Sermon

Kingdom Standards with Randy Clay

Anchor Faith Church

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  1. Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

  2. from St. Augustine, FL.

  3. Now enjoy this message. Your Bible's out.

  4. I hope you brought your Bible. Nowadays it's, you know,

  5. electronic devices and everything else.

  6. I just kind of stick with the paper.

  7. Anybody bring a paper Bible tonight?

  8. Yeah, I got it. You know those paper Bibles are

  9. fabulous, especially when your battery is dead on your phone.

  10. Amen. Hallelujah.

  11. This evening I am going to be sharing with you some saying.

  12. I'm going to give you a little background about myself when it

  13. comes to the right time for illustration of some things.

  14. But tonight I am going to be discussing with you Kingdom

  15. Standards and I I kind of wanted to start it out because there's

  16. a particular administration in the United States.

  17. That I've had a particular interest in, I guess and a

  18. following if you would say. And it really affected the the

  19. career that I got involved in early and in Melanie and I's

  20. marriage and you may have heard of it, it's the Occupational

  21. Safety and Health Administration, everybody,

  22. everybody familiar that you ever heard of it?

  23. Few hands. We in the Midwest, we call it

  24. OSHA, all right. And I don't know where the how

  25. why we call it OSHA because it all almost ought to be OSHA.

  26. Because occupational it starts with an AH, not an O right, but

  27. we call it OSHA. And OSHA is responsible for

  28. keeping the employment workplace, a place of safety, a

  29. place of health. And they have what they call

  30. regulations and one of the the the things that they have

  31. published and it is massive, it is not just one volume, it is

  32. multiple volumes of what they call the CFR which is the Code

  33. of Federal Regulations. And if you are an employer or

  34. you're someone that is employing people, it, it behooves you to

  35. be able to be familiar with a little thing, a little, a few

  36. little things in that code that they have so that you can stay

  37. safe. Your people can stay safe, all

  38. right. And.

  39. And it's designed for that. But one of the things that I

  40. found out that there is an institute and it's called the

  41. American National Standards Institute.

  42. And they are the ones that regulate the funniest things.

  43. For instance, one of the one of the things that I found out and

  44. in Oklahoma, I have a company that manufacturers OSHA

  45. regulated safety signs. The Lord dealt with me early on

  46. and he said, do you want to print a sign that, you know

  47. maybe somebody will buy? Or do you want to print a sign

  48. that the government makes you buy?

  49. And I found this out that in business, you know the more you

  50. can sell of one thing is better than trying to sell one thing,

  51. you know, multiple times. All right.

  52. And so I I found out that you know how many of you all have

  53. seen a danger high voltage sign, you seen that has a red Oval,

  54. right. And the word danger in there is

  55. in white. That's regulated by ANTSY, or

  56. the American Standards and National Standards Institute.

  57. They tell you not only what the shape of Oval needs to be, but

  58. they also tell you what size the letter needs to be in there,

  59. what the stroke of the font needs to be, what the sign is

  60. supposed to look like. They had a change just a few

  61. years ago, which I loved it because everybody had to buy a

  62. brand new signs. And so you know when when I was,

  63. I was meditating on the standards of the Kingdom that we

  64. do have a volume that we can take a look at and I am going to

  65. go over some standards tonight. They come from the word of God

  66. that will impact your life. And if you listen to me and take

  67. a few notes, I think that I can help you if you're struggling in

  68. any of the areas of standards that I communicate tonight.

  69. Is that alright? I'm going to start with the very

  70. first one, the very first set of standards that we have.

  71. It's found in Exodus chapter 20, verses 3 through 17.

    Exodus 20:3–17

  72. They're going to put it up on the board and I'm going to go

  73. through these and I want you, I want you to know that when God

  74. decided that he wanted a people to himself cut covenant with

  75. Abraham, and then, you know, the Lord told Abraham, he said,

  76. listen, your people are going to go down to Egypt and they're

  77. going to be in bondage for 400 years.

  78. And then I'm going to bring them out by a very, very strong arm,

  79. and they are going to be my people.

  80. Well, he gets them out. And in the 20th chapter he

  81. brings what is commonly called the 10 commandments.

  82. Everybody familiar with that? Have you ever heard one of them?

  83. At least one of them, Right. OK, let's take a look.

  84. That first one is in verse three.

  85. It says this. Thou shall have no other gods

  86. before me. So God in the very beginning, is

  87. letting them know I am God. And do you remember that?

  88. Do you remember the account when Moses asking me said, hey, I'm

  89. going to go, you want me to go? And I thought, I think it's

  90. funny. And pastors alluded it to it so

  91. many times. When he has said that, you know,

  92. he goes up and has the burning Bush experience and he said,

  93. hey, they're going to ask me your name, what do I tell him?

  94. And he said, well, you're going to tell him I am.

  95. I am what? That's what I've been my

  96. question. I am.

  97. I am what he is. And he tells him, he said, that

  98. you'll have no other gods, because I am God.

  99. You have no other gods before me.

  100. Verse four, he said, you shall not make unto you any graven

  101. image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above

  102. the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

  103. So he's telling them not only are you not going to have but a

  104. commandment that I'm giving you. Here's another standard.

  105. The standard is you are not going to make any graven image.

  106. All right. And and the word graven in the

  107. Hebrew is the word carved. You're not going to carve an

  108. image. You know what I found funny?

  109. Does anybody know how they print money?

  110. It's carved plates, engraved plates.

  111. And I thought, well, that's interesting because Jesus said

  112. you can't serve God and money. Right, so he says in here, this

  113. is one of the rules. This is the top ten list.

  114. All right, Now notice what he said.

  115. He said, and he tells him you'll not make a graven image.

  116. He said you'll not bow down yourself to them, You'll not

  117. serve them. For I am the Lord God.

  118. I am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the

  119. children, and the 3rd and 4th generation of them that hate me,

  120. and showing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my

  121. commandments. Another word for commandment is

  122. the standard. All right, but notice verse

  123. seven, he said. And you will not take the Lord

  124. thy God, the name of the Lord thy God, in vain, For the Lord

  125. will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain.

  126. Now, I've taught this for years. And any of you that have said in

  127. any of my classes, when we talk about the fact that that in

  128. Hebrews 11 verse six it said it is impossible for is impossible

  129. to please God without faith. Without faith it's impossible to

  130. please him because he that comes to God must believe that he is.

  131. And I often ask question what is you if I must believe you is.

  132. And I know most scholars do agree that he's talking.

  133. He's talking about you must believe that I exist.

  134. OK, and I'll go for that. But The thing is he's not

  135. writing to Hebrew and believers. He's writing to believers that

  136. were Hebrew. And he said in there he tells

  137. him he said he he let he lets him know.

  138. You must believe that it is so. It would behoove us or or it

  139. that's that's King James behoove us all right to be able to find

  140. out all that we can about who God is.

  141. Well here's interesting because the word that we need to

  142. understand when he says you'll not take my name in vain and a

  143. lot of people read they they think that's about cussing.

  144. You know. And you hear people all the

  145. time, they'll God blank this, God blank that, you know and and

  146. they're upset about something and you'll hear it.

  147. And and I've been in situations in in the in the business arena

  148. and people just go off to cussing and stuff like that and

  149. I just don't let it phase me. And they go, doesn't that bother

  150. you? They're taking the Lord's name

  151. in vain. I said, well, here's what you

  152. need to understand about that verse.

  153. Gives me an opportunity. I said, one God's not his name.

  154. God is what he is. He's a species called God.

  155. All right, So we don't go around, you know, calling each

  156. other, Hey, human, I see you going down the hall.

  157. Hey, human, everybody's going to turn around.

  158. That's why we were given names. All right, so when I say

  159. Brandon, Brandon turns around but he tells us he said you do

  160. not take the Lord thy God's name in vain.

  161. Here's what you need to understand about the word vein

  162. in the Greek and the Hebrew both they had the same meaning.

  163. It means to render something empty idol, nonproductive.

  164. Now I've got several other definition.

  165. It says in here empty idol. Fruitless, useless, powerless,

  166. lacking truth, and worthless. God said you will not take my

  167. name and render it that way. Well, what is it?

