Hello everyone, we're excited to have the opportunity to come to you again and to share the truths of God's Word. And we're looking forward to what we have today and for the next few sessions that we're going to be coming to you with. And if you have time, if you can, find your Bible, let's sit down and let's look into God's Word and see what it says for ourselves. You know, God said in His Word, Jesus did, He said that you'll know the truth and the truth will make you free.
And so I believe God wants to do some things in our lives and just bring miracles and things into our lives and help us in so many ways that sometimes we're not even aware of. So if you can, get your Bible and let's go into God's Word now. Jesus can connect with the rise and shine by visiting our Facebook page at Facebook.com slash a rise and shine TV show or emailing us at a rise and shine TV at gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you.
Well, we're here again, Tony and Melissa Hurst, and we're wanting to share some truths from God's Word. And we want to talk about some things that the Lord has really been impressing upon my heart. And you know, as I spend my time with the Lord, you know, we all should have that place somewhere, that we go and we do it regularly, daily, really and spend that quiet time with Him and that quiet time is prayer. in his word and just fellowshipping with him.
See, it's during those times that the Lord, if you'll do it consistently enough and you'll do it long enough that the Lord can begin to talk to you and he can give you directions. He'll help you. He doesn't necessarily just have to use some more like Melissa and myself or your pastor, which he will use and he should and he will use other people. But God, he wants to talk to you directly.
He wants a personal relationship with you. He wants to spend time with you. You're really the reason why he was so willing to send his son to Darwin and Cross was because he wanted that. He desires that more than anything.
So I want to encourage you, if you've got your Bible, just open them with this and let's look at some scriptures. We want to talk about some things because it's so easy and it's so human-like human nature. When you see problems in issues in your life, whether it's only an individual, even our own self, we've got issues, we've got problems, we're dealing with this and we're dealing with that. It's just human nature to do what?
They always want to blame it on somebody else. It's like it's never airfought. I haven't done anything wrong. What have I done?
Especially if you're in a relationship like a husband and wife relationship, it's like everything's always been the other person's fault. And we found out over many years of marriage now that that is not the case. And even when we see individuals, you know where somebody has gone through a divorce, it's so easy to decide with the person that you heard about. And what people never seem to want to take into consideration is that there was another person involved in that situation and there was another side to that story.
And it's so amazing that people want to come to absolute conclusions without even taking into consideration what happened on the other end. And what we find out usually, there's a part on this side, and they've done something in response the same way. And so not only on an individual basis, but when you look around even in society and the things that go on around us, it's real easy to begin to try to point the blame here and to point the blame there. And usually it's always the leader.
Usually it's either the head of the house, which is the husband or it's either mom's fault or it's the pastor's fault or it's the leader's in the church's fault or it's the politician's fault and it just goes on and on and on but when it comes right down to it, there's more than one person involved in this whole thing. And so the blame and the responsibility is widespread. And what we don't realize is when we take the whole world into consideration, we take, there's really only two families on this planet, there's two families. There's the family of God and that's those that have been genuinely born again.
John, what is it? First John three one says, beloved, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. See that new birth, first John four four, you are of God, little children, in other words born of him, you know, and have overcome them for greater see that's in you than he that's in the world. So the Bible gives us clear indication that we are born again into the family and the kingdom of God.
So that only leads one of the family and that's the family of Satan. You say, well, I don't like that. Well, it's, it doesn't matter if we like it or not. That is the reality.
And so when you understand that, then you understand why things can be as crazy as they are and why people do things, the things that they do. It's because they are being inspired by a force that they don't even realize and understand that they're being being influenced by and they just begin to carry out things. They say things they do things and we said before, for evil to advance and to overtake and to overcome. The only thing that you have to do to allow evil to overcome is for good men and good women to do nothing.
And what we don't understand is, is once we're born again and you're in the family of God because you're now in the family of God. And what the scripture I just quoted that, you know, greater see that's in you, you have overcome them because greater see that's in you than he that's in the world. See, we are the ones, we talked before that have been placed here by God. There's a reason why he left us here.
And that's so that we could be salt and light in the earth. Salt preserves, salt keeps things from rotten. It keeps things from decaying. It gives it flavor.
And all the things that goes with that. And so, and God expects us to be that salt and to be that light. We're in a world filled with darkness and God wants us to be the answer for other people, for their solution, the solution to their problem, the answer to their questions and their dilemmas in life. And if you don't know what God's word says, your self then you can't really help other people, you know.
And so really when it comes to trying to point and try to figure out why is everything like it is, it really all comes back to the church. See the church is the most powerful, the most potentially influential, the most has the most authority of any other organization so to speak on this planet. Because see the church is the church of God or it is the body of Christ. And if you just stop and think about that phrase, the body of Christ and not just think of it in a religious sense like, oh yeah, we're the body of Christ and go on.
