Well have a lot of information in the sermon today, so make
sure your download speeds are run in full speed.
But the reason I want to cover a lot of information because I
want to discuss theology as well as doctrine because it's very
important, because I believe with everything within me, this
is a very important time in the plans and purposes of God.
And so in order for us to understand where we're going, we
also have to understand where we came from.
The Bible says if the foundations be destroyed, what
shall the righteous do? So it's very important for us to
have a groundwork for understanding.
There are two simple messages that will be a part of it.
Now pointed out for those of you who feel it's too much
information to handle because perhaps you don't have the
background to understand some of the things.
But again, I want to stress even before I start, this is a very
important time in God's plan, a time where He's challenging each
and every one of us to take a step higher in Him and to let
Him take us to that place. So in John chapter 16, Jesus
said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. However, how?
However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide
you in all truth. For He will not speak on His own
authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will
tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for He will
take of what is mine and declare it to you.
I shared this scripture on Wednesday.
I did a few weeks back on a Sunday as a part of my YouTube
because I believe this is a very important scripture for laying a
principle for us to understand. When Jesus Christ was getting
ready to go to the cross, He was wanting to prepare His disciples
for what was going to come, and He wanted them to understand
that when they got through to the other side, they would
realize on the day of Pentecost that Jesus Christ did not leave
them orphans. He said I'm going away, but I'm
coming again to you. And he was going to come through
the power of the Holy Spirit. Now that's different than when
he comes in the last day in a bodily form, but it is important
for us to realize there is a present tense reality through
the Holy Spirit that we have that we can continue our
relationship with Jesus Christ. He gave us the Holy Spirit so
that we could have a guide, so that we could have a teacher, so
that we could have instruction and perception that goes beyond
what is ordinary. And so that's the purpose of the
Holy Spirit. That's why we am outside and
encourage people to understand. There is a second work of grace,
as many call it, whereby after you become a Christian, you say
I want to be endued with power from on high.
I want to receive the Holy Spirit.
Now Jesus said something very powerful as well as a part of
this, because he said you're not ready for everything.
I want to tell you. That's why there has to be this
waiting period and then I'm going to come again and speak to
you now through the Holy Spirit. Now first disciples, that meant
they were going to go through the death, burial and
resurrection. It was going to be a very
traumatic experience, one in which they would learn a whole
lot. Then on the other side, through
the Holy Spirit, Jesus would help them recover from the
catastrophe that it was for many of them and also began to
reinstate them and to walk in the full.
And So what God had for them, but also he was making it known
that the apostle Paul would be raised up to continue many of
the teachings and instructions that he had been taking it to
another level. It's important for us to
understand with God there is a progression to his revelation.
It's true in the church as a whole.
It's true throughout history, and we should see it as true in
our own individual lives. But when speaking to them and
saying, but you're not quite ready for it.
We have to understand that a part of his dealings with us in
the Spirit will also correspond to our natural life because
there's a process that we go through in development in our
natural life that helps us prepare to receive more in our
spiritual dimension. That's why in the Bible we hear
the term elder because they're supposed to be people that
through living a long time in relationship with God, there
comes a point in time where it's been proven true in their life
and they have wisdom to share. And that's why God wants us to
understand how important it is for us to continue in the things
that God has for us so that we would be ready.
That's true in our chronological age.
It's also throughout history, something that's very important.
One of the examples I will give about this is one that we can
look back when we look at church history and we know about the
time of the Reformation, which is about 500 years ago.
The church was basically all, all in one church in the Western
part of Europe, all in another church in the eastern.
There was the Eastern and the Western church tradition, but
people began to realize that we need a change now.
And that's where the Reformation come in.
Because all the sudden people began to realize there's a lot
of traditions that were picked up and practices that were not
according to the word of God. Well, how did they know that?
Well, they knew that because they were in a time in history
when there was a dynamic change in civilization.
