Acts Chapter 9 (2009) 1

The problem is our thoughts is not his thoughts.

And so that takes a transformation, doesn't it?

It takes a renewing of the mind.

It takes a unteaching and to be retaught.

And as Brother Elton told me, it's not learning that's difficult, it's unlearning.

But thank God for the Master Jesus Christ, he's able to wash our feet, isn't he?

From all those woolly ideas and all those traditions and rituals and all the things that's been handed down to us over the years.

If it's not the Word of God, if it's not scriptural, it may sound right, it may look right, it may feel right, but if it's not Bible, chances are it's just not right.

But thank God we want to be a righteous people, though we're and uh of course righteousness is uh a righteous people, a righteousness is synonyms.

Uh one place in the Bible it actually refers to it and uses the term interchangeably at some times, not all times, as just.

A righteous man, a just man uh sometimes are a synonym, sometimes it's not.

Uh there's going to be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

In that particular passage, the unjust is the person who died striving.

So he died righteous, but he didn't die an overcomer.

He didn't die coming to fruition.

And so uh a just man there is a perfect man.

And then another scripture tells us, I think it's in Proverbs 4, he said the path of a just man.

Uh now that's a righteous man.

And of course, the script the setting always tells you what the word means.

Of course, you can always look it up in the as Brother Jeff would do in the in the Greek.

But he said, the path of a just man, that's just a man who's doing what's right in the eyes of God.

The path of a just man is as a shining light.

It shines more and more into a what?

A perfect day.

So we know the just there isn't a perfect day.

It's a perfect man because it shines more and more unto a perfect day, until the day the man actually overcome.

But thank God, I'm glad to be on a beaten path.

A path that would actually shine as we continue to walk, as we begin continue to hunger and pan after God, it shines more and more.

You get more understanding, you get more knowledge, you get more truth.

It shines more and more into a perfect day.

That's the day that you actually are able to overcome.

And I think uh Peter makes a statement, doesn't it?

Uh, as he began to admonish that is that that Christian uh age that he was writing in, coming to the close of his years, uh, he said, We have not followed wise, uh cunning and advised fable.

We made known unto you the excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we was eyewitnesses of his majesty.

We we we were there talking about the uh Mount of Transfiguration, which is in the 16th, 17th chapter of the book of Matthews.

He said, But we was eyewitness of his majesty.

When there came a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son, hear ye him.

He said, But listen, we uh we have a more sure word of prophecy than that.

Even though we were standing, we seen it.

He said, Where unto you do well to take heed.

Like unto a light, he put it, that shines in a dark place.

A light is truth, it's knowledge, it's understanding, and a dark place is our heart.

It's full of gross darkness.

He said, Uh it's as a day that dawned.

You know how the day dawned?

You don't go outside one one minute and it's dark, it's midnight, and then of course at six o'clock it's noonday sun.

That's not how the light shines.

He said, until there's a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn.

It starts off dark, and the darkness begins to lift, it begins to lift until it becomes dawn.

And then, of course, the dawn begins to uh to lift and lift until it's actually morning light.

And then, of course, you say, Well, I can see, but you hadn't seen as you're going to see.

You keep walking, and eventually it's 10 o'clock, then it's 11 o'clock, and then one time at a certain hour, here it is.

It's noonday.

Brother, you can see all things by the light of the sun.

It's noonday.

I can see clearly.

I can actually see where I'm going.

I can actually see there is no shadows, there's no blemishings, I can see all things clearly.

But that's a beaten path.

That is a beaten path.

That is, uh, that's a path of a just man.

He said, In thy light, that's the light of the Lord, that's the light of the word of God.

In thy light shall you what?

Or shall you see light?

And then Jesus Christ himself makes this statement.

He said, To him that hath, to him that hath, that's talking about understanding, he says, Shall more be given.

Shall more be given.

But him that hath not, that is a little bit of understanding we do have, or you may have, or I may have, if we don't acknowledge it as truth.

He said, That shall be taken away, even that which he seems to have.

And so to actually have knowledge is one thing, but to have understanding is something altogether different.

And of course, the Bible said, He that uses knowledge, that's just truth, that's just facts and understanding, and that's having an interpretation of it uprightly is wise.

That's what wisdom is.

It's just using knowledge and understanding correctly.

And so it's impossible to be wise in the things of God if I don't have understanding.

It's impossible to have understanding if I don't have knowledge.

It's first knowledge, then it's understanding, and ultimately what we have is what?

Wisdom.

With all of you getting, get what?

Understanding.

But wisdom is the principal thing.

That's what we're after, is being a wise and understanding people and the things of God.

And that is the pathway of life.

That's the pathway of the never die vision.

It's actually having knowledge, having understanding, and being able to implement it, to put shoes on it, uh, to put socks on it, to put stockings on it, put a dress on it, and actually walk in it.

Until you and I become living epistles, seen and read of all men.

Our life tells who we are.

Our commitment, our dedication, our consecration.

Those words scare people.

It scares people.

Some people uh uh they find it to be intimidating.

