SPEAKER_00: You can just do that sitting down.
SPEAKER_00: Just grab your Bible, maybe put it close to your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And let's say this together.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, you have my attention.
SPEAKER_00: I'm standing at attention on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to receive your word and have it engrafted in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And obey and be a doer of that word.
SPEAKER_00: And not just a hearer only.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a doer.
SPEAKER_00: You're a can-do God, and I'm a can-do person, and I follow you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a man or a woman after your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I am just so grateful and thankful tonight for the anointing and to get this opportunity to preach and to share what God has in store in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And I just uh this morning the Holy Spirit zapped me in that baptismal in the pool.
SPEAKER_00: And uh that was just an awesome service.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, he's calling us to greater things, amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be even thicker and even greater.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, uh when we're not focused on the promotion, it's not about us, it's about him.
SPEAKER_00: And then his spirit can move.
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't get anywhere if you're not desiring spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: So I just encourage you to desire spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: Desire and uh, and then he can use you, amen.
SPEAKER_00: When you stay humble, when you stay teachable, when you stay in a in a where you're listening for his voice, amen.
SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to preach a message entitled Reflecting God's Character.
SPEAKER_00: Reflecting God's Character.
SPEAKER_00: And I just uh something that the Lord's been dealing with me about um really since about Monday of this week.
SPEAKER_00: I started in James, uh just studying the book of James.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but I'm gonna start actually starting Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 1.26.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, Let us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, make mankind in our image after our likeness.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who's running scripture, but I'm in the Amplified Classic in Genesis 1.26.
SPEAKER_00: Is that you, Miss Nancy, up there?
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Miss Nancy.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you uh think that Miss Nancy could use a break every now and then?
SPEAKER_00: And you would be willing to go up there and press some buttons.
SPEAKER_00: It's just really simple, like putting scriptures up.
SPEAKER_00: And uh maybe Miss Nancy can get some time to sit with her wonderful husband, brother Bill, back there.
SPEAKER_00: Bill doesn't have to sit by himself every service.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, God said, Let us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, make mankind in our image, after our likeness, and let them have complete authority.
SPEAKER_00: And he named some things, right, over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the tame beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.
SPEAKER_00: So God created man in his own image, and the image and likeness of God, he created him, male and female, he created them.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how many of you see male and female, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've we corrected that lie right away.
SPEAKER_00: But you were made, I was made, we were made in God's image.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look that up in his likeness, uh, it means that we were created to resemble him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you resemble him?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have his attitude?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have his character on the inside of you?
SPEAKER_00: You do, amen.
SPEAKER_00: You might not be walking in the fullness that thereof, but you do.
SPEAKER_00: So God created you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not an accident, uh, you're not an afterthought.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and you were you've been fearfully and wonderfully made for great things.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, this church is right on the precipice.
SPEAKER_00: Like we, like things are going so fast.
SPEAKER_00: We're living in the last days, and it seems like there's an acceleration of time.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that it's not just me, I know that you feel that.
SPEAKER_00: And God has great things in store for us as a church.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I thought it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: My dad preached all about the different anointings.
SPEAKER_00: The anointing within, the anointing upon, and then the corporate anointing.
SPEAKER_00: And the core have you noticed that the corporate anointing has gotten greater?
SPEAKER_00: See, you you teach what you want to see, you know, and so he the more he teaches us, the more we come up to the next level in God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were created to resemble God.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh, if we'll just turn to James chapter 1, um, I'm just gonna start at the beginning, and I'm doing something kind of confusing I've never done.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read it out of the Amplified, but I want to look at my notes in the New King James.
SPEAKER_00: So this will be interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It says that James, a servant of God of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes uh scattered abroad, greetings.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any kind, of any sort, or fall into various temptations.
SPEAKER_00: So temptations and trials, that's the same Greek word in the King James, and it means trial of man's integrity, virtue, or constancy.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, consistency.
SPEAKER_00: Uh your ability to stay constant for God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's what tests and trials come.
SPEAKER_00: They try to distract you, they try to test your consistency.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh James is telling us to be wholly joyful.
SPEAKER_00: Count it all joy, in other words, right?
SPEAKER_00: Be assured, verse 3, and understand that the trial and proving of your faith brings out endurance, steadfastness, and patience.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I forgot the last most important uh definition of the word trial, and that means rebellion against God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's about to tell us this, but God never sends the trial.
SPEAKER_00: He never sends evil, he's incapable of sending evil your way.
