Jesus Bought A House - Part 4 | Pastor Paul McGee

Amen, Amen. Good to see you this morning.

You know, there's some songs that sound similar and I was

going to go up here and sing the total wrong song and maybe I did

anyway. But anyway, there was one I

looked at my wife, I said that's not she says that's not what

that is. And so thank God for spouses.

Amen. I probably come up here start

with Amazing Grace or something, you know, and it been totally

wrong. So Amen.

So good to see each of you here in the new calendar year.

Amen. In the House of the Lord and to

all of our guests, welcome. We greet you today, Amen, in

Jesus name. It's in order this morning, of

course, to give thanks to Doctor Mason for last weekend, taking

care of Sunday morning and doing a great job of deciding to live.

Amen. And gave everybody a few points

to help in that choice. And I can't avoid saying this

just because it wouldn't be me unless I did.

He just did. He never just preach up a storm

last Sunday night. Some people gathered together

and you all never even was able to have service because of the

the weather that was taking place.

But we are thankful for the leadership of the church kept

everybody safe sheltering here in place and those of you that

sheltered at home and make some sound decisions for y'all.

And so we're thankful for that. Amen.

Today as well, I'm going to be turning to the book of First

Peter of First Peter. And so Sister McGee already

mentioned, man, you have a new year.

We're only four days in. And so if you've if you've never

had a Bible reading program, that it's a good time to start

it. If you've never had daily prayer

with God, it's a good time to start it.

If you've never taken a meal or so or maybe a day out of the

week and set it aside and not eat, but just turn your

attention toward the Lord and feel that time of eating with

eating of his word, it's a good time to start.

The reason why I say that, and this is not just like church

tradition so much so that whenever we read the Sermon on

the Mount in Matthew 5 and 6 and Jesus is speaking to the

multitudes, he says 3 particular phrases.

That's that's so interesting. He says when you pray doesn't

say if it was an expectation that they did when you pray, He

said when you fast again, wasn't if it was an expectation that

that's something to happen. And he also said this and then

it is what it is. He said when you do alms and

you're not talking about arms, he's saying alms like the giving

the money, monetary things. Again, these were all

expectations. He was just saying when you do

it, here are some guidelines. Here's some things to help you

in doing so. And so again, it's not so much

so as far as church or religious tradition, it is, it is

mandates, if you will from the Lord.

And listen, the reason why? Because He knows that's going to

help you. Amen.

Having daily conversation with the Lord's going to help you

reading His Word. Listen, if you never done it

before, I'm not asking you to read the Bible in a year.

Some people do That's great. I'm just asking you to read the

Bible a little each day. Hey man, read the Bible just a

little bit each day. Here's what I know from reading

the Word of the Lord a little bit each day, that there's some

things that the Word can point out to me in my life between

Sunday and Wednesday and Wednesday and Sunday that I need

before the preacher gets up there to preach on any of those

services. My, I continue my dialogue with

God as I pray to Him and He speaks back to me through His

Word, Amen. And so it's tremendous.

First Peter chapter #1 if you want to stand with me today, you

can, Amen. In the House of the Lord.

Good to see everybody here. I'm telling you, the Lord has

been with us, Don. And I did go visit some people

on the first day of the year. And Jeanette, I'm telling you,

whenever we went in to see Patricia and no families around

and they just allowed us in and we crossed that threshold into

her room, we didn't bring the Lord there.

He was already there. I'm telling you, as soon as we

step across that threshold, there was just a that happened

in that room. And again, He was already there.

And that brings me great comfort that it doesn't matter where you

are in life or what situation you are in life, many times the

Lord's right there alongside you, whether you recognize Him

or not, He is there. First, Chief Peter chapter #1

starting with verse #13 here today.

I'm telling you all, it's good to have my Bible.

We were in Tennessee, ended up staying a little bit longer than

what we anticipated and ministered down there.

And I preached from my my daughter's Bible because I

didn't take my Bible. I had my regular reader.

It was a different version and I preached from hers.

I had flowers all over it. So it's glad to have my

masculinity back with this good old black leather Bible up here

this morning. I'm just feeling more comforted

about that. Amen.

First Peter 1 and verse 13 it says, Wherefore gird up the

loins of your mind, be sober hope, and hope to the end, for

the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of

Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning

yourselves according to the former lust in your ignorance,

but as he which hath called you is holy, be so.

Be holy in all manner of conversation, because it is

written, Be holy, for I am holy for a little while today.

I just want to speak to you about this.

Where God dwells, everything changes.

Where God dwells, everything changes.

Can we join our voices one more time in prayer that the Lord

would help us in the next little while?

Father, I love you today, God for your spirit.

I thank you, Lord, for those who have congregated together here

this morning on this first Lord service of a new year.