Uh they find it to be uh too constraining when you use words like uh dedication, words like fully committed, words like consecrated.

Uh those words are words like holy.

Uh you know what the word holy means?

It means to be like God.

That's what it means.

Uh Israel in the old covenant was compelled numerous times, dozens of times, to be holy.

He said, even as I am holy.

Well, they didn't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but they was able to implement the laws that God gave them, otherwise he wouldn't have given it to them.

And that would have made them holy in the sight of God.

They would have been like God as much as they could walking in shoe leather or being fleshly without the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Over on this side of uh of Calvary, over on this side of Gargotha's Hill, you and I receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

And so holiness for us of being like God has a higher decree.

In other words, I don't just trying to put away the filthiness of my flesh, but it's also of my spirit.

Now I can do something they couldn't do in the old covenant.

I can actually rule my spirit.

Uh I can be made clean on the inside of this cup and platter that the outside may be clean also.

But all of those things come from consecration.

Uh the word consecrate, by the way, just mean to be set aside, pretty similar to uh sanctification.

And so uh we're people, we realize we have to be consecrated.

We have to be dedicated.

And uh anything that you're going to be successful in in life, you have to dedicate yourself to it.

You absolutely do.

You have to be willing to uh to grit your teeth, as the world put it.

You have to be able to endure hardness as a good soul.

You have to have your mind made up that come what may, I'm gonna finish this course.

You know, most of us, I know I couldn't, I couldn't actually see finishing school.

When I was in the sixth grade, in the fifth grade, uh, the concept of actually graduating was just a myth.

I went to school because my parents made me go, my mother mainly.

My father would have had mercy on me.

He wouldn't have been merciful, but he would have tolerated me staying at home.

But not my mother.

But uh, she didn't give me a choice.

She let me know you're going to school.

You don't have a choice in the matter, you're going to school.

And uh that's something I did every day.

I did it in the first grade, in the second grade, and graduating was just too far away.

I couldn't envision that.

But I just kept telling them if I keep going, one day I was gonna graduate.

So I I started talking like I'm gonna graduate, but I didn't see it.

The third, the fourth, the fifth, I still couldn't see it.

The sixth, I couldn't see it.

I think by the time I realized this reality, I was probably in the seventh grade, or maybe the eighth, and I could really begin to see graduating.

It wasn't uh just a myth, and I've been going to school all these years, and something really was gonna come of this.

I was gonna actually get out of school one day.

Well, it's the same way in this beaten path.

When you first start off, uh eternal life, never die message for the soul, uh, striving to be made whole or made complete up to the image of Christ.

We use the Bible used the term to be made perfect.

That just simply means to be made mature in Christ.

It's such a far-off uh uh a goal.

But brother, thank God we we walk by faith, don't we?

You can't see this with your carnal mind.

You can't see this in the flesh, but you actually begin to envision it a far off, just like uh Abraham did.

And the Bible said how he embraced it.

He embraced that.

He was going to a land that he didn't know where he was going, but he was just following the Lord.

And so here we are on this side of Agatha's Hill.

Thank God I can actually see it.

I couldn't see it in the beginning, but I can actually see eternal life.

I can actually see not dying.

I can actually see growing up into God, going on to perfection.

I can see being sanctified, consecrated.

I can see being holy, I can see being dedicated.

I can actually envision those things now.

Am I the only wonder that your growth came this way?

It didn't come overnight, did it?

It didn't come overnight.

And so we're people we must not be weary in what?

Well done, knowing that we shall reap in due season.

It is predicated upon something, if we what?

Faint not.

And Paul says, we are not of those that draw back to perdition.

You can draw back, it doesn't mean you're going in reverse, you draw back by saying, oh no, this is where I stop.

I'm not going any further.

Well, that's drawing back because the Spirit of God is leading us forward.

And as we say, no, this is it, this is where I stop.

Well, that's drawing back to perd.

We're not of those who draw back to perdition, that's destruction, but of they which believe to the what?

Saving of the soul.

It's a continual process.

My soul has been saved from sins that are committed in the past.

I've been forgiven for that, and I am being saved from this old wretched man that I am, and I have a hope of being eternally saved.

That is when my soul has been absolutely preserved.

And that's who Jude writes to, to those that are preserved in Christ Jesus.

Those are those who actually has actually finished their course.

Uh, preservative is an interesting word in the Bible.

And the Lord has actually desired that we be preserved and has taken us through the preserv uh preservation process.

Um my mother, my grandmother especially, and I watched my mother do likewise, uh actually make preservative.

I'm I'm we're gonna get into the book of Acts, I don't know why I'm talking, but some things I guess you should hear.

But I would watch my mother, I can actually remember my mother, she loved to make these uh figs preservative.

You ever had fig preservative?

Oh, you don't get any better than that.

It doesn't get in.

You ever know you know what a mason jar is?

They don't have these things anymore, do they?

They do?

You don't see them anymore.

I don't see them.

But my mother would actually have a box of mason jar, a whole box of them.

