The Way to Live for The Resurrection

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Welcome everyone, listening to the Bread of Life with JJ. Thank you for tuning in. I hope this spiritual message really fills your temple with godly satisfaction. Today is a really special day. It's resurrection day. Praise be to the Lord. So the Lord has led me today to prepare for you this bread of life that's from him, the true bread, right? With his passion and love on this very special day. For this is the day the Lord has made. His bread, his body that was broken, now resurrected. So it's time to drink from the well the living water. Join me today, will you? The living water that only he can provide. For once you drink from the well and eat his bread, you will never thirst or hunger anymore. You will be filled with more than you can imagine. So I pray that his word speaks and his Holy Spirit speaks through me as a vessel for his glory. And as a reminder, I want you to remember this, as I've said before, it's about faith in God. Because faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God, reading the true word of God. For the just shall live by faith. So please bow your head and join me as we get into this morsel and appetizer for you and the bread of life. So, Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for who you are. I pray, Father, for your word to be meet, strength, strength, truth. That only comes from you, Father. Open the ears of those that need to open. Speak through me, Father. I pray that, Heavenly Father, speak to me. From heaven. I pray that the ears are receptive to those that are listening. I pray that I have the ability to say what you want me to say, and that you will give me that touch from heaven, that anointing that makes the talking and preaching and speaking that I'm supposed to be doing for your people easy. And on top of that, I pray for anointed ears to hear what thus saith the Lord. I pray that. Thank you in Jesus' name, your son's name. Amen. We're going to be talking about a few things that I'm going to be going over, speaking from my own heart and my experience, perspective, what I've been taught and what I've learned in life, and also paraphrasing great pastors and sermons that I've heard that I just have to take a part of and share with you these morsels, these appetizers, right? That the Lord's bread brings. So I'm grateful that you're going to tune in and listen. But I want you to, we're going to start with these words of the day, and then Dena, we're going to get into a history that we talked about in the previous sermons, and I talked about different books. But this one is going to be about a resurrection. Good Friday, right? People want to call that. And then later on throughout the month and throughout the year, Passover. But this is so important because we, like I said, as a child, I used to call this day Easter. But it is not Easter. We have to change those type of things and thinking, right? It's not, I'm not going to, you know, get down on somebody or put them down in any malicious way just because they're saying a different word, verbiage of what the word is or what the day is. You know, let God judge that. But I will show truth and correction through that. But right now we're going to talk about praying God's promises. God is faithful and unchanging, so we can trust in his promises neck boldly and rest confidently. So some of these sermons are going to be from Isaiah 47 through 8, Psalm 32. And of course, like I talked about with Luke and other sermons. But join me here. Jesus told us that we would endure hardship in this life. But God gave his children amazing tools to keep trials from overwhelming us. For instance, he sent his spirit to indwell believers, to guide and empower them. In Acts, he says that, second part of Luke. In addition, he gave us a privilege of prayer so we could not only stay connected with our Father, but also bring him our requests. Today, let's focus on his marvelous gift. His sacrifice, of course, but his also resurrection and he's risen. But his marvelous gift of Scripture. Well, for example, let me show you. Psalm 32.8 offers this encouragement, which relates to difficult decisions. I will instruct you and teach you in the ways which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Right? We can pray God's word back to him, saying, We believe he'll teach us and reveal his path while remaining by our side as our caregiver through the entire situation. When hardship arises, we need a sure foundation on which to stand. Remember that God is faithful and unchanging. We can always trust in his promises. Stand firm or stand silent. Remember that. Act boldly. Surrender to him. He loves you. Believe him in his word. And later on we'll remember, we'll we'll touch on why he loves you so much and how that looked like. And how that looks like. And again, remember it's about faith. Remember that. Faith. Faith comes by hearing the word. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, about Jesus, what's so important about that? Well, he offers the living water, as I said before, that quenches the thirst in your soul. So in the book of John, John 6, 32 through 5, John 4, we're going to discuss this, though, about Apostle John. God created us to be comfortable in our own skin. In spiritual terms, humans are designed to experience peace, joy, and contentment. But many people go through life feeling fragmented and empty. In John 4, 7 through 30, Jesus talked with a Samaritan woman who was clearly feeling incomplete and disillusioned with the way her life had turned out. Attempting to fill her soul with human love, she experienced many heartbreaking relationships and was presently involved in a sinful one. This woman had dipped her bucket repeatedly into the well of human love to get the acceptance that she hoped would make her whole. But each experience left her thirsty, hungry. Standing before Jesus, she was a broken soul and a social outcast. People throughout history have been drinking from false wells or eating rotten bread. The truth is that only a relationship with Jesus can make a person whole. From him comes living water that quenches our thirst forever. John 7. This means he meets our every need in this life. In a world marred by sin, we will not have a perfect existence, but through Christ, we can expect to live with a sense of deep and lasting satisfaction. We can. And while we're on earth, we need to think about building for eternal rewards and not just once here on earth, right? To satisfy us. But ask this question: are you living and working with eternity in mind? Are we? You'll see that if you read 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15. But I'm going to share this passage too. Because today's passage contains a sobering message about heavenly rewards and how they're required. That's why. Paul is comparing kingdom work to the efforts of our master builder. He says Christ is the only foundation on which to build, but each of us is responsible for the materials we use on that foundation. We can build with wood, hay, and straw, or with gold, silver, and costly stones. Understand though each man's work will be tested with fire to determine the quality of the materials used. Paul then tells us about the works. If they survive the trial by fire, we will receive a reward. For our achievements to survive, we must learn to build with imperishable materials. We'll be judged not just by our church work, but also by the way we have handled other responsibilities. This means we are to go about our daily jobs with the same diligence that we would show when tending to matters we might typically label as spiritual. Colossians 3. So ask yourself if you're being honest with the Lord. Remember, he knows our heart and the truth of every situation, our thoughts, everything. Our Heavenly Father expects us to do our very best, and He has given us His Spirit to sanctify our efforts and enable the quality of work that He desires. And why is that? Well, because of what He did at Calvary, at the cross. Jesus willingly demonstrated His great love and his great love for us by dying in our place. Hebrews 10, 10 through 14 help explain that as well. If asked what took place on Good Friday, many people could list the events that unfolded at Calvary. Christ was nailed to the cross, Roman soldiers gambled for his garments, and darkness covered the land. But far more was going on that than the eye could see. At the cross, sin was judged. In the Garden of Eden, God warned that disobedience carried a severe penalty. That's Genesis 2. So from the start, his judgment of sin was prophesied, and later it was also pictured in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Under that system, each transgression required an animal's blood to be sprinkled on the altar. The severity of the penalty, loss of life, was a graphic way for our holy God to communicate how offensive and grievous sin is. It was a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God who had come to pay for the sin of the world. John 1 29. On the cross, Jesus Christ was a lamb. He was a lamb. The lamb was on the altar. But the significant difference is that under the old covenant, every time sin was committed, another animal had to die. Jesus, however, willingly offered himself once and for all to atone for the sin of the whole world. Hebrews 7. Victory over the grave, Christ's triumph over the grave, guarantees our forgiveness and provides an eternal home with God. We live in a fallen world. And death is an inscapable, inescapable, inescapable reality. As believers, however, we have hope because we serve a risen Savior. But have you ever wondered how things would be different if there had been no resurrection? What despair and hopelessness. Even Christmas if he wasn't, if there was no Christmas. To help us appreciate Christ's victory over the grave, let's consider what that outcome of life and death would be without the resurrection. First of all, Jesus would still be dead. That means our faith in him would be worthless and our message to the world would be a lie. What's more, Jesus himself would be proved false since he claimed that he would rise from the dead. There would be no forgiveness of our sins, no possibility of reconciliation with God, and no hope of heaven. All believers throughout history would have truly perished. Without the resurrection, there would be nothing positive for anyone to anticipate, no end to our brokenness and separation from the Lord, which we do not want. So thank God not one of these scenarios is true. Our Savior lives, Revelation 1.18 says that our our sins are forgiven, death has been defeated, and believers in Christ have assurance of eternity in heaven with him. After considering how hopeless we would be without the beautiful truth of the resurrection, let's rejoice all the more in the greatest of our salvation, truly. If you think about that, let's rejoice even more. Let's rejoice even more. The Lord is so good. But I also now want to delve in a little