May 1, 2021 - OBEDIENCE

so as you may or may not know um the scriptures are chosen for me on on the first shabbat of the month which is kind of neat in a way because i don't have to really seek the lord except seek the lord just for what he wants to maybe speak on these scriptures so let's just jump right into it let's go let's take a look at our old testament reading and um it says quote this is the lord speaking you ought to keep my mitzvot that's hebrew for commandments and obey them i am illinois you know there's no way to pronounce the yudhi babhi there's um there's a whole group of people i met in africa and now they're very popular here they're called sacred namers and they say you have to say the word yahweh but yahweh is really taking liberties there's no way to put vowel sounds under those four it's called the tetragrammatron and the reason is is there's no way to to name the lord you know we call him the lord we call him harunoi but we can't pronounce and there's a reason for that because any time you put a name on anything not a person anything they become limited they become finite to that name so what the jewish people are saying is there's no way to name him so the orthodox say hashem the name and they're not being they're not being funny and they're not being weird they're not being religious they're actually being reverent and if you ask me that is what is missing today and i'm not just talking about reverence in the church i'm talking about reverence in the home reverence in the school reverence on the street it's just such a lack it's it's hard i i didn't think i'd become my father but i have at 62 i'm just scratching my head and wondering did anybody learn any etiquette on what customer service means it's just hard to believe hard to believe that it's it's come to this um you are not to profane my holy name on the contrary so not only are you supposed to not do this but this is what you're supposed to do i'm to be regarded as holy among the people of israel i am adonoi who makes you holy who brought you out of the land of egypt to be your god i'm illinois i mean you get the picture right you don't have to be a theologian to get the picture of this but you know as i know context is is crucial right i mean a lot of you probably didn't know that but there are five basic ways to study scripture there's five principles and i don't really understand it because you know men of god learn this but then when they come out they don't teach it i'm not sure why i'm not sure why but there's five principles and you've got to take a literal approach to scripture scripture must prove scripture you've got to reconcile all apparent discrepancies and the bible says 969 of them if you want to great books by haley you'll you'll see all about them and then when it comes to prophecy there's the lord double reference or near and far prophecy but the most important is context it's like if i say i love that movie and that's all you took you're taking it out of context but there was a tremendous amount of profanity there was uh you know too much derogatory talk about god you're not taking after the comma you're just taking what you want and that's out of context and people do this all the time i'm sadly enough many many men of god well-intentioned people that love the lord will will take scripture out of context all day long every day and that's a real big problem because text taken out of context is pretext or it becomes a lie so a little context up to this point leviticus 18 chapters 18 to 22 18 19 20 21 22 deals with laws concerning personal conduct god is saying look you know i delivered you i created you genesis i delivered you exodus i'm bringing you into the promised land there's a way you conduct yourself in that promised land you follow there's rules everywhere everywhere i go there's rules i mean in burger king if you if you go into the playground you could have to take off his shoes why because the kid is at the end of the slide and the kid's wearing a cowboy boot he's going to get a concussion there's rules everywhere but people that operate in the flesh the flesh hates rules the flesh cannot be told what to do by the way you cannot harness the flesh you cannot make the flesh do what you want you cannot tame the flesh you can tame a man-eating tiger you can't tame your tongue so you have to operate in the spirit the spirit loves rules the spirit loves to obey the spirit loves authority the spirit loves to submit so any time you're having a difficulty with that knowing what you're operating in just want to let you know that you're operating sadly enough in the flesh we've been delivered right we were created we had a genesis we had to deliver through yeshua's blood we're not in the promised land but we're in the kingdom there's rules in that kingdom man you can't act the way you act outside the kingdom and the kingdom you're in the kingdom so this whole this whole 18 to 22 deals with what what's the biggie the whole chapter 18 is on sexual purity it talks about fornication it talks about bestiality it talks about homosexuality because let's face it guys it's still a huge sin you want to know what brings guys down especially in ministry the three g's gold glory and girls sadly enough for women it's gold glory and guys so it talks about sexual purity then there's laws for everyday life like what honoring parents yeah he spoke about that in exodus 20 but he reiterates it because that's how important it is today i've never seen anything like it guys i've never seen anything like it i don't