Sermon
Kingdom Standards with Randy Clay
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. Your Bible's out.
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I hope you brought your Bible. Nowadays it's, you know,
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electronic devices and everything else.
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I just kind of stick with the paper.
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Anybody bring a paper Bible tonight?
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Yeah, I got it. You know those paper Bibles are
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fabulous, especially when your battery is dead on your phone.
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Amen. Hallelujah.
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This evening I am going to be sharing with you some saying.
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I'm going to give you a little background about myself when it
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comes to the right time for illustration of some things.
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But tonight I am going to be discussing with you Kingdom
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Standards and I I kind of wanted to start it out because there's
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a particular administration in the United States.
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That I've had a particular interest in, I guess and a
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following if you would say. And it really affected the the
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career that I got involved in early and in Melanie and I's
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marriage and you may have heard of it, it's the Occupational
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Safety and Health Administration, everybody,
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everybody familiar that you ever heard of it?
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Few hands. We in the Midwest, we call it
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OSHA, all right. And I don't know where the how
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why we call it OSHA because it all almost ought to be OSHA.
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Because occupational it starts with an AH, not an O right, but
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we call it OSHA. And OSHA is responsible for
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keeping the employment workplace, a place of safety, a
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place of health. And they have what they call
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regulations and one of the the the things that they have
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published and it is massive, it is not just one volume, it is
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multiple volumes of what they call the CFR which is the Code
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of Federal Regulations. And if you are an employer or
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you're someone that is employing people, it, it behooves you to
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be able to be familiar with a little thing, a little, a few
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little things in that code that they have so that you can stay
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safe. Your people can stay safe, all
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right. And.
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And it's designed for that. But one of the things that I
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found out that there is an institute and it's called the
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American National Standards Institute.
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And they are the ones that regulate the funniest things.
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For instance, one of the one of the things that I found out and
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in Oklahoma, I have a company that manufacturers OSHA
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regulated safety signs. The Lord dealt with me early on
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and he said, do you want to print a sign that, you know
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maybe somebody will buy? Or do you want to print a sign
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that the government makes you buy?
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And I found this out that in business, you know the more you
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can sell of one thing is better than trying to sell one thing,
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you know, multiple times. All right.
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And so I I found out that you know how many of you all have
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seen a danger high voltage sign, you seen that has a red Oval,
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right. And the word danger in there is
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in white. That's regulated by ANTSY, or
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the American Standards and National Standards Institute.
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They tell you not only what the shape of Oval needs to be, but
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they also tell you what size the letter needs to be in there,
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what the stroke of the font needs to be, what the sign is
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supposed to look like. They had a change just a few
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years ago, which I loved it because everybody had to buy a
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brand new signs. And so you know when when I was,
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I was meditating on the standards of the Kingdom that we
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do have a volume that we can take a look at and I am going to
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go over some standards tonight. They come from the word of God
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that will impact your life. And if you listen to me and take
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a few notes, I think that I can help you if you're struggling in
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any of the areas of standards that I communicate tonight.
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Is that alright? I'm going to start with the very
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first one, the very first set of standards that we have.
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It's found in Exodus chapter 20, verses 3 through 17.
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They're going to put it up on the board and I'm going to go
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through these and I want you, I want you to know that when God
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decided that he wanted a people to himself cut covenant with
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Abraham, and then, you know, the Lord told Abraham, he said,
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listen, your people are going to go down to Egypt and they're
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going to be in bondage for 400 years.
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And then I'm going to bring them out by a very, very strong arm,
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and they are going to be my people.
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Well, he gets them out. And in the 20th chapter he
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brings what is commonly called the 10 commandments.
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Everybody familiar with that? Have you ever heard one of them?
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At least one of them, Right. OK, let's take a look.
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That first one is in verse three.
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It says this. Thou shall have no other gods
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before me. So God in the very beginning, is
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letting them know I am God. And do you remember that?
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Do you remember the account when Moses asking me said, hey, I'm
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going to go, you want me to go? And I thought, I think it's
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funny. And pastors alluded it to it so
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many times. When he has said that, you know,
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he goes up and has the burning Bush experience and he said,
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hey, they're going to ask me your name, what do I tell him?
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And he said, well, you're going to tell him I am.
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I am what? That's what I've been my
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question. I am.
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I am what he is. And he tells him, he said, that
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you'll have no other gods, because I am God.
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You have no other gods before me.
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Verse four, he said, you shall not make unto you any graven
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image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above
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the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
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So he's telling them not only are you not going to have but a
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commandment that I'm giving you. Here's another standard.
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The standard is you are not going to make any graven image.
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All right. And and the word graven in the
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Hebrew is the word carved. You're not going to carve an
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image. You know what I found funny?
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Does anybody know how they print money?
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It's carved plates, engraved plates.
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And I thought, well, that's interesting because Jesus said
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you can't serve God and money. Right, so he says in here, this
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is one of the rules. This is the top ten list.
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All right, Now notice what he said.
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He said, and he tells him you'll not make a graven image.
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He said you'll not bow down yourself to them, You'll not
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serve them. For I am the Lord God.
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I am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the
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children, and the 3rd and 4th generation of them that hate me,
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and showing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my
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commandments. Another word for commandment is
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the standard. All right, but notice verse
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seven, he said. And you will not take the Lord
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thy God, the name of the Lord thy God, in vain, For the Lord
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will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.
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Now, I've taught this for years. And any of you that have said in
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any of my classes, when we talk about the fact that that in
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Hebrews 11 verse six it said it is impossible for is impossible
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to please God without faith. Without faith it's impossible to
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please him because he that comes to God must believe that he is.
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And I often ask question what is you if I must believe you is.
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And I know most scholars do agree that he's talking.
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He's talking about you must believe that I exist.
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OK, and I'll go for that. But The thing is he's not
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writing to Hebrew and believers. He's writing to believers that
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were Hebrew. And he said in there he tells
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him he said he he let he lets him know.
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You must believe that it is so. It would behoove us or or it
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that's that's King James behoove us all right to be able to find
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out all that we can about who God is.
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Well here's interesting because the word that we need to
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understand when he says you'll not take my name in vain and a
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lot of people read they they think that's about cussing.
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You know. And you hear people all the
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time, they'll God blank this, God blank that, you know and and
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they're upset about something and you'll hear it.
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And and I've been in situations in in the in the business arena
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and people just go off to cussing and stuff like that and
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I just don't let it phase me. And they go, doesn't that bother
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you? They're taking the Lord's name
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in vain. I said, well, here's what you
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need to understand about that verse.
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Gives me an opportunity. I said, one God's not his name.
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God is what he is. He's a species called God.
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All right, So we don't go around, you know, calling each
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other, Hey, human, I see you going down the hall.
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Hey, human, everybody's going to turn around.
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That's why we were given names. All right, so when I say
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Brandon, Brandon turns around but he tells us he said you do
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not take the Lord thy God's name in vain.
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Here's what you need to understand about the word vein
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in the Greek and the Hebrew both they had the same meaning.
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It means to render something empty idol, nonproductive.
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Now I've got several other definition.
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It says in here empty idol. Fruitless, useless, powerless,
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lacking truth, and worthless. God said you will not take my
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name and render it that way. Well, what is it?
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What? What is his name that we need to
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be aware of? I'm going to give just a couple
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of them because God's name being Jehovah, He has given us also a
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few descriptions of what all Jehovah includes.
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And here's the first one, he said.
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You know, when we talk about Jehovah.
