy. I've got a whole bunch of my

office that's just sit on my shelf, but if for those of you

who don't have one, feel free to read.

Along with this, we'll be reading out of the new King

James Version. Let's read this together.

Ready, set, go now, The Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your

country, from your family and from your father's house to a

land that I will show you. Lord, we thank you for your word

today. Lord, we thank you for what you

have been doing from the moment we stepped onto this campus.

We thank you, Lord, that you are here.

We thank you that our faith is charged.

We are expecting you to continue to do great things.

Lord, just as you've been meeting us in praise and worship

and ministry, we thank you that you're going to meet us with the

word of God. So Lord, I pray that right now,

Lord, I pray that people don't hear Tim Versalono, but I pray

that they hear the Clarion call of the Holy Spirit to the words

that I speak today. Jesus, you be glorified in your

name, we pray. And everybody said, Amen, Amen.

You may be seated. So I want to give you just a

snapshot. And I'm going to race through 56

years in about a minute or two. That's how old I am, by the way,

in case you were wondering. So there you go.

My folks came to the Lord in the in the 1970s and 1974 and they

came to the Lord in the height of the charismatic renewal,

which was a great time to come to Jesus.

Can I ask how many, how many of you maybe came to faith in the

70s or during that time frame? Wow, that's awesome.

Wonderful. So my parents had a pretty crazy

conversion experience and right from the get go, my mom was

going to a charismatic Catholic Bible study because there are a

lot of Catholics getting baptized with the Holy Spirit in

the 70s. And she went to this Bible study

and she had one leg that was shorter than the other.

And so the people who were there said, well, we can pray for your

leg, and God will heal you. And the way she tells a story,

she said, well, why would God want to do that for me?

And they said, well, can we pray for you?

Yeah, they prayed. Long story short, boom, God

healed her leg just like that. Now, I wasn't there at the

prayer meeting, but I can tell you this, this memory is still

so vivid in my mind. I remember as a little boy, my

mom going to her closet, pulling out her dresses because my mom

sewed for all of her life. She made all sorts of stuff for

me and my brothers and my dad. Some stuff was really cool

looking, some stuff I would later look at and go why, why?

But I remember helping my mom put the dresses on the 1970s

orange and yellow bedspread. And she said, now, Timmy, this

is a stitch Ripper and it had a pointy end with a little ball at

this end. And what it did is it help you

RIP out stitches so you could change the hem on your garments.

And I said, mom, what are you doing?

And she said, Jesus healed me last night.

I've got to fix all my hems on my dresses.

I remember that so vividly because number one, me and my

younger brothers were never allowed to go into mom and dad's

bedroom ever. And I remember because of that

ugly bedspread. But I remember most importantly

because my mom said Jesus healed me.

That's the first time I ever heard those words uttered that I

remembered. That's when I was a little boy.

Then a couple years later it's in when I was six years old, we

were attending Calvary Temple Assembly of God in Flossmoor, IL

And little Timmy went to Bible, a vacation Bible school.

And the night that the altar call was given, I walked down

front. I felt for the first time my

heart racing and I thought, oh, what is this?

And I knew that I needed to go down front and make Jesus the

Lord of my life. And so in August 1976, little

Timothy, John, little Timmy went down, went down to the front of

the church and made Jesus Lord of his life with two of his best

friends from school that he invited to go with them.

And I've been living for Jesus ever since.

Thank you, Lord. Fast forward a little bit now

I'm at kids camp. Can I tell you, I have always

been a fan of camp because I know what God has done in my

life at camp. I know what the Lord has done

through my wife at camp. It has been amazing.

I was at Kids Camp and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit at

Kids Camp. Now, I was going to a Christian

School at the time and again, at the height of the charismatic

renewal, there was some, there was some really great stuff that

was happening, but I'm gonna know there was some stuff that

you were kind of like, what's that?

What's going on there? And so they were teaching us how

to speak in tongues at this Christian School, which my mom

hit the fan, called the principal.

And you can't do that while I was at kids camp that summer.

And I remember this because in central Illinois it gets hot and

humid just like it does in North Carolina.

And I remember going down front because I wanted to receive this

baptism with the Holy Spirit thing.

And somebody prayed for me. And I came to what seemed like a

few minutes later and the whole place was empty and I was the

only one left in there speaking in tongues with someone praying

over me. And it was such a vivid and

powerful. I remember, I remember the

leader sitting up on the cement floor going where is everybody?

