Heaven Rules In My Head | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from as church. We hope this message

will light up your day. I basically entitle my message haven't rules in my

head or basically our head, Okay, and I think that's something that's very,

very important. The message might be a little bit strong, so just

take it with a pinch of salt. I'm just going to be looking at

scripture Second Timothy, in particular Chapter two, the latter portions into the earlier

portions of chapter three. Okay, So I'm going to be reading scripture.

I'm going to be well talking a little bit about what my take is on

this portion of scripture and where we are today, because really the times in

which we are living is really really interesting, and I pray that all of

us will continue to be reminded that it's so important that Heaven has to not

just rule our entire lives. If we rules our entire lives, it has

to rule in here as well. Okay, So let me start off by

reading Second Timothy Chapter two, verse fourteen, and then you realize I'm going

to be reading verse fifteen all the way to the end of it. And

then I think chapter three and early portions of it so verse fourteen of chapter

two Second Timothy says, this, remind everyone about these things and command them

in God's presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless and they

can ruin those who hear them. Okay. So I believe one of the

greatest dangers to the church actually comes from the inside, not the external factors,

because from outside we can usually expect attacks and hostility. But from inside

the church, how the devil usually attacks is it tries to corrupt the truth.

Okay, And the keyword that actually shines out in this passage that we

will be reading is truth. And that is what we stand for, and

that is our task before God. Actually that as believers we are to keep

the truth intact. That is what we are called to do. And so

the truth, I believe always starts in our heads, and we must have

knowledge of the truth. And therefore that's why I've entitled the message Heaven must

rule in our heads as believers, it must rule in our minds, in

our thought process. And there are usually two ways in which truth can be

destroyed, first of all through the tongue, and second true our life,

true life, or basically true words and true words that can possibly contradict the

truth. So basically, look look at this way. I can contradict the

truth by what I say, or I can contradict the truth by what I

do. Makes sense. Either way, I have attacked the truth and made

it more difficult for someone to actually hear it or to accept it. And

that's why what we say and how we conduct ourselves becomes something that's very,

very important. And it may seem strange no that works can contradict the truth,

but the reality is works can contradict the truth. What you do can

be in contradistinction with what God is telling you to do, and people outside

the church can actually see in our lives things that contradict what we preach ultimately

or what we believe in, or what we confess or what we profess.

So both of these things can get inside a church. And the latter part

of chapter two of this secontimity is concernt with corrupting words that actually deny the

truth and cause people to not be able to accept the simple, plain meaning

of what God has said. Then, in chapter three, verses one to

nine, you actually see a list of deeds. Works. Deeds are deeds

or actions that likewise can corrupt the truth and destroy So you know, sometimes

we can have a discussion and argue, just for human sick I think we're

all pretty good at doing that. Paul teaches that this sort of thing does

no good. There's no good, and many people have been actually turned away

from the truth by argument, and it is a very setting when that actually

happens. But that's what we sometimes find ourselves getting into. So you may

be interested to know that the Greek word translated ruin here in this portion of

Scripture just means to pull a thing down, to turn it upside down,

or to upset it, or to demolish it, to break it down.

And these are the sort of arguments or argumentative discussions that Paul has in mind

that can sometimes upset the heroes. That means when when people actually see arguments

taking place, it's hard for them to accept the truth. So a church

does not need those who pulls things down. A church does not need someone

who continues to demolish the truth. Instead, what the church needs is actually

good yielders, good workmen, who will not demolish the faith of hearers.

But what they are supposed to do is actually to strengthen it. To build

it up step by step. And that's why Verses fifteen to nineteen, which

I'll read right now, says this. And this is something that we have

read over and over again, but let's go into it deeper. It says,

I'm reading from the Nnalty and a proof worker verse fifteen. Work hard

so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good

worker, one who does not need to be ashamed, and who correctly explains

the word of truth. Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more

godless behavior. This kind of talk spreads like cancer. As in the case

of Harmonius and Philitus, they have left the path of truth, claiming that

the resurrection of the date has already occurred. In this way, they have

turned some people away from the faith. Again, this is the warning.

