First Timothy 3:15 it says, But in case I am delayed, Paul says
the apostle I write so that you will know Say no, so you will
know how 1 ought to conduct himself in the household of God,
say household of God, which is the Church of the living God,
the pillar and support of the truth.
Lot it lot to unpacking this one verse and we won't unpack
everything because of where we're going, but we see here
that the apostle Paul is saying to Timothy, who's pastoring the
church at Ephesus, the one whom he planted, he said, now listen,
there is a way to conduct yourself in the household, which
is the Church of the living God, which is the pillar and support
of truth. This is why from this scripture
I realized that the the role of the church is not to win the
lost alone. The role of the church is to be
the pillar and support of the truth and the truth is 1 must be
born again. But that's not the only truth
that the church possesses. And when you decide that the
only thing that the church is here is to tell people that
Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, then you are
ignoring multiple and many facets of truth that God has for
the believer that you're unwilling to communicate.
Which is why the household of God has so much dysfunction
because they don't know how they ought to conduct themselves.
Let me just say it this way. When you walked into this
building, you did not walk into the United States of America,
the Constitution of the United States of America.
The only part that applies to you is the freedom of worship
outside of that. And even then is really
irrelevant because when you walked in here, you moved into
the Kingdom of God, and that culture's different.
So in the United States, you may have this belief, I do whatever
I want to do. I'm free to do what I want.
I'm free to express what I want. Not in the Kingdom.
So we're not in the US in this building.
We're in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven.
There's a way you ought to conduct yourself.
I said you ought to. Now the new American standard
says ought. But if you break down this word
ought, it actually has a little firmer meaning to it.
Now I believe that they use ought, because at the end of the
day, God cannot make you do anything.
He doesn't make you do anything. In fact, God, because of His
love towards you will let you do whatever you want to do, but He
will hold you accountable to whatever you do.
And there will come a time that there isn't a reckoning cause
whatever a man soweth, sows he will, he's going to reap.
And they whether it's in the this lifetime that you're
walking in at some point, everyone is accountable to what
they're doing in God's Kingdom. Nothing is being get gotten away
with. And I don't think I'm saying
that exactly right, but it sounds good in the South, no one
is getting away with anything in the Kingdom of God.
No one are you hearing me? So if you think somebody's
getting away with something, you're, you're mistaken because
God sees it all and will. And you know what, sometimes
when people aren't receiving the action that you're like, man
they deserve, it's because God's merciful and, and giving them a
pathway of repentance before he has to act 'cause he will act
unless repentance comes. Are you hearing me?
I said, are you hearing me? And that's the power of God's
grace, actually. All right.
Another translation would say it this way.
A faithful version is what it's called in this context where we
take this statement so that you will know how one ought to
conduct himself in the household of God.
It would sound like this. So you may know how one is
obligated to conduct oneself in the House of God, how one is
obligated. Say obligated.
Say I have an obligation. Come on, say it again, I have an
obligation. Say I'm obligated.
Now see, that's more than ought. Well, ought to.
And the apostle Paul and the ones who translated here realize
that, you know, people don't have to conduct themselves the
proper way in the household of God, but they ought to.
But this translation says you're obligated.
Actually, you keep giving yourself a pass, but God's not.
And just because He's not bringing something that lets you
know outside of just His Word that is wrong and you're not
feeling the pain any other way per SE, doesn't mean He's
pleased and He's accepting your behavior.
It's not doing it. Let's look at another one.
The Berean Standard Bible says it this way so that you will
know how each one must conduct himself in God's household.
Say must say obligated. All got quiet all of a sudden.
Do we want to sing and dance a little bit again?
You know, this lets me know we still have AUS culture in US and
that we don't we do not really understand what Jesus has done
so that we can be alive like we are.
And we definitely do not understand the Kingdom that when
we get really quiet about obligations and musts and we
don't like, I don't know if I like that, that that
independence is scratching you again.
The enemy's saying you're not going to die.
You don't really have to live that way.
All right, another version says this, that you may know how it
is required to conduct yourself in the House of God.
Now, I don't think I have any parents here that probably would
disagree with this thought process.
But you know, when you have a house and you're the parent, you
have children, You know, you may have on more than one occasion
said this. You're going to do what I say in
my house. Now, that isn't always
applicable in today's generation.
Just let you know. I understand that, but God gave
parents the authority to train children, which means then the
train, the trainee shouldn't tell the trainer come on.
I mean, why would you spend $100.00 an hour for a trainer to
help you out to, to get in shape to eat right and all these
things and then not do what they say?
When I go to my chiropractor, if I have some issue of something
going on, I ask the question and when they say do this, I can
say, well, I'm not doing it. And then if I go back and say,
was it still hurting? Yes, what did you do?
What I say? No, well, why would I ask the
one who understands the body trained in it to help keep me in
alignment. And then I just want to so,
well, you know, I think I'm going to do something different.