  168. What? What is his name that we need to

  169. be aware of? I'm going to give just a couple

  170. of them because God's name being Jehovah, He has given us also a

  171. few descriptions of what all Jehovah includes.

  172. And here's the first one, he said.

  173. You know, when we talk about Jehovah.

  174. Jehovah what? Well, Jehovah.

  175. How about Jira? All right.

  176. And in Jehovah Jira, we find out that when he was on the mountain

  177. at Abraham, when he was on the Mount Moriah, getting ready to

  178. sacrifice Isaac, you remember that?

  179. And it says that just as he was about to lift the knife.

  180. He Angel said hold it, stop. And he said he named that

  181. mountain Jehovah Jira. And the definition of Jira is

  182. the Lord that sees. But really if you break it down,

  183. it is the Lord that sees to it and provides what happened.

  184. Remember, as soon as he as soon as the Lord, the Angel told him,

  185. don't harm the boy. All of a sudden they heard it,

  186. man. And they turned around and

  187. looked and in the thicket there was a ram for the sacrifice.

  188. So he's telling us, and I think it's interesting because I've

  189. read after some scholars that basically talk about the fact

  190. that Mount Moriah is also in the regions of Calvary where Jesus

  191. was crucified. Now I I see God doing that, that

  192. that good. He's that good that he could

  193. make that mountain. Same mountain.

  194. That Isaac was going to be sacrificed And the Isaac that

  195. Jesus was sacrificed on. All right now as we as we take a

  196. look and and you know what's another one let's take a look He

  197. said I'm Jehovah Rotha and and that's found in Exodus chapter

    Exodus 15:26

  198. 15, verse 26. And he lets him know.

  199. Listen if you will harken diligently into the voice of

  200. your Lord, your God. And I observed to do all that is

  201. written there in you don't turn to the right, to the left.

  202. He said I will not allow any of these diseases that have come up

  203. upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that he live the Jehovah

  204. Ratha. So he tells us in there as far

  205. as that name. Here's the problem that people

  206. sometimes take his name in vain and they don't even realize what

  207. they're doing. Because if you've ever said, I

  208. don't know how I'm going to get over this sickness.

  209. I mean, he said that he was the healer.

  210. So again, I think it'd be to our benefit to not talk contrary to

  211. what he said he was. If he said I'll provide for you,

  212. he'll provide for you. If he said I'll give you peace

  213. in a time of trouble, he's going to give you peace.

  214. Don't be somebody that's that close to taking his name in

  215. vain. All right, let's look at the

  216. next one. It said chapter.

  217. Chapter 8, verse eight. He said remember the Sabbath day

  218. and keep it holy. I I think a lot.

  219. There's really I think there's really 11 commandments because

  220. the next one is a thou shalt also look at it six days thou

  221. shalt labor. I think we let.

  222. We just skipped over that one didn't we And do all thy work

  223. and and one time I was writing an article called The Secret of

  224. the 6th Day because in America we've been trained that we work.

  225. Five days and we take two days off.

  226. That wasn't so under the covenant or the standard of the

  227. Lord in the Old Testament. 6 days you would work and then the

  228. Sabbath day you would take off and you would make it holy.

  229. What were we making it holy about?

  230. We were making a holy as a day of reflection and rest on the

  231. goodness of the Lord. All right.

  232. He said the 7th day is a Sabbath of the Lord.

  233. At verse 10 he said that thy God in it you'll do no work neither

  234. your son, your daughter, your man serving your maid serving

  235. your cattle, nor your stranger within your gate. 6 days of Lord

  236. made heaven and earth and all them that is in it.

  237. And he said he rested the 7th day, where for the Lord blessed

  238. the 7th day and hallowed it. All right, so he tells us, Well,

  239. you know we have it. We have a day also that we're

  240. supposed to hallow and we call a Sunday.

  241. It changed in the New Testament. As far as they called it, the

  242. first day of the week, it was the day that Jesus was risen

  243. from the dead. All right.

  244. He he went through the Sabbath. They tried it.

  245. They had to get him off that three days and three nights in

  246. the grave. He was, he was risen on the

  247. first day of the week, which was Sunday on the Jewish calendar.

  248. So he tells us in there that, that.

  249. And they said that's when the church began to start meeting,

  250. was on the first day of the week.

  251. All right. And so the thing we need to

  252. realize is that. I think it's interesting that

  253. most of the trouble that Jesus got into was the days he went to

  254. church. How many times do we read that

  255. he was in the temple? How many times we read he was

  256. working when he was in the temple?

  257. How many of you are being accused of working in the

  258. temple? A lot of you with the kids.

  259. And the different parking lot and the different things that we

  260. serve the Lord in the temple. All right, now let's go on to

  261. the next one. It says honor thy father and

  262. mother, that the days may be long upon the land which the

  263. Lord thy God has given you. And any visions they talk about.

  264. It is the first commandment with a promise that you may live long

  265. on the earth. So he tells us how important.

  266. Now the word, the word in there for honor basically is very

  267. simple. It means to Revere respect.

  268. All right, Revere, respect the the parents.

  269. All right. And so that here's the next 113,

  270. verse 13. You shall not kill.

  271. That is not necessarily going to war.

  272. That is the word murder that you will not take innocent blood.

  273. Then he said, you'll not commit adultery, You will not steal.

  274. You will not bear false witness against our neighbor.

  275. Some translations say you shall not lie.

  276. Shall not lie. All right.

  277. And then he said, and you will not covet your neighbor's house

  278. or anything. That is their neighbor, the

  279. wife, the manserving all of his livestock.

  280. I think it's interesting. This word in the Hebrew is the

  281. same word in Genesis chapter 3, when Eve was standing there

    Genesis 3 chapter mention

  282. looking at the tree. It it is a word that means to

  283. delight in or to desire, or to lust after.

  284. In the Hebrew it is the same word when they said and a tree

  285. to be desired to make one wise is the same word covet here.

  286. So she was coveting that tree. She was wanting, she saw, she

  287. looked at it. It was it was something to be

  288. desired. And so when we we see that.

  289. Now here's what we need to know about this set.

  290. This set of standards that God gave, he wrote them, it says,

  291. with his finger in two tablets of stone back in front.

  292. And what's interesting about that is that four of them, the

  293. first four, have to do with your relationship to God.

  294. The last six have to do with your relationship with each

  295. other. So there's 60%.

  296. That shows us how we are supposed to conduct ourselves by

  297. the standards of God in the earth with each other.

  298. While there is the four that he gave us is basically we need to,

  299. we need to understand. Jesus wrapped it up in the 22nd

  300. chapter of Matthew when he said you will love the Lord your God

  301. with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength.

  302. And you will love your neighbor as you love yourself.

  303. So everything is wrapped up in those two laws.

  304. And so, you know, as as I was, I was looking at that and seeing,

  305. I wanted to say, Lord, you know, when you introduced us to the

  306. Kingdom, what are the, what are some of the standards that we

  307. have? I've got 4 tonight.

  308. I got a whole lot more, but I'm going over for tonight because I

  309. do not have that two hour anointing preaching gift I have

  310. been specifically trained to give you about. 50 minutes.

  311. And I might be able to stretch it to an hour, so you got to

  312. hold on. All right.

  313. All right, let's take a look at some Kingdom standards in the

  314. New Testament, and I want you to jot this down and listen.

  315. Here's the first one. The word of the Kingdom must be

  316. approached from a student perspective, not from a passive

  317. reader perspective. Some people seem to think that

  318. their walk in the Kingdom is OK. If they just read their Bible

  319. occasionally. Now pastors told us we have our

  320. Bible reading program. You know, Melanie, I and I don't

  321. miss a day, not one day. We don't get up and get around

  322. until we've had our time in the Word.

  323. Period. It's it's that much.

  324. And I'm going to tell you how we got there, Okay.

  325. But here's what we need to understand the call.

  326. The standard is to be a student. And it's found in Matthew

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  327. chapter 28. You're going to find out.

