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Transcript (experimental)
Any of you guys who are able to come to the men’s retreat this weekend, don’t cop out. Come to the men’s retreat this weekend. It’s just Friday to Saturday, we’re leaving. We’re going up after work on Friday. We’re coming back Saturday afternoon. So it sounds like a long retreat. You know, when I was growing up, it’s so awesome to live in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. Right? Do you I hope you understand. If you feel guilty this morning, that’s not God. I hope you know that. If you feel guilty this morning, that’s not God. That’s not how he works. If you feel conviction, that’s God. Right. That’s how God works. He’s a good parent. He’s the best parent. And he, like any loving parent is careful, the Bible says to discipline those that he loves. So when you’re screwing up, right, or when you’re involved in something, or doing something, or there’s something going on in your life, for me, I talked about this all the time, you know, three o’clock, four o’clock in the morning, the hours of self loathing, you know what I mean? When I’m awake and veg, and I’m a terrible husband, I’m a terrible Father, you know, and all the things that and, and, and, and all of these things that come up, because it’s godly conviction, there’s always more that I could be doing, there’s always more probably, that I ought to be doing. And there’s plenty of things that they ought not to be doing, right. We all know this about ourselves. The Bible says that Satan is the accuser, who accuses the brethren, the people of God before the throne of God day and night. He is the accuser. He is the one that makes accusations and he loves to throw accusations at you. He loves to throw shade your way he wants to discourage you. godly conviction is that thing that happens within your heart when God is speaking to you about something in your life. And from the standpoint of I want to encourage you to do the right thing. I want to encourage you to stop doing the thing that is detrimental to your life that is detrimental to your faith that is detrimental to your family, that is detrimental to most importantly, your walk with Christ. And that’s how God speaks to us. And that’s how God comes alongside us. But make no mistake, make no mistake, he wants us to immediately acknowledge that he’s speaking to our hearts, acknowledged that the things that he says are in our lives are wrong are wrong. The things that he says in our lives that are right are right, that he is always right. The Bible says let God be true, right and every man a liar. And I hate to break this to some of you, but that includes you. Right? You’re standing with yourself in the mirror and go. Liar. Right? Have you ever lied to yourself? Hello, right? We lie to ourselves. We make agreements with ourselves, it’s okay to do a little list because there’s a little and listen, we have this superstitious nature. I don’t know if it’s our culture. I don’t know where it comes from. But we have the superstitious nature, that if I’m always with my sin, if I’m if I allow God to fully expose every aspect of rebellion and sin in my life, whether I know about it, or I don’t know about it, that therefore I’m going to be condemned before him and God’s going to be done with me, God’s not going to speak to me, bad things are going to come my way. That’s not how God works.
God wants you to be completely open and honest for you. That’s what God when Jesus says, unless you humble yourself and become like a child, you will in no ways enter the kingdom of heaven. What he was talking about is the fact that a little child does not have that Guile within them. That flattering tongue if you look ugly, your candle say you look ugly. If you look fat, your kids will say you look fat, right? And and that’s just an eight. Now, don’t say those things to God, but God wants you to come to him as you are. God wants you to come to Him with all of your faults, with all of the things that are inside of you good and bad, be opened before him. That’s how he comes in. That’s how he has communion with us. And and you know, Dad was growing up, I mean, I’ll make my gosh, that do not forsake the gathering of yourselves together as some has become custom to doing, you know, and daddy Adam probably said that verse 8 billion times, I mean, hammer that in our heads growing up. And and for many years, I always had that within my head. If you’re a good Christian, you go to church, if you’re a good Christian, you go to church, if you’re not a good Christian, you don’t go to church. But that’s not what church is, either. I hope you know that. This hopefully is for you an oasis, or an aid station, or a school house, a place of fellowship, a place of like mindedness, this is for you. It’s for you. It’s not against you. So anytime that we gather together, whether it’s in church on Sunday morning, or Bible study Wednesday evening, or the men’s retreat, or the women’s retreat, or the adult dinner night out, these are things that God has given the church that we might have fellowship, one with another, make no mistake about it. And those of you who work a secular job 40 a week and you got a smartphone, those two or go to school and have a smart, those two prerequisite prerequisites is all it takes for you to know and understand that the enemy that the Bible calls the Prince and the power of this air or of this present age is at work to divide us. Yeah. To divide us, whether it’s dividing you from your neighbor, or dividing you from another group of Christians or dividing us within the church or dividing us within our own homes. You’ve heard the state that there’s the phrase, divide and conquer, right? The Bible says that Satan is like a roaring lion that roams about seeking out whom he may devour. And if you’ve watched National Geographic, and you’ve seen how lions hunt, they try to find the weakest, the smallest, the youngest, the sickest, and get them away from the herd because there’s protection within the herd. Whether it’s the water buffalo or the week every don’t you get don’t you cheer when the when the water buffalo gets the lion. Every once in a while or the will the beast gets the line with the horns and lion goes flying, flipping in the air. Yeah, there’s one for the world faith, you know, but they get used to that getting the big circle, and they put the small and the sick in the center. Hello, right. So that there’s protection against the lion. And that’s exactly what our fellowship is supposed to be. And you don’t put you in the center of the circle because now we got your where we want your baby, give me your money after I beat you. You know what I mean? No, no, no, no, that’s not what churches it’s so that we can protect one another. We can watch one another’s back, we can encourage one another. We can speak to one another words of encouragement, words of exhortation, we can pray over one another. And the devil is hard at work. Can the Church of Jesus Christ today to separate people, you can go to a church of 5000 people and be all alone today. And I dare to say you can even go to a church of 100 people if we’re lucky. And be alone. Everything in your walk and your relationship and your fellowship with Jesus Christ. He has accomplished everything you understand what all of his promises that song we sang, all of his promises are yes and Amen. It’s already accomplished is He is the God that speaks things that are not as though they were. He’s the God of miracles. He’s the God of second chances. And you your part in that is to reach out to him. That’s it, to accept that gift, not just one time see on the other side, every single day. That’s why the Bible says daily, take up your cross and follow after him daily. What does that mean to take a cross every single day not just to afflict yourself, not just to say no to your flesh, but to take up the cross and remember whose you are, remember to whom you belong, and to that cause to which you were called every day, every day. And then you can consider it pure joy, and everything that happens and everything that the world has to offer. Guys, we’re in it together. We’re in it together. Let’s not go it alone, man. Let’s not go it alone. So the the the, the the knee jerk reaction of the preacher, right, who were in attendance is down in churches to preach a message about church attendance, and how you should be in church. I am if you may not know this about me. And if you haven’t known me for that long, you’ll find out I’m different. I’m a little bit different. I’m just a little I’m a wacko, you got to be careful what you say to me, okay. I’m a little off. I will I can’t the I the very notion of me, pressing you to doing something that you don’t want to do makes me sick. I’m a freedom guy. I’m a Live Free or Die guy. You know what I’m saying? Like, that’s my nature. I want you free. I want you free. The Bible says it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. It is for freedom. Not to be entangled again in a yoke and bondage of sin, and also not to be entangled again in a yoke and bondage of religion. Or man’s control over your life. You understand? If you are in Christ Jesus this morning, you answer to him. I’m a cheerleader. That’s my job. I’m a cheerleader, and sometimes a coach a little bit. And I’m up here to encourage you guys, and hopefully to open up the scriptures in such a way that the Lord speaks through it and makes you hungry for more of the Scriptures. So that you’ll grow in the faith, but I can’t tell you how to live your life. Can you imagine having to take advice on how to live your life from a sprinkler filter? You know what that means? If you’re a sprinkler setter, I mean, school was not for you. You probably made some mistakes, maybe get a little jail time. Okay. I’m a dad. That’s it. It is this what is what we fitters are, okay, and I’m a sprinkler fitter, I’m just a fitter, I’m a pipe fitter, okay, and God said, you’re going to preach Oh, just wear Tell me where? That’s it. That’s all I am. And your brother in Christ. Jesus wants a personal walk with you. And maybe you’re ripping yourself off today. Maybe you’re allowing the enemy to rip you off. If you’re walking around and wallowing in self misery, and doubt and fear and you find yourself feeling like you’re entangled. You find yourself like Peter who walking at the water I maybe at one point in his life walking on the water and now you find yourself feeling that you’re sinking. Jesus Christ is the answer to that. And I’m not please don’t misunderstand. I’m saying Jesus Christ is not the God of changing your circumstances.
