Hallowed: Lord of All

Bread of Life Church | Fresno: I want to say this about the gospel. The gospel is not a message you believe to get a ticket to heaven and ask God to bless whatever it is you want to do. The gospel comes and brings God's love to your heart and God's kingdom to your life. And then we surrender to Jesus and we enter his kingdom. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God more than 60 times. Way more than heaven, way more than hell, way more than money. He talked about this thing called the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. And he said you have to be in it to know him. But to be in the kingdom of heaven, you have to leave another kingdom. You can't be in both at once. You have to leave another kingdom called the domain of darkness or Satan's realm. And so there are two fathers in the earth. There is the Father who is in heaven, who created the earth through a son and holds it together by the power of his spirit. And then there's a false father who the Bible says is the father of all lies. And apparently he's the father of all religion that doesn't know God, because the Pharisees were very religious, and he told them, You do the deeds of your father, the devil. So they had a father, and it wasn't his father. When you were born into this world, you were born under another father, illegitimately born into that thing, not a part of anything of God at all, just born a mess. It's called the sinful nature of God of man. That God judged in the in the Garden of Eden. Man fell in the garden, he chose rebellion instead of walking with God, and he was doomed to become a part of the progenitor or the father of evil. This is the devil himself. They joined himself to him and took on his nature, and that invaded the earth. If you look at the world today and you see all the terrible, awful things going on, and say, if God was such a loving God, why does that happen? God didn't do any of that. People did that. Because they have free will. God gave them free will, but they are choosing another father. And their allegiance is to this other being, this other existence, this entity known as Satan, who has his own camp of fallen angels and fallen hordes of evil. They're called demons, that are called rulers and powers and principalities. And then there is your Father in heaven who sent his son in the likeness of men to die for us. Sent the power of the Spirit, as we read earlier in this meeting, is surrounded by angels around his throne. So there's a domain of evil that is birthed in rebellion, that is illegitimate, its squatters, its liars, its thieves, and its cheats. And then there's the glorious God of heaven, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who moves in the earth by the power of his spirit and holds this world together. And even in the midst of all this great evil, his power is working. To call men out of the rebellion they were born into, that they often chose unwillingly, that they didn't know they even had a choice at their birth. They were just born into dark families, they were born into dark things. And it wasn't till they grew up and realized that God loved them, and this thing called the gospel came to them, which literally means good news. And the good news comes to them, and they hear for the first time that God loves them and that the evil that they have lived in does not have to own them. And that the sin that is destroying them no longer has to be in their life. And upon hearing that, they leave the domain of darkness and they leave a false, lying, thieving, murdering father, and they come and know the true father, the father of Everything that's good and righteous, where the Bible says he is light and in him there is no darkness at all, and there's no shifting shadow. He's not gonna lie, he's not gonna be one God today and another one next week. Like some religions preach. Islam, for example. They never know what they're gonna stand in front of. Depends on his mood that day. Our God is not like that. He is no shifting shadow. He is no false God. He is truly, completely holy and righteous, and there is no one like him in all the universe. That God, that f you can give him praise, that's all right. That God and that father who sent his son into the earth didn't just to come and give you a little blessing and a little peck on the cheek and a kiss on the head and a few dollars in your bank account while you live your worthless life. Did I just say that? A life that's not led by God's power and in God's kingdom, under obedience to his lordship, and no matter how great I think it is, and I'm saying, hey, you just come and bless me down here, that does not work. Because while I think I'm serving him, I'm actually still in this other domain and deceived about it. I think I'm serving God. I mean, I said some words at a prayer and I asked him to bless me. What else do you want? He wants it all. He wants your whole heart. And your whole life and your whole love and your whole obedience and your whole faith, not your idea of it, his idea of it, not my idea of it, the Bible's idea of it. The the word of God talks about how we are to love him and know him, and we don't get to make our own version. Show me a scripture where God asked you to tip him and give him a little bit of yourself while you keep the rest. There's no scripture that describes that. We come in and it's all or nothing. He's either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. Are you hearing that? Until I bow before God with all of my heart and surrender my whole life to Him. And I say, God, come in and have everything. I have not become obedient and the gospel has not really impacted me. It's working on me. I'm friendly to it, but it doesn't deal with my attitude. It doesn't