SPEAKER_00: Does he allow things to happen?
SPEAKER_00: He allows everything to happen.
SPEAKER_00: He allows what we allow, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so the trials and temptations really is the definition rebellion against God by which his power and justice are, as it were, put to the proof and challenged to show themselves.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, uh you're showing basically the faithfulness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Your rebellion is going against the faithfulness of God, in other words.
SPEAKER_00: And so, um, and we're gonna read that here in a second, but I just wanted to encourage you first, in 2 Peter 2 9, it says, Now, if all these things are true, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of all temptations and trials.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's the same Greek word, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the day of judgment and doom.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the godly, he knows how to rescue every time.
SPEAKER_00: He's you he's our rescuer.
SPEAKER_00: He is a right now present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And you, man, you made a mistake or you feel overwhelmed in whatever you're facing.
SPEAKER_00: God is right here, right now, and he's not forgotten the recipe for rescue.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And he sends the Holy Spirit, who's not afraid of he's got pit experience, and he gets down in the pit with you.
SPEAKER_00: I like how Pastor Mark uh uh words that, you know, and he grabs you by the elbows and he yanks you back up and he sets you on a firm foundation, amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, you know, it's time to recognize.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: I forgot uh my number one.
SPEAKER_00: I had points.
SPEAKER_00: My number one was always remember you were created to resemble him.
SPEAKER_00: And my number two is recognize the trial.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, identify it, identify the temptation, identify that test, identify that trial, and speak to it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus, uh, who is this man that even the wind and the waves obey him?
SPEAKER_00: Remember that story?
SPEAKER_00: And he calms the wind and the waves with his words.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the whole point of that story is that we have the same authority.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just uh we read in Genesis about how God gave us authority.
SPEAKER_00: And so what are we doing with that authority?
SPEAKER_00: You recognize when you're in a trial and and uh and speak to that temptation, test, or trial.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and now we're gonna go back uh to James chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna pick it up in verse four.
SPEAKER_00: But let or allow uh endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play to do a thorough work so that you may be people perfectly and fully developed with no defects.
SPEAKER_00: It says, with no defects.
SPEAKER_00: I said, with no defects, you do not have defects.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You're fearfully and wonderfully made, but when we allow the process of whatever we're going through to build endurance, steadfastness, and patience, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna end up lacking in nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It says it right here.
SPEAKER_00: It says it right here in James.
SPEAKER_00: James is telling us, and so uh at practice on Thursday night, Carol was was telling a story and she got to preaching, and she was talking about fruit and how you know uh some people allow their fruit and their lives to uh to sour and then they're bitter, and then you can see it in their countenance, and you can see it in their actions, and she got stuck on patience, uh, which really means long suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Where's the long suffering?
SPEAKER_00: Where did it go?
SPEAKER_00: And so um we must number three allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: If we're reflecting, we're we're looking into God's word and we're reflecting his character back into us.
SPEAKER_00: That's where this whole chapter is going.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we're building up to the towards the end of the chapter tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted you to see the context of it because it matters.
SPEAKER_00: Context matters in the Bible, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so it started out with trials, then we're gonna talk about wisdom next, and then we're gonna eventually get there where we're looking into the word of God and we're reflecting his character.
SPEAKER_00: We can find anything that you need, any answer that you need is right here in the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible's uh uh teaching us and talking to God's talking to us right through his word.
SPEAKER_00: The entrance of his word brings light, it brings revelation, and it changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: But if we're not allowing the fruit of the Spirit to operate in our life, what are the nine fruits of the Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: I named them this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see if I can do it again.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't uh you know you gotta go back to children's church.
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, good, uh, goodness, wait, uh, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: See, I got it.
SPEAKER_00: I almost forgot faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Almost had to go back.
SPEAKER_00: You think Allison would let me come back?
SPEAKER_00: Been to camps, been to kids' camp, but not uh not back to children's church.
SPEAKER_00: But she does a wonderful job back there.
SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, uh we allowing the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience.
SPEAKER_00: So patience is number four, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we preach about love all the time, but who teaches on patience, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Uh give it to me, give me patience, Lord, give it to me right now.
SPEAKER_00: And no, it's it's it's it's to grow, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh we need to allow it to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And uh when you go through things, it creates grit.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what Pastor Mark said was the Texas version of faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: The Texas definition of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I like that.
SPEAKER_00: Um true grit.
SPEAKER_00: It's true faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so um let's move on.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and verse five, if any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God who gives to everyone liberally.
