SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: If this is your first time listening, you can check us out on our website at lifefamily.church or on Facebook at LFC Beardstown.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's get right to the message.
SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to talk a little bit about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to talk a little bit on how the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you want to turn to Romans 14, verse 17.
SPEAKER_02: And um we do have the notes back here, but I want to give them to those who want to grab them after service so that they can take them home and study what we have taught.
SPEAKER_02: I'm probably not going to make 100 to 120 um pages every Sunday and hand them out to everybody.
SPEAKER_02: But if you want one after service and they have been depleted, then please come and ask Miss Terry and we'll make you another copy of that.
SPEAKER_02: We'll have the master copy.
SPEAKER_02: So if you do desire to have those notes, please grab them.
SPEAKER_02: And if they're gone, come and ask for them.
SPEAKER_02: We'll get you notes.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to hide anything from anybody.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to keep you uh from knowing all the scriptures I give.
SPEAKER_02: I do go quick because my mind's thinking fast.
SPEAKER_02: So if I don't talk fast and speak fast, I'll lose my thought.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to do that because I believe I can get a lot of information to you in a little bit of time.
SPEAKER_02: Um so I want to make sure that I get what I've got in my heart out to you.
SPEAKER_02: But the way that I can, the way that you can go back and study it is take those notes and it'll be a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 14, verse 17.
SPEAKER_02: Let me get over there myself.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 17 says, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I want you to notice the order.
SPEAKER_02: First is righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Without righteousness, you cannot experience true peace or true joy.
SPEAKER_02: There is something powerful about knowing that you've been made righteous with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: There's something powerful about it.
SPEAKER_02: When I'm constantly questioning my righteousness in Christ, I become focused on myself.
SPEAKER_02: You become self-focused, self-absorbed.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says in Romans 10, verse 3, that we are to submit to righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: It said that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious sect of that time were developing their own set of rules.
SPEAKER_02: And they were creating their own form of righteousness, which would be to work it up by conjuring up good things and doing great things and having all these rules that you keep.
SPEAKER_02: But righteousness is not about keeping rules.
SPEAKER_02: Righteousness is something that's on the inside, working its way outside.
SPEAKER_02: And what they were doing because they were ignorant about the righteousness of God is they were creating their own law.
SPEAKER_02: They were creating their own righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: There are two different types of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: One is self-righteous, and the other one is the righteousness of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: When you're born again, you no longer are trying to operate out of trying to be good.
SPEAKER_02: Your nature, because it's in Christ, has been made good.
SPEAKER_02: You're no longer a dirty sinner, but you're now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But when I understood that my righteousness was of Christ, it takes the attention off of yourself and puts it on to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And that's where our focus needs to be.
SPEAKER_02: It needs to be on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't need to be on your good works.
SPEAKER_02: When your focus is upon Jesus, your conscience is on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And when my attention moves from myself to Jesus, I begin to experience peace, true peace.
SPEAKER_02: And where there is peace, joy begins to manifest.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So there is a progression to this.
SPEAKER_02: First, you become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and then you submit to righteousness, and then you start to experience his peace because you're focused upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible talks about that if your mind is stayed on him, you'll have perfect peace.
SPEAKER_02: Stayed on him.
SPEAKER_02: I think that's Isaiah 26, verse 3.
SPEAKER_02: That a mind stayed on the Lord, you'll have perfect peace.
SPEAKER_02: So that is the focus, is that we have to keep our mind on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can tell really quickly if a person has their mind on something other than Jesus because they don't have peace.
SPEAKER_02: They're walking in depression, walking in defeat.
SPEAKER_02: But we are not the defeated trying to get free.
SPEAKER_02: But we are the free walking in that freedom.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: We're not walking in defeat any longer.
SPEAKER_02: If you are born again, you are one that has received righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: It belongs to you.
SPEAKER_02: But if you don't know about it and you don't understand it, you'll start to develop your own righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's what happens when you're ignorant according to the word of God when it comes to righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: You're not submitted to his righteousness, so therefore you start to create your own ways to get to God.
