Oct. 10, 2024

Foundations of Faith: Avoiding Idols and Embracing True Worship (First Words 03)

Foundations of Faith: Avoiding Idols and Embracing True Worship (First Words 03)

Send us a text What if avoiding idols in our spiritual worship is more crucial than we thought? Join us as we unpack pivotal moments in Jesus' ministry, from His first words at His baptism to His triumphant responses to wilderness temptations, each laying a profound foundation for our faith. We delve into how these moments underscore the importance of living by God's Word, understanding divine timing, and steering clear of tempting God. Through these reflections, you'll gain a deeper apprecia...

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Season 1

Send us a text

What if avoiding idols in our spiritual worship is more crucial than we thought? Join us as we unpack pivotal moments in Jesus' ministry, from His first words at His baptism to His triumphant responses to wilderness temptations, each laying a profound foundation for our faith. We delve into how these moments underscore the importance of living by God's Word, understanding divine timing, and steering clear of tempting God. Through these reflections, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for Jesus' unwavering commitment to His mission and the establishment of His kingdom on Earth.

Have you ever considered how well-intentioned actions might become idols? Explore with us as we examine the stories of Rachel and Achan, revealing how even seemingly righteous actions can obstruct our genuine connection with God. We emphasize the necessity of worshiping in spirit and truth and discuss how allowing the Holy Ghost to guide us—even in choices as seemingly mundane as our attire—can help us maintain authentic spiritual worship free from human-made religious systems.

Finally, we delve into the transformative power of repentance and how Jesus' victory over temptation paved the way for the empowerment at Pentecost. We'll challenge conventional missionary approaches by advocating for preaching to influential sectors and celebrate the miraculous healing power of Jesus through the story of blind Bartimaeus. Through these narratives, we underscore the boundless grace and salvation Jesus offers, inviting you to experience the profound impact of truly living in alignment with God's kingdom. Join us for this enriching exploration of faith, worship, and spiritual growth.

00:00 - Lessons on Faith and Worship

20:06 - Avoiding Idols in Spiritual Worship

27:06 - Unlocking the Power of Repentance

35:19 - Empowering Through Victory

55:12 - Preaching the Gospel to the Wealthy

01:07:11 - The Power of Gospel Healing

WEBVTT

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Well.

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Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, glory to God.

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For the last couple of times we've been together, we have been talking about first words.

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First words are important.

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Last Sunday we talked about the first words of Jesus on Resurrection Day, and then the last time we were together, we talked about the first words of Jesus.

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We talked about the first words of Jesus when he began his ministry, starting with the baptism of John in the River Jordan, and and John had identified Jesus as the Lamb of God and Jesus had come to him to be baptized.

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John said no, I need to be baptized with you because this baptism is a baptism of repentance.

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But Jesus said it is necessary.

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First words of his ministry is, it is fitting, permitted to be so now.

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Thus, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

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Amen, glory to God.

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Then Jesus was driven into the wilderness and tempted by the devil.

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The Bible records three different temptations and these three temptations were all a form of temptations that Adam was tempted with by the enemy when he fell into sin.

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John records it succinctly in the third chapter of the book of John, I believe, where he says it is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

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Amen.

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Those three things were the root of how Adam sinned and those three things were how the devil attacked Jesus, the second Adam.

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Where Adam failed, the second Adam had victory, amen.

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And in each of those cases Jesus said something to the enemy that established the way his kingdom was going to be operating on the planet.

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Amen.

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First, he said, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, that we learned of the necessity to hear God speak to us and speak to us clearly, and because of that, then faith can arise.

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And where faith arises, grace arrives with it.

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Amen.

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And faith and grace working together accomplish the plan and the purpose of God in our lives.

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These are very important truths.

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Amen, amen.

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The Bible says this that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

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Grace was not on the planet before the Holy Ghost was poured out upon Jesus, and grace came by Jesus Christ, hallelujah.

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Then you know the story the devil took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple and told him to cast himself down.

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Angels would catch him, but that wasn't the point of the test was not to save his life.

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The point of the test was to draw attention to himself according to a plan that was not of God.

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It was not God's way to announce Jesus to Israel by means of jumping off the temple.

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The way he was going to be announced to Israel was by the way of signs and wonders and by ways of divine timing.

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Amen, glory to God.

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Glory to God.

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So when?

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So when they came to make Jesus King, after he fed, fed them the, the fed the 5,000, he, just, he just disappeared.

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Because it's not time for me to be announced King.

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There's a specific day, a specific hour and a specific minute when I will come down from from the Mount of Olives and enter in Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Daniel Amen.

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Not one minute before, not one minute after, but precisely at the precise moment that was prophesied by Daniel Amen, and he did that.

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He allowed himself to be proclaimed king that day and just a few days later he allowed himself to be proclaimed king by the representative of Caesar.

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So there was a time when he was going to be proclaimed king, but it had to be according to God's timing.

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Timing Tempting God, almost by definition, here is the basic sin in the kingdom If God has provided amen.

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We tempt God when we say that he can't provide.

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In other words, when we establish that our own strength or our own wisdom or our own knowledge is superior to what God has, and God says you can't do that.

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That's tempting me.

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Now watch what happened to Israel.

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Israel got out in the desert three days after they crossed the Red Sea and they said God just brought us out here to die.

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We're out here without water.

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Can God provide water?

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Can God provide food?

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Now notice that the net result of that was that God did provide food and he did provide water, but they never got to enter the promised land.

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Their sin of limiting God and tempting God resulted in their not entering into His rest.

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In the book of Hebrews it says that they didn't enter into His rest because they tempted Him and they did not mix the hearing of the Word with faith.

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Hallelujah, it's a serious thing to be able to hear the word of God and act in faith that it produces, and do what it says, and not think that you've got a better idea.

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Glory to God.

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So let's go on.

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Here.

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We are in the tenth verse of chapter 4 of Matthew, matthew 4, 10.

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And you know the story here that after those first two temptations, the devil took Jesus up on a high mountain and showed him, at all at one time, all of the kingdoms of the earth and he said all of these can be yours if you will fall down and worship me.

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Now I got to have this feeling.

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It's not written, but I have to have this feeling that Jesus is saying to himself why would I even believe a word you're saying?

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You are a liar and the father of lies.

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If you're telling me you're going to give me all these kingdoms, that means you're not going to give me all these kingdoms.

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And anyway, it is written Said get up, get out of here, satan, away with you.

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It is written you shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve.

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Now, this is a restatement of the first commandment of the law.

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I am the Lord, thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage.

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Thou shalt have no other gods before me, amen, amen.

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Thou shalt have no other gods before me, amen.

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We talked about pride in tempting the Lord, pride is the root of sin.

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You don't believe this and you just want to, you know, waste some time.

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Go ask the devil.

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He got kicked out of heaven for that one.

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And the source of pride is a lack of humility.

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And humility is the only way you can enter into true worship.

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You're not going to worship someone that you don't humble yourself before.

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What is the commandment?

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Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due season, Amen.

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But before you can be exalted in His presence, you have to humble yourself, amen.

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You can't exalt yourself and expect God to be humble.

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But that's a way a lot of people get.

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You know they don't understand humility.

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They don't understand that, even though you know that God is going to exalt you because His Word says so, the precursor for that, the condition for that, is to humble yourself, amen.

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You may know that the scepter is going to be extended to you, but you have to assume that it's not and you humble yourself in self-abasement, in self-abasement, just humble yourself so that you can put on Christ and be exalted.

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Amen, praise God.

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So if what goes before pride is this lack of humility, a lack of humility keeps you from entering into true worship.

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These people do worship me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

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This is what Jesus said about, quoting out of the book of Isaiahaiah.

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I believe that they worship with their lips, they give god lip service, but they don't give him true heart worship, because heart worship begins with humility and it begins with understanding that you've got to worship the lord in spirit and in truth.

