Set Apart For Glory Pt 4 - Joe Sweet

uh this is uh number four called set apart set apart for glory i'm gonna read this scripture and we're gonna try to go forward from there ii thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 and 14. paul writes we are bound to give thanks to god always for you brethren beloved by the lord i want to pause there and say this we are you are loved by god we are loved by god you are you are loved because god from the beginning chose you for what salvation that means justified sanctified glorified that's salvation god chose you for that through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth that's the process for the saving of our soul now when we're born again we're saved from the penalty of sin but sanctification means to be set apart from everything unclean unto the lord to be set apart exclusively for him that's called sanctification god chose us for that that we would be sanctified by the spirit by believing the truth to which he called us by the gospel so that we would obtain the glory of the lord jesus christ that's in the bible our christianity is supposed to lead us to an ever increasing manifestation of the glory of the lord jesus christ now how can that happen if the gospel that we preach is only being born again and receiving the forgiveness of sins that's only one-third it's only the first of our salvation and sadly that's mostly what we've majored on in america you get born again then come to church for the next 50 or 60 years and learn how to have a good life i'd have a good marriage nice kids get a raise at work stay healthy and have your needs met on let's be honest three steps to the next blessing but that's not the what the purpose of the gospel is when we're born again we're justified we're free from the penalty of sin when we're sanctified we're free from the presence and the power of sin that's what god wants to do in me and you god wants to get us free from anger criticism finger-pointing lust materialism selfishness bitterness those are the things that keep us from the glory of god we were made by god to be filled with the holy spirit and walk one with jesus so we should embrace the process of sanctification not only embrace it pursue it go after it because he called us by the gospel to be sanctified by the spirit by believing in the truth so that we could obtain the glory of the lord jesus christ then we we talked about last week or two sanctification means to be holy h-o-l-y pure clean holy unto god sanctification means set apart from what's unclean and set and given over to what's pure and good which is the lord now in first thessalonians chapter 3 verse 12 we have a good definition of what holiness is we're told in hebrews 12 14 that we are to pursue holiness that means go after it how many want to have more glory in your life the glory means the manifested joy peace love presence power of the lord we were made for this i'm going to preach over here i've got one amen we were made for this we were not made to live down here what if the first 10 20 30 years of our christianity we were just living in on stage one and god says hey there's more arise shine for your light has come the glory has risen upon you that's the word that's what's happening god's saying come into deeper water i got more for you and god wants us to be filled more with him not just so we can feel good but we will because he wants us to be vessels that other people that are in darkness can touch other people that are broken-hearted can find jesus we're his body he doesn't have another body on earth but us we're the ones he's not going to come down in the flesh and do it where is bone that's what says ephesians 5 30 we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone we're his body he wants us to yield to the head amen i was created to be your dwelling place oh god so i consecrate everything to you and it doesn't happen by monday it's a process but we're to be leaning into it and i believe we are so here's a good definition of what holiness is first thessalonians 3 12. may the lord make you increase this encourages me so much have you learned i've learned that our love is shallow and dry compared to the love of the holy spirit and though what we all need is not for us to get better but for christ to fill us when god makes us increase in love he makes us overflow in love it's his spirit romans 5 5 the love of god is poured into our heart by the holy spirit in the letter to the corinthians paul says god has put earnest care into the heart of titus for you so may the lord make you increase and abound in love that's my prayer how many want to increase in a bounty love toward one another and toward all men just as we do to you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our god and father the coming of the lord jesus christ with all his saints so when it says sanctification unto the glory sanctification means set apart to be holy holiness is when god so works in my heart in your heart to where every motion of my heart is not it's not strife it's not debate it's not finger-pointing it's not criticizing them it's love it's not anger it's not unforgiveness it's not lust it's not materialism but every motion now of our heart is love when we're walking in that we are full of the holy spirit the love realm is the glory realm and love is not easy to walk in this kind of love it requires that we die i have to die and guess what we're not good at dying on our own so god sends circumstances into our life to help kill us he does he'll send people to misunderstand us attack us back bite us hurt us maybe they don't even mean it we've all heard each other without even meaning it how many here besides me have hurt someone else and didn't even mean to do it god knows that he lets it happen he uses that to kill us there are two beings that want us dead satan and god because we can't love like we're supposed to till we're dead that's why paul said in galatians 2 verse 20 i'm crucified