  328. Jesus set this standard. Now notice what he says.

  329. Go you there for and teach all nations.

  330. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy

  331. Ghost. Teaching them to observe all say

  332. all things whatsoever. I've commanded you and lo, I'm

  333. with you always. Even to the end of the world or

  334. the age, right. So Jesus gave A and we call this

  335. what the Great Commission. And he says in there go you

  336. there for and teach most translations.

  337. Now more more modern translation say go and make disciples.

  338. That is the accurate translation of that word in the original

  339. language Methy 2O. Methy 2O is the word that it

  340. comes from Methy taste, which is the word disciple.

  341. You need to know that because why?

  342. He said. You need to go into all the

  343. world and enroll them. As students, not converts, not

  344. somebody changing from this religion to that religion or

  345. this particular denomination to that denomination.

  346. We are designed and he has planned, and his standard was

  347. discipleship. He proved it through his

  348. ministry. He didn't just want to say you

  349. know, if y'all want to follow me, grab a scroll, you know read

  350. it every now and then and see what the Lord will do for you.

  351. He didn't do that. He enrolled them as students.

  352. Now when you look at verse 20, he said teaching them to observe

  353. all thing that is the actual word give instruction.

  354. So once you have come into the Kingdom of God, you have got to

  355. come again from the perspective of student and you've got to

  356. come from the perspective that you are now ready to be

  357. instructed. Pastor had just taught before he

  358. left and got on the boat to the Bermuda Triangle.

  359. He taught us you must remain teachable.

  360. There's none of us to know everything, so we have to remain

  361. teachable. Why?

  362. Because discipleship is lifelong.

  363. You'll never get to a place that you just can't learn anymore.

  364. The day that you say I've heard that before and you write it off

  365. or there's a class offered and you thought I've I've heard that

  366. before you're you're you are you are walking so close to

  367. deception that Jesus even said, He said in the last days.

  368. They said, Jesus, show us a sign of your coming.

  369. What? When will these things take

  370. place? What will be the sign of your

  371. coming? When will be the end of the

  372. world. And the very first thing Jesus

  373. said, he said, Take heed that no man deceive you.

  374. So deceptions number one thing on Jesus mind, pastor.

  375. Read it the other day talking about in in Paul's writing to

  376. Timothy that in the last days many will depart from the faith

  377. giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

  378. It's going to happen. Didn't say that they, you know,

  379. he said many. We don't want to be the many.

  380. All right. So when he tells us that, that

  381. it what is so important to us. Now let me give you a

  382. background. I've always had, I've always had

  383. an interest in the Bible. I remember when I was 4th and

  384. 5th grade when you graduated to go into 6th grade, they gave you

  385. a Bible. I have a copy of that Bible at

  386. the house and it has a little shield on it and we used to play

  387. a game called the Bible Sword Drill.

  388. We really need to bring that back.

  389. But the teacher would ask a scripture, and the first one to

  390. find it in the Bible would you'd raise your hand and you got to

  391. read it to the class. And then they give you, they

  392. give you a prize, all right. So you know, you know who won to

  393. win all the time. And so you know when you know in

  394. growing up in that. Well, when I turned, I turned

  395. 717. I was going to 18I graduated

  396. from high school in 1979. I had an aunt that was a

  397. missionary. She was stationed on the island

  398. of Crete and she came back home and introduced me to a gentleman

  399. that had a Bible study in his home.

  400. When I showed up, he'd already had this Bible study going in

  401. his house. He was a doctor and he study and

  402. gave. He was the first man that I've

  403. ever heard that had. It was was teaching from from

  404. the Bible without a quarterly. Does anybody know what a

  405. quarterly is? I was raised Southern Baptist

  406. and every quarter they gave you a little study guide that you

  407. were supposed to read the night before and hopefully you had a

  408. teacher that read there's the night before.

  409. Now that is that I truly, truly, I'm saying unto you and and so,

  410. you know, we just, if you didn't have a quarterly, you just

  411. really didn't have any knowledge of the Bible.

  412. I mean they didn't encourage you to read the Bible and try to

  413. figure out what the Lord's trying to tell you.

  414. We had a quarterly and it was, it was done by a convention and

  415. some doctors and theologians and everybody got together and they

  416. printed all this stuff for us. And every quarter we got our

  417. quarterly. Well, this guy was the first guy

  418. I'd ever heard that didn't use a quarterly.

  419. I'm looking where's his quarterly?

  420. And he started talking about things.

  421. He said, you know, the Bible was originally in the New Testament,

  422. was written in in, in the Greek language and he would teach us

  423. Greek words. That was that he would pull out.

  424. And man, I I absolutely fell in love with this man.

  425. And I went up to him. First night went up to him.

  426. I said, what kind of Bible do you have?

  427. Because my Bible don't have any of that in it.

  428. I mean, you're talking about these Greek words and Hebrew

  429. words and they brought such a a clarity to what you were talking

  430. about. I said, is that real?

  431. Is that true? And he showed me his Bible.

  432. And you know what? I went and bought one of them

  433. Bibles and we talked about it for at four it was called a

  434. Dakes Annotated Reference Bible. Still there as a matter of fact

  435. had an opportunity not too long ago to talk to Dennis Dennings.

  436. Dennis Jennings Dake is the guy that met that printed this

  437. Bible. He did it the year I was born,

  438. 1961. He came out with this work.

  439. He spent over 100,000 hours in 4343 years compiling this work.

  440. It is full of Greek. It is full of Hebrew.

  441. I devoured that. You ought to see.

  442. I still have the original copy. It is in shreds, pages

  443. everywhere. I got pages stuck where pages

  444. don't go trying to hold this thing together.

  445. It was one of my it was one of my prized possessions.

  446. I have another one and I and I inherited another one and I had

  447. them. And every now and then I'll go

  448. back to him. Because in in 4043 years,

  449. 100,000 hours if you run your math, I calculated it was 6

  450. hours a day for 43 years. No vacation, no time off.

  451. They said that when he spoke, he could quote whole chapters by

  452. memory, Books by memory, I mean, I think so after 100,000 hours,

  453. you ought to be able to do something with your memory,

  454. right? But a phenomenal phenomenal work

  455. and I I had an opportunity and and and to visit with doctor

  456. Harmon and I asked him a question.

  457. I said I know you you go from place to place little ladies

  458. groups and and garden clubs and stuff.

  459. They ask you to come and speak and stuff.

  460. I said when you go who who duplicates your tapes And he had

  461. a one tape duplicator cassette tape anybody remember them

  462. cassette. OK.

  463. And and I said, I will go with you if you allow me to come with

  464. you and I'll duplicate the tapes so you can keep talking to the

  465. people. All right.

  466. And the ladies and answering questions and stuff like that.

  467. Because I said who does it? He said I have to do it.

  468. I said I'm going to do it. And I traveled with him and I

  469. went everywhere in town that he went and and and duplicated

  470. those tapes. When Melanie and I met Okay, I

  471. was still going there. That was 1981 when we started

  472. dating. And we end up, we went to Doctor

  473. Harmon's every Monday night until Dr. Harmon decided to move

  474. to Connecticut. It's kind of like the disciples.

  475. Where are you going to go? I mean, you know, you're going

  476. to Connecticut. Where's Connecticut?

  477. Well, the way I'm going, you can't go.

  478. OK All right. So I'm thinking, man, Lord,

  479. what? But, you know I began to

  480. continue my studies in the Greek language and and and as best as

  481. I knew how and I made-up my mind that I was going to become a

  482. student of the word of God. Even I had no desire to go to

  483. Bible school. I had no desire to go into the

  484. ministry full time. I I had a skill that I, you

  485. know, felt like the Lord was going to have me use.

  486. And and I just I but there was that desire to become a

  487. disciple. Now you think that's strange,

  488. but I think it's strange that we forgot about the story.

  489. Are the account in John chapter one of John and Andrew.

  490. In John chapter one we have a an account where John the Baptist

  491. sees Jesus and two of his disciples were standing right

  492. there with him. Disciples called them disciples,

  493. Methetas, learners, pupils, students.

  494. And he said, there goes the Lamb of God.

  495. And he said those two disciples of his went and followed them.

  496. And I don't know if they were talking or whatever, but Jesus

  497. turned around and looked at him and said, what are you all

  498. looking for? And I guess they were shocked

  499. because they go, where do you live?