And think about what did you just say? What does those words mean when you place certain words together? We are the body of Christ and it's amazing. You have something, don't you?
You know? Okay. And just a little bit is because I believe that where we are right now in the world is because of the condition of the church and you can go to the book of Revelations chapter 3 and there Jesus himself, it's in red. He dealt with issues in seven different actual existing churches at that time.
And every one of them, he reprimanded them because of different things that they were involved in and where they had gotten away from him and where they were in the area, except basically one and that was the church of Philadelphia. And even in it, it said you have a little strength. So you had a little strength which means you could have had more. You could have been strong.
You could have had quite a bit of strength or a whole lot of strength but they had a little strength like they were just kind of barely hanging on so to speak is what it seems to the impression that it would give. And so Jesus is concerned about the church and the conditions of the church and he watches over them, you know? And what our job is, our job is simply this and that is to equip the body of Christ, to equip the saints, to equip the born again believers and to equip them so that they can do the work of the minister in these last days and to bring the harvest in. See that's what this is all about.
And so we have to get to that place where that, listen, we can have effective ministry, not just preaching ministries, maybe like Melissa and myself, but every one of us have a ministry God wants us to be able to reach the world. But guys, you can't do it in your own ability. You can't do it in your own strength and your own intellectual knowledge. You've got to have super natural ability of God operating and functioning in your life to empower you to be able to do what God's called us to do.
And I think that's what we've missed it. See, we live in the age now where the user friendly church and the sensitive seeking church or whatever that is. How's that say that for me? Yeah, go try.
Yeah, go try. Go try. The seeker sensitive church and the user friendly and it's the coming as you are. And what's happened is we have gone to great lengths to try to make the church acceptable to everybody, but have we lost or given away the power and the anointing of God in the process.
What is it that's to draw the lost? It's the power of God. It's where the presence of God is actively in operation where people's lives are being changed, where they're being delivered, where they're being set free, where they're growing and learning how to walk in the truth of God's Word and walk in victory every day. That's what draws people in.
It's where things you can come. If you can go into church and you've never changed, then I question not the individual, but I question the establishment. Well, the whole thing about being a Christian is growing. I think lots of times we have the idea that once we get born again, that's it.
We're done. We're not. Yeah, we're not. But we have to still come to the place to where Jesus can be formed in us.
And then we become the example and become the vision of what he is in the earth. I mean, just because we're getting born again, lots of times there's things about us, old traits, old habits. We've been doing something for 30 years, you know. And now, you know, you've got to change some things.
And so, you know, but it's his ability in us. It gives us the chance to change those things and be what we need to be. Well, you know, the new birth is exactly why it's referred to Jesus said that he called it the new birth. And the reason he did is because the new birth is a spiritual recreation of the human spirit of an individual.
And it's just exactly like the natural birth. And nobody is born naturally full grown. You know, when I be nice, somehow you don't have to go through all those years of training and raising children, you know. It's the same way spiritually.
No Christian is born again full grown. Peter, say it first Peter, two and two, I think he said, he said, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. He wants us to grow and develop. You have to grow and develop.
And you can only do that. Now listen, with your cooperation with the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. See, that's the most important elements in the life of ever believer is, and they are not one is more important than the other. So you've got to have God's Word and you've got to have the Spirit of God and you've got to have them both.
They were both as equally as important as the other is. You will not grow. You will not develop. You will not get past where you are and your old life will still try to dominate you.
If you don't allow the Spirit of God to reveal to you the truths of God's Word and teach you how to walk in the light of God's Word, that's what the Holy Spirit does so that you can learn how to overcome those elements and those things around you that used to dominate you all the time. And that's what He wants for us. And it takes the power of God in our lives. I mean, we've got to have the power of God in our lives individually and back in the local churches.
We've got to have it. But now that power is not saying that He's going to override you and make you do something. Now, even in being born again, if you look at it like that, the Lord just doesn't come in and just take over your life. You still have to yield yourself to Him and to His Word and to His Spirit.
And then you're enlightened about things that you had no idea that you were doing that offended Him. But then as He shows you those things, it's then where you make the choice to make the adjustment and to change those things. And then He gets more and more influence in your life. And then you become a greater light for Him and a greater example of what He is.
That doesn't just happen just because I'm here now Lord. I'm done. Just go ahead and take care of it. You know, it's your cooperation with Him.
And He'll train you and He'll teach you and He'll guide you if you will allow Him to. But there's three words in the New Testament that are so close together that there are sometimes even inner woven and one of them is grace and we use that word all the time, grace. And what we see it as is unmerited or undeserved favor. And in a sense it is.
It is that. And you can't bypass that because you're not going to get anything from heaven, anything that the Father has made available to us through Jesus Christ Jesus. And the only way you're going to get it is by faith and it's going to be by grace because you can't live long enough, good enough long enough to get to where you deserve anything that He's ever to do for you. You know, it's always by grace.
But grace goes so much further than that and you can go to God's Word and you can begin to see nuggets of truth throughout the Word that will reveal that grace has to be much more than just, you don't deserve it. It's not just going to give it to you. No grace is the supernatural ability of God to live this life that He's given us. You've got to live this life by grace.
You have to walk by faith and by grace because when you read Ephesians 2, 8 where it says for by grace, are you saved through faith? A lot of times we think that as just an event. See we think of that as just the new birth. And in our minds, that's what we think of.
Okay. And nobody's born again except for by grace through faith. You know what that word actually means? That word saved goes so much deeper than a new birth.
It's so much deeper. It means you live your entire life by the grace of God through faith. See faith gives you access into the grace of God to live out your life every day because you know you need to grow, but you can't grow even because you know you need to because you don't have the capability in and of yourselves to do anything. It's all the working of the Holy Spirit in your life that leads and guides you.
See the most important person in your life after you get born again isn't Jesus. Oh God, how could you say that? Well, He is who He is. He's the head of the church.
But guys, the Holy Spirit is the one that lives inside us. He's the one, Jesus is the one who said it's more better off for you, expeding for you that I go away. If I say away to yourself, away, that means I'm going away, but I'm going to send you a comforter and He's going to live in the mind you forever and He's going to do all the things for you that you need. That's why your relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit is so, so important.
But there's three words. Grace, there is the anointing and there's the word Christ. Those three words are almost synonymous. They dovetail together in so many different places.
We see in the book of, we'll look in the book of Luke. I guess we should probably actually read the description one too. We've coded a couple. But here when Jesus began His ministry, and I think it's amazing because a lot of people think that Jesus just did what He did because He was, He's just a son of God.
But Philippians 2 tells us that He laid aside that. He laid all that aside and became a servant or became a slave and took on Him the form of a man. And so here He says, here He says in verse 18 of the fourth chapter of Luke, He said to Spirit the Lord is upon me. Notice He said to Spirit the Lord is upon me.
Listen, for He hath anointed me. Who anointed me? Spirit the Lord. He said to Spirit the Lord is on me because He the Spirit of the Lord, in other words the Holy Ghost has anointed me.
In other words, He has anointed me to do what? Well, you go down through there and there's about five things that He talks about the first one He says to preach. So see really, you know, to preach, if you're going to preach, you should be anointing. You should preach because of the Spirit of the Lord is upon you and because He has anointed you.
See, He's called you and He's anointed you. And here I think it's interesting that Jesus, He said He was called to do these things, why? Because He was anointed. Do you remember Acts 1038?
Goes right along with this. Peter's message to the household of Cornelius, right in the the middle of his message, he makes a statement in Acts 1038. Now, what did he say? He said, Jesus is anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.
Now, hear that? How God anointed. Now notice it said, Jesus of Nazareth. Why didn't it say Jesus the Son of God?
Because He didn't anoint. Now listen, He did not anoint Jesus the Son of God. He anointed Jesus of Nazareth. He anointed the man Jesus.
Because Jesus Himself had to have the anointing to do what God had called Him to do. It was imperative. He could not come and do what no man, other man had ever did. He did not raise the dead.
He did not heal the leper. He did not open blind eyes. He didn't cause a lame to walk because He was the Son of God. He did it because it says here how God, the Father, had anointed Him with power and the Holy Ghost.
See, He was anointed. He was given supernatural ability from God to be able to do what God had called Him to do. And He had to listen. He had to do it as a man.
See, He had to be able to take Adam's place and undo what Adam had did thousands of years before. See, and He did what no man could do. And He even Himself, He said, if I had not come and did what no other man could have done. He said their sins were still have been covered.
He said, but because I've come, because I did what nobody else could do, He said, now all their sins are before them. See, they knew. They knew that he was not a normal person. He was not, He was different.
Why was He different? Because of the anointing is what made Him different. It was the anointing that gave Him the ability to do everything that He did. And He was very successful in His ministry.
Why? Because of the anointing. And when you look up that word anointing, it's actually, when you look it up in the strongest concordance, it's right beside another word. It's so much like it.
It's the word Christ. Matter of fact, the word Christ comes out of the word anointing. See, the word Christ is not Jesus, it's His last name. Listen, Jesus, it means the word Christ means in that definition, in the strongest, it's a very shallow definition.
You can go deeper in other books and get even a greater understanding of what the word means. But we'll just keep it simple. And when He talks about it in there, it also, it means the anointing. It means, so what else?
I wrote Him down here to say, I won't forget Him. It means the anointing and it means the Messiah. So see, He was the Messiah. Why?
Because He was the Son of God? No, He was the Messiah because He was anointing. And Jesus even said Himself in the book of John, He said, those whom I have called, I have ordained. In other words, I have anointed.
See, I have anointed those. So in other words, when God calls you to do something, He calls you as a man, just like He even did in the Old Testament, with so many others, when He would call somebody to do something for Him, He always gave them that supernatural ability to do whatever it was He called Him to do. Because if He didn't have to, then you could have just did it yourself, and you don't need Him. And then you could get out of the glory because you did it through your own works and your own ideas.
But see, He calls you to do things, and it's always something that's absolutely impossible for you to do, totally outside of your spectrum of abilities. Why? Because He wants to enable you, Himself, to do what He's called you to do. And see the anointing.
And see, we call it that listen. The church is called what? The body of what? The body of Christ.
So see that same anointing that was on the head, now rest upon the body of Christ. That same supernatural ability. Matter of fact, another word that comes from that is that word anointing. And I love even what the strong says.
It says, listen to this. It says, it comes through the idea of contact. And it's funny that today that everybody doesn't want you to be in contact. And there's this, try to push everything away.
Why? What did you know one way that the anointing is transferred is through contact. See? And we can go on a little further.
We're going no further with that in time. But here it says through the idea of contact, it means to smear or to rub with oil. It means to consecrate to an office or to a service. And it means to anoint.
So see the anointing and Christ are two words that dovetail. He was the Messiah, not because He was the Son of God. He was the Messiah because of how God anointed Him, Jesus of Nazareth. To stand in that office of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.
And to do what God called Him to do. God supernaturally equipped Him, Jesus of Nazareth, so that He could step in and do what God called Him to do. And it's the same way today. Because when He left, He said, all power and heaven knows me, give Him to me.
He said, listen, what He say? Go you there for in my name. He said, go for everybody. See, He just as a father, He said, just as a father sent me, He said, so send I you.
You go and do what I do. So guys, to go and do what He's called us to do, we have to have an understanding and an ability to cooperate with the anointing that God has given us so that we can supernaturally get the work done. God is calling the church out of the place of religion and into a place of His supernatural power. Because we have a work to do.
We have to get the harvest in so this thing can be over. If we don't, we're going to keep going down that rabbit hole that we don't like and we're still going to continue to see things that we don't like and it's going to get harder and harder and harder to cooperate with the Lord. But then you can go on and there's another word, a 55, 30. This is the root word and all these other two words come from.
And listen to this. This is connected with Christ in the anointing. This is just a deeper understanding. It says, it says to furnish or to provide what is needed.
I just read that out of the strong. I didn't make that up. It means to provide or to furnish. Literally says to furnish what is needed or to lie upon.
See the Spirit of God comes on people and he enables them to do what he's called him to do. The Spirit of God will come on you and enable you to be able to witness to people if you become familiar with him. And if you spend time with him, it won't be. Just try to talk somebody into getting saved.
The anointing will be there. You'll begin to preach the gospel. You'll begin to share the good news of Jesus Christ how that he died for us and everything that he did. And that anointing will come on you because it's the anointing.
The Spirit of God is what draws people. It's not arguing. It's not trying to debate. That doesn't do it.
It's the Holy Ghost that has to tug at the hearts of people. Well, there may be some out there now that you feel that tug. You feel that anointing coming on you. And that is what it's called.
But that's the Holy Spirit drawing you in. So for some of you that don't know the Lord and you've sensed that, that's what that is. That's his anointing coming on you to draw you into the kingdom. And it's his word and the knowledge of his word that causes that anointing to be able to move.
That's right. Because if the word doesn't go forth, then there's no anointing. But if you hear the word and you're starting your heart and that's the anointing, then you need to call on the Lord and to open yourself up to his word. That's right.
Well, you know the Bible says it's a spirit in the word of greed. When you preach God's word in its context and rightly divided the Spirit of God, we'll bring it to the past. It'll begin to do what he's called it to do. So if you're out there today and you've never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life or you say, I have, but I'm not following him.
This is your day to do just that. And I would encourage you to pray this prayer with us that we're going to pray here in just a moment. And I believe that if you'll do it with sincerity and generous of heart, that God will do things in you that you wouldn't have done before. Say this with me.
Say, Jesus, I take you today as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for coming into my life and making things different. I will follow you all the days of my life and I will never quit serving you. Father, thank you for accepting me and receiving me and filling me through your Spirit until we see you again.
God bless you. Have a good day. Please connect with the Rise and Shine by visiting our Facebook page at facebook.com slash or Rise and Shine TV show or emailing us at a Rise and Shine TV at gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you.