Worship:
Message:
Transcript:
I have to confer with my wife before I get off, he can get that idea. I just want to mention the fact that there’s an adult dinner this week. And so there’s a sign up sheet in the back. And so if you’d like to be part of our adult dinner, I don’t know where we’re going, where are we going? We’re going to smokey bones. All right. So if you’d like to be part of our adult dinner, any adult, if you’re out of high school, you’re welcome to come. Put your name down, we have a great time of fellowship. And also, I want to mention that, finally, my book is out. Instead, the book of Revelation made plain and clear. And not to brag in my own book, but it’s really good. And the whole idea of writing this book wasn’t that you’d only concentrate on this book, it was to give you the confidence that you could open the book of Revelation and study it on your own and come to you know, great conclusions. And so, we have, I don’t know if there are any copies left in the back and you know I am, we’re selling them just for what I paid for him not trying to make any money off of our church family. No, we really are. And if we were out of books, you can go to Barnes noble.com. Or you can go to Amazon and you can buy the book through them. And you can also get an E book, if those of you that like to read it on your device through amazon.com as well. So having said that, open your Bibles along with me to Numbers chapter 14. And we’ll be picking up where Frank was supposed to leave off in verse 11.
Father, we can be for you in Jesus name because we realized that there literally is no other name under heaven, by which men must be saved. And Father, how he longed to see those we love those that are close to us and even those that are around us, and even the strange to come and know you, and to have that assurance of eternal life, because we recognize the times in which we’re living, and therefore, Father, our prayer becomes even more earnest and, and just anxious because we desire to not see anyone left behind. But for all to come to the knowledge of you, and to meet you in a great gathering in this guy. And so Father, I pray that you would 19 use me to speak and to teach you where to lead your people. And I pray this all in Christ Jesus name, Amen. And Amen. You know, it’s interesting when you look at the children of Israel in this portion of Scripture, and we wonder how could they not believe God? And I don’t know why, but it made me think of a lab experiment. experiment I did when I was taking microbiology. I can’t remember if it was my graduate school or undergraduate when it’s been more than 50 years ago. It’s hard to remember Anything but anyway, when I was in microbiology, my lab partner like, by the way, do you know why you have a lab partner? Because someone has to do the work just Anyway, my lab partner and I, we decided we were going to produce and penicillin resistant staphylococcus staphylococcus. And so what we did is we took a petri dish deep one, and we put it on a slant. If you guys some of you science guys, you know what I’m talking about. And you landed hard with a slant. And then we took we put staphylococcus bacteria across it, and it started growing. And then after started growing, then you fill the rest of it up with the medium. And you know, so that it was level and then we took little penicillin drops and put it across the top. What happened is where the penicillin tabs or little white tabs it looked like something you punch up a piece of paper and where it was closest to staphylococcus bacteria. It killed it. And the further away it was, in other words, the separate caucus was like this. And the tabs were up here. Okay. So the further away the tabs were from the bacteria, the less effective it was, until it actually got to a place over time, where we actually had the step of caucus bacteria growing right up around the penicillin tab. And that particular strain that we had there then would be somewhat resistant to penicillin. And, of course, that’s a big concern we have in medicine today that people are, you know, resistant, you know, to certain antibiotics and so forth illnesses. But the point I’m trying to make as a spiritual one, and that is, we this whole world is like a giant petri dish. The second was sin. And the reality is that we have an antibody against said, an antibiotic and it’s the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ. And the closer we bring Jesus Christ in our walk with this world, the more victory we have, the more the center of this world has dissipated. And the less likely we are to bring Jesus with us and we just you know, casually bring him along. Sin is going to just in crouch right into our lives and Phyllis up. So we brothers and sisters, as believers, we need to walk in the Spirit with the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. Every day of our life. Every step we take every breath we breathe, because sin what a scripture say, this crouching at the door and desires to have you so we need to make sure that we have that kind of walk with the Lord. Now in this portion, it how amazing it is for the children of Israel, because I think about how could this be they they didn’t have a problem believing God’s promise to take them out of Egypt. Look at all the miracles he performed and everything in India took them out of Egypt. So they didn’t have a problem with him taking them out of bondage. But they had a problem with him taking them into the promise into the promised land. Remember last week, we studied about the 10 spies, and eight of them came back 12 spies, 10 of them came back with a bad report. And Joshua and Caleb come back with a good report. But the whole, you know, gathering of the children of Israel decided to listen to the 10 spies who had a bad report, because what were they’re saying, what were they saying? It isn’t land flowing with milk and honey. It’s just like God said, It’s everything that we’d love to have, but they’re giants in the land.