Can I get an amen?
It was some to come to Jesus to come to Jesus. He’s you’re a king’s kid. He wants you to be rich. He wants you to be wealthy He wants you to trade in that you go for a Bugatti. He wants you to have a house a mansion on the hill. And he doesn’t want you to ever get sick. I can’t find it. I just don’t ever consider it all joy when you suffer afflictions. It’s like no, hello, Paul. I’m an American. I’m not supposed to suffer afflictions. And you ever seen you they’re called the tattoo versus you know you see the arm you know the the athlete, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me watch me punch this guy’s face. And you know what I mean? And if it Do you understand you Philippines when it talks about I can do all things Paul is talking about the fact that in Jesus Christ walking with Christ, having fellowship with Christ has given him the ability no matter what his circumstances are, whether he finds himself in plenty and he finds himself with, with with luxuries and good things, and he finds himself in good health, or if he finds himself in stocks in a dungeon. In both circumstances, he can serve, honor, obey and praise the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what it means to be more than a conqueror. Hello, Amen. Hallelujah. That’s what it means to be a conqueror in Jesus Christ. It’s not that everything goes my way. It’s that I’m always going his way. Amen.
Open with me to Leviticus, if you will, Chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. And I’m picking up in verse 20. And we are talking today about the Day of Atonement, which if you have a calendar that has Jewish holidays on it, this would be Yom Kippur War. It is the Day of Atonement. And this is the day this is the one day of the year that God set aside for all the things that pertain to the nation of Israel to be atone for now I want to read through very quickly. And I want you to take notice of some things. If we go back to the beginning of verse 16. or excuse me of chapter 16. And I want to go down to the Okay, verse 11 1611, Aaron shall bring the bowl of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bowl as a sin offering which is for himself, then he shall take a sensor full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord with his hands full of sweet incense beaten fine, and bring it inside the veil, this is inside the holiest place. This is now inside the veil where the Ark of the Covenant, or the Ark of the testimony was, and only one time a year, and only the high priest was allowed to go through this veil, and to the what was called the holiest of holy, and he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, lest he die. So Aaron was to or the high priest was to take this the coals from the altar, and he was to mix it with the incense. Jewish tradition says that they would actually walk through the veil sideways like this, so that he didn’t look directly at the Ark of the Covenant. You’ve seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? I’m not sure if it looked exactly like that. When God smoke people from the ark, but in my I like to think that it does, okay, so he, he would show Jewish he would go sideways, through the veil, okay, so he would not look directly at and then he would put the incense before the Lord, and the smoke of that incense would fill the holy place. Until the ark was not clearly seen, but the place was filled with smoke, and was filled with incense. And only then could he approached the mercy seat. Now the Bible says that incense in heaven, Lee’s, in the kingdom of God, the incense, that altar of incense, that incense that comes up before God is the prayers of the saints. Everything in the Old Testament, everything in the tabernacle worship and later in the, in the in the in the temple worship was for us a direct picture, an example of something that we were going to have in Jesus Christ. It’s a picture of something God was giving the children of Israel, just little pieces of a puzzle. And the Bible talks about the fact that the prophets of old in the pre civil long to look into these things. They looked at it like like the Bible talks about looking through a glass dimly. They didn’t have a clear picture. They didn’t understand why God had commanded them to do all of these things. They didn’t understand the very ceremonies that they were commanded, do they they didn’t understand what they fully meant. They were only being obedient to God. They didn’t understand all the prophecies that God gave for the prophets to give to the people. They only understand that that’s what was God was saying, they didn’t have to understand its meaning. That is a great lesson for you and I, I don’t have to understand what he’s doing. I don’t have to always know what his purpose is, I simply need to obey Him. I simply need to do that which I know he’s called me to do, to be obedient. And so here we have a picture of a high priest entering into the holiest place the Most Holy Place, sideways, not looking directly at the Ark of the Covenant, the testimony, the 10 Commandments were inside of that all of God’s laws, all of God’s promises. And then the ark was covered, of course, on top with what was called the mercy seat. But before Aaron could even turn himself to face the mercy seat First, there had to be that cloud that filled the holy place, an example of prayer of prayer, how do we come to God? How do we come before God and the Bible says that we come into the throne room because of what Jesus Christ has done for us boldly? That doesn’t mean we come kicking in the door, Daddy’s home, where’s You know what? No, no, no, no, no understand. Every single day Jesus Christ rose up first one to get up in the morning. And he was off by himself in prayer before the day started. Understand that when you read the stories of Jesus Christ, healing the blind, and healing the lame, and touching the lepers and feeding the 5000, that that day started in prayer, that that day started with Jesus called alone by himself on his knees, saying, Father, I need you. I can’t do this without you, Jesus.
