Sermon
Made to Display - Kingdom Righteousness - Part 2 with Pastor Marci Glisson
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
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from St. Augustine, FL.
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Now enjoy this message. Well, you know, Pastor
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ministered was it last Sunday on May to display and he's talked
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about Kingdom righteousness, right?
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About the fact that we are supposed to be displaying
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righteousness to the world. We are a representative of the
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Kingdom of God in the world. Amen.
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We are what Paul says, ambassadors for Christ, right?
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And we have a position to live before the world.
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Well, I want to piggyback off of that.
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And he called it made to display.
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So I want to say made to display part two or two point O whatever
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you want to say Amen. I want to read.
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First and foremost, this is going to be our text that I want
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to work walk through today as far as we can get out of
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Ephesians Chapter 5, Ephesians Chapter 5, one through 21.
Ephesians 5 chapter mention Ephesians 5 chapter mention
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OK, yes, we love the word here. OK, all 21 verses, OK, all are
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imperative for us walking out our righteousness today and what
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we must do and I believe is a part of just as the prophetic
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word came or the tongue and interpretation came from Audrey.
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That when we walk into a room, people are going to know the
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Kingdom is here. They're going to know it.
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And we want to make sure that we are being imitators of Him and
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his righteousness and the way that he tells us that we need to
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walk in this last day, so in verse one.
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Of Ephesians chapter 5, it says this.
Ephesians 5 chapter mention
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Therefore, be imitators of God. Say I'm an imitator as beloved
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children, and walk in love. Say walk in love, just as Christ
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also loved you and gave himself up for you as an offering and a
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sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
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But immorality? Or any impurity or greed must
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not even be named among you. We know Ephesians is talking to
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the church believers, the Ephesian church, and talking to
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us. It says as is proper among the
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Saints and there must be no filthiness and silly talk or
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coarse gesturing. I could break all of this down
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because you know what's sad is I hear so many Christians talking.
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The way they shouldn't be talking.
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But anyway I got to move on because I want to focus on some
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other things, coarse, gesturing, which are not fitting but rather
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giving thanks. For this you know with certainly
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with certainty, sorry, that no immoral or impure person or
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covetous man who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the
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Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with
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empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God
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comes upon the sons of disobedience.
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Therefore do not be partakers with them.
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For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the
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Lord. Walk as children in the light.
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For the fruit of the light or the Spirit, consists in all
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goodness, righteousness, and truth, trying to learn what is
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pleasing to the Lord. Are you actually trying to learn
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what is pleasing to the Lord and what displeases him?
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Because, you know, coarse, gesturing and all this kind of
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talk is not pleasing to him. It's not pleasing.
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You know, all these little jokes, starting to get into
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carnality and all kinds of things that you just carry on
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and laugh about and think it's funny?
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And he says we ought to not be doing it.
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It's not pleasing to him. But he's telling us we need to
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learn what is pleasing. It says do not participate in
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the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even
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expose them, expose them, expose.
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People that are still saying they're believers, but acting
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like the world, talking like the world, joking like the world,
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doing all kinds of things like the world.
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You're supposed to, as a believer, as a sister and
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brother in Christ, expose these things and say that's not light,
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that's not light, that's not what righteousness is.
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Right. We have a responsibility.
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We're going to see expose them. For it is even disgraceful even
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to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
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But all things become visible when they are exposed by the
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light. They're exposed by the light,
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for everything that becomes visible is light.
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For this reason, it says awake. Sleeper and arise from the dead,
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and Christ will shine on you. Therefore say therefore, be
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careful how you walk. Be careful how you walk, not as
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unwise man, not as an unwise man or woman, but as wise.
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Making the most of your time because the days are evil.
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So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the
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Lord is. See this.
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Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit
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speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual psalms,
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singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
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Always giving thanks for the things in the name of the Lord
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Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be submitted 1 to
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another in the fear of the Lord, in the fear of the Lord.
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A lot of powerful things right here, so I want to break some
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things down for you through this scripture.
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We are to be imitators of Christ.
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It says. First and foremost, we were made
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to display an image. And what is that image the one
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of Christ? What is that image that we are
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to be imitating? Are we to be imitating the image
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of the world? Hollywood superstars, You know
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all these other things? Are we to be imitating Christ?
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Our Heavenly Father, right We are to imitate Him.
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We are to An image is a what? Reflection.
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An image of him is a reflection. And when people see us, they
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should see the reflection of the Kingdom of God in our life.