with christ it's no longer i who live christ lives in me the life i live now i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave his life for me so it's the exchange life so here it is it says if we're to be sanctified unto holiness holiness means love and god is the one that can make us increase right we talked about that that's last week john 17 verse 23 the glory that you gave me i have given them john 17 20 that was 22 verse 23 the love he said and you have loved them as you've loved me so the love of god is the glory of god you can read it on your own during the week read john 17 verse 22 and 23 over and over very carefully you'll see the glory that god gave us is the love of god so the more that god's spirit and his word works in us to get things out of me that hinder love the more glory realm we walk in love does no harm to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law so that was what we talked about last week now becoming holy set apart under the setting up ourselves apart unto the lord we talked in previous weeks starts with our heart what we think about and what comes out our mouth whoever is able to bridle his tongue is a perfect man that's what the bible says doesn't it say that so we can bridle the tongue every area of our life will come into divine order and then the flip side of the coin is is whoever does not bridle his tongue it says this person's religion now i look the word religion up it means it's also translated worship said whoever does not bridle their tongue their worship is useless so our devotional life is canceled by an unbridled tongue i don't want that i want god to bridle my tongue if our tongue can be bridled our whole life comes into order and uh how does it happen by the washing of the water the word so today so that was last week so today we're talking about our part philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13. it says therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed if you write in your bible would you circle the word or underline obey we're going to talk today about obedience what because obedience to the lord obedience to the spirit obedience to the word of god is how our sanctification is accelerated watch this you have always obeyed not only in my presence but in my absence now he says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure so god is the one that sanctifies us he's the one that frees us up from the negative dark selfish irritable grouchy parts of us right he's the one that liberates us from that and fills us with his love but in order to to enter into that it requires our obedience so there's two parts work out your salvation he said you've always obeyed me now keep obeying work out your salvation with fear and trembling but be encouraged as you work it out know this it is god who works in you both to will that means when and to do even the lord jesus had to kneel down in the garden of gethsemane there was a part of him that did not want to do the will of god there's a part of him he said father if there's any way to make this cup pass let me paraphrase father i don't want to do this but nevertheless not my will but yours be done the bible says an angel came from heaven and strengthened him now why would an angel strengthen the son of god because he emptied himself and walked as a man he could not be our example if he walked the earth as the son of god he always called himself the son of man he emptied himself and showed us as weak human beings how to do it that when there's things that we know we should do but part of us just doesn't want to do it it's hard we do what jesus said we kneel down and we say father if there's any way around this please make a way but nevertheless your will be done so when he did that an angel came and strengthened him so we have to now i gave this illustration the previous week uh sanctification some people you know there's arguments in the body about sanctification there are those who in my opinion don't really understand it and they've got a few verses out of context about grace and saved by grace without works that's talking about your justification but the sanctification requires work you have to work it out so people don't understand that they go if you talk about discipline getting up in the morning discipline to read the bible fasting seeking oh that's works that's no you don't know you don't know you're confusing justification with sanctification you have to be diligent if you want to walk in the fullness of god's glory read second peter chapter one brethren he said with all all diligence add to your faith virtue to virtue add knowledge to knowledge add self-control to self-control add perseverance to add perseverance godliness add to that brotherly kindness and then add to that love and if you do that you will not be unfruitful so see that's called the working out of our salvation so he said work it out with fear and trembling but don't think don't get in despair and go oh what a mountain of work i have in front of me don't think that way you're a new creation god has already blessed you ephesians 1 3 with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places second peter chapter one god has already given us all things that pertain to life and godliness you are not alone it is god who works in you to will that means when you don't even have the willpower he'll give you the will to do it and to do it that's it he first corinthians chapter 30 verse 1 and 2 he is our sanctifier so he's going to fill us strengthen us bring us along he will do it but we have to cooperate and it's like i said last week when you get a haircut if you want a haircut or or whatever the ladies do a perm or whatever or a die or a wash or a cut when i was a kid everybody my mom and all my sister did it at home they all had curlers i remember all my sisters going to bed almost every night with curlers in their hair all the girls with straight hair want curly hair and the ones with curly hair want