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Jehovah what? Well, Jehovah.
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How about Jira? All right.
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And in Jehovah Jira, we find out that when he was on the mountain
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at Abraham, when he was on the Mount Moriah, getting ready to
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sacrifice Isaac, you remember that?
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And it says that just as he was about to lift the knife.
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He Angel said hold it, stop. And he said he named that
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mountain Jehovah Jira. And the definition of Jira is
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the Lord that sees. But really if you break it down,
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it is the Lord that sees to it and provides what happened.
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Remember, as soon as he as soon as the Lord, the Angel told him,
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don't harm the boy. All of a sudden they heard it,
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man. And they turned around and
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looked and in the thicket there was a ram for the sacrifice.
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So he's telling us, and I think it's interesting because I've
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read after some scholars that basically talk about the fact
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that Mount Moriah is also in the regions of Calvary where Jesus
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was crucified. Now I I see God doing that, that
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that good. He's that good that he could
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make that mountain. Same mountain.
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That Isaac was going to be sacrificed And the Isaac that
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Jesus was sacrificed on. All right now as we as we take a
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look and and you know what's another one let's take a look He
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said I'm Jehovah Rotha and and that's found in Exodus chapter
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15, verse 26. And he lets him know.
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Listen if you will harken diligently into the voice of
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your Lord, your God. And I observed to do all that is
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written there in you don't turn to the right, to the left.
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He said I will not allow any of these diseases that have come up
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upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that he live the Jehovah
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Ratha. So he tells us in there as far
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as that name. Here's the problem that people
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sometimes take his name in vain and they don't even realize what
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they're doing. Because if you've ever said, I
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don't know how I'm going to get over this sickness.
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I mean, he said that he was the healer.
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So again, I think it'd be to our benefit to not talk contrary to
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what he said he was. If he said I'll provide for you,
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he'll provide for you. If he said I'll give you peace
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in a time of trouble, he's going to give you peace.
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Don't be somebody that's that close to taking his name in
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vain. All right, let's look at the
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next one. It said chapter.
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Chapter 8, verse eight. He said remember the Sabbath day
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and keep it holy. I I think a lot.
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There's really I think there's really 11 commandments because
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the next one is a thou shalt also look at it six days thou
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shalt labor. I think we let.
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We just skipped over that one didn't we And do all thy work
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and and one time I was writing an article called The Secret of
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the 6th Day because in America we've been trained that we work.
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Five days and we take two days off.
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That wasn't so under the covenant or the standard of the
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Lord in the Old Testament. 6 days you would work and then the
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Sabbath day you would take off and you would make it holy.
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What were we making it holy about?
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We were making a holy as a day of reflection and rest on the
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goodness of the Lord. All right.
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He said the 7th day is a Sabbath of the Lord.
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At verse 10 he said that thy God in it you'll do no work neither
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your son, your daughter, your man serving your maid serving
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your cattle, nor your stranger within your gate. 6 days of Lord
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made heaven and earth and all them that is in it.
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And he said he rested the 7th day, where for the Lord blessed
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the 7th day and hallowed it. All right, so he tells us, Well,
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you know we have it. We have a day also that we're
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supposed to hallow and we call a Sunday.
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It changed in the New Testament. As far as they called it, the
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first day of the week, it was the day that Jesus was risen
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from the dead. All right.
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He he went through the Sabbath. They tried it.
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They had to get him off that three days and three nights in
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the grave. He was, he was risen on the
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first day of the week, which was Sunday on the Jewish calendar.
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So he tells us in there that, that.
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And they said that's when the church began to start meeting,
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was on the first day of the week.
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All right. And so the thing we need to
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realize is that. I think it's interesting that
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most of the trouble that Jesus got into was the days he went to
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church. How many times do we read that
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he was in the temple? How many times we read he was
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working when he was in the temple?
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How many of you are being accused of working in the
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temple? A lot of you with the kids.
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And the different parking lot and the different things that we
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serve the Lord in the temple. All right, now let's go on to
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the next one. It says honor thy father and
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mother, that the days may be long upon the land which the
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Lord thy God has given you. And any visions they talk about.
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It is the first commandment with a promise that you may live long
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on the earth. So he tells us how important.
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Now the word, the word in there for honor basically is very
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simple. It means to Revere respect.
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All right, Revere, respect the the parents.
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All right. And so that here's the next 113,
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verse 13. You shall not kill.
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That is not necessarily going to war.
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That is the word murder that you will not take innocent blood.
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Then he said, you'll not commit adultery, You will not steal.
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You will not bear false witness against our neighbor.
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Some translations say you shall not lie.
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Shall not lie. All right.
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And then he said, and you will not covet your neighbor's house
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or anything. That is their neighbor, the
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wife, the manserving all of his livestock.
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I think it's interesting. This word in the Hebrew is the
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same word in Genesis chapter 3, when Eve was standing there
Genesis 3 chapter mention
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looking at the tree. It it is a word that means to
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delight in or to desire, or to lust after.
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In the Hebrew it is the same word when they said and a tree
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to be desired to make one wise is the same word covet here.
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So she was coveting that tree. She was wanting, she saw, she
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looked at it. It was it was something to be
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desired. And so when we we see that.
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Now here's what we need to know about this set.
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This set of standards that God gave, he wrote them, it says,
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with his finger in two tablets of stone back in front.
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And what's interesting about that is that four of them, the
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first four, have to do with your relationship to God.
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The last six have to do with your relationship with each
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other. So there's 60%.
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That shows us how we are supposed to conduct ourselves by
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the standards of God in the earth with each other.
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While there is the four that he gave us is basically we need to,
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we need to understand. Jesus wrapped it up in the 22nd
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chapter of Matthew when he said you will love the Lord your God
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with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength.
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And you will love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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So everything is wrapped up in those two laws.
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And so, you know, as as I was, I was looking at that and seeing,
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I wanted to say, Lord, you know, when you introduced us to the
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Kingdom, what are the, what are some of the standards that we
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have? I've got 4 tonight.
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I got a whole lot more, but I'm going over for tonight because I
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do not have that two hour anointing preaching gift I have
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been specifically trained to give you about. 50 minutes.
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And I might be able to stretch it to an hour, so you got to
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hold on. All right.
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All right, let's take a look at some Kingdom standards in the
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New Testament, and I want you to jot this down and listen.
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Here's the first one. The word of the Kingdom must be
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approached from a student perspective, not from a passive
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reader perspective. Some people seem to think that
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their walk in the Kingdom is OK. If they just read their Bible
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occasionally. Now pastors told us we have our
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Bible reading program. You know, Melanie, I and I don't
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miss a day, not one day. We don't get up and get around
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until we've had our time in the Word.
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Period. It's it's that much.
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And I'm going to tell you how we got there, Okay.
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But here's what we need to understand the call.
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The standard is to be a student. And it's found in Matthew
Matthew 28 chapter mention
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chapter 28. You're going to find out.
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Jesus set this standard. Now notice what he says.
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Go you there for and teach all nations.
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Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy
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Ghost. Teaching them to observe all say
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all things whatsoever. I've commanded you and lo, I'm
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with you always. Even to the end of the world or
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the age, right. So Jesus gave A and we call this
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what the Great Commission. And he says in there go you
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there for and teach most translations.
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Now more more modern translation say go and make disciples.
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That is the accurate translation of that word in the original
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language Methy 2O. Methy 2O is the word that it
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comes from Methy taste, which is the word disciple.