And if Jesus has to do that, oh, boy, where does that leave me? That I would presume that I could do the work of God, without prayer that God has given us this is your incense saints. This is your incense. let it rise in your worship to God. And then, verse 14, he shall take some of the blood of the bowl and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side, and before the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people now remember, the bowl, he’s already made sacrifice. He’s already made atone for himself and for his family, the high priest on this day of atonement on Yom Kippur, he was here by himself. He was in the in the tabernacle doing all of this alone. There was no other priests that was to be in there. And he himself was not even to wear his priestly garments, but only the linen he followed that was to go under the priestly garments, the linen etc, isn’t it that may not going around.
Okay, nevermind, that the linen, ephod that went under the priestly garments. Okay, there was if you read through about the priestly garments, you remember you have the gold and you have the gemstones and you have the crown. All of that was to be removed. Any kind of kingly priestly costly adornments was put aside on the Day of Atonement, and the priests dressed himself commonly. And there he served alone in the temple of God and first he would make atonement for himself and for his family, because even the high priests and Jewish tradition says that for the seven days leading up to the Day of Atonement, the priests would not go home but he would stay in the tabernacle for seven days, offer the daily sacrifices himself, seek after God and have read to him over and over again, the law of God concerning the Day of Atonement less on that day he go in in properly and die.
Think of the levity think of the power of that day and have that moment and have that time. And he goes in first because he needs atoning for even though he’s been doing everything right. Even though he’s the man of God called for this time, he needs a toning for man, because he’s the center and his kids, they will they certainly need atoning for the everybody in his family they need atoning for, and then the goat comes next, he shall kill the go to the sinner offering which is for the people bring its blood inside the veil again to the holy place. And do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bowl, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat, the blood of the sacrifice for himself for his family. And now for the people of God sprinkled on God’s mercy seeds, which encapsulated God’s truth, which in which which which which covered God’s justice in God’s law that commands that for sin, there was one penalty, and that is death. And that is separation from God. And yet God when he had them build that, that that ark of testimony, he had them put the law of the covenant inside of the ark, and he covered it with his mercy. Hello, What was he saying to you and me, and then that mercy See, covered, sealed, anointed with the blood of the sacrifice. And so he would do the same thing with the goat. And so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting. Sorry, sorry, once of our verse 16, so he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the unclean this of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions for all their sins. And so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their unclean this there shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting, when he goes into make atonement in a holy place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it.
What atonement for it. Now, I understand making a blood atonement for people understand the sacrifice that had to be made for the sins of people, but you’re telling me that the altar had to be atone for let’s talk about this, let’s let’s read further. Here go out to the altar that is before Lord to make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar all around, they shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, cleanse it, and consecrate it from the unclean. This of the children of Israel, even our worship, even our religion, even the things that we do, for God have to be atone for because they’re tainted by who, you know, any anybody who has the idea that our goodness, or our good deeds in any way, any shape or form at any time, and for any reason could ever bring us justification before God is mistaking themselves. The Bible says that our righteousness, all the good deeds you’ve ever done, every good thought you’ve ever had, every good deed you ever done has is like filthy rags. And that word that’s used for filthy rags, that is the rags that was used to wrap the sores of someone who had leprosy. And we just went through the chapters on leprosy. It’s a death sentence. It’s the most unclean thing that there could possibly be in the camp, we’re in a person. That’s what my righteousness is. That’s what my good deeds are, there is no teeter totter, my friends, there is no teeter totter. There is no scales of justice like we have in front of some of our courts.
There’s only us guilty when Jesus Christ came, and he began to teach them on the mountain. And he began to talk to the disciples. Remember what he said to them. Remember what he said to them, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests and the teachers of the law, you will in no ways enter the kingdom of heaven. They were flabbergasted at that statement, who’s more righteous than a priest, who’s more righteous than a rabbi who’s more righteous than a man of God. And Jesus, his whole point, as he taught the Sermon on the Mount was to show all men that we are guilty. Jesus didn’t teach the gospel to make us to make us justified, he taught it to make us guilty. Everything you have heard, it said, that you shall not commit adultery. But I tell you, that if you look upon a woman to have lust with her, you’ve already committed adultery in your heart. You have heard it said that she shall not commit murder. But I tell you, if you hate your brother without cause you have already committed murder in your hearts. And right there, Jesus took that whole crowd of self righteous people and turn them into a group of murdering thieving adultery, stealing wicked sinners. Why? So they can be pointed to the cross. The Bible says that all of the laws that were given by God to Moses, those hand writing of requirements, the law, the Bible says, which are against us, because they are contrary to us. Remember what Paul says, I know that the law is good. You know what the problem is?
I say, Paul says this, called himself the chief of sinners. And you know, the kind of people Paul ministered to the worst of the worst. He said, I’m their chief. I’m their chief, because Paul understood that outside of Jesus Christ, my sin makes me guilty. That’s it. That’s what the gospel is. Well, why do you call it good news? It doesn’t sound like good news. You just told me I’m a lying thieving murderer. You know, that sounds like terrible news. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he has taken all of our sin and all of our our iniquities and all of our wickedness and all of our guilt, and it was nailed to the cross, his sacrifice His atoning sacrifice on that day, mate, that’s why he said, It is finished, you know, this stuff. The word that he said the word that he spoke was to tell us die, that means literally paid in fall. That means when the accuser, your accuser, Satan stands before the throne of God, and He says, Did you see Pat this week? It’s see him. I mean, you. He calls himself a child of God. His does he see his attitude? Did you see this one? Oh, Steve Hicks. Oh, don’t get me started on Steve. Let’s see who else can I was. It goes on and on. Oh, Frank Thomas. So Frank, Thomas, and Gabriel shouts out from across the throne room. For that one, and Jesus Christ clears his throat This is all in my mind, of course, isn’t how it really goes down. But Jesus Christ crucified, he says, excuse me, paid in full. I’m justified, I’m justified in his economy. I’m already sanctified in his economy, I’m already glorified. The Bible says that I am sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, when Jesus Christ returns when that trumpet sounds, and he appears in the clouds, and he looks out amongst the sea of his people he’s going to see in each and every one of us who belong to Him, the seal that was put on us on our day of redemption, when we cried out, have mercy on me, a sinner, when we cried out, I’m not good enough. My religion isn’t good enough, my works aren’t good enough. I need the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and the end dwelling of a spirit to help me do the things that I can not do. sealed, sealed, It is finished, paid in full. That’s your standing. That’s where you are at. And that’s where God sees you. Don’t you dare walk around with guilt. Don’t you dare walk around condemning yourself for allowing the enemy to condemn you. You are sealed. You are just and righteous and holy. Because God doesn’t just see you. He sees you with the seal, and he sees you sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the war. I just don’t have anything else. I got it better news is nothing else I could tell you. I hope the Giants went today. Are you kidding me? First of all, the fly off into the flesh.