straight hair yeah my sisters all had straight hair and they're always curling it and their friends that had curly hair were always straightening it out anyway when you want to get your hair done you first have to make an appointment amen this is the process of sanctification when you go there you have to obey what the stylist is telling you if they say there's eight chairs in the shop and they call you over my 130 appointments here said mr sweet please sit here if i sit in the other chair i'm not going to get my hair cut you have to go where they say and do what they say sit here and then you have to let them do stuff to you you got to sit there and they they'll wrap a thing around your neck and put a cape on you and then they start and they'll say move your head to the left you don't you don't tell them i don't want to you don't tell them i'm mad i don't feel like it i was hurt you just move your head and they say now move your head this way do you move it now put it forward so obedience is required so this is what the lord wants us all to know that we have to take the steps of obedience it is a delusion to think that we can stay where we are and keep praying and someday we're all going to be full of glory it's not going to happen we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling knowing that god's working in us knowing that what he started he's gonna finish you know god there's commands in the word i'm commanded every one of us as husbands we're commanded love your wife i can't say i don't feel like it but people do that no they don't verbalize it they just don't do it withdraw their heart become cold become distance there's the bible says wise be submissive to your husbands i don't want to we don't say it we just i don't want to do it i'm not going to move my head your haircut's going to look terrible [Laughter] children obey your parents honor your mother and father how about this forgive your enemies love them i'm not forgiving them you're not getting a haircut it's not going to work it won't work leviticus 19 16. you should not go about as a tail-bearer among your people well i'm just telling my friends that's all it doesn't work i've used to think like that i've done that before i've repented leviticus 19 18. you should not take vengeance not bear a grudge you should love your neighbors yourself but you don't know what they did to me yes he does he didn't say you should not bear a grudge unless they really hurt you but you don't know my circumcision yes he does god knows so here's what god's saying it were we talked about last week moving into allowing the word of god to sanctifies to put moving into love loving the person next to us loving everyone around us as we grow in that the glory realm increases do you remember that here's what first peter 1 verse 22 says are you ready we're talking about obedience our opening verse was that god chose us for sanctification so that we could obtain the glory right and that's unto love now watch this verse first peter 1 22. he's writing peter's writing he said you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren all right our first verse said god's chosen us for sanctification so we could obtain the glory how through sanctification by the spirit and believing the truth now peter writes you have purified your souls because you obeyed the truth through the spirit unto sincere love of the brethren are you seeing that blessed are the pure in heart they shall see god so to move forward into the glory realm we're living in isaiah 60. it's time for you and me to arise and shine for the glory of god to be risen from inside christ in us upon us rise and rest upon us and it's going to happen as we love the person next to us better in every difficult every sometimes it's hard it's challenging we have to work through it until we get to the place of love and if we stumble and fumble just get up and keep working at it keep praying keep believing keep standing on the word believe his promises until we get better at it because every time we have a notch increase in now he said you've purified your soul in obeying the truth through spirit in sincere love that means it's real and from the heart every time we go up in that sincere love the glory realm increases because god is love first john 4 16 he that abides in love abides in god well i'm getting encouraged now i want to talk to us i've said this in the last over the last few years i'm sure i've said what i'm about to say one or two or three times but i'm going to say it again because recently i have people that watch online people write emails they ask for counsel or prayer someone just wrote me this past week asking me they're very candid they said it was a wife she said i'm bitter and angry at my husband and i know i'm supposed to love him and forgive but i can't i'm bitter and i want to get over it i want i don't want to be where i'm at i want to walk in love but i'm stuck has anybody else ever felt like that okay so that's a good question to ask because as we pursue the lord there's going to be times where all of us may find ourselves in that something similar to that oh i know i'm supposed to walk in love right now but lord can i just do something and then repent madeleine said she's guilty of that we don't want to go there because if you ever do that you're going to have it's not good to reap what you sow so don't even think about it now here's what happened to me i'm going to share some principles and then i'm going to share some encouraging stories years ago it was in 1999 we had a church split here it was painful to me and i'm sure everybody has their story in their side and i was i was deeply betrayed lied about backstabbed in it in a about a hundred people left the church by the way it all after went over some of the people that were involved in that a couple years later they came back and repented and were friends today in fact my wife and i had lunch with him two or three days ago so the story ends