I pray God that you have to help us, Lord, in our our walk in our

relationship with you, Lord, I pray God help us to learn of

you, Lord, in these ways and in these manners and we'll God

forget Lord, to thank you, God for what you accomplished

through our lives in the lovely name of Jesus Christ that we

pray and the church say Amen, Amen.

This morning you may be seated in Jesus name.

I want to turn your attention before we get too deep in here

today. And hopefully you still have

your Bibles open there to first Peter.

If you read the opening verses, the verses that come before the

text that I read in your hearing today, the verses leading up to

that tell the situation for the the advice of verse 13 of us

girding up the loins of our mind and some of the things that it

makes mention of there. As a matter of fact, in the

opening verses of first Peter chapter #1 the Bible tells us,

and Peter is talking to some people and he's reminding them,

He's reminded them that they had been begotten again unto a

lively hope. In other words, he said, I know

that that that you're a living human being and that you came by

virtue of your mother's womb. He says, but you have been

begotten again. You have been born again unto a

lively hope. And then this is how he said, by

the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's only because Christ resurrected that any of you, any

of us could have new life or a begotten gotten again experience

and I'm just going to work through here just a little bit.

He he says and speaks about been this lively hope that we've been

begotten unto this hope that we have been begotten to.

He says it is a incorruptible hope, it is a undefiled hope,

and it does not fade away. It's not something that grows

less intense with time, but the hope that we were begotten unto

it is just as vibrant, just as valid as it was when we first

began and 1st received it. And he says, although that we've

been begotten by God, you can see this in verse #5 that we've

been begotten by Him, but we can also be kept by Him, which I

think is tremendous because not only I've been born by the Lord,

but he can also keep me past the date of my birthright, past the

date of my new birth experience. And so as a result, then I, I

come into a newfound relationship and a new status of

life with the Lord. And in that newfound

relationship and that status of relationship with the Lord, here

is the caution, Amen. And that is this.

Just because we have a new status with the Lord does not

dismiss us from temptation. It's not like everything just

goes away. There's never going to be

another bad day, not a bad moment.

Your body's never going to be sick.

You'll never be in the hospital. If, if that's if that's the

beverage you're drinking, I'm sorry, it's untrue.

There are still days that are difficult.

There are still days you're going to be laying in a hospital

bed. There's going to be days you're

going to have a fevered brow. But The thing is, now you're in

a relationship of someone that's going to, as I said, Jeanette,

when you walk into the room, there's already somebody there

with you. There's already someone there

with you. And so all these different

seasons of life, they're going to come.

And some seasons you're going to come, it seems like more

regularly than other seasons. But the Bible tells us that this

begotten again experience, verse #10 tells us that this

experience that they have received, that there were

prophets of owed in the Old Testament men that that had

spoke of such a day, had spoke of such a promise and such an

experience that we're searching it out and seeking it out this

this salvation. He even said that these angelic

beings, the angels of heaven, even desire to look into what

you have experienced by being born again or begotten by God.

This experience that has been afforded to us.

And so as a result of everything I just said, he comes to verse

13 and says, wherefore, because you have received that

experience, because you have been begotten again and kept by

that, and because generations of both earthly people and eternal

angelic beings have been intrigued about what you now

possess, He says you need to gird up the loins of your mind

because this is where the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit can

begin to influence us. It were to gird up the loins of

our mind. And that was a very important

picture for them of their culture in that day.

They're they're wearing many of them robes, flowing robes, a man

in that day that many of their robes indicated what type of

work that they did and and so on and so forth.

And so a person though that was going to run or if he needed to

fight per SE or apply himself to something, many times he had to

take that long flowing robe and he would gird up in a belt that

he was wearing to cause the garment to be a little tighter

to himself so he could run quicker and it wouldn't be in

the way. And so that was a, a, a, a

phrase that the people that day would know.

But Peter says, when you've been begotten again, he says, now we

have a responsibility. We need to gird up the loins of

our mind, right? Because there's some things,

there's some free flowing thoughts, there's some free,

free flowing thoughts of our mind and we got to reign some of

those things in Amen and corral some of those things in.

And so sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, it doesn't take

corralling at once. And it's like everything's

caged. I got, I got some, I got some

Rascal thoughts. They pick locks on the gate, so

to speak. They get back out and I find

myself having to corral it again the next day and corralling it

again the next day because our thoughts sometimes just start to

run away with us. Let me tell you, let me ask

somebody today, whenever you've had your new born again

experience with the Lord did not thoughts or have not thoughts

come into your head sometimes and tell you what you received

wasn't real. Come on.

Have you had thoughts come in your head to say, you know what,

you're not going to make it. You're going to go back to the

old life that you used to have. Have you not had some thoughts

that said, you know what, you're a failure, always going to be a

failure and you're going to fail in this mode of life too.

You know what those are those free flowing thoughts that by

the power that you've been begotten by, you need to reign

those things in, need to reign them in and gird up the loins,

if you will, of our minds. The Bible says, he says to be,

to be sober. That means that we should not,

we should be free from intoxication.

