Be Ye Holy | Bishop Jack Cunningham

glory to god could everybody magnify the lord with me come on everybody in this house lift him up magnify the lord with me let us exalt his name together hallelujah to the lamb of god hallelujah to the lamb of god come on we can do better than this magnify the lord hallelujah glory to god lord we love you and worship you god we magnify you and honor you hallelujah to the lamb of god i told you last sunday i may tell you several sundays before i move on to something else but i told us last sunday that nothing confuses and confounds the enemy more than a heart full of gratitude and praise there's no weapon no tool that you have that will more confuse the enemy than you coming into this place and then living every day of your life with a heart full of gratitude and praise preacher you don't know what i've been through no i may not know every detail but let me tell you what i do know i do know that god has been good to us would you raise both your hands to heaven close your eyes focus your attention on him and let's magnify the lord again together we love you today lord jesus we magnify you lord oh god you've been good to us and for that we're thankful for that we're grateful blessed be the name of the lord bless the name of the lord bless the name of the lord i love you lord jesus i magnify you lord jesus praise god this has been a tough week on some of our people a tough week on the united pentecostal church as a whole we've lost some very precious people this week because of the pandemic not here in our church but associated with our church and certainly associated with the international church where the wind dross passed on friday that's mark dross's father brother windross is one of the greatest men of god i've ever known in my lifetime and what a loss that is to the apostolic church brother fregozo sister jessica powers their mother died when eddie was only 13 is that right and he was raised by his aunt and both of his aunts that were involved in raising him have passed in the last 24 hours because of covin his uncle and several other family members this is all in florida and i think we need to remember those two families the fergozo and the powers families today there are others in our church i probably shouldn't have started naming names there's others in our church that have family members that are very sick very ill dealing with these things it's the day we live in folks it's the day that we live in and it is a very sad grievous reality of the day that we live in the bible said when one member suffers we all suffer if we're part of the same body are we part of the same body i want to say thank you to all of you that are helping us to make sure this is a safe place to worship god you are maintaining social distancing you are wearing your mask i look across the audience i thank you for that wearing your mask you're taking the time to do what is right to be careful to be safe i'm happy to tell you that to our knowledge not one single person has ever contracted coveted at bible world church and we want to keep it that way is that all right with you we want to be able to come here to worship and know that we're safe in doing so thank you for all of you that are helping us with that and of course my advice has always been that if you don't believe in what i'm saying and what we've asked that is your right enjoy services from your home because we're going to keep things safe here and please please please pray for the families in our church that are impacted and affected by this pandemic in fact why don't we pray right now i know we can't join hands but we can join heart to heart and prayer to prayer would you bow your heads and close your eyes and i want us all to pray if we could even now for all the families in the church that have been in some way impacted by this father in the name of the lord jesus christ i pray for every family lord that has been in his being impacted by covet 19 i pray against that disease i pray against it in the name of the lord jesus christ i pray for doctors that are looking for a cure looking for medication i pray lord god that the curve would indeed flatten out not only in the united states but around the world god i pray that you would give us victory over this pandemic and i pray god that you would keep all of our family safe i pray lord that you would comfort those that are mourning i pray lord god you'd bring peace to those that are in fear i pray it in the name of the lord jesus christ everybody said in jesus name if somebody that you are related to or somebody you work with has been impacted by covid would you lift your hand somebody you're related to somebody you work with would you raise your hand i want you to look at that it is the majority of our audience today and so you know what i'm talking about and again thank you for all you're doing to make sure that this is a safe place god bless you you may be seated i've been shouting you the last couple sundays two sundays ago i preached god is and we had a good time with that and shouted over it and then last sunday i preached to you god can and we shouted over that and had a good time with it i don't know how many is going to be shouting today because i'm going to preach a pastoral a shepherd message to us today i want you to hear what i've got to say i want your full and undivided attention i don't know that i could bring you a subject that i think is any more essential any more impacting to our relationship with god than the subject that i'm bringing to you today again i want you to listen i want you to pay attention i want you to preach with me if you can if you care to my subject today is be ye holy be ye holy i'm going to specifically talk about the impact of holiness on every area of our life i believe that probably this is one of those messages that i'll get about half done this morning and have to do the other half and the next service but but i i'll do my best to move along but it's probably too large of a subject to cover in one service maybe too large to cover in two or three services but i'm going to attempt to do that today i am addressing the subject of biblical holiness now why would i decide to tell you that right up front i'm not going to preach today what jack cunningham's opinion is i'm not going to preach today what the united pentecostal church's position is i'm going to first of all preach to you the subject of biblical holiness and second of all and i think perhaps more important this morning i'm going to talk to you about the impact of holiness on every area of our life brother cunningham why would you talk about holiness in the middle of a coveted pandemic i'll make that very clear and very plain to you this morning and that is that i see folks letting down i see folks that are compromising and i know that's not a very nice word it is