They were organizing the chairs, getting things straightened out.

So I was baptized in the Holy Spirit at a very young age as

well. I was baptized in water in 7th

grade. Then Fast forward at 16 years

old, I was working in a daycare at a Christian School when I was

a junior in high school, and I wanted to be a chiropractor.

I saw the car that my mom's chiropractor drove and I said, I

want to be a chiropractor because I want to drive a nice

car. By the way, my birthday is next

month. Corvette has always been up

there. Maybe one, maybe one year, we'll

see. So it's 16 years old, I'm

working in this daycare, and I heard the Lord say I'm calling

you to ministry. Now, I assumed it was children's

ministry because I was working in a daycare, but that's not

what the Lord said. He said I'm calling you and I

said, Lord, I just want to do whatever it is that you want me

to do, whatever that looks like. And that has been something that

has guided me and JJ for all of our lives.

My folks used to do Bible studies in our home.

We'd have adult Bible studies. They do teen Bible studies.

They do young adults Bible studies.

They we did Bible studies all the time because that's what you

just did in the 70s and the 80s. And mom and dad were always very

active. It wasn't like, yeah, we go to

church on Sunday. That's our thing.

It's like when the doors were open, the versalonos were there.

That's just how we were raised. I was raised that way.

Both my younger brothers were raised that way.

We raised our kids that way. When the doors are open, that's

just what versalonos do. We live our lives for Jesus.

So we were at A at a teen Bible study and the first prophetic

word I received was from my mom, which was really kind of cool.

And I'm there and we're praying and everything.

And I didn't realize it was a prophetic word at the time, but

the word was Tim. I really sense from the Lord

that God is always going to use praise and worship as a big part

of your life in ministry. And as a 16 year old, you're

like, oh, that's really kind of cool.

Now I got to tell you, when I was 16 years old, there was

really not that much worship music that was out there.

It was just really beginning to come in popularity and people

began writing. There was some Maranatha music,

which was like, OK, this is nice, but give me something a

little more engaging. And then and then there was a

Hosanna music. And then there were.

And then it just kind of grew and went from there.

So over the past almost 40 years now of ministry, praise and

worship has always been a main thread of what God has called me

to do. And I got to tell you and I'll

tell about talk about this more in a second.

When pastor first gave us gave us a call and asked us about

coming down. I'll be completely honest with

you. I I've been pastoring for about

half of my life at this point, senior pastoring.

And I thought, Lord, do I still have what it takes to get it

done? Because I'm like, you know, you

look at you watch videos on on YouTube and a majority of

worship leaders are probably not in their mid 50s.

A lot of them have no grey in their beard.

A lot of them wear hats. A lot of them wear all sorts of

stuff. And I'm looking at me going, OK,

am I even really going to be relevant anymore?

Now, I don't say that for any kind of oh, Tim, you're doing a

good job. This is the we all.

We all have different thoughts like God, can you still or Lord,

why would you use me kind of thing?

Don't we? But can I tell you something

that the anointing of God is always there to step into what

he made you to do. And since we've been here, I

can't tell you how many people have said, Tim, how's it feel to

be leading worship again and not pastoring?

And I'm like, I'm really, I love being a senior pastor, but I

love doing what God made me to do.

This is what he made me to do. And so mom, if you're watching,

thank you for sharing the word of the Lord with me.

After I graduated high school in 1982, I attended Jimmy Swaggart

Bible College for one year. And then after that year I went

and completed at Life Bible College East, graduated 91.

Now I'm going to Fast forward to going to go real fast.

So the first place I served was in Concord, NC, then in after

Concord. So I was first when I was a

little boy, I said, Lord, if there's anywhere I could be, I'd

love to either be in Michigan or North Carolina.

You may be wondering why Michigan?

Because grandma and grandpa had a cottage on the lake.

It was not a cute cottage. It was a shack, but I loved

going to the cottage, but I loved coming to North Carolina.

And so we got to, so I started ministry in North Carolina.

Then I went to Grace Covenant JG and I run staff there together.

And then in 1995, the Lord spoke to us and said, go West.

We had bought a home, had lived in it for a year, and we were

like, OK, we're just going to obey you, Lord.

And so we made one extra house payment and we packed it up and

we just started moving. We didn't have any kids at the

time. We had a dog, boy, she had two

dogs. We gave the big one away and

kept the little guy. We started in every state line

that we'd cross. Is it here?

Nope. Is it here?