I have found that if I actually do the exercise, they say it
works. I let the trainer train me.
I don't tell the trainer what to do yet.
We have plenty of parents who are letting their children tell
them what they're going to eat, what they're going to wear, when
they going to sleep, how they going to talk, who they going to
go out with, right. But yeah, there was a time, you
know, back in the day when we would be like, as long as you
and my house under my roof. And I love you and I want your
participation. But we're a family.
And I am here to give you instruction so that when you're
out on your own, when you get out on your own, you'll be able
to have the authority to make those choices and decisions.
And I pray that you'll always submit to God as we have.
And anytime we didn't submit to God, right with a training of
our children, we repented. Ask them to forgive us.
And God, we weren't perfect parents, but we were mature.
We were consistent. If we grounded them, they were
grounded. There was no, there was no
parole, there was no release on good behavior because I wasn't
giving them that long of a term. I mean, I as parents cave after
a week. They can't even do a week, 2
days and they're like, well, you're off.
And most of the time we're off because it's inconvenient for us
to continue to keep the exercise of discipline over their lives.
If you don't watch out, then they manipulate you with good
behavior, which means they're good behavior is actually bad
behavior. Cause Pharisees use scripture
wrong. Hallelujah say Amen anyway.
So there's a way we ought to say ought to you know, we're
obligated say obligated say we must say it's required.
It's required how many people truly believe right now that
everything you're doing right now you can continue to do when
you go to heaven? Oh, yeah, that's what I thought.
You already know that attitude, holding that unforgiveness,
walking in that you know way, doing whatever it is that you're
like, I have no record that that's in heaven.
Now, I'm not going to preach Raphael's message, but I'm going
to use an excerpt because I believe he probably will.
I'll let him minister again and he'll probably release this.
It's really powerful. So when I say it, don't get
scared, OK? Because he'd be like, oh man,
he's going. But it was really powerful how
he ministered last night. But there's a way we're
required, obligated, and we must conduct ourselves in the
household of God. It's called freedom, it's called
liberty, it's called life, and anything contrary to His word,
you have deceived yourself that it's OK and it is not.
And it doesn't matter that you're a child of God, it is not
OK at all. And God never expected you to
come into His house continuing to live that way, not when He
made you new, and not when He gave you the Holy Spirit because
He wants you to be a reigning church.
The church is the household of God and in the household of God,
just like in your own house. People can make mistakes.
They can, but you understand, I do not find it joyful when I was
parenting and my children were there to see them mess up so
that I could have the joy of forgiving them.
OK, must say that again. I didn't wake up every day and
say, man, I sure hope Pastor Chase blows it.
I hope he blows it today. I sure hope he blows it.
I hope he does wrong. I hope he goes against my word.
I hope he does something I don't want him to do.
Man, I hope he does. Oh glory to God, I hope he does.
Why? So that I can later forgive him.
We act like forgiveness is God's greatest attribute and the
problem that the reason this is listen, I'll give it to you.
The reason isn't because this is how you got to hear him again.
This was your first invitation back into the family is he's
like your conduct, behavior and nature is all wrong and it's not
good enough to be in my house. It's filthy rags.
It's worthless. It doesn't matter how much you
try. It's a stench and I would never
let that in my house. I'm going to say that again.
I would never let that in my house.
You understand when we say that I'm not saying that a person
lost can't come to church. You understand, I would I can
bring a homeless person into my home and feed them, but that
doesn't make them a part of my my house.
So when he Jesus is saying, when the father is saying that's not
coming up in my house. That mean when you're in my
house, that means you have access all the time.
That means you can come in, come, you can go, you can move
around and each when I say go, I'm not talking about going out
back in the world. I'm saying you got free access
to the house. You can sleep here, you can eat
here. Everything's provided for you
here. But if you're going to stay at
the house, there is a way that you're going to have to live.
And in order for that, when you get to the door, which is called
the cross, that spirit of man that was dead, separated and had
no access as a child of God is evicted from your skin.
So you become a child of God. Then you're able to come into
the House of which he immediately with the Holy Spirit
says, now this is how you are obligated to behave.
This is how you must act. And again, with any parent, we
don't teach all of our children everything at the beginning
because when they're obeyed, there's only so much work
teaching them initially. And the same thing is you may
bring things in, but it's not going to it's going to show up
that God's going to say that doesn't happen in this house.
Matthew chapter 12, verse 48 and 50.
But Jesus answered the one who was telling him who said and he
said, because Jesus is preaching and Mama Mary, I did not do this
for Raphael last night, but we laughed because Pastor Joshua
had this. He would.
Pastor Joshua can be very quick witted and sometimes his wit is
not very funny. It's just kind of stupid.
You know some of his puns, but this one was really good.
So Raphael's minister and he said Jesus was born of the
virgin. Born of a virgin, he said, and
none of us have been born of a virgin.