deeper. So I want to discuss now the reasons why we worship the Lord Jesus Christ too, right? These other reasons why. And soon explain with a sermon the way to live. Yeah. Why we worship the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty. Well, the why we serve him and celebrate his death and resurrection because his sacrifice. Those who believe in him can come to the Father because of what Jesus did on the Calvary on the cross. So I will be discussing the gospel of Luke and explain the true and loving meaning of the resurrection weekend. I call it the resurrection because that's exactly what he did. Jesus did the impossible so that it would be possible for us to be reconciled, redeemed, saved. Resurrection definition, if you don't know, it means the action or fact of restoring a dead person to life. So who can do that? Like he said before, he destroyed this temple in three days, I'll raise it again. Yeah, he did. That is our Messiah. That's what we celebrate his truth in life. The meaning of Easter comes from the word Astoria, originating meaning from the pagan goddess Estoria, who represented spring and new beginnings. Astora symbolizes fertility, rebirth, and renewal. That's where we get the uh Easter bunny idea from. It derives from the Wiccan witchcraft ritual, the Sabbaths or customs that they celebrate. So saying that word or saying that reason for this day is false in so many ways. Jews also don't celebrate Easter instead. They celebrate Passover starting sunset Wednesday, April 22nd to sunset, April 30th. Understand this, too, that Jesus never observed Easter, never sanctioned it, and never taught his disciples to celebrate it. Nor did the apostles teach the church to do so. Today, Jesus would observe the biblical Passover in days of unleavened bread, as Scripture teaches, and he has practiced and taught that in the scriptures. That's John 13, 15, if you need to know through 17 and 1 Corinthians 5, 7 through 8. So we're walking through the Gospel of Luke. That's what we're going to be talking about. And we reach the end now of Jesus' long road trip to Jerusalem. So just a picture of him here. He arrived, riding a donkey down the Mount of Olives towards the city. Crowds forming, and people are singing, Praise a King who comes in the name of the Lord. They're laying down their cloaks in front of him. While this royal treatment, okay, Israel's ancient prophets prophesies and promise that one day God himself would arrive and rescue his people and rule the world. Other times the prophet spoke about a coming king who would ride into Jerusalem to bring justice and peace. So Jesus is activating all these hopes that he is that king and everyone is ecstatic. But not everybody, right? Some of the haters, the religious leaders, they think that Jesus is a threat to their power, and they're not happy. Even more striking, Jesus himself is distraught. He actually is weeping as he rides. Why? Well, Jesus can see what's coming. He knows that he has or he will be accepted as Israel's king, and he knows that Israel is keeps going down and going down further to a destructive path, neglecting the poor, stirring up rebellion against the Roman oppressors. He knows that it will lead to death. It breaks his heart and it rouse him up. The first thing he does, though, in Jerusalem is he marches into the temple courts, drives out the money changers, like I've talked about before, disrupting the entire sacrificial system. Yet he's staging a prophetic protest, and he stands in the center of the courtyard shouting out words from Israel's ancient prophets. This is supposed to be a place of worship, but you've made it a den of rebels, thieves, a den of thieves. He's quoting from the prophet Jeremiah, who stood in the same spot at the center of the Israel's religious and political power. And he offered the same. This ticked off Israel's leaders and their rebellious and corruption. And they gave the message. They wanted this message clear to start and have a plan to have them killed, which is no surprise to Jesus. In fact, he planned all of this would happen during his Passover. During Passover. This is the holy week when Jewish people, like I talked about before, celebrate their ancient story of how God liberated them from slavery, invited them into a covenant relationship. And so Jesus uses the symbols of Passover to reveal the meaning of his coming death. The broken bread was his broken body, and the wine was his blood. The Last Supper. That would establish a new covenant relationship between God and Israel. Jesus was going to die for his people and open up a new way forward. After the meal, Jesus takes his disciples to a garden to pray, Garden Gethsemane, and he struggles with the very human desire to save his life. To save his life instead of sacrificing it. But he overcomes his temptation. And it's here where the religious leaders with the temple guards find him and arrest him. Now Jerusalem was being ruled by a Roman Empire. And so the temple leaders conspired with them. And that was one of them by the name of governor, by the name of Pontius Pilate. So they made up all these charges that Jesus is a rebel, rebel king, stirring up revolution against the Roman Emperor. So Pilate asked Jesus, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered, You say so. So it's probably, can you see that Jesus is innocent? He's an innocent man, as Pontius Pilate knows and says that, feels that, and knows that, right? And so he doesn't deserve death, as he's saying, but the leaders, the Jewish