Nope. Is it here?

Nope. Is it here and about halfway

across the country. We need we, we.

This is how crazy, wacky faith we had.

We didn't even have cell phones at the time, but her mom and dad

had a cell phone and they were going get ready to go on staff

back at church on the way in Southern California.

So we just all caravaned across the country.

So halfway across the country, J JS Grandma called and said,

well, the rental is available in Santa Maria.

The people lived there for the past eight years.

They just bought a home. So it's available if you and

we're like, yeah, yeah, thanks. So is it here?

Nope. Is it here?

And so finally, we're like, Lord, there's not much further

we can go. And it became clear, OK, we'll

move into the rental. And then we were on.

We wound up going on staff at the church in Santa Maria as a

worship leader for almost 9 years there.

And God did some amazing, amazing things.

All of our kids were born in Santa Maria.

JJ grew up in Santa Maria when her dad pastored the church

years ago. And we just went because God

said to go. And we said, like we heard Joe

and Mel say, we just said, yes. That is something that we have

always said, Lord, we just give you our yes.

And so we were there for nine years after being at a church.

It was a good sized church and leading worship, writing a bunch

of music, recording an album. The Lord said, I want you to go

to Chicago and start a church. So we moved.

We were in Chicago for three years, planted a little church

called Harvest Point Christian Fellowship.

And the church didn't do what we thought it would do, but we

discovered who's Tim and JJ, who's God called us to be in our

family. And it was a real foundational

time for us in our faith. Is it that time that I became

bivocational because I needed a job?

And so I started working in the restaurant and I did that for 10

years, worked my way from from a server to a trainer to a

salaried manager to the general manager.

And that was, it was a lot of fun.

It was a lot of hard work because eventually we left

Chicago, went back to California, went back to work

for Red Robin when the economy tanked back in O 7 and got my

job back into management. So I'm now pastoring and

managing a restaurant. And after I was done with that,

I was tired and we took a season to recoup.

So we went back to California, pastored a church for nearly six

years in the San Fernando Valley, and then JJ went on

staff at that. It was called Church on the way,

Santa Clarita at the time, now called Cross Point.

And then I came on staff about a year later as the worship pastor

after we left the church that we pastored then in 2017.

Am I going too fast? OK, great 2017 because I got a

few other things I want to talk about today.

In 2017, the Lord, Well, in 2016, in October 2016, the Lord

woke me up in the middle of the night and he said transitions

come and get ready. And often times when the Lord is

wanting to get our attention, the Lord will just speak.

These one liners, sometimes we share them with others to have

them pray with us. Other times we keep them between

us and we'll share them with the kids to have them pray with us

and the kids to 1°. We have three kids, by the way,

Shaylyn is kids pastor over in Concord.

Casey is worship leader at a church in Northern California,

and then Jackson works with FCA and is an accountant in

Lynchburg. And then we've got 4, almost 5

grandkids. And I know what you're thinking.

You are not old enough to have that many grandkids.

And you're right, I'm not, but we do.

And so, and they're so awesome. How many grandparents are in the

house today? Oh, man, people would say, yeah,

it's great being a dad, but wait to your grandparent.

And I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.

Now that I'm a grandparent, I'm like, yeah, it is pretty cool.

And so the Lord spoke to us. I said, transitions coming, get

ready. And I said, what transition?

And often times when the Lord does that, it's to get us

praying is to get us seeking His face and to start getting ready

for whatever it is that God wants to do.

That's how faith works. A lot of times the Lord may

speak something to you and we've got to take that step to say, OK

Lord, I am going to trust where you are leading, what you are

doing. Even though I might not have all

the answers, I will trust you because God has never ever let

us down. He's never LED us astray.

So at the time, like, what's going on?

And so we wound up moving to New England.

Neither of us had never been to New England before JJ.

All she knew of New Hampshire was she's like, I know that they

vote first. That's great.

And I didn't know much more than that.

But when? But here's how the Lord has done

this all throughout the course of our lives.

Jackson's was, Jackson was playing hockey and he signed a

contract, went down to pastor's office that day and I basically

resigned, gave my 30 day notice. We're moving to New England,

we're moving to New Hampshire. And I was going to ask him for

the supervisor's name so I could just say, hey, we're coming.

I don't know if anybody has anything.

I'll do whatever, I don't care. And, and so our pastor gave me

the supervisor's number. We got in touch the next day.

We talked on the phone, I sent my resume.