Night. That ain't nobody in here born
of a virgin. You know, Eloise, would you
stand up? See this lady right here?
Eloise was born of a virgin. Eloise, would your Mama please
stand up? Let me introduce you to virgin
now. Just so you know, Virgin was not
a virgin when she gave birth to Eloise, but her name is Virgin.
So I almost said that at the end, but I'm like, I'll stay
away from that. Ain't that fun?
Hallelujah. But this is really important.
Jesus bombs there, Mary, his brothers and sisters, and
they're like, hey, can you tell Jesus that mom wants to talk to
him? And while Jesus is preaching and
say Jesus kind of interrupted him, say your mom, your mom's
out here, your mom's out here, She wants to talk to you.
And then Jesus looks at the crowd and he says this, who is
my Mama? Who's my mother and who are my
brothers? It's a very powerful statement
because Jesus cannot lie and Jesus has taken an opportunity
to establish Kingdom culture. He goes on and stretching out
his hand towards what? Not His converts towards His
disciples, those who are studiers of His Word, to obey
Him at His word. He said, Behold my mother and my
brothers. Then he goes on and says this,
and then gives the qualification, just so you know
that there's no doubt of who he's talking about.
He said Whoever are you, a whoever for whoever does,
whoever what, hears, thinks about, comes to a place where
it's spoken about. Does it 50% of the time. 75% of
the time. Whoever does the will of of who?
Whoever does the will of themselves, Whoever does what
they want to do, when they want to do it how they want to do it.
Whoever does the will of my father, just so you know, it's
not Joseph on planet earth who is in heaven.
He is my brother and sister and mother.
So he says you are obligated, you must and required to conduct
yourself in my household, which is the Church of the living God.
Now you can call it church and it not be the living God's
church. So let's just know that because
the church is ekklesia, it's a it's a assembly.
And so there's plenty of people who can assemble.
And it's not the one he's building, but the one he's
built. He has a household and the
household are those who are his mother, brother and sisters and
mothers, brothers and sisters are those who do the will of his
father who are in heaven. That is qualifier that is not
debatable, subject to your debate or subject to your
personal thinking or the culture of the nation that you're
naturally in. In fact, Jesus's first message
is repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Change your thinking. Jesus is not changing his
thinking to be relatable to you so that He can get you into his
house, and he is not compromising his house so that
you can be in his house. He's telling you how to be in
his house and what qualifies you to be in his house.
Because as we were talking a lot of stuff out of prison in the
Kingdom of God, double jeopardy does exist.
Because if sin is what kept you out of a relationship with God,
you can commit another sin after you're born of God and get out.
Now, this is a rough deal with a lot of religious feathers here
because, you know, people think once they're saved, they're
always saved. No, Adam never knew sin and
sinned. And there's no such then there's
no way the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost can be an impartable sin
if the believer could never lose it.
And what they do is I say, well, the Bible says, you know what
can take you? It's not talk.
It's saying famines, It's saying pestilence, it's saying
circumstances or situations cannot pull you from the love of
God, but you can leave the love of God if you want to.
You still have a free will even after salvation.
Because if you didn't, then the houses of God would be full.
There would never be a debate of what to do, when to do it,
because you would automatically be right in line with scripture.
We'd be in one mind, 1 accord in unity, everybody doing their
gift and fit. No one would be arguing.
There be no gossip, no strife, no nothing if all of a sudden
you're free will left, there would be no believer being
offended, no believer walking in unforgiveness, no believer
slandering, no believer gossiping, no believer getting
in outbursts of anger, no believer walking in the flesh.
But yet they still do that Why Paul called him carnal because
you still have a will. You can still determine, but God
is saying now you ought to live a different way in my house.
Same in anyway. So Jesus is saying I have a
house and these are who is look and Jesus listen, Jesus and the
Father are never asking you to do something that they're not
doing themselves. John chapter 5 verse 30 says it
this way. He says I can do nothing on my
own initiative as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because
I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
This is Jesus Christ our Lord. And if Jesus Christ, our Lord,
only did the will of his Father on earth, why do we think we
have an option in the household of God if we're truly born
again? And we have said, Jesus, I
believe you died on the cross, that you rose from the grave,
and that your blood was perfect and paid the price for all my
transgression, all of my sin. I accept you as my Lord and
Savior because you've always been Lord.
And now I acknowledge your lordship in my life so that life
can come, because you're still Lord.
And if I resist you as you, you being supreme in authority will
cast me into the lake of fire. Accepting Jesus or not doesn't
change his Lordship. It changes his lordship towards
you, 'cause he's Lord, and he will judge the living and the
dead, 'cause he's Lord. Whether you make him Lord or
not, he's Lord. Whether you make him Lord or
not, he's Lord. John chapter 12 verse 49 says
Jesus said, for I do not speak on my own initiative, but the
Father himself who sent me has given me a command as what to
speak and or what to say and what to speak.