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They should see the reflection of Jesus Christ in our life.
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They should see the reflection of righteousness.
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Amen. They should see it on display.
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So that when people see you, they see the Kingdom.
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When people come into your presence, they just came into
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the presence of the Kingdom of God.
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Amen. Genesis one, we know this so
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very well in this house. And verse 26 through 28.
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It all began right here. God has not changed his mind
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just because there was the fall of man.
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We know that he sent his Son so that we could be put back into
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Christ or back into the image of the very one that he designed
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for man to be from the first place.
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In Genesis 126 and 28 it says this.
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Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our
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likeness. One translation and you can
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actually look it up. It means a carbon copy.
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A carbon copy exactly like him. That's what he created man to be
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one just like him. A carbon copy.
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And let them rule. And we know on and on and on.
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And they were to rule over the earth, over all the
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circumstances of the earth. Over all the earth, right?
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In his image, in his likeness. And once we get born again, now
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we can begin to rule and have dominion in the earth, just like
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he said we could. Adam could.
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Amen. But we are to look just like him
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in the earth. It look and imitate.
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Him. And that means the greatest way
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we're going to reflect or have the image of him, or walk in his
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likeness, right, or be that carbon copy is going to come
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from the reflection of the word, right?
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We know in Corinthians it says we behold the word as a mirror.
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So this is that reflection when we read the word.
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It's that mirror to us of what we are to be reflecting to the
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Earth. Everything within the word.
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We don't get to pick and choose and decide what part of the word
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we want to reflect or what we don't want to reflect.
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But many people still do. No.
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There's one reflection. There's one image.
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There's one look that he wants each and every one of his
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children to look like. We're all individuals.
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We all have our own makeup. But the image that we are to
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reflect is in Christ and in His word.
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What is His word? Say as a believer we are to
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reflect to the world and the thing about it is, is there's
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all kinds of mixed up images. Right.
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It's almost like going to the fair, you know, or the carnivals
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or whatever. I haven't been what to one and
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Lord knows how long? Over 20 years, probably.
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But anyway, you go into that room and there's all kind of
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distorted mirrors. Has anybody ever went in one of
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those? The fun house?
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Yes, that's what it's called. Thank you.
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Thank you for helping me, the funhouse.
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And you go in and you looked all wonky like the walkie donkey.
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Have y'all ever heard that song? Anyway, you look all wonky and
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all distorted and all messed up, and so many believers still look
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that way because they're not looking at the right image.
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They're not looking at the right mirror.
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That's supposed to reflect Christ in every area of our
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life. We don't get to withhold 1 area
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of our life from the Lord. He tells us we are to love him
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with all of our heart, with all of our strength, with all of our
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soul, with everything that is within us.
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We don't get to decide we're not going to let him have that part
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of our life. Because when we don't let him
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have that part of our life, we mess up the image, We mess up
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the reflection because it's going to still look walkie.
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And distorted. Yeah, all along you're trying in
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the mirror. It's reflecting you, right?
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But there's still a messed up image.
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So it's still you're in Christ, but you're still not reflecting
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the right image. And so, as a believer, our
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number one desire should be. That we reflect His image
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completely and honestly and exactly the way the word says
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that we are to project it and reflect it.
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Amen. But see here in Ephesians
Ephesians 5 chapter mention
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chapter 5 and verses one through 21, we read that, but I want to
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just focus on one through 7 right now.
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The first thing that we're going to have to do if we're going to
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continue to be. Those that walk in righteousness
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and are made to display his righteousness in the Kingdom, we
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are going to have to first and foremost display love.
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And we see that here it says walk.
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In love as Christ also has loved us and given himself up for us
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and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.
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So the first thing that people should see in our life if we're
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going to reflect and display the proper image of Christ is that
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we walk in love. We walk in love.
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And this is not what the world says.
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Love is. Love is love.
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This is not what the world says love is.
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This is not lust. This is not, you know, the new
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kind of love they say there is today?
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No, this is agape love. This is God, God's love.
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He said God is love, God is love.
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And so this is the image that we want to display.
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The real kind of love, God kind of love the way that he says we
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are to love. Because without it we can't
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love, right? We won't love, right?
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We can only be those as believers that are going to walk
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in the real kind of love which is agape.
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Amen. So we must first and foremost
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display the love of God. Now let's look at a couple of
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scriptures concerning the love of God.