And brother, we'll go out and read, uh, we'll go out and pick the fig trees of the fig trees.

They weren't ours, but uh, brother, we'll have more figs.

My brother and I, we used to get a big foot tub, a big number two foot tub.

And brother, we'll come back with just a big foot tub of figs.

And brother, my mother, she'll whip us, you know.

I told you to stay out of those people's fig trees, and boy, she'll she'll give us a good whipping.

Well, we didn't get a whipping, we brought the figs home, but it was worth it.

We counted the cost and we still wanted to go.

Whipping won't last forever, them figs gonna last all week, brother.

We bring the figs.

When she finished beating us, brother, giving us a good spanking, uh uh, brother, we'll cry and all that, brother, but we'll get back on them figs.

And she'll say, You eat too many of these things, they're gonna make you sick.

And so to keep from spoiling the figs, uh, man, she'll begin to cook them now.

And brother, she'll get those old mason jars and she'll begin to uh burn them.

And we thought she was burning them.

You know, we want to eat them raw.

Figs are good raw.

And uh, but brother, she'll just she'll keep skimming the top off of them, and she'll keep cooking them and skimming the top off of them, and then she'll take them, brother Michael, and brother, she'll put she'll put spices in it, and she'll skim the top, and she'll put spices in it.

The next thing you know, she'll take the mason jars and put them in there, and then she'll put that top on them.

You know, they twist the top, and it had these two metal clamps, and you clamp them down.

And you can you didn't put them in the refrigerator, you took those preservatives and you set them inside.

She used to have a term, you never used these terms them old.

Shiff row.

You know what shift roll is?

That's where you we weren't allowed to go.

They had a lock on it.

And uh, those are the ones she'll preserve and put them in the old shift roll and lock the key.

We couldn't get in there.

But you know, a year later, we wouldn't forgot they was even in there.

And it's in the harder part of the winter.

It gets real cold in North Louisiana.

Brother, she'll open up that shift roll, man.

We forgot they was even in there.

It's been from last year.

And brother, she'll break out one of those, can't one of those jars, brother Michael, the figs on a good closed, cold day, pop that top on them.

Those figs are exactly the same way they were when she put them in there a year ago.

And I understand what I've never seen it happen, that you can leave them in there for tens of years.

And when you pop the lid on them, they just as fresh as it was when you put them in there.

That's what it means to be preserved.

That's what the Lord is doing with you and I.

He's preserving us.

He's preserving us, he's taking us through the fire process, and he's burnt out all those infirmities.

He's burnt out all the old rank spirit and the foul spirit and the mumming and the complaining and the doubting and the unbelief and all of those things that would actually cause us to rot, to decay.

Do you know those figs as good as they were?

Uh, those figs had death in themselves.

As good as those figs were, if you left them alone, they would actually rot.

It's one thing to save them off the tree from the bird, because the birds could eat them anyway.

Uh well, we was picking those figs from as an elderly lady, and uh her no-good, she had a no-good rotten son.

He was lazy, he wouldn't work.

As a matter of fact, I think he died in jail.

He eventually got caught stealing.

And uh those figs would just actually rot, they'd fall to the ground and the birds would eat them.

So we were gonna raid the trees.

And she really didn't care.

She didn't like us uh taking a foot tub, though.

But uh the point is, uh, when we picked those grapes, and we I mean those figs, we would tell our mother, they say, Well, they was rottening anyway.

So we were saving them figs.

We didn't use the terminal, we was actually saving them figs from rottening.

We were saving those figs from the birds.

And when we brought them home, we couldn't save them from themselves.

They were still gonna decay.

And so my mother knew how to save those figs from themselves.

We saved them from the birds.

My brother and I did that.

When we brought them home, she saved those figs from themselves.

She preserved them.

She took them through a process to preserve them.

And so when she gave them in that, she put them in that bottle, that's like you and I get a new body.

Not only were we saved from our past sins, that was death, but we have death in ourselves.

The Lord is doing something about that.

And when we finish this course, he gives us a new body.

Thank God we're preserved.

You'll never ever decay.

You'll never ever rot.

Your soul goes out through eternity.

Isn't that a wonderful hope?

Isn't that a wonderful vision?

And uh eternal life is really just that simple.

It's not anything complicated, it's just that simple.

The invisible things of God has clearly seen, being understood by the what?

Things that are made.

The things that are made.

So this is not a myth, but sometimes we run from that.

You know, those fees could have talked, Brother Michael.

They would have jumped out of that pot.

If they could have talked, they would have screamed when we picked them off the tree.

If they could have talked, they would have said, Don't you put this in me.

But mother was beginning to put those spices in it.

Don't you burn me?

But brother, thank God, if they could have talked when they got inside that jar, that jar they would say, Thank God I can live forever now.

And so the process is not all good.

It's not feel good, but it's good, isn't it?

Amen.

It is good.

So the Lord knows what he's doing.

And this is the confidence that we have in him.

The Lord knows what we're doing.

We have to commit, uh, that is to him the keeping of our soul.

We can't save ourselves, we can't change ourselves, we can't even overcome what's in us.

