Sermon

Training to Reign - Kingdom Righteousness

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. Tonight I'm going to talk to you about training terrain.

  2. All right? I actually had another title.

  3. It was kind of political. Be honest with you, because I

  4. wanted hits on YouTube and I thought if I use this, maybe,

  5. you know, people just in general would go after this particular

  6. phrase and then they would find us.

  7. But at the end of the day, I'm like, I'm not here for them.

  8. We're training for raining. So Matthew chapter 6 verse 33

    Matthew 6:33

  9. says this, but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness

  10. and all these things will be added to you.

  11. Most of the time when I open up service, I open up service

  12. praying that the Holy Spirit would do 4 things for us and I'm

  13. not doing that by routine. I'm doing that so we have

  14. revelation that the Holy Spirit, I'm not number one.

  15. I'm not here to entertain you, although you know I don't want

  16. you to be bored. I'm not here to entertain.

  17. I'm here to to impart a spiritual truth that can only

  18. come as the Spirit reveals it. So I can deliver it by the

  19. Spirit, but you have to catch it by the Spirit and let it renew

  20. your mind. So you have to understand the

  21. working of the Holy Ghost is to cause things to come to your

  22. remembrance, teach you all things, guide you into all truth

  23. and excuse me then disclose things to come.

  24. There are gifts that function right in the church and that's

  25. awesome. Although Pastor Marcy didn't say

  26. thus saith the Lord, I am good all the time.

  27. The reality is why she up here in the 1st place.

  28. It's definitely she had some prompting in her spirit by the

  29. Holy Ghost to communicate that. Now if you've been trained, you

  30. realize that she just really gave the gift of prophecy, which

  31. is just an A word of edification so that the church can be

  32. edified, encouraged and strengthened concerning

  33. something of our Father. And she did that even though she

  34. didn't come up and say thus saith the Lord, because

  35. obviously the Lord has said he is good, right?

  36. He is a good father and He works things for our good and what the

  37. devil meant for bad, he turns for right.

  38. So she's communicating Scripture by unction of the Spirit.

  39. And even though we're not saying it, we had the gifts in

  40. operation tonight. We had the gifts in operation,

  41. You know, cause a lot of times if we don't pay attention in the

  42. Spirit, then a lot of times things are happening and we

  43. think it's just us when it's really God moving and when God

  44. opens or reveals things in your mind by the Spirit, something

  45. that is a move of God. Please, we, we will not be the

  46. church that's going to box or a believer that puts God in a box.

  47. That a move of God is only when the miraculous happens or a move

  48. of God is only when everyone's shouting, screaming, running,

  49. dancing, and, you know, jumping for joy.

  50. In fact, Pastor Denise had a phenomenal message on joy at

  51. camp meeting. It was amazing.

  52. I text her after I said I didn't text her.

  53. I went to and talked to her. I said, Pastor Denise, I said

  54. that that needs to be a book with your name on it.

  55. It was such a great, solid teaching on the joy of the Lord.

  56. It was awesome and needed for the body of Christ, you know,

  57. because again, there are aspects that God does and it and it

  58. elates us, it excites us. It is fun, it is awesome, but

  59. it's not only a move of God. Are you hearing me?

  60. And so we need to know know this.

  61. Do you understand if I just read Scripture in a monotone voice

  62. and you hear the Scripture, that's a move of God.

  63. So. So everything God is saying is

  64. exciting. Everything God is saying is

  65. moving. And when you receive it by the

  66. Spirit, it's an amazing thing. So we've already had the gifts

  67. in operation tonight. We're going to have the

  68. impartation of the Spirit tonight.

  69. And again, how it is tonight will be will is, is directly

  70. linked to your expectation, Amen.

  71. And if I think you're getting too familiar with my voice, I

  72. might come slap you don't want you sleeping on me.

  73. Amen. All right, so Matthew 633 we say

  74. this because it says but seek first.

  75. This is even though we're using some of the same scriptures.

  76. Could we learn more from it? So he said, but seek when first

  77. I'm I will forego to breakdown, but but seek first his Kingdom

  78. and his righteousness. We love the Kingdom because the

  79. Bible's about a king, his Kingdom and his royal offspring.

  80. Actually, it is about King's dominion and we are only trying

  81. to go back to original intent. God is trying to give us

  82. revelation of something that existed in the garden.

  83. And so, you know, we're just trying to get technically back

  84. to the beginning of what God intended in the 1st place.

  85. But yet not only do we seek His Kingdom, we also have to seek

  86. His. So first we are to seek His

  87. Kingdom and 1st we are to seek his.

  88. We are to seek His righteousness.

  89. When righteousness is God's way of doing it, it's God's way of

  90. doing it. It's righteous because it's

  91. God's way of doing it. So we are to seek God's way of

  92. doing it. When now we all have to admit

  93. we've all been in situations where the latter part of that

  94. was not first. We sought a way to overcome our

  95. challenge or to over go through this situation of our own

  96. understanding. Even though we have a scripture

  97. that says lean not on your own understanding, but in ALL, all

  98. your ways acknowledged and he'll make your pass.

  99. OK, But what do we do? We tend to, you know, based upon

  100. our knowledge, based upon our experiences, even based upon our

  101. faith victories. We say God did it here like

  102. this. He's going to do it again like

  103. this. Well, he may not do it the same

  104. way, but the results is going to be the same.

  105. OK, So we need to seek first His way of doing it.

  106. Righteousness means we're in right standing with the

  107. governing authority, and you're in right standing with the

  108. governing authority when you are doing it the way He said to do

  109. it, Say Amen. And is God always right?

  110. Is God always right? He is never wrong.

  111. God is not a man that He should. He does not lie OK, so the seek

  112. first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these

  113. things will be added to you. So not only do we need to seek

  114. the Kingdom, we also need to seek his way of doing things,

  115. which I find interesting because of how righteousness is and I so

  116. I want to talk a little bit about the righteousness of God.

  117. OK, turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 to 21.

  118. Because there are, there are. It's just like salvation.

  119. Salvation is a door. We were in the domain of

  120. darkness. We are transferred into the

  121. Kingdom of his beloved Son through the cross of Jesus

  122. Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth and

  123. life. He's the door, He loud.

  124. But through our belief in him as Savior, through his death,

  125. burial and resurrection that he has wiped away all of our sin.

  126. He's paid the price for by accepting him as Lord of our

  127. lives. We enter through the door into

  128. the Kingdom of God. We do not stay at the door.

  129. We are to enjoy the benefits that are associated with our

  130. salvation. Now many are stuck at the door

  131. because they they're in and that's all they know and that's

  132. it. But that was never God's intent

  133. to get you in the door. Standing by the door, He wanted

  134. you to enjoy the benefits that are associated with His Kingdom.

