The following sermon was recorded at Calvary Tabernacle on October 2, 2024. This sermon is presented by pastor Kenny Robertson. See below for the full transcript of this sermon.
Episode Transcript
This transcript was created using an automated transcription service, so some text may be inaccurate.
(0:00 – 0:39)
Go with me to the book of Acts chapter 1. We’ll be reading a couple of verses. You got it? Say
amen. And he said unto them, verse 7, and he said unto them, it is not for you to know the
times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power
after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
(0:40 – 4:48)
And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the
uttermost part of the earth. Going back to verse 8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you. But as I was praying today and thinking on the things of the Lord and
reading through the Word of God, I began thinking about what we need in the church today,
what we need operating in our lives today is more of the power of the Holy Ghost.
Brother Craig sent me a message and he said, do we sing that song out of the new book called
That Same Spirit? I said, well my mother-in-law and father-in-law sing that sometime. I said, but
by all means, if you feel like leading that, you lead it. I said, because I feel like I may be
preaching about the Holy Ghost tonight.
And then tonight he led us in the songs about he abides and oh Lord send the power just now.
Brother Craig probably knew what I was going toward and if I can bring you a word tonight, I
want to tell you that it’s time we as the children of God get back to operating in the power of
the Holy Ghost. We have went long enough operating in a dead, dry formality.
We have went long enough operating in a routine, in a format, in a ritual. We have went too
long operating in how we’ve done it this way and how we’ve done it that way. We are getting
our material from some kind of man-made program where they’re telling us we need to do this
or we can say this, we can sing like this, or we can sing like that.
I dare say that’s why our churches are drying up and drying up and drying up and drying up.
We’ve got churches right now in this community that claim to be Pentecostal, that claim to have
the power of the Holy Ghost, Vicki, but they ain’t got no more power than the merry-go-round
down at the county fair. They come in, Sister Emily, they have a routine, they’ve got a format,
they go through religious rituals, they sing songs that sounds like worldly singing, they sway to
the music, they bounce around, but there ain’t a bit of power in it, there ain’t a bit of life
changing power in it.
What we need, Calvary Tabernacle, is the power of the Holy Ghost once again. What my vision
for this church is, it’s not a church that operates in the spirit of a cemetery, but a church that
operates in the spirit of a powerhouse, Sister Peggy. I don’t want no watered-down Holy Ghost,
I don’t want no new-fangled Holy Ghost, I don’t want no Holy Ghost that might draw 3,000
people here that don’t live a changed life, I want a Holy Ghost power that’ll cause you to walk
right, and live right, and talk right, can you say amen? The reason our people are coming to the
altars, but they’re not changing, it’s because they’re not praying through to the Holy Ghost,
they’re not praying through, they stopped at Calvary, but they’re forfeiting the upper room.
(4:48 – 19:15)
Children of God, you gotta get back to the upper room. What are you talking about, Brother
Kenny? It’s one thing to go to Calvary, that’s great, when you go to Calvary, you’re ready to
meet the Lord. I ain’t here to discuss or argue doctrine, but if you go to Calvary and your sins
are under the blood, you’re ready to meet the Lord, but I’m here to tell you there’s an upper
room that we can still go to that’ll change the way you want to live, and when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly, and
suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the
house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and
it set upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak in
other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
There is a rotten doctrine that’s infiltrating Pentecostal churches today, and it says you can be
filled with the Holy Ghost, but speak in a silent tongue. It’s a lie straight from the pits of hell. I
call it out, I confront it, I call it what it is, rotten doctrine that ain’t got no place in a victorious
believer’s life.
I read nowhere in the book of Acts where they spoke in a silent tongue, but when the Holy
Ghost moved on them, they spoke in tongues as he gave them the utterance. What’s
happening, the reason our churches and our people are not operating in victory is because
we’ve allowed a half-hearted gospel to come in, a half-hearted Pentecostal doctrine, half
hearted Pentecostal doctrine that holds no power. I’m telling you, y’all hear me say this a lot,
before we started pastoring, we did a lot of traveling, been a lot of places, there’s some things
going on in the name of Pentecost, I wouldn’t have more put my hand to than a man in the
moon, and when you see him go outside the church doors and they’re living a devil life, I don’t
care how much you talk in tongues in the church, I don’t care how much you bounce around in
the church, if the power you got ain’t the power to live right, it ain’t the right power.