We need God's grace, we need his mercy, we need his loving kindness, we need his long-suffering, we need his truth, we need his attributes, we need his attitude.

Those are the things that he's putting in us.

The things that he's taken out of us is envy and strife and complaining and mummering and all the things that are actually caused us to die, to decay.

And the things that he's adding, those wonderful attributes of Jesus Christ and the word of God and the Spirit of God, that is the preservation, preservation process.

Thank God, and when it's over with, if this earthly house be dissolved, we have another house.

A building, what?

Not made with hands, eternal.

Thank God, it's eternal in the heavens.

Uh, I'm gonna stop.

I just feel so good and I had to express myself a little bit.

This is not a myth.

I know sometimes when you first start off, you really can't see it.

But don't just don't dismay at that.

A child can't see graduating.

A child, you know, they by faith they believe one day they're gonna actually look at a little Brandon.

Look at him.

Stand up, young man.

You, Brandy.

Braid, I'm sorry.

How old are you?

Eight.

Now, in his mind, somebody told him he's gonna be a man.

Stand up, Brother Phil.

Somebody told him he's gonna be like his daddy one day.

Look at the size difference.

Look at the size difference and the age difference.

There's no way he knows what his father knows.

He doesn't have the life experiences, he doesn't have the knowledge, he doesn't have the understanding, he doesn't have the wisdom, he doesn't have the strength, he doesn't have the height, but he looks at his father.

And one day he believes he's gonna be like that.

So what do he do?

He does what he's told.

He keeps eating, he keeps sleeping, he keeps drinking, he keeps playing as exercise, and as he's doing those things, he's developing.

And then one day, but he's gonna look over at his father, he's gonna be able to look him actually in his eye.

He'll actually be uh just as tall, he would be uh just as uh developed physically, and he'll say, you know, it wasn't a myth.

It wasn't a myth.

And this is the process that you and I are going through.

We're gonna be just like our yellow brother.

Be just like Jesus Christ.

We'll have the same spirit, the same attitude, we'll have the same disposition.

You can say now, you'll have the same man.

Sometimes it seems so far off, but brother, it's not as far as you believe.

It is not as far as you believe.

The Lord is able to do a quick work, Sister Amanda, and actually cut it short in righteousness.

He's able to do that.

And see, this is what the Lord does.

The Bible says he will perfect, that word means complete.

He will perfect that which concerns us.

The things that we do are the things that we can.

And what we can't do, that's where his grace and his mercy comes in to actually help us, give us the power to overcome this old adamic nature.

Uh, I'm I'm sorry, I know that's a hand or questions.

I just wanted to refresh myself.

Can you see these things?

Can you really see this and embrace this?

You have to embrace it.

You have to see it afar off.

And that's where faith comes in.

If not, you and I will look at things through our natural eyes, and we'll perceive things through our natural mind, and you begin to say, as Peter said one time, who then can be saved?

But look what Jesus asked.

He said, With man is impossible.

With man it is impossible, but with God, all things is possible.

All things is possible.

So not to overcome, not to reach perfection, brother, I will be absolutely, brother, I will be astonished not to make it.

I would be, I would be absolutely, uh, what's the word they use?

Uh uh, the gallblasts or something.

What is it?

That's ego.

That's what I would be.

Brother, I woke up at one morning and come to find out I've been sleeping for a thousand years, and I missed the bride and I didn't make it.

I man, I would be astonished.

Look over there, and never brother Youth Neil is in the bride of Christ.

I said, What happened to me?

I'm just picking at him.

But my God, don't you think that way?

You can make it.

You absolutely can make it.

The Lord didn't call you, He didn't call you not to make it.

And uh people wonder that when, because we're all not gonna obtain, but we all have the chance.

There's no reason for us not to.

And someone asked me this question once, and they'll forget it.

Do the Lord know when he called you whether you're gonna make the bride or not, or you're gonna make the new earth?

God doesn't think like we do, he doesn't think about you're not making it.

When he called you with a holy calling, he didn't have a vision or a thought of you're not making it.

We all have a choice, we all have an opportunity.

He called you with a high calling.

When he brought you to the body of Jesus Christ, that is the high calling.

It's not just to have a resurrection, they had that in the old covenant, but to never taste death, when he actually gave you the baptism of the Holy Ghost and put you in the body of Christ, is that you might never taste death.

He doesn't have a concept of you're not making it.

Now, of course, if we don't make it, that's what we choose to, we chose to.

But that's not the mind of God.

He did not call you for me not to make it, or you or for me not to make it, or you not to make it.

He calls you to make it.

And when Paul writes, he said to his holy brethren, those partaker of the heavenly calling, you don't know what it is for you not to make it.

That's our choice.

That's our doing.

Thank God he called me to make it.

I want to make it.

I mean to make it.

I don't know what it's like not to make it.

I can't see me not making it.

You see a kid thinking not to grow up.

As much as I love being in my mother's house, Brother Michael, man, I could, when I got a certain age, man, I couldn't see not being there.