SPEAKER_00: That means generously, for political reasons, we'll just change it to generously and ungrudgingly.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the liberals like they're not generous with their money, they like to use somebody else's money, right?
SPEAKER_00: So they're not the definition of generous.
SPEAKER_00: But everyone uh who gives to everyone generously and ungrudgingly without reproach or fault finding, and it will be given him.
SPEAKER_00: So uh notice the context that wisdom is needed in order to confront those trials and those temptations that you might find yourself in.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom gives you a strategy, and it's a it's a it's a biblical, godly strategy straight from heaven that can guide you out of any mess.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so you need that wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the context of where we're headed, but I wanted to uh point something out to you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the word reproach.
SPEAKER_00: Reproach means that God's not standing there saying, you don't deserve this, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He's when he sees you, he sees you already perfected through the blood of his son, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so God's that God's not standing there saying that you're not worthy, you're unworthy, you're you're you don't deserve this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He's willingly giving you wisdom, but what do you have to do?
SPEAKER_00: It's up to you.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta ask.
SPEAKER_00: So you gotta ask.
SPEAKER_00: But when you ask, again, we're gonna keep going, verse 6, only it must be in faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: That we ask.
SPEAKER_00: It says he, just just in case the basics here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the word he, if you were to look it up in the Greek, is mankind, and it does uh capture men and women.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just just being clear, you know, because people really like, especially right now, all over Instagram, they're taking these scriptures out of context, and that's one of the things they do is try to use men and women, like the Bible wasn't written to women or something.
SPEAKER_00: Um, is that the reason why that women have less wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just playing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joke, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody laughed.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so uh so only it must be in faith that that he asked with no wavering.
SPEAKER_00: There's no wavering allowed, right?
SPEAKER_00: No hesitating, no doubting.
SPEAKER_00: For the one who wavers hesitates and doubts, is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind.
SPEAKER_00: Even the amplified classic brings up the hiters and thiters.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: But uh I'm telling you, we it must we must be in faith, not wavering, not going back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because uh for truly let us not such a person imagine that he will receive anything he asks for from the Lord, in other words, a wavering person, you know, for being as he is a man of two minds.
SPEAKER_00: A wavering person is a man with two minds, hesitating, dubious, and is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, and decides.
SPEAKER_00: You know, have you ever wavered on a on a decision?
SPEAKER_00: We waver all the time in very minor decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Um, hey, what do you want to eat?
SPEAKER_00: And we'll start on a restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: But first, we've like talked about 50 other places to go.
SPEAKER_00: And um sometimes I forget where we landed.
SPEAKER_00: So like five minutes goes by, and I think that we decided on something else.
SPEAKER_00: And no, we already talked about it.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to such and oh, okay, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot.
SPEAKER_00: When you waver, that's what it means.
SPEAKER_00: It it makes you unstable in everything.
SPEAKER_00: And um, and that's a minor decision, right?
SPEAKER_00: But but everything.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, it is major, but uh no, God does care where you eat, where you're going.
SPEAKER_00: Um, God might have a waiter or a waitress that he's lined up for you to witness to, to say something to.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it it does matter where we where we eat.
SPEAKER_00: We uh we ate at Lubi's a couple two or three weeks ago, and we don't ever go to Lubi's.
SPEAKER_00: We decided to go to Lubi's, and one of our members was our waitress, uh Roslyn, yeah, Roslyn.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and we had a great conversation, we got to hear her testimony, and it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: So um, anyways, God does care about the little details, right?
SPEAKER_00: But uh, but it but when we uh are wavering, we're hesitating, we're we're doubting, we're um, and it makes us uncertain.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're certain when we when we apply faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is our certainty, right?
SPEAKER_00: Faith is our certainty.
SPEAKER_00: So remember, number four, remember your faith is in the giver of all wisdom, and there's no wavering allowed.
SPEAKER_00: So your faith is not in your IQ, it's not in your education, it's not in your brain cells, but your faith is in the one that made all wisdom, that created everything.
SPEAKER_00: And he is, he can give you the answer to anything you're facing.
SPEAKER_00: But he speaks to us through his word, and so you're gonna find that answer.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna find wisdom by asking and receiving it in faith, but it's gonna be delivered through his word.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to you in his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're ignoring him, or you know, to ignore your prayer closet, to ignore your prayer time is to ignore God.
