1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,480 I want to start with the Scripture in John's Gospel 2 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:06,280 chapter 14. Jesus is speaking here shortly 3 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:08,680 before he's going to depart from his disciples. 4 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:11,920 And he said, if you love me, keep my commandments. 5 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,160 Now we'll pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, 6 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:16,960 that he may abide with you forever. 7 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:21,080 And the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because 8 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:23,600 it neither sees Him nor knows Him. 9 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,240 But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 10 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:32,880 I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. 11 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,200 This is a very important scripture for us because Jesus 12 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:41,080 Christ had a earthly ministry. He had 12 disciples that He led, 13 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:43,880 and there were many others that followed Him on a regular basis. 14 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:46,800 They had an opportunity not just to hear His teaching and hear 15 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:50,080 His preaching, but spent some time with Him, asked the Word, 16 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,960 asking questions. They saw Him able to do 17 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:57,000 miraculous thing so it must have been amazing for them and yet he 18 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:58,800 began to tell them I'm going to leave. 19 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:01,920 They were in a panic. And so he recognizes that and 20 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:05,040 says now I'm not going to leave you like you're an orphan. 21 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:08,760 I'm going to go away, but I'm going to come again on to you. 22 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,960 And what he was talking to them about is he was talking about 23 00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:15,080 coming through the Holy Spirit. He said, I'm going to pray the 24 00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:19,280 Father will send the Holy Spirit in my name and he will be a 25 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,560 helper for you. Now the word helper there is 26 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,640 from a Greek word that also can be translated as a comforter. 27 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,080 And when we think about the Holy Spirit, we should recognize 28 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,440 Jesus is saying, I want to be with you, I want to walk with 29 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:36,840 you because the word there literally means to call to one 30 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,440 side. Jesus wants to have a life with 31 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:42,280 you. He wants to walk right along 32 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,360 beside you. How many know that's an amazing 33 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:46,880 concept to think about. It should. 34 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:50,040 And that's why we should all be open to the Holy Spirit. 35 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,400 That's why I encourage people repent, be baptized, be filled 36 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:56,440 with the Holy Spirit. Jesus wants to walk with you. 37 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,640 And it's a great and wonderful thing to have a relationship 38 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:03,360 with the Lord Jesus Christ. I can testify that, and many of 39 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,800 you can as well. But when he comes as a helper 40 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:11,200 and as a comforter, sometimes he doesn't always come to comfort 41 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:13,480 us. I know when I was a kid, the 42 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:16,440 first thing I look for from God is the same thing I look for 43 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,280 from my parents. And that was a sense of comfort, 44 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:22,840 a sense of security, a sense that somebody is going to take 45 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:25,760 care of me. But as I walked in the Lord and 46 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:30,000 I grew in maturity, I found out that sometimes God wasn't there 47 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,720 just to comfort me. Sometimes he was there to help 48 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,240 me and to teach me and also to challenge me. 49 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:39,920 That's why for two weeks I shared the scripture with the 50 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:43,520 apostle Paul said, I have learned because he was learning 51 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,080 about Christ. He was learning about God just 52 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,680 like every one of us. And what he said is I've learned 53 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,760 how to be debased or even go through a period of humiliation 54 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,360 as I've also so learn how to abound. 55 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,920 But he said, I can also say that I found out I can do everything 56 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:02,160 through Christ who strengthens me. 57 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,600 And so as we're walking along with Jesus Christ, we should 58 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:09,640 know that sometimes He's right there beside our walk with him 59 00:03:09,640 --> 00:03:12,360 so that he can comfort us and He can encourage us. 60 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,600 But there's other times when He's there to challenge us. 61 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,040 I think the best way we could look at it is when we think 62 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:21,960 about prophecy. The Bible says prophecy, which 63 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:27,120 is God speaking to his people, is for edification, exhortation, 64 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,760 and comfort. That means sometimes He's there 65 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,120 just to comfort me, but sometimes he's there to exhort 66 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,080 me. If you would and say, Lauren, 67 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:38,480 I'm going to get you through this situation, but I want to 68 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:40,960 strengthen you as a part of this process. 69 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:46,280 Sometimes strengthening doesn't feel comfortable, but don't 70 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:48,560 always look for the comfortable place. 71 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,320 Just always make sure you're in the place where you are with 72 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:55,480 God. And when you are in that kind of 73 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:58,520 a relationship with God, whatever you have need of, he's 74 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:01,520 there for you. But we also have to understand 75 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:05,520 He's there to strengthen us. Jesus also called it the spirit 76 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:07,880 of truth. Because the Bible says 77 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:11,240 concerning the word of God, you will know the truth and the 78 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:15,880 truth will make you free. It doesn't set you free, it 79 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:18,760 makes you free. That means sometimes when you're 80 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:21,320 walking in the Word, there's going to be something that 81 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,040 you're going to go through that God is going to use to make you 82 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,520 mature so that you can walk in the fullness of all the things 83 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:31,880 that God has for you. And so he is our comforter 84 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:36,760 helper and also our exhorter to bring us to the fullness of all 85 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:40,040 the things that He wants us to walk in in this life. 86 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,280 Having said that, I want to go to our opening scriptures today 87 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:47,680 as we look at each part of it to see in Genesis chapter 4 verses 88 00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:49,480 one and two. And notice I'm cutting down to 89 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:52,600 verse 16, which is the end of the story because I want to 90 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:55,040 point out something very important here in these few 91 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:59,320 verses starting and ending. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and 92 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,960 she conceived him Borcain and said, I have acquired a man from 93 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:05,320 the Lord. Then she bore again this time is 94 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:08,320 rather Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep 95 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:09,960 but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 96 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:14,040 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt 97 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:17,160 in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. 98 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:21,840 Now I want to begin with the idea of Cain's parents story 99 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:25,040 which is Adam and Eve and most of us are familiar with that 100 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:27,520 story. How that when God created man, 101 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,560 then he created him a wife because he said he needs a 102 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:32,920 helper. And then the Bible says he put 103 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:35,920 them in the Garden of Eden, a garden that he had planted 104 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,520 eastward of Eden. And he said that you need to 105 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:41,160 guard this garden, you need to cultivate this garden. 106 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:43,200 In the garden was the tree of life. 107 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:45,040 They had access to that tree of life. 108 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:47,400 So as long as they eat of that tree, they would have lived 109 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:49,680 forever. But also there was the tree of 110 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:52,720 knowledge of good and evil. God said don't eat of this tree 111 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:56,360 because the day you eat of that tree you're surely going to die. 112 00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:00,320 Unfortunately, one day Eve is standing next to the tree and 113 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:02,080 the serpent comes to talk to her. 114 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,600 Now it wasn't literally a snake. The Bible says in the book of 115 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,320 the Revelation that in talking about a dragon, they said this 116 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:13,920 is also the serpent and it's actually Satan himself, the 117 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,600 accuser of the brother, our adversary. 118 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,040 So that's who was there trying to tell her. 119 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:22,840 Don't trust God. God just knows if you needed 120 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:24,160 that tree, you're going to be like him. 121 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:26,040 You're going to be independent and you're going to be able to 122 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:28,640 make your own choices. You need to either that tree if 123 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:30,640 you want the best that life has to offer you. 124 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:35,480 So the Bible tells us that after thinking about the situation and 125 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,520 then looking at the tree, she made what she would have 126 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:42,920 considered a logical choice because of her aspirations. 127 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:46,280 She ate of the tree and the Bible says she also gave to her 128 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:48,960 husband and he also ate of the tree. 129 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:53,560 Now, at that point in time, just as God had said, they were taken 130 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:56,400 out of the garden. They no longer had access to the 131 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:58,840 tree of life, and so they were going to die. 132 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,880 And it also tells us in that sense that because of their 133 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:06,320 mishandling of the responsibility God had given to 134 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:08,360 him, they lost their stewardship. 135 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:11,720 And So what happened is they were kicked out of the garden 136 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:15,280 because they thought they had a better plan than God did. 137 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:18,600 Now that brings us to the next story, which I'm going to talk 138 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:22,640 about the difference between objective and subjective 139 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:25,840 observation. The objective is when you look 140 00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:29,000 at something like Adam and Eve did, they looked at the tree. 141 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,080 They knew what God said, they knew what the serpent said. 142 00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,560 Also motivated by what they wanted, they made a choice. 143 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,240 We're going to disobey God. That would be considered in that 144 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:43,000 sense, an objective choice. But the story we're talking 145 00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:46,880 about today is the story of Cain and Abel, and I mention it as 146 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:50,280 the second fall because it's another aspect of the same 147 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:52,920 story. Some people think that when Adam 148 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,880 and Eve were taken out of the garden that they were kicked out 149 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:58,720 of the presence of God totally. And that isn't what the Bible 150 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:01,480 says. They were in a garden eastward 151 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,440 in Eden. That's where the Lord had 152 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:05,520 planted it. But when they were kicked out of 153 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:07,920 the garden, they were still in Eden. 154 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:10,240 Because what does Cain say to the Lord? 155 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,680 He said, if you judge me like this, I'll have to leave your 156 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:16,360 presence. And obviously the very fact that 157 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:20,080 he's talking to God about the situation and the fact that they 158 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:22,920 had come and offered a second sacrifice means that they had a 159 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:26,280 relationship with God. And so it wasn't at the first 160 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:30,040 part of the story of Adam and Eve that we were fully cut off 161 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:32,320 from God. It continued with the second 162 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:37,039 aspect because God wanted to teach us something about 163 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:41,919 subjective things or making emotional choices. 164 00:08:42,159 --> 00:08:45,360 And sometimes we make emotional choices and we don't even 165 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,480 realize that we're doing that says. 166 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:50,440 And in the process of time it came to pass that came brought 167 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,040 an offering the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 168 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,640 Abel also brought the first born of his flock and their fat. 169 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:00,840 The Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect 170 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:04,280 Cain and his offering. And Kang was very angry. 171 00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:06,440 And what happened? His countenance fell. 172 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:10,160 Now, this is a very important thing because in a narrative, if 173 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:13,920 you're writing a book or making a story in the plot, one of the 174 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,560 things you're going to talk about is the conflict there. 175 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:20,280 Because stories usually involve some type of a conflict that 176 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,440 through the story, the conflict's going to be resolved 177 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,800 or dealt with in some manner or the other. 178 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,040 Now, the interesting thing about this story is often times when 179 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:31,960 people read it, the first question they have is, well, why 180 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:34,880 didn't God accept Cain's offering? 181 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:38,080 And I know I've even preached messages about it and I know 182 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,720 it's a common question because people are wanting to know, 183 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:43,560 well, why didn't God accept Cain's offering? 184 00:09:43,560 --> 00:09:47,400 Well, the Bible doesn't actually say, and we have to understand 185 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:50,960 that the reason for that is because that's not the conflict 186 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:54,160 in the story that God wanted to teach us about. 