True Holiness and Relationship with God

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Last week I I began this series I called an open door. And if you did not get the message, uh you weren't here for some reason last week, I encourage you to go back and listen to that if you haven't already because it'll it'll uh it'll tie in with what we're going today. And today's very important. And so I really need you to buckle up, listen up, get ready, get take some notes. Uh I I do this, but all you do this, okay? So I know. However you take notes, uh, take it and and uh be ready because I think there are some things, uh not I know I don't think, I I know that there are some things that God is going to reveal to you today. Uh He's certainly done it in me and for me, because I will tell you, I don't get up here and deliver anything that God doesn't deal with me on. Trust me, I'm I'm telling you, if I'm whatever I'm sharing with you, uh, man, God already knocked me over the head and has already worked it and is working it out in my life. So just because I stand on a platform doesn't mean I got it all together. I don't tell my wife that. But anyway, uh I I I appreciate the fact that God is is steadfast, he's a patient God, uh, he's he's long-suffering because with me, he needs to be. And uh I and with you, he needs to be even more. So, nevertheless, it's all good, and and I just want you to be ready today. But uh turning your Bibles, if you will, to Exodus, the 19th chapter. And last week, just let me give you a kind of a I don't know, a brief recap to kind of connect the dots a little bit for us here today. Last week, um, I told you that there were two things that that really that I've seen that are very concerning in the body of Christ. And and listen very closely. The first one is to those individuals that will spend eternity in hell, but think that they're okay with God now. They think they're saved and they're they're all good. The other concern was for those individuals that actually experience a born-again, truly a born-again experience, but they are constantly questioning whether they're saved. Everything that happens, oh, I don't know, I don't know if I'm saved, or you know, you fall off the wagon, you say, I'm never gonna do it again, you do it, and you say, Oh, am I really saved? And the the problem with all of that, and the reason that probably is so dominant in the church today, is that much of the culture and the voice and the influence of the culture, the rhetoric we call it, uh, has not only just consumed an individual, but it's fallen and permeated into the church. And so what happens is we have we have the gospel and Jesus is being presented in kind of a dummied-down version. We try to make it real easy and and palatable, you know, for everybody to accept. I mean, I'm I'm all for explaining and making things as as uh simple and as direct as can be. But the fact is, is we've in the church, and I'm talking the church at large, what we've done is we've really casualized, in a sense, the gospel, the good news of Christ. And to what so what's happened then is as this culture influence has begun to permeate into the church, you know, today the problem arises that a lot of times the church is trying to compete with the world on their terms. I mean, we we try to out-entertain like the nightclubs and the concert venues, we try to outproduce, you know, like the uh theme and amusement parks, we try to out-market the culture. The thing is, if some if somebody wants to go to a nightclub, there's plenty of them around. They don't need to come here. You know, if they want to get, you know, you want to go to Disney or Six Flags or Universal Studios, it's you know, about seven hours that way by car to the west, and it's about four hours by jet to the east. So you have it available to you. But church, listen, we are not called to merely be a sanitized version of what the world does better. We're called to be the Church of Jesus Christ. We are called to offer uh a product that cannot be manufactured or simulated or streamed or even bought with a ticket. We offer the uh the presence of God, we offer holy ground, we offer the forgiveness of sins, we offer reconciliation to God the Father through the finished work of Christ, we offer the presence of a living Jesus if you will humble yourselves and receive him. That's what we're about. But see, there lies the challenge is the receiving. You see, because of many times the way that things are communicated and projected today to make it easy, what has happened is I think we a lot of people who think that they have received haven't really received. Last week I told you the John the 10th chapter, Jesus said, I am the door, and everyone who enters through me or by me will be saved. See, here's what I fear is happening in many ways in the church is that people are coming to the door, they're not entering through. So you see, what happens is we feel a prompting, you know, it can be in a service, it can be anywhere. You can read something, you can see something online, or you know, you can be in a church service just like this, and we feel a prompting, something that is stirring us, and we feel like we need to respond. And that's what happens many