TRANSCRIPTION | Wednesday, April 21, 2021 | Keepers of the Cellar

 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You can be seated this evening if you're here in this auditorium, and if you're standing up at the house, you can be seated too. I'm gonna share just a few thoughts that I have in regards to some things that I feel like the Lord's laid on my heart in regards to the subject of prayer, and then at the conclusion of that moment, we're going to take communion together. We're gonna just honor the Lord's Supper. We're going to partake of the bread and the cup. And so if you need to pause the broadcast for a moment and go gather those elements so that you can be ready, we invite you and encourage you to do that. And then for those of you that are here in the auditorium, obviously it's going to be there in the seats nearby you. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You know,I don't just believe that prayer changes things, I believe that prayer changes everything. And so, because prayer changes so much, I believe that we are all in the right place at the right time. So could you just tell somebody that. Come on, you're in the right place

at the right time, because tonight we're going before the Lord in prayer. And so just a reminder that those of you that are joining us for church online, you can place your prayer request in those comment sections, and it's important that you do so because once we go off the air tonight, we're gonna gather in this room, we're gonna be praying over those prayer requests, and we're going to be calling those out to the Lord, many of them one by one and individually. And then for those of you that are in this room, there's some instructions for you on how you can share your prayer request as well. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want to read a passage of text from 1 Chronicles chapter 27, and if you want to turn there, I'm actually going to read from the KJV and while you're getting there, I want you to think about this verse, it's Isaiah chapter 10, verse 27. And Isaiah was a prophet in the Old Testament, and he probably had more to say about the coming of Jesus Christ than any other prophet in the Old Testament. He was a beautiful writer. He had an incredible poetic tone to the way in which that he crafted his words. And at the end of Isaiah 10:27, he just makes a statement. He says that the anointing of God will destroy the yoke. And so when you think about a yoke, you think about something that binds, you think about something that holds back. And what Isaiah says is that there is the ability and potential to experience an anointing that will destroy the yoke. So in other words, whatever is binding you, whatever is holding you back, that God can bring a touch of his spirit, a touch of his grace to your life, and just break that. But not just break it, destroy it. It's an important word, destroy, because when you destroy something it means it doesn't get put back together again. If you break some you can put it back together, but you destroy something it’s done for. And it kind of reminds me of how the New Testament words it that old things can pass away, and everything can become new again. That our God can give us life and give us life more abundantly. And so to contemplate that our God can bring destruction to the enemy's work in our life, I want that kind of thing. Amen? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so the anointing of God is a deep subject in scripture. Tonight, we're not going to theologically evaluate all of that. But I believe when you think about the word anointing in the Old Testament, they had oil. It was physical oil that they would, they would place on someone or on something. And it was meant to physically symbolize what they wanted God to do spiritually. That in the same way that that oil would touch and that oil would coat that the Holy Spirit would come and touch and coat, and also oil had a sweet smelling fragrance so it covered up the stench of the flesh. Especially in a day when there was no deodorant, there was not normal bathing practices. It covered up the stench of the flesh as well. And so I think that when we pray today for the anointing, what we're saying is God give us a special grace for what it is we're trying to do. So for instance, if we were saying, God anoint me to preach, what we're saying is God give me a special grace to preach. If we say God anoint me to sing, we're saying God anoint me with a special grace to sing, to host a small group, to share my faith, to lead my business, to parent my children, to be a good spouse. God anoint me, give me a special grace. And I think when we think about the anointing that if you really dive into it theologically, it's not so much for you, but it's for other people. One of the best definitions I've heard someone give is that the anointing is for the work of public ministry. It'll make you look better than what you are. For instance, as a preacher, it'll make you preach better than you can actually preach. We've seen musicians that maybe they play music better than they can actually play. Why? Because the anointing of God shows up and helps them. Maybe you've been in moments where you were witnessing and sharing your faith and you just like you found it was just so easy. And you were saying things you didn't even know that you knew, but as you said them you knew God was helping you, that that's symbolic of the anointing, God helping you to publicly cover up your weakness and be made strong. Helping you to help somebody else as he worked in you, and he worked through you. Am I making sense to anybody? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And so I want you to understand that when you go into a service, and I don't just want to make this about church gatherings, okay, because God can anoint you to be a father, God can anoint you to be a mother, God can anoint you to be a business leader. But let's talk about it just in regards to a public worship experience for a minute. You ever had those moments where maybe someone was talking and what they were saying was good, but you kind of walked away from it, and you thought well that was good, but it felt like something was missing. I think what was probably missing was the anointing. Because it was not that what they were saying wasn't right, or that it wasn't good, it's just that it wasn't breaking yokes while it was being said. So you think about someone who can sing. You ever noticed how some people they'll start singing, entire atmospheres will just start shifting. That the room will feel one way, and then they start singing and the room starts feeling a different way. Well, we know that that's the presence of God being made manifest, but it seems like that God puts a special grace and anointing. The anointing does not just happen. It's something that you have to cultivate. It's readily available to anyone and everyone, but you have to choose to cultivate it in your life, you have to seek after it. You have not because you ask not. You knock and it will be open, you seek and you will find it. So I think that there's an experience in the Old Testament that has a revelatory impact on who we are in the here and the now. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

