The Sheet Creatures

Overcoming the ways we see, and judge people from a spirit which does not comes from God, may require God showing us a side of our own selves, which must be seen by us.  With the Spirit of God upon us, we must learn to look beyond a person's outer self.  We should develop a spirit of looking past and beyond the faults of the apparent behaviours and characters that many people exhibit before us.  

If God has hope for them, so should we, and we should do all that we can to help them to know God, for when the Lord may have need us to be a witness unto them.  They may be the sheet creatures, but they are the creatures let down before us on God's sheet.  God can save them and we should love them.

Transcript

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:05

He is my saviour. Jesus. He is my Lord. Jesus. He is my savior. My savior. Jesus. He is my savior. Jesus. He is my Lord. Jesus. He is my savior. My Savior. My Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you. We thank God this morning. We're so glad to be with you one more time. We welcome you to the Holy City Spirit of Truth Ministries and to our bearing witness to the Truth Podcast. We thank God for you. I'm your host, Pastor and Teacher and Podcast host, Ricky D. Dixon. So glad for you to join us this morning. Let me just say Happy Father's Day to all fathers, to all fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, who have been the men for their families and the fathers that they need to be. We so thank you. We're going to get right into the word because I need my entire hour to deliver this particular message this morning. So let us prepare ourselves for the word of God. If you have your Bibles, have them on standby because we will be definitely coming from the Word of God this Sunday morning. Let me just ask the question this morning. First thing, let me ask the question. You don't have to answer, but ask it to yourself. Have any of you ever made someone feel unloved, rejected, or unwanted? Have any of you ever belittled anyone just because you didn't understand them or thought that they were different? Have any of you ever mistreated someone just because they didn't look like you thought they should look? Well, if you have, or if you are the one who was made to feel this way, I'm here to tell you that God doesn't like it and he doesn't approve of it, and I don't either. I have come to realize that there are many people living in this world who have been tremendously hurt and wounded by the actions and behaviors of other people. We all are God's creation. And my Bible tells me in the book of Romans, if you ever read that, he says, Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he stands a fall. We belong to God, and nobody has the right to judge no one else but the one who created you, and that's God Himself. One of our true purposes as saints of God here on earth is to love one another in the true definition of what godly love means. Though many of us have exhibited our ability to wound one another, there is also within us the ability to heal one another by loving and having compassion. If we insist on holding on to this ungodly behavior, we run the terrible risk of rejecting many people that could be gained as citizens of the kingdom of our God. There are those who long for a place to be loved and accepted, where they are neither judged nor condemned because of who they are or where they may have come from. One of my greatest concerns, and this really does concern me about the inhabitants of this world, is that many of us have drifted so far from what is the will of God that our ways have become so set and embedded within us that for some of us to change now, change will not come quickly because we've been sitting our ways for too long. And we don't want to change, and we don't want to budge. And can't nobody make us think and see things no other way. To become new creatures in Christ requires time. And time's something we have almost run out of. So many people don't realize we're about to run out of time, and we still the same old way we was years ago. See, when we stand up for God, when we claim to stand up for God, we stand up for his ways and his truth as well. Not just his name. We stand for what he stands for. His ways and his truth. Not on how we were raised or our upbringing. When we show people the love of God, we show them his spirit. And in doing so, we show his spirit through Christ Jesus. There is a great need for those who are called by the name of the Lord to yield themselves to the working of God's love towards others. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. See, these barriers we have of indifferences and inhumane practices can be eradicated and destroyed with the love of God, which abides within his people that are up on the earth. If we just show the love of God, it can change somebody's life. Many of the people around us have been made to feel that because of how they may have lived or what things they may have done, we tell them that they deserve what they are getting. We know we're quick to tell people you deserve what you get. But see, let me give you some truth here. I give you some truth this morning. We all deserve what we should be getting if it were not for the grace of God. We as God's people must put forth the attempts to stop the hurtful vibes the people are filling that live among us in their judgmental communities, among their so-called friends, and around their funny acting family members and kin folks, my brothers, my sisters, people of God, and all those that will hear me this day. Hear me when I tell you that when we read the word of