And I'm not talking necessarily about this.

We get intoxicated with many things, not just substances.

People can get intoxicated with other relationships that they

don't need to be in. People can get intoxicated with

their careers. People can get intoxicated with

entertainment, especially in the entertainment age.

We can get intoxicated with past experiences, whether they be bad

or good, he says. Be sober.

I don't. I don't.

I want you to be free from intoxication.

Why? Because you've been begotten by

the Spirit. I want you to, if you want to be

intoxicated by something, have that fresh constant renewal of

the intoxication of when you was.

What do you remember when you were born again of the water and

the spirit, what you felt, what you experienced?

What honey, I, I want that 8 year old experience again when I

went to the altar of prayer and I threw up my hands and I said,

God, I'm just a low down dirty Sinner at 8 years old.

Yeah, he's all born into the same sin and I need your help

out of this. I remember feeling what I felt.

I remember speaking in other tongues.

I'm never being overwhelmed by what was going on.

I want that 8 year old experience tomorrow and then I

want it the next day. Folks, that's what it's about.

This is not just a one time at the altar experience.

This is a everyday experience. If we gird up the loins of our

mind, if we it can be a everyday, It is a lie that

you're being told. If it's just a one day

experience or just a Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday

experience, you can experience what you feel here on Sunday, on

Monday and Tuesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday.

Amen. So don't accept that lie.

So as God's children claimed by him, claimed by that Holy Ghost

or that Holy Spirit, we're in a holding pattern now according to

the word, according to Peter, we're in a holding pattern now

that's waiting for the hope of his second coming.

And he begins to tell us some of the marks of being obedient

children of God, some of the marks of being obedient

children. It's right there in the text

that we read this morning of verse 14.

As obedient children, He says not fashioning.

It's another way could be translated.

Is not conforming, not fashioning or conforming

ourselves. Look now to the former lust or

the former desires in our ignorance.

What's that saying? That saying we used to live some

of our life in such a way that was against God, but we did it

in some regards, not even realizing what we were doing.

We were ignorant. We didn't know it was against

God. We thought it was just the way

that everybody lived life. And so it's just what you do.

But once we come begotten again by the the the word and by the

Spirit, we understand. Oh, that's, that's not correct

in the eyes of God. He says now that you've been

begotten again, don't, don't fashion or be conformed to your

old lust and your old desires that you used to be ignorantly

that that brings up a scripture to my mind that Paul writing to

the Church of Rome shared with him in Romans 12 and verse 2.

He said, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed

by look again, by the renewing of the mind.

That's the girding up of our mind, folks.

We're, we're not, we're not in the conforming business.

We're in the transformation business.

Amen. I want there to be something

transformed inside of me. So I used to do some things and

I used to practice some things and some of those things I did

ignorantly. I, I did it without a full

understanding, a full knowledge of its wrongness or how it was

an affront unto God. But now, now I know better.

Would you agree with me? Because children, like, as

children grow up, there's some things they're ignorant of until

they're taught. I'd loved it if my kids came out

like Trevor 2 point O and he just knew everything that he

should have done and everything he shouldn't have done from the

moment that he was born into this world.

That's not the way it works. As a matter of fact, some of

them have to be told more than once about how some things work.

And we still say some things about how some things work.

But what I'm saying is, do you agree that there's a different

there's a different mindset that whenever I told him the first

time about something and him never knew anything about it and

then him go back and do that again and we have to tell him

the second time because now it's not he's ignorant.

He knows everybody, OK? He knows that there's there's

something going on here because I heard you the first time.

I listened the first time I asked him, did you understand

what I said? He said, yeah.

And then a week or maybe a day later here, here we are again.

So, so God saying said now, now you're not ignorant.

You, you, you know better. He said, so you don't need to

continue to conform and fashion to those old things and those

old lust and those old desires. Man, there's a scripture and it

hits hard for every one of us. In James 417, the Bible says

therefore to him that knoweth to do good, In other words, you're

no longer ignorant about it. He that knoweth to do good and

doeth it not, to him it is sin. And that hits hard because what

we need to, instead of resorting to do and doing the things that

we once did, haven't been begotten again and called by the

Holy One. The Scripture says, the Bible

says they're in our text. We should be wholly in all,

everybody say all. It's heavy manner of

conversation. Again, the word conversation

here, it isn't just including how we speak.

The word conversation means in all manner of behavior, in all

manner of conduct, in all manner of life.

God's holiness and His Holiness acted out in our life isn't just

isolated to our speech, but any and every area, all manner of

our conversation. Amen.

And then Peter reaches back to an Old Testament verse in the

Old Testament, actually there's more than one of them, several

of them that say this. He says, for the Lord has said

be holy, for I am holy. So matter of fact, one of those

verses that that that look to that is Leviticus chapter 20 and

Leviticus 20 · chapter mention

verse. 26 where the Scripture says, And ye shall be holy unto

me, for I the Lord am holy. Look at this and have severed

that strong word and have severed you from other people,

that ye should be mine. And I think of severed.