SPEAKER_00: It's ignoring the his voice in your life, and that's why it's so important to put him first and put this uh your your Bible reading, put it first.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know like growing up, I used to read my Bible at night, and I'm telling you, I remember when I've switched because I've always been a morning person, anyways, and so for the most part, and uh, you know, I used to wake up really early for all kinds of reasons, fishing, and every hobby that I've ever done is early in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: So um, so just I I started prioritizing waking up early and reading the Bible, and God speaking to me early in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: And there's something about even before the sun comes up, and uh and I've I've found a place that he just speaks to me.
SPEAKER_00: He can speak to me anywhere, but um I have a certain place that I go that he speaks to me.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so that's precious to me.
SPEAKER_00: Find that place for you, find your prayer closet.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and like I said, he can speak to you anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: You can go on down the road, he can sure speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just saying, when it's special, when you've lined it up, when you've prioritized it, um, his voice and his leading and the unction of the Holy Ghost is easier to feel, right?
SPEAKER_00: And to and to follow, rather.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's skip down to verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation.
SPEAKER_00: So um that word trial is obviously the same Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: For when he has stood the test and has been approved, he will receive the victor's crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to encourage you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: If you're tempted to lie down in the middle of what you're going through and give up and suck your thumb and crawl into the fetal position in a corner, I just encourage you to stand up.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm reading it out of the Amplified Classic.
SPEAKER_00: I love the way it stand up under pressure, under temptation, under tests, under trials.
SPEAKER_00: Get under it, and then you can push it off of you and receive, you know, there's a reward coming.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reward.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, when we when we you can you can have, I mean, the victor's crown obviously is in heaven, but there's obedience pays good now.
SPEAKER_00: The the effects of obedience in your life, um, and obeying him and allowing the fruits of the spirit to be grown in your life, to allow patience to grow when you're facing things, the evidence of that comes out now.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so um stand up under it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give in to it, don't lay down and don't go back to sleep, don't try to escape it.
SPEAKER_00: Um face it and face it with faith.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I'm tempted from God.
SPEAKER_00: We covered this already, but here it is in his text.
SPEAKER_00: For God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil, and he himself tempts no one.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just the just you know, the the curly hair people.
SPEAKER_00: He just tempts, no, he he tempts no one.
SPEAKER_00: But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed, and baited by his own.
SPEAKER_00: Where so where does the temptation come from?
SPEAKER_00: By his own evil desire, lust, or passions.
SPEAKER_00: So, and it says every person is tempted.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus was tempted, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we know Jesus is tempted, then every single one of us face faces temptation, faces trials, faces uh circumstances, uh, but speak to that circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: So number five is answer that temptation, which we kind of said was going back to verse two.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sorry, number two of my points.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but answer that temptation, speak to it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had an answer right out of the word for every single temptation that the devil threw his way, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you don't know the word, if it's not in you, then you won't have it when temptation comes.
SPEAKER_00: So uh in in Psalms it says, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so um we have to hide the word in our heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so emergency tongues, it they they it's better than nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It does work.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you realize if you're prepared for the day of battle, you're gonna win every time?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're prayed up and you've seen through the eyes of faith, and you know what's coming, and the Holy Spirit's on the inside of you in full operation and showing you things to come, then you're able to make those maneuvers and have the victory every time.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Then the evil desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully matured, brings forth death.
SPEAKER_00: So do not be dis uh do not be misled.
SPEAKER_00: Uh for every good gift, verse 17, and every perfect, free, large, full gift is from where?
SPEAKER_00: It's from above.
SPEAKER_00: Every good gift.
SPEAKER_00: So, so God doesn't hand out the temptations, he's handing out the good gifts, right?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: In context, right?
SPEAKER_00: So uh we like to use this scripture for all kinds of things, and you don't really see the context.
SPEAKER_00: But right now, it's it within context, you see that God is not the giver of temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he's the giver of free, large, full gifts from above.
SPEAKER_00: It comes down from the Father of all that gives light, in the shining of whom there can be no variation, no rising or setting or shadow cast by his turning, as in an eclipse.
SPEAKER_00: There is no darkness, there's only light.
SPEAKER_00: And there's only his glory, there's only his presence, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: He only gives good gifts, right?
SPEAKER_00: So God is a good gift giver.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we need to receive those gifts, right?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, as it was his own free will that he gave us his birth uh by his word of truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, a sample of what he created to be consecrated, we're set apart for doing his work, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're set apart to himself, all for him.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you get to a place where you've received uh the free gifts that he's giving us, and that you live your life completely and totally for him, you're done being selfish, you're done being living for yourself, you're done living for sin, and you're living to glorify him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And then he's able to use you for do great things.