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You need to know that because why?
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He said. You need to go into all the
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world and enroll them. As students, not converts, not
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somebody changing from this religion to that religion or
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this particular denomination to that denomination.
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We are designed and he has planned, and his standard was
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discipleship. He proved it through his
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ministry. He didn't just want to say you
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know, if y'all want to follow me, grab a scroll, you know read
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it every now and then and see what the Lord will do for you.
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He didn't do that. He enrolled them as students.
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Now when you look at verse 20, he said teaching them to observe
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all thing that is the actual word give instruction.
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So once you have come into the Kingdom of God, you have got to
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come again from the perspective of student and you've got to
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come from the perspective that you are now ready to be
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instructed. Pastor had just taught before he
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left and got on the boat to the Bermuda Triangle.
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He taught us you must remain teachable.
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There's none of us to know everything, so we have to remain
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teachable. Why?
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Because discipleship is lifelong.
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You'll never get to a place that you just can't learn anymore.
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The day that you say I've heard that before and you write it off
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or there's a class offered and you thought I've I've heard that
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before you're you're you are you are walking so close to
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deception that Jesus even said, He said in the last days.
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They said, Jesus, show us a sign of your coming.
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What? When will these things take
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place? What will be the sign of your
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coming? When will be the end of the
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world. And the very first thing Jesus
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said, he said, Take heed that no man deceive you.
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So deceptions number one thing on Jesus mind, pastor.
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Read it the other day talking about in in Paul's writing to
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Timothy that in the last days many will depart from the faith
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giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
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It's going to happen. Didn't say that they, you know,
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he said many. We don't want to be the many.
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All right. So when he tells us that, that
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it what is so important to us. Now let me give you a
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background. I've always had, I've always had
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an interest in the Bible. I remember when I was 4th and
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5th grade when you graduated to go into 6th grade, they gave you
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a Bible. I have a copy of that Bible at
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the house and it has a little shield on it and we used to play
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a game called the Bible Sword Drill.
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We really need to bring that back.
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But the teacher would ask a scripture, and the first one to
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find it in the Bible would you'd raise your hand and you got to
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read it to the class. And then they give you, they
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give you a prize, all right. So you know, you know who won to
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win all the time. And so you know when you know in
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growing up in that. Well, when I turned, I turned
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717. I was going to 18I graduated
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from high school in 1979. I had an aunt that was a
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missionary. She was stationed on the island
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of Crete and she came back home and introduced me to a gentleman
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that had a Bible study in his home.
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When I showed up, he'd already had this Bible study going in
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his house. He was a doctor and he study and
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gave. He was the first man that I've
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ever heard that had. It was was teaching from from
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the Bible without a quarterly. Does anybody know what a
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quarterly is? I was raised Southern Baptist
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and every quarter they gave you a little study guide that you
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were supposed to read the night before and hopefully you had a
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teacher that read there's the night before.
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Now that is that I truly, truly, I'm saying unto you and and so,
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you know, we just, if you didn't have a quarterly, you just
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really didn't have any knowledge of the Bible.
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I mean they didn't encourage you to read the Bible and try to
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figure out what the Lord's trying to tell you.
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We had a quarterly and it was, it was done by a convention and
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some doctors and theologians and everybody got together and they
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printed all this stuff for us. And every quarter we got our
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quarterly. Well, this guy was the first guy
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I'd ever heard that didn't use a quarterly.
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I'm looking where's his quarterly?
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And he started talking about things.
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He said, you know, the Bible was originally in the New Testament,
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was written in in, in the Greek language and he would teach us
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Greek words. That was that he would pull out.
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And man, I I absolutely fell in love with this man.
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And I went up to him. First night went up to him.
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I said, what kind of Bible do you have?
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Because my Bible don't have any of that in it.
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I mean, you're talking about these Greek words and Hebrew
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words and they brought such a a clarity to what you were talking
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about. I said, is that real?
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Is that true? And he showed me his Bible.
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And you know what? I went and bought one of them
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Bibles and we talked about it for at four it was called a
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Dakes Annotated Reference Bible. Still there as a matter of fact
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had an opportunity not too long ago to talk to Dennis Dennings.
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Dennis Jennings Dake is the guy that met that printed this
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Bible. He did it the year I was born,
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1961. He came out with this work.
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He spent over 100,000 hours in 4343 years compiling this work.
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It is full of Greek. It is full of Hebrew.
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I devoured that. You ought to see.
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I still have the original copy. It is in shreds, pages
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everywhere. I got pages stuck where pages
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don't go trying to hold this thing together.
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It was one of my it was one of my prized possessions.
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I have another one and I and I inherited another one and I had
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them. And every now and then I'll go
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back to him. Because in in 4043 years,
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100,000 hours if you run your math, I calculated it was 6
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hours a day for 43 years. No vacation, no time off.
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They said that when he spoke, he could quote whole chapters by
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memory, Books by memory, I mean, I think so after 100,000 hours,
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you ought to be able to do something with your memory,
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right? But a phenomenal phenomenal work
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and I I had an opportunity and and and to visit with doctor
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Harmon and I asked him a question.
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I said I know you you go from place to place little ladies
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groups and and garden clubs and stuff.
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They ask you to come and speak and stuff.
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I said when you go who who duplicates your tapes And he had
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a one tape duplicator cassette tape anybody remember them
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cassette. OK.
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And and I said, I will go with you if you allow me to come with
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you and I'll duplicate the tapes so you can keep talking to the
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people. All right.
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And the ladies and answering questions and stuff like that.
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Because I said who does it? He said I have to do it.
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I said I'm going to do it. And I traveled with him and I
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went everywhere in town that he went and and and duplicated
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those tapes. When Melanie and I met Okay, I
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was still going there. That was 1981 when we started
-
dating. And we end up, we went to Doctor
-
Harmon's every Monday night until Dr. Harmon decided to move
-
to Connecticut. It's kind of like the disciples.
-
Where are you going to go? I mean, you know, you're going
-
to Connecticut. Where's Connecticut?
-
Well, the way I'm going, you can't go.
-
OK All right. So I'm thinking, man, Lord,
-
what? But, you know I began to
-
continue my studies in the Greek language and and and as best as
-
I knew how and I made-up my mind that I was going to become a
-
student of the word of God. Even I had no desire to go to
-
Bible school. I had no desire to go into the
-
ministry full time. I I had a skill that I, you
-
know, felt like the Lord was going to have me use.
-
And and I just I but there was that desire to become a
-
disciple. Now you think that's strange,
-
but I think it's strange that we forgot about the story.
-
Are the account in John chapter one of John and Andrew.
-
In John chapter one we have a an account where John the Baptist
-
sees Jesus and two of his disciples were standing right
-
there with him. Disciples called them disciples,
-
Methetas, learners, pupils, students.
-
And he said, there goes the Lamb of God.
-
And he said those two disciples of his went and followed them.
-
And I don't know if they were talking or whatever, but Jesus
-
turned around and looked at him and said, what are you all
-
looking for? And I guess they were shocked
-
because they go, where do you live?
-
And he said, come and see. And they hung out with Jesus the
-
whole day. Well, the thing was, he
-
identified those two John when he he identified one was Andrew,
-
Peter's brother, and the other one had to be in him because he
-
never identified himself. So he said the other disciple,
-
he always called himself the other disciple until he got to
-
the end and he said the disciple Jesus loved, he wrote that about
-
himself, right? He did.