There’s just no better news out there. Oh, that’s why gospel means good news. And Satan’s got the whole world hoodwinked and bamboozled into believing that the gospel is hateful, into believing because you have the audacity to say, I have to call that sin, because that’s what the Word of God says. And it doesn’t matter what I think it doesn’t matter what kind of incense I want to offer before the Lord. It doesn’t matter on which day I think I ought to serve and worship God. It doesn’t matter. The sacrifice that I think is appropriate for the house of God. It only matters what God says, because he’s the king of kings, and the Lord of lords and the creator of the universe. And he chose me. And he put a seal upon me. And he said, I want you to do one thing for me, son, I want you to honor my word. And when someone asks you, are you one of those Jesus people? I want you to say yes. And that’s all that I have. There’s nothing more worth or more value in this world than being a child of Jesus Christ. And people are being lied to out there and told that it’s a joke, or lied to out there and told that it’s hateful, or spiteful, or marginalizing, or inclusive. or excuse me exclusive. It’s not, it’s for everybody. I wouldn’t you get my way. You see, Jesus told the parable. He went out and he invited all these kings and princes and Dukes and Duchess’s to his son’s wedding, and none of them could come too busy got too many things going on. I got a great life. I don’t really think I need that. I think I’m doing okay, I’m all set. That’s the Syracuse thing. When you witness to people, I’m all set. I’m all set. Hey, let me talk to you about you. I’m all set. You know what I mean? And so the king said, I want you to now I want you to go out to the highways in the byways. I want you to go to the slums. And I want you to go to the alleys. I want you to go to the homeless shelters and invite them. I wish I could fill this place with nothing but prostitutes and homosexuals and drug addicts and transvestites title give a wrap. They don’t need to change their ways. They need to meet Jesus. That’s it. Who am I? I’m gonna tell you why you should live your life. And I’m gonna tell you what you need to change and what you need to stop doing. You need to meet Jesus. You need to meet Jesus. And I believe and I trust and I know that if someone needs Jesus, he’ll take care of the rest. He’ll take care of the rest. He’s going to show them the way the way a loving father does not a jerk brother like me. Because y’all seen siblings, right? You ever had kids? It would? would just Would you please not hit your brother in the head with a baseball bat? I appreciate it. Thank you. He’s bleeding. Now, would you get me a napkin for your brother? You know, there was some time we take care of each other like this? Oh, I’ll take good care of you. Oh, oh, you say, Lord, I just pray for brother john. Lord, I know that you probably are just ready to kick him right off the cliff into the you know, any of us but I’m not like, Lord, I pray.
God wants us to act like Jesus acted. He never accused. He never judged. He loved and he told the truth. Hey, and it killed him for it. You think if I love people, and if I just tell people the truth, everyone’s gonna like they killed him for it. But that’s what we’re called to do, to be like Jesus to reflect his image. And so we have here in Leviticus, this beautiful picture. Jesus, of course, we’re taught in Hebrews is our high priest. And Jesus occupies all the all of the the positions that we find in chapter 16 of Leviticus, Jesus Christ is the sacrifice. There was two goats. There was the regular goat and then there was escape goat, the regular goat was sacrifice the escape goat and it was chosen through lots, they would put their hands on the goat, they would they would confess all the sins of the nation of Israel that must have taken a time. And then they would take that gold and it would be released into the wild, it would be released, it would be set free. Jesus has both the sacrifice. And he’s also the one that took our sins away. The Bible says as far as the east is from the west, and he remembers them no more. Jesus Christ is also our high priest. He is the one who makes the sacrifice that was himself for us. And he did it as a man, not with priestly garments and not with kingly robes. He did it in the tunic of a man, a commoner, a carpenter, a tradesman, the Bible says he had no form or completeness that anyone would be drawn to him. He didn’t have a beautiful face, and you’d be seeing these Jesus movies. I mean, that’s the best looking Jesus I’ve ever seen in my life. Jesus was so good looking. I mean, everybody’s following him. It’s like, well, it’s just as I there’s a couple of guys, but there’s hundreds of girls, I don’t understand. It seemed a lot. But you look how good looking he is. The Bible says he had no former curliness that anyone would be drawn to him, there was nothing about Jesus that stood apart. There was no halos, there was no glow. He didn’t wasn’t the only Jew with blue eyes, you know, like and then he was Irish. Nobody was Jewish. What? I don’t understand. He was just a regular looking Jew. He looked as Julie as any Jewish ever looked, that said, he looked like a Jewish guy. And he was a commoner. No one would ever pick him apart from anybody out of the crowd until he spoke, until he stepped out and touch someone. He’s our high priest, and he makes atonement for you. For me. That’s some God. That’s some God. I can’t believe some of the things people worship. I can’t do because all men worship You see, you see all people are beating each other up in the streets. You know, I mean, they put on the answer for t shirt or basketball, look for people to beat up because of politics. Don’t get mad, don’t don’t get upset. Pray for those kids. Understand that. They call themselves atheists, there is no God, but all men worship. It’s in the DNA. Your creator made you and built you to worship, you’re going to worship something, whether it’s sex, or whether it’s partying, or whether it’s sport, or whether it’s money, or whether it’s booze or whether it’s whatever. You’re going to worship something, and you’re going to pay a high cost. And you’re going to offer much for that what you worship. And that’s all you see in the world today is people worshipping. And it’s all they know. And they need someone to tell them. I don’t condemn you. And God doesn’t condemn you. Love you. And Jesus is for you. We need to tell him the truth. Amen. Hallelujah. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank you for your truth. And for your grace, Lord, for your mercy to sinners. Lord, we pray, Father, you just help us all to have open hearts. Lord, to just be honest, just be honest. We are who we are, you know, every single thing about us, Lord, help us to not try to hide from you like Adam and Eve Lord, when they realize they were naked to go running and hiding and trying to cover ourselves with good deeds or religion or, or success in this world or any other thing more but that we would just open ourselves up, Lord, to allow you to examine our hearts and our minds and to come into our lives and our homes, and Lord, to make us the people that you need us to be, that you’ve called us to be. You’re so great, you’re so worthy Lord of all of our praise. And Father, we pray that you would make us people, a group of seekers, who are always seeking after you, Lord and things of you are always seeking to know more about you, Father, that we might better a better be better equipped to do what you’re called to do. And that is to reflect the image of your son Jesus Christ. We need to know him more. We need to know him better. Father, we pray that you would drive us to our knees in prayer. For that we would be incense offers Lord, we would always be looking to pray that we would understand how vital it is Lord, for every single aspect of our lives, and certainly of our walk with You, Lord. Lord, make us the people you want us to be. Fill us with your presence, Lord, help us to be an aroma of life, Lord, to people in our lives who are perishing, who don’t know you, Lord, who are lost in this world, who maybe don’t have hope, or maybe think they got everything that they could ever want. They’ve got it all together, Lord, but don’t have you. Help us to be in a realm of life to them as well father, they could see the great need that they do have. And help us to be just messengers, Lord of the truth, not to be judgmental. Not to ever form our own opinions, Lord, but to be ready, willing and able to serve anybody, anywhere. Anytime Lord, Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen. Love you, fam.