Calvary, we got to get back to the power. We need the power of the Holy Ghost. It troubles my
heart, it troubles my spirit, JT, to see people living in bondage.
They’ve come to the Lord, but they’re not fully free. Let me tell you, you get into that upper
room and you get that power of the Holy Ghost, there is a freedom and a change of life that’ll
change you from darkness to light, that’ll set you free. Can you say amen? There’s three specific
ways I believe that the power of the real Holy Ghost can revolutionize your life and
revolutionize Calvary Tabernacle.
Number one, the real power of God’s real Holy Ghost will give you the power to live right. This
is a touchy subject in the church world today, but it shouldn’t be. It should not be a touchy
subject when the preacher stands up and preaches about living right.
The Holy Ghost, Jesus said over in John 14 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance. Whatsoever I have said unto you, you want to know how to live right? You want
to know how to walk right? My first counsel to you would be get in this word, get in this word
and learn this word, what it says from cover to cover, but then get full of the Holy Ghost of God
because he will teach you what you’re supposed to do. Let me tell you something, we’ve seen
the pendulum go so far one way that we don’t want no part of that, but what’s happened is the
pendulum has went so far the other way that now anything goes.
It ain’t right. There is still a holy life to be lived. There is still a clean walk to be walked.
I don’t care how you pretty it up, I don’t care how you explain it, God still expects us to walk in
righteousness and to walk in holiness. We don’t go to some of the same places we used to go
to. We don’t talk like we used to talk.
We don’t do what we used to do because the Spirit of the Almighty God has moved in. Oh,
there’s power to live right, but then there’s power to witness. If you’ve got trouble telling
people about the mercies of Jesus and what he’s done for you, you need to get under the spout
where the glory comes out.
That is the first hallmark of the Holy Ghost baptism. He said, and you shall be witnesses unto
me after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. You want to get a hold of something that’ll
make you tell it? Get a hold of the Holy Ghost.
I look over with me, flip over to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1, look at verse 41, and it came to
pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. Look at verse 42, and she spake out with a loud voice.
Go on down to verse 67, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and what did
he do? He prophesied, and he started talking.
When you get filled with the Holy Ghost, you’re gonna have something to say. You’re not gonna
be able to keep it to yourself. You’re gonna tell everybody you come in contact with.
I remember when I got baptized in the Holy Ghost. I went to the altar that morning. I got saved.
That night I went back to church, and the Lord gloriously baptized me in the Holy Ghost. You
talk about stepping into a brand new world. I remember I got up the next morning, and I went
to school, John, and I remember — I remember this plainly.
Vicki, you were there. You remember when I got the Holy Ghost. I remember walking into
school, and I remember looking at the bricks, and I thought, I have never noticed how those
bricks sing so full.
I remember looking at trees and shrubs and thinking, it’s like I’ve never noticed them before.
And oh, Brother Terry, I told everybody what had happened to me. I remember telling my
teachers.
I remember one teacher in particular said, we don’t believe like that. I said, well, you should
because you’re missing out. Let me tell you, when you get the real Holy Ghost, you can’t keep it
to yourself.
And the third way we got power, we got power over the devil. I felt that. I felt that settle down
on my head and run down my arms when I said it, Rebecca.
Not a not some hope-soul power, but Eddie Smith, when that Holy Ghost settled down on you
on that old John Deere tractor a few years back, you got a hold of a power from heaven over all
the power of the devil. Go over to Luke chapter 10. The keep you bound.
Tell you, you ain’t got power over him. It’s a lie. It is a lie from the caverns of hell.
He knows if you get baptized in that power, you’ve got a power that’ll put him to flight. Can you
say amen? Luke chapter 10, verse 17. And the 70 returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the
devils are subject to us through thy name.
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing
shall by any means hurt you not withstanding in this. Rejoice not that the spirits are subject
unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
Let me tell you, we don’t rejoice because of that power. We rejoice because we’re redeemed,
but we operate in that power. We don’t operate in a state of defeat.
There’s a power given to us that we can put the devil to flight. I get so tired of seeing God’s
children operate, and they operate under defeat and discouragement. I get so tired of seeing
God’s children go around mulling grumbling with their their chins dragging the ground when
God ordained you to walk in power, to walk in victory, to put devils on the run, brother Terry.