And pastor Frank Jr. went into that a little bit this morning, you have to deny eloheem which are the sons of God that’s, he referred to him. And they produced they went to any woman, any human woman, they want it, and they had children by them, and those children were naturally are giants. In our what we translate is giants. And so when they went in and they said they were giants in the land, there were, I mean, Goliath, we know about the whole story of David and Goliath, right? And by the very fact of examining the armor, and the weapons that Goliath used, he was probably somewhere between 12 and 14 feet tall. If he was standing in the middle of our sanctuaries had to be up to the ceiling. That’s a big dude. Right? Because the head of his His Spirit had weighed 65 pounds. I mean, I have a hard time was 65 pound dumbbells, maybe 15 pounds but anyway, each dumbbell I mean, a 65 pound spirit, you know what I mean? You have to be pretty big. And in the spirit itself was like a Weaver’s being probably about 12 feet long. So this guy had to be somewhere between 12 and 14 foot tall. And so when they saw these giant To them, they were only looking at it through the eyes of flesh and they said, there’s no way we can conquer those giants. But in the spirit, those giants were easy prey. Remember what David said the Goliath you come against me with sword and spear but I come against you in the name of the Lord. A little stone, the slingshot, he’s a shepherd boy, swing yet around. He sent that stone deep in the Giants head. That giant wasn’t dead. It just fell forward. In fact, it’s funny. There’s a lot of people who said well, how could he hit him in the head they fell forward. Because if you do any kind of study of someone at a certain distance, who gets hit in the head with a fatal wound, they fall forward, you know, unless the, you know, like a huge blast, but usually they get hit. They fall forward. But anyway, David went and then cut his head off with glasses short, but the point I’m getting that David had no fear Why? Because he Totally trusted in the Lord. The Israelites, what they would do is they would cancel the one. There’s a valley and they camp on one mountain, the Philistines would camp on the other mountain. And then in the morning, both the Israelites the Philistines would come down into the valley. Yeah, we’re gonna fight we’re gonna get you, we’re gonna get you. And then glass would walk out. Now the Israelites back up on their side of the mountain, because they’re afraid of the giant. And that’s when David came, and he was appalled. Because he was a believer in God. And he said, This uncircumcised Philistine, why would we be afraid of him? And of course, we see the victory. And so we have to understand that even for you and I, there are giants that come into our lives, and we can’t allow them to frighten us and to befall us. We have to look at those giants. And we have to say, I believe God, and God has promised me to victory. And we need need to be willing to stand up against our giants. And watch the work of the Lord, status, the work of the Lord give us to victory. You know, in Galatians 416, it says this, have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth. So we have to understand, just because the Lord gives us a task that maybe we think is too difficult. Do we allow the Lord to become our enemy? Not in the sense that we hate him, but in the sense we don’t want to obey Him. We don’t want to listen to him. Lord, wherever you lead me, I will follow.