times when obviously people make a decision to follow Christ. But many, many times, or oftentimes, if if the gospel wasn't presented just black and white, you know, this side or that side, there's no in between, you're not riding a fence. If it wasn't presented with just as Jesus presented it, just as it was written in the Word, then what happens is people are coming for God to fix an area of their life, but they still have affections. So what happens is they come to a door. It's like being in Arizona in the summertime, you know, it's beaten hot. And you come up to somebody's door, you know, you knock on the door, the door is opened, and you feel that rush of AC coming out of the house, you know. Or maybe they're cooking something and you you smell the and and you like that. It's good. You you prefer that. And the thing is, you can stand there and you can engage to only a certain level. You came to the door, the door was beautiful, could have been a beautiful ornate door. Jesus is beautiful. The door is opened. Come on in. Well, I just need to talk to you for a few minutes. Or I just need this. And we we love what we sense. We we love what permeates through you know the air and the ozones into you, but we still have affections that are out here. And so what happens is many, many, many people come to the door. We check them off, hallelujah! Got saved today, but not as many actually step through the door. Remember, 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if any man, that means woman, that means mankind, if any man is in Christ, in, in, not around him, not on the outskirts, knowing about, he said, if you are in Christ, he is a new creation. That means a new species of being that has never existed before. And old things are passed away, all things now become new. So, in other words, what that's saying is what's passed away is the work of Jesus. What becomes new is us walking out obedience, what God has already provided for us. So we have to be in Him, though. That's why Jesus said in John 15, 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you can ask what you will, and it shall be done. Do you know why it shall be done? Because you're asking from a position of in Christ, not what I want. See, salvation. You've heard me tell you this before, or if you're visiting today, welcome to the family. I've told you in the past that salvation is just the beginning. That's the door. Jesus. It's not the end. See, but if you just came to the door, all you did is give Jesus lip service, you didn't give him your life. You said I do, but you're not doing. See, that's who Jesus was referring to in Luke 6 46, when he said, Why do you call me Lord, Lord? And you don't even do the things that I say. I mean, it is he then he kind of reaffirmed it in a different way over in Matthew 7.21. He said, He said, Not everybody that says Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. So what that tells me is that there are people that are declaring the goodness of God, declaring that they're a Christian, declaring that they've been born again, declaring that they're a follower of Christ at the same time, yet they won't enter the kingdom of heaven. See, God did not save you to bring to do things for you. You're saved because Jesus already did something for you. See, God didn't save you to bring stuff to you, God saved you to bring you to Himself. Because it's never been about ritual, which is religion. It's always been about love, which is relationship. And 1 John 4 says that God is love. Dina mentioned it earlier. I think she was reading my notes, and I'll forgive her for that. But she mentions earlier that the fact is that God just doesn't have love. He didn't attain love, he didn't acquire it somehow, he didn't run into it. He doesn't have a portion of love that then he doles out to others, to the people of God as he wills. No, he is. God is. That means the very, the very DNA, the very ingredient, the very makeup, the very essence, the very nature of what love is, is God. So God is love. Love is God. But in Activate 1, if you haven't been there, you need to do it next time around, we teach this. This is biblical. The point is that love cannot stand or exist by itself. You say, well, did God have a problem? God wasn't capable of loving himself. I don't know, God. His ways are higher than ours and his thoughts are higher than ours. But when you take the very concept and idea of love, in order for love to be fulfilled, love has to love. It has to give. For God so loved the world that he that's that's the nature of love. See, you could read that verse this way: For love so loved the world that he gave. So in order for love to be fulfilled, it has to love, it has to be able to disperse, it has to be able to give. And in order, in order to be fulfilled, then the receiver needs to be like the giver. So that's why back in Genesis 1, God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Mankind, human beings, are the only part of God's creation that has the ability and the capacity to be able to receive love and to also disperse it by their choice. Dina mentioned it earlier. So that's exactly what God desired. Do you if you read all through Scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, you