187 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:58,200 And so we can have all kinds of speculations if we want to, but 188 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:00,520 the fact of the matter is we shouldn't try to put more in the 189 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,640 story than what God has put in the story. 190 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:06,480 And I've seen that people who do that all the time, just like in 191 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:10,200 the first story and what people think about the devil, a lot of 192 00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:13,720 things that people believe are just trying to put pieces to the 193 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,960 story that God didn't intend for us to know about church. 194 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,160 When you're walking with God, you don't always know everything 195 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:24,960 in the story. You will only know the part that 196 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:29,080 He wants you to be involved in. And So what we have to do is 197 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,560 deal with our conflict, deal with the life that we're facing, 198 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:36,040 and just find out, well, what is it that God is speaking about 199 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,520 concerning this situation? Well, in this situation, he's 200 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:45,240 talking about the conflict that Cain experienced after that God 201 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:49,680 came to him when he had been rejected in the offering that he 202 00:10:49,680 --> 00:10:52,960 had given to God. So the conflict needs to be 203 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:56,680 understood to see the point of what God is wanting to do in the 204 00:10:56,680 --> 00:10:59,280 story. Now, in this particular story, 205 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:02,840 we know that Cain's response was not the right response. 206 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,360 And I'm sharing this because I believe God still speaks. 207 00:11:06,360 --> 00:11:08,240 He's been leading us by the way of Spirit. 208 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:10,760 He said in the very beginning, go the way of Spirit and you'll 209 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:12,720 possess things others have not possessed. 210 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:16,040 And so as we walk with the Lord all these years, I found out 211 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:19,160 that God has always been challenging us to go a step 212 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:23,360 farther right now on Wednesday night, Sunday, this a little bit 213 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:25,840 in different times and especially my new class I'm 214 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:28,280 writing, I'm going to talk about God's destiny. 215 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,720 He wants to take us to, and one of the things God wants us to do 216 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:36,760 is learn how to properly respond to the issues of our life. 217 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:40,040 And one of the ways I talked about it is how that God has 218 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:44,080 always LED us by his word. And often times over the years, 219 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,880 God has given me prophecies that I've shared with the church 220 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:49,960 having to do with what's happening in the world. 221 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:52,520 And those things certainly came to pass. 222 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,440 Well, one day I was like, Lord, I've seen how these things have 223 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:58,480 been fulfilled, but I don't feel like you're giving me a word for 224 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:00,280 now. And what should we be looking 225 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:02,360 for? And the Lord said, well, this is 226 00:12:02,360 --> 00:12:06,440 a time of a change in your perspective because it's not 227 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:08,560 that you should know what's going to happen. 228 00:12:08,760 --> 00:12:12,760 What you should know is how to respond to every situation. 229 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:15,920 And so I've been talking about the Scripture from First 230 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:19,760 Corinthians chapter 2 that says, and he that is spiritual will 231 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:23,840 judge all things, yet he himself will be judged by no man. 232 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,000 Now we live in a day and age when people are very judgmental, 233 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:31,680 and if they're not judgmental about one thing, they're 234 00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:35,000 judgmental about another thing. People are always pointing the 235 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,520 finger at each other and finding fault with each other. 236 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:38,760 That's just the world in which we live. 237 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:42,520 And Lord says, well, I'm looking for a people who will have a 238 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:46,240 spiritual response because if they have the spiritual 239 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,960 response, they'll be able to judge the situations and know 240 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:54,760 how to properly respond and they will also be mature enough to be 241 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:59,200 my emissary, says the Lord in First Corinthians chapter 13. 242 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:03,200 It says we prophecy in part, we have knowledge in part, but when 243 00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:07,920 that which is perfect is done away with, or when that which is 244 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:10,720 perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away with. 245 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:12,960 There's a whole lot of Christians who say, Oh yeah, 246 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:15,360 after we got the Bible, we don't need spiritual gifts. 247 00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:18,800 No, that's not what it's saying. But it is saying that when you 248 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:23,000 mature and become spiritually perceptive that the gifts will 249 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:27,520 take on a whole new dimension. Not because the gift has got any 250 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,080 stronger, but your ability to understand what's going on is 251 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:35,040 better. And God wants us to be a keen 252 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:38,920 minded people in this time who can look out at the world and 253 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:43,400 say this is what God is doing. And this is the response that I 254 00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:46,280 want to have. And this is a very good example 255 00:13:46,280 --> 00:13:49,680 for us to understand how we want to be careful as to how we 256 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:52,880 respond. Now in Ephesians chapter 2, it 257 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:55,440 says this. And you He made alive, who were 258 00:13:55,440 --> 00:13:59,040 dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according 259 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:01,320 to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the 260 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:04,440 power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of 261 00:14:04,440 --> 00:14:08,800 disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in 262 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:11,800 the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the 263 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:15,920 flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of 264 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:19,880 wrath, just like the others. How many know you were once dead 265 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:22,040 and God has made you alive? Can you say Amen to that? 266 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:24,960 Well, the Bible says you weren't literally dead. 267 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:26,840 Obviously, you were walking around. 268 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:30,400 You felt like you were alive, but you weren't disconnected 269 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:33,160 with God. And whether you realized it or 270 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:35,880 not, you were under the influence of what the Bible 271 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:41,120 calls the God of this age, the spirit of this world that works 272 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:45,000 in the children of disobedience. We have to understand there's a 273 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,200 spiritual connection that we have to understand is in the 274 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,200 world. And when you're outside of God, 275 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,040 you're under the influence of the God of this world. 