Speaker 1: 0:07

Getting on with it. One of the topics that has been sticking with me lately is well, you read in Romans it says the wage of sin is death. Oh, but I'm saved. You know what? More and more as I read the Word, which I do try to do it every day, more and more as I read the Word, which I do try to do it every day, more and more as I read the Word, I realize that you saying I'm saved just isn't enough. It's just not enough.

Speaker 1: 0:38

I know a lot of bad people that say they're saved, and I would imagine everybody here, if they would put their head down, could mumble a few words. Some of you might be able to put your head down and mumble a whole chapter of words, but there's something about a Christian that has allowed the Spirit of Jesus Christ that is given to you an unmerited gift. If you say you believe, and you really believe, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Why then do I still choose to sin? Why, but we all do. We're all sinners saved by grace. But that's where the grace comes in. The first scripture I'm going to share with you is Philippians, chapter 3, verses 4 through 14. I want to set this up, because the next time somebody asks you how's your soul, how is it with your soul, I want you to realize what it is they're asking you and what it means to get right with God. The people that say the how is it with your soul? Are the same people that say you need to get right with God. The people that say the how is it with your soul? Are the same people that say you need to get right with God. And you'll find those people down south. Usually you don't hear that a lot up here, but if you travel to the south, the three things you hear how is it with your soul, have you gotten right with God? Bless your heart. And when I learned that bless your heart was a negative thing when I was stationed in Mississippi, it was pretty negative Because every time something happened, somebody would say Bless your heart, and that meant my heart was going the wrong way. I never knew that. But now when somebody says bless your heart, most of the time it means they disagree with what you just said, but they're going to be polite. Bless your heart. And when I found that out I thought man, good thing I didn't stay in the South, especially the way I've grown to the day.

Speaker 1: 2:39

But Philippians 3, 4 through 14 says yet I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. This is Paul speaking, because he's allowed his spirit and his soul to come together and behave in a way that Jesus would have wanted him to behave. Now, yes, something did happen to him. That was a little more than most of us, and some of us have had things happen to us that make us realize that God really wants us to listen. God had to strike Paul blind, put him in a room and make him wait for somebody that was afraid of him. Come and remove that blindness. But if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more. Paul knew that he was trying hard to be like Jesus and to do what he was called to do, for I was circumcised when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish family that is a branch of the tribe of Benjamin. So I am a real Jew, if there ever was one.

Speaker 1: 3:52

See, we're Jewish, but we're adopted into the Jewish faith. We celebrate Easter at the same time the Jewish people celebrate Passover. That's not a coincidence. Jewish people celebrate Passover. That's not a coincidence when we celebrate Easter, for instance, in the Seder meal, we will leave a chair covered in white empty. That's the chair for Jesus. Well, the Jewish haven't met him yet. They will. That's a promise, they will. That's a promise, they will.

Speaker 1: 4:28

What's more, I was a member of the Pharisees who demanded the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. What did Jesus say? I didn't come to abolish the law, I came to fulfill the law. So, in other words, all the Christians running around thinking I don't have to obey, they misunderstood what Jesus said. He didn't come to abolish, he fulfilled it so that we can live it, not so we can throw it out and keep doing everything that we want to do. I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law, and zealous Paul was called a zealot because he even killed Christians for their non-belief, for their heresy. Yes, in fact, I harshly persecuted the church and I obeyed the Jewish law so carefully that I was never accused of any fault. Paul was never had a problem, was never accused, until he started to believe and claim Jesus as Lord. Then he was stoned and left for dead. He was imprisoned more than once. He was treated like a dog after he believed in Jesus, but yet he still lived by the laws that he knew God had called him to.

Speaker 1: 5:54

I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage. So that I may have Christ and become one with Him, his soul, his flesh, he needs to behave in a way that it becomes one with the Word of God. Jesus declared he was the Word. So since he was the Word for Paul to come one with the word of God, jesus declared he was the word. So since he was the word for Paul to come one with him, he had to live a life of obedience to everything that Christ had called him to, not just what he chose to, but everything. You cannot pick and choose the things that God has declared sin. You can't love what God hates. You can love the people, but the sin is out there. It cannot be loved.