a harsh word but i see that in the middle of a pandemic and only being able to go to church for several months not at all and then now recently most folks are coming one or at the most two services a week and we don't have any extra curricular church activities there's no fellowships there's no groups there's no meetings there's no classes there's all of that all of those things that normally tend to creating a positive peer pressure among us and create a support group for us in our walk with god all of that has been missing and because there is so much missing in church life i'm seeing people allow church life to go down and allow worldliness to go up i'm thinking there's a lot of folks in here that don't know that i also have social media i'm seeing people put pictures on social media that six months ago you wouldn't have been caught dead that way let alone put a picture on social media hello i'm seeing saints of god get in fights on social media and that's unholy say oh they said something i don't agree with who are you who have you convinced you yourself that you are that you can get on there and correct somebody chew somebody out straighten somebody up the only people that does stuff like that on social media are people that have convinced themselves that they're something they are not i want to talk today about holiness and how it is supposed to impact our life and guess what just because we're not going to church and having extra-curricular activities like we have for the last hundred years doesn't mean holiness went on vacation doesn't mean faithfulness left doesn't mean consistency is out the window or that dedication and those things no longer matter a real child of god is going to live for god if you've got to go all the way back to the book of acts in the beginning where they had to hide in dens and caves where they were boiled in oil fed to lions hung on crosses but they still lived for god and the church had revival because a real christian's going to be a real christian 24 hours a day seven days a week no matter what else they can or cannot be doing can you say amen somebody first peter chapter 1 and verse number 16 says be ye holy for i am holy god is telling us be ye holy for i am holy hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 14 said holiness without which no man shall see the lord holiness without which no oh you don't know what my name is preacher do you fall in the category of no man you you don't know how many zeros that i put behind that bigger number on my tithe check this week do you fall in the category of no man preacher you don't know how long my hair is preacher you don't know what i did before we had to shut down the job i had around here you don't know how many of the gifts of the spirit are in operation in my life it don't matter the bible said holiness without which no man is going to see the lord now honestly i could quit and go home right now i really could because i don't need a thousand verses to tell me i ought to be holy that one right there that without holiness i'm not going to see god we should none of us in here need a second verse to tell us to be holy and when you read a verse that says holiness without which no man shall see the lord if you don't know what holiness is i'd start the bible study this afternoon and not quit until you got it figured out because if i can't see god without it then i want it if i'm not going to see god if that's missing in my life then i'm going to figure out what it is and get it in my life because honey if i don't do nothing else i'm going to see god if i don't accomplish anything else in this life by the help of god i'm going to make heaven my home somebody said amen holiness without which no man shall see the lord give me just a moment now define holiness for you the oxford dictionary says of the word holiness that it is the state of being holy the state of being holy so then what does the word holy mean the oxford dictionary again says that that word holiness means and listen very carefully to this it means dedicated or consecrated to god the second definition is sacred if something is holy then that ought to be sacred let that sink in just for a moment if you will and remember that definition of the word holy because every time i say it in this message that's what i'm referring to i'm referring to being dedicated i'm referring to being consecrated to god say amen somebody it is noteworthy to mention that the definition of holy does not contain the words or the phrases i'm going to make some of you mad right here because the limit of your scope and understanding of holiness is that it's a bunch of rules and regulations but the definition of holy is not rules and regulations hello anybody with me the definition of holiness is not standards pausing for effect preacher don't you believe in standards you know i do look around at this church you know what i teach and what i believe but i'm going to tell you up front that standards are not holiness holiness is dedication and consecration to god it's considering that which is holy to be sacred stay with me those that are already mad by the way that's a part of holiness too that definition does not say regulations to live by that the word holy means regulations to live by that's not what it means we have a misunderstanding of holiness yes even in the apostolic church we love to point out the misunderstanding that that exists in the in the generic religious world especially the charismatic religious world that they don't have any standards at all there's nothing that they believe is sacred or holy there's nothing that they believe is right or wrong good or bad if it feels good do it is the only rule in a lot of those kind of churches just as much as they have a misunderstanding all the way on this side of holiness the apostolic church very often has a misunderstanding of holiness on this side because we have downgraded holiness we have made holiness less essential less important less eternal by making it a bunch of rules and regulations it's not rules and regulations it's my dedication to god it's my consecration to god it's what i consider sacred it's lines i won't cross because of how much i love him not because i want to keep a list of rules somebody said amen say amen put it in terms that you understand when i got up this morning i comb my hair the way my wife wants me to comb my hair you know a year or two ago i started parting it on the side and pulling it over and my wife said i don't like it like that and i went back to coleman it the way she likes it not the way i like it when i got up this morning i put on mont blanc cologne i've wore it for 15 years some of you when i walk by say oh i like your cologne i'm glad you like it but i ain't wearing it for you i'm wearing it for her she buys it for me it's what she wants me to wear just about two