Praise Night

This center section is obviously the more holy section. They solved that problem quickly and sat down. We need the anointing to kind of move this way. Maybe some of you in the center could just sit over here and mingle. Well, I'll say it again. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to North Way Christian Community. I'm Pastor Scott McCabe. And we're going to have fun tonight. We're going to enjoy, I believe, a great evening together as we come into the presence of the Lord. Pastor Jay is away for just a few days. He'll be back tomorrow. He's at an annual conference with about 30 other pastors. And I'm sure he's gleaning lots of wonderful ideas and hopefully very few rays of sunshine because he didn't go south this time. But all I want to do right now is quickly extend a welcome to anyone who may be visiting with us because I just particularly want to be sensitive to you. This is a different night for us. We have our praise night once a month. And we just want you to know that you're welcome and that we're kind of relatively normal usually. But tonight we prefer to pull some of the stops and just enjoy being in the presence of the Lord and kind of let our hair hang down. If you're visiting with us tonight, would you honor us by waving your hand up so we can slip a little something into your hands and give you a warm welcome. Over here, go ahead, put your hands up so we can see you. Welcome. Anyone else? Over here, welcome. Just kind of wave back there. Welcome. Thanks for joining us. We're glad that you could be with us. Inside that packet is a small 3x5 card. Let us know, would you, where you've come from and how we might be able to serve you. And in a little while, we'd ask that you put that little card in the offering basket. Fellas, I'm going to switch over to my other mic. Often that you get too much. But I want to go ahead and kind of set the tone for the evening with you. Don't get too comfortable because this is Praise Night, as I said. But you know, one of the reasons I wanted you to spread out a little bit is because we need elbow room, don't we? We need elbow room to enjoy being in the presence of the Lord. And I was thinking about that today, and I realized that sometimes we don't give God elbow room. And I'll explain to you what I mean by that in a moment. But you see, God doesn't just arise because we sing about it, does he? A little bit of static in there, Henri. Is that something I've done? Not at all. That's too bad. I wish I could control it. Might be. Static cling, did somebody say? Honey, I told you. Goodbye, static guard. But in considering God and who he is, we calculate, we guesstimate, we try to figure out how God will reveal himself. I want to ask you something. Would you be surprised if one of you tonight who's suffering severe back pain was suddenly healed? Would you be surprised if that friend that you brought in tonight who had been suffering from depression was suddenly released and set free? Would you be surprised if those couples of you who fought all the way in the car suddenly were given a deep love for your mate? Would you be surprised if one of our dear friends here who's come in a wheelchair suddenly leaped out of their chair and ran to the platform? Now, come on, you'd be surprised. I know you'd be surprised. You'd say, I'm surprised. Look what God did. You'd be jumping up and down back and saying, look, God moved over here. We don't always come with the expectation. That God will move. And that's because too many of us have put God in a box. Or let's call it a sphere, a circle. Your response would be, oh, but a circle. That's always the way I see God. It represents endless love, doesn't it? No beginning, no end. It represents perfection. Why, it seems like that would be a great model for the God that we've come to praise. Complete. But the trouble with that picture in our minds of who God is, is what? What? We're trying to contain Him. We're trying to contain Him. We're trying to say, this is who you are. Too many of us have gotten to a place where we think we can predict God's next move. Tell me you didn't come tonight, some of you saying, I know what we're going to do tonight. We're going to just sing and sing and sing. And those goofballs are going to get all emotionally excited. And they're going to think they were in the presence of the Lord. And they're going to go home. And that's the one of you that was whining to your spouse on the way over because they dragged you here. And it wasn't me. But we think we can predict God's next move. His every move. But, beloved, I just want to say to you tonight that God is so much bigger than we've allowed ourselves to think. Would you hand me those books under there, please, Tom? I just want to give you one example. Look, these are on my library shelf. I brought them for you tonight. A man by the name of Rolls wrote The Indescribable Christ, the world's greatest name, time's noblest name. It starts with A through G. Just identifying the names of God, who God is. I counted 320 names. And it's still limited. Just to try to describe who God really is. The symbol that I want you to see before you tonight is not a sphere containing God. But I want you to see the cross. I want you to see the cross. Because, you see, the cross is endless. The cross has no beginning and no end. The cross we cannot fathom. Arms outstretched. Limitless love. God's love has no boundaries. Because love cannot, must not be contained. The prophet Isaiah said of Christ that his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God. The Hebrew word for Mighty God was El Gibor, the God Hero. You see, Israel so often needed a hero. She had been invaded by the cruel Assyrians at one point, who gouged out the eyes and cut off ears and split noses, whatever that means. But that's what it says. They were so frightened, the Israelites were, that God says of them in Isaiah 10, 14, that none opened their mouth, none dared chirp, none