Is this better, Andy? Okay, I was told by Andy that people couldn’t hear me in the back last time I made an announcement. But I just wanted to get up real quick and just kind of talk to you guys. A couple of quick announcements. There are some DVDs and books and things that are in the back office that can be signed Out on loan for people to watch or to read. We would just encourage and ask that if you do sign them out that you sign them out on the signup sheet back there, that would be much appreciated. Also, we have an adult dinner night out tomorrow night at barrios at 6pm. There’s a sign up sheet out there we’d love for anybody who’d like to come to join us that would be wonderful. And also we have a youth conference coming up at it’s called the encounter conferences at Redeemer church in Utica, and it is November 8, and ninth is when we’re going to be going. So our youth we have a great group of kids that are coming and any kids who are not already signed up if you’d like to come please see me or Frank Pastor Frank Jr. or any of the kids Taylor Madison, frankly, any of the kids that have gone they’d love to talk to you about it. But anyways, next Sunday after church at 1230, we’re doing a spaghetti dinner that is going to be hosted by the youth to serve you. As a fundraiser to help offset some of the costs. We will be staying in a hotel, the conference tickets, that kind of thing. We’d love for you to join us 1230 next Sunday right here for a spaghetti dinner. $5 a person $20 for a family of four or more. And also to I would just encourage that we’re collecting bottles and cans, that’s something we do all the time that the bottles and cans that come in right now all the money is also going to go towards the youth as part of the fundraiser to offset some of the costs for this conference. So any bottles or cans, we’d welcome them to come right into the church. And thank you so much.
Morning everyone is this too loud? Little loud, little loud for me.
Okay, that’s perfect right there. Okay, I you know, right off, I want to say something because I don’t want you to be distracted. I’m having treatment for basal cells in my forehead. And I want to tell everyone because people are looking at me they’re going like this, how you doing?
You know, and they keep looking. And so that’s what all this is, okay? I don’t have the plague or anything like that. I’m just having basal cells treated. Okay, if you want to open your Bibles with me, we’re in Leviticus 18. You know, I just want to mention our men’s retreat was over the top. It was really just so fantastic. What we’re praying about and you can be praying with us is the possibility sometime maybe in January or February having a couple’s retreat at the same place. And there is a one of the buildings that are called the Galilee and it’s set up for a couple of You know, each bedroom has its own bath and that kind of thing. So I really encourage you to think about it. And our Couples Retreat isn’t like you think it’s not it’s not like just seven steps to a happy marriage. You know why every marriage is different. It really is you there’s no one way you can explain what a good marriage is. Every marriage is different. And so we have a whole idea of how we’re going to, you know, set this up, but be praying, we don’t even know if the Lord is leading us to do it yet be praying about it. And if you’re interested, interested, we’ll be putting a sign up sheet when we’re ready to start figuring out whether we’re going to have it or not. Okay, that makes sense. Okay.
Let’s pray. Father, we come before you in Jesus name and how thankful we are for the salvation that we share together. Without you, we have nothing with you. We have everything. And I pray heavenly Father that your Holy Spirit would come and minister to us this afternoon. That you would use me as your instrument is your servant Lord, then I might be able to break open your word in such a way that administers to each one here. And so now come father, by your Holy Spirit, and and make yourself known to us through your word I asked in Jesus name, amen. Amen.
You ever think of how simple, peaceful and joyful life would be, if we would simply take him at his word? You know, we always think, well, maybe the Word of God applies here. And this is all the Word of God to man. And so the reality is, if we would simply take him at his word, study His word, and allow it to be applied to our lives. Life would be so simple, so joyful, so, so peaceful, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have problems. But you’d have peace through the problems.
Now, in Leviticus 18, I want to let you know right off the bat, I’m not going to be reading all of it, because it’s very uncomfortable. Ball. But it’s God’s word. I actually tried to work it. So pastor Frank Jr. had this portion, but it just it just didn’t work out. But anyway, it’s it’s a portion. That’s God’s word. And I will be reading the first five verses because that is the catalyst for what we’re going to be getting into an arrest of it. But the reality is that God told Moses to teach the children of Israel this because they were going to be exposed and tempted by all these, you know, awful kinds of sin. So, in Leviticus, if you want to open your Bibles, if you don’t have open already to Leviticus 18 and verses one through five, I’m going to read right now.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, now I want you to notice something. How many times in these short five verses God speaks of Himself has been Lord has being Almighty and how many times in this portion, it says you speaking to us, very personal.