And by Friday I knew we were going to Laconia, NH.

What's interesting is in October 2016, remember when the Lord

said transition is coming, get ready.

I did not know that the guy who was pastoring the church, that

is the day that his wife received a diagnosis that they

where they said we need to step away from ministry and pastoring

this church so I can care for my wife.

It was a significant cancer diagnosis.

So when I shared this with the church in Laconia, the gentleman

who had stepped down said, wait, when was that?

And I say it was October 2016. And he looked at his wife and

she looked at him and they said that's when we got the

diagnosis. God is always preparing things

ahead when we don't know, so we want to.

We were in Laconia. We pastored Real Life Church

from 2017 to 2026 and it was a wonderful 8 1/2 years in New

England. We loved our church, we loved

our home, we loved where God put us.

JJ worked for the district office.

You've heard Pastor talk about it before.

JJ got to work with Pastor Ty for a number of years

representing the district in a big state region.

And I and I got to be the happy participant and just watching

and see what God was doing. There were times I'd play

keyboard during camp and I'd listen in on some conversations

they that they were having. And I remember always thinking,

I really like this guy. Some Chicago may slip out from

time to time. So if it does just kind of roll

with me because I did grow up on the South side.

I really like this guy and I and, and so when pastor would

come out to speak at camp, I would have him come speak at the

church. And then people in our church

were like, we really like this guy.

And I'm like, I know, right? And so it was always wonderful.

So whenever he would come. So thank you for letting him

come and, and share some of his life with us because we were

blessed in New Hampshire when when y'all were allowing him to

do that. So Fast forward, here we are,

we're in Apex. So that is a lot of life in a

really short amount of time. But I can tell you this, I want

to shift now to sharing some of my testimony because there's a

lot in there. That I didn't cover and you'll

get to hear some of this when JJ speaks as well and as we all get

to know each other, I'll just say this.

Our life is an open book. What you see is what you get.

We love the Lord and we love you and we're glad that God has

called us here. All that to say this faith has

always been a strong foundation in not just my life but in J JS

life as well. From a very young age.

You heard me share just a little bit, not just faith.

Yes, I'm a Christian. I have faith, but faith because

the Word says without faith it's impossible to please God because

he who comes to God must believe that He is and that he is a

rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

So I have diligent, I have really tried to diligently seek

the Lord. There's been seasons where I

haven't been as diligent as I know I could have been, but I

still had faith. So faith has always been a

strong foundation in my life expectancy.

Expecting that God will do what he says that he will do has

always been a big foundation. I've always, I, I, I have been,

like I said, I grew up in a home where I saw healing happen in

our living room. People were delivered from

demons in our living room. People called a ministry in our

living room. That was just normal life for

the Versalono household. I saw this and I'm like, God can

do anything, anywhere, anytime with anybody.

All we have to say is yes, Lord use me.

And so there's always been an expectancy when I pray for

people. I expect you're going to get

healed. I don't just owe Jesus.

If it's your will, it's his will.

He wants you healed. He wants you to be well.

I've always had an expectancy that there's going to be an

anointing on what I do because I've got to take time in his

presence before, before any of this happens.

I better be spending some time with the Lord.

That's a good place for the church to say Amen.

I've always expected the anointing.

It's always been a primary focus throughout my lifetime.

And I saw this model by mom and dad as a as a young guy grew up

in Chicago Heights and I saw this modeled by my in laws.

Even there's so many things that JJ and I as we were asking 20

questions, getting to know each other, you know, what would what

would, what would you do in ministry?

What would what's God you called you to do and hearing the things

that God did in her life and in her family.

I'm like, wow. It's like even though we grew up

on different the coasts, it's almost like we grew up the same

way. It's because of faith because

God can do what God wants to do when we say yes to Jesus.

And Genesis 12, we just read a few moments ago, recounts the

story of Abraham getting up and going.

God spoke to him. He said go to somewhere that I

will show you. God didn't lay out a plan.

He didn't say here's the map of where you're going Abraham.

He didn't say Abe, if you do this, he's God just said go and

what it Abram at the time say he said OK, He said yes, So what I

so I want to shift a little bit now and I want to tell you what

I believe God is doing in our church.

We've been here since the end of March and some things it is

super obvious to see what God is doing.

I love to see what the Lord has done in the past four years that

Pastor and Pastor Lilia have been here because they've worked

hard. We don't get to where we're at

today without a lot of hard work that goes into it, Amen.