But God's truth stands firm like a foundation stone. With this inscription. The

Lord knows those who are his, and all who belong to the Lord must

turn away from Eva. So we now come to verse fifteen, and the

key verse is this, do your best to present yourself to God as one

who is a proof. What does that mean? It means study, do

your best it means always do your best to present yourself to God. A

workman who is actually good in what he does, a workman that comes with

good references from elsewhere, a workman who is a proof, a worker who

is qualified, a worker who is skilled. That is what the scripture is

actually telling us to do as believers. Now you realize this, there are

two things that we need to take note of. What a workman needs or

what a worker needs. A worker needs to take pride in his work.

Very important, Okay, it's there. And a worker also needs to be

proficient in it. Right. Two things. Take pride in what you do,

be proficient in what you do. Isn't it lovely? Actually to meet

someone who takes pride in his work, that means you've come You meet someone

and this person, say a salesperson, try to imagine with me, and

he does his job so well. He's explaining, you know, if there's

something wrong with it, he will return to it, he'll work on it,

he'll get it right, and then he will come back to you and

make sure that he gives you the best that he is to his ability.

And I believe that someone who can actually go to bait every night saying that

I have done a good job. I've done a good job. You know.

He can let anyone basically come and look a good worker who takes pride

in his work, and let anyone come and look at his life, and

he will not be ashamed. He will not be embarrassed of what he does.

He will be proud stand there and let anyone inspect his word. And

that's what we need to have as workers. For Jesus. Our Bible study

is to be like that. We are not to study the scriptures so that

we are not you know, able to present it a lot of times.

No, we do that, but we are to study it. We are

to know the scriptures so that we are not ashamed about the scriptures. Take

pride in what you do, Pride in your work. Don't rush through the

scriptures. No, we are proud of our workmanship because we have done it

properly. We have studied hard, we have done our best, and that's

how we have to present ourselves. Now, you cannot, of course,

take pride in your workmanship unless you have proficiency in it. Right. That's

why I say a workman needs to be proud of what he does and be

proficient in what he is doing. And we know when it comes to proficiency,

it's not something that happens overnight, is it. You know some people,

I'm afraid. I want to be able to do things straight away.

And this is the society and the generation and we really in which we live

in. We want to get things straight away. But there is only one

way to get proficient in anything, and basically that is to do it again

and again and again and again. Is the only way you'll be proficient in

handling scripture. The Bible has so many truths in it that you will,

actually, I believe, spend your entire lifetime with it. And sometimes still

can say I don't understand it all. But as you studied again and again

and again and again, you realize that you begin to learn how to handle

your tools properly. It's the same with God's word. As you study it

again, remember, you will know how to rightly handle the word of truth,

or basically correctly explain the truth. That is what the scripture here is

saying. So Paul uses this phrase, the word of truth, and he

actually uses it twice elsewhere, and usually when he's talking about the word of

truth, he's actually talking about the good News of Jesus. He's talking about

the Gospel. You'll see the reference in efficience. You see the reference in

collisions as well. When he's talking about the Word of Truth, he's basically

talking about the good News, the Gospel. How do we handle the good

News? How do we handle the Gospel is when we read it over and

over and over again. And so, children, if you're listening to this

for the first time, I hope that you will keep listening to it all

the days of your life, over and over and over again. So the

word man God wants is one who can handle skillfully, accurately, and preach

in a straightforward and accurate manner the Word of Truth, which is the Gospel.

Amen. That's what we are called to do. So to be able

to say I have knowledge of God whom I believe I know the Word of

God means we basically have content in our faith. Content as in ec Kandongan.