will see clearly that God's desire was always and is always to draw or to bring men, man, mankind, to himself. See, Jesus even validated this in John 12. He said, If I be lifted up, I will draw, I'll bring all men unto me. You following me? Okay, have you had your coffee? Okay, get ready. All right. Now, even going back to the New Testament, when God brought the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, he made a very important, profound statement. And here's what he said in Exodus 19, starting at verse 3. Then Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The Lord called to him from the mountain and said, Give these instructions to the family of Jacob. Announce it to the descendants of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You know how I carried you on eagle's wings. Now listen to this, and brought you to myself. So God is saying right here, the whole reason I brought you out of Egypt was to bring you to myself. He's been waiting for 430 years to meet with these people. Okay? So let me just take a few minutes, and I want us to look at what God tells Moses to tell the people prior to this meeting. So in verse 10 of Exodus 19, he says that then the Lord told Moses, now watch this, go down, prepare the people for my arrival. Okay? This is this is the people taking care of the business. This is not God making them, this is them making the things happen. Consecrate them today and tomorrow and have them wash their clothing. That's a good thing. Be sure they are ready on the third day. It's interesting how the third day kind of transcends all through Scripture. For on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai as all the people watch. Now, so why this whole consecration and washing the clothes and getting cleaned up and purifying things? Is God a neat freak or something? See, what you need to know is that everything or that the things that you see in the the uh events recorded in the Old Testament are an outward picture, an outward work of what in the New Testament is an inward work. You see, so it goes on to say that he said to consecrate, wash things up, get cleaned up, kind of purify yourself. So what God is saying to them is that you still have some of the filth and the dirt of Egypt on you. In other words, that's where you were, but that's not where you're going. So he said, what we need to do right now, in the present, is we need to take steps to get rid of the residue of your past so that nothing hinders you from stepping into your future. See, that that's the important part. Now, how does this apply in the New Testament? Look at 2 Corinthians, the sixth chapter. Paul is saying, by the way, he's actually, he actually quotes what God said in Exodus. And what union can there be between God's temple, okay, and idols? And then he explains whose the temple is for we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live in them and walk among them, I will be their God, and they will be my people. Now, if you go to the next chapter, uh, chapter 7, verse 1, Paul continues and he says this, because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves. This is this is the same wording that was used 4,000 years earlier, back in Exodus. Let us cleanse ourselves. Now it doesn't say that the blood of Jesus is going to cleanse you. Why? Because this is an outward work that he's speaking of. This is something we do. Cleanse yourselves. And he goes on. Let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or our spirit. And let us work toward complete what? Holiness, because we fear God. The fear of God is not something to be scared of. It's not being scared of God, like a Frady cat, you know. But but you, it's more being scared to not be connected to Him or to not be in alignment with Him. Because then, bro, you're on your own. And if you're on your own, it ain't gonna work. I'm telling you, you you need you need God. So here, here again, in the New Testament, God is saying that in order for us to have an authentic relationship, you can't have the dirt or the residue of Egypt of your past on you. That's why holiness is so important. So the question is this what is holy or what is holiness? Now, that term or that word uh actually scares a lot of people because they think, oh, it's got a you know, it's like a squeaky clean, you know, and can't do anything wrong, and you're like you're like the spiritual Mr. Clean of, you know, the walking around and and you know, everything's just a you know a fluffy, up in the clouds kind of a thing, and it's like you know, so spiritually minded you're no earthly good. A lot of times people think that well, that's what a holy, oh, they're a holy person. And most times people think that and they get ridiculed and so on. But let me tell you something, and let me be honest with you this morning. That term, holiness or holy, that describes the only church that Jesus is gonna return for. It doesn't say in scripture that he's gonna return for a leadership-driven church, he's not gonna return for a community church, and community is not bad. He's not gonna return for a relevant church, and it's gotta be relevant, he's not gonna return for a contemporary church, he's not gonna return for a traditional church, and