For many years, really for the 1st 1500 years of church
history, most people in the world did not read or write.
And even if they did, they wouldn't have access to a Bible
because all Bibles had to be copied by hand.
And so there weren't a whole lot of Bibles available.
They would have been very expensive.
So again, out of the hands of individuals, through the Age of
Enlightenment, the Age of Reason and civilization, people began
to understand how important knowledge was, how important
education was, and it advanced human civilization that made it
possible for God to do something new.
And also with the invention of the printing press, a band by
the name of Gutenberg had invented something where they
could use a printing press. So Bibles became widely
available. As a matter of fact, the first
book that he printed was a Bible.
And so you can see very easily here how God works in the
natural as well as the spiritual to perform his perfect works in
the earth. Again, in the body as a whole,
but also in our individual lives.
We should always have this idea. There's never been a day like
today, because today God wants to speak to us in a fresh way.
The Scripture here says that too.
It says therefore, when they had come together, they asked Jesus
saying, Lord, when will you at this time restore the Kingdom of
it to Israel? And he said them is not for you
to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in his
own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to me in
Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and to the end of the
earth. And of course it was at this
point in time, Jesus Christ has resurrected, spent 40 days with
them. He's going to ascend into heaven
and make his church the new witnesses in the earth,
replacing him. Now there was going to be the
body of Christ. Well, of course, as has always
been true in our throughout church history, they knew Jesus
was going away. They knew that he was coming
back. So immediately they want to
know, when are you coming back? When are you going to restore
the Kingdom? When are all these things in
heaven? And Jesus said, I can't share
with you the things or times and seasons that only the Father has
in his hand, which I always like to throw out there because
there's a whole lot of preachers who can tell you when Jesus is
coming back and he didn't even know itself.
I'm, you know, that should put a little pause when we hear
everybody talking about Jesus's gummy because God has a plan and
a purpose. And sometimes we have to get in
God to really perceive the times and seasons.
But it's important for us to know that God isn't just working
in the earth to do his part of what's happening.
As we mentioned a couple weeks ago, it's so important for us to
know that heaven rules on the earth.
And that's important for us to understand because whether it's
good things or bad things, God is the manager of all things.
As we'll read here today, God gives mankind choices.
Sometimes they suffer for those choices, sometimes other people
suffer for those choices. But the end we have to realize
that God still is a manager of all things.
And for Him, it's always working towards a purpose for His plan
on the earth. And you have to know that God
has a purpose for your life. And so you have to sometimes
stop and say, OK, wait a second, I have a purpose to my life.
I'm going to say, God, what's your purpose in this?
I'm going to put my trust in you and believe that as I do, it's
going to work up. Now, when you said you're going
to be witnesses, he didn't say now you guys have to have a
night where you do evangelism, go out and witness.
You don't have to get your tracks and go out and witness.
When he says here that you're called to be a witness, the
original word in the translation that the Bible came from, the
Greek translation, it means a martyr.
So it's talking about a person's life.
God says your life is a witness. Yes, you should tell people
about what God has done, as you should tell what God has done in
your life. But most important is God
saying, do you realize that I have created you to be my
witnesses? Says the Lord.
So there's always this process that's going on in life where we
have an eternal purpose to be God's witness.
And we need to stop from time to time and say, well, what is the
witness that God has for me in the circumstance I'm now in?
Because sometimes we think that we have to manage our
circumstances. And God say, no, let me manage
the circumstances. You let me do a work inside of
you. And then you'll see how that I
can make something very powerful out of what even you're going
through, says the Lord, Amen. Give the Lord a praise on that.
That's a good thing to know. Now when I talk about why this
day is important, because I believe right here the Scripture
is so important for the day, an hour in which we live.
Now I say that the air, as long as he is a child, does not
differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but
is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the
Father. Even so we when we were
children, we're in bondage other elements of the world, but when
the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of
a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the
law that we might what receive the adoption as sons, a partner
over this. It's the scripture of transition
because the apostle Paul, the call he had was a call to the
Gentiles, but also he had to reconcile the old covenant with
the new covenant, the law of Moses, with the new message that
Jesus Christ had, which was the message of grace.