But I was ready to get out of there because, man, I can see me, I can actually see me going to work and have my own money, my own car, and I can I can actually take my shoes off and nobody's gonna beat me.

And I go to bed one night with a, you know, when I first got married, my wife thought I was crazy.

I would go to bed, says Judah, and wouldn't wash the plate.

I put that plate in the dish in the in the zinc and I look at it, and I got severe severe beatings for that.

I go to bed, I jump up in the middle of the night and go look at that plate, it was still in the zinc, and nobody beat me.

I say, Boy, being grown is all right with me, brother.

Because I couldn't, I couldn't perceive that.

My mother would kill me for leaving my dirty dish in the zinc, brother Mike.

But being grown to me means I could actually take my shoes off and leave them in the floor.

And of course, Grace didn't like it, but that meant a whole lot to.

Me, a dirty dish in the zinc and nobody beat me.

Well, this was all right.

Could get up in the middle of the night and eat all the ice cream I want, nobody with me the next morning.

But man, when they got time to pay them bills, I said, boy, if I was just in my mama's house.

Enjoy, enjoy the state that you're in.

I guess that's the point I'm making.

Enjoy, even overcome it, even though you haven't made it yet.

Enjoy the condition that you're in.

Enjoy it.

Enjoy your growth.

Despires not the days of small beginning.

Don't, don't, don't, don't look, and I did those things.

I couldn't enjoy my childhood because I was too big a hurry to get grown.

And then of course I couldn't enjoy my earlier years because I was too big a hurry to want to finish this course and uh want to make enough money to buy back some of my time and and my Lord, brother, and then before you know it, you get into the dawn of life.

And what happened?

You spent all of your years looking ahead and you didn't enjoy the moment that you was living in.

If you're young, enjoy your youth in the Lord.

Enjoy your growth in God.

You're gonna get there.

Just don't be weary and well done.

Don't spend all of your time projecting what it's gonna be like.

Enjoy the growth.

Enjoy your steps.

Enjoy your development.

Amen.

I'm sorry for talking to somebody.

I saw a hand.

Oh come on.

This is all family.

Yes, ma'am.

He says we have strong drink unto him that is ready to perish.

That's a good proverb.

Touch on that.

I certainly will, and we'll get into the book of Acts.

Why that's a good that's a good launch in the description.

Let's turn to that.

Brother Michael, if you will, pick it up for the context in the fourth verse, please.

Proverbs chapter 31.

Proverbs 31 · chapter mention

It's an interesting chapter.

Uh, for those of us, I'm sure you've heard me go over it a few times.

Uh this is a, of course, the whole book of Proverbs is wonderful, but this is a quite interesting chapter.

Um my God.

Brother Micah, I don't want to go too far out because we'll lose the book of Acts.

But go ahead and pick it up in the fourth verse.

Proverbs 31 and 4.

Brother, I gotta do the third verse with it.

I'm sorry.

Verse 3.

He said, Give not thy strength unto women.

Okay, remember there's dualities in the word of God.

Uh the book of Proverbs is actually a book of wisdom.

Uh it was written by Solomon, who actually wrote 3,000 Proverbs.

Uh he wrote 3,000 Proverbs.

31 chapters here that we're reading has been canonized.

These are the ones the Lord inspired, but he was a man of learning.

And as dualities in Proverbs, as a natural, uh, if you just just naturally, if you read the book of Proverbs, it'll make you wise just naturally.

But the Lord is interested in that which is spiritual.

But these uh these proverbs, even a man reading the natural would actually help you to be wiser.

I remember Brother Rom and uh got him hooked on Proverbs, and man, he will he would play the tapes, uh, Alexander Scoby.

Get in his truck, man.

You always hear Proverbs over and over.

He would read them redundantly, but it'd help you to grow up.

The book of Proverbs, every man, every young man needs to get hooked on Proverbs, every woman too, but especially young men.

But here he's it's dualities.

He's talking spiritually, but it's a good natural implication.

What he's saying, give not thy strength to women.

Well, of course, he's talking about three things that actually caused a man to come down.

And it wasn't permitted for a king over Israel.

He couldn't multiply to himself uh gold and silver, that's riches.

He couldn't multiply to himself horses that was power, and he couldn't multiply themselves wives, that's women.

And so just naturally, here's Solomon.

He's actually admonishing his sons.

Listen, don't you don't you give your strength?

Your strength is all of your youth, your vibe, your zeal to women.

Don't you do that.

They'll bring you down.

You choose your wife, but don't give your strength to women.

And then of course, spiritually, in the kingdom of God, that's why we don't church hop.

Uh that's why we don't dabble in religion.

That's why we're not uh enticed by what you see in the religious world out here.

I'm not gonna give it my time.

I'm not gonna spend my time, I'm not giving my strength to women.

And one of the earmarks of the bride of Christ is these are those which was not defiled with what?

With women.

And women just mean religious setting, houses of worship.

And that's why we drink water, he says, out of your own cicerin and not another.

Okay, and so that's I'm showing you the duality here.