even understand it how did it happen and these are christian kids i mean honoring your parent is almost it's like this much below worship honoring your parents forbidding idolatry talking about mediums and sorcerers familiar spirits you're familiar with the familiar spirits these are demons that occupy these sorcerers the sorcerers think they're household servants but they're demons that occupy feeding the poor talks about feeding the poor it forbids stealing and cheating and lying there's even a section i know you know how long fall black goes 3 200 years and they talk about taking care of the handicap what do you think there wasn't any handicap then that's why we have a miracle mission looking after the aged what do we do with our aged we warehouse them and we have strangers take care of them they have they have incredible wisdom you don't learn wisdom overnight i know there's a lot of young people out there you know 16 year olds that think they're wise it just shows you how unwise they are it prohibits slander you can't take vengeance you have to love your neighbor on and on and on it's beautiful it's beautiful there's nobody in their right mind that would tell me that if we didn't obey those things the world would be a better place if they if they weren't able to say that then they're out of their minds because it's just logic so in our reading today we're at the final paragraph this is the final paragraph of that section okay these are the final 31 32 33 last three verses and this explains just in case the israelites aren't sure like they've got these rules just like if a kid says to the father why should i do them why do i need to do them god's just explaining why the israelites were to keep and obey the commandments of the lord you know why i mean you could say because god said so i mean people tell me all the time rabbi you make everything so simple i didn't make everything simple god did man complicates it there's prayers that started in 135 a.d with two verses and now they have 49 verses who who added you don't need to add to this stuff it's pretty simple it really is you complicate it with your intelligence and your doctrine and your religiosity it's simple trust me it's simple the god of israel brought them out of the land of egypt and the reason why they should do these things one word because he's holy now i want to tell you something there is not a theologian in the universe who's ever was able to explain what it means to be holy and a lot of times when they try to the longer they talk the more lost they sound god is unlike any other okay it's what i call otherness you know some people have a piece of cake they go wow this cake is out of this world no the cake was flour eggs and butter it's all it is it's no big deal god in his holiness the very essence of that is otherness his his very being is completely absent of any trace of sin do you understand this everybody in this sanctuary no matter how holy you look no matter how holy you act you will sin every day and multiple times some people go well i sinned once you just sin twice you sinned once and you lied no sin constantly in thought in thought that's the problem non-believers think that you guys have it together and they're not welcome because you act like you have it together it's just not true but god is completely absent from any trace of sin he's high above any other and no one can compare to him god's holiness his holiness pervades his entire being and shapes all his attributes in other words his love is holy love it's not even like ours it's holy love his mercy is a holy mercy even his anger and his wrath are holy these concepts are difficult for human being to grasp i can't grasp them and they're just as difficult for us to understand in its entirety but you know what me personally i love that i don't need to know too much i just need to know that he's holy and he's god and that's what makes me want to worship him the prophet isaiah said who knows the mind of the lord whom given counsel and that was reiterated by the great apostle paul and there are people that walk around i know the lord both said he knows you it's a joy it doesn't make me even worship him it's it's it's beyond an honor at this point for me it's beyond the privilege i can't wait to wake up so i can worship him sometimes i worship in my sleep in my dreams i'm not being a big shot i'm just saying you should feel the same way when you love somebody so much you want to be with them all the time you can't get enough of them people say i'm obsessive i don't know about that i don't know about that i've seen obsessed with people what's wrong with wanting to be with god a lot the words in our torah partial that that i obviously italicized not to profane holy name i am to regard as holy i am i don't know mexico they all stress the message of leviticus and also for the entire bible for that matter none other than god is holy and we should try to be too it's the same message there's no guy the old testament saints like people like abraham isaac jacob they're saved they were holy the new testament saints you're not going to be saved by a profession to be saved by a conduct you're saved by the grace of god but then you've got to do something with that salvation it's the same message it's not it's not anything new there's nothing new under the sun i mean if god is our father and we're his children then should we not be a chip off the old block another one of those things some kids are going like i thought your shoe was a carpenter the only legitimate way to be holy