weeks ago was walking through a store and i picked up a tester and sprayed myself with it and i said hey do you like this she said oh yeah that's nice but you're gonna wear mont blanc what are you trying to say brother cunningham we was coming home last night uh cecil was driving i was tired i preached a funeral on the other side of the state yesterday cecil was driving me back i was tired i wanted to get home i was telling him i want to be home already and my wife i said look turn here and go down 17. my wife's in the back seat she said no let's go down portsmouth boulevard i turned to cesar and said you do what she said i want her to be happy tonight what are you talking about preacher i'm talking about once we understand what it means to be in love with somebody we start doing what they like and what they want we make a dedication we make a commitment it's not difficult to do what they like us to do what they prefer us to do if we're in love with them and holiness is more about who you're in love with then it is a bunch of rules and regulations are you in love with god or are you in love with the world paul said demoeth has forsaken me having loved this present world in the book of revelation it said of the end time church they lost their first love if you're in love with him [Music] if you are genuinely in love with him then the rules and regulations don't matter what matters is pleasing him i love brother tenney used to say we need an old-fashioned revival of pleasing god so i'd like to see a revival of the gifts of the spirit i'd like to see a revival of faith i'd like to see a revival of worship i would too but let me tell you if we'll get that first one right an old-fashioned revival of pleasing god then all the rest of it's going to fall into place if we can fall back in love with him and start walking in a way that we want everything we do everything we say everything we are to please god clap your hands and say amen if you understand what i'm saying and so i would present to you that holiness is more than outward appearance holiness is more than modest dress holiness is more than speech holiness is more than self-control holiness is more than moderation of habits that one person said amen holiness is more than those things those five areas those five areas they are not the most important matter hold on they are an outward sign that you have the most important matter under control they're an outward sign of what's going on on the inside you see some woman wanting to show her nakedness to men that she ain't married to that's an inside problem hello you let somebody that is always contentious always mean always fighting always ugly that's an inside problem that's being seen manifested on the outside you can't see the inside but we all need to be smart enough to know that when we see the manifestations on the outside we recognize something's wrong on the inside i have bad circulation in my right leg that's the one they put a fake knee in and the fake knees only made the circulation worse and when i was up at the property mowing i got a whole bunch of red bug bites on that leg the next morning after you get a red bug bite it's about the size of a dime it's blood red got a little hole in the middle where the bugs actually burrowed inside your skin overnight and and it's painful it itches like the devil first of all but i got three i got seven or eight of them but i got three of them right on that place on my leg where the circulation is bad there's time that my leg is the collar of my jacket from my ankle up to my knee there's times it's as dark as my jacket it's it doesn't look good at all and i got three of those bites on that about two weeks ago it started feeling bad it feels bad right now it started hurting it started uh getting warm you put your hand on it it was very warm and then it turned a real dark shade of red and so i went to the whatever you call those emergency rooms i went to one of those things on wednesday on my way out of town to board meetings and when i stopped there and went in the doctor said what am i seeing you for i said well i think i've got an infection she said why do you think that i said well my leg has turned red my leg is burning it's hot to the touch and it's very sore she looked at my leg and she said you diagnosed it exactly right you've got an infection in that leg and we'll go to fighting it right now glad you came in but all of those things she didn't say well i'm going to give you this pill for the redness i'm going to give you that pill for the pain i'm going to give you this pill because it hurts i'm going to give you some ibuprofen to just max the pain a little bit she didn't do that she said we're going to work on what's on the inside we're going to take care of the inside when we get the inside right those signs that are on the outside they'll clear up we've got to understand that that's what holiness is holiness is what's on the inside holiness is my dedication and my consecration to god and when that gets out of whack i start missing church i quit worshiping i start i change my lifestyle i change how i talk i change where i go i change who i run with i change how i dress i change how i look and we've got to be careful as apostolics that we don't get to thinking that all of those changes are the problem they're not the problems on the inside the problem is holiness clap your hands again and say man say amen when the inside is right i promise you the outside is automatically right because what's on the inside is going to show on the outside somebody talks the way in a way they shouldn't talk ugly nasty filthy cursing you can't say a sentence without cussing go back to school your vocabulary is seriously bad but guess what what's coming out your mouth isn't the issue you can say to somebody hey buddy you need to learn how to talk right hey buddy you need to change the way you talk and guess what it isn't a problem the talking isn't the problem whether it's being ugly or nasty or filthy or whatever it is that isn't the problem the problem's on the inside because what's on the inside is automatically going to show on the outside are y'all okay with this it's all right listen to me today my friend holiness is more an indicator of right standing with god than any other high value apostolic characteristic we possess let that sink in for just a moment holiness is more important than anointing holiness is more important than being used in the operation of the gifts holiness is more important than talent and ability if we make a major mistake in the apostolic world a major mistake it's the emphasis we put on talent and the lack of emphasis we put on holiness i asked my uncle bill one time i said you know we probably got more talent in the united pentecostal church than any organization on the face of the earth and he teared up ottoman i