God, when it says that love covers a multitude of sins, see that also means that it covers the multitude of our shortcomings and our compounded errors that we've made in life, that we all are guilty and we all are at fault. We all done messed up. But thank God for Jesus. But when you come out of darkness into the marvelous light, pray that God brings other folks out. Just because you see somebody else that's still going the wrong way, don't judge them. Don't talk about them. Pray for them. And most importantly, show them the love of God. Just in case, though, somebody don't know, the real love of God is not biased, nor does it ever change. God's love don't change. And if that love be in you, and then his love, and then if his love dwells down within you, our love towards others will not be partial or indifferent. Simply because our lives or the lives of others have not been seen as lovable or well-liked. If we proclaim to be the body of Christ and have not the love of God towards others, let me tell you what Paul said. Let me what Paul said. He's in the book of 1 Corinthians. You know what he said? He said, if I don't have the charity, he said, I am nothing. Nothing. Come on, Paul, but use a use disciple God. Yeah, but if I don't have charity, he said, I'm nothing. Read that 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians sometime. Talk about all the kind of love you can have, all these things. But if you ain't got love, it don't mean nothing. He said, so then are we nothing? If we have not the love of God and show it towards the people of this world, we're nothing too. Okay, how many accomplishments you got, how many plaques you got on your wall, don't care how many titans you got behind your name, in the eyesight of God. If you don't show love, the love that God is talking about, not just human love, which could be one way today and another day tomorrow. But I'm talking about the real, real true love comes from God. And if we don't have it when dealing with people of this world, the Bible teaches that we are nothing in his eyesight. Because you ain't got love. You know why we nothing? Because we claim, if we claim to have God, first John tells us, he that loves not, if you don't love, he said, if you don't love he that loveth not, don't even know God. Because God is love. See? That's a strict sign you ain't got God in your life if you ain't got, if you can't show nobody love. Now, that love I'm talking about is when you're just showing compassion. I ain't talking about the love a man has for a woman or that kind of stuff. Just it's different kinds of love. The love that you don't, this kind of love, you don't have no ill will toward nobody. You ain't trying to hurt nobody. You'll help somebody. Even if they don't do you right, you still will, that spirit in you will still cause you to help them if they need help. Paul says, and I told you in 1 Corinthians 13 chapter, if I have not charity, I'm nothing. He's talking about the nonsense unto God. See, people will tell you you're right in your when doing wrong all day long because they agree with you when you're doing wrong. I do the same thing. I wouldn't let them do that to me either. But what would God say? He said, no, that's not my way. That might be the world's way, but that ain't my way. Peter also tells us this: that charity, meaning love, shall cover the multitude of sin. How many multitudes of sin have God covered in your life simply by him showing you love? And you mean to tell me we can't do that for others? See, this is what we as God's children must do when interacting and living among others, whose lives have been affected, whose lives have been damaged by the deceptions and the workings of this world and the workings of sin. This is one of the major reasons which God has called us as his people, that we reject not those that would be saved and have their lives changed. That we spread not only the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, but that we also spread and show the world his love and compassion. Get ready for the word this morning. This morning's message, the sheik creatures, allow me to share with you this morning a time in the Bible when a brother of ours who was yet particular and nitpicky about who he associated with, and had he been disobedient towards God's instructions, his own ways would have no doubt hindered the love of God from being realized by a whole household of people that was waiting to hear the word of God. But because they wasn't like him, he didn't think he should go. He didn't think they should be helped. See, this is Peter we're talking about this morning, of whom we will be learning from his experience. But this is the same brother that just told us that charity covers a multitude of sins. That was Peter that wrote that. But see, that was he wrote that long after God dealt with him in the book of Acts. He wrote that in his first letter to the church. Because after he learned some things, he realized some things. And a lot of us ain't gonna realize some things until we done learnt some things. He wrote this letter many years after he had learned from God this beautiful lesson about loving others, of having no respect of persons. He learned this as God changed his heart towards others who were Gentiles. This group of people were Gentiles, they weren't Jews. And Jews had a funny feeling about going around people that was not Jews. The story I want to talk to you about this morning comes out of the book of Acts, the 10th chapter. I'm not gonna read that whole chapter, but I'm gonna give you some excerpts out of it to bring about my point about us loving others enough to want to see