I'm thinking about cutting off, dividing away from, he said.

I've severed you from them. I want you to be mine,

exclusively mine. Amen.

Anybody want to enter into a dating relationship with your

beau and four other girls with your beau?

Come on now, he wants to be exclusively theirs.

Now here I I got really got to get ready and feel like I've

been dragging my feet here this morning.

But when we read in the Word of God from the Old Testament to

the New Testament, throughout the Old Testament in particular,

the Bible refers to people and places and things and ofttimes

it calls them either holy or it calls them common.

For instance, whenever Moses, and again, mind you, Moses had

been watching over his father in law's sheep for some time now,

about 40 years on the backside of the desert.

And the Bible says when he's out there, it's somewhere in that

40th year timeframe that they go by a particular Bush.

It's on fire, but it's not being consumed.

And he's on the backside of the desert and he turns to see this

site because it is peculiar. And the Lord speaks to him from

there and basically says, Moses, please remove the sandals off

your feet because the ground that you are on is holy ground.

Holy ground. Now, folks, all the face of the

earth was ground. He said, but this area right

here is holy ground. And I want you to take your

sandals off your feet in one mode.

We can look at it like this. Sandals for sure.

In that day, you know, they didn't have memory foam and all

that good stuff that we have today.

They're a whole lot thinner when we talk about the soul of a

sandal then. But in one essence, God is

telling Moses, I don't want anything between me, my

holiness, and you. Even as minuscule as it may

seem. I don't want anything between My

holiness and you. Secondly, Moses, I've come down

and I have touched this place, I have visited this place, I've

made myself a manifest in this place.

And so this area, this ground is holy ground because I have shown

up, I have touched it, I've laid my finger up on it.

And what happens whenever God touches something, even if it

was formerly unclean? Listen, God cannot touch

something and both He and it remain the same.

And here's the confidence that I know that if Jesus Christ, as

Hebrew says He is the same yesterday, today, and forever,

then there's not going to be any change on His side.

Hey, man, it's not going to be any change on his side.

He said, I've touched this place, I've manifested myself

here. This is not just ground now like

the rest of the earth, this is holy ground.

This has been set aside by me. It has a distinguishing mark on

my presence upon it right here. It's kind of like the leper of

New Testament Scripture. If you'll remember, whenever the

leper came to the Lord and he, he's a leper.

And he said, if, if thou canst make me clean, then so be it.

And the Lord spoke to me, said be thou clean in that day.

For another human being to be next to someone with leprosy

would have automatically made that other human being unclean.

That's the law. You're unclean.

You're going to go through periods of purification and

washing in order to get your quote UN quote cleanness back.

But here is the Lord Jesus Christ God manifested in the

flesh, Amen. And he comes and he's around

this leper who is unclean by the law and by all of the mindset of

humanity, Jesus should have been made unclean from that

interaction. But that's not what happened

because whenever you come in contact with the Lord, both of

you can't stay the same. And he's not changing.

That man had to leave that day clean because he had come in

contact with the Savior. I feel the Holy Ghost here

today. You bring whatever you need to

bring to the Lord today. You can bring your failure,

bring your mistake, bring your uncleanness, bring your issue,

because if you come in contact with God, both of you can't stay

the same. Something is going to change.

Amen. That's the reason why we sing

our little songs. I stepped into the water and the

water was cold till my body, but not my soul.

You should have been there when I prayed through.

The church was on fire and the Holy Ghost too.

From the top of my head to the sole of my feet, I felt the

Spirit. I'm not going to stay the same.

I'm not going to stay the same. I've been touched.

His manifest presence has come down.

Hallelujah. Thank God I'm in song land here.

I guess because I almost messed up that one song.

Thank God I'm not. Not what?

Not what I used to be. Hey man, not only is this ground

holy because God has shown up, this ground is holy because God

is commissioning Moses with a purpose in his life as being a

deliverer for God's people. It's separate.

It's holy from any other ground. It's different.

It's set apart because God is purposing from this point.

Amen. A mission in Moses's life.

Man, I'm just can't get through anything here today.

You got to consider some of the other places that the Bible

describes as holy. The Tabernacle that God

commissioned Moses to build in the wilderness.

It had in it a place called the Holy Place.

It had a place a little further in there called the Holies of

Holies, which was the holiest place of all within the

Tabernacle. It would be the place where God

would later tell Moses, he said up upon the mercy seat between

where the two chair Bamar, I'll make myself known to you, I'll

manifest myself to you. And it's in that place that is

the holiest of all, place where God would even come down and

manifest and dwell and make himself known.

It's later from Tabernacle to the temple that Solomon would

later build. Even in Jerusalem.

It had also a place that was a holy place.

