Working Out Your Salvation With Fear and Trembling - Joe Sweet

now i'm going to call this message working out your salvation with fear and trembling working out your salvation with fear and trembling last week we talked a little bit about the fear of god and try to give us a working definition of what the fear of god is from the bible the fear of god is not god's angry condemnation that's not the fear of god and uh we'll go over that in a minute but we we see how important it is to have the fear of god and so let me just do a little bit of review for a few minutes and then talk to us today about working out our own salvation what does that mean and growing up to maturity in christ with the fear of god so we've been talking about for weeks second chronicles 7 14. it's the word of the lord for the church right now if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face then while i hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land when the church the body of christ fulfills that verse america will be saved god will heal america and thank god for getting good people in office when that happens thank god but we've learned now after four years of having one of the greatest presidents in our lifetime that with every and he got more accomplished than any president in our lifetime in four years and with even with all of that it couldn't stop the deep state the depth and the width of the corruption and the evil that's embedded in our nation is deeper and wider and farther than we thought and it's not that god won't use good people in office in the future but that alone is not the answer the answer is an awakened on fire holy spirit baptized love filled anointed fire in their eyes power in their hands church that's that's the answer for america people are not afraid to speak the truth in love and to manifest christ so god says when i want to heal a nation i'm going to address my people if my people will humble themselves and pray people won't even seek god unless we can first humble ourself it starts the first thing he says is humble yourself to humble ourself we have to admit hey maybe i'm not all i think i am maybe i don't have it all right maybe i need more god's grace maybe god could do something through me that he's not doing humble says hey maybe i should change maybe it's not always the other guy so god said if my people humble then he said pray and seek my face you can't seek god without a prayer life sadly in america the prayer meeting is the most unattended meeting in all churches in america that's a sad statement of the condition of the body of christ where prayer is the way that we receive the grace of god hebrews 4 16 let us come boldly therefore to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need the way we access and apply grace is through a prayer life so many christians can say i'm saved by grace but they don't access the grace they've got a doctrine in their head called grace but grace have to be accessed by going to the throne of grace every day day and night day and night living a life of prayer breathing in breathing out prayer that's how we live in the grace of god and so god say to my people a humble themselves and pray and seek my face not seek an outcome i want an outcome you want an outcome we'd like to see this person in office we'd like to see that happen on the border we like to see this in the economy god didn't say seek me for an outcome he said seek my face i'm not a guessing outcome and it's not wrong to pray for an outcome but there comes a time where all of us need to just put everything else aside and seek the face of god and when we see god's face god said it's going to look like something in ezekiel 39 29 god said i will not hide my faith from him anymore for i will have poured out my spirit so what god's saying when he says humble yourself pray seek my face god said the answer for this city for our state of california for our nation is the outpouring of the holy spirit that's the answer and it's only going to come when christians humble themselves and start seeking the face of god and it even goes smaller into our families families need to stop fighting each other and fighting for one another our families need to be healed our neighborhoods our cities our state needs to be healed and it's only going to happen when the christians seek god's face and when when god calls us to seek his face it's because he intends to shine his face in other words when god wants to pour his spirit out he begins stirring and calling and drawing and provoking his people to seek him he's not saying seek me in futility he's not saying seek me in vanity god is saying seek me because i want to pour my spirit out and god's face in god's face is where the glory of god is second corinthians chapter four it says for we do not preach ourselves but we preach christ jesus the lord and ourselves your bondservants for jesus sake for it is god who commanded light to shine in the darkness who has shone in our hearts to give listen to this the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ when god wants to make his face shine he wants to release the knowledge of the glory of god into the nation that's going to bring repentance that's going to bring righteousness back to the nation it's going to bring where god deals with the wicked and exalts what's righteous and so god's calling us to seek his face and so as we seek his face we're not just seeking him for a corporate encounter with the lord but every one of us on an individual basis and that's what i want to talk to about today every one of us can have a personal revival right now right now if we choose to we have to understand how to do it how to access the grace of god every believer right now you can start having a revival if we'll do what the word of god says how many want to have a revival now now when we talk about revival i'm not just talking about having good meetings with the gifts of the holy spirit we love the gifts of the holy spirit we value and welcome all the gifts of the holy spirit revival doesn't just mean have good meanings revival means your heart becomes awakened and burning with passion for jesus as i said in prayer charles finney gave a good definition of revival he has the authority to define it because in so far in american history