And so he wanted the Jews, especially at this point in
time, because in the book of Galatians, he's talking a lot
about the Jewish religion versus what God was doing, because
there were a whole lot of the Jews who had become Christians,
and they couldn't separate the old from the new.
And so they were always trying to bring the people back into
the old. And he's trying to say, no, it's
time to go into the new now. He said it this way.
He says in the old covenant you were treated like servants or
slaves. And it's a natural thing because
even though you are the children of God, you weren't ready for
everything that God had for you to do or everything for you to
be, he said. But just like it is in the
natural, if you're a very wealthy person, your children
are become heirs of your estate. You don't want to just give it
to them at any time. You want to make sure that
they're mature enough, able enough that when the inheritance
comes, they can receive it and do well with it.
And he said that's the way it is with the Kingdom of God.
God has an inheritance for US. Church God has some awesome
things that He's always intended to put in the hands of his
people, but we have to be ready for the blessing He wants to
give to us. And that's why in the Old
Testament they're called the children of Israel, or even the
children of God, because really they were very immature.
They were really just acting like slaves or servants of God.
They never quite understood what it meant to be responsible and
do the things that God had for them.
No, so now there's this transition from the law to grace
and they just couldn't receive it.
No, we're going to stay under the law and not move into this
concept of grace and what that would be.
So really what they were choosing in the Apostle Paul's
determination was you're choosing to be children and not
sons, just like it is in the natural when you have children,
how many know when they first come into the world?
It's such an amazing thing to be a parent and you have kids and
you're like, wow, this is awesome.
So the first thing that you think about is you got to
protect your children. You can even say my job is to
keep those kids alive because how many know that's the bottom
line? And I always joke about it, how
that when we first had children, Bonnie and I were very careful.
She has always been more careful than me about everything.
So every time I went to get a cover, something on the
cupboard, it usually had a lock. If you went down the stairs,
there was something that guarded so the kids wouldn't fall down
the stairs. I remember myself even reading
an article once where they said a major cause of death for
children as they fall into the toilet.
I was afraid to even lift the toilet lid after that point in
time, wondered what I would find.
I was just so we got to be very careful.
We don't want the kids to drown, but you don't want to just keep
them alive. How many, you know, you wanted
to mature, bring to that place where there's potty training, if
you would, So you want them to be aware of their bodily
functions and teach them how to handle those things.
And so that the joy that we have as they're growing up is all the
accomplishments. And when they begin to talk and
when they begin to have some sense of humanity that we
witnessed in them. Bonnie was just talking the
other day about our grandkids. And it's so amazing when they
first start talking, you realize that's a person they actually
think it's, it's almost stunning.
But they are. And our goal should always be to
bring them to a place of responsibility.
Well, believe it or not, that's God's same desire for each and
every one of us. It's important for us to realize
God doesn't just want to keep us as slaves, if you would, or
always just watching over hovering over us, but saying,
I'm going to teach this kid some things.
I'm going to bring them to a place of maturity, which brings
us to Genesis chapter 2. For in the beginning, when God
created mankind, the Bible says that the Lord God took man and
put him in the Garden Eden with a responsibility to tend and
also to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for
in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.
Now the name Adam literally means man or mankind.
So this story isn't just about two individuals.
It's about mankind and how God has created us and what His
eternal purpose is for us. So we have to understand these
things. Now when you read about the tree
of life and the tree of knowledge is a good and evil and
how God puts it before them, we often look at it that it's just
an obedience test. And truthfully, if you were to
simplify most people's ideas about Christianity, it's kind of
like God created the earth. He created mankind.