well but back then it was painful i felt betrayed and backstabbed it hurt because of lies and slander and gossip about a hundred people left the church i remember having to sell one of my cars and just get down to one car so i could have enough money to take care of my family because the finances dropped for a while it wasn't very long because right shortly after that things picked up and anyway but i remember when it was happening i remember when it was happening feeling betrayed and backstabbed i remember telling myself i i am not going to have unforgiveness i know that that's wrong and i know we're commanded to love and so i purpose from the beginning i i just absolutely forgive and i'm going to walk in love but what i didn't know was how to really walk it out i had the will to do it but not the know-how and so what i ended up doing was sort of stuffing it and not realizing that's what i was doing and if you would have asked me a month afterwards have you forgiven everybody that did that i would have said and i would have thought i was i would have i would have thought i was telling you the truth i said yes i do but i notice over the next two years that's how long that pain stayed from time to time if something reminded me of it or someone brought it up i'd have those negative feelings again i'd feel the judgment against them in my heart a little bitterness and i knew it was wrong so i remember falling on my face i'd say oh god i'm sorry i repent i don't want any unforgiveness i get it i repent of unforgiveness i love him amen but i never got it out it didn't get out of my heart so i thought okay i'm done with that and go on a month later it would come up again i'd have that bitter feeling like oh and then uh i say oh that's a wrong feeling lord i repent of bitterness amen and after about two years i got tired of repenting of it i just remember going on my face and said god what's going on i've repented of this over and over it's not leaving my heart i want it to be sincere from my heart because if it's not god god's not gonna you're not gonna walk in the buoyancy of the spirit so here's what now when i say the lord spoke to me it's what i mean is the holy spirit communicated to me thought to thought and he made known to me so i'll put it into words but as i was praying saying lord how do i get over this i felt it was as if he said you're not doing what my word says if you will obey my word you will be made free and i said lord what word it says in matthew 5 verse 43 you've heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy but i say to you love your enemies bless those who curse you do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you and he made me understand he said you're not loving them you're you're repenting of not you're trying to not hate them i didn't call you to not hate i called you to love not hate is a negative love is a positive so i saw that i said okay how do i do that he said obey my word now remember paul peter wrote you have purified your souls in obeying the truth in unto sincere love of the brethren he said how do i do it he said my word says love them and then bless them bless means say good things with your mouth whenever they come up in conversation say something good about them bless them when you pray and they come to your mind pray a blessing on them he said you have to do that number two do good any way you can do something good and i remember back then i thought well i'm out of touch with him what could i do and i remember sitting down and writing cards and putting in a 50 uh restaurant card and telling him i love him and i wish the best for them and i bless him send him a card he said do something good so i'd do that i'd send it off and then it says pray for them now these are instructions we have to obey this we have to get we have to move from being offended and saying okay i won't strike back well that's not enough i won't hit them i won't slash their tires we got to go beyond that to i love them amen amen now i can't so many a lot of these people i can't have any relationship i don't know where they are and i have a full i can't go have relationship have coffee at lunch with them but i can love them from my heart and so we have to practice i i wrote this lady back i said here's what you have to do you have to obey the word you've obeyed philippians 2. paul said you've obeyed in the past he said now obey work out your salvation this is the working out of our salvation of our soul is being obedient to what the word says bitterness defiles hebrews 12 be careful lest there be in any of you a root of bitterness for the root of bitterness defiles many now if if i was to allow that bitterness to stay in me when it's in your heart you can't keep it from coming out your mouth if you want to know if you're bitter listen to what you say about other people so bitterness defiles now paul wrote to titus in chapter 1 to the pure all things are pure but to the defiled nothing is pure let me explain what happens with bitterness madeline i i don't have any memory of madeline ever hurting me so this so she knows this is not real but suppose she hurt me and i was bitter and i didn't forgive her what happens what let's say i judged her oh madeline she's a fill in the blank she's a such and such or she's just selfish or whatever we've made judgments like that about people once that judgment is in your heart your heart is defiled you now cannot see good in that person now the next time she does an innocent thing because of the defilement my heart i'll say there she is she's being selfish again yep that was selfish but but says to the defiled nothing is pure once you have a judgment a bitterness against someone whatever they they do you see you see it through stained glass and you see the worst in them but to the pure all things are pure but to someone that loves her and is not defiled they'll they'll she'll do the same thing and they'll say what a blessing madeleine is if madeline