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John 1334 through 35 says this a new commandment I give to you
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that you love one another. Another thing I like to say here
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just. As this we're reading the
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scriptures, you can see that this love was not just for you.
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Well, he loved me. It's just me and Jesus and we
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have our personal relationship. It was never meant to be that.
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No, we've distorted and got unbalanced with that.
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His love has to give of itself. It can't just be about you.
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That's American indoctrination. It's all about me.
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Yolo, you know, it's all good. Love is love the way I want to
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love. It's all about me.
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I'm not harming anybody. All these things.
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This is the world's philosophy, and it's the pit of hell.
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It's doctrines of demons. Because this love was his love
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was never meant to be selfish. It was never meant to be just
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about you. When you're actually walking in
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the God kind of love, it says a new commandment.
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I give unto you that you love what one another.
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And This is why I say that it was always about one another,
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always about one another, as I have loved you, that you also
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love one another. Amen.
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And by this all will know that you are truly one translation,
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says my disciples. So how is the world going to
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know that we are truly his disciples?
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How's the world going to know and and see the display of
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Christ in the earth? Is it when we actually walk in
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love with one another? That means we don't get offended
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with one another. We don't take on offense with
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one another. We don't look at one another as
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as individuals that are trying to, you know, do this or do that
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know. Our attitude towards one another
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is that we're going to believe the best in everyone.
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I am going to believe the best that it.
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Towards everyone, even though I know they aren't saying the best
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and doing the best towards me. That's called walking in love.
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That's called walking in love. Amen.
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When you know that people aren't saying things right about you
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and people aren't doing things towards you, that's right.
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When you actually put on the God kind of love, that means, you
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know what? I'm going to love him no matter
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what. I can love him Now.
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That don't mean I have to hang out with them.
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And I don't have to be their best friend.
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I can love them, bless them, Amen.
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Pray for them. And not that they would, you
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know, not do that to me anymore. Pray for them.
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Just that God will just bless them.
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Because that's between them and God.
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That's walking in love, that's letting things go and the world
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is going to know it. That we're truly His disciples.
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Because we have love for one another and we love each other
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and we forgive each other and we believe the best in each other
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and we let things go and we don't hold account of a suffered
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wrong towards one another. Marriages.
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No matter what, I'm not keeping a record of wrong.
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I'm letting it go and giving it to God and trusting him.
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For he is my avenger. He is my defender.
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Amen. First John 323 says this.
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This is his commandment. That we believe in the name of
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the Son of Jesus Christ and we love one another just as He
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commanded us. Again, so many scriptures.
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I don't even have time to read them all to you concerning how
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this was about us loving one another.
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And if we are going to display the proper image of Christ and
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his Kingdom to the world, then love is going to have to be the
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first thing that we recognize in our life that we need to do.
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Ephesians 317. That Christ may dwell in your
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heart by faith, that you would be rooted and grounded in love.
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Rooted and grounded in love. And this is God's love.
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Amen. Ephesians 4/2 And then Ephesians
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4/2 and then verse 15. With all lowliness and meekness,
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with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.
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That means we're going to have to for bear some things with
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people in love. Amen.
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We're going to have to have some long-suffering with people in
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love. Hallelujah.
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That means you're going to suffer.
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It's not going to be easy. You're going to suffer.
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It's going to be painful, right? To be able to forgive people and
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walk in love towards people and be long-suffering towards
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people. But he says we are commanded to
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do it as believers. And if we want the world, if we
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want to, for the world to see the great display of the Kingdom
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of God, then they must first see love in our lives, and us
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walking in it every day. First Peter. 122 Since you have
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an obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a
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sincere love of the brethren. Fervently love one another from
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the heart. You see how it's connected to
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one another always. It wasn't fervently love me.
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Now, he does say that in Scripture, but he also says
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this, so we cannot separate the fact that he lets us know that
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our relationship between brothers and sisters in Christ
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are just as important as our relationship with the Lord.
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Just as important, and I'm going to tell you you are not loving
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the Lord, I will straight up tell you you are not loving the
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Lord if you are not loving your brother.
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He actually says you're a liar. I didn't put that scripture
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down. I was thinking I would hold
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myself back from that, from calling people a liar.
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But he called him, not me. He called him out.
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He calls you a liar if you say that you love him, but you have
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something against your brother. OK, we got to get people set
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free. I'm going to tell you, we need
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to recognize the time that we're living in, and we need to make
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sure we're getting our self in alignment.
