 Welcome to Prophecy Files Briefing. I'm Pastor Joey Rogers. Glad that you've joined me today. I want to share with you a little excerpt from the recent Prophecy Files Bible Prophecy Conference with my special guest, Bill Federer. What an incredible mind that he has in history and in the Word of God and matching those two together to the current events of the day was absolutely incredible. I want to share a little bit of it with you right now and then I'll be back in just a moment. The most common form of government is gangs. Right, if we were to get rid of all the laws and all the police, what would happen? It would be fine for a couple of days and then people would rob the stores and when they realized they weren't caught, they'd start robbing houses and then you would have to organize your neighborhood and you'd have somebody to defend as your captain and then the bad guys and so gangs. And so a king is nothing more than a glorified gang leader. And then you go through these 6,000 years of world history and it's gangs and pharaohs and Caesar's and Kaiser's and Sultans and Tsars and Maharajas and Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan and they keep getting bigger and bigger because with military advancements kings can kill more people and with technological advancements they can track more people. And so wherever there's a king, you have to believe the way the king says. What the king believes, the king believes. If you do not believe the way your king does, it's considered treason and the king would kill you. And so let's look at the reformation started in 1517 and percentages of countries began to be protestant and some say Catholic and then you had the Iron Duke of Alba. He was sent by the king of Spain to Antwerp Holland and he killed 10,000 Dutch reform protestants lift their bodies in the streets and then you had the queen of France, Catherine de Medici and about 10% of France is Huguenot and they have a leader named Henry of Navarre. And so the queen organizes a marriage of her daughter Margaret to the main Protestant leader, Henry of Navarre in Paris. A couple of days after the wedding she has her soldiers pull chains across the streets so the carriages cannot get out of town and she sends her soldiers house to house and they kill 30,000 Protestant leaders. It's called the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. And so you have this situation in Europe of what are we supposed to do with Romans chapter 13? Let everyone be subject to the governing authority for there is no authority except that which God has established and the authority has existed and established by God. But what if the authority literally has a mandate to kill your wife and kids? Are you supposed to say, okay, here they are, kill them. And so in the, so you had reformers protesting and they were nicknamed Protestants. And one of them was John Calvin. He says, we are subject to the men who rule over us but subject only in the Lord. If they command anything against him let us not pay the lease regard to it. And so this is like the scripture in the Bible, children obey your parents. But what if there's a bad parent who tells the kid to sell themselves into prostitution and kill the neighbor? Is the child supposed to obey that parent? No, the child obeys the parent as long as the parent's telling them to do something that lines up with God's word. So you obey the government as long as the government is telling you to do something that lines up with God's word. Why would God tell you to do something in His word and then tell you to submit to a government that tells you not to do what He just got done telling you to do? And so Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter from the Birmingham jail, 1963, said, one may well ask, how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others? The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws, just and unjust. He goes on, one not only has a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. So you have kings for most of world's history and you gotta believe the way the king does and then the Reformation starts and then you got a group of people saying, wait a second. If Samuel Rutherford wrote a book called Lex Rex, Lex means law, Rex means king. And so the law is above the king. And so when the king stops obeying God's law, you don't have to obey the king anymore. And so the Calvinist period since developed a way for people to rule themselves without a king. It's called the covenant form of government and everybody has to be involved with it. And they got their idea from ancient Israel that first 400 years out of Egypt before King Saul. First time in world history, but on 1400 BC, Israel comes out of Egypt. Millions of people, no king. And it worked because the priest taught the law. And so the covenant form of government is where you get blessings from God. You voluntarily share them with your neighbor because you're doing it as unto God. You get rights from your creator. You're fair to your neighbor because you're accountable to God who is not a respecter of persons. And so where did they get their idea? From that first 400 years out of Egypt before King Saul. It's the book of judges. We don't really realize how unique that period of history is. That there's millions of people and no king. And it worked because everyone was taught the law. And so it's this idea that you have an opportunity to steal. Nobody's around. You know you can get away with it. And then you think, God is watching me. He wants me to be fair. He's gonna hold me accountable in the future. Maybe I should hesitate stealing. And it creates something in your head called the conscience. If everybody in the country really believes this, you can maintain complete order with no pleas. And so that's what they had in ancient Israel. And so it's called the Hebrew Republic. And these reformers, these Puritan scholars looked to this and they were nicknamed Christian Hebraists. James Harrington, John Sadler, whose sister Anne Sadler married John Harvard. That's why they taught Hebrew at Yale and Harvard. So in a sense, King Saul is the divider between England and America. You're like, King Saul, doesn't he live like thousands of years earlier? Right, the kings of England looked to the Bible for their authority, but they looked to the anointed King Saul and on. The Calvinist Puritans looked to the Bible for their authority, but they looked to the pre-King Saul period. There's 400 years, millions of people, no king. And so it was the Calvinist Puritans that founded New England that turned into America. Jesus says, upon this rock, I'll build my church. The word he uses, ecclesia, ecc means out of, clesey means a calling. They had 6,000 citizens in the Greek city of Athens. They would call them out to their marketplace to deliberate, to decide, to get involved in fixing the walls in the Navy and teaching the kids. There was no king to tell them what to do. Who's the people that had to decide what to do? And they all worked together and Jesus chose that word. He's talking about his body. Everybody has to be a part, an eye and ear, a foot. And so in this congregational model of church government, the pastor's job is to teach everyone how to have their own personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ that died on the cross to pay for their sins. And then the pastor coaches each believer to become a mature Christian. You get in the habit of reading through the Bible yourself. You get in the habit of praying every day and then plug into the body and do something. My special guest, Bill Federer, is who you've been hearing today and the entirety of both of his sessions are available at paceassembly.org. I promise you, you want to go there and hear what he has to say. It is historical, it's current, and it is prophetic in all that he is bringing. So watch it in its entirety. You'll be blessed by it. Till the next time we get together at Prophecy Files Briefing, remember Jesus Christ is coming soon. How's everybody doing tonight? Has God been good to you this week? Can we give Jesus a hand for his faithfulness tonight? Hallelujah. If you'll stand with me and take out your prayer and praise, please be in prayer for the family of Austin Brayer and Judge Coley Nichols for the passing of his wife. I don't know about you, but I'm so grateful that we have hope in Jesus. There's never a goodbye with Jesus. It's only see you soon. Amen, you know that? The three most important words you're ever gonna hear in your life is Jesus loves you. Jesus loves me. It doesn't get any better than that. Amen, well, let's go to him tonight in prayer. Father, we come to you tonight in Jesus' name, Lord. God, we speak healing over all these who need a healing tonight. You're Jehovah Rafa, Lord. We speak healing over them in the name of Jesus, Lord. There are people going into the hospital now, Lord, and they're nervous and they're anxious about that, God. We speak your peace that surpasses all understanding over them tonight, Lord. God, we're calling out for salvation for loved ones, Lord. We're asking you, Jesus, that you would save to the uttermost, God. It's not your heart that any should perish, Lord. So come and show yourself strong on behalf of Lord, all who need you, Lord. Those who don't even know that they need you, Lord. God, meet them where they are tonight, we pray. We thank you for your faithfulness, and we declare as David did, we believe, Lord, that we will see your goodness in the land of the living. Amen, do you believe that tonight? Come on, do you believe that tonight? Give him a big hand, clap or praise. We enter in his presence with praise and thanksgiving. He's in the room right now. Hallelujah. Cross the aisle and shake your hand with a brother and sister tonight. Let them know you love them. Online family, we're so honored that you would be here on this Wednesday night. We counted a joy and a privilege that you would tune in. The same presence we're feeling in this congregation tonight, we know is going right into your living room, right into that car that you're driving, wherever you may be watching. And please let us know where you're watching and how we can pray for you. There's someone there online, ready to chat with you tonight. God bless you and thank you again for being here. All right, who's excited for Pace Family Fest? Let's hear it, it's gonna be an amazing time. So grateful for Pastor's Heart to wanna reach out to our community with the love of Jesus Christ. And hey, we still need some volunteers. So please, we serve the Lord by serving others. Please call the office. You can go online at info at paceassembly.org and let us know that you would like to volunteer. Amen. And hey, I don't know about you, but I am so grateful for our pastor, Hallelujah. He's got a birthday coming up. And let's celebrate him. Come on now. It's happening Sunday, October 22nd, 5 p.m. Come on, it's okay, give him a hand. We give honor where honors do. Hallelujah. Please RSVP though, let us know that you're planning on coming so we can plan accordingly. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, who's ready to give tonight? Hallelujah. I've never come up short since I've been trusting the Lord in my finances. Amen. He is faithful tonight. So let's just prepare our hearts. We have buckets in the back. You can go online. There's a QR code. You can mail it in as well. Amen. Father, again, we come to you tonight in Jesus' name. God, knowing that your spirit is in this place, God, and there's a spirit of generosity, Lord. God, we thank you that it's your heart that every knee beats supplied in Jesus' name. So we bless the gift and the giver tonight. And we all said, amen. Praise God. Good to see you tonight. Amen. Let me try it again. Good to see you tonight. Amen. We're glad to be here. Amen. Amen. Why don't you open your Bibles up and let's get ready to study the Word of God. As you're doing that, I know that Ben has made you aware of some needs that people have and there is a number of them. There are a number of folks that are dealing with some sickness even this evening. And other challenges that is taking place in their life. And some that are dealing with grief in a very difficult way. Obviously, it's, I want you to remember the Wales family. Very good friend, close friend of brother David Phillips who last night was driving back home and was actually behind this young man. He didn't know who it was. And he was having a diabetic effect, which many of you know that that can mimic all kinds of things and it can cause him to drive erratic and so forth. And by the time it was over with out in East Milton, this young man who brother David knew once he arrived on the scene, the car crashed into a ball of fire into a tree and he was ejected and killed. And brother Phillips was there first on the scene to be able to start CPR and helping only to discover that he was a very close family member. And it's affected him, of course, and their family. And I want you to make sure that you're holding them all up in prayer, that God would sustain them. There is, as I was talking about brother David earlier today, about it all, the word opportunity came up because he recognized that he was on the scene at the right time to pray for and to be able to help as much as he could. And all the while he was doing CPR, he was calling on the Lord on his behalf. And I just want you to know, if anybody pulls up and they're not a born-again spirit-filled tongue-talking individual, whenever I would have any kind of incident, just keep on driving. Give me somebody who knows how to talk to God at that very critical moment. And he was, and so I truly believe that God was working in their behalf and will work in their behalf and to the many that this man was connected to. I believe in the days ahead, even as the service takes place of a funeral service, that there are gonna be some of his friends that are gonna recognize that best thing they could do is give their life to Jesus Christ. And we don't all understand all things that takes place in God's plan that is happening, but I do know this, God's got a plan. And even in life and in death, God's gonna get the glory out of all things, amen. So I want you to pray for all this family, pray for the David and all of his family as well as they are trying their best and minister to this family as well. And tonight, I hope you brought your late night snack my timekeeper is not here tonight. Rita is not able to be here this evening. She's watching online. She said, I don't know what you're gonna say but make sure you don't say what I think you might say that would not be good. And so I told everybody that she had a Joey ectomy today and I'm just, some of you got it, some of you didn't, it went right over your head. So don't worry about it. She had a little procedure done today on her neck and she's at home recovering. So you be sure to remember her in your prayers. God would give her strength and he will. And I know that he's already healing and doing what he needs to do inside of her body, amen. We thank you for your most urgent prayers there. Great praise reports that have been coming in from this past weekend services. You heard the latter, if you may have gotten out before you heard the report of healing of cancer, that's not the only people that have been healed of cancer in this sanctuary and in this congregation this past week. I just wanna let you know, regardless of what some big name preachers would call cessation, the days of miracles are not over. Testing, testing, one, two, three. I believe, and here's why I know, because sitting right out in front of me and people that are watching online have experienced the healing power of God firsthand. And you know what I'm talking about, amen. So I just encourage you to keep on praying, keep believing, lay hands on people and don't worry about trying to heal them. You can never heal anybody yourself anyway. Amen, come on say amen for that. You've never healed anybody. You've never healed anybody. You won't ever heal anybody. You just happen to be the vehicle. You happen to be the hands extended. You happen to be the one who tips a little bottle of oil and anointing with oil, pray the prayer of faith. The Lord will save the sick and raise them up. And if there be any sin, then shall be forgiven them. If you believe that, say a good amen. I'm trusting in the Lord, aren't you? Praise God. I want you to get your papers out tonight and let's go to the Word of God and Isaiah, Isaiah the 55th chapter. I wanna rehearse this passage of scripture for you and all of us. And I believe God's gonna speak to our hearts tonight. Did you come expecting? Praise God. I'm so glad that you're here. Our Wednesday night crowds are increasing and we're thankful for that. And of course, until the Lord would heal my eyes so I can see, I'll use these glasses to magnify what the Lord has done. How you like that? Praise God. Praise God. Do you like the one you're sitting next to or do you need to shift? I'm just checking. I'd hate for you to be miserable, the entire service. Amen, so smile at them so they know your friends. And if you don't know who they are, introduce yourself. Some of your husbands and wives need to introduce yourself, all right, all right. Isaiah 55, Father, thank you for the Word of God that is the lamp and the light. We thank you tonight, Lord Jesus, that you are the illuminator. Holy Spirit, do that work tonight and help us to have clarity of thought. Lord, keenness of mind and spirit and let the words that we say and the words that are heard tonight bring faith and encouragement and strength to your people and we give you praise for it. In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Isaiah 55, verse eight says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, sayeth the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and snow from heaven, returneth not thither but watereth the earth and makeeth it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. I love that. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where too I sent it. Praise God. I'm thankful for his word right there for us. Last week, we began to talk to you about a new dimension of thinking, a new level of thinking and how important that it is that we have that change of mind. You need to know that our changing of our mind will change the way we think, change the way we speak, change the way we act. Nothing changes until the mind changes. Say that with me. Nothing changes until the mind changes. Until you have a change of mind, there'll not be a change of heart, there'll not be a change of attitude, there'll not be a change of action. But when you change your mind how do you get that change of mind? Well, primarily you're gonna find out that whenever you hurt enough, you change your mind. Whenever you get enough knowledge, you change your mind. And so for that reason, it's important for you to receive the word of God and realize that your mind, in other words, let me say it like this, you're not trying to get God to change his mind about your situation. You should come into alignment and we'll talk about that a little bit with the word of God because God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts and how important that it is we line up with what he's doing because he knows the end from the beginning, amen. So for that reason, I wanna go back, if you will please in the back, back there on the screen, put up the, I should have told you this, go back there to limited perception without the facts and the truth of God's word leads to deception and I'm gonna start right there because I wanna talk a little bit and renew your mind about this terminology right here concerning media. So limited perception without the facts, it went away. All right, I'm gonna let y'all fix that. Limited perception without the facts, you found that on your paper? Four of you did. Have you found it on your paper? Talk to me somebody. All right, I don't wanna leave you behind because this is important to get to you. Limited perception, limited perception, what is that all about? Well you only have a portion of what you need to know. Now I know that some of you are tremendous braniacs in here and I know that many of you know how