But keep going, Brother Michael.

He said, it is not for king, it is not for kings, Olimuel.

It is not for the kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink.

Okay, wine here is making reference to getting drunk off of doctrine.

Uh, you can get absolutely intoxicated with it.

Uh, I thank God for the truth that we have in the kingdom of God and the body of Christ.

But you know, you can get so drunk and so intoxicated until everybody you meet, uh, brother, brother than actually begin to share them the saving grace of Jesus Christ, the first thing you start talking about is a resurrection of the dead.

Or the first thing you start talking about is who is the devil, or all the things that are caused a person to stumble.

And that's because you're drunk off of a doctrine.

You know, uh uh do you know what a five-fold ministry is?

Are you under a five-fold ministry?

You can get drunk off of that.

And we know you we know what a five-office ministry is.

We understand that, we know what the hand of God is, but we don't want to be drunk.

Let's keep going.

Turn to Aaron a little bit, give him a little air.

He said uh he said, Lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any affliction of the afflicted.

Now, listen to this.

Here's what you do.

He said, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish.

That scripture is making reference to here's a person, here's a person.

There are, how should I put this?

Well, let me just speak real candidly.

Let's speak real candidly.

They're on the verge of losing out with God.

The way they're thinking, the way they're behaving or their spirit is taking them down a path of destruction.

You're gonna lose them.

They're going to die.

And so what do you do?

You give strong drink to him.

You use the word of God undiluted.

And it can cause a person, and undiluted, the word of God can offend most of us.

It really can.

If it's not tempered with mercy and with some grace.

These scriptures, brother, as Peter said, he heard one of them say, Who then can be saved, Lord?

It was strong.

It was strong drink.

And so in its purest form, you give that to somebody who's ready to perish.

You can take the word of God.

It can absolutely crush a person.

It can absolutely crush a person.

But if a person is about to die, you ever seen someone?

Uh I'm sorry, Brother Michael.

Oh, yeah, they are dying, so you're trying to save them.

And uh, you can take medication.

And if a person, you ever, well, let's take something stronger than medication.

What's this device they put on your chest when you have when you caught a heart attack and they put it on the shock, you back to life?

What is it?

Yeah, don't you put that on me?

But now my heart's not beating, give it to me.

But if I'm walking around healthy, don't you put that thing on me?

Yeah, but brother, if I'm about to die and my heart is not beating, brother, give it to me.

And that's the way the word of God is.

Uh it should be tempered with mercy, it should be mixed with compassion.

Oh, the word of God should.

And so, you know, you wouldn't go out and tell a man, uh, I had a brother follow me all the way to my house last Saturday.

He pastors of church, yeah.

It's Nolan, uh, what's his name?

Noah Smith.

And uh, interesting guy.

He really is.

And uh he gave me a sermon to preach to y'all Sunday, too, on Mother's Day.

But I, you know, I didn't bother him about that.

I listened to him, let him talk, and uh he just wanted to talk about some things of God and some natural things.

And but he's somewhat amazed with me.

And so, uh, Brother Michael, I could have said a lot of things.

He said, Come on over, we want you to preach, want you to preach.

Well, I could have said, Man, listen, brother, we don't we don't mix an ox and an ass don't plow together.

Now, why would I tell him that?

There was a time I would have told him that.

I would have told him that.

But why would I tell him that?

Why would I tell him that?

Now that's strong drink.

Why would I tell him that?

And it is Bible, it's scriptural, that's true.

The ox and the ass don't plow together.

Then I'm gonna define I'm the ox and you the ass.

You know, that's offensive.

That's offensive.

But you give that to someone who's what?

Ready to perish.

Well, I don't think the brother is ready.

I'd like to see him saved.

And so you don't share everything.

The Bible says a fool utters all his mind.

There's things that you see, you don't share that.

You don't tell that.

Uh, it's not gonna help a person, it's gonna hurt them.

So why would you give it to them?

Why would you give it to them?

Now, if they're about to die, Brother Michael, you're about, listen, you're about to lose your little pulse.

Then strong drink is for them that's ready to perish.

Then I'll give it to you.

You're about to go anyway.

If I listen, if we don't do something to help you, it may kill you now in the process, but you're dead anyway.

And we're trying to save you.

And that's the difference.

That is the difference.

But if a person has a strong pulse, uh, that is, he still has an appetite for the things of God, painting out the things of God, and you can't help it if he's blind to some things.

You can't, the Bible says, don't you curse.

Look what the scripture says, curse not a blind man.

That's not talking about a natural blind man, a man who just can't see.

Don't despise that man.

And you say, don't put a stumbling block in the path of a blind.

Man can't see.

Why would you give him things that he's gonna stumble over?

Why would you start talking about hell or the devil and things when a person can't see that and they will stumble over that?

You don't do that.

You don't do that.

And of course, I've I've used some harsh terms in the biblical.

I've called people uncircumcised Philistines, but then that's what they were.

But brother, they went for me to say it like that at that time.

Of course, some of them needed it, but many of them didn't.