were to stand up and speak all the people that love her can receive from her but anyone defiled by her can't receive anything from her because they'll be going what are her motives she's not real what a hypocrite she is so bitterness defiles us and then it says it defiles many because when it's in us we open our mouth and release it on others maybe not in paragraphs but we could be one-word innuendos it could be a rolling of our eyes it could be our tone we defile others with our defilement so we have to obey the word and love right follow the instructions bless them with your words do something good pray for them from your heart do this intentionally and your soul i mean your spirit man will overthrow the emotions of your soul what happens when we're in bitterness or unforgiveness our soul is ruling us our emotions it rules us we're in bondage but when we obey the truth our spirit man stands up and overthrows our soul are you following me so so it's obedience it's obedience that makes us free we can't say i don't feel like it now as we practice this we have to we have to practice the word of god unto loving each other as sincerely as we can that's the glory realm by the way everything that i'm saying uh i've made all the mistakes i've done all the wrong way that's why i can teach this so good but i've also had a lot of practice i probably get more practice than most people because being in my position there are people that like to eat pastor for lunch you know and um and you're either as a pastor you're either going to get bitter or better if you're still in the ministry if you're 30 years i'm now 30 years into the ministry if you're still in the ministry you're either going to be a bitter person or be getting sweeter there's no way you can stay where you are because stuff comes at you all the time and uh sadly i'm sure that i've been on the other end i don't mean to but i know just being me some people get hurt by me i don't mean it but it happens it happens to all of us now so here's here's the steps obedience one love make a decision i'm not gonna tolerate this person i'm gonna love them we now think about the most difficult relationship you have difficult person to get along that is your doorway to the glory realm because as we overcome that we go into the realm of the love of god so don't avoid it tackle it come on i have to agree i think this is a good word now i have other secrets i learned along the way second thessalonians 3 5 while you're now it takes time while you're working through something okay lord i recognize i have a criticism a judgment a bitterness and unforgiveness or i don't like somebody it doesn't matter if you like somebody love them and um so as we say okay i choose to love i choose to bless i choose to do good i choose to pray for them something happens inside you while you're working out your salvation with obedience to just raw obedience not because you feel it raw obedience while you're working it out obediently god works inside and he starts filling us with the love of god so here's two scriptures you can pray while you're working through the process second thessalonians 3 5 now may the lord direct your hearts into the love of god and into the patience of christ and i find i need to pray this often if i'm having a hard time in an area and i don't know what to do lay down on my face and pray god will you direct my heart into the love of god i don't know how to do it but i know the helpers with me i know he'll guide me into all truth and he does here's another prayer to pray first thessalonians 3 12 and 13 may the lord make you increase and abound in love to one another i said god you're the one if you don't make me increase in love i'll never get there well somebody say amen now here's here's a it's going to get good now that was the hard part of the message we're over the worst part are you still here there's a benefit of walking in love here's what jesus said in john chapter 15. as the father has loved me i've also loved you abide in my love means stay in it watch this if you keep my commandments that's obey was matthew 5 a commandment love bless do good pray for he said if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as i have kept my father's commandments and i abide in his love watch this these things i've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full so every time we grow in love guess what comes with it joy more joy depression is not from god discouragement depression heaviness is not from god so obedience to the word of god is going to cause the sanctification process to turbo charge don't now listen don't i've done this sort of thing in the past i mean a long time ago i don't i don't want to do it now i don't want to kid myself we can tell ourselves oh i'm not i'm not upset i'm not bitter but don't do that because you'll only be holding yourself back if it's there admit it because here's the good promise from god first john 1 9 if we'll confess it to him he's faithful he'll forgive us and he'll cleanse us of it we become partakers of the divine nature through the exceedingly precious promises that's one of them our walk with god is a lifestyle of confessing and claiming that he'll cleanse us and he takes us step by step into the love of god and he said now now this is good counsel from the lord he said stay obey my commandments and you'll stay in in the love in my love and he said i'm telling you this so your joy will be full come on we need to be joyful now what that means is god requires us to do hard things you know i've heard some of this hyper grace theology of it's like if you just no no just preach love it's all just love and if you just believe in god's love the overflow will come out to everybody that sounds nice but that's not what jesus taught it doesn't have i i don't think you've been through real life yet you can receive lots of i've seen the lord by the grace of god face to face i've had waves of love overwhelm me until i couldn't talk but