-
So the thing, the question that I had was, wait a second, you
-
two boys was in business. When did you have time to follow
-
the prophet around to be able to learn the things concerning the
-
Kingdom? Because what did John the
-
Baptist preach? He said repent, for the Kingdom
-
of heaven is now within your reach.
-
So these guys are following him. Well, you know how they did it
-
tells us they were on the night shift in that what Peter said,
-
Lord, we fished all night. So those guys were on the night
-
shift. So during the day, they had the
-
opportunity to follow John around, listen to his teaching
-
and involved. Really.
-
I think probably they got together with John about 4:30 in
-
the afternoon on Sunday till about 8:45.
-
What do you think of that? Does that sound familiar?
-
There's a big group going through that kind of
-
discipleship right now on Sunday evenings, intense teaching.
-
But yet they found the they found that they wanted to be
-
disciples, even though they had a career.
-
I was going to be the same thing.
-
I said, you know, I'm not going to be moved by everybody wanting
-
to send me to seminary and Bible college and everything else.
-
I said I'm going to do what I feel like the Lord wants me to
-
do, but I am not going to neglect the discipleship factor
-
in my life. It is a standard in the Kingdom
-
of God. And if you're doing anything
-
less, I I hate to tell you you're missing it.
-
OK, Let me give you another illustration of what Jesus said,
-
John 831 through 32, Listen to this.
-
Jesus said to those Jews that believed on him, OK, that was a
-
good day in Jesus ministry. He finally had somebody
-
believing, didn't want to, you know, take him, push him off a
-
Cliff, or stoning him to death. That was a good day, he said to
-
those Jews that believed on him. And he said, if you continue in
-
my word, then are you my disciples?
-
Indeed, he said, you will know the truth and the truth shall
-
make you free. Now when he said in there the
-
word the word continue in the Greek is the word mayno.
-
And the word mayno mainly basically paints the picture of
-
dwelling somewhere, sitting down, staying.
-
He said, if you continue now notice what he said in my word,
-
then are you a disciple? That makes sense because what is
-
a disciple again, it's a student.
-
A student of what? Of the words that Jesus spoke.
-
And then he says in there, And you will know the truth.
-
And the truth shall set you free.
-
I've said this for years. It's not the truth that sets you
-
free. It's the truth you know that
-
sets you free. The only way you can get to know
-
the truth is spend time in it. All right.
-
You know, if you're confused like Pilot was, He said what is
-
truth? What Jesus told us.
-
John 1717 All right, John 1717 says this.
-
Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth.
-
It's an absolute. It's not situational.
-
All right, he tells us in there. Matthew 1025.
-
I think it's interesting because one of the things that Jesus
-
tells he said this. He said it is enough that the
-
disciple be as his master and that the servant be as his Lord.
-
So we haven't done enough. If we are not like Jesus, we are
-
not and we have not done enough if those that the Lord is placed
-
over our lives, that we have done everything we can to serve
-
them and take care of them. It says it is enough when you've
-
accomplished that. Some of us are still in the
-
process and we'll always be in the process of doing what Being
-
like our masters, being like, you know, the to teach the
-
Kingdom of God. When we came down here, I, the
-
Lord told me in 2007 during a Black Friday, never forget it.
-
And I was sitting before the Lord and I usually spent time
-
during that time because everybody's out shopping or
-
they're sleeping because they was out all night shopping.
-
And I just get with the Lord and I say, hey man, I got a month
-
left, 30 days. I said, what have I missed?
-
What can you help me with? Where do I need to be by the
-
time we wrap this year, end up. And the Lord spoke to me and he
-
told me two things. He said, number one, he said,
-
you're not king to mind it enough.
-
What does that mean? And and I'm sitting there
-
waiting, you know, hoping I'm going to get something else.
-
And I didn't get nothing else except, he said, And I'm going
-
to increase your teaching ministry.
-
No sooner did he say that the next few weeks, all the areas
-
that I was teaching, they dismantled those classes.
-
I said, what him? Was I listening?
-
Was I paying attention? But the thing was, he had me.
-
He had me on a path. And as a disciple, you got to
-
stay on the path. And I come down here in 2009 and
-
I'm still trying to figure out this Kingdom thing.
-
I started studying the Kingdom. I looked up every scripture on
-
the Kingdom. Pastor David E my taught had
-
told me, I'm going to give you 2 Wednesday nights.
-
You're going to teach on the Kingdom.
-
And I had no idea what I was talking about.
-
It was it was amazing how and and and that's it.
-
That's the interesting part of the of the word revelation in
-
the Greek. It is the word apacalupto, OK?
-
And it means an unveiling or pulling back a curtain.
-
Can't see if the curtains closed.
-
And here I am doing all this study, trying to get it the best
-
I can. And it wasn't until I got down
-
here May of 2009. We got here Tuesday at about,
-
what, 3:00 in the morning, and I'm supposed to go with Pastor
-
Earl and Marcy to a conference in North SC, one of them
-
Carolinas. And by the time we got here, I
-
was so exhausted. He looked at me.
-
He said, you're not going nowhere.
-
He said you need to recover. I said, man, if it wasn't for
-
them dogs that we had to bring down, man, we'd been down here
-
sooner. I promise.
-
I said we had two dogs and a cat and and good Lord, we get here
-
and I didn't get to go that weekend, that end of the week.
-
That's when pastor heard the message of the Kingdom for the
-
first time and I missed it. It was, I couldn't believe it
-
and to see where we are because he taught us for a month, you
-
know, on the unseen principle. And then he unloads One Sunday
-
morning, June the 7th, 2009, the message of the Kingdom and I I
-
am not kidding. I mean it was life changing.
-
The light came on, ripped the curtain in half.
-
Seems to be a habit with the Lord ripping them curtains in
-
half, right? And man, we haven't been the
-
same since. Melanie looked over at me after
-
that and she goes, I have waited my whole life to hear this
-
message. Do me a favor brother and
-
sister. Don't take that message for
-
granted. You know, pastors teaching on
-
the Kingdom, do not thou shalt not take that message for
-
granted. You ought to be every time he
-
talks about it. It ought to be resonate in you
-
and continue to build and to grow in you.
-
That it is just it. It comes out of you so freely
-
because it is what is missing in the earth today.
-
Now let me give you a couple other scriptures going to come.
-
We're going to have to move on. All right?
-
OK said act 1711. This this particular passage
-
listened to it. It said these were more noble
-
than those in so that's all the NICA in that they received the
-
word with all readiness of nine and searched the scriptures
-
daily whether those things were so.
-
A disciple will search the scriptures daily.
-
How many times this pastor said it?
-
I have said it. I said this before pastor.
-
I even met Pastor, I said. You do not have to listen to a
-
word I say, and I encourage you don't.
-
If you hear something that strikes a chord, go search it
-
out. Prove it to yourself.
-
The word in their search in the original language is anacrino.
-
Anacrino in its in its simplest it means to scrutinize, to
-
investigate, to interrogate, to ask, to question, to examine, to
-
discern. The picture is a of an attorney
-
cross examining. So, you know, when an attorney
-
has you give your testimony, then there's going to be another
-
attorney to make sure your story is the same.
-
You want to make sure your story's the same when you're
-
talking about the word of God. You want your story.
-
You want your accuracy the same as the Bible.
-
That's what I'm teaching Titus and the grandkids right now know
-
what you're talking about when it comes to the Bible.
-
All right, now here's the sad part of of my education.