SPEAKER_02: That's how many religions, denominations, and churches have begun is because they were ignorant concerning the righteousness of God, so they create their own laws and their own ways to get to God.
SPEAKER_02: Christianity is not man making a way to get to God, but it was God who came down as a man who created a way for us to go to God.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That is true Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: Anything, any other religion that teaches you that you have to work, earn, and deserve your way to God is not true Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: Paul even said, if you preach any other gospel than what I preach, let that man be accursed.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: And where there is peace, joy manifests.
SPEAKER_02: Do I have anyone in here that has the peace of God in their life?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: So you should have joy unspeakable and full of glory.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Turn over to Romans or chapter 8.
SPEAKER_02: I talked to a few people recently, and it led me to a thought that I had a long time ago where I was reading the Word of God, being ignorant of the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_02: I was reading the Word of God, but I was reading it through the lens of condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: Has anyone ever been there before?
SPEAKER_02: Where you're reading the word, but everything that you're reading points to how bad you really are.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_02: How many of how many has ever read the word and it just makes you feel more guilty than it does helps you?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I got a few more hands that time.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: I'm glad I'm not the only one.
SPEAKER_02: Because for years I would read the word, and when I would read it, I would see nothing but how bad I was, and how horrible of a person I am, and how far away from God that I really am.
SPEAKER_02: But I want to read you Romans chapter 8, and I'm going to come down to verse 9, and I want you to see something.
SPEAKER_02: There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Who in here is in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And this is where I would get mixed up, who do not walk after the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_02: For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.
SPEAKER_02: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is where I would get mixed up because I would say, you know what, there's still a lot of areas in my life where I'm walking in the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Please don't leave me alone today.
SPEAKER_02: There's still areas in my life that I need improvement, that I'm not perfect in.
SPEAKER_02: I'm still struggling in areas where I could be better off.
SPEAKER_02: I look at other people and I say, wow, they're so holy and they're so righteous.
SPEAKER_02: I look at preachers on the stage and I say, wow, look at them.
SPEAKER_02: Look how they must really love God.
SPEAKER_02: Because, man, they don't have any issues in their life.
SPEAKER_02: They're rich, they're blessed, they're prosperous, they got airplanes, they got all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Wow, they must be really righteous.
SPEAKER_02: And all along as I'm reading these verses, all I'm seeing is how weak in the flesh that I am.
SPEAKER_02: And I read it with eyes of condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: And this is not what this was intended for.
SPEAKER_02: It says, verse 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
SPEAKER_02: Because the carnal mind is an enemy of God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.
SPEAKER_02: So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God, and I'm like, that must be me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not pleasing God because look at what I said to my wife today.
SPEAKER_02: Look at how I treated my, I mean, I was mean to my cat.
SPEAKER_02: Fluffy didn't deserve that.
SPEAKER_02: I've just been a hateful thing, so I just can't please God.
SPEAKER_02: And for years I spent, and I would read this over and over, and I'm like, there's no condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: But I still walk in the flesh sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: So I feel guilty that this is me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not, I'm not worthy of this.
SPEAKER_02: But then verse 9 came along and it set me free when I got a revelation of this.
SPEAKER_02: But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
SPEAKER_02: What this is saying is that if you're not born again and you're not a child of God, then you are walking in the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: Your nature is a sinner, your father is the devil, and you're on your way to eternal death.
SPEAKER_02: But what this also says that if you're a born-again child of God, that you have the Spirit of God on the inside of you, you have a new nature, and it is full of life and full of peace.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a you're doing good one day, you're doing bad the next day.
SPEAKER_02: God's mad at you today, God's happy with you today.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm gonna wake up every day and just declare that God is happy with me today.
SPEAKER_02: The next day, God is happy with me today.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all remember the old, the, I think it was the daisy where you'd pull the leaves and say, He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all remember those days?
unknown: I used to do that with dandelions.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it was.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I stand correct.
SPEAKER_02: It was dandelions.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Instead of saying he loves me, he loves me not, every day you pull those leaves off and you say, He loves me, he loves me, he loves me, he loves me, he doesn't change his mind, he doesn't change his attitude towards me just because I make a mistake or do something I shouldn't do.