276 00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:57,400 And when you're in the church and in the Lord, you need to 277 00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:00,640 understand how you're to walk under the influence that God 278 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:02,920 has. But if we're not careful to 279 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:06,840 understand what exactly is going on, we're not going to be able 280 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:09,360 to discern the situations of life. 281 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:13,480 And I believe that we actually can if we allow ourselves to 282 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:16,240 become spiritual in our perception. 283 00:15:16,960 --> 00:15:19,600 And we live in a world today that's very carnal in their 284 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,240 actions. But God's looking for a people 285 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:26,640 that would be spiritual in their actions, says the Lord, and also 286 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,840 in their reaction. And this is important to 287 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:31,280 understand. He makes it about you. 288 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:34,120 And this why I wrote my book. Why is the devil in your garden? 289 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:37,480 Because the devil doesn't try to get you on his side. 290 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:40,240 He tries you to get on your side. 291 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,600 And if it's not your side individually, it's a side that's 292 00:15:44,600 --> 00:15:49,560 not necessarily a God side. And if he can get you out of 293 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:54,280 sync with what God is doing, then he has at least neutralized 294 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,760 you as a threat to his Kingdom and His power and His authority. 295 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:01,720 It's important. And I put that over that verse. 296 00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:04,280 There's the macro and the micro, if you would. 297 00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:07,040 There's your individual life and what's happening in the world. 298 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:12,000 And whether you care to admit it or not, the impact of the world 299 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,120 is pressing you every single day through the media, through 300 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:17,760 people that you're interacting with. 301 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:21,200 Everybody has an opinion. Everybody's trying to get your 302 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:23,800 mind to think a certain way. And God says, I want you to 303 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:27,520 understand who you are and what it is that I've called you to 304 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:30,960 be, says the Lord. So God is not of this world. 305 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,120 He's the God of life. Can you say, man? 306 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:36,920 And it's eternal life, but it's also life in this world. 307 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,760 And we need to be made alive, and we need to be representative 308 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:45,000 of life to our generation. Now, having said that, I want to 309 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,560 reference something I've talked about from time to time, and 310 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:50,760 that's the challenge of the mindset of the age. 311 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:53,960 There's two things I want to talk about, and that is #1 312 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:58,720 modernism, which is based on reason, and it says universal 313 00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:01,800 truth, but it's based on what the person believes is the 314 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:05,040 truth. And postmodernism, which is to 315 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:10,760 be skeptical of objective realities, but also focusing on 316 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:15,200 individual perspectives. Now, I first started reading 317 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:19,440 about this like 50 years ago, and I've always read and tried 318 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:21,599 to be informed of what's happened in the world as 319 00:17:21,599 --> 00:17:23,079 possible. And when it talked about 320 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:26,359 postmodernism, I'm like, how will this exactly pan out? 321 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:30,560 We're talking about the fact that there's a subjective part 322 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:32,720 to it. There's a feeling part to it. 323 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:36,080 I thought, well this won't work against the Kingdom, but I find 324 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:40,760 out whenever it's the age that the world is promoting, in the 325 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:43,000 end they're going to take a stand against God. 326 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,440 Modernism came about in the 131415 hundreds won't bore you 327 00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:52,440 for a long time about history, but Western civilization came 328 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,160 out of Europe and at the time very few people could read and 329 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,760 write. There were very few books that 330 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:01,040 were available. There were no printing presses 331 00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:04,920 and so books had to be hand inscribed in order for them to 332 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:07,880 be reproduced and and put in use. 333 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,400 So people couldn't read, they couldn't write, and what 334 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:13,440 difference did it make? There weren't too many books 335 00:18:13,440 --> 00:18:17,680 available anyway, and so most people thought in terms of 336 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:22,080 superstitious thinking the church was all about the mystery 337 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:27,040 of God and not at all so much about learning about the Word, 338 00:18:27,040 --> 00:18:30,520 etcetera. Well, as education began to 339 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:35,160 increase, his books began to be printed and all the sudden 340 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:39,600 science began to grow, education began to grow, research began to 341 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:42,040 grow. That's when modernism came about 342 00:18:42,040 --> 00:18:45,800 and said, you know, even religion is just superstitious 343 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,560 and the world's just superstitious. 344 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,920 We got to understand it's time to come to the modern world. 345 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:54,440 So they quit having witch doctors and just had regular 346 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:55,520 doctors. If you would. 347 00:18:56,720 --> 00:18:59,760 It's kind of funny, you can actually trace back medicine to 348 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:02,520 what we would consider hocus pocus type thinking. 349 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:04,920 But the truth of the matter is it started somewhere and it 350 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,040 began to advance and go farther along, if you would. 351 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,600 Modernism was very skeptical against Christianity because 352 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,320 they said that's just superstition and many times 353 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:17,000 they'd say there would be no God. 354 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:19,600 Now the way God used it is with the printing press. 355 00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:22,640 The Bible became available. People began to see the word of 356 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,680 God and all the sudden people started throwing away a lot of 357 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:29,600 even Christian superstitions, if you would, and began to realize, 358 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:33,480 hey, God has a guidebook here that I can read and learn about 359 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:34,880 him and learn how to live my life. 360 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:39,000 So it was something that God used to advance his plan. 361 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:43,120 So there was the God part, and then there was a world part, and 362 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:46,240 unfortunately, often times the world part wanted to push God on 363 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:48,560 the sidelines. Now, when I was in school 364 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,400 learning, it was a modernist kind of thinking along the way 365 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:56,800 because everything was about promoting science and education 366 00:19:56,800 --> 00:19:59,760 and learning and how all these things were for the advancement 367 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:04,320 of mankind and had been, but again, often times against God. 368 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,800 So when I started hearing about postmodernism, I couldn't quite 369 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,800 grasp what it was talking about. But we're now living in a time 370 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:16,200 of postmodernism. Where people often times are not 371 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,520 just aligning with what they would even consider objective 372 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:23,480 truths or certainly even facts. Often times people are motivated 373 00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:27,320 by how they feel, how they personally perceive a situation. 