March 20, 2021 - As A Believer...How Do I Look?

okay well last week if you were here or you watched online we talked about how believers need to bring forth the fruit of the spirit we didn't say the fruits of the spirit don't say the fruits of the spirit there's only one fruit and some sire likeness okay and love appears first and it's in it's in a pecking order just like the gifts are in a pecking order you notice what's first in the gifts wisdom you know what's lasting the gifts tongues you know why because you could fake tongues but you can't fake wisdom just try it oh some of you have okay um by the way parents i know your kids aren't here but thank you uh every kid that hugged me and there was more that hugged me to them they ever hugged me but they usually all hug me it was very healing very healing i just feel healed so that was really nice of them um love love appears first because it's the greatest quality in that it's a quality that most clearly reflects who god is and so let's look at something that you're all too familiar with a couple of verses from deuteronomy six this is the shema which of course if you're here you're familiar with it um it says shamai israel echad and then the translation here israel aronoy our god aranoi is one and you are the love adonoi with all your heart all your being and all your resources david stern you know he's he's a scholar he changed this a little bit with the heart and being it's it's heart soul mind and strength but it basically essentially says exactly the same thing if you look up those words you'll see in the hebrew all right judaism has no catechism any any any recovering catholics so you know what catechism is right all right sure you do it's but basically for those who don't know it's just a summary of religious principles every denomination has some religious principles about it that distinct distinguishes it from other religions other denominations judaism has no catechism but the shema is closest to being judaism's credo credo a creed a formula of belief that's what it means okay so in six hebrew words just six words it sums up judaism's belief in monotheism which by the way was a gift to the world okay every single solitary christian who believes in monotheism believes because the jews handed it off to them okay prior to jews they were just polytheists which they still are a lot of polytheists around the world and the rejection of all idols and we went over that a couple of weeks ago right we talked about idols they're not just totem poles or carved is we have a lot of idols in our hearts okay and our house for that matter what this is saying is we are love god with all of us it's not a part-time love okay it's not sunday or saturday or at wednesday night or tuesday morning whenever you get together it's it's not part time it's full time and for all intent and purposes these very same words are repeated in the gospels they're repeated in matthew mark and luke okay by none other than yeshua himself and of course if you call yourself a believer i know people like to call themselves christians i i don't like to call myself a christian personally because it's it's a long story but i'm a jew and i could remember as far back as 62 years i've been jewish and when i accepted yeshua i didn't stop being jewish i didn't know i had to now if you ask a christian today they would tell you that i have to and i'd be like no no in fact if you go back to the first century it was cornelius that had become more jewish not keith who had to become more gentile don't care what cemetery i mean seminary you went to that's just the truth man get with the program go back to the first century man stop living in like 20th century that's not where it started go to the original where it originated okay that's that's its roots that's important so when you're calling yourself a believer you're supposed to follow yeshua's teachings and when they asked him they asked him look there's 613 commandments okay 613. it's not a ton but it's a lot and they just asked him like so you know you're a great rabbi you're a great teacher obviously very anointed is is there a pecking order to this stuff like what's the most important commandment so let's let's take a look at mark 12 30. how could anybody not i mean come on guys come on you read this forever it is the gospels how did you not see this as the shema how did you vacuum out everything jewish when he's giving you the shema this is a jewish rabbi with jewish students in a jewish place giving you a jewish credo and you became a gentile like how did you do that how how were you so how did you become such an automatron it's listen it's right in what you are reading it says study to show yourself approved this is the shema this guy has given them the shema i mean the shema you say twice in the morning it's chakra at night you're supposed to say the shema on your deathbed if you're a jew hundreds of thousands of jewish martyrs sung the shema as they were dying rabbi akivas they were burning him at the stake sung the shema in 135 a.d when the romans were burning and they said look he's calling on us he's a sorcerer and somebody says it's not a sorcerer he's singing the shema and this is what akiva said all my life four times a day i sung the shema i fulfill it that's that's as deep as it gets today guys if you don't get that your wood is so wet there's no way i can light it up for you the shema this sums up this right here in mark 12 30 and you are the love i don't know your god i mean where did you see the disconnect the old testament now this is the new do i look like vanna white the new and improved testament