Speaker 1: 7:04

I no longer count on my own goodness or my ability to obey God's law, but I trust Christ to save me. Where is Christ when you're a Christian, that gift of the Holy Spirit is in you. Part of you is with Christ. So why does the flesh have so much ability to pull us aside? For God's way of making us right with himself depends on our faith. As a result, I can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I can learn what it means to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that somehow I can experience the resurrection from the dead. I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection, but I keep working toward that day when I finally, finally, will be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing forgetting the past. That's very hard to do.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. The devil wants you to believe that that past that you're trying to forget, that you hate, that makes you sad, that makes you depressed. The devil wants you to believe it's coming right back. You know, friends, it can come back, but you have the power to deny its power. You have the power within you to deny the hatred. It makes you feel the anger that it makes you feel the doubt, the fear. You have the power, because every one of those things is the opposite of faith. You have to have faith in Jesus Christ that dwells within you. But, forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. The end of the race is not going to come. Those battles will not end until Christ comes back and takes us home. That's what that is saying. He's calling us up to heaven. How do we get to heaven? We believe in Jesus Christ. But when you believe in Jesus Christ, then you have to learn how to decipher what it is that causes you to be more like Christ.

Speaker 1: 10:01

You ever known anybody that fakes? I can't say I was a faker when I was younger, but I tried too hard. I tried way too hard. I tried way too hard. I wanted everybody to see me as that holy, holy person that loved them on Sundays. I wanted everybody to see me that I'm the one that does what God tells me to do. Now you all know me 14 years. I'm not the one that always does what God wants me to do. I'm not, but I try.

Speaker 1: 10:36

If you believe in Jesus Christ, don't stop trying, because he's in there to empower you. He said I will give you strength in your weakness. What's your weakness? Look around. People Walk out the back door. Walk out the front door and look around. There's weakness Because there is no God in the hearts of the people that are destroying our nation and world. They might have a God, but it's not the right God. Might be money, might be Allah. Might be Allah. It might be Buddha, all of those things, but the one guarantee we have is our God has an empty grave. He rose to life and he lives within us. So what do we have to do? In Hebrews 4, 12-13 it says For the word of God is full of living power. Anybody here ever feel powerless? You ever feel like I just can't take it. The world has too much. Last night I had a feeling like that.

Speaker 1: 11:45

My grandkids were playing soccer between me and the bathroom. Whew, I had to pee. Well, I didn't want to interrupt their soccer game. For the first time, they were loving each other and having fun. They weren't yelling at each other, poking and picking. And don't tell me that your grandkids don't poke and pick at each other. You're a liar, because I've never seen a grandkid that don't when you turn your back, poke and pick and everything, but don't get between grandpa and the bathroom. But I had the power of God in me. I didn't go in my pants and I made it. I waited. I knew they'd take a break soon. I watched Davion sweating man. Was he sweating? I'm like man. They're working hard at that soccer game to work up a sweat like that.

Speaker 1: 12:39

If we could only serve Jesus with that same intent and purpose. That's our job. We need to teach our children how to do it. But anyway, that living power is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. That's our flesh. That's our flesh. The Word of God is the sword of faith. It's the sword, it's the only offensive weapon and it's sharp enough. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Friends, I don't worry about y'all, what you think of me and everything else, but I do concern myself. I don't worry because I'm not to be worried about anything, but I am concerned at times that I do get a little too raw sometimes. That doesn't mean I don't love Jesus. Even in the hardest and toughest times of my life I never turned my back on Jesus Christ. I might have had some troubles and people looked at me and said how can he still be saying he's a Christian? Look what they're doing to him. You know what? Jesus never betrayed me, nor forsook me. He said he wouldn't leave me or forsake me. I had to get myself together, my flesh, my soul, and get it back in line with Jesus Christ. I've got a bunch more scriptures but I'm going to cut to the chase now because we have to do communion.