So Jesus, anything Jesus did is because he was led by the
Spirit. Jesus did not show man what God
can do. Jesus showed man what man can
do. Anointed of God.
In essence, Jesus is saying this is how you're obligated to live
now. Again, when you're lost, you
can't live this way. But when you're born of God, now
you have access to this type of life.
Now you can stay in sin consciousness and see yourself
as a sorry Sinner saved by grace that you never ever going to
measure up, can't do anything. Well, that's really just the
devil talking in your ear because he never wants you to
reach your potential. Because if you find out that
you're a child of the living God, that you're the child of a
king, that you've been given authority and the name of Jesus,
that you can heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils,
that you have the power of God and all of God's powerful
Kingdom can function and flow through you.
That wherever you all, if you'll speak the words of the king,
then it has to come to pass. Because when the word of God and
the Spirit of God are connected, it always produces.
And He never wants you to discover that because he would
continually be losing people from His domain into our domain,
because you would be a representative of Jesus himself
and the Kingdom of heaven. So we can convince you, just be
happy. I mean, there are so many people
even in this room right now that are holding on to past hurts
that Christ has already paid the price for and you're keeping old
behaviors that He has eradicated through the blood.
You're holding on the thoughts, opinions, attitudes, actions
towards others, towards your kids, towards your spouse that
God's literally talking to you through scripture and say quit
doing that. Be more patient, yield yourself
to them. Let them make that decision.
Quit trying to make the decisions all the time.
Hallelujah. And I give you freedom right
now. If that's you, say man, he's
talking the Lord speaking to me right now.
Get up, come down, pray, repent, say Lord, forgive me, and then
go back to your seat. Be somebody that's a leader.
Show somebody that you know what he is, right?
And you know what, we ought to conduct ourselves this way.
You know what, we should live for God.
You know what? I don't really care about y'all
as much as I care about him, but I actually do care about y'all.
Because if I'm going to care about you, then I need to be
right with him. And I can't be a right example
to you if I'm not right with him.
So let me go get right with Him so that I can really care about
you instead of being prideful because you're concerned what
they think. Well, if you're concerned what
they think, get right with God. Then when they see you, all they
can think is that you're right with God.
And that's what leadership looks like.
Hallelujah. Because I said again, it's like
we are wanting God to be so excited about forgiving us.
We just wake up every day looking for an opportunity to do
something wrong so that we can say, you know what?
I'm just so thankful he forgives me for that today.
God is such a good God. He forgave me and he is a
forgiving God. Don't get me wrong.
But there's a higher way to live beyond seeking perpetual daily
forgiveness. Raphael mentioned this passive
scripture. I'm not going to go into his
details through his angle, but this is really powerful
statement. Samuel, who's the prophet of
God, stands before King Saul and he instructs him the course of
God to conquer each nation. And Saul has obeyed up to this
particular nation, this particular nation.
The Lord gave an instruction to eliminate everything, period.
Saul, however, chose to respond to that nation like he had
responded by God's voice, the ones previous.
If it had not, if this had been a day earlier, a week earlier,
the nation before, we wouldn't have a problem.
And you know what? So many people are living on
yesterday's word of God, but he's got a word for you now, and
you can't apply yesterday's word that caused you to overcome one
way where you didn't have to do a particular thing or or deny a
particular deal or make an adjustment a particular way.
Now he may be saying something else and you're like, well, I'll
just keep doing it the way I've been doing it.
And then the Lord's like, well, we have a problem.
And so Samuel shows up and King Saul has the audacity, which is
what most believers do when they're in disobedience.
Honestly. Well, you know, I'm doing what
God says. The Lord knows my heart.
Yeah, you're right, He does. And the prophet speaking to you
right now and he's saying, why am I hearing the sheep bleat in
the background? Why do I keep hearing stuff
bleeping in your life that should not be making a sound
anymore? Why do I keep hearing this in
your life? That should not be making a
sound anymore. This should have been destroyed.
Why is this same cycle keep speaking in your life?
It should be. It should have no voice.
The only reason has a voice is because you decided what to
eliminate and what to keep and what you kept.
Now you're going to determine what's the best of that, and
you're going to sacrifice that to the Lord.
First Samuel 15 or 1522, Samuel said has the Lord as much
delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the
voice of the Lord. Behold to obey is what is what
is what is what is what. Come on out like your team just
scored a winning touchdown is what.
Thank you is better than sacrifice.
You know obedience is better than getting forgiveness because
if you just obey God then he doesn't have to forgive you.
If Adam had never eaten the fruit then Jesus would not had
to have come die to give us all forgiveness.
If we just obey, then God doesn't have to move into
sacrificing something because sacrifice is not your sacrifice,
it's His sacrifice. Every time you disobey, it's his
sacrifice for your disobedience. And we want his forgiveness.