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Every area of our life. Every area of our life.
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Hallelujah, Colossians, Chapter 3, verse 14.
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But on all these things. Say put on, say put on.
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Every morning when you get up, you stand in the mirror, you see
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a reflection. I didn't know what I wanted to
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wear today, and I changed clothes a couple of times.
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I saw a reflection. I didn't know if I was liking
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the reflection or not. And then I just said forget
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about it. And we have a choice every
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morning when we stand in the mirror to put on, to put on
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whatever clothes we're supposed to wear, right?
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Well, you know what? It's the same context where he
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says put on love every morning. When you get up, you are
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supposed to be a person that's I'm going to put on love.
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I'm going to put on love. I had to put on love this
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weekend. I didn't want to put on love.
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I didn't want to grab that out of the closet and put that on
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for a split second and I didn't want to put on love.
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And I said, well, OK, Lord, I'll do that if I can say this.
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And he said, no, you can't say that.
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Well, what if I do this? No, just put on love and don't
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say a word. Put on love and don't say a word
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because it doesn't matter anyway.
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Every day you have a choice that you're going to have to make the
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decision. If you are going to reflect the
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image of Christ properly, you're going to have to make the
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decision to put on the love of God.
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And that should be the first thing that people see within
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your life. Amen.
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The love of God. First Corinthians 16.
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Oh no, let me finish that. Colossians 314.
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Because I like the rest of that said, beyond all things, put on
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love. What?
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Which is the perfect bond of unity.
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You see that? When we begin to put on love,
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what does it do? It unifies.
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It will unify your marriage. It will unify your
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relationships. Come on.
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It will unify the body of Christ.
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When we decide we're all just going to love one another.
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Yeah, that's what he says. We are going to be people that
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are known by our love. We're going to choose to put it
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on. And when we do that, that will
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bring a unity. Because God is always about
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unity. He is not about division.
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He's not about strife. He's not about discord.
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He's always about unity and building the body up, unified
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with one another in our differences.
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Amen. Hallelujah, 1st Corinthians 1614
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says, Let all that you do, say all that I do right Be done in
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love. That means everything, no matter
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what. Everything that you do, let it
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be done in love. Let it be done in love.
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I teach this in my Kingdom Institute class.
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That love is the foundation of the Kingdom, and love should be
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the motivation of everything that we are doing in the earth.
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I'm not doing anything because of you.
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I'm doing everything because of the love of the Father.
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That is my #1 motivation because of his love and what he has done
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for me and for us. The motivating factor of my
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heart is because of the love of God, and I want it to permeate
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right in everything that I'm doing.
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If I'm getting up to serve or whatever, I'm doing it because
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of the love of God. The love of God compels me.
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The scripture, I didn't read it, but there is a scripture that
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said let the love of God compel you.
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Let it be your guiding point. Let it be the thing that's going
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to set your course love. So in everything that you're
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doing, you're doing it by the motivation of the love of God.
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Not from selfishness, not from a selfish desire, not because of
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tit for tat. You do this for me and I do that
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for you. There's no selfishness in it.
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It's just because he is love and I'm going to follow and emanate
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his love and I'm going to put it on and I'm going to do it no
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matter what. In everything.
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Everything and all of my serving and everything I'm doing.
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The fact that I go to my job is because I'm just love him.
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Everything should be motivated by the love of God.
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You getting up and serving your husband, serving your wife,
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serving your children, doing things for your friend.
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Listen, it ought to be because of the motivation of love.
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And where there is love, there's no selfishness.
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So it doesn't matter if they say thank you.
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It doesn't matter if they don't appreciate that you made them
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this meal and brought it to their house when they were sick
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and you would think you would be able to.
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None of that matters if it's motivated by one thing, which is
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the love of God. If you never heard another thank
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you, would it still? Would you still do it?
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Because he said to do it? Come on.
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Everything, everything you do should be motivated by the love
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of God. Hallelujah.
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Glory to God. Not because they're your best
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friend, I'm just saying. Not because they're your best
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friend. No, the world does that for
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their friends. It's because of the love of God
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that should be the compel, compelling factor within your
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heart. I'm going to do what I do
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because of the love of God. And when you stay focused on
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that, you won't loud flesh and that selfish desire to creep in,
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you'll put it under. You'll say no, shut up.
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I don't care if they never tell me.
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Thank you again for the rest of my life.