Put up an obstacle course if you would, and if they do the right
thing and follow the right course, they get to go to
heaven. If not, well, you go to the
other place. That has never been God's plan
and His eternal purpose. His purpose is that He would
have children in the earth whom he would work with and develop
and train so that they would go on to maturity, although there
was an obedient side to it. Just like when we have children
when they're little and we want to protect them, How do you
know? We want them to do what we tell
them to do, or we want them to follow the things that we say
are necessary to stay alive because, well, that's going to
make a big difference. Amen.
And so we protect them as best as we can, but then it comes a
point where we teach them otherwise.
So we have to ask ourselves a question is well with God, was
that just an obedience test? Was he just finding out whether
they would do the right thing? Or was that a responsible thing
of parental care, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil
was something that they weren't perhaps even ready for?
Now, it's important for us to understand that again, because I
talked about reformation, there was a time when all Christians
were part of the same church until thousand AD, and then they
split between the Eastern and the Western.
And this is one of the things that the Eastern church had
separate from the Western church.
Because in the Western church, the idea was what happened is
mankind was given a choice. He disobeyed God, so he was
kicked out of the garden and not only did he fall in his
position, but he fell in nature. So man became depraved.
And there's a doctrine called the total depravity of man that
says you are just totally depraved.
There's nothing you can do for yourself and you certainly can't
make a choice to follow God. And so we see ourselves as
depraved individuals, always trying to do the right thing,
but never quite measuring up. And so many times people think
that's what God's grace is. God says thanks for trying, but
it don't matter, you're under grace.
No, that's not exactly what he was trying to make them
understand. He was wanting them to
understand that there are consequences for choices, but we
always have to be willing to allow God to bring it back to
the place where we were originally intended to go.
And so we know God is a God of restoration.
Can you say Amen to that? That's so important for us to
know and understand. Well, when you have the doctrine
of depravity or total depravity of man, you have this idea that
there's not much use to the human condition.
It's only what God can do. And so some people think, well,
God chooses you, God pulls you in his Kingdom.
It's irresistible grace and all that.
Well, that's all there is to it. Now, this is where the history
comes in because Mount Zion is in recent times been known as a
charismatic church. The Charismatic movement came
out of the Holiness movement, or excuse me, in the Pentecostal
movement. Pentecostal movement came out of
the Holiness movement, which came out of the Second Great
Awakening, which went all the way back to the teachings of a
man by the name of John Wesley who had a different concept.
He called it prevenient grace, which was not that.
We are totally depraved if you would, but God comes to us with
grace, prevenient grace, so that we have an option of a choice.
There's still a choice involved. You weren't just forced to be a
Christian. How many know you chose to be a
Christian? It was an overwhelming
experience, but we believe that we can make choices.
God gives us grace to make those choices, but in the end we have
to make those choices and there's a blessing when we do.
Now this is a very interesting thing because in this Scripture
it says then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like
one of us to know good and evil. Now, lest He put out his hand,
and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,
therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to
tell till the ground from which he was taken notice.
God says He has become like one of us in the doctrine of total
depravity. That most people who follow it
have in their mindset or in their thinking is simply this.
We lost being created in the image and likeness of God, which
is God said that in the beginning and after we fell, we
were no longer in the image and likeness of God.
Why would we think that? Well, how many?
No other people. And you think they're not like
God? If that's the image and likeness
of God, I don't want it. But no, the Bible says we're
still in the image and likeness of God, believe it or not.
But there is a process of growth and development that we have to
choose to follow and let God work in our lives.
And I think it's interesting because whereas some people
think they were kicked out of the garden as totally depraved,
when they get kicked out of the garden, God says they've become
like one of us. And I'm like, wait a minute, we
were created in the image and likeness of God and now he kicks
them out of the garden and says they've become more like us.
That doesn't make sense, does it?
Unless you believe that when God was stopping them from eating
from the tree, it wasn't that he didn't want them to know the
difference between right and wrong.
It just says, hey, they weren't ready for that yet.
