Jesus Bought A House - Part 9 | Pastor Paul McGee

This, oh, it is most worthy. Lord God, we offer praise and

adoration to you tonight. Oh God, Lord, let it be costly.

Lord God, accept the fruit of our lips.

Lord Jesus, tonight God will thank you for it.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,

Hallelujah Amen. What is oil in an alabaster box

or fragrance from an alabaster box got to compare with blood

from a life? They say that very well possible

that that alabaster box was a family heirloom that was passed

down from generation to generation, but still yet what

is that in comparison to the fragrance or the substance of

life without? Amen.

For you and I tonight, Hallelujah, it's incomparable,

Incomparable. Hallelujah, Amen.

Thank you for being here on Wednesday night.

This evening. Just a few things to remember

that we are leading into our second week of our Sunday school

campaign. And as the results were this

past Sunday, green had 44 points, blue had 39, yellow had

34, and red had 28. And so people already at work

this week, I know, Amen, inviting and touching base with

people and such. And so that's great and

tremendous. Also, this coming Sunday night,

we're going to do our mortgage burning.

We'll probably have a time of our service that is going to be

set aside just for a little reflection and that we're going

to have a mortgage burning. Someone say, Amen.

Amen. Let it die, let it die, let it

shrivel up and die. Amen.

So we're going to be doing that on Sunday night.

Also, the 5th Sunday of this month, Pastor David Scott will

be with us on Sunday morning and he will be ministering the word

of the Lord. And so we just have one service

on that Sunday and he will be here ministering and that'll be

a great time in the Lord. And then the weekend after that,

after that, the first weekend there in the month of April,

then, of course, will be Resurrection Sunday.

And we're trying here in the next few weeks to break the

record here at the Church of 163 that we had on the Easter back

in 2012. It was whenever that took place.

And so we're endeavoring to do so.

Amen. I tell you what, folks, I was

almost begrudging Sunday night because I canceled church.

And I like, where's the big thing that happened?

And I'm glad that it didn't, Tyler, But it's still, I was

just kind of like man. And but then like I learned that

brother friend said Sheila had had like lightning damage at

their house and broke a window whole 9 yards.

So although it didn't happen to my house, it happened somewhere.

And so my wife was giving me a speech.

You I didn't preach Sunday night, but she did.

She's telling me because I kept saying, well, where's it at?

But you got to understand where I'm coming from.

I was like, where's it at, You know?

So I just went, got another bag of chips and I joke and I joke

watch the rain, you know, whatever.

Amen. Psalms chapter #90 This is just

a launch out point for us tonight.

Good to have Holly back with us. Good to have Andrew with us

tonight, Amen. Going to have Erica back with

us. Amen.

Each one of you, Tyler's good to see you.

I already mentioned your name, but because I was thinking of

Emergency Management, you know, but but that's good to see you

here tonight as well. Psalms chapter #90 verse #2

again, it's just a launch off point.

Amen. For us tonight.

The Bible says before the mountains were brought forth,

wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world before all

of this, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

So just footnotes for us that before any of these things were

in existence or were created or came and to be there was God in

eternity. He stepped in time as Christ

Jesus and Bethlehem's Manger, but he always has existed in

eternity. Amen.

And tonight again, I'm going on with our series on Jesus bought

a house. We talked about last week a

little bit about holiness is kind of like a house, about the

attributes of God being the foundation, the framework being

the principles. When we apply those things to

our life, it'd be like the sheetrock or the vinyl siding on

the exterior of the building. But I want to look a little bit

more at the eternal attributes of God.

Why all of this is important to us when we talk about the

holiness of God is because it's not set in a time frame of the

temporal, but in that of the eternal.

All right, that's where it really finds its origin.

Amen. Let's ask God to help us here in

the next little while. Father, we love you.

I thank you, Jesus, God, that every time that we come

together, we open up your word, God, you'll come alongside and

you'll you'll under score and you'll underwrite Lord that

word. And I pray, O Lord, tonight able

to touch our hearts and minds afresh and the new this evening,

help us God to lean in God to what the Scripture may say

glorify you for it in the name of Jesus Christ Church, Amen,

Amen. God bless you.

I've done some reaching out to people that that come here and

been here or such and for some way, Sister Rebecca, I, I had

numbers in that were transposed. This number was supposed to be

with this name. That number was supposed to be

with that name and I had them flipped.

And so I reached out. I've reached out before, you

know, so glad to have so, so good to see you.