mean he just teared up turned his head and looked at me and said son i'd trade all of our talent for just 10 percent more anointing now you don't want to clap for that because you put such a high regard on talent do you know talent don't mean you're holy ability is not an indicator of holiness put your seatbelt on anointing is not an indicator of holiness tighten that seat build up used in the gifts of the spirit is not an indicator of holiness you know what it's an indicator of i i guess i've got to finish this this is not in my notes but i guess i've got to finish this or i'll leave people with a lot of questions when you see somebody that's anointed used in the gifts of the spirit talented you see him ministering and you assume they're holy because of what you see you could be wrong i know i'm opening a door here that i may regret opening later but i've always been brutally honest with you it is not an indicator they're holy today hold on it's an indicator that at one time in their life they were holy well how is it they're still anointed how is it they're still using the gifts because the bible said the gifts and the callings of god are without repentance there are people that was holy that did live holy and god trusted him with gifts and anointing and ministry and talent and then they quit they stopped they went they loved the world more than they loved god now but they're still operating they've learned how to do things they're still operating and the reason they can still operate is because there's a whole bunch of us that don't know how to discern there's a whole bunch of us that are willing to compromise because of talent and ability we're willing to put up with some stuff i know i'm being maybe too honest today with you i've told you before i'll say it again for maybe those that haven't heard it but i have always preached a bible world church like i preach to preachers when i travel now you may not you may be sitting here thinking i don't understand that statement let me explain it to you i don't treat you like you're a bunch of novices i don't treat you like you're a bunch of babies because i consider this to be the most apostolic church i've ever been a part of in my lifetime i consider this to be a powerful apostolic church and because of that i preached to you like i'd preach to leaders i don't baby i don't water it down i don't serve you milk toast on sunday morning you and i need to come to the place that we understand that our dedication and our consecration to god that thing called holiness that thing called holy is more important than anything else we do i don't care if you can play one of these instruments i don't care if you can sing like an angel i don't care how high-tech you are i don't care what a great communicator you are i've come to tell you this morning that the most important accomplishment in your life is that you would dedicate yourself to god and you would consecrate yourself holy to him if you don't get anything else done get that done because without that you're not going to see god somebody shout yes holiness our dedication and our consecration to god it impacts every important area of our life holiness determines our god-likeness you know every time you say i'm a christian the definition of the word christian is christ-like that's what christian literally means are we a christian in name or are we really a christian because we're like christ let that sink in just for a moment our christ likeness our god likeness is determined by our ability to be holy and again i'm not talking about your hair longer than every other woman in the church i'm not talking about your dress drags the ground when you walk i'm not talking about men i'm not talking about the standards that have been set for men and the standards set for women i'm going to go as far as to tell you and i probably am opening a can of worm here but if you're doing the standards and you don't love god and you're not living holy what good is it doing you if you're just living by a bunch of rules and regulations and the thought of being dedicated and consecrated to god that there are some things that are sacred unto the lord never crosses your mind then what good are your standards doing for you hello preachers that mean you're going to quit preaching standards if you're even thinking that way you ain't getting what i'm saying today i can tell you this that if i can get everybody concerned with being dedicated and consecrated to god and keeping sacred things sacred if i can get us to do that i won't have to preach standards as much hello y'all still with me first peter chapter 1 and verse 16. i read it in the opening today be holy for i am holy it is the only place in your bible where god said there's one attribute of mine i want you to emulate this one attribute i want you to apply to your life this one attribute that represents me i want it to represent you he said be ye holy as i am holy saith the lord the scripture does not say be omniscient as god is omniscient there's no place in the bible that says be omnipotent all powerful as god is all-powerful there is no place in your bible that says be omnipresent as god is omnipresent there's no place where he said be almighty as i'm almighty there is no place in there where he said be the savior as i am the savior the only characteristic of god that he said i want cecil white to be like me in this area be ye holy as i am holy i want forest powers i want troy sing i want rick crouch i want brandon sing i want everybody in here to be ye holy as i am holy and god is wanting you to understand there's other things you're trying to attain to that really aren't as important to god as that if you get the holiness part of it together if you get the holiness part of it right then the anointing's going to work the gifts of the spirit are going to flow people are going to be saved people are going to be filled with the holy ghost people are going to be baptized in the name of jesus if you get the dedication and the consecration part right you think i'm straightforward with y'all y'all ought to come to an mit meeting sometimes because there i am straight forward and i've told our mit some of you got a burden for the pulpit but you don't have a burden to do the work of god you don't have a burden to be used wherever god wants to use you you just want to know when am i going to get in that pulpit huh huh you're not working on dedication you're not working on consecration you're not working on being right with god having a deep relationship with god that can't be shaken and can't be moved off its foundation no you're just worried about how much upfront time can i get is there some position titled around here you could throw at me titles don't mean nothing what good is the title pastor if i'm not dedicated and consecrated to god [Applause] i have never one time