deal with my opinions. It doesn't deal with my words. Until it reaches the innermost parts of what motivates me to do anything I do, it has not changed me. If I have said words and ascribed to some religion, but I have not had an inward change of what motivates me in this world, coming from God's love and power, that breaks my heart, that breaks my ⁓ willful disobedience and causes me to surrender with humility before the throne of God and say, Lord, have your way with me. Take it all, Lord, and make me your willing vessel. Then the gospel has not penetrated us, but we have listened to religion. Religion is a form that does not change you, that makes you think you are changed. It's man's ways of saying, You can be okay without really being fully surrendered. Just line up to our rules and our ideas, but you get to keep your own heart. Knowing Jesus breaks through all those walls and says, I'm coming to live with you. I'm coming to live inside of you. I'm coming to take up residence in the very motive center of everything that lives inside here. And I will dwell there and I will teach you who I am. I will show you who I am, and I will live the power of my love and my life through your heart and through your obedience if you'd be willing. The willingness to surrender that. deeply to God and say, Lord, come in and have my life. I don't want you just to bless me while I live my own selfish pursuits. I don't want any more selfish pursuits. I want a pursuit of you that knows you fully and totally and obeys you completely and then I will be blessed. We've been studying the Lord's Prayer, and I only have a few minutes here because we've already done so many things in this meeting. So I just want to make a few remarks before we go. So basically, we've been working through the book of Matthew, chapter six, verses one ⁓ through eighteen. But what a lot of people don't realize is that Jesus says three times, don't be a hypocrite. We always focus on the Lord's Prayer, but the Lord's Prayer is sort of a subtext to a bigger dialogue about asking people not to be hypocrites. Don't be a hypocrite when you pray, don't be a hypocrite when you give, and don't be a hypocrite when you fast. Meaning don't be someone who acts a show that doesn't have it in your heart. A hypocrite is Hippocrates. It literally means actor, someone who plays a role. How many times have I met people that were that had the label and the title of a thing that they really weren't? They didn't really carry down inside what the rapper said. And Jesus said, Whatever you do, he warns them three times, beware of this, and whatever you do, do not become this. Because God pays no attention to a hypocrite. Men do. Men are impressed by religious exterior, but God sees through the heart and says, Nothing's going on here. He says, What you do before your father, you do in secret. And if it's real, God will open it and answer it out here. If it's real, what you do in secret, God will reward openly. But if it's not real, nothing's gonna be happening. No matter how great people think you are, it's that God thinks something about you is what matters. That I'm let me say it again. It is not what men say, it is what God says. It's not what you say, it's what God says. And so he says, surrender all outward look of things and come in and leave hypocrisy behind and come in and truly be my son. Come in and truly be my daughter. And when that happens, I will form a new identity in you. And you will no longer gain an identity through your business, through your talent, through your skill, through your last name, who you think your friends are. You will be given an identity that comes from the very throne of God. From the Father Himself, the one who created you and made you, who knew you in eternity and knows exactly what your life should become. Your identity comes from him. So this message series has been called hallowed. And it starts off with this statement in Matthew 6:9: Pray this and pray then in this way. When he says, When you're not a hypocrite, you pray like this instead. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. In other words, when I Draw near to God. He's not somewhere in the earth that's working for me. He is exalted and eternal, far above all rule and dominion. He lives in a space that only he belongs in. He's an uncreated being, and there's no one his equal, not even close. And I have sanctified him as holy and sacred in my heart. To hallow means to set apart as the object of worship that is holy, sacred, lofty, exalted, high. far above all created things and uncreated things. And I cut through the noise and I draw near to the throne of God and I see him and I say, You are God and I am your son. I am your daughter and everything else falls to the wayside. This is first. I am God's son before I am anything. You are God's daughter. You are God's son before you are a husband and a father and Business owner, a worker, what a preacher. You are God's son first. You are God's daughter first. Your identity comes from there, that place, that person, that realm, that throne. And when that identity takes shape inside of you, you begin to realize your home is there and not here. You are an alien and a stranger and a pilgrim in this world. That is your true eternity and that is your true source. God is your true life. And he is the one that defines your reality. And so when you live in a thing called His kingdom, when He says, Hallowed be thy name, your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as is in heaven. That means everything that you had as a kingdom, and every will that you had, and every idea you had is surrendered at the foot of the cross. It is surrendered before Jesus Christ. And you no longer Have your own will, and you do not