Always phone numbers, so good to see you always on Sunday, blah,

blah, blah. You know, sign up Pastor and

Sister McGee. And they talked back da da, da,

da. But this last time I made a

reference to them and about them that belonged with another

person that they would have known.

And so then I get a text back saying you must got the wrong

number, blah, blah, blah, such and such.

And to come find out I had a man and a woman's number flip flop

living in two different states. But they both come to this

church. OK?

So it's all good. So if you get something from me

and it don't sound right, just say blessing Jesus.

I just say he cared enough to reach out to the wrong person,

OK? That's a little too much

laughter back there. So the eternal attributes of

God, because before we look at this framework of these

principles, what we call principles of holiness and how

they apply to our life, I think it's we need to clearly

understand why these principles from come from God's eternal

attributes. And so there are many, many

people, even Christians today that whenever they think of, of

holiness, they only think about the standards of holiness.

And they don't realize that the principles that those things

hang on, Amen, actually come from the attributes of God and

that he supports every true thing of application of the

principles in our life. And we call them eternal

principles because, as I said, they really come from eternity.

They did not begin whenever time began.

They didn't begin whenever man was first formed or whenever the

stars were first thrown into the sky or the planets were put in

their orbit. But these principles in reality,

Brother Reese, because God is holy and He's always been holy.

It's not like he became holy at some period of time in eternity.

He's always been holy and as a result of that, these principles

existed before creation. The principle of holiness

existed before Genesis 11. All right, then in the beginning

God created. And so holiness is not is not

something that God added. All right, It's not an additive.

That's not not something that he added after he created mankind,

but it pre existed the very creation of mankind and it

originates again, it's important.

This originates from our God. This originates and stems from

our God. And so it's God himself that

really brought holiness out of eternity and had it come into

the temporal world of time. It's really him that it brought

it into that that that being and, and it should never be

viewed or should never even be purported.

I think maybe sometimes it has been that holiness is just a set

of standards made by man to control believers behavior

because that type of mindset is the incorrect mindset.

Number one, they weren't created by man.

It is God, Amen. And it's not for the purpose of

necessarily controlling people's behavior as it is forging a

relationship, Amen, between a holy God and his people, what he

would call his church. And so holiness consists of

principles that come from God's own holiness, his his own

characterization of who he is. And since they are a part of

God's eternal attributes, then that means that they are

universal, they are unchanging, and they are also everlasting to

everlasting just like our God is.

And so whenever I talk about this, and I said this last week,

but I want to emphasize again, when I talk about the attributes

of God, I'm talking about God's identity.

I'm talking about the qualities of his character, the qualities

of His attributes, and I'm talking about God's purpose in

creation. I'm talking about what God is

like and who He is and what he does, and all of that involves

God's personality and his character and His purpose.

And all of these things existed in eternity past, before time

ever began And since we know New Testament scripture speaks of

that God that was manifested in flesh, and we know Him as Christ

Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever as Hebrews 13

tells us that He changed us not. And that other portions of the

New Testament scripture tell us that there is no variableness in

Him, neither is there any shadow of turning again, talking about

His immutability or His ability not to change.

Then we understand that whatever God was before the creation of

the world, God is now and God will be tomorrow.

And so that's a great comfort. Would it be something to serve a

God that constantly changes up his dynamics from day-to-day?

Today, this is what's accepted. Tomorrow I'm going to change the

rules. That's that's no longer

acceptable. Now this is acceptable or today

I'll love all of humanity and then tomorrow I'll love a I'll

love a segment of humanity. And then could you imagine

serving a God where there was no consistency?

You're constantly on 8 shells because you don't know where you

stand with God because God just might change his mind about it's

not your God, your God is the same.

And so we have great confidence and there's a trustworthiness we

can have with our God as a result of that sameness and his

unchanging trait and his unchanging ability.

And so in Scripture, the Lord is described as a eternal spirit.

In Hebrews 9, he's described as an eternal spirit.

But there's other places in Scripture that you know as well,

Brother Pat. He's described as the Holy

Spirit, even the Holy Ghost at times.

But when we talk about the eternal Spirit as he's

described, it's talking about all of those qualities that God

has that even existed before there was ever man.

The eternality of God. God is holy, His Holiness is

eternal. It's a quality that he had

before man was even created. And God always was and always

will be holy. And so whenever the Bible though

starts to describe some of God's more personal or moral

qualities, oftimes it refers to him as the Holy Spirit.