it's it's not by the fish on the back of the car it's not by going to church it's not by reading your bible it's not even by praying no the only way to be practically holy we could be positionally holy when yeshua saved us we were positionally holy we sat in heavenly places that was our position but god's interested in our condition he wants to see some practicality and the only way to be practical is to obey god you all know this um this is i'm not telling you anything new i know you're sitting there going well that's nothing new i think you got to be reminded though you know human beings learn from repetition now distinctions are made in the bible you'll see commandments like mitzvot you'll see statutes you'll see ordinances mishpot don't get caught up with any of that the scholars do that all day long they get caught up and they get tripped up because they miss the forest for the trees the overall principle is to be obedient whether it's a general command a prescribed law or religious feast it doesn't matter a legal verdict and why should we be obedient because we're supposed to be i mean that's what a parent wants out of their child a parent loves when their child is obedient and they really don't like when they're disobedient it brings such glory to them and such joy do you think the father's any different if he made us in his image in his zealand to be like him now if we are god's children again then we should conduct ourselves the way our glorious father wants us to but there's a slight problem you know what the problem is human nature is anything but holy and you know what every single solitary person here and watching has a human nature some have less than others but you still got some right and we're working on getting rid of that now i have i had the opportunity when i was first saved to not go to church because i didn't know you were supposed to i thought i was the only jewish kid in the world who who believed in yeshua and that wasn't out of pride it was just out of ignorance and you know my story so i came home and i just started reading the bible thank god so i my seminary was the word of god it was the best thing that ever happened to me god really protected me from religiosity and doctrines of men it really was an incredible protection for three years but in that time i met some incredible guys i met guys that were so full of the spirit i've seen them cast out demons now you don't get to see that every day but i i saw it i saw the people spewing bile i've seen people be prayed over and speak in chinese who didn't know any chinese i'm not bragging they were doing it and then you might know um if any of you heard of the station caleb i think they got like 10 million listeners if you have a list in the afternoon scott smith he's a good friend of mine but his father was my best friend and his name was thunder and thunder had an anointing to go to churches and when they were preaching lukewarm he would stand up and tell them they're in golden calf worship but he had a prophetic anointing there was no question about it just a fat bald guy nothing to write home about not like the guys you see today on tv you know nope it wasn't about that and i remember when shayna was born your sister that was 22 years ago and thunder was over in my house when i brought her home and he looked at her and she goes oh my she's perfect almost perfect he said and i went what's wrong she goes look at her stinking flesh and that was the kind of guys i hung out with but he was right you don't have to teach a kid how to share that's right you know i mean how to how to want something if you throw a little doll in with two kids at two years old they'll fight over it it's human nature you gotta teach them forgive me you gotta teach them how to share so let's look at our new testament reading because it's right in line with this and again i didn't pick this this is the quintessential book on theology for the new covenant believer but you must read it in its context you cannot man men of god if you're listening out there do not grab a verse from romans and talk 40 minutes there is no way no way you're going to be able to interpret scripture hermeneutically no way the sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the commandment sin killed me you're going to see the problem so the torah is holy that is the commandment is holy just and good then did something good become for me the source of death like prior to the torah coming was was with the torah coming a bad thing will we were we better off without it people really asked that so what does paul say heaven forbid with an exclamation point of course not that's crazy talk rather it was sin working death in me through something good so that sin might be clearly exposed to sin so that sin through the commandment might come to be experienced as sinful disgusting beyond measure you should be disgusted with human nature hate it now let's break this down obviously romans 7 11. for sin seizing the opportunity the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceive me and through the commandment sin killed me so again paul is saying over and over again the law isn't to blame when i first got saved i actually heard people you know saying jesus nailed the law to the cross and i was like why would he do that he said now i could steal i commit adultery it's it's really i'm telling you i heard it i don't know if any of you ever heard that okay so i'm not alone so the law wasn't to blame the law isn't the problem he said sin tricked him into believing that what