four days later you better have obedience because those feelings aren't going to help you it's obedience hebrews 5 9 he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him that's why disobedience stops us from going into the glory realm so we have to do hard things i want to read an excerpt from an article i read by john finn he published it this last friday and it's on man's free will he says we are responsible for what we think what we feel and what we do no matter if we live in a palace or a prison we are responsible right now today where we live for our thoughts our emotions and our actions if there is a provision to walk with christ in each oh there is a provision to walk with christ in these areas if only we will in the christian marketplace are all sorts of ministries he puts in quotes that are built around the idea that someone else is responsible for our current condition the common theme of each of these is that someone else is keeping me from being all that i can be in christ for some it may be a great great grandmother two centuries ago who led some who let some bad spirit into the family and now that generational curse is keeping me from being all i can be in christ i want to say that's a lie when you're in christ you're a new creation old things are passed away all things are new it doesn't mean that we don't need our soul sanctified but it happens through obedience it may be something that happened to me when i was a child and it damaged me emotionally and i'm now doing thus and so in my life and therefore i cannot feel or sense or be close to god because of what happened to me maybe god allowed some person in my life that did thus and so making it hard now for me to trust god it may be a man or a woman of god i trusted they fell from grace that's why i stopped believing god there are all sorts of reasons which are at their core but they're nothing but excuses for not being a hundred percent responsible for where you are right now in your thoughts your emotions and your actions of course others do things that affect us but we're to be as paul said in philippians 4 i know how to obey i know how to abound i can do all things through christ who strengthens me new testament truth says that all things start new once our spirit man is recreated stop trying to find the number one key that will unlock all heaven's vault of riches and provision then he goes on when we stand before the lord to give an account of what we have done since we knew him paul told the corinthians is first corinthians chapter 3 that some are mere babies in christ eating the milk of spiritual things when they should be eating the meat of things but listen because they refuse to grow out of envy strife division and they carry those things in their heart all the way to the end of their life they will stand before the judgment seat of christ as would hay and stubble he's not now that doesn't mean your your eternal salvation it means your your eternal rewards they will be burned away paul urged them to lay those carnal things aside and grow up in character in christ forming spiritual gold silver and precious stones to adorn their lives no matter what happened to you or me in our life right now at this day lay that aside to worship the lord and from this day forward take responsibility for your thoughts your feelings and actions come up to his higher ways and thoughts as we are told to in isaiah 55. forsake your ways in short when we walk with god we are accountable for ourselves i thought that was a good word when we realize that it motivates us to do something about it all right now i get to the good part if we don't mature through obedience we could end up like paul the people paul wrote to in hebrews 5. he said by this time you ought to be teachers but you need someone again to teach you the basic principles of the oracles of god i don't want that to happen hebrews 13 17. i believe paul wrote hebrews he said obey those who lead you be submissive for they watch out for your souls the bible talks about obeying the word obeying your parents obeying authorities obedience now to obey means that we're going to have to grapple with some things that are hard agreed you can't get around it it's not a cotton candy gospel a dear precious man of god that i knew and i'd gone to india many times to minister together with him when i was in my twenties and thirties uh sam celadora actually even in my 40s we went with many times i've been over 20 times to india in the first years that i went in the 80s and 90s i would always work with sam chiller guy a very saintly apostolic man of god he planted lots of churches he went out to villages and preached the gospel to people who had never heard of christ and planted churches all over india and uh he was such a saintly man i loved him he came here he's been in this pulpit before but in 2012 he went home to his reward and he told about a time he said you know if you're in the ministry when you're in the ministry satan knows who you are and the spirits of hell know who you are and they they want to do everything they can to destroy you and your family and your ministry so it's a warfare being in ministry isn't just an hour in the pulpit most all the ministry i do all week long is not even here in the pulpit but he was in a ministry and he was going through a fiery trial this fiery trial and he said early his habit was to get up at three in the morning and pray he'd been praying he said it was about 4 a.m and he was going through one of the most difficult times in his life and let me say this this man i'd been with him in villages when he stood up to preach a simple salvation message it was the most anointed you could hear christ himself crying through his mouth it was so full of jesus he was anointed i'm telling he was anointed to preach it made my hair stand up and he's going through a fiery trial it's about four in the morning he'd been praying on his knees for about an hour asking god deliver me from