So the Lord God said to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I Am the Lord your God, according to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwell, you shall not do according to the doings of the land of Canaan, or I am bringing you, you shall not do nor walk in in in their ordinances, you shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances, to walk in them, I am the Lord your God, you shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them, I am the Lord. And so we have to understand that God was bringing them out of Egypt, and he was taking them into Canaan. And both the Egyptians and the Canaanites had very perverted practices that God was telling them. I don’t want you to enter into these. I want you to Stay away from these, because I am the Lord your God, and your to be a separate people, you’re to be different. And we have to understand, brothers and sisters, the greatest witness that we have is not all the knowledge that we possess is not all the techniques we have of evangelizing the greatest witness that we have is ourselves is our life is the way we live. And that’s the reason it’s so important to study the Word of God because it is the roadmap to living a godly and holy life. And so we realize as we look at this portion, that something that I think we’re all aware of, is sexual sin is always the outcome of any nation or peoples that turn your back on God and no longer follow His word. I shared this I think a few weeks ago, and many people are surprised by it. But if you study history, and you know, especially the Roman Empire, you’ll find At one time there, they were a very moral people. In fact, they had penalties for anyone who was sexually immoral. And then by the end of the Roman Empire, it was absolutely wild. And that’s the way it seems every nation goes. And it’s interesting, except for revival, our nation would have gone down this path many years ago. You know, we have the term that we use, considered an 1890s they call it they call that the gay 90s. And not in the way you’re thinking it was just happy, you know, gay 90s. But it was really going down a path of sexual immorality. And then you had the revivals, you know of Finney and moody. And like that, that were sweeping in, even into our country, and it prevented it. And then you had the 20s. And you remember the, well you don’t remember either July. I just read about it in history, but you had the flappers and you had all that and everything was going wild again, and then you had World War One. And then you also had to revive To the 50s, great revivals that went to the country. Then the same thing was happening, you got into the 70s things were going crazy going, you know, outrageously out of hand in our country. And then you had the Jesus movement, which Calvary Chapel was considered if you study church history books, Calvary Chapel was at the forefront of the Jesus movement. And it stopped that kind of immorality from sweeping through the country. But we haven’t had anything since then. And that’s the reason I believe our nation is getting to the place It is our world is getting to the place it is. But we can’t be surprised, because the Word of God and the Lord has shown us clearly through His Word, that before he takes his church out of the world, the world’s going to be ripe for judgment. So before the rapture, the world’s going to be ripe for judgment. And that’s where we are right now. Which the one encouraging thing is, is it causes us to lift up our heads and Scripture says Because our redemption is drawing near, Jesus is coming for his church.
Now man, we have to understand, unchecked will always take what God made to be beautiful and pervert it, that’s what man does. And this portion is telling us not to substitute one evil lifestyle for another evil lifestyle. We’re not to be either like the gypsies nor like the Canaanites. And so we have to ask ourselves, how did everything get to the way the way it has gotten? You know, when we think of sexuality, you have to understand that is God’s wedding present to a couple to a man into a woman’s his wedding present. And so consequently, anytime it is taken outside of those confines, it will eventually become perverted. It’ll spiral down worse and worse and worse. Now, let me read you from Romans 15. For it says everything that was written in the past was written for our learning everything, even portions of Scripture like this. But we have to understand what you learn means nothing until you put it into practice. I remember years ago before many, many years ago before I was called into the ministry, and I was teaching at horse heads high school, I don’t know if any of you know where that is. And I was teaching in horse heads high school. And when I was teaching, I was assigned to cover a chapter on smoking. And I used to, you know, tell the kids I show all the diagrams about how it affects the Vla, you know, and then eventually goes into the crate, you know, all that kind of stuff how bad smoking was, and then I go into faculty room and light up. I used to at that time, I probably smoked maybe a pack and a half, two packs a day.
But here’s the point. What I was teaching. I believed it. I knew it was bad for me, then I didn’t line up. But the reality is, I didn’t own what I was teaching, until I came to that place of realizing, you know what, if I really own this, I’ve got to make whatever changes are necessary. You know what I’m saying? In order to avoid me having all the negative effects of tobacco? And I did. It’s been I don’t even know how many years more years and I know that I haven’t smoked cigarettes, or anything. I don’t want to I haven’t smoked cigarettes. Oh, what is he smoking? Yeah. Now I don’t smoke anything at all. And so the point I’m making, it’s not enough to study scripture. And to learn from it. We have to be willing to apply it to our lives. Now verses six through 30 in this portion, which I will not read it when you go home, and I usually do but I’m staying away from it as far as reading It is all about incest, beastiality, and the offering of our children into the fires of Molek. That’s what it’s all about. And so we have to understand. sexual sin has always been one of Satan’s greatest tools. No other sin involves the flesh, like sexual sin does. In fact, if you want to turn with me to First Corinthians, it’s worth making sure you have this underlined in your Bible, First Corinthians chapter six. First Corinthians chapter six, go to verse 18. First Corinthians 6:18. And it says, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit. What’s your Gods’? We’re His, it belongs to him.
But before I get into what I’m going to be sharing with you this morning, I want you to understand that there are many people that get caught in some of these sins either as a victim or as a participant. Get caught in these kinds of sins. And you have to understand there is forgiveness and there is cleansing and purification by the Holy Spirit. Understand that. It makes no difference. Whatever you have done, God will forgive you and cleanse you and purify you, and sometimes it’s a process, but God will do it, because He’s a God of love. And one of the things in reading this is I can help asking myself, How in the world did our society get to where we are? How do we get to this place where immorality is the norm? And anyone who speaks against the immorality of our nation, they’re committing hate crime? How can that be? If you’re a Christian, you’re hateful person. If you criticize Christians, you’re an intellect. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s everything’s gotten upside down. But how this happened is what we call gradualism. Satan is patient attempting us into evil. And let me share with you what gradualism is. If you take a frog, and drop it in, I mean, you know, big, fat, full sized frog, and you drop it into an open pot of boiling water, it’ll jump right out. If you take that take that same frog and you put it in a pot of cool water and turn the heat on hundred your stove. The frogs gonna swim around Nicole water, it’s going to get warmer and warmer, Just keep swimming around being really happy. The next thing you know, the water starts boiling and he’s dead. That’s gradualism.
You know, it’s kind of like when you first get in your tub, it’s like, oh, this is hot. And then by the time you’re in it for a little bit, gotta turn into hot water and warm it up a little bit. That’s gradualism, I’m just trying to make the point is that Satan knows better than to try to shove us into something that’s really awful. Gradually. Sin will always take you further than you intended to go. Always, always, and we have to understand that.
Now. If you think of the moral state of our nation that we’re in, we have to realize according to the suave gradualism, it didn’t just happen overnight. You know, sin in our nation becomes progressively worse and worse and worse. There’s nothing you can even think or imagine that you’re not capable of finding an expression in, if you so desire. Because man is never satisfied with his sin. Once he’s conquered once 10 he’s ready for another. Once he’s become used to one sin, He wants to go deeper. That’s what we have to understand.