i have never one time in this church in the district or the upci ever referred to myself as bishop i've never done it one single time probably never will do it but what good is the term bishop if you're not consecrated or dedicated to god what what what good is the term i'm on the praise team i'm an usher i'm in the sound room i'm a sunday school teacher i'm a youth leader i'm a ladies leader i'm this i'm that if you're not consecrated and dedicated to god those titles are just titles they're not worth a mouth full of spit forgive me they're not worth a mouth full of spit i went to preach a conference and when i walked in walked in the pastor's office i knew there was a situation going on i could feel it when i walked in the room and finally somebody broke the ice and said oh brother cunningham they they put you under the gun tonight didn't they i said i don't know what i wasn't in the conference the night before in fact that was the first service i'd been in that conference i said i don't know what you're telling me i said oh so and so preacher was here last night and he got up and started prophesying thus saith the lord tomorrow night when jack cunningham gets here god's going to do this and god's going to do that and god's going to do something else and i told all them preachers i said let me help you understand something if god said it it's going to happen it isn't going to happen because jack cunningham's here it's going to happen if god really said it if god said this is going to happen tomorrow night then honey there ain't a devil in hell that can stop it from happening if god says there's another guy that told me introduced me out on the west coast to preach he said i'm bringing a man to this pulpit that's got billy cole's mantle upon his life i've never said i've never one time told anybody i got billy cole's mantle on my it's never come out of my my wife has never heard me say it and i told that preacher after church he said why why don't you tell people that you got billy cole's mantle i said well let me explain it to you if you've really got it you don't have to tell nobody and if you don't have it it don't matter how many people you tell you do that goes for anointing that goes for if you've got to constantly be reminding people you're a leader if you've got to constantly be reminding people you're in charge if you've got to constantly be reminding people of your title then honey you really don't have it anyway the bible said every man's gift will make room for itself and if god has called you and god is using you it don't matter what we call you around here hello this thing called holiness is a whole lot wider than some of us have thought say oh they're walking that narrow way of holiness there's nothing narrow about holiness there is nothing narrow about holiness it affects every area of our life it affects everything we do it affects everything we are it affects how we think it affects how we talk it affects how we act if we really genuinely believe in holiness it affects more than whether or not you're all painted up like the farmer's red barn today or not that's too narrow of a road to put holiness in because holiness affects everything clap your hands and shout yes our commitment to holiness our commitment to dedication and consecration to god has a huge impact on our human senses you know what i mean by human senses taste smell feel sight here it has a huge impact on our human senses and why is that important because your human senses are the highway to your brain the way your brain is fed it's what you see what you hear what you feel hello we are what we take in you take in trash guess what hello you take in ugliness you take in arguing and fighting and rebellion guess what our human senses determine how and with what we feed our spirit sight i went online this week and i thought how much does the bible have to say about what we're looking at and i immediately found like 30 40 50 scriptures that has to do with what we see what we allow ourselves to look at luke chapter 11 and verse 34 is just one of them it said the light of the body is the eye the light of the body is the eye therefore when thine eye is single thy whole body is also is full of light but when thine eye is evil huh when thine eye is evil thy body also is full of darkness say oh brother came out i sure rather you come out here this morning told us how long our hair is supposed to be sure wish you to come out here today and told us what we ought not be drinking because some of this stuff that has to do with holiness is way more important than me giving you a list of do's and don'ts and guess what being in full-time ministry now more i start i pastored my first church at 19 and i'll be 63 in about 30 days from now all those years in full-time ministry has taught me something as a pastor are you ready for this i can't make enough rules to keep you saved i i i've been in ministry what is that 44 years now almost and can i tell you that the rules aren't even the same today when i started there was no social media when i started televisions were black and white and got four or five channels when i was a kid and it was like father knows best now they got shows that ought to be called fathers and idiot mom and dad don't know nothing the rules have had to change even i can't keep making rules that keeps up with society what i've got to do is some way help you to come to a place where you are dedicated and consecrated to god and when you get to that place where you say in your heart i want to please him more than anything else and when you go to do this and you feel bad about it though i ain't doing that i'm dedicated and consecrated to god and you go over here and start to do something oh i ain't doing that and you go over here and start to run with somebody and you say oh i ain't running with them i get a bad feeling about this what's that mean preacher it means the dedication in your heart and the consecration in your heart that we call holiness is what's determining how you're going to live how you're going to act who you're going to run with instead of me making a bunch more rules clap your hands if you understand what i'm attempting to preach today [Applause] what we listen to impacts holiness proverbs chapter 18 and verse number 15 says the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge why would you say that brother cunningham because there's never been a generation that has been that has spent any more time listening to dummies than this generation hello we are the first generation in history that has sold millions of books written to dummies computer for dummies singing for dummies playing piano for dummies raising your kid for dummies and we buy them by the millions hello we need to be careful what we listen to we need to be careful who we listen to say oh brother cunningham really does