it's the same thing you were to love i don't know you god with all your heart with all your soul with all your understanding with all your strength all all this sums up man's responsibility as a believer to god god is to have supreme place in our life no other love is allowed to rival our love for god for our spanish-speaking people he is numero uno if there's a dose or a trust that's fine but he's numero uno you follow i mean this is challenging stuff yeshua was very challenging i don't know what yeshua people have today i don't know what yeshua they're preaching i don't know who their pre it's another it's another issue it's another messiah it's another messiah it's not the same biblical messiah it is not the same messiah look at luke 14 26 i'll prove it to you one verse if anyone comes to me what's he saying comes to me follows me you want to call yourself a christian that's what it means to follow to come after to submit to if you will you want me to be your rabbi you want me to be your lord you want me to be messiah okay here's the deal if you don't hate your father and mother or wife and children your brothers and sisters yes your own life then forget it how do you read it it's english it's basic words a lot of one syllable words i know some of you real smart you don't have to put on your thinking cap you don't need a thesaurus or a dictionary this is straight up right in your face now some literal person because you know there are people that take everything literal no matter what that's why i can't live here because you know i'm sarcastic and doesn't work so they'll go to wait a minute did yeshua really want us to hate our parents seriously how long have you been a believer why would you even say that it's blasphemous to say it why would you think it it's amazing amazing yeshua is saying that he demands he's not asking he's not he's not doing the 21st century pastor thing i just want to challenge you screw challenge you i'm not challenging you you see he's not challenging you it's not a challenge i dare you to obey me he's lord he's commanding it he's driving the ship man he demands he's saying i demand he's saying i demand demand i must have first place for the true disciple you ready it's your shoe before family yep yep sweet pea i know you're the mother of the year you and about five million other women yeshua before family it's yeshua before country soldier yeshua before country it's for king and country king comes first you sure before life itself it's not only that we must love our relatives less it's not saying don't love your relatives but he crazy honor your mother and father that would be tough enough but he's saying we gotta hate our own life too that's a tough one today because man if it ain't about me it ain't about no one life will go on without you pal you won't even be missed hardly but pull yeshua out of the mix for a minute and this thing falls apart who is the king of pop don't make like you don't know don't act all holy the king of rock the king of soul where are they and what happened what happened when they died did things stop but if the king of kings goes off the throne for a second i'm not saying they weren't good people i'm not saying that i'm just saying prioritize this thing man instead of asking how every action will affect ourselves and our lives we must ask how every action will affect god and his glory considerations of personal comfort and safety must take a back seat look kid you're watching i know you're dead we came to faith at the same time and for whatever reason he had his struggles he had his fair share and he went on a different path but man he came back and he came back hard and he was a believer legit in every sense of the word know that about your father personal comfort and safety take a back seat to the task of glorifying god and making his son known yeshua's words here guys are absolute there can be no half-hearted believers then he goes on in the second commandment mark 12 31 yes love god with everything and then he says you ought to love your neighbors yourself this is a tough one for people there are a lot of believers they have mark 12 30 down pat the next verse man i love god i love god these are the two men this sums it all up so the life that counts according to yeshua even if i wasn't a believer i could read this and tell you this the life that really counts is concerned first with god and then with others we to love god more than ourselves and love everyone else like ourselves god is important and people are important period material things are not even mentioned but love is not just some vague love that denies truth and tolerates all things if you think i'm preaching anything goes you're out of your mind that's not what i'm preaching but neither is love content to judge things by their outward appearances you have to be careful we have to be careful not to forsake love for the sake of judging outward forms rather than the true heart of the person you have enough trouble knowing your own heart your own heart confuses you where do you get off knowing the heart of another person without even talking to them without even getting to know them 40 years i know this guy i know him you're going to make a call nobody has that discernment god drops that on you every now and then but you do not have a crystal ball look at first samuel 16 you know this well if you don't you should obviously schmoyle is a prophet a legit prophet i'll prove it to you right here you might see something that you never saw chances are he's sending shmoil on a road trip to anoint a new king adonai said which means one who hears god by the