this trial watch this he said he hears the footsteps walk down the hallway and the door opens to his room and the lord jesus christ is standing at the doorway in the flesh here's what he said son i gave you the gift of preaching take up your cross and follow me and he walked away he said son i gave you the gift of preaching take up your cross and follow me now we would think wow i was hoping to for comfort but you know what that did to him it strengthened him it's like dear god i'm going to take up my cross and that's what we need sometimes we're sissies my feelings are hurt and well you know what i want to back up and apologize because somebody might be in that right now i know what it feels like i know what it feels like when you feel hurt and you feel angry and bitter i know that but here's the reality take up your cross and we don't want to say this when we're having a hard time when you're going through a hard time a difficult we don't want to have someone come up and say to us get over it but you know what that's probably what we need to hear get over yourself get over it if we're going to follow jesus it starts this deny self amen he's going to call us to do hard things and if we have that mentality we're going to make it i remember being in i don't remember what year it was i'm guessing it was 2013. i was in india again doing ministry and uh i got dengue fever didn't even know what it was i found out later that about 35 000 people a year die from it i and they also call it bone crusher disease because you feel like you've been run over by a tractor and your bones have been crushed it also makes you hemorrhage internally so you start bleeding so if it gets bad blood comes out your nose and your ears but i wasn't bleeding there i was bleeding in my legs my legs turn red because under the skin it makes your blood vessels break and you start bleeding i was oh that's the sickest i ever remember feeling i was sick a stomach ache headache fever shaking sweating weak nausea i went to the doctor he prescribed me wrong he didn't know it was dengue fever gave me some medicine as soon as i took it it made my kidneys hurt real bad and i threw the medicine the trash and i remember just praying and i remember really thinking to myself i think i'm dying should i call melinda i thought it was i felt like i was dying i said i don't know if i'm going to make it home i mean i may never see my family again so i was thinking should i call melinda tell her honey i think i'm dying and then i said i'm going to pray first and ask the lord lord am i dying i prayed i remember laying on the bed said god oh lord i feel miserable i said lord am i dying am i dying so help me i heard the holy spirit quote the scripture to me or paul wrote to timothy here's what paul said to timothy endure hard flicks endure hardships endure hardships fulfill your ministry that's what he said endure hardships fulfill your ministry that's what he said to me you know what it did to me it encouraged me i thought oh i'm not going to die and guess what it didn't lift off me i didn't get better i had to endure it came out of it god will ask us to do hard things so we have to so pursuing love is not easy we have to die to do it to obey obey the word obey love bless do good pray for and don't do it on your own but as you're doing it cry out to the lord make me increase in love fill me with your love lord i am willing and if you're not willing say lord make me willing make me willing fill me with your love how many will do this listen this is the key that opens the door to the glory realm if i have bitterness in my heart but i say i don't have it it's still there and i've done that not even sometimes not even on purpose because like i told before sometimes we don't recognize it but overcoming it is going to do something to our heart and that's what we're called to we're called and it's not easy i'm going to close with one illustration when i was a boy i was probably nine years old i wanted a rock tumbler you know what that is and you put in these certain kind of rocks and when you put them in they look like just ugly plain rocks but after about 12 or 14 days in there they're semi-precious jewels and the way it works is that there's certain kind of rocks or not just can't put any rock in there because you put these certain kind of rocks then you put grit in there then you put water it's a can like a one gallon can like a paint can you put water and you put this grit like coarse sand put the top on and it turns it around 24 hours a day you do that for a week you know what happens those rocks grind against each other with the grit in between them you know what it does it gets all the rough edges off it polishes them then after a week you drain it get rid of that grit put in another grit that's less coarse more water seven more days you take it out then you drain it then you put the fine grit put it in there with water and it spins for seven more days you take them out rinse them off they look they're they're striped agates tiger's eyes all these semi-precious jewels but it's the process and uh that's that's the way we go into the glory realm is do hard things and just say lord help me to grow in love i'm willing to obey whatever you say to obey is better than sacrifice remember that song by keith green that's our that's where god wants to take us that's what holiness is that's what holiness is help us lord first john 4 12 if we love one another god dwells among us now i believe here's what i believe i believe there is love there is love in our homes in our church i i just you can see it there's love here but what god's saying is we're going deeper we're going farther in the name of jesus somebody 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Channel: ShekinahWorshipTV

Views: 6,983

Rating: 4.9808612 out of 5

Keywords: Joe Sweet, Shekinah Worship Center

Id: oRmJgnwhVXg

Length: 58min 49sec (3529 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 25 2020