Well, I want to open with this particular Scripture in First
Timothy. It says these things I write to
you, though I hope to come to you shortly.
But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought
to conduct yourself in the House of God, which is the Church of
the living God and the pillar and ground of truth.
Before I actually get into the fullness of the message, I want
to share a testimony because I really believe it's what God is
speaking and something very powerfully that's happening in
the earth today. Last week on Tuesday as I was
recording a part of my message for my program, I guess you
called that I have on spiritual perception.
I was sharing how important it is that we would recognize that
we need to look at our world from a spiritual perspective.
The verse I used was from Isaiah 43 for getting those things
which are behind or for remember not the former things for new
things do I declare unto you, says the Lord.
And I was sharing on that program as God was speaking to
me. I really believe it's time for
us to go to a whole new dimension in what I've been
calling the new day. It's been over 20 years ago that
I had been praying and in the spanning service I heard the
Lord speak to me and He said it is a new day.
If you want to receive the power of this new day, you must open
up your heart so that you can receive the faith necessary to
walk in this new day. Now I've often shared from
Isaiah chapter 55 because the Bible says that the word comes
to us as seed for the sower and bread for the eater.
So when God speaks to us, just like when I'll be speaking
today, I've sought the Lord and this word is coming to you.
It can be bred for your eating that would strengthen you in
whatever you're going through right now.
But sometimes God gives us a word as a seed that's going to
grow and we're going to follow over time.
That's how we develop vision for our life or God has spoken to me
to have for the church and the things that we're walking in.
And so as I preach that word, prophesied that word, taught
that word. We've been had a seminar for our
pastors talking about it. I overtime realized this is one
of those seeds for the sower and that God wanted me to kind of
nurture that word. And in that process, he's also
taught me how important it is to recognize that when God speaks a
word prophetically, we oftentimes look for things to
immediately come to pass. But when you read prophecy in
the Bible, it typically is something that comes to pass
over a long period of time. And so I realized that as God
had give me that word, that number one, it would work in a
generation, that there were things that were necessary for
me to let God work in my heart in order for the word to come to
pass. And so last week, as I was
sensing God saying to me, it's time for a new dimension to that
new day, if you would. I want a confirmation.
I'm like, Lord, I really want to believe that you are saying as
we're going in this new year, something fresh, something
powerful is gonna happen. Well, on Saturday morning when I
got up, I happened to go into the Internet as I'm getting
ready for my study for the day, and I noticed that we had went
into Venezuela. They had taken the President
Maduro of Venezuela into captivity, coming here to the
United States in order that he might be tried for crimes that
he has committed in drug trafficking.
Well, I was very excited about that, But what was really
exciting for me is I've always seen God move in a supernatural
way at our walk here at Mount Zion.
In my life in particular, as I've waited on Lord, I've had
miraculous things happen. I've seen how God has fulfilled
His word, but He always has given me confirmations as well,
and sometimes in a very supernatural way.
So as I go to look for something, I didn't want to use
the TV because I didn't want to wake up Bonnie, which is in an
area where she'd hear it. So I'm doing it on my Internet.
I'm go to YouTube and they happen to have NBC live that was
talking about it. Now, obviously when you're
watching the news, you got to be careful because some of it's
biased. So I knew that, well, if
President Trump had done it, NBC wasn't the voice to listen to
it, to get unbiased if you would.
But it was the only living live thing that was available.
So I went on to it anyway. And the guy was talking and this
is what he said, wow, this is amazing what's happening.
It's like it's a new day. It's the dawning of a new day.
And he said it like 3 or 4 times in just a minute's time.
And I'm like, Lord, thank you, Hallelujah for your
confirmation. So I, my ears were, my eyes were
kind of tearing up because I was so touched by the word that came
not just because it was a confirmation.
I'll explain a little bit more, but also laughing because I'm so
excited about what God is doing because I've often shared how
important it is for us to realize that God isn't just
moving in our world. So when I pray, I don't just
pray for my needs and church needs.
I pray for what's happening in the world because I feel
committed to the greater body of Christ.
One of the burdens I have is we often will say, well, we have a
church in Havana, Cuba, we have one in Mexico, we have one in
San Salvador. And you'll hear that and some
people have one of mission trips for those countries.