nobody has seen a move of god that eclipses what happened in charles finney's day charles finney defines revival as this a renewed conviction of sin followed by an intense desire to do the will of god he said it is a giving over of our will to the will of god in deep humility so this is a work of grace when the holy spirit does something in our heart and he illuminates us it's a work of grace the holy spirit opens our eyes one of the ways our eyes get open is by reading the bible psalm 119 verse 130 says the entrance of your word gives light psalm 36 says in your light we see that's why the bible says taste eat the word taste and see the entrance of his word brings light so when christians neglect regularly reading the word of god their eyesight goes dim and they start getting attracted to the world in entertainment in the flesh they still want to maintain their morality and be a good believer but they get caught up in the world because their eyesight goes dim so one of the ways to keep the the light bright is to stay in the word of god his word is a light to my feet and a lamp to my path and um but a personal revival is when the spirit of god opens your eyes and we start to see what's worthless and what's valuable [Music] we start to see what's temporal and what's eternal we are to give our temporal life investing in our eternal life so a revival is when our eyes are open and our hearts become moved on by the spirit of god now jesus said when the holy spirit comes he will not speak on his own he will not glorify himself he said he'll take of what's of mine and reveal to you so the holy spirit starts revealing the beauty the holiness the love the majesty and the will of jesus christ he starts revealing to our heart the revelation of jesus to the human heart causes life so the more we feed on jesus the hungrier we get just the opposite of the natural when you're really hungry in the natural and you eat when i'm hungry and i want to i want to put a rib eye steak on my smoker an 18 ounce ribeye steak it's a little over one pound and my wife makes those really really good diced potatoes with olive oil and italian seasonings and spread on a sheet and put in the oven and we have one of those great big salads that's in a bowl this big you're hungry you can smell it you smell the garlic when you're in the kitchen you're so hungry but when you eat it guess what happens when you eat it when you're done eating you're not hungry anymore no more hunger but in the kingdom when you eat of jesus you get hungrier so now if someone is here listening to me in this building or online you say be honest with yourself if your heart is not passionate hungry to commune with jesus to abide in him to be filled with his spirit to walk in his ways if that's not what's going on there's one reason why you haven't been feeding on jesus so you got to repent and get back and sometimes you've got to force feed until you get your hunger back help me somebody so we can have revival anytime we want and and when we seek god god said if we seek him everyone that seeks finds whoever knocks the door will be open whoever asks they will receive so i want to define what does it look like what does it look like when we're seeking the lord what does it look like when we start finding him what happens transformation it's impossible to encounter the spirit of god and not be changed that always means repentance because when we behold the lord we become like him and uh god doesn't change and he says if two walk together how can they walk together unless they agree so if he doesn't change and i'm gonna walk with him that means i have to change so all of our our whole journey from now until jesus comes back is a journey of repentance it's a journey of constantly every day of our life seeking the lord seeking to know him better to know his word to abide in him to walk with him to remain in him to have unbroken fellowship and as that happens the increase of the knowledge of god jesus said the holy spirit will come and glorify me he takes the things of jesus reveals them to our heart and as as he does we're changed now what's the goal of ours we're talking today about personal revival and working out our salvation what's the goal of our salvation is to be conformed to the image of christ to where christ is filling us and manifesting through us now another way to say it is this if i'm seeking the lord how do i know if i'm if i'm finding him what's going to be happening is first timothy 1 5. the goal the commandment is love from a pure heart sincere faith and a good conscience right so the goal of the commandment is love here's here's the goal every believer every single believer filled with the love of god and and and flowing in the gifts of the spirit all the fruit the love of god is all the fruit and all the gifts that's what it is that's what is to abide in christ agreed first john says if we abide in him we'll walk even as he walked so that's our goal now the first thing to attain that goal is to shatter and destroy and get rid of once and for all the religious lie that you can't if anybody here is thinking i don't think i can abide fully in christ just cast that lie down it's from the devil your inheritance is in christ christ has paid for the fullness of his spirit to dwell in us let me just remind us ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 he has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in christ second peter chapter one he's already given us everything that pertains to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to glory and virtue whereby are given to us it's exceedingly great and precious promises that by these we may become partakers of the divine nature i'm trying to talk too fast we're already seated with him in the heavenly places colossians 2 10 says we're complete in christ so here's what i want you to have a vision of yourself walking in the fullness of the spirit what does that look like it means love what is what does it mean to walk in the fullness of christ here's what it is god is love first john 4 16 whoever abides in love abides in god and god abides in him so perfection is where every motive of our heart comes from love when we're living in that place we're living in christ come on somebody don't anybody say i can't that's a lie