There's something in it, Okay, it's not empty. This means that

you have knowledge. This means that you have wisdom. This means that you

have understanding. To have wisdom means this. Not to have wisdom means that

we are able to grasp the truth, we are able to catch hold of

the truth. Being knowledgeable, on the other hand, means we are able

to present the truth. And you realize this if your goal to university is

to gain and gather knowledge, and then half the time what you all need

to do, you need to do presentation, right, So knowledge helps you

to present the truth, and then being able to understand basically means that you're

able to apply the truth in your life. So if we do not have

content to our faith, we will not be able to stay on the true

path, which is always straight and narrow, and that's what we are called

to do, and we will basically end up just talking nonsense if we don't

stay on this path, if we don't have content to our faith, if

we don't have knowledge, if we don't have understanding, if we don't have

wisdom in handling the truth, basically we will just end up bak. So

that's what we will say in Barsa. We will just end up having empty

conversations. We would just end up having meaningless talk. In Christ lie hidden

all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That's in Collisions, chapter two,

verse three. And that is my belief that in Christ is where we get

all our truth. Now, let's study you know, this disease a worthless

and foolish talk, because that's what the Bible, this is what the Scripture

is actually talking about. You see any discussion that is not centered in the

Word of God. Ultimola, this portion of Scripture is saying, it is

a waste of time. If you're not talking about the Word of God,

is wasting time. I know it is strong, but you know, we

actually read of two people here who were doing or having this kind of worthless

talk in the church. And their names were Haminius and Philitus, and somehow

they ended up in the Bible, not for the right reasons, but for

the not so good reasons. And basically it says that they have swerved from

the truth, or they have left the path of truth. That's what it's

saying. Yeah, I'm not going to go into the details, but you

realize the Hammonius and Flitters had taken an event to which Christians look forward,

the resurrection of the body. Basically, there's something that we look forward to

which has not happened yet. But they actually say it has happened, really,

and all of you missed it. That was what they were talking about

back then, And what is more amazing is that they could actually prove it

from the way they handled the word. You know that if you have made

up your mind about a thing first and then start reading the Bible, you

can make the Bible prove what you taught before you read it. You know

that it's possible because there's so much in the Bible. No, this is

actually how we actually swerve from the truth and sometimes how we handle God's worth,

God's word that can cause a lot of damage. You know, we

don't fear those who give us their own opinion and deny the Christian faith by

their ideas. I don't fear those No need, you give me your opinion,

you deny the faith, no problem. But we should actually fear those

who give us their ideas and make the Bible prove them that. These are

people who can be very, very dangerous. Of course, this is what

hamaneers and philators were doing. They were upsetting the faith, taking away the

foundation on which people's faith is actually built on. What are we to do

when this happens is the question? Because you know, time and time again

many have actually done that. They can set their mind and have an opinion

on something and say that isn't it what it says here? Taking things out

of context, taking things out of what God really intends. And so what

do we do when this happened? And the answer is that there is always

a firm foundation. There is a firm foundation. There is something you can

build on and something that you can be sure off. You can see church

buildings are actually have, or any buildings have a foundation stone is called the

cornerstone, and usually on the cornerstone there are inscriptions on it. I think

maybe the older buildings the inscription is probably the year or something that the year

in which it was built. But that cornerstone is the rock of the entire

the main structure of the entire building. So here is where Paul actually mentions

that the church's foundation has a sure inscription on it, and these are the

two things that must always be engraved in the church's foundation. The first thing

is this that God can sort out the truth from the false. Again,

I'm not giving my opinion. Go back and read the scripture that adjust that

you will see it in that he's saying that God can sort out the truth

from the false. Basically, God knows who are his people. You hear

all these different interpretations, but don't get worried, because God knows which is

the right one, and one day He's going to sort it all out.

I believe it with all my hands. And the other thing is this,

we know which is the right one too, because everyone who is truly teaching

the truth will depart from evil and wrongdoing. So you can also test the

truth. Anyone who is teaching the truth shall depart from evil and wrong doing.

You see Jesus one in the Sermon on the Mound that false preachers will

come dressed not as wolves, but as sheep, and sheep are the people

of God. He represents the people of God. That means they will look

like so our Lord actually warn his followers, warn his people. You know

there will be people like this who will come into the church. They will

be professing Christians, who would be false prophets. How do we even distinguish

them? Oh, my goodness, how do you identify them? Well?