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When the woman at the well questioned Jesus, he said the Samaritans say that we must worship here on this mountain.

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She was right in front of the ancient ruins that were the temple of the northern kingdom in its day, the temple that was raised up as a substitute for Jerusalem when they separated from Judah.

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She said Samaritans believe that we worship at this temple.

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The Jews, you say we have to worship in Jerusalem.

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What do you say?

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And Jesus said the day is coming and now is when you will neither worship in this place or in Jerusalem.

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For they that worship the Father must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

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For such worshipers the Father is seeking, and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

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Amen.

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Now, the only way you're going to enter into true worship in the Spirit is through a spirit of humility, because a true spirit of humility is an antidote for pride.

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Amen.

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The Lord taught me early in ministry how to receive thanks, because I was putting on a false sense of humility.

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People would say that was a really good sermon.

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I go oh no, it was just the Lord.

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Because I'd heard people do that and I thought you know well, that's what you do.

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And the Lord said that is not what you do.

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You accept their thanks and then you turn right around and give it to me, because that's exactly how the word came.

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I gave it to you and you turned right around and gave it to them.

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So when they say thank you, you receive the thanks and turn around and say thank you, lord.

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It's just, it's straight.

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So if you say thank you, that was a great word, I said I appreciate that.

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Thank you very much, didn't got good praise, god, hallelujah, and I just turned.

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I just let it go right through.

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I receive it, just like I would receive your offering.

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I receive your offering, but I give it to the Lord.

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You know, whatever I receive from you that is directed toward the Lord, I'm going to just turn it right, just let it go.

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You know, I don't want it to stick and I don't want to give you one of these.

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I just worked, I just I got before God for hours for that word.

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I'm so thankful, I'm so grateful.

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Give it up, man.

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You know that's just pride in another way.

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Just be, just be, just be so transparent with it.

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Just say I thank you, praise God, hallelujah.

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You know, you don't have to get wordy and emotional and all that kind of silliness.

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Just receive it and give it, receive it and give it, receive it and give it, receive it and give it, receive it and give it so it doesn't stick to you, because if it sticks to you it's going to end up producing pride.

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Hallelujah, praise God.

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Now what the Lord is talking about here is the danger of idolatry.

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John said it this way.

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He said little children, keep yourself from idols.

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I mean, after he wrote that great letter of 1 John, amen.

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He closes the book I believe it is and says little children, keep yourself from idols.

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Hallelujah, praise God.

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Hallelujah, praise God.

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A source of pride is anything that creeps into our lives that is going to be worshipped other than God.

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Whatever that is, it can be living, it can be inanimate, it can be all kinds of things.

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It can be money.

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It can be inanimate, it can be all kinds of things.

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It can be money, it can be the lack of money I've met.

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We're in this little country church in central Florida.

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If you've never been, if you've been to Florida and you've only been on the coast, you haven't seen most of Florida.

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Most of Florida is a lot like Texas.

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There's a second leading cattle producer in the country.

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They've got cowboys, they've got ranches, they've got all kinds of stuff going on.

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In the middle of Florida was this little country church.

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They invited us to come preach this guy.

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He gets up and he could tell that we weren't country and he said we're country and we're proud of it.

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Well, he had put his, he had elevated his countryness to a place of worship, to the point that they weren't going to receive from us because we weren't country.

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Well, you can just imagine how that went over with the Holy Ghost.

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We had fun that day, glory to God.

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And they had good chicken after dinner, so after church.

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So that's true.

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They didn't even want to ask us to eat.

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So some sister came up said now, this isn't gonna happen.

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Y'all sit down over here.

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It was strange.

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Praise God, something can create.

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We're not.

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None of us are above idolatry.

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There is always a possibility that something's going to creep into your life and command the attention that only God should get, and I don't know what that is.

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I'm not here to you know.

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I know that I'm not here to do that.

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I'm just here to tell you that these things are possible and Jesus knew it was possible because this was the last test that he had to pass with Satan.

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And he said I'm not falling for this one, amen.

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I am not falling for this one, like Adam did.

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Glory to God.

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Adam was sitting in the middle of the Garden of Eden and it could have been his for as long as he wanted to stay there, and yet he fell for the trick that there was more.

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The grass was greener.

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On the other side of the pearly gate that guarded the garden, hallelujah.

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Hallelujah.

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Of the pearly gate that guarded the garden, hallelujah.

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Anything that becomes an idol is going to interfere with true spiritual worship and I want you to think about that and I want you to make a spiritual note of that.

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That anything that creeps into your life and becomes an idol is, by definition, going to interfere with your true spiritual worship, because you have broken the commandment to allow something to get at a higher place.

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When we think of the first commandment under the law thou shalt have no other gods before me.

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We think of the first commandment under the law thou shalt have no other gods before me.

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We think of statues, we think of Buddha, we think of other gods that men have made.

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But almost anything can become a god when it takes the place of God's rightful place and blocks you from entering into true spiritual worship.

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Because you know in your heart that you have erected an idol.

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You know it.

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And because you have erected an idol, it's standing right there between you and God.

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Don't get quiet on me.

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Hallelujah, hallelujah.

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Now, we've all been taught this, but it's good to have your minds stirred up.

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Hallelujah, because Jesus sets this as one of the foundational principles of his kingdom.

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Amen, and it is a first word.

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Since it is a first word, it gives direction to the kingdom, and in the kingdom there are no other gods.

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This is why the Jews were commanded not to make any graven images.

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In other words, they weren't even allowed to make an image of a bird or a reptile or a snake or anything.

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They weren't allowed to do that because it had the potential of being worshipped.

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Do you remember when which one was it?

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Rachel came back from her kin folks with Jacob and she had the graven image stuffed in her belongings.

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Remember that, amen, her belongings.

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Remember that, amen.

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Or when?

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Who was it?

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Achan stole a statue out of Jericho and brought it back to his tent Remember that and God's anger was raised against it because there was a carved image of another God in the camp.

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Amen, god takes this stuff seriously, not because he doesn't want any other gods in the camp.

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It's because it interferes with proper spiritual worship.

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You're worshiping not in spirit, but you're worshiping in the flesh.

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You're worshiping something that can be made, something that can be made by men, not worshiping the true and the living God, who is greater than everything all put together.

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Glory to God, hallelujah.

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So another first principle is that this concept that you have to be ruthless in the way that you root out things that can become idols.

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Now you have to be careful that your rooting out doesn't become an idol.

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Careful that your rooting out doesn't become an idol, that your rooting out doesn't become a work of the flesh that you try to substitute spirituality for.

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For example, if you want to, let's say, you don't want dressing clothes to become an idol.

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So you insist that all clothing has to be real simple, has to be very prohibitive as far as revealing anything.

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So you have sleeves down to your thumbs and dress lengths that sweep the floor and all that kind of stuff, and dress lengths that sweep the floor and all that kind of stuff.

00:22:26.284 --> 00:22:45.502
So instead of approaching the problem spiritually, which is to allow the Holy Ghost to tell you what to wear I didn't get a single amen on that one If you let the Holy Ghost tell you what to wear, you will be properly dressed.

00:22:45.522 --> 00:22:46.604
I mean, it's just as simple as that.

00:22:46.604 --> 00:22:48.247
You will be properly dressed.

00:22:48.247 --> 00:22:58.384
You may not conform to somebody else's idea of what properly dressed is, but you will be properly dressed.

00:22:58.384 --> 00:23:02.071
I've had people tell me well, you can't preach if you're not in a black suit.

00:23:02.071 --> 00:23:11.132
I guarantee you, the next time I go to that church, the Holy Ghost will put me in a purple suit, and I've had purple suits.

00:23:11.132 --> 00:23:14.145
So don't you know, look at me like purple thing.