from hell and if you believe that you're sinning because everything that's not of faith is sin stop sinning believe the truth believe that you are complete in christ the christ does live in you he's the hope of glory and that what god wants us to work out is for us to get to the place where we're walking in love toward everybody under every circumstance and now when we're in love love brings all the gifts all the gifts are in love but now to have the gifts flow we have to desire them but we gotta it says in first corinthians 14 1 pursue love desire the gifts so we're not to go after the gifts we're to go after love but while we're going after love say god give me the gifts the reason why we want the gifts is because gifts is what heals broken hearts opens prison doors lifts up the downtrodden and sets the captives free somebody say amen but gifts without love is a clanging symbol love is a substance when we step on the scale on judgment day to be weighed in to be weighed we're all going to be tested and we're all going to be evaluated aren't we first john 4 17 says love is brought to full maturity in us so that we can have boldness on the day of judgment paul tells us in first corinthians 13 if i have all faith to move my own if someone came in here and spoke a word in a mountain move our jaws would drop and god said if you can do that and you don't have love he said you're nothing he said if i know all mysteries if someone stood up here and started telling us all the mysteries of the universe our jaws would drop and god said it means nothing to me putting your arm around a struggling person helping somebody praying for somebody lifting somebody encouraging someone making a meal for someone that's that means more to god than faith that moves mountains and knowing all the mysteries the tongues of men and of angels but it's not the gifts or the fruit it's the fruit the gifts that come from the fruit it's both jesus walked in both and first john 2 6 says if we abide in him we're going to walk like him so he had so have a vision for yourself see yourself walking in the love of god toward every person that's the goal all the time that's what perfection is i'm going to love everybody all the time now when we have that as a goal of loving everybody all the time then we realize that nothing that happens in our life can ever hinder us in fact the worst people treat us the faster we can grow yeah see when we don't when we don't understand the goal of our salvation peter said receiving the end of your faith or the goal of faith the salvation of your soul so what he's talking about is not saving your soul from hell that happened the moment we call in the name of jesus we're safe from the penalty of sin but what peter's talking about said receiving the goal of your faith the salvation of your soul he's talking about the transformation of our soul to walk like jesus walked that's the salvation of the soul so we should all have this vision what is your vision in what is your goal in your walk with god it should be your primary goal is to learn how to love have the love of god fill you and love everybody all the time now when that's not our goal and we're we don't understand that's the eternal purpose romans 8 for whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son but it says before that it says we know that god causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose next verse here's the purpose for those who whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that's the purpose god works everything so god said i want you he's saying to you and me i want you to be able to love everybody under every circumstance that's what it means to be conformed to christ and the more that we grow in that the more his presence rests upon us his abiding unbroken presence it says if we abide in love we abide in god and from that place of love if love is what's motivating our heart then the gifts will flow when we want to help people when we want to see people encouraged and strengthened and doing better the gifts will flow they come from love so that's what it looks like this to succeed in seeking god to say i'm seeking god is to have in in god can manifest to all of us in an infinite number of ways i'm not going to put him in a box he can manifest by it yes oh you can have open vision dreams hear voices angelic visitation but god can do just as much in a moment of of with nothing external no bells or or mirrors or of lights or flashings but just in a moment of revelation in your heart god can change you amen how many know he can do that in a moment that's that's the holy spirit revealing christ to our heart every time he does it takes our breath away oh god every time we see him if we really see him it always brings repentance oh lord lord i change lord i repent so we talked about so now we're talking about seeking the lord so that we can know him abide in him manifest him that's what's going to heal our land we saw last week in proverbs 2 verses 1 through 5 gives an outline of of how we can find encounter the knowledge of the lord first peter chapter 1 verse 13 says set your hope fully upon the grace that's to be brought to you at the revelation of jesus so as we have a lifestyle of seeking the lord it can happen while you're reading the bible in the morning it can happen when you're at a red light it can happen in the shower the holy spirit can start just giving you flashes of revelation that is what changes us that's what changes us you know reading the word and the holy spirit breathes on it we get washed in the water of the word so here's what he says in proverbs my son or my daughter if you'll receive my words treasure my commands within you incline your ear to wisdom apply your heart to understanding cry out for discernment lift up your voice for understanding seek her as silver search for like hidden treasure now what's he describing seeking the lord he said what do you do how do you seek the lord with the word in prayer read the bible just read it where do i start ask the holy spirit to guide you read the bible and while you're reading the bible regularly say god give me understanding give me discernment open my eyes i want to know you i want to know your heart i want to know your ways teach me how to abide in you teach me how to