SPEAKER_00: Understand this, my beloved brethren.
SPEAKER_00: Let every man be quick to hear, a ready listener, slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry.
SPEAKER_00: For man's anger does not promote the righteousness of God or his wishes or his requirements, what he requires.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh your anger does nothing uh to promote God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Your anger, your anger, your explosions, you put your fist through the wall, or you know, you completely lose it, you completely go berserk, you you know, you could you just go off.
SPEAKER_00: That has nothing to do with promoting the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh James is telling us to get rid of that.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 21, so get rid of all uncleanness and wickedness, and in a humble, gentle, modest spirit, receive and welcome the word which implanted and rooted in your hearts contains the power to save your souls.
SPEAKER_00: So when you get rid of that, when you get rid of your flesh, when you get rid of all the things that are causing you to be tempted, causing you to be uh to go through trials and tribulations, um, then you can receive with a gentle and modest spirit and welcome the word, which implanted and rooted in your hearts, is a it has the power to save your souls.
SPEAKER_00: That's where your power comes from, from the word of God that's rooted in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So number six is to plant God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Plant God's word, and you're gonna have a mighty harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you're gonna have a mighty harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And so in then verse 22, it says, but be doers of the word.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, yes, we're doers of the whole word, right?
SPEAKER_00: But we can only really be doers of the word that's been engrafted into our hearts from the previous verse.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: The word that is planted in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Be a doer of that word.
SPEAKER_00: Obey the message and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves into deception by reasoning contrary to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a whole uh section of Christianity that they're not rooted and grounded in truth.
SPEAKER_00: And they're able to be deceived and they're walking in deception.
SPEAKER_00: It's really from a lack of God's word in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so that's why it's so important for us every time.
SPEAKER_00: We have the word and the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We have a balance here.
SPEAKER_00: So we're teaching you the word, and some people, and I'm not, I'm not preaching to y'all right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about other people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they they show up at church just to check the box.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm telling you, if you'll be faithful to water the word in your life.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's not good enough just to hear it once.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the word that we heard this morning, you should go back and listen to it again and water it.
SPEAKER_00: Go through uh the book of what is it, Numbers 23 and 24?
SPEAKER_00: Pastor gave us some homework this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I believe that's what the homework was.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not looking at my homework, you know, my notes, but all of us this week, we should go back and we should read that.
SPEAKER_00: We should be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, my pastor gave me an assignment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not too busy for that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make some time right now and I'm gonna do my homework, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I'm telling you, if if uh if you are facing the worst cancer in the world and you went to the doctor, you'd probably do what the doctor said to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, all the time we're facing these circumstances, and we come to church, and our pastor tells us exactly what we need to do for the situation to turn around, and we treat it like it's nothing, and we walk, oh well, we went to church, that's time to eat, let's go eat.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't do, we're not doers of the word.
SPEAKER_00: We don't, we don't take that.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: You are speaking to me, Holy Spirit, this morning, and I take this word, and I'm faithful to water this word into my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I'm a faithful doer of your word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, and then your confession matches, uh, it backs up the things that you've learned, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so, if you want to be deceived, if you want to walk in in ignorance, then ignore the word.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to go far, if you want to be a doer of the word, then then God is going to do great things through you and for you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just about you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people get so uh selfish, they just think that the word is all about them.
SPEAKER_00: You're you know, you your kids, you've got to be able to witness to them, and that you're gonna do that with the word of God in your heart, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna do that out of your uh experience with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a much bigger the word experience, but we used to have that bumper like you know, the experience Jesus, license break frames.
SPEAKER_00: But we know it's a lot bigger than an experience, but it has to start with an experience, and uh and it grows from there.
SPEAKER_00: And so don't allow the devil to lie to you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow uh the you know, oh, I'm just too busy.
SPEAKER_00: No, be faithful for over the watering process in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: If any if anyone only listens to the word without obeying it, it is and being a doer of it, he he is like a man who looks carefully at his own natural face in the mirror, for he thoughtfully observes himself and though then goes off and promptly forgets what he looks like.
SPEAKER_00: But he who looks carefully, everybody say carefully, into the faultless law, the law of liberty, and is faithful to do it, and perse uh perseveres in looking into it, uh, being not a heedless, that means thoughtless or inconsiderate listener, who forgets, but an active doer who obeys, he shall be blessed in his doing, his life of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm telling you, when we're doers of the word, uh we it, you know, we're not gonna forget what we look like.
SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot a lot of Christians right now are going through an identity crisis.
SPEAKER_00: And God's word tells us exactly who we are, it gives us our purpose, it gives us the plan for our life, especially the rhema word.
SPEAKER_00: When he speaks, when when the the words that you're reading jump right out of the page and right into your spirit, and that's a rhema word that changes your whole destiny, that changes the whole trajectory that you are aiming towards.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm telling you, if you ignore that, and if you you know, I'm just too busy, and and you let, you know, okay, don't read your Bible for a day, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And then one day turns into two, turns into a week, turns into three weeks, turns into three months, and man, you're off.
SPEAKER_00: You're missing it.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm never, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly uh someone can get off.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take much, it doesn't take long, and it doesn't take, I'm not exempt.
SPEAKER_00: If I didn't read my Bible, I would get off.
SPEAKER_00: If your pastor didn't read his Bible, he would get off.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and so let's stay on course, let's stay on track, and let's, you know, when we look into God's word, he reveals to us exactly who we are.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're we're not able to forget.
SPEAKER_00: Um and and we're plugging it in and we're being doers of it and we're being obedient to it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh so to look, um, but he who looks carefully, I know uh 1 Peter 5, 7 says to cast all your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you, and we've done that, but man, when you pick up what God cares about instead, right?
SPEAKER_00: When you look carefully into his faultless law, when you look carefully into his word, and that word look, when you look it up in the Greek, it means to stoop to a thing in order to look at it, to look at it with your head bowed forward.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in other words, number seven, surrender to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Bow down to God's word, honor God's word, in other words, but surrender to it, surrender your life to it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it doesn't take long to be to create a habit, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um if if you'll read God's word every day, and you then you'll start craving it.
SPEAKER_00: Then you'll start wanting more and more of it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we were really late a couple weeks ago for work because I I went out on the porch and I didn't I didn't take a watch, I didn't take my phone, and finally at like 8:30, Selena's like, are we ever gonna make it into church today?
SPEAKER_00: And I oh yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I got ready really quick.
SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, um I you could just get lost in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And that can happen when you're craving the word, you just want more and more of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so surrender to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: You know, 2 Corinthians 3, 17, real quick, if you'll turn there.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3.17.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna uh as you do that though, I want to go back and read the law of liberty.
SPEAKER_00: The law of liberty in verse 25 of what we just read.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tie that into 2 Corinthians 3.17.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Emancipation from bondage and freedom.
SPEAKER_00: So in in the Greek, that word liberty means uh true liberty is living as we should, not as we please.
SPEAKER_00: So that is the liberty he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The law of liberty, both where we where we started reading in James and this one here too, verse 18, 2 Corinthians 3, 18.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us, as with unveiled face, because we continued to behold in the Word of God, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, the His manifested presence comes when we're staring at His Word like a mirror, and it's and it reflects back into us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep reading, our constantly being transfigured into his very own image in ever-increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So it comes, it's greater.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you study the word, he's revealing himself, and it's his glory, it's his manifested presence.
SPEAKER_00: It gets on you, it gets in you, it comes out in your countenance.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's no sad Holy Ghost, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you get filled with the Spirit again, and you keep getting filled, and you keep getting filled, and you're not ignoring your prayer closet, and you're and you're praying and you're receiving, and God's speaking, and you're not just writing it down, you're a doer of it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're plugging it in.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, uh right now in your wallet, there could be hundred dollar bills, one after another.
SPEAKER_00: You could have a thousand, two thousand, you could have five thousand dollars on you, but that's not gonna do you any good until you go to spend it, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then you exchange that money, and it's the same thing, you gotta have it in you.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta have God's word in you in order to give it out, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so allow that to happen.
SPEAKER_00: Allow God to speak to you and through you, and allow his character to reflect out of his word and into you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And then you can do greater things, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um, looking into a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, guys, we don't spend a whole lot of time looking in a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: I know uh in uh I miss, I'm I'm shaving in the mirror and I'll miss a spot every now and then because the lighting is so bad in our bathroom.
SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, uh it's important for you to know that God created you so that you like the person that you're looking at when you're looking in the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: I know um um people struggle with that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I hadn't I hadn't told this story in a really long time.