The reason being is that God has a distinct holy being set apart,

different separated that his Spirit.

He has a distinct character traits that if you were to take

them all and you were to summarize them, they would all

be just integrated. And it could be summed up in

that one word, He's holy. He's holy.

And it's these things that we read about in Scripture.

These traits show us what God is like.

It makes us to be able to a certain degree, to be able to

relate to God. When God says he's holy, all

these traits include, Amen, what it means to be holy.

When we say God is holy, all the traits of God are summed up in

that. And so when we talk about

receiving the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit,

when we receive the Spirit of God, then the traits of that

God, we should receive the very traits of that God, then come

invested in our life. And it's some of those things

that we even read about Galatians 5, some of those

traits that we see that are called the fruit of the Spirit,

the fruit of the Spirit, those 9 traits of love and joy and peace

and goodness and gentleness and lone suffering and faith or

faithfulness, meekness and temperance, all these traits God

always had, Amen. And when we receive His Spirit,

then they start to showcase themselves even in our lives.

God's holiness becomes showcased in our lives.

It's interesting when you read Galatians 5 and you read about

the fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit, what the Holy Spirit,

God's Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, when you read that,

Amen. That's not just telling us what

God is like, but in telling us what God is like, it's also

telling us what God is. It's not like it goes to reason

that if we read the fruit of the Spirit that God is love, then

it's telling us that God is not detached.

God is not narcissistic. If we look at and it's telling

us that he is joy, then it's telling us that he's not soul

and and he's not depressed. If it's telling us that he's

peace and it's telling us that he's not anxious and he's not

agitated, if it's telling us that he's long-suffering, then

it's telling us he's not quick tempered.

If it's telling us he's gentle, it's telling us then that he's

not malicious, he's not cruel. If it's telling us that he is

good, then it's telling me that he's not evil.

If it's telling us that he's faith or he's faithful, it's

telling me that he's not unreliable and he's not

arbitrary. If he's telling me that he is

meek, he's telling me that he's not rough, he's not harsh.

If he's telling me that he's temperate, he's telling me that

he's not out of control. So with all those traits where

God is telling us what He is, in the same breath, the inverse is

true. He's telling us what He is not.

And I like that type of transparency with my God because

I know what to expect from Him. I know what I can lean on.

I know what I can depend on. I know what I can bring to Him.

And so that builds with me, Brother Fred, a trust that I can

have in my God because by all these things and what he has

shared with me, I understand then that he is trustworthy.

And I really don't have an excuse for not trusting God

because his character and the traits that he has just revealed

that he is a trustworthy God. But the issue of God just walk

with me here a little tonight. The issue that God has an

eternity past before anything was created.

Just the abyss of nothingness, whatever that is.

Imagine nothing except God. It's hard for our minds to

fathom. Really nothing.

Nothing. No material world even, No

elemental world, nothing. Just God.

So you have God and no one else exists but him.

So at that point, Brother Alex, we don't have anybody that even

needs to trust in God because there's nobody.

You don't have to just walk. I know it's a Wednesday night.

You have to think a little bit, right?

But the trustworthiness of God couldn't even be tried or proven

without a comparison of anybody needing to trust or lean upon

God. There was like there wasn't

even, there wasn't even no no opportunity for self revelation.

God didn't have anybody he could reveal himself to.

There was no one. There was no there was no one,

no opportunity for relationship. There was no one to have

relationship with. It's just God.

He's the only one that there was no one to talk to, no one to

share with, no one per SE to love.

As far as being in existence, there's none.

And so since there was nothing that existed before creation,

then there's nothing unholy before creation for sure.

So this whole concept of holiness, real meaning of

holiness, God had that in himself, but there was no

expression or comparison about for what holiness was or wasn't

because there was nothing else, is there by following what I'm

saying right now. So God's purity could not even

be recognized. Now I know this is hard for us

to talk about as purity because there was nothing else there.

Nothing impure or anything pure is just God.

Am I doing all right, brother? Zach, I know you think along

these lines. A lot of times as you fall

asleep at night without being wholly separate or distinct or

different, that usually mean you need a means of comparison to

distinguish or make different or apart from something else.

But there was nothing else. You want what I'm saying by the

below. Fill out your bracket.

OK, You know I'm joking. He's not doing that right now.

That does need to be done and turned into him by midnight

tonight. Has a little commercial break

right here. OK.

All right, I forgot to mention that it just it snuck in.

Just snuck in, folks. This has been one of those days.