And how many know that's the way it is with our children when
they're young, they don't know the differences, those things.
So we make those choices, but our end goal is how many know
that they can make choices. Amen.
And so God is recognizing at this point that, well, they ate
in that tree, they're able to make choices, but they're
definitely not ready to live forever.
So we better get them out of the garden or they're going to eat
that tree and live forever in that horrible state.
So God separated them and then he has this plan of action that
leads to eternal life for all of us who will accept the plan.
But at the same time, He's been working to prepare us so that we
can not just go to heaven, but that we can be what more like
God. And that's what God wants us to
understand is we're to be a people more like Him.
And that's why I wanted to talk about the history of it because
the apostle Paul said this is what God wants you to do.
He doesn't want you to be a slave.
He wants you to be a son. 2000 years later, the Christians are
still just thinking about going to heaven.
How good do I have to be and just don't want to get there?
God says there's more to it. And that's why I said I want you
to know what time this church, because this is time.
I said this is time. Give the Lord a praise.
And John Wesley taught a doctrine called Christian
perfection. And though he sowed the seed for
it way back in the 1700s in the First Awakening, it's just now
time for that message to start to come to pass.
That's why I love church history.
That's why I love human history, because I know my God is in
charge of history. It is his story.
Amen. And that's why I'm so excited
about this day and hour. And I want you to know if you
know only one thing from what I say today, it is indeed God
saying this is the time for something to come to pass that
was not possibly before. Although it was written in the
Scriptures and although other people preach it, now is the
time, says the Lord, when we will be more like God as we
allow ourselves to go past our humanity.
And God didn't want them to live forever in their human state
alone if you would. He wanted them to go through
this process of development. And that's why he's doing the
things that He's doing now. This is a very interesting
scripture. In Romans 8, it says we know
that all things work together for good.
To those who love God, to those who are called according to his
purpose, I quote the scripture a lot.
You may know. And This is why for whom he for
knew, He also predestined for what to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many
brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined,
these He also called. For who's those whom He called,
he also justified. Those whom he justified, he has
also glorified. Now I want to go back to the
first part. We know all things work together
for good to those who love God. Because I just explained to a
story where Adam and Eve or told something, they disobeyed God
and in one sense God made even what was bad turn out for the
good. How many know God can do that?
Amen. God can take our bad and make it
good. That's what we'll learn when we
talk about the Easter week, the day of Jesus death, burial and
resurrection. There was an apostle by the name
of Peter when he found out Jesus was going to die.
He says I'm not going to let that happen.
As long as I'm here, that's not going to happen.
Jesus is like before the cock crows three times.
Peter, you will have denied you even know me, but he said
something amazing. But when you are converted,
strengthen your brother. In other words, his greatest
failure was going to equip him for his greatest message.
The apostle Paul who wrote the Scriptures about God's grace, he
persecuted the Christian Church, consented to them being thrown
into prison, and even held the coats of the people that were
stoning the first martyr to death.
But God even used that so he'd have such a sensitivity to grace
where he'd always say, I don't deserve this, I persecuted
Christians. But guess what?
All things work together for good to those who love God and
according to His purposes, can take even our bad behavior and
use it for good. Why?
Because it isn't whether you're good or bad.
It's whether you're a child of the Most High God and you're
willing to let Him make you a son of the Most High God.
Because with that, you're going to have to realize how that even
your mistakes can be used for good.
Even your failed circumstances and your greatest
disappointments can lead you to something good.
Which brings me to the story about the good boy who comes to
Jesus one day as he was going down the road and said to him,
Good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?
Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?
No one is good but one. That is God.
Now the truth of the matter is this guy thought being good
would get him where he needed to go in God and it did have some
blessings to it, but because he thought of it about being good
or being bad, he was like how good do I have to be to have
eternal life? And Jesus wanting to understand
something, it isn't how good you are.