But the scripture here, this is what it's making reference to.

Give strong drink to them that's what?

Ready to perish.

And wine unto them that what?

Of a heavy heart.

In other words, and you see someone just deep down in depression, you know, then you begin to take the word of God and you lift them up.

But you give strong drink to them that's ready to perish.

And of course, you'll see those apostles did that.

Uh you'll see, remember, we read the uh seventh chapter of the book of Acts.

Remember how that Stephen, brother, in that great disputation?

My God, that man was walking down through that old testament so skillfully.

I'm talking about Stephen.

And brother, he was doing a marvelous job, and everybody listened.

All of a sudden, he shifts gears.

He said, You stiff neck and uncircumcised of heart and ears, do you always resist the Holy Ghost?

As your father does, so do you also?

Brother, what was he doing?

He was giving them strong drink.

Well, they was about to perish anyway.

But uh, he started off, brother, he started off very meek and very mild and very uh uh easy to be entreated.

But brother, evidently they wasn't hearing him.

Evidently, brother, they weren't gonna receive it.

And so the Holy Ghost turned to him and he began to give them strong drink.

And of course, it actually broke their plate with him.

They stoned him for those words.

And that's usually what it happened when you give strong drinks.

Somebody's gonna despise you for that.

They're gonna hate what you say to them and hate you for saying it.

It definitely caused great contention.

Well, did I answer your question?

Okay, time is getting away from us.

Where do we stop at?

Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

But do you not love the way of God and all of his ways?

A wise and understanding God.

And of course, we've as we concluded the eighth chapter of the book, and let me let me share this.

This is kind of interesting as you watch this book, as you watch it develop.

You started off on the day of Pentecost with those twelve apostles, and then when you get to the uh uh to the seventh chapter, you actually begin to see helps.

Ministers actually begin to come in and develop.

And then you get to the eighth chapter, you begin to see the manifestations of those different gifts.

First, we see Stephen.

He was obviously no doubt he was a gifted teacher.

You get to the eighth chapter, now you begin to see Philip, how he began to reach out, where you can begin to see the work of an evangelist.

And now, as you begin to read on, you begin to actually see churches who begin to be established.

So you begin to see pastors.

You begin to actually watch.

And of course, you're going before that you'll see prophets.

I think it's in the 10th chapter.

You begin to see prophets, you begin to see the whole hand of God.

But when that church was inaugurated, when it was birth, it was just apostles.

And the word apostle means one sent.

Those men were sent to bear witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That's what they were sent to do.

And uh, they weren't all sent out to go out and establish churches, as much as they were to bear witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That was what they were sent to do.

Then, as this gospel began to uh to propagate, as it began to pan out, helps became necessary.

Helps mean other men who would actually help those apostles proclaim the gospel.

And the Lord began, the Lord does this.

Nobody can produce anything.

Uh you can cultivate what's in a person to come bring it to fruition.

But uh the myth of apostle produces a teacher and a pastor, the evangelist, well, we don't have any Bible for that.

We don't have Bible for that.

Uh that sounds good.

And uh I could, I no doubt I've said it myself, I can embrace the concept, but nobody cannot produce.

All you can do, all you can do is cultivate what's in a person.

You can make a peach tree be a peach tree.

All you can do is plant the seed, Brother Michael, water it.

And if it's a peach tree, guess what?

It's gonna bear peaches.

If it's a plum tree to bear plums.

So whatever's in a man or whatever's in a woman, all you can do when you begin to share the gospel is help bring into fruition what God has instilled in a person.

That's all you can do.

And so you begin to see here in this ninth chapter, this great man Saul.

And of course, he's his name, that's his Jewish name, which will be changed to Paul as we go on.

But uh here he is still doing his thing back in Jerusalem.

When you get to the eighth chapter, remember here's Philip.

He was running from that great persecution that had started uh in Jerusalem, and he went down to Samaritan, and yet uh Saul was still doing his thing in the ninth chapter.

He said, and Saul, yet breathing out what?

Threatenings and slaughters against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the what?

And see what happened.

He was working in Jerusalem initially.

Remember that, but it got so bad he couldn't find no more.

The Christians had dispersed.

Nobody was left but those apostles.

And so Paul knew that they went down to uh uh they went down to uh Damascus.

And so he said, Listen, high priest, give me the authority, I'll go get them.

This man was zealous, extremely zealous of the tradition of his fathers.

He was serving God with all that he knows.

You ever run to someone who's been steeped into a traditional setting, a religious setting?

That's why we have to be careful.

Don't kill that person's zeal.

You want to save the soul, but don't kill that person.

Uh I was telling you about this young man Noah.

You know, I I think uh I don't know how much he's really serious about the Lord.

He loves what he's doing, but you never know.

I like to I like to not kill people.

I like to try to win them with truth and understanding of the word of God.

And uh here's Saul, brother.

This man was extremely zealous.

This is the thing the Lord, this is why God called Saul, is because of what was in him: his fervor, his zeal, his consecration, his dedication.

Now he was blind as a robe lizard, couldn't see a thing.