walk with you help me lord god said if you'll do that and you'll seek like you would for gold or silver god said i will answer you and here's how i'm going to answer you you will understand the fear of the lord and find the knowledge of god so the fear of the lord comes first understand and then finding the experience of the knowledge of god comes second i'm not going to re-preach last sunday but i want to launch off from there the fear of the lord is an absolutely necessary component to work out our salvation and it's been stolen from the church there's almost zero fear of the lord in most of the body of christ which means there's no true no real true knowledge of god he said when you do this you're gonna now to understand where to understand means stand under so god said before you find the real knowledge of god you're going to stand under the fear of god you're going to understand it and so we described last week we just let me just do this real quick what is the fear of god it means from proverbs 14 2 he who walks in his uprightness fears the lord it means to obey god let me say it again he walks in uprightness fears the lord in other words he who does it not just he who says it are you hearing me the fear of the lord is to hate evil proverbs 16 6 by the fear of the lord one departs from evil hebrews 11 noah moved with godly fear and built an ark it means he explicitly and implicitly obeyed god's commandments and carried them out hebrews 1 9 jesus it says of him he loves righteousness and hated lawlessness therefore god's anointed him but the oil of glad is more than all of his brethren so the fear of the lord from scripture means this isaiah 66 2 on this one i will look on him who's poor and of a contrite spirit who trembles at my word so here's the fear of god it means to pay attention to god's word to be very careful to obey what god's word says to hate evil and to always seek to please and obey god that's the fear of the lord it means to give no place to compromise no place i heard an awesome testimony uh on a youtube video the other day tuesday or wednesday a young man from canada he goes to a church in canada some people that i know and uh he tells about his own walk with god he said i was born again i was really born again i knew how to connect with this lord i know how to read the bible and pray and connect with the lord and uh and so on and so forth but he said i because of my selfishness and my insecurities he said i didn't obey god he said i sought for gratification and fulfillment by having relationships with women uh and he said and and then so he was living in sexual immorality he said and then my relationship would go bad and then i would fall into an addiction to medicate myself because of my pain and he said i then somehow i would get convicted and stop and then i would go back in it again then i would have a broken relationship then i would go into my addiction again then i would repent god would have mercy i'd get out of it and i'd go back in it again he said this went on for ten years he said i knew the kindness and the patience and the long-suffering of jesus and he said the bible says make no provision for the flesh but he said i made provision for the flesh i want to tell you how dangerous it is to live that way if you do you won't enter the kingdom of god jesus said fornicators will not enter in read matthew 7 21 jesus said not everyone who says lord lord enters the kingdom only those who do the will of the father anyway he said one night i went out he said i it was willful i went to a party i sinned he said i came back home got in bed he said my conscience was tormenting me he said i knew how wrong i was and i may not get the whole thing right but he said i all of a sudden a man appeared in my room it was the lord jesus he said but it took me a few moments to realize it was him the first thing i noticed was i knew that this man standing in my room was the most humble the most humble unassuming humble humble he said then the other thing i knew about him was he knew everything he knew everything he knew everything about my life and uh then i also knew this that just like when a guilty person stands before a judge and the judge can drop the gavel and sentence them to death or life in prison i knew this man had that same power over me all that went in moment and then i realized it's the lord jesus standing in my room he said he looked at me and there was disappointment and i saw a tear in his eyes he was disappointed with me and he said i knew that he knew and he said and i knew that i had absolutely no excuses whatsoever because he could see right through everything and it was terrifying he said he was holding his hand out and above his hand was a globe of the earth i said i don't know how to explain this but it wasn't a model it was the earth and then he said he went like this and earth turned into dust and before it could any he said before one particle at dusk it hit his hand he went and all the dust blew away and then but from the earth he said he saw the souls of the righteous who walked with god and they he said there weren't very many of them and they dropped into his hand and he closed my his hand like that he said one day this will all be gone and i'll have my own he said the absolute terror and the fear of god struck him to the core and of course he repented how many know that ever since then he's never backslidden see this is what's missing from the church this is what's missing from the church i have a friend here that lives in the valley and uh 30 years ago more than 30 years ago he did five years in a state penitentiary and he's a believer and he he told me that his cellmate was the best christian he'd ever seen he said joe when i woke up every morning he was already on his knees beside the bed he said he was always in prayer always in the word and he treated everybody like us this guy was a saint he was the godliest christian i'd ever met and he's in prison one day i asked him i said what is your secret he said how i've never seen anybody live so close to the lord like you he said i'll tell you what happened he said i was a believer but i backslid and i went back to drinking and i was in a bar and i was drunk and i got in a bar fight and a man stabbed me he said i staggered out of the bar