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Because that's not why I'm doing it.
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I'm not doing it for thank you. I'm not doing it for you're the
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best. I'm not doing it for any guilt
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trip or form a manipulation out of a selfish desire.
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I'm doing it because of the love of God and the love of God of
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all alone. That compels me.
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You see that? So it says this and Proverbs 79
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He who conceals A transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a
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matter separates intimate friends.
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Man, man, O man, O man, O man. We and the body of Christ need
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to just keep our mouths shut about people in our body because
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it's nobody's business that's loving.
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I don't have a right to go around and just talk about other
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people's business and what's going on in their life and what
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I think about it. I don't go around talking about
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your life and what's going on in your life.
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So what gives people the right to think that they can go around
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and talk about other people in the body and things they may be
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dealing with or things they may be growing through or not even
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that you just have an opinion about this person and you've
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shared that opinion with someone else.
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And you know what that is? It's called gossip.
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It's called gossip. But we've made it like, oh, I'm
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just concerned. You're not concerned.
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You just want to be in everybody's business and you
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want to have your opinion about everybody and you want to talk
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about everybody. It's not right.
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It's not right. It's not right.
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It's not right. Say it again.
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We need to learn to just keep our mouth shut.
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I I understand why. You know, one of the things they
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said about Brother Hagan was that he never talked.
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He never talked. You know that I bet there was a
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lot that he could talk about, a lot of things he saw and dealt
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with and went through and still people on Google talking about
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him today and he's been in the grave over 20 years.
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But he never said not one thing about anybody, wouldn't even
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share his opinion about what he thought.
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When are we going to get to that?
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You know why we're not? Because we're Americanized.
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Because it's, you know, what's what's on the next tabloid.
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Let's talk about everything going on like we just can openly
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talk about it and it's no big deal.
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No, it's talking about people's lives.
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It's talking about people, joking about people, what you
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think about them. And it's coarse, gesturing, all
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those things. It's not right.
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It's not the love of God, Because the love of God will
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conceal, it will protect, it will cover.
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We have no right talking about other people's business.
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Amen. But he who repeats a matter
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separates friends. You know, people, Friends get
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mad at each other. People in the body get mad at
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each other because they heard so and so said this about them.
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It separates, friends separates. It brings what Division.
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It brings division. So we ought to, we need to just
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take a little break from our mouths and just say, I don't
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have an opinion on the matter and I don't want to hear it.
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Can we ever start getting to that?
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That would be maturity. I don't want to hear this move
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along, right. Can we ever get to that?
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I believe we can because we must.
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Because it's wrong. It brings strife, It brings
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division. It's gossip and it's not right.
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It's not right before God and it and it hurts people's lives.
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So let's move on. The next thing that we're going
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to have to display, and it starts in verse eight.
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It says we're going to have to display light.
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For you were once in darkness, This is Ephesians 5, verse
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eight, you were once in darkness, but now you are light
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in the Lord. Walk as children in the light.
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Walk as children in the light. So #1 if we're going to display
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Christ, we're going to have to walk in love. #2 if we're going
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to display him properly, people ought to see us walking in the
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light. That means there is no longer
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any any shadow of darkness in my life.
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No darkness within my life. Only light.
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There's no shadows in me. That means who I am, you see
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every day. That's who I am.
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There's nothing being done in secret.
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But do you know, if it's not in secret, even the light will
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expose it. So we are to walk in light.
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We were made to display and permeate the light of God.
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Amen. It says walk as children of
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light. And what is the light consist of
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the fruit of the Spirit. It consists of goodness,
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righteousness. There's that word righteousness
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that Pastor talked about and the truth.
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We will not walk as children of the light or in the light.
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If we are not in the word, the truth of God's word.
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We won't, we won't be able to walk it out.
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We'll begin to have that warped image as well.
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That reflection will look warped.
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If you're not gaining your the by the Holy Spirit, the truth of
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God's word, you're not going to be able to permeate that light
-
correctly. It says finding out what is
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acceptable to the Lord. We have a responsibility to find
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out what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not.
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And the way we do that is through His truth, through the
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Word of God, and letting the light and the revelation and the
-
illumination of His Word come to our Spirit and our mind.
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Amen, it says. And have no fellowship with the
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unfruitful works of darkness. Amen.
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So we should not be participating in any forms of
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darkness, any forms of darkness, but rather expose them, rather
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exposed them. And there are all kinds of forms
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of darkness that believers still want to dabble in.