  500. And he said, come and see. And they hung out with Jesus the

  501. whole day. Well, the thing was, he

  502. identified those two John when he he identified one was Andrew,

  503. Peter's brother, and the other one had to be in him because he

  504. never identified himself. So he said the other disciple,

  505. he always called himself the other disciple until he got to

  506. the end and he said the disciple Jesus loved, he wrote that about

  507. himself, right? He did.

  508. So the thing, the question that I had was, wait a second, you

  509. two boys was in business. When did you have time to follow

  510. the prophet around to be able to learn the things concerning the

  511. Kingdom? Because what did John the

  512. Baptist preach? He said repent, for the Kingdom

  513. of heaven is now within your reach.

  514. So these guys are following him. Well, you know how they did it

  515. tells us they were on the night shift in that what Peter said,

  516. Lord, we fished all night. So those guys were on the night

  517. shift. So during the day, they had the

  518. opportunity to follow John around, listen to his teaching

  519. and involved. Really.

  520. I think probably they got together with John about 4:30 in

  521. the afternoon on Sunday till about 8:45.

  522. What do you think of that? Does that sound familiar?

  523. There's a big group going through that kind of

  524. discipleship right now on Sunday evenings, intense teaching.

  525. But yet they found the they found that they wanted to be

  526. disciples, even though they had a career.

  527. I was going to be the same thing.

  528. I said, you know, I'm not going to be moved by everybody wanting

  529. to send me to seminary and Bible college and everything else.

  530. I said I'm going to do what I feel like the Lord wants me to

  531. do, but I am not going to neglect the discipleship factor

  532. in my life. It is a standard in the Kingdom

  533. of God. And if you're doing anything

  534. less, I I hate to tell you you're missing it.

  535. OK, Let me give you another illustration of what Jesus said,

  536. John 831 through 32, Listen to this.

  537. Jesus said to those Jews that believed on him, OK, that was a

  538. good day in Jesus ministry. He finally had somebody

  539. believing, didn't want to, you know, take him, push him off a

  540. Cliff, or stoning him to death. That was a good day, he said to

  541. those Jews that believed on him. And he said, if you continue in

  542. my word, then are you my disciples?

  543. Indeed, he said, you will know the truth and the truth shall

  544. make you free. Now when he said in there the

  545. word the word continue in the Greek is the word mayno.

  546. And the word mayno mainly basically paints the picture of

  547. dwelling somewhere, sitting down, staying.

  548. He said, if you continue now notice what he said in my word,

  549. then are you a disciple? That makes sense because what is

  550. a disciple again, it's a student.

  551. A student of what? Of the words that Jesus spoke.

  552. And then he says in there, And you will know the truth.

  553. And the truth shall set you free.

  554. I've said this for years. It's not the truth that sets you

  555. free. It's the truth you know that

  556. sets you free. The only way you can get to know

  557. the truth is spend time in it. All right.

  558. You know, if you're confused like Pilot was, He said what is

  559. truth? What Jesus told us.

  560. John 1717 All right, John 1717 says this.

  561. Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth.

  562. It's an absolute. It's not situational.

  563. All right, he tells us in there. Matthew 1025.

  564. I think it's interesting because one of the things that Jesus

  565. tells he said this. He said it is enough that the

  566. disciple be as his master and that the servant be as his Lord.

  567. So we haven't done enough. If we are not like Jesus, we are

  568. not and we have not done enough if those that the Lord is placed

  569. over our lives, that we have done everything we can to serve

  570. them and take care of them. It says it is enough when you've

  571. accomplished that. Some of us are still in the

  572. process and we'll always be in the process of doing what Being

  573. like our masters, being like, you know, the to teach the

  574. Kingdom of God. When we came down here, I, the

  575. Lord told me in 2007 during a Black Friday, never forget it.

  576. And I was sitting before the Lord and I usually spent time

  577. during that time because everybody's out shopping or

  578. they're sleeping because they was out all night shopping.

  579. And I just get with the Lord and I say, hey man, I got a month

  580. left, 30 days. I said, what have I missed?

  581. What can you help me with? Where do I need to be by the

  582. time we wrap this year, end up. And the Lord spoke to me and he

  583. told me two things. He said, number one, he said,

  584. you're not king to mind it enough.

  585. What does that mean? And and I'm sitting there

  586. waiting, you know, hoping I'm going to get something else.

  587. And I didn't get nothing else except, he said, And I'm going

  588. to increase your teaching ministry.

  589. No sooner did he say that the next few weeks, all the areas

  590. that I was teaching, they dismantled those classes.

  591. I said, what him? Was I listening?

  592. Was I paying attention? But the thing was, he had me.

  593. He had me on a path. And as a disciple, you got to

  594. stay on the path. And I come down here in 2009 and

  595. I'm still trying to figure out this Kingdom thing.

  596. I started studying the Kingdom. I looked up every scripture on

  597. the Kingdom. Pastor David E my taught had

  598. told me, I'm going to give you 2 Wednesday nights.

  599. You're going to teach on the Kingdom.

  600. And I had no idea what I was talking about.

  601. It was it was amazing how and and and that's it.

  602. That's the interesting part of the of the word revelation in

  603. the Greek. It is the word apacalupto, OK?

  604. And it means an unveiling or pulling back a curtain.

  605. Can't see if the curtains closed.

  606. And here I am doing all this study, trying to get it the best

  607. I can. And it wasn't until I got down

  608. here May of 2009. We got here Tuesday at about,

  609. what, 3:00 in the morning, and I'm supposed to go with Pastor

  610. Earl and Marcy to a conference in North SC, one of them

  611. Carolinas. And by the time we got here, I

  612. was so exhausted. He looked at me.

  613. He said, you're not going nowhere.

  614. He said you need to recover. I said, man, if it wasn't for

  615. them dogs that we had to bring down, man, we'd been down here

  616. sooner. I promise.

  617. I said we had two dogs and a cat and and good Lord, we get here

  618. and I didn't get to go that weekend, that end of the week.

  619. That's when pastor heard the message of the Kingdom for the

  620. first time and I missed it. It was, I couldn't believe it

  621. and to see where we are because he taught us for a month, you

  622. know, on the unseen principle. And then he unloads One Sunday

  623. morning, June the 7th, 2009, the message of the Kingdom and I I

  624. am not kidding. I mean it was life changing.

  625. The light came on, ripped the curtain in half.

  626. Seems to be a habit with the Lord ripping them curtains in

  627. half, right? And man, we haven't been the

  628. same since. Melanie looked over at me after

  629. that and she goes, I have waited my whole life to hear this

  630. message. Do me a favor brother and

  631. sister. Don't take that message for

  632. granted. You know, pastors teaching on

  633. the Kingdom, do not thou shalt not take that message for

  634. granted. You ought to be every time he

  635. talks about it. It ought to be resonate in you

  636. and continue to build and to grow in you.

  637. That it is just it. It comes out of you so freely

  638. because it is what is missing in the earth today.

  639. Now let me give you a couple other scriptures going to come.

  640. We're going to have to move on. All right?

  641. OK said act 1711. This this particular passage

  642. listened to it. It said these were more noble

  643. than those in so that's all the NICA in that they received the

  644. word with all readiness of nine and searched the scriptures

  645. daily whether those things were so.

  646. A disciple will search the scriptures daily.

  647. How many times this pastor said it?

  648. I have said it. I said this before pastor.

  649. I even met Pastor, I said. You do not have to listen to a

  650. word I say, and I encourage you don't.

  651. If you hear something that strikes a chord, go search it

  652. out. Prove it to yourself.

  653. The word in their search in the original language is anacrino.

  654. Anacrino in its in its simplest it means to scrutinize, to

  655. investigate, to interrogate, to ask, to question, to examine, to

  656. discern. The picture is a of an attorney

  657. cross examining. So, you know, when an attorney

  658. has you give your testimony, then there's going to be another

  659. attorney to make sure your story is the same.

  660. You want to make sure your story's the same when you're

  661. talking about the word of God. You want your story.