And it was founded in the city of Jerusalem that the Bible

often calls the holy city because it's the city that God

had chose. It's the city the Bible says

that God had put His name, His name upon.

So in the time of the temple, in the time of these things, all

things either existed in a couple different categories, a

couple different states. They were either common or they

were holy. Common is just the natural state

of all things. It's just common.

It's not necessarily meaning something is just horrific, but

it's just the natural state of things.

But when you talk about holy, that's a, that's a special

state. It means that a thing has been

removed from its natural state and it's been dedicated to the

Lord for his exclusive use. Brother Fred.

And so when you take something from its common state to a holy

state, the Bible has a fancy word for it.

Don't you know the Bible has some fancy words?

Justification, glorification, propitiation.

Well, this would be sanctification.

There's your five syllable word sanctification when something is

taken from the common state to the holy state.

And here's here's what we know. According to the word, something

can be clean without being holy. There's people today that's

living good moral lives. There's the Corneliuses of Acts

chapter #10 that pray and give alms clean, quote UN quote.

But it's only holy if it becomes exclusively his.

Everybody doing OK? I know I say that for my wife

told me. I say that a lot.

So I'll try not to say that so much.

I'm just kind of taking your pulse and making sure you're OK

because I'm trying to figure out if I'm OK.

Like I got, I'm holding mine. I'm holding.

You're like, OK, we're all right.

But here's the fact. Anything that is holy His is

meant to be kept clean. Because when holy things cease

to be clean and they become profane and they become corrupt

and they're no longer than holy, they've lost their wholeness.

They've lost their purity, which is some of the definitions of

holiness. Notice in each of these places,

Tabernacle, Temple, Jerusalem, this is of interest, I believe,

for us today. In each of these places, they

all had a wall around them. They all had a wall around them.

They, they all were enclosed places.

That outer court that was to the Tabernacle, you had to go.

You had to go through some curtains to get in there.

That outer core of the Tabernacle, you had to go

through some gates to get in there.

The city of Jerusalem, there were only a certain number of

gates around the perimeter of that wall that allowed you

entrance or exit in that city. Because these are holy places.

These are holy places and we need some doors, we need some

gates, we need some bells, we need some entrances where we can

control what gets on the inside and what's loud to exit from

them. These these holy places are

folks. Think about it for a moment.

The very garden in the beginning is called the Garden of

Gethsemane. The word garden distinctly means

enclosed place. He set up an arena of holiness

right from the beginning. That was a enclosed space.

Amen. It's an enclosed space, has a

wall. They're standing on holy ground

and it was just this distinct You outside of Jerusalem, unholy

inside the wall, holy. Outside of the Tabernacle tent

structure, unholy inside, holy. Same so with the temple as well.

Doesn't necessarily mean it's just a good, a hoard, evil

place, but it's just not a holy place because within the

parameter of all this, this has been set apart for God.

Within the parameter of this shoe bread and this, this labor

and all that, this has been set apart for God.

God was pleased, interestingly enough, Tabernacle, Temple,

Jerusalem, those places, even the garden of, of, of Eden.

Look, he's pleased to do well in each of these places, and it

wasn't even until the transgression of Adam and Eve.

Then what does he take and do for them?

I'm going to set you outside the enclosed space because we have

got a little schism now in our relationship and you've not

given yourself exclusively to me, so I did OK.

But the Bible, he said they're saying he's not OK.

He's not OK. I've known that for a long time,

but he just didn't ask me. But not just earthly dwelling.

The Bible speaks of his heavenly dwelling.

Look at some verses Isaiah 63 and 15.

The Bible says look down from heaven and behold from I love

the word in here the habitation of thy holiness or thy holy

habitation and of thy glory. Jeremiah the prophet 25 and

verse 30 says the Lord shall roar from on high and utter his

voice from his holy habitation. He's Speaking of the heavenlies

of of that that that place Yonder beyond, if you will, the

blue God's heavenly dwelling place.

It is also so described as holy or a holy habitation.

Everything that is set apart unto the Lord, Amen.

There will be no unclean thing there according to the Book of

Revelation. There will be no impure thing

there, according to the Book of Revelation, just those things

that are dedicated, set apart, distinguished for the Lord.

And John writes a description of it in a way, in the Book of

Revelation, in Revelation. And I've already just kind of

touched on it a little bit, but look at the Scripture.

I think it's important that you see with your eyes the scripture

Revelation 2127, and I'm going to read into in chapter 22 as

well, he says. But nothing unclean will ever

enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but

only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Going with verse 1 of chapter 22.

Then the Angel showed me a river, some version say a pure

river. Amen.

Of water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne

of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the

city. Also on either side of the

river, the tree of life with it's twelve kinds of fruit.

Let's just stop and take recognition.

There was a tree of life in the Garden of Eden and was found in

the enclosed space in this holy habitation.