-
I felt like I was at a lull. Biblically and the studying that
-
I was doing and I just knew that there was more to being able to
-
understand the original languages of the Bible.
-
And in 1988 I met somebody else. His name is Rick Renner.
-
Pastor quotes him often. I absolutely fell in love with
-
Rick. I'm sitting there thinking when
-
he began to breakdown the Greek and the and the different things
-
there and I thought I found him and he and he he was he was kind
-
of he was kind of funny because he the first thing he did when
-
he got up on stage his first time we met he goes look at here
-
and he pulled up both Panth legs and he had two different colors
-
of socks on. Well he's my kind of guy
-
seriously. And so I and so you know, and
-
and guess what I did after he got done, I did the same thing
-
to him than I did to Doctor Harmon, Can I see your Bible?
-
And I said he goes, yeah, he goes, you can see this over
-
there in front row. And I sat down and I opened that
-
Bible and it was like, and I looked inside his Bible and it
-
was written down all the Greek that you could bathe in.
-
And and I said, and and I looked at it and I said, oh, this is a
-
wide margin Bible. He's written all this stuff.
-
I went and got me a wide margin Bible.
-
Remember that scripture? It is enough that a disciple be
-
as his master. And I began to write little.
-
I can write real small and you give me a sharp pencil.
-
I can write real little. And I started taking Greek notes
-
and and Hebrew notes and I started going there.
-
Pastor David E My was well versed in in a lot of that type
-
of teaching and I was just writing and did.
-
And then I had an opportunity to go to Africa and I was 17 days
-
in Africa and the Lord told me, he said, he said you might want
-
to make some copies of some of them pages that you prize so
-
much because you're going to leave that Bible in Africa.
-
What? Man, I found me a copier, right?
-
I was going to make copies of these notes, right?
-
And I did. I left it in Africa.
-
I was getting ready to get on the plane the 4th day and we
-
were there 17 days. And I was getting ready to get
-
on the plane and the Lord says that's the guy.
-
And I'm thinking to myself, man, I got like 13 days left.
-
I didn't bring a spare. I had pictured in my mind, I'm
-
going to get on the plane leaving, coming back to home and
-
I'm going to leave it with some brother, you know.
-
And and the Lord said he's the guy.
-
And I looked at him and he was carrying a Gideon Pocket Bible,
-
New Testament. And I said, is that what you
-
preach from when you have your congregation?
-
Is that, he said. That's all I have.
-
Not anymore. And as a matter of fact, I came
-
back from that trip and bought every one of those pastors of
-
Greek Hebrew Study Bible. Now the the freight alone was
-
more expensive than the books because they were all hard back
-
and heavy. But I wanted them to have it
-
because they they loved that teaching.
-
Getting back to the original language, the Holy Spirit, you
-
know, made sure that he had recorded for us to understand.
-
See the what I learned from Rick.
-
And this was interesting because I began to follow Rick and and
-
get his teaching tapes and he had a tape table like everybody
-
else. I bought everything.
-
I own every book he has. I have them all in hardback.
-
I have a complete shrine set up with Rick Renner stuff on it.
-
All right. And he did a series on tape and
-
I couldn't go. And there again, I'm
-
disappointed, right? And he did it, understanding the
-
Greek New Testament. And he did a seminar at a hotel
-
for two nights and I didn't get to go.
-
But thank you, Jesus. I got the VH S's.
-
And I've been through those VH S's.
-
I went through a minimum, minimum, all four, eight hours,
-
10 times minimum. And I began and I and I had the
-
opportunity to begin to teach the same thing he was teaching
-
in in our school in Oklahoma called School of Life.
-
Now the thing was, though, I get to about the third week of class
-
and they start talking ugly about me because it's not easy,
-
you know, to get that. But this is just the simple
-
stuff. It was recognizing words and how
-
that. But one of the things that Rick
-
said about the Greek New Testament, he said it is the
-
most picturesque language man has ever been involved with and
-
that we translate one word. But there's a whole picture that
-
it paints and you can't do it in just one word.
-
Let me give you an example real quick.
-
In Evisions, chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, I don't have it.
-
In my notes 11 and 12 it says that he gave some apostles,
-
prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers for the equipping of
-
the Saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the
-
body of Christ. That's what it says, the word
-
equipping in there. All right.
-
And and, and, and You have to understand that some of these
-
words came not from deity, but came from the culture.
-
The word in the Greek is the word catartismos.
-
And the word catartismos means the setting of a bone.
-
It is a medical term. So when he gave the fivefold
-
ministry, what was their job? Number one is to put us in the
-
body, in the right place. Then he's gonna let us know that
-
if you're a bicep, you get to work, If your legs, you got to
-
walk around, just don't sit on your blessed assurance all the
-
time. But see, you don't get that from
-
the word equipping. What do you think?
-
Equipping. You know get a backpack or you
-
know get your tools ready for the job site.
-
No, he said. The setting of a bone, he's
-
going to place you. He is given that fivefold
-
ministry to be able to get you in the place you need to be so
-
that the body can function without pain.
-
All right. So when we take a look at said
-
the last, the last scripture I have for this section and this
-
particular standard, remember it's it's the study of the word
-
of God. It's not just the reading of it,
-
the passive reading of the word of God.
-
But you got to be a reader. If you don't read it, you're not
-
going to want to study it. All right.
-
But what is second Timothy 215 Tell us study to show yourself
-
approved unto God a Workman that need not be ashamed, rightly
-
dividing the word of truth that word study.
-
And I'm I'm I'm glad they translated it like that.
-
But the word study is the word spude in the Greek.
-
And what it means is to be quick and and and fast and
-
businesslike, taking whatever you're doing extremely serious
-
but being quick about it. And and then it goes on and it
-
says do what? Be quick about making yourself
-
approved unto God. See, you don't have it.
-
And and and Ki students, listen. You're not trying to impress us
-
as instructors. You're trying to impress the
-
Lord. You want him.
-
You want his stamp of approval on your life.
-
And I love that. I was.
-
I visited right before pastor left.
-
I said I I learned something. The Greek word docky Moss is the
-
word approved. And it was basically a banking
-
term and it is how they rated coins back then.
-
And a Docky Moss was somebody that was at the highest level of
-
integrity when it came to their coinage.
-
They didn't have clipped edges that they would try to clip the
-
edges. So nobody'd noticed and they'd
-
hang on and they'd gather that up and they would have more
-
money, but they would give him a coin for a specific, a specific
-
amount. A documos was a person that was
-
noted for their honesty and for the trueness of their trade.
-
That is what he says in there. We need to be approved under God
-
as what the real deal. Now notice what he said a
-
Workman that need not be ashamed.
-
And I one day I asked the Lord, I said, well how is a Workman is
-
shaved And he began to he began to give me an illustration.
-
The illustration was he said you can take it in any trade, let's
-
say air conditioning or electricians.
-
You know, if you're an electrician, you probably got a
-
pair of wire cutters, A screwdriver and A and A and a
-
spool of wire, and you got a trade, and they're supposed to
-
train you and you're supposed to do it.
-
But then if they let you out solo to do something and you
-
mess it all up, you're going to be ashamed.
-
Well, you know, we have Christians, and they have a
-
pencil in their pocket and the Bible in one hand, a notebook in
-
another hand, and somebody comes up and asks them, how come you
-
believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost?
-
Well, because my church does, and you cannot show them in
-
Scripture why you believe in the baptism, the Holy Spirit with
-
the evidence, and speaking in tongues.