In the book of 1 Chronicles 27:25, we see that David, he's distributing everything to do with the kingdom. It says in verse 25, “And the king's treasures were given to Azmaveth.” And I'll let you guys say those, we will get an interpretation of tongues later. “And over the store houses in the fields and in the cities and in the villages, and in the castles were given to Jehonathan. And over them that did work of the field for tillage of the ground was Ezri, and over the vineyards was Shimei, and over the increase of the vineyards for the wine was Zabdi, and over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the low plains was Baal-hanan, and over the cellars of oil was Joash.” And it goes on, and it just keeps dividing up stuff. But let me tell you why that was happening. Because for 40 years, David had been whipping people. It's all he’d done for 40 years. And he had trained these incredible warriors and these incredible soldiers, and they just fought people. And they ultimately became so victorious that nobody would even raise a sword against them, and they ruled without opposition. Now when you have guys that have been fighting for 40 years, and all they've ever known to do is to fight, and now they reach a point where they are such conquerors and they are so victorious that nobody will even rattle their cage and give them a good fight. You know what's gonna start happening, they're gonna start fighting each other. And so there is a theological understanding that David realized, I've got to find something to keep these guys busy. Like, I've got to do something to give these guys activity and to make them active. And so what he did is he decided, I'm gonna get all these warriors, I'm gonna get all these soldiers, all these mens that have conquered on my behalf, and I'm going to divide up the territory. And they make a big deal about it. Like there's going to be this specific day when everything's divided up. Can you imagine the conversations as those guys are sitting at home, and they're talking to their wives, and it's like, you know maybe I'll get to be the judge, and maybe I'll get to be the Councilman, and maybe I'll get to own the vineyards, and maybe I'll get to own the olive groves. And everybody's just at home talking about wonder what King David's going to give me, and there's a certain level of excitement about what part of the kingdom is going to be delegated to their authority. And so they come together, and they're going through it, and hey you get the vineyards, and you get the olive groves, and you get the fields of pasture, and you get to be the Councilman and, and then, as they're calling the names, they get to the subject of the cellars, and they call out the name of a man named Joash. It's not very exhilarating, when you were expecting the vineyard, and you wanted the olive groves, and you thought they might give you all kinds of big, you know, plantation style fields. And instead now, you've been told you get the cellars.You get the cellars. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Who wants a cellar? Much less more than one of them. Can you imagine when Joash came home and he told his wife, he's like, baby, I got some news, I'm not gonna have much of a suntan, because they have told me I'm going to own and be in charge of the cellars. Well, the thing that was in the cellars beyond mold, and darkness was the oil. And in the cellar, Joash has to create a team of people who cultivate the oil. Well, why was that important? Because the temple could not function without the oil. The first thing that the oil did is it made the experience possible. Because every single person that went into the temple or the tabernacle had to be anointed with oil. In fact, if you were a singer you had to have the oil of the anointing on you, but if you were a high priest, you had to be completely drenched in oil from the top of your head to the soles of your feet to cover up the stench of your flesh as you went in to do the work of ministry in the temple and the tabernacle of old. The oil made the experience possible, but the oil also kept the lights on. Because inside the temple, there was this menorah. It was like a candlestick that had seven stems to it, and they all were connected together, and they would pour the oil in it, and it would fill up and they would burn this flame before the Lord. But what it also meant is when you went into the most holy of places in the temple in the tabernacle, it was lit up because somebody had put the oil in there. But nobody can put the oil in there unless somebody is creating the oil, and crafting the oil, and caring for the oil, and making it possible. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