In the 60s, we had the slogan, those of you who are old enough might remember this. Make love not war, man. Remember that I was in the army in the 60s may love that war man. And, you know, when I was in the army, we were not allowed to wear uniforms to travel. Because there’s so much animosity against the military. When I first started college as a veteran, I was not allowed to live on campus because I was a veteran, isn’t that crazy? But anyway, 60s make love not war. In the 70s we had to pay if it feels good man, do it. Remember that? Well, some people do. And in the 90s, we had the slogan, you know, Don’t Tell, Don’t Ask, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. In other words, do whatever you want to do. Just keep it to yourself. Now, in the time we’re living in, guess what, there’s no limitations. Whatever you want to do is fine. Just Just do it. As a matter of fact, anyone who tells you what you’re doing is wrong. They’re wrong. They’re full of hate and animosity, but the thing they don’t understand, is it any one of us, who shares the love of God with other people, we’re not doing it to be mean or to put them down? It’s because we love them. God has an unbelievable promise for those who belong to him. But yet, we are around people all the time, who are caught up in these kinds of of sin. But the thing we have to remember is this brothers and sisters, this is so important, we talked about this at the men’s retreat, it’s not up to you to change people. It’s not up to you. You share the love of God with them. You share the Word with them. Because anytime we go around, you know what you’re doing is wrong. You’re going to go to hell. thing, look at us, and this guy’s out of his mind. But if you just show God’s love, and you and you know, and just encourage people, and as you have opportunity, break, open the word, let the Holy Spirit do the work. There’s not one person here who has been born again of pastor Frank. Every single one of you here have been born again of the Spirit. And he the Spirit of God is the only one that can change the heart, whether it be unto salvation, or victory over certain sins. We have to trust the Lord. Now, one of the things that we have to realize is that many of these things that we’re speaking of, there’s nothing new under the sun, Scripture tells us, and you don’t have to look at it right now, but, in Second Samuel chapter 13, verses 11 through 14, we find that even David’s son, Amon, committed instance with his sister Tamar, and he was very severely punished for it. In Isaiah five and verse 20, it says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Who put darkness for light and light for darkness. And don’t we have that today?
Hey, you know, everything’s, you know, this is gonna sound really corny to you, and probably, maybe Nintendo be the only ones who know what I’m talking about. Oh, God might remember to, but you remember the cage smash show? Any keras ever the case with when the moon comes over the mountain. You, the rest of you are looking at me like it’s an old person thing. But Kate Smith was a, she had a variety show she she was a great singer. And she was like super moral. And I can remember my grandmother saying, there’s nothing, nothing decent on TV anymore, but the cape Smith show. And I think if he saw if she somehow could come back, she was born in 1880s. She somehow could come back and sit in front of a TV today, she would have another heart attack. I mean, he’d be like, how did we get there? How did we get from Kate Smith to so much of what’s on TV today? It’s absolutely amazing. It’s astounding.
And in Romans 12 nine it says love Let love be without hypocrisy at home What is evil, clean to what is good. And that’s what we need need to do. We need to have abhor what is evil. But I’m afraid that even in the church even in me, even in my heart, I’m not pointing fingers at anyone I’m saying, This is our problem. We’ve gotten to a place where we don’t abhor evil. We watch it. How do we get there?
And once again, you can’t go telling people you know, you know what, if you’re really a good Christian, you need to go home and burn your TV. No, you know, don’t do that. That’ll pollute the environment. We need to take your TV and put it in the dumpster. You know. But the point is, that’s not the way anything like that should work. It should always be the Holy Spirit, working in the hearts and lives of people. Now, this was shocking to me. I’m not going to get into any detail. But if you do any research on incest in this nation, Becoming acceptable? How could it be gradualism is becoming acceptable. And what this is telling us is the church needs to wake up and shine the light of Jesus Christ brightly in this nation. Now, I believe that in our nation in our world today, there’s something very different than there ever has been in history. Because you always had light, the light of Christ, we always had the darkness of this world and Satan, then there’s always this big gray area that many people were operating in. And some were, you know, motivated overcharged to the dark side is sound like a star wars were motivated over to the dark side and some were motivated over to the light. I don’t think there’s a gray area anymore. I think people are either walking in the light of Jesus Christ, or they’re walking in the ways of the world. I think that’s the way it is.
And so we have to understand for us to let our light shine is so important in the times in In which we’re living. Now, I believe I really do. There might be one last great revival. But I don’t think I think it’s going to be like the revivals of the past to change countries to change nations. I think it’s just going to be revival of people being saved before Jesus Christ comes for his church. I think there’s going to be one last revival, because the world is ripe for judgment. And understand that the whole reason that Jesus is taking his church out of the world is because his judgment is coming upon the world. And his judgment is coming not because he’s an evil, angry God, His judgment is coming, because sin is important to him. And the fact is that he gives us every opportunity to commit our lives to Christ, to be born again to be filled with the Spirit. Because here’s the thing, and I’ll tell you right off There’s nothing you have done that I didn’t do. There’s nothing that you struggle with, that I don’t struggle with. But the point is, we need to struggle. I love the verse of scripture that says, You have not yet struggled to the shedding of blood doesn’t mean you literally go around and shed blood, but it’s talking about just pour your heart and life into it. We need to struggle, you know, against sin. Now, what are we to do now, today? Let me read to you from Romans, chapter six, and verses 12 through 14. Romans 612 through 14. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your moral in your mortal body, so that so that you obey his evil desire. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer the parts of your body to him as interest servants of righteousness.