So basically we're saying go to the cross again, Just go to the
cross again, just go to the cross again.
Why don't you just go to the cross again?
When the Lord's like, I made you a new creature in Christ, I gave
you the Holy Ghost, I've given you the word, I've given you the
teacher, the counselor, the instructor.
Now you can obey. You can obey me.
You can cast that thought down. You can take that thought
captive you don't have. You can make your body get into
submission. You can yield to my spirit.
You can walk by my spirit. You can speak by my spirit.
Why are you wanting me to sacrifice again?
Because you were wanting to fail to obey.
It's better to walk in obedience than to ask for forgiveness.
Let me give you the modern day statement of King Saul.
Well, now, sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than
permission. Now we'll just ask for
forgiveness instead of permission.
And what is that? What you're doing is you're
abusing the nature of the forgiver.
Yes, that's good because you choose to not obey, not because
you can't. Child of God.
People who are outside the household can't.
People in the house, can they choose not to?
And the reason this has creeped into the church is because we've
allowed all kinds of little labels to get around
dysfunctional behavior. I mean, I could start naming
stuff, but, you know, it'd be pretty Dang controversial right
now. So I'm going to stay away from
it because, I mean, you're quiet already as it is.
But there's these orders that start getting labeled on people,
and that means your behavior is acceptable because you're this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on now.
Yeah. Well, I have a new nature, and
my new nature changes my behavior because when I had no
self-control, I was given the Holy Ghost that one of his
fruits is, oh, y'all don't want to hear this?
So how as a believer can I say, well, I just can't control
myself when I have the one who raised Christ from the dead
living on the inside of me because I let the Spirit
dominate my mind, my thinking, my body, and I'm like, I'm going
to obey because my Father is pleased when I obey him.
In fact, he wakes up every day and said, man, I can't wait for
Tony to obey me today. I'm ready to bless him and that
obedience. I'm ready to give him everything
of that obedience, everything he obeys me in.
I'm ready to lavish upon him life a provision, abundance,
peace, security, protection. I mean, I'm ready just to pour
it out because he's such an obedient child.
Hallelujah. I said Hallelujah and even in
the midst of your obedience, when it looks like all hell has
broken loose, don't think God doesn't see your obedience.
Listen, don't you be one big concerned if you get stuck in a
joke moment where you're being righteous, you're living it
right. You're doing everything you can
to be right, but all of a sudden attack comes and makes it look
like you are not doing nothing God's told you to do and
everybody is blaming you and saying you're not who you think
you are. But Job stayed true to God and
after a process of time, God let everybody know this man was
faithful, this man was righteous and I'm going to bless him with
double then what was taken because he was an obedient man
the whole while. And the ones that talk bad about
him, he said, you better go ask Job to pray for you.
Good, good. When he came started talking to
them, they got said you better go get Joe to pray for you.
The one that you just ran down, talked about slandered, said
there's no way you living like that.
And you know what it showed Job's love walk when he says,
yeah, I'll pray for you. That just proves Job was
righteous the whole time because they're like, I'll pray for you.
I mean, who am I to hold what you just did that you were
totally wrong. I mean, I was telling you I was
like, that isn't it? But at the end of the day, you
want to believe what you want to believe, but God, but God, he
showed up. He showed out.
John 1415 says this, If you love me, Jesus is talking.
You will keep my commandments because love obeys and again, we
just throw love out so flippantly and that like you
know, you can be in total rebellion and that means you
still love me, Jesus, like I know you love me.
Why? Because you keep my word.
That's why I know because you're a doer of it.
Come on now. John 1423 to 24 says Jesus
answered, said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word
and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our
abode with him. What makes the Father and Jesus
to hang out with you? Because you obey when you feel
like man. It feels like the Lord is far
away. Where's he at?
Well, maybe you need to get back in obedience because they hang
out around obedience. He who does not love me does
not. Why is it that we want to debate
these scriptures? We've become so psych
psychological. He who does not love me does not
keep my words. You're going to tell me you love
God, but you don't do anything he says.
So it's obvious. Then the Scripture is letting us
know, saying I love you, Lord, is not loving God.
Now, you may have convinced yourself that you can say that
and that's what it means, but He's defining to us what it
means to love him and what it means to not love him.
Hallelujah. And again, if you're a believer,
guess what? This is easy for you to keep the
word because he said my word is not burdensome.
It's not burdensome. My yoke is light.
It's easy keeping my words not burdensome.
Why? Because I'm the one who's going
to empower you to be able to do my word, Hallelujah, because
I've given you the power that manifests the word all the time.
Are you hearing me? First Corinthians chapter 12,
verse 18 to 20 then says this. But now God has placed the
members, each one of them, in the body just as He desired,
which means then the one who picks the house is the one who's
the head of the house. And so the very first thing that
we get to do is to be able to hear from God of where He
assigns us and what we're supposed to do in the body.