live in a false kingdom called the devil's kingdom or man's kingdom or something else. You live in the kingdom of God, and the will of God does not happen separate from the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God knows no other will but the will of God. God's ways are done through God's will, and God's will is done through God's ways. They are never disconnected. God's ways, God's will, never disconnected. The will of God is connected to the way of God, and the way of God is his kingdom. He knows no other way. He respects no other being. He respects no other opinion. And he has no time for any other idea except his own. He is that holy, that lofty, and that righteous. This is why the word of God does not seek a debate. It just simply makes statements and says you either believe it and you're on the right side of God or disagree with it and you're on the judgment side and there's no in between. I couldn't say these things more clearer. ⁓ When we become born again, we ditch an old identity and we get a new one. It's called and daughter of the Most High God, loved and eternally with him. Does that make sense? ⁓ When that happens, then you begin to realize he knows your needs before your ass because he's a father and not a lazy one. Said he's a good father and not a lazy one and distracted one. He knows you intimately. And he is coming for you and to you to live in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit through his son, working the will of God and the kingdom of God in your life. And so crying about my provision becomes a useless amount of energy. You're crying about what he knew you were going to need before you knew you needed it. And he's already sent his provision. My job isn't to beg him for my provision, my job is to obey him so that his provision is readily near, because I'm where he is. I'm in his way, I'm in his path, I'm in his process. How many of you know that he's not lacking anything? Come on now, he's not lacking anything. So if I want to receive what he has, I need to be where he is. pushing it in this room and I know it. The Lord listen, the Lord said this to me last week. He said, Until you need me, you will never know me. Until you need me desperately, you will never know me. Many of you would say today, I need God to come into my life and invade my space and my heart more than I need air itself. I need God. I need the Father to come and heal my life and to restore my existence and to heal my soul and to put within me a clean heart and a pure motive and a right spirit. You cannot Go to enough Christian lectures and train yourself into that process. Serving God isn't going to college. Serving God is the surrender of your life and your heart before Him. Then you begin to learn. I feel like I'm preaching and prophesying to the atmosphere. You don't have to take very much more of it, I promise. So he says, Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. He doesn't say our yearly bread, our lifetime supply, daily. You know what? He said daily is enough. He goes on to say later, don't worry about tomorrow because that daily bread will satisfy you today. And when you get to tomorrow, it'll be there too. Your job is to know me and need me and not to worry about that. How many times did Jesus said, Why do you worry about how you're gonna eat and how you're gonna be clothed? And look at the lilies and the birds and why does he talk about all that? He's saying, What is wrong with you? My Father who created this whole thing, he has you. The question is, are you with him? When I'm with him, all things are possible. All right, I just got a few more things to say and we'll close. I wish we had more time for these things, but it says this, and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. He doesn't say we forgive the debt of people, he says we forgive the people. You forgive me of my sin, and then I don't say, ⁓ and and forgive, you Bethany of her sins. No, I forgive Bethany. I forgive Nick. I don't forgive him for his sins, I forgive him completely. Right? I I forgive Joni. I don't I don't count the things I'm forgiving. I said well she did this on Wednesday and last Tuesday that was bad and a year ago, whoo we don't want to talk about that. God forgive me of the whole palette of all my nonsense. Forgiven heart is a forgiving heart. But that set in the room. A forgiven heart who knows the true power of it is a forgiving heart. And so when God comes to me and says, I'm gonna forgive you of all your trespasses, when I look at Joni, I go, I don't even think about what she did. I just forgive her. All of it, a whole lot of it. And then I release her from a soul cage that has trapped her in my heart to beat on her from time to time because I'm bitter. You know what soul cage is? It's something you got inside of you. You got a little prisoner in there. Could be your mom or your dad or your brother, your sister, your ex-wife, whatever. Somebody that you want to beat on from time to time. And God says, forgive them and do not count they have trespasses. Forgive them and let them go. Here's why. ⁓ And lead us not into temptation. We don't have time to go into it all, but in Matthew chapter 4, verse 3, there's this little story of Jesus being driven into the wilderness by the Spirit to face someone called the tempter. How many of you know the tempter is the devil? And that story, and Satan, the devil, came out to give Jesus three temptations. Did you know that in Greek, the same word for lead us not into temptation? Is the same word for the tempter in Matthew chapter four verse three. In other words, lead us not into the tempter's path. Lead us not into the course of the devil. Lead us not into his framework. Lead us not to him. Why is salvation critical and not just