SPEAKER_02: God does not change his mind about me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the one who walks away from God, I'm the one who resists him, I'm the one who fails to submit to God, but he does not change his mind about you.
SPEAKER_02: He loves you, he loves you, he loves you.
SPEAKER_02: And he's not going to stop loving you just because you're unlovely.
SPEAKER_02: How lovely do you have to be to get God to love you?
SPEAKER_02: We could never attain that kind of perfection in our own natural ability.
SPEAKER_02: That's why Jesus had to come.
SPEAKER_02: Is because without Him being the sacrifice, there would be no perfection to fulfill the law.
SPEAKER_02: So we couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_02: As good as you might have been, you might be the best person in here in the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: But I like how one preacher says it, who wants to be the best person to go to hell?
SPEAKER_02: Because that's exactly what happens if your nature is in the flesh, is you might be the best person on this earth.
SPEAKER_02: You might give to the poor, you might do all these mighty works for God, but if you don't know him, he'll say, Depart from me, for I never knew you.
SPEAKER_02: But thanks be unto God, if you're a child of God and you've received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, now you can have boldness in the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_02: Confidence on that day that no matter what it looks like in your life, you can walk with boldness, knowing he's in me and he loves me, and he's for me and he's not against me.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I haven't even got off my first page.
SPEAKER_02: We are not sense-led people trying to get to an Almighty God.
SPEAKER_02: We are spirit-led people.
SPEAKER_02: We have to walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
SPEAKER_02: How do you walk?
SPEAKER_02: You walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: How do you walk in the spirit?
SPEAKER_02: You walk according to the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: You yield to the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: If the word says it, then you yield to it.
SPEAKER_02: It might not feel right, it might not feel good, but you do what the word says, and eventually the emotions will start to surface.
SPEAKER_02: You'll start to sense the happiness that you've always wanted.
SPEAKER_02: The joy of the Lord will start to spring up on the inside.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because I'm following through with what the Spirit of God's leading me.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit of God says that wherever He is, there is liberty.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God that we go to a church that's full of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: You know why this church is full of the Spirit of God?
SPEAKER_02: It's because you showed up here.
SPEAKER_02: When I walk in that door in the mornings, the Spirit of God walks in with me.
SPEAKER_02: I bring the Spirit of God wherever I go, and wherever I go, there's freedom.
SPEAKER_02: You can be in a place that's full of darkness, but yet when I walk in, glory to God, there's light.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: When I walk into a store and there's people that are depressed and hurting and deprived and rejected, when I walk in, liberty walks in, freedom walks in.
SPEAKER_02: I have the voice of victory on the inside of me.
SPEAKER_02: There's something on the inside of me that's crying out, Ah, but Father, I love you, Daddy.
SPEAKER_02: Your spirit is reigning supreme on the inside of me, and wherever I go, it just gets all over everybody.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be that kind of person.
SPEAKER_02: When everybody else is frowning, we're smiling.
SPEAKER_02: We got something to say.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: We've got a joy on the inside, and it's working its way out.
SPEAKER_02: And people want to know that what you believe, you really believe.
SPEAKER_02: They want to know it.
SPEAKER_02: They're desperate for a God.
SPEAKER_02: They're desperate to know that there's a way out.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know.
SPEAKER_02: They're hurting, they're broken, they're depressed, they're struggling, but they need to know that the God on the inside of you is greater and more powerful than the darkness inside of them.
SPEAKER_02: Why would they go after a God who couldn't deliver them?
SPEAKER_02: Why would they want a God that couldn't heal them, couldn't set them free?
SPEAKER_02: But thanks be unto God through Jesus Christ, we have that power on the inside of us, and the Bible says that it quickens us.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible, that word quickens means it makes us alive.
SPEAKER_02: So wherever you go, you're no longer dead, and your nature is no longer the devil.
SPEAKER_02: Your nature is now alive in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: You have the Spirit of God on the inside of you.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's hard to believe.
SPEAKER_02: It's almost too good to be true.
SPEAKER_02: It's the gospel, it's the truth.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says it's the truth that will make you free.