374 00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,720 And we talked about the personal feelings there. 375 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:31,840 It's very true. We live in a day when people get 376 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:36,080 offended very easily because it has a lot to do with how you 377 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:40,560 feel about not just truth, but about what you've been through 378 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:44,760 in life. So postmodernism has LED away 379 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:49,800 from modernism, if you would put an an emphasis on subjective 380 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:54,600 versus objective. And so we have to realize this 381 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:58,120 two competing things in the world in which we Live Today. 382 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:03,520 Now, in the COVID crisis that came upon our country, it was a 383 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:08,320 time that all the sudden the world went in a panic mode. 384 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:12,040 And one of the debates you'd often times hear is there'd be 385 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:13,600 the people that say, well, we're scientists. 386 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,040 This is the scientific method, if you would. 387 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,840 And I've shared before about how that was when my mom passed away 388 00:21:19,840 --> 00:21:24,160 in 2 March of 2020. And when she first went to the 389 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:27,000 hospital, that's when the COVID situation was starting to 390 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,440 happen. And they told us we had to put 391 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:32,720 on a mask to visit her. And I got to look at him because 392 00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,520 none of the people working there had masks on. 393 00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:37,520 He says, oh, we know that's not going to work, but that's the 394 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,280 rule they told us about. Well, it wasn't about a few days 395 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,800 later and they were all wearing masks because it was forced upon 396 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,120 them whether liked it or not. But the sad part of the story is 397 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:49,080 then they put my mom in the side of the hospital called 398 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:52,760 palliative care, and they said, well, you can't come see your 399 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,560 mother anymore. There was a COVID lockdown in 400 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,640 the hospital and here my mom was dying. 401 00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:01,720 The first day she was dying. They literally had to FaceTime 402 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:04,920 my sisters to kind of let them see mom at the end. 403 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:08,080 It was an awful thing. Fortunately for us, we had 404 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:11,240 somebody, but my sister knew who is in charge of security. 405 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:14,640 So hate to tell you this, disobeyed the rules and got in 406 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:18,960 the hospital and we were able to be with my mom in those passing 407 00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:21,320 moments. But the nurse said to me, well, 408 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:25,560 this whole floor is filled with people who are just dying all 409 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:30,120 alone and their family members are at home knowing their loved 410 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:32,960 one is they're dying, but they can't even be in touch with 411 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,360 them. They were shutting down old 412 00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:37,720 folks homes. There seemed to be some logic in 413 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,360 what they were doing, but there was also a lot of people that 414 00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:44,240 were hurting emotionally shutting down schools. 415 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,960 There's still impacts in the world today that are really a 416 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:53,960 lot due to mismanagement of the situation, but it's really hard 417 00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:56,960 to do to manage a panic situation. 418 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,880 So I'm not passing judgment on people, but I can say this, that 419 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,400 just because you have a degree or profession, you're scientist, 420 00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:07,760 doesn't mean when you're in a panic mode, you're going to 421 00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:10,880 think scientifically. How many know what I'm talking 422 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:14,080 about here? You'll know that concerning your 423 00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,800 own training in life, you can have all kinds of training. 424 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,640 You can say, you know, the Bible even, and then you're in a 425 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:21,960 crisis and all of a sudden everything in your brain goes 426 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:27,200 out the window and in your pan you can make choices and you're 427 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,760 trying to pull them together with some scriptures. 428 00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,720 And sometimes people will do that in their walk with God. 429 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:35,680 And so they're trying to desperately get control of the 430 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:38,320 situation. And it's about that time we have 431 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:43,360 to realize that God wants us to realize we are not in control, 432 00:23:44,360 --> 00:23:47,720 but we have a God who rules over all things church. 433 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:49,280 Can you give them a praise on that? 434 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,600 But sometimes there is this process that we have to go 435 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,760 through to let God's perfect work be accomplished. 436 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:00,600 Having said that, continuing with our story, the Lord said to 437 00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:04,000 Cain, Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? 438 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:06,760 If you do well, will you not be accepted? 439 00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:10,560 And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door and it's desire 440 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:12,640 is for you, but you should rule over it. 441 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:15,840 Now Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass 442 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,280 when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his 443 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:24,840 brother, and he killed him. Wow, what a tragic situation. 444 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:29,560 Now Cain was caught up in his feelings because he felt 445 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:34,120 rejected, and somehow in his emotional state he decided the 446 00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:37,800 problem with his brother. Now again, the Bible doesn't 447 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:41,200 tell us too much about the story, but God steps in the 448 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:42,480 situation. How do you know? 449 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:44,800 He just gave me some logical advice. 450 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,840 Cain, don't you know if you do the right thing, it's going to 451 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,720 work out for you. You do the wrong thing, it's not 452 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:53,000 going to work out for you. How do you know? 453 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,040 That's pretty simple advice. So you might say, well, why 454 00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:58,200 didn't God accept Cain's sacrifice? 455 00:24:58,200 --> 00:24:58,920 Why, why? Why? 456 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,400 Well, I would assume from that conversation that Cain exactly 457 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:06,640 knew why. Maybe not, but the issue is, are 458 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:10,480 you going to be motivated by how you feel in this situation or 459 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,840 are you going to try to find out the path of truth so he can walk 460 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,640 in the proper way? Cain was pouting. 