SPEAKER_00: I had a choice of like a couple different stories, but uh I was in the seventh grade, and um my best friend they bought a big piece of property over in Normadgy, Texas, about 90 miles north of here.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and they ended up moving out there and years later, but for a while it was just their weekend house.
SPEAKER_00: And so um I had been out there before, but I begged my mom, I started with my mom, you know, can I go out to Chris's ranch this this weekend?
SPEAKER_00: And oh no, this weekend's not a good time.
SPEAKER_00: And so she turned me down, and so then I went and I got my dad.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, man, maybe I can talk him to into it.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, no, hey, don't you have responsibilities at church?
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you you work in the television department, and how how would they do that without you?
SPEAKER_00: And he starts, you know, and I've I started negotiating my way into saying yes.
SPEAKER_00: And it's finally they said yes.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, I think it's I don't remember, I guess it's Friday night, and uh and we're me and Chris were, you know, I think he had bunk beds out there, and so I think I'm on the top bunk.
SPEAKER_00: And he liked to listen to country music going to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were listening to Garth Brooks or whatever was on the radio, and the Holy Spirit said, clean, clear as a bell, you better pray.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna need me tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know what that meant, but it was a clear warning.
SPEAKER_00: Man, something's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Well, why didn't he stop it?
SPEAKER_00: Why did no, he warned me to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And so the next day, it was Saturday morning, and um, and his dad had been working on clearing, underbrushing the property.
SPEAKER_00: So he had two or three really big piles of brush to burn.
SPEAKER_00: And so we got one end of one of those big piles, it was like 40 or 50 feet long, and we got one end of it burning.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the very other end, he hands me the can of diesel and he tells me, hey, just climb up there and just start pouring.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm doing exactly what his dad told me to do.
SPEAKER_00: We're not out there goofing, goofing around or anything, and I don't know, maybe gasoline was mixed in with it or whatever, but as I'm pouring, whoosh, it just, and all of a sudden I'm on fire.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if the gas got on me or what, but uh, but I jumped off the top of the pile and and I refuse the whole stop, drop, and roll is the last thing you want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, like the getting dirt into the wounds, like I my skin is already missing, you know, uh, and I'm literally on fire.
SPEAKER_00: And so he knocks me down and and starts rolling me in the dirt and and put the fire out.
SPEAKER_00: But it was the most intense, miserable pain I've ever experienced.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing at all, and I mean zero, can quench that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so we went inside, we started trying to wash, you know, in the in the bathtub, and my skin just kept falling off.
SPEAKER_00: And it was it was just the nastiest.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget that smell.
SPEAKER_00: I could sit here and I, if I thought about it, I could remember what that burning flesh smelled like and the smell of diesel, and and I could remember the pain.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and we got in his little Ozmobile and we drove to Madisonville about 30 miles to the hospital where they knocked me out with morphine, and it still didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: It still it still was so painful, them working on on cleaning all of the wounds of my arms and my face.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I really didn't realize how bad it was until the next morning they allowed me to get up out of bed, out of the hospital bed, and go to the restroom.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went to the restroom to you know, drug the IV bag, you know, in, and I'm passing the the mirror, and you're like, Jay, well, you didn't wash your hands.
SPEAKER_00: My my hands didn't have any skin on them.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they always burned so bad that wasn't an option.
SPEAKER_00: But I was passing that mirror and I caught myself in the mirror, and I turned in the mirror, and all the skin was was gone on my forehead, and and my eyebrows and eyelashes were basically gone and singed and whatever was left.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I began to cry.
SPEAKER_00: And then I began to pray, and I said, God, I can't look like this the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And I asked him to heal me, and I just I prayed the simple most simple prayer, and uh, and I'm telling you, it was a miracle.
SPEAKER_00: Like I I, you know, was released from the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: I think if I was in like one night or two nights, I don't remember.
SPEAKER_00: But uh I took a, I got to miss a week full of school, you know, and uh and lay in bed and request tuna fish sandwiches and more Cheetos from my mom's my mom took great care of me.
SPEAKER_00: Dodie Osteen called me on the phone.
SPEAKER_00: I felt important.
SPEAKER_00: She prayed with me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, I have zero scars.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't have to have any skin grafts, I didn't have to uh it was it took me about a one week.
SPEAKER_00: I was back at school, and uh, and I have the pictures to prove it with all the oozing and all the bandages and all the all the nastiness.
SPEAKER_00: I mean it really was, I'm not exaggerating, but Jesus healed me.