Because in the next verse, verse 19 says if we were all one
member, where would the body be? But now there are many members
but one body. So we're even supposed to obey
#1 where we're supposed to be connected, who we're supposed to
be connected, what vision we're supposed to be connected with.
And then do it with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength.
It becomes our seat first because we love Him.
And out of it the equipping of the Saints occurs so that you
can do the work of the ministry to where you produce the fruit
of the Kingdom of God in your sectors of society, and it
changes your life. Acts chapter 20, verse 28 says
that those may be on God for yourself and for all the flock
among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd
the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
Did He purchase you? Does he own you?
Yeah, He owns you. He sure does.
And I'm OK with that because I want him to own me.
I want him to own me. I want him to renovate me.
I want him to renew my mind. I want him to remodel my life.
He already made me a new creature in Christ.
And I want him to have all access to me because I want to
be the best version of me that he saw before the foundations of
the world and before I was in my mother's womb.
And I trust him because he's trustworthy.
He is faithful. His way is better than my way
his. His ways are higher than my
ways, His thoughts are better than my thoughts, and his way is
life. And he's the one I say yes, Sir,
to. Yes, Daddy.
Whatever you say, Dad. I love you Dad, and I know
anything you say towards me is good for me.
It's to my benefit. It's to cause me to be
successful. It allows me to show you and
glorify you because again, I'm not the center of the world.
You are. I'm not the the God you are.
You're God. When does the created tell the
Creator? This is Isaiah's issue, when
he's took the clay and threw it on the Potter's wheel and the
Potter's mold in it, and the clay's like, don't touch me
there. He's like, how does the clay
tell the Potter? How can you tell God?
You can't love something, you can't forgive something, you
can't do this, you can't do that.
When he's like, really, you can. You know what?
You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
Hallelujah. You can get up and dance even
when your body and your life. I'm not really much of A dancer
and I don't feel like it. Feelings irrelevant.
Being sensitive enough to the spirit, being sensitive enough
to that step. Brown's like I got him.
If he falls, I am jumping out of the seat.
I am going to catch him. Hallelujah, say Hallelujah.
Now, this is really an exciting message.
It really is. The problem is we're so
conditioned that anytime instructions or corrections come
in, you know, we got to act like, oh, whoa, whoa.
When really you're like, glory to God.
Yeah, that's what I was doing wrong.
Awesome. I remember a time when I was in
the Army and I was shooting the weapon for qualification and
getting a foxhole and, you know, you're firing down range, man.
And when I was in the foxhole, I was standing up and I have my my
weapon on my sandbags and I'm boom, I'm popping.
I am dropping targets 300 meters.
Doesn't matter. I'm dropping off of them all.
Then I get out in the prone unsupported position like this
and now I'm down there fire and man, I'm missing everything.
I can't hit. I can't even hit the 25 meter.
I mean, it's like what is happening?
And so we're zeroing in my weapon, you know, and I'm bared.
I'm like, what is going on? And the next day's qualification
and you have to get so many laying down to qualify.
And I can't hit the broadside of a barn yet when I'm in the
foxhole standing up, it's like, you don't want to come around me
because you're going to die. And so I'm like, what is going
on in my drill Sergeant? He was looking.
He was looking.
He was looking because he's the expert.
He's the one who's doing the training.
And my gosh, I want to be right. I want to pass.
I want to, you know, succeed. And so I'm down.
And he noticed that I would pull my elbow up to get a little
hype, which is not what I was doing in the foxhole.
So I was changing my line of sight.
And when he saw that one thing, he said, private, this is what
you're doing now. He wasn't very nice about it
either. And I didn't get offended and
then call my mom and cry and get a dishonorable discharge.
But man, when he did it, then I started firing Bam, bam, bam,
bam. I was hitting them all.
I was like, Oh my gosh, I was like victory is mine.
Why? Cuz what was wrong?
You help me see it. I corrected it and it made me a
sharpshooter. I mean, I was excellent.
I was like 3 shots, two shots from being what they call a
Hawkeye. I didn't get 4440.
I was 38 out of 40. Bro, you today, you do not want
to be coming across our parking lot during the apocalypse
because I'm going to be up on if I was here, I'll be up on there.
Come on, You know what I'm saying?
And it's not good for you. It's seriously like a bicycle.
And I got a little scope on mine with little red dot.
I mean, I was hitting tennis balls over 100 yards away.
Tennis balls. I'm like this is boring, let's
pull out the pistols. I'm serious.
Because I trained, all right? Because I don't want to have to
fight you in my hands anyway. So I'd much rather take you that
way long. Hallelujah if it came to that.
All right, y'all doing all right?
I said, you doing all right, Hallelujah.
So God is speaking to us in the house.
So let me cut this short, although I could expound on
this, but I think I'm not first Peter chapter 4, let's actually
just go down to verse 17. Yeah, maybe we'll start at 16.
Let's do 16 start at the 16th verse.