-
You need to be ashamed and any other question that someone has
-
about why you believe what you believe.
-
If you cannot tell them in Scripture, you need to be a what
-
you you. You need to be ashamed of
-
yourself. But then he says, rightly
-
dividing the word of truth. Why does that?
-
Why is that? What does that mean?
-
And why is that important? Because it can be.
-
And Pastor said this has taught us this before, that it can be
-
wrongly. It's implied.
-
It could be wrongly divided. You know, I mean there's And
-
here's how you know. Jot this down if you're taking
-
notes. I I teach this all the time.
-
All right? Everything.
-
I learned this years ago when I first got tapped into the Word
-
of Faith. Okay, one of the the guys that I
-
followed as far as out of California.
-
He taught camp meeting for years and he said this never, never
-
forgot it. And this is what he said.
-
Everything in the Bible is truly stated, but not everything in
-
the Bible is a statement of truth.
-
And I said he's a heretic. And then he explained it.
-
He said everything in the Bible is truly stated.
-
In other words, it was completely recorded the way it
-
happened. But not everything in the Bible
-
is a statement of truth. What does that mean?
-
That means that the Bible was recorded exactly.
-
It happened. And some of the people that said
-
stuff in the Bible were not inspired by God.
-
To say it in order you've got to be able to rightly divide and
-
and one of the greatest illustrations is the the 12
-
spies that went into the promised land.
-
And when they came out they gave a report.
-
I can promise you they were not inspired by God to give that
-
report but it was recorded exactly the way they said it and
-
it said the people cried all night, said God called it evil.
-
Why was it evil? Because it was contrary to his
-
report. His report said go search out
-
the land which I give. I've already given it to you.
-
You can go check it out. And they came back and said
-
we're not able to do it, man, they're giants there.
-
Only two guys made it. My sons.
-
Why do you think I named him Joshua and Caleb?
-
You think that was by chance? It just sounded good.
-
No? If names mean anything and they
-
mean a lot, I'm giving them a head start.
-
So you think about it. Those two guys made it.
-
Why? Because they immediately said we
-
are well able to go up and possess this land.
-
Let us go up at once and possess it, for they are bred for us.
-
And everybody said now majority rules and and you know what I
-
just, I love them two guys and my sons too, because they had to
-
take the punishment and live through the punishment of 40
-
years. And they were both in their 40s
-
when this whole deal started because Caleb came up to Joshua
-
and said, I'm 85 and I'm as strong as a day that we went and
-
searched out the land so God was able to preserve him.
-
But they still had to put up with all that murmuring and
-
complaining and continuing on. You know, I mean, if a triune
-
would have had the vote, if God told him, he said step out of
-
the way, I'm gonna smote him and I'm gonna start over.
-
And he said, now I can't do it, Lord, you know, every time they
-
messed up you, you look. And Moses is on his face, always
-
on his face, interceding for them.
-
Always. All right.
-
So when we we talk about, we talk about the study, we have
-
got to, we have got to take that perspective.
-
Brothers, sisters, we've got to become more than casual readers.
-
We have got to make up our mind. I don't care what your
-
occupation is. I don't care that you're never
-
going to be in the ministry. The only thing that matters,
-
what did Jesus say? Heaven and earth will pass away,
-
but my word will abide. It will be here forever.
-
It'd be a good idea to get to know it.
-
You believe that? All right, here we go, 835 Ooh,
-
all right. Standard #2.
-
I got 4 standards here, and we're not going to make it.
-
And I still don't feel that annoying.
-
So listen to this. Here's the second standard for
-
the Kingdom of God. Faith is the only currency that
-
is accepted when needing to bring something from the unseen
-
realm to the scene realm. Your need will not bring it.
-
You crying, you worrying, you being distraught, getting
-
argumentative, being touchy, being freckful will not bring
-
what you need. God's not moved by none of that.
-
In fact, he's kind of probably surprised you're all up in that.
-
But let me give you the Greek word.
-
That's all right. The Greek word for faith is very
-
well known. There's no misunderstanding.
-
It is the word pistis, PISTIS. And here's the definition.
-
It is a firm persuasion or a conviction, and if you did
-
really, really deep into that, you'll find out that it
-
basically deals with the subject of hearing.
-
So basically you can say that faith is, is, is is related to
-
the fact of something that you hear and something that you hear
-
that you are firmly convinced and firmly persuaded.
-
Another definition I love is this.
-
Complete and total trust in God and His word.
-
Complete and total. Not hope.
-
So not. I really wish this would happen.
-
You have got to understand that when God deals in faith, it is
-
going to be based upon the fact that he never lies, right Mark
-
11/24 put it up. Well let's start in 22.
-
You know, you know the account the county is.
-
Jesus is headed to a town and he's hungry and he sees a fig
-
tree far off, has leaves on it, and he's thinking, I wonder if
-
there's figs on that walks up to it.
-
And I've often said if I was a fig tree and I saw my creator
-
headed my direction, I'd be popping figs quickly.
-
In fact, anybody ever seen The Wizard of Oz, the movie?
-
And then trees take him apples and start throwing them out.
-
I'd have been throwing them figs.
-
Jesus comes up to the tree. Very curious word.
-
He answered the tree and say it right.
-
It's not in it, not on the board yet.
-
All right, he said. Answered the tree and said, No
-
man eat fruit of you here after forever.
-
And he says and the disciples hurt it.
-
So Jesus cursed this fig tree for not taking care of his
-
needs. And I thought it was interesting
-
he answered it. So it must have said something
-
other than I ain't none here, because the the response that
-
Jesus gave that tree was total annihilation.
-
Next day they come through, they noticed the tree had been
-
withered at the root. Verse 22.
-
All right, well 21. Peter says muster.
-
Look at the tree you cursed. Is that it's withered away from
-
the root. Verse 22.
-
Then Jesus said have faith in God, right?
-
Well, better translation. And I, and I've confirmed this,
-
it's true because the word God is is a possessive, is in its
-
possessive form, and it means he owns it.
-
And it says have the faith of God.
-
So we need to understand God must have some faith, and it
-
would be to our benefit again if we were able to find out what
-
that faith is and begin to live in it.
-
And he tells us what it is in the next verse, verse 23.
-
For verily, I say unto you, that whoever else shall say to this
-
mountain, be thou removed, be cast into the sea, and shall not
-
doubt in his heart, but believe that those things which he says
-
shall come to pass, he will have whatsoever he says.
-
And then in verse 24 he says, verse that I love and I teach,
-
and I used it to defeat cancer in my life.
-
When the hospital introduced me to the end of life, counselor,
-
and later admitted they knew that I was going to die.
-
And I use this verse to get that cancer out.
-
Because Jesus said this. He said, whosoever shall say to
-
this mountain be thou removed and be cast in the sea.
-
But notice the next phrase, pay attention to the next phrase,
-
because he said and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe
-
that the things he says shall come to pass.
-
He'll have what he says. It didn't say, you know, believe
-
in your heart that whatever God wants to do, he said use your
-
mouth like God used his mouth to create all of eternity.
-
So he said you've got to believe what you say.
-
You know what the problem is? A lot of believers, they don't
-
really believe what they say because they sometimes don't say
-
the truth. I mean how you going to convince
-
yourself when you're lying all the time or you're telling
-
things that are false? Or you're talking about other
-
people, things that are false. Yeah, it's going to be difficult
-
for you to engage in this verse because it says you must believe
-
the things that you say come to pass.
