The.
.
The fight is on, let's all stand
together for this first song, if you're
able.
Song number 409.
All together nice and loud on that first
verse.
The fight is on, the trumpet
sound is ringing.
The fight is on, the trumpet sound
is ringing.
The fight is on, the trumpet sound
is ringing.
The fight is on, the trumpet sound
is ringing.
All together nice and loud on that first
verse.
The fight is on, the trumpet sound is
ringing.
The cry to arms is heard afar and
near.
The Lord of hosts is marching on to
victory.
The triumph of the Christ will soon
appear.
The fight is on, no Christian soldier
and face to face in stern array.
With armor gleaming and colors
shining bright and wrong engaged
today.
The fight is on, but be not
weary.
Be strong and in his might
hold fast.
If God be for us,
his banner o'er us,
we'll sing the victor's
song at last.
The fight is
on, a rousing soldier
brave and true, Jehovah
leads and victory will
assure.
Go buckle on the armor
God has given you and in
his strength forever
we'll endure.
The fight is on, no Christian
soldier
and face to face in stern
array.
With armor gleaming
and colors streaming
the right and wrong
engaged today.
The fight is on, but
be not weary.
Be strong and in
his might hold fast.
If God be for
us, his banner o'er
us, we'll sing the
victor's song at
last.
The fight is leading
on to certain victory.
The bow of promise
spans the eastern sky.
His glorious name
the
mourn will break
the dawn of peace is
nigh. The fight
is on, no Christian
soldier and face
to face in stern
array.
With armor gleaming
and colors streaming
the right and wrong
engaged today.
The fight is on, but
be not weary.
Be strong and in his
might hold fast.
If God be for us,
his banner o'er
us, we'll sing the victor's
song at last.
Amen.
Amen, wonderful singing. Let's start off our service
with a word of prayer.
Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, I thank you for
giving us this day.
We can come to your house, Lord,
and fellowship with our brethren, Lord,
to hear the preaching of your word.
Thank you for the service this morning.
Thank you also for the souls that were saved this afternoon.
And I ask that you please just bless this
service tonight, Lord.
I ask that you please bless us as we sing these hymns
that they would be pleasing to your ears.
And I ask that you please just bless the
entirety of the service. I pray that you feel
past and may heal with your spirit as he
preaches your word and fill us also with your
spirit as he preaches that we may take
what he preaches and apply it to our lives, Lord.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Go ahead and turn to song
number 250. You may be seated.
Song number 250,
Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
Song number 250.
Nice and loud in that first verse.
Days are filled
with sorrow and care.
Hearts are lonely and drear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Cast your care on Jesus today.
Leave your worry and fear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Troubled soul, the Savior can see.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Great singing. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song,
which will be song number 121, Like a River, Glorious.
If you want to get that ready in your songbooks, 121.
If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you.
Excuse me. Our services are as follows. Sunday morning is at 1030.
Sunday evening at 5 p.m. And then we have a Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock.
And we will continue to study through the book of Ephesians. Actually, we're going to be in the book of Ephesians tonight to make up for Thursday.
So we're going to finish up the chapter this evening.
And then be in chapter 2 this coming Thursday. You see there's so many times and teams there as well.
The list of expecting mothers and of course the important reminders.
And tonight is sports night at Eucalyptus Park. And so after the service,
what we'll do, we can fellowship for about 10 minutes or so, get ready for that.
And then we're just going to head straight to the park because we need this light. Amen.
And I'm sure it's going to stick around for, I think the sundown has been, it's been around like 8 o'clock if I'm not mistaken.
So we should be good. But we'll have
all the equipment there. And then we're also going to have
all the stuff that we had for the PE for the kids is going to be at the park as well.
So the kids can play there. Obviously there's the jungle gym there as well.
And then we're having Porky's Pizza. You know, sports, pizza,
kind of go together, right? And so we're looking forward to that.
It's going to be fun. And then on Sunday, July 25th, is the men's preaching night.
That'll be next Sunday night. And I believe about 4 men are going to be
preaching, 15 minutes each. I think I already spoke to the men who are going to be preaching.
And so men, if you have any questions about that, see me after the service.
And then we'll have ice cream afterwards. And then the men's prayer meeting is going to be on
Friday, July 30th at 6.30 pm at Brother Hikes' house.
Excuse me. Sunday, August 1st is the August birthday breakfast. And then the ladies
prayer meeting on Friday, August 27th. You see the reminders at the
bottom there. Make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during
the service. And at this time we're going to take some soul winning numbers from this last week. I know we had the Red Hot
Preaching Conference from Thursday. So I know a lot of people were
there. But we're going to collect whatever we got from Monday to Thursday. Any salvations from
Monday to Thursday? Any salvations? We're not going to count the soul winning from
that was done up at Verity because obviously they counted
that. Any salvations for this afternoon? This afternoon? Yes.
Four. Okay. One for Brother Hike.
One for Brother Maury. One for Brother Mark.
One for Brother Marcos. Anybody else?
Anybody from Saturday or Friday that did not go to the Red Hot Preaching Conference?
Is that it? Okay. Keep up the great work on soul winning. Let's go ahead and sing our next
song. 121, Like a River, Glorious. Song number
121.
Song number 121.
All together on that first verse.
Like a river glorious
Is God's perfect peace
Overall
victorious
In its bright increase
Perfect yet it floweth
Polar every
day
Perfect yet it groweth
Deeper all the way
Stayed upon
My heart the hearts are
fully blessed
Finding as he promised
Perfect peace and
rest
Hidden in the hollow
Of his blessed hand
Never can
follow
Never trade or stand
Not a surge of worry
Not a shade of
care
Not a blast of hurry
Touch the spirit there
Stayed upon
Jehovah hearts are
fully blessed
Finding as he promised
Perfect peace and
rest
Enjoy your trial
Falleth from above
Traced upon our
diode
By the son of love
We may trust him fully
All for us to
do
They who trust him
holy find him
holy true
Stayed upon
Jehovah hearts are fully
blessed
Finding as he promised
Perfect peace and
rest
Amen. Wonderful singing. The ushers will now come forth to collect the offering.