forgiving you of your sin, but delivering you of this other God, this other father, this he's a sub God, he's not a real God, he's a fake. He's Satan, he's a liar and a murderer. How come God says in his prayer, you cried to your father that whatever got left inside of you from your previous life, the devil, the tempter, the temptation, does not come back to you? It's important enough for Jesus to include it in the Lord's Prayer. He's saying, In your salvation is a deliverance from that thing. Do you know that? You didn't just get saved to go to heaven, you got saved to be delivered of the nature of hell. You should have shouted right there. You got saved to be delivered from the progenitor of everything that created the need for hell. Lead us not into that wicked, awful being's life. And then it says this, and deliver us from evil. And the Greek translation there goes a little further and says, Deliver us from the evil one. Lead us not into the tempter's path, but deliver us from the one who invented evil. If I belong to my father and I find my identity in him, and I live in his kingdom and I'm living in his will and he's my provider, I have no business being over here in an old path and an old way in a tempter's lie. I have no business coming back to a false, stolen power in the earth that is illegitimate and running around killing human beings until Jesus comes back and judges him and finishes him. But until Jesus comes back, he has time to run on the earth. The Bible says when Jesus returns, he will bring an end to him and will judge him thoroughly. But until we're waiting for that day, he's here. And Jesus says, If you're gonna be in my kingdom, make darn sure you do not become a part of this thing. Don't get anywhere near it. And you ask God to get involved in your heart and in your life that when your life is too insensitive to know when you're sliding into his path. God's spirit shows up and says, Son and daughter, you just need to come right back over here and get right back into my will and into my kingdom. That looked good, but it's a lie. And sometimes we don't know the difference between good and bad. Hallelujah. Can I tell that to you? Sometimes you don't know it. Sometimes bad dresses itself up as really good. It looks good, sounds good. Is it good? God only knows. And the Spirit of the Lord will come into your life and say, I am leading you away from the tempter's path, from his voice, and I'm delivering you from the one that is evil. Your salvation doesn't just get you to heaven, it transforms you out of the nature of hell. I gotta say that again. It transforms you out of the nature of hell. I'm so tired of all the news feeds that talk about all the preachers that beat somebody or molested somebody or stole somebody or had an affair or was a was a homosexual or something. I'm so tired of this. Why? Because how in the world do people stand in pulpits and preach this message and totally serve another God? Look, this is either gonna be real or not. And the gospel has to come to the earth so young, beautiful couples like this can be transformed and not play a game. Nicer preachers are coming next week, I promise. Come back. Really? Probably not, but they're the same lot and the same stock, so or they wouldn't be here. So but he but listen, this is not meant to be mean. I'm trying to say something that's the truth. I am crying out to God. You say, Well, you're the pastor of the church. No, no, no, no. That prayer means something to me. Well, you should have arrived by now. Honey, no one arrives till they're in eternity in heaven. While you're still here, you've not arrived. You arrive when Jesus arrives, or you go to heaven, but until then no one's arrived. Meaning, Paul said anyone could fall in this life. Right? My prayer is, Father, lead me away from this other domain all the time. And keep me from the power of this false being that is a liar and a murderer. And if there's anything of him left in me, forgive me of it. And you know what the pulse test is, whether it's worked or not? I hope you're ready for this. Brace yourselves, grab the seat, grab the neighbor next to you. The pulse test, the litmus test, if you will, whether you are in that other domain. Are in God's kingdom as who have you forgiven and who have you not forgiven? If you are holding people in unforgiveness and bitterness. You are in that other domain at some level. Maybe not totally, but your foot's in it. Because he goes on to say, For if you forgive others, in verse 14, of their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. My friend, if your transgressions are not forgiven, you are on your way to hell. I am on my way to hell. And so, if I have forgiven people, that's the testimony that I entered this kingdom and the father changed my heart, and I'm no longer in the tempter's path and I'm not serving the evil one. The hinge pin is being forgiven and forgiving others. The power to forgive others is not a human emotion, it comes supernaturally out of heaven by the power of God through the transformation of the heart. Glory to God. How many of you are grateful for new birth? Because it makes the impossible possible. And it transforms us into things we thought we could never be. The love of God did that for you. The power of Jesus Christ did that for you. The name of Jesus demands that every false God and illegitimate spirit has to leave your life. And no longer have ownership over you. But they will not go if I want ownership of their ways. And unforgiveness is key and number one in this story. I want you to take that to the Lord and say, Lord, who have I not forgiven? Who do I refuse to forgive? God's saying, if you keep that, the tempter's near. That's his food and that's his path. How many of you know he