way how much longer are you going to go on grieving for shaol now that i have rejected him as king over israel fill your horn with oil and set out i will send you to yeshai the beth me jesse the bethlehemite because i have chosen myself a king from among his sons shmoil said how can i go if shaol hears of it he will have me killed it's a legitimate concern right if you knew you were on the way they would get killed you might say the same thing adonoi said take a female cow with you and say i have come to sacrifice to adonoi summon you shy to the sacrifice i will tell you what to do and you would anoint for me the person i point out to you so god told samuel bluntly i don't care how close you are to him i've rejected him saul's done i've chosen another man to rule over israel and because israel's mine it's my choice to make nobody can refute it now was god telling samuel to lie because some people read that and see that this looks like deception do you see it do you see the possibility of it have you lost your mind again god's going to tell him to lie no no no god was not telling samuel to lie the anointing of the new king was a secret affair secrecy is not the same as deceit if i tell my kids something that they're not supposed to tell anybody else that's not a lie it's not deceit let's continue on schmoyel did what adonai said because he was a legit man of god and he arrived at bethlehem the leaders of the city came trembling to meet him ah did you see it today when prophets come nobody trembles because they're not prophets if they were prophets the people would tremble why because the prophets always had the same message you're of course you better return to god the judgment's coming today the prophets tell you what you want to hear so they can get a good collection and the better the story the better the collection guys i could have made a sick ridiculous living going around the country to churches and telling them how this poor lost orthodox jew became a christian yeah i'm telling you they would have paid big for that but then i tell them that story i started telling that story started so people invited me they want to hear the story and then when i said and then i found out reading matthew 1 1 i'm reading this jewish genealogy and it was so jewish that i realized i didn't have to give up being jewish because jesus didn't either get the hook get him off the stage get him off and then i wasn't invited anywhere anymore i don't care about the stupid offering care about the truth god's my favorite always had always will so they're trembling he's a prophet and they're saying are you coming in peace look at this guys today they applaud oh look who's here give him a perrier he answered in peace i've come to sacrifice to adonoi consecrate yourselves get yourselves right just don't show up at beth yeshua don't just show up we don't have some spiritual shower consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice he consecrated yeshi and his sons and summoned them to the sacrifice when they had come he looked at eliav the first son what do you think the first son looked like the firstborn yeah a little joselito you know strong probably good looking right so he's like i got him we're done let's eat let me get out of here i want to get out of here before saul finds out right he's in a rush he's believing god to an extent but you know everybody believes god to an extent lord i believe help me with my unbelief so he wants to get out of there guys you don't read like that right you read it and you go i got to memorize this has to be i'm noise anointed one first samuel 16. i'm not kidding around man i'm not making fun that's not the way to read the bible we went over this right put yourself in the story feel it these are regular people just like you regular people doing regular life experiencing it just like you but if you don't feel it you won't see it i don't know i said nope nope and what does he say right away why are you paying attention to how he looks how tall he is who cares you think you got to be like tall to be a king when i was first to rabbi people say you don't look like a rabbi so you think rabbis thought when they're 80 because they saw one rabbi they saw like an adult rabbi somewhere and fiddle on the roof and they're like you don't look like a rabbi how's the rabbi look you don't look like a jew how does a jew look you want me to tell you what you look like with those what you're saying right now crazy you don't look jewish there's jews in china how am i supposed to look 2005 we found a bunch of jews in kaifeng had they looked they look like chinese people but then i said to schmoyel don't pay attention to how he looks how tall he is i've rejected them and here's here's the message i don't know he doesn't see the way humans do now humans look at the outward appearance but i don't know it looks at the heart so samuel looks over the men one by one confident that the next king was before him but none was the lord's choice shamblers should have actually learned from his experience with saul that the outward man is not nearly as important as the inner man now i've wanted to i've kind of shared this with you guys before like in the drive-by about exterior but i've i've mentioned this over the years i mean it's part of it's part of my fiber you know for me it's all about internal relational reality not external religious rituals it's always been that way from the time i met the lord it was that way and it always will be that way people do judge by looks and dress and outward appearances correct today the mainstream media encourages this faulty outlook by using