So you can relate to it just a little better than that.
But because we know our family in Havana, of course, that is
very special. And I pray we send the money
once a month so that they can have food because it's such a
bad economy. If somebody says they believe in
communism, I say go live in Cuba for a while because when you go
there, you find out communism doesn't work.
And this is one of the sad things he'll tell us is, you
know, it's nice to have money to buy things, but in our country,
oftentimes there's nothing to buy.
And that includes food. And often times they have roving
lockout, says they call them, or blackout.
So they sometimes will go a week or two without electricity.
So you can imagine what that does.
No food, no electricity. It's just a terrible place.
So I'm of course, praying always the God would deliver them from
that dictatorship that's controlling the country.
Now, in the early days of Castro running the country, he has
support from the Soviet Union because they love to have a
thorn in our flesh, so to speak, just South of US, 90 miles from
Miami. And we even had what was called
the Cuban Missile Crisis when John F Kennedy was president
because they were actually going to put nuclear weapons there.
But they had the support of the Soviet Union until, of course,
the Soviet Union collapsed. So in the 90's, the country
suffered. I can't think of the name for
it, but they talk about as a special time of suffering
because nobody was paying their bills, because they couldn't pay
their own. Well, because of Venezuela
falling into the hands of a communist dictator in after the
year 2000 sometime, I can't think of the exact date.
He of course was willing to help them financially and in return
Cuba has given him a 20,000 man private security force because
he doesn't trust his own army to do that for his protection.
Plus they send doctors because they have a lot of doctors in
Cuba who've been trained through their system so they get money.
So when I pray, I pray, Lord, tear down the stronghold of
Venezuela. Lord, tear down the strongholds
in Cuba. Guess what?
It's happening right now and I'm thankful for that.
Now, this is important to understand because just like I
was mentioning, there's prejudice in news reports, even
in philosophies that we might as Christians agree with.
Like in conservative circles, there's a big debate whether we
should be involved in nation building or whatever.
But when it comes to God speaking, you have to understand
something. Or even when God's answering
prayer, sometimes you have to realize that we're in a Kingdom
that's above earthly persuasions.
So you can have whatever opinion you want to have, but when
heaven moves, it moves. Amen.
Church. And when heaven moves, it
sometimes isn't in our comfort zone or what we agree with
politically, whatever. But I want you to understand
something. Our God reigns in the heavens.
Amen. And I'm even excited about
what's happening over in the Middle East.
There's all kinds of St. demonstrations in Iran right
now. To me, the Kamenini and all the
other followers that he's had, the Alia Toya's that have ruled
the country, that's when a Satan seats and I'm glad what's
happening. Past presidents have not
supported those demonstrations. We have one now that's a little
bit different, as you may have noticed in history.
And he put on social media that we were, our guns were locked
and loaded or something like that.
Let him know that we're behind the people there.
Again, it doesn't matter what your political persuasions are.
How do you know that? We have to understand as
Christians that we live in the Kingdom of God.
And so I don't see Mount Zion as just a church in the United
States of America. I see Mount Zion as an embassy
for the Kingdom of God. Can I hear an Amen on that?
Amen. And I don't just see myself as a
pastor. I see myself as an ambassador
for the Kingdom of God. As a matter of fact, if you read
Second Corinthians chapter 5, you'll see that we should all
see ourselves as ambassadors for the Kingdom of God.
So whatever positions you might take from a natural or secular
perspective, you always have to be aware that there's something
over that is called the Kingdom of God.
Amen, Church and God answers prayer.
And I really believe that we're moving to time.
We're going to see God tear down some strongholds and I believe
that God's going to liberate his people.
And the shaking, He said, I will shake everything that can be
shaken. That goes back to before I had
the first word. And I tell you, we're going to
see shakings like we've never seen before.
There's going to be some negative reverberations from
those things. That's why we have to be
prepared and why I want to share this message with you today.
The Lord has laid it upon my heart so that we would
understand. In the time when everything is
going to be shaken, we have to take a perspective that's above
the natural. But we also have to understand
that when we operate in the supernatural things that God has
for us, sometimes it's some very practical and natural ways that
we get in touch with the supernatural.
And that's when we think about what that scripture I just read
to you is when it says you need to learn how to behave yourself
in the House of God, Timothy, which is the House of the most
High God, the Church of the living God.