Jesus said don't call me good. I hope, you know, Jesus was the
perfect spotless Lamb of God. He would have known He was good
by our standards for sure, but he wanted them to understand
something. Don't make your measurement
according to people. You know, there's a lot of
people that, well, you know, they were a good person.
Oh, I know they're going to heaven.
They were a good person. They tried to do the right
thing. God says you've got to get out
of this. I'm good enough and understand.
It's about walking in faith and who are we comparing ourselves
to is the real issue. So as the story continues, Jesus
said, you know the commandments don't commit adultery, do not
murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not
distraught defraud, honor your father, mother and he answered
and said him teacher, all these things I have done for my youth.
Then Jesus said looking at him and I want you to take note of
this loved him and said to him, one thing you lack, go your way,
sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have
treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me now
in another. And we know these stories are
often in more than one gospel and the other one it says if you
want to be perfect, which is a term about going on to maturity.
But the point is, I want you to know that Jesus loved him and he
actually changed the conversation because really it
was no longer about going to heaven.
It was a situation where he wanted him to know, do you know
you could go on to perfection or think about this.
He actually was inviting him to be one of his disciples, to take
up his cross and follow him. How amazing is that?
But because he only lived in the world of good and bad and
setting his focus on what he wanted to get out of it, he was
going to miss it. You know, I grew up as a good
boy. If you would always was good if
you would look at it from a natural sense.
I always did whatever my parents wanted me to do, whether they
were watching or whether they weren't, did the same thing when
I was at school. I had job.
My joy was to be the best worker that they had.
That was just the kind of person I always was.
I always wanted to do the right thing.
It was natural for me. I actually got a good feeling
out of it. Plus I was always kind of an
anxious person. I found out something when you,
when you're not good, you're in bed, you got problems.
So I always chose the careful way to live if you would.
And so being good, that was what I always would strive to be for
sure. When I was a little kid, the
church we were in, they were a missionary oriented church.
And so being a good boy, I'm like, hey, if that's the
ultimate, I'm going to be a missionary.
So I told my mom, of course, she told the pastor every time he
saw me, he was like, there's my little missionary on the and one
day I went to Sunday school and they said one of the
missionaries we knew was killed in Africa.
I'm like, you can die from being a missionary.
So at that point I said, well, I'm not going to be a
missionary, I will be a Deacon. Told my mom, but just avoided
the pastor because, you know, I didn't want him to think I'd
fallen in his eyes, if you would.
So as you know, my story is before I was 10, I was 10.
I was focusing on politics, but Thomas, 12, I was just going to
run for president. When I got a job at a grocery
store, I was thinking in terms of retailing.
I thought that was amazing. I'm going to develop my own
business and be involved in retailing.
So I was always doing good. And I was the kind of person who
always had this sense of right and wrong, and it was just a
natural, intense thing. And I was kind of shy and
introverted, so it would actually embarrass me to do
something wrong if you would. So even when I was a kid, it was
difficult even hanging with other boys because they were
always being crude in their conversation.
They called potty language, I guess what you call it.
But I didn't just see they were bring crude.
I was like, they're sinning. I'm the only holy person in the
world. Oh Lord.
And when I got older and became a began to preach really is when
it first started, we used to just preach out of the King
James origin Bible and instead of saying donkey, they said ass.
There's even a scripture that says and he pisseth against the
wall. I could read those things, but
one day I got up to preach and I had to say ass.
I'd never said it publicly before that I could remember.
I was so embarrassed. I changed it to donkey long
before the translators of the new King James came along
because I didn't want to say it. That's just the way it kind of
person I was. And it's funny because one day
the Lord began to speak to me and said basically if you're
more holy than the Holy Bible, you're probably too holy.
So I preached a message. It was a Good Friday message
about Jesus writing or a message about Jesus Christ going in
Jerusalem on the cult of an ass. And I was just talking about how
God wants to use this. My message was you can't be 1/2
ass when only complete ass will do.