leaders, keep insisting that he is dangerous. So they negotiate a promise and a compromise with Pilate. Release an actual rebel against Rome, a man named Barabbas, instead of Jesus. And Barabbas was a murderer. So the innocent is handed over in the place of the guilty. Jesus is taken away with two other accused criminals and nailed to a Roman execution device. That's how they got down back in those days. Execution device was the cross, where you would suffer tremendous pain and agony and suffocation for hours. Hours. They think they had somebody there for like eight hours. I believe Jesus Christ was on there for either six to eight hours, something to that nature, suffering, beaten up already, body bruised. Just imagine that. The orfices of your body, the screaming of excruciating pain. Not only have you been beat up and whipped, beat up to like unrecognizable, whipped where your skin is off your back, pretty much. Okay. And then legs broken, nailed to a cross with nails that are spiked. I believe they were like at least seven, eight inches, maybe ten inches long, and driven into your wrists and your ankles. Torture. Unbelievable. And then have you hang there and die slowly in suffocation and pain. Horrible way. Horrible. And yet he did that. People were mocking him. They're saying, if you're the Messiah King, save yourself. Save us. But Jesus loved his enemies to the very end, offering hope to the one criminal dying beside him, and even prayed for his executioners. Father, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing. And then the sky darkened. As the innocent man died, the death of the rebel. And then Jesus cried out with an ancient words from Israel, from Psalms, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And then Jesus died, innocent and alone. Now a recap about the resurrection of Jesus and the story of Jesus as is told in Luke's gospel. It begins again with the arrival of the unlikely king born in poor, humble circumstances. Then we saw Jesus as a teacher, a prophet. He went throughout Israel, calling people to a radical way of life where enemies become friends, and the poor are cared for. And he did many signs and wonders. So many Israelites began to hope that he would rescue Israel from the Romans and set up a new kingdom of peace and justice. In short, that he would bring the kingdom of God. Now the religious leaders of that day were also hoping for God's kingdom. But to them the message of Jesus was a threat. They had expected to gain power and prestige when all this went down. But Jesus said, God's kingdom belongs to the poor, to the outsider, and the real power is serving others in love. Do you hear that? God's kingdom belongs to the poor, to the outsider. The real power is serving others in love. This conflict intensified when Jesus, while in Jerusalem, disrupted the temple sacrifices and called Israel's leaders a gang of rebels. So they arrested Jesus. They had him accused before the Roman authorities of being a rebel king. He was handed over for execution even though he was innocent. Then he was taken outside the city and put to death on false charges. This brings up to the final section of the Gospel of Luke. There was a religious leader named Joseph who opposed Jesus' execution and then requested to be given his body so he can bury Jesus in a nearby tomb. And then a couple days later, some women who had been following Jesus, Mary, right, came to visit. They found it open and empty. And they encountered mysterious figures telling them Jesus was alive from the dead. So they ran away, terrified. No one will believe the report. I mean, they can't be alive. They saw him die. But now just outside of Jerusalem, a pair of Jesus' followers were leaving the city, traveling on a road town called Maias. And they were sad and confused about everything that happened. Then Jesus shows up walking alongside him, but they don't know it's him. He's in his resurrected body, so they can't recognize him. So why couldn't he recognize him? Yeah, it's odd, but that's what I'm guessing that because of his resurrected body has just glorified heaven on him. He couldn't recognize him. So Jesus talks with him, he's with him, he asks him, he's like, hey man, what are you guys talking about? And they began to talk about Jesus, a powerful prophet, who they expected, we expected him to rescue us from Israel, but expect him to rescue Israel, but instead he was executed. So women say he's alive, which is crazy. It's all too much. So we're going home. Jesus tries to explain it the scriptures, how the scriptures have been pointing all along to that, that Israel needed a king who would suffer and die as a rebel on behalf of those, and he would be vindicated by his resurrection, so he can give true life to those who would receive it. But still not making sense to them. They're as confused as ever, which leads to a scene, if you can picture this, where they sit down for a meal with Jesus, still not knowing it's him. But once he takes the bread and blesses it, breaks it, gives it to them, just as he did as the Last Supper, the image of his broken body and his death on the cross, and where they're taken into the break and broken bread, that's when their eyes open to see Jesus. It's you in front of us. It's you. Then he disappears. Episode's over. So this is a story about how it's hard to see Jesus for who he really is. But it's brilliant. I mean, how could God's royal power be revealed through this man's shameful execution? How could a humble man become the king of the world