It is the pillar and the ground of truth.
Now truth is the most important thing that we should know as
Christians because you will know the truth and the truth will
make you free in church. We shouldn't just share opinions
of men or human philosophies. We should always share the
truth. Can I hear to men on that?
Truth has power and this scripture tells me that the
foundation, which is the ground in which truth is planted and
the pillars that hold it up, it starts in the House of God.
And so when we think about the church, we have to think about
what a powerful thing that we're evolved in when we're a part of
the church. Now, when I was a kid, I grew up
in church, gave my life to Lord at an early age.
And for some reason, because God makes us who we are, I always
was aware of what's happening in church and thinking about how
church could be better than it it was.
Our church I grew up in was a small country church because
this was the country back in those days.
So a small church was typical, but they always wanted to grow.
They always wanted to be evangelistic.
And so they would have evangelism campaigns and talk
about might people to Sunday school.
So the church could grow, but the church really never did
grow. It grow a little bit and then it
would shrink again. And one of the big reasons for
that is because it's one thing to say you want the church to
grow. It's another thing when you come
to church on Sunday morning and somebody is sitting in your
seat. You know, we always get our own
seat. And it's kind of troubling when
there's somebody sitting in our seat.
So I'm, you know, if a church is going to grow, they might
actually sit in your seat or often times this is also the
case with the church grows. Sometimes you get people in with
talent and they might have a better talent than you and that
can make you feel threatened. Those are normal carnal
responses if you would. So from a small age, I used to
say, oh, I don't want to go to a small church.
It just has too many things happening that are going to make
it not really grow and whatever. Well, I found out that big
churches are no different than small churches.
I used to think I have to go to a big church.
When we started our church, I've being aware of all the
complaints people had about church in their life.
I thought Mount Zion's going to be different.
I'm going to be different. I know that my heart is for the
people and I'm going to do what they want, do what they need me
to do. Of course, I almost said what
they want me to do, but I'm supposed to do what you need me
to do. But I also like to do what you
want me to do when I can. But sometimes that doesn't make
me popular too. I have found out that doesn't
matter what you do, people are going to complain.
That's why. Is that true?
Because we're all people and we all do it from time to time.
But the point is, I have always had a vision that the church
should be everything God wants it to be.
And I truly believe that as I look at Mount Zion and as we've
built over the years, Mount Zion has all the attributes a local
church is supposed to have. And I believe that we're
positioned for this next phase of going to the world and going
to all the nations as God has called us to do with a
prototype, if you would. That's very powerful.
And that's why we advertise the things we're doing.
We really have what you have need of, to walk in the things
that God has. And why is that?
Because I believe in the church. My vision is for the church.
And I really believe that we need to understand how important
the church is. As a matter of fact, this
Scripture says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope
without wavering. For he who promised is what
faithful. Let us consider one another in
order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the
assembly of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but
exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day
approaching. Now, as the author of this book
was writing inspired by the Holy Spirit, of course he's making
them understand there's days of trouble coming.
So you need to be prepared for them.
And I really believe that that's what the Bible's all about is
God says be prepared for whatever comes your way.
That's why I said you should take a marriage class before you
need a marriage class because how many you know, that helps us
get prepared ahead of time. Taking a discipleship class,
taking the new beginnings class, we should say, what is it that I
have need of? Because we're in a very
difficult age right now. And in order for us to truly
live for the Lord, we have to understand we have to have a
plan of action. That's why he said hold fast to
your confession. Why?
Well, there's a lot of influences, people,
circumstances, situation, media, social media, all kinds of
voices trying to get you off course, trying to get you to
lose faith, trying to get you to become anxious or concerned
about your world. And the Bible says very clearly
here, we got to hold fast to our confession.
And that's what I've done over the history of my life.
When God has spoken to me, I've shared it with you.
I believe that God says it. It's going to happen.
So I'll hold on to it with everything within me.
And I have found out that I've seen that God is faithful just
like that Scripture says. And I know that well.
As I look forward, He's going to show I'm even more faithful,
says the Lord. Because I believe with all my
heart the best is yet to come, that God's going to do that
which is exceedingly and abundantly above all that I can
ask or think. That's why the Scripture is so
important when it says and forsake not the assembling of
yourself together, which is the manner of some all the more is
to see the day approaching. And I'll talk about that as a
very last verse, but emphasizing first of all, how the Bible says
we need each other. We need to consider each other
and we need to understand that we need to be in a setting where
other people are considering us and this is where the church
comes in as the pillar in the ground of truth and why all of
us need to understand churches shouldn't be seen as an option.
It's a part of the plan of God that He would have a people that
will fulfill his purposes in the earth and that would also be a
partaker of his promises. And we can only do that when we
understand how important it is to assemble together.
Look what this next verse the Scripture says that we should no
longer be children tossed to and fro and cared about with every
wind of doctrine. You got also throw in their wind
of philosophy because everybody has an opinion.
They want to share it in our day and it's very easy to get
confused by all that's going on. We shouldn't be like children
are tossed to and fro are the tricky of man cuz there's a lot
of people out there trying to take advantage of us, but also
in the cutting craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking
the truth in love that we may grow up in all things.
In him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined
and knit together by whatever joint supplies according to the
effect of working by which every part does its share, causes
growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Notice I put over this some assembly required.
Now God's goal, and it's something I've of course been
sharing from the beginning, is that we would go on to maturity.
Now that's not just God's goal, it should be ours.
Just like in the natural you come to this world as a baby.
You have parents that help you by taking care of you, hopefully
instructing you how to accept responsibility in life so that
you can become mature and again repeat the process.
So also our Heavenly Father thinks the same thing concerning
us. His desire is to bring us all to
a place of maturity. And all the more as we see this
day of confusion as everything that's being shaken that can be
shaken, we need to understand you will know the truth and the
truth will set you free. And we need to know that the
truth will also put us on the solid rock.
Jesus said, if you keep these principles, these things that
I'm saying to you, you're going to be like the man who built his
house upon the rock. When the winds come and the
storms blow, and they will, you will be standing in the midst of
the storm. If you don't, you're going to be
like the person who built their house upon the sand.
When the wind blows and the waves are coming, the Ocean's
rising up, guess what? You're going to be washed away.
That's why God wants us to go on to maturity and why it's
important that we would have connections.
Now, this is so important because when I was a kid in
school, high school especially, I remember we'd have assemblies
and they were usually some kind of a pep assembly where you get
together, especially as you're going to very important games.
Everybody, they want you to get the school spirit and get all
excited and shout and jump them down.
Whatever it was to give a spirit, they would say, well,
some people see church the same way.
You need to go and get some spirit, get excited so you can
make it through the week. No, that's not what the Bible
says. When the Bible talks about us
assembling together, we have to understand that it's like
assembly. And that's why I put over that
verse. Some assembly required because
when we were doing Christmas shopping for our kids and they
wanted things like bikes and stuff, if it said some assembly
required immediately, I'm like, no, I'm not buying that one.
God didn't give me an assembly mind in the sense of putting
mechanical things together. It's always been something.
I'm sure I could have learned it better than I did, but it was
just like kind of one of those things that, well, it's more
comfortable to stay away from it.
So when I was young, first married, I'd depend a lot of
mom, my dad, we call Papa Bill around here at Mount Zion.
Now that wasn't also easy because as the father, he didn't
just help me, He wanted to show me how to do it.
And then if I was something about my car, he'd yell at me
for not doing it right. He remember I was told the story
how he checked one day, said have you checked your oil
lately? No, I haven't.
So he opened it up and he said, I said, do I need an oil change?
No, you don't need an oil change.
You don't even have any oil in this bar.
Another time I got in trouble because I didn't have water in
the battery. I don't know if you still need
the water and batteries or what. And I just figured if you put
the water where it goes, it'll go wherever it needs to go.
Hey, man, that's what we do when we drink water, people.
Anyway, I was always getting in trouble for that.
And so I was glad when I could graduate to my brother Bill
because he'd take care of things for me too.
So often times Christmas Eve is going over and if it assembly
needed, I would take it over there and hit assemble it for
me. And unfortunately, they're both
the gone. So Bill Foster was reminding me
I call him when I need something assemble now.
But anyway, I'm always going to have body connections, Amen.
How you know that we need to be connected, Amen.
Because there's always something that we need from somebody else.
And really there's something that we all have that we can
give to others. But this is talking in a more
mystical sense in a way, even though it's a practical sense,
because it says like we're like the body and the human body has
many different parts. Now there's some parts of your
body you can live without, but how we know we want it all there
and for nothing else the looks right.
And so we might be able to get along without certain parts of
our body. Like they might say, Oh, you
don't need tonsils. They don't want you don't need
this. Take it out.
And I'm like, no, I want to keep it.
God put it there, I'm keeping it.
Amen. Well, that's the way the body of
Christ is. We might look at things that
give it value, but God says, I'll put it in the body.
You have need of that and so it's so important that we would
understand it's connecting that actually is what gives us the
full opportunity to receive life.
And connecting is not always easy, but you have to make a
choice. I'm going to get connected.
What does it take? Well, it takes effort when you
see all the things that we have in our community centers and our
activities and all the different things going on.
There's some way you can get connected and get to meet
people. You just have to look on the
website and get connected. Amen.
But some assembly is required and that means putting it
together so that it can operate properly.
That's why it says, Therefore, let him who thinks he stands
take heed lest he fall. Why?
Well, we not understand how important communion is.
So the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it
not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we, though many are one bread and one body for we are
all partake of that one bread. Notice this is from chapter 10.
I was reading out of Chapter 11, but it's so important when we
think about communion, we call it typically the Lord's Supper
or can be called communion. But he's using that as an
illustration to the church at Corinth and he says, well, it's
just like communion. Don't you understand?
When you come together, we have to understand that we all are
partakers of Christ. So we all partake of one bread.
But when we first started the church and we had a small number
of people, we used to do that. We'd have somebody, Molly Da
used to actually go and buy us some fresh bread and we'd have
communion with a fresh bread and pass it around.
After a while, people started wondering if we were passing
germs as well as bread, but so we switched.
But also we had a lot more people than one loaf of bread
would supply. I mean, you know, we'd need a
real big loaf to feed all of us here today.
But anyway, it's important to understand that we are all
partakers of one bread and that bread is Christ.
And so when we But when we think about communion, we have to
understand that also means that we are one bread to the world.
And the word communion is used in the New Testament, often
times as the word fellowship. It's a Greek word, Koinonia,
which means that we are in partnership with each other.
It means that we need to all be participating in order for us to
experience the fullness. And there's actually another
word that is used here, which is social exchange, because
sometimes just being involved with activities and getting to
meet people, it could be life changing.
How do you know we need people? Psychologists call it
affiliation needs the Bible calls a fellowship, but you need
to have an affiliation with the people that are going to share
your values in order that you can be reinforced in those
values and also that you can help other people as a part of
this. And so it's important to
understand we are one bread and one body.
Now going to the literal Lord's Supper communion service
Scriptures. It says, Therefore, whoever eats
this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But what let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of
the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in a
unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not
discerning the Lord's body. Now this is quite amazing
because he goes on to say for this reason, many are weak and
sickly among you. Many sleep, which means dead
doesn't mean falling asleep. It's using the word they're
asleep because it sounds a little better.
Just like when somebody says, well, if something happens to
me, you're actually saying if I fall over dead, right?
We like to use different words to talk about it.
And that's what he's doing there.
But he said, you know, if you don't understand the power of
communion, you're going to suffer for it.
You might even be sick. You might even die prematurely.
That's what the Bible says. How do you know if it's in the
Bible? It's true.
Since the early stage of the Christian Church, communion has
always been the focus of what was done.
Around 1600, as a part of the Reformation, there were a lot of
people, because of the Age of Enlightenment and scientific
theory coming in, people even in the Christian Church influenced
by those things, got rid of the concept that something's there
in communion. And they'd say, well, that's
just something that we do to show something.
So it's an outward form. And they said the same thing
about baptism because they thought that was just
superstitious or just too mystical if you believe there
was something that was going to happen as a part of your
spiritual experience. So God in these days is bringing
the church back to a full understanding.
So I hope you're allowing to give you that full
understanding. Amen.
Because he said that when you come to the table of the Lord,
there's power, but you have to know how to get a hold of it #1
He talks about an unworthy manner.
Now some people think that means well, when you take community,
you better be careful because if you're not worthy, this is going
to happen to you. No, that's not what he's saying
When he says an unworthy manner. He's talking about your attitude
in your approach, not your condition.
You know that through the blood of Jesus Christ we can all be
forgiven, Amen. If we confess our faults, if we
confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our
sin and to cleanse us from melon and righteousness.
It's through Jesus Christ that we have been made worthy.
But whenever we partake of something in the House of God,
we have to understand there's a manner by which we should be a
participant. And that manner is we do it of
faith. And he's writing in the
Corinthian church, they had what they also called an agape meal
because when they got together, they would have dinner as well
as the Lord's Supper. And it turned into a party, as
you see from the scriptures that are being read.
And he's like, what are you guys doing?
Don't you know? This is something that Jesus
himself started. He even said the Lord gave it
directly to me. So he wasn't even saying he's
quoting what other people had. He had received personal
revelation from Jesus Christ. And this is one of the things
Jesus told him in the manner that he should approach the
Lord's Supper, because on the night in which he was betrayed,
Jesus took that bread and he broke it and said, this is my
body. And he took the cup.
And he said, this is my blood. And I know there's a lot of
different ways people discuss it and get upset about it.
But when you have a faith experience, you come to church
and you say, you know what? I want everything to have a real
experience for me. I don't just come and sing.
I come with the right attitude and I know that the Bible says
that Jesus says he's singing in the worshipping congregation.
That's amazing. Whether I'm taking communion,
whether we're watching a baptism.
That's why I like to have on Sunday mornings we have anointed
with oil at the close of the service.
If you're sick, the Bible says get anointed with oil.
Don't miss out on the opportunities God has to.
The church is the pillar in the ground of truth, a man church.
But it's so important that we also have discernment because
discernment says I'm not just looking at things from the
outside perspective. So when I come to church, this
is a good way to start practicing spiritual discernment
or spiritual perception as I call into my YouTube program.
Because when you come, you got to say, OK, wait a minute, I'm
in church. I got to make sure that I have
the right manner of approaching when I'm singing, when I'm
hearing the word, when I'm going to the altar, because there's
something that's super that's available to me if I'm willing
to let myself be a partaker of those things.
That's why in speaking about the church, Jesus said this.
If somebody's in a dispute, he says, well, if you can't settle
among yourselves to bring it to the church.
But if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.
But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him beat you
like a heathen and a tax collector.
Cheryl, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth, it
will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two
agree, you agree on earth is concerning.
Anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in
heaven. For where two or three are
gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.
That's why I really believe it wouldn't been just my prayer
that brought the deliverance for the people of Venezuela and
hopefully the deliverance for the people accused us.
But it was partly my prayer because I believe when I pray,
God hears. Amen.
And I'm sure something as serious as that, there's
probably millions praying, I don't know.
But I do know this. When we pray, God hears.
But there's a special authority that Jesus said the church has
because there's a power that we have when we come together that
God puts upon us as a church. And when we begin to understand
that, we'll begin to realize there's something available for
us in the House of God that we need to take full advantage of.
He said the church has power in heaven, and he says where two or
three are gathered together in my name, heaven and earth
connects. And I shared this a few months
back when I was talking about the descending New Jerusalem as
the church because the Bible tells us that when we're in the
House of God that literally the heavens are opened over us.
Isn't that amazing church? That's why we're an embassy for
the Kingdom of heaven. That's why we're ambassadors for
Christ. Because guess what?
We have the opportunity to touch heaven.
Heaven isn't just a distant place.
Heaven is a source of authority. It's a source of blessing that
we can access when we understand the power and authority that God
wants to give to us as a church. Now I want to emphasize this
Scripture from the Old Testament because God has revealed himself
from the Old Testament to the New Testament in a progressive
fashion. So the church, as we read, is
the House of God, the pillar and ground of truth.
But we also have to understand that there was a type in that in
the temples that were built in the Old Testament.
So when they built the temple of Solomon, the Bible says that God
spoke to Solomon, said when I shut up heaven, and there is no
rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send
pestilence among my people. If my people who are called by
my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven,
and I will forgive their sin. And what?
What will he do? How many know we need that in
our land? Amen.
Give him a praise now, God said. Now my eyes will be open and my
ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
Speaking about the temple, which was a pattern for the New
Testament church, for now I have chosen and sanctified this house
that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart
will be there perpetually. And of course, we know now that
we are the temple of the Holy Ghost, we the body of Christ.