can never be forgiven? Satan can't repent and come back. So unforgiveness is his nature. He is talk about unforgiven. He is about as unforgiven as they come. What is his nature? Unforgiveness. What does his being revolve around? Unforgiveness. He's unforgiven. So when he imparts his nature to you, what does he impart? Come on, what does he impart? When I hold on to unforgiveness and I'm bitter towards people, who am I fellowshipping with? The one who lives in unforgiveness. When I live in forgiveness and I let the power of God, who's a forgiver, make my forgiven heart a forgiving heart, who am I like? I'm like God. And in the middle is our path of decision. God the Father, the tempter. And all day long you have a decision to make. Who you will choose. So I've already chosen. I said some prayers years ago at an altar. My friend, that's not a choice. That's the beginning of a choice. Those words don't save you. God's power saves you. There's no magic script code. It's God's power coming into your heart to change you and to transform you and to make you like Him. You know you're saved. I'm gonna tell you something. You know you're saved when you hate evil and not Democratic or Republican versions. I mean God's version. When you hate evil and you especially hate it in yourself, and you cry out to God to say, Lord, have mercy on me and forgive me. Lord, change my heart and renew my life. Take me away from the tempter and get me free of this other nasty being. I'll make this last statement. The gospel delivers you from him and his domain. And if you don't know that, you will still live in it. One more last statement. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, because when that has taken place, when the father is the progenitor of your identity, the one, the source, and makes you who you are, and then you abandon every other pursuit, every other kingdom and every other will, and you dive headlong completely into his and belong to him totally, then all that you need comes from him, and you stop worrying about your need and you start thanking him for who he is. At that point, the desire for evil is crushed inside of you. Go, ugh, I hate it. Forgive me. And all the people that are caught in it, they don't even know what they've done. I just forgive them. And Lord, whatever evil had me, deliver me from it forevermore and let me never come back to it. Deliver me from it. And then the other side is the promise. There will be these words. Ready? For yours is the kingdom. And the power and the glory forever. Amen. Let's all stand to our feet before we go. Father, today, we thank you that your word is true. And Lord, I thank you that through the preaching of the gospel, Paul said. The manifold wisdom of God was made known through a church who believed it. The preaching of the gospel separated men from evil and healed their broken lives. Father, I tell you, I pray today that every person that heard this today, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is more than a tract, it's the supernatural power of heaven that when we believe transforms our life and we enter the kingdom of God. It's a decision of faith, not just a decision of the mind. It may start with the mind, but at some point it has to enter the heart. Father, I'm asking today that the power of the Holy Spirit would bring us all, myself and everyone in here, under the conviction of heaven that our confidence will be in you so deep that we're willing to go anywhere you send us and to say everything you tell us to say and to preach what the Bible says is the everlasting gospel until you come back. Lord, I pray that the conviction of heaven will grip us and that we will truly pray, deliver me from the tempter and deliver me from the evil one. Let me never get in that path because I want to be in your kingdom and your power and your glory. Lord, I ask you to bless every person in here and to bring them into everything this word says. Lord, may the fear of heaven, the fear of the living God, grab us. Grab my heart, because we have a few years left on this planet, and they have to count. They have to count for you, and they have to count for our families, and they have to count for all the people we're going to meet that don't know you. These days must count, Lord. There's bigger things to do than our entertainment and money. Lord, may your power enter us and may your spirit speak to us. Lord, we bring ourselves near your throne to become obedient sons and daughters, just like Jesus was. Make us like him. Conform us to the image and nature of your Son. In the name of Jesus Christ. Sense the fear of God in this room. May your kingdom, your power, and your glory be with us. May we be in your kingdom. May we behold your glory and be in it with you. And may your power do great things that man can't do. Where there'll be miracles and testimonies of the impossible becoming possible because you're here. And we will not be able to take any credit or any glory, but be able to say, our Father, who we've hallowed, has seen in secret and rewarded openly. We are no hypocrite. We are true sons and daughters, living to the glory of God. Jesus' name. ⁓ Amen. We're gonna fully dismiss the service now? In the fear of God. There are children waiting for you in the back. And childcare workers waiting for you in the back. There's things you may need to go, be a part of it, do. So we're gonna quietly dismiss the service. This is a full dismissal. No one is backsliding for leaving. Okay? We gotta go live our lives too. That's obedience. If anyone says, I just need a few moments, or I want someone to pray with me, or I want someone to pray with me to give my life to Jesus, we're here, up here at the front. We love you. God loves you. Have a blessed week.

Matthew 4:3