  135. And here's the thing, when you were outside, you knew nothing

  136. about this. You didn't know how to function

  137. here. So what happens is when you get

  138. in your spirit's different, but your mind still thinks like it

  139. did when it was outside. This is why you must renew your

  140. mind. That's your responsibility and

  141. you can because your spirit man is alive.

  142. Not only is it alive, but it has been made righteous in right

  143. standing with God. So second Corinthians chapter 5

    2 Corinthians 5:17–21

  144. verse 17 through 21 says, therefore, if anyone is in

  145. Christ, he's a new creature. The old things passed away.

  146. Behold, new things have come. Now all thing from God, who

  147. reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry

  148. of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling

  149. the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses

  150. against them. And he committed to us the word

  151. of reconciliation. Therefore say, therefore, we are

  152. ambassadors for Christ, as though God we're making an

  153. appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ,

  154. be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to

  155. be sent on our behalf, so that we might what become the

  156. righteousness of God in Him. So what we could not do in and

  157. of ourselves. We could not have a

  158. righteousness or we could not produce separate from God the

  159. ability to make a demand in front of the throne that I'm

  160. right with you of my own merit. Our spirit man was dead,

  161. separated, cut off. We because of what Adam did,

  162. because he fell, because of that transgression that transmitted

  163. across the board to all of humanity.

  164. We are not in right standing with God and only Christ could

  165. pay a price that gives us the right to become righteousness.

  166. Now, what does it mean to become righteous?

  167. We must be a new spirit. We're a new creature in Christ

  168. the new creature or the new spirit man is righteous.

  169. It's in Christ, it's in the king in essence, it's the spirit of

  170. the king. Now it's our spirit, not his,

  171. but our spirit is in his likeness.

  172. Now how do we know what that looks like?

  173. Well Genesis 1 he breathe into into the Adam or the dirt suit

  174. and he became a living being and from God he made man so of his

  175. being he breathed into him the breath of life.

  176. So Adam spirit was alive to God. It was of the nature of God.

  177. But Adam himself is not God. He is a child of God.

  178. Jesus did the same before he was ascended to heaven.

  179. He went in and saw his disciples in a room.

  180. He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Ghost because

  181. they had made him Lord. And when they had made him Lord,

  182. they became new creatures. While Jesus was there, they

  183. experienced a new birth. He breathed on them to receive

  184. the Holy Ghost because you cannot put new wine and old old

  185. wineskin. So Jesus experienced the new

  186. birth, meaning he saw his disciples do that.

  187. But then he said now wait until you have power from on high

  188. before we you go out start witness.

  189. You need there's there's another work of the Holy Ghost.

  190. OK, so we know then that we become a new creature, which

  191. means the spirit man. We are a we have a body.

  192. This is our body. We have a soul, which is our

  193. mind, our intellect, our emotions, OK?

  194. And then we have our spirit. Now before Christ, that spirit

  195. was cut off from God. Dead just means separated from

  196. God. It had no ability to be right

  197. with God. Even when through your mind and

  198. body you're trying to be right. That's why Paul said, look, man,

  199. I mean, I was trying to do everything to be right with God,

  200. only to find out I'm not right with God.

  201. I'm not right with him so, but once he made Jesus Lord, then he

  202. became a new spirit. That spirit that Paul could not

  203. do through his own personal efforts and work to earn a

  204. spirit that was alive to God. He could not do it.

  205. None of us could do that. But confessing Jesus as Lord, a

  206. man who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the

  207. righteousness of God in Christ, the new creature is immediately,

  208. instantaneously in right standing with God.

  209. That spirit, when you're born again, is right with God,

  210. period. And you don't have to do

  211. anything then with that. That spirit is alive.

  212. You didn't do it. God gave it to you, gave you

  213. that spirit, and that spirit has the ability to follow God, hear

  214. God, and actually wants to be in right standing.

  215. That's the desire of your new spirit man.

  216. I want to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness because my

  217. spirit is of Him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

  218. That is not your work that did that.

  219. That is the finished work of Jesus that did that to you on

  220. the inside. So your spirit man has been made

  221. alive. It's been made righteous.

  222. You know confidently that you are alive with God, not of any

  223. self effort, but because of the effort of Jesus.

  224. Isn't that amazing? That is resident in you?

  225. Hallelujah. Thank you.

  226. This is exciting stuff because I think sometimes we forget of who

  227. and and what we possess as a new creature, as a new creature that

  228. God said, I'm going to put a spirit in you that's alive to

  229. me. Now I'm giving you a new one.

  230. And now I'm going to throw my whole it throw the third person

  231. of the Godhead. He's going to bear witness with

  232. that spirit that he's in right standing.

  233. No more guilt, no more shame, no more condemnation, glory to God

  234. and is in right standing with God.

  235. That spirit is alive, but that spirit is a babe, or we could

  236. say a seed. OK, let's turn over to Romans

    Romans 5 chapter mention

  237. chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, verse 12, and then we'll jump

    Romans 5:12

  238. down to 15 to 19. It says therefore, just as

  239. through one man sin entered into the world and death reigned, or

  240. death through sin, so and so death spread to all men because

  241. of sin. But verse 15 but the free gift

  242. is not like the transgression for if by the transgression of

  243. one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by

  244. the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to many.

  245. Now if the first thing I want to point out before I finish

  246. reading this passage 16 to 19 is that the free gift is not like

  247. the transgression. The first thing I want to point

  248. out about what it's not like is it's not it's not automatically

  249. transferable because when Adam died, he produced after his own

  250. kind all sinned man. It's it's your cut off when

  251. Jesus through hit through the grace gift of God and the

  252. finished work of Jesus. Now it's available for you to be

  253. alive and righteous, but you're going to have to decide free

  254. will. So again, we're lit.

  255. We all sinned because Adam blew it.

  256. Think about that for a moment. Now you understand how where

  257. God's at in this deal. OK, so I tell Adam to produce

  258. after his own kind, meaning him and his wife.

  259. They have a godly race that are in my image.

  260. Problem is he disobeys me and he's dead now him and he both.

  261. So now they can't produce spirit beings that are like me.

  262. They're of their father. Now they have fallen.

  263. We use this term, they have fallen yet now guess what, we

  264. are all grabbing that nature. I said we're grabbing that

  265. nature. It's within us, we're grabbing

  266. that nature and we're all for all have what sinned and fall

  267. short of the glory of God. It is a transfer of which, but

  268. God says, well, that's all right, I can fix it, Amen.

  269. What's what's automatically being passed on?

  270. I will make atonement for it. I'll pay the price for it.

  271. And every one of them can be forgiven of it.

  272. So they will not be able to stand before me and say, how can

  273. you send me to the lake of fire? Adam ate the fruit.