Do you identify them by their fruits? If that man is not growing in

grace and himself not getting any nearer to God and living a holier life than

you know that he is not truly a teacher. That is a test in

which we can put and place upon anyone who's teaching. A true teacher will

actually take note of what he teaches himself and do something about it. It's

no point knowing and having all the hate knowledge. But again you don't apply

into your life and see the fruit in your life. So you need not

worry that there are false teachers because God knows who are his. And we

have a test, and what is his life like? We can ask is

he leading people to more godliness or to less godliness? A false teacher will

lead people further from God into ungodliness, and his life will be less holy

than before. But the teacher who is from God will raise the standard of

living, will continue to challenge you to live it right for God. You

know, I've known Pastor Kenneth for a long time and this is something that

he continuously does. I know sometimes sound the things that he when he talks

to me, it can be it can be quite painful because it's almost like

a challenge. He will ask me questions. You will help to remind me

where I'm supposed to be walking and where I'm supposed to We hate it.

He doesn't always sound nice because we are not perfect. But yet he does

it with a lot of grace. He does it with a lot of mercy,

and he continues even though it's painful. There are many times I can

tell you this. Know, when you are reprimanded or rebuke or admonish for

certain of your behaviors. The automatic thing is like, man, I don't

like this person. But the reality is, I realize that what the person

is ultimately doing is trying to help me live a life closer to God.

And I actually learn how to appreciate that more and more when the truth is

actually upheld and delivered in a proper way. And so remember this, those

who deliver the truth, you can actually trust that God will put the right

person in place, and we can differentiate and distinguish them. Okay, now

we're going to move on again. Now I'm just going through scripture. I'm

going through scriptures. Who stay with me. Now it says this, No,

we're going to talk about cleanliness and purity. Moving from verse twenty to

twenty one of chapter two, it says this, in a wealthy home,

some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood

and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap

ones are for everyday use. If you keep yourself pure, you will be

a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you

will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work. So

basically, this is what he's trying to paint again. Now you may sound

like I'm going jumping here and that I'm not. I'm just reading the scripture

chrono logically as it is. So here Paul is trying to tell us in

the large house, there are many vessels, there, many utensils, many

different shapes and sizes. Some of them are clean, and we know that

clean jars and clean vessels you can use for anything. Basically, a clean

vessel can hold anything, you can put anything inside. But there are also

some vessels in our house which are dirty, like, for example, say

a rubbish bin. Okay, you can actually hold things with a rubbish bin,

but you won't hold everything with a rubbish mean, that's what he's essentially

saying. So a dirty vessel, a dirty vessel, can only be used

for certain things, whereas a clean vessel can be used for everything. So

Paul is telling Timothy that in the church, Christ needs people who are clean

vessels so that he can put anything he wants in that person and use them

for any purpose he's so desires. If they are dirty vessels, he may

be able to use them for only a certain limited purpose. That is what

he is ultimately saying. So that's the reminder that we are to draw closer

to God. Holiness is something that's very very important. Holiness just simply means

we consecrate ourselves, we set ourselves apart. Basically, we follow what God

tells us to do. And so what could make a vessel that ty is

the question that we will ask ourselves. Right and chronologically, let's read Versus

twenty two to twenty six. It actually says this, run from anything that

stimulates you full lust. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love and

peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.

Again, I say, don't get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that

only starts fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but must

be kind to everyone, be able to teach and be patient with difficult people,

gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people's

hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they will come to their senses

and escape from the devil's trap, for they have been held captive by him

to do whatever he wants. And so what does he say? He says,

if you don't want to be dirty, you have to run away from

youthful passions and last. Okay, what does that mean? Well, it's

not only the passions of last, of the physical flesh. I believe they

are even I mean it could be the passion of ambition, the passion of

novelty. You know, when I was young, I used to love anything

new. Don't you think Chinese we call it songs? He hung there is

you just want new things. When you know, things get all very fast.