My mind's been 1000 different places and I'm just trying to

rein in the whirlwind. OK, so you may be next.

Don't worry, I probably got your number wrong.

You in what? What?

What do we hear from children children often, as you know, if

God made everything, then who made God Naturally the answer is

no one made God. God is whenever Moses had his

burning Bush experience on the backside of the desert and

Exodus chapter #3. And God saying I'm going to send

you to be a deliverer for my people and get them up out of

Egypt, the Israelites. And he says, Lord, if I go, I

need to have a name, you know, about who who send me or who did

did whatever is sending me and commissioned me.

And the Lord replied to him and said I am that I am, I am.

Tell them that I am sent you. You can read most scholars of

even different differing faces. Most most are going to tell you

that that I am simply meant that God was the self existent 1.

In other words, God just simply is God exist.

His existence isn't dependent on anything or anyone.

He is. He was, He will be.

And the marvelous thing he is was and we'll be all at the same

time. God's working in junior today

because he he's not in time, He's out here in eternity.

He sees past, present and future all at once.

That's how in Isaiah he could say that a virgin shall conceive

in Isaiah. And there's actually a

definitive article in the Hebrew the virgin he already had the

one picked out. He's saying that in that moment,

Isaiah that she's a was already picked and he's just going to

use time to reveal what he already picked Mary.

OK, we can't get into all that. We got to stay with this.

But Isaiah 45 and five, God declared I am the Lord.

There is none else. There is no God beside me.

I girded thee, though thou knowest.

Noah has not known me. So if God is the only God there

is, which he is, then that means before creation be all, before

all these things he's completely alone.

And all the qualities of his character, however fantastic,

and they are fantastic, they are, He did not have anybody

else to relate to or express himself through or to for them

to be able to appreciate qualities that he had.

What are you saying? I'm saying, well, it might be

wonderful that God is love, but love is an idea unless love can

be expressed or shown or manifested in some way.

Same thing with general, same thing with all of those traits.

All of those are wonderful, but there's no one else around.

It doesn't mean that God was any less loving.

It just meant there was nobody to express his love to.

Amen. It doesn't mean that God's love

was meaningless. It just wasn't meaningful to

anybody because no one was there.

When God said in second in Genesis 2 verse 18, He said it

Genesis 2:18

is not good that the man should be alone.

And that was a true statement for Adam.

But it was also a glimpse into the heart of God, almost

metaphorically about the aloneness of God, that God even

being by Himself just follow me was not totally good.

Because then everything that He was is unknown, unexpressed,

unrealized. For anything else, there had to

be something so there could be expression of love and the joy

and the peace and the blown suffering and so on and so

forth. And so God knew His intent from

the very beginning. God had a plan.

God had a plan just as he made an Eve to be a relational

partner for Adam in the book of Genesis, just as he made an

object for Adam's love to be expressed.

God determined in eternity past before there was anything that

he was going to make himself, quote UN quote, an eve that he

could have relational partner with and would be a object of

all of the qualities that he was before there was even anybody.

The Bible refers to this. We know what it's called.

The Bible refers to this relational partner as his

church, His church. It's a term that comes from a

Greek word that's that's called ecclesia.

It means the called out ones or the gathering of the people.

It's talking about those who have been gathered out of

society, out of the world into a relationship with God through

the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus

Christ. It is also called, you see it

New Testament Scripture. It's also called the bride of

Christ, Amen. And so we see in Scripture that

Jesus Christ, God manifested in the flesh according to First

Timothy 316, that Jesus Christ and this church was going to

have a relationship. And that relationship was really

symbolized in the book of Genesis by a relationship

between Adam and Eve. All right, the man in his bride,

the man in his wife. But here's the awesome thing.

Whenever God decided, whenever that was, how would that happen?

Whenever God decided to create a universe with a planet called

Earth, Amen. And there would be living things

up on this earth, such as men and women.

God's holiness became then evident, because now, whereas

there was nothing, now there is something for the expressions of

God's love and his joy and his long-suffering and his goodness

and his gentleness, all to be disposed upon because God's no

longer alone. Now there's a man and his wife

and they have children, and they are multiplying and having more

children. And now all of these qualities

of God that were seemingly unrealized can now be realized

from going from an idea to an expression because there are

people people now that they can be expressed to.

I know all this was going in the mind of God.

Amen. Everything he knew who he was,

He knew what he was. He knew what he was capable of,

but now it could be expressed to mankind.