  662. You want your accuracy the same as the Bible.

  663. That's what I'm teaching Titus and the grandkids right now know

  664. what you're talking about when it comes to the Bible.

  665. All right, now here's the sad part of of my education.

  666. I felt like I was at a lull. Biblically and the studying that

  667. I was doing and I just knew that there was more to being able to

  668. understand the original languages of the Bible.

  669. And in 1988 I met somebody else. His name is Rick Renner.

  670. Pastor quotes him often. I absolutely fell in love with

  671. Rick. I'm sitting there thinking when

  672. he began to breakdown the Greek and the and the different things

  673. there and I thought I found him and he and he he was he was kind

  674. of he was kind of funny because he the first thing he did when

  675. he got up on stage his first time we met he goes look at here

  676. and he pulled up both Panth legs and he had two different colors

  677. of socks on. Well he's my kind of guy

  678. seriously. And so I and so you know, and

  679. and guess what I did after he got done, I did the same thing

  680. to him than I did to Doctor Harmon, Can I see your Bible?

  681. And I said he goes, yeah, he goes, you can see this over

  682. there in front row. And I sat down and I opened that

  683. Bible and it was like, and I looked inside his Bible and it

  684. was written down all the Greek that you could bathe in.

  685. And and I said, and and I looked at it and I said, oh, this is a

  686. wide margin Bible. He's written all this stuff.

  687. I went and got me a wide margin Bible.

  688. Remember that scripture? It is enough that a disciple be

  689. as his master. And I began to write little.

  690. I can write real small and you give me a sharp pencil.

  691. I can write real little. And I started taking Greek notes

  692. and and Hebrew notes and I started going there.

  693. Pastor David E My was well versed in in a lot of that type

  694. of teaching and I was just writing and did.

  695. And then I had an opportunity to go to Africa and I was 17 days

  696. in Africa and the Lord told me, he said, he said you might want

  697. to make some copies of some of them pages that you prize so

  698. much because you're going to leave that Bible in Africa.

  699. What? Man, I found me a copier, right?

  700. I was going to make copies of these notes, right?

  701. And I did. I left it in Africa.

  702. I was getting ready to get on the plane the 4th day and we

  703. were there 17 days. And I was getting ready to get

  704. on the plane and the Lord says that's the guy.

  705. And I'm thinking to myself, man, I got like 13 days left.

  706. I didn't bring a spare. I had pictured in my mind, I'm

  707. going to get on the plane leaving, coming back to home and

  708. I'm going to leave it with some brother, you know.

  709. And and the Lord said he's the guy.

  710. And I looked at him and he was carrying a Gideon Pocket Bible,

  711. New Testament. And I said, is that what you

  712. preach from when you have your congregation?

  713. Is that, he said. That's all I have.

  714. Not anymore. And as a matter of fact, I came

  715. back from that trip and bought every one of those pastors of

  716. Greek Hebrew Study Bible. Now the the freight alone was

  717. more expensive than the books because they were all hard back

  718. and heavy. But I wanted them to have it

  719. because they they loved that teaching.

  720. Getting back to the original language, the Holy Spirit, you

  721. know, made sure that he had recorded for us to understand.

  722. See the what I learned from Rick.

  723. And this was interesting because I began to follow Rick and and

  724. get his teaching tapes and he had a tape table like everybody

  725. else. I bought everything.

  726. I own every book he has. I have them all in hardback.

  727. I have a complete shrine set up with Rick Renner stuff on it.

  728. All right. And he did a series on tape and

  729. I couldn't go. And there again, I'm

  730. disappointed, right? And he did it, understanding the

  731. Greek New Testament. And he did a seminar at a hotel

  732. for two nights and I didn't get to go.

  733. But thank you, Jesus. I got the VH S's.

  734. And I've been through those VH S's.

  735. I went through a minimum, minimum, all four, eight hours,

  736. 10 times minimum. And I began and I and I had the

  737. opportunity to begin to teach the same thing he was teaching

  738. in in our school in Oklahoma called School of Life.

  739. Now the thing was, though, I get to about the third week of class

  740. and they start talking ugly about me because it's not easy,

  741. you know, to get that. But this is just the simple

  742. stuff. It was recognizing words and how

  743. that. But one of the things that Rick

  744. said about the Greek New Testament, he said it is the

  745. most picturesque language man has ever been involved with and

  746. that we translate one word. But there's a whole picture that

  747. it paints and you can't do it in just one word.

  748. Let me give you an example real quick.

  749. In Evisions, chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, I don't have it.

  750. In my notes 11 and 12 it says that he gave some apostles,

  751. prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers for the equipping of

  752. the Saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the

  753. body of Christ. That's what it says, the word

  754. equipping in there. All right.

  755. And and, and, and You have to understand that some of these

  756. words came not from deity, but came from the culture.

  757. The word in the Greek is the word catartismos.

  758. And the word catartismos means the setting of a bone.

  759. It is a medical term. So when he gave the fivefold

  760. ministry, what was their job? Number one is to put us in the

  761. body, in the right place. Then he's gonna let us know that

  762. if you're a bicep, you get to work, If your legs, you got to

  763. walk around, just don't sit on your blessed assurance all the

  764. time. But see, you don't get that from

  765. the word equipping. What do you think?

  766. Equipping. You know get a backpack or you

  767. know get your tools ready for the job site.

  768. No, he said. The setting of a bone, he's

  769. going to place you. He is given that fivefold

  770. ministry to be able to get you in the place you need to be so

  771. that the body can function without pain.

  772. All right. So when we take a look at said

  773. the last, the last scripture I have for this section and this

  774. particular standard, remember it's it's the study of the word

  775. of God. It's not just the reading of it,

  776. the passive reading of the word of God.

  777. But you got to be a reader. If you don't read it, you're not

  778. going to want to study it. All right.

  779. But what is second Timothy 215 Tell us study to show yourself

  780. approved unto God a Workman that need not be ashamed, rightly

  781. dividing the word of truth that word study.

  782. And I'm I'm I'm glad they translated it like that.

  783. But the word study is the word spude in the Greek.

  784. And what it means is to be quick and and and fast and

  785. businesslike, taking whatever you're doing extremely serious

  786. but being quick about it. And and then it goes on and it

  787. says do what? Be quick about making yourself

  788. approved unto God. See, you don't have it.

  789. And and and Ki students, listen. You're not trying to impress us

  790. as instructors. You're trying to impress the

  791. Lord. You want him.

  792. You want his stamp of approval on your life.

  793. And I love that. I was.

  794. I visited right before pastor left.

  795. I said I I learned something. The Greek word docky Moss is the

  796. word approved. And it was basically a banking

  797. term and it is how they rated coins back then.

  798. And a Docky Moss was somebody that was at the highest level of

  799. integrity when it came to their coinage.

  800. They didn't have clipped edges that they would try to clip the

  801. edges. So nobody'd noticed and they'd

  802. hang on and they'd gather that up and they would have more

  803. money, but they would give him a coin for a specific, a specific

  804. amount. A documos was a person that was

  805. noted for their honesty and for the trueness of their trade.

  806. That is what he says in there. We need to be approved under God

  807. as what the real deal. Now notice what he said a

  808. Workman that need not be ashamed.

  809. And I one day I asked the Lord, I said, well how is a Workman is

  810. shaved And he began to he began to give me an illustration.

  811. The illustration was he said you can take it in any trade, let's

  812. say air conditioning or electricians.

  813. You know, if you're an electrician, you probably got a

  814. pair of wire cutters, A screwdriver and A and A and a

  815. spool of wire, and you got a trade, and they're supposed to

  816. train you and you're supposed to do it.

  817. But then if they let you out solo to do something and you

  818. mess it all up, you're going to be ashamed.

  819. Well, you know, we have Christians, and they have a

  820. pencil in their pocket and the Bible in one hand, a notebook in

  821. another hand, and somebody comes up and asks them, how come you

  822. believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost?

  823. Well, because my church does, and you cannot show them in

  824. Scripture why you believe in the baptism, the Holy Spirit with

  825. the evidence, and speaking in tongues.