and fell on the sidewalk they called an ambulance and they picked me up put me in an ambulance to take me the hospital and on the way i died i left my body and i was being sucked straight down to hell he said there's portals he's he described it just like kenneth hagin did because kenneth hagin had a similar experience when he was a teenager he said around the earth there are 12 different portals they have a vortex above them and they go down to the center of the earth where hell is he said i left my body and i started going down one of those portals he said it's a dark cavernous cave and on the sides of the of the cavern are these beasts remember it says these evil spirits are chained in darkness he said they were chained against the wall beast and as i was falling down that tunnel i could see down i could see the flickering flame i could hear the screaming of millions of people and i was falling down there those beasts were they were hindered by the change but they were trying to get me and they were cursing me with the most foul language and saying what an utter fool you are we have you now he said as i fell i cried out jesus and he said i was back in my body he said that's why i'm a good christian he said i'm not messing around see we need the fear of god lip service doesn't get you into the kingdom of god she said not everyone who says to me lord lord enters but only those who do the will of god and it's not just between heaven and hell either because if we don't walk out the we don't walk our walk the way we're supposed to and we do make it into heaven we're going to find out that we forfeited our eternal purpose because we didn't become who we're supposed to be on this earth how we walk with god now determines our eternal destiny in in the kingdom of god there's ranks in the kingdom there's levels of authority there's levels of glory read about it jesus said you'll be over five cities you'll be over ten cities you'll be over nothing take the talents away from him and give it to him so it all depends on how we walk now so god said if you want to find the knowledge the true spiritual knowledge of god the first thing that's going to happen is you're going to understand the fear of the lord so the fear of the lord means god said it and he means it when god said it he expects us to pay attention he expects us to apply it and do our level best to walk it out that's the fear of the lord god is good he's long-suffering he's patient he's kind he knows our weakness he'll help us he's merciful beyond human description he's good beyond human description but he means business that's the fear of the lord i learned the fear of the lord growing up but my i had to gr such a great dad i wish i could have been as good a dad as he was my dad wasn't an angry person he was a good loving father but he was strict but a good loving father but i'm telling you my dad never told us anything twice and he wasn't angry he wasn't abusive he was a great dad but when my dad cleared his throat we moved and you know what that's the way it should be because when you learn that at home then you learn to fear god you don't take advantage of god's mercy to your own detriment anyway that's the introduction to my message today so we're going to talk today about working out our salvation with fear and trembling so to work it out to work out our salvation i've used this analogy before you are complete in christ how many believe it okay but we don't yet see ourselves walking in the fullness of christ do we but it says we're complete in him and here's my understanding it's like buying a bicycle it gets delivered by the ups truck to your house in a big cardboard crate it's there it's on your front porch you can say the bicycle is complete you look over the list you sign it off you accept it you got it okay it's complete that's you and me in christ all the parts are there but we got to do something with it i can go in the house all day long and say my bicycle's complete yeah i but until you open the box get the instruction book out get the wrench out put it together get on it and start using it it's worth nothing so salvation people think i prayed i accepted the lord good you got something to work with now now that you're born again christ is in you we have the holy spirit we have the word of god open the instruction manual start studying it start applying it and work it out that's what it means now here's what it says in philippians 2 12 and 13. therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed notice the word obey not is in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is god who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure so he's saying the the the completeness that we have in christ we are complete we're already blessed with every spiritual blessing we've been given everything that pertains to life and godliness the spirit of christ is in us the hope of glory we're washed in the blood we're redeemed now he said work it out and he says with fear and trembling meaning notice the apostles these apostles knew jesus face to face not only that they were caught paul was caught up and also saw him in heaven john saw him they knew the fear of the lord here's what he said if if we're absent from the body second corinthians chapter five is to be present to the lord and he says we all must appear before the judgment seat of christ where each one of us is repaid according to our deeds whether good or evil were recompensed therefore knowing the terror of the lord we persuade men so the apostles used the fear of the lord to persuade people we don't do that today we only we only use grace to persuade people but here's what he said work out your salvation with fear and trembling again it's not fear it's not god's angry or condemnation it means be diligent pay attention apply it do it with all your heart that's the fear of the lord now here's the here's the encouragement for it is god who works in you both to will and to do it for his good pleasure so while you're working it out we're not working it out on our own christ is in us when he says deny yourself he's in us to work in us so that we can do that when he says take up your cross he's in us to carry the cross we said follow me he's in us right yes okay so we're gonna talk about for the next few