You can turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter number 1.
Thank you.
Tonight we're in Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1 and the Bible reads
Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God
the saints which are in Ephesus to the faithful in Christ Jesus
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly
places in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in
love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will
to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence
having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself that in the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ
both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ in whom he also trusted after that he heard the word of
truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that he believed
you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
unto the praise of his glory wherefore I also after I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all of the saints cease not to give
thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints
and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were it who believe
according to the working of his mighty power which he
wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at
his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality
and power and might and dominion and every name that is named
not only in this world but also in that which is to come and I've put all
things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the
church which is his body the fullness of him
that filleth all in all. Let's bow our heads and pray. Dear Lord God,
Heavenly Father just thank you for this time we have to listen to your word Lord and thank you for this church
and King James Bible Lord we just pray now that you fill a pastor with your Holy Spirit and
give the congregation here ears to hear and pray that we take away these truths out of your word
Lord and that we come out here edified and just bless this time right now
and bless the fellowship to follow and pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.
Okay tonight we're going to continue
with Ephesians chapter number one not just Thursday but
previous Thursday we started a new book and I was only able to cover
half of the book of Ephesians chapter one and so tonight is part two
and I just want to conclude the chapter so we can start with chapter number two this coming Thursday
I'm just going to give you a little bit of some review
here of course chapter one if we're to really break it down
into a theme I would say that it's regarding the spiritual blessings
in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit
and we see the spiritual blessings that we receive in the Father from verses four
all the way to verse six we see the spiritual blessings in Christ that we receive
from verse seven all the way to verse twelve and a couple weeks ago
we talked about this matter of predestination we debunk predestination
and the flaws of it and it's how it doesn't it's not defined in the Bible
as the Calvinist of today would define it but rather to be
predestined is basically God giving you a previous destiny
that he foreknew right based upon his foreknowledge
but it's everything in Christ so when you're in Christ when you're saved
when you believe in Jesus Christ he has a plan for your
life he does have a destiny for you to follow and look that's not to say that
you can't veer off that destiny because sometimes people do so just because God
has a plan for you he has a destiny for you to fulfill
it doesn't mean that you can't veer off into another direction get involved in sin
do your own thing because of the fact that God has given us
each and every one of us a free will so we have the will to choose
right whether we want to fulfill that destiny or not and this is
the reason why the Bible tells us in Romans chapter number 12 it talks about the
good acceptable and the perfect will of God so you can do
the good you can do the acceptable or you can do the perfect will of God
it's up to you and it's whose sort of a will it requires our obedience
to his word in order to fulfill that and so we covered those
first two categories a couple weeks ago and tonight we're going to talk about the spiritual
blessings in the Holy Spirit and I'll be honest with you this is actually one of my
favorite subjects in the Bible and that is the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit and I think it's one of my favorite because it's one of the things that
I was taught initially when I first got saved that really just
kind of honed in and embedded this matter of eternal security
because obviously it's the Holy Spirit that dwells within us he's sealed within us
until the day of redemption and there's so much depth to that teaching there
there's so many riches that are found within
that doctrine alone and we're going to look at some of those this evening look at verse
number 11 it says in whom we also in whom
also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the council
of his own will and by the way if you know if there's
a destiny for us to follow okay think about this if it's predestined
and there's nothing we can do to change it then why do we even have Romans 8 28
you know all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are on the call
according to his purpose you know I'll tell you why because Christians make mistakes
you know they sin they make mistakes they have flaws they make the wrong decision
and when they get right with God it's at that point that God can turn
that bad decision into something good okay but I want you
to notice here it says being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things
after the council of his own will that we should be to the praise of
his glory look what it says who first trusted in Christ so who are those who are predestined
those who first trusted in Christ it's not saying
those who you know before they even got saved and God chose them for salvation
he chose them for eternal life he chose them for damnation no it
says the people who are predestined are those who first trusted in Christ
so the prerequisite to have that destiny in Christ is that you
get saved okay so in other words you have to get on the right road
and that right road is Jesus Christ at which point now you
have a road to follow a pathway that you can follow
in order to serve God and be blessed etcetera so those who are
predestinated are those who first trusted in Christ and by the
way this is one of the reasons I'm not against the phrase trust Jesus as their savior
I believe it's a biblical term we see it used here in Ephesians chapter 1 and in fact the word
believe means to trust okay and we need to
make sure that we clarify that when we talk to people at the door when we're preaching the gospel
because of the fact that when you tell someone hey believe on Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved more often than not what do they say back
well I believe in God I already believe in God I already believe in Jesus
they think when we say that that we're saying believe that he exists
right but here's the thing everyone believes that God exists
everyone believes in Jesus everyone believes that he exists
everyone knows that he is God whether they hate him or not whether they're neutral about it or not
you know they know that he exists they know that he is God
when the Bible says believe it's referring to the fact that God wants them
to believe the witness that he is giving of his son
they want them he wants them to trust in him as their savior
okay to believe to have faith in Christ that his death
burial and resurrection is sufficient to give him eternal life
and so this is a proper word to use and I use it often
to trust Christ and I'll often tell people hey when the Bible says believe it doesn't necessarily
just mean believe that he exists because everyone believes that when it says believe
it means trust in Jesus as your savior trust that he is sufficient to save you
and the reason I use that is because of the fact that people are trusting in themselves
to be saved right they're trusting in their obedience and their
ability to keep God's commandments and
their church attendance their righteous so called
works you know and whatever it may be and their ability to