So but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be
ashamed, but is the glory, but is to glorify God in in his
name. OK.
Is that what it said in his name?
Yeah. In this, in this name.
You understand when you're obeying God, people, you're
going to suffer because the world is in disobedience.
So it just comes with a territory when you start acting
right. And I don't want I I I have no
desire for anything of the world.
I've been redeemed. I've been pulled out of that.
I don't, I don't want anything to do with it because I get to
enjoy life at a higher level. At a higher level.
I don't miss out on a thing, period, except flesh, which
kills me. And I'm glad to miss out on
that. Amen.
I'm never going back verse 17. For it is time for it is time
for judgment to begin with. All right, see, we stay away
from these verses today because, you know, you know, the churches
don't want to talk about these verses today because it uses
that word that starts with AJ and it's not Jesus.
OK. What is the household of God,
the Church of the living God? Well, we're not going to be
judged. You're always being judged.
Now, judge is not a bad thing because judge is also a good
word. And this is the problem because
of your sin consciousness and your desire to always be
forgiven. You always hear these words this
way, but you understand. I'm thankful for the judge
because I remember one time when I was a weightlifter and I was
in a a county competition and I'd lifted in the 132 LB class
because I was nothing but muscle and dropped to the 123 LB class
because I was only 127 at the start of the season.
I dropped 4 lbs and I show up at the county meet, no one knew my
name, had no idea of what I lifted.
And I jumped into the meet and they're like, who's this kid
from Newberry, right? And this is all the big schools
that were in Alachua County. And so Santa Fe had this great
athlete and Eastside had a great athlete as well.
And so when we got to the bench, we, you know, when you get
there, you put down what you're what you're going to bench,
right? You give them your first number.
Now if you, if 135 is being lifted and then it goes to 1:40
and you're like, oh, I want to do 135 too late.
You missed it. Once it passes away, it does not
go back. So you got to pay attention to
where it's at in the competition.
And so, you know, when it got to the bench thing, I was in 3rd
place. OK, my bench wasn't as good as
some of these. In fact, one guy benched 225 lbs
At 123 lbs, he and a bench legal is coming off holding it come
down. You touch your chest and there
are three judges and they have lights and so they get to click
their light, but one of the judges will clap once you
completely stop it on your chest and it's a full press.
You can't bounce it. You can do it has to stop and
then you push it, lock it out. Both arms have to lock out at
the same time. Now you can go up like this, but
you got to lock out at the same time and then they'll clap again
and you get the racket and then the lights come on.
And if you get 2 out of 3, it's a pass you can go on.
That means it's a successful lift and you want to be rewarded
for a good lift. There's something great about
being judged. See what I'm saying?
Well, when we got to the clean and jerk, well, it just so
happened what I benched, I could do in clean and jerk.
And that's typically not what happens.
The bench is usually better for the athlete and the clean and
jerk is a lot less. So all of a sudden this guy from
East Side who's in second, he's like, hey, what are you going to
go in on? I said no, I don't know yet why
this competition. He's trying to mess with their
mom. They don't even know who I am.
Who's this, you know, beefed up, you know, super shredded kid
from, you know, Newberry at 123 lbs.
You know what I'm talking about, Trevor, right?
You talking ripped. You know, the boys from Bellwood
get scared about this stuff over there in Chiefland.
And so. So what are you saying?
Oh my God, come here, Raphael, since you're so vocal, I mean,
I'm only talking about your weight class right now, right?
I mean, you should be like yes, thank you, see, Amen.
So give me an Amen. Amen.
Thank you. All right, so this guy from East
side, he does his 145 one 55160 because you can do a 10 LB jumps
and then if you only do a 5 LB jump, then that's it.
You can't go up again if you only do 5 lbs between lifts.
So his last lifts 160 and I haven't even posted the guy from
Alachua. I think he started at 165, then
he went to 175 and I started at 175.
All right. So after I did my first
successful lift, I'm the only person lifting now.
Everybody else is finished. I think he did 180 maybe, and
that was it. And Coach Bass looked at me and
he said, Earl, if you do 195, you win.
It's my second lift. I said, let's do it because the
week before I had done 200. So I was extremely confident.
So I got up underneath. I got my judges there, right?
And I popped up like this. Now, most people don't clean and
jerk that way. I wish they would have taught me
the other squat technique because then my left leg would
be as big as my right and it's not.
And that's why. Anyway, so I popped up like this
and man, I stuck that thing so hard that it actually got behind
me. And so I had AI mean
milliseconds decision. Do I try to get this or do I let
it go? I just walked out.
It hit the ground, Coach caught his side.
My friend Chad was not paying attention as a good spotter, so
Coach Bass got jerked across the mat and then he slapped Chad on
the butt, basically spanked him and it wasn't his child.
I'm just letting you know we did a lot more things back in the
day then we you can get away with today.