  826. You need to be ashamed and any other question that someone has

  827. about why you believe what you believe.

  828. If you cannot tell them in Scripture, you need to be a what

  829. you you. You need to be ashamed of

  830. yourself. But then he says, rightly

  831. dividing the word of truth. Why does that?

  832. Why is that? What does that mean?

  833. And why is that important? Because it can be.

  834. And Pastor said this has taught us this before, that it can be

  835. wrongly. It's implied.

  836. It could be wrongly divided. You know, I mean there's And

  837. here's how you know. Jot this down if you're taking

  838. notes. I I teach this all the time.

  839. All right? Everything.

  840. I learned this years ago when I first got tapped into the Word

  841. of Faith. Okay, one of the the guys that I

  842. followed as far as out of California.

  843. He taught camp meeting for years and he said this never, never

  844. forgot it. And this is what he said.

  845. Everything in the Bible is truly stated, but not everything in

  846. the Bible is a statement of truth.

  847. And I said he's a heretic. And then he explained it.

  848. He said everything in the Bible is truly stated.

  849. In other words, it was completely recorded the way it

  850. happened. But not everything in the Bible

  851. is a statement of truth. What does that mean?

  852. That means that the Bible was recorded exactly.

  853. It happened. And some of the people that said

  854. stuff in the Bible were not inspired by God.

  855. To say it in order you've got to be able to rightly divide and

  856. and one of the greatest illustrations is the the 12

  857. spies that went into the promised land.

  858. And when they came out they gave a report.

  859. I can promise you they were not inspired by God to give that

  860. report but it was recorded exactly the way they said it and

  861. it said the people cried all night, said God called it evil.

  862. Why was it evil? Because it was contrary to his

  863. report. His report said go search out

  864. the land which I give. I've already given it to you.

  865. You can go check it out. And they came back and said

  866. we're not able to do it, man, they're giants there.

  867. Only two guys made it. My sons.

  868. Why do you think I named him Joshua and Caleb?

  869. You think that was by chance? It just sounded good.

  870. No? If names mean anything and they

  871. mean a lot, I'm giving them a head start.

  872. So you think about it. Those two guys made it.

  873. Why? Because they immediately said we

  874. are well able to go up and possess this land.

  875. Let us go up at once and possess it, for they are bred for us.

  876. And everybody said now majority rules and and you know what I

  877. just, I love them two guys and my sons too, because they had to

  878. take the punishment and live through the punishment of 40

  879. years. And they were both in their 40s

  880. when this whole deal started because Caleb came up to Joshua

  881. and said, I'm 85 and I'm as strong as a day that we went and

  882. searched out the land so God was able to preserve him.

  883. But they still had to put up with all that murmuring and

  884. complaining and continuing on. You know, I mean, if a triune

  885. would have had the vote, if God told him, he said step out of

  886. the way, I'm gonna smote him and I'm gonna start over.

  887. And he said, now I can't do it, Lord, you know, every time they

  888. messed up you, you look. And Moses is on his face, always

  889. on his face, interceding for them.

  890. Always. All right.

  891. So when we we talk about, we talk about the study, we have

  892. got to, we have got to take that perspective.

  893. Brothers, sisters, we've got to become more than casual readers.

  894. We have got to make up our mind. I don't care what your

  895. occupation is. I don't care that you're never

  896. going to be in the ministry. The only thing that matters,

  897. what did Jesus say? Heaven and earth will pass away,

  898. but my word will abide. It will be here forever.

  899. It'd be a good idea to get to know it.

  900. You believe that? All right, here we go, 835 Ooh,

  901. all right. Standard #2.

  902. I got 4 standards here, and we're not going to make it.

  903. And I still don't feel that annoying.

  904. So listen to this. Here's the second standard for

  905. the Kingdom of God. Faith is the only currency that

  906. is accepted when needing to bring something from the unseen

  907. realm to the scene realm. Your need will not bring it.

  908. You crying, you worrying, you being distraught, getting

  909. argumentative, being touchy, being freckful will not bring

  910. what you need. God's not moved by none of that.

  911. In fact, he's kind of probably surprised you're all up in that.

  912. But let me give you the Greek word.

  913. That's all right. The Greek word for faith is very

  914. well known. There's no misunderstanding.

  915. It is the word pistis, PISTIS. And here's the definition.

  916. It is a firm persuasion or a conviction, and if you did

  917. really, really deep into that, you'll find out that it

  918. basically deals with the subject of hearing.

  919. So basically you can say that faith is, is, is is related to

  920. the fact of something that you hear and something that you hear

  921. that you are firmly convinced and firmly persuaded.

  922. Another definition I love is this.

  923. Complete and total trust in God and His word.

  924. Complete and total. Not hope.

  925. So not. I really wish this would happen.

  926. You have got to understand that when God deals in faith, it is

  927. going to be based upon the fact that he never lies, right Mark

  928. 11/24 put it up. Well let's start in 22.

  929. You know, you know the account the county is.

  930. Jesus is headed to a town and he's hungry and he sees a fig

  931. tree far off, has leaves on it, and he's thinking, I wonder if

  932. there's figs on that walks up to it.

  933. And I've often said if I was a fig tree and I saw my creator

  934. headed my direction, I'd be popping figs quickly.

  935. In fact, anybody ever seen The Wizard of Oz, the movie?

  936. And then trees take him apples and start throwing them out.

  937. I'd have been throwing them figs.

  938. Jesus comes up to the tree. Very curious word.

  939. He answered the tree and say it right.

  940. It's not in it, not on the board yet.

  941. All right, he said. Answered the tree and said, No

  942. man eat fruit of you here after forever.

  943. And he says and the disciples hurt it.

  944. So Jesus cursed this fig tree for not taking care of his

  945. needs. And I thought it was interesting

  946. he answered it. So it must have said something

  947. other than I ain't none here, because the the response that

  948. Jesus gave that tree was total annihilation.

  949. Next day they come through, they noticed the tree had been

  950. withered at the root. Verse 22.

  951. All right, well 21. Peter says muster.

  952. Look at the tree you cursed. Is that it's withered away from

  953. the root. Verse 22.

  954. Then Jesus said have faith in God, right?

  955. Well, better translation. And I, and I've confirmed this,

  956. it's true because the word God is is a possessive, is in its

  957. possessive form, and it means he owns it.

  958. And it says have the faith of God.

  959. So we need to understand God must have some faith, and it

  960. would be to our benefit again if we were able to find out what

  961. that faith is and begin to live in it.

  962. And he tells us what it is in the next verse, verse 23.

  963. For verily, I say unto you, that whoever else shall say to this

  964. mountain, be thou removed, be cast into the sea, and shall not

  965. doubt in his heart, but believe that those things which he says

  966. shall come to pass, he will have whatsoever he says.

  967. And then in verse 24 he says, verse that I love and I teach,

  968. and I used it to defeat cancer in my life.

  969. When the hospital introduced me to the end of life, counselor,

  970. and later admitted they knew that I was going to die.

  971. And I use this verse to get that cancer out.

  972. Because Jesus said this. He said, whosoever shall say to

  973. this mountain be thou removed and be cast in the sea.

  974. But notice the next phrase, pay attention to the next phrase,

  975. because he said and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe

  976. that the things he says shall come to pass.

  977. He'll have what he says. It didn't say, you know, believe

  978. in your heart that whatever God wants to do, he said use your

  979. mouth like God used his mouth to create all of eternity.

  980. So he said you've got to believe what you say.

  981. You know what the problem is? A lot of believers, they don't

  982. really believe what they say because they sometimes don't say

  983. the truth. I mean how you going to convince

  984. yourself when you're lying all the time or you're telling

  985. things that are false? Or you're talking about other

  986. people, things that are false. Yeah, it's going to be difficult

  987. for you to engage in this verse because it says you must believe

  988. the things that you say come to pass.

  989. Now notice what he said. Therefore I say unto you, what

  990. things so ever you desire. When you pray, believe that you

  991. receive them and you shall have them.

  992. I've never taught this verse without asking this question.

  993. Let me read it again, or I'll quote it.

  994. Therefore I say to you, what thinks soever you desire when

  995. you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have

  996. them. Here's the question.