So the oil made the experience possible, but the oil also kept the lights on. But here's what a lot of people miss about the oil, is that ultimately the oil is what made it all come together. Because you may remember when you read the Old Testament, it says that David had conquered, and David wanted to build a temple, a tabernacle for the Lord, and God told him you can't. You don't get that opportunity David, and so David said, Well if I can't build it, can I at least supply the stuff for it? God said you can do that, and so David spent the remainder of his life collecting gold, collecting silver, collecting the cedars of Lebanon, collecting all the timber that would be needed, and he just put this huge stockpile together of all the things that would be needed to build the temple. The problem was that when Solomon became king, he had the ability according to God, to put all this in place. There was just one problem, he did not have the money to pay the laborers. All the money had been invested in getting the stuff. There was no money left to pay the level of fee that was associated with the best builders in that region at that time, and so Solomon began to conduct an inventory, and what he discovers is that there are 160,000 gallons of oil in the cellars, hat a man named Joash was creating when nobody was looking. And that oil had become so famous that women like Cleopatra, it is believed, traveled to that region of Israel just to see the color of the flame that was produced when that oil was lit on fire. It was known for the color of flame it produced, it was known for the smell and the fragrance that it produced. And what ultimately happened is the man who was going to put it all together, said I'll exchange my labor for the oil. So it all came together because of the oil. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I just wonder, are you seeing any correlations? And that when you think about the oil of old symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit, the anointing is what made the experience possible, the oil of all the anointing is what made the lights come on. And the oil, it's what caused it all to come together. And I'm going to tell you some right now, it's still the oil, the touch of the Holy Spirit, that makes the experience possible. It's still the touch of the Holy Spirit that causes the ultimate lights to come on. It's still the touch of the Holy Spirit that makes it all come together and leads to people truly being saved, people truly being healed, people having their deliverance experience. But isn't it something to think that the man that was down there cultivating the flow of oil, did it without an audience, wasn't nobody given him any trophies, nobody was giving him anything at the award ceremony. I doubt he even got one of those jackets that celebrated his years of labor. Nobody handed him a Rolex for all of the years he put in. He did it without an audience, and the recognition for what he did even came after the fact. I'm gonna tell you what the modern day church needs, it needs some men and even women with hearts, like Joash, who understand, if that worship team don't get anointed, we're all wasting our time; who understand if that preacher don't get anointed, we're all going through the motions of a religious experience; who understand that if God don't put an anointing on government officials and leaders of our day, we're just going to continue to fall into a further demise, but somebody who will step into the cellar, into the private place and shut the door behind them and say nobody may ever even know I'm praying, nobody ever acknowledged the fact that I lifted him up to the Lord, but I'm going to pray until there's a breakthrough, because I know the anointing still makes the experience possible. I know the anointing still keeps the lights on. I know that the anointing of God is still what makes it all come together. We need the anointing today if we have ever needed the anointing, but it only happens when somebody is willing to go into the cellar and pay the price for the oil to flow. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I'm gonna I'm gonna allow you to be seated, but just look over at somebody, and if you're at home put it in the comment section, tell them keep the cellar. Keep the cellar. Listen, when it comes to 3trees Church, and even what I get to experience as a senior pastor, listen, I can look back over the years, and I can tell you about people that you don't even know their names. You have no clue who they are. Some of them have already passed on, and they've went to be with Jesus. But there was a lady named Vicki Jones. She came into our church over 21 years ago, showed up when we were moving out of a storefront into a basement, and she just walked into my office one day and she said, you don't know me and I don't know you, but this is my church, and I just need to know how I can pray for you. She ultimately, when 3trees didn't even have 100 people, started showing up every single day to that auditorium and she'd go from that little office area to the auditorium from the office area to the auditorium, the office area to the auditorium, and she would do nothing but pray. And occasionally the phone rang, and sometimes she would forget she's still praying while she was answering it. But I remember I would tell my wife multiple times, Vicki is praying for me right now. I could feel it. I could go on naming names, and but I was thinking about how even like, just recently, Treva Richards, like so many people in our church, they don't even know Treva. Treva just walked in, sat down in the back of the sanctuary, got up, walked out, went back home. But the difference was, is while she was sitting in her recliner, she wasn't watching some filth on television, she was sitting there crocheting some little prayer cloth and praying over it and believing God that somebody was going to be touched, somebody was going to be healed, somebody was going to be delivered, that the anointing was going to flow. And I just wonder, like, who's the next Vicki? Who's the next Treva? Who’s that next person, that just says, man nobody may ever know my name, but I'm gonna pay the price for the oil. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

This may be too spiritual, for some of you to understand, but if I could speak to you prophetically for a second. Any church is only as good as the keepers of the cellar. It's only as good as its prayer warriors, and it's intercessors. And, I would say to you, I don't care if you're a pastor, or a business person, or just a parent, or a young person who the hand of God is on your life, you better get you some people who will help you keep the cellar. People you can trust with your prayer concerns, people that you can trust with the things that are going on your life, and let them know how to pray for you, so that if any two would agree, that the oil of the anointing would flow over your life, and that you would see God do great things. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I should have started with the story, instead I'm going to end with it. One of my favorite revivalist of all time to study is a man by the name of Charles Finney. The stories of the revivals that that man facilitated are unbelievable. There's one such instance where he was simply walking into a factory to tour it, and as he was touring the factory, he began to have a conversation with a man who was asking him about what he did. He shared he was a preacher. Ultimately, he started sharing the Gospel. The man began to weep, he came under such conviction. The next thing you know, because they're in this big loud factory, there's someone on the other machine, he sees this guy has stopped working and that he's crying, he stops his machine. He starts listening, he starts crying under conviction. It ultimately happened until the entire factory shut down production, and the next thing you know Finny is standing on one of the machines preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Revival broke out in the factory. They had to move it into a church building. It outgrew the church building, it went into a large auditorium, and the next thing you know an entire region is being awakened. And so history tells you about Finny. Books have been written about Finny, but what very few people know is that before Finney went anywhere, there was a man by the name of Daniel Nash that would go to the zip code ahead of him, sometimes weeks, sometimes months, he would get a room and he would start crying out to the Lord. God, use Finney when he gets here. God, use Finney when he gets here. God, use Finney when he gets here. God, let him preach with an anointing. Let him be used by you. Show him where to go. Show him where not to go. Bind every spirit that's gonna come against him. Let hearts be open to receive what he's got to say, and so if you go and you visit the tomb of Finney, it is with great celebration; but when you search through the cemeteries, and you find the stone that reads Daniel Nash, it simply says a co-laborer with Finney. But I got a feeling, when they stepped through the pearly gates. I just kind of wonder if Nash isn't in a bigger part of the cul-de-sac than Finney. Because you're only as good as the keepers of the cellars. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And I'll tell you something about this country boy from the river, I understand one thing fully. I get the privilege to stand in the pulpit, and holding a microphone and preaching. But I know that I am only as good, and I will only ever communicate as effectively, as the keepers of the cellar pray down the anointing upon this ministry, and everything we get to be a part of. And I plead with you, help me keep the cellar. May we be people of prayer. May we be a congregation of prayer, and may we cry aloud and spare not, God anoint us. God anoint us. Cover the stench of our flesh and destroy yokes through everything we set forth to do. Can I get an amen from somebody on a Wednesday night? Look over to somebody and tell them, keep the cellar. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

If you reach in and take out the elements for communion, if you're there at home, need to pause the broadcast for a second, that's fine. Just take out the bread, take out the cup. What I want you to think about is the Bible says Jesus is the Christ. Jesus Christ. You understand that Christ is not the last name of Jesus. Christ means the anointed one. So when you say Jesus Christ, you're saying, Jesus, the anointed one. And so the only reason that we can even have access to the anointing is because Jesus has said that everyone can experience it everywhere if they are simply willing to seek the anointing. It's the blood that makes it possible for us to commune with the anointing. Even in the Old Testament, they had to apply the blood before they applied the anointing it. There's so much depth there, but just believe with me for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to destroy the yokes of our life and understand that it's because of the relationship we have with Jesus, that it's readily accessible. Jesus took the bread, Jesus blessed the bread, Jesus broke the bread, and Jesus gave that bread to His disciples. And he told him that it represented his body which is being broken for them. And so just think about all those places, where that Jesus has been broken so that you can be made whole. Stripes ripped through his body so that you can be healed. God, we thank you that the anointing destroys the yoke of sickness, destroys the yoke of disease. Thank you, Father. I ask you to take and eat of the bread. Jesus lifted up the cup and he told him, when you drink of it, it represents my blood shed for the remission of your sins. So grateful that we get to have a relationship with our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit because of the blood of Jesus. We just thank you, that we can even cry out and ask for the anointing to ask for special grace to ask to be used to ask God to have our weakness made strong because of the blood that was shed. God we receive it. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for setting us free. Thank you for dealing with our hurts, and our habits, and our hang ups through the power of your blood. In Jesus name. I wanna ask you to take a drink of the cup. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I want to give you guys that are in church online a moment to just begin sharing your prayer requests there in the comment sections. Those of you that are in this room, please follow the instructions that are on the screens that are in this auditorium for your prayer request to be shared, and Jaron why don't you just sing out for a moment I exalt thee. Come on even there at home, just sing it out. Thank you Jesus. Again, those of you that are on church online, please put your comments or put your prayer requests in those comment sections. We want to pray with you. We want to pray for you. We want to believe that the anointing of God is going to touch your situation, touch your life, and destroy the yoke. Now I challenge you, even as we get ready to end this broadcast, I want you to find a place and just lean in the Lord for a moment. Maybe even you'll see those comments, and you can get some worship music going right where you're at, and you can just kind of pray over those, and maybe it's even in conjunction with the message tonight, the moment where you kind of find your cellar, and you say, hey I'm going to just cultivate the oil of the anointing in my home, in my life, my ministry, my family. Thank you guys so much for being with us. God bless you. God bless you.