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One of them is crystals, This new rage of crystals that is
-
witchcraft. And there is darkness there, and
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we should not be dabbling in them.
-
Amen. So I it says, but rather expose
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it so I'm exposing it. Don't be messing around with
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crystals, OK, so he says, expose them.
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For it is shameful even to speak of those which are done by them
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in secret. But all things that are exposed
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are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest, for
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whatever makes manifest, is light.
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Therefore, he says, awake You who sleep arise from the dead.
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Christ will give you what light when he says to walk in love,
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when he says to walk in the light.
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That word, walk, means to regulate one's life, to conduct
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one's life, to make one's progress and to be occupied.
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To be occupied. We should be occupied by the
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love of God. We should be occupied by the
-
light of God. We should be walking in it every
-
day, every day. We should allow the light and
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the love of God to regulate our lives.
-
That means when I am, whatever I'm doing through the day.
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I'm regulating whatever decisions I'm making through the
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day. However it is, Whatever is going
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on in my life, I'm going to regulate my life, make those
-
decisions for my life, govern my life by the light of God's Word
-
and the love of God. Period.
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Those need to be. I don't do anything if the Word
-
doesn't say it. I'm not going to participate in
-
anything that the Word says not to participate in.
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That's how I regulate my life. If it is not appropriate with
-
God, then it's not appropriate for me to be engaged in it.
-
Amen. That's how I regulate my life.
-
It's not just that I come to church.
-
I regulate my life by the word of God.
-
I walk in the love of God. I walk in the light of God.
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I walk by the word of God regulating my life.
-
Amen. First John One, First John 1537.
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It says this. This is the message we have
-
heard from him and announced to you that God is light, and in
-
him there is no darkness at all. So we should not be
-
participating with dark deeds. Amen, It says.
-
If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk
-
in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
-
Let's say you're not born again. It just says you don't practice
-
the truth. You don't regulate your life by
-
the word. There's plenty of believers that
-
do not regulate their life by the truth of God's word.
-
They don't live for the word of God and by the live of by the
-
word of God. They don't live by it.
-
They don't walk by it. They just are religious.
-
They they think they got saved and they're good to go so that
-
one day when they die, they go to heaven.
-
Yet they don't regulate their life by the word, by the truth
-
of God's word. So therefore they still
-
participate in deeds of darkness.
-
You see that? But he goes on to say what?
-
What verse was I in? Verse six.
-
So if we say we're partakers together and enjoy fellowship
-
with him, when we live and move and are walking about in
-
darkness, we are both speaking falsely and do not live and
-
practice the truth which the gospel presents, which the
-
gospel presents. You live in your own truth,
-
thinking you going to die and go to heaven, but that's not the
-
truth the gospel presents. You see that?
-
And then he goes on to say. But if we are really living and
-
walking in the light as he himself is in the light, we have
-
true and unbroken fellowship. I'm reading Out of the Amplified
-
with One another and the blood of Christ his Son cleanses and
-
removes us from all sin and guilt and keeps us cleansed from
-
sin in all it forms and manifestation in all its forms
-
and manifestation. So we are to walk in the light.
-
Amen. This is important because in
-
Matthew there's several other scriptures, but I'm going to
-
move on because of our time. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 14
-
concerning the light, Jesus says this that you are the light of
-
the world. You're the light of the world, a
-
city that is set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
-
So if we are going to display the true image of God, then
-
we're going to have to let his light shine before the world
-
come on and have no shadows of darkness within our lives, he
-
says. You are the light of the world.
-
That means people should see you and see the light.
-
Listen, people ought to be drawn to you, just like bugs are drawn
-
to the light. Absolutely.
-
You turn off, turn on the light at night, and what happens?
-
All the mosquitoes are out, All the bugs are flying.
-
The flies, the gnats, whatever. And what are they doing?
-
They're coming to the light. All the bugs, all the creeps,
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all the things in this world. They ought to be drawn to you by
-
the light. They should see the light of God
-
within you, so bright shining that people are just drawn to
-
you. Amen.
-
They just want to come be around you.
-
There's something about you that is illuminating the life of God
-
and the light of God. And they.
-
I'm telling you, we've have people all the time.
-
And now we've made like, this little.
-
I don't know, I guess we're just like the pastors of this
-
restaurant that we go to all the time.