It can be expressed to people that he wants and desires to be

a people among people, a call out people, a people called his

church and his bride if as all possible.

And that's partly what Jesus meant in New Testament Scripture

in the Gospel of John and verse 17 or chapter 17 and verse 24,

Jesus said, and he's speaking, he's speaking as a man to the

Spirit and he says, for thou hast loved, thou lovest me for

thou lovest me before. If I say before, for thou lovest

me before the foundation of the world.

But here's what Jesus wasn't saying.

Jesus was not saying I'm the second person of the Godhead

that existed in bodily form with you at the creation of the

world. He is not saying that.

What he is saying is this God, you loved me.

What is Christ Jesus Christ? Jesus is the plan.

Christ Jesus is the plan. He's the body.

He's the blood that would need to be shed for the saving of

humanity, of bringing a people among the people to be made part

of the church. And that plan had always been in

the mind of God. Oh, God help me right now.

I think it's important tonight to understand that God's plan

was not a afterthought. It's not as though God created

Adam and Eve. And there was the serpent that

came down the beguile, the Eve, and she ate and gave her husband

also that was with her and ate. And there was transgression.

And there was the curse gun upon them.

And then God scratched his head and said, you know what?

I might need to do something about this.

No, God had a plan before there was ever a man, before the

foundation of the world. Christ said you loved me before

the foundation. What did he love?

He loved the plan. Someone came in, He loved the

plan. Just as a painter is not his

painting, but the creator of it, so too is God as a creator.

He is a creator, but he's not his creation.

The Bible says in Romans 120 that the invisible things of him

from the creation of the world, the invisible things are clearly

seen, being understood by the things that are made.

You create something. Your creation should be subject

to the Creator, right? Make that chair.

That's my chair. Chair belongs to me.

If I want to set that chair over there, I'll set it over there.

I want to rock in that chair. I'll rock in that chair.

On the Creator is the creation. It's subject unto me.

It exists because I willed it into being.

I thought about making the chair.

I made a chair. I made it.

And so God has created things and He gives things meaning and

He expresses himself through what He has created.

He even expresses, the Bible says the invisible things of the

world since creation can be understand by what's been made.

Even the expression of God's love and His Holiness, all these

things that were invisible at creation, He makes known through

what he has created. Because of this, we can

understand today then that this holiness existed again before

even Genesis 11. It didn't just begin whenever

God started creating, but the moment he decided to create, the

very, the very thought, the very idea when the first idea came of

creation, that expression into the material world.

Hey man, whenever all of that started to happen, because what

happens, you get the thought before you do it, right?

You get the thought to paint before you paint.

You go write a book. You don't, you think about it.

This is just real and inhumanity.

Go take a step. I just thought about doing it

before I did it. I know something seems so second

nature, but they don't happen without a thought.

Universe. There's some thought in order.

So holiness came into being at the moment of thought of the

expression of that thought. And every created thing you talk

about the universe, the moon, the earth, the stars, the

mountains, the seas, the plants, all of these things.

God made all these things for the purpose of His creation,

namely mankind. Man has always been the purpose

for God. Man has been the reason for

everything for God, because that's the reason why all the

way back before the beginning of time, He designated to have a

people, a bride, a chosen. So the church is the object of

God's love. Yes it is the church is the

object of God's love. The Bible says in Ephesians 2

four I know this is heavy for some folks on Wednesday.

I'm so sorry. Come back Sunday, next Wednesday

the Bible says. But God, who is rich in mercy

for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead

in sins, have quickened us together with Christ.

By thy grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together and

made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Look at verse 7. That in the ages to come he

might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness

toward us through Christ Jesus in the ages to come.

And so the apostle Paul is explaining right here in this

passage that although we had rejected God and although we

were dead in our trespasses and our sins, because of God's great

love for us, God then made us alive through a new birth

experience. And he raised this to a position

by his Spirit and in his spirit. And we start asking the

question, God, why would you do that?

What what was your purpose for doing that?

And he answers it in verse 7. He says, I did this to you for

you because in the ages to come, I'm going to I'm going to

display the surpassing riches of my grace and my kindness towards

you in Christ Jesus. Someone say Amen.

You know what he's saying. He's saying I've I've done this

for you because I'm going to show to all the world how a man

ought to treat his bride. And I'm going to do it among the

public eye. I'm going to demonstrate the

depth of my greatness, of my ability, of my love and my

kindness and my goodness and my gentleness towards you, my

church, because this is the heart of God.

This is the purpose that He has even in creation.