peeped. The Israelites had become like frightened little birds. But God gave them hope. In Isaiah 63, in verse 1, the astonished writer asks, Who is this that comes from Edom, in crimson garments from Basra? He that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength. And the voice of God answers, it is I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Friends, you and I, I'm sorry, but we're not a whole lot different than God's people were thousands of years ago. We get so full of fear. We get bound up. We get invaded into our privacy by a cruel and ruthless culture. We get assaulted by an ugly enemy to the point where our words are so guarded and our lives so protected and so contained that we won't open our mouth. We won't peep. We won't chirp. The psalmist wrote in chapter 24 in verse 8, Who is this king of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. He is mighty in majesty. He is mighty in mercy. He is mighty in ministry. To minister to this people tonight. He is not only mighty to save us, which he has done by his grace. He is mighty to keep us, that is to protect us in our salvation. And he is mighty and fully able to perfect us and prepare us for eternity. As we fellowship with God the Father and with one another. Let's stand together and declare that God is dressing and preparing and equipping his people for battle. Let's put on that armor of God right now. I believe we're to do that tonight. There are going to be powers and principalities of the air that have been at work in some of us that frankly need to be put under our feet where they belong tonight. Let's pray together and put on the armor of God. Father, we place that helmet of salvation on our heads tonight. Give us the mind of Christ, we pray. And the breastplate of righteousness we take. And we see, Lord, that as we take the offensive, we shall be protected as we put on your righteousness. Lord, we take and put on our feet the gospel of the good news of Jesus Christ. That we may take that good news everywhere. Father, we gird our loins, Lord. Yes, Lord, we put on truth tonight. And protection, the belt of truth, Father. That truth and truth alone may stand. And, Lord, we lift that shield of faith, knowing that as we raise that shield of faith, we shall be protected from every assault of the enemy. Because of your faithfulness toward us. Because of your love toward us. Because you have died for us and shed your blood for us, Lord. We raise that shield of faith. We go forward as mighty men and women of war, declaring that the Lord is a warrior. The Lord is mighty in battle. Through the Lord we shall be conquerors and do great things. In Jesus' name, and all God's people say, amen. Let's sing that together. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is a warrior. Bless you, Father. Oh, sweet Spirit of God. We thank you that you are our friend and our comforter. We thank you that you are our peace. And we thank you, Lord, that we are learning. We're growing and understanding how Jesus Christ reigns in this life. We bless you, Father, for the great, great work you're doing in us. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated, everyone. I just have a few things to share. We want to prepare a very special offering tonight. And how many of you are planning on participating at all in the Reinhard Bonnke crusade that's coming? Everything that will be given tonight will be given to that ministry. This is a special offering. All of our giving tonight will be given to the Reinhard Bonnke crusade to help make that happen. That Pittsburgh shall be saved. I was sharing with someone the other day that Reinhard Bonnke was coming, and I asked him if they were going. And they said, well, you know, what city is this on his tour? I said, what tour? I said, God spoke to him over there in Europe or Africa or somewhere and said, Pittsburgh shall be saved. He's coming to Pittsburgh, and he's going back. I don't understand. We don't drill a lot of oil here. I mean, it doesn't seem like Pittsburgh should be, like, right in the middle of the action in the 90s. But God is speaking, and I just want to encourage you to respond as the Holy Spirit leads you to give tonight. We want to give freely and joyfully as unto the Lord. Before we do that, Pastor Jeff, you've got something that you want to share, I know, as you're preparing those special offerings. Just recently, I got a chance to get away with my wife and family, and we went up to the mountains, and we had a place up there. And I happened to be close by to somebody who was building a home, so we went over to go see the home. And on our way over there, we were looking at this structure of a home that was being put up. This guy came up to me who obviously had something to do with the building of this home, and I thought, oh, great. He's going to say, what are you doing here? And he looked at me funny, and he said, Jeff Small. And I said, yeah. And here I am about 70 miles away from here thinking nobody in the world is going to see me. I'm back here in the woods, and here's this guy that says, Jeff Small. And he says, don't you remember me? And I said, no, I don't. And he told me his name. I couldn't believe it. It was a guy I haven't seen for like 15 years I'd grown up with, gone to college with. So I invited him to come over, and he came over to my house. And he came into the living room, and Sue came out. And he had met Matthew at that time. And we were talking and talking. Pretty soon my little two-year-old came trickling out from one of the rooms and greeted him. And he goes, oh, you have two kids. Well, it wasn't long before that before he heard a scream, and he goes, oh, you got three kids. And then he said, oh, do you have any more kids? Well, I want to introduce you to the rest of my kids. All the kids that are here tonight that are hiding out there, come here, quick. Run up here, quick. All the kids that are sprinkled out through there, come on up