was forbidden fruit wasn't so bad after all does that sound familiar yeah it's not so bad who will know there's so much worse sure if you as a believer comparing yourself to jack the ripper you walk on water but you're not supposed to compare yourself to jack the ripper you're supposed to carry yourself to your shoe with a messiah that's the plum line and they would trick to thinking it would bring happiness everybody knows it doesn't i mean you don't know when you're young young kids just think well you know because the guy's driving around in the bends even though there's no peace in his home even though it's 30 000 square feet and his wife feels like she doesn't pay any attention to him he's out there making money for his family but he has no time for his family it's lunacy we've been tricked but you're not a bad person for thinking that we've been duped we've been tricked we've been lied to the enemy has been lying to us so then we thought it would bring us happiness but it didn't so sin he's saying killed him in the sense of earning salvation sin killed his opportunity to earn salvation then the next verse so the torah is holy the torah means it's not necessarily the first five books even though a lot of people say torah is laws so it's any law if you see a law somewhere in the bible it's just not the first five okay the first five is foundational but don't get too caught up in that i'm sorry some of you really wigged out i figured i said that um we must constantly remind ourselves that the law isn't the problem constantly when somebody tells you something to do when an officer of the lord tells you something to do your spirit man is saying yes sir your your nature your human nature is saying get out of my face who do you think you are it's poison that's why it says present at the end of this theology he says present yourself a living sacrifice because you can't baptize the flesh it's got to be burned it can't be baptized i promise you ask anybody who knows exercise physiology how many times when i used to work in the gym you know 400 years ago somebody would come in and i go well what are you trying to accomplish well i'd like to turn my fat into muscle well that's going to take a miracle sweet pea because fat doesn't turn into muscle the guy goes well i played football in college so all my muscle turned into fat exercise physiological physiologically incorrect muscle does not charge the fat it can either shrink but it won't turn to fat your fat turned to fat your fat cells you're born with a certain amount of fat cells about 75 years old those the fat cells you can increase them with decrease but the problem isn't with the muscle the problem isn't with the spirit the law was given by god to his people prescribing how he wanted them to conduct themselves even when we hear the word law the human nature goes even some of you you go oh it sounds legalistic no it might not be legalism you might be falling under the guise of grace abuse i mean if i tell my kid to take out the goblins he goes you're a legalist he won't be grace abused trust me he'll be greg abused the problem is with us but we need the law for one thing to give us the knowledge of sin we needed to understand it you know when i go places overseas i go place in africa they don't have an issue with drinking blood in some things i hung out with the messiah tribe they do certain things they just don't know they're not horrible people they just don't know but there's no excuse for not knowing because things are plain to us but what excuse do we have in the believing community who know point our fingers to the non-believers the believers should know all the more we're such lousy representatives that the non-believers don't want to come beyond this we need a savior to deliver us from the penalty and the power of sin look at verse 13 so that then did something good become for me the source of death he's having this conversation because he knows he's going to have people that are going to come up with these questions he's asking the question himself but he's going to have objectives his constant objectives of the faith heaven forbid rather it was sin working death in me through something good basically he's asking the question is the law the culprit no sin is the culprit the law didn't originate sin it just exposed it but the law can't fix it no more than a mirror could fix your blemishes the mirror just shows you that you have blemishes but you have to do something about that when our sinful nature is told not to do something what happens how do we react tell a kid not to do something go ahead get a hidden camera and say don't look under there it's our sinful nature that you want it all the more when you're told you can't have something you want it all the more a girl dates a guy the guy's horrible he breaks up with her he wants him all the more she's not operating logically or sensibly the law by itself cannot improve the old nature nor can it cause it to sin it reveals sin just as the thermometer reveals the temperature but i don't need thermometers in here i need thermostats we need the ability to control sin like a thermostat controls the temperature i don't need people recording the temperature you follow yeah so here's the solution to the problem if we stopped here it'd be kind of sad no well we got a human nature what can you do read your bible evangelize more feed the poor feed the hungry be the homeless that's not helping your sin nature nope nice things to do but secular people could do that that's not the answer i think