This is who God is. This is what God is all about.

Everything that God says, everything that he does revolves

around His eternal plan to have a bride for himself.

Watch me here. We'll look at it.

Who is holy and without blemish, whom he can love forever and

ever, and who in return will reciprocate that love and love

him in return? Am I doing OK?

Oh, you say this for the McGee. Well, let's look at some

scriptures. Can we really understand the

eternal realm? I think, I think we can to a

degree. I don't think we can just do it

through human reasoning or or just do it through scientific

investigation. I mean, Paul even said in Romans

1133, he said how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways

are past finding now. But the Bible does say in

Deuteronomy 2929, Moses said these words.

He said the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those

things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children

forever, that we may do all the words of His law.

So there's some things that God keeps hid, but the things that

God expresses to us, He wants us to know for the purpose of doing

all of His words and His desires and His expectations.

So there are some things that are knowable about God that He

chose to reveal to us. And he says there in Deuteronomy

that we should we should be required to know them because

the purpose of him giving them to us is so that we'll

understand what the Lord has required.

Do all the words of the law. There's been a lot in Scripture

revealed about God and his purpose.

And here are some principles. Peter wrote this in first Peter

1 Peter 1:18–20

1 verses 18 through 20, and I'm skipping around a little bit

there, but here's some some confident principles, Amen that

we're called to follow. He said we were redeemed not

with corruptible things such as silver and gold a little further

down it says, but with the precious blood of Christ as a

lamb, without blemish and without spot.

He then explained that he was 4 ordained before the foundation

of the world. Look at Peter's language.

He's 4 ordained where it means he was known beforehand.

You know what that tells me? That tells me that God knew

beforehand, before the foundation of the world.

He had that plan. Christ, Jesus Calvary, death,

bloodshed for the bride, for the church.

God knew even before anybody else existed, before the

foundation of the world, that one day He would enter his

creation in human form and shed blood for mankind.

Salvation. That's exciting again, Sister

Sheila, because that's not an afterthought of God.

Let me back it up and say it like this for everybody here

tonight. You were not an afterthought of

God. Your salvation was an

afterthought of God. Your deliverance hasn't been.

I know we sing the the song when he was on the cross, I was on

his mind. But I'm here to tell you before

there was anything else material, elements, people,

bushes, vegetation, you were on his mind.

It wasn't just a Calvary this far removed from Calvary.

You and he had a plan. You know what that tells me?

There don't have to be people that sit on pews and say, well,

I've done so much mess, so much up.

I'm in this great pit, I've done this, that we bring our long

laundry list of everything we've done to God.

Like now. God, what are you going to do

with that? He said, I've been thinking

about this for eternity. I've already got this situation.

I already got this figured out. You say no hope.

I say hope. You say no deliverance.

I say deliverance. You say no way.

I say I've already made a way. I thought about this before your

first mom and daddy, Adam and Eve were ever born.

I got this. God planned deliverance and

salvation from eternity past, but He revealed the plan to us

so that we would be motivated in a relationship to live our lives

as He desires, being purchased by His blood as Him being owner

and operator of our lives. Paul described the idea that

God, God manifested in the flesh, Jesus Christ hanging on

the cross, mankind sins. He says in the 1st Corinthians 2

seven that the hidden, the hidden wisdom which God ordained

before the world unto our glory. You know what he says?

He says that none of the rulers of the world understood what was

going on really at Calvary. Matter of fact, he says, had

they had realized what was going on, they would not have

crucified him. Had they known, Paul concluded,

they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but Jesus

Christ and His agonizing death on that cross.

Yes, it was to save us from our sins, but it was also to extend

beyond that. The Bible says in Ephesians 1

and verse #4 Paul's writing to the church at Ephesus and

Ephesians one and verse #4 Thank you for having the time up

there, because I don't have it up here.

Pray God, Amen. Verse #4 says according

according as He hath chosen us in Him.

You know, watch this. According as He hath chosen us

in Him, the US in Him is the Church us in Him.

According to see if chosen us and God has chosen the church,

God has chosen His bride, the US in him before the foundation of

the world, He's chosen the church, the church, the bride.

You have a choice to be a part of that church or not.

You have a choice to be a part of that bride or not.

Regardless what you choose. He's chose his church.

You can be a part of it. You're part of it.

He's chose you. You can reject it, not be a part

of it. He still chose his church.

He's not overstepped your will of having a choice.