to figure out Einstein's theory and you got it all on a downhill slide but I just wanna help you leave enough room in there with mercy in your mind just in case you might not know at all because the only thing we have is a limited view. The Bible says we look through a glass darkly. Are y'all all right out there with that? You're gonna see what that means here in just a moment. So the limited perception without the facts and you may have the facts but then you've gotta take and run it through the filter of God's word to know what truth is. Facts may not always line up with what the ultimate truth is so I've got to have God's word as the mirror as the litmus test of all of my thinking because even when sometimes I think something may be true or right does not necessarily mean that it is God's righteousness that is working in that. So with that in mind, let me draw your attention to this because the soul is the first component of media created by God. We talked to you a little bit about that last week in this second area of the soul, the mind, the will and the emotions. Now with that in mind, we also spoke to you about the fact that the soul is the media or medium. It is the middle area because the soul is the mediator then between the spirit and the body and the body and the spirit. It's not just the spirit that's giving the instruction, it is also the body based upon the feelings of what's going on, the outward consciousness of that. So in my body, I have world consciousness. I'm in this location. I have the consciousness of the world that I'm in. I see the trees, the ocean, the Gulf, et cetera, et cetera. In my soul, I have self consciousness. I am aware of myself. The very beginning passage of scripture in the book of Genesis when God breathed in the man, he became a living nephish. He became aware of himself. He became a living soul. In my spirit, I have God consciousness. It's the only place that I can have God consciousness and let that permeate through the rest of my life because my body will go back to the dust of the earth. My soul and my spirit will be able to take on a new body on resurrection morning. And my spirit, ladies and gentlemen, is what God is wanting to be able to have the ultimate power and control in your life through the Christ man who lives on the inside of you. So medium or media is important. The soul, and we're gonna see that in a moment, the soul is the most dangerous because, influence, because your soul dictates what your spirit receives. Everything goes through your mind, will, and your emotions. Okay, that's a reason why in many cases that churches, I'm gonna put it in the church realm, people come to church and they look for the feeling from the music, to the atmosphere, to the programs, to what have we got for kids, what have we got for adult ages, what have we got for senior adults, whatever that it may be, what is it that comes to me? What's gonna feed me? Because in your soul, you're self-conscious and your medium, the soulless realm and your body acts upon how it feels. Now this is the difference between living for the Lord, or living sensually, as the Bible says, or carnally, and living by the Spirit. They that are the sons of God, the Bible says, are led by the Spirit. Those that are not, you can find that in Romans chapter number eight, those that operate by the flesh, another term for the old man, the carnal man, so forth, those that are led by the flesh or by their feelings, will never be able to please God because the just shall live by faith. And Hebrews 11 tells us very clearly that we are to bring our faith to the Lord in actions and in believing in what Christ did on the cross. That's what gets the attention of God. It is impossible, the Bible says, verse 6, 11, 6 in Hebrews, he says it is impossible to please God without faith. Therefore, if I'm trying to please God by my feelings, I will never succeed because some days I feel like a nut, some days you feel saved, talk to me somebody, some days you feel saved, and some days, but here's the question. Did you ask Jesus Christ to come into your hard life? Have you placed your faith in the finished work of the cross? Then regardless of how you feel, your faith by your faith, you are saved. And that by the grace of God allowing access into the kingdom of God. I have just said something right there by the Spirit of God that has helped the majority of people here and those of you watching. Because if you try to live this life, this Christian life by your feelings, first of all, you're not gonna please God and second of all, you're not even gonna please yourself. Because the majority of people today pick the church they go to if they go to church by the way they feel when they're in there. It just makes me feel good. Regardless if it's a satanic cult, just makes me feel good. Regardless if they're not preaching out of the Bible, it just makes me feel good. The songs, the music, what we wanna call worship and all that kinda thing. And we wanna regulate it to how well the worship band does. Well I'm glad for the worship, I want to be able to worship the Lord, but that's not all worship. Thank you for those three, amen. Part of your worship, you heard Rita say this past weekend, the only time that you really be able to give to God is when that worship, when you're singing praise and worship unto God, the rest of the time you're receiving. This is important for you to get a hold of because if you operate by feelings in the world that we're in right now, you may be up one day or let me say it like this, you may be up one minute and down the next. Listen to 30 minutes of news and you'll be down, down, down, down. And if you don't have a counterbalance in faith in God who has all things under control, you'll start feeling desperate and depressed and everything else living in the soulless realm right here and your body's going yeah, I'm feeling the same way. I'm feel sick. You know what your spirit man is saying at that point? Your body's saying, I feel sick. How do you feel, mind? I know, I don't know how I feel. I just feel so bad. Oh, I'm just sinking down. And your spirit man is saying this, by his stripes you are healed. Now who you gonna let control? And you gotta be careful who you hang out with because if you hang out with people that are gonna put stuff into your head and into your ears and into your thinking that's not Christ right here, next thing you know you're gonna sit around with a bunch of thumbsuckers and everybody's gonna be sick. You ever seen that little deal, that little game they play? Somebody walks into the room and they're coughing and the next thing you know the second guy's coughing and then the third guy's coughing and then the fourth guy and everybody's sick now. The devil is a liar. I gotta hear the still small voice of the inner man, the Christ man on the inside of me and then I have to make a choice. Am I gonna operate by my feeling? Now Pastor you said that we're not supposed to do that but I have felt sick before. Well so is everybody in the room. I'm not saying you're not sick and I'm also not saying that you don't have broke arm. You can't confess away a broke arm. I'm telling you when I broke that wrist right there I knew it because I felt it. And I did what I needed to do to get it fixed. Now it's good to go. Why? Not because the doctor fixed it. He did what he could do that the God that I serve came along and healed my arm. Any real doctor will tell you I am only putting it back together and God is gonna do the healing inside here. Come on somebody. So what's that all about? It's all about this. It's all about who you're gonna listen to. Those challenges and this is part and parcel of this message tonight, those challenges are gonna hit you every day of your life. Do I believe God or do I believe my feelings? Am I gonna trust God or am I gonna listen to this? Well I heard this. Well I think this. Well I want you to know that the devil let me summarize from last week. The devil's not after your body that's dirt. Come on somebody. In fact God himself is gonna leave the dirt in the dirt. He gonna give you a brand new body. That's a good idea. And the devil's not after your spirit because he can't, that's filled with Christ if Christ lives on the inside of you. And let me just add this right here. If Christ lives on the inside of you then the devil can't live on the inside of you. Because the spirit is never split where the devil is occupying this space and Christ is occupying this space. So let me seize this because there's a lot of this stuff going on today that you gotta have the devil cast out of you after you've been born again. And I just came to tell you that the devil and Christ will never occupy that space right there in a duplex. When you come to Christ the devil is out, Christ is in and nobody, nobody can get in there. Come on somebody. It's very important for you to hear today. There's so much false doctrine that's going on and it's got people confused because they're listening to somebody out here instead of listening to here and getting in here. Are you with me? So the only area that the enemy has to play in, Satan does, is in the solar surround. And what a playground it is. Your solar surround, your mind, your will and your emotions, right? So the soul receives from the senses and deposits it into the spirit. The soul receives from the senses and tries to persuade the Christ man that's living on the inside of you to go his way. The old carnal man, the way my body feels. Right? All right, so Jesus said, take heed, be careful, be selective as to what you hear, what you see, what you taste, what you touch because those are the gates into the soul. So you choose what you must take into your mind because it will affect your whole life. I'm saying this to you, this is not just about spiritual things. This is about what you're hearing in the world today. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So your body receives through the senses, gives it through the mind, through the medium, down into the spiritual realm to try to persuade and then if you have fed the Christ man on the inside of you, the Word of God, and faith is increased, he's gonna speak what the word says. Now you've got a choice to make. And so what happens? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Again, I'm amazed at how that God said what you're gonna need, he didn't say it exactly like this, I'm gonna paraphrase a little something. He says to mankind, what you're gonna need is some faith because you're not gonna be able to see me with your eyes or touch me with your hands. And all the other gods they wanna build and make statues and all that kind of stuff and I'm not one of them. I'm way above them. So what you're gonna need is something that you don't have and it's called faith. And here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give faith to the guy under the bridge, the same measure as I give to the guy that's in the penthouse. And now everybody has a measure of faith, a seed of faith. Now I'm good with the seed except the struggles that I face the longer I live really require me to be able to grow my faith because I'm not gonna face the little two year old in the spiritual realm battles that I do when I'm 50 because I've lived life longer now and I've gone through some things and things that have taken place and now I'm facing some full grown situations. So I cannot let my faith, this is what the disciples discovered after a period of time and then they went to Jesus and said, Lord increase our faith. I know Jesus didn't say it exactly like this but in some ways he did. He says, what's wrong with y'all? You've been walking with me and watching me and lay hands on things and break bread and fish and multiply it and thousands of people are fed and all that, what's wrong with your faith? Oh ye of little faith, he called it, small faith. There's different levels, different levels. So what you're doing here tonight, all of you that are watching online just by hearing the word of God may not be anything that I particularly say but the word of God is gonna come your way and faith comes by hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing, hearing the word of God and as that grows in there the stronger your spiritual man becomes. Why do I need him strong? Because this guy out here, the Bible says is an enemy of the Christ man. Now until you see your body, that's the reason why Paul said I beat my body into subjection because my body will never comply to this and the mind only feeds the body and the spirit what information comes into it. So I'm gonna say this and I may say it again, whoever controls the mind then controls the body. Are you with me? So the spirit receives and conceives it, the spirit says back to the body if it sends the wrong signal in, this is what I wanna do and it's sinful, the spiritual man says no, that's not righteous, send it back to the body and say, do not wrap your lips around that nicotine stick, it will kill you. All right, now watch this, this is what happens. Because then the argument is, pastor, nowhere do I see in the Bible where it says thou shall not smoke marborals and you'll be right. But when you start arguing with what you know to be true, it's always on smoking tonight, I don't care what it is, you pick it and I'm telling you if it's against the word, don't do it. Furthermore, furthermore, the more knowledge that you have, the more you're responsible for. At two years old, I didn't know not to run into the street, but at 40, if I'm still running into the street, something is wrong, come on somebody. So the spirit then tells the mind, tell the body, don't do that, it's unrighteous. The body says, I like how it feels, don't you mind? And the mind says, well, I do, I'm kind of whatever. And with each decision and with each rejection of the spiritual man telling the body what to do, the Christ man, which is the word of God. With every decision that is resistant against God, it becomes easier to do what the body and the will and the mind and the will and emotions want over what Christ wants. This is where people say, I am trying to live for the Lord. And I can't. Oh yes, you can. The problem is you're trying to do it on your own. Because Paul said, I can do all things through Christ. If I do it, whoa, there it is, through, come on, through Christ, you know the other term for Christ. The description of Christ is the anointed one or the anointing. Thereby the Holy Spirit comes involved in this thing. So now I can do all things through the anointing who strengthens me. That's what happened with Samson. The spirit of the Lord would come upon him and he rips the gates off of the city and runs them up the mountain. The spirit of God would come upon him and he would tie foxes' tails together and light them on fire and burn up the whole field. The spirit of the Lord would come upon him and he would grab the jawbone of an ass and whip thousands of Philistines. The problem was when the spirit of God got through being upon him, he would go back. And Jesus said, he shall not just be with you, the Christ, but now he shall be in you, the Christ. So there's not a place I can go right now or a thing that I can do that the Christ man is not functioning. If I will allow him to be the preeminent, he will give me the strength that I need, not just to try, but to be an overcomer. I'm an overcomer. You can sing about it all you want to, but until you go to the cross and say Christ man, Holy Ghost anointing, feel me and give me the strength, give me the word to put on this situation, let me not keep on following my feelings and what I think I should do, let me get the mind of Christ and then act. So with each decision, with each decision, now I want to take you on your paper to this chart. If y'all can put that chart, you'll have to look, some of you'll have to look up on the screen. I want to show you something on this chart that's in front of you. There we go. Have you got that on your paper? Can you see it a little closer? Good. What you're looking at right here is the process that everybody goes through every day with this mind, will, and emotions or rather the body, soul, and spirit and yeah, put it on the side screen so they can see it. And what you're looking at right now is the difference between freedom and slavery, bondage. This goes on every day in our lives and it's a process that we don't really think it through but it is, and I want to take the book of Genesis with Adam and Eve as the background of this. You could take it anywhere through the scripture. You could take what's going on in your life but I'm telling you, if you look at it from the perspective of Adam and Eve, what we will hear tonight, you'll see the natural progression of what takes place when Adam and Eve. Now, you know, how many of you feel like that if, well maybe I shouldn't even ask like this. How many of you feel like if you were planted in the garden, you wouldn't mess it up by trying to eat the thing that God told you not to? That's what I thought, none of you. All right, so that's the reason why we need to understand this chart right here. Has anybody ever seen this before? Okay, good, this is good. How about all y'all online out there, all right? Make sure they can see it online because this is very important. All right, so when you are born again, this chart takes you from being born again. You're inner man, the Christ man. This is what God wants you to live in freedom. How many of you know that's true? Now, just because you get saved does not mean that everything's just gonna be rolling out peachy for the rest of your life. How many of you know you run into trials, tribulations, persecution, all that kind of stuff? Okay, the Bible said that was gonna take place. So what is this show us? This shows us the progression that happens when our spirit is not in charge. They that are led by the spirit shall become called the sons of God. We are to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, right? I didn't make that up. Come on, you can say amen right there, that's Bible. All right, so the Lord wants us to be in freedom. So what does that look like? Well, that means that the physical man, the body, is to have the least amount of control, the least say so. It is the decaying. It always will be in its state of depravity and sin nature because that's how it began. The only one that came into this world without that is Jesus Christ. The rest of us were born into sin after the Adamic or the Adam nature fallen. So the body is always going to default to that. So the body should be the thing that is put under subjection. You hear Paul talk about it all the time. He says, he makes this statement, mortify your flesh, mortify the deeds of the flesh. Now that's a real fancy King James version to tell you this, kill your flesh. Kill it every day. That's what Jesus was saying when he said, deny self, take up your cross and follow me. He was saying, put your body under subjection. Otherwise your body will lead you to places that you don't need to go. That means that the physical or the body is under subjection. The psychological, which is the mind, the will and the emotions right here is in harmony with the Word of God. When things are, when you're in a place of freedom, walking in freedom, your mind, your will and emotions are in harmony with your spiritual man because you're renewing your mind daily. Are y'all with me right here? Let me do just a little bit of a different drawing right here for you. You love my drawings, don't you? Yeah, I know you do. So this is the spiritual man, all right? And it's the strongest going on. And then the mind is to be a, the neutral party given to the spirit and then the body is to have the least dominance of all, okay? So the spiritual man is to be in control. That's freedom. But what happens? What happens every day? What happens every day in our life? Well, when I was growing up, when we get to this passage of scripture in the Bible that talks about lasciviousness and concupiscence, since we didn't know how to pronounce it, we skipped over it, therefore, we didn't even bother to look up the meaning. How many of you know what lasciviousness is? Okay, good. There's a few of you, most of you don't. Concupiscence, what's that