So after a few weeks, if they are one, I don't want

this anymore. I want something new. That's a that's a youthful passion that

can be dangerous. That can be that ambition sometimes when we are young,

how ambitious we are, until we are not concerned about anything else or anyone

else, That can be a dangerous thing that I believe Scripture also tells us

to run away, to flee from. Then there are also passions of impatience,

the passions of argumentation. You know, we live in this very microwave

kind of a society today. Everything has to be chop chop. Everything has

to be fast, everything has to be quick. And I think that is

a youthful passion that we need to flee from, because again, nothing happens

like that. It takes time to develop, you know, argumentation. The

society today is highly competitive. I'm not sure if you all realize this,

but I've never heard someone who is in the market face who tells me that,

well, it's getting more and more rare. My colleagues are my friends,

and I love them, their bosom buddies. Nor way. You know

my sibling. I've got a sibling who works in Singapore, and he tells

me, in Singapore, none of your colleagues are your friends, because basically

you want to do better than that. It's a highly competitive nature in which

we live in. We want to outshine each other. Basically, we want

to add to ourselves and we want others to decrease. These are the passions

that we are seeing more and more, and this are what we are supposed

to be running away from. That's why it says shun your youthful passions because

they actually make a vessel dirty. They make us dirty, and God cannot

use it for anything if that happens to us. Therefore, a useful utensil

to God must be two things. It must be clean and it must be

consecrated. That's what the scripture is telling us, basically, ready for anything

to do, you must be clean. You must be consecrated. If you

want God to use you for himself, then you have to make sure that

you are clean and holy. I know these are strong words, big words.

I'm like, oh, in the world doesn't mean well, it's obvious

that the Christian's first job is to keep himself clean before he starts pulling us

out of other people's eyes. He has to deal with the plan in his

own. Scripture tells us that a Christian's first task is to make sure that

he is clean from these things that spoil a man or a woman for God's

use. That's our personal responsibility, and then verse twenty three goes back to

those debates again. He says, instead of going at one another verbally,

how can we manage arguments? And then verse twenty four then tells us the

thing the church needs. What do we do about these people who are quarrelsome

constantly teaching all sorts of wrong things. What do we do with them?

And here is one of the hardest things to do. On the one hand,

when he comes to arguments, this is what usually happens. You want

to win the argument. But if you win the argument, most of the

times you lose the person correct And then on the other hand, you can

also lose the argument and win the person. But if you lose the argument

means basically you are compromising on the truth. Ultimately, that's what happened.

The most difficult thing to do, and the thing that we are supposed to

do is to win the argument and win the person. I know it's not

easy, but when you meet someone who is a false teacher. Let's just

say a man, for example, who's teaching that crist No it's not born

of a virgin, and maybe he did not do any miracles. You have

three choices. You can either argue with him until you win and he goes

off resentful, and then you have lost your man. You can give into

him and say well, I think you're right, and then you might gain

your man, but you lose the argument. And ultimately the truth is gone.

But the most difficult thing to do is to speak to him that you

both win your argument and you win that person. And how do you do

that? Well, the scripture here says that you do that by correcting him,

speaking to him in what is right. You have got to do that.

It is a duty, but it is largely done in the right way,

and basically is actually concerned with how you do it the manner in which

you present the argument. If you do it in a fighting spirit, with

a quarrelsome attitude, in a harsh and very overbearing manner, then you will

win your argument and you will lose the person. But if, on the

other hand, your manner is so gentle that you never correct the person,

you will win him, but you will lose the argument. But if you

correct him with gentleness and kindness and tell him quite clearly what he is wrong,

then you may win both the argument and the person. And so the

devil's trick is to get hold of Christians and to swerve and to divert them

from the truth. I tell you today is harder and harder to basically grasp

the truth, to hang onto the truth. This is the world in which

we are living into, where the truth there's no more absolutes. If you

realize in this world there are normal rights and wrongs. Everything is whatever you

want it to be. And that is something that is very, very dangerous

if we are to allow it to happen. So be careful how you do

it, because you will constantly have this. You'll be torn between how do

I actually present the truth to a person if I'm going to end up losing

the person. A lot of times we think, because we're going to lose

this person, I don't then stand for the truth. But I pray that

if we do it in the right manner, presenting the truth in the right

way, that you will both be able to win the truth of the argument

and also win the person. Amen. And why is this so important because

sooner or later corrupted words, words which are corrupted will lead to corrupted words.