SPEAKER_02: Perfect liberty, perfect peace, perfect joy comes through a revelation of I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: The question is, are you looking to Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 12, 2 says, to look unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of your faith.
SPEAKER_02: The answer isn't found in staring harder at ourselves and trying to correct us.
SPEAKER_02: The answer is found in looking unto Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Focus on him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, before we were born again, we were spiritually darkened.
SPEAKER_02: But when we received Christ, he came to dwell on the inside.
SPEAKER_02: We were all made alive.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 5.17 said, Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature.
SPEAKER_02: Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.
SPEAKER_02: God didn't come into your life to simply improve the old you.
SPEAKER_02: He gave us a new life, a new nature, a new identity, a new righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Paul understood this in Galatians 2.20.
SPEAKER_02: He said this, I have been crucified in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is not I that live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_02: It's no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.
SPEAKER_02: That is the number one goal we should have every morning when we wake up and say, I am crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Nevertheless, I live, but not I, but Christ in me.
SPEAKER_02: He is the life on the inside of us.
SPEAKER_02: Paul recognized this: that the old man no longer has the right to define him.
SPEAKER_02: Your sin does not define you.
SPEAKER_02: Your inadequacies do not define you.
SPEAKER_02: That sickness or disease that's trying to attack your body or your mind does not define you, does not have the legal right to do it.
SPEAKER_02: You know what defines you is what Jesus says about you.
SPEAKER_02: And whom the Son has set free is free indeed.
SPEAKER_02: Christ was now Paul's life.
SPEAKER_02: That's why he could say, No longer I that live.
SPEAKER_02: You see, we're supposed to put to death the old man, to throw down the old coat and pick up the new.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: One of the greatest ways the enemy keeps a believer from walking in true freedom is through condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: Condemnation keeps pointing backwards.
SPEAKER_02: Look what you did.
SPEAKER_02: Look what's wrong with you.
SPEAKER_02: Look how badly you failed.
SPEAKER_02: But the gospel says this: look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look unto him.
SPEAKER_02: Condemnation says you're unworthy because you sinned.
SPEAKER_02: Conviction says this, you're too worthy to sin.
SPEAKER_02: There's a difference.
SPEAKER_02: Condemnation keeps your focus on your old nature.
SPEAKER_02: Faith turns your attention to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: The more you focus on your failures, the more conscientious you become on your flesh.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why condemnation worketh death, because it gets your focus off of Jesus and gets It on to self.
SPEAKER_02: And in your own natural ability, you don't have the ability to heal yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have the ability to free yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have the ability to prosper yourself.
SPEAKER_02: But in Christ Jesus, because you're walking according to the Spirit of God, He can take you in a path of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I hope you're getting something out of this.
SPEAKER_02: Eternal life isn't merely something that begins the moment we step from this life to the next.
SPEAKER_02: Eternal life is something we receive the moment we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_02: The moment you become a born-again believer, that's the moment you step into eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: John 17, verse 3 says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus, whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_02: So eternal life begins the moment you receive Jesus as your Lord and your Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Before that, you were eternal.
SPEAKER_02: Your life would be eternal, but it was eternal death.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Thank God for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to wait until you get to heaven to experience his life.
SPEAKER_02: His life is in you right now.
SPEAKER_02: His righteousness is in you right now.
SPEAKER_02: His spirit is in you right now.
SPEAKER_02: His peace is available right now.
SPEAKER_02: You notice I didn't say your peace, because if you're focused on your peace, then it's based on happenings.
SPEAKER_02: It's based on something other than Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But we're not looking for peace out here.
SPEAKER_02: We're looking for peace that's on the inside.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is your peace.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Righteousness is on the inside.
SPEAKER_02: You're not waiting to become spiritually alive.
SPEAKER_02: You have been made alive in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna start wrapping this up this morning because I've got to pray for a few people.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I want to see God set some people free and bring freedom and joy and healing in people's lives.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 3.17 says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
SPEAKER_02: Freedom is not getting what you want, freedom is having the ability to respond according to the Spirit, even when you don't get what you want.
SPEAKER_02: The flesh says this, and I know this is true.
SPEAKER_02: The flesh says, I want my boat.