here, quick. Quick, quick, quick. I'd like to introduce you to the rest of my kids. Can you give them a hand? I had the opportunity to tell him I have over 600 other kids. And I got to tell him what I was doing in my life and got to share Jesus a little bit with him. Isn't that a neat thing? But I want you to see something here. What's represented right here is probably about one-twentieth of what we have in the back on a Sunday morning. And I need you. And I'm not going to try and make you feel guilty or anything else. I just want you to look at the faces of these kids. They need you. If that makes you feel guilty, I can't help that. But these guys need your help. Would you do me a favor? Take anything, a piece of paper, a hundred-dollar bill. Write your name and your phone number on it and what service you'd like to help out in. One of the many. If you don't care, that's great, too. But on Wednesday night, starting next Wednesday night, we will be starting a program for them. And I know a lot of you like to be in here. But you'd be amazed at what can happen back there, too. So if you wouldn't mind doing that right now, just take out a piece of paper. Write your name and phone number on it and say, I want to help with the children's ministry. How could you deny a face like that? Right? Thanks. Give these kids a hand as they go. Go on back to the gym, guys. Thanks, Jeff. We do want to receive our offering now. Let's have a word of prayer together. Father, we just thank you for the great, great expectation that this city has in its heart right now. Father, we just speak your blessing on one another and our giving that you may be glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. And ushers, would you come, please? Let's receive that offering. I just want to say as we're doing that that several of you have asked some questions about Handicapped Sunday, which is this Sunday, or Physically Challenged Sunday. I really am believing it's going to be a special time. Some people have asked if they should bring elderly people. And I asked the elderly people here that are a part of our body how they felt about that. They said, we're not handicapped. But actually, there are a number of our people who are going to bring a number of very elderly people. I feel like we should include them in that Physically Challenged group because they are. And they're dealing with things that you and I are not yet dealing with. We're going to have a few extra wheelchairs here. As I mentioned, the handicapped bathroom is through that door right there. And I want to ask all of your favor. I just want to ask you. You know, we may have 20, 30, 50, 80 guests on Sunday that aren't normally here with us. But I want to ask you a favor. I just want you to go out of your way to be helpful, to be encouraging, to let our friends know that they're special. They're people too. And it's going to be a challenging day. It's going to be a great day. We've got some drama prepared and some special music that I know is going to be very vital. And I'm trusting that the word that we're going to have to share is going to be special too. So be preparing for that. And please consider someone that you might want to invite that normally just wouldn't come out because you go out of your way to help them. I'm planning on dragging my 91-year-old grandmother here. And she better be here, I told her. So we'll see. She seems to have a little bit more authority at times than I do. Well, we want to introduce our last time of celebration and worship together. This is the last chance you're going to get to relax. But I just want to share with you a few minutes to wrap up the month that we have had on the subject of personal renewal. Pastor Jay has been teaching about the renewal of our minds, the renewal of our emotions, the renewal of our bodies, the temples of the Holy Spirit that God has given us. And Jesus said that he that believeth in me shall have a life full of blessing and abundance and wealth. Right? I just wanted to see if you were with me. Did Jesus say that he that believeth in me shall have a life full of blessing and abundance and wealth? Did Jesus say that? You have a very tight lip and you're not even chirping. No. He didn't say that. He said, he that believeth in me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water. That's what Jesus said. Out of him shall flow. Let's go back to the image of the circle again. The container. Let's call ourselves, for lack of better words, grapes. Grapes. I am looking at a bunch of grapes. You're in clusters. Some of you are turning into raisins. But I didn't say which. But we're attached to the vine, aren't we? We grapes. Here. He's like supplying me energy. We're attached to the vine, we grapes. We're ripening ever so slowly, basking in the warmth of God's sun. Isn't this the image we often see of ourselves? We grapes. Some of us grape nuts. Slowly, ever so slowly. You can't see it with the naked eye. We're cultivated and prepared and pampered to one day be plucked by God. And taken up into the heavens. And used in all eternity for Christ and his kingdom and his glory. We're ripening on the vine. We're enjoying this experience. We're basking in the light of the sun. And a fungus comes. And we say, get thee behind me, Satan. We're basking in the sun, enjoying the presence of God's people. This is what we're made for. For glory, we think. And a worm comes, crawling along. And we call to our brothers, get out the spiritual insecticide. Kill that bugger. He's in my space. I don't want to have a wormhole in me. We say, get thee behind me, wormwood. Winds, rains, adversity. Anything that enters into our space as we're attached on the vine, we resist and we resent. Because we say, I was made in the glory of God. For a life of glory. Prosperity. Wrong again. Wrong image, beloved. God, come here, grape. You knew I was going to pick on you, Kenwood. God made us to be squeezed. God made us to be squeezed. Not to sit on the vine