In heaven there is another. There is a tree of life in this

holy habitation. Twelve kinds of fruit yielding

each fruit each month. It's fruit each month.

And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nation's

folks. I think it's tremendous that the

passage begins to show a connection between His Holiness

and between purity and between the Crystal River and in between

healing. Yeah, come on, wait.

Because here's the fact that I know as a minister now, for

several, several years, we have looked at this whole concept of

holiness too narrowly. We chalk it only up to this idea

of modesty, but you know, the Bible talks about several things

that are holy. It says in Psalms 33 verse 21,

Psalms 33:21

we have trusted in His holy name.

That's one of the reasons why you take that name on you in

baptism. And that holy name is applied to

you because you received the Holy Spirit alongside.

I got a holy name on me that's separating me.

I got a Holy Spirit that's separating me.

And because I've been begotten again, I'm going to gird up the

loins of my mind and be sober and look for the coming of book.

And I'm not going to go back into the things that I used to

do ignorantly God that you know what that also means God's name

and that name set apart from every other name.

Let me tell you, Jesus was not the only individual in the world

at his time. And historians tell us that the

name of Jesus was quite common in that day.

There are other people called Jesus, but there was no one

named Jesus like the man Christ Jesus who was tempted in all

ways like you and I are yet was without sin that became the

ultimate once forever sacrifice for all the rest of humanity

that ever that sets him apart. He's the he's the only man that

was God Incarnate or God in flesh.

That's it's his name apart, set apart from every other name, so

much so that Paul made a statement that the name Jesus in

Philippians 29 is a name that is above every name the Bible says

in Exodus 19 and six. And ye shall be unto me a

Kingdom of priests, he speaking to Israel, and a holy nation he

tells him in Deuteronomy 7 and 6 For thou art a holy people unto

the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen

thee. Someone say, I've been

handpicked. He has chosen thee could be a

special people unto himself, above all people that are upon

the face of the earth. You are not chosen to be like

everybody else. You are not chosen to be like

the world. You are not chosen to be like

your culture. If anybody asks you why don't

you like everybody else, you tell them you're from a

different world. Come on, you tell them you're

from a different world. Abraham travelled all his life

looking for a city whose builder and maker was God.

He didn't find it in the earth. How these He didn't find it in

Iran. He didn't find it even in

Israel. He was looking for a city out of

this world. At our best, we are strangers

and we are pilgrims. Bible says in Exodus 28 and

four, I'm just running through a few of these because we just

look at a lot of times modesty, that's all there is.

They shall make holy garments for Aaron the priest, thy

brother and his sons that he may minister to meet in the priest

office. Now we could look at like we get

to go down that road and we probably will before it's all

said and done here in the next five years.

Our revelation says he has made us kings and priests.

How Peterman says that we are now a royal priesthood, that for

them there were some holy garments.

All right. Deuteronomy 2613 says, Then thou

shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the

hallowed things, which the word hallowed is holy things out of

mine house. This is interesting.

Your Bible tells you in the New Testament Scripture, and

Speaking of money, it calls it filthy lucre.

Calls it filthy lucre or filthy money.

Do you know that there's holy money too?

Oh God, it's money that's been set apart and dedicated.

Matter of fact, in the Old Testament a tenth of their goods

was given to the Lord, and by means of offering the 10th, it

redeemed the other 90% that they had their 10th.

The offering of their tenth made holy.

The rest there's holy money. When do they give you your

check? And the government's taking

theirs and the insurance taking theirs, and your 4-O1K's taking

hits. And you sit down at your table

and you begin to write. You're 10%.

And to the Lord, you know what you're doing by virtue you're

making everything you receive just become holy.

And until it's done, you just got filthy lucre.

But the moment that it's done, everything that's just coming to

your hand has become holy, set apart.

It's you say, well, God don't need my money as cow on 1000

hills. Bless God.

That's true. He don't, but it's a trial of

your faith who you depending on, because if I say I can't make it

without that 10%, I must be depending on the greenbacks.

Come on, that's what carries my life.

But Ioffer what is rightfully his, his, which it all is his

Old Testament scriptures that he gave you health to even secure

the wealth. But if I return that to him,

then you know what I'm saying? God, it really don't matter.

It's all up to you anyway how this all rose out.

Amen. That's right, yes, yes, so do

you. We're not just talking about

holy clothing, holy words, holy attitudes, holy mindset.

There's a lot of things that's holy Exodus 20 and eight.

I got to run got to run. Remember the Sabbath day to keep

it holy. But McGee, we're not we're not

such and such Listen one in in creation.

What it comes down to this is one day out of seven was set

aside Forrest and return of worship and reflection to the

Lord and the way to keep it holy was to keep it in check as laid

aside unto the Lord. New Testament scripture tells us

that we don't want it. We don't esteem one day above

the other, but every day because when you've received his Holy

Spirit and you got his holy name on you, every day is holy unto

the Lord. If I do.