SPEAKER_02: The flesh says, I have to win this argument.
SPEAKER_02: The spirit says I need to walk in love.
SPEAKER_02: The flesh says, I have to have what I want to be happy.
SPEAKER_02: The spirit says, my joy doesn't come from circumstances, my joy comes from Christ.
SPEAKER_02: True freedom is not when you get what you want.
SPEAKER_02: True freedom is on the inside of you, whether you get what you want or you don't.
SPEAKER_02: So joy and happiness are not the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: Happiness is often connected to circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: You can receive something you wanted and become happy.
SPEAKER_02: Trust me.
SPEAKER_02: It would make me very happy if I won that Powerball.
SPEAKER_02: I would be super happy.
SPEAKER_02: Happiness would be on the uh Richter scale of way up there.
SPEAKER_02: You would hear somebody in Virginia dancing and shouting and running.
SPEAKER_02: But in a moment, that happiness can be ripped from you.
SPEAKER_02: When a bad circumstance happens in your life, you can make more money and think that's going to bring you happiness.
SPEAKER_02: But happiness isn't purchased with money.
SPEAKER_02: Happiness isn't purchased with things.
SPEAKER_02: Happiness is simply focused on yourself and happenings and circumstances happening around you.
SPEAKER_02: Joy, on the other hand, it comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And if the world didn't give it, the world can't take it.
SPEAKER_02: And if my boss didn't give it, then my boss can't take it.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If my job didn't give it to me, then my job can't take it.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: So joy was not something you had to work, earn, or deserve on your own merits.
SPEAKER_02: It came with the package deal of Jesus Christ when he came to dwell on the inside of you.
SPEAKER_02: You have that joy, and it's eternal joy.
SPEAKER_02: It will never leave you, it will never forsake you, it will always be there.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: Eternal joy.
SPEAKER_02: That's why it says the kingdom of heaven is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: Because when the Holy Ghost is in you, guess what you have?
SPEAKER_02: You have peace that passes all understanding, that's able to guard your hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_02: And then you also have joy.
SPEAKER_02: Joy of the Lord is your strength.
SPEAKER_02: You have the joy of the Lord, and it is unlimited joy.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: You have unlimited, unstoppable, eternal joy living on the inside of you, and nothing can take it from you.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says in Psalm 16, 11, in your presence, in your presence is fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_02: And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_02: Joy is not merely an emotional reaction to good circumstances.
SPEAKER_02: Joy is a fruit of living in fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_02: You can be going through something difficult and still have joy.
SPEAKER_02: You can be disappointed and still have peace.
SPEAKER_02: You can be in a trial and still rejoice.
SPEAKER_02: Because your joy isn't dependent on what is happening around you.
SPEAKER_02: Your joy is dependent upon who lives within you.
SPEAKER_02: Christ lives on the inside of me, and guess what?
SPEAKER_02: I can rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said this in Philippians 4, 4, rejoice in the Lord, and then he screams it loud.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not going to do that.
SPEAKER_02: But he goes, Rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And again I say, rejoice.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Paul was in prison when he wrote that.
SPEAKER_02: He was in the lowest part of the dungeon when he wrote that.
SPEAKER_02: He was up to his waist in human feces, up to his waist.
SPEAKER_02: There was mice running around.
SPEAKER_02: There was all kinds of things in that dungeon, but it was not based upon the circumstance he was in.
SPEAKER_02: The joy of the Lord was based on what was on the inside of him.
SPEAKER_02: And if you think you can't make it, all you've got to do is turn back to joy.
SPEAKER_02: Turn back to joy.
SPEAKER_02: Say the joy of the Lord is my strength.
SPEAKER_02: Stopped.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: You guys are good.
SPEAKER_02: Paul went through so many trials and so many temptations and so many situations.
SPEAKER_02: He was thrown in prison, and in prison, him and uh Silas began to sing praises unto God at midnight.
SPEAKER_02: But that wasn't for them to get out of prison.
SPEAKER_02: They weren't worshiping God to get something from God.
SPEAKER_02: They were worshiping God because something on the inside was full of joy, and it was bubbling out of them.