We all stand on the shoulders of those who've gone before us to

1° or another. And I'm thankful that I, that I

have the ability to step into an anointing that is this platform

has been set that we are expecting God to do what God

says he will do. And that's what he, he's been

doing. Amen.

So what do I believe God's doing in our church?

I think God is raising the level of faith.

He's raising the level of expectancy, and he's raising the

level of anointing. So let me unpack it for you.

I want to unpack this for you in just a few minutes that I have

left. I'm going to lay some

foundational stuff and I want to give you 2 main points and then

I'll conclude it next month when I get the opportunity to speak

again. So you'll have to kind of buckle

your seat belt and just kind of put a comma there.

So the first thing I want to mention is this.

Jesus Christ is the anointed 1. Christ is not Jesus last name,

it is his title Jesus the Christ.

Jesus is the anointed 1. The Savior is the anointed one.

Jesus is anointed. Acts chapter 1038.

Turn there with me if you would please.

Acts chapter 10 verse 38. Acts chapter 10 verse 38, how we

Acts 10:38 Acts 10:38

doing? Are we doing all right?

Praise the Lord. Acts chapter 10 verse 38, it

Acts 10:38

says this, it says God anointed God did what?

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with

power who went about doing good and healing all who were

oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

Now here's what I want us to see here.

This is why this is so foundational for you and me as

Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ.

God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and power.

See, all three people of the Trinity were involved when Jesus

was anointed. God anointed His Son with the

Holy Spirit and power. Now you might be wondering,

well, why did God do that? I'm so glad you asked.

Let me tell you, we see it right there.

Jesus was anointed to do what? To do good.

Jesus was anointed to do good. The second thing he was anointed

to do. He was anointed to heal those

who were oppressed by the devil. The third thing he did, he was

anointed to show that God was with him.

And we see all that right there in this little passage.

It's a little passage, but it's a powerful truth, isn't it?

God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power.

If you're anointed, you can expect to have power in your

life. Now, you might be sitting here

going, well, I haven't seen much power in my life.

Well, we're going to talk about that because we as believers, we

as Christians, we need to tap into that power source.

Amen. We need to tap in.

See, this passage shows that Jesus ministered in the power of

the Holy Spirit. If Jesus ministered in the power

of the Holy Spirit, let me just ask this question.

If Jesus ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit, what makes

us as Christians think we don't need to do the same?

I have met a lot of Christians who are like the Father, the

Son, and the Holy Bible, and they're like the Holy Spirit.

He's kind of like, you know, not for today.

The tongues and all that stuff you Pentecostals do, That's not

for today. Well, if Jesus needed the power

of the Holy Spirit to minister, then who am I to think that I

don't? I mean, Romans even says the

same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is living inside

of us. He is living inside of us.

So let's talk about what anointing means because this is

this is not just a church word, but we use it a lot in the

church. Anoint means to smear or to rub

with oil. I was doing some research and

research tells us this as you look in different Bible study

helps. It represents the flow or the

empowering of the Holy Spirit. Anointing literally involved

rubbing olive oil on the head. Especially to present someone as

divinely authorized, divinely appointed by God to serve as

prophet, priest or king. Yes, we anoint people and pray

with oil as well. Why?

Because just like we heard Pastor talk about last week,

there's system, there's there's patterns that God has set up.

For our example, we didn't start the service today with a slow

song like we heard last Sunday, right?

We, we come into his presence with Thanksgiving and do his

course with praise. We clap our hands, we shout unto

God. There's a there's a process how

we approach the Lord. Can I just say I kind of when

you were talking about finger painting last week, I just kind

of had this picture of people going show me that in the Bible.

That's just one of those things, you know, I'm, it just kind of

made me smile because if it's not in the Bible, right?

OK. So we believe in anointing and

we're divinely authorized to serve as prophet, priest or

king. And that's who the Bible says

that you and I are, prophets, priests and kings.

So here we go #1 here's our first point.

Now that we've talked about the anointing, everybody say #1

number one, you are anointed. Say this with me.

Say I am anointed. Most of you said it.

Now let's all say it together. Ready, go, I am anointed.

Who's anointed? Say I am you are you are

anointed. Why are you anointed?

Because Jesus. God anointed Jesus with the Holy

Spirit and with power. And if we're Christians and if

we want to be like Jesus, then guess who else Jesus has

anointed? He's anointed us.

Thank the Lord you are anointed. Matthew 311 says this.

He himself, Jesus, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and

fire. Interesting.

Jesus was baptized the same way, wasn't he?

By God the Father? And Jesus says, this is Matthew

writing. He says Jesus, he himself, he

will baptize you. Jesus is the baptizer with the

Holy Spirit. That's one thing that we believe

in as a Foursquare Church. And can I tell you it's not good

enough that we just believe it? You got to take action on it.

The Bible says that even the devil believes in some things,

but he trembles. There's so many human beings are

like, I don't need the power of the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, we do. Yes, we do.

And if I don't have the Holy Spirit and fire, then I better

lay myself on the altar and start cooking because that's a

sweet smelling aroma to the Lord.

First, John 220 says this. But you have an anointing from

the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

This is John writing. But you have an anointing.

You, you, you look at the person next to you and point to and

tell him you have the anointing. You have the anointing.

Why do you have the anointing? Because you're anointed, you

have an anointing because you are anointed.

And when he says and all of you know the truth, it's here's what

he's saying. He's like, come on guys, this is

a no brainer. You know, this is the truth.

I'm not telling you something to just pump you up and hype you up

and make you feel nice. I'm telling you the honest of

God's 100% truth. So let's get in it and let's get

in that flow. Let's exercise that anointing

and be who God has made us to believe.

See, the believers have an anointing from the Holy One

indicates that this anointing renders us holy.

We are consecrated. We are set apart for God's

purposes. This passage teaches us that the

gifts of the Holy Spirit are the all efficient means enabling

every single believer. Now I'm getting to my

illustration. You're probably wondering when

you get to the illustration. Here's part of it.

I have on this pulpit an iPad, a Bible, my tea, and some keys.

Here's what a lot of Christians do.

A lot of Christians will say, I'll, I'll take the Bible, I'll

take the iPad. But I'll, I'll leave the keys

right there. And I get kind of thirsty

sometimes because the Bible says out of my innermost being will

flow rivers of living water. So I'll, I'll, I'll take that.

But a lot of us look at the anointing or the Holy Spirit and

we're like, well, I'll just kind of leave that right there.

I'll just, I'll just, I'll take all this.

But Lord, I don't really, I don't really need this.

I'm OK, I'm all set. I don't need that.

Not realizing that God has given us the keys to the Kingdom.

Jesus has the keys to death, hell, and the grave, right?

But he says, I've given you the keys to take authority, to

trample on all sorts of stuff that will try to trample on you.

And a lot of Christians just leave the keys sitting right

there. And we never dive in to

discover, Lord, how have you anointed me?

What have you anointed me to do? Well, Joel talks about that, and

we're going to talk more about that in just a moment.

Joel chapter 2 says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

Somebody say all flesh. Does that leave anything out?

I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

Your sons and daughters shall prophecy, your old men shall

dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

And also on my men servants, on my maidservants.

I will, I will, I will, I will pour out my spirit.

In those days when Peter preached on the day of

Pentecost, this is what he preached.

And he said, this is that that Joel prophesied.

This is that. We've been looking for it.

Guess what, everybody here it is.

Because if anybody knew Peter before the day of Pentecost, it

was the disciples, right? Not everybody else may have

known Peter, but Peter was really good at doing this,

wasn't he? He just put on and some of you,

some some of us can relate with Peter really well.

We walk around, we go. But the day of Pentecost changed

everything, didn't it? Why?

Because God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with his

life was changed. And see, Peter recognized it.

Something was different because the anointing changes

everything, which is the title of today's message.

The anointing changes everything.

Everything, everything. The anointing touches, it

changes. And here's what Joel prophesied

and that Peter preached. He says that your sons and

daughters are going to be anointed.

Gender is not a barrier to prophetic empowerment.

It does not matter if you are a man or you are a woman.

God says if I've anointed you, I have anointed you.

Oh, well, so and so says I can't stop.

What does God say? What did the Lord say?

There is no barrier to prophetic empowerment when he says old and

young age is no barrier to the Holy Spirit's revelation.

It does not matter how old you are.

I had visions when I was younger and I'm dreaming now that I'm

older. JJ, I'll tell you, man, there's

some weeks I'm dreaming four or five nights a week.

And sometimes they're wacky. Whack a do pizza.

But there's a lot of times in my dreams.

I can't tell you how many times I have dreamt something and in

my dream I said out loud, I need to make sure I remember this

just in case I'm dreaming when I wake up in my dreams.