there's nothing wrong with that. But that doesn't describe the church he's gonna return to and return for. It's a holy church. Now, if you were the devil, don't look at your spouse, just look right here. If you were, if you were the devil, what would you do? I'll tell you. You would probably influence a bunch of mean-spirited preachers who would beat up the people with legalism and make them so scared of holy or to even talk about holiness that they avoid it altogether. Yet at the same time, that is the most, it's the most freeing, encouraging, uplifting thing to talk about because it's all about intimacy. See, listen, the word holy means set apart. In biblical, it means set apart unto God. We we are uh we are expressly his and and his only. We are exclusive. Okay? When you you you date somebody, ah yeah, we're exclusive now. Well, this is an exclusive one. And understand that God, God is a very giving and generous God, but he will not share you with any other lovers or any other passion or any other affections. He just won't. So, with that in mind, let me just take a few minutes and let me clarify some things about holy or holiness. There are two aspects of holiness. You need to write these down or put them in your phone, do whatever, okay? The first one is positional, the second one is behavioral. Positional holiness or behavioral holiness. So positional holiness is what actually happened when you repented and you made a decision to follow Christ. That in other words, here's here's what Ephesians uh, the first chapter, verse 4 says. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy. You weren't chosen to have a big business and even to fund the kingdom of God. That's a wonderful thing. That isn't the foundation of it all. He chose us in him before the foundations of the world, before God ever said, Let there be light. You were already chosen in him to be holy and without fault in his eyes. See, that's something you can never. Earn, that's positional. It's all something he did. So we stand in that. We are positioned in him in that matter. Now, behavioral holiness, Peter made this statement in 1 Peter 1. He said, But as he who is called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct. That means all of your behavior. That's why I wore this shirt today. You see this? Be holy even as I am holy. I just felt like it was anointed, you know. So I put it on. It was kind of where I was going today. But it's so critical for us to understand these. So let me just let me just give you some practical examples of this to kind of validate it and give you more foundation. Excuse me. My wife has been giving me stuff and I'm still dealing with it. But anyway, forty six and a half years ago, Dean and I got married. And uh after she asked me to marry her, and I just no, I'm serious. Yeah. No, you you're laughing, but she was all over me, man. I mean, she couldn't keep her hands off me. I'm telling you. And I I mean, I loved her, and I felt, okay, God, there's a reason for this. And I, yes, she is the one. So I had no choice. I did it. And and I I love her more than anything right now. But and I hope she still loves me right now. But we got married. So we became husband and wife. I was set apart unto her. She was set apart unto me. Okay? We can't get any more married than we are right now. You understand? So we did everything the way that we felt was proper or right. And we had a wedding ceremony, and we exchanged vows, we exchanged rings, uh, we signed the marriage license, and it was recorded with the state. We're legal now, you know? So there's there's nothing more that we can do. We are positioning, we are married. All right? That's positional. But now there is a behavior that should align and mirror the vows that we confirmed at the altar before God and about 250 people. What I mean by that is this I'm no longer single. So there are things that I am just not going to do anymore that I used to do when I was single. There's no more looking, checking out the opposite sex, no more flirting, there's no more going to environments that I went to when I was single that were more appropriate for single people. There's no more of that. I no more I am hers. I gave myself to her. She gave herself to me. I prefer her. I think about her now. Outside of God, I think about my wife more than even this church. Sorry, I think about her more. I don't, you know, I don't um think about me and selfish, what only I want. Now sometimes she thinks I do, but I don't. I prefer her, I submit to her. Wait a second, wait a pack. Doesn't the Bible say in Ephesians, you know, 5.21 that wives submit to their husbands as unto God? You know, we we guys we go, yeah, you know, me, Tarzan, you Jane, you know, it's that kind of that feel. Yeah, this is the way it is, you know. But but what Tarzan didn't read is the verse right before that. And the verse right before that says, submit yourselves to one another. And you know what submit means? Sub is under, that's like a submarine is under the water. Sub means under mission, mission is the plan that carries out or fulfills a purpose. So my role as her husband is to come under her God-given mission for her life uniquely, and to do everything to bring that to the surface and to make