SPEAKER_02: And that joy and that peace that came out of them is what set them free.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And you have that same joy right now.
SPEAKER_02: In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, Paul said this.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm gonna I'm gonna back up and say, Paul was shipwrecked, Paul was beaten, Paul was bitten by a snake.
SPEAKER_02: So many times they put him in prison.
SPEAKER_02: But in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17, it says this Paul said these were light afflictions.
SPEAKER_02: Light afflictions.
SPEAKER_02: Do you notice Paul did not look at problems the way that a lot of other people look at problems?
SPEAKER_02: Paul called all these things to be shipwrecked, bitten by snakes, beaten 39 times, twice.
SPEAKER_02: All these things that happened to Paul, and he called them light afflictions.
SPEAKER_02: Light afflictions, not a big deal.
SPEAKER_02: How did he have that perspective?
SPEAKER_02: Because Paul knew what was on the inside of him.
SPEAKER_02: He knew that he had eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to share something with you that I I um I heard from a minister that studies historians, great historians in biblical times, and he shared about one of the uh rooms as he was on a uh a mission trip, he went to this place where Paul was beheaded.
SPEAKER_02: And in that building, the the guide, the guide was showing them where Paul would have more likely been beheaded, and he would have held on to this pole where the Roman soldiers would have beheaded him.
SPEAKER_02: But the historians of that time record that when Paul knew that it was his time, you remember Paul said this.
SPEAKER_02: He said, you know, it's better for me to stay for you.
SPEAKER_02: But for me, I'm ready to go, right?
SPEAKER_02: So Paul had a heavenly perspective.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't have an earthly perspective, he had an eternal perspective.
SPEAKER_02: So the the guide said, historians record this about Paul, that when he walked through that door, he let go of all the soldiers and he ran to that pole and he embraced it.
SPEAKER_02: He was ready and he wanted to go meet Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Guys, if life is so bad and life is so horrible, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: You still got Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You'll always have Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And as bad as it might get, you can always have that inner joy knowing that I've got Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: People are searching, and I'm gonna end with this.
SPEAKER_02: People are searching after revivals, they're searching after moves of God, they're searching after glory clouds, they're searching after gold dust, they're searching after all these manifestations of the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: When is Jesus not enough?
SPEAKER_02: Why are we searching for more when we have the very life of God on the inside of us?
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to search for manifestations of the Spirit of God because the one who lives on the inside of us is the greatest thing we'll ever need in life.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to have a gold dust party.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm serious, people do this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: We can have a party on the inside because Jesus is dwelling on the inside of us.
SPEAKER_02: We don't need gold dust, we don't need asphalt from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: We got the very life of God on the inside of us, and he gave us everything we will ever, ever need.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is more than enough.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Let's all stand up this morning.
SPEAKER_02: If you're in here this morning and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you haven't come to the knowledge of Jesus in your life, I'm just gonna say this.
SPEAKER_02: That is where true freedom begins, is when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know Him and you would like to become born again and receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you would just step out from where you are and come up here to the front, I want to lead you into a relationship with Jesus where you will receive a new nature, born again in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody?
SPEAKER_02: With all eyes looking around and every head up.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I know this is different for a lot of people, but for me, the Bible does say if you're ashamed of me, I would be ashamed of you.
SPEAKER_02: We shouldn't be ashamed of this.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know Jesus and you want to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, oh my goodness, guys, this is the greatest decision you'll ever make in your life.
SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
SPEAKER_02: We got a church full of people that will just absolutely love you.
SPEAKER_02: We're not gonna condemn you or judge you, but man, we're gonna love you.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna encourage you.
SPEAKER_02: Because this is the most important decision you'll ever make in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Never take it lightly.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't take it lightly when it comes to an altar call because I know how important it is.
SPEAKER_02: Because you don't know who's in here who needs Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I have a few people I would like to pray for.
SPEAKER_02: They had come to us before service and asked for prayer.
SPEAKER_02: And um, the Bible talks about that if any is sick among you, let them call for the elders of the church and let them anoint them with oil, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick.
SPEAKER_02: And we are a church who agrees that healing belongs to us.