-
Now notice what he said. Therefore I say unto you, what
-
things so ever you desire. When you pray, believe that you
-
receive them and you shall have them.
-
I've never taught this verse without asking this question.
-
Let me read it again, or I'll quote it.
-
Therefore I say to you, what thinks soever you desire when
-
you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have
-
them. Here's the question.
-
According to that verse, what did Jesus say you would have?
-
Every time I ask that question, somebody answers what you
-
desire. Well, looks like it.
-
What things soever you desire. Yeah, he said.
-
When you pray, when you whatever you pray for, he said.
-
Whatever you believe for anybody, can you get that out of
-
there? Let me give you what I have
-
quoted for years and it makes a difference between life and
-
death, he says in there. Therefore I say to you what
-
things so ever you desire. When you pray, believe you
-
receive them and you shall have them.
-
The only thing Jesus said in that verse that you will have is
-
what you believed you received at the time of asking.
-
A lot of people don't like that, but it's the truth.
-
It has saved my life because I didn't.
-
Here's the thing. I let pastor know you can have
-
all the prayer, prayer lines that you want to have, but I'm
-
not coming. I told him that.
-
I said I'm not coming, and the only time that I ever came to a
-
prayer line was he called me down and had a word for me.
-
And it was the next word I needed.
-
Every time. Every time.
-
But I wasn't coming down. Why?
-
Because I'd already made-up my mind.
-
I was healed. Even though the doctors tell me
-
you're dying, you look like you're dying.
-
You smell like you're dying. Everything about you says you're
-
dying. And when I got introduced to the
-
end of life, Counselor and Melanie's pushing me down the
-
hallway in a wheelchair and a body brace because the cancer
-
had eating up my spine and everything else.
-
She's bawling. She's crying.
-
I can't see her. I can't turn around and look at
-
her in the eye. I said what are you crying
-
about? And she said that was the worst
-
report that we had since we've been here.
-
I've been there, I've been in the hospital since August and
-
this was October. I and and I just finished chemo,
-
4 rounds of it back-to-back. And she said that was the worst
-
report. And I said, yeah, I know that
-
was bad, but I said but it this is how this is going to turn
-
out. Psalms 117, verse 18 says you
-
will not die, you will live and you will show the glory of God.
-
I said, honey, we keep coming back to every appointment until
-
their report lines up with my report.
-
End of it. They asked me did you ever
-
doubt? No, I did not doubt.
-
Why? Because James tells us in the
-
first chapter. He said if you doubt, you get to
-
start over. Man, I've been in this too long
-
hurting too bad to be starting over.
-
It's the truth on there. I, you know, I said no, I ain't
-
starting over. I said my report is what I'm
-
going on. And and and and was it was it?
-
It was it was a lot of pain. But I tell you what I asked
-
Melanie the other day. I said we didn't miss church.
-
I was in the back, right back there, in the very back.
-
I had my wheelchair tucked in there and they said, well,
-
couldn't you walk? Yeah, I could walk, but not real
-
fast. And when you got to go to the
-
bathroom, somebody decided to have a facility that had a
-
bathroom a mile down the hall. I wrote an article about it one
-
time, called It All Depends. I did because I was dependent
-
because then it just, man, I I go to Starbucks, the bell has
-
rung. I get, I get to Starbucks.
-
I get. I hit the handle.
-
It's locked. Wait yourself, just what
-
happens? Your mind just give up, you
-
know? But what is it?
-
Don't doubt. Jesus tells us right here the
-
only currency is the medium of exchange to get the unseen.
-
To come into the scene is faith. Total trust in God's word.
-
No doubt you can't doubt, right? So he he tells us in there that
-
the things that we desire when we pray, we've got to believe we
-
receive them. At the time of asking.
-
That's why I wasn't coming down to another prayer line, because
-
what was I telling the Lord? I didn't get it.
-
I didn't get it. Well, I'll tell you what, I got
-
it and I ain't letting go. I am not letting go.
-
And the fact that I'm and you know what, that was 2010, and
-
that year I was declared cancer free, they said we don't
-
understand it. We can't explain it, they said,
-
but there's not an there's not any cancer in your body.
-
And I and and he said chemotherapy doesn't do that.
-
I said, wish I'd have known that before the chemotherapy.
-
Wish you all have done a few more tests.
-
God's faithful, God's faithful. But faith is a standard.
-
Faith is a standard. It does not change.
-
His word does not change how much time we got left.
-
All right, I'm going to give you one more.
-
Number 30, Lord. All right, here we go.
-
Rapid fire. This is a this is a rapid ground
-
right here. OK.
-
Jesus himself gave us the standard for prayer.
-
You know, you have to ask you a question.
-
Jesus many times is recorded in the morning.
-
He'd get up early to go pray. You'd find him praying all
-
night, questioning what was he praying about?
-
I mean, Lord, we don't have rent money.
-
You know my donkey threw a shoe. I know Jesus was praying for.
-
He's praying for us and he's still praying for us.
-
Ever live it to make intercession for us?
-
Here's the standard Matthew chapter 69 through 13, and we're
-
going to wrap it up with it. And I'm just going to have to
-
beg. Pastor, let me keep going some
-
other time. Matthew 6, nine through 13, it's
-
very commonly called the Lord's Prayer.
-
Everybody familiar with it? OK, one of the things that I
-
need to let you know, the scholars agree that the Lord's
-
Prayer was not a prayer for us to memorize and say we've
-
prayed. It is a rabbinical outline.
-
So that means that God gave a skeleton that we need to flesh
-
out and Jesus taught that way. Many times a disciple said man,
-
we need a clue what you were talking about when he gave a
-
parable, he said, can you expound that?
-
He'd always expound it. He didn't want them in the dark.
-
He wanted them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
-
from the gospel. All right.
-
But this one here said after this manner, and we're going to
-
break this down as fast as I can after this manner.
-
Therefore, pray ye our Father, which are in heaven, how it be
-
thy name. All right, when we talk about
-
how it would be thy name, remember we went back and we
-
talked about a couple of those. The outline is this.
-
We just don't walk around saying how it'd be the name, how it'd
-
be the name. When you spend time with the
-
Lord, you want to remind him of his names.
-
Father, I thank you that you are Jehovah Jira.
-
I thank you that you are Jehovah Rafah.
-
I thank you that you are Jehovah Shalom, my peace.
-
Jehovah Niecy, my banner all through the Old Testament.
-
If you look up the word standard in the Old Testament, it's
-
always about a flag, he told them.
-
You will make a flag for each one of your tribes and post it
-
by your area so that you'll know where you're going.
-
Firstly, I'm sure, but it was a banner to let them know who they
-
belong to. Anybody seen the statue of Iwo
-
Jima? It's got the soldiers raising up
-
the American flag everywhere. The flag is is territory owned
-
by the United States. That's why they fly the flag
-
over embassies. Or the ambassador has control of
-
that flag. It's to let him know that
-
country owns it. It's the same thing.
-
The standard that we have. The Lord owns us.
-
OK, We let we are owned by Him. So we spend a few minutes in our
-
prayer life with him on the holiness of His name.
-
All right. The next one thy Kingdom come,
-
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
-
Couple of areas You want to spend time talking to the Lord
-
about the Kingdom coming. Number one is you.
-
You want to spend time letting the Lord know you are totally
-
submitted to him. You want to check yourself every
-
day to the submission of the lordship of Christ.
-
Luke 646 Jesus has the disciples a question.