I've said that so many times over the years.

And those are the times I write it down where I'm like, OK,

Lord, what are you saying doing? See, age is no barrier to the

Holy Spirit's revelation. And then he talks about male and

female servants. Now, I know we don't have

servants and everything and all the history and all that stuff

that we learn about growing up and we've seen.

But here's the point of that. Social status is not a barrier

to being empowered by the Holy Spirit.

It doesn't matter if you have 1,000,000 bucks in the bank or

you have 0 bucks in the bank. It doesn't matter if you're the

most popular or if you were like me in high school and you were a

nerd. It does not matter.

If God has anointed you and empowered you, then He has

anointed you and He has empowered you.

Because Christians are the anointed ones who follow the

anointed one. That's who we are.

See, people are filled with God's Spirit so that more of the

earth can be filled with the life of heaven.

That's why it's so important for us as Christians to be filled

with the Holy Spirit to walk in the anointing because we should

change every atmosphere we enter.

We should change it all all the time.

Whether you're putting gas in your tank, shopping at Trader

Joe's, whatever you're doing, playing golf and like whatever

you're doing, if you're in line for Kentucky, it.

Doesn't matter where you are. And what you're doing if you're

anointed, let's live like we're anointed #2.

What to expect? With the anointing, so #1 you

are anointed #2 What to expect with the anointing.

When I first wrote this point down, I found myself thinking of

the book that JG and I read before we had kids, What to

expect when you're expecting. And at the time, we thought,

man, what a rotten title for a book.

Because what if you have a lousy experience?

And being people who watch our words, at first we're like, oh

man. But as being people of faith, it

puts on a whole new twist, doesn't it?

What to expect when you're expecting?

I come to church expecting that God's going to move.

Frankly, I expected today that when pastor came up and did

transition time, I expected that there was going to be a moment

where we were just like, Lord, we're not quite too sure what to

do, but we're going to hang out on your presence so you can have

your way. I was expecting that today.

I came to church ready to go. Well, Pastor Tim, you should

come church expecting ready to go because that's what you're

paid to do. No, I do it because Jesus gave

his life for me. He didn't give me his lifestyle,

He gave me his life. It's not enough for get for me

to give Jesus my lifestyle. I want to give him my life.

I want him to him to impact everything I touch, every person

I touch, every word that I speak, every place that I'm at.

Why? Because I'm anointed to do it.

I was going to preach easy today.

Pastor, I'm sorry. You know Isaiah, chapter 60.

Isaiah 60 · chapter mention

One and Luke chapter 4 says this.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

It says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has if you

know what, help me out. He has what he has anointed who

me. Now we know that this is Jesus

speaking, but who else has Jesus anointed me?

He has anointed me. To do what?

To preach good news to the poor? To proclaim release of the

captives? Recovery of sight to the blind?

To set free the oppressed. And then in Mark 613, it says

this. Here's what else happened when

they were anointed. They drove out many demons.

Not a few demons, not a couple. Maybe if Jesus was having a good

day, because Jesus always has a good day.

Even on Good Friday, he had a good day.

He anointed many sick. People with oil and healed them.

John 12/3 when Mary's there and she anoints Jesus feet, the oil

permeates the atmosphere. I hadn't really thought of this

before. I was talking to JJ last week

and she said, you know, I'd never thought of this.

I was hearing this pastor preach and he said, you know, when that

alabaster box was opened, the oil affected everybody, the

fragrance affected everybody. That's what happens.

When the anointing is in the place, when you are anointed,

when you come ready and you're just anointed, it affects

everybody, everywhere. I'm always praying, Lord, give

me an open door. In those ten years when I was by

vocational, I'll tell you. The prayer that I prayed before

we. Came here and I was like, Lord,

am I still relevant? Do I still have what it takes?

Can I still get can I still get it done?

I. Prayed in. 2000 and 5 when I

went back into the workforce because I was very thankful, I

was so blessed. I got to work full time ministry

for 14 years right out of Bible college.

I was full time. And so now I got to go back and

be full time and I was like, oh Lord, how am I going to do this?

And the Lord help me. Almost every day that I worked

in the restaurant, there was somebody that was said, Tim, can

I talk to you for a minute? And it was never how hot did the

burgers need to be? How long do I hold the fries

for? It was very seldom a food

question. It was my husband just left me,

my kids using drugs. Can you pray for me about this,

that and the other? And I always pray, Lord, give me

open doors and help me to see the door when it opens in front

of me. See, it's one thing to pray for

the open door. It's another thing to recognize

it and then to take that step of faith.