00:23:14.145 --> 00:23:16.592
Glory to God, I look like a grape.

00:23:16.592 --> 00:23:27.675
But it was okay, amen, cause you know, if God wants to have me do that, amen.

00:23:28.561 --> 00:23:38.428
I've been in men's stores looking at suits and I'll put this on and the Lord said that's not it, and he'll show me which one I should buy.

00:23:38.428 --> 00:23:52.873
And it might come on a Sunday and he'll say I'm not wearing that today and we'll wear something else, and he picked it out, but he doesn't want me to pick it out as to wearing it.

00:23:52.873 --> 00:23:53.941
You understand what I'm saying.

00:23:53.941 --> 00:23:59.113
I mean, if you, if you allow the Lord to dress you, you will always be properly dressed.

00:23:59.113 --> 00:24:00.941
Amen.

00:24:00.941 --> 00:24:03.686
That's what spiritual worship is about.

00:24:03.727 --> 00:24:07.013
See, you're not elevating a style of worship.

00:24:07.013 --> 00:24:10.308
You know I've got ties in there that are 30 years old.

00:24:10.308 --> 00:24:12.105
You know why I wear these ties.

00:24:12.105 --> 00:24:13.249
I like them.

00:24:13.249 --> 00:24:15.826
Do I care whether they're in style?

00:24:15.826 --> 00:24:20.169
No, I just like the colors, I like the patterns.

00:24:20.169 --> 00:24:24.765
You know, I don't care, god likes them.

00:24:24.765 --> 00:24:32.521
Am I making any sense here?

00:24:32.541 --> 00:24:54.061
I know this is difficult to get your hands on, but people can make a religion out of dressing, and when you make a religion out of the way you dress, it becomes an idol, and that idol can keep you from true spiritual worship, because now you have ceased to hear his voice concerning something as intimate as what you wear and put on your body.

00:24:54.061 --> 00:24:59.012
You have ceased to hear his voice and you have substituted the rules of men.

00:24:59.012 --> 00:25:17.212
Now, if you'll substitute the rules of men for your clothing, you'll substitute the rules of men for a whole bunch of other stuff, and now you've just eliminated hearing the voice of God on a whole bunch of other things and you have made all of those things idols, instead of hearing the voice of your Lord.

00:25:17.212 --> 00:25:29.601
This is the danger of men created systems of religion, because they substitute hearing the voice of God, and you'll go.

00:25:29.601 --> 00:25:33.030
Well, what if everybody just runs around hearing God speak?

00:25:33.030 --> 00:25:35.707
You know what Moses said about that.

00:25:35.707 --> 00:25:39.130
He said I would that all God's people be prophets.

00:25:39.130 --> 00:25:53.310
That's what Moses said about it in the day of the law, when the law I mean, if you want to know how you don't want something to govern behavior for a large group of people.

00:25:53.310 --> 00:25:54.113
That was the law.

00:25:54.113 --> 00:26:00.409
And in the day of the law, moses said I would that all God's people be prophets.

00:26:00.409 --> 00:26:03.288
Now, if you're going to be a prophet, you need to hear the voice of God.

00:26:03.288 --> 00:26:07.182
Hallelujah, praise God.

00:26:07.182 --> 00:26:25.108
Anything that becomes an idol is something that interferes with true spiritual worship, and it just can't happen, because Jesus gave the command that they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth, hallelujahelujah.

00:26:26.652 --> 00:26:33.086
Let's go on Matthew, the fourth chapter, in verse 17.

00:26:33.086 --> 00:26:43.104
So Jesus separates himself from the temptation in the wilderness.

00:26:43.104 --> 00:26:47.967
The angels come to minister to him and he begins.

00:26:47.967 --> 00:26:56.911
He goes down out of the wilderness and begins to preach and say repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

00:26:56.911 --> 00:27:00.950
In another place it said repent and believe the gospel.

00:27:00.950 --> 00:27:03.559
Amen.

00:27:03.559 --> 00:27:06.612
The gospel, amen.

00:27:06.612 --> 00:27:10.105
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

00:27:10.105 --> 00:27:21.324
Repentance is always the way into the kingdom and the way into higher levels within the kingdom.

00:27:21.324 --> 00:27:23.510
Amen.

00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:31.105
Repentance as an entry vehicle is repentance from dead works.

00:27:31.105 --> 00:27:34.005
This is what Hebrews says.

00:27:34.005 --> 00:27:52.523
But as you elevate in the kingdom and elevate in this process of transformation, repentance concerns the separation between where you are and where Jesus wants to bring you.

00:27:52.523 --> 00:27:54.588
Now, where does Jesus want to bring you?

00:27:54.588 --> 00:27:58.423
Jesus wants to bring you into perfect union with him.

00:27:58.423 --> 00:28:16.548
So anything, any gap from where you are now to where that perfect union in Christ is, is something that needs to be repented over, because that defines sin itself In the kingdom.

00:28:16.890 --> 00:28:29.016
Once you're in the kingdom, then the question of sin is the question of separation, because the curtain has been torn in two.

00:28:29.016 --> 00:28:36.414
Now there's no separation, but yet people are still living in the outer court.

00:28:36.414 --> 00:28:42.434
They haven't even got into the holy place to see that the curtain is torn in two.

00:28:42.434 --> 00:29:04.680
Not only have they not got into the holy place, but they haven't gone through the veil, which is Christ's flesh, to become perfectly joined with him, so that they're still in a place where they are separated, when a way has been made for perfect union to occur.

00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:06.405
Are you hearing me?

00:29:06.405 --> 00:29:14.539
The prime sin in the kingdom is to not treat the kingdom as being nigh unto you.

00:29:14.539 --> 00:29:16.988
Are you hearing me?

00:29:16.988 --> 00:29:21.356
Listen, we've been all over this for decades now.

00:29:21.356 --> 00:29:22.179
Amen.

00:29:23.626 --> 00:29:36.454
The main sin for you and for me is not that we're going out robbing banks and doing all kinds of nasty stuff, but that we don't live like we are one with God.

00:29:36.454 --> 00:29:46.032
And because we don't live like we're one with God, there's a separation that we create that God didn't create.

00:29:46.032 --> 00:29:53.195
See, god created the curtain and God made the separation, and God only allowed the high priest to go in once a year.

00:29:53.195 --> 00:29:54.219
Amen.

00:29:54.219 --> 00:30:01.465
He knew what he was doing, but when the instant that Jesus died, the curtain was was was written in two.

00:30:01.465 --> 00:30:02.548
Why?

00:30:02.548 --> 00:30:04.372
Because that separation.

00:30:04.372 --> 00:30:07.117
God said that separation no longer existed.

00:30:07.458 --> 00:30:11.336
But if you say that it does, then what have you done?

00:30:11.336 --> 00:30:13.723
You've substituted.

00:30:13.723 --> 00:30:17.510
You've substituted your idea instead of God's idea what.

00:30:17.510 --> 00:30:18.352
What is that called?

00:30:18.352 --> 00:30:20.516
That is called idolatry.

00:30:20.516 --> 00:30:22.460
What does idolatry do?

00:30:22.460 --> 00:30:26.575
It separates you from true spiritual worship.

00:30:27.656 --> 00:30:28.799
Is anybody hearing this?

00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:31.606
Do you think Jesus knows what he's talking about?

00:30:31.606 --> 00:30:36.198
Do you think Jesus is of one mind with the Father when he says these things?

00:30:36.198 --> 00:30:39.250
Do you think this reflects the perfect will of God?

00:30:39.250 --> 00:30:49.227
I mean, but you have to sit, you have to look at this stuff in its context or else you won't get it, and that's what we're trying to do here.

00:30:49.227 --> 00:30:51.554
I'm not saying you should have known this already.

00:30:51.554 --> 00:30:52.296
I'm not saying that.