glamorous people and advertisements television and printed material do you do you realize like to get a job as a weather person why do you have to look like a victoria's secret model i just want you to tell me the barometric pressure i don't give a crap what you look like but if you're a brilliant meteorologist you won't get a job thank god doctors could still be ugly huh i'm only kidding we have a couple of doctors here you know i love you shut up ah i don't make a federal case over everything god because if you do i'll just say see you got offended which means you're not a strong believer you're going to come out losing you're not going to win but it's pathetic i remember in 1980 a show 60 minutes they took a woman who was pleasingly plump and like a model and they put them in the same outfit and the same car in a different spot on the highway do you know how many people stopped for the model it was like accident and nobody stopped for the other and even as a secular person i knew in my heart that is so wrong let me tell you a story i was in the gym i don't know if i told you the story so this might be for the first time and who comes in jean-claude van damme you know him i mean not only is he like a sick martial artist okay like he was a legit champion a world champion he wasn't just a you know showman but the guy was as man pretty as anybody i've ever seen he was magnificent his jaw structure you know and and his wife was looking for a trainer so you can imagine what he's married to right so i need to we know how this works right we know how the system works right we know how it works right okay so she comes in and she just had a lousy attitude and the guys in the gym were like so she was recommended to me so she comes over to me and she just had a lousy attitude and so she went on the stair climb and i went up to her and i said something to her and she did not say something nice to me i said okay i walked away when she was done she came over to me and she said uh so we ready to train i said who do you think you are and a friend of mine was like you're out of your mind i'll train like he wasn't even a trainer but he goes i'll train her i was like you think you're stinking 20 bucks is more important than her i'd rather in fact i'll train her this hour for free over you i promise you i did this you know i did this you know me you've been around me long enough to know that's my dad and she said well i'm sorry i have jet lag i go you know you're so used to i get it i see what you look like you're so used to everybody opening the doors i'm not opening the door for you and then she simmered down because nobody talks to people like that right they just they talk to them like that behind their back never to them all i could say is i don't know if you're watching but she was the most physically fit person because i legitimately tried to kill her and i could not i legitimately tried to i wanted to see can i give this individual a heart attack when i go she got what was coming to her but she left she lasted the workout it was unbelievable i gave him no rest i told you can't drink water you know ordinary looking people and i put it in quotes because that term is up for grabs right you know ordinary looking people they don't seem as satisfactory as they should today it's it's insane i mean sportscasters like are you kidding me what ever happened to the ugly sportscasters that used to actually play the sport look god focuses on how people look on the inside period okay it's all right to take care of your appearance and to look presentable it's it's okay don't get me wrong you know if you haven't showered for a week you might want to hit the and before you come here okay just saying but god would rather see us work on becoming drop dead gorgeous on the inside you know who i'm talking about right the kind of person that talks to god all the time loves to spend time in the lord's word always reading their bible loves to spend time in god's presence will do anything to hear a word from god they're seeking god always for his will for their lives and actively looking for opportunities to bless anyone and everyone that's drop dead gorgeous this is the attractive one for it's more about being good than looking good i'll give you one other scripture there's not a lot here today um proverbs 31 30. i didn't think i'd have much today um you know this right we say this over our wives at shabbat dinner every shabbat my kids here all the time but charm can lie beauty can vanish but a woman who fears look at look but it's like listen charm charm you know when people are charming it's usually deceptive a charming person usually is using it to deceive and to get what they want beauty convention it's fleeting it's fleeting man some of you are holding on like still thinking trying so hard it's like music to your ears when somebody says how old are you i can't believe it first of all most of the time they're lying to you just just putting that out there now you know i'm not i'm not advocating don't exercise exercise but don't stare in the mirror i mean look at yourself that you just saw yourself like a few hours ago you don't remember what you look like but a woman who fears the lord that's who god praises god you think i go oh my gosh she looks amazing just amazing absolutely stunning no i know bernadette was a when i first met her like a couple of weeks your mother won miss yonkers which was the fourth largest city in new york and then i had to take it to the miss new york state and she found a cat and i had to bring the dopey cat with us to this hotel so 18 years old if she won this came in second i