SPEAKER_02: Is healing for the church today?
SPEAKER_02: It is.
SPEAKER_02: And um, the enemy wants to keep us focused on the flesh, to keep us focused on what ails us, what hurts us.
SPEAKER_02: But what this does, the anointing, the Bible says, consecrates us, it sets us apart, it gets our focus off of everything else and puts it right back on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He is our healer.
SPEAKER_02: The oil, I'm gonna I'm gonna pray, but the oil is not the healer.
SPEAKER_02: The oil is just an act of obedience.
SPEAKER_02: The healing comes from Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So, um, if I could, can I have a few of my board members please come up here?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And we're all gonna join hands and pray and release the anointing that only comes through Jesus and it destroys the yoke.
SPEAKER_02: It destroys the yoke.
SPEAKER_02: It's an act of faith.
SPEAKER_02: So we want to see you delivered, whatever's going on in your mind.
SPEAKER_02: And whatever demonic things are taking place, we want that gone in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus has defeated every demonic spirit.
SPEAKER_02: There's no demonic spirit powerful than Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So that spirit that tries to hold you down and keep you bound, we're gonna get rid of it.
SPEAKER_02: And that spirit that tries to keep attention on you, we got to get rid of it.
SPEAKER_02: Because the attention doesn't need to be on you, it needs to be on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So we're breaking that spirit who wants to take the attention off of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We're breaking it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And you will be delivered.
SPEAKER_02: But you have to walk in faith and receive it by faith.
SPEAKER_02: So if you guys want to come, we're just gonna anoint her head.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, in the name of Jesus, we thank you that you broke the yoke that holds us bound.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, we deliver the word of life.
SPEAKER_02: And we speak life, peace, joy that only comes through your spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, I thank you that you broke, you broke, you broke the chains that held us bound.
SPEAKER_02: You broke it.
SPEAKER_02: That we have perfect healing, perfect restoration.
SPEAKER_02: And that spirit that tries to hold us down and keep our focus on ourselves is broken in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's broken in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we thank you.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Can you all stretch your hands towards us as we pray?
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that this is finished, it's done, and we receive our victory.
SPEAKER_02: Do you receive this in Jesus' name?
SPEAKER_02: Do you receive it?
SPEAKER_02: Is Jesus your Lord?
SPEAKER_02: Say this out loud.
SPEAKER_02: Say, Jesus is my Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: According to his word, you are healed.
SPEAKER_02: Now we have to submit to righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: We have to submit to him and keep our eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He is the finisher of your faith.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you, sister.
SPEAKER_02: Miss Jericho, can you come up here?
SPEAKER_02: Miss Jericho's having surgery on her shoulder.
SPEAKER_02: And we need this thing repaired, don't we?
SPEAKER_02: And we need quick recovery.
SPEAKER_02: We need that doctor to have an anointing to do this surgery.
SPEAKER_02: And we need this thing to be done.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible talks about things being done decently and in order.
SPEAKER_02: And we need this to take.
SPEAKER_02: And healing that comes, and the doctor's going to be baffled on how quick it is and how how good it is in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: You guys want to lay hands on her too and pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father, in the name of Jesus, we speak healing in the name of Jesus over Jericho's shoulder.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I thank you that you have given the doctors and those who are doing this surgery the wisdom, the knowledge on how to perform this thing.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, they're going to use that knowledge and that wisdom that only comes from you.
SPEAKER_02: And they're going to bring the results necessary to see this thing through in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I thank you, Lord, for speedy recovery.
SPEAKER_02: No fear, no fear, but we have peace and joy.
SPEAKER_02: Even on the operating table, we have that same peace that passes all understanding.
SPEAKER_02: And it guards us and it keeps us.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, I thank you, Father, that the joy of the Lord will be her strength.
SPEAKER_02: And she's going to see victory over the shoulder thing in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, do you guys agree with us?
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, I want y'all to meet our board.
SPEAKER_02: This is Heather, Miss Heather Irwin.
SPEAKER_02: You guys?
SPEAKER_02: And of course you know this guy, Mr.
SPEAKER_02: Bob Sower.
SPEAKER_02: Mark Canada.
unknown: What's his name?