00:30:52.296 --> 00:30:52.986
I'm saying that.

00:30:52.986 --> 00:31:02.545
What I'm saying is that let's look at it as a whole, as first principles that put things into motion.

00:31:02.986 --> 00:31:12.154
And when Jesus put this into motion, not only did he say repentance is the way to close that gap, it is the necessary way to close that gap.

00:31:12.154 --> 00:31:20.772
And, furthermore, a way has been made to close that gap, and it is through the veil, which is his flesh.

00:31:20.772 --> 00:31:23.806
We've been all over that, amen.

00:31:23.806 --> 00:31:25.711
But you have to go that way.

00:31:25.711 --> 00:31:27.375
You can't just pick any old way you want.

00:31:27.375 --> 00:31:28.625
You've got to go that way.

00:31:28.625 --> 00:31:37.865
And if you go that way, what that does is it diminishes the impact of potential idols.

00:31:37.865 --> 00:31:53.295
The impact of potential idols, because the only thing that is of spiritual interest to you is to become one with this Christ, both in His flesh on earth and in His flesh as the head of the body of Christ.

00:31:53.295 --> 00:31:58.115
You start thinking and meditating on things like that.

00:31:58.115 --> 00:32:02.795
You will not be caught up in stuff that can become idols.

00:32:02.795 --> 00:32:14.936
It will be crucified a long time before it gets to that status, but only if your whole motivation is to close the gap.

00:32:14.936 --> 00:32:19.013
Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

00:32:19.013 --> 00:32:37.009
So these principles are in place in the kingdom within within a matter of a few days at best, between his temptation in the wilderness and his first time attempts to preach.

00:32:37.790 --> 00:32:40.876
When he came down out of that experience, amen.

00:32:40.876 --> 00:32:42.548
He said in the motion.

00:32:42.548 --> 00:32:47.768
Some things that had to do with faith had to do with hearing the Word of God, had to do with grace.

00:32:47.768 --> 00:32:59.416
Inaction had to do with with, with refusing to tempt God, refusing to receive anything from the devil that might be an inducement.

00:32:59.416 --> 00:33:01.080
Amen.

00:33:01.121 --> 00:33:13.147
And finally, that even passing through all of that, repentance is still a key, because repentance isn't necessarily event driven.

00:33:13.147 --> 00:33:16.952
We have been taught this because it's a Catholic way of thinking.

00:33:16.952 --> 00:33:21.057
You know, if you sin, go and confess and repent.

00:33:21.057 --> 00:33:30.435
Now I'm telling you, if you sin, go and confess and repent, because that's what it says, amen.

00:33:30.435 --> 00:33:38.172
But don't think that that's all there is about repentance, because repentance is much more powerful than that.

00:33:38.172 --> 00:33:39.834
Repentance is much more powerful than that.

00:33:39.834 --> 00:33:41.015
Repentance is a way of life.

00:33:41.015 --> 00:33:50.538
As you seek after a perfect union with God, amen, we've got to be repenting for everything that gets in the way of that.

00:33:50.538 --> 00:34:11.478
And if you don't think there's anything getting in the way with your union with God, amen, you need to think again, because none of us are perfected, but we're getting there and perfect and repentance is the key over to God, hallelujah.

00:34:11.478 --> 00:34:27.077
So that leads us to the most important introductory or first word, that Jesus sets His ministry in motion.

00:34:27.077 --> 00:34:31.034
Okay, because he set His ministry in motion.

00:34:31.034 --> 00:34:33.132
He set your ministry in motion.

00:34:33.132 --> 00:34:36.849
We may not get through all of this today, and that would be okay if we didn't.

00:34:36.849 --> 00:34:37.813
Amen, amen.

00:34:39.465 --> 00:34:40.989
But this one is in the book of Luke.

00:34:40.989 --> 00:35:11.172
What happens here is that Jesus, as he finishes his 40 days and 40 nights into and being tempted by the devil Luke 4 and verse 14, luke 4 and 14 reads like this then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit.

00:35:11.172 --> 00:35:17.530
Now Mark said that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness.

00:35:17.530 --> 00:35:27.452
Now Luke says that after the wilderness experience he returned in the power of the Spirit.

00:35:27.452 --> 00:35:45.188
So somewhere in that 40 days and 40 nights there was a transition between being driven by the Spirit and returning in the power of the Spirit the Spirit and returning in the power of the Spirit.

00:35:45.188 --> 00:35:49.414
So Jesus learned over those 40 days and 40 nights how to live in the power of the Spirit.

00:35:49.414 --> 00:35:56.307
When he came up out of the river Jordan amen he had the Spirit of God.

00:35:56.307 --> 00:36:01.755
The Spirit of God came and dwelt on him, but he had not yet learned to live in that power.

00:36:01.755 --> 00:36:03.777
So the Spirit drove him.

00:36:03.777 --> 00:36:11.655
But in that 40 days and 40 nights, jesus learned how to live and the power of the Spirit.

00:36:11.655 --> 00:36:26.637
And when he in the first things he said for what we just studied out of the book of Matthew, luke adds this he said Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.

00:36:26.637 --> 00:36:32.996
Now, this is where he grew up and Luke talks about that.

00:36:34.545 --> 00:36:40.782
Now, this returning in the power was a result of his separation unto the spirit.

00:36:40.782 --> 00:36:50.108
The spirit drove him into the wilderness and he lived with the spirit in him for 40 days and 40 nights, eating nothing, drinking nothing.

00:36:50.108 --> 00:36:52.012
Amen, he didn't have.

00:36:52.012 --> 00:36:52.572
He didn't.

00:36:52.572 --> 00:37:01.697
He lived in a supernatural realm where the devil was taking him off to mountains and the top of the temple and angels came to minister him.

00:37:01.697 --> 00:37:10.954
I mean, this is not the carpenter's shop in Nazareth, okay, this is a whole different kind of experience.

00:37:10.954 --> 00:37:16.335
And he's learning how to live in the Spirit while his feet are still attached to the earth.

00:37:16.335 --> 00:37:19.978
Is somebody getting a witness here?

00:37:19.978 --> 00:37:21.666
This is what we've got to learn.

00:37:21.666 --> 00:37:27.253
We've got to learn how to live in the spirit and yet our feet are attached to the earth, at least some of the time.

00:37:27.253 --> 00:37:33.432
Philip found out that you could live in the spirit and your feet not be attached to the earth.

00:37:33.432 --> 00:37:38.054
He could be transported some 25, 30 miles.

00:37:38.054 --> 00:37:40.985
Glory to God, hallelujah.

00:37:41.766 --> 00:37:50.784
Because of his separation under the spirit, jesus learned how to live in the power of the spirit.

00:37:50.784 --> 00:37:58.809
He also had this result because he had had the victory where Adam had had defeat.

00:37:58.809 --> 00:38:00.844
It was absolutely essential Because he had had the victory where Adam had had defeat.

00:38:00.844 --> 00:38:11.315
It was absolutely essential that before Jesus took one step into ministry, that he conquered Adam's sin.

00:38:11.315 --> 00:38:15.853
What's it say in Romans, the 8th chapter?

00:38:15.853 --> 00:38:21.733
It said that the law was made weak through the flesh.

00:38:21.733 --> 00:38:23.956
Amen.

00:38:25.920 --> 00:38:36.376
But God, in sending his own son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh.

00:38:36.376 --> 00:38:47.177
Now he had to have a justification for doing that because up until this point, flesh had not been able to deal with sin and temptation.

00:38:47.177 --> 00:38:51.632
At the first, adam could not get the victory over the devil.

00:38:51.632 --> 00:38:55.047
Amen, simple as that.

00:38:55.047 --> 00:38:59.414
I'm not trying to, you know, I'm not ragging on Adam, it's just written.

00:38:59.414 --> 00:39:04.268
You know, eve was tempted, eve was deceived.