it really really matter what i allow my fighting with each other tussling with each other and nobody's saying a word about it but you let them find out we went 10 people over at church and they're going to be out here this week to find out why [Applause] you need to quit listening to voices that are anti-god that are anti-righteousness that are anti-apostolic that are anti-goodness [Applause] voice and noise from the city is the voice of the world then he said the voice and noise from the tabernacle and that confused me because i thought what's the difference in the voice of the tabernacle and the voice of the lord and i figured it out the voice of the tabernacles the voice of religion and i promise you today the voice of religion sounds a whole lot more like the voice of the world than it does the voice of the lord oh brother cunningham i listen to dr so-and-so every day on the tel oh brother cunningham i just listened to religious broadcasting all day long you get on there and hear him talk about the trinity get on there and hear him talking about not having to live for god not having to please god get on there and hear him try to explain away what the scripture means and try to tell you that we don't have to do that in 2020 you know what you're doing you're filling your spirit your ear it's one of the avenues to your spirit you're filling your spirit with trash i don't expect everybody to clap your hands because the christian world has got we got our own little hollywood stars in the religious world that we just think are so cool i got news for you if they don't believe the truth i'm not filling my head with their trash [Applause] do what you want to do [Applause] then he said hear the word of the lord hear the word of the lord if there's ever been a day that we needed to be tuned into what god is saying it is this day that we live in our sight is a highway to our spirit our hearing is a highway to our spirit our thoughts and our desires and our feelings those are highways to our spirit in romans chapter eight and verse number five it said for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit do you hear what i'm trying to tell you today this is holiness our what we touch is an avenue to our spirit ii corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 17 i quote it often coming out from among them and be ye separate saith the lord what's it say next and touch not and touch not and touch not the unclean thing our relationships save this one to last on purpose our relationships are perhaps the number one influencer of our spirit i don't understand you already know what i'm going to say if you've been here any time at all i don't understand a child of god whose best friend is a whoremonger a liar a cusser i don't under i don't care who it is i don't care if you did go to high school with them if you're 30 years old and they're still acting like the idiot they were in high school that ought to tell you something hello i don't understand a child of god that is okay with running with somebody that don't believe what they believe that thinks you're wrong that thinks you're dumb for believing what you believe that is constantly challenging what you believe and who you are that you go to church two or three times a week and that you're attempting to live holy they're constantly trying to get you to take a drink tell a lie fool with a woman you ain't married to constantly pushing you to do wrong they are not your best friend they are your number one enemy [Applause] told you're going to make some happy and some mad holiness impacts our lifestyle it impacts our lifestyle choices holiness impacts where we go where we choose to go not going to start making a list but i'm guessing there's one going through all y'all's minds right now where we go holiness impacts what we choose to participate in or not hello holiness impacts who we associate with the bible said be not unequally yoked together as with believer and unbeliever and the only place that verse is ever used is in a wedding and there's nothing in the verse that even implies that it's talking about marriage could be a business partner could be a hunting partner could be just someone you talk to too much on the phone too much time on social media with hello be not unequally yoked together as with believer and unbeliever i'm not saying that the bible said it you're going to get mad get mad at god holiness impacts how we live how we're going to live our life it's impacted by holiness again some of you say saying why don't he finally get down to the do's and don'ts it ain't going to happen i'm not going to do it today i'm going to tell you how to come up with your own do's and don'ts list i'm going to tell you that when you get to the place where god matters more to you than anything else in this world that when you get to the place that you are wholly dedicated and holy consecrated to him when you get to the place where you feel like that which is sacred is what i'm interested in and that which is not sacred has no part in my life if i can get you to come to that place i'm never going to have to make a list again clap your hands and say amen if you understand put that seat belt back on shoulder harness too this time holiness impacts how we act holiness impacts how we act are we respectful of other people are we thoughtful do we only think of ourselves most of the time holiness impacts how we act not only does holiness impact how we act are you ready holiness impacts our reactions now let me stop right there and tell you i think our reactions are more an indicator of what's on the inside than our actions are why would you say that because our actions are thought out our actions are predetermined premeditated if you please but a reaction is what i do in a moment when something hits me somebody says something to me something i see something i feel something i'm thinking at the time my immediate reaction is more an indicator of what's on the inside it seldom gets this quiet at bible world holiness impacts how we act holiness impacts our priorities what matters most to us you say brother cam how do i determine that check your time your talent and your treasure they are three indicators they are the three most important indicators of the priorities in your life where do you spend your time how are you using your talent and where are you putting your money they determine your priorities in life i've told people before hand me your checkbook and your calendar and i'll tell you what matters most to you give me about 30 minutes with those two items and i'll tell you what matters most to you hello my my my my we got folks that haven't been to church yet but to go to walmart can't come here with 230 or 40 people whatever we got here today but they can go to walmart with a thousand more people have contracted covet at funerals and weddings