461 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:19,520 How many know what pouting is? God said to him. 462 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,240 Why does your face look like that? 463 00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:23,400 How many know what it looks like? 464 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,760 The pout everybody put on your pouting face. 465 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:32,360 I have it my in my office. I have a bookmark. 466 00:25:32,360 --> 00:25:35,560 My son Billy, when he was in Sunday school, I'm guessing he 467 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:39,120 was around 4:00, they made bookmarks and they had him bring 468 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:41,960 a picture from home, put it on the bookmarker. 469 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:44,240 So I've had it now for close to 40 years. 470 00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:46,160 So I'm like, it's getting kind of wore out. 471 00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,080 I'm going to put it in plastic so I don't lose it because it's 472 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,240 more precious now than of course it ever was. 473 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:56,440 But as I went and was talking to him about it, he's like, well, 474 00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:59,240 Are you sure it happened then? Because I was pretty sure I knew 475 00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:00,920 when the picture it happened. Whatever. 476 00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:07,800 So I was yesterday in my 1 room and there was a photograph album 477 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:10,600 on the table that was from the year we went on the vacation. 478 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:13,120 I'm like, I can find out the timing of this. 479 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:17,120 And as I opened it, I saw a picture of my son, Billy, and he 480 00:26:17,120 --> 00:26:20,800 was sitting on the step in our garage, and he was pouting. 481 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,000 He was very good at pouting when he was a child. 482 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:29,560 And of course, you know, I was taking a picture of him. 483 00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,240 So how many, you know, that makes you even matter when 484 00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:32,960 you're pouting and they're wanting to take a picture of 485 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,920 you. Now, when I was a kid, my dad 486 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,080 would say, if you're going to pout, I'll give you something to 487 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,320 pout about. My mom would be, honey, what's 488 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,120 the matter with you? So we had this kind of dynamic 489 00:26:44,120 --> 00:26:46,920 going on, but it was funny because as I was looking at the 490 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:51,200 picture, I thought he has the same pouting face as his son 491 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,000 Lukai does. So I took a picture of it with 492 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:56,600 my phone and sent it and say, hey, look at Lukai. 493 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:01,600 Pouts just like you. It's iniquity. 494 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,720 Whatever it's in that Redditary passed along, whatever. 495 00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,680 And it's kind of funny because we have this idea we're going to 496 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,480 pout and we're going to get rescued from the situation. 497 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,720 Like I said, my dad would be like, no, that's not going to 498 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,080 move me. So I remember once when I was a 499 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,720 kid, we had potato soup for dinner. 500 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:23,960 I didn't like potato soup. And there's no way. 501 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,120 I've always been a person. If I don't like it, I can't eat 502 00:27:27,120 --> 00:27:28,160 it. I'll gag. 503 00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:32,120 So I was about four years old at the time, and I'm like, I can't 504 00:27:32,120 --> 00:27:36,360 eat this. Back in those days, if you 505 00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:39,600 didn't eat what you were sitting before you on the table, your 506 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:42,440 parents would say something like, think about the kids in 507 00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:45,720 China. You can't say that to your kids 508 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,400 today. They go, yeah, I think about 509 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,520 every time I'm on my iPhone. That's where it came from. 510 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:50,560 What? What are you trying to say? 511 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,120 But anyway, back then, it was like, you got to eat whatever's 512 00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:56,120 in front of you. And I'm like, I can, I can't. 513 00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,600 Well, my dad said, you're not getting up until you eat. 514 00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,880 That's who. I was there for days, but not 515 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:03,920 exactly. But it felt like days anyway. 516 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:09,560 And then my mom come up and hug me and said, oh, honey, I 517 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,760 promise you I'll never make potato soup again. 518 00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,800 And that was in 1958. So over a few years, I say, mom, 519 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,240 it's been 40 years. Thanks for not making any more 520 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:21,440 potato soup because she never made potato soup. 521 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,640 I remember once being in a restaurant with Pastorio 522 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,760 Melasic, and he said, hey, look, that potato soup on the menu. 523 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,800 I'm like, why would they do that to us? 524 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,360 Don't make any sense to me. But anyway, Cain was pouting and 525 00:28:34,360 --> 00:28:37,680 he was going to be rescued in the situation, but God wasn't 526 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:39,800 going to rescue him at this time. 527 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,600 This was a time for Cain to face the reality of what he was 528 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,160 doing. He was rejected of God for a 529 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:53,000 very good reason and because he pouted and he kept on pouting. 530 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:55,240 We know the rest of the story in that scripture. 531 00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:59,480 He literally killed his brother. How do you know what God had 532 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,280 told him? He should rule over himself, but 533 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,640 instead his emotion ruled over him. 534 00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,400 Like I said, when I was a kid, I didn't like food that was given 535 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,680 to me. And if I didn't like it, I 536 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,000 didn't want to eat it. And when I went on mission 537 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,320 trips, you know, there's a scripture that says something 538 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,720 like you should eat whatever's put before you. 539 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:22,840 I can't exactly quote it because I don't want to. 540 00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:29,360 I can memorize, I I can quote whole chapters of the Bible, but 541 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:31,240 what that verse says exactly, I don't know. 542 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,840 When I went to Lamar, this guy thought he'd impressed me. 543 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,280 He he wanted to take us out to eat because we had helped him 544 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,640 here in Michigan through Jose Aliaga. 545 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,320 And when I was there, he wanted to be nice to me. 546 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,880 So he took me to a restaurant. I knew it was on the ocean be a 547 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:49,800 beautiful view, but I didn't realize he would order seafood 548 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,520 for me. And I'm waiting for the menu. 549 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:54,520 And what they did is they brought out a sampling of 550 00:29:54,520 --> 00:29:56,760 everything on the menu he had told them to. 551 00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,000 And so all this seafood's in front of me. 552 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:03,240 And to me, seafood kind of looks like big bugs. 553 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:05,080 It's the only way I can describe it. 554 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:08,240 So I'm looking at all these bugs looking at me. 555 00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:09,360 And he said, what are you going to eat? 556 00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:11,200 And I go, is there any chicken here? 557 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,560 Ah, yes. I he, I'm a real. 558 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:17,200 Yeah. Thank you. 559 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,320 Jesus. Anyway, he went to Cuba and when 560 00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:22,960 I went to Cuba, they knew I liked chicken, so they made me 561 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,000 chicken. Now I like all kinds of dishes. 