think she won this she would have been in the miss usa somebody just pulled her to go in she wasn't even interested in beauty contests but i brought the cat and we went to this hotel and i didn't have a cat carry i was going to go and spend money on a cat car i just threw him in a bag so the cleaning lady came in and she sees the bag moving she goes adios mio the bag is more i said no it's not moving i just kicked the bag out of the way yeah yeah you hear the cat i didn't even like cats just kicked him behind the bed mommy's watching you remember remember he got out of the hotel room and i had to find him in the snow up at saratoga springs and then my luck the cat lives 18 years they're like the oldest cat in history lives 18 years i don't even like the cat she found him said you got to take him in 18 years it had a stroke when he was 18. i bring him to a vet and the vet says well uh we could put him up on some ivs put the cat up on ivs i said how much is that going to cost he goes well initially it's 500 that's all i heard i just i looked around because you know how there's animal lovers by me and the veterinarian's off i look around and i just whisper to my goal what's it called he's like what i said what's the cause to put him down he's got a stroke let him go seriously it's a cat it's a cat beauty fades with age so if you're more concerned with outer appearance you will become unhappy at some point the wrinkles will come and the number on the scale will go up and you'll be miserable look i'm just telling you flat out if you stand two girls next to each other one is miss teen usa and the other one is average looking but she loves the lord more than anything she's the beautiful one in god's eyes i'm not saying it's it's a sin to be whatever beautiful i'm not saying that you know i'm not saying that okay you'll see what i'm saying in a minute because i saw it in the bible and when i saw it it was astounding to me it's probably going to be more astounding to me because you'll be like what's so astounding about that it's astounding because it's only like one verse in the whole bible like this and it just blew me away you ready you sure yeah yeah okay all right finishing up my lunch bell is going off look at exodus 30 17-18 ask my kids if they would have been like that when i was reading the bible with them we almost done dad ask him after service ask him what i would have said okay 30 17 through 18. i don't know he said to moshe you want to make a basin of bronze this is very serious the tabernacle is very serious it's a replica of the tabernacle in heaven it's the way to approach god there's a certain way to approach him from the outer courtyard into the holy of holies there's a way you've got to go through the altar of sacrifice washing your hands with the guilt going into the holy of holies being thirsting and hungering the bread and the oil before you get into god's presence to be a peacemaker there's a way to approach god make no mistake it's serious and the noise said to moshe you ought to make a basin of bronze with a base of bronze for washing place it between the tent and the altar the altar of sacrifice and then the tent when you hear the tent of meeting that's not the tabernacle the tabernacle is the whole thing the tent is just the holy place in the holy of holies okay this is like the tent so he places this basin and he's very serious about he's giving very serious directions the bronze abrasion was for the priests they had to wash themselves before serving either in the tent of meeting or at the altar burnt offering either way even though it's after the altar they had a wash before they served any priest who handled holy things before washing death sends death sentence this should be a solemn reminder that we must be spiritually and more clean on the inside no matter how dirty you are this isn't going to work it didn't even stop covid it's not going to stop unholiness it's not going to work no matter how much you wash no matter how much you wash on the outside no matter how pretty you look like on the outside it's about the inside it's about being spiritually morally clean now look at this verse this is the verse that got me 38 8. you won't see another verse like it in the bible he made the basin of bronze right he made it with its base of bronze from the mirrors you get it or do i need to do i need to talk about it i'll talk about it because what the heck i had nothing else to do he made the base of bronze from the mirrors of the women who are they we don't know who they are but there were these women serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting why did they have mirrors they got this stuff out of egypt so it was high polished high quality high quality mirrors why did they have mirrors with them i mean they're kind of like greeters i get it you know but mirrors a mirror is the hebrew word is mora you can look it up and it means mirror something you see a reflection but it also could mean figuratively a mode of revelation so what is the revelation here greg what are you trying to say god i'm not sure exactly what he's trying to say but i have a pretty good idea maybe these women were overly focused on their exterior could it be as they're serving in the tent of meeting in a holy place so the question i have is do we put more time and effort into being pretty on the outside or on the inside we're supposed to reflect god's glory we were made in his image and when he looks at us he should see his reflection like the moon doesn't have its own light it reflects the sun's light we should reflect the sun so ends light but since god is spirit what are