all about? I'm about to tell you in a simple words. This happens every day in our life because this is how God wants us to be in freedom, walking in the spirit, our mind, renewed, subject, not conformed to the world, transformed by the renewing of our mind, and the physical body, the least in control. Beating it under subjection, making sure that it's subservient to the will and the word of God. But then along comes something called lasciviousness, which defraud us, and lasciviousness, in the short term, is the improper stirring up of God-given desires. In other words, God gives you a desire, place it on the inside of you, but when it is improperly stirred up by what the Bible calls lascivious living, then it starts a process that's going on. And I'll explain these others right here as it equates to this particular little drawing right here. So lasciviousness is that process of the improper stirring up. It's not yet sin, but it is the temptation that's coming out there every day to try to get you from freedom to become a servant to sin. So lasciviousness is taking a God-given desire, something that God meant to be right and holy, and perverting it, and getting your mind to think that way. This happens to everyone here and those of you watching every day, all of us. Something that he dangles. Now, here's the thing. I don't know how, but the enemy keeps punching the button until he finds your chocolate. Now, here's what I know. Your chocolate, my chocolate, their chocolate is not the same chocolate. So he keeps stirring up by way of this theological term, lasciviousness, to get you to call into question what you know to be true by God and his word. Takes sexual, and this word lasciviousness and concupence both incorporate sexual activity. God gave man sex for reproduction pleasure. The improper stirring up of that is what happens every day until you get human trafficking and all the other immoral activity that's going on in the world. Now, plenty of people would say, well, I would never do that. All those people that are in it thought that, too. And unless you're subject to the Word of God and Christ is ruling and reigning inside of your heart and you're doing what you're doing tonight by coming to church or renewing your mind and feeding yourself daily on the Word of God, then my dear friends, you don't know what you'll do outside of your Superman suit. Without Christ, you don't know what you'll do. Are you hearing me? So this term lasciviousness is the improper stirring up of God-given affections or God-given desires. So what is he trying to do? He's trying to get you to act upon what he's dangling as a carrot of temptation. Okay, so let's say that happens, just like it did with Adam and Eve. That means that a person moves into a state of concupiscence where now the sensual is in charge. The psychological or the mind, will and the emotions now are in a state of false thinking, wrong thinking against God's Word. Because remember, to start with, you knew what the Word of God was. Remember Adam and Eve, and we'll go back here and tell you this in a minute. So he gives us the Word of God, just like we're doing here tonight, just like you read, and you know the truth. And what is the truth supposed to do? Make you free. Not put you into bondage. Not put you into legalism. Come on somebody. Not make a list of rules and laws for you to keep. I keep my faith in Jesus Christ and crucified, and because of that, I stay free, not by my own will, but by the will and the desire of Christ as I surrender to him. Now, I've had this temptation that's come that because now I have acted upon it, because I am now focused sensually upon whatever that it may be. And I'm telling you, it could be anything. As I said, these two are associated with sexual desires, but let me say, it could be overeating. Any lust. Okay? Remember that the LSD of the Bible is lust, sin, and death. First it becomes lust, then it's acted upon, it becomes then sin. This is the action that's taking place, and when sin is finished, when sin is finished, it brings forth death. So concupiscence is the state of servitude. Now I have literally reversed what God wanted. Now the spirit man is not in charge anymore. My body is in charge. Now I feel, are you with me? I'm in a state of concupiscence. It's the reversal of what God wants over here. So now the spiritual man is now trying to act religious. I'll go back to this probably in a minute, but remember what was the first thing that took place when Adam and Eve sinned and they lost the glory of God, the first thing they did was they looked for some fig leaves to try to make so their own righteousness together. They tried a pseudo-religious activity. They tried to do something religious to keep them in good standing, but how many of you know God's got like X-ray vision before Superman did? You can hide in the bushes, but he knows where you're hiding. How many of you know when God said, Adam, where are, you gotta have a deep voice when you do God. God said, Adam, where are thou? How many of you know God wasn't looking? He knew exactly where they were. Why was he saying that to Adam? Because he wanted Adam to admit where he was. And until we admit where we are, then we can't repent where we are. I sure would like for somebody to restore me, I sure want to give you, you can the moment we repent and not repent to some extent and then I'll be saved to some degree. You want the full, clear, open-hearted repentance and surrender to God because he knows us. In fact, he even tells us in Psalm 103, I know your frame, I know your propensity to sin. I know the sin nature that's working inside of you and Paul shows us that in Romans chapter number seven, he said, this thing is going on inside of me and I don't know what to do with it. So what happens? The sensual takes over. The mind begins its false thinking to try to compromise or reason or rethink what they know as God's word. What did the serpent say to Eve? Half God said? All he has to do is put a question in your mind as to whether or not you can do it or not do it. And you know what Paul said? Paul said, hey, all things are lawful. What? In other words, God's not taking away my ability to do whatever I want to do. If I want to sin, God's not gonna stand there and the Holy Spirit will convict me. He'll deal with me and especially the closer you are to the Lord and the more you know the word, it becomes a violation. You'll see it right here. A violation of conscience. Now I'm violating what I know to be true and right by my own decision. And from there, ladies and gentlemen, it brings death. Look what happens. We try to cover it up with pseudo religious activities until somebody like the preacher starts preaching on tithe and you get offended. And it really isn't even about tithing. It's about what decision that you made with your heart now to say yes to that thing that you wanted, that the devil stirred up on the inside of you and now you're acting upon it because, because let's just call it an apple on the tree for the sake of, we don't know exactly what kind of fruit but we always see apples with Adam and Eve. So you know, it's the apple. What did the Bible say? She saw it to be good. When she looked on it, I'll come back to that. So all this religious activity and intellectual arguing and reasoning starts taking place when you're in a state of concupiscence but that's not the end. And this is the most dangerous thing right here, ladies and gentlemen, because for me growing up in church and hearing about a reprobate mind, I never thought in this world that I would ever see society come to the point where people are reprobate in their minds. But ladies and gentlemen, we are there now. It is the absolute refusal of what God said. Now let me just show you what a reprobate mind looks like right now. It looks like what happened in Philadelphia over the past two weekends where crime is literally out of control. A congressman drove a mile away from the Capitol just a few days ago and was robbed by armed people. Took his sushi, his car, his money, and everything else a mile away from the Capitol. Now for some of you, I know that's a deal breaker because you can take my car and you can take my money but if you take my sushi, I'm in mess right there. Y'all can have that raw fish, I like mine cooked. Anyway, see that's the difference between me and you. Let me just use that as an example right now because some of you like that. And that's okay, that's fine and dandy with you. So that's the reason why that the devil will never tempt me with sushi because I will shout you down when you say the devil says, come eat the sushi. I ain't going near it. But if he says pizza, because he's going to, what does the Bible say in the book of James? We are drawn away by our own lust. You have your own lust and so do I. We are drawn away. We are appealed to by the enemy by what is on the inside of us. Pastor, that's not on the inside of me. Oh my friends, he'll push all the buttons until he finds the one you respond to and then he'll. You remember what I told you about what he does with the mind? When the Bible says that he's targeting the mind, the wiles of the devil and all that, it literally means to punch until you do a breakthrough, till he can find it. That's the reason why the book of Ephesians says by the apostle Paul, give no place to the devil. Because the moment you do, things start happening in the reversal. The ultimate location is reprobation or I've got slavery up here, bondage. Okay, so what happens? When you try, instead of humbling yourself, this is the point right here where you're supposed to humble yourself, repent and you'll return back to a place of freedom and faith in the cross. But if you don't, the next location is a reprobate mind. What is that? It's an incorrect response to guilt. Guilt is to the spiritual man, what pain is to the body. So when I feel pain, if I put my hand on a hot stove and I feel pain, you don't have to convince me anymore, don't touch the hot stove. Because it hurt me enough that I won't go back to it. Y'all all right out there? This is what happens. So what is this incorrect response? It's to literally say, I know what the Bible says, but, and why is that word inserted there? Because now I'm listening to my emotions and I'm gonna do what I wanna do. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do. And that's called deception. And who are you deceiving? Other people are going, hey man, you know, come on back to Jesus, we love you. Oh, I'm gonna do what I wanna do. And you are deceiving, the Bible says you are deceiving yourself. Does anybody see this battle going on every day? Come on somebody. I know what I'm talking about right here because this is what happens every day. Incorrect response to guilt. The Lord allows the awakening of guilt to respond to what the Word of God has to say. The same thing with Adam and Eve. That's the moment where you cross over. Where if you don't respond to guilt and say, I'm guilty, I'm the one, I did it. Lord, forgive me. And repent, you can return back to the place of freedom. If you keep moving on from there, whatever your response to guilt is, and you know what we don't wanna have is guilt. Nobody's guilty today, are they? Nobody's guilty, nobody's wrong. Not today, nobody's guilty. It's not my fault, it's their fault. It's not my fault I am what I am, it's society's fault. It's this one's fault, right? Come on, talk to me somebody. But I wanna just tell you, you can blame all you want to, but at the end of the day, God knows what's going on in your heart and mine to the response to guilt. Now, what do we try to do there? Repentance, repentance, the word repent. This is not, I know you haven't written anything down yet, just stay with me. Repentance is the word, two words here, repent, repent. Re is to return, pent is the pinnacle. So whenever you repent, when the act of repentance in God's eyes is to return you back to the highest place where God intended for you to be, it also means to change your mind, your direction. Are y'all still with me out here? I'm teaching right now. So what happens, if we respond to guilt in the wrong way, then we wind up on a clear path toward a reprobate mind. What is that? It's where the body is completely depraved, you become deluded into a state of delusion which the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians, it's exactly the spirit that's going to take over under the antichrist, the spirit of a strong, God sent strong delusion. You don't wanna believe the truth, you're gonna be deluded, you're gonna be, you're gonna be in a state of delusion. And ladies and gentlemen, I am watching right now. And you are too, as leaders of this nation, other nations, leaders in all different levels are in a place of delusion when they look straight at truth and deny what that is. Are you hearing what I'm saying? So what happens? A person goes into a state of reprobation. Now, I don't know when a person is in the state of reprobation and you don't know when that person is, you see the evidence of it. The one thing I do know is no matter, God is ready to abundantly pardon and if a person will humble themselves and repent, God will forgive and restore that individual back to freedom like he wants to do. Now let me run this real quick and then I'm gonna give you something to write. So on your page right here, Natural Curiosity. Let me just give you the brief of these right here because what you're looking at in these 13 steps is exactly what took place in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and happens to every one of us every day except we don't go step by step. It just kind of happens and we come to certain places like the awakening of guilt and that's where things start being recognized inside of our life as going wrong or whatever or right. So what happened in the Garden? First of all, you need to know natural curiosity is something that God put in every one of us. He didn't take that away from us. He made us naturally curious. Otherwise, you wouldn't achieve what you do with your job and the creativity, all that kind of stuff. There's nothing simple about that. The awakening of conscious came whenever she looked at the fruit the Bible says. Okay? And then there becomes a sensual focus. Sin is not sin until it is conceived. The temptation is gonna hit everybody. That doesn't mean you sin. Whenever our sensual focus begins to move in that direction and we stay focused on that, that's when it becomes sin to us, sensual focus. But then followed by, and that's what happened with our eyes, then followed by the question that the serpent said to Eve, half God said. So what is the devil going to do to us every day? He's gonna do everything he can to undermine the Word of God, to call into question what God's Word has to say. This is where we are today. Where even preachers behind pulpit are not preaching the whole counsel of God, but they're preaching a pseudo religious activity, some that don't wanna touch the book of Revelation simply because they don't understand it. Well, ladies and gentlemen, who does accept the mind of God? But the Holy Spirit will reveal this to us and there's a blessing waiting on you just to read the book. I don't, that doesn't make sense. Those are attempts at questioning God's Word. Now, what happens when she reached out and took the fruit? It is the violation of conscience here. That's where many of us get to every day because what happens inside of our mind then because we've acted on how we feel and what we see and oh, the apple smells good and all that, now I've reached out and taken hold of it. Now I have in a place of violating what I know to be as God's Word. God said to them, you can eat of every tree in the garden. Isn't that amazing? You can eat of every tree in the garden. Bunch of trees out there. Through for everybody. But don't touch this one. Don't be messing around with this one. Don't partake of this one. Because in the day that you partake of this one, you shall surely die. How many of you understand those words? God didn't even make it complicated. He didn't even speak in King James. Now who did he tell that to? He told it to Adam, who was supposed to instruct his wife. So what does she do? What does he do? They partake of it based upon how they feel and the questioning of God's Word. He left enough question in their mind for them to justify the action of taking the fruit. Now I'm engaged. Now I'm in the zone now. Anybody learn anything? What happens at that moment after you've violated it? God awakens guilt in our life. What did he do? What did he do? She takes it? Then what does she do? She gives it to Adam. What's their response? I mean, I know good and well they weren't just chowing down on the fruit on the tree. At some point they started thinking, wait a minute, God said, now let me take you to this real fast, just a little caveat, and you've heard me say this before. Over the past couple of years, we have heard trust the science. Science defined is knowledge. Trust the knowledge. What did the enemy, what did God say not to eat? Don't eat of that tree, of the knowledge of good and evil. Listen to me folks, God does not want us to engage evil by experience. He wants us to be wise as serpents and harmless as does of the effect of it, but he does not want us to experience it. So what has been, is knowledge bad in and of itself? No, except for the knowledge that God says we should not have, because the moment, the moment that they partook of this particular tree, what was it that Satan said to them? You're not gonna die, and God knows that the day you take of this, you become God. And what have we seen? Icons of the higher, no, you're not like us. You serfs, we are of the upper echelon with many letters behind our name. We know better than you do because we have the knowledge. Let me just tell you something, my dear friends. Ooh, I'm about to get anointed right now. I was raised in a time period when we went to church, most of the church time that I went to is a small group of people, but I'm gonna tell you something. Man, I feel something coming on me right now. The people that were in there may not have had the degrees from Harvard and everything else, but they had a master's degree. You better talk to me, somebody. They got on their face before God, and they prayed until they touched heaven, and more importantly, they stayed there until heaven touched them. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now what happened right there? Suddenly they start making decisions, not based on how they feel, but based upon having heard from heaven. My God, somebody, they heard from heaven. They had heavenly knowledge that came down. It wasn't something they read out of a book. Preachers, they got up and didn't know how to be able to put a sermon together. Listen, Peter preached in the book of Acts, ladies and gentlemen, and didn't know how to put it together homiletically or hermeneutically, but yet they study it today in colleges as the most perfect form of homiletics and hermeneutics, sermon building all the way around. You know why? Because he had a download from heaven, ladies and gentlemen. It wasn't earthly knowledge coming up. It was heavenly knowledge coming down. So I say to you, do not eat of the knowledge that they keep putting out. Prove it by the Word of God. Did you hear what I said? Right now, there's all kind of talk about do this, do this, do this, and oh Lord, what happened? Fear kicks up and our emotions start kicking in. Next thing you know, we're responding to things in this world based out of how we feel and not what Christ said. Come on, somebody. And now here's the question. How many people have to get healed of cancer before you believe that God is the healer? Come on now. How many people need to be saved before you recognize that God is still in the saving business? It wasn't the intellect of the preacher and the knowledge of people that brought them to Christ. It was the fact that I'm a sinner and I need Jesus Christ and I'm coming to him because I'm lost without him. Not because I've attained such knowledge now, oh now that I know and understand all that there is involved in being a sinner. Eve didn't know that and neither did Adam. They didn't have that earthly