Listen to verse 14, for sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law. But you’re under grace. Now understand, that last part is so important. But you’re not under the law. You’re under grace. That’s why sin should not be your master. Well, what does that mean? What it means is if we’re trying to stop sinning on our own and trying to find our own righteousness and our own, you know, forgiveness and cleansing, you’ll never find it. But we’re under grace. We’re into the grace of God. And so no matter what sin you’ve committed, what’s my favorite verse, right first john, one seven, if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and purify us from ON righteousness. And so the reality is you’re not going to have Certain sins, certain besetting sins that you struggle with, we all have certain sins that we struggle with. And I want you to know this, there’s not going to be one time you say, okay, God, forgive me my sin. And then you turn around and you fall to it again and say, Well, I guess I’m done for because I already asked God to forgive me my sin and he did and I fall into it again. One of my other favorite verses that you guys all have heard me quote, so many times in Proverbs says, the righteous man. Now notice it’s talking about a righteous man, though a righteous man fall. Seven times he rises again, but the wicked fall by calamity. The point is, even as a righteous person, you’re going to fall but you get back up to a righteous man, Paul, he rises again, you get back up, say, Jesus, I really messed up, forgive me. Let your grace Cover me. I’m going to move on. I used to tell people, and I was one of those weird I’ve always been where I still am but one of those weird guys. I didn’t start smoking until I was being discharged from the army and clearing post net crazy when use you start smoking when you’re 12 or something like that. And in I smoked, you know, after I was discharged right through college and even when we’re first married, and when I really felt the Lord wanted me to give up tobacco, I used to tell people, quitting tobacco is the easiest thing in the world. I quit every single Monday. You ever do that? Well, Lord, with your help, I’ll never smoke again. And then Tuesday comes, I’ll just have one. Just one cigarette today, then, oh, you guys, probably any of you who’ve gone through quitting to back you might know what I’m talking about. Then you go through the thing. I’m taking all the cigarettes out of this pack except for for cigarettes I’m going to have for today. Then you buy another pack. You know? It wasn’t until I came to a place of crying out to the Lord and saying, Lord, I’m a slave to tobacco. God, I just can’t get rid of it. I need your help. And I really came to that place of saying I’m never going to smoke again. The same thing with drinking. And a pretty serious drinking problem, too. I was what you might call a happy drunk, I was got happy, and I only drank and weekends. I took my work very seriously. The time I come home Friday until I would go back to teaching Monday. I was drunk the whole time. And the same thing I thought, well, I’m going to stop drinking Boilermakers. I don’t know if any of you know what that is. It’s a bottle of beer in a juice glass. Was he on a straw? Stop drinking Boilermakers I’ll just drink beer. I just drink more beer. Than I said, You know what? I’ll just drink wine. Because I don’t even like wine that much. And I became a wineo. And it wasn’t until I came to a place where I said, Lord, I have to stop. Cold Turkey. I can’t drink any of these alcoholic beverages, help me, and He did. I’d like to tell you it was just the easiest thing in the world it wasn’t. But anything that is worth anything requires some kind of struggle or hard work. Anything. You know, whether you’re trying to master some sport or some game or whatever it might is, might be. It’s hard work. I know my grandson’s work really hard at these video games, and I’ll tell you what, they’ve mastered them. You can’t even I’m just joking, guys. They’re all sitting in the back. But you understand the point that I’m making. And so we have to realize that God is there to give us the victory. But the reality is, it’s only by His grace, because you fall he get back up, you fall you get back up, but every time you’re taking two steps forward and one step back, you’re still taking one step forward. Right? And you’re going to come to that place of having victory in the Lord God is, is just so good.
Hebrews 13:14 marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterers, and all sexually immoral. First, Peter 211 Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul?
I’ll tell you that we have a great example in Scripture of how to have victory over these kinds of sin. And as Joseph, and I’m going to be reading to you from Genesis 39, verse 12. But let me share something at this point. Joseph is a young man. I know a lot of times people say who’s probably just a teenager? No, he’s probably young man like in his 20s or whatever. And here he is at full maturity. And all the desires of manhood are in him. It tells us in Scripture, he was a really good looking guy, and he was a slave. typographer and Potter firs wife noticed his good looks. And so here she comes to him and says, Why with me? Well, think about it. He’s away from his own nation. He’s He’s in, in, you know, captivity. And, you know, like, hey, well, nobody knows. He knew, and he knew his God would know. And so in Genesis 3912, she caught him by his cloak and said, Come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hands, and he ran out of the house. And understand it cost him something. He went from being the head, Chief servant in part of his house, to being in prison. It cost him but he ran, he fled from this kind of temptation. And brothers and sisters, we have to flee. And if somehow we get caught up and pull back in, get up Flee again. That’s what the Word of God is telling us. You think we have to understand is sometimes our children will say to us, maybe we say to our spouse or a spouse says to us, maybe we even say to ourselves, don’t you trust me?
Well, when it comes to sexual sin, we shouldn’t trust anyone. We shouldn’t even trust ourselves. Because it is such a strong temptation for people to fall into. You consider how many people had that said, I never thought that would happen to me. I never thought that would happen to me. Well, it’s because you allow yourself to be in a situation that you shouldn’t allow yourself to be in. Maybe we become as a nation as a society, to modern for our own good. It’s so important for us to stand in the Word of God, and to remove anything that would cause us to fall. Scripture says, if you’re and it doesn’t mean literally, it’s making a point if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. What the point it’s making is, is if you see something or you’re looking in a particular direction, or if someone or something and it causes you to sin, cut that off. If you put your hand just something that isn’t good for goodness caused me to sin, cut it off. Because we have to realize, Second Timothy 2:22 says, flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Now, when it talks about youthful lust, it’s not just talking to young people, in our youth is when all these come to the surface. And it says we’re to flee from it. And that word in the Greek for flee means run as hard and as fast as you can, not just fast but as hard as you can. And it can be running real fast, but if it’s like that’s not Heart, you run as fast as you can, as hard as you can, and you get that pull, and you just break through it. Joseph fled out of the house and left his quote. Why? Because he knew the weakness of the flesh. And so he was fleeing from that temptation. So what I’m closing with is this, this was a tough portion of Scripture, for obvious reasons. I didn’t really get into reading all the details, it gives a lot of detail about the topics that I was discussing. But why is it there? Because it’s real, because it’s true. And so we have to be willing to do whatever is necessary to avoid these kinds of temptations in order to walk with our God. Because here’s the point. In the end, it’s all our salvation.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But I’ll tell you what, there is a I’m not crazy about bumper stickers. I think they’re corny. And if you have a bumper sticker, I don’t mean yours. But but one bumper sticker that I’ve always liked was this. Don’t be caught dead without Jesus. That’s true. And so when we read portions like this, God’s giving us warning signs, Warning Warning to bridges out Warning Warning. And we have to adhere to his warning signs and to find a different route. Father, we come before you and your shoe, his name in Jesus name and how we thank You, Father, for your word and for the salvation this free gift that we have. And I pray Lord, that portions like this rather than throwing us would encourage us to surrender more and more and more of our life to you. Father, I pray if there’s anyone here who has never been born again, this would be the day of their salvation. They would simply cry to you and say, God, forgive me, a sinner take over my life. And at that point, we have man touching eternity, we have the power of God coming into the card at the heart of that person who cries out to you, Lord. And Father, there are those of us here who are saved are born again, the boy, we’ve been falling into some deep ditches. I pray, Father that you’d fill those ditches in and give us the victory to either go around them or to jump over him. And Father, I thank you so much for the fact that you’re a patient God, a loving God. And we ask Lord, that your Holy Spirit would fall upon us to real True Holy Spirit revival wouldn’t be a program it wouldn’t be anything we do. But a True Holy Spirit revival would fall upon this little church I pray in Christ Jesus name, Amen. And amen. God bless you, my dear friends.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai