Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. So I believe I've got a powerful
word here. Do ministers really ever get up
and say, I believe I have a not powerful word?
You know, it's like, it drives me crazy when somebody's like,
you know, if I were to title my message, I would title it.
And you're like. This is a title.
This is you're titling it. What do you mean if you?
Were to title it, but if I were to title my message, it would be
to the crown. So we're going to put up that
slide. I appreciate everything that we
do here at Anchor Faith Church. But the one of the main things
that changed my whole life about this ministry was when I
received the message of the Kingdom.
If many of you all if you don't know me, my name is Joshua Clay.
I was basically born and raised in church.
I think I say this every time that I get up to minister, but
it's it's worth worth repeating that I was born on a Sunday and
my mom, you know, when I remember, is my first memory
actually as a baby, I look up at my mom and she was crying, not
because she loved me so much, but because she had to miss
service that morning. So that's the house that I grew
up in and. We had a great we, we had a
great family environment. We had a great church that we
went to. But I didn't realize how much
religion I was steeped in until I first heard the Kingdom
message and thought I thought I had it all together.
I thought I had a handle on the Bible.
I thought I had a handle on my own walk with God and realized I
didn't really even. Know who God was.
I knew about God, so that put me in the category with the rest of
the planet and the rest of the spirit realm, but I didn't
really know who he was. I knew things about him, but I
didn't know him. So whenever we, anytime that
somebody takes the platform here, we always are talking
about the Kingdom. But I don't want it to ever get
missed by you. How strategic it is that we say
the Kingdom of God because the Bible has nothing to do with
religion. And, and, and again, I'm at
home, right? This is this is we get such good
teaching all the time. This is for the people out
there. We're recording it.
They're going to hear this for the first time.
You're just going to Amen because you know this is true,
but the first Scripture I have to.
Go to anytime we minister to lay a foundation of what we're going
to even be talking about. It's going to be Genesis chapter
one, verse 26, because it's going to be the first message,
the first scripture in this message.
And it was also the first verse. In God's message when the Bible
was canonized and written down by unction of the Holy Ghost and
put into that order. So if we go to Genesis 126, it
says and God said. Let us make man in our image
according to our likeness and let them what see we could.
The whole message could just be right here because too many
people that call themselves Christians aren't doing that.
We can stay right here because even in this house, sometimes
when you all talk, it doesn't sound like a ruler or a king
that's reigning over their life and circumstances.
So we can spend the rest of the night for the next 2 1/2 hours
for Charlie right in this one passage.
That God's original plan for you was not that you would be born,
fumble your way around in the earth, try to be a good person
and do good things until one day you get to go to heaven.
That is a gross, cheap version of the gospel that Jesus never
put His endorsement on. He never approved that message.
He never preached that message, But it says, let us make man in
our image according to our likeness, and let them rule over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over all the
cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
moves on the earth. In this, in this precedent
setting encounter, God gives mankind his ultimate destiny,
say ultimate not his first destiny.
He gives him his ultimate destiny, see I think.
When we read through the Bible with a religious lens on, we
think God had a first plan, then man messed up that plan, so God
had to have a second plan, and then that plan went OK and now
we've just got to do our best to do God's backup plan.
When God never changed His plan, when he said let them rule over
the earth, He never moved from that statement.
Everything he did from Genesis all the way to Revelation, from
every prophet, every patriarch, when Jesus showed up, everything
in the middle of the Bible was God getting man back to the
original place that he fell from, which was dominion over
the planet. Pastor Earl on the on Sunday
made this statement. I'm going to quote him.
Here, this was incredible, he said.
Our inheritance was meant, not meant for us to get when we die.
It was meant for us to get when he died.
The work Jesus did on the cross wasn't to get you somewhere else
after you died. The work that he did was to
empower you right now. You understand we were living in
death right now. We know people, we know loved
ones, we know Co workers that they live, they're living in
death. They're living a version of hell
on earth. And yet you're telling them,
well, one day there's somewhere worse and then it'll be better
then. Well, that's not.
Real good they're. Delivering it now, that's not an
empowering gospel, that's an escaping gospel.
One day you'll be free of this. No, that wasn't the message.
Then pastor ended that quote by saying his dominion was meant
for you right now. So whenever we come into this
Bible and we begin to to explore the things that are that are
being spoken from the word of God, always know they're coming
from a government lens. The next scripture I want to
look at is Isaiah Chapter 9, verse six and seven.
Isaiah Chapter 9, verses 6 and seven and some of y'all that
have been here for a while, you're thinking, yeah, we know
this one. Open your Bible and you're going
to read it with me. You're going to highlight it
because there's a word we're going to look at in there in a
different way because we read it through.
I've read the Bible multiple times.
I've seen this passage. I know what it's talking about,
but we're going to have. To go back to what the original
readers. Looked at when they saw this.
See it says, For unto us a child will be born.
This is the prophet speaking by unction of the of God saying
Here's the message I want for. For.
My people, he says, for unto us a child is born, and a son is
given to us, he says, and the government will rest on his
shoulders. Do you understand when when
Isaiah spoke these words, they had no clue who Jesus was?
We're reading. This from a context of.
Luke. Whenever it says, the angels are
like unto us, a child is born this day.
And Bethlehem were like, we know who that is, but they didn't
know. In fact, there's one word in
this passage they recognized and one they didn't.
And the child being born is not the one they recognized.
The word government is the word they recognized, and it brought
with it a connotation of acceptance or rebellion.
When they read it, they saw, oh, a government is coming.
We read it. No, a savior, but they said, so
that means there's something coming that's going to require
my allegiance or my rebellion. See, sometimes we.
Miss the real message being given because we're too
religious in our mindset and we want to have this religious
figure that Jesus is instead of knowing who he actually is.
He's the king that carries a government with him.
See Jesus, the problem is he's the most misunderstood person
that's ever walked on the face of this earth.
Nobody has been more misrepresented than Jesus
Christ. So many people have had to have
identified with him through their experience.
They've identified with him through what other people have
said and they've really not just gone back to his word and and
asked the Lord through the written word and say, who is
Jesus? I mean, even when he stood
before Pilate and Pilate asked the question, are you a king?
He didn't say, you know, I'm kind of like that.
You know, I'm, I'm more of a. Deity, he said.
You said it right. I'm a king, and for that reason
I was born to come to the earth to testify of the truth.
So he testified of his own self that he was a king.
Do we know what a king is? It's a ruler.
When a king speaks, what is his word?
Law and power. So if a king speaks and his word
is law, that means every time a word from Jesus comes forth, it
is an opportunity that is to either be obeyed or rejected.
Another misconception people have is that I want to make this
clear. The Kingdom of God is not planet
earth. Planet Earth is not the Kingdom
of God. What the Kingdom of God is, is
it is US carrying out His dominion on the earth.
The Kingdom of God is represented in a people, not a
specific place. If it was just about the
specific location where the garden originally was, why am I
here? I'd rather put on a tan shirt
and A and a brown hat and go find it then be here with you.
OK, but that's that's not what it is.
It's not looking to a place. In fact, Jesus answered that
question. The disciple said where?
Can we look and see your Kingdom manifest?
And he said, you can't say look here it is or look there it is,
for the Kingdom of God is within you.
It's actually more of a culture that you carry and embody than
it is just a physical destination.
That's why it's important to note heaven is not our home.
Heaven's not the goal. Whoever made heaven the goal
only read a small sliver of this book.
Some of you all heard this before, I get it.
But some of you have not probably heard this.
So whenever we're talking about the Kingdom of God, No, it's
about God's rule and reign arriving on the planet through
man's obedience. The first one was Jesus.
Jesus comes in and brings his obedience, but what he brought
with him was more than just a message about.
How your life can be good. He game and showed an example of
how the Kingdom operates. And what I.
Found is too many believers and people that say I'm a Christian.
I'm a believer you know I I love God but I can't connect with
them how? Where is the proof though?
Why do you say you love God? But you, you, you.
Still are depressed. Why do you say you love God but
financially you just can't never seem to make it?
Why do you say you love God but then I see your instagrams?
You know, I had this thought today while I was.
Driving, obviously. I've been kind of praying in the
Holy Ghost and driving and thinking about tonight and had
this thought. There's a lot of people that
come into the Kingdom and they want to be God's secret agents.
They want to be like undercover citizens.
And you know, we're only referenced as a city set on a
hill. Ambassadors, Have you ever heard
of an undercover ambassador in a nation?
Have you ever driven by an ambassador's mansion?
It's pretty obvious who the ambassador is.
And whenever an ambassador walks in the room or walks through an
airport, you ever been in an airport and an ambassador walks
through with that little diplomat, you know thing and
gets in that line and goes all the way through.
You're like, this person stands out.
Yet for some reason, we. Think, oh, well, I want to be
undercover in the Kingdom. I want to come in and I want to,
I want to still associate and hang out with these people and
then not really know until I tell them, hey, hey, I'm a
secret agent. Let me tell you about my Jesus.
Let my Jesus change your life. Thanks, Chris.
But the only time I can find somebody being an undercover
agent in the Bible really is a wolf dressed in sheep's
clothing. He doesn't ever say I want you
to be a sheep and go amongst wolves and dressed in wolves
clothing. He doesn't say I've called you
to be something. But why don't you look?
Like something else. And the problem is religion
allows you to do that. Religion happens on Sundays and
Wednesdays. You can pick up religion on a
Sunday morning and then you can put religion down whenever the
closure is flicking the lights on and off at the church saying
hey, you're fellowship enough, let's go and walk out and not
carry it anymore. But you understand your
citizenship. Goes with you.
Everywhere. That's why Jesus didn't come to
give you a religion and give you a set of religious rules and
dogmas and and traditions. What He came to do is empower
you with a citizenship that came with a culture and you can't
leave that behind. The reason I titled this to the
crown is because everything that God does requires your
allegiance or forces your rebellion.
In fact, everything in the Bible will come down to where is your
allegiance? Every principle spoken, every
command of God, every command of Jesus, every parable he told,
all is trying to probe and find where does your allegiance lie?
Is it with the crown? Do I have an allegiance to the
Crown? Or do I have an allegiance to
something else? That's more because I'm just
going to tell you right now in God's Kingdom there is no room
for two allegiances. We hear that in Matthew chapter
6, right? He says no man cannot serve 2
masters. And I get that he says God and
wealth, but you understand it goes for anything else.
I say in place of wealth, he can't serve God and wealth.
He can't serve God in relationships.
He can't serve God in his own opinion about politics.
You have one master, one allegiance, and you have to
choose it wisely. You would think it's an easy
choice, but I don't know. We'll keep looking.
I want to list this real quick. There's something that all
kingdoms have. There's this list.
This isn't like the definitive list, but there's all of these
need to be said. Every Kingdom has a king, has a
sovereign, a ruler whose word is final over the whole entire
nation and territory. With that, every king, every
Kingdom has a constitution, which is the documented word of
the ruler. It has a written word.
You understand why the Bible had to be written?
Well, I know we've heard it said before that the Bible had to be,
you know, it was spoken so it could be written, and then it
was written so it could be spoken again.
That's great. But it had to be written because
God doesn't miss a step and knows if I've got a Kingdom, I
need a written constitution so that it there is no mistake of
what my will is. Because when the Kingdom
manifests, it manifests with His constitution and His will, which
is to either be accepted as your own.
Or rejected and rebelled against.
Every Kingdom has a citizenry. Every Kingdom has a realm of
citizens that live and operate together and work together with
that. That means every Kingdom has a
Commonwealth of citizens that are together that share the
resources. Of the king together.
That's why it's no problem for me to sit in service and every
service like. Well, why does that church, you
know, take up an offering every service?
Well, clearly you don't understand the Kingdom.
Why do you pay your property taxes?
Well, 'cause I live in the United States and I have to, OK?
It's a government, and the government shall rest on his
shoulders. Why are we surprised by these
facts? I'm supposed to tithe I.
Don't know about tithing. I don't want to share my money.
Who? OK, maybe we should go back and
look at the Lord Principle. The king in a Kingdom owns
everything in his Kingdom. So there's no such thing.
As I'm going to give something of mine to him.
I don't own anything. If the king owns everything, I'm
just honoring him with what's already his.
OK? Every Kingdom has law.
Don't come at me and be like, oh man, you know, Christians can be
so legalistic, OK? Citizens have to.
Live by a law, and if you're ignorant of the law, that's not
an excuse you're going to stand. Before God.
One day in a courtroom, it's going to feel real legal when
you stand before the Great White Throne Judgment.
Don't judge me, brother. You want your brother to judge
you because if your brother judges you and you change, then
you don't have to get judged later.
And also, no one's ever told me don't judge me without already
judging that I was judging. So this is weird.
Now you're judging me that I'm a judgy person.
Don't judge me being a judgy person.
I've also never had somebody tell me that that wasn't wrong.
You can search your own, you know, databank of information.
When somebody's like, don't judge me, you know, they were
wrong actually, and they just didn't want me to point out
where they were wrong. Anyway, going on, every Kingdom
has benefits. We can preach hundreds and
thousands of messages on the benefits of the Kingdom.
It should go without saying our king is faithful.
He's never failed. He's undefeated in every battle.
He's with you. If you're with him, that means
there's nothing you could ever face that would be impossible,
Nothing you could ever face with your king that you would ever
fail at. People, I'm just.
Human by yourself? Who said you came into the
Kingdom to be by yourself? You mean that Jesus died and on
the cross was buried, resurrected?
And we've documented this just so you could stay the same.
You've missed something. We've missed something Benefits
healthcare. Come on.
OK, we'll move along. Every Kingdom has a social
culture, has a culture that means there's a way of living
that's right in the specific government that you have
assigned yourself to or been born into.
There's a language we speak, there's a way of talking that we
have in the Kingdom of God, just like when you come to the United
States a lot of the times. You know, depending on what city
you're in, right, we're going to speak English.
But when I went over to Barcelona, Spain, they spoke
Spanish. I wasn't like, what's wrong with
these people? Don't they know what the right
language is? I understood I'm in a different
place. Yeah.
We want to make everybody comfortable at work.
When I'm like, well, I am the Kingdom.
I bring the Kingdom with me everywhere I go.
And all of a sudden I want you to know I'm bilingual.
So I'm going to say cuss words. Oh, I'm going to say that joke.
Oh, I'm going to talk. About my boss and talk about my
coworkers. There's a way of talking in our
culture we don't have and we take the Kingdom everywhere we
go. So why are we surprised when
culture. Manifests and I say, Hey, I'm
not going to participate in that.
Well, why? You don't have to say because
Jesus died for your sins and then get HR called on you.
You can say because I'm part of a different culture and we don't
do that where I'm from. Then they're going to say, where
are you from? The Kingdom you don't have to
say anchor faith Church. I know Joe's looking at me.
Like Anchor Faith? Church No, it's not that.
We don't just do that at Anchor Faith Church, but we don't do
that because we're in the. Kingdom.
Hey, man, so every Kingdom has this outline set of, of, of
structure that it has. And that's the way God's Kingdom
operates as well. He has a structure, He's got a
whole entire system that we are to participate in.
So whenever we look in the Bible, let's look here at the
Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3, we'll start in verse
one. The question that God always has
is not do you want to be in my Kingdom?
It's will you give your allegiance to my crown?
Will you assign and ascribe your allegiance to my Kingdom and
it's culture and it's laws and it's constitution and it's
benefits and it's way of living. That's the question that he's
looking for. In fact, the very first sin that
ever took place, I'm going to show you, was a matter of
allegiance. We know in the, in the, you
know, in Genesis chapter 2, God's given them, outlined them
what things to do, not to do. And in the end, the whole list
was you can do pretty much everything.
Just don't eat from this one tree.
So all of the entire Bible starts on a list of.
Do's and don'ts. I'm saying that I'm waiting.
I'm going to let it soak in because the next time someone
looks and goes, it's not about do's and don'ts.
I'm like. It's in the first page.
The very first page has a do and don't.
In fact, everything we do in life is do's and don'ts, because
if you say it's not about do's and don'ts, you either do
believe that or you don't. I think we try to make.
Things a grey area and say well it's not all just black and
white brother. You're right, sometimes it's red
and I side with it. We're trying to muddy the water,
OK? Says now the serpent was more
crafty than he beats in the field.
So God tells him, don't eat from the tree.
He's pretty clear. Do all of this.
Don't eat from the tree. God the King just gave a
command, and then he says, and he said to the woman indeed has
got the serpent says indeed, as God said, shall you not?
Eat from any tree of the garden. And the woman looks at the
serpent and says, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we
may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle
of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it or touch it, or
you will die. Then the serpent said to the
woman, You will surely not die, for God knows that in the day
that you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you'll be
like him, knowing good and evil. And it says When the woman saw
that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the
eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she
took from the fruit and ate and also gave to her husband who was
with her and he ate. The pivot point of this moment
for Eve was not What do I believe?
The issue is not an argument of do we believe that God said it
was true or do we believe what the devil said was true?
The pivot point was whose word will we align with?
Whose word will we obey? The the serpent wasn't trying to
speak a lie just to get her to believe different.
The end goal was always that she would behave different.
So in this moment, she proved my allegiance isn't to the word of
my king. My allegiance is to who?
Oh see, I knew it was going to be a little.
It was going to be quiet because who was her allegiance to in
that moment? I knew this would be the answer
half of you are saying. For the sake of the recording,
her allegiance was to herself. The other half are saying her
allegiance was to the serpent in his words.
And I would say every time those are interchangeable.
Every time. There will never come a time
when you side with the flesh, and that was God's will.
See, a lot of times people think we have three options.
I could do what God's saying. I could do what the devil's
saying. I would never do that.
Or I could just kind of do my own thing.
No, it's always either or, never, either either or, and
never either or or. Write that down.
You don't have three options. Otherwise Jesus would have said
man cannot serve 3 masters. We're just adding masters onto
this list that aren't ever there.
So when Eve acted selfishly, she aligned and assigned her
thinking and actions with the enemy.
So we're like, where does this come from?
Well, Isaiah chapter 14. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 14,
verses 12 through 14. This takes us back to a story
that takes place before the garden.
This is talking about Lucifer. And he says how you have fallen
from heaven. O star of the morning, son of
the dawn, you've been cut down to the earth, you have weakened
the nations. But it you said in your heart,
you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven.
I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit in
the mount of the Assembly in the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and I will make
myself like the Most High. In this moment we see his
problem was his selfishness led to a different allegiance.
No longer did he wanted to be submitted and have his heart
submitted to the king. But he said.
I want what I want, which became the mantra of sin forever.
This happened before the garden. So you understand, in his
rebellion, he actually got a third of the angels to go with
him. So this was not an issue of
religion. And who prayed harder and who
prayed better and who was better at fasting?
This is an issue of whose allegiance are you going to
have? Are you going to give your
allegiance to the crown and the rightful throne, or are you
going to give your allegiance to the usurper?
The coup that took place in heaven was an issue of
allegiance to either the king or the usurper.
And you think now that we're on planet Earth, things are
different? They're not.
We're in a Kingdom. We're in a government.
Everything you do is either an act of patriotism for the
Kingdom or treason against it. There's nothing against whatever
decisions you make in your daily life.
They are Either you are a patriot for the Kingdom and you
honor the king, or you are saying I'm going to be a
treasonous offender and there's not a third option.
That's why we can pick up in Matthew chapter 4.
Jesus shows up to restore order. In the Kingdom.
Everybody was lost, everybody was dying, everybody was living
in death. But Jesus didn't just come and
say, well, I'm going to come here and comfort them.
Jesus was not God's Hospice, but that's what we treat his gospel
like, the gospel of Hospice. It's here to ease your life
until you pass, then it'll all be better.
Thank you, nurse Jesus. I think he's better at healing
than that. If he can heal your physical
body, how much more can he heal your entire soul and being and
set you right? Right now people are like, oh,
you know, healing's not for today.
Well, when is it for the Holy Ghost's empowerment?
You know, that's not for today. That was for what?
What, what, where did we, Where did it go away?
How did I get into this nasty little Kingdom Then?
If there's no benefit and there's no power, why am I here?
Why are we preaching? OK, Matthew chapter 4 says, and
Jesus was led up by the Spirit until the wilderness to be
tempted of the devil. He was led by the Spirit to be
tempted of the devil. I'm going to say it again.
He was led by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil, which
means the Spirit's not afraid of you being tempted.
He's not concerned about it because he knows what you can
do, and that's only if you believe Jesus is your example.
Anyway, we're going to keep going.
OK, After he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, then he
became hungry. And the tempter came and said to
him, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become
bread. But he answered and said, it is
written. Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of
God. And then the devil took him into
a holy city, and he stood him on the high pinnacle, And he said,
If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written that he will command his angels concerning
you, and on their heads they will bear you up, and you will
not strike your foot against the stone.
But Jesus said to him, What did he say?
On the other hand, it is written, you shall not put the
Lord your God to the test. Again.
The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world and all their glory.
And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you
fall down and worship me. Every single temptation was not
just to get Jesus to sin, it was to get Jesus to change his
allegiance to something other than the Word.
How do we know he passed? Because every time he said it is
written, he was saying my allegiance stands firm to the
Crown. I'm immovable in where my
allegiance lies because the first temptation was, if you're
hungry, turn this into bread. That wasn't.
He's not trying to get Jesus to do some gross sin that we would
think. He's not trying to get him to
rob or murder or rape or steal or something like that.
It was all he was trying to get Jesus to do is say, do you have
an allegiance to your own desire for Jesus to act in that way and
use the power in the anointing that he had?
Selfishly, he would have. Proven my allegiances to myself
to my own cravings, but he said it's written showing my
allegiances to the King's word every other temptation the devil
brought to him. He said it is written because he
was trying to see will you give an allegiance to somebody that
can give you your destiny. I find it interesting the last
the last temptation he says he showed him all the kingdoms of
the world and their glory and then the devil he little HI
don't know if anybody's you know understands how the Bible works.
If it's a big H that's that's God or.
Jesus. If it's a little H, it's
somebody else. So in this case the devil says
to him, all these things I will give to you if you fall down and
worship me. Note that Jesus didn't go liar,
because Jesus knew they were actually in his power to give.
You see, when man fell from dominion through disobeying and
pledging his allegiance to himself and to what the serpent
had said by eating the fruit, he lost the Kingdom.
But he didn't lose it out into oblivion.
He lost it from his hands into the hands of the enemy.
What a shame for you to give your dominion into the hands of
somebody that you've submitted to, to have them misuse it.
But that's what happened with Adam.
So from that point on, the enemy Satan has the Kingdom of God and
the power. Over the earth, we can see that
in Job. And Joe, people got a lot of
opinions about Job. People are preaching Job all the
time. And honestly, for a long time,
Job messed me up because I'm like, I'm just counting down the
days and tell him I have to scrape my boils.
I love God, I love him, but when's he going to kill him?
Kill him? All my livestock.
I don't have livestock. But until one day, Pastor Earl
preached a message. It's called It's in Your Power
Again. And it was about the book of
Job. And as he brought brought out
the depth of this message, he said.
When the devil went to God and said, hey, I've been looking at
Job and God's like, yeah, Job, he's the one, you should take
him. It translated.
He was saying, God said, I know that you've been looking at Job,
not. Hey, I'm selling him out.
You should go find this guy and tear up his life.
God didn't sell him out. Then from there, every encounter
that the enemy was having was him trying to find out what is
the limit of my dominion. Now God couldn't deny Satan the
right to touch Job's physical body.
Because if you remember, in Genesis, we were formed out of
the dust of the earth. So if mankind was destined to
have dominion over the earth, then man gave that dominion over
to Satan, who now had dominion over the earth.
So God didn't grant him dominion, he just said.
That's in your jurisdiction. So by the time Jesus shows up in
Matthew chapter four, he shows up and Satan says I'll give you
all the kingdoms of the world, which is why Jesus came to get
back the Kingdom of God, to get back the rightful authority and
dominion over the planet, and then to give it back to man and
say all authority I give unto you.
He could have done all of that without being separated from the
Father and without dying on the cross, had he just pledged his
allegiance to a different. Crown.
It was all a question of allegiance.
I'm thankful that Jesus proved his allegiance and proved that
by responding with the Word. A human being can choose and do
right and not fail. Yet we've got a whole brand of
Christianity that's like, oh, we're all just sorry people.
We're all sorry sinners. We've been saved by Grace Biden.
Our time until we get to the sweet by and by.
And that's gross. Why would I waste my time
reading a Bible that told me that I that I couldn't do
anything to be better? Why do I waste my time serving
in a church and doing some kind of religious practice if it
never got better until I died? Why is God still considered a
good God if I pray the sinner's prayer and then don't die right
away? You got a whole bunch of
Christians. Walking around thinking that God
wants him to suffer. I'm born again, brother.
Man, it's Hard Out Here. It's a rough life we're living.
But he's faithful is he? Cuz not for you.
Clearly you've missed some connection with his faithfulness
and your whatever mess you're in.
I'm struggling with this addiction brother.
I'm, you know, hey. But that's how we are, right?
We're humans. Jesus was a human.
Nobody's perfect. Yes, he was.
What do you mean nobody? That's a definitive statement.
That's incorrect. Somebody was perfect and
everybody would agree. Is Jesus our example?
You understand what an example is This is.
How you live you look to an example and say this is what I
should be see religion tells you not obtainable.
But Jesus, everything he said was this is obtainable.
Hallelujah. OK, here's some things that we
can have some allegiance to. This again, is not a definitive
full list, but here's some things that just came up in my
spirit that we want to look at. You can give your allegiance to
whoever you want. It's your free will, it's your
choice, and God will never force you to give your allegiance to
something. He'll only give you an option.
Same with Adam. If God was a controlling God and
had control over everything and was was sovereign to the point
that he could do anything he wanted, he must not be athletic
because when Adam was like God could have swatted that thing
away. Like an NBA player and he would
have saved us a whole lot of heartache.
But he's not in control of that. God's in control.
We, we're, we're putting a blanket statement here at Anchor
Vey Church. We understand God's in control
of his Word. God is in control of his
Kingdom. He's in control of the word that
he speaks and his allegiance. You understand God's pledged his
allegiance somewhere. He doesn't require you to pledge
your allegiance to something he hasn't already pledged his
allegiance to. He's pledged his allegiance to
his Word. Jesus pledged His allegiance to
the same. We see that, but understand God
lives by His own word. He's never failed to keep His
word. That's the most endearing
quality of God, not his, not His healing, not the fact that He
can save you or forgive your sins.
Those are not the most endearing qualities of God.
The most endearing vital quality of Him is that He is faithful to
never fail in keeping His word. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but what remains forever? That his name is the name above
all names, but he exalts something above his own name.
What is that? So he's sworn an allegiance to
his own word. Yet let me submit this thought
to you too many. People want him to actually
swear an allegiance to them. They want God to divide his
allegiance too. He's a God that keeps his word.
But I just, you know, he's just, if he could do a special thing
for me, you know? I know that I did wrong, but I
just, you know, I, I don't God understands.
He knows my heart. That's a great statement and we
love it here because Pastor Earl always says, you bet he does.
You bet he knows your heart, but you know what he's looking for
when he's looking in your heart. That's what we're talking about
tonight. Every time that God knows your
heart, every time that God looks to your heart and.
Sees your heart and wants to see who you are from the depths of
your heart. He's just looking for one thing.
Where's the allegiance in their heart when David was out there
in the field and he's out there, you know, tending his sheep and
killing lions and killing bears and obeying his dad, And it says
that God, he was a man after God's own heart.
What was God looking for? Where is David's allegiance?
When push comes. To shove, who will David side
with? David's most grievous sin that
we always bring up was because his allegiance shifted from
having an allegiance to the word to an allegiance to himself that
God allowed him to repent from, and he never did it again.
But people won't act like they're David because they go to
their sin and then they go to their sin and they ask God to
forgive. Then they go back to their sin.
They ask God to forgive, they go back to their sin.
That's not a David pattern. David had an instance, not a
pattern, but God's always looking to our heart to say,
where is your allegiance? Where does your allegiance lie?
Because if your allegiance is somewhere other than His word or
somewhere other than the crown, then your allegiance is
misplaced. And that's why you struggle.
And that's why we sing I have joy.
And you're sitting back there thinking I don't because my
allegiance is to my scenario that I'm in.
That brings me depression. But attention, man.
How often do people hold on to things that's.
True, the God saying just be free and they're saying, but I
just this is who I want to be. OK, In Luke chapter 18 verse 18,
we got the story of the rich young ruler.
Got to bring out the story of the rich young ruler because
this guy, he, he, he had everything going for him.
He's rich, he was young, he doesn't say rich, young,
handsome ruler. We don't know.
All we know is that he was a man in finance.
Whether or not he was tall or not, we don't know.
But he he comes to Jesus and he asks the question.
He says good teacher, which when we read it, we, we honestly can
see Jesus is not excited about this encounter, this first
interaction here. Good teacher.
This tells me right away he missed who Jesus actually was,
because when you come to a teacher, a teacher can give you
advice, But this man, I guess unbeknowingly, came to the king.
The king can't give you advice. The king can only give decrees.
So he comes and says, good teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, well, why do you
call me good? Jesus could have just jumped to
the answer, given an answer, but he's like, only God is good.
You missed who I was because if you think I'm good, but you also
think I'm just a teacher, you're not receiving me for who I am
because what I'm about to say is to be either obeyed or rebelled
against. He says, you know, the
commandments do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not
murder, do not bear false witness, honor your father and
mother. And he said all these things I
have done for my youth. But when Jesus heard this, he
said to him, one thing you lack, sell all that you possess,
distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in
heaven to come follow me. But when he heard these things,
he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
Leave this up on the screen. Know that Jesus tells him, just
do what? Just do what the Bible says.
Just do what everybody else in this is doing.
Just keep the commandments. That's what you want.
That's what you want to hear from a good rabbi.
Every rabbi he asked that question to, I promised would
give the same answer. Keep the commandments.
So Jesus thought, you don't know who I am, keep the commandments.
But then he presses and he says, OK, well, I've done that, what
am I missing? So when Jesus says, here's what
you like, sell all you have, distribute it to the poor, then
you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.
He didn't suggest that to him. He said come follow me.
The king gave a decree that now created a whole scenario that
required you to pledge an allegiance to or to turn your
back on. In fact, it's the same decree he
gave to the disciples. If we look at that whole story
of Jesus being tempted, then all of a sudden later in that
chapter Jesus shows up and he begins to preach and says repent
for the Kingdom has shown up. So we know the Kingdom is all
up. In this this scenario of him
being tempted pledging his allegiance to the word, he shows
up and says the Kingdom is here the way it manifests.
Is we we give our allegiance to the king and and we manifest his
Kingdom on this earth. Then he goes out right after
that same passage goes and finds some guys fishing.
He looks at him and he says hey. Come, follow me, I'll make you
fishers of men. And we call this the the call of
the disciples. Jesus called the disciples when
he commanded the disciples. We think there's a lot of
options. I can do what God wants.
I can do what I want for a time. I can, you know, everything will
be OK. But when the king calls.
There's only two alternatives. It is to obey and align my
allegiance with him and follow him wholeheartedly or rebel and
turn against it. I'm thankful those first
disciples, they said OK and they dropped everything they had.
They dropped their whole identity, they dropped their
whole family structure, they dropped all of their their
welfare and livelihood. And they said we're going to
come side with you. And they followed him.
Then he, in the same passage, turns and finds some other guys
mending Nets, looks at them and says, hey, I got something going
on. It's pretty cool.
And if you feel like it, you can tag along.
It's not what he says he says. Come follow me, I can't find him
in the Bible. Where Jesus makes a suggestion
every word the. King speaks is law and it is
bound into the Constitution and it is to be obeyed.
I've pledged my allegiance to the Crown, which means anything
that offers itself as an alternative to what God has
said. I now have to determine that
choice again. Will I stay with the Crown or
will I follow someone else? I've been restored back to the
position Adam was in. Every one of us has been
restored back. To the Dominion.
Adam had. So that means daily we have the
same free will to choose like Adam chose.
It just so. Happens we have more trees to
pick from. God had to give us a.
Few more and say you know what? Don't eat this tree or of these
other trees. He's like, you know what, I'm
going to have to. I'm going to write it down.
He's like, OK, I get it. It's more than one.
Tree so he gave us his word then we have the epistles from the
apostle Paul and from Peter and all these early disciples and
apostles that wrote the epistles for us that were showing us
here's how to live and how not to live.
Why? Because you're going to be faced
daily with decisions of where your allegiance will go.
Who will you give your allegiance to?
That's always the question at. Hand.
Whether it's being determined in your heart or whether it's being
determined by your actions, because I'm going to tell you,
we always talk about the Bible and belief and faith and that's
great. But in the end, your belief,
what you believe is proven through what you do.
It does you no good to believe the word of God.
Every everybody in the spirit realm believes that God exists
and they really believe that what God is saying is true.
But those who are acting on it. Those are the ones who reap the
benefits of this Kingdom. Those are the ones who reap the
benefits of the relationship with the king because there's
very few things that have been spoken on this platform that
everybody in the room wouldn't go we.
Agree. That's true.
I believe that. Yet we go out and our behavior
and our choices say something different.
That your allegiance isn't proven through what you believe.
Your allegiance is proven through what you obey.
So this rich young ruler, he had an allegiance to something other
than the crown. He had an allegiance to finance.
We could say he had allegiance to a lot of other things.
But the whole thing wraps up at the very end.
And he says, but when he had heard these things, he became
very sad because he was rich. And in the end he made a choice.
I'd rather have my riches. I'd rather keep the life I have
instead of having the life that he's calling me to and note when
he went. Walks away.
Jesus goes, hey, hey, hey. But if you were to die today,
Jesus didn't say that. Jesus let him walk away.
Yeah, we want to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and then
chase everybody down and try to explain to him and try, oh, man,
you're really missing out. Come on.
Present to him what it is. I mean, there's a whole passage
where Jesus explains to them a king doesn't go out into the
battle and not count the cost and see what it would take for
his warriors to go out into battle.
A wise master builder doesn't build a house without first
tallying up and counting the cost of what it'll cost him to
build it. Yet we think as believers, to
get somebody born again, we don't have to tell them what it
costs. All we got to do is just tell
them it's nice, it's free, it's good only to realize it actually
has a payment plan. You're a terrible door to door
salesman. You might as well show up on
somebody's porch and tell them that you can give them water
filtration. I can, I can filter this whole
house and it's free to you. Sign up, sign this paper, it's
free. And all of a sudden you're like,
what? Is this bill?
And that's what we do with Christianity.
We tell them, hey, we've got this nice vacuum here, It's a
solid metal construction. It'll last you forever.
And all you got to do is give me $20 and let me do this
presentation. I get to go back to my boss and
I get to tell them I got. Somebody to sign up?
And then you get hit with the hefty bill.
When in Christianity, just tell him listen.
It's going to cost you your life.
I'm not going to pull punches. It's not a sign up free.
It was paid for for you to be able to sign up.
But there's a price you'll pay. You're like, well, how much?
Well, how much did Jesus pay? How much do you pay?
I'm asking the question. So why would it not be fair to
give him back the same investment?
It cost him his life and you want it to cost you nothing?
You want to make no change. Not you, I understand, you know.
The people, right, Right. Another thing that people don't
want to let go of. If we look at Matthew chapter 6,
I love Matthew chapter 6 incredible Kingdom chapter.
He's explaining how the the economy of the Kingdom works.
He's explaining how the culture of the Kingdom works and Jesus
shows up. He says, listen, no one can
serve 2 masters for the he will hate the one and he will love
the other or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth. Then in verse 25, he starts
giving us this story. He says, for this reason I say
to you, do not be. Worried about your life?
Say worried. Worried as to what you will eat,
what you will drink, nor for your body, body as to what you
will put on for clothing. For is life not more than food
in the body, more than clothing? Then he says, look at the birds
of the air, for they do not sow or reap, nor gather into barns,
and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more worthy than they are?
And who of you by being worried, say worried can add a single
hour to his life? And why are you?
Worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the
field grow. They do not toil or the spin.
Yet I say to you that even Solomon and all his glory
clothed himself like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive
today, and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not
much more clothe you? O you of little faith, do not
worry then saying say worry, Do not worry, saying, What will we
eat, what will we drink, or what will we wear for clothing?
Keep going. For the Gentiles eagerly seek
these things. There's another translation that
says the pagans are seeking all these things.
Those who aren't believers are seeking the same things.
Those who aren't believers are working the same job.
You're working for the same reason, to pay bills.
So if the only. Reason you're at your job is to
pay your bills. You're doing a Pagan exercise.
So don't talk to me about a little Christmas.
Tree you worker says, but seek first his Kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things are added to you says
don't worry, say worry, don't worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own. This poses a strict either or
question for you. Will you align and give your
allegiance to the? Crown.
Or to your own emotions and personality.
Because three times here, he says do not worry.
Who's saying? This of the good rabbi.
The good teacher is the good teacher saying this to you
because that's how a lot of people are acting.
Oh, the good teacher said. Don't worry.
He gave a good suggestion. No, the king of this Kingdom
said do not worry. So what does that make worry for
you to worry against the command You're rebelling against the
decree of the king? There's a whole other list of
emotions we could list, you understand, There's a lot of.
People that say, well, it's just my personality, you know, I'm
just a worry. I'm just a worried.
It's what I am. Well, sounds like you need to
die and get born again and start over because that's no way to
live. That's why we can be born again.
It doesn't. Jesus didn't come in and fix
you. He came in and said you die and
I'm going to have a new you. That's free of worry because
he's not unfair. He never gave a command.
That we couldn't attain to. Just like when he said be holy
like I'm holy. He wasn't dangling a carrot out
in front of us that we could never reach and never grab.
If he gives a command, he empowers you to do the command.
That's the whole reason Jesus came.
Not just so that when you die you go to heaven.
That he didn't even mention if that was important.
To Jesus, he would have talked about it, I promise, if that was
a big bullet point on his message that he skimmed over.
He messed it up for thousands of years.
Worst preacher ever. He said the title of my sermon
is Where do you go when you die? Then all he talked about was the
Kingdom and how you live right now.
No, that was the whole point. He would have said it.
He didn't. He just came and empowered
things like this. Every day you wake up and you
have a choice, should I worry or not?
Then you have to rely. What's the remedy for worry?
He gave it to you. He said don't worry, but seek
Christianity, Christianity and all of it's all of that it
entails and you wear that cross necklace, you're going to be
fine as long as you've got a gold cross more expensive the
better. You'll be free of worry because
we're. Christians.
That's what we do. Christians.
He never called us Christians. Jesus never said that.
He never said be Christians because he knows that was weird.
It'd be like me saying you guys should be Joshians.
That's weird. That comes across weird, right?
No, he called us many other things.
He called us sons. He called us in heirs of a
promise. The the then to his disciples
who were taught by him. You understand, they called us
ambassadors. They called U.S. citizens of a
holy Kingdom. They called us a holy nation,
priests, all of these things. We were called not just
Christians. So if you've reduced everything
that you believe about God and everything you read in this
Bible to just Christianity. Go live at the Vatican like.
Anyway, too many people have an allegiance to their own emotions
and their own personalities where they say, well, it's just
the way I am. I get angry.
You know, I just my, my, my great grandfather, he was Irish.
And you know, you know, the Irish, they get angry, they fly
off the handle, man, they got a problem.
And you know, it's just in my blood.
This is how I am. So when a moment arises when it
says be slow to anger, the king decreed be slow to anger.
But if in that moment I say my allegiance is to the crown, then
I'll be slow to anger. But if I say my allegiance is to
my Irish great granddaddy, I'm going to punch a hole in this
wall. So big, I'm going to call
Angelo, make him patch it up. I don't want to have an
allegiance to a personality. In fact, there's a lot of
people, and I'll say this, there's a lot of people that
come into the Kingdom and then they're like, oh, I can't get
along with that person because, you know, it's just a
personality conflict. I get that there's different
personalities. I've taken the personality test,
I've taken one of the animals. I'm like a little golden
retriever. I've taken the one with the
other thing, and I get that. But in the Kingdom, you don't
have a right to have a. Conflict with a different
personality. I'm thankful that Jesus doesn't
have the conflict with my personality.
He. Didn't come in and go, you know,
I can deal with everybody, but. Josh just drives me off the
wall. I'm thankful that Jesus didn't
do that to me. So you know what?
If I'm going to be like him, I'm not going to do that to somebody
else. I'm not going to let myself slip
back. Into the flesh and be like man.
Ted drives me crazy. Ted's personality is just so
off. Putting how am I supposed to
have a conversation? I don't have the right to that
if my allegiance is to the crown and I have a right to my own
feeling. Just as a disclaimer, Ted's
personality is not off putting. I like Ted.
Another thing that people have an allegiance to, and this one's
going to be tough and I know this one's probably going to be
the most silent. You don't have to shout Amen,
but you're just going to listen. Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is
looking and God is looking for you to have an allegiance to him
alone. So much that Jesus gave an
example of where your allegiance should be in any given
situation. The disciples all came to him
when he was doing his assignment.
He was speaking, He was proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
He was doing what he was born to do in his role.
And they came to him and they said, listen, while you were
speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were
standing outside seeking to speak to him.
So someone said to Jesus, hey, behold, that's sorry.
Behold is like ancient Greek for hey, I said behold.
Your mother and your brothers are standing.
Outside seeking to speak to you and Jesus said.
Oh, let me drop what I'm doing. I'm going to go talk to them
because family first. OK, we'll go back over here.
But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said.
Who is my brother, who is my mother, and who are my brothers?
He wasn't confused. He wasn't lost in an anointing
trance and wasn't sure where he was.
He was very cognizant and very present in the moment.
He answered this specifically because too often he knows that
his people will try to make priorities other than his
priorities and needed to warn against it.
So he said who is my mother? Who are my brothers?
Then he goes on to say, Those who do the will of my father,
they are my mother, they are my brothers, but too often in the
Kingdom of God. Where we're supposed to have an.
Allegiance to those who have pledged their allegiance to the
Crown with us. We want to divide our allegiance
to Crown and kin, and Jesus never gave us that example or
command. And this is a.
Problem for people that are like, well, but they're my
family, they're my blood relatives, then we want to start
talking about how blood is thicker than water.
But the problem is we only get half of that statement.
If you remember Pastor's message on Fortress Friends, the actual
quote is not blood is thicker than water.
It is the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the
womb. See, my family are those who are
doing God's will. So that means if my blood
relatives have assigned and are given their allegiance to
something other than the crown, my allegiance doesn't go with
them. Same thing with Jesus.
You understand we want Jesus to have an allegiance to us and we
want when we stand before the great White Throne judgment, we
want Him to be on our side. But were you on His side through
your daily life? See, we want Jesus allegiance to
us, to be faithful to us without realizing His allegiance is only
ever to the Word. So the only way you and Jesus
get together is if you both have the allegiance.
To the word and that's the way it works with natural family.
You want unity with me? You want peace in every
encounter? You want Thanksgivings not to be
weird? Then you're going to have to
align your allegiance with the crown like I have.
I'm not saying agree with me. I don't care about me.
I'm not saying you need to be nice to me.
I died. I'm not saying I'm you're I'm
mad at you. I How can you offend a dead
person? I'm not offended.
It's you. I've just aligned myself with
the crown and I want you to do the same so we can function
together and operate in joint citizenship.
But too often. People have an allegiance to
blood family and they'll well, you know, my great grandma,
she's, you know, about to die. So we're going to move away.
Even though God placed us in the body where it pleased him at
Anchor Faith Church and gave us an assignment and let our gifts
and talents be used in the ministry.
But you know, great granddad's going.
So his family, family first. You think Jesus is going?
Yes. I placed you there, but I knew
it was only going to be until one of your older family members
was about to pass away. Think on these things.
Then we're going to look at the next verse, Luke chapter 14.
Jesus looked at the crowds and he said he turned toward them
and said, if anyone comes to me and he does not hate.
Now let me just give this disclaimer.
The guys upstairs are like, just read it.
Hold on, hate does not mean that you despise them.
You want nothing to do with them.
You wish ill willed towards them.
That is not what hate means. Another version says deny.
So when he says this, he's not saying I want you to have an
animosity towards your family. What he's saying is if you love
your father, mother and wife and children and brothers and
sisters more than your allegiance to the crown, he says
even your own life, you cannot be my disciple.
You discipleship is hinging on. How much of your allegiance are
you giving? So he's not telling them go home
and murder your family. That's stupid.
But what he is saying is if you love them or choose them over
me, you don't have a place with me.
And that's a tough saying. You understand That's why Jesus
only had 12 disciples. Then at another time, he added a
few dozen more than they went away, and he ended the whole
thing with a solid 11. Because the call to the
citizenship of the Kingdom of God comes at a cost to you
personally. It's a free gift.
You could have never ever come into the Kingdom of your own
accord. You could have never by works.
Earned a way in. He died, was buried and
resurrected and poured out his own blood so that you could have
the ability to go through the citizenship program.
But from there, you have to participate.
You understand, there's American citizens that have been charged
with treason against their country.
And you're like, well, once a citizen, always a citizen,
what's the problem? Yeah, we do that with God's
Kingdom, 'cause you would say, well, they, they acted against
the government. They, they had treasonous
behavior that betrayed the government.
They didn't. Abide by the laws of the
government. Then we get into God's Kingdom.
You're like, well, once saved, always saved.
Well, that doesn't make sense. Adam wasn't once saved, always
saved. In fact, to alleviate the state
to to to hold on to the statement once saved, always
saved says I have forfeited. My own free will?
God never. He never gave you the option to
forfeit free will. Everything that God does, in
fact everything the enemy is also doing, all hinges on your
free will. That's why you can't say the
devil made me do it. Devil made me do it, He made me
do it. He can't force you to do
anything. All he can do is give you an
option of different allegiance. So he doesn't have to come in,
the enemy doesn't have to come in and tempt you with.
Really, really bad. Stuff that you would list on in
your mind is a really bad thing. All he has.
To do is tempt you with something that causes your
allegiance to be somewhere other than with the crown.
So when he says unless you hate. Your brother and mother and.
Father, he's not saying you need to have animosity or I'll will.
Towards them. What he's saying is if they are
more important to you, then you can't be with me.
But you can have that. He gives you the choice.
You can have it again, Pastor Earl says.
It's so clear this is a freeing statement for all who would
hear. God will let you do whatever you
want to do. God will literally let you do
anything you can imagine. You can do whatever you want to
do. But he will hold you accountable
according. To his standard and his word.
And you will be judged based upon what you chose to do.
He's not forcing you into the Kingdom.
He's not forcing you to do something with your time and
your energy. He's not forcing your
allegiance, but he is giving you the option.
You can. You can side with me or you can
reject. I find it interesting when Jesus
was on the cross, you've got this great, great picture of
either or this great picture of rejection or acceptance that
there were two thieves. And we would say this is an
equal opportunity scenario, but one of them said, you are the
Son of God, can I be with you in paradise?
And Jesus said, yes. The other one could have just
asked. The other one could have just
believed and acted. But in that moment, one person
recognized who he was and gave their allegiance to him in that
moment. And the other person just
didn't. They just did what they wanted.
They just didn't feel like it. Whatever the reason, one person
received something from Jesus, one person didn't.
That's why if we go back to that rich young ruler, we look at the
we don't have to go back to the verse, but look at the scenario.
The rich young ruler has the ultimate Christian experience
talking. I grew up as a Christian in the
90s. OK, we got God's presence
showing up through Steven Kurtz, Chapman in the room.
You know, we, we had zero Pokémon in our house.
We never watched Rugrats, not one time.
It was like a holy sanctuary when you came to our 90s
Christian home. But this guy actually had Jesus
himself stand before him and answer questions about his
destiny. That's why there's an issue when
you're just like, oh, if we can just get in the presence of the
Lord, things will. Change.
No, no they won't if you get in the presence of the Lord.
You will have to change something, but nothing just
changes for your benefit just because you're near Him.
In fact, being in the presence of the Lord without a heart
that's ready to give allegiance to Him is actually more damaging
for you. Think about that's why
communion's such a big deal, right?
You're swearing this blood oath of your allegiance to him and
his rulership and his Kingdom. And he says, but don't take it
if there's unforgiveness in your heart and don't take it if
you're not right. And doesn't Pastor Earl warn us
that every time? Hey, if you're not a believer,
if you're saying I don't know if I'm right with God, he always
gives an invitation first because you are getting into the
presence of God and making a promise to God that are you
about to go break it when you go to lunch and order something off
that menu you probably shouldn't.
Or when you go home and you turn on that TV to something that
probably shouldn't be on that TV yet you just drank a blood oath
at church swearing your fealty to the crown.
Yeah, this rich young ruler stands before Jesus and he says,
what can I do about my life? And Jesus gives him a direct
answer. How many people want that,
right? How many?
People have said. I just wish I knew my purpose.
I just wish, I just wish I knew what to do.
You know, I've got this opportunity to come up and, and,
and I just, I'm not really sure. And, and if I could, and they're
thinking, if I could just ask Jesus and Jesus says like, do
this, I would do it. I'd do it in a heartbeat.
Maybe, maybe you would, because the rich young ruler definitely
said that. What can I do?
And Jesus looked at him and said, sell everything and follow
me. And he thought that's.
Not what I wanted him to say. Then people come to church and
come to their pastor and have a meeting with their pastors or
have a meeting with Pastor Mike, say Pastor Mike struggles with
this addiction, what should I do?
And Pastor Mike says, here's what you should do.
And they're like, no, no, I need to ask somebody else.
I need to go online. I should, I should start a chat
on Facebook. Because what Pastor Mike said
that's I don't still get to do what I want.
I bet Saint Augustine News they'll probably have some
answers. It's crazy.
Last one we'll look at tonight is this John chapter 8 verse 28.
Another thing that people have a a an allegiance to besides the
crown. Another option that people often
go to is their own opinions. And really, this is one of the
most damaging ones, one of the one of the ones that holds us
back the most is because if we have an allegiance to our own
opinion and we can't be wrong, and then all of a sudden God
presents us. With where we're.
Wrong, yet we have to say, oh God, but you're right and I was
less right. It's OK just to say I was wrong.
I've got to turn and change because my behavior was wrong.
Jesus gives us the example of this.
It says when, when you lift up this, Let me see.
Yeah, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that
I am he. He says I do nothing of my own
initiative, But I speak things the Father has taught me.
He's saying I don't have my opinion about this matter.
I'm not doing things because I just want to do them.
I'm doing things because my allegiance is not with my own
desires, my own will, my own flesh.
My my allegiance is with the King and I wish I could say that
more Christians with the finger quotes in case you're just
listening online and not watching would have this same
thing being demonstrated in their life.
I do nothing on my own initiative.
Another place. Jesus said I don't say anything
of my own will, but whatever the Father says.
That's what I repeat to you. But too many believers are often
up their opinions and then making a strong stance on their
opinion, then making decisions based on their opinions without
really consulting what is God saying about what I'm doing?
I want to be in God's will, but I also want to have what I want.
Jesus's final moment was he gets down in the cross.
Before the cross he gets down on his knees and he prays and
travails and says, Father, if there's any way, let this cup
pass from me. Which tells us Jesus wasn't some
robot that could only do what the Father wanted.
This tells us that Jesus being all God and yet all man still
had a free will. And in that moment as he
travailed, he said, but not my will.
And I'm telling you, we get it that there was this moment on
the cross whenever it thundered and lightning, he said it is
finished. And there was like this storm
rolled in. We we get this whole picture
right? But you understand there was
something that shook in heaven. And then when he uttered the
words. But not my.
Will your will be done, Your will be.
Done is the most powerful phrase that aligns yourself with your
allegiance to the crown. Your allegiance is proven in
that phrase. Thy will be done and then it is
followed through with you doing His will.
Matthew chapter 6 whenever we see the Lord's Prayer.
Again, this is another example of when Jesus is telling us.
Where is your allegiance? He says Our Father, who art in
heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come, and your your
whose will? What are you supposed to pray
that whose will is done? Note that he didn't say our will
be done because there's not another option besides you or
him. So in the end there's going to
be two people, only two people in the very end of all things,
those who say to the Lord, thy will be done, and to those the
Lord says thy will be done. Thank you so much for listening
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