knowledge they had, a heavenly download. God said, don't eat of this because the day you do, you're gonna die. And what did Satan come to do? To question what God said. You shall not surely die. Watch this. God knows, oh now he's put us in conflict with God. That's right here at the awakening of guilt. He puts us in conflict with God. Now we're questioning what God said. God knows that at the day that you partake that you eat of this, you will become God's yourself. You'll be like him. Sounds reasonable. Come on church. Anybody with an argument and a Facebook page today can convince thousands of people to follow them. Come on now. A pastor this past week in the pulpit turned his entire church over to an AI. The sermon was AI, the songs were AI, all of it was artificial intelligence, the entirety of the service. And I read the article, you may have seen it too. They asked and polled the membership. They said, how did you feel about it? Well, it was certainly, you know, seemed to be biblically correct and blah, blah, blah. But it lacked the human touch. What they were saying is it lacked the Holy Spirit. I can give you, come on church, watch this. All I gotta do is have a few group singers in here and the next great band that comes through and I can give you a feeling right here. But ladies and gentlemen, it will only last as long as the lights and the speakers are blowing. When it's all said and done, I need something more than what's moving my emotions. I need the rock solid word of Almighty God to keep me on the path moving straight. I wish I would have some help in here. So here's a response to Gil. How do you respond to Gil? Well, I'm gonna go ahead and take this apple. I'm gonna eat it anyway, Eves said. And besides that, because nobody goes and sends alone. Misery loves. Right, right, nobody wants to send by themselves. Come on, there's a party going on Friday night. Come on down. I don't wanna get drunk by myself. Come on, somebody. Ain't no fun without somebody else. Eve gives it to Adam. They both respond to the guilt that is pounding their heart. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. And what do they do? Incomplete repentance. They eat it and what happens? Now watch this. This is probably gonna be another part of this. You know that, don't you? This is a whole teaching by itself. You're getting the whole enchilada. All right, and I'm not even Mexican. Come on, somebody. What happens right here is incomplete repentance. So they take of what God told them not to take. And what's the first thing they do? They die. Well, wait a minute, I'm still standing here. See, that is the delusion that comes. Because when they ate of it, they were still very much alive in their physical body. But in their spiritual man, they lost the Christ. And you know what else? The Bible says that they were naked and not ashamed in the beginning. You know why? Because God clothed them. What did he cloth them with? Sheepskin? No, no, no. No, there's no bloodletting. They were clothed with the glory of God, otherwise known to the Hebrews as the Shekinah. They were clothed in light. They were naked and not ashamed. God clothed them. They walked in light, surrounding them. When they sinned, they lost the glory. Suddenly the Bible says for the first time they see themselves as naked. Without a covering. Are you hearing me? So what happens? They do what would be religious compensation. What do we do? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? You're naked, I'm naked, this is the first time we've seen each other naked. We gotta do something. Because, see, this is the reason why that crime is released in the world that it is. And making the world naked. A, because there's no consequences. And B, because nobody thinks they're going to have to give an accountability to God for what they've done. So what does Adam and Eve think? Now, I don't have to read this in the scripture, no, because here's what happens. The Bible said every day God came down at the same time in the cool of the day and walked with them and talked with them every day. So let's just say that God showed up at four o'clock in the afternoon every day. And now it's 345 in the Garden of Eden. And you know what their thoughts are? God's gonna be here in 15 minutes and we have lost something. We've got to do something. Come on, let's sing some songs. Amazing grace, no, that ain't doing it. What do we do? Come on, let's gather some people together and let's call it church. And let's call it a big church so I can hide in there. I'm trying to help you. You do see this as help, don't you? Anybody see this as help here tonight? What I'm describing to you is what happens in all of our lives, every day of our lives, and there has to be a place where you say, wait a minute, I'm not going past number whatever here. So what do they do? They say we gotta do something, it's 345. God's gonna be here at four o'clock, we gotta get some clothes. They go find some fig leaves, wrong bush. They should have chosen an evergreen. No matter if it's cold or hot, it's always green. Always covering something. Come on, somebody, you planting them things out there. You can't see through them. They pick fig leaves, fig leaves. Do you know what fig leaves do? They dry up and disintegrate and expose the whole tree. That's a nice way for me to say it, especially since my wife is not here to pull her ear and say, hey, time out. Oh, I'm sorry, this was PG here tonight. I forgot to tell y'all. Religious compensation says you gotta do something religious so that you can feel like you have done something. Instead of going to the cross, I'm gonna do something. Religious, hmm, what can we do? I know, let's get some food together and feed the poor. That will make me feel better about what I am as a church member. I say, let's get together and we'll go on down here to the corner and we'll hand a bottle of water out and it'll say, pace assembly on the side and it'll make me feel better on the inside. Doing good works to try to accomplish salvation and God said it will never work. Your works and your righteousness is as filthy rags. It's falling off of you. Why does he do that? Because the Bible says that the word of God, especially the Old Testament, he says, is the school master and what's he doing? He's driving you to the cross. He does not let you squirm or worm out of going to Christ and him crucify. So all excuses, he just pulls a rug out from underneath it. Because after you get through handing out a thousand bottles of water because that was what you said you were gonna do to pay back for your sins, for eating the apple to start with, you reach a thousand bottles and you go, man, what a great day, praise the Lord, high fives. And you go home in guilt and the enemy comes along and condemns you, condemns you, condemns you. And the next thing he does is says something like this. Hey, it's Saturday. You might as well not go down to that church on tomorrow and act like you're gonna worship. Because God don't want you there and neither do those people after what you've done. You know the only thing I would say to you is, look to the left and right of you right now. Do you know what they've done? Because if you knew what they had done, you would probably get up and slide to the side. Come on, somebody, you know why? Because our sins will always put us in the dirt. And if you ever get to the point, church person who's been saved for 150,000 years, you ever get to the point in your mind where somehow you've reached some level of righteousness that you can't be touched by anything, that's pride and you're going down, the Bible says. Don't preach this, pastor. Don't preach this, this don't fill churches. I know, I'm not interested in trying to fill something. I'm interested in trying to get this word in you because this is the attack that you're under every day and people are trying, trying, trying to live. And I say, quit trying, run to the cross and stay there and make the devil eat every stick of wood that is on that cross. I'm not leaving until. So what happens? This is where it gets personal right here. This'll be all I get to tonight. None of that I'll have to come back next week. So what happens when you try to do religious compensations, you start frustrating, you get frustrating, frustrated. I get frustrated because nothing I do satisfies that deep spiritual man. I'm frustrated. It doesn't stop there. What happens? I start reexamining the scripture to try to figure out how I can be something other than what God wants me to be. Now, you may not like what I'm about to say, but it's the truth I'm just telling you. One of the largest leaders in Christendom, large churches, multiple campuses, is hosting an LGBT conference inside of his church, inviting those that are men married with men to be able to counsel Christian leaders on how to be able to deal with the LGBT community and to accept and find the quieter middle space, as he calls it, for everybody to be able to get along. I know that many people are dealing with issues with family members that the enemy has taken hold of their life, and now they're in some alternative lifestyle, homosexuality, lesbianism, I understand that, believe me. But I just want you to know something. I don't care if it's you or anybody else out there on the street. If we don't hold fast to the Word of God behind the pulpits, we're in a place where we start reexamining the scripture to figure out how we can weasel out of our own sin, then my question is, what are you doing here tonight? Come on, church. What are we doing here tonight? Because if this is something that I can figure out and pick a little here and pick a little here, but hear what I'm telling you, you're not gonna be held to my standard. I hope you hear what I just said. You're not gonna stand before the throne and I'm gonna be sitting on it. And thank God neither are you. And neither is the Assemblies of God. I'm gonna tell you who's gonna be sitting on that throne, none other than Jesus Christ. And all of us are gonna appear before the throne of God. Ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be judged by the very book that we're studying out of right here. What is right and what is wrong? I don't have to be a rocket scientist or a theologian from the seminary to be able to figure out thou shalt not and thou shalt. But my problem is we have now leaders, whole denominations that are re-examining the scripture to figure out how we can sin and put God's approval on it. The devil is a liar. Whole fast to the Word of God, my dear friend. That doesn't mean, wait a minute, that doesn't mean you gotta go around hating everybody and hitting them over the head with the Bible. What that means is you speak the truth and the Bible says in love and you leave the consequences to God. Come on, somebody. Because how would you and I be here tonight were it not for somebody who reached down and said, you know what, the Lord loves you still. You haven't sinned so bad. Come on, somebody. You haven't been such a big time VIP sinner so bad that God has kicked you to the curb. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you something. If you have been given mercy, much, much mercy you will give. Sure could use your help here tonight, reading this crowd is a little bit quiet. Smile at your neighbor, I'm gonna get you somewhere here. You're gonna feel better when you leave. I don't wanna let your emotions walk out the door feeling bad. Here's the last two things, justifying immorality. When people start trying to justify what they know to be a sin, you're in a place of a reprobate mind. And here's what I find out, this is where it comes to really the head because when you know what the Bible says is truth and they know what the Bible says is truth and you turn around and you try to share that back to them. Have you ever tried to talk to somebody about the Scripture that they already know? And then what happens? Because they have not repented. I don't have to be some kind of spiritual woo-woo guy to get this. The Bible even bears this out. That number 13, they become argumentative. It goes like this, hey man, I missed you in church this past weekend. Don't worry about me, man, I'm all right. Somebody told me today, somebody told me today that they ran into an individual who should be, I would think, in church. I mean he was a Christian leader, all that kind of stuff, he said, you know I get more out of my Bible than at staying at home, than I do going to church. Well that's directly against Hebrews chapter 10. Forsake not the assembling of yourself together as a manner of some is, but so much the more as you see today approaching. Now you can argue with God all you want, but the truth is laid out there. And then he goes on to say even so much more as you see the day approaching. Here's the question, do you see the day approaching, the day of the Lord? Then that means the gathering together. And that doesn't always necessitate what's going on right here. We've got Bible studies going on, we've got kids classes that are going on, and we need more people to get involved in the kingdom work because there are more people out there that need Jesus Christ than there has ever been before, ladies and gentlemen. And you know what I'm praying for you? An opportunity. Anybody had an opportunity already this week since Sunday? I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand on this one. Have you missed an opportunity this week? Now I'm not talking about trying to, I'm not talking about trying to get you to earn your salvation. I'm talking about when God puts an opportunity in front of you and you say you know what, this is a God thing right here, right? And you just drop a little word on him. You drop a little Jesus on him. Don't you go between now and Sunday and miss the opportunity because here's what's gonna happen. God is going to give you an opportunity. And that opportunity is not just for you to fulfill it for yourself, that opportunity is going to be for the purpose and the will of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I dare you to, look here, here's when it gets exciting. Not when you're waiting on the opportunity, when you start looking for the opportunity. When you start praying for the opportunity and suddenly you would stumble over yourself trying to be able to avoid the opportunity because there's so many coming your way. So you got to unsave family members? There's not a soul in here that doesn't have somebody's unsave. Let me give it to you like this. How about you minister to somebody else's son and watch God turn around and minister to yours? That's how the kingdom works y'all. Whatsoever a man, that, that, watch that word, that. So I'm sowing over here into the life of somebody else but God said that I will reap. I'm not gonna sow an orange and reap an apple. Come on somebody. The seed will not be undone. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Tonight I have taken time out of this entire lesson that I did not even get to. Thank you for that one affirmation because my feelings were getting hurt and I was gonna cry my way out of the building. Not. Whenever I go over this chart and I've taught this for years and maybe you haven't seen it and I'm glad that you were here tonight to get this because and the reason why we printed it so you can have it, you need to rehearse it. You don't need to let this just be put in your Bible and forget about it because ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens in our lives every day. Go back and read the story of Adam and Eve and then watch what we put right here in front of you and see how that progression takes place and then look at your own life and see how that progression takes place. You know what you're gonna do? You're gonna find yourself, I'm ending right here, you're gonna find yourself on one of these scales right here all the way to 13 and you know what you're gonna wind up doing? When your eyes are opened up to where you wind up going to on this scale, you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna start fighting the good fight of faith until you get down to the place where the enemy's temptations cannot grab hold of you. In other words, let's stop this in your Christian wall. That's what this will do right here. It will get you straightened out to say, you know what? There's not a thing I can do to be able to fix myself. So I'm just gonna come right back here and I'm gonna keep my pastor, I don't feel any different. I've been coming for three or four weeks, just keep on coming, keep on getting that word inside of you. You know what you're doing? You're building up your faith on the inside of the Christ man and after a while, come on somebody, after a while you're gonna be strong. Here's what he says, be strong in the Lord, in the Lord and in the power of His might. Not your own, in His might. Cause there's gonna come another time when the enemy's gonna hit you right between the eyes. And I don't care, listen to me, let me say this, I know this is my second closing. There is no seniority in Christianity. I wanna say that again. There is no seniority in Christianity just because you've been saved for a long time, just because you're a preacher, just because you've graduated college, you're ordained, just because you're a gigantic Bible studyer doesn't constitute any level of any greater grace than anybody else in this room. And it also does not exempt you from the temptation. How many leaders have to fall to the ground? Denominations and everything else before we understand that there go I, the Scripture says, but for the grace of God. I think I'm done, you say, I know you're done. Father, I pray for this group of people here and those that are watching online, that every one of us, including this preacher here tonight, will humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God. And we will recognize this evening what the enemy has been doing to our lives, trying to wreak havoc and Lord, continue this cycle of things that are trying to destroy our lives. Lord, there is but one place, one destination of grace and mercy that continues to abound and that is at the foot of the cross. So tonight Lord, let us all go back to that place and recognize that it is you God who has saved us, you filled us, you've sanctified us, you made us and called us, you have justified us and someday we shall be glorified and we give you glory and grace and honor and praise and power beyond to our God who does all things well inside of our life. We give you glory for it tonight in the name of Jesus. Everybody receive this word tonight, say a good amen. Go home and make that a study for the rest of the week, it will bless your life. When you stand up, find the nearest people to shake hands with them. Come on and let them know how much you love and appreciate them, don't miss Sunday. I'm gonna be preaching the second part of this is your opportunity, don't miss it. And we pray that God has touched your life in a powerful way. If you've given your life to Jesus Christ or you're feeling the tug in your heart to do so, why don't you surrender to the Lord today, ask him to come into your heart, forgive you of your sins, he'll do exactly that when you place your faith in what he's done at the cross. And then we wanna hear from you, but you send an email and let us know what Jesus Christ has done in your life, let us know where you're watching from, we'd love to connect with you and I believe that God is gonna touch your life and bless you in the days that are ahead. If you count Pace Assembly as your regular church of worship, then we certainly wanna be able to hear from you. There's information on the screen that you can send your email to and we look forward for you being a part of every service right here at Pace Assembly every Sunday and every Wednesday and special services throughout the year. God bless you for joining us today. Father, I pray that you would touch the life of my friend that today they would never be the same, that your presence would surround their life and peace would be their highest blessing. We give you praise for it today in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you friends and until we get together again, remember Jesus Christ is coming soon.