I want you to go there. Well, not there, anywhere but their Lord all fall. If the Lord gives you a promise, and says, I want you to go in and possess that land, the land is yours. The land is yours and of course respeaking metaphorically, whatever that land might be in your life, maybe it’s some problems, some issue, whatever it might be, the Lord will give you the victory. But the reality is man is so fickle. You know, when everything is going so great, I just love Jesus. I just love the Lord, he’s so good to me. He handles all my problems. And the minute difficulties come is like, do you know Lord, if you know what should I do? God I it’s just I don’t feel like your presence. I don’t feel you in my heart where and we get all sick off. That’s wrong. We need to understand is the Lord says something and he gives us a promise. We need to go full steam ahead. Because if God before you What’s the rest of that? hook will be against you know you go get some Armand has 25 giants. They say, hey, look at our 25 giants. We say my god the giant the fleet So when they cross the Red Sea, think about this when they crossed Red Sea, we know this from when we were reading. You know, in Exodus, they sang the song of praise, just praising God for all he was doing. And then when they come in into the land and they face their giants, they face all the difficulties. Then they start saying, Why do you hate us God? They go for praising God and thanking Him and believing him to now they’re thinking, Oh, god, there’s just delay. What are we going to do? Believe believe there is nothing so difficult that God has called you to do that he can’t equip you to have the victory. If we’re doing anything in our own strength in our own power, you know what I’m saying? It would be a disaster. But when we do things in the name of the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be sure to have the victory. Don’t share this with you. In first john, chapter five, verse 10. It says, He who believes the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar because he does not believe the testimony that God has given to his son. And so God has given us a testimony, that if we, if he’s for us, there’s no one who can be against us where he leads, all we have to do is follow. The Lord never caused us to take the point man, do you understand that he simply calls us to follow. And then in Hebrews chapter three verses 12 and 14, it says, beware brothers, least there be any of you in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. He calls on belief, even evil heart, in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called today. In other words, not waiting til tomorrow today is what the Lord has called me to do this or that, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Listen to this for we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. So, so often it’s easy to start something, isn’t it? start a project, but then the follow through on it, it becomes more difficult. I remember in the days when I used to try to build things, and my wife has finally convinced me, but I can’t remember, you know, I got the plans. And I, you know, I go to what was the the lumber shop back in those days? What was it builders square and places like that? And I’d go and I’d had the plans and I get all the materials and I’d bring it back to the house. And then I was all here ready to go into it. Then all of a sudden start getting complicated and figuring out you know, how do you execute trusses. And I had one of those things right? Cut the angles backwards, you know how they’re supposed to, you know, come together like just I’d have like this and, and I’d get so frustrated. But the point is that the Lord is going to take us through whatever calling he’s put in our heart and our life. We just have to trust him and keep going. And I did finally get the angles right twice as much work but I finally did get the angles right and doing it.
So now turn with me to numbers 14 and I’m picking up in verse 11. Numbers 14 in verse 11. Now the Lord said to Moses, how long will these people reject me? And how long will they not believe me with all the signs which I have performed among them? In other words, he brought them up out of Israel, they saw, you know, the plagues attempt plagues of Egypt, they saw the miracle of the Red Sea drying up, they saw the miracle of the pillar fire by night and the pillars of you know, cloud by day they saw him provide water from bitter water. They saw him, you know, provide manna from heaven, they saw a miracle after miracle. And then the minute a difficult time would come. Then they had doubts first 12 because he’s angry with them. You know, remember last week for those of you that weren’t here, the spies were sent into the promised land, because they’re there. They’re ready to enter in the promise God gave them. So they sent the spies in. Now understand, we shared this last week, sending the spies in was that God’s will? Because if you go back, you find out God simply said go in and possess the land. But then the people said, You know what, maybe we better check it out first.
Maybe we better send some spies in. So they set the spies in and of course, they saw the giants that was that even though it had everything that they would ever desire to have land flowing with milk and honey. They saw the Giants they came back and said, lands flows milk and honey. This is a beautiful land God has promised us but there’s I dare I don’t think we can go in. And that’s why the Lord, you know, responded in such an angry way. And in verse 12, he says, I will strike them with the past us and disinherit them, and that will make you and talking to Moses and nation greater and mightier than they. And Moses said to the Lord, then the Egyptians will hear it will hear it. For by your might you brought these people up from among them from the Egyptians, and they will tell it to the inhabitants of the land this way the land they were going into, they have heard that you, Lord, are among these people. In other words, they know that these people are being led by Yahweh by Almighty God, that you, Lord are seen face to face, and your cloud stands above them, and you’d go before them and a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by lights. Now, if you kill these people as one man then the nation’s We have heard of your fame will speak saying, because the Lord was not able to bring these people into the land which he swore to give them. You understand what a What a terrible, convicting conviction that would be? What a terrible accusation that would be. Here God did all these things that he’s not able to bring them into the land.