somebody else being saved and not allowing our ways to hinder us from going to those whom God will want us to be a witness to. In the book of Acts, we find, we find Brother Peter. He was staying with another man. His name, of course, we know Peter's name was Simon, but he was also staying with another man named Simon. And, you know, they were just fellowshipping. You know how time sometimes you go to different uh states, you know people, and you can stay with some of your friends. And just what happened, he was in this particular city and he was staying with his friend. But before we get to Peter, let me tell you a story about another man whose name was Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman soldier, a centurion. But this man feared God. He wasn't a Jew, but yet it's still he feared God and he prayed to God every day. He helped people, he paid alms to people, he did good deeds to people. What he did was so moving unto God, God took this young man, this soldier, into a vision and showed him and had an angel appear to him to let him know. I'm gonna read it to you, that he that God had heard his prayers. But at the same time, another part, another city, another part, Peter was living with his friend Simon, and they had gone about uh they journey and they and they got was getting close to the home. And the Bible said Peter went up to the housetop. It was this time of this time of day, Peter would often pray. And he went up unto the housetop of Sima to pray. The Bible said about the sixth hour. The sixth hour for us means about 12 o'clock noon. It was getting close to lunchtime, and Peter wanted to do his 12 o'clock prayers. And he went up on the housetop to pray, but something happened. God was got to have to deal with myself. See, let me say this. Let me sidebar here a minute, too, about prayer. There is nothing like having a heart of prayer before the Lord. Peter, being a disciple of the Lord, had a heart to go before God in prayer daily. I want you to remember that. Because y'all let me tell you, we are in a day now. If you don't pray daily, you're missing out on your connection with God, your relationship with God, and your fellowship with God. We have got to learn how to pray more. See, it is an excellent preparative to pray and to be led with the knowledge of God's divine grace and favor. That's how you get it when you spend time with God. See, the Holy Ghost, which is the author of Scripture, has revealed that the saints of God in biblical times were a praying people. Oh, yes, they were, devoted to much prayer. That's how they talk to God. The people of God today must also understand that the kingdom of God cannot be manifested in its full power with only a few minutes of prayer a day. You just can't give by a few minutes. Sometimes you gotta spend some time there. I can't put no time on it for you, but you know how close you need to be getting to God. So let the Lord be your guide. We must have a godly prayer life if we are to fulfill God's purpose on this earth. You that's a connection to God. Prayer. Well, see, that's one thing with two things I found that church, religious folks don't like to do. Read their Bible and pray. Them two things they don't like to do. That's they put that on the bottom of the list when those two things should be at the top of the list. Most would most certainly be at the top of the list. Reading your Bible and praying, which is the two things we don't like to do. But it's the enemy that keeps us from wanting to do those things because he knows without us doing those two things, we will never get as close to God as we need to be. See, there can be no real kingdom power in our battle against sin, against Satan, or our own flesh, or even the world for that matter, without a dedicated prayer life. For us to have the victory in our attempt to win those that have been hurt and ostracized, we must pray that we will remain as God will have us, or our work for the kingdom will be harder if we don't regularly engage in much daily prayer. And I said that and I mean that. So we see Peter, he had a prayer life with God because he wasn't finna miss his 12 o'clock prayer time. But see, right when he was getting ready to go into prayer, he wanted to get his prayer done before it was time to eat lunch. He said, and he got he got pretty hungry because it was the Bible said verse 10, he became very hungry. And the Bible said he would have eaten. He said, but while they made ready, getting the table ready, setting food out and everything, while they made ready, the Bible said he fell into a trance. God took him into a little trance-like visa. Know this. I don't care how hungry you were, know this. When there is a soul longing to know God, hallelujah, hallelujah, and someone is seeking mental healing, deliverance for their headaches and heartaches, and for the and for their heart pains that they've suffered in life, you just might be the one available for the job of gaining that soul unto God. And the Lord may just interrupt your breakfast, your lunch, or your dinner, if necessary, for that soul. When there are people who have sought the Lord to feel the emptiness in their hearts, and their sincere cries have gone up before him. Hallelujah! Hallelujah. He will hear them because they are longing to know him and to be loved by him. There was a soul that wanted so desperately to honor God. God heard his prayers and devotion. Even though he was not a member of the synagogue, even though he was not a member of the church, he yet wanted to know God. God heard his prayers coming from his sincere heart. And God verified that he had heard Kinesia's prayers by sending an angel to let him know that he had heard his prayers and his prayers had gone up before him. I heard you, Kernel. I heard your heart. See, God hear your heart. Well, people hear your mouth and lip, God hear the heart. Immediately God tells Cornelius to send men to the city called Joppa and call for one Simon whose surname is Peter. Peter was a true disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, like so many of us, listen to me, he had not completely Been delivered from his residual prejudices, his upturned nose and bigotry notions of his countrymen and the cause of his upbringing. He was reluctant about going to Cornelius' house at first, but when God got through it, see to deal with this spirit within that was in Peter, God takes Peter into this vision or trance-like state to prepare him to receive the messengers that were on their way sent to him by Cornelius. The word of God tells us Peter would have ate, but God took him aside and took him into a vision like state. And in this vision, this is what Peter saw. The Bible said he saw heaven open, saw the sky open, and a certain vessel descending, coming down unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit or tied at the four corners. And this sheet tied at the four corners, four corners, let down to the earth. And the Bible says, what was in that sheet that was let down from the sky, tied at the four corners. Bible said, Well, all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. Now, these though the this vision, he saw animals, but these animals he saw were symbolic to people, all different kinds of people. God finna get ready to teach Peter something. And we're gonna learn it too. All manner of four-footed beasts and wild beasts and creeping beasts and thousands of elves. And the Bible said, and there came a voice to him in the vision. That voice says, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter in the vision said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. I ain't never associated with any kind of elements. I don't even put, I don't eat this kind of stuff. But what God was trying to show Peter is that same prejudice that you had about eating certain things, a lot of Jewish people was also using it to segregate people because they wasn't the kind of people that they associated with. The sheep creatures, the creatures that were let down in that sheep, those people of the world, those foul and wild beastly people and creeping things which Peter saw dangling in the sheet, let down from the sky, he was in a trance because this was the way of which God could reach through to him to get his attention. God had to show him that now, because of his only begotten son, Jesus, now has died for the sins of the whole world, and that no matter what a person's background may be, everyone can now come to God through him. Everyone, those unsaved people we talk about, those wild acting people next door, those loud cussing folks down the street, those fast-tailed girls walking up and down your street, those undisciplined and irresponsible young men standing on the corner. These are the sheep creatures Peter saw. Not many are willing to associate with such low-class and second-class citizens. Not many will see that they too can be saved. They can be saved, y'all. They can be helped by God. But see, we still say the riff raff. The people on your job who whisper about you every chance they get, those family members who get drunk every and each day and act a fool each and every night. Those foul smellings, those you can't stand being around, them kind of sheep creatures. Okay, okay. But what if, hallelujah, hallelujah? What if one day they decided to want to know the Lord, and it'd be you whom the Lord dispatches to go to them. Would you go? Would you go to them? Let us notice one thing. I'm gonna help you on this one about this text in the Bible. That the sheep, look at this now. The sheep which was let down out of the sky was let down by God. That ought to tell you something right there. It was God's sheet, meaning that they were God's people, and the creatures in it belonged to him. So who are we to if God accepted? See, the sheet that was let down unto Peter is like the net of the gospel, enclosing and including all people, both bad and good. Those who are clean, those who are considered unclean, those who have gone through tragedies and traumas in their life, those who have had their spirits crushed and their hearts destroyed. Through God, there is hope for all of us who are yet sheik creatures, and those of us who once were the sheik creatures. God has called us to a ministry that makes full use to all that will be a part of his kingdom. Not putting a difference between who we think is clean or unclean or who is right or not seen as right. Here were not only beasts of the earth, but fowls, which might have flown away, laid at his feet. And not only tame beasts, but wild ones as well. All kinds of people. We're gonna run into all kinds of people in his life, y'all. But I don't matter who they are, they can be saved and they can be helped. And most certainly, they can be loved with the love of God. Like Peter, so many of us stick to our own ways and principles, and even choose not to listen to the Spirit of God, even when he wants our obedience and compassion to be shown towards others. Hate and prejudice can cause us to be hard-hearted and hard-headed, even against God. Even when he asks us to do something that will please him, we're still reluctant about doing it. Even if we know it'll please God, but because it ain't what we want to do. Peter was instructed by a voice from heaven, which was God, to go and speak