repent from their sin and turn from their sin that's what they're trusting in for salvation
and so the Bible is teaching us that they need to take away that trust in themselves in their
works or whatever it may be and place their trust in Jesus for salvation
understand that he is sufficient to save nothing else is needed
okay and so this is a great phrase to use trust Jesus as your savior
the phrases that I have a tendency to kind of stray away from and not use
is phrases like accept him into your heart
you know know God okay and obviously we want to
know God as God's people we should know God right
but here's the thing to know God is to read the Bible to know God is to obey the word of
God to know God is to come to church to know God is to keep his commandments
to know God is to love God because if you love me keep my commandments
and so that's not a proper term to use when we're witnessing to people hey you know
I want you to know God you know really the proper
phrase what that would be I want God to know you because when someone gets
saved it's their known of God according to Galatians chapter number 2
understand but even then we don't want to use those kind of phrases because that can confuse
people let's use the phrase that Jesus Christ reiterated over and over
again the most simplest phrase to explain which is to believe on Jesus Christ
okay which means to trust look at verse 13 so we're
going to look at the blessings of the Holy Spirit and the blessing number 1 is the blessing of being sealed
and don't ever take this blessing for granted say why
would we take it for granted well folks there's plenty of Christians out there that actually take this
specific blessing for granted okay and I'll explain to you why look at verse 13
in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth
the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believe
notice that he uses those words synonymously right in whom ye also
trusted in whom also after that ye believe the Bible says ye
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of
promise now the reason he calls it the Holy
Spirit of promise is because this is something that Jesus Christ promised
believers that they would be indwelt with when he left
okay so when he ascended to heaven he promised
that the comforter would come and that that comforter who dwells with them shall
be in them so this is a fulfillment of that promise when someone who trusts Christ
as their savior they believe on Jesus Christ they are then sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise the promise that was made by Jesus Christ
okay now go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 1 hold your place there
in Ephesians the Bible tells us here in John chapter 3 go to 2 Corinthians
1 John 3 31 says he that cometh from above is above all
he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth
he that cometh from heaven is above all and what he hath seen
and heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony he that
hath received his testimony hath said to his seal that God
is true so folks when you believe on Christ
you're basically testifying that what God said is true
and if people refuse to get saved they don't believe what you're telling them when you give them
the gospel the Bible tells us according to 1 John chapter 5 that they're actually
calling God a liar because God is giving a record he's giving a witness
of his son and if you say well no I still think I have to do God's
works I got to do the commandments I got to repent of my sin they're basically calling God
a liar but if you're sitting in here today you're saved what you've done
is that you said to your seal that God is true look at 2
Corinthians 1 20 it says for all the promises of God in him are ye
and in him amen unto the glory of God by us
now he which established us with you in Christ and hath
anointed us is God who hath also sealed us
and given the earnest of the Spirit in our
hearts so notice that he says in verse 21 that he established
us with you in Christ and hath anointed
us these are terms that are used to basically describe the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit because he follows up with verse 22 that he has sealed us giving
us the earnest of the Spirit now go back to
Ephesians if you would now when you look at the word earnest in the Bible
more often than not it means to be serious means something
that is serious in fact this is how it's used the majority of the time in the Bible you look
it up all the times that earnest is used it's often referring
to someone who is just being serious about something okay the only time
that it's not used in that manner is when it's actually referring to the Holy Spirit
you say well how do you know that well because it doesn't fit the grammatical
context you understand when it talks about the seriousness of the Spirit that wouldn't really make
sense now would it he's given us the seriousness of the Spirit
like there's another part that's not serious or something you know when it says earnest
it's referring to what we would call today a down payment
it's a pledge
look what it says in Ephesians chapter 4 and
verse number 30 and this is great
folks this gift that we received of the Holy Ghost dwelling within us is great
it's awesome why because it just kind of hammers
and embeds eternal security you say why
is that well because the Holy Spirit is God right the Holy Spirit
is God and it's God who is dwelling within us
he is sealed within us now here's the thing some people out there
who teach that you could lose your salvation will often try to use the
Old Testament scriptures such as Samson that the Spirit left
him and they'll say see if you sin against God if you do something
bad you could lose your salvation because the Spirit of God can leave you well you know what
that was true in the Old Testament as far as the Spirit of God leaving you
but it's not true today okay because today the Holy Spirit of God is sealed
within us now obviously we understand that even in the Old Testament when the Holy Spirit
departed from a person it didn't mean they lost their salvation
because of the fact that when someone gets saved the Holy Spirit comes
and he regenerates the Spirit that lives within them
the Bible says and you hath he quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sin you understand so even in the Old Testament
just like today when someone believed on the Lord the Holy
Spirit would come and regenerate that that spirit that soul
it would bring him back to life not by works of righteousness which we have done but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost
so he comes he brings that Spirit to life who is dead
in trespasses and sin okay that Spirit that was slain by the
law he brings back to life but he just wouldn't dwell with them
you understand you say well that just proves that they could lose their salvation
no because once the Spirit is brought back to life it can't be killed
it can't be put to death right the only time that the Spirit was put to death
in the Bible even today is when they have knowledge
of sin according to Romans chapter number 7 this is why we reject
this whole thing of baby baptism
because baby baptism according to the Catholics is used
to wash away original sin they teach that when the
baby is born it has original sin and that's why you need to make sure
you baptize them in physical water because somehow that physical water washes away the sins
of the baby and then you know if they die they'll go to heaven you understand
you see how close Calvinism is to Catholicism they both believe
babies can go to hell right because they believe the Calvinists
believe that the baby can go to hell if they're not elected you know if they're reprobate
if they die they will go to hell according to the Calvinists and then the Catholics believe if
you don't baptize that baby it will not wash away the sins of the baby because
it will not wash the sins of the baby of its original sin and if it dies
it will go to hell now both of them are false doctrines they're not true there's no biblical
basis in the Bible for this and in fact you'll never find in the Bible an example
of a baby getting baptized it's like what in the world
but what the Bible does teach us in Romans chapter