That was the accusation that Moses was saying would be brought against the Lord. Therefore, he killed them talking about what the Lord would do in the wilderness. And now I pray, let the power of my Lord be great. Just as you have spoken, saying that notice the power he’s talking about is God’s loving kindness. It is his forgiveness. The Lord is long suffering, and abundant and mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression. But he by no means clear as to guilty. This visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the Children to the third and fourth generation. And then Moses says pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you are forgiven this people from Egypt even until now, in other words, from the time they came out of Egypt, they needed forgiveness for the time they come out of Egypt, they were turning against God, and God had to forgive them, even up to this point. So God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness had been with them and had been a testimony to them all through the journey that they’ve had so far. So like the children of Israel, a lot of times our problem is that we filter everything through the flesh. Right? I don’t think that can be done. I think that’d be pretty impossible to do. I don’t know how I would do it. Well, the point is, you can’t do it. You can’t filter through the flesh. If God told you something was going to be done. He’ll do it. You know, getting off into crazy stuff but Many, many years ago, when we lived in Puerto Rico, I was a principal of a high school there. And I ended up getting Dengue fever. And I, at this point he had a fever for, I don’t know how long, a couple of months or something like that. And I went to my doctor, and my doctor said to me, he said, Look, he said, if you get out of the tropics, or you’re going to die, that’s kind of a killer, easy, easy way to look at it. So I came home and I told VI, I said, I’m going to have to resign my position. And I said, because I’m sick, and I have to get out of the tropics. Because the mosquito that causes Dengue fever, it’s different than malaria. When you have malaria, it’s in your body forever. With Dengue fever, you have to be reinfected each time. But the fact is, there are tons of mosquitoes and I kept getting reinfected. So I was constantly sick. And so I had to do a letter of resignation and you know via an hour discussing my What should we do? What should we say? You know, should we say this or that? And I said, let’s just lay it out the truth. You know, this is what it is. And, you know, let them decide, well, we just laid the truth out. And lo and behold, they accepted my resignation, gave me six weeks severance pay, and paid all of our transportation back to the States. I was like, ah, the point I’m getting it if you don’t have to formulate a plan, if God has because we prayed about it, the Lord was telling us to go back to the States. And so if the Lord is leading you in a direction, trust him, you don’t have to worry about anything. Just trust the Lord because he is so good.
Now. We have to realize that when we have a lack of faith, it really is a poor witness to those around us. I don’t know how this is gonna help you not only listen, so many Christians. wouldn’t even want to be around. They’re whiny crybaby. Yeah, everything’s going wrong for me. I don’t know why this is happening. God doesn’t love me. I think this is horrible. I’m just gonna sit in the corner and suck my thumb and die. You know, it’s awful. And there’s such whiny crybabies, and it’s like, why would anybody want to be a Christian? Now understand, I’m not saying that those whining crybabies aren’t saved. Okay, and let’s say that, but I’m just saying their testimony is not a good testimony. But when you have people who are just praising God, and following him, whether they’re good or whether it’s bad, the apostle Paul said, I’ve known what it’s like to have all kinds of bad plenty. And I’ve known what it’s like to have nothing. But at all sentence he praise the Lord and all things he served the Lord and walk with God, wherever the Lord called him. And we have to realize the same is true with us. We don’t want to be like the children of Israel, accepted all the good gifts from God, you know the, the manna from heaven in the opening of the Red Sea and, and the pillar of fire to give them heat. enlight by light and cloud to give them coolness by day, and it would lead them wherever Nate excepted all that the minute a giant came into the picture. all bets are off. Oh, this is too hard. This is too big. Let me ask you this. What’s too big for God? What’s too big for God.