unto these Gentile souls, which God sent him to. But then he had to still say, and God told him, Rise, Peter, slay and eat, kill, go kill and eat. In other words, just like these animals that you wouldn't normally eat, because the Jewish people were very particular about that. But he said, but flip that thing. There are peoples out there that you've never associated with. There are people out there that you never let yourself go around. But Jesus, my son, done died for them now. And his blood covers everybody now. So I'm gonna need you to change that mindset you once had and now see that everybody that my son shed his blood for can be reached now, can be saved now, can be filled with the Holy Ghost now. And you don't have the right to turn nobody away. If I let down my sheep, showing you that I received them, you must do the same. They too can be part of my kingdom. Their lives can be changed just as I changed your life on the day of Pentecost. They can be loved just as I loved you. Peter will stubbornly stick to his principles at first because his upbringing was instilled within him deeply, and he would by no means hearken to the notion of changing his heart. As the Bible says, though he was hungry and was about to eat lunch, God was attempting to show him that he should be hungry for the souls of the sheep creatures. He would say, Not so, Lord. He's saying this to the Almighty God. How many of us done talked back to God and told God what we ain't gonna do? Whether it was verbally or in your actions, you still was telling God no. When you post got and picked up your Bible and went to reading. When you post went in there and went to praying and you didn't. When you was told to tell somebody you love them, but you didn't. When you was told to treat somebody right in your spirit, but you didn't. That's telling God no. And as the word of God is dealing with Peter, it says here, and the voice spake unto him again. He said, he don't say it, Lord, not so. Okay, so go on try to get his attention again. He's gonna say, the Bible says a second time. But the second time that voice told him this what God has cleansed, that call not thou common. In other words, if God receive them, who are you to think you got a right to say that they ain't worthy? The Bible said this was done three times. God told him, Rise, Peter, slay and eat, rise, Peter, slay and eat. Don't call what I done clean, comma. And the Bible said, when it was done three times, the Bible says the vessel was received, otherwise, the sheep, the ropes pulled the sheep back up into the sky in the vision. It was a vision now, and closed up. And Peter came out of his vision and he came out of his trance. And the Bible says this, he stood there. It left something, it did something to him because it made him think. Because the Bible said, While Peter thought on the vision, the Holy Ghost said unto him, Behold, three men seek ye. They down at the door knocking on. But the Holy Ghost tell them this, he said, Rise therefore and get thee down off top of the housetop where you're praying. He said, Go with them, doubting nothing. Don't worry about they come to hurt you. It ain't nothing like that. Don't doubt nothing. He said, Because I have sent them. Amen. You go with them. Because God ain't through teaching them yet. The vision was just the first lesson. But now you're gonna get a second lesson. I won't make you go around, I'm gonna let you go with the end. I'm gonna let you go with the air. See, Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven to all who would believe to an innumerable multitude of people out of every nation, out of every walk of life. There are those whose lives can be changed and whose lives can be touched and cleansed by God. And we are not to call them nor see them as a nobody. We are not to see them as common or clean. We are not to see them or call them nothing. Because the hope is that they can be washed and be made clean by God. Didn't he clean your life up? Didn't he change you? Well, if he did it for you, he can do it to somebody else. And we need to be open to that. God's voice speaking a second time to Peter told him what God has clean, that call not thou common or unclean. Don't call what I done clean, nothing. Don't call who I done helped nobody. Because I helped you, and nobody calling you nobody. I'm not gonna let you do it to them. Just because they hadn't, you got saved before they did. But I done come into their life. If I can clean them up, because ain't nothing too hard for me. Come off of your high horse and you stop seeing them as not being helped. God is able to cleanse whom He will when He will. The reasons suited to the gospel of Jesus Christ, He has taken off the restraints and set the matter at large. He has cleansed that which was before unclean. He has helped those whom nobody wanted to help. And he has shown love to those that nobody wanted to love. I'm so glad God ain't like man. We now ought to help make use of this liberation from bondage. We should be glad to see people come out of bondage, which God has bestowed upon them, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us all free, and not call or consider anyone common or unclean, fit or unfit, which God has now declared suitable to be cleansed if they so choose to believe in him and be saved. As Peter arrives at the house of Canadias, the Bible said, and as he talked with him, he went in and he found many that were come together, a whole household of people ready to hear the word of God. They don't come together waiting on you, Peter, waiting to hear the gospel. But you don't want to tell us. I pray that something was said this day.