minutes working out our salvation second peter chapter one verse two through four practical how to says grace and peace be multiplied to you second peter chapter one verse two in the knowledge of god and of jesus our lord as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the experiential knowledge of him who called us to glory and virtue okay try to follow what he's saying god's given you and me everything we need to grow up into the full stature of christ do you believe it is that your goal how many have a goal to grow up into the full stature of christ okay so he said god's given you everything you need for it how do you access it through the experiential knowledge of him who called us to glory and virtue through through seeking god knowing him by the holy spirit and by the word of god proverbs 2 storing up the word in our heart crying out put the word in your heart and pray isn't that what proverbs 2 says put the word in your heart and pray and god says then you'll understand the fear of the lord and i'll give you the knowledge of god so he said the knowledge of god is when the holy spirit makes jesus real to our heart and he does it over and over and over from now until jesus comes back he keeps revealing jesus to us more and more and i have a hunch that for all eternity will be getting to know him more and more amen now watch so he said all that we need for life in godliness is found in the knowledge of christ which is why we should always be seeking him lord i want to know you lord open your word to me teach me your ways show me your path what are you thinking lord what's on your heart jesus how do you see this everything that pertains to life and godliness is given to us through the knowledge of him lord what's your heart lord i know what i think about this person what do you think about them if you want to have your mind changed lord i know what i think about the situation what do you think what's your perspective what's your heart through the knowledge of god seeking god now now he says by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust okay being filled with the love of god and the the love of god brings all the fruit when we when we look in galatians at the fruit of the spirit love joy peace gentleness patience kindness goodness long suffering all those words are describing one thing love there's one fruit love love is patient love is good love is kind love is long suffering so all the fruit come from the holy spirit putting his love in our heart agreed so now my goal is okay lord i'm seeking you i want to get filled with the love of god and i also need lord i need all the gifts because how can you help people we need help so he said you will be a partaker of the divine nature by the exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be a partaker of divine nature am i the only one that's excited about this [Music] anybody here want to be a partaker of the divine nature yes now you i know if you're born again you have to have tasted this you already know what it's like when we have times where there's flashes of the love of god surges in us how many have that how many benefits you i know you have i know you have i'm just saying it you've been a situation and all of a sudden god's love fills you and you look at a person or a situation and your whole perspective changes right you think oh lord i was i had the wrong completely wrong attitude because the love of god okay that's the divine nature so we may have tastes of it a little bit of it here and there our goal is to be filled with all the fullness of god ephesians 3 verse 14 to 21. it's what it says that you would know the length and breadth and the depth and height of the love of christ that passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of god so how do we do it we anybody know we take the exceedingly great and precious promises and we apply them it's by faith we take the promises and we apply them and we become a partaker of the divine nature how do we do them all right so i said all that to say now here's the real message it's what we're doing in our prayer time from nine to ten we take scripture passages this is the will of god we go to the throne of grace what did paul say i am what i am by the right first corinthians 15 10. okay so we take the exceedingly precious promises god said by these promises you're going to become a partaker of the divine nature the love of god will fill you and take over your nature and as we keep getting fillings and impartations and revelations we get changed into his image until our nature and his are the same no matter what comes at us love comes back all the fruit all the gifts okay he said how are we going to get there you can't get there on your own there's nothing we can do but what we can do is we can take the exceedingly great and precious promises then what do we do we're to go to the throne of pray the promise back to god say lord now we don't pray it in anxiously oh woe is me i'm such a worm oh god please do this i'm begging you no we just come confidently the bible says come boldly the word means no not hanging your head not shame-faced just come confidently because jesus paid for it he paid he paid for our complete redemption he paid for us to be filled with the holy spirit he paid for us to be transformed come on somebody so we come to the lord with confidence boldly confident we're not begging god what just wants us to take the problem here's what it is god wants us to want it god wants us to want him and he wants us to want his will that's what prayer is god throws it all out there i paid for everything here's all the promises now whoever wants it pick those promises up and come to me that's what he's saying god please know this about the lord god wants to be wanted who doesn't he's he wants to be wanted he wants us to desire him he's not going to pour his spirit out unless we seek him you want it you want me remember when jesus was walking on the road to emmaus after the resurrection two disciples he appeared in another form they didn't know it was him and he opened up the prophets and started speaking to them out of the word here's the living word expounding the word the word teaching the word to them and they later they said did not our hearts burn within us but they didn't know it was him