  274. I didn't eat the fruit. Adam ate the fruit.

  275. Yes. Did I sin?

  276. But it was Adam. He transferred this nature to

  277. me. But the Lord's like, but I've

  278. made my nature available to you now.

  279. And all you had to do was say yes.

  280. So with the choice Adam made to go into sin, God's given us the

  281. choice to get out. Hallelujah, glory to God, Amen.

  282. So again, you can't say, oh, if I was Adam, I wouldn't eat the

  283. fruit. Well, it doesn't matter.

  284. You are not you are of Adam. And now you can choose to eat,

  285. you know, the fruit of Jesus, so to speak, you know, choose life.

  286. So if you're like, well, I can't do that.

  287. Well, then you would have eaten the fruit if you were Adam,

  288. right? So if you're resisting to make

  289. Jesus Lord of your life, then if you would have been Adam, you

  290. would have eaten a fruit, guaranteed, because you still

  291. have choice. Now you can choose to get out,

  292. you can choose the finished work of Jesus.

  293. All right, 1st 16 The gift is not like that which came through

  294. the one who sinned for the one. For on the one hand the judgment

  295. arose from one transgressing resulting in condemnation, but

  296. on the other hand, the free gift arose for many transgression

  297. resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of

  298. the one death reign through the one, much more those who

  299. received the abundance of grace and of the gift of what

  300. righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ, so

  301. them as though through 1 transgression there resulted

  302. condemnation all men, Even so, through one act of what?

  303. One act of what there resulted justification of life to all

  304. men. For as through the one man's

  305. disobedience the many were made sinners, Even so through the

  306. obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.

  307. So you have to choose righteousness.

  308. Now. It's through the act of

  309. righteousness that we are freed, which means Jesus was righteous.

  310. Jesus was always in right standing with the governing

  311. authority. Jesus never committed an

  312. unrighteous act. Unrighteousness just simply

  313. means doing something contrary to God's word.

  314. That's unrighteousness. He did righteousness by only

  315. doing what the Father says. That's why I said I don't speak

  316. anything on my own initiative. I don't, don't, don't do what I

  317. do. I only do what the Father said.

  318. Even the baptism with John he says permitted at this time so

  319. that all righteousness can be fulfilled.

  320. Everything that God has written about me that's supposed to be

  321. fulfilled at this time. Now that I'm in the earth, I am

  322. going to complete. This is why the prophecies

  323. written of Jesus and all that He accomplished while He was on the

  324. earth in those short 33 years and really just three years of

  325. ministry. But 33 years before his death,

  326. burial, resurrection, he fulfilled so many prop the

  327. statistic ability for one person to fulfill, I think like 365

  328. prophecies. Statistically you can't do it.

  329. But he did it one man Why? Because he is the righteousness.

  330. He is his one act of righteousness has given us the

  331. bit. He is the Lamb that is slain.

  332. He is the blood without spot or wrinkle.

  333. He is perfection. He is God's anointed.

  334. He is God's, the one who obeyed his Father always and not like

  335. his brother Adam who disobeyed. He stayed obedient and

  336. maintained righteousness. Glory to God and because of

  337. that, He's given us the ability to be made righteous.

  338. Our spirit man immediately becomes in right standing with

  339. God. But now that righteousness needs

  340. to grow. Now why do I say that?

  341. Just because you've been made righteous doesn't mean you're

  342. demonstrating righteousness through your other two parts of

  343. your being. Again, we are, we have a spirit

  344. man, we have a soul and we have a body.

  345. God makes our spirit man right. We cannot do that.

  346. But once our spirit man is made right and then he puts the Holy

  347. Ghost inside us to 'cause we are the temple of the Holy Ghost.

  348. Those two together, my spirit and the Holy Spirit, those two

  349. in agreement, and they are in agreement, have more than enough

  350. power to conquer my soul realm and my body.

  351. Come on, to put it in submission, which means when I

  352. hear from my spirit what the Holy Spirit is saying and I

  353. renew my mind so that this righteousness that I already am,

  354. I just begin, Oh, I'm just going to release who I am.

  355. Oh, let me be who I am. You know, I'm just going to be

  356. who I am. I'm just going to be who I am.

  357. This is just who I am. I'm just going to be who I am.

  358. I'm the righteousness of God in crime.

  359. I'm just going to be who I am. Well, the minute I do that, then

  360. all of a sudden the things that are contrary to that I begin to

  361. take control of, I be. Because I have a power on the

  362. inside that allows me to be able to conquer it.

  363. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. How is it that I can take

  364. control? I not God, I can take control of

  365. my choice. I can take control of whether I

  366. sin or not. I can take control and how I

  367. feel about a situation. I can take control about how I

  368. assess situations. How can I do this?

  369. Second Timothy 316 and 17 look at this.

  370. He says for all Scripture, say all Scripture.

  371. That's why we need to read the Bible cover to cover, right?

  372. All Scripture, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable.

  373. Say it's profitable. Listen, reading the Bible is

  374. profitable. It is profitable.

  375. I mean, it's the greatest profit you'll ever have.

  376. Amen. And I'm even over a fivefold

  377. ministry profit. It is the greatest profit you'll

  378. ever have. OK, so it's profitable for

  379. teaching for reproof. Why is for proof coming because

  380. you you thought away in your former life and so the Holy

  381. Spirit is saying we're not that right right we're not that I'm

  382. telling you who you are release who you are just be who you are

  383. just be who you are. I've made you righteous so just

  384. be righteous. Just be it OK for reproof for

  385. what correction for here it is training in righteous.

  386. Now this is important because what happens is we can teach a

  387. truth in Scripture and it is true that the minute it is not

  388. your effort that makes you in right standing with God.

  389. It is the finished work of Jesus and you confessing him as Lord.

  390. He made you righteous. You did not do that on your own

  391. accord. OK and that's true.

  392. However, that's not the end. Then now there's training in

  393. righteousness. And many stop here and say I've

  394. already been raised, made righteous.

  395. I don't have to do anything. You need to be trained.

  396. Come on, you need to be trained. And again, anything you're

  397. training in righteousness is not a work of yourself.

  398. It is releasing who you are. It's just releasing who you are.

  399. Hallelujah. So there is a training in

  400. righteousness. Why?

  401. So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every

  402. good work. In essence, if you do not train

  403. in righteousness, the implication is you're not going

  404. to be adequate. When there's good works or what?

  405. When you face things within life, you will not release and

  406. we're going to see another scripture.

  407. Your fruit of righteousness will not be seen even though you are.

  408. It's hidden just like right now. I see no one spirit man, but I

  409. can see the effects of your spirit man.

  410. When I see the fruit of your spirit man producing the fruits

  411. of the spirit, when I see you respond and behave as the

  412. Scripture says, 'cause the minute you get into a situation

  413. and you're doing it according to the Word, now I'm seeing your

  414. spirit man because your spirit man that's been made right by

  415. the finished work of Jesus would do these things.

  416. How do we know this, 'cause you're a new creature in and

  417. Christ only did the will of the Father.

  418. He just did him. So he just did him.

  419. I'm just releasing who I am. This is just who I am.

  420. Oh, you think you're so good. I'm just me.

  421. This is me. This is who I am.

  422. This is what God said I am right.

  423. Now, here's the thing, a lot of times when you live, right?

  424. Well, I'll get to that later. Maybe I'll come back to that

  425. later. OK, so there's training.

  426. Let's look at this word training.

  427. This word training is really cool.

  428. This word training means this. It means the whole training and

  429. education of children. Are you a child of God?

  430. All right, so God wants to train you.

  431. He wants to train you in who you are, OK, That He made you

  432. through his finished work, He said, which relates to the

  433. cultivation of mind and morals and employs for this purpose.

  434. Now commands and admonitions, now reproofs and punishment.

  435. It also includes the training and care of the body.

  436. Now that can be the body of Christ, but it also can be your

  437. physical body, because again, your body doesn't tell you what

  438. to do. You actually have control over

  439. your body. You can tell your body, yes, I

  440. understand you're attracted to that person.

  441. But we're not going there. We're not married, right?

  442. I'm not doing, you know what? I understand that you could put

  443. that in you and it make you feel a certain way, but it's just

  444. killing brain cells. It's killing this, killing that.

  445. You're not, I'm not doing it. Same thing.

  446. You know what, I could eat that, but at the end of the day, I'm

  447. not putting that in me because I know I'm not healthy.

  448. When I do that, it doesn't help my body.

  449. And you actually can't control that.

  450. Hallelujah. And when you do that, you're

  451. just being you. OK, I'm going to talk more about

  452. that. Whatever in adults and whatever

  453. in adults also cultivates the soul, especially by correcting

  454. mistakes and curbing passions. This is training.

  455. It also, it means it's instruction which aims at

  456. increasing virtue. Are you hearing me?

  457. In essence, it is training so that God reveals what are the

  458. evils by which he would visit man so that you do not function

  459. in those capacities. So when he's training and

  460. righteous, he's saying, you know who you are.

  461. This is who you are. Because again we say, oh, wait a

  462. minute, now you're getting into a bunch of do's and don'ts.

  463. You know, that sounds like religion.

  464. Let me tell you what religion is.

  465. Religion is you determining what you would do with God and what

  466. you won't do with God. Now you've entered back into

  467. works you have because when you don't release who you are as a

  468. righteous person, you are actually going back to works.

  469. Because when you keep some scripture, but you choose to not

  470. keep others and say, well, I don't have to do it.

  471. You're actually in works now because you're dictating which

  472. things of God you won't do. But a righteous person says I

  473. just do what the Father says. That's just who I am.

  474. I don't have to work this. It's just my nature and it's not

  475. works. It's just it's who I am.

  476. I enter into works when I am doing something opposite of my

  477. nature and expecting God to be OK with it.

  478. Oh, you don't want to hear that? It's fine.

  479. I Every believer enters into works when we know we are doing

  480. something contrary to His word, which is contrary to our nature,

  481. and we're wanting God to still be OK with us.

  482. That's works. That self effort.

  483. That's the whole point of works is what do I do that that God

  484. would be pleased enough with me and you're making the choice

  485. that is works and you can do it as a righteous person, right?

  486. Meaning you can you hear God speak to yourself, you can do

  487. this. That's just who you are.

  488. And you're like, I can't do that.

  489. What do you mean you can't do that?

  490. I mean your old man can't do it. Your mind can't do it, but I'm

  491. here to renew that. I'm here to train you.

  492. The training is just release who you are, Lord.

  493. But then what's he going to say? Just kick in my grace, right?

  494. My grace is sufficient. Just release who you are.

  495. But Lord, you know what? Doesn't matter what?

  496. It doesn't matter what anyone's done, doesn't matter what

  497. anything's happened, doesn't matter anything in this

  498. situation. You just need to handle the

  499. situation the way God's telling you to handle it.

  500. Now, that doesn't mean, as Pastor Marsh just said, and I've

  501. said before, preach love is not a doormat.

  502. A response, a righteous response, is not always I'll

  503. forgive you and just act like it didn't happen.

  504. Sometimes it is. I have already forgiven you.

  505. The problem is you've not asked for it.

  506. So our relationship actually isn't walking in reconciliation.

  507. And I cannot condone what you're doing actively.

  508. And so because you're actively choosing to separate from the

  509. relationship, although you say I'm leaving you, you actually

  510. left me because of your behavior.

  511. This is why we're not fellowshipping anymore here.

  512. You did this, I didn't. And whenever you're ready to

  513. come back here I am. Sometimes love does that and

  514. that's the righteous because a lot of times we do get prone to

  515. let's just you know what? Can't do it this time, this time

  516. can't act like it didn't happen. Can't act like it's not happen.

  517. It's not there's no real repentance.

  518. Or you know what I the righteous thing to do is to put them in a

  519. position to be able to repent. Well, you know, again, if we

  520. don't watch out, we, we like at certain aspects of Scripture,

  521. but we don't care for other aspects of Scripture.

  522. And then you and it all comes out so well, pastor or apostle,

  523. which one do we do? The one that God says to do at

  524. the time. That's the one you do.

  525. That's the one you do whatever he says to do at the time.

  526. You know, Jesus came to the earth and acted one way.

  527. The next time he's come in a different way.

  528. He came as a suffering servant. When he comes back the next

  529. time, he will not come back as a suffering servant.

  530. I mean, why can't he come back as a suffering servant?

  531. Because that's not the righteous way to come back.

  532. That's not the will of the Father.

  533. When the great tribulation, those are righteous acts.

  534. That's the righteousness of God responding to the situation.

  535. Amen. The only way you know how to do

  536. this is you have to become trained.

  537. It's not one-size-fits-all. Every situation it call it's

  538. calls for training because the enemy's tactics are different

  539. and we're not ignorant of them. Which means then God will train

  540. us how to respond to each one and release who we are.

  541. Hallelujah, come on now. So Hebrews 12/11 says it this

  542. way. All discipline.

  543. This is the exact same Greek word that we just read in Second

  544. Timothy 3 when it said training. The word training and righteous,

  545. same word that they use as discipline here, but you could

  546. say all training for all discipline for the moment seems

  547. not to be joyful, which tells us when you're having training and

  548. righteousness, guess what? It won't seem like why is it not

  549. joyful? Because God saying now you can

  550. do this and your flesh and old way of thinking says not doing

  551. it that way. We're going to do it my way.

  552. I've been God. I've been in this situation more

  553. than one time. I got this one.

  554. The Lord's like you don't have that one.

  555. That man's dead. The the real you, it handles it

  556. this way. Just release yourself when I I

  557. don't know that I like that I don't know.

  558. And the reason it hurts because you have to crucify your flesh

  559. and self to release your righteousness.

  560. It's painful, it's painful. The easiest thing to do is just

  561. respond fleshly. I mean, we were professionals at

  562. it, right? To be carnal, all those things.

  563. But man, when you want to live righteous, then it gets pretty

  564. painful. Why?

  565. Because all the Lord said don't do this.

  566. And now all of a sudden, everything in your response is

  567. way different. Amen.

  568. And it's painful, it's sorrowful.

  569. Yet to those who have been, what?

  570. There's that word trained by it afterwards, not before.

  571. Come on, come on. Afterwards it yields the

  572. peaceful fruit of righteousness. So when you're born again,

  573. you've been made righteous. Nothing you've done.

  574. God made you a new spirit that's in right standing with him,

  575. alive to God. And then put the Holy Ghost in

  576. you to let you know your spirit man is alive to God.

  577. No condemnation, no guilt. You're right before God.

  578. You can boldly come before the throne of grace.

  579. However, we need the world to see the fruit of this.

  580. Amen. So in order to see the fruit,

  581. we're going to do some training because if we do not do any

  582. training, you will be alive to God on the inside, but nobody's

  583. going to know it. Come on.

  584. Have you been around a Co worker that they come to you and told

  585. you they were born again and you're shocked?

  586. You're like, man, I there's no evidence.

  587. I mean, I would have I I've been praying for them to get saved

  588. and the whole time they're telling me they're born again.

  589. This is amazing. What are you what are we missing

  590. the fruit of righteousness because if they're truly born

  591. again that that's really who they are and that's the easiest

  592. response. It's the natural response for

  593. them. However, because they do not

  594. allow the training process, we cannot get the fruit cannot get

  595. the fruit. That's tough deal.

  596. This is why Jesus said go into all the world and make not

  597. converts because conversion will not let you walk in fruits of

  598. righteousness. You may be right with God, I'm

  599. not judging you on that, but what I am saying is I can't see

  600. it's fruit and the only way we're going to see the fruit is

  601. to get training. And training comes from the word

  602. of God being rightly divided where we say, OK Lord, what do I

  603. do here? Because again, when you have

  604. cancer in your body and the Lord saying to you, hey, you're the

  605. righteousness of God in Christ, and one of the benefits of being

  606. a righteous child is that by his tribes, you're healed, son,

  607. believe me. And that righteousness will

  608. permeate and heal your body. Glory to God.

  609. How? What a benefit of righteousness

  610. that now body you get in alignment.

  611. Now, I can't stop this body from breaking down to the point that

  612. it will let go of my spirit man over a period of time because

  613. it's not a glorified body. But I will get one of those one

  614. day. But until then, I can keep it

  615. functioning at the highest capacity until the Lord calls me

  616. home. And I'm telling you, I'm talking

  617. high capacity. I don't even listen to people.

  618. And oh, now when you get the sage, I just want to say shut up

  619. and come out or get thee behind me.

  620. Satan, Don't talk to me and tell me because I get older, I'm

  621. going to feel a certain way. You know, I am quickened by the

  622. Spirit. If I eat right, workout, I keep

  623. myself, I'll keep this thing functioning at high capacity.

  624. I understand it's getting a little bit older, I reckon, but

  625. I don't have to have the ailments.

  626. I'm going to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

  627. I get the supernatural power on my natural because again, Moses

  628. is 120 years old before he departs and it says he was

  629. strong and you can't, well, it's just different now.

  630. It's not different. He wasn't even born again,

  631. didn't even have the Spirit of God on the inside of him.

  632. Caleb is at 85 taking mountains. Well, our diet is different.

  633. We'll change your diet and get a good one then.

  634. Don't blame it on what everyone's doing.

  635. Take the time and discipline yourself to do something

  636. different. You can do this.

  637. If you want that result, I get it.

  638. If it doesn't, you go on to be with the Lord.

  639. We understand that. We settle for what we want, and

  640. I want the fruit of righteousness to show up in my

  641. life, not only in my soul realm, so that my emotions match my

  642. spirit. Because you understand, as

  643. spirit beings, we are not emotionless.

  644. We're just not led by them. I'm led by a spirit that

  645. produces an emotion that's in right standing with God.

  646. That's why in mourning, I can be joyful.

  647. You know, when something bad happens, I can have a cheer

  648. about it instead of being depressed about it, 'cause I'm

  649. trained in righteousness and it will yield the fruit of

  650. righteousness. So we have to allow ourselves to

  651. be trained. OK?

  652. So those who've been trained by it afterwards, say afterwards

  653. will yield this peaceful fruit of rights.

  654. It is not it, it, it is not joyful, but sorrowful at the

  655. time. But once we get through now,

  656. just recently, my wife signed us up to go have a massage.

  657. And so she did deep tissue. OK.

  658. And so, you know, you know, she's talking about deep tissue

  659. before. No problem.

  660. And you know, I've obviously thought maybe, you know, I was

  661. having some deep tissue. I remember one time at Tulsa we

  662. did 1 and I was convinced that my massage lady was mad at

  663. somebody. Maybe I had a bad day with a

  664. relationship or something and was taken out on my body.

  665. And I'm like, I don't know that I asked for deep tissue right

  666. now. I mean, you know, you're

  667. working. However, I realized she really

  668. want deep tissue. She would just firm because you

  669. know, now I'm, I'll be honest with you, I really don't care

  670. for guys to massage me at all. But there was a guy, you know,

  671. at the end of the day, Marcy signed us up.

  672. Two guys walk out and I'm like, but that's I'm already like, you

  673. know, I'm mentally having to deal with this right now, So I'm

  674. like, OK, it's fine. I just like LG is my trainer

  675. right now. I'm going to be fine, right.

  676. I'm going to be think more sports now that's I was already

  677. thinking more sports. So, you know, get on the thing

  678. and he comes in his deep chips. Yeah you know well, bro, he came

  679. in with elbows. I had a for the first time, true

  680. deep tissue torture or massage. I mean, it was, I was, I was

  681. learning what my pain tolerance is.

  682. I'm telling you, I was learning. I am on the table now.

  683. I'm glad I was face down first 'cause you can do a lot inside

  684. that pillow that nobody sees. You can grimace and nobody knows

  685. nothing, right? I mean, I was like, so I mean, I

  686. mean he's on and I'm like Jesus, he's going to go to the other

  687. side of my back. I mean, it got hot in there.

  688. Quit. I'm like Jesus.

  689. And I'm so I so I mentally kicked.

  690. I said, OK, I'm treating this like a workout, you know, cuz

  691. I'm a gym guy and I'm like, sometimes you go in the weight

  692. room and it stinks. It is hurting.

  693. You're hating it. You're hating every Rep, every

  694. bit of it. But then when you finish, you're

  695. like, thank God I went today. Yeah, you feel good.

  696. I'm like, I am in sorrow right now, but there's joy awaiting

  697. me. There is a fruit of my benefit

  698. that is waiting on the other side.

  699. I'm like, man, I'm so glad I went to the gym.

  700. I said, I'm fixing this massage is that experience.

  701. So I'm like, it's all I am going to be so happy this happened

  702. after it's over. So I embraced the pain and it

  703. kept working and man, I was and I did so good all the way

  704. through till he flipped me over. And then they do this where they

  705. get up underneath, you know, your neck here and they want to

  706. work these traps here. And man, he came back to the

  707. trash right at the end. I mean, I'm like an hour in 50

  708. minutes. What in and I've, you know, been

  709. good, but man, he hit some knots or something at another level

  710. and I and so I broke silence. I was like, who?

  711. You hit some knots there, didn't you?

  712. And that was like, God, I'm hurting right now and I wish you

  713. would stop. You know, he never once says, is

  714. this too much pressure? He didn't care about me.

  715. He didn't care about my painting.

  716. He was like, deep tissue is what you want, bro.

  717. We gonna give it to you. And he was like, I mean, I did

  718. not know the elbow could do that.

  719. The arm. I'm like the man, not even he

  720. didn't even have to have hands because I don't think he used

  721. his hands the whole time. All I'm saying is is that once

  722. it was over, I was like, Dang, man, I I'm better.

  723. I am better. So then I decided maybe I should

  724. do one every quarter. Definitely not every month.

  725. And maybe it's only half, maybe twice a year.

  726. I don't know yet. I haven't decided.

  727. But there was a benefit because there were.

  728. I needed it. I had some issues and you know,

  729. a lot of us are living with issues.

  730. We become we're functioning with issues that a little deep

  731. tissue. You hear what I'm saying?

  732. So training in righteousness, got to get some deep tissue on

  733. you. He'll be like, all right, we

  734. going to work on this so that something different comes out

  735. and you're like, whoa, hey, you want to say Nah, we ain't doing

  736. that today. And some of you getting off the

  737. table is like, look, I'll get the knot out.

  738. I can, I can get rid of this. I can get rid of this build up.

  739. I can get rid of what's going on in your muscle.

  740. I can fix that, right? LG, we can fix this.

  741. I mean, I don't go to LG because he uses needles.

  742. I mean, that's a whole nother level, right?

  743. I don't even know what that means, right?

  744. You know, willfully let him put acupuncture all over me and

  745. stick me. No man, I don't know.

  746. I mean, I did go to LG one time, but he didn't put a needle in me

  747. and I'm thankful to God he did not.

  748. I probably would do the cup thing, you know, the cupping

  749. that would probably, I'd probably do that.

  750. Maybe I had a bruise, whatever. But the needle, you know, I

  751. mean, I cannot handle it, sure, but I don't know how many pins

  752. on how many putting in me. I'm not like that's enough

  753. today. I already looked like a

  754. pincushion. Please stop.

  755. OK, so again, fruit, what fruit is, is that which originates or

  756. comes from something and effect or result.

  757. It's a work and act, a deed. So when you are trained in

  758. righteousness, afterwards the peaceful fruit of righteousness

  759. shows up, which means not only do you see it, but everyone

  760. around you sees it as well. Now here's the thing, when you

  761. put out your fruit cause fruit seen, a seed is in the ground

  762. and then has to produce the plant that then produces fruit.

  763. Fruit seen and fruit is to be eaten.

  764. I can offer you my fruit of righteousness, but you can

  765. choose not to bite it. But it's there nonetheless

  766. because I know when I'm producing righteousness.

  767. Are you hearing me All right, Matthew 510 so know this.

  768. So we're starting to wind down now.

  769. Blessed are those who have been what persecuted for the sake of

  770. now this is you need to know this for theirs is the Kingdom

  771. of heaven. You know why yours is the

  772. Kingdom of heaven? Because only righteousness

  773. exists in the Kingdom. There are no half righteous,

  774. it's total righteousness. No 9090 percenters are there

  775. 100%. Now good news is is spirit.

  776. I get it, but don't think you're going to go to heaven as a

  777. spirit being made righteous and you get to keep your earthly

  778. thoughts. Let me tell you what you won't

  779. go before the throne and say, yeah, I don't, I don't know,

  780. Lord, let's talk about that. You know, we, we had this

  781. discussion when I was on the earth.

  782. That's not what that's going to sound like.

  783. Because when you get in front of pure holiness, righteousness,

  784. the power of God, number one, you're already on your face.

  785. I mean, you're on your face. I mean, Isaiah is called up

  786. there and he, he's like, I can't even get in front of it.

  787. I mean, he felt so unworthy. And it's like, get the coal,

  788. touch his tongue so we can have a conversation.

  789. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now Paul, on the other hand,

  790. said, I knew a man, whether in body or out of body, I do not

  791. caught up. And there was something about

  792. his spirit man that obviously was righteous and he was able to

  793. have some conversation with the Lord.

  794. There's no indication of anything because he doesn't

  795. write about it. However, we know this, when you

  796. get before the Lord, it's not like you're going to hold your

  797. own opinion. You're going to want his and you

  798. know why you're going? Because that's who you are.

  799. Who you are wants Him because He's life.

  800. Your spirit man's longing to be released.

  801. That's the point and the only way for your spirit man that's

  802. been made righteous to be released as you have to train

  803. it. But here's the catch, as long as

  804. you're down here, if you start producing a lot of righteous

  805. fruit, you're going to be persecuted.

  806. And here's the thing about persecution is what do you

  807. typically do when all of a sudden people start coming at

  808. you're like, what did I do? How come there sometimes you're

  809. going to just conclude I'm just righteous And again, you're not

  810. right. He's right.

  811. And if you're doing what he says, then guess what?

  812. It makes you look like you're right.

  813. You know, if people say to you, well, you just think you're

  814. always right. Well, if I'm always doing what

  815. God says, then God puts me in that position that I'm always

  816. because he's always so again, in the earth, you're going to look

  817. like you're always right. You'll always hang.

  818. It's like, and they just get mad and they get so mad at that.

  819. Like I just can't you just think you're well, I mean, at this

  820. point, I'm definitely responding the way the Lord says to come

  821. on, that's good. And how you are this Scripture,

  822. this Scripture, this scripture. Well, you just think you're I'm

  823. not, I'm just saying what the Lord said.

  824. This is righteousness and I'm just releasing who I am.

  825. You want to release who you are because guess what, we're all

  826. right when that happens and when we're all right when that

  827. happens, then guess what we are we're in unity, no issues, but

  828. let's go on. Let's read it ourselves.

  829. Look at Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 will start

    Philippians 3 chapter mention Philippians 3 chapter mention

  830. verse one. It says finally my brother

  831. rejoicing the Lord Paul said to write the same things again to

  832. use no trouble for me. It is a safeguard for you and

  833. then look what he says in verse 2.

  834. Beware of the dogs, beware of evil workers.

  835. Beware of false circumcision for we are of the true circumcision

  836. who worships in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus

  837. and put no confidence in the flesh right now here's the

  838. thing, nobody in here or any other church is going to say

  839. Paul's wrong. But if we were living in Paul's

  840. day, make no mistake, there was a group that said Paul's wrong.

  841. We're the true righteous ones. He's really not.

  842. Well, guess what? In our day people are saying no,

  843. we're the true and their faults. And I was like, no, we're the

  844. true. Well, guess what, there is a

  845. true and there is a false. And you know that you're the

  846. true when you are letting his way of doing it be the way you

  847. do it. Then he goes, although myself,

  848. my confidence in the flesh, if anyone else had put in mind to

  849. put confidence in flesh, I far far more and then he begins to

  850. say this is what I did. He says circumcised the 8th day

  851. the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews

  852. as the law of zeal, our Pharisee as to zeal, a persecutor of the

  853. church as a righteous which is in the law found blameless,

  854. which means if you help me according to that, I was right

  855. on. If you watched it, I did it.

  856. I performed. However, his nature was gone, he

  857. said. But whatever things were gained

  858. to me, those things I counted as loss for the sake.

  859. So if anybody knows about self religion, Paul did.

  860. But he goes on and says this, more than that, I count all

  861. things to be lost, in view of the surpassing value of knowing

  862. Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,

  863. and count them but rubbish, so that I might gain Christ, and

  864. may be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my

  865. own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in

  866. Christ, the righteousness which comes from God.

  867. On the basis of what faith that I may what know Him and the

  868. power of His resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering

  869. being conformed to his death, meaning I die daily to do His

  870. will. I release who I am.

  871. Then he goes on verse 11 in order why that I may attain to

  872. the resurrection of the dead, not that I have already obtained

  873. it. He says right now that I've

  874. already become perfect. This one says, but I what press

  875. on so that I may lay hold of what is he doing.

  876. I'm constantly training in righteousness so that I

  877. constantly bear fruit of righteousness.

  878. I've been made righteous. But here's the thing, I'm

  879. constantly training. I'm dying to self daily.

  880. I do not allow my own personal opinion or what I think about or

  881. how that made me feel or any of these things that move me.

  882. No, I press on so that I may continue to train and righteous.

  883. Now look at what he says in the second Timothy chapter 2 verses

    2 Timothy 2:20–25

  884. 20 to 25. He says, now in a large house

  885. there are not only gold and silver vessel, but also vessels,

  886. the wood of earthenware, and some of honor and some to

  887. dishonor right, which means you can be righteous but not be

  888. honorable. Therefore if anyone cleanse

  889. himself from these things, he'll be a vessel for honor,

  890. sanctified, useful for the Master, prepared for every good

  891. work. Who cleanses?

  892. You have a cleansing you have to do after you've been made

  893. righteous, after you're born again, and that is the washing

  894. of your mind, the renewing of your mind through the washing of

  895. the word and then keeping your body at Bay.

  896. Right? He goes on and says, now look

  897. what he says. Now flee from useful lust and

  898. pursue. But wait a minute, Paul, I

  899. thought you just told us that we were made righteous.

  900. Why do we have to pursue it? So see, there's two avenues of

  901. righteousness. It is the one that we've been

  902. made of, not of our own doing or our own self righteousness, but

  903. only by faith that we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and the

  904. finished work, the blood has taken care of all of our sin and

  905. He made us righteous. He took on our sin so I could

  906. take on His righteousness. But now I'm pursuing

  907. righteousness, meaning I'm pursuing daily to release just

  908. who I am just so my nature will come out God's way of doing any

  909. situation because for me it's not acceptable to say, well,

  910. they're doing it and seem like they're getting away with it.

  911. What's why should I work so hard?

  912. I'm not working hard. I'm just letting myself be.

  913. You work hard when you do things that are unrighteous and think

  914. it's acceptable to God because you asked him to come to your

  915. heart and save you. Now you're working, you're back

  916. into works, you're determining how much sin or what can you do

  917. that God's going to let you be OK with.

  918. Now again, if a person is doing that, if they die, obviously

  919. they're not going to hell. We're not saying the minute you

  920. sin one time, you're cut off from God.

  921. What we are saying is you didn't release who you were, so you did

  922. move back into works because you're trying to produce a

  923. fruit, not not just releasing who you are through

  924. demonstrating rights. Meaning you are not going to

  925. produce righteousness when you are producing or living

  926. unrighteous doing things you know God said don't do.

  927. That's what I'm saying. So he tells us to flee.

  928. Who's responsible for that? It isn't God.

  929. God's not coming to the room and say close your eyes, don't do

  930. it. I got you where I'm in control.

  931. Christians fail. Why?

  932. Because they don't flee. He said flee the appearance.

  933. I mean, we're just talking the appearance.

  934. I remember one time you've heard me say this, that I was drinking

  935. root beer one time. And you know, it's so crazy that

  936. God did that, but I know why now.

  937. But I was drinking root beers in a brown bottle, which, you know,

  938. Brandon, let me know that apparently there's somebody has

  939. a blue bottle now, which stinks. So now I'm probably not going to

  940. be able to drive around with my Saratoga's anyway, but my brown

  941. IBC root beer and the Lord said do not drink this in public

  942. again in my vehicle nowhere. Why?

  943. Because he knew there's coming a day that people be drinking all

  944. the time and I would be associated with people who just

  945. drink. But I don't drink.

  946. I drink the Holy Ghost. I get drunk on the new wine that

  947. I do, but I don't drink alcohol because I don't want anything to

  948. mess with my mind. I've cut that off.

  949. It's not a part of my life, OK? So I don't even want to be at.

  950. So I flee. Even the appearance.

  951. I mean, my wife and I, we go down to a particular restaurant,

  952. down a Flagler, and every time we ask for sparkling water, they

  953. always bring it in these fancy glasses that you normally get

  954. wine and all kind of drinks in. I'm like, just give me a regular

  955. cup now. I went with Jack Myers, you

  956. know, who's an evangelist and we, I had when he came in to do

  957. our graduation and we sat down and he wanted to a root beer.

  958. But he said, now you poured in a mug and I don't want the bottle

  959. here. He told the, the the waiter that

  960. I don't even want it. I don't even want anyone to

  961. look, walk around and think I have something.

  962. Then he said, well, that's kind of extreme.

  963. Well, if that's a personal conviction, what's the problem?

  964. Because I understand if there's a bottle, root beer bottle and

  965. somebody thinks I'm drinking alcohol, big deal, I know I'm

  966. not. But if I can take it off the

  967. table and the Lord actually gives me the instruction to do

  968. so, then guess what? God's just saying.

  969. I'm just trying to safeguard your life, son.

  970. Well, who am I to disobey God and say, Nah, I'll drink my root

  971. beer wherever I want to because I'm free, I can do what I want.

  972. Obviously you don't know freedom, then obey God, glory to

  973. God, Hallelujah. So he goes on, says flee this,

  974. pursue righteousness, love faith, love, peace, and those

  975. who call on the Lord from a pure heart because from a pure heart

  976. you're going to pursue it. But refuse foolishness and

  977. ignorant speculation, knowing they produce quarrels.

  978. The bondservant, the Lord's bondservants must not be

  979. quarrelsome. Be kind to all, able to teach

  980. patient when wrong with gentleness, correcting those who

  981. are in opposition, if perhaps God may granted them repentance

  982. leading to the knowledge of truth.

  983. So again, he sees that there's this conflict.

  984. And what he's telling him is if you'll just pursue

  985. righteousness, if you'll just #1 clean yourself up so that you'll

  986. be a vessel for honor, useful for the master, and you flee

  987. things that you that you definitely don't need, and you

  988. just pursue God's way of doing it, then you're not going to be

  989. foolish. And again, we don't want to be

  990. foolish, do we? First Timothy 6 y'all doing all

  991. right. We're going to close real quick,

  992. he tells Timothy again, he says, but flee from these things.

  993. You man a God and pursue righteousness.

  994. So just because you've been made righteous doesn't mean you're

  995. not supposed to pursue it. And it's easy to pursue it

  996. because it's your nature. Your nature's like man, I love

  997. to do the will of God. That's that's your in Christ

  998. nature. I love to do the will of God.

  999. It wakes up every morning. I love to do the will of God.

  1000. This is the day the Lord has made.

  1001. I will rejoice and be glad and it doesn't matter what comes

  1002. because of God before me. Who can be against me?

  1003. I mean, your, your spirit man's like, what do you want to say to

  1004. me, Lord? How do you want me to respond?

  1005. What do you want me to do? What do I do in faith?

  1006. Who do I talk to? How do I, you know, whatever you

  1007. know, do I lay hands on that? I mean, it's not just hearing

  1008. him to overcome a trial. It's hearing him to be able to

  1009. work the miracles and miraculous and sow seed and, and, and water

  1010. seed and all those things. Your spirit man wants to do it,

  1011. OK. But he says, flee from these

  1012. things, man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,

  1013. love, perseverance and gentleness.

  1014. Now listen, we're all these things, but we have to pursue

  1015. them. Why?

  1016. Because our mind can get off if we do not stay with the Spirit.

  1017. We'll go back to the flesh. Then he says in verse 12, fight

  1018. the good fight of faith, take hold of eternal life to what you

  1019. were called and you may and made the good confession in the

  1020. presence of many witnesses. Did Paul live a righteous life?

  1021. Well, let's look at it here. We're getting Closings.

  1022. Last passage, second Timothy 4/6 through 8.

  1023. Paul said, as I am already being poured out as a drink offering

  1024. and the time of my departure has come right then he says I have

  1025. fought the good fight. So he tells Timothy fight the

  1026. good fight because guess what, I fought it.

  1027. I have finished the course. Now you had a time that he was

  1028. thinking about going at a different time in the Lord.

  1029. He realized I'm not supposed to go, so he didn't leave.

  1030. He said I'm between two places where they're going to be the

  1031. Lord or remain here with you. I'm going to stay here.

  1032. Now he's like I've done exactly what God's called me to do.

  1033. The purpose of my life is done. I have fulfilled it.

  1034. In essence, I have lived the righteous life for my King and I

  1035. can go, He said. I finished my course, I have

  1036. kept the faith. Look what it says in the future

  1037. in the what there is laid up for me.

  1038. The This is what's so powerful about pursuing righteousness or

  1039. having fruits of righteousness. It actually produces an actual

  1040. crown. This is not symbolism.

  1041. This is a real possession because how could you cast a

  1042. crown down at the feet of Jesus if you do not possess 1?

  1043. Now why is there a crown of righteousness laid up for him?

  1044. That's the question. It's not just because he was

  1045. born again. I'm not telling you that

  1046. everyone that goes to the Lord receives a crown, because when

  1047. you read about eternal crowns, there are qualifications for

  1048. those, just like there's qualifications on how many

  1049. cities you get to govern in the millennial reign.

  1050. With that being said, let's go on.

  1051. He says. He says there's laid up for me

  1052. the crown of righteous, which the Lord, the righteous judge,

  1053. will award to me on that. He knows he's getting it now.

  1054. How awesome is that? I don't know about you, but man,

  1055. I can handle all kinds of persecution.

  1056. I can handle all kinds of to know that all this.

  1057. If I'm being righteous and you're only persecuting me

  1058. because of my righteousness, I can look at that here that

  1059. listen that and go glory to God. He is building my crown there.

  1060. There is a crown awaiting me. Wow, God, the righteous judge

  1061. will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all

  1062. who have loved his appearing. And listen, when you love his

  1063. appearing, you aren't called asleep.

  1064. You aren't caught doing your own thing.

  1065. You're not doing your own thing. You're not trying to pursue your

  1066. own life. You're not just saying, well, I

  1067. asked you into my heart, He saved me.

  1068. And I know when I die, I go to heaven and you know I do what I

  1069. want to do down here. I don't have to do anything.

  1070. No, you pursue righteousness and those who are always having this

  1071. expectation, I'm going to sit, stand before the King of kings,

  1072. the Lord of Lords, the Lord of glory, and he will reward me

  1073. according this, what the Bible says to my deeds, meaning what

  1074. my works in him, what I let him do through me, that was already

  1075. in me. I just did it by faith and

  1076. activated the grace of God. And again, it's not me, but it's

  1077. the grace of God in my life. But what I did do is I had faith

  1078. to release it because just who I am, it's not a show, it's not a

  1079. put on, and it's not a religious act to be right.

  1080. It's just who I am. It's just who I am.

  1081. Oh, you're just being really. I'm being righteous and Jesus

  1082. made me this way, just like you are being righteous, because

  1083. that's how the Lord made you. Amen.