See, I don't play the part on Sunday.

This is the day holy. And to the Lord Paul Mcgee's

going to be in his best holy fashion.

Oh great Father, mighty God, please come in this place.

No, no, no, no, no, no, don't know.

See, whenever you get the Holy Spirit and you have His holy

name, and you start living through the lens of holiness

every day, let's go on Exodus 30, verse 25.

Exodus 30:25

And thou shalt make it a holy, an oil of holy ointment, an

ointment compound after the art of the apothecary.

It shall be a holy anointing oil.

The Bible says in Exodus 29, verse 37.

Exodus 29:37

I hope you're rolling with me, Doctor Mason, I'm not checking.

And it shall be an altar most holy.

Whosoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

So during the Old Testament we we had holy times, holy oil,

holy altar, holy dress, holy money.

So today, being committed to holy, holy life, all time is

holy again. Every day belongs unto the Lord,

is committed to His Holiness at 20.

This is the 24/7 market of holiness Old Testament times

priests were anointed with a special holy oil.

New Testament tells us about the Old Testament.

A lot of things in the Old Testament was just a shadow of

things that were to come. They were not the actual thing,

but it's the thing was was casting the shadow.

We're following the shadow to the actual substance.

It was just a shadow of things to come.

That was great Old Testament them being anointed with oil,

but it was a shadow of something to come that happened really

initially on the day of Pentecost when there were those

120 that were get in the upper room that per SE had the oil,

oil called God's Spirit put upon them.

And so everybody today that's born again in the water and the

Spirit have in essence been anointed by that holy oil.

In the Old Testament times. It's animal sacrifices, right?

They're being brought and they're considered holy because

they're taken from the herd or they're taken from the flock.

They're set apart from all the other animals.

That's distinction. That's a setting apart for a

special use and purpose. It's a holiness that's there.

And then they're offered here at the altar, which the Bible or he

told us was holy, most holy. When there's the touching, the

mingle of it, the offering becomes holy.

Why so? Because the altar was the place

that God and man came together at sacrifice time.

We, I know we're not dragging in some lamb this morning.

Glenna, y'all got goats, I think, so we might be able to

get her hand on a goat. And I know we're not dragging.

Bless God. You know, sometimes you just

almost lose it completely. Help me, Jesus, I know we're not

bringing no animal in here this morning.

We're not offering a holy animal on a per SE, a holy altar to a

holy God. But New Testament tells us how

the sacrificial system or means has changed in Romans 12.

I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,

that ye present your bodies living sacrifice.

You can only be a living sacrifice because he became the

slaughtered sacrifice. Living sacrifice.

Holy wait, hold on. We can still have a sacrifice

today. It's not the goat or the lamb,

but it's ourselves. But one thing is for sure, sure,

it's still holy, holy and acceptable to God, which is our

reasonable ServiceNow folks. We, we, we kind of pale in

comparison a little bit, you know, to, to to the Tabernacle,

even the wilderness. We, we don't have no bronze

altar up here. I'm sorry about that.

And we for sure, we for sure pale in comparison to the temple

of Solomon. There, there, there, there no

golden altar up here. I, I, I'm sorry about that.

But we do this, have this O carpeted altar here and the the

Bible tells us that that altar is most holy nonetheless, Amen,

because it is still the altar. And I think we need to get back

to understanding this and accepting this and looking at it

like this. The altar is still a very

spiritual place where men, Amen, living sacrifices of men and God

meet. We need to remember, listen to

me here on this first day, our first service of the year.

We need to remember that whenever people are in these

altar, they are in a holy place, in a holy time, in a meeting

with a holy God where God can dispense His Holiness and his

Holy Spirit and his holy name. We we still need to teach, treat

it as such. Can I just step and as a pastor

today, having had two kids, we need to teach our children as

such. We need them to frequent the

altar, but we need them to be respectful about what's

happening in the altar. All right, Leviticus 23, verse

Leviticus 23:37

37. Now that says read my phone,

doesn't I'm just here to I'm talking about time.

Leviticus 23, verse 37. These are the feast of the

Leviticus 23:37

Lords, which shall, which shall proclaim to be holy

convocations, where convocations basically means assembly.

These are holy assemblies. These are holy gatherings.

These are holy public meetings. Public meetings of God were

defined and characterized as being holy.

Can I tell you this morning you are in a holy meeting when we

gather to worship, not only do the people that come here that's

been born again in the water spirit individually holy, but as

we corporally gathered together, we are forming up a holy

meeting. Oh God and brother Fred, we need

to still have that same type of mindset of as we come together,

we're entering into a holy convocation and even missing

this, I'm missing a holy convocation deserves respect.

It reserves our honor, all these things.

Leviticus 625, I'll come to a close real quick.

Quick is subjective. The Bible says in Leviticus 625

speaking to Aaron his son, saying this is the law of the

sin offering and the place where the burnt offering is killed

shall be the sin offering be killed before the Lord.