  997. According to that verse, what did Jesus say you would have?

  998. Every time I ask that question, somebody answers what you

  999. desire. Well, looks like it.

  1000. What things soever you desire. Yeah, he said.

  1001. When you pray, when you whatever you pray for, he said.

  1002. Whatever you believe for anybody, can you get that out of

  1003. there? Let me give you what I have

  1004. quoted for years and it makes a difference between life and

  1005. death, he says in there. Therefore I say to you what

  1006. things so ever you desire. When you pray, believe you

  1007. receive them and you shall have them.

  1008. The only thing Jesus said in that verse that you will have is

  1009. what you believed you received at the time of asking.

  1010. A lot of people don't like that, but it's the truth.

  1011. It has saved my life because I didn't.

  1012. Here's the thing. I let pastor know you can have

  1013. all the prayer, prayer lines that you want to have, but I'm

  1014. not coming. I told him that.

  1015. I said I'm not coming, and the only time that I ever came to a

  1016. prayer line was he called me down and had a word for me.

  1017. And it was the next word I needed.

  1018. Every time. Every time.

  1019. But I wasn't coming down. Why?

  1020. Because I'd already made-up my mind.

  1021. I was healed. Even though the doctors tell me

  1022. you're dying, you look like you're dying.

  1023. You smell like you're dying. Everything about you says you're

  1024. dying. And when I got introduced to the

  1025. end of life, Counselor and Melanie's pushing me down the

  1026. hallway in a wheelchair and a body brace because the cancer

  1027. had eating up my spine and everything else.

  1028. She's bawling. She's crying.

  1029. I can't see her. I can't turn around and look at

  1030. her in the eye. I said what are you crying

  1031. about? And she said that was the worst

  1032. report that we had since we've been here.

  1033. I've been there, I've been in the hospital since August and

  1034. this was October. I and and I just finished chemo,

  1035. 4 rounds of it back-to-back. And she said that was the worst

  1036. report. And I said, yeah, I know that

  1037. was bad, but I said but it this is how this is going to turn

  1038. out. Psalms 117, verse 18 says you

  1039. will not die, you will live and you will show the glory of God.

  1040. I said, honey, we keep coming back to every appointment until

  1041. their report lines up with my report.

  1042. End of it. They asked me did you ever

  1043. doubt? No, I did not doubt.

  1044. Why? Because James tells us in the

  1045. first chapter. He said if you doubt, you get to

  1046. start over. Man, I've been in this too long

  1047. hurting too bad to be starting over.

  1048. It's the truth on there. I, you know, I said no, I ain't

  1049. starting over. I said my report is what I'm

  1050. going on. And and and and was it was it?

  1051. It was it was a lot of pain. But I tell you what I asked

  1052. Melanie the other day. I said we didn't miss church.

  1053. I was in the back, right back there, in the very back.

  1054. I had my wheelchair tucked in there and they said, well,

  1055. couldn't you walk? Yeah, I could walk, but not real

  1056. fast. And when you got to go to the

  1057. bathroom, somebody decided to have a facility that had a

  1058. bathroom a mile down the hall. I wrote an article about it one

  1059. time, called It All Depends. I did because I was dependent

  1060. because then it just, man, I I go to Starbucks, the bell has

  1061. rung. I get, I get to Starbucks.

  1062. I get. I hit the handle.

  1063. It's locked. Wait yourself, just what

  1064. happens? Your mind just give up, you

  1065. know? But what is it?

  1066. Don't doubt. Jesus tells us right here the

  1067. only currency is the medium of exchange to get the unseen.

  1068. To come into the scene is faith. Total trust in God's word.

  1069. No doubt you can't doubt, right? So he he tells us in there that

  1070. the things that we desire when we pray, we've got to believe we

  1071. receive them. At the time of asking.

  1072. That's why I wasn't coming down to another prayer line, because

  1073. what was I telling the Lord? I didn't get it.

  1074. I didn't get it. Well, I'll tell you what, I got

  1075. it and I ain't letting go. I am not letting go.

  1076. And the fact that I'm and you know what, that was 2010, and

  1077. that year I was declared cancer free, they said we don't

  1078. understand it. We can't explain it, they said,

  1079. but there's not an there's not any cancer in your body.

  1080. And I and and he said chemotherapy doesn't do that.

  1081. I said, wish I'd have known that before the chemotherapy.

  1082. Wish you all have done a few more tests.

  1083. God's faithful, God's faithful. But faith is a standard.

  1084. Faith is a standard. It does not change.

  1085. His word does not change how much time we got left.

  1086. All right, I'm going to give you one more.

  1087. Number 30, Lord. All right, here we go.

  1088. Rapid fire. This is a this is a rapid ground

  1089. right here. OK.

  1090. Jesus himself gave us the standard for prayer.

  1091. You know, you have to ask you a question.

  1092. Jesus many times is recorded in the morning.

  1093. He'd get up early to go pray. You'd find him praying all

  1094. night, questioning what was he praying about?

  1095. I mean, Lord, we don't have rent money.

  1096. You know my donkey threw a shoe. I know Jesus was praying for.

  1097. He's praying for us and he's still praying for us.

  1098. Ever live it to make intercession for us?

  1099. Here's the standard Matthew chapter 69 through 13, and we're

  1100. going to wrap it up with it. And I'm just going to have to

  1101. beg. Pastor, let me keep going some

  1102. other time. Matthew 6, nine through 13, it's

  1103. very commonly called the Lord's Prayer.

  1104. Everybody familiar with it? OK, one of the things that I

  1105. need to let you know, the scholars agree that the Lord's

  1106. Prayer was not a prayer for us to memorize and say we've

  1107. prayed. It is a rabbinical outline.

  1108. So that means that God gave a skeleton that we need to flesh

  1109. out and Jesus taught that way. Many times a disciple said man,

  1110. we need a clue what you were talking about when he gave a

  1111. parable, he said, can you expound that?

  1112. He'd always expound it. He didn't want them in the dark.

  1113. He wanted them to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God

  1114. from the gospel. All right.

  1115. But this one here said after this manner, and we're going to

  1116. break this down as fast as I can after this manner.

  1117. Therefore, pray ye our Father, which are in heaven, how it be

  1118. thy name. All right, when we talk about

  1119. how it would be thy name, remember we went back and we

  1120. talked about a couple of those. The outline is this.

  1121. We just don't walk around saying how it'd be the name, how it'd

  1122. be the name. When you spend time with the

  1123. Lord, you want to remind him of his names.

  1124. Father, I thank you that you are Jehovah Jira.

  1125. I thank you that you are Jehovah Rafah.

  1126. I thank you that you are Jehovah Shalom, my peace.

  1127. Jehovah Niecy, my banner all through the Old Testament.

  1128. If you look up the word standard in the Old Testament, it's

  1129. always about a flag, he told them.

  1130. You will make a flag for each one of your tribes and post it

  1131. by your area so that you'll know where you're going.

  1132. Firstly, I'm sure, but it was a banner to let them know who they

  1133. belong to. Anybody seen the statue of Iwo

  1134. Jima? It's got the soldiers raising up

  1135. the American flag everywhere. The flag is is territory owned

  1136. by the United States. That's why they fly the flag

  1137. over embassies. Or the ambassador has control of

  1138. that flag. It's to let him know that

  1139. country owns it. It's the same thing.

  1140. The standard that we have. The Lord owns us.

  1141. OK, We let we are owned by Him. So we spend a few minutes in our

  1142. prayer life with him on the holiness of His name.

  1143. All right. The next one thy Kingdom come,

  1144. thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

  1145. Couple of areas You want to spend time talking to the Lord

  1146. about the Kingdom coming. Number one is you.

  1147. You want to spend time letting the Lord know you are totally

  1148. submitted to him. You want to check yourself every

  1149. day to the submission of the lordship of Christ.

  1150. Luke 646 Jesus has the disciples a question.

  1151. He's still asking it today. He said, Why do you call me

  1152. Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say whoa and he's a sick.