you supposed to look like the pictures of yeshua you see in every church he didn't have long hair okay no first century jewish man had long hair like that and then somebody goes i had somebody go like this to me well he was a nazirite and nazarites take vows to not cut their hair he was in azerite what bible are you reading he was from nazareth genius he wasn't a nazarite he never took a nazarite vow what is there a secret bible you're reading and anyway my bible says in isaiah 53 he was nothing to look at says he was nothing to look at what does that mean he was nothing to look at he had nothing to attract us to him exterior wise that's what it means right and everybody tells me oh jesus left all the time really i don't see it in fact my bible says he was a man of sorrows a man of sorrows doesn't sound like he's laughing all the time what's so funny i mean i'm not saying we shouldn't laugh laughter is good mess i like to laugh but i cry as much as i left if not more i'm just putting that out there just in case you think oh this is happy-go-lucky idiot who's got who's got it made yeah you keep thinking that have fun with that so if god is spirit which he is right what are we supposed to look like and i think the bible gives a fantastic definition in in exodus moshe who spoke to god face to face right crazy intimate relationship face to face and then later on in his relationship with him right before the ray go into the promised land he says show me your glory like i think he saw his glory a lot but he loved him so much he just needed to see it and so god says i will i will and what do we see exodus 34 5 6 this is god's glory guys i don't know how he descended in the clouds stood with him there and pronounced the name of adonoi i don't know he passed before him and proclaimed hey you de vave i don't know is god now let me just i'm sorry i can't see it without saying something sorry there are these sacred names out there do you know who you are okay it's you'd have hey there are no vowels so if you want to say yahweh knock yourself out but that's not what it says it's purposely there without vowels so you can't pronounce it because if you pronounce it then you put a name on god once you name god you limit god my license plate is you'd hey vape i can't believe nobody ever got it but i get to witness with that thing like crazy is that you and your wife's initials not exactly how much time do you have it's fantastic it's a fantastic witnessing tool i just can't believe when i went to get it i was like nobody has this in georgia wow the bible belt the law will hold that in and then anything is you see the acronym why hvh what was hanging over yeshua's head yeshua hamashiach jesus the messiah the king of the jews anyway let's go on i know you like let's go on that wasn't the message we don't want to get off course who put this in red now you're going to make me talk about it okay merciful and compassionate slow to anger riching that's his glory it wasn't when he blows stuff up it's not his creative power ex nihilo out of nothing as they say in latin that's his glory yep that's his glory and that's what we're supposed to look like merciful and compassionate that means being charitable being forgiving being generous and being lenient does that describe you charitable forgiving giving and forgiving generous generous and lenient not quick to judge especially not by outward appearances compassion is something deep deep it's having sympathy and pity towards others it's being moved in your gut if you look the word up it's moved in your gut in your bowels in your stomach moved and not moved to go oh i feel bad for you but it's bigger than that it's moved to do something about it move by the suffering and distress and the misfortune of another and thereby giving relief and aid i like to think it is empathetic are you familiar with empathy i i i don't know it's it's a gift and it's a gift and it could be a curse in a sense if it takes because it it it gets me all the time empathy empathy is when you can identify with you vicariously experience it if i see somebody's mother hurting then it's my mom if i see somebody's wife it's bernadette kids it's max it's crazy i can feel it i can feel it and sometimes i feel it it's weird it's like why am i feeling this more than you are this is insane you can vicariously experience the feelings and thoughts and attitudes of another when you do that you have no choice but to help there's no way around it second aspect about what god looks like he's slow to anger describe you this is bearing provocation it's bearing annoyance it's bearing misfortune it's bearing delay you know when you don't get it right away it's bearing hardship it's bearing pain with endurance and calm not like not that's not bearing this look do you see how challenging this is i come from a place that is 12 miles by 2. 12 by 2. my son just visited a friend 2 500 acres 12 miles by 2. some of you go you know the people the people in new york city they're a little aggressive it's an island twelve by two with five million people any given day gilligan and the skipper couldn't get along and it was just two of them on a much bigger island of course it's going to be aggressive do you ever drive in that it's gridlock all the time you can't even get in a cab because it's just when click click click click click click waiting time it's not distance they figured it out they said let's get them on waiting time click click click click click it's hard this was a hard lesson for me the bible calls it long-suffering why because it's suffering long i call it just yeah yeah yeah yeah i like how you didn't even move off the wall ronnie good one he's just going well we know your index finger works and the other gives you a high five way to go i want to know why we're the laughingstock of messianic judaism son it's not on me look i don't know what goes on in this town but when somebody is looking down at their phone and they're in the vehicle in front of me and the light turns green i've lived here 18 years i've never heard a horn go off why do you think god made the horn he didn't make the horn so when a kid's running out in front of you you beat the horn you're gonna run the kid over he made the horn for the who's looking at his phone instead of the light and they say rabbi that's rude to beat the one i think it's rude to look at your text when you should be looking at the road i think that's more rude so i'm going to be a little less rude by going get out of the way instead you don't beat behold but you talk about them for days i just beat the horns to talk about them it's nothing personal go school and rich in grace and truth which is foundational it's being good kind and loving all the while being faithful reliable and sure it's bestowing favor without compromising what you know to be true it's the way yeshua lived he underwrote things in love but he never compromised the truth when alex passed away the first thing his wife sent to me first thing text he loved you so much because you never compromised the truth with him and that got him on track every time the truth is love if you have a friend that's blowing smoke up your butt they're not your friend if that's what you want in a friendship have at it i don't have friendships like that bernadette and i don't conduct ourselves like that my kids and i don't conduct ourselves like that we're able to talk and be real and be genuine and be honest with our feelings that's love now of course you could take it to the extreme and be mean-spirited that's not what i'm talking about here you know i'm not in the end what we are is more important than anything we will ever say or do the last two verses were outski roman's quintessential theological book toward the end romans 14 7-8 it says for none of us lives only in relation to himself and none of us dies in relation to himself for if we live we live in relation to the lord and if we die we die in relation to the lord so whether we live or die we belong to the lord a believer's life is not his own the lordship of yeshua must enter every aspect of our lives obviously nobody does this including yours truly but it doesn't mean we shouldn't give it a best shot this is challenging it doesn't mean we're disqualified if we don't do it 100 it doesn't god doesn't act like that i'm just saying this is the bar the bar is high i get it it's high for you it's high for me but if we don't raise the bar we'll never press on we'll all fall short but if the bar is this high and we fall short we're here if the buzz this time we fall short we're here that's all i'm saying am i pushy ask my kids ask if alex was here to tell you he pushed me but he pushed me right back to the lord i'm gonna miss you dad i'm so gonna miss him so crazy man he was a good friend they don't come like him man your father was aces aces asus trust me i knew his heart real well although it's true that what we say and do affects others this is not the message here the apostle paul is emphasizing that the lord should be the goal of our lives everything we do in life is subject to yeshua's review and approval you know what the right thing is to do you know but if you ever wonder look to the sky and see if your shoe is going like this or like this because there's no this there's no neutrality even in death we look to glorify god as we go to be with him besides the death of my buddy there was another great man of god like a.w tozer in the 20th century his name was leonard ravenhill he was actually incredibly close to tozer he was an evangelist and an author from england and he was born in 1907. his ministry focus was on prayer and revival and he challenged western christianity which is the united states challenged them to emulate the believers in the first century in the book of acts that was his challenge ravenhill died in 1994 and was buried in gone valley texas at a place called garden valley cemetery the epitaph on this tombstone gives you your take-home message today all the things you were living for worth christ dying for let's stand together i appreciate your prayers for tomorrow um i've got to try to get there it's sketchy a lot of connections and stuff so i'm just hoping everything goes well because you know you know we live in a society i gotta tell you where you know when i was a kid somebody died in the neighborhood everybody came even people that didn't know the guy too well you know why it was called paying respects today it's it's inconvenient could you imagine that i was supposed to take lily and a a friend to florida well florida's going to be there my friend only going to die once think about it guys don't live cheap don't it's fleeting here today gone tomorrow the good news is my friend's only going to die once so it's better to be born twice and die once than to do one once and die twice may the lord bless you and keep you may the lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and may the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace in the name of the principle of peace yeshua is [Music] guys

Channel: Getzel

Views: 4,207

Rating: 4.949367 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: f0hriqB5r4w

Length: 53min 45sec (3225 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021