number 7 is that when a person comes
when a person reaches the age of accountability
the law slays them they have the knowledge of sin because of
the law of God at that point their spirit is slain
their spirit is slain and they are now dead in their trespasses
and sin so if a baby dies if an infant dies it will
go to heaven but here's the thing if the infant
grows and then reaches the age of accountability which we
don't know what age that is it varies with everyone they reach that
age of accountability where they recognize that they sinned against God
they know what the Bible says and they recognize they sinned against God at that
point they're accountable for their actions now they have
the knowledge of sin so when a baby is born it's born with
a living spirit it's slain by the law according to Romans chapter number 7
and then it can be brought back to life when they believe on Jesus Christ
okay and that's when the Holy Spirit
comes to dwell within them so even in the Old Testament that's exactly what saves
the individual is that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit no that's the earnest of the inheritance
what is it that saves it is when the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates
the spirit that's within that person you understand
and so the only difference is of course in the Old Testament when they were
regenerated the Holy Spirit would dwell with them
today the Holy Spirit dwells within us
but both my spirit and David's spirit were both regenerated
you understand they were both brought back to life
so on and so forth okay does that make sense to everyone
and so the earnest of the spirit in our hearts is referring to the fact
that when we get saved he basically puts
a down payment upon our body
okay now look as I was mentioning in the Old Testament when people would sin
the Holy Spirit would leave them they would no longer have the power of God
now look what it says in Ephesians 4 verse 30
and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God
now what does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit of God
someone throw out an answer
okay right because it gives you a list of sins even previous
to that in Ephesians chapter 4 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil
speaking be put away from you you know it tells you all these things and these are sinful
things that a person can commit so when you partake in bitterness
and evil speaking and wrath and you know not just
the sins that are mentioned in Ephesians 4 but other sins
what are you doing you actually grieve the Holy Spirit of God
okay now notice that look what it goes on to say and grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day
of redemption so think about that because this is a verse we
often use but we don't really think about the depth of this verse because what it's saying is this
don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God because he actually dwells within you unto the day of redemption
in other words he has to live with you
so when you sin he's not going to leave
he's just not going to empower you but he's going to be grieved
over your sin and it doesn't
say that he's going to leave it doesn't say he's going to depart it doesn't say he's no longer
going to dwell in you it says don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby
ye are sealed until you sin
does it say there and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed
unto the day that you sin and he's out he's out of that complex
he's out of that house he's out of that temple just you sin this
once and he's out no he says he's there unto the day of redemption
and what is the day of redemption day of redemption is synonymous with the resurrection
synonymous with the rapture synonymous with the
second coming of Christ when we receive the redemption of our
body okay and so this proves here
that yeah you can still sin not giving permission to sin
but I'm saying you can sin and the Holy Spirit of God will not
leave you now I will say this is that the Holy Spirit of God will not empower you
why because if you're sinning you're walking in the flesh you're fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind you're not walking in the spirit you're not filled
with the spirit and they that mind the things of the flesh they're going to reap
corruption so there's going to be a penalty to pay there's consequences
to those actions but the point that I'm making is the fact that
you can still grieve the Holy Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit will
not leave you because of that now people will take what I'm saying and say can you believe what this guy's saying
he's giving people permission to sin he's making you know giving place
for sin for people no I'm just telling you that people
will sin here's the funny thing oh you're just giving people
license to sin people don't need a license to sin
people will sin with or without a license
okay they will sin when they're Christians before
they're Christians they sin all the time
okay now I'm not saying they commit every sin you know
on the list but they will commit sin
because even if they stop committing fornication even if they stop drinking and they stop
you know doing whatever they can have the
tendency to commit other sins such as pride such as covetousness such as
lust in their heart and these are still sins that the body commits you understand
and so and no one 100% of the time walks in the spirit
this side of eternity except for Jesus Christ
no one walks in the spirit 100% of the time
and look let me just say this people are in and out of the spirit throughout the day
I'm talking about people who are actually serving God now people who are not serving God
they're just always in the flesh they might be in the spirit every once in a while
but for the most part they're always in the flesh okay
but a Christian who's striving to serve God who wants to do
that which is pleasing unto the Lord they're constantly in and out of the flesh
you were in and out of the flesh all day today so was I
and if you're a father of little ones
dude you're in and out of the spirit all the time
right because it's just you know
try your patience sometimes
there you go see
he wants me to preach this sermon
it happens okay in marriage
you're in and out of the spirit okay you know
just in life in general you know but here's the thing that's okay because
it's showing that it's displaying the fact that you want to serve God
because you're in the flesh and you're like man I need to get this right
Lord forgive me for this I'm sorry you go to your spouse you go to your children
I'm sorry for this you know I did wrong and I want you to forgive me
and then you're back in the spirit again it's not like well I messed up this entire day
no you didn't these are intervals of life
the intervals of life is that you're in the flesh sometimes you recognize it you get back in the
spirit it's a constant battle then you have to
fight or else what are you saying well I'm just not going to do anything well that means you're in the flesh
because you have to proactively seek to be in the spirit
you have to conscientiously think about being in the spirit
it doesn't happen by accident what comes naturally to you walking
in the spirit or walking in the flesh the flesh that comes naturally
I mean we wake up in the flesh does anybody
can anybody testify to say I wake up in the spirit everyday
okay no when we wake up we have to choose to walk in the spirit
everyone wakes up in the flesh and they're just like
you know but you say well how do I get in the spirit
once I wake up you pray you read the Bible you know
you think upon the Lord Marcus says coffee I'm not
advocating for that he's a fleshly
person so he needs to
and so you know the Bible tells us here but what I'm
saying is the fact that according to Ephesians 4.30
you can sin I'm not advocating for you to sin I'm just saying
it's possible for you to sin and the Holy Spirit of God will not
leave you because he's sealed and he didn't say until you sin or transgress
or commit some sort of iniquity he just said you're sealed until the day of redemption
so do him a favor and don't grieve him
because he has to live with you
that's the difference between us and the Old Testament Saints is that
both Old Testament Saints and us we both had regenerated spirits
we had that new man but now we have the Holy Spirit of God willing within us
and that's not to say that the Holy Spirit of God did not
come upon the Old Testament prophets and Christians and saints
obviously that took place especially when they would write the word of God etc. but now he's just
sealed within us until the day of redemption and that's it
go to Hebrews chapter number 10
Hebrews chapter number 10 look what it says in verse 26
so hey be patient with your spouse
if your spouse is apologizing to you and they're just like man my spouse is always like
they gotta get right well that's a good thing because that means they're striving to walk
in the spirit they're trying to do that which is right
okay look at Hebrews 10 26 for if we sin
willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins now false prophets like to use this verse don't they
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins well yeah of course
because we're in the New Testament no one does animal sacrifices in the New Testament
Old Testament animal sacrifices were done on a daily basis
to forgive the sins of the flesh the daily sins you would commit
to atone for the sins of that day that's why they would do daily
sacrifices it's not because it was a different dispensation
he's just saying look if you willfully sin you
can't go to the priest and offer some sort of animal sacrifice to atone
for that daily sin he says in verse 27 but a certain
fearful looking for a judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the
adversaries he that despised Moses law died without mercy
under two or three witnesses I had someone try to use this verse to teach me that people
will go to hell if they sin willfully after salvation I don't see
anything about hell here well it's just fiery indignation
yeah fiery just means like judgment
yeah but they die yeah people die when they sin
under two or three witnesses what does that mean it means
if a person committed adultery in the Old Testament they committed murder
some sort of crime that was punishable by death
two or three witnesses would come forth and say this person is guilty
and they would die under those two or three witnesses physically die
that was the punishment the earthly punishment for their willful sin
of adultery you know murder or whatever it may be
it says in verse 29 of how much sore punishment suppose ye
shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under
the foot of the Son of God and encountered the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified
an unholy thing look what it says and hath done
despite unto the spirit of grace
so what does it say well we have the spirit of grace
and someone who willfully sins and is not willing to repent
not willing to get right this is an individual who's taken the grace of God
for granted and is continuing to sin despite the spirit of
grace that dwells within him because it's capital S capital S is often referring to
the Holy Spirit
so don't sin despite the spirit of grace
because when you sin you're grieving the Holy Spirit
yeah you do get convicted of your sin okay you get bothered
by your sin I get bothered by my sin you know if I'm
reading the Bible and walking in the spirit and I get in the flesh and maybe like for example
maybe I'm just mean to my wife or something that bothers me
because I know I fell short okay I did something
despite the spirit of grace you understand
and so that's a good thing but there's people out there
that because all they do is fulfill the desires of the flesh they will
suffer the consequences of their actions because they just continue with that
they willfully sin knowing full well that it displeases God
they're grieving the Holy Spirit of God they're quenching the Holy Spirit and
therefore they shall die okay without mercy the Bible says
go back to Ephesians if you would
now the earnest again as I mentioned
is that down payment okay it's that pledge that God makes
when you believe on Jesus Christ verse 14 says which is the
earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
unto the praise of his glory now
in 1 Corinthians 15 one of the best chapters of the New Testament
which is the chapter on the resurrection it goes into great
detail what our resurrected bodies will look like now obviously
you know these things are still somewhat obscure to us because we don't really know
exactly how it's going to be but he goes through some
descriptions here and he says in verse 36 of 1 Corinthians
15 let me read it to you he says thou fool it's a good way to
start off a verse there thou which thou sowest is not quickened
except it die and thou which thou sowest thou sowest not that body
that shall be but bear grain it may chance of wheat or of some other
grain and listen listen what it says here in verse 38 but God giveth
it a body as it hath pleased
him so your resurrected body is a body that God
gives to you as it hath pleased him
and in Ephesians chapter 1 it talks about that inheritance
which I believe to be the resurrected body
because he says that the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession
now I mentioned this a couple weeks ago when I think it was when I preached on heaven
you know when the Bible talks about in my father's house are many mansions
I believe that that's referring to our resurrected bodies
what's your text chapter and verse well think about this you know
the Bible refers to our heavenly bodies as a tabernacle
as a temple okay and I don't think
that when we go to heaven we're going to have some you know five story mansion or something
I think that's kind of carnal you know and we think of that as like
man I want to have a pool you know how many
floors is it how many rooms how many bathrooms I mean you really think you're going to go
to heaven and say alright guys see you later I'm going to go hang out in my mansion
for a couple thousand years or something like that you know I'm just going to hang out
in there you know maybe I don't know around five I'll go visit Jesus or something like
that it's kind of weird
that's not what heaven's like folks it's like hey I'm checking out for a
little bit I've been working real hard down there I'm going to take a little eternal
nap a little bit you know just go in my mansion enjoy all my goods and my
furniture you think God really cares about those things
God doesn't care about a physical house okay
when he says in my father's house are many mansions I believe it's referring to
that resurrected body that he's gone to prepare
that he has purchased and which is the inheritance that we are going to one day receive
because this is not an inheritance this flesh
is not the inheritance folks you understand
this is cheap this software is bad
it's sinful it's corrupt it is a natural body
it's not good it can't stand in the presence of God
so therefore when he purchased us he gave us a body as it had
pleased him this is not a body that pleases him
because it's filled with sin it's not subject to the law of God neither indeed
can be the Bible says so he's creating a body that is subject to the law of God
a body that will delight itself in the law
of God that can hear the word of God that can be in the presence of God this body
if it stood in front of God the presence of God would just disintegrate
can't stand
and so the earnest is that pledge of something that is to follow
he's putting a down payment on us which is the Holy Spirit
saying one day I'm just going to purchase you completely and I'm going to give
you a brand new body I'm going to make some renovations to the body you currently have
okay and that's great you know what and it's not about
you know oh does that mean you know what kind of health benefits
are there folks the
renovations that God is making is the fact that it's sinless
why are people so obsessed with
being sinless here
you understand what I'm saying you know how stupid that idea is
oh I don't sin you are you're just
walking sin because you know the thought of foolishness
is sin and if you think you don't sin you're just walking
a walking sinful person who's just basically displaying your idiocy
you know God
is concerned with creating a body that does not sin at all
and he has created it and he's saying I go to prepare a place
for you because you know one of the things that we see in the Bible that's
being taught is the fact that as we win souls to Christ
as we serve God we're kind of basically sending materials ahead so to speak
for him to give us that better resurrection
and you know a lot of Christians they're going to go up to heaven or
when they get raptured they're going to get themselves like a shack or something
this is my house
it's your house this is you man this is what you gave me to work
with these are the souls that you got saved this is all you did
for Christ so this is what you're going to get
look at verse 15
he says wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love
unto all the saints he says cease not to give
thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of him so think about this you know he just
spent uh you know verses 1 through 16 teaching some pretty deep doctrine
right talking about the predestination
and you know the fullness of times and the earnest of
of his spirit and just these really deep truths
and then he tells them look when I heard of your faith the fact that you're saved
when I heard of the fact that you're saved and that you know
when I heard of your love I began to pray for you he said
now what is he praying for them to have he's praying for them
that God will give them the spirit of wisdom and
revelation what does that mean well it's not
referring to like they're going to be able to predict the future or something like that he's not saying God
give them new revelation he's basically praying
that they would have God's revelation from his word of what of the deep things
of God which is another gift
okay this is a great gift folks and you say what's the
big deal well when I think about Christians
today and more specifically of course because I'm an independent fundamental Baptist when I think
a fundamental Baptist this is something that's very foreign to a lot of Baptist
pastors when they relinquish the responsibility
and the privilege to learn the Bible on their own
and not have to rely on commentaries Paul Chapel
you know his faggot president or president yeah president of his college
John Getch not relying on these
on these books written by Spurgeon and all these other
people you know they rely on these people for biblical knowledge not
understanding that God gave them a gift called the Holy Spirit
that would reveal these deep things to them
okay this is a gift and this is one of the
gifts that we receive because of the Holy Spirit we receive the gift of being sealed but even
above that is the spirit of wisdom
and revelation now here's the thing you know people who've read the
Bible cover to cover they
often I've run into people who read the Bible cover to cover and they're just like I already know what the Bible says
but they don't really realize how many layers
the Bible actually has the Bible is
layered so so deep there's a reason
they call it the riches of Christ
the unsearchable riches of Christ what does it mean to be unsearchable it means you
can dig all you want you'll never reach the bottom you can
dig for those riches and find gold and rubies and
and all these precious stones and you'll never reach the bottom
of the riches of the knowledge of Christ why because it's so deep
it's deep the Bible is
so deep and there's only one person in this
entire world this universe they can help you
to go as deep as you want to get and who is that the Holy Spirit
they can teach you these things folks most
Baptist pastors out there they go as deep as a cup
they go as deep as a cup they get their little you know Spurgeon devotional
talking about repenting of your sins and
speaking all weird and using that you know England
you know English or whatever and you know it's just like oh wow this is so deep
that's not deep that guy's not even saved
folks there I said it that guy is a Calvinist
the guy believed you have to repent of your sins in order to be saved
the guy was a full-blown Calvinist the guy wasn't even saved and
saved people are going to him to learn the Bible how about this
save people go into Jews to learn the Bible
I mean folks you'll go as deep as a cup with the Jews
I mean probably not even that deep
there's no cup
before you even try to learn from them
the water evaporates it's like it's gone
you will not go deep with them and look aren't you interested in
learning the deep things of God I am I'm interested
in learning the deep things of God and here's the thing don't undermine
the ministry of the Holy Spirit because one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit
is to teach you the deep things of God go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2
I'm going to read to you from 1 John 2 27
but the anointing which he have received of him abideth in you
and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things and is truth and is no lie and even
as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him
John 16 13 says how be it when he the spirit of truth has come he will
guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear
that shall he speak and he will show you things to come look at 1 Corinthians 2
verse 9 but as it is written I have
not seen nor ear have heard neither have entered into the heart of man the
things which God has prepared for them that love him but God has revealed them unto
us who's speaking Paul Paul has revealed some pretty
deep things right but God has revealed them unto us by his
spirit for the spirit searcheth all things yea the deep
things of God for what man knoweth the things of man
save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the
spirit of God you know what you need to do go on a treasure
hunt with the Holy Spirit open up the word of God
think upon the Bible next week we're going to implement
Bible memorization in our church
in that Bible memorization I'm probably going to preach a sermon on meditation
and you say why because it's so good to meditate on God's word
if you really want to learn the deep things of God if you want to get the layered
things of God the deep riches it requires
for you to buy commentaries no it
requires for you to get some biblical encyclopedia I remember
this one preacher this Spanish guy who's actually out here in Santa Ana
you know he was going back and forth with me on doctrine
and I was giving him the Bible and he said hey if you
only know the Bible you don't know the Bible and he would often
tell me you need books outside of the Bible to study the Bible
I said that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life
I was like thanks but no thanks keep your
and you know what he was talking about John MacArthur
you need to know the cultural context
of the day and age in which they were in in order to
truly understand folks the Holy Spirit is dwelling in my culture right now
I don't need to know the
cultural context here's the cultural context they were sinners
2,000 years ago there was righteous people 2,000
years ago and there's no new thing under the sun and here's
the thing the Holy Spirit who dwelled in the Apostle Paul get this
is dwelling in me too the Holy Spirit that revealed the
deep things of God to the Apostle Paul is revealing them and can reveal them
unto me as well because God has no respect for our people
and so I told this guy I said I don't need any other
outside resources and this is years ago and I
learned a long time ago that all you need to study the Bible is the Bible itself
I mean that's such a novel thought is it not
so novel to think that all we need in order to know the Bible is the Bible and the Holy Spirit
you need both by the way
because unsaved people have the Bible they can't understand the Bible you need the
Holy Spirit and you need the word of God
look I'm no one special no amens please
but I will say this you know I've learned some pretty deep things out of the Bible
I've taught some deep things out of the Bible I've learned deep things out of the Bible and I didn't
go to the internet I didn't go to some book he said what did you do
I just thought about the word of God
I just meditated on the word of God and the layers were taught
to me by the Holy Spirit and that was it
people do it they're doing a disservice
to themselves when they just say well that's just too much work to think about
the Bible it's just so much work is it not
it's so much work to just think about the word of God
you know it's so much easier to just go
to some unsaved person and just get the teaching from them get the deep things
from them but here's the thing those things are not even deep some of that stuff is just false
doctrine and it's lame it's garbage it's pathetic
some people's Bible interpretation is pathetic
it's so shallow and pathetic it's like it's not the riches
of Christ this is zirconias or whatever
these are fake diamonds these are fake rubies this is fake gold that's rubbing
off I want the real deal
you know and he said what do you have to do in order to understand
the deep things of God you read the Bible and you think about the Bible
you don't have to meditate in a quiet room and hum and do a
mantra to get the deep things of God
it doesn't require anything crazy supernatural other than the fact that you
are just learning from the Holy Spirit how do you do that
by just thinking upon the word of God
that's how I've learned it
any deep layers that I've gotten when I preach biblical numerology
that sermon biblical numerology you know any sermon that had
a lot of layers all I did was just think about the Bible and that was it
and look and it's not because I'm a pastor
because there's plenty of people that once I'm done preaching a sermon with many layers many men
will come up to me and say hey I also saw this I also saw this
and I'm like dang that was good I'm going to take credit for that
and say that I meditated to get that little feature
but you know the congregation
why because they have the same Holy Spirit that I have
think upon the word of God this is the spirit of
revelation and here's the problem with Bible college
Bible college teaches you to
depend on other resources other than the Bible to learn
the Bible that's what they do
because they have to give a reading list a book list and you have to learn all these things
to get your doctorates to get your masters
folks most of these people who got their doctorates and their masters know jack squad
about the Bible you say what did they learn why did they have their doctorates
because they were able to regurgitate a bunch of stuff that they told them to memorize
and that's it that's not genuine learning
folks that's why college is stupid and all these things
all they tell you to do memorize a bunch of dates a bunch of information so when the test
comes you just regurgitate it and splat right there and you get yourself
an A and now you got your masters or your doctorates or whatever you get your bachelors
I have my bachelors in pastoral theology did you know that
the certificate's somewhere around here I don't know maybe it's in my garage or something
or in the trash but I have
a bachelors in pastoral theology you say what did you do to get that
did you just meditate upon God's word I learned a bunch of information
I regurgitated back on the paper and then I
passed my classes and they gave it to me
and here's the problem with that people a lot of preacher boys who do that
they go to college to do that after college they stop learning
oh yeah because now they're a graduate
of Bible college now they know the word of God
I mean this idiot one time we're talking about end times Bible prophecy
and I asked him I said what does this mean he said how are you going to ask me that
I'm a Bible college student
well shut my mouth
forgive me for asking you
oh thou holy one
what was I thinking I'm a Bible college
student yeah you sound like one
folks the biblical model
for a pastor learning the deep things of God is for them to just read the Bible
over and over again to memorize the Bible to learn the Bible
to meditate upon the word of God to learn how to think upon
the word of God and here's the thing it stems from a heart of love
for the word of God because you think about the things you love
you think about the things that you set your affections on so if you're
affectionate towards the word of God you're always going to be thinking about it I'm not saying like 24
7 I'm just saying it's going to take up a lot of your time thinking upon the word of God
and look I want to encourage you I
challenge you to pick something in the Bible that you don't
understand and I challenge you to think upon it this week
to pray to think upon it and say Lord give me
understanding open the eyes of my understanding
and teach me what this means because I sincerely want to know
I'm going to meditate upon this verse I'm going to think about it I'm going to cross
reference in the Bible teach me can we go treasure
hunting Lord can we go deep
and you'd be surprised you say he'll just teach you
yeah well you know there's not many people who are willing to go treasure hunting with him
in this world there's not many pastors who want to go treasure hunting
with the Lord there's too much work
you know they'd rather just open up Paul Chappell Sunday School lesson
and use that instead garbage
trash I wouldn't even use that stuff for toilet paper
I said I wouldn't even use that stuff for toilet paper
it's not good enough the toilet paper is better than that I would use it
to pick up dog doo doo is what I would use it for
so that's how trashy that teaching is
you know what God is looking for he's looking for people who just says Lord
I'm going to read it and I want you to just teach me show me the word of God
let me just think upon the word of the Lord and just think about it
and meditate upon it David said I stand in
all of thy word why is he standing
in all of his word because he realizes how many riches there are you only
standing in all of his word when you recognize how deep it really is
you know because a lot of these pastors are just like well I already know it yeah Ephesians
I already know predestination and so they like kind of undermine
the word of God a little bit they kind of talk down on it
like oh that's all there is to know about it that's it God's like alright yeah that's it
okay that's all you want then that's all you're going to get
yeah I already know the Bible okay yeah you know the Bible then
he's not going to impose deep riches he's not going to spend his deep riches on people who just
undermine his riches he's looking to give it to people who actually want it
and this is what the apostle Paul is praying he's like I hope you guys
get the spirit of revelation so you can know
the deep things of God how do you grow in your love for the
word of God by learning the deep things of God and I promise you there's no greater
satisfaction there's no greater satisfaction in reading the Bible
and learning something that you know was taught to you by the Holy Spirit
you're just like wow that's amazing
look what it says in verse 18 or go to Ephesians go back to Ephesians
he says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened
pretty interesting because when you learn something from God's word that's actually what you do you go like
whoa I mean folks I've had
conversations with the men in our church and I'm like revealing something that I learned
it's like a deep truth and then they'll hit me with the deep truth and I'm like whoa
that was good I didn't even see that
and it's just the whole time we're like whoa whoa whoa
everyone's just whoa-ing it's like whoa
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened
the ye may know what is the hope of his calling
and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints so many people are so
shallow in their doctrine today they don't know the hope of his calling
they don't know the rewards that they can receive you know why some
people are just not fired up and they're not serving God they're not winning souls they're just kind of
apathetic towards the things of God because they don't really know the hope of his calling
they don't know the authority that's available for them in the millennial reign
they don't know about the better resurrection they don't know about these things that
accompany salvation when you serve God
but when your understanding is enlightened then you know
the hope of his calling is like oh man I need to get to work I need to make sure that I do this
and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints verse 19
and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe
and according to the work of his mighty power and isn't it a shame
there's so much access to so much power and it's just not being used
What's like a really fast car out there?
Someone tell me. What?
Hellcat. Did you say Tesla?
Tesla's a really fast car?
You guys are carnal.
Ferrari. Is that a fast car? Bugatti.
Are we talking about food?
Spaghetti. Bugatti and a spaghetti.
Let's just say Ferrari.
Don't get mad at me if that's not the fastest car. I don't really care.
I drive a van.
So let's say a Ferrari. Wouldn't it be a shame to have the newest Ferrari?
That thing just goes super fast but it just sits in the garage and does nothing.
I'm not advocating for driving fast
or racing or anything. This is an example. Don't take this too literal.
But just to have a really fast vehicle
and it's just there for looks and you never use it to just
go 120 or something like that. Wouldn't that be unfortunate?
I don't really like to use this but it's there.
The power is there. Use it!
Folks, I use things
until they just are completely destroyed because that's what they're for.
If I have the money, I'll use it.
If I have resources, I'll use it. I mean we've got to get new cameras
because they're just falling apart because we use them for everything.
We don't just put them in the cabin and just like, oh we just
got to take care of them and never use them. No, it's just like use them for the podcast, another podcast
and filming and livestream. Use it! Just keep using it until it falls
apart. Why? Because that's what it's for. Why have them
on display to just never use them?
Well, God has given us access to power.
A lot of Christians just put it on the shelf.
Well, I am a Christian. I have the power of God. No, you don't have the power of God.
It's available to you but you don't have it because you don't use it.
You say, well how do you know they don't use it? Because they don't preach power for sermons.
They don't go and preach the gospel saved. They don't go and preach the gospel.
They don't do it to withstand persecution. Why?
Because they just don't want to use the power. They don't want to use that Ferrari.
It says, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who are to believe
according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand
in the heavenly places. He's talking about the power of his resurrection.
So the power, Bruce, quiet.
Don't make those sounds in church. You know, he's talking about the power
of his resurrection and you know what, that's power.
The power for a person to pass away and then
to be resurrected three days afterward, I mean that's power folks.
And he's saying, you know what, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection in Philippians 3 and the fellowship of his suffering.
That's the power that's available to us.
Use it. Use the power
to lead your wife. Use the power
to reverence, I was going to say lead your husband, to reverence your husband.
Some of you do use that, but no, I'm just kidding.
I'm joking. Use the power to raise your children.
Use the power to learn the word of God. Use the power to open your mouth boldly to make known the
gospel. Use your power, use that
power to do great exploits for God.
Because that's what it's there for. The power of God is not to be shelved to say we have the power
of God. A.W. Tozier, you know,
John R. Rice said we have the power of God. Dr. Jack
Heil said we have the power of God, such a powerful sermon. Shut up, you don't even use
that power. And quit quoting Jack Heil's because you're not like Jack Heil's.
Jack Heil's actually used the Ferrari that God gave him.
Quit quoting, you know,
J. Frank Norris, he actually used that power.
Quit talking about people who used the power and you
used the power. Quit talking about people who knew how to
utilize the power of God and you're just somehow vicariously
living through them. Somehow you're powerful because you associate
people with people of the past who are powerful in the Lord.
Look, I appreciate those people, but I'm here.
You know, this is 2021 and you know what? J. Frank Norris, if he was
alive today, would be rubbing his shoulders with us. Why? Because
we use the power of God. Are you saying that
you guys have the power of God in your life? Yes, of course.
Why would you say that? Because he's made it available to us. Why wouldn't I?
So what do you use it for? To preach sermons?
To preach the word of God? To get people saved?
To turn people to righteousness? Not just to get people saved, just
to turn meaning to righteousness? How about that? To help people get right with God?
How about that? To stand up and not
back down when the enemies of God are bombing our church? How about that?
That requires the power of God.
Look at verse 20.
So what's the sermon tonight? The sermon is simply this.
We have access to so many things. You know,
the average church out there would read Ephesians 1 and say, that was a good chapter.
Learn some good things.
But we want to be the type of church that says, let's go
dig a little deeper. Let's see what these verses are talking about.
Let's see what the power of God is all about. Let's excavate
some more power. Let's read the Bible. Let's put social media down.
Let's put, you know, turn off whatever, the
television or whatever distraction that's out there. Let's just think about
the Bible. Let's meditate upon the word of God.
Let's think about what God actually says here. Because here's the thing folks, you only
have a certain amount of time to go digging
for riches. You better use it wisely.
You say, what's that amount of time? Your life.
You only have a certain amount of time to dig for those unsearchable
riches of Christ. And I know we're never going to be able to reach the bottom, but I want to get
down pretty deep. I want
to get very, very deep. As deep as I possibly can.
And when you look at Christianity today, and of course,
I'm not talking about our friends because our friends go down deep as well.
And I'm sure there's pastors out there who are not in New York City that go
down deep as well. I just don't know them. But my friends go down deep.
And you know what? My friends stand in awe of His word as well.
That's why I like associating with them. Because they inspire me
to also dig deep as well. This is a gift that God gives to us.
The spirit of revelation. You know what? People are content with only having
the spirit of God dwell within them. That's great. But you know what? There's so many other things that He's offering
as well. To teach you. Well, I'm never going to be a pastor.
Who cares? Is this a manual for pastors?
This is for saints. Well, how am I going to learn
the deep things of God? I'm just like a regular church member because you're saved and you have
the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within you because you have a Ferrari under your garage?
If you had a Ferrari in your garage, you're not going to say,
why would I raise? I'm never going to be in NASCAR or anything like that.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for
your word. And thank you for the spirit of God that dwells within us.
That teaches us all things. And I pray, Lord, that we would submit ourselves
to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That we would learn and seek out
that gold and silver and those precious rubies.
That we would stand in awe of your word. Please continue to teach us and anoint us.
And I pray, God, that, Lord, you help us to be good stewards
of that which you've given to us. And bless all there is to follow.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
...