That means if what you say is wrong, ultimately what you do will

also be wrong. And that's where we go through chapter three versus one to

fall. It says this the dangers of the Last Days. You should know

this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times

for people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and

proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They

will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving. They will slender

ards and have no self control. They will be cruel and hate what is

good. They will betrayed their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with

right and love pleasure rather than God. Strong the words, but Paul says

that there will be times of real strain and challenge for believers. And I

believe that believers are entering such times of stress already. What happens in such

a time, Well, I want you to notice, there's the first thing

you need and the last thing. The first thing he says that there will

be lovers of self, and then the last thing he says that rather than

lovers of God. Isn't that quite a sad thing? And do you know

what sin is? Sin is basically wrongly directed love. Does that make sense

because it starts off by saying they will be lovers of self and then it

ends with saying that they will love everyone but God. So what is sin?

Well, sin basically is wrongly directed love. You see when God made

us, He made us capable of loving. You either love him or you

love self. A person who loves selves is basically a sinner. If you

love self and self only. That is what the Scripture is essentially telling us.

A person who loves God is a righteous man or a woman. And

the times of stress come when people do not love God anymore, they just

love themselves and only themselves. And are we not living in such times today?

Think about it. You see, if you love self, then secondly,

automatically you and I'm loving money because you can't help you can't help it.

No, if you are looking if you're looking after number one, which

is self, naturally you're one money because you need money to look after number

one. So the first thing you need in this world is money. And

if you are a lover of self rather than a love of God, then

I will also guarantee you that you will begin to one more and more money.

So it becomes almost like a drug. When we get more money than

you become proud and arrogant. It is progressive and you can see how it

goes. No, this list is progressive. It says no from boastful and

proud scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will

consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving, they will be unforgiving. They

will slender others and have no self control. They will be cruel and hate

what is good. They will be trade their friends, be reckless, be

puffed up with pride, love, pleasure rather than God. These times of

stress indicate that it is more difficult I believe to bring up children today,

and it is. It is getting more and more challenging because of how things

are changing. The narrative of this world is starting to change. And then

the next surprising thing in this chapter tells us that such people still like religion.

I will explain why I say this, and basically it says verse five.

They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make

them godly. Stay away from people like that. Why is the scripture trying

to tell us? They are the kind who work their way into people's homes

and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin

and controlled by various desires. Such women are forever following new teachings, but

they are never able to understand the truth. These teachers oppose the truth,

just as Genus and Generous oppose Moses. They have depraved minds and a counterfeit

faith. But they won't get away with this for long. Someday everyone will

recognize what fools they are, just as with Janus and Generous. Okay,

this is astonishing, right. Men are a religious creature. And even though

he is living for money, even though he's living for pleasure, even though

he's living for himself, men can still go to Chechen. We are religious

creatures. You will get all the form and appearance of religion, but what

is missing is always the power. You have the form, but you don't

have the power. You see, what is the gospel? Ultimately, the

gospel is the power of God unto salvation. If we take away the power

of God, if we take away the Holy Spirit, basically is an empty

shell. But we can live in an empty shall. Ultimately, the only

Christianity that's worth calling Christianity is one that has the power, is one that

has the Holy Spirit in it. The reality is there's people who are corrupted

in their works will still be inside the church, but you will not see

the power of the Holy Spirit in them. And we see many like that

if you talk to them of the Holy Spirit's power to sanctify, they will

deny. They will say not important. But a lot of people want to

take on the form, They want to take on the fashion of religion,

but they don't want to take on the power. And that is something that

is dangerous because fashionable religion can go. It goes along with the love of

self, It goes along with the love of money, it goes along with

the love of pleasure. But that is not what true Christianity is about.

Basically, true Christianity has both form and power. It must be that.

And thank God that you can read true the last two thousand years of church

history, and you will find that if there are false teachings, somehow it

will be called out somehow. In a way, we are glad that the

Church has continued to stand firm after two thousand years, even though I'm quite

sure we went through a lot. I mean, you see how many cults

there are today, how many different kinds of funny teachings. We have different

churches. Now, they may be able to get hold of some people,

but in time, somehow the truth still prevails, and we are grateful that

it's as such. So we just need to be very careful. Heaven must

rule in our hearts. Basically, I'm talking about how we handle the truth.