Let me tell you, time we realize the power we got, and we start operating it in again, operating
in it again. Flip over to Mark. Mark chapter 16, and these signs, and these signs shall follow
them that believe.
My blessed Lord, I feel the Lord, in my name they shall cast out devils. They shall speak with
new tongues. They shall take up serpents.
(19:16 – 19:49)
Let me tell you something, there’s still a power to take up a serpent if we need to take up a
serpent. I don’t believe in making a sideshow of it. If it brings glory to you, it ain’t bringing glory
to him, but I believe that there is a power that’ll shake our mortal body, that we can reach
down, and we can pick up an old rattlesnake, an old copperhead, an old water moccasin, and
move it out of the way.
(19:49 – 20:10)
I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it.
I ain’t ashamed of it either. Listen to me. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them.
(20:11 – 20:25)
I know a preacher, he was a young man, he drunk red devil eye by accident. Chunks of flesh
was coming out of his mouth. His mama prayed for him, and he was fine.
(20:25 – 23:24)
This old boy right here, I was telling this yesterday, this old boy right here, when I was about
nine or ten, I drunk antifreeze. I thought it was Kool-Aid, Emily. I thought it was pretty.
It looked like Kool-Aid. I took me a big old sip of that. I thought, my goodness, it ain’t got no
sugar.
What did I do? I drunk some more, just to make sure it didn’t have no sugar. It was so bitter. I
remember my mama come in.
My mama, I said, Mama, you forgot to put sugar in that. She said, Son, please don’t tell me you
drunk that. It’s antifreeze.
I said, Mama, I drunk a big old glass. Oh, Brother Terry, before I knew it, Mama had me by the
hand. She carried me in the bathroom, put me over the toilet.
She bent me over that toilet, and she began rubbing my back, groaning in the Holy Ghost,
groaning in the Holy Ghost. Oh, Lord, help my baby right now. I need you to come on the scene
right now.
I need you to help my baby. Your Word says if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not harm
them. She stood me up on my feet.
She said, Now get in there and eat lunch. I’m here to tell you there’s still power in the Holy
Ghost. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat
on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with
them, confirming the Word with signs following.
There’s a difference between believers following signs and signs following believers. There’s a
big difference in people trying to run around and cast devils out of everything that they see or
trying to heal everybody. The Bible said that the Lord worked with them.
If the Lord ain’t working with you, you can rub oil on somebody’s head so much that you could
fry a vat of french fries in it, but if the Lord ain’t working with you, ain’t gonna be healed, there
ain’t gonna be a devil cast out. But if the Lord is working with you, then by all means those
signs will follow those that believe. We got to have the power, Cameron.
(23:25 – 24:09)
We got to have the power. If we don’t have the power, when I sit at that piano, it’s like vain
jangling. If I ain’t got the power, when I play that bass or sing or preach, it ain’t gonna
accomplish nothing.
But if I can get a hold of the real power of God, you will be changed by what’s coming out of
me. And you say, Brother Kenny, that’s all good. You’re the pastor for the promises unto you
and to your children and to all that are afar off, as many as our Lord God shall call.
(24:09 – 25:46)
Let me tell you something. I remember one night we was at church here. Sister Carol got up,
we were singing.
It wasn’t a big service, not a lot happening. I don’t even know if she remembers this, but Sister
Carol got up. She don’t do a lot.
She don’t do a lot, but I’m telling you I got confidence in that woman. That night Sister Carol
stood up and she just started walking down that aisle, and she had her hands raised up. She
walked across the front of this church.
She wasn’t getting in a big way. She walked back down this way, and in my mind’s eye Sister
Peggy, I could see the angels of God sit down into this church, lifting their wings, giving praise
to God for a pure praise that was coming out of a Holy Ghost-baptized vessel. You ain’t gotta be
up here running around like a chicken with its head cut off to be anointed and used of God.
Anything you do, you can be used and anointed of God. JT, when you’re welding, when you’re
down there welding and you’re doing your job, do it heartily. Ask to the Lord.
Let people see the power of God moving in your life. Can you say amen? There’s power. There is
power in the Holy Ghost.