and birthday parties and get-togethers than at any other venue and it's amazing how many of our people that haven't come back to church yet i think i was thinking you folks at home are just getting too comfortable they've been to every birthday party every graduation party every holiness impacts our priorities it puts god first and it keeps god first i'll close with this i'm not done i got pages of notes left i'll come back again but i'll close with this one point and that is holiness and this ought to be important to all of us holiness greatly impacts our sensitivity to the voice of the lord to the voice of the spirit the more callous your spirit becomes and that's what happens when you become worldly when you become worldly minded when you're thinking worldly when your affections are on the world set on the things that are in the world then your spirit that thing we call the heart not the beating muscle in your chest but our heart that feels becomes callous and worldliness keeps us from hearing the voice of god keeps us from feeling the direction we ought to go with god it keeps us from understanding the things of god and eventually it puts out that fire that ought to burn in all of us to please god samson and your old testament was a man called by god if you look at the calling god gave moses look at the calling god gave david and look at the calling god gave samson they're almost identical it would be accurate to assume that samson was being called by god to deliver the people of israel from oppression just like moses was that samson was being called by god to be like a david that would kill his tens of thousands of enemies kill a lion and a bear and a giant samson was given superhuman strength that god intended him to use for him but here's what samson did it started small he starts first of all fooling with a woman that is out to destroy his relationship with god let me tell you something young people listen to me we buried sister edie love yesterday and her daughter lisa who's probably one of the most talented young women i've ever met in my lifetime she played and traveled playing keyboard for lanny wolf for years was his own personal musician that traveled with him for years she can speak like very few women i've ever heard speak she is an amazing speaker she can speak accidentally better than most men can on purpose she's just an amazing lady but yesterday she stood in the pulpit and said that when i was such and such an age i was engaged to this boy and we broke up and she said i was heartbroken and i went to my we're doing her mama's funeral i went to my mama and what i wanted was i wanted my mama to hate him like i was hating him that i'm quoting her now and she said my mama looked at me and said girl this only means one thing god's got something better for you do we trust god or do we not do we believe god or do we not have we put our life in his hands or have we not [Applause] you hear me this morning the way samson got brought down was by getting hooked up with the wrong so-called love she started tempting him started trying him started testing him and i got to tell you the bible said she's pretty now when the bible says you're pretty you're pretty if the bible says you're ugly god don't lie the bible said she's pretty and evidently that's all that was on samson's mind because he lays his head in her lap and she said simpson tell me where your strength is where's your strength lie he said oh he said if you tie new if you braid some ropes into my hair he said i'd become powerless now the very fact that he talked about his hair means he was inching too close to telling her something he wasn't supposed to be telling nobody what did she do she waited we went sleep tied new ropes into his hair and hollered samson the philistines be upon you he jumped up and just tore everything up obviously his strength wasn't gone he lays his head down there laughing again sam said if you love me you'd tell me where your strength lies well if you'll if you'll braid a rope into my hair tie it around the center stake of the tent and the tent's like big as a house it's not like a little camping tent these are tents they lived in big old huge things tied around the pole of the tent he said i'll be rendered powerless she does all that ties it around to pull the tent weaves it in his hair and then she said samsung the philistines be upon you he jumps up and runs out of the tent and pulls the whole tent down the road by his hair now here's proof he's a dummy ought to write a book dummies and the power of god the power of god for dummies you know anybody that's got any brains at all would have scratched his head a little bit said you know what that old girl is going to do whatever i say whatever i tell her i told her weave something in my hair she did i told her to weave in my hair and tie it to a pole she did it i i need to be careful with this old girl but when you get to that point where you're thinking wrong hello she cries and boohoo samson if you really love me you tell me he said never razor's come to my head here it is power god for dummies never been a razor come to my head if you'd shaved my head i'd lose my power what did the dummy think she's gonna do next time he went to sleep she shaved his head and then she hollered samson philistines be upon you and this time there really were standing at the door of the tent and here's what the bible said it is the saddest one sentence in your whole bible the bible said samson went out as he had before and he wished not he knew not that the spirit of the lord had departed from him fooling with the world is going to make you miss the voice of god fooling with worldliness is going to make you carnal it's going to make you callous it's going to destroy those sensitivity receptors that god puts in of us to hear his voice to follow his leading in his direction you're going to start making carnal decisions you're going to start making carnal mistakes when you allow too much of the world to come in and too much of the holiness to leak out stand with me will you that's probably not the best place in the world i could have cut this message in half i hope i don't really hope i think i know i know the spiritual maturity of this church and i know that you know what i'm talking about i know that you know what i'm saying today what i don't know is what you're going to do with it what i don't know is how you're going to respond to it because that's an individual matter you see what's in your heart no matter how close you are to the person sitting on the same row as you right now or some other person in this church or in this area no matter how close they are to you it's impossible for them to know the hard decisions you've made it's impossible for them to know what you will or will not do in a given circumstance because they don't know the lines you've drawn