I mean, nothing. Just by the word of his mouth, he’s going to destroy this present heaven and earth one day and create a whole new heaven and earth. You mean you really believe that God spoke things into existence? Yes, I do. Because he’s God. And God said, you know, and you in the Hebrew that is a definite, you know, imperative. In other words, when God said it wasn’t just I say, God said, Let there be light. And there was light. And of course, I don’t want to get into the that whole thing, but the the Reality is that evolution is probably one of the most scientific, illogical theories and is a theory you know, you have articles out there now that are saying evolution is no longer a theory. Yes it is. Because there’s no such thing as nothing coming from nothing. Everything goes back to nothing in evolution, you know, theory, there had to event someone or something who created something who’s outside of something. God stands outside of time and eternity. He inhabits what’s beyond our ability to even comprehend. And therefore he being God being Yahweh, being the Creator of all things, he could say, Let there be light, and there was light. Now, Moses love for these people was demonstrated, wasn’t it by his intervention. He didn’t just say when God said You know what, I’m going to kill all these people and I’ll make a greater nation out of you. Moses didn’t say, Hey, good idea that bad. These guys are pain. No, no, Moses intervened. Think about if God wasn’t love, grace and mercy. When Adam and Eve fell to send in the garden, he would have just smoked them. And he would have created two new people started over again. But he didn’t do that. Why? Because he wanted to have fellowship with his creation, a loving relationship with his creation. So he knew they’re going to send Did you know, he knew they were going to send the land that was slain before the foundation of the world were even laid. So even before he created the heavens in the earth, He already provided a salvation plan. By the shedding of the blood of the land, he already did that. So amazing. But the fact is, we have to understand that love. You’ve heard me share this so many times, but Listen to what I’m saying. Love requires choice. You know, if I was the only man on earth, and every woman came up to me said, Boy, you’re really hot for a shirt guy. You know, you’re here or something? Well, guess what? I wouldn’t be too flattered if I was the only man on earth. Because I know if there’s anyone else. But anyway, the point, the point I’m getting at is, love requires choice. If I went up to my wife, and I put my arms around her neck and said, Tell me you love me and she will love you. There’d be no, there’s no love there. There’s fear and love and fear and don’t go together. We fear God only in the sense that he is all powerful, but we love him. And that’s what gives us such a wonderful bond together, and in any marital relationship. Love requires choice. I choose.
You know, there’s so many times in in relationships, people say, oh, we’re having this problem we’re having, you’re choosing to have that problem. Sure choice. But you need to do is you need to say, I choose to work through this. I choose to resolve this, with God’s help, and by His Word. That’s what we do. Love is a choice. So the point I’m getting that if God would have just smoked Adam and Eve and started over, they would have sinned to, because God’s desire from the beginning was to have a loving fellowshipping relationship with his special creation. And in order to do that, there had to be choice. And so they were given choice, and they chose to disobey God. They’re separated from God because of that, and God turned right around right from the beginning. And by the shedding of blood, he covered them with the skins of animals, and he enabled them to come back into fellowship with Him. God’s desire is always for us to be back into fellowship with him. He’s an amazing guy. Because think about it, do you really think God was gonna kill all these people? He was given giving Moses the opportunity to show his love for God, and to prove his calling to lead these people into the land of promise. And Moses fulfilled that. I mean, he passed that test with flying colors, and he intervened for the people. He proves his faithfulness and love to the Lord. And it’s beautiful that Moses reminds the Lord, and this is something you and I can always remember. Look at first 18 or verse 19 of chapter 18, or 18 and 19. I mean, and the Lord is long suffering and abundant mercy Are you glad if that forgiving iniquity and transgression but he by no means clear as to guilty? visiting you Nick, and I’ll explain that in a minute. Sounds like a contradiction, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the chose to the third and fourth generation. Then he goes on to say part of the inequity of this people Pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, yes, as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now, in other words, there’s not a contradiction here. God’s desire is always to cleanse us and to forgive us. But there has to be a choice at our part to ask for it. Yes, is a conditional conjunction if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness. It tells us the first job right? One night. So it’s a choice. Yes. We confess our sin. And so that’s what he’s speaking to these people. You need to confess your sin, you need to confess you’re wrong. And then the grace and mercy of God is able to work. And if it wasn’t for the Lord’s long suffering, I think you and I would have been smoked a long time ago, don’t you? What a frightful thing to even contemplate that our salvation is determined by our own faithfulness. In our own strength, wouldn’t that be scary? I’m saying because I love God because I do what’s right because I follow His Word. And let scripture say about Thank you, you can stand and then you fall or something like that. The reality is it never. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Wherever he leads me. I will follow. I’m not gonna read ahead of him. I’ll follow. And so our relationship with God is one of submission. That one of dominance. And so our love to God is demonstrated by our willingness to surrender to Him. And we couldn’t go a minute without the Lord’s grace and mercy currently, I know I couldn’t. And think about the pillars of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. God used that to lead them and you want to know something? One of the most difficult times in follow When God is when the pillar stands still follow my point. For the Taurus moving, we’re marching along, you know that little children’s plays, you know, marching along with us. We’re marching along following that cloud and it’s great. Hey, life’s good. We’re going we’re going in the right direction. There’s also the cloud stops. Things don’t change. Here we are right here. This is going on. Okay, let’s go right here. Lord, I’m I’m ready to move forward right here. Sometimes the most difficult sometimes it’s the most difficult for us their walk with the Lord when the pillar standing still he’s keeping us right where we are. But why is he doing it? It’s always for our good sometimes we don’t know why not use it a silly example about myself but I, as you can tell, I came down with a cold really bad one, actually. And Monday and Tuesday, you know what I did? Nothing. I did read two books. But anyway, I am sitting in my chair. Doing nothing, because that’s all I could do, and I hated it. But the Lord was saying to me, the pillar is stopped. You sit there and you do nothing, so that you can start getting better. And sometimes even in a spiritual sense, the Lord is saying, the pillar stop, just sit there and do nothing. But I feel like you should be doing something, you are doing something, you’re obeying me by doing nothing. Just stay there. And, of course, the light was just a visible presence of God leading in first john chapter one, verses five through seven. This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us All says, we need to choose, it’s a choice to follow him. Really when we sing that song where he leaves I will follow we need to really have that desire in our, in our own hearts. Because sometimes we have little curveballs thrown into our life, right? Everything seems to be going great and awesome. But we have to be willing to accept it. And I really rattled off I shared this last week, as well. But I remember when the Lord called us to go to the Onondaga Indian reservation, that was our first ministry here in the Syracuse area. And I was leaving a very good job. Really nice house in a fantastic location, to come to Syracuse to be a missionary pastor on the reservation for $100 a week. And you might say, Well, that was a lot of money back then. No, it was Not that much. But anyway, we did so we just were trusting the Lord and we’re following God and feeling good about everything. And then I had a pretty late model nice car Cooper xR seven like I shared this last week, but here it goes again. And so anyway, I’m loving my car and the engine blew. I took it back and I tried it and I couldn’t get any recourse. So I had to turn the car in. So we had a second card, old car, and I think we drove that for like two weeks and the engine blew. We had no vehicle and here I am, you know, administrating the reservation I had to ride a bicycle. I told you last week the kids used the you know hum that song when the Wicked Witch was riding the bicycle The Wizard of Oz site because back in those days if you were a pastor, you wear a suit. Every day you wear a suit, Sir, I am a bicycle riding bike. That really but the point I’m getting at I actually thank God for those opportunities to just trust him. You know what I’m saying? I had to trust him. Because we’re taking the bus to go places I had to trust him. And when you trust the Lord, he’s always faithful. And understand when he puts you in those times of where you need to trust Him, is for your purposes of building being built up in him to grow strong in him. You know, the old workout saying, No pain, no gain. You’re hurt that no pain, no game. I haven’t had paid in a long time. But anyway. You know, it’s funny every time I get it in my head, like I told why we had so much time we’re spending in this book. You know, we basically dropped our workout and we dropped eating healthy. I don’t know if you guys have ever done that. But we weren’t working out and and we’re having like pepperoni and cheese for supper and potato chips for lunch, you know that kind of thing. And putting weight back on and all that. So I told why. Because when we finally finished the book, this is a little bit, you know, week ago, and I told I said Monday, I’m back into a baby, you better fall back into it. I’m going to be in the gym. I mean, we’ve got to hold hold the house, we get the treadmill, up and down and all that we’ve got the machines and we’ve got the dumbbells and all that kind of stuff. I said I’m back into a baby. And she was great. I’m with ya. And I wake up Monday morning and I wasn’t able to do anything you know, here I’m have all these promises of what I’m going to do. But that’s where we have to trust the Lord. You know, there are times that he seems to allow things to come into our life that we don’t understand. The reality is tomorrow, I’m going to be packaged, hopefully. So anyway, this morning in grumbling, actually caused them to walk in the desert of sin for 40 years, never entering into his promise. And what I’ve saved brothers and sisters as Christians, oftentimes our unbelief, our murmuring, and grumbling causes us to walk in the desert of unbelief, never entering into his promise. And let’s say you’re not saved. That same as the rapture came, you’re going to be left behind. But what I’m saying you’re walking in that desert of unbelief and heartache and frustration when you could be in the land of promise. I mean, no one was a more joyous Christian. You can read about the Apostle Paul. Think about it. Paul started off a heresy of Pharisees. He was the only one of the apostles that had appeared He for putting it in today’s language. He was he was brilliant. He had all kinds of money. He had fame. He was very successful. And when he met Jesus, and the romance, he gave it all up.