You have a choice to be a part of what he loves or not, a part

of what he loves. The Church, His Bride, according

as he has chosen us in Him, the Church before the foundation of

the world, that we, the Church, the Church should be holy

without blame before Him, and love having predestinated us

into the adoption of the children of Jesus Christ to

Himself. He's still talking about the

Church according to the good pleasure of His will.

What a statement though today, folks here that Paul's writing

here that before he laid the foundations of the world in

somewhere in eternity past, God decided I'm going to have a

bride. I'm going to have a church.

And if people come and want to be a part of this church and

adopt me as their Savior and me adopt them as their sons, then

these people that I'll call my church that's made the choice to

be a part of it shall be holy and without blame.

And all of this, listen to me, wasn't just deciding New

Testament Scripture. God decided the integrity and

the purity of His Church before the foundation of the holiness

was chosen before the foundation of the world.

It's not some newfangled idea, some institutions, but no, this

is something that before the foundation of the world, he

said. This will be my church, it will

be holy, it will be blameless. It's all part of the plan from

the beginning and the plan said that says to have been

predestined or predestinated by God according to the good

pleasure of his will. The term predestinines to

determine in advance. God determined some things in

advance concerning his church. It'll be a holy church.

It'll be a pure church. This is not the understanding.

There's the idea out there, Calvinism, that that says that

every individual is predestinated.

You were born in this world. You are a predestined to be

saved or lost. That takes the human will

totally out of the picture. That would mean you'd be born in

this world. You just live your life because

you're already destined in one way or the other.

He didn't predestine the individual, he predestined the

church. Again, you have a choice to be a

part of it or not. But he's also predestined his

church to be holy and pure and without spot and with there's a

lot of characterizations that he's put on his church.

Everybody doing OK, I know we're trading deep tonight, aren't we?

So what God predetermined from the foundation of the world, I'm

going to have a church. I'm going to have a bride.

People have choices to be a part of the bride or not part of the

bride. They obey the gospel.

They not obey the gospel and pursue a life of faith or not,

holiness or not, all these things are not.

But what we know for certain is this is that by God's own will,

right? It said according to the good

pleasure of His will, that by God's own will beforehand,

before He began creating, He decided I'm going to be a savior

for mankind and I'm going to do a redemptive act and I'm going

to gain to myself a holy blameless bride.

That's not everything Scripture reveals.

Sister Sheila and his letter to Titus.

Paul described this in Titus 1/2 of a hope of eternal life, which

God that cannot lie promised. Here we go again before the

world begin, folks, there's a whole lot of there's a whole lot

of things that happened before we ever came around that God

already decided concerning himself, his church.

So he decided to plan for the saving humanity to be a part of

his church. He decided the integrity of his

church, and he decided that that bride he was going to be with

forever, all before the foundation of the world.

Listen, this is not the one. This is not like what you read

in the New Testament says you need to sit down and count the

cost. If a man's going to build.

God's already been counting, OK? He's been doing, he's been

writing up the script, all right?

He knows what it's going to take.

So before time started ticking right and I've had the planetary

systems all that in order for the sun stuff for all this to

happen. He already decided he would

become a man. He would have a body, you'd be

in flesh and he'd have a blood blot church forever.

That's pretty awesome. Ephesians 527 I'm hurrying.

I am I'm so sorry. The union of Christ and his

bride. Ephesians 527 that he might

present to himself what? Now we read this sometimes like,

oh, so now you tell, No, it's not.

Now you tell us God, He's planned this from before.

We shouldn't be surprised that he's going to present himself a

glorious church whenever he planned that he would have a

holy, unblameable church from the beginning.

Does that make sense? But it's not like, Oh God, God

sprung one on us. Now we got to be without

spottering. No, this has always been the

plan. This holy God, holy thing, it's

always been the plan. This, this is not some little

caveat over here. So let me pull a buddy out of my

hat. Holy no, that he might present

it to himself. A glorious church, not having

spot or wrink or any such thing, but that it should be holy

without blemish. Yep, I purposed that from the

foundation of the world. The Bible says in First

Thessalonians 4 and verse 7. This is a fulfillment of

promise, really. In Scripture.

The Bible says that the dead in Christ shall rise first in verse

17. Then we which are alive and

remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air. Look at it now.

And so shall we ever, ever be with the Lord?

What's it telling me? It indicates from that moment

forward, there will never be a time that we're not with the

Lord. That's not news flash.

That's God just making true on what He decided from the

foundation of the world. Do you understand this?