562 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,800 I like Italian, Mexican, Cuban, Peruvian, but it all has to be a 563 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:31,440 certain kind of chicken. If you would. 564 00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:35,720 And so they were so happy for me that they made some chicken for 565 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:37,320 me. And then later on that night 566 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:39,360 they said, and we're going to go on a picnic tomorrow. 567 00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:40,640 Guess what, There was chicken left. 568 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:42,160 So you get to have chicken again tomorrow. 569 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,720 I'm like, I don't remember them even having a refrigerator. 570 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,120 And I have to admit I'm a little bit of a germaphobe too. 571 00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,360 And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I hope they don't leave it out all 572 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,640 night and then serve it. And then when we're going on the 573 00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:01,520 road trip, she comes out with the chicken and a bowl and sets 574 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,440 it in the back of the trunk. And it's a four hour drive and 575 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:09,680 90° weather. So I'm just praying in tongues 576 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,120 all the way there. Father, in the name of Jesus, 577 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,280 somebody just stopped his car and robbed us of the chicken. 578 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:21,680 Something like that, you know. So we're all sitting around in 579 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:23,680 this area. I'm sitting on a log and they 580 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,480 said, here's your chicken. And I'm like, Oh no. 581 00:31:28,320 --> 00:31:31,000 So I look over my shoulder and there's a dog behind me. 582 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:36,640 Thank you, Father and Jesus. I'd even swear he was smiling, 583 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:38,240 he was so hungry seeing my chicken. 584 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,640 So I just threw it over my shoulder a little at a time 585 00:31:41,280 --> 00:31:46,040 looking like this, because if I don't want to eat it, the idea 586 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:47,920 I'm going to eat, it's going to kill me, right? 587 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:51,400 So I don't have to rule over that because that's pretty minor 588 00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:53,440 part of life. At least that's what I tell 589 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,240 myself at this point. But there are things in our 590 00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:00,560 lives where we have to face the reality of the situation. 591 00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:04,680 And if we're not careful, it will keep coming around because 592 00:32:04,680 --> 00:32:08,480 God's going to say, well, you're going to eat this situation 593 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:11,840 sooner or later because for you, it's going to be some 594 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:14,880 supercharged energy if you're willing to do. 595 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,800 It's like the children of Israel going in the promised land. 596 00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,480 The spy said there's giants in the land. 597 00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,040 Joshua and Caleb said, that's just breakfast for us. 598 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:26,000 That's just food for us to eat. And church. 599 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:28,200 God wants us to have that kind of mindset. 600 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,040 Amen. But as we walk through life, we 601 00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,480 have to be willing to walk with God in every situation because 602 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,920 see, there's a way that seems right to men, but its end is the 603 00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:41,680 way of death. Even laughter of the heart. 604 00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:46,040 There may be sorrow, but in the end of mirth may be grief. 605 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:51,920 So sometimes we think we know what a situation should offer us 606 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,760 and what the potential of it's going to be for the future. 607 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,840 But the truth is we're usually thinking short term, but God's 608 00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:02,800 thinking long term. And sometimes things immediately 609 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:07,200 satisfy, but in the long run, they end up being against us. 610 00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:10,000 And that's why we have to understand that God's always 611 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,520 thinking about the long term. We're thinking about the short 612 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:15,480 term. But that's why through the Holy 613 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:20,160 Spirit, he's kind of like, OK, today's not going to look too 614 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,880 good for you. But if you put your trust in me, 615 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,800 you're going to find out that all things work together for 616 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:27,880 good to those who love me, says the Lord. 617 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,040 And when you get through this situation, give them a praise on 618 00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,280 that church. When you get through this 619 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:36,280 situation, you're going to find out there's life on the other 620 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:38,680 side. Therefore, putting away lie, let 621 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,600 each of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of 622 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:45,200 one another. Be angry and do not sin. 623 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,680 Do not let the sun go down in your wrath nor give place to the 624 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,080 devil. We should never feel condemned 625 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:54,080 about our emotions. That's just a part of the human 626 00:33:54,080 --> 00:33:56,680 condition. But there are times when we have 627 00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,280 emotions and we have to be careful that we're not stewing 628 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,360 on the feelings of the situation because what will happen then is 629 00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:09,800 we'll start feeding the anger, feeding the fear, feeding the 630 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:12,679 anxiety. And with social media, there's 631 00:34:12,679 --> 00:34:15,719 always somebody out there who can help you eat whatever you 632 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,000 want to eat. If you want their stews, they'll 633 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,239 give it to you, so to speak. And that's what happened to Cain 634 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:24,560 is he didn't listen to God's advice. 635 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:29,080 He just how did in a situation until it come to the point that 636 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:32,520 he was killing somebody and God says to the church, and this is 637 00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:34,320 this week. Another thing is starting as our 638 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,760 life enrichment classes and that's one of the classes we 639 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:41,920 have and and we talked about making your anger your ally, 640 00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:45,639 taking control of your life, controlling emotions, etcetera 641 00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:48,360 because God says we got to learn how to deal with it. 642 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,320 One of the things I love about Jesus Christ, he always gives us 643 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:56,159 an example to follow in a postmodern world. 644 00:34:56,159 --> 00:34:59,240 People take things personally. But you know when Jesus was on 645 00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:00,480 the cross, you know what he said? 646 00:35:01,240 --> 00:35:04,120 Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're 647 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:06,400 doing. And it was true. 648 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:08,440 Some of them were there just because they got up in the 649 00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:10,600 motion of the crowd, got caught up in it. 650 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,120 Some people were there because they actually thought they were 651 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:15,920 doing God a favor by getting rid of Jesus Christ. 