That was one of those scriptures that one of those sermons has
stuck with me a long time. But anyway, when I became a
pastor, I'd always heard people complain about church all their
life. And I'm like, well, this church
will be different because I'm going to be a good pastor.
This is going to be a good church.
And I found out, guess what? People still complained, People
still found fault. And I'm like, what's going on?
I'm a good preacher. I'm a good pastor.
I tried to do good things that I remember going to talk to James
Beal, who is the pastor of church I was trained in.
He said Lauren, leadership is confrontation.
I'm like, what? I don't like confronting people.
I've always had this personality.
I don't care what you do. You know, some people, they get
mad because other people, they're doing things.
I was never that way. It's like, who cares what you
do? I mean, when you're a pastor,
that has to change a little bit. But all the sudden I realized
something too, and that is I can't just be good.
I couldn't be responsible. I got to realize God has called
me to something that doesn't perhaps even fit my personality.
And He certainly began to lead me in a whole lot of ways that
were just totally opposite of my personality.
But I found out something. I walked with him.
I could do all things. And that's what God wants us all
to understand. Church and that's why this man
was being told you know there's a place you can go where you
begin to live in Kingdom lifestyle living.
Jesus even told his disciples there's some standing here will
not taste till they've seen the Kingdom of God coming in power
because how do you know the Kingdom of God can be a present
tense reality and we can walk in the fullness of what God had,
but we got to do that with a confidence in this isn't about
what I can do good or bad. Sometimes good will only take
you so far and certainly bad can cause you some problems, but how
many know even that's not a problem for God if you'll give
it to him. But always, and this is one of
the warnings I'd like to say is don't let God just forgive you.
Release it because a lot of times people will say, well, I
forgive you, but they don't release it.
You got to release it. You got to let it go.
Amen Church, and that's one of my prayers at this altar today
is God will empower you to release it.
So Jesus look around and said to his disciples how hard it is for
those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God.
Notice this isn't talking about go to heaven.
And the disciples were astonished at his words, but
Jesus answered again and said to them, because this is the real
crux of the matter children, how hard it is for those who what
trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to go through the ive and needle than
a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.
In our day and age, all of us are rich compared to the time
Jesus was talking. Because in those days, if you
had a house and you could have food and you had choices, you
were definitely rich. And I've always said how
important it is for us as Americans realize, compare the
rest of the world, how many know we're all rich when we factor in
all the third world countries and Africa and South America and
Asia. But it's important for us to
understand it isn't what we have that matters.
It's what we put our trust in because some people aren't rich,
but they put their trust in government.
That's why you're only 3% of people go to church because
guess what, they have socialism. And so they're like, hey, we
don't have to trust in God. We have the government.
It's very easy for people to put their trust in government
nowadays. Not only people expect the
government to take care of him, businesses expect the government
to take care of him. It's pretty hard to find if
people say I'm going to put my trust in the Lord, Amen Church.
How we know our trust has to be in him because every human
institution can fail us, but God never will.
So Jesus answered and said to us, surely say to you, there's
no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father,
mother, wife or children who will not receive a hundredfold.
Now in this time, I know when you do the right thing, God
blesses you. But it's important to see what
it says here. Who will not receive a
hundredfold in this time? Amen.
But also notice he says with persecutions.
You see, when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and he said
good teacher, Jesus knew he was good.
He knew he always did the right thing, but he also knew didn't
matter how good he was, he still had to go to the cross.
He still had to pay a price because of that was his purpose.
And so he was going to lay down his life, even though it wasn't
something he'd naturally want to do.
But he was going to do that for all of us.
But also it was going to open the door to an amazing power.
We'll celebrate on Easter Sunday, which is resurrection
power. Cherish God wants us to move
into resurrection power. Can you say men, Amen.
This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius from Mount Zion Church.
We thank you for joining us today and invite you to connect
with our church family by visiting mountzion.org and
following us on social media. God bless you.