and they got up to a junction in the road where they were going to turn in and meet the other disciples and it says that jesus acted like he was going to keep going did he not know that he was going to go in there yes he did he wanted to be asked yes he's not just going to say i'm going to come with you guys he wants to know do you want me that's why it says in psalm 107 that he satisfies the longing soul that's now listen that is one of the exceedingly great and precious promises sometimes you may feel like i feel lord i can't even do anything right the only thing i can do is long for more of you and i feel like the lord said you're getting it anybody ever feel like that god i can't do anything right but i can hunger for you that's all he wants he wants to believe his word hunger for him that's the working out of our salvation seeking his face so god says now when god says in matthew 5 6 blessed are they which do hunger and thirst they shall be filled this is that's an exceedingly precious promise so what do we do get hungry well i don't know how to get hungry i'll give you another verse jeremiah 24 7 then i will give them a heart to know me that i am the lord they will be my people and i'll be their god and they shall return to me with their whole heart there's an exceedingly precious promise what am i doing i'm sharing with you how to work out our salvation we have to understand things about the lord he's not gonna okay he's paid for everything i can stay over here and claim all day long i'm complete in christ nothing's going to change until i start taking exceedingly precious promises and applying them and i take them to the throne of grace and i get grace i said and i come to him and i say god give me a heart to know you god you know how distracted i get lord i love you lord lord deliver me from distractions deliver me god from the lust of the eyes deliver me from the lust of the flesh deliver me from pride lord lord give me a heart this is working out our salvation lord give me a heart to know you lord i lord am i a little bit hungry for you but i want to be a lot hungry open my eyes open my eyes lord these are the exceeding precious promises this is how we work out our salvation it's daily going to the throne of grace of course it's worship it's obedience it's but it's taking the promises of god and say lord i want i want all that you paid for me listen we're all going to stand before the lord on judgment day and in that day every single person is going to wish they had gone after god with all their heart while they're on earth your business your toys and all your other stuff won't mean very much on judgment day right so here's how let me can i close by just you guys worshipped a long time so i have 15 more minutes i want to share with you what we've been doing in the morning prayer this is working out our salvation now we don't again i want to emphasize don't get under a works burden where you're relying on yourself know that the next verse says for it is god who works in you both to will and to do okay so there's a confidence when i when i come to work out my when i come to pray and i take in a promise i'm gonna go pray i'm not like oh my god i hope i do this good enough and you know i no i don't or dear lord i pray that you'll hear my prayer i'm such a worm none of that i come i'm redeemed i'm complete in christ he paid this he paid for me for this it's my inheritance lord i'm coming the throne of grace lord give me this give me this now now here's a couple of the prayers that we've been praying in the morning these these are revival prayers and if if you can grasp this if you can say okay i'm going to take this prayer i'm going to start practicing it on a regular basis i guarantee you the grace of god will come in you and start performing it your whole salvation has been paid for your sanctification justification glorification is all covered by jesus we just have to open the box and walk out the instructions now here it is here's one of the prayers did it say through exceedingly precious promises we become bar takers there's a promise in isaiah i thought i had it written down here where god says i will put my fear in their heart so that they will not stray from me did you know the fear of god is a gift it's one of the seven spirits of god we should all be praying god give me the fear of god i pray for it god give me the fear of the lord i want the fear of god you get the fear of god you'll grow like a turbocharged you'll grow up in christ so fast the fear of the lord was jesus's delight isaiah 33 says wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your time and the fear of the lord your treasure so god says in jeremiah i will give you the fear of the lord so you will not depart from me if you're having a problem going in and out of sin ask god to give you the fear of the lord spend time in the bible and spend time praying and say god give me the fear of the lord when he does it'll take the slack out you'll grow more in five days of the fear of the lord than in the last five years it's the truth so let me close by just sharing a couple of these prayers did i lucia philippians 1 this i pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and discernment that's the gifts word of knowledge discernment did you know that this prayer means that god will pour his love increasingly into your heart there couldn't be anything better that could happen to us pray this take this promise pray it back to god i'm praying philippians 1 9 through 11. 