sometimes we overdo it to compensate for a lack of holiness so here's the answer the next chapter i'll just give you a few verses then we're out romans 8 5 it says for those who identify with their old nature set their minds on the things of the old nature but those who identify with the spirit set their minds on the spirit i'm sorry bernadette was out of town i can't cook i i mean i'll be honest with you i actually looked at the iron this morning i looked at it and i thought if i iron this shirt like the earth is going to go out of its 23 degree access i i thought about it i looked at the iron i promise it's right there in our closet but no i did do it nope um unbelievers are concerned with things of the flesh look i was not i was i'm 62 years old for 31 years i was a very strong unbeliever for 31 years a very strong believer i was consumed consumed i mean the worst of them the chief they lived to gratify the desires of their corrupt nature they cater to their body their body their but they say their body's a temple i'm like yeah you're kind of worshipping it a little bit a little bit much too much you're catering to your body which in a few short years will return to the dust you're holding on i see it today people are holding on and and men and women taking shots and doing this to hold on not not having a just such a temporal view on life believers true believers rise above the flesh and live for things that are eternal they are occupied with the word of god some of you haven't read the word of god in a month they're occupied with the word of god they're occupied with prayer they're praying all the time i'm not putting the feather in my cat but i talk to god all the time that's prayer prayer is an intercession there's different kinds of prayer prayers and praying for somebody prayer is talking to god does god need us to pray to do something of course not don't give yourself that much credit while god needed me to pray are you out of your mind where were you when he laid the foundation of the earth do you know where i store the rain of the snow what's the gestation period of a goat can you command the thunder a billion gigajoules of energy do you know what that means it's 50 000 degrees fahrenheit five times hotter than the surface of the sun it's only an inch wide lightning an inch wide and it takes out trees and he says to job i command the lightning and it bows before me and says here i am master can you do that who do you think you are comparing yourself to another believer comparing yourself to some lukewarm believer and you look like god's favorite with god occupied with prayer occupied with serving looking for any opportunity not my will your will be done father romans 8 6. having one's mind controlled by the old nature is death but i love this about the whole bible because it's one or the other there's no you know it's not let's make a deal there's not three doors to choose there's only two just two it's so simple so i can either go this way or that way yes that's it two choices imagine opening up those big menus at those franchises they're like books they're books it takes me like a half an hour to get through it and what do you come back to i'll deal with this caesar salad with the grilled chicken that's so boring you eat like that every day sad it's death but having one's mind controlled by the spirit is life and shalom it's peace a mind controlled by the old nature is death it's death as far as present enjoyment is concerned it's death you're always worrying you're always concerned what's going to be tomorrow where am i going what am i wearing and it's death as far as one's ultimate destiny is concerned but a mind controlled by the spirit ah peace with god and peace of god that's how john wesley got saved the guy was like a spiritual giant right till he met the moravians and he couldn't understand how they have such peace how are they singing in the midst of horrific circumstances he's like i want what you got it's absolutely magnificent not to mention not to mention constant conversation with the lover of us souls constantly do you know why god wants us to pray not because he needs us to same reason why i do anything to be with my kids i just want to hear their voice i don't care what they say sometimes i'm so tired i can't even listen to them but just to hear their voice is money to me god just wants to hear from you man stop doing and slow down and talk to him romans 8 7 for the mind control by the old nature is hostile to god he's going on and on and on deeper layering it pulling it apart like an onion because it does not submit itself to god's laws it cannot remember what i said i'm not making this up this isn't my opinion i've got no theology of my own human nature cannot it cannot it's not will not it's not a matter of the will of the human nature it cannot the old mind controlled by the old nature is a rebel it wants its own way it wants its own will not god's will that's for sure it bows to no one and it bows to nothing because it's its own master not only is it uninclined to god's law but it lacks the very power to do it remember charles finney anyone for the great awakenings just so you know americans he's the greatest american evangelist we ever had he said the difference between the old testament the new testament is the new testament gives a power to walk out what the old testament required but didn't give the power to do you're pointing your finger at the israelites they didn't have the holy spirit what's your excuse maybe you don't have it either romans 8 8 thus those