He said, I know it was like to have plenty, and I noticed like to have nothing. And he had nothing. And he was joyous in the Lord. And the point that we’re getting that my friends is this being a Christian, you know this name it claim it junk that you hear false teaching, fluff. You know what I’m saying that you hear? If you’re Christian, you’re gonna have all kinds of money, you’re gonna have all kinds of things. You name it, claim a baby, you’re gonna have it. Christians are poor. Christians die. You know, you talk to the Christians in some of these third world countries, or even some of the Christians like in China, I’ll tell you what, they’re not going around saying, Hey, I’m gonna have wealth and prosperity and health and this net No, no. They’re going to be persecuted and put to death for their faith. Do you know where one of the greatest revivals not in numbers but percentage is taking place in the world right now? Iran, you don’t hear much about it because they killed. And Joe Rosenberg, who you know, is a Christian writer, you probably many of you have read his books. He actually lives in Israel now. And he actually he has a ministry in Iran. It’s an underground ministry in Iran. There’s a lot of people getting saved in Iran. And there that say, okay, Lord, now that I’m saying, bring it, you know, bring the Mercedes I’m ready. They’re saying, Lord, I just want to serve you even if I head is chopped off, and for a lot of it is. And so if we’re going to be his witness in the world, if we’re going to really have the love of Christ dwelling within our heart or cardiac or inner man, then we have to understand is different. Based on promises of things, the trinkets of this world do not matter. You can’t take them with you, and they’ll never bring you peace. They’ll never bring you happiness. You know, I finally get my little red sports car. So it’s a little Pontiac Solstice. I’m happy with it. But now I think it’d be nice to have a little two seater Mercedes. You get my point I’ve tried to make, we’re never satisfied. You know, I is never satisfied. The stomach’s never full. But it’s the only thing that is in our vision is Jesus Christ will always be satisfied, will always be satisfied.
And so my conclusion I’m actually my conclusion is this. Run to Him right now. with an open heart. Crying out Daddy, daddy. You know, ah, Baba is It says, you know, in the in the Hebrew, you know what that means daddy is daddy daddy. And he will retract down to you, and he’ll pick you up in those loving everlasting arms. And all the things of this world will grow strangely dim, when we look into the light of His beauty and grace. What is there that this world has to offer? That can even come near comparing to peace in Christ? I have peace in Christ. Do you know what I’m saying? Has nothing to do with possessions. It has nothing to do with any worldly entrapment, my peace and crisis this, he died for me. And he made me a promise that all my sins would be forgiven, and I would dwell with him in heaven for all eternity. And all those I love who are saved are going to be with me. You understand in heaven is that like some kind of Nirvana where you get through you’re like, well Who am I? I’m part of the collective whole, you know, the Bible is very clear. You will have self identity for all eternity in the presence of God in heaven. In other words, when I get to heaven, I’m not gonna say, well, who I am, I’m gonna know who I am. I’m gonna live by is I’m gonna know you are we going to know one another? But it’s going to be in perfection. Can you imagine never be never having to take a bath, never having to be hungry, never having to work out never having to do anything like that. And here’s the beautiful thing. When we can receive our glorified bodies, Scripture says there’ll be perfect and I won’t get into the whole the word perfect, but that will be perfect. So in other words, you know, I’m not going to be 75 anymore. Probably, that we’re told that the human body reaches his physical perfection at about age 30. Baby No, but the physical body received reaches Perfection somewhere around age 30. So when the rapture comes when we have our glorified bodies, you know, guys, my age are going to be 30. And our little little guys are babies, they’re going to be mature, too. You know, somebody special, I just want my baby to always be a baby. Well, you have a pretty cool heart. I want my baby to be able to glorify God every bit as much as I do in heaven. And so we’re all going to be about that age and appearance, but we’re going to have glorified bodies, there’ll be different than these physical bodies. If there’s a physical body, there’s also a spiritual body, the physical came first, then the spiritual, that’s the promise of God. Wow, these