SPEAKER_00: And uh but you know, like going through childhood trauma, that was just pain, but but God rescued me.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but sometimes uh things that you go through as a child can leave you scarred.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we talk to people all the time that have been through serious things in their childhood that they're just not able to get over.
SPEAKER_00: They're just that they're stuck.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, and it keeps happening over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: And things that that happened in my child, my childhood, I mean, I was so uh God just protected us from all kinds of craziness and and and craziness in a in our extended family.
SPEAKER_00: Things happen in our extended family that didn't didn't happen in our family because we were protected by the blood.
SPEAKER_00: I think Claire mentioned that not that long ago.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot which example.
SPEAKER_00: We have so many.
SPEAKER_00: Mainly on my mom's side, but don't tell her that.
SPEAKER_00: No, my dad's side has some has some crazy ones too, but anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Um Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: But uh I'm just telling you, I'm just encouraging you, uh, if you're stuck, you know, we we preach over and over and over about the never-ending loop that the devil uses in people's minds.
SPEAKER_00: And they keep going over something over and over, what could have been and would should have been, and and nobody stepped up, nobody intervened, and nobody, and then you get in that victim mindset.
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, maybe God didn't intervene for you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you faced some things as a child that that uh that were difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to encourage you that the same blood of Jesus that works on any sin can work on your memory of that.
SPEAKER_00: And and if you allow that liquid love to fill up every crack and to stop that loop in your mind and the in the and the little triggers, quote unquote, that bring that up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just encouraging you to allow the word to work.
SPEAKER_00: And and if you'll be a doer of the word, if you'll be faithful, I'm telling you that God can erase that memory, that sting, that pain.
SPEAKER_00: He can take that shame and that darkness and turn it all around if you'll let him.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and you don't have to be stuck, you don't have to to to live with with uh with anxiety or live with all of the of the coulda, should'das, and wuddas and the victim mindset of what that did and what that uh, you know, all the decisions that were made after that event, whatever it is, you know, it doesn't have to be sexual abuse.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people were just verbally abused, and it can be just as harmful and spoken down to.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, when you get into God's word, he reveals who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then you are bold.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have that memory of being uh spoken down to and yelled at and and uh and drugged through the mud, you know, and and you don't have to stay stuck any longer.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of things that God's doing to rescue you out of that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's lots and lots of ropes, there's lots and lots of of him reaching down in love and pulling you out of that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and I'm telling you, sometimes it affects our parenting, parenting out of guilt or parenting, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So you need to get rid of that that guilt and that shame.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took that on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh my dad quoted that this morning, uh, and it's and it's so true that Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he that's what he took.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just uh die for to heal us.
SPEAKER_00: Healing is not just physical healing, it's mental healing, it's it's uh it dissolves that shame and that guilt.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to be affected by that, and you can rise above that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: You know, real things happen, and but what happened to Jesus is greater than anything that has ever happened to you.
SPEAKER_00: And when you get that revelation, when you just is the simple revelation that we just walked out in baptism this morning, when when the death, the burial, and the resurrection, to realize that that moment, that those mistakes, that you're dead to that, and now you're alive in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you've been enchristed, you've been engrafted, you've been justified, just as if that had never happened.
SPEAKER_00: Just as if that mistake, even though it wasn't your fault, even though you didn't do anything to deserve that.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh man, I think of other situations where where uh people just get stuck in the blame game and they blame God.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be that way.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm telling you, there is a devil and he is real, and he his strategy is to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly, right?
SPEAKER_00: Superior in quality and superabundantly in quantity.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you allow Jesus to do the work that he wants to do in you and to rescue you out of that, he's already rescued you, amen.
SPEAKER_00: He's already provided for you.
SPEAKER_00: He has everything, he's already done it, and all we have to do is receive in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for your word that's been engrafted in our hearts this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I mean this evening.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're doers of your word and not just hearers only.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we honor your word.
SPEAKER_00: We're serious about your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we we're living in the last days and we don't have time to be weighed down by the mistakes of the past, by uh by things that have happened in our past.
SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we just thank you that there's freedom and liberty in this place, liberty to do what you've called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: To to so we bow down and we surrender to your word.
SPEAKER_00: We take it seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we we're serious about studying it.
SPEAKER_00: We're serious about uh you're you allowing yourself to reveal yourself to us, Lord, that we know you out of your word.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we know uh we know you out of the actions of Jesus uh in the gospels, and we know uh what we've been uh redeemed from, from the from the epistles.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we just study your word and we put your word first in Jesus' name.