and look pretty. How many here really want personal renewal and revival? Put your hand up if you really want it. If you really want renewal and revival, it's going to happen this way. When one, and then a few, and then several, and then a dozen, and then maybe a couple of dozen, and then scores, and maybe even hundreds of people are refreshed. Because they've been hanging around you. You want to experience revival and renewal? Start letting the Holy Spirit squeeze you. That's what we're made for. Out of him shall flow, is what Jesus said. We are not made to contain God's love. He that believeth in me, out of him shall flow. What is flowing from your life? What is flowing from your lips? What is flowing from your looks? It's time that we stop craving personal renewal, personal satisfaction. And I close with this thought as we move into our time of praise and thanksgiving and celebration. We say, but God, if only you would do this in my life, I could do that, like he said. If only you would heal my memory, God, then I could be used, like he said. If only you would fix this relationship, God, and get it right, if only I could put it behind me, then I could be used, like he said. That's all a bunch of garbage. I'm sorry, but it is. Personal renewal, it's yours and it's mine. It's yours if, like that cross, you open your heart and you start allowing the rivers of life to flow. It's very simple, but we make it oh so difficult. Amen. I'd like to teach you a song that would hopefully... As our heads are bowed before the Lord, and let me just say a sobering word to you. You are in God's presence right now. Something that I would encourage you not to take lightly. Someone has shared several verses of scripture that I believe indeed fit hand in glove with the ministry the Holy Spirit is doing tonight. And I want to say to you that I had no idea where we were going at this point in our service, but I am beginning to see very clearly what God has in mind. I believe what God has in mind tonight is something that He is going to use us in. The blessing that God has in store tonight for this people is not a blessing that is simply received like a funnel of the Spirit of God funneling in power into us. Rather, I believe the blessing that God has in store for this people is a blessing that we are going to see as He squeezes His life through us. And I believe God has put some very, very specific faces in front of you right now. There are some names that are running through your minds right now of people that you have been believing God can touch. Some of these will literally be miracles, miracles that would astound every physician you know and I know. Some of these seem like impossible situations. No hope. Listen to the Word of God as it's found in Isaiah chapter 32, verses 2, 3, and 4. And each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded and the ears of those who hear will listen and the mind of the hasty will discern the truth and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly, like streams of water in a dry country, like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land. You see, beloved, I believe we have thought too little of God. I believe we have looked to Him, too many of us have looked to God and not to what God can do through us. As we intercede, as we place ourselves with those who need shelter from the storm and from the blazing sun that would break them apart, that would dry them up, that would wither and destroy. As our heads are bowed right now, I just want to ask those of you who believe that indeed God is doing something beyond that which you expected He could do and indeed God has put someone on your mind and indeed a face has flashed before you, indeed a name has been seen before your eyes. I just want you to put your hand up right now if that's you that God is working through. Thank you, Father. My goodness. There must be 70, 80% of us right now. Keep those hands up. Keep those hands up. Keep those hands up for you see our hand raised is the expression that we, it's the position that we must continue to have before God. As we submit our lives to Him, then His power can be used and flow through us and indeed we will see the glory of the Lord revealed in this place. Indeed, every hand that's raised right now will experience the revival and the renewal that you've needed in your life because God is using you to pour life out to others. That's what Christianity is all about. That's what worship of God is all about. It's about becoming more like Him. It's about becoming used by God, squeezed by God. That's how we're perfected. That's how the world is saved. That's how Pittsburgh shall be saved. Now, for every one of you who has had your hand raised, I'm going to ask that during our worship you do one more thing and I'm believing that every one of you is going to do it. That during our worship, we're going to worship the Lord right now and thanksgiving for what He is doing in our midst. I'm going to ask you at some time during our worship to come up to this altar and to lay that person, that name, that thing that you are believing God for down and say, God, now I'm ready to have your perfect power flow through me. It's time, Lord, for that miracle. It's time, Lord, for that answer. And I believe that God is going to begin to meet miraculously. It is time for this body to begin to see the kinds of signs and wonders and miracles that we know our God can do. Bless you, Father. Lord, we believe you. We trust you with our lives and with theirs. Oh, Father, go ahead and begin to utter your thanksgiving to God for what He's going to do through you. Go ahead, verbally begin to thank Him. You can stand. You can kneel. I don't care what you do. Just go ahead and begin to thank God for what you are believing Him to do. Go ahead, utter that thanksgiving. Utter that name. Utter that person's name before Him. And then I want to invite everyone here to come forward during this time. Lay that down.