and where you drew them i know this isn't as bad as you probably hate hearing me teach on standards i'm guessing a bunch of you would have rather i'd have threw out a few rules today and called that a sermon i'm trying to tell you how to make heaven i'm trying to tell you how to please god trying to tell you how to police yourself because i can't police everybody i don't go to work with you i don't go to dinner with you i don't i don't live in your house i don't know your friends there's no way for me to police you and there's no way for me to make enough rules so i've got to go back to the very beginning he said be holy as i am holy and holiness without which no man shall see the lord we've got to go all the way back to consecration and dedication and determining what is sacred would you raise both your hands to heaven let's make this whole church an altar would you raise both hands to him right now and would you let him know god i want to please you i want to please you first i want to please you foremost oh god i want to dedicate my heart i want to dedicate my mind i want to dedicate my thoughts i want to dedicate my eyes i want to dedicate my ears i want to dedicate my relationships i want to dedicate every part of my life to you oh god oh god oh god oh god oh god come on somebody cry out to him somebody take serious what i've said today somebody be sincere in your response to god oh god oh god oh god oh god jesus i need you jesus we need you i grew up in church singing an old song said make me what i ought to be help me to be more like thee bid me come up higher till thy face i see make me what i ought to be that ought to be the heart desire of every true child of god i want to please you god we need an old-fashioned revival of pleasing him and if i can go on and finish brother tinney's quote if it pleases him it don't matter who it displeases and if it displeases him it don't matter who it pleases we need to please god not please the flesh not please ourself not please friends not please educators not please culture not police political parties not please these that have an agenda but please god we need an old-fashioned revival of pleasing god brother thorpe you're one of our elders and normally and under non-coveted conditions would be setting up here come make your way to the pulpit i want an elder to pray for us today this man's lived for god a lot of years and he's an elder that we love around here during again when we're in a situation that's not coveted i deliberately have brother thorpe and brother sharp setting up here with me because i feel like we need the example of the elders in front of us amen we need the example of the elders in front of us i am so thrilled so thrilled with what i believe god has for us as a future as a church you're going to say that in the middle of covet preacher yeah i am because i believe we're going to come out of this thing like a rock out of a slingshot i believe we're going to hit the ground running i believe we're going to be more committed more dedicated to doing something for god to worshiping we're never going to is there anybody here that's thinking you're ever going to take church for granted again oh no we're going to be excited when they say it's time to go to the house of god i've got an excitement about our future i've got an excitement about our future but can i tell you that right now today in the present is determining what kind of future each of us are going to have and the present has got to include dedication and consecration to god it's going to impact our future come pray for us elder would you do that thank you jesus almighty god you're so wonderful heavenly father jesus lord i want to be more holy almighty god i want to draw closer to you i want to be sensitive to your voice lord i pray that you'll touch each and every heart that is in the congregation right now almighty god oh as i look out oh god i could see each and every face [Music] touch them almighty god we want to make heaven almighty god more than that we want to touch souls in the name of jesus help us to touch your throne of grace daily almighty god help us to draw closer and closer to you to be sensitive to that voice we must be holy to do that make right decisions to do that hallelujah in the name of jesus you're a rock almighty god you're the cornerstone of our faith i pray that you'll continue to help build us oh god in this end time almighty god it's so important that we draw closer to you thank you jesus for this message almighty god continue to know him pastor cunningham touch him almighty god to lead us and guide us o lord help us to be safe almighty god in this pandemic almighty god this pestilence that has come upon the world in jesus name in jesus name and everybody says amen hallelujah praise the lord are you glad you made your way to the house of the lord this morning praise god be holy amen i'm going to take that to heart this morning i'm going to be sacred i know you know you're going to do the same thing uh we're going to close but i'm going to pray for you let's pray right now lord i pray for god's people lord i pray for the children of god the people in this house and those that are watching online they're your people god they're your sons and daughters lord god they are in a loving relationship with you and lord god i pray for them i pray that your hand will be upon them god they're your people lord they're the ones that you love they're the ones that are the apple of your eye god they're the ones that have your heart lord jesus i pray god that you would lead them god that you would gently hold them close to you god that you would remind them of holiness remind them of being being sacred and set apart and dedicated unto you lord god keep us from the world lord god god let us maintain a proper social distance and from the world lord god god raise up in our lives the proper fields and screams lord god hallelujah do you anoint lord jesus hallelujah god help us to be holy as you are holy lord god and bless the people of god in jesus most holy and precious name in jesus name and everybody said in jesus name praise god we had a wonderful service tonight we want to remind you that service starts tonight at 6 00 p.m we do encourage you if you want to come to the sanctuary a little bit early before service and just get in that mindset of prayer we welcome you here pastor streit is going to be preaching tonight we're going to come and hear a mighty word of god i'm excited about tonight praise god glory to god remember our safety protocols as you are dismissed we remember to maintain your social distance and no physical contact wear your mask we love you you are dismissed in jesus name thank you see you tonight at 6 pm you

Channel: Bible World - An Apostolic Church

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Published: Sun Sep 06 2020