Anyway, he kind of ringed you pay attention.
So now we're at the next lift. Well, my competitor who's in,
who's in first, and we'll only be in second if I make this
lift, decided to get up behind the middle judge, do one of
these poses. You know what I'm talking about,
Tony. You know how Florida does that
to Florida State. I'm just kidding.
I'm kidding, because that pose did nothing anyway.
So I popped the first one, right?
And if I'll get it here, bro, it's going up.
There's no way I'm going to get out from underneath it.
And there he is looking at me and I got my judges and I need
my judges to judge correctly. And I'm excited about these
judges because I'm going to get 3 lights.
I'm so confident. I looked at him and I went.
I stared him down, winked at him, and I won.
Hallelujah. See, when you know who you are
in Christ, you can wink at the enemy, you can weaken the one
who wants to take you down from the top, because you know my
judges are going to judge me rightly according to what I'm
about to perform. And you, we know that God will
judge me rightly when I am a doer of His word and I'm a
keeper of His word. And when I do His word in His
household, then He will openly reward me and make a table
before me in the presence of my enemies.
This is why it is good to be righteous.
So I don't mind if judgment comes to the household because
when it comes to us first, then that means we can be victorious.
Because He said if judgment comes to the household, put that
verse back up. What will be the outcome for
those who do not obey the gospel of God?
He goes on to say in verse 18. And if it is with difficulty
that the righteous is saved, what will become the godless man
and the Sinner? Now we say difficulty.
We're not saying you're earning it.
We're saying that you do have to fight the good fight of faith.
You cannot succumb to this world.
You can't just say, well, I'm born again.
I live like I want to and God knows it's OK.
And I'll just keep getting this forgiveness all the time.
No, that's not how you do it. You're like, you know what, I'm
going to crucify the flesh. You know what?
I'm going to put that down. You know what, I'm going to be
the obedient. You know, I don't really feel
like doing that today, Lord, but you know what you owe me and
that's OK because your life, your liberty, you know what, I
am going to forgive them. You know what, I am going to
walk in joy. You know what, I am going to
dance. I am going to shout.
You know I am going to give you praise.
You know I am going to read my word.
You know I am going to pray. You know I am going to and it's
with difficulty, but the reality is I'm staying righteous,
walking in the power of God. But what will become of the
godless man or the Sinner? Verse 19 Therefore, those who
have suffered according to the will of God shall entrust their
souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.
Last two verses of this Galatians 610.
So then why we have opportunity? Say I have an opportunity.
I have an opportunity to be obligated, required, and must,
while I have the opportunity to let us do good to all people and
especially to those who are the household of faith.
I have heard believers literally say this.
You know, I get along with people in the world more than I
do in the church. That's a problem.
That's a big problem. There's 2 problems with that
statement. Number one, why do you like the
world so much that you can get along with them so good #2 are
you not going to a good enough church where they're being
discipled and trained and there's plenty of people who are
actually living righteous and you can find them?
Now, I'm not telling you everybody's perfect because
we're not perfect. And perfection is not what we're
here for. We're here for maturity and
everybody ought to find a church that there's enough mature
people that like, you know what, these people love God.
They're living God. They're putting down their
flesh, they're obeying. And I can count on this person
to be obedient. They want to obey.
Wow, they're look at them, they're just living the word.
They're doing that. You know what?
And those people are the greatest people to ever be
around. You know what, they're better to
be around the natural family. They actually you're like, this
is my family and you'll actually experience family because again,
I'm not doing what you want and you're not doing what I want.
We're doing what he wants and this is really amazing.
Last scriptures there second Peter chapter 3 verse 13.
Come on, worship team says this. But according to His promise, we
are looking for new heavens and a new in which in which
righteousness dwells, which tells us in the new heavens and
the new earth unrighteousness will not dwell.
So as we said earlier today, if there's things in your life
right now that you know this wouldn't make it in heaven, this
attitude I have wouldn't make it in heaven, then why don't we get
rid of it now? Don't be deceived.
You can have a heaven experience even in the earth because Jesus
is not a liar. He said when you pray, pray this
way, our Father who art heaven hallowed be your name, your
Kingdom come, your will be done on as it is in heaven.
And we know in the new heavens and the new earth, there's not
going to be backbiting, jealousy, slander, gossip,
murder, lying, cheating, stealing, fornication, all
sexual immorality. There's not going to be bad
thinking, wrong thoughts. No, we're going to be righteous,
obeying the word of the King with great joy, with all of our
heart, mind and soul. May the Church rise today to
desire that which you already have the ability to do because
you're a child of God, a child of the King, a new creature in
Christ, and you have the Holy Ghost living on the inside of
you. And he's also come upon you if
He has and empowered you to overcome every form of
temptation and has redeemed you from the law of sin and death.
Wow. Wow.
We are truly without excuse. I don't need an excuse.
I'm just going to live for the Lord.