it fruitful. And she is to do the same thing for me. And then we together are submitting and we're bringing the mission together that God has now ordained and brought us together because now we're one, we're no longer two. And two, if one will put a thousand to flight, two will put ten thousand to flight. In other words, when you get married with that mindset, you are ten times more powerful than you were when you were single. Who wouldn't want to go into a relationship like that? So the thing is, this is all of this, this the behavior, it's no longer about me. I stepped away, I let it go so that I could lay hold of what stood before me. I didn't want any more of the filth or the dirt of my past to be to be tainting what God had purposed now for our future together. So, so we love each other. We are committed to one another. And along with that commitment meant there is a separation from and a lay holding of the future. So I've let go, I'm laying hold. I I can't hold on to both, and a lot of couples end up doing that. I like this, but oh, I love her, but I love him, but there's a lot of butts in here. You know what I mean? There's just a lot of things going on like that that just you have to consider everything. So that's really, that's really what what Peter or what Paul was saying here. He said there's a behavior that that should follow that union that you say you actually have with God. I mean, if it if you say that he's first, is he first? If you say that you love him, then are you loving him? If you say that there's no other but him, are you validating that by your actions and the life that you live? And Paul was saying, there's too much of the past, there's too much Egypt on you. And yet, how many, how many couples go into a relationship that way, looking for that person to make them happy? Your husband is not gonna make you happy. Your wife is not gonna make you happy because happiness has to do with happenings. So you're up one day because he gave you flowers, the next day he left his dirty underwear in the floor, and you told him to pick it up and put it in the hamper. I mean, what I'm getting at is happenings. That's happiness can't be. We're talking about joy. We're talking about setting our minds, setting forward, and it's a state of being. That's what peace is, that's what joy is, that's all this and that's part of the fruits of the spirit. That's what love is. Love is a decision, it's not a feeling. That's why 1 Corinthians 13, that love, again, now God is love, so if God is in you, then love is in you. So you have the capacity to love. You have the capacity to go beyond borders and lines and boundaries that you created for yourself that you're real familiar with and you're comfortable with. But really, in a relationship where you've given everything to him and he has laid everything down for you, his life, then understand that there will always be, there will always be the continual measuring of something deeper and greater. You never arrive. You never do. You never arrive in your marriages. You still don't know her. Oh, yeah, I do, and I wouldn't have married her if I didn't know her. You know, you you asked me, if if you would have asked me 46 and a half years ago, did I know Dina? I said, I know her, I know her better than probably anybody else. When you ask me now, did I know her? Whoa. Man, I was I was blinded, I was veiled. I needed, you know what I'm saying? But but what I did love about her was enough to to move into relationship with her, and then and then after years of training, she has become, hallelujah, the woman. Come on, all the men said, yeah, all right. So, okay, you you know that's a lie. That's an absolute lie. Let me I I I thought of this just this morning. Let me explain it to you like this. And this this gives that parallel, okay? Let's say, let's say that uh there's a uh a guy and a girl, you know, they they love each other, they've been dating and courting and everything, and and he's ready to pop the question. Okay? So he sets everything up. He has, you know, whoever, like TMZ, you know, the camera hidden in the you know, the bushes and the camera over here and the video over here, and and and you know, they go to a beautiful candlelight dinner, and you know, they look into each other's eyes, and then they go out and they're gonna walk along the beach right at sunset, and they're catching all this from a distance, you know. And he gets down on one knee and he pops the question. Now you you probably know this picture, and and she responds, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, honey, I'm oh, I'm so happy, I'm so I'm gonna make you the happiest, the happiest person in the world. I'm gonna love you like nobody else can love you. I'm gonna, man, I'm gonna wash the clothes, your clothes, I'm gonna take care of the house, I'm gonna clean, I'm gonna make the best meals, I'm gonna give you a little bit of loving whenever you need it, hallelujah! And I'm gonna give you everything God, I'm gonna make I'm gonna make you the best wife in the world 343 days out of the year. Now, from a groom's standpoint or the man's standpoint, I'm saying, what? There's 356 days in a year. She goes, I know, babe, but listen, I love you so much. All I ask