through weakness and self-sacrifice? It's very hard to see. But this is the message of the Gospel of Luke. It takes a transformation of your imagination to see it and embrace Jesus' upside-down kingdom. The Gospel of Luke ends with Jesus and all his disciples together over another meal. Everyone's freaking out about the resurrected body. I mean, he's still human, but way more, yes. He passed through death and come out the other side and walking, talking peace of new creation. And then Jesus tells him that he's going to give them the same divine power that sustained him so they can go out and share the good news of the kingdom of God with other people. Well, after this, Luke tells that Jesus was taken up to heaven, which is a cool exit. But why disappear into the sky? Well, in the Old Testament, the skies are a place that God's throne are above everything. This is Luke's way of showing that Jesus has been enthroned to the divine king of the world. His followers stay in Jerusalem, worshiping God and Jesus, waiting for this new power, which is in Acts. And this is where the gospel ends. Now Luke is going to write about how they receive the power and take the news out into the world. And that's what his second volume is, the book of Acts, which I've talked about before previously in another podcast. It's all about which I discussed, right? So the next episode, we will dive back into the second part of Acts and Romans, and then move ahead to Philippians, and the different letters Paul the Apostle addressed to Timothy in the churches during his voyage and his time in prison. That's what we will discuss. But moving from that, I've been thinking about this statement for a minute, and I have one to give. And this is it. One of the greatest sins in our life, in your life, is prayerlessness. That is a great sin of the church. We know how to come together and worship. We know we can do whatever we prayed for or not. We can go through the motions. We can have church and be in the flesh. Preachers can preach great sermons and be in the flesh. Sometimes we usually determine if the service is good or not, the church is good or not, or how we feel about it. Or how we feel when we leave the service. Which is the worst indicator of true spiritual worship there is. Your flesh would love for you to let it please you in church, make you feel good about it. A little check mark. Went to church on Easter, Resurrection Day. People always say I felt good when I left. Yeah, today I've had people say I felt pretty bad at times, right? I've heard them back and forth when I leave church. But when I have left church before, those barometers of the flesh. It's possible to pray in the flesh. Churches around this world will meet today in the flesh, but do it under the name of Jesus. They will do it in the power of the flesh. The flesh meaning me instead of him. It's how I feel. It's what I want. What I do, my efforts in the flesh. And what I mean by that, like even going out today and grabbing some eggs and having everything set at a schedule. This is how it's going to be. We're going to go to church. We're going to do this check mark here. We're going to go get some Easter eggs. We're going to go eat here. We're going to do this. About you. But have you ever considered maybe let it be about God? Because it is his day. And he did rise and die for you to share this and to rejoice. So that's kind of speak that truth to people, right? That's keep it open and real and really talk about what it's about in this day and how we need to live. Okay, so understand, Paul says in Romans 6, you cannot please God if you're in the flesh. It cannot be subject to the law of God. It is not possible. The flesh and the spirit are at odds eternally. Eternally is an irreconcilable difference. That's what there are. You cannot pray in the spirit and walk in the flesh. So when I tell you today that the great sin in every one of our lives is prayerlessness, I say that as I judge myself. But it's what the Lord laid on my heart. You see, everything happens by prayer. If you think about it, when you're dealing in the Lord and his kingdom, it's about prayer, communion. Prayer is communion with God. It's fellowship with God. It's saying, I need you, I want you, I crave you, I love you, I want to be around you, I want your presence in my life. That's what prayer says first. But then prayer is how heaven comes to earth. Everything eternal and heavenly that takes place on earth comes through the power of prayer. The word of God does not even take on full meaning to one has prayed and the spirit has opened up to their understanding. Prayer, Holy Spirit, right? Prayer is how God operates in the world. One way, because he can do anything because he is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. So prayer is how requests are made to Almighty God, and prayer is how petitions are granted from Almighty God. Having said that, it's the thing we do the least. We will plan to exercise, we'll plan to go out and eat, we'll plan the month's activities, bills, etc. But to plan prayer, to carve out a time where we can go into the innermost chamber and stay with God, it's just not something that's a priority in our lives, unfortunately. So when we go prayerless, sly and do everything with that, when we come to church like this, it's possible for our lips to be saying one thing, but our heart somewhere else. So even Jesus taught that it's possible to be very religious, to go to the temple, pay tithes, and do everything and be a sinner. He