And we have to understand that means we have power in prayer.
There's power in our individual prayers, but there's more power.
And some people feel uncomfortable about this, but
there's more power in our corporate prayer when we come
together and we pray. That's why our Tuesday morning
prayer service is so powerful, because people could come and
turn in the request because when the church is praying, it makes
a difference. That's not my opinion.
That's the word of God, Amen. And so prayer power works and we
have to be aware of all these things and understand there's
something that happens when we bring our prayers to the House
of God and to understand it is the place where he has placed
his name. So when you read that scripture
of two or three gathered together, my name, he's not just
saying, okay, you guys get together.
He's talking about the church, He's talking about an authority
he gives to his house. And that's why when we bring it
to the house, there's a difference.
And so we have to be mindful of these things because there's
supernatural power when we approach things with the right
manner. Amen.
Now in First Corinthians 3, it says this.
Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with the gold,
silver, precious stones, with hay and straw, each one's work
will become clear. Here's that word day again.
The day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire.
The fire will test each one's work of what sort it is.
If anyone's work, which he has built on it, endures, he will
receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he
will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so as through
fire. And so this is important because
when we think about the day and the day, we often think about as
the day of judgement. Most people know when you die,
you're going to stand before the judgement seat of Christ.
At least you should. That's a day of judgement.
When Jesus Christ comes in his return, it says it will be a day
of judgement. But this Scripture makes us
understand that there are days of judgement.
The day of judgement is basically when there's a
combination of certain behaviors that lend itself to a certain
outcome. That's why the Bible says
whatsoever man sows that shall he also reap.
Why? Well, just like in the parable I
was sharing when Jesus talked about the man who built this
house upon the rock, if you don't do the right thing, sooner
or later the things began to pile up.
And sometimes that means there's going to be a judgement that's
necessary. And that's the judgement of
fire, where God burns away the fleshly works in order that the
cold and the purity might come forward.
So in this day that we live in, there's some things that well
are going to have to be given accounting of.
I really believe that I see in the financial world, when we
went through the Great Recession and the COVID crisis came and
all the things that happened there, there were a lot of
monetary things that were done that well.
They weren't wise in the long run.
They were good for the short term.
And because of that, we've had great inflation.
How many know we have inflation? And if you watch what's
happening, if you go to the restaurant or you try to buy a
house, which nobody can now, you realize, hey, there's something
about these inflation figures that aren't exactly right.
Because I can't anymore do this. And people are in a nervous
thought concerning life because how is this all going to work?
Well, there's going to be some consequences.
But Jesus said, just put your house in order, because if you
put your house in order, you open yourself up when the
purging of fire comes to the blessing of God for his
preservation, Amen. Church, I'm glad we serve the
living God, Amen. And sometimes we will suffer
because there are times where Christians certainly have times
of loss. But the thing we understand is
as we put ourselves back into the business of following God's
Word, what happens is we began to sow the right seeds that are
going to produce the right and proper fruit in the day of
fruitfulness. That's why in closing, the
Scripture is so important. It says for if we will judge
ourselves, we would not be judged.
Now when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord.
So that does happen. So I don't want to eliminate
that verse that we may not be condemned with the world because
sometimes God allows judgments to come.
So we'll shape up whatever. But the important thing that we
should understand as we every Sunday come before the table of
the Lord has realized, God says if you judge yourself, you won't
come under judgement. If you set everything in
alignment now, you'll be prepared for the day, whatever
that day is. Whenever that day comes, we are
called to be prepared, says the mighty God.
I'm going to ask everyone to bow your heads and close your eyes
for just a moment and let's approach the table of the Lord
in the worthy manner. That means, Lord, give me
discernment. I want to see this is just more
than a ritual. I want to partake of the life,
the healing, the blessing that you have with your word in
action in my life, in this day. We are in a new day.
There will be winds blowing, fires burning, Get ready, get
ready, get ready, prepare yourself, prepare yourself by
being taking heed according to His word.
Father, in Jesus name, just let us be a people of maturity in
this day. Give us the ability to hear your
voice, to walk in your way, to hear what you're speaking to us
in Jesus name, 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.