who identify with their old nature cannot even please god therefore one in the flesh cannot please god that's what he's saying think about that there is nothing an unsaved person could do to please god nothing i know that's hard because we are task oriented we're performance oriented that's what they teach us gold star greggy gold star we start in kindergarten gold star gold star we come home very good we go to our performances and we get our accolades and the parents clap man how many touchdowns did you score we're so performance oriented that when we meet god we think we have to perform and sometimes he's like will you stop performing and just talk to me trust me you have no idea what performance is till you met the old greg i don't want to talk about him but i was constantly constantly trying to be that guy and every time you break a record somebody comes right behind you and breaks it every time it's fleeting man fleeting you got a lot of money somebody comes along and makes you look like a pulpa i wore 20 million he's worth 500 million there's no works there is no religious observance there's no sacrificial service absolutely nothing a person must humble themselves and take the guilty position of a sinner like when nathan came to see david he told them the story and david said i'm the man you got to be the man you want to be the man be the man take that position and let yeshua be your zorbach your innocent victim that suffered on your behalf and do an act of faith rabbi you make it sound so easy i'm not making it easy you guys made it hard you didn't let them come you came that way and now you won't let them come you go to a gym when you're out of shape in in in new york city there's a place called the vertical club i don't even know it's still there but it was this posh play it was so posh they had a coat check for furs that's where schwarzenegger worked out and stallone and bernie that my wife used to work there but there was an old saying you joined the new york health and racquet club to get in shape in order to join the vr club you hear what i'm saying what person goes to a gym you go out of shape and the gym owner goes you get in shape and then join the gym you don't get in shape to join the kingdom you can't get in shape dude you can't i know you're frustrated you're saying i've tried i can't do it i know you can't nobody in here can what's wrong with you who told you you could only he can do it in you he does it in you then who gets the glory if you do it you get the glory you can't get the glory you can't touch it it's holy you'll burn up once you take that act of faith then and only then you win god's smile of approval he wants to help you man so sad so many people are going to not be in his presence for all eternity just because they won't humble themselves and then they think well rabbi if i come up and humble myself then then what changed you gave god permission to change you can't he change me now no no he's not like we are we force ourselves on people he won't force his love on people he won't force himself on anyone why do you think he stands at the door of a heart knocks he won't do it it's not in his nature he's holy he can't do that he won't allow himself to why don't you allow him in let him do what only he can do for years i preached at the prison i didn't know you had to go to a school to preach at a prison i walked in for years i preached at nursing homes i didn't know that you had to have an ordination do you know what it's like trying to preach to guys in prison every single one of them their fathers abused them and trying to talk to them about god their father you want to talk about word association that doesn't work but i told them there's no way you can do it either can i i still can't sometimes i don't but sometimes i do and i know it's him it's been a great change for me it's been a phenomenal change i didn't like myself before i loved myself but then i didn't like myself now i like myself but i don't love myself it's the opposite it's been a great change since i've been born like if it happened for me it could happen to anybody it's been 31 years and he's still working on me it's not overnight don't rush the lord let him work at his pace last verse of the day romans 8 12 so then brothers we don't owe a thing to our old nature that would require us to live according to its old to our old nature here's the conclusion of the matter we don't own nothing to the flesh that old evil corrupt nature has been nothing but a drag it's never done a bit of good if yeshua had not saved us the flesh would have dragged us down to the deepest darkest hottest spots in hell so why should we feel obligated to such an enemy thank god for the gift of the holy spirit thank god for the gift of the holy spirit you know we get letters all the time i want to read a quick letter to you it's just a few paragraphs i think it encapsulates beautifully how important is to be spirit-filled dear rabbi greg today i tried to watch the live stream service but could not get audio that was last week i tried several times and finally gave up and decided to watch the service from last week i figured maybe the lord wanted me to after 35 minutes of listening to you talk about the resurrection i thought lord i already know this and i believe it why am i watching this and then you began saying that you knew some of us were overwhelmed by our lives and our failures and had begun to question if we even loved god or loved by god that is when i started bawling my eyes out you see this week i wrote a suicide note to my mom but i wrote down a prayer and i begged god that's the only adequate word for it for the lord to help me just to give me some tiny shred to hang on to because i can't live anymore after hearing what you said i felt for the first time his arms around me i know somehow in my heart and not just my head that i really have been forgiven that he really has saved me and that he really does love me unimaginable as it is i know it's true i believe i felt hope today for the very first time in my life i wanted to share this with you because i know i struggle a lot with questioning if i'm really doing what god wants me to do i have a feeling of the struggle with that too what you said during that service saved my life i know it was the lord but if you had said something different and not followed his leading 100 percent i'm not sure i'd be here today um i'm not posting on me if if you think that i'm really sorry for you i am not no i'm i'm i'm telling you what i've always told you do what he says you never know i'm giving you the same message i've been giving you for 18 years nothing's changed there's a there's a beautiful prayer in in in judaism called vino machina our father in our king it's long now but it just started with two verses back in 135 by rabbi akiba and um there was a drought and anyway the drought lifted in order to become sons of god i i i got to blow my nose i'm sorry i'm crying too much i apologize ordinarily i would just would have wiped it on my sleeve but i just got this jacket out of the dry clean and i wanted to want to wear it three or four more times um but do you notice that it's a venom not machine it's our father and our king not our king and our father you notice that the prayer is our father in heaven hallowed not hallowed god you're our father do you notice when yeshua told them after he resurrected go and tell my brethren i'm going to my father and then my god he put father first there's something unbelievable about being saved you don't really feel it right away you don't you know it's an act of faith i don't always feel bernadette's love but i know it's there i know it's legitimate she knows mine's there we don't have to say it i know it and sometimes she doesn't love me at the time and sometimes i don't love her at the time but that doesn't change that i'll always love her forever when god says my little children i want you not to sin but if you do didn't he calls them my little children no matter what happens to my children we might be out of fellowship for a minute but that can't change the biological fact that they're my children if god would kick us to the curb what security would we have some of us feel this way about god and i know why because your father did that to you but you're not doing that to your children why would god do that to his children in order to become subject to god's rule in order for god to become your king first he's got to become your father that's the first step now i'm pretty convinced and i'm not i'm not trying to push this that there's somebody here who needs to to come to the lord now i know that's hard to believe because we're such holy people we're not we're not it's a hard thing for somebody to stand because it's almost like they're embarrassed what's to be embarrassed of you're sitting among a whole bunch of people thousands watching that fall short of the glory every single day of their life and god still calls us children not one day does he not you may think that you're not ready nobody's ready you'll never be ready were you ready to be a parent people have kids at 35 and they go i'm ready now no you're not you'll never be ready to be a parent never i don't care how old you are i don't care how much wisdom you think you have never nobody's ready you might think you're not good enough you're right nobody is but you're good enough for him he wants you he really does and he'll talk to you and he'll direct you and he'll change your life for the better i promise you won't be happy all the time but you know where to go for your happiness know this personally once you make the decision you'll always be his kid and god will help you every step of the way just like he does with all of us nobody here is better than anybody else if god puts anybody the best of them under the microscope no just won't work he's not looking for perfection he's looking for connection just somebody who will connect somebody who'll make themselves available you think i'm so holy that god needed me to be holy to go to africa no no what god did for me the great change was he just took a little kid who when i was four and five had so much compassion and then being raised in the bronx and in the shawshank redemption i had to get tough had to get tough i had to learn how to fight all these things and it was awful because it wasn't really what i wanted and then god just saved me and said you can go back to that little four-year-old you just be a nice guy and help people because that's what makes you happy doesn't it i'm like yeah that's what makes me happy you know it is to go to africa and have a bunch of africans call me mazungam afrika the white african loving me that much and i see their heart and they see my heart i mean macon's been an incredible place there's so much division here i've got brothers in africa i've got brothers in india i've got brothers in australia and we have we have the same father and i love anyone who praises my father just like if somebody says to my kids you know your dad's a pretty good guy don't you think that makes them