said to the Pharisees, the Pharisees pray without ceasing. He says, I hear their lips moving, but their hearts are far from me. It's the greatest, mightiest thing that can take place. It's the only thing that moves the hand of God, I'm telling you. It's a force that God imparts to his child that allows them to stand in a wicked world and live a right life. To look at devils and make them flee, to look at bad situations that would frighten anyone else and say the Lord will take care of this. So I want you to look at this for just a moment. As disturbing as it may sound, some of you that are listening, God does not hear the prayer of sinners. John 9.31 says it. And we know that God does not hear sinners. Remember these sayings? When you hear people praying for you, because when you say, I'm praying for you. So when people say they're praying for me, are you acknowledging that you've been born again by the Holy Spirit and that you're in touch with the living God, the only true living God, and whose Son is Jesus Christ, and that you have a relationship with Him and that you can take something right. That's how it is. His throne of gay is grace with boldness. So when you say our prayers are with them, if you're not a born-again believer, you're just spoken, you're speaking air. God does not hear the prayers of sinners. If there's anyone here today listening to the podcast and you say, Well, you know, I'm not living right either. Every so often I'll up my prayers to the man upstairs. Well, you're wasting your time, my friend. God does not hear you. In fact, the Bible says in such a disturbing way that he says there are people who are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Remember, that's he was on the cross on Friday and he rose, his son. You don't want to be God's enemy. James said in 4, 4, whoever so will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. So think about what I'm saying to you. God has enemies, and some of those enemies claim to pray, and some of those enemies claim to know him. But they are enemies of the cross of Christ because they do not preach repentance. They do not talk repentance and a new birth in Jesus. God does not hear sinners. The first and only prayer you will hear from a sinner is this. Think about this: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Psalm 51. Created me a pure heart, a steadfast spirit. And when the Holy Spirit prompts you to say that, you will have heaviness of heart and guilt and condemnation almost unbearable. You cry out to him, He will save you instantly. He will save you eternally, he will save you mightily. That person, that first prayer is the thing that matters. God be merciful to me, a sinner. And then you begin to understand as a sinner, you have no right to approach God. You're a fool of decadence, a sin. But then you recognize that it was Jesus who took your decadence and received your sin and took them to the cross and died and rose again today, so that you could walk in a new life. And when you do pray, you will have authority and power with the God to whom you pray. There are also sinning believers, right? They don't get off the hook at all. They don't have much fellowship with God, though. They are children of God, but they don't have much time for Him. Mm-mm. These are the ones who come to church all the time and they get pumped up sporadically, especially when they have trouble in their life and they need to hear something that needs to be met in their life, and they cry out and say, But God hasn't answered my prayers. And I've asked him twice. You hear things like, Well, you know, I don't know, go to church all the time, but I should go. I really don't read the Bible much, but I can't really understand it. You know, maybe I asked God, He's not helping me. Well, there's a reason for that. When they come to me, say, Why hasn't God answered my prayers? Why is my life going downhill? Why is the frustration in my life worse than it's ever been? And I feel utterly hopeless at times. There is a reason for that. The reason for everything. God's not just the mean old man, gray beard, white hair, sitting up there tired of your messing with him. God has purpose and his plan and is a deity, a holiness deity, a holy deity, a righteousness eternally. God has some expectations for those who call him their father and savior. Here's an example from the book of Isaiah. There is God's people. And here's what Isaiah says: Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that he cannot save, nor is his ear heavy, that he cannot hear. And if you just look at me for a moment, he said, or listen to me for a moment, he said, What do you mean? God can't do this. You think God hasn't heard you? There is a reason. Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your iniquities. Isaiah 59, 3. Your sins have hidden his face from you, that he will not hear you. Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Meaning you got your hands in a worldly, ungodly stuff that displeases him. You're not being truthful and honest, and you're living in a busy dealings of life. You think that you're only that like you're that one person on Sunday, you're a certain way, right? But then business person during the week, and it's a totally different life. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered perversity. Question to tell the truth. God wants his children to have clean lips, a sanctified tongue, a holy mouth. So when God says it's not that my hand is too or my arm too short to reach you, it's that I'm hard of hearing. It's that you turned your back and you decided to do things your way. And even as my child, you are living and walking in iniquity, and I cannot hear you when you're that way. David even said that, right? It hit him hard. If I regard any iniquity in my heart, Lord, he will not hear me. If I give sin permission to stay in my life, if I justify transgressions in my life, if I, like I said a few podcasts ago, if I don't, if I if you don't deal with your besetting sin, if you don't judge it, if you don't give it to God and you learn to justify it and you keep on justifying and you accept it and you'll be comfortable with it, then what God is saying today was this if let sin stay there, if it looks, well, that's big, it's the only thing in my life, I'm gonna let it stay, and the Lord will not hear you. He will not hear you. Verse 3 and 5 of Psalm 24 asked the question: Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who shall stand in the holy presence? That's the question. Who has a right? This is the Old Testament when they had to go up to the hill of temples. Remember, I was talking about the temples before in the other test in the other podcast. And who has a right to walk up that temple and stand in the temple? Who has a right to approach God? And he answers the question. He has the one who has a clean hand and a pure heart. One who has not lifted up his soul into vanity nor sworn deceitfully. That means a person who tells the truth and the person whose heart longs for a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. God loves you. And because he loves you, he wants you to live an abundant life. And if you call yourself children of God and you're still allowing sin in your life, you're still walking in the flesh, nothing is going to change. Please hear me out. Until you clean that temple. And I talked about that a few podcasts ago. Clean out the temple. Nothing is going to change. There will be no improvement until you clean the temple out. Nothing is going to happen in your life worthwhile, good, bright, hopeful, until you recognize that you, as a child of God, must forsake the ways of the world. That you cannot allow your flesh to dictate how you think and feel and walk. You've got to realize that you've been bought with a price. Happened on Friday, right? The precious blood of Jesus. Therefore, you ought to glorify God in your body and your spirit, which is the Lord's. You are a living sacrifice. You're not one of them. You're not one of them. You're not even one of him that's trying to be one of them. You've been crucified with Christ, set apart, sanctified. He called you. He called you until his own glory. You are his child. Stop living like the child of the devil. You are of God's. You have the thoughts of God, power of God, the strength of God. Stop living in the weakness of the flesh. Stop thinking thoughts that are damning and destructive, and start walking in truth. Because it's a truth that keeps you strong, free, clean, and holy before God Almighty. These are the things that you must do if you're listening here to me. The Lord loves you. He wants a deeper relationship with you. He must make a choice and decision. You must make a choice and decision how you are going to live that way. And be honest with yourself. Time is running out in this life. Be honest with yourself. Don't be ashamed of your ways. Don't be ashamed of the mistakes you made and the failures. That was the whole purpose of sending God's beautiful Son. His part, Himself, imparting in flesh to die innocently. But to give us hope that He rose again, which He did on this day. As He resurrects, you resurrect, revive. Know the power that is in you and around you, that loves you, and that is guiding you to all truth for purpose. Know your identity. Draw close to him, and he will draw close to you. Period. So as I close, I'll say a prayer, those listening. And I hope you pray that you accept Jesus Christ. And if you need prayer too later on after this podcast, any other time, please reach out. Bread of life with JJ at gmail.com. Bread of life with JJ at gmail.com. We'll be more than happy to answer your questions you may have. I'll even look it up for you if I even have the answers. I'll find it out. So just pray this with me. Heavenly Father, I am a sinner. Clean in me, put in me a new heart, a clean heart, a new mind, a steadfast spirit that is for you. Cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I repent of my sins. I want to serve you. I want to know you better. Pray those things. Open your book. Your Bible, I love the words from New to Old Testament, Old Testament, New Testament, the books, the 66 books, but let me tell you the ones that really are the meat and potatoes of things too, or it's Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians. Those are the like the letters that Paul wrote too into the churches. They're beautiful and how one should live, truly. But even Psalms helps you with prayer, strengthens you, Proverbs, wisdom, even in business. You can read a Proverbs a day, 31, Proverbs. Proverbs 31 is actually also speaking about the wisdom of a woman, which is, I like to call my wife, virtuous one. Like, and we're striving to always be better. Each and every day, though, too, right? We're not perfect. But may God bless you today. This special day. Embrace it. Commune. Know the Lord because he loves you. May He keep you. May He bless you. May His face shine upon you and give you peace. Jesus loves you. Tune in till next time. God bless you.