This union that's going to last for eternity, That's what God

planned for. So he's planned for the church.

He's planned for your redemption.

He's planned for his incarnation.

He's planned forever to be with you.

He's planned for the church's holiness from before time.

So whenever I understand that tonight, you know what holiness

really is. Holiness is an invitation into a

relationship with a eternal God, not a demand from a distant one,

a invitation from one that wants to be in relationship with you.

Why? Because before creation, God

chose a people, the bride. What for?

For this purpose that they might reflect his character, and that

they might respond. His love, his joy, his peace,

his gentleness, his long-suffering, His temperance.

Amen. Holiness isn't about control.

Holiness is about connection. Jesus did just build a house.

He bought a house with his own blood, and his house is made to

reflect Him. So the question I'm doing good

feel like so the question Sister Ray is not do I have to live

holy? The real question is do you want

to be a part of what God has desired from eternity?

Stand with me that out we'll land.

It might be helicopter landing, just straight down land it.

So what you should do, I'll tell you what we should do as a

church, what we should do as the first Apostolic Church, as

individuals. I think that we mankind by and

large, need to see holiness may be differently than the script

has been written in your mind or what how you've approached it.

Again, not as a restriction, but as a reflection of God's nature,

a reflection of God's nature. And so then wanting to be the

church and a part of church, I want to align.

I want to align with his character.

I want that fruit to be evident in my life, that love and that

joy and that peace and that gentleness and all those.

I want that to be evident in my life.

And I for sure want to be counted among the bride that

he's been pursuing since eternity, since before the

foundation of the world. Again, because this isn't just

about the application and the standards of the sheetrock and

the vinyl. It's about the framework.

It's about the foundation. This is about, please listen

again. It's about entering a

relationship with God that He's desired to have with you since

before the world began. And for me, I don't know, but

that changes my perspective. It changes my perspective to

understand his church was foreordained and predestined to

be holy from the beginning. This is not some slick toothed

pastor greased, back headed man that's trying to contrive

something to set obstacles in my way and constrict me.

No, this is the plan of God. This is the plan of God so he

might be expressed through your life, my life, His church, His

glorious, His glorious church. We bow our heads here tonight

and I have felt the Spirit of the Lord at different times used

to do this tonight when I begin to ponder Lord, all the things

that you ordained before there was anyone in existence, all the

things that you ordained God, I am overwhelmed, Lord, about how

conscious Lord you are God, how conscious you are about your

bride and how intentional you are God about the entirety and

the the characterization. Lord of her.

I pray, O God, enough that you would sacrifice, you would shed

blood, you would redeem her. It's offered to all mankind if

they would so choose choose or reject it is up to them but God

the moment they do, they set their own footsteps on a

trajectory in the path. I pray, O God tonight that you

would help us. I know Lord God, some of this

material tonight, Lord in just thought and and Lord Jesus and

understanding may have been Lord heavy, but God, I think it's

important to know God that this has been the plan all alone.

Lord, what you have called us to has been something that you had

intended Lord all along. God, we're not surprised we're

not blindsided. No, no, no, no, no, none of

those things. God, you've been mindful of us

before there was a US to be mindful of.

Jesus, or can we raise your hands, if you will, across this

building today? Just reach out to that Savior.

Reach out to that Redeemer. He's already in your tomorrow.

He's still dealing with things of your past.

He's in your today, Carla. Mashia Motai.

He's a ever present God. He's a ever present God.

He wants to spend eternity with his bride.

He's ordained that from the beginning.

Oh, can we reach out to him? God, here I am God, here I am

Lord. God, I want to make the right

choice. I want to make the right

decision. Lord, I want to be obedient to

the gospel. I want to be a part Lord of that

church that you've been desiring from before the beginning.

I pray, O God, today, here's my life.

God, you purchased me with your own blood.

I'm not my own. I belong to you.

Know ye not that your temple, Hallelujah, your body is the

temple of the Holy Ghost. It's not yours.

It belongs to him. I'm yours God, I'm your bride.

Lord Jesus, I'm your church. Characterize it as you will.

Put traits and your impressions. God of your life upon me.

Let the expressions of yourself be expressed.

God through me. God, you've desired this from

before the beginning. The wonder of my Savior that can

take the unholy and make it holy, that can take the profane

and make it clean. Only your God can do that.

Only God can do that. Oh Lord, we surrender all.

Brother Mason, if you take us to song right now, Hallelujah.

I love you Jesus. I love you, Jesus.