9-11 god make my love overflow more and more with the gifts of knowledge and discernment and i pray in there lord use me to encourage people build up edify stir up cheer up open prison doors and set captives free i want that love filling me with knowledge and discernment you can have it if you ask for it and if you don't you won't have it lord i want your love to change me verse 10 philippians 1 10 so i can see the things that you see so when i look at people i can see what god sees you might see a dirty rotten scoundrel and god might see a hurt person who's crying in the depth of their heart for help but they're too proud to say it god opened my eyes fill me with your love so that i can see what's excellent like you do philippians 1 10 are you falling lord fill me with your love so my love will be sincere and unoffendable you know who the most miserable people are offended people offended people are miserable people who have love to where they can't they could either get over it real fast or they're not offended or the happiest people doesn't mean nothing negative never comes their way it means they don't stumble over it they're not going to get offended so what by the way if you're ever going to be a pastor you have to learn that because no matter what you do somebody gets offended at you and they say stuff and then you hear about it then you get offended then you have to repent for being offended because they're offended you go through that enough time you say lord i'm tired of being offended i quit i'm just going to love the knuckleheads every single one of them like mike bickle said we love everybody sad man or glad coming or going we love them all listen that's a place of freedom in christ getting offended is just it's miserable stop it quit repent stop being offended get over it that's my counseling advice for thursday for to come get equipped for counseling step one get over it next well it's a little deeper than that but you know if getting offended is miserable how many have ever been offended and then you get over it and after you get over it you go i can't believe i was offended over that i would have been offended over something and been miserable for three or four days then you get over and you go i can't believe what a bonehead i was to be bothered about that so the love of god fills our heart we're not offended well listen when people don't like you or they don't or they talk bad about you it's not your problem it's theirs it's their issue can people find fault with you of course they can we're not jesus we're not there yet you don't have to have a you don't have to have great discernment to find fault all you have to have is a demon a critical spirit anyway let me get on to the next thing here god god's love fills us so that we're unoffendable and then his love fills us and makes us full of the fruits of the righteousness i read that and i just say lord i want it it's too quiet in here does anybody else want that anybody else want that it's yours for the taking now i'm it doesn't seem to happen like you prayed on sunday and it's all 100 on monday it comes in increments god keeps us coming back to him over and over he keeps us coming but it comes that's why when you read what jesus said in luke chapter 6 everyone that asks receives in the greek it's an ongoing tense it's everyone that asks and keeps asking everyone that seeks and keeps seeking everyone that knocks and keeps knocking look at me amplify look in a greek that's what it means so god says you want this verse it's your inheritance in christ you want to be filled with the love of god it's yours you want to have all the gifts they're yours you can have them come and ask for them claim the exceedingly precious promises so that's what it that's what we're praying revival prayer on sunday morning we're taking these promises and i want you to get familiar with them we're praying them back to the lord and we're gonna we're just gonna stay on it amen lord lord fill us with your love let your love bring all the gifts do you have a vision for that lord let your love make us see like you see lord let your love make us unoffendable let your love fill us until we're all full of all the fruit of this righteousness that comes from jesus that's our inherit this is working out our salvation not just saying i'm complete in christ is taking the exceedingly precious promises take them to the throne of grace and by these promises we become partakers of the divine nature that's why he said my house should be called a house of prayer that's why paul said rejoice always pray constantly give thanks in all circumstances this is the will of god in christ jesus for you that's why i said in the philippians be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto god the peace of god that passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in christ jesus it's a prayer getting familiar with the word of god these apostolic prayers that's what they are that's what colossians 1 9-11 is getting them in our heart breathing them in prayer back and forth to god constantly every day every week on and on we're just going to we're going to get increment over and over and over whatever is in the exceedingly precious promises of god they're ours they're ours they're ours they're ours mona they're ours i intend by the grace of god and i'm not being funny when i say this i intend by the grace of god to be so full of the holy spirit that's that's all i want i want to i want the will of god only done in my life don't you where our goal has to be to walk like he walked otherwise it's a fake christianity it's not the real thing anyway i'm done for today [Applause] now you clap praise the lord thank you lord for purchasing our full salvation thank you that through your exceedingly precious promises we can be partakers of your divine nature lord thank you for filling this church with your love come on let's agree lord let your love overflow this body and that all the gifts would flow that god you would use every believer to open prison doors and set captives free lord change the way we see people let your love make us see what's excellent make your love make us sincere without offense and filled with all the fruits of righteousness thank you for that lord in the name of jesus so the bible says work out your salvation with fear and trembling that means be very careful to do this it means without the fear and trembling we don't work out our salvation he said john the beloved said don't let those things slip don't let them slip don't forsake the gathering of yourselves together as is the habit of some but all the more seeing that the day approaches that we would encourage and exhort one another to keep doing this to press on for the mark of the prize of the high call of god if we don't get the worship team up here i'm not going to stop [Music] [Music]

Channel: ShekinahWorshipTV

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Keywords: Joe Sweet, Shekinah Worship Center

Id: QajKsePgItE

Length: 67min 43sec (4063 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021