652 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:18,760 And of course, there were others there for the wrong purpose. 653 00:35:19,240 --> 00:35:23,040 It wasn't really a matter to Jesus because he knew on the 654 00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:25,160 cross what he was supposed to do Amen. 655 00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,400 And this is a very important thing that we have to do is not 656 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:32,400 take things personally in our family. 657 00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:35,760 We have members of our extended family for sure, who are not 658 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,120 serving the Lord. And I can love everybody no 659 00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:42,600 matter what their lifestyle is. That's something I just believe 660 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:44,560 because they're family, they're friends, they're people. 661 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:49,480 I know I don't reject people, but in order to do that, you 662 00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:52,280 can't take what they're doing personally. 663 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:54,360 And if you don't want them to take what you're doing 664 00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:56,200 personally. Because I do what I do because 665 00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:59,040 of God, right? So it's not personal from my 666 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:01,360 perspective. So if I want people to receive 667 00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:03,920 me on that level after, the same thing for them. 668 00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,440 And God's looking for us to be like Jesus, not trying to decide 669 00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:11,400 who's guilty and who's wrong. Speaking the truth in love. 670 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,960 No question about that. We'll never stop preaching the 671 00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:19,240 truth in love Church, but understanding all the time that 672 00:36:19,240 --> 00:36:23,760 we have to be separate from the world so that we can be those 673 00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:26,200 who will love others as God called us to. 674 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,240 That's why the Bible says for though we walk in the flesh we 675 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:32,360 don't work or in the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are 676 00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,600 not carnal but mighty and God for pulling down strongholds, 677 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:39,400 casting down arguments, every high thing that exalts itself 678 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,640 against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into 679 00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,200 captivity to the obedience of Christ and what being ready to 680 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:51,120 punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 681 00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:54,120 That's telling me that if I'm really involved in spiritual 682 00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,880 warfare I'm going to see it as an internal conflict. 683 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,040 I often times hear people talking about being in spiritual 684 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,800 warfare, but when you listen to what they're saying, they're 685 00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:07,040 operating in a carnal mode, sometimes out of fear, sometimes 686 00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:10,520 out of anger, sometimes out of emotions that really aren't 687 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:14,280 bringing spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is tear down 688 00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:18,560 every thought you have, every emotion you have that would stop 689 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:21,680 you from fully obeying God. And when you do what God wants 690 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:24,640 you to do, he's going to work on your behalf. 691 00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:28,040 That's why as a church, my goal is to be a church. 692 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:30,040 That's everything that God wants me to be. 693 00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:31,640 Because I know that we're going to do that. 694 00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:32,920 Guess what? We're going to do church. 695 00:37:33,240 --> 00:37:36,920 We're going to be a people that are releasing the power of God 696 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:39,600 to our generation. And that's what God wants us to 697 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,920 do. When you till the ground, it 698 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:44,560 will no longer yield its strength. 699 00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:47,600 You will be a fugitive in a Vagabond on the earth. 700 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,640 And Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can 701 00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:52,720 bear. Surely you have driven me out 702 00:37:52,720 --> 00:37:54,400 this day from the face of the ground. 703 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:56,280 I shall be hidden from your face. 704 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,640 I shall be a fugitive in a Vagabond on the earth. 705 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:02,720 It will happen. Anyone who finds me will kill 706 00:38:02,720 --> 00:38:04,480 me. Still caught up in your 707 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:07,520 emotions, aren't you? Went from anger to fear. 708 00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:11,960 And one thing that you didn't do is accept responsibility for 709 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,320 your choice. You didn't say God. 710 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:20,440 I killed my brother. How could I have ever done that? 711 00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:25,360 He didn't really understand that there should be consequences to 712 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,720 his actions. So he's asking God for mercy. 713 00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:30,480 And you know what God did grant him mercy. 714 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,880 And this is amazing to me. He killed his brother, but God 715 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:36,680 granted him mercy. And it says, and the Lord said, 716 00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:39,760 therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him 717 00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:43,000 sevenfold. The Lord set a mark on Cain lest 718 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:44,880 anyone finding him should kill him. 719 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,640 But the sad story is is that Cain went out from the presence 720 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:53,200 of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, which translates to 721 00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:59,800 a word that means just wandering around no home, no place outside 722 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,680 of the presence of God Church. We need to be a people that are 723 00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:07,920 in the presence of God firmly establishing his word and we'll 724 00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:12,320 be like those trees planted by rivers of living water and our 725 00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:14,880 fruit will be healing for the nation's. 726 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:17,920 Can you say Amen to that? I believe it with all my heart. 727 00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:21,800 Let's bow our heads before the Lord right now, before we 728 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:28,360 partake of the communion, because this communion meals 729 00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:35,680 shows us how God's willing to be merciful, even willing to accept 730 00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:38,960 the responsibility for our choices. 731 00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:46,320 If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you 732 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,240 of your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 733 00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:57,520 God is a merciful God. He is a forgiving God. 734 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:01,080 He's a God who's always reaching out. 735 00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:09,600 He doesn't violate His word. He does speak truth, but he 736 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,360 gives us an opportunity to grow in him. 737 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:18,440 And God is saying to every one of us today, it's time to take a 738 00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:23,480 step upward, a step outside of yourself. 739 00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:30,040 Step outside of the thinking of this world that you would be a 740 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:33,920 help to the world. This is Pastor Lorne Coverbius 741 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:36,520 from Mount Zion Church. We thank you for joining us 742 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:39,520 today and invite you to connect with our church family by 743 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:43,280 visiting mountzion.org and following us on social media. 744 00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:44,280 God bless you.