  1153. You have no right to call me Lord if you're not going to do

  1154. what I tell you to do. Because Lord is the word curios

  1155. in the Greek and it means owner. He's owner by the right of

  1156. creation. But once you confess Jesus as

  1157. Lord, as the only way of getting in the Kingdom, it's not going

  1158. down front like I did when I was a little kid and I was 10 years

  1159. old. And I went down front and they

  1160. said pray this prayer with me. You know, ask God to forgive you

  1161. of your sins, ask Jesus to come into your heart and you'll be

  1162. saved. Guess what I found out None of

  1163. that's in the Bible. I hate to shock you, but there's

  1164. no place in Scripture where it says come down and confess all

  1165. your sins. Some people would be still doing

  1166. it. And who can remember them all?

  1167. And then he, what does he say? He goes on and tell you.

  1168. He says, and and he said, And then they said they they said,

  1169. well, you know, ask Jesus to come in your heart.

  1170. There is no place that you ask Jesus to come in your heart.

  1171. It is not in the Bible. There's one thing that you're

  1172. supposed to say with your mouth, and that is you are my Lord.

  1173. Period. That's the only way into the

  1174. Kingdom. The only way.

  1175. So when we see that we want to pray over ourselves, you want to

  1176. spend time asking the Kingdom come will be done in your

  1177. family, in our church. How about our pastors?

  1178. How about our city, state and nation, the world, all of our

  1179. missionaries? Do we not want the the, the, the

  1180. Kingdom of God to be produced in their life?

  1181. Absolutely we do. That is the time during that

  1182. part of your prayer to do that. Third thing, give us this day,

  1183. Our Daily Bread 2 Two types. One's your spiritual bread.

  1184. Father, what word am I going to need today to get me through

  1185. whatever's going to be coming? Jesus said it.

  1186. John 1633. He tells you right there.

  1187. He said, you know you're going to have tribulation,

  1188. tribulations coming, they said, but be of good cheer.

  1189. I have overcome the world, but what scriptures are you going to

  1190. need? I heard somebody say one time.

  1191. He said we're like coffee mugs and when somebody bumps your

  1192. mug, you'll find out what's inside because it's coming all

  1193. out all over you. He said we need to make sure

  1194. what's on the inside when trouble hits is the word of God.

  1195. You want to be a person of great faith.

  1196. The Bible tells us how to do it. Speak the word only.

  1197. That's how you become a person of great faith.

  1198. When trouble hits or something goes on or something, you get a

  1199. bad report. What is the first thing out of

  1200. your mouth? I hope it's not.

  1201. Oh God, what are we going to do? You better find a word.

  1202. Get the word on it. All right, give us a day.

  1203. Spiritual bread, then natural bread.

  1204. Father, I think either you've met every need that we have.

  1205. Every bill is paid in full. We all know, man, anything.

  1206. But to love them you got to you got to speak like that.

  1207. All right, The next one he says. And forgive us of our debts is

  1208. we forgive our debtors. Here's the thing.

  1209. Always examine yourself, especially after a

  1210. confrontation. Are you going to rehearse

  1211. everything they said over and over and over and tell it sows a

  1212. little seed of bitterness? Can't afford that.

  1213. That'll give you cancer. I know from experience.

  1214. But he tells us in there, he said always examine yourself.

  1215. 1st Corinthians 1131 is it's. I don't have it up on the board,

  1216. but it it said judge yourself that you be not judged.

  1217. You need to take a look at you. You need to make sure you're

  1218. straight. You need to make sure you got

  1219. the log out of your eye, right. I had a I had it one time.

  1220. I taught a lesson on check your eyes for railroad ties before

  1221. you want to clean somebody else up.

  1222. Make sure you're clean, OK? And then I put in there.

  1223. You need to live in a spirit of forgiveness.

  1224. That is just continual. Jesus did it, Father.

  1225. Forgive them. They know not what they're

  1226. doing. My gosh people, all right,

  1227. Matthew verse 6 and and and verse 13 said lead us not into

  1228. temptation but deliver us from evil.

  1229. All right. Jesus told the disciples the

  1230. night that he was betrayed. In Matthew chapter 26, verse 41

    Matthew 26:41

  1231. he said watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.

  1232. So it's apparent to me temptations coming.

  1233. But the way we keep from entering into that temptation is

  1234. by watching and praying. Does that make sense?

  1235. So we always need to be we need to be watching.

  1236. We need to be praying. We need to be listening.

  1237. All right. And I think it's interesting

  1238. that when he said that, lead us not into temptation but deliver

  1239. us from evil. And the Greek bears out the evil

  1240. one. But Psalms 91, every morning I

  1241. can hear Melanie. She has memorized the whole

  1242. thing. And then I'll get.

  1243. I'll pick up wherever I wake up and listen, all right.

  1244. She she quotes the whole thing over our family, over everybody

  1245. in this church. She prays over the mall and

  1246. nobody's going to be tripping and falling and hurting

  1247. themselves. And we're not having any

  1248. accidents. We're not.

  1249. She praised Psalms 91. I I believe that is a part of

  1250. our prayer. God loves to hear you remind him

  1251. of his word. That's why Jesus said you're

  1252. going to worship me in spirit and in truth.

  1253. And when we come to Father the war, he says, you worship me and

  1254. worship me in spirit, which for us now is the ability to pray in

  1255. that unknown tongue. But he said, and truth what he

  1256. say. Truth was His word.

  1257. So we need to be bringing our His word to him, and then to

  1258. wrap it up. Isaiah 5417 in the arena.

  1259. Protection is no weapon formed against us will prosper, he

  1260. said. Every tongue that is shall rise

  1261. against you in judgment. You will condemn.

  1262. This is the heritage of better translation is this is an

  1263. inheritance. Everybody loves an inheritance.

  1264. And he said this is the inheritance of the servants of

  1265. the Lord. And their righteousness is of

  1266. me, says the Lord, It's an inheritance.

  1267. So hopefully we have discovered tonight.

  1268. And Marcus, you can go ahead and come that we've discovered

  1269. tonight a little bit of what God expects out of us as Kingdom

  1270. citizens, that he has the standards they're written, and

  1271. we shouldn't have any problem whatsoever adhering to him,

  1272. because God would never require anything out of us that we

  1273. couldn't do. But he's letting us know.

  1274. Hey, listen, I need you to become a disciple.

  1275. I need you to become a student, he said.

  1276. I need you to be, you know, a person that is walks in faith.

  1277. You believe what I said and you're going to show the world

  1278. that God will move on your behalf by your faith.

  1279. So, Father, we thank you and praise you for your word.

  1280. We thank you said it divides forever and we will be abiding

  1281. with it. For you said we'll know the

  1282. truth. The truth will make us free.

  1283. And Father God, we want to be people of the truth.

  1284. We want to be Kingdom citizens encouraging people to come to

  1285. our country. We want to praise you for that.

  1286. You know, this this evening you may and I was, I was going to,

  1287. you know, give the normal, you know, invitation, you know, and

  1288. I think it's interesting we call it an invitation where we ask

  1289. people, hey, if you've never made Jesus Lord of your life.

  1290. But did you know Jesus did not make an invitation?

  1291. In fact, God says that he wants winked at the sin of man, but

  1292. now he gives everyone a commandment.

  1293. It's not an invitation, it's a commandment.

  1294. Make me Lord. Make him Lord.

  1295. If you've never done that, I encourage you come down the

  1296. front. We've got people that that want

  1297. to minister to you. But the question that I've got

  1298. for you is that you may need to re up your commitment in your

  1299. arena of discipleship. You might need to re up your

  1300. commitment in your prayer life, in your faith talk.

  1301. You may have been running your mouth lately on things that are

  1302. nonprofitable to you, your family.

  1303. You know people that you know that you you know running your

  1304. mouth to people that they don't understand.

  1305. You know why you're you. You say you're all this and

  1306. Jesus and you have a great church and all this stuff, but

  1307. yet you you talk like somebody defeated.

  1308. Change that tonight. Repent.

  1309. Change your thinking and change your actions.

  1310. Can you do that? I encourage you to do that.

  1311. Thank you so much for listening to this message.

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