is that once a month you let me go hang out with my old boyfriends. You would really love them. Man, this boy, Joe, he's great. I mean, Bill over here, oh, I think you have something in common with him. How many of you would marry a per well a thing like that? Seriously. Nobody would. You know why you wouldn't do it? Because they had not given all of their heart and their life to you. What makes you think that Jesus is coming back for a bride that does the same thing? This is why the writer of Hebrews, he says in Hebrews the twelfth chapter, he said, pursue peace with all people and holiness. Other translations actually actually re-emphasize the word pursue prior to holiness. So they say, pursue peace with all people and pursue holiness, because look at it, without it, you're not going to see God. You're not gonna see him. So, what does it mean you're not going to see God? It means you're not gonna see God. Everybody is going to stand before God on judgment day. Everybody will give an account. What will you hear him say? There's two two things, there's two options. Will he say, like Matthew 7, 22 says, Depart from me? Because I'm I never knew you, I never had a relationship with you. There was no cycle, there was no love, there was no setting apart unto. I set my part myself apart to you. I laid my life down for you to redeem you back, to connect you back with your source, so that everything that was purposed before the foundations of the world could be realized inside of you. And now you begin to move forth into your future with a new perspective, a godly perspective, a righteous percept perspective, not something just solely founded on what is. Those of you who didn't set yourself apart to me, those of you who said, Lord, Lord, but you never even did the things that I say. Or will you hear, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your rest. So Jesus, listen, Jesus made this statement in John 14, 21. He said, the person who has my commands. It's not just somebody who hears, the person who has my commands. And keeps them. It's not just the one who knows them, the one who has them, but it's the one who keeps them. Okay? In other words, in other words, you do. You know, but James talked about not being just hearers only, but being doers of the word. That's obedience. So he said, those who have my commands and keep them is the one who, this is the amplified Bible, who really loves me. Not the one who just says they love me, but the one who actually bears it out. I mean, it's fruit in your life. Who really loves me and whoever really loves me will be loved by my father. So the way that you experience what Pastor Dana was saying earlier today, experience the Father's love is if you really, really love him. If you have laid down your life, he laid down his. If you really have given all, not just lip service, that's cheap. Words are cheap. I'm talking about somebody who actually says something and then follows it up with the very fruit of their lives. The ones who really love me, they'll be loved by my father. And then he goes on to say, and I too will love him and will show, I'm gonna reveal, I'm gonna manifest myself to him. I will let myself be clearly seen by him, and I will make myself real to him. How many times you can I can count, man, I can't count this so many that people say, I just don't really hear God, and I just don't feel him there, and you know, I ask him this, and I'm not really it's not God's problem, and it's not it's not God's proximity, he's there. Those are the times that you have to take and you have to be introspective, you've got to look back at yourself. Have I really loved him? Because he says, if if you really love God, Jesus says, You will be loved by me as well, and I will I will embrace you and I will love you and I will show you myself. That's what we're all wanting. I want to know Jesus, man. I want to see Jesus. I'm I want to be so hungry for Jesus. Man, I want more of him. That's the heart, that's the desire. So the Bible tells us then to pursue. The word pursue means this. It means to chase after with the intent of apprehending. In other words, you're chasing, you're not gonna give up. With the intent of apprehending, that means you're gonna lay hold. I don't care how far, I'm gonna, I'm gonna run faster. I'm gonna work harder. God, I'm going after you. I'm not gonna let it stop here. I don't want to stall out in the middle of the desert. Lord, I want to take it and I want the refreshing cool water, I want the green pastures that the that the good shepherd of Psalm 23 talks about. Man, I want to be led in in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'm not gonna fear any evil because the one that I love, the one who loves me, is with me. He's showing himself to me. So pursuit. He's not just talking about positional holiness. Oh, I'm a Christian, I go to church, you know, once or twice a month. Really? Really? Do you really love him? Really? Have you really have you really laid down you're all for him? Or are you just moving through life? You got your agenda, you got the things, the list that you're checking off that you feel like you want to do and you want to accomplish, and you try to bring God into it to bless it. He will