But what he saw, that he served with all that he had.

The Bible said he put it, how he put it, he said, being exceedingly zealous of the tradition of his father.

That's what he was.

He was a zealous man.

And God will sell him if ever use a slopher or slugger person.

He won't do it.

You know why I believe the Lord called me Sister Amanda?

Because I'm a zealous person.

And whatever I do is with everything that's in me.

And that's not when I came to Christ.

That was when I was in school.

I was in a hurry to get out of school.

And then when I got out of school, I realized I needed a wife.

You know, I got married at 18 years old.

I wanted me a wife.

I wanted a wife.

Somebody had to help me.

My mother washed my clothes.

No, I washed them, but she washed them because she helped me to wash them when they wasn't washed, she put a broom on me.

And uh I washed the dishes, I washed the clothes, and I cleaned the cabinets, I cleaned the refrigerators, and I did all those things.

And it was easy because they didn't have a job.

When I got grown, I had to do the same things.

Brother Mike, we had to work all day.

I needed some help.

Then my heart got lonely.

So I needed a wife.

I needed somebody with me.

And so I was in a hurry to get uh to get out of my mother's house.

I was in a hurry to get started working.

I was a hurry, I was in a hurry to start a family, I was in a hurry to get married, but I was just zealous.

I just wanted to get it.

Let's if we got to do it, let's do it.

Let's get it over with.

And the Lord saw that in me.

When I wasn't after him, he was still after me.

He saw something in me.

And I look back over my life, and I can see, I can see the Lord all the way back in my youth.

I can see the Lord working in my life.

But here Saul is, and he was this way.

Don't despise this man.

It was easy to do that, but that man had something that the Lord was going to use.

And here he is.

He went to the high priest, verse 2.

And desired of him, that's the high priest, letters to the mascot.

Those letters was letters of authority to give him oper give him authority to go into those synagogues.

A synagogue is just a Jewish church.

And he desired letters of him to go to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way.

Look how the Bible uses the term this way.

And see, this is an offshoot.

It's what the Jews thought of Judaism.

But it was this way.

Remember, what was the this way?

This was the way of Christianity, this was the way of Christ.

Remember how Jesus Christ said, I am what?

The way.

I'm the truth, I'm the light.

And so that was another way.

The Bible says there is a way that seemed right unto a man, but the end thereof the ways of death.

And that Judaism, brother, at one time, that was the way the Lord was using.

But after the day of Pentecost, it was the way of Christ.

And so that was a way of death.

Do you know people actually died, lost their souls in Judaism?

And yet Judaism was something God ordained.

Do you know, and I'm going to speak real candy, this is just family.

Do you know people are gonna actually lose their lives in the Baptist church?

Good Baptist people, good Christians, they're gonna lose their life because they won't turn it loose.

They won't turn it loose.

They'll tell you I was born a Baptist and I'm gonna die a Baptist.

And they're good brothers and sisters.

There's people gonna lose their life and the Methodists and so on and so forth.

Not those who can't see, but those whom God dealt with and showed them truth and panted after their heart, and yet they rejected them.

When you do that, what is the Lord gonna resurrect?

You've judged yourself unworthy of eternal life.

Now, if the Lord has never dealt with you and you died in the dispensation of time, truth wasn't presented, no one told you.

That's one thing.

But if someone come tell you about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that you need to be born again, that's of the water and of the Spirit, began to show you of the attributes of Christ being made manifest through the Spirit of God, and you reject that.

When you reject it, you're rejecting the truth.

What is the Lord gonna resurrect?

And yet God used the Baptist church.

He used the Methodist, He came leaping on mountain and what?

Skipping on hill.

He used those movements.

But if God has touched your mind and given you a hunger for Him and tried to draw you by His Spirit, sent an angel your way, that is the messenger, and you reject it, you're judging yourself unworthy of even a resurrection.

So here's those great Jews, a great move that God had ordained, Brother Elton, for life, and it was going to bring them death because people wouldn't move on.

Look what the Bible said.

Let their table become a what?

A snare and a what?

A trap.

That was the table.

What was it?

What was on the table?

The law of Moses.

The law of Moses.

And God had ordained it for life, and it was bringing them death.

We have to keep moving.

Are you satisfied?

I'm not satisfied to what?

We awaken his likeness.

We can't drive our stakes so deep in anything that we don't keep moving.

We have to keep moving.

And as Brother L.J.

pointed out Friday, and I was just having a chat, brother, some people don't like changes.

If you don't like changes, you'll never be made conformable to the image of Christ because this is all about changing.

We sing a song, brother, I'm willing to change.

Brother, it's all about changing.

It's all about changing.

Oh, we're going to lose our family.

Look at that hair she has on her head.

She's sick, but look at that hair.

We're so glad to see you.

Look Kendar, we're sorry that you're sick.

Let's pray for her.

Can we all stand and pray?

Oh, God, oh God, oh God.

Lord, touch a Lord.

Help just look in the Lord.

Touch a body, Jesus.

Oh, God, be merciful.