happy so as i close today i just want to give anybody and everybody and i don't care if you've been here for 18 years an opportunity to stand and and let me pray with you and to know that by that act of faith if if it's not true then we're all duped but i can tell you i made that profession of faith and i didn't know what i was doing i had no idea what i was doing and i didn't i had no idea i wasn't raised in the church and then backslidden then went back i had no idea who yeshua was what the kingdom was what the bible was nothing and he just took me by the hand like i took my kids and they were little and we just walked together and there was times i wanted to walk away and he pulled me back there was time she let me go so i could see that it's not so great i ran back but he was always there and every single time he took me back he never brought it up i felt bad he says it's done it's over you're back i'm happy i'm holding your hand again so before i close up the iran benediction anybody need to make that profession of faith today we're not putting you on display we're celebrating with you we're not saying hey this is a bad guy you could be a lot holier than most of the people in here for all we know it's not about that we all fall short of the glory god just wants to make up the shortfall any takers some people might be coming up to renew their faith some people might be coming up for the legitimate very first time we tell people have to repent your sins what if i'm living with somebody he'll he'll do that over time nobody's fully repented of their sins nobody not nobody in this place some people might have been away from god some people might not be connected it doesn't matter i don't i don't care what the reason is i'm just going to pray with you guys because you know how often i do this right hardly ever so if god told me to do it i got to believe there's a reason and here's the reason there's still somebody else and you're sitting in your seat and it's a mistake don't don't let the devil keep you back out i know life is getting very overwhelming guys it is for me too i gotta go back up to marie in two weeks i hate it i hate to die i hate the surgeries i hate it i'm going to tell you the goodness of god you know my first surgery when i was down and out and they said he's not going to make it i just cried out to god and i said you know lily's five months old just give me six months it's all i need six months so she can connect with me a little bit and then just yesterday she drove me in the car you know 15 years i got out of the deal god is good satan's a liar he's good and for whatever reason you're up here it's a profession it's an act of coming before god i'm telling you i've never been to a congregation with just many salty people and i say that in the most loving way so many good people i talk about you guys and i brag about you guys all the time trying so hard but the enemy is relentless he's just beating us up mentally he just won't leave us alone and then we feel this need this obligation to tell other people how great everything is you know this the stupidest thing i've ever heard was it's all good divorce is an all-time high pornography is an all-time high molestation is an all-time high poverty is an all-time high how could anybody in their right mind say it's all good well god is good yes but sin is bad sin is destructive all i can say to you after i pray is try not to be your own worst enemy if anybody knows how to beat themselves up it's yours truly i did it for years and it didn't accomplish anything this is like the first time in my life i'm actually not embarrassed to go before god it sounds crazy right sounds sad you've been all over the world rather i never told the lie i preached what was the truth i just couldn't believe that god really accepted me in my shortcomings but i do believe it now i believe he kind of likes me not because i'm a great guy the same reason he likes you he made us who doesn't like their kids no matter what one last shot before i pray and the only reason i say that is because there's still another person i'm sorry i'm just i'm just trying to hear i'm not trying to be a big shot heavenly father this is your stage and there's probably so much going on with me and these folks my father you call them up let them know today especially how proud you are them how much you love them how you only want the best for them how they can totally trust you how they win they win in the end they win let them know how beautiful their future is let them know that everything they're doing for you is not in vain bless them bother with your presence and your love surround them and let them know they don't have to be perfect let them know father then you're not looking for competency but you're looking for intimacy let them know you know everything and still you want to hang around with us because i believe we do a lot more good than we do bad surround them father god give them strength empower them with your holy spirit let this fast come to great fruition and let them press forward with a new and renewed zeal for you and your kingdom i pray all this in yeshua's name amen now if everybody could stand and 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 peace in the name of the principle of peace yeshua by [Music] i love you and i'm so proud of you shabbat shalom guys

Channel: Beth Yeshua - Macon

Views: 1,148

Rating: 4.9540229 out of 5

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Id: PNkGwm_s114

Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021