not. He wants to be the center. We we we we had that song we sang it earlier. And Jesus, be the be the center of it all. He's not just the head, he's the he is the middle up, down, around side, he's everything. Matthew 7, verse 13. Jesus, and this is part of that Sermon on the Mount, this is prior, just a few verses before those verses we talk about where he said, Depart from me. He was telling, he was telling the listeners, and you need to hear this this morning, and I'll leave you with this. Okay, I'm gonna ask everybody really stay seated. Cafe people, just hold on, just wait. I think this is important right here. He said this in Matthew 7, 13. He said, Enter by the narrow gate. Or in other words, enter, go down the narrow road. He said, For wide is the gate that leads to destruction, to death. And then he qualified, what is going to be the dynamic of that wide road? He said, and many there will be that go down that road, the road to death. He said, because narrow is the way that leads to life, and then he qualified that, and he said, Few there be that will actually go down that road, and then it's a few verses later that he says, Not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but it's only he who does the will of my father, who does, who obeys, who bears out fruit. Those are the ones. It's not just because you're sitting here today. Because sitting here doesn't make you a follower of Christ anymore than sitting in your garage makes you a car. It doesn't. As a matter of fact, I see empty seats that need to be filled next week. There are people that need this and need to hear it because I'm telling you, you've got friends, maybe even you are one of them that are heading off of a cliff. It's ahead of you, it's a it's just right there, and you're still walking, and you're still. Engaging and oh I love Jesus, but oh I love this. Oh thank you, Lord, for telling oh, but I love this. And you're moving towards this cliff. Don't you see it? I'm trying to help you to see it today. I don't want you falling off. I don't want you on the wide road that leads to death and destruction. I don't. So my my heart and my desire, and I prayed this man a couple weeks ago when I fasted a week leading up to March. I knew that I knew that God had given me some stuff that's going to be straight and right there. Because you know what? That's the gospel. Jesus so loved you that he gave his life for you so that you could lay your temporal, sometimes pathetic, miserable, frustrating life down so that you could pick up his resurrected life. It doesn't mean that you live a bad life. What I'm saying is there is so much more than what you've got. Why don't you why don't you grab a hold of who he is and bring him in? So that's why. And I don't know, I don't know how you're gonna move right now, but I do believe that by your spirit a word has been released that is stirring up in your people right now, and even in those who have never taken the step to know Christ. And Father, I pray that we would not play games any longer. If I have to say this for the next six months, I declare that we're not just playing church, that we're not just declaring something that we're really not. I pray that this will be a people here today in this house, those watching online right now, that will make the decision once and for all. God, that I lay everything down, I set myself apart for you and none other. I don't know, and I don't know who that's touching today. I think it's touching quite a few people. Oh God, help us to get a picture and a realization, God, of just what it means for the eternity that stands before us, but even more for the present that we have right now to bring eternity into the earth. God, whatever we thought was cool and right, I pray that it not just be a good thing, but it'd be a God thing. And the only way we will ever know that is to really, really love you.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Hallelujah. God be the center, be the center of it all.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

I want to ask you to stand to your feet, and here's what I want to ask of you all today as you stand. If you're serious and you haven't been serious in the past, but today you are, that you're making a decision afresh and anew. That maybe, in a sense, this is just a rededication of something that you thought or you said you did maybe in the past, many years ago, but you realize you know what? You haven't really loved him, you haven't set yourself apart to him, but you know what, you want to make it right today. And for those of you who have never done it, who've never made a decision, you repent, you never repented of your thinking, the control of your life and how you want it and how you think, and you lay that down. You've never done that and said, I don't want to, I don't want control anymore, God. I want you to be in control. And you turn because wherever your mind goes, your life goes. So if any of you, any of you that that ministers to you, that hits you, I'm gonna once again I'm gonna ask you to make a physical movement to substantiate an inward decision that you're making right here. And if you if that's you, I want to meet you right down here at this altar.

unknown 48:44

Come on.