are the promises we have. And all it requires, is us to simply surrender. And say, Lord, I no longer want to walk the dictates of my own flesh. But I want to walk according to your work being led by the Spirit is no longer I who live Lord. I want you to In through me, I want to turn my life over to you. And you do that. And Jesus is so faithful. But people say, Well, well, how can I be born again? What’s the formula? I have to have? What? How many scriptures Do I have to memorize? You know, do I need to go through catechism classes? What do I need to be saved? Do I have to take a kid? You know, what is it? Here’s the simple thing. If you want to be saved, you go to Jesus. And you say, God, forgive me, a sinner. Take over my life. That’s it. Well, that’s too simple. Well, that’s about as much as we can handle in reality, but that’s Yes, it is simple. Because his salvation is easy. Jesus, forgive me, a sinner take over my life. And the wonderful thing is, and I’ll be closing with this, all of us as believers know this, that even after we are saved, our feet get dirty. Remember Jesus wash the disciples feet are freaking dirty. You want to know why we walk in the world. Every one of us, when we’re honest with ourselves, we’re alone with our own heart. Every one of us know, the thoughts we’ve had the things we’ve done. You know, the things we’ve said, we all know the things that has definitely displeased the Lord are not in keeping with the spirit. We all know that. But what a wonderful thing is to know that all we have to do is run to Jesus, run to Jesus, right? Sorry, I can’t say for anything but you run to Jesus and say, God, forgive me. And he does. What’s my favorite verse? First yamana, and if we confess our sins, He’s faithful and and just to forgive us. and purify. In other words, wash us from all unrighteousness. Wow. You messed up this morning. You messed up a minute ago. Take it to Jesus. Take it to Jesus. The wonderful things would be, is if we had that same attitude towards one another. For long suffering is patient, kind to one another, forgiving one another. As Jesus Christ forgave us as now Scripture says, forgive one another as I have forgiven you. That’s what we need to do. So sometimes it seems hard to do. It seems hard to do for no other reasons than our pride, and our vanity and our hardness of heart. But we say, forgive me, Lord, we need to also be willing to go to other people say, forgive me. And when people say to us, forgive me, we need to forgive them. And you know, when you forgive someone, what a scripture say he takes our sin for us as far as what he says from the west, and what does he do with them? Who remembers him no more. Sometimes with people we love, they say, Would you forgive me for doing this? But I will, but it’s the 42nd time you’ve done it well, you never forgave them to begin with, because you remembered it. Remember it no more. You know what’s wonderful in our relationship with the Lord. And if we bring it into our relation, interpersonal relationships with other people, it’s always a new beginning. It’s always new beginning, I love that. Some of you who are old enough might remember those. And then what they called, it was like a tablet kind of thing. They had like black wax, and it had like a clear film that went over it, and you had a wooden pencil, and you’d write on it, and it would come right out when you’d write, do all kinds of notes and stuff like that. And if you made a mistake, all you did is take the paper book with him, there’s nothing there again. Well, guess what? That’s the way it is. And Jesus, Lord, forgive me. It’s clear. God is so wonderful and so awesome. Why would anyone not just want to just give their life to heal completely.
Father in heaven, we love you and we praise you and we thank you for all that you have. done all that you are doing all that you will do. And Lord, we know that you’ve called us to be your witness in this world. And this is a dark and evil world, Lord, but you’ve given us a light that is able to penetrate the darkness, the light that can shine. And Lord, I pray that we would take up that mantle of being your witness wherever we go. And Father, I pray this there any here, even right now, even today, as I’m speaking, who don’t know you, this would be the day of their salvation did it in their heart, they would cry out that you would forgive them a center, and that they would ask you to come in and take over their heart life. And we know you would do so because that’s what your Word says. And now Father, I pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit. Dismiss us with your blessing, and encourage us in all your truth. And I pray and ask us all in Christ Jesus name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai