To The Crown - Kingdom Allegiance with Joshua Clay

Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

from St. Augustine, FL.

Now enjoy this message. So I believe I've got a powerful

word here. Do ministers really ever get up

and say, I believe I have a not powerful word?

You know, it's like, it drives me crazy when somebody's like,

you know, if I were to title my message, I would title it.

And you're like. This is a title.

This is you're titling it. What do you mean if you?

Were to title it, but if I were to title my message, it would be

to the crown. So we're going to put up that

slide. I appreciate everything that we

do here at Anchor Faith Church. But the one of the main things

that changed my whole life about this ministry was when I

received the message of the Kingdom.

If many of you all if you don't know me, my name is Joshua Clay.

I was basically born and raised in church.

I think I say this every time that I get up to minister, but

it's it's worth worth repeating that I was born on a Sunday and

my mom, you know, when I remember, is my first memory

actually as a baby, I look up at my mom and she was crying, not

because she loved me so much, but because she had to miss

service that morning. So that's the house that I grew

up in and. We had a great we, we had a

great family environment. We had a great church that we

went to. But I didn't realize how much

religion I was steeped in until I first heard the Kingdom

message and thought I thought I had it all together.

I thought I had a handle on the Bible.

I thought I had a handle on my own walk with God and realized I

didn't really even. Know who God was.

I knew about God, so that put me in the category with the rest of

the planet and the rest of the spirit realm, but I didn't

really know who he was. I knew things about him, but I

didn't know him. So whenever we, anytime that

somebody takes the platform here, we always are talking

about the Kingdom. But I don't want it to ever get

missed by you. How strategic it is that we say

the Kingdom of God because the Bible has nothing to do with

religion. And, and, and again, I'm at

home, right? This is this is we get such good

teaching all the time. This is for the people out

there. We're recording it.

They're going to hear this for the first time.

You're just going to Amen because you know this is true,

but the first Scripture I have to.

Go to anytime we minister to lay a foundation of what we're going

to even be talking about. It's going to be Genesis chapter

one, verse 26, because it's going to be the first message,

the first scripture in this message.

And it was also the first verse. In God's message when the Bible

was canonized and written down by unction of the Holy Ghost and

put into that order. So if we go to Genesis 126, it

says and God said. Let us make man in our image

according to our likeness and let them what see we could.

The whole message could just be right here because too many

people that call themselves Christians aren't doing that.

We can stay right here because even in this house, sometimes

when you all talk, it doesn't sound like a ruler or a king

that's reigning over their life and circumstances.

So we can spend the rest of the night for the next 2 1/2 hours

for Charlie right in this one passage.

That God's original plan for you was not that you would be born,

fumble your way around in the earth, try to be a good person

and do good things until one day you get to go to heaven.

That is a gross, cheap version of the gospel that Jesus never

put His endorsement on. He never approved that message.

He never preached that message, But it says, let us make man in

our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over

the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over all the

cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that

moves on the earth. In this, in this precedent

setting encounter, God gives mankind his ultimate destiny,

say ultimate not his first destiny.

He gives him his ultimate destiny, see I think.

When we read through the Bible with a religious lens on, we

think God had a first plan, then man messed up that plan, so God

had to have a second plan, and then that plan went OK and now

we've just got to do our best to do God's backup plan.

When God never changed His plan, when he said let them rule over

the earth, He never moved from that statement.

Everything he did from Genesis all the way to Revelation, from

every prophet, every patriarch, when Jesus showed up, everything

in the middle of the Bible was God getting man back to the

original place that he fell from, which was dominion over

the planet. Pastor Earl on the on Sunday

made this statement. I'm going to quote him.

Here, this was incredible, he said.

Our inheritance was meant, not meant for us to get when we die.

It was meant for us to get when he died.

The work Jesus did on the cross wasn't to get you somewhere else

after you died. The work that he did was to

empower you right now. You understand we were living in

death right now. We know people, we know loved

ones, we know Co workers that they live, they're living in

death. They're living a version of hell

on earth. And yet you're telling them,

well, one day there's somewhere worse and then it'll be better

then. Well, that's not.

Real good they're. Delivering it now, that's not an

empowering gospel, that's an escaping gospel.

One day you'll be free of this. No, that wasn't the message.

Then pastor ended that quote by saying his dominion was meant

for you right now. So whenever we come into this

Bible and we begin to to explore the things that are that are

being spoken from the word of God, always know they're coming

from a government lens. The next scripture I want to

look at is Isaiah Chapter 9, verse six and seven.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Isaiah Chapter 9, verses 6 and seven and some of y'all that

Isaiah 9:6

have been here for a while, you're thinking, yeah, we know

this one. Open your Bible and you're going

to read it with me. You're going to highlight it

because there's a word we're going to look at in there in a

different way because we read it through.

I've read the Bible multiple times.

I've seen this passage. I know what it's talking about,

but we're going to have. To go back to what the original

readers. Looked at when they saw this.

See it says, For unto us a child will be born.

This is the prophet speaking by unction of the of God saying

Here's the message I want for. For.

My people, he says, for unto us a child is born, and a son is

given to us, he says, and the government will rest on his

shoulders. Do you understand when when

Isaiah spoke these words, they had no clue who Jesus was?

We're reading. This from a context of.

Luke. Whenever it says, the angels are

like unto us, a child is born this day.

And Bethlehem were like, we know who that is, but they didn't

know. In fact, there's one word in

this passage they recognized and one they didn't.

And the child being born is not the one they recognized.

The word government is the word they recognized, and it brought

with it a connotation of acceptance or rebellion.

When they read it, they saw, oh, a government is coming.

We read it. No, a savior, but they said, so

that means there's something coming that's going to require

my allegiance or my rebellion. See, sometimes we.

Miss the real message being given because we're too

religious in our mindset and we want to have this religious

figure that Jesus is instead of knowing who he actually is.

He's the king that carries a government with him.

See Jesus, the problem is he's the most misunderstood person

that's ever walked on the face of this earth.

Nobody has been more misrepresented than Jesus

Christ. So many people have had to have

identified with him through their experience.

They've identified with him through what other people have

said and they've really not just gone back to his word and and

asked the Lord through the written word and say, who is

Jesus? I mean, even when he stood

before Pilate and Pilate asked the question, are you a king?

He didn't say, you know, I'm kind of like that.

You know, I'm, I'm more of a. Deity, he said.

You said it right. I'm a king, and for that reason

I was born to come to the earth to testify of the truth.

So he testified of his own self that he was a king.

Do we know what a king is? It's a ruler.

When a king speaks, what is his word?

Law and power. So if a king speaks and his word

is law, that means every time a word from Jesus comes forth, it

is an opportunity that is to either be obeyed or rejected.

Another misconception people have is that I want to make this

clear. The Kingdom of God is not planet

earth. Planet Earth is not the Kingdom

of God. What the Kingdom of God is, is

it is US carrying out His dominion on the earth.

The Kingdom of God is represented in a people, not a

specific place. If it was just about the

specific location where the garden originally was, why am I

here? I'd rather put on a tan shirt

and A and a brown hat and go find it then be here with you.

OK, but that's that's not what it is.

It's not looking to a place. In fact, Jesus answered that

question. The disciple said where?

Can we look and see your Kingdom manifest?

And he said, you can't say look here it is or look there it is,

for the Kingdom of God is within you.

It's actually more of a culture that you carry and embody than

it is just a physical destination.

That's why it's important to note heaven is not our home.

Heaven's not the goal. Whoever made heaven the goal

only read a small sliver of this book.

Some of you all heard this before, I get it.

But some of you have not probably heard this.

So whenever we're talking about the Kingdom of God, No, it's

about God's rule and reign arriving on the planet through

man's obedience. The first one was Jesus.

Jesus comes in and brings his obedience, but what he brought

with him was more than just a message about.

How your life can be good. He game and showed an example of

how the Kingdom operates. And what I.

Found is too many believers and people that say I'm a Christian.

I'm a believer you know I I love God but I can't connect with

them how? Where is the proof though?

Why do you say you love God? But you, you, you.

Still are depressed. Why do you say you love God but

financially you just can't never seem to make it?

Why do you say you love God but then I see your instagrams?

You know, I had this thought today while I was.

Driving, obviously. I've been kind of praying in the

Holy Ghost and driving and thinking about tonight and had

this thought. There's a lot of people that

come into the Kingdom and they want to be God's secret agents.

They want to be like undercover citizens.

And you know, we're only referenced as a city set on a

hill. Ambassadors, Have you ever heard

of an undercover ambassador in a nation?

Have you ever driven by an ambassador's mansion?

It's pretty obvious who the ambassador is.

And whenever an ambassador walks in the room or walks through an

airport, you ever been in an airport and an ambassador walks

through with that little diplomat, you know thing and

gets in that line and goes all the way through.

You're like, this person stands out.

Yet for some reason, we. Think, oh, well, I want to be

undercover in the Kingdom. I want to come in and I want to,

I want to still associate and hang out with these people and

then not really know until I tell them, hey, hey, I'm a

secret agent. Let me tell you about my Jesus.

Let my Jesus change your life. Thanks, Chris.

But the only time I can find somebody being an undercover

agent in the Bible really is a wolf dressed in sheep's

clothing. He doesn't ever say I want you

to be a sheep and go amongst wolves and dressed in wolves

clothing. He doesn't say I've called you

to be something. But why don't you look?

Like something else. And the problem is religion

allows you to do that. Religion happens on Sundays and

Wednesdays. You can pick up religion on a

Sunday morning and then you can put religion down whenever the

closure is flicking the lights on and off at the church saying

hey, you're fellowship enough, let's go and walk out and not

carry it anymore. But you understand your

citizenship. Goes with you.

Everywhere. That's why Jesus didn't come to

give you a religion and give you a set of religious rules and

dogmas and and traditions. What He came to do is empower

you with a citizenship that came with a culture and you can't

leave that behind. The reason I titled this to the

crown is because everything that God does requires your

allegiance or forces your rebellion.

In fact, everything in the Bible will come down to where is your

allegiance? Every principle spoken, every

command of God, every command of Jesus, every parable he told,

all is trying to probe and find where does your allegiance lie?

Is it with the crown? Do I have an allegiance to the

Crown? Or do I have an allegiance to

something else? That's more because I'm just

going to tell you right now in God's Kingdom there is no room

for two allegiances. We hear that in Matthew chapter

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

6, right? He says no man cannot serve 2

masters. And I get that he says God and

wealth, but you understand it goes for anything else.

I say in place of wealth, he can't serve God and wealth.

He can't serve God in relationships.

He can't serve God in his own opinion about politics.

You have one master, one allegiance, and you have to

choose it wisely. You would think it's an easy

choice, but I don't know. We'll keep looking.

I want to list this real quick. There's something that all

kingdoms have. There's this list.

This isn't like the definitive list, but there's all of these

need to be said. Every Kingdom has a king, has a

sovereign, a ruler whose word is final over the whole entire

nation and territory. With that, every king, every

Kingdom has a constitution, which is the documented word of

the ruler. It has a written word.

You understand why the Bible had to be written?

Well, I know we've heard it said before that the Bible had to be,

you know, it was spoken so it could be written, and then it

was written so it could be spoken again.

That's great. But it had to be written because

God doesn't miss a step and knows if I've got a Kingdom, I

need a written constitution so that it there is no mistake of

what my will is. Because when the Kingdom

manifests, it manifests with His constitution and His will, which

is to either be accepted as your own.

Or rejected and rebelled against.

Every Kingdom has a citizenry. Every Kingdom has a realm of

citizens that live and operate together and work together with

that. That means every Kingdom has a

Commonwealth of citizens that are together that share the

resources. Of the king together.

That's why it's no problem for me to sit in service and every

service like. Well, why does that church, you

know, take up an offering every service?

Well, clearly you don't understand the Kingdom.

Why do you pay your property taxes?

Well, 'cause I live in the United States and I have to, OK?

It's a government, and the government shall rest on his

shoulders. Why are we surprised by these

facts? I'm supposed to tithe I.

Don't know about tithing. I don't want to share my money.

Who? OK, maybe we should go back and

look at the Lord Principle. The king in a Kingdom owns

everything in his Kingdom. So there's no such thing.

As I'm going to give something of mine to him.

I don't own anything. If the king owns everything, I'm

just honoring him with what's already his.

OK? Every Kingdom has law.

Don't come at me and be like, oh man, you know, Christians can be

so legalistic, OK? Citizens have to.

Live by a law, and if you're ignorant of the law, that's not

an excuse you're going to stand. Before God.

One day in a courtroom, it's going to feel real legal when

you stand before the Great White Throne Judgment.

Don't judge me, brother. You want your brother to judge

you because if your brother judges you and you change, then

you don't have to get judged later.

And also, no one's ever told me don't judge me without already

judging that I was judging. So this is weird.

Now you're judging me that I'm a judgy person.

Don't judge me being a judgy person.

I've also never had somebody tell me that that wasn't wrong.

You can search your own, you know, databank of information.

When somebody's like, don't judge me, you know, they were

wrong actually, and they just didn't want me to point out

where they were wrong. Anyway, going on, every Kingdom

has benefits. We can preach hundreds and

thousands of messages on the benefits of the Kingdom.

It should go without saying our king is faithful.

He's never failed. He's undefeated in every battle.

He's with you. If you're with him, that means

there's nothing you could ever face that would be impossible,

Nothing you could ever face with your king that you would ever

fail at. People, I'm just.

Human by yourself? Who said you came into the

Kingdom to be by yourself? You mean that Jesus died and on

the cross was buried, resurrected?

And we've documented this just so you could stay the same.

You've missed something. We've missed something Benefits

healthcare. Come on.

OK, we'll move along. Every Kingdom has a social

culture, has a culture that means there's a way of living

that's right in the specific government that you have

assigned yourself to or been born into.

There's a language we speak, there's a way of talking that we

have in the Kingdom of God, just like when you come to the United

States a lot of the times. You know, depending on what city

you're in, right, we're going to speak English.

But when I went over to Barcelona, Spain, they spoke

Spanish. I wasn't like, what's wrong with

these people? Don't they know what the right

language is? I understood I'm in a different

place. Yeah.

We want to make everybody comfortable at work.

When I'm like, well, I am the Kingdom.

I bring the Kingdom with me everywhere I go.

And all of a sudden I want you to know I'm bilingual.

So I'm going to say cuss words. Oh, I'm going to say that joke.

Oh, I'm going to talk. About my boss and talk about my

coworkers. There's a way of talking in our

culture we don't have and we take the Kingdom everywhere we

go. So why are we surprised when

culture. Manifests and I say, Hey, I'm

not going to participate in that.

Well, why? You don't have to say because

Jesus died for your sins and then get HR called on you.

You can say because I'm part of a different culture and we don't

do that where I'm from. Then they're going to say, where

are you from? The Kingdom you don't have to

say anchor faith Church. I know Joe's looking at me.

Like Anchor Faith? Church No, it's not that.

We don't just do that at Anchor Faith Church, but we don't do

that because we're in the. Kingdom.

Hey, man, so every Kingdom has this outline set of, of, of

structure that it has. And that's the way God's Kingdom

operates as well. He has a structure, He's got a

whole entire system that we are to participate in.

So whenever we look in the Bible, let's look here at the

Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3, we'll start in verse

Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention

one. The question that God always has

is not do you want to be in my Kingdom?

It's will you give your allegiance to my crown?

Will you assign and ascribe your allegiance to my Kingdom and

it's culture and it's laws and it's constitution and it's

benefits and it's way of living. That's the question that he's

looking for. In fact, the very first sin that

ever took place, I'm going to show you, was a matter of

allegiance. We know in the, in the, you

know, in Genesis chapter 2, God's given them, outlined them

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

what things to do, not to do. And in the end, the whole list

was you can do pretty much everything.

Just don't eat from this one tree.

So all of the entire Bible starts on a list of.

Do's and don'ts. I'm saying that I'm waiting.

I'm going to let it soak in because the next time someone

looks and goes, it's not about do's and don'ts.

I'm like. It's in the first page.

The very first page has a do and don't.

In fact, everything we do in life is do's and don'ts, because

if you say it's not about do's and don'ts, you either do

believe that or you don't. I think we try to make.

Things a grey area and say well it's not all just black and

white brother. You're right, sometimes it's red

and I side with it. We're trying to muddy the water,

OK? Says now the serpent was more

crafty than he beats in the field.

So God tells him, don't eat from the tree.

He's pretty clear. Do all of this.

Don't eat from the tree. God the King just gave a

command, and then he says, and he said to the woman indeed has

got the serpent says indeed, as God said, shall you not?

Eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman looks at the

serpent and says, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we

may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle

of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it or touch it, or

you will die. Then the serpent said to the

woman, You will surely not die, for God knows that in the day

that you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be

like him, knowing good and evil. And it says When the woman saw

that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the

eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she

took from the fruit and ate and also gave to her husband who was

with her and he ate. The pivot point of this moment

for Eve was not What do I believe?

The issue is not an argument of do we believe that God said it

was true or do we believe what the devil said was true?

The pivot point was whose word will we align with?

Whose word will we obey? The the serpent wasn't trying to

speak a lie just to get her to believe different.

The end goal was always that she would behave different.

So in this moment, she proved my allegiance isn't to the word of

my king. My allegiance is to who?

Oh see, I knew it was going to be a little.

It was going to be quiet because who was her allegiance to in

that moment? I knew this would be the answer

half of you are saying. For the sake of the recording,

her allegiance was to herself. The other half are saying her

allegiance was to the serpent in his words.

And I would say every time those are interchangeable.

Every time. There will never come a time

when you side with the flesh, and that was God's will.

See, a lot of times people think we have three options.

I could do what God's saying. I could do what the devil's

saying. I would never do that.

Or I could just kind of do my own thing.

No, it's always either or, never, either either or, and

never either or or. Write that down.

You don't have three options. Otherwise Jesus would have said

man cannot serve 3 masters. We're just adding masters onto

this list that aren't ever there.

So when Eve acted selfishly, she aligned and assigned her

thinking and actions with the enemy.

So we're like, where does this come from?

Well, Isaiah chapter 14. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 14,

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention Isaiah 14:12–14

verses 12 through 14. This takes us back to a story

that takes place before the garden.

This is talking about Lucifer. And he says how you have fallen

from heaven. O star of the morning, son of

the dawn, you've been cut down to the earth, you have weakened

the nations. But it you said in your heart,

you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven.

I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit in

the mount of the Assembly in the recesses of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and I will make

myself like the Most High. In this moment we see his

problem was his selfishness led to a different allegiance.

No longer did he wanted to be submitted and have his heart

submitted to the king. But he said.

I want what I want, which became the mantra of sin forever.

This happened before the garden. So you understand, in his

rebellion, he actually got a third of the angels to go with

him. So this was not an issue of

religion. And who prayed harder and who

prayed better and who was better at fasting?

This is an issue of whose allegiance are you going to

have? Are you going to give your

allegiance to the crown and the rightful throne, or are you

going to give your allegiance to the usurper?

The coup that took place in heaven was an issue of

allegiance to either the king or the usurper.

And you think now that we're on planet Earth, things are

different? They're not.

We're in a Kingdom. We're in a government.

Everything you do is either an act of patriotism for the

Kingdom or treason against it. There's nothing against whatever

decisions you make in your daily life.

They are Either you are a patriot for the Kingdom and you

honor the king, or you are saying I'm going to be a

treasonous offender and there's not a third option.

That's why we can pick up in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Jesus shows up to restore order. In the Kingdom.

Everybody was lost, everybody was dying, everybody was living

in death. But Jesus didn't just come and

say, well, I'm going to come here and comfort them.

Jesus was not God's Hospice, but that's what we treat his gospel

like, the gospel of Hospice. It's here to ease your life

until you pass, then it'll all be better.

Thank you, nurse Jesus. I think he's better at healing

than that. If he can heal your physical

body, how much more can he heal your entire soul and being and

set you right? Right now people are like, oh,

you know, healing's not for today.

Well, when is it for the Holy Ghost's empowerment?

You know, that's not for today. That was for what?

What, what, where did we, Where did it go away?

How did I get into this nasty little Kingdom Then?

If there's no benefit and there's no power, why am I here?

Why are we preaching? OK, Matthew chapter 4 says, and

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Jesus was led up by the Spirit until the wilderness to be

tempted of the devil. He was led by the Spirit to be

tempted of the devil. I'm going to say it again.

He was led by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil, which

means the Spirit's not afraid of you being tempted.

He's not concerned about it because he knows what you can

do, and that's only if you believe Jesus is your example.

Anyway, we're going to keep going.

OK, After he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, then he

became hungry. And the tempter came and said to

him, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become

bread. But he answered and said, it is

written. Man shall not live by bread

alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of

God. And then the devil took him into

a holy city, and he stood him on the high pinnacle, And he said,

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

For it is written that he will command his angels concerning

you, and on their heads they will bear you up, and you will

not strike your foot against the stone.

But Jesus said to him, What did he say?

On the other hand, it is written, you shall not put the

Lord your God to the test. Again.

The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all

the kingdoms of the world and all their glory.

And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you

fall down and worship me. Every single temptation was not

just to get Jesus to sin, it was to get Jesus to change his

allegiance to something other than the Word.

How do we know he passed? Because every time he said it is

written, he was saying my allegiance stands firm to the

Crown. I'm immovable in where my

allegiance lies because the first temptation was, if you're

hungry, turn this into bread. That wasn't.

He's not trying to get Jesus to do some gross sin that we would

think. He's not trying to get him to

rob or murder or rape or steal or something like that.

It was all he was trying to get Jesus to do is say, do you have

an allegiance to your own desire for Jesus to act in that way and

use the power in the anointing that he had?

Selfishly, he would have. Proven my allegiances to myself

to my own cravings, but he said it's written showing my

allegiances to the King's word every other temptation the devil

brought to him. He said it is written because he

was trying to see will you give an allegiance to somebody that

can give you your destiny. I find it interesting the last

the last temptation he says he showed him all the kingdoms of

the world and their glory and then the devil he little HI

don't know if anybody's you know understands how the Bible works.

If it's a big H that's that's God or.

Jesus. If it's a little H, it's

somebody else. So in this case the devil says

to him, all these things I will give to you if you fall down and

worship me. Note that Jesus didn't go liar,

because Jesus knew they were actually in his power to give.

You see, when man fell from dominion through disobeying and

pledging his allegiance to himself and to what the serpent

had said by eating the fruit, he lost the Kingdom.

But he didn't lose it out into oblivion.

He lost it from his hands into the hands of the enemy.

What a shame for you to give your dominion into the hands of

somebody that you've submitted to, to have them misuse it.

But that's what happened with Adam.

So from that point on, the enemy Satan has the Kingdom of God and

the power. Over the earth, we can see that

in Job. And Joe, people got a lot of

opinions about Job. People are preaching Job all the

time. And honestly, for a long time,

Job messed me up because I'm like, I'm just counting down the

days and tell him I have to scrape my boils.

I love God, I love him, but when's he going to kill him?

Kill him? All my livestock.

I don't have livestock. But until one day, Pastor Earl

preached a message. It's called It's in Your Power

Again. And it was about the book of

Job. And as he brought brought out

the depth of this message, he said.

When the devil went to God and said, hey, I've been looking at

Job and God's like, yeah, Job, he's the one, you should take

him. It translated.

He was saying, God said, I know that you've been looking at Job,

not. Hey, I'm selling him out.

You should go find this guy and tear up his life.

God didn't sell him out. Then from there, every encounter

that the enemy was having was him trying to find out what is

the limit of my dominion. Now God couldn't deny Satan the

right to touch Job's physical body.

Because if you remember, in Genesis, we were formed out of

the dust of the earth. So if mankind was destined to

have dominion over the earth, then man gave that dominion over

to Satan, who now had dominion over the earth.

So God didn't grant him dominion, he just said.

That's in your jurisdiction. So by the time Jesus shows up in

Matthew chapter four, he shows up and Satan says I'll give you

all the kingdoms of the world, which is why Jesus came to get

back the Kingdom of God, to get back the rightful authority and

dominion over the planet, and then to give it back to man and

say all authority I give unto you.

He could have done all of that without being separated from the

Father and without dying on the cross, had he just pledged his

allegiance to a different. Crown.

It was all a question of allegiance.

I'm thankful that Jesus proved his allegiance and proved that

by responding with the Word. A human being can choose and do

right and not fail. Yet we've got a whole brand of

Christianity that's like, oh, we're all just sorry people.

We're all sorry sinners. We've been saved by Grace Biden.

Our time until we get to the sweet by and by.

And that's gross. Why would I waste my time

reading a Bible that told me that I that I couldn't do

anything to be better? Why do I waste my time serving

in a church and doing some kind of religious practice if it

never got better until I died? Why is God still considered a

good God if I pray the sinner's prayer and then don't die right

away? You got a whole bunch of

Christians. Walking around thinking that God

wants him to suffer. I'm born again, brother.

Man, it's Hard Out Here. It's a rough life we're living.

But he's faithful is he? Cuz not for you.

Clearly you've missed some connection with his faithfulness

and your whatever mess you're in.

I'm struggling with this addiction brother.

I'm, you know, hey. But that's how we are, right?

We're humans. Jesus was a human.

Nobody's perfect. Yes, he was.

What do you mean nobody? That's a definitive statement.

That's incorrect. Somebody was perfect and

everybody would agree. Is Jesus our example?

You understand what an example is This is.

How you live you look to an example and say this is what I

should be see religion tells you not obtainable.

But Jesus, everything he said was this is obtainable.

Hallelujah. OK, here's some things that we

can have some allegiance to. This again, is not a definitive

full list, but here's some things that just came up in my

spirit that we want to look at. You can give your allegiance to

whoever you want. It's your free will, it's your

choice, and God will never force you to give your allegiance to

something. He'll only give you an option.

Same with Adam. If God was a controlling God and

had control over everything and was was sovereign to the point

that he could do anything he wanted, he must not be athletic

because when Adam was like God could have swatted that thing

away. Like an NBA player and he would

have saved us a whole lot of heartache.

But he's not in control of that. God's in control.

We, we're, we're putting a blanket statement here at Anchor

Vey Church. We understand God's in control

of his Word. God is in control of his

Kingdom. He's in control of the word that

he speaks and his allegiance. You understand God's pledged his

allegiance somewhere. He doesn't require you to pledge

your allegiance to something he hasn't already pledged his

allegiance to. He's pledged his allegiance to

his Word. Jesus pledged His allegiance to

the same. We see that, but understand God

lives by His own word. He's never failed to keep His

word. That's the most endearing

quality of God, not his, not His healing, not the fact that He

can save you or forgive your sins.

Those are not the most endearing qualities of God.

The most endearing vital quality of Him is that He is faithful to

never fail in keeping His word. Heaven and earth will pass away,

but what remains forever? That his name is the name above

all names, but he exalts something above his own name.

What is that? So he's sworn an allegiance to

his own word. Yet let me submit this thought

to you too many. People want him to actually

swear an allegiance to them. They want God to divide his

allegiance too. He's a God that keeps his word.

But I just, you know, he's just, if he could do a special thing

for me, you know? I know that I did wrong, but I

just, you know, I, I don't God understands.

He knows my heart. That's a great statement and we

love it here because Pastor Earl always says, you bet he does.

You bet he knows your heart, but you know what he's looking for

when he's looking in your heart. That's what we're talking about

tonight. Every time that God knows your

heart, every time that God looks to your heart and.

Sees your heart and wants to see who you are from the depths of

your heart. He's just looking for one thing.

Where's the allegiance in their heart when David was out there

in the field and he's out there, you know, tending his sheep and

killing lions and killing bears and obeying his dad, And it says

that God, he was a man after God's own heart.

What was God looking for? Where is David's allegiance?

When push comes. To shove, who will David side

with? David's most grievous sin that

we always bring up was because his allegiance shifted from

having an allegiance to the word to an allegiance to himself that

God allowed him to repent from, and he never did it again.

But people won't act like they're David because they go to

their sin and then they go to their sin and they ask God to

forgive. Then they go back to their sin.

They ask God to forgive, they go back to their sin.

That's not a David pattern. David had an instance, not a

pattern, but God's always looking to our heart to say,

where is your allegiance? Where does your allegiance lie?

Because if your allegiance is somewhere other than His word or

somewhere other than the crown, then your allegiance is

misplaced. And that's why you struggle.

And that's why we sing I have joy.

And you're sitting back there thinking I don't because my

allegiance is to my scenario that I'm in.

That brings me depression. But attention, man.

How often do people hold on to things that's.

True, the God saying just be free and they're saying, but I

just this is who I want to be. OK, In Luke chapter 18 verse 18,

Luke 18:18

we got the story of the rich young ruler.

Got to bring out the story of the rich young ruler because

this guy, he, he, he had everything going for him.

He's rich, he was young, he doesn't say rich, young,

handsome ruler. We don't know.

All we know is that he was a man in finance.

Whether or not he was tall or not, we don't know.

But he he comes to Jesus and he asks the question.

He says good teacher, which when we read it, we, we honestly can

see Jesus is not excited about this encounter, this first

interaction here. Good teacher.

This tells me right away he missed who Jesus actually was,

because when you come to a teacher, a teacher can give you

advice, But this man, I guess unbeknowingly, came to the king.

The king can't give you advice. The king can only give decrees.

So he comes and says, good teacher, what shall I do to

inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, well, why do you

call me good? Jesus could have just jumped to

the answer, given an answer, but he's like, only God is good.

You missed who I was because if you think I'm good, but you also

think I'm just a teacher, you're not receiving me for who I am

because what I'm about to say is to be either obeyed or rebelled

against. He says, you know, the

commandments do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not

murder, do not bear false witness, honor your father and

mother. And he said all these things I

have done for my youth. But when Jesus heard this, he

said to him, one thing you lack, sell all that you possess,

distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in

heaven to come follow me. But when he heard these things,

he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

Leave this up on the screen. Know that Jesus tells him, just

do what? Just do what the Bible says.

Just do what everybody else in this is doing.

Just keep the commandments. That's what you want.

That's what you want to hear from a good rabbi.

Every rabbi he asked that question to, I promised would

give the same answer. Keep the commandments.

So Jesus thought, you don't know who I am, keep the commandments.

But then he presses and he says, OK, well, I've done that, what

am I missing? So when Jesus says, here's what

you like, sell all you have, distribute it to the poor, then

you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.

He didn't suggest that to him. He said come follow me.

The king gave a decree that now created a whole scenario that

required you to pledge an allegiance to or to turn your

back on. In fact, it's the same decree he

gave to the disciples. If we look at that whole story

of Jesus being tempted, then all of a sudden later in that

chapter Jesus shows up and he begins to preach and says repent

for the Kingdom has shown up. So we know the Kingdom is all

up. In this this scenario of him

being tempted pledging his allegiance to the word, he shows

up and says the Kingdom is here the way it manifests.

Is we we give our allegiance to the king and and we manifest his

Kingdom on this earth. Then he goes out right after

that same passage goes and finds some guys fishing.

He looks at him and he says hey. Come, follow me, I'll make you

fishers of men. And we call this the the call of

the disciples. Jesus called the disciples when

he commanded the disciples. We think there's a lot of

options. I can do what God wants.

I can do what I want for a time. I can, you know, everything will

be OK. But when the king calls.

There's only two alternatives. It is to obey and align my

allegiance with him and follow him wholeheartedly or rebel and

turn against it. I'm thankful those first

disciples, they said OK and they dropped everything they had.

They dropped their whole identity, they dropped their

whole family structure, they dropped all of their their

welfare and livelihood. And they said we're going to

come side with you. And they followed him.

Then he, in the same passage, turns and finds some other guys

mending Nets, looks at them and says, hey, I got something going

on. It's pretty cool.

And if you feel like it, you can tag along.

It's not what he says he says. Come follow me, I can't find him

in the Bible. Where Jesus makes a suggestion

every word the. King speaks is law and it is

bound into the Constitution and it is to be obeyed.

I've pledged my allegiance to the Crown, which means anything

that offers itself as an alternative to what God has

said. I now have to determine that

choice again. Will I stay with the Crown or

will I follow someone else? I've been restored back to the

position Adam was in. Every one of us has been

restored back. To the Dominion.

Adam had. So that means daily we have the

same free will to choose like Adam chose.

It just so. Happens we have more trees to

pick from. God had to give us a.

Few more and say you know what? Don't eat this tree or of these

other trees. He's like, you know what, I'm

going to have to. I'm going to write it down.

He's like, OK, I get it. It's more than one.

Tree so he gave us his word then we have the epistles from the

apostle Paul and from Peter and all these early disciples and

apostles that wrote the epistles for us that were showing us

here's how to live and how not to live.

Why? Because you're going to be faced

daily with decisions of where your allegiance will go.

Who will you give your allegiance to?

That's always the question at. Hand.

Whether it's being determined in your heart or whether it's being

determined by your actions, because I'm going to tell you,

we always talk about the Bible and belief and faith and that's

great. But in the end, your belief,

what you believe is proven through what you do.

It does you no good to believe the word of God.

Every everybody in the spirit realm believes that God exists

and they really believe that what God is saying is true.

But those who are acting on it. Those are the ones who reap the

benefits of this Kingdom. Those are the ones who reap the

benefits of the relationship with the king because there's

very few things that have been spoken on this platform that

everybody in the room wouldn't go we.

Agree. That's true.

I believe that. Yet we go out and our behavior

and our choices say something different.

That your allegiance isn't proven through what you believe.

Your allegiance is proven through what you obey.

So this rich young ruler, he had an allegiance to something other

than the crown. He had an allegiance to finance.

We could say he had allegiance to a lot of other things.

But the whole thing wraps up at the very end.

And he says, but when he had heard these things, he became

very sad because he was rich. And in the end he made a choice.

I'd rather have my riches. I'd rather keep the life I have

instead of having the life that he's calling me to and note when

he went. Walks away.

Jesus goes, hey, hey, hey. But if you were to die today,

Jesus didn't say that. Jesus let him walk away.

Yeah, we want to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and then

chase everybody down and try to explain to him and try, oh, man,

you're really missing out. Come on.

Present to him what it is. I mean, there's a whole passage

where Jesus explains to them a king doesn't go out into the

battle and not count the cost and see what it would take for

his warriors to go out into battle.

A wise master builder doesn't build a house without first

tallying up and counting the cost of what it'll cost him to

build it. Yet we think as believers, to

get somebody born again, we don't have to tell them what it

costs. All we got to do is just tell

them it's nice, it's free, it's good only to realize it actually

has a payment plan. You're a terrible door to door

salesman. You might as well show up on

somebody's porch and tell them that you can give them water

filtration. I can, I can filter this whole

house and it's free to you. Sign up, sign this paper, it's

free. And all of a sudden you're like,

what? Is this bill?

And that's what we do with Christianity.

We tell them, hey, we've got this nice vacuum here, It's a

solid metal construction. It'll last you forever.

And all you got to do is give me $20 and let me do this

presentation. I get to go back to my boss and

I get to tell them I got. Somebody to sign up?

And then you get hit with the hefty bill.

When in Christianity, just tell him listen.

It's going to cost you your life.

I'm not going to pull punches. It's not a sign up free.

It was paid for for you to be able to sign up.

But there's a price you'll pay. You're like, well, how much?

Well, how much did Jesus pay? How much do you pay?

I'm asking the question. So why would it not be fair to

give him back the same investment?

It cost him his life and you want it to cost you nothing?

You want to make no change. Not you, I understand, you know.

The people, right, Right. Another thing that people don't

want to let go of. If we look at Matthew chapter 6,

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I love Matthew chapter 6 incredible Kingdom chapter.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He's explaining how the the economy of the Kingdom works.

He's explaining how the culture of the Kingdom works and Jesus

shows up. He says, listen, no one can

serve 2 masters for the he will hate the one and he will love

the other or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth. Then in verse 25, he starts

giving us this story. He says, for this reason I say

to you, do not be. Worried about your life?

Say worried. Worried as to what you will eat,

what you will drink, nor for your body, body as to what you

will put on for clothing. For is life not more than food

in the body, more than clothing? Then he says, look at the birds

of the air, for they do not sow or reap, nor gather into barns,

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much more worthy than they are?

And who of you by being worried, say worried can add a single

hour to his life? And why are you?

Worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the

field grow. They do not toil or the spin.

Yet I say to you that even Solomon and all his glory

clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive

today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not

much more clothe you? O you of little faith, do not

worry then saying say worry, Do not worry, saying, What will we

eat, what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing?

Keep going. For the Gentiles eagerly seek

these things. There's another translation that

says the pagans are seeking all these things.

Those who aren't believers are seeking the same things.

Those who aren't believers are working the same job.

You're working for the same reason, to pay bills.

So if the only. Reason you're at your job is to

pay your bills. You're doing a Pagan exercise.

So don't talk to me about a little Christmas.

Tree you worker says, but seek first his Kingdom and his

righteousness, and all these things are added to you says

don't worry, say worry, don't worry about tomorrow, for

tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of

its own. This poses a strict either or

question for you. Will you align and give your

allegiance to the? Crown.

Or to your own emotions and personality.

Because three times here, he says do not worry.

Who's saying? This of the good rabbi.

The good teacher is the good teacher saying this to you

because that's how a lot of people are acting.

Oh, the good teacher said. Don't worry.

He gave a good suggestion. No, the king of this Kingdom

said do not worry. So what does that make worry for

you to worry against the command You're rebelling against the

decree of the king? There's a whole other list of

emotions we could list, you understand, There's a lot of.

People that say, well, it's just my personality, you know, I'm

just a worry. I'm just a worried.

It's what I am. Well, sounds like you need to

die and get born again and start over because that's no way to

live. That's why we can be born again.

It doesn't. Jesus didn't come in and fix

you. He came in and said you die and

I'm going to have a new you. That's free of worry because

he's not unfair. He never gave a command.

That we couldn't attain to. Just like when he said be holy

like I'm holy. He wasn't dangling a carrot out

in front of us that we could never reach and never grab.

If he gives a command, he empowers you to do the command.

That's the whole reason Jesus came.

Not just so that when you die you go to heaven.

That he didn't even mention if that was important.

To Jesus, he would have talked about it, I promise, if that was

a big bullet point on his message that he skimmed over.

He messed it up for thousands of years.

Worst preacher ever. He said the title of my sermon

is Where do you go when you die? Then all he talked about was the

Kingdom and how you live right now.

No, that was the whole point. He would have said it.

He didn't. He just came and empowered

things like this. Every day you wake up and you

have a choice, should I worry or not?

Then you have to rely. What's the remedy for worry?

He gave it to you. He said don't worry, but seek

Christianity, Christianity and all of it's all of that it

entails and you wear that cross necklace, you're going to be

fine as long as you've got a gold cross more expensive the

better. You'll be free of worry because

we're. Christians.

That's what we do. Christians.

He never called us Christians. Jesus never said that.

He never said be Christians because he knows that was weird.

It'd be like me saying you guys should be Joshians.

That's weird. That comes across weird, right?

No, he called us many other things.

He called us sons. He called us in heirs of a

promise. The the then to his disciples

who were taught by him. You understand, they called us

ambassadors. They called U.S. citizens of a

holy Kingdom. They called us a holy nation,

priests, all of these things. We were called not just

Christians. So if you've reduced everything

that you believe about God and everything you read in this

Bible to just Christianity. Go live at the Vatican like.

Anyway, too many people have an allegiance to their own emotions

and their own personalities where they say, well, it's just

the way I am. I get angry.

You know, I just my, my, my great grandfather, he was Irish.

And you know, you know, the Irish, they get angry, they fly

off the handle, man, they got a problem.

And you know, it's just in my blood.

This is how I am. So when a moment arises when it

says be slow to anger, the king decreed be slow to anger.

But if in that moment I say my allegiance is to the crown, then

I'll be slow to anger. But if I say my allegiance is to

my Irish great granddaddy, I'm going to punch a hole in this

wall. So big, I'm going to call

Angelo, make him patch it up. I don't want to have an

allegiance to a personality. In fact, there's a lot of

people, and I'll say this, there's a lot of people that

come into the Kingdom and then they're like, oh, I can't get

along with that person because, you know, it's just a

personality conflict. I get that there's different

personalities. I've taken the personality test,

I've taken one of the animals. I'm like a little golden

retriever. I've taken the one with the

other thing, and I get that. But in the Kingdom, you don't

have a right to have a. Conflict with a different

personality. I'm thankful that Jesus doesn't

have the conflict with my personality.

He. Didn't come in and go, you know,

I can deal with everybody, but. Josh just drives me off the

wall. I'm thankful that Jesus didn't

do that to me. So you know what?

If I'm going to be like him, I'm not going to do that to somebody

else. I'm not going to let myself slip

back. Into the flesh and be like man.

Ted drives me crazy. Ted's personality is just so

off. Putting how am I supposed to

have a conversation? I don't have the right to that

if my allegiance is to the crown and I have a right to my own

feeling. Just as a disclaimer, Ted's

personality is not off putting. I like Ted.

Another thing that people have an allegiance to, and this one's

going to be tough and I know this one's probably going to be

the most silent. You don't have to shout Amen,

but you're just going to listen. Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

looking and God is looking for you to have an allegiance to him

alone. So much that Jesus gave an

example of where your allegiance should be in any given

situation. The disciples all came to him

when he was doing his assignment.

He was speaking, He was proclaiming the Kingdom of God.

He was doing what he was born to do in his role.

And they came to him and they said, listen, while you were

speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were

standing outside seeking to speak to him.

So someone said to Jesus, hey, behold, that's sorry.

Behold is like ancient Greek for hey, I said behold.

Your mother and your brothers are standing.

Outside seeking to speak to you and Jesus said.

Oh, let me drop what I'm doing. I'm going to go talk to them

because family first. OK, we'll go back over here.

But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said.

Who is my brother, who is my mother, and who are my brothers?

He wasn't confused. He wasn't lost in an anointing

trance and wasn't sure where he was.

He was very cognizant and very present in the moment.

He answered this specifically because too often he knows that

his people will try to make priorities other than his

priorities and needed to warn against it.

So he said who is my mother? Who are my brothers?

Then he goes on to say, Those who do the will of my father,

they are my mother, they are my brothers, but too often in the

Kingdom of God. Where we're supposed to have an.

Allegiance to those who have pledged their allegiance to the

Crown with us. We want to divide our allegiance

to Crown and kin, and Jesus never gave us that example or

command. And this is a.

Problem for people that are like, well, but they're my

family, they're my blood relatives, then we want to start

talking about how blood is thicker than water.

But the problem is we only get half of that statement.

If you remember Pastor's message on Fortress Friends, the actual

quote is not blood is thicker than water.

It is the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the

womb. See, my family are those who are

doing God's will. So that means if my blood

relatives have assigned and are given their allegiance to

something other than the crown, my allegiance doesn't go with

them. Same thing with Jesus.

You understand we want Jesus to have an allegiance to us and we

want when we stand before the great White Throne judgment, we

want Him to be on our side. But were you on His side through

your daily life? See, we want Jesus allegiance to

us, to be faithful to us without realizing His allegiance is only

ever to the Word. So the only way you and Jesus

get together is if you both have the allegiance.

To the word and that's the way it works with natural family.

You want unity with me? You want peace in every

encounter? You want Thanksgivings not to be

weird? Then you're going to have to

align your allegiance with the crown like I have.

I'm not saying agree with me. I don't care about me.

I'm not saying you need to be nice to me.

I died. I'm not saying I'm you're I'm

mad at you. I How can you offend a dead

person? I'm not offended.

It's you. I've just aligned myself with

the crown and I want you to do the same so we can function

together and operate in joint citizenship.

But too often. People have an allegiance to

blood family and they'll well, you know, my great grandma,

she's, you know, about to die. So we're going to move away.

Even though God placed us in the body where it pleased him at

Anchor Faith Church and gave us an assignment and let our gifts

and talents be used in the ministry.

But you know, great granddad's going.

So his family, family first. You think Jesus is going?

Yes. I placed you there, but I knew

it was only going to be until one of your older family members

was about to pass away. Think on these things.

Then we're going to look at the next verse, Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Jesus looked at the crowds and he said he turned toward them

and said, if anyone comes to me and he does not hate.

Now let me just give this disclaimer.

The guys upstairs are like, just read it.

Hold on, hate does not mean that you despise them.

You want nothing to do with them.

You wish ill willed towards them.

That is not what hate means. Another version says deny.

So when he says this, he's not saying I want you to have an

animosity towards your family. What he's saying is if you love

your father, mother and wife and children and brothers and

sisters more than your allegiance to the crown, he says

even your own life, you cannot be my disciple.

You discipleship is hinging on. How much of your allegiance are

you giving? So he's not telling them go home

and murder your family. That's stupid.

But what he is saying is if you love them or choose them over

me, you don't have a place with me.

And that's a tough saying. You understand That's why Jesus

only had 12 disciples. Then at another time, he added a

few dozen more than they went away, and he ended the whole

thing with a solid 11. Because the call to the

citizenship of the Kingdom of God comes at a cost to you

personally. It's a free gift.

You could have never ever come into the Kingdom of your own

accord. You could have never by works.

Earned a way in. He died, was buried and

resurrected and poured out his own blood so that you could have

the ability to go through the citizenship program.

But from there, you have to participate.

You understand, there's American citizens that have been charged

with treason against their country.

And you're like, well, once a citizen, always a citizen,

what's the problem? Yeah, we do that with God's

Kingdom, 'cause you would say, well, they, they acted against

the government. They, they had treasonous

behavior that betrayed the government.

They didn't. Abide by the laws of the

government. Then we get into God's Kingdom.

You're like, well, once saved, always saved.

Well, that doesn't make sense. Adam wasn't once saved, always

saved. In fact, to alleviate the state

to to to hold on to the statement once saved, always

saved says I have forfeited. My own free will?

God never. He never gave you the option to

forfeit free will. Everything that God does, in

fact everything the enemy is also doing, all hinges on your

free will. That's why you can't say the

devil made me do it. Devil made me do it, He made me

do it. He can't force you to do

anything. All he can do is give you an

option of different allegiance. So he doesn't have to come in,

the enemy doesn't have to come in and tempt you with.

Really, really bad. Stuff that you would list on in

your mind is a really bad thing. All he has.

To do is tempt you with something that causes your

allegiance to be somewhere other than with the crown.

So when he says unless you hate. Your brother and mother and.

Father, he's not saying you need to have animosity or I'll will.

Towards them. What he's saying is if they are

more important to you, then you can't be with me.

But you can have that. He gives you the choice.

You can have it again, Pastor Earl says.

It's so clear this is a freeing statement for all who would

hear. God will let you do whatever you

want to do. God will literally let you do

anything you can imagine. You can do whatever you want to

do. But he will hold you accountable

according. To his standard and his word.

And you will be judged based upon what you chose to do.

He's not forcing you into the Kingdom.

He's not forcing you to do something with your time and

your energy. He's not forcing your

allegiance, but he is giving you the option.

You can. You can side with me or you can

reject. I find it interesting when Jesus

was on the cross, you've got this great, great picture of

either or this great picture of rejection or acceptance that

there were two thieves. And we would say this is an

equal opportunity scenario, but one of them said, you are the

Son of God, can I be with you in paradise?

And Jesus said, yes. The other one could have just

asked. The other one could have just

believed and acted. But in that moment, one person

recognized who he was and gave their allegiance to him in that

moment. And the other person just

didn't. They just did what they wanted.

They just didn't feel like it. Whatever the reason, one person

received something from Jesus, one person didn't.

That's why if we go back to that rich young ruler, we look at the

we don't have to go back to the verse, but look at the scenario.

The rich young ruler has the ultimate Christian experience

talking. I grew up as a Christian in the

90s. OK, we got God's presence

showing up through Steven Kurtz, Chapman in the room.

You know, we, we had zero Pokémon in our house.

We never watched Rugrats, not one time.

It was like a holy sanctuary when you came to our 90s

Christian home. But this guy actually had Jesus

himself stand before him and answer questions about his

destiny. That's why there's an issue when

you're just like, oh, if we can just get in the presence of the

Lord, things will. Change.

No, no they won't if you get in the presence of the Lord.

You will have to change something, but nothing just

changes for your benefit just because you're near Him.

In fact, being in the presence of the Lord without a heart

that's ready to give allegiance to Him is actually more damaging

for you. Think about that's why

communion's such a big deal, right?

You're swearing this blood oath of your allegiance to him and

his rulership and his Kingdom. And he says, but don't take it

if there's unforgiveness in your heart and don't take it if

you're not right. And doesn't Pastor Earl warn us

that every time? Hey, if you're not a believer,

if you're saying I don't know if I'm right with God, he always

gives an invitation first because you are getting into the

presence of God and making a promise to God that are you

about to go break it when you go to lunch and order something off

that menu you probably shouldn't.

Or when you go home and you turn on that TV to something that

probably shouldn't be on that TV yet you just drank a blood oath

at church swearing your fealty to the crown.

Yeah, this rich young ruler stands before Jesus and he says,

what can I do about my life? And Jesus gives him a direct

answer. How many people want that,

right? How many?

People have said. I just wish I knew my purpose.

I just wish, I just wish I knew what to do.

You know, I've got this opportunity to come up and, and,

and I just, I'm not really sure. And, and if I could, and they're

thinking, if I could just ask Jesus and Jesus says like, do

this, I would do it. I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Maybe, maybe you would, because the rich young ruler definitely

said that. What can I do?

And Jesus looked at him and said, sell everything and follow

me. And he thought that's.

Not what I wanted him to say. Then people come to church and

come to their pastor and have a meeting with their pastors or

have a meeting with Pastor Mike, say Pastor Mike struggles with

this addiction, what should I do?

And Pastor Mike says, here's what you should do.

And they're like, no, no, I need to ask somebody else.

I need to go online. I should, I should start a chat

on Facebook. Because what Pastor Mike said

that's I don't still get to do what I want.

I bet Saint Augustine News they'll probably have some

answers. It's crazy.

Last one we'll look at tonight is this John chapter 8 verse 28.

John 8:28

Another thing that people have a a an allegiance to besides the

crown. Another option that people often

go to is their own opinions. And really, this is one of the

most damaging ones, one of the one of the ones that holds us

back the most is because if we have an allegiance to our own

opinion and we can't be wrong, and then all of a sudden God

presents us. With where we're.

Wrong, yet we have to say, oh God, but you're right and I was

less right. It's OK just to say I was wrong.

I've got to turn and change because my behavior was wrong.

Jesus gives us the example of this.

It says when, when you lift up this, Let me see.

Yeah, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that

I am he. He says I do nothing of my own

initiative, But I speak things the Father has taught me.

He's saying I don't have my opinion about this matter.

I'm not doing things because I just want to do them.

I'm doing things because my allegiance is not with my own

desires, my own will, my own flesh.

My my allegiance is with the King and I wish I could say that

more Christians with the finger quotes in case you're just

listening online and not watching would have this same

thing being demonstrated in their life.

I do nothing on my own initiative.

Another place. Jesus said I don't say anything

of my own will, but whatever the Father says.

That's what I repeat to you. But too many believers are often

up their opinions and then making a strong stance on their

opinion, then making decisions based on their opinions without

really consulting what is God saying about what I'm doing?

I want to be in God's will, but I also want to have what I want.

Jesus's final moment was he gets down in the cross.

Before the cross he gets down on his knees and he prays and

travails and says, Father, if there's any way, let this cup

pass from me. Which tells us Jesus wasn't some

robot that could only do what the Father wanted.

This tells us that Jesus being all God and yet all man still

had a free will. And in that moment as he

travailed, he said, but not my will.

And I'm telling you, we get it that there was this moment on

the cross whenever it thundered and lightning, he said it is

finished. And there was like this storm

rolled in. We we get this whole picture

right? But you understand there was

something that shook in heaven. And then when he uttered the

words. But not my.

Will your will be done, Your will be.

Done is the most powerful phrase that aligns yourself with your

allegiance to the crown. Your allegiance is proven in

that phrase. Thy will be done and then it is

followed through with you doing His will.

Matthew chapter 6 whenever we see the Lord's Prayer.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Again, this is another example of when Jesus is telling us.

Where is your allegiance? He says Our Father, who art in

heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, and your your

whose will? What are you supposed to pray

that whose will is done? Note that he didn't say our will

be done because there's not another option besides you or

him. So in the end there's going to

be two people, only two people in the very end of all things,

those who say to the Lord, thy will be done, and to those the

Lord says thy will be done. Thank you so much for listening

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