It is most holy. So God has called us in the New

Testament to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

But the sin offering as it was in the Old Testament, the sin

offering allowed an individual to come to God in the 1st place.

They offered the sin offering in order to have the ability to

come to God in the first place. That was Old Testament.

In the New Testament we had a sin offering.

His altar was Calvary, and because of himself, his flesh

being on that altar called Calvary.

It's that lifted up place, that slaughtering place, that it has

become a most holy place, and that most holy God who come in

the likeness of sinful flesh of humanity, who sacrificed his own

holy life for our sins. The Bible says in Hebrews 10/10

we are sanctified. There's that word again, or

sanctification, 5 syllables if you like that one, which

basically means to be made holy through the offering of the body

of Jesus Christ once for all. What are you saying?

We could never be holy had it not been for our God's holy work

at Calvary. Had he been a Sinner just like

us, it would have not have been an effective sacrifice for us.

The sacrifice according even to the law, it had to be holy.

It had to be set apart. That's the reason why in first

Peter 221, Stan, I'm doing that so that you'll be encouraged.

First Peter 2 and verse 22 Bible speaks of our God.

He did no sin Jesus, neither was God found in his mouth.

In verse 24 it says who his own self bear our sins in his own

body on the tree, that we being dead to sins could live unto

righteousness. So I'm getting that this

morning. Where where God dwells,

everything changes. From Genesis to Revelation, the

patterns clear. Where God dwells, everything

changes. The ground becomes holy whenever

God touches it. The temp becomes holy whenever

God enters it. The city becomes holy whenever

God puts His name upon it. The sacrifice becomes holy when

it's set apart for his use and for His purpose.

And now we can become holy because we've been sanctified by

the power of a sacrifice, a sin offering.

You can be holy today, and please listen to me clearly.

You can be holy today not because you are clean enough.

You can be holy today not because you are clean enough,

but because he was holy enough, because he was holy enough and

His Holiness made salvation then possible.

The indwelling of that possible, and he sets our feet upon the

street called straight is even what the New Testament writer

said in so much what? Wherefore I gird up the loins of

my mind. I'm sober.

I don't, I don't go and entertain my life with those

things that I used to do, but yet was ignorant of.

I I, I as obedient, I, I, I surrender and I don't fashion

after those things. But I'm, I'm tending toward all

my manner of life to be holding the Lord.

I'm holy because he is, He is holy.

Folks, if you've received the Spirit, he dwells in you and

you're no longer should no longer be common.

Commonness should no longer be an option for you.

But holiness, you say, brother McGee, I, I desire today and you

close your eyes all over this bin.

You say, brother McGee, I desire today.

I desire today a, a divine intersection with the Lord

because brother McGee, from where I'm standing, I, I know my

natural state. I know my natural state.

And brother McGee, in the years that I've lived this life, I've

even taken my natural state and I've, I've flirted with it.

I've, I've taken it down some roads and some paths and been

involved in some things that just even took a common state

and maybe even have made it a dirty, unclean, defiled state.

But I'm afraid, Pastor McGee, I'm afraid because Pastor McGee,

you, you don't know how many years the calendar has flipped

over from December 31st to January 1st.

And I've told myself this year's going to be different.

We're, we're going to overcome some things this year.

We're not going to engage in some things this year.

And before February even arrived, found myself in the

same, the same boat, the same patterns, the same practices.

Sir, ma'am, I ask you today, have you ever come in contact

with the Lord? Because we're standing in a holy

place today and there's a holy altar today, and there's some

holy groups of people around here today.

And I've already witnessed because I felt that his Holy

Ghost in spirit here today and His name, His holy name is here

today. And I'm telling you this

morning, God would love to have a divine intersection with you

and your common life today. He loved to have intersection

with you and the life maybe that you've mishandled today because

again, you cannot meet and both Him and you remain the same

Folks, that's not just something I'm just spilling out from the

side of my mouth. That is a guarantee I have

through God's Word. Something is going to change

from that encounter. Something is going to change.

This altar is open today. I'm asking every individual,

whoever you may be, somebody might be looking over their

life. Someone might be looking where

they are right now. Maybe someone is casting their

eye in the future. God is here this morning.

This is a holy altar. This is a holy place.

It doesn't matter if you're St. Sinner, if you're indifferent,

it does not matter. I'm asking every single one of

us, Let's start out this first service of the year.

Saved, unsaved, whoever you are, let's embrace this holy place

called an altar. Let there be the intermingling

of our lives, these bodies as a living sacrifices with a holy

God, where everything can change, where everything can

change. Or or ma'am, you don't have to

walk your rear Rd. alone. 2026 doesn't have to be like 2025.

You don't have to be the lonely Rd.

No, no, no. God is waiting for you.

God is desirous of you. God wants you.

Everything can change.