-
He's still asking it today. He said, Why do you call me
-
Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say whoa and he's a sick.
-
You have no right to call me Lord if you're not going to do
-
what I tell you to do. Because Lord is the word curios
-
in the Greek and it means owner. He's owner by the right of
-
creation. But once you confess Jesus as
-
Lord, as the only way of getting in the Kingdom, it's not going
-
down front like I did when I was a little kid and I was 10 years
-
old. And I went down front and they
-
said pray this prayer with me. You know, ask God to forgive you
-
of your sins, ask Jesus to come into your heart and you'll be
-
saved. Guess what I found out None of
-
that's in the Bible. I hate to shock you, but there's
-
no place in Scripture where it says come down and confess all
-
your sins. Some people would be still doing
-
it. And who can remember them all?
-
And then he, what does he say? He goes on and tell you.
-
He says, and and he said, And then they said they they said,
-
well, you know, ask Jesus to come in your heart.
-
There is no place that you ask Jesus to come in your heart.
-
It is not in the Bible. There's one thing that you're
-
supposed to say with your mouth, and that is you are my Lord.
-
Period. That's the only way into the
-
Kingdom. The only way.
-
So when we see that we want to pray over ourselves, you want to
-
spend time asking the Kingdom come will be done in your
-
family, in our church. How about our pastors?
-
How about our city, state and nation, the world, all of our
-
missionaries? Do we not want the the, the, the
-
Kingdom of God to be produced in their life?
-
Absolutely we do. That is the time during that
-
part of your prayer to do that. Third thing, give us this day,
-
Our Daily Bread 2 Two types. One's your spiritual bread.
-
Father, what word am I going to need today to get me through
-
whatever's going to be coming? Jesus said it.
-
John 1633. He tells you right there.
-
He said, you know you're going to have tribulation,
-
tribulations coming, they said, but be of good cheer.
-
I have overcome the world, but what scriptures are you going to
-
need? I heard somebody say one time.
-
He said we're like coffee mugs and when somebody bumps your
-
mug, you'll find out what's inside because it's coming all
-
out all over you. He said we need to make sure
-
what's on the inside when trouble hits is the word of God.
-
You want to be a person of great faith.
-
The Bible tells us how to do it. Speak the word only.
-
That's how you become a person of great faith.
-
When trouble hits or something goes on or something, you get a
-
bad report. What is the first thing out of
-
your mouth? I hope it's not.
-
Oh God, what are we going to do? You better find a word.
-
Get the word on it. All right, give us a day.
-
Spiritual bread, then natural bread.
-
Father, I think either you've met every need that we have.
-
Every bill is paid in full. We all know, man, anything.
-
But to love them you got to you got to speak like that.
-
All right, The next one he says. And forgive us of our debts is
-
we forgive our debtors. Here's the thing.
-
Always examine yourself, especially after a
-
confrontation. Are you going to rehearse
-
everything they said over and over and over and tell it sows a
-
little seed of bitterness? Can't afford that.
-
That'll give you cancer. I know from experience.
-
But he tells us in there, he said always examine yourself.
-
1st Corinthians 1131 is it's. I don't have it up on the board,
-
but it it said judge yourself that you be not judged.
-
You need to take a look at you. You need to make sure you're
-
straight. You need to make sure you got
-
the log out of your eye, right. I had a I had it one time.
-
I taught a lesson on check your eyes for railroad ties before
-
you want to clean somebody else up.
-
Make sure you're clean, OK? And then I put in there.
-
You need to live in a spirit of forgiveness.
-
That is just continual. Jesus did it, Father.
-
Forgive them. They know not what they're
-
doing. My gosh people, all right,
-
Matthew verse 6 and and and verse 13 said lead us not into
-
temptation but deliver us from evil.
-
All right. Jesus told the disciples the
-
night that he was betrayed. In Matthew chapter 26, verse 41
-
he said watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.
-
So it's apparent to me temptations coming.
-
But the way we keep from entering into that temptation is
-
by watching and praying. Does that make sense?
-
So we always need to be we need to be watching.
-
We need to be praying. We need to be listening.
-
All right. And I think it's interesting
-
that when he said that, lead us not into temptation but deliver
-
us from evil. And the Greek bears out the evil
-
one. But Psalms 91, every morning I
-
can hear Melanie. She has memorized the whole
-
thing. And then I'll get.
-
I'll pick up wherever I wake up and listen, all right.
-
She she quotes the whole thing over our family, over everybody
-
in this church. She prays over the mall and
-
nobody's going to be tripping and falling and hurting
-
themselves. And we're not having any
-
accidents. We're not.
-
She praised Psalms 91. I I believe that is a part of
-
our prayer. God loves to hear you remind him
-
of his word. That's why Jesus said you're
-
going to worship me in spirit and in truth.
-
And when we come to Father the war, he says, you worship me and
-
worship me in spirit, which for us now is the ability to pray in
-
that unknown tongue. But he said, and truth what he
-
say. Truth was His word.
-
So we need to be bringing our His word to him, and then to
-
wrap it up. Isaiah 5417 in the arena.
-
Protection is no weapon formed against us will prosper, he
-
said. Every tongue that is shall rise
-
against you in judgment. You will condemn.
-
This is the heritage of better translation is this is an
-
inheritance. Everybody loves an inheritance.
-
And he said this is the inheritance of the servants of
-
the Lord. And their righteousness is of
-
me, says the Lord, It's an inheritance.
-
So hopefully we have discovered tonight.
-
And Marcus, you can go ahead and come that we've discovered
-
tonight a little bit of what God expects out of us as Kingdom
-
citizens, that he has the standards they're written, and
-
we shouldn't have any problem whatsoever adhering to him,
-
because God would never require anything out of us that we
-
couldn't do. But he's letting us know.
-
Hey, listen, I need you to become a disciple.
-
I need you to become a student, he said.
-
I need you to be, you know, a person that is walks in faith.
-
You believe what I said and you're going to show the world
-
that God will move on your behalf by your faith.
-
So, Father, we thank you and praise you for your word.
-
We thank you said it divides forever and we will be abiding
-
with it. For you said we'll know the
-
truth. The truth will make us free.
-
And Father God, we want to be people of the truth.
-
We want to be Kingdom citizens encouraging people to come to
-
our country. We want to praise you for that.
-
You know, this this evening you may and I was, I was going to,
-
you know, give the normal, you know, invitation, you know, and
-
I think it's interesting we call it an invitation where we ask
-
people, hey, if you've never made Jesus Lord of your life.
-
But did you know Jesus did not make an invitation?
-
In fact, God says that he wants winked at the sin of man, but
-
now he gives everyone a commandment.
-
It's not an invitation, it's a commandment.
-
Make me Lord. Make him Lord.
-
If you've never done that, I encourage you come down the
-
front. We've got people that that want
-
to minister to you. But the question that I've got
-
for you is that you may need to re up your commitment in your
-
arena of discipleship. You might need to re up your
-
commitment in your prayer life, in your faith talk.
-
You may have been running your mouth lately on things that are
-
nonprofitable to you, your family.
-
You know people that you know that you you know running your
-
mouth to people that they don't understand.
-
You know why you're you. You say you're all this and
-
Jesus and you have a great church and all this stuff, but
-
yet you you talk like somebody defeated.
-
Change that tonight. Repent.
-
Change your thinking and change your actions.
-
Can you do that? I encourage you to do that.
-
Thank you so much for listening to this message.
-
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