SPEAKER_02: Frank.
SPEAKER_02: Frank Shaw.
SPEAKER_02: And Mr.
SPEAKER_02: Mister Mister Mr Tippy.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, Kendall Tippy.
SPEAKER_02: We love these guys.
SPEAKER_02: He he is he's the one I pick on, so I hope y'all know that.
SPEAKER_02: Uh when I say he's sleeping, I mean it.
SPEAKER_02: But but I'm just saying, you know, he I tell you how much I love him though.
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: Do you have the microphone?
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not.
SPEAKER_02: So you all I've told you before, but what happened one day?
SPEAKER_02: I walk into their house.
SPEAKER_02: They were so gracious.
SPEAKER_02: Him, uh him and Miss Terry was so great, gracious, or she was so gracious, to accept me into their home while I was going back and forth.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't know because he was always working.
SPEAKER_02: This dude works all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Like he he's a hard worker.
SPEAKER_02: And I would, I would, I would wake up in the morning, he was gone.
SPEAKER_02: Like four or five o'clock in the morning, he was already gone.
SPEAKER_02: And then I'd come home, come home at night, and he was gone.
SPEAKER_02: And he would, he'd come, and then one night, for some reason, I walk in and he's standing there at the door and he's looking at me, and I'm looking at him, and he goes, I bet you're getting fat.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, we taught, we've we've crossed paths maybe three or four times, and the first thing you say to me is, I must be getting fat.
SPEAKER_02: I knew what he was saying because I'd been meeting everybody and eating, and you know, and I have gained weight.
SPEAKER_02: But, but I said, Well, at least sleep, at least I don't sleep in church.
SPEAKER_02: So I, so, so I was gonna go one day and I was gonna get him one of those Snuggies and put our life family logo on it and give it to him as a as a present.
SPEAKER_00: I should be comfortable out there.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: No, but I I think so much of him and these guys that I would I I love these guys.
SPEAKER_02: Like anything we have decisions on, we we really pray about and we really love you guys and the decisions we make as a body, as a church, as a board, uh, we really do care about this church and the condition of this church.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you guys to give it up to these guys.
SPEAKER_02: And if you have problems with me, go to these guys.
SPEAKER_02: No, but I do I love these guys so much.
SPEAKER_02: And when I met them almost a year ago, I well it was actually a year ago, I met these guys, and I knew from the moment I met them, this is my place.
SPEAKER_02: I love these people.
SPEAKER_02: Like this is my home.
SPEAKER_02: I know this.
SPEAKER_02: And they were they just accompany the the spirit of this body, and it's just it's just awesome.
SPEAKER_02: I love these guys.
SPEAKER_02: So thank you all for everything you do.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Give it up to our board.
SPEAKER_02: Anything else?
SPEAKER_02: Do you have any announcements?
SPEAKER_02: Anything else?
SPEAKER_02: Now I will say about the men's breakfast or the men's event.
SPEAKER_02: Even if you're not going to camp out, will you please sign up?
SPEAKER_02: That way we'll know how many hot dogs and how many biscuits and all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02: So if you are just gonna come for breakfast, let us know.
SPEAKER_02: Or if you're just gonna come for hot dogs, let us know.
SPEAKER_02: But like Mr.
SPEAKER_02: Frank said the other day, come on, guys.
SPEAKER_02: You can make it through the night in a tent.
SPEAKER_02: You can do it.
SPEAKER_02: So come on out.
SPEAKER_02: We want to have a good time and enjoy fellowship with each other.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: What?
SPEAKER_02: You and Heather?
SPEAKER_02: Tiff, my wife and Heather are making us breakfast that morning, and Lynn's making gravy.
SPEAKER_02: So, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what else to say other than you are the righteousness of Christ, of God in Christ Jesus, and no weapon formed against you shall prosper.
SPEAKER_02: And every tongue that rises up against you in judgment, thou shalt condemn.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the inheritance of those who are children of God, and we declare it by faith that I am a child of God.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: God bless you.
SPEAKER_02: We will see you Wednesday night, or I won't, but you will see us Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_01: We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out your faith.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week.