-
And one little girl was a waitress in there, and she's
-
been a waitress for a while. And every time she's like, why'd
-
you come in and didn't tell them that I wanted to be your waiter,
-
you know, waitress. And anyway, so we've been
-
sharing with her and loving on her and and all this stuff and
-
ministering to her and they just love to come.
-
I mean, the owner of the restaurant calls us Pastor Earl,
-
You know, he knows we're pastors.
-
And so anyway, we were sitting there minding our business,
-
having lunch, but they can't not stop and come to the table.
-
And so she came. She said, I just want to let you
-
know, like she want to let me know that she wasn't going to be
-
working there anymore, that she got a new job and told me where
-
her new job was going to be and all this stuff and, you know,
-
asked us to just be, you know, pray with her and that she would
-
do good at this new job. She's stepping out.
-
She had been in the restaurant business for over 20 something
-
years. I mean, she's a young girl, so
-
she started when she was 15. And so anyway, you know, and I
-
thought, wow, this is really cool that they want to come up
-
and tell us they're no longer going to be here seeing us.
-
And she said, I'm going to miss seeing y'all because you always
-
so happy when you come in, you know, But I just want to let you
-
know I'm going to be going over here.
-
I'm not getting fired or anything.
-
I'm, you know, taking another position.
-
And I thought, wow, you know what?
-
They see the light of God. They see the life of God.
-
They they want to come and talk and they know there's something
-
and one day they're going to know.
-
They're going to know there is something, right?
-
But Matthew 516, it says this let your light show shine before
-
men that they may see your good works and glorify your father.
-
So what happens when you are letting your light shine?
-
They're going to see. I mean, this guy that owns the
-
restaurant that we go to, he's always coming and talking to
-
Pastor Earl about what we're doing in the mall when she's
-
never even been. But he sees everything that is
-
going on and he's building a new restaurant.
-
And so him and pastor are talking about building and
-
permits and all kinds of stuff and relating to him and sharing
-
with him and to where now every time we come in, it's Pastor
-
Earl and he makes sure we have a table and all these things.
-
And I'm thinking, you know what our light is being shown?
-
And do you know what it is? So that they can see the good
-
works. People can see the works that
-
you're doing for the Kingdom of God.
-
They see the things taking place in your life and the
-
demonstration of what God is doing through your life to
-
advance the Kingdom of God. And that will bring glory to
-
God. Even though they're lost.
-
They'll see this thing must really work, and that is great.
-
That should be our desire is that people see, hey, we're a
-
part of a Kingdom that really works in the earth.
-
And if you'll just watch, you'll see right the manifestation and
-
the demonstrations of the glory of God and the power of God.
-
So much so that when people look upon the city, they'll see God,
-
they'll see his glory, and they won't be able to deny it.
-
They won't be able to deny it. Amen.
-
So it brings glory to him when you actually are producing
-
things in the Kingdom of God. Proverbs 418 it says.
-
But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that
-
shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
-
Hallelujah, it shines brighter and brighter.
-
We don't have to worry about it. We're just going to be shine and
-
brighter because the world is going to be so dark, right?
-
If this room pastor said this before, if we cut off all the
-
lights in this room and we just struck one match, what would it
-
do? It would lie.
-
It would drive out darkness and light up this whole room. 1
-
little match and that's what it is.
-
One little person that has the light of God going in and out
-
through our community letting it shine.
-
It is pushing back darkness and people can see the light of God.
-
Amen. Hallelujah.
-
Now let me read Philippians 215 real quick.
-
I want to close, it says so that you will prove yourselves to be
-
blameless and innocent children of God above reproach.
-
In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom
-
you appear as lights in the world, in a perverse and wicked
-
generation, you appear lights to the world.
-
We need to just keep letting our light shine, shining before all
-
men. Amen.
-
He is light, and in him there is no darkness.
-
And therefore we are going to be full of light, full of love,
-
displaying what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God so
-
that the world will be drawn to us.
-
Amen. And the Third Point, which I
-
won't be able to get to, is that we say it's in verse 15 of
-
Ephesians 5. See then that you walk
-
circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time
-
because the days are evil. Again, three things that we are
-
supposed to display Love, light and wisdom.
-
Wisdom to the world. We are not to walk like fools,
-
but we are to recognize what time it is that we are living in
-
and walk in the wisdom of the Word of the Lord.
-
In the midst of this crooked, perverse generation, we're to
-
have wisdom. Wisdom.
-
Thank you so much for listening to this message.
-
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