Let me get. Ready to bring this home?

See, the presence of the anointing, the oil, it permeates

the atmosphere. And there's a difference between

music and anointed music. There is a difference between

preaching and anointed preaching.

Can I tell you something we never, ever, ever have to

wonder, Is it going to be anointed this Sunday?

I can promise you it's going to be anointed.

I can promise you it will be. Why?

Because I know my pastor's heart.

You. You can you can rest.

Assured that I'm taking time and I'm spending time in the

presence of God, working through song lists.

Will I always get it right? No.

But there's going to be more often than.

Not that we do, because we're going in together.

There's a difference between music and anointed.

There's difference between preaching and anointed

preaching. Thank God that we have anointed

preaching every week here in this place.

There is a difference between having church and having an

anointed church service. How many of you all went to a

boring church before you were like?

When is it going to be time to get out of here?

I pray Lord Jesus, let. Our church services never be

boring, but let our services always be anointing.

Let the anointing be always so powerfully present.

Lord, you do whatever you want to do knowing that it's probably

not going to look the same next week like it did today.

That's OK, That's all right, as long as it's anointed.

Praise God. There's a difference between

praying and anointed praying. Somebody say Amen.

Well, what do you? Mean by that, I'll talk.

More about that next month. There's a difference between

business watch this and having an anointed business See.

This is not just for what happens in these walls and in

your life outside. This is about you as a business

person, as an employee, as someone who's working out in the

world. There's a difference between

just punching the clock and saying I'm doing what I'm doing

for the Lord. What makes us?

Effective is the anointing that's.

What makes us effective? See, the same Holy Spirit that

anointed Jesus and raised him from the dead lives in you.

So that means you are not powerless, you are not average,

and you are not ordinary. You are anointed by God.

He has marked you. He has.

Set you apart and He has filled you with the Holy Spirit's

power. But hear this, the anointing

only works to the measure that you activate it.

I'm going to conclude with this Ephesians.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Chapter 3 says this. It says now to him who is able

to do help me out, if you know it, exceedingly abundantly,

above all that we ask or think. And how many of us just usually

pause right there and forget the rest of that passage?

According to the. Power that works in you.

See, many of us are like. OK, Lord, I'm doing all the

things, I'm praying, I'm stirred up, I'm doing all this stuff,

but I'm not seeing anything happen.

Are you letting faith determine your words?

Are you letting faith determine your circumstances?

Oh, Pastor, you're starting to get into that name and claim it.

You know what? There's it would do a whole lot

of Christians, a whole lot of good for us to speak what the

Word says, because there's power in the words that we speak.

And there's even more power when we speak the word because God's

word works. God's word always works.

You ought to try it. It's a lot of fun being a

Christian. Let me conclude with this.

If you're here today and you're like, OK, Tim, this has been a

good message. I'm feeling kind of fired up.

Good. Don't just stay fired.

Up. By like, OK, yeah, it.

Was a good church service do something with it because the.

Bible says that faith. Without works is dead, and dead

faith is not faith, it's just. Something that's dead.

Faith is always alive. Now faith is faith is always

alive, it's always active, it's always at work.

I want to ask as Pastor Ty comes, can I pray for you?

Would you close your eyes and bow your heads?

Jesus, thank you for the word that we've heard today.

I thank you, Lord God, that what you were doing in our church,

you are stirring our faith. You are stocking, oh God, you

are stocking the fires of expectancy.

And Lord, I thank you that you are at work in US.

Lord, today I pray that as we've listened to the Word, as we've

sung songs about your Word, as we have reached out to you, I

thank you, Lord, that you are here to change us, transform us,

and make us more like you. And so, Jesus, as we get ready

to go out into the world, Lord, give U.S.

Open doors. Give us opportunities.

Let our faith be stirred. Let our lives be filled and

directed always, because you have anointed us to go into the

world in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Can we?

Thank Pastor Tim. Thank you, Thank you.

Praise the Lord. Would you stand to your feet?

We want to thank you again for. Joining us for the Arise Church

podcast, we hope you were encouraged by what you heard

today. You can find

[email protected] and on Instagram at Arise Church NC.

If you need prayer or support or are interested in learning more

about Arise Church, we encourage you to connect with us online or

in person at our Sunday morning service.

Thank you and God bless.