How do we hang on to the truth. Hebrews for twelve says for

the Word of God is a life and powerful. It is shepherd than the

shepherd's two aged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and merrow.

It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden

from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. And he is

the one to whom we are accountable. Remember this. If Heaven were to

rule in our hates, then we should not just confess Jesus with our mouths.

We must actually consider him in our minds and our thoughts. What do

I say that? Why do I say this? Well, the world.

Consider means to give such earnest attention. That means you pay attention, to

think so hard about something that you get the message, you get the hidden

meaning, and that you are able to handle and master the mystery of God's

word. That is what consider means. Take for instance, this statement,

consider the lilies. I think it's in Proverbs or Psalms. Consider the lilies

in the fields that means that we should not just look at the beauty of

nature and then not realize that ultimately, if you think about it, beyond

just the beauty of nature, the lilies, the flowers in the field,

you will realize that if God can take care of these flowers, this creation,

what more will he take care of us creatures? Not just creatures,

humans whom he created in his own image. When you use that word,

consider, is asking you to take it beyond just the superficial ticket, beyond

just the surface thing. Many people confess Jesus, but not many people consider

him. It's easy right to say, Jesus, you're a lord. Jesus,

you're a lord. Jesus, You're a lord. But do we really

consider him? Do we really think about him? Do we really meditate and

understand him? Because we will never only consider Jesus when we read and know

his word. That's how we will ever only consider him. In fact,

it is to know the word, not just read his word, but to

know the word that you will ultimately be able to consider him. And this

is how Heaven rules in our hate. We will ever only consider Jesus when

we read and know his word. But beyond that, you are to know

the Word, because Jesus is the logos. Right in John chapter one,

he says he is the Word and he was with us. So remember,

the Word of God is alive, is living and active, is planted deep

within our hearts, and he will continue to germinate and grow. It's a

double aged sword that actually cuts through a man's flesh and bone. Will we

accept the Word and let him rule in our head and life? Or will

we ignore it completely? Where do we stand? Let me draw this last

analogy help you all understand. Remember the Israelites, they grumble and they complain

against God for bringing them out of Egypt, and eventually a whole generation never

found peace and never found rest. Right the cola complain, complain, and

then forty years they were wandering in the wilderness. Eventually one whole generation was

wiped out, and then a new generation went in to take the promised land.

You see, it was easy for God to get Israel out of Egypt,

but it was difficult to get Egypt out of Israel. Does that make

sense? In other words, it's much easier to get a Christian out of

the world than it is to actually get the world out of Christians, which

is what holiness is about. What is holiness. Holiness is basically take the

world out of a believer, because when we are fool of the world,

it's hard to be consecrated and set aside for God. That is what holiness

is. But it was so easy to take them out of Egypt. It

was impossible to take Egypt out of them because they were complaining in Egypt.

They were complaining all the way through the wilderness as they walked and never found

the promised land. Christ not only rescues us out of something, he actually

wants to redeem us into something. That is something that we must understand.

He not only wants us out of a land that is bad for us,

but he wants us to go into a land that is good for us.

He not only wants us as Christians who profess, he wants us to be

spiritual and considerate Christians who can enjoy the Word of God. That is what

Jesus wants to do for us. And I pray this is what God's word

will do for us with the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit.

Because if you want to be able to grasp the truth, if you want

to be able to present the truth, if you want to be able to

apply the truth, then there is only one thing you need to know.

Actually, more accurately, there's only one person you need to know, and

his name is Jesus. And I pray today we will know Jesus, not

just superficially, but we will consider him beyond professing Jesus as our Lord and

savior. You will go beyond that. And what does it really mean to

Christ in our lives? Because ultimately He is going to allow us to walk

into the Promised Land. Amen. We hope you've been blessed by this message.

For more information on our church, please visit x Church to RG.

We are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week is

going to be a good week, a hit for you. God bless