00:39:04.268 --> 00:39:05.371
Adam sinned.

00:39:05.672 --> 00:39:06.735
How did Adam sin?

00:39:06.735 --> 00:39:11.527
He sinned according to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

00:39:11.527 --> 00:39:13.570
Did God really say this?

00:39:13.570 --> 00:39:19.706
Did God really tell you that you can't eat of that tree?

00:39:19.706 --> 00:39:27.333
Do you not know that when you do eat of that tree, you will be like God Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

00:39:27.333 --> 00:39:34.351
It was good to look at, it was good to eat and it will make you wise, like God.

00:39:34.351 --> 00:39:42.221
So did the devil whip out an apple and said let's do this again?

00:39:42.221 --> 00:39:44.630
No, he didn't do that.

00:39:44.630 --> 00:39:54.192
He came up with an entirely different scheme, but it was the three same sins Bread, eat, what.

00:39:54.192 --> 00:39:54.753
Can you see?

00:39:54.753 --> 00:40:04.936
The kingdoms of the earth, pride of life, jump off the tower and just dazzle all of Jerusalem floating down on the clouds.

00:40:04.936 --> 00:40:07.090
You know what were they got?

00:40:08.634 --> 00:40:10.710
Jesus was victorious over each sin.

00:40:10.710 --> 00:40:28.576
Because he was victorious over those sins, he could then be released into ministry Because he had condemned, because through that righteous act, god had justification of condemning sin in the flesh, and the perfect Lamb of God could now go about His ministry.

00:40:28.576 --> 00:40:29.891
Would he be further tempted?

00:40:29.891 --> 00:40:31.291
Yes, he would be further tempted.

00:40:31.291 --> 00:40:34.152
Would he be victorious in every case?

00:40:34.152 --> 00:40:43.077
Yes, he would, but he had to be victorious over Adam's sin so that he could preach deliverance to Adam's seed.

00:40:43.077 --> 00:40:46.612
Amen, praise God.

00:40:46.612 --> 00:41:24.590
Now, the thing you really need to take away from this is that, because Jesus had been filled with the Spirit and he had conquered over Adam's sin in the wilderness as the second Adam, it was probably the most important step toward a three and a half year road to Pentecost, because what Jesus really came to do was to create a temple that was fit for God to dwell in by his Spirit, and that temple is his body, and you are now a part of that body.

00:41:24.590 --> 00:41:25.632
Amen.

00:41:25.711 --> 00:41:32.416
If Jesus hadn't been victorious over Adam's sin, there would be no Pentecost and there would be no temple.

00:41:32.416 --> 00:41:34.521
Are you following me?

00:41:34.521 --> 00:41:40.173
But because he was victorious in Adam's sin and sent the devil running.

00:41:40.173 --> 00:41:52.534
He was on a fast track three and a half years right toward the cross, right toward the resurrection and right toward Pentecost, because Pentecost is where all of this gets transferred to you.

00:41:52.534 --> 00:42:04.010
Hello See, we hardly don't even celebrate Pentecost, but if there's no Pentecost you don't get filled with the Holy Ghost.

00:42:06.628 --> 00:42:08.554
If there's no cross, there's no resurrection.

00:42:08.554 --> 00:42:10.733
And if there's no resurrection there's no Pentecost.

00:42:10.733 --> 00:42:13.489
And if there's no Pentecost, none of that gets to you.

00:42:13.489 --> 00:42:23.954
This is where all of these denominations that deny Pentecost, they make a great mistake and it's why they have no power.

00:42:23.954 --> 00:42:30.536
It's because without Pentecost, the resurrection and the crucifixion really don't extend to you.

00:42:30.536 --> 00:42:39.887
It's only by the mercy of God that you get enough of the Holy Ghost that you can believe to get in Jesus.

00:42:39.887 --> 00:42:41.052
I wish I could preach this.

00:42:41.052 --> 00:42:41.585
I could write.

00:42:41.585 --> 00:42:49.152
I could write ten books on that sentence right there without the cross, there's no resurrection.

00:42:49.152 --> 00:42:51.985
Without the resurrection there's no Pentecost.

00:42:51.985 --> 00:42:57.327
And without Pentecost the cross, the resurrection and the Holy Ghost do not extend to you.

00:42:57.327 --> 00:43:02.197
It had never got past the twelve disciples.

00:43:02.197 --> 00:43:05.271
Hello, somebody help me here.

00:43:05.271 --> 00:43:07.510
Do you not see this?

00:43:07.510 --> 00:43:24.818
What happened at Pentecost was that the reality of the resurrection exploded over all Jerusalem and if there was no Pentecost, that would have stayed with the 500 that witnessed his resurrection and before his ascension.

00:43:24.818 --> 00:43:30.916
Most people believe that too it is.

00:43:30.916 --> 00:43:33.023
It was only for the disciples.

00:43:33.023 --> 00:43:34.510
Yes, praise God.

00:43:34.510 --> 00:43:38.414
So going on in verse 14.

00:43:38.545 --> 00:43:47.096
And news of him went out through all of the surrounding region and he taught in their synagogues.

00:43:47.096 --> 00:43:50.335
Now there was a synagogue in each little village.

00:43:50.335 --> 00:43:58.913
So he went around, made the circuits and everybody said great things of him, he said being glorified by all.

00:43:58.913 --> 00:44:07.413
So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up Now I want you to read this carefully.

00:44:07.413 --> 00:44:14.918
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

00:44:14.918 --> 00:44:25.295
Now, if you've been taught about these kind of scriptures, you will be taught that it was Jesus' habit to go to church.

00:44:25.295 --> 00:44:31.675
So we need to go to church right, and that is a perfectly true statement.

00:44:31.675 --> 00:44:43.155
But it wasn't his habit to go to church just because he'd been in the wilderness and had victory over Adam's sin.

00:44:43.155 --> 00:44:51.757
For him to have as his custom was, this means this was a developed pattern of behavior.

00:44:51.757 --> 00:44:59.817
This happened before he went down to the River Jordan.

00:44:59.817 --> 00:45:05.679
When he was growing up in Nazareth, it was his custom to go to synagogue.

00:45:05.679 --> 00:45:12.179
Not only was it his custom to go to synagogue, but it was his custom to stand up and read Scripture.

00:45:12.179 --> 00:45:15.391
So what does that tell you?

00:45:15.391 --> 00:45:18.715
That tells you that Jesus could read.

00:45:18.715 --> 00:45:21.266
That tells you that Jesus could read.

00:45:21.266 --> 00:45:28.494
Not only could he read, but he had a custom of reading Scripture publicly.

00:45:28.494 --> 00:45:45.630
That means that if he had a habit of reading Scripture publicly in synagogues around here, he was in those places all the time where he could get a hold of the written word of God.

00:45:45.652 --> 00:45:46.813
Are you hearing what I'm saying?

00:45:46.813 --> 00:45:54.693
Listen, you don't have Moses through Malachi in the synagogue at Nazareth.

00:45:54.693 --> 00:45:57.297
Do you know how much room that takes up?

00:45:57.297 --> 00:46:00.367
Do you know how much room that takes up?

00:46:00.367 --> 00:46:01.909
I mean, these are big.

00:46:01.909 --> 00:46:02.951
Look how big they are.

00:46:02.951 --> 00:46:06.255
And that's just part of a chapter.

00:46:06.255 --> 00:46:08.177
There the thing just goes on and on.

00:46:08.177 --> 00:46:09.418
I mean just Exodus.

00:46:09.418 --> 00:46:10.820
That one's in Exodus right there.

00:46:10.820 --> 00:46:11.641
That's in Genesis.

00:46:11.641 --> 00:46:18.923
Genesis is this big scroll like this, and that's just a few chapters.

00:46:18.923 --> 00:46:22.588
I mean they have them in boxes and they're all on.

00:46:22.588 --> 00:46:28.851
You know, you might have a few scrolls, but if you went over to the next town you could get some more scrolls.

00:46:28.851 --> 00:46:30.472
And you went over to the next town.

00:46:31.007 --> 00:46:32.512
They knew who Jesus was.

00:46:32.512 --> 00:46:39.291
He was glorified by a few, one or two.

00:46:39.291 --> 00:46:53.318
By all, they knew who he was and he had been teaching them not as the Messiah, but just as a dutiful son who was interested in the scriptures.

00:46:53.318 --> 00:46:55.769
Amen, and they listened to him.

00:46:55.769 --> 00:46:57.273
Are you hearing me?

00:46:57.273 --> 00:46:59.418
This is something he always did.

00:46:59.418 --> 00:47:01.847
How do you think he got to be?

00:47:01.847 --> 00:47:05.934
When he was 12 years old, went into Jerusalem and, you know, ripped him.

00:47:05.934 --> 00:47:12.217
Glory to God, hallelujah, verse 17.

00:47:12.217 --> 00:47:28.806
And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah Glory to God, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord.

00:47:28.806 --> 00:47:33.440
And when he had opened the book or the scroll, he found the place where it was written Luke 4 and 18.

00:47:33.440 --> 00:47:40.773
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me.

00:47:40.773 --> 00:47:57.367
Now we'll go on and we'll look at six things here, six things that establish another dimension of first principles for the kingdom.

00:47:57.367 --> 00:48:04.690
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me.

00:48:04.769 --> 00:48:19.693
If there is one word in the New Testament that is misused, abused, trashed and totally used in the wrong way, it is the word anointed.

00:48:19.693 --> 00:48:24.748
The word anointed is a specific act.

00:48:24.748 --> 00:48:38.373
It is the act of taking oil and smearing it all over something, and the purpose of that anointing is to separate it for holy purposes.

00:48:38.373 --> 00:48:50.155
It's not an adjective to use, as you know, to tell that somebody has a nice voice or they sang a good song or they preached a good message.

00:48:50.155 --> 00:48:51.097
Amen.

00:48:51.097 --> 00:48:57.449
You are not anointed for a specific task.

00:48:57.449 --> 00:49:01.434
You are anointed for a calling.

00:49:01.434 --> 00:49:02.536
You are anointed.

00:49:02.956 --> 00:49:06.706
David wasn't anointed to kill Goliath.

00:49:06.706 --> 00:49:13.755
David was anointed to be the king and to be the forefather of Jesus.

00:49:13.755 --> 00:49:16.059
Amen.

00:49:16.059 --> 00:49:20.353
He wasn't anointed to go marry Saul's daughter.

00:49:20.353 --> 00:49:24.688
He wasn't anointed to wreak havoc on the nations.

00:49:24.688 --> 00:49:30.563
He wasn't anointed to kill Goliath and all of that kind of stuff.

00:49:30.563 --> 00:49:32.126
Those were things that happened.

00:49:32.126 --> 00:49:37.898
Because he was anointed to be the king of Israel, amen.

00:49:37.898 --> 00:49:43.806
Because he was anointed to be the king, he was separated under that holy calling of God.

00:49:43.806 --> 00:49:50.585
And because he was separated under that holy calling of God, god guided the stones out of his sling.

00:49:50.585 --> 00:49:54.911
God gave him the daughter of the current king.

00:49:54.911 --> 00:49:59.956
God gave him a genius for warfare Amen.

00:49:59.956 --> 00:50:02.880
God gave him a genius for warfare.

00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:06.324
God gave him a genius for accumulating wealth.

00:50:06.324 --> 00:50:12.108
God gave him a genius for rebuilding the city of Jerusalem into the city of David.

00:50:12.108 --> 00:50:12.228
Amen.

00:50:12.228 --> 00:50:13.030
Are you hearing what I'm saying?

00:50:13.030 --> 00:50:13.170
Amen.

00:50:13.170 --> 00:50:16.778
David had a genius for serving the Lord and worshiping the Lord.

00:50:16.905 --> 00:50:18.288
Listen to the book of Psalms.

00:50:18.288 --> 00:50:20.311
A man knew how to worship.

00:50:20.311 --> 00:50:25.420
The man knew how to praise Hallelujah Because he was taught of God.

00:50:25.420 --> 00:50:28.969
Did he commit sin?

00:50:28.969 --> 00:50:32.356
Sure, he did, and so do a lot of other people.

00:50:32.356 --> 00:50:37.585
God wasn't looking for perfection.

00:50:37.585 --> 00:50:43.130
He was looking for somebody after His heart, he could deal with the perfection.

00:50:43.130 --> 00:50:45.893
If your heart isn't after Him, he can't deal with that.

00:50:45.893 --> 00:50:51.338
As the deer panteth after the water brook, so my soul longeth after Thee.

00:50:51.338 --> 00:50:52.860
O Lord, hallelujah.

00:50:52.860 --> 00:50:55.262
That's the kind of thing that God was after.

00:50:55.262 --> 00:51:07.891
He was after that hunger and thirsting of righteousness, so that he could make covenant with David and not change his mind.

00:51:07.891 --> 00:51:19.961
I have made covenant with David and I will not alter the thing that has come out of my mouth, out of your loins, out of your body.

00:51:19.961 --> 00:51:27.947
I will bring forth the Messiah.

00:51:27.947 --> 00:51:28.548
Glory to God, hallelujah.

00:51:32.472 --> 00:51:33.532
David was anointed.

00:51:33.532 --> 00:51:36.876
The priest was anointed.

00:51:36.876 --> 00:51:42.922
Moses was anointed.

00:51:42.922 --> 00:51:50.737
Moses was anointed, but there was an anointed one who was called Jesus, the Christ.

00:51:50.737 --> 00:51:56.543
Jesus, the anointed one, amen, amen.

00:51:56.543 --> 00:52:06.427
That word anointed is the root word of the Greek word Christos, amen.

00:52:06.427 --> 00:52:09.016
And Jesus was the anointed one.

00:52:09.016 --> 00:52:12.206
This word you know.

00:52:12.306 --> 00:52:14.809
Peter said to Cornelius this word.

00:52:14.809 --> 00:52:29.333
You know how Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by the Holy Ghost and power and went about doing good and healing all those that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.

00:52:29.333 --> 00:52:35.670
He was anointed by God, by the Holy Ghost and with his power.

00:52:35.670 --> 00:52:37.313
What does it say?

00:52:37.313 --> 00:52:43.710
Right there, he returned in the power because somewhere out in that wilderness there was an anointing.

00:52:43.710 --> 00:52:45.596
I said there was an anointing.

00:52:45.596 --> 00:52:59.333
I said there was an anointing, and the and the father smeared the Holy Ghost all over Jesus and John said it this way.

00:52:59.333 --> 00:53:10.646
The Spirit came down and alighted on him and oh, glory to God, you want to be anointed.

00:53:10.646 --> 00:53:20.012
It means to have the Holy Ghost just smeared over you in such a way that it oozes into every pore of your body and doesn't go anywhere.

00:53:22.161 --> 00:53:25.311
Now, if you never sing a note, you're still anointed.

00:53:25.311 --> 00:53:28.530
If you never preach a word, you're still anointed.

00:53:28.530 --> 00:53:41.090
Because what you're anointed to do is exactly what we sang this morning you are anointed to smear on somebody else Until it gets all over them and it doesn't leave.

00:53:41.090 --> 00:53:45.927
And then they get to smear all over somebody else.

00:53:45.927 --> 00:53:53.056
Glory to God, because you're not anointed to do something, you're anointed to be something.

00:53:53.056 --> 00:53:58.885
You're anointed to be the Spirit of God's vessel in the earth.

00:53:58.885 --> 00:54:01.172
Amen.

00:54:01.172 --> 00:54:06.782
And it's not an adjective, it's a verb Glory to God.

00:54:06.782 --> 00:54:15.005
Now here's what Jesus said Again.

00:54:15.005 --> 00:54:16.690
These words are in red in your Bible.

00:54:16.690 --> 00:54:25.931
Jesus said this of himself Because later, in this same section, he said today is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing?

00:54:25.931 --> 00:54:30.802
Hallelujah, hallelujah.

00:54:32.025 --> 00:54:37.681
First thing is to preach the gospel, the good news of the kingdom, preach it to the poor.

00:54:37.681 --> 00:54:40.608
Now, so immediately.

00:54:40.608 --> 00:54:45.764
You know, we take this at face value and we say, okay, this gospel was written to poor folk.

00:54:45.764 --> 00:54:57.489
So all of our mission work is, you know, to go preach to the poor minister, to the poor, pass out food, give them shelter, and those are all great things, you know.

00:54:57.489 --> 00:55:06.722
Those are good things for churches that don't have any revelation or power to do, because they can get organized, they can do that kind of stuff.

00:55:06.722 --> 00:55:07.646
They're good at that.

00:55:07.646 --> 00:55:10.291
I don't have any problem with that.

00:55:10.291 --> 00:55:31.253
But I do have a problem with this why do we focus all of our attention on poor folk, drug addicts, prostitutes and all that kind of stuff, and we never preach the gospel to bankers, we never preach the gospel to finance managers, we never preach the gospel to politicians.

00:55:31.253 --> 00:55:34.248
We never preach the gospel to people that can make a difference.

00:55:40.923 --> 00:55:56.047
Do you know, folks, if the Lord really wanted to do this, if it wouldn't be an affront to the body, all he has to do is get about 2,500, 3,000 people saved in the world and the world would be a different place.

00:55:56.047 --> 00:56:08.106
There are about 2,000 to 3,000 people who run things and they make all of the decisions, they make all of the ways that things happen.

00:56:08.106 --> 00:56:09.150
Amen.

00:56:09.150 --> 00:56:16.813
And if all those people in one night got saved, they would either all be exterminated or this world would be a different place.

00:56:16.813 --> 00:56:24.389
But we don't preach to them, we just let them go.

00:56:24.389 --> 00:56:25.574
Oh, they're too hard.

00:56:25.574 --> 00:56:27.740
You know why nobody preaches to them?

00:56:27.740 --> 00:56:38.750
Because we don't know their language, we don't know their customs, we don't know their habits and we don't have the skill set to even interact with them.

00:56:39.351 --> 00:56:41.652
I used to say this to guys in Mexico.

00:56:41.652 --> 00:56:44.275
I said you all are real good at preaching to poor folk.

00:56:44.275 --> 00:56:54.581
Because you're poor, you don't even have a checkbook, you don't even have a bank account, you don't even believe that God can bless you enough to open a bank account and save money.

00:56:54.581 --> 00:57:12.460
I said because of that, you can't even go in and talk to a banker and share with him the mysteries of the kingdom of God, because you don't have a vocabulary that can even reach that person.

00:57:12.460 --> 00:57:15.166
Do you know why?

00:57:15.166 --> 00:57:16.728
Jesus could go into something?

00:57:16.728 --> 00:57:21.722
He could go into Zacchaeus his house.

00:57:21.722 --> 00:57:31.070
Zacchaeus was one of the richest people in all of Israel and he could go into that Zacchaeus his house and demand to sit down with him and eat.

00:57:31.070 --> 00:57:32.353
Do you know why?

00:57:32.353 --> 00:57:39.141
Because Jesus was wealthier than he was Now.

00:57:39.221 --> 00:57:41.987
It may not have manifested in bank account money.

00:57:41.987 --> 00:57:44.413
Listen to me.

00:57:44.413 --> 00:57:58.268
He had enough money in the treasury box to buy $30,000 worth of vittles for the folks, for the 5,000 on all their kids and wives.

00:57:58.268 --> 00:58:04.788
Philip said what do you want us to do?

00:58:04.788 --> 00:58:05.610
Go buy some food.

00:58:05.610 --> 00:58:29.730
And the reference there is to I think don't know, I can't remember, I'm not going to try to quote it, but the concept is they had a money in the money back box that it represented about $30,000, and this was just from that day's offering.

00:58:29.730 --> 00:58:34.655
I wish I could get some help.

00:58:34.655 --> 00:58:39.407
They had houses, they had boats.

00:58:39.407 --> 00:58:44.855
People weren't broke.

00:58:44.855 --> 00:58:47.164
They were poor in spirit.

00:58:47.164 --> 00:58:48.949
Their spirits were undeveloped.

00:58:48.949 --> 00:58:52.880
Their spirits were emaciated.

00:58:52.880 --> 00:58:53.902
Their spirits were uncultivated.

00:58:53.902 --> 00:58:59.293
Their spirits had been browbeat by religion and the law.

00:59:01.960 --> 00:59:12.275
When Jesus came upon the planet, israel amen was one of the sickest, most devil-possessed places on the earth.

00:59:12.275 --> 00:59:14.981
Why?

00:59:14.981 --> 00:59:18.010
Because nobody had been keeping the law.

00:59:18.010 --> 00:59:22.161
See Israel.

00:59:22.161 --> 00:59:23.764
You don't, do you understand this?

00:59:23.764 --> 00:59:28.534
Israel was a God-created way of being.

00:59:28.534 --> 00:59:31.653
There wasn't another place like it on the planet.

00:59:31.653 --> 00:59:34.282
There wasn't another place that had God's word.

00:59:34.443 --> 00:59:44.940
If you obey my commandments, you will be blessed in the city, blessed in the country, blessed lying down, blessed rising up and all those other blessings, amen.

00:59:44.940 --> 00:59:52.413
And it's impossible to be broke, it's impossible not to be rich, it's impossible not to be in perfect health.

00:59:52.413 --> 00:59:56.650
Amen, because you have kept my word, you have kept the commandments.

00:59:56.650 --> 01:00:04.331
However, if you don't commit my commandments, amen there are twice as many cursings as there were blessings.

01:00:04.331 --> 01:00:07.063
Everybody goes well.

01:00:07.063 --> 01:00:08.728
I just love Deuteronomy 28.

01:00:08.728 --> 01:00:14.360
Yeah, but you didn't read the second part of it, and the second part of it is the cursings.

01:00:14.360 --> 01:00:15.800
That are twice as many as the blessings.

01:00:15.800 --> 01:00:19.648
And if you live over there, that's what Jesus came to.

01:00:20.224 --> 01:00:21.632
They were poor.

01:00:21.632 --> 01:00:31.664
They were poor in the flesh, but the reason they were poor in the flesh is because they were poor in the spirit, and they were poor in the spirit because they were terrible in obedience.

01:00:31.664 --> 01:00:34.329
Glory to God.

01:00:34.329 --> 01:00:40.021
So listen, what happened?

01:00:40.021 --> 01:00:45.440
What happens when you, when you have poor, poor in obedience to God's law.

01:00:45.440 --> 01:00:50.590
I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about the general world in general.

01:00:50.590 --> 01:00:55.045
I'm talking about, in Israel, what's going to happen?

01:00:55.045 --> 01:00:58.898
You're going to have leper colonies all over the place.

01:00:58.898 --> 01:01:01.003
You're going to have people with palsy.

01:01:01.003 --> 01:01:02.789
You're going to have people that can't walk.

01:01:02.789 --> 01:01:05.443
You're going to have people that have been blind since birth.

01:01:06.664 --> 01:01:07.847
Who did Jesus go to?

01:01:07.847 --> 01:01:10.492
He went to the poor in spirit.

01:01:10.492 --> 01:01:18.208
They were poor in spirit because they had been abused by years of disobedience to the law.

01:01:18.208 --> 01:01:21.813
Amen.

01:01:21.813 --> 01:01:29.088
When, when Jesus came, he went to the poor in spirit because he was commanded by the word of God to do that.

01:01:29.088 --> 01:01:36.295
Preach the gospel to the good news to the poor in spirit, amen.

01:01:37.623 --> 01:01:38.567
They were destitute.

01:01:38.567 --> 01:01:42.731
They were reduced to begging for a reality.

01:01:42.731 --> 01:01:46.849
Here's blind Bartimaeus, amen.

01:01:46.849 --> 01:01:50.708
Here's how life was.

01:01:50.708 --> 01:01:52.585
Man had been blind.

01:01:52.585 --> 01:01:57.005
Who knows how long Probably all of his life he was.

01:01:57.005 --> 01:02:22.949
The society was so corrupt, amen, that instead of of, instead of doing what was right by the law and being healed by the power of God because you were doing right by the law, they gave him a beggar's coat and made it legal to do something that was illegal in the law.

01:02:22.949 --> 01:02:41.509
Begging was not allowed in the law, but they made it legal if you had a coat, and so the man had a coat when he could have seen if he had just obeyed the law.

01:02:41.509 --> 01:02:45.987
But they made it impossible to obey the law because they didn't teach the law anymore.

01:02:45.987 --> 01:02:48.487
They taught what men said about the law.

01:02:49.400 --> 01:02:50.626
Do you understand what I'm talking about?

01:02:50.626 --> 01:02:56.387
The five, the first five books of the of the Old Testament are called the Torah, and they are, though.

01:02:56.387 --> 01:03:09.668
They are the writings of Moses and they consist of the law, but there's a whole bunch of things that are called the Talmud, which are the rabbinical interpretations of what the Torah says.

01:03:09.668 --> 01:03:10.789
Amen.

01:03:10.789 --> 01:03:13.293
So it'd be like if I had.

01:03:13.293 --> 01:03:15.295
Let's just say this.

01:03:15.295 --> 01:03:26.150
Let's just say I pulled out a Dake's Bible and instead of reading you the book of Deuteronomy, I just read you the side column notes of what Dake had to say about it.

01:03:26.150 --> 01:03:28.041
And Dake's just one rabbi.

01:03:28.041 --> 01:03:29.806
I mean, you can do that.

01:03:29.806 --> 01:03:34.668
I know guys that have made a career out of teaching out of Dake's Bible.

01:03:34.668 --> 01:03:38.503
I'm not going to mention any names either, but they have made a career out of it.

01:03:38.503 --> 01:03:41.170
They've been taken to court because of it.

01:03:41.170 --> 01:03:43.846
Amen, you could do that.

01:03:43.846 --> 01:03:45.592
There's so much stuff there.

01:03:45.592 --> 01:03:46.193
I mean, you can.

01:03:46.193 --> 01:03:55.208
You know it's wonderful stuff, but that's what the children of Israel, they were taught, what the rabbis said and not what Moses said.

01:03:55.208 --> 01:03:57.440
It was almost impossible to obey the law.

01:03:57.440 --> 01:03:58.925
Amen.

01:03:58.965 --> 01:04:00.250
Jesus said this all the time.

01:04:00.250 --> 01:04:01.574
He said you guys are crazy.

01:04:01.574 --> 01:04:12.251
He said you keep a person from honoring his father and mother by saying that what I would normally help my mother and father with is a gift to God, and then I don't have to do anything.

01:04:12.251 --> 01:04:27.911
Well, see, you've just condemned them to sickness, to infirmity, to weakness, to manifested diseases in their offspring, to all this kind of stuff, because you have made it impossible for them to obey the word of God.

01:04:27.911 --> 01:04:36.387
Do you understand what I'm saying?

01:04:36.387 --> 01:04:37.871
So all of Israel was like this.

01:04:37.871 --> 01:04:52.548
They were poor in spirit, they were emaciated in spirit, it was impossible for them to obey the word of God, and so they were begging for reality.

01:04:53.552 --> 01:04:56.005
So listen, listen to what happened to blind Bartimaeus.

01:04:56.005 --> 01:04:59.052
He's sitting there and everybody's making a commotion.

01:04:59.052 --> 01:05:00.123
He says what's going on?

01:05:00.123 --> 01:05:03.556
He said Jesus of Nazareth, that's coming down the road.

01:05:03.556 --> 01:05:11.494
He said really that that one I've heard about said yeah, he's coming down the road.

01:05:11.494 --> 01:05:25.869
So he gets up and throws his beggar's coat away and he starts to shout out O thou son of David, have mercy on me.

01:05:25.869 --> 01:05:30.804
Now here's Israel's response.

01:05:30.804 --> 01:05:41.806
Instead of, instead of going well, glory to God, I'm gonna get in on this and then having two, three, four, five, six, ten, twenty, all of them start shouting o thou son of David.

01:05:41.806 --> 01:05:49.641
They said shut up, sit down, don't make a commotion.

01:05:49.641 --> 01:05:52.871
He's not going to pay any attention to you.

01:05:52.871 --> 01:05:56.443
You're just a blind beggar.

01:05:56.443 --> 01:05:57.324
No, I'm not.

01:05:57.324 --> 01:05:59.710
There's no evidence that I'm a beggar.

01:05:59.710 --> 01:06:05.688
I may be blind, but I done.

01:06:05.688 --> 01:06:09.760
Throw the coat away, o thou son of David, o thou son of David, o thou son of David.

01:06:09.780 --> 01:06:15.233
And the Bible says that the son stood still, hallelujah.

01:06:15.233 --> 01:06:21.588
Jesus looks at him and says what would you have me do, lord, that I might receive my sight?

01:06:21.588 --> 01:06:26.010
He says as your faith is, so shall it be done unto you.

01:06:26.010 --> 01:06:30.050
And he received his sight and followed him from that very moment.

01:06:31.239 --> 01:06:40.971
Glory to God that the one who was begging for a reality had reality, literally open his eyes.

01:06:40.971 --> 01:06:49.382
And he saw a reality in the face of Jesus, just the way it says in the book of Corinthians Amen.

01:06:49.382 --> 01:06:52.340
He saw the reality that was in the face of jesus, just the way it says in the in the book of corinthians amen.

01:06:52.340 --> 01:07:10.905
He saw the reality that was in the face of jesus, like he had never seen anything before, and even though people around him were saying, shut up, part of mayas, shut up, shut up, don't bother the master.

01:07:10.905 --> 01:07:17.789
Well, I'm going to bother him, because you all have bothered me with a lot of nonsense.

01:07:17.789 --> 01:07:21.811
And the reality of God is walking down the road.

01:07:21.811 --> 01:07:28.788
He may pass me by, but then again he may not.

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And if he doesn't pass me by, but then again he may not.

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And if he doesn't pass me by, but he does for me what he's done for others, glory to God.

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This blind beggar is not going to be one anymore.

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Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise God, hallelujah.

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The poor praise God, hallelujah.

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The poor in spirit are exactly the ones that need to hear this good news that what religion couldn't do this Jesus can do all day long.

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Hallelujah.

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He has no limits.

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This Jesus can do all day long.

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Hallelujah, he has no limits.

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If he healed blind Bartimaeus, he can heal them by the thousands.

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He can heal them by the millions.

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If he saved Mary Magdalene, he can save them by the multiplied nations.

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Glory to God, you Jesus.

01:08:33.935 --> 01:08:35.038
He saved us.

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It reached all the way to us.

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He reached all the way to us and saved and healed us.

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Amen, praise God.

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We'll pick this up the next time.

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Glory to Jesus.

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But this is what this Jesus came to do.

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He came to preach this gospel to the destitute in spirit and we give him praise, hallelujah.

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Thank you, jesus.