In this sermon, the pastor emphasizes the importance of proper communication and avoiding malice and evil speaking. He references Corinthians 12-20 to highlight the need for truth-telling and not giving up on people. The sermon then delves into Isaiah 42, specifically verse 6, discussing the significance of God taking hold of our hand and guiding our destiny. The pastor also mentions a personal experience at Niagara Falls to illustrate the idea of God holding our hand through difficult times. Additionally, the sermon touches on the concept of the tabernacle and the role of the labor bowl made of bronze. The pastor concludes by emphasizing the need for ministers to preach the Word of God in order to combat the lack of biblical knowledge in society.

Lord, as we come unto you tonight, it is with great praise and thanksgiving for your goodness. I appreciate it so much, Lord, keeping us safe and in health and blessing the families, Lord, and keeping them safe on the highway and healthy, Lord. We appreciate it. We appreciate it so much, Lord. We thank you, Lord, and we pray there will always be safety and health on these premises, Lord, and not have any breakthrough in our guarding of the little children, Lord. We need your help with this. We're in a terrible time, Lord, and we just need you, the protection on all the little children. And so, Lord, as we proceed now with thanksgiving, we ask you to help us with the word that it will be spoken and perceived, Lord, exactly the way you want it, in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. So we're on Isaiah 42. This is all that's in front of me when I pray. A couple of things I want to call your attention to. We ended last time on verse 6 of Isaiah 42. Verse 6 of Isaiah 42. I have called you in righteousness, and I want to comment some more, and I will take hold of your hand. Now, if you stop to think of it, if a child has your hand, the child's kind of in control of his destiny. If you have his hand... Now, one thing that comes to mind is, was very pointed in our own personal experience, is when we took, our boys were very small, and we took them to Niagara Falls. Well, there was a place, and I don't know if it's the same now, but there was a dangerous place. You remember it, Audrey? It was a low railing, and we were walking along, and it would be the easiest thing in the world for a small child to fall over the side, and into the... Well, the water comes down with terrific force there, and we were very nervous and apprehensive about it, so we would never, you know, let the child hold our hand. We hold the child's hand, obviously, but you see, that's very hard for us in God, because we lose control. See, as long as we're holding on to God, we're in control. To let go, and let that hand be switched, and I don't even picture God just shaking off your hand like that, like, go, let go, let me do it, is extremely important. In fact, in this end times, things are so perilous at this point, that... I was just reading a vision by Rick Joyner, and Larry, I'll loan it to you if you ask nicely, and it's pointing out, and it's confirming what all the people in the prophetic milieu are saying on the internet. It's all the same thing. There's no variation from it. All the people with this kind of gift are saying, it's a time the Lord is coming to judge, and it's a time of fire, and it's a time of repentance, it's a time of upheaval in the church. So, all the people that have that type of gift are saying the same thing. I haven't seen one variation, and I'm on one list that comes, and so you get to see what's going on in the world, and they're all saying the same thing. It's the same thing that I'm feeling, and it's really rough, and it's like walking along Niagara Falls. It's maybe before it was safe enough, you know, if you're walking on your sidewalk, that the child could hold your hand, but things are changing in the spirit realm. It's shifting gears, and so God is saying, get your hands off, because you can't do it anymore. It's too strong, too spiritually strong, and the occult, the satanic things, it's too strong for you. You don't have the wisdom or the strength to cope with it. Now, that letting go, and letting God, as we used to say, let go and let God, is not as easy as it sounds. It's easy to say, but to trust God with your salvation, to trust God with all the souls that are going to hell, to trust God with your ministry, to trust God for your income, to trust God for your health, it's not easy. It's easy until you try it, and then you see what a real battle it is to let go, and let God take a hold of your hand. Now, one aspect that enters into here that's always been prominent in the Christian churches has to do with ambition. Now, ambition, personal ambition, can work in two realms. It can work in the local church, in little intramural politics, where people all huddle over their own little porridge bowl and jockey for position. It can work that way, or it can work in a kingdom-wide sense, in wanting to be God's man of faith and power, and God doesn't want any of that. He doesn't want the local church strife that comes. These come from personal ambition. They come from personal ambition, and in America, we kind of hope that a child has ambition, but when you get into the things of the kingdom, ambition is satanic. That was Satan's problem, and ambition leads to supplanting. In the case of Satan, his ambition to be great led him directly to try to supplant the place of God, and that's something we have to be very careful of, and it has to do with who's holding whose hand. See, if you're trying to get God to go your way, and you're making your maneuvers, what's the word we use for it when we're maneuvering people around manipulation? That comes from personal ambition, see, because something we're trying to do, we're trying to move people around and get them there, and we're trying to hold God's hand and persuade God that we're righteous and everything, and it really is just about totally destructive of the witness. In a kingdom-wide sense, it becomes satanic. You get to try to force God and be some big shot in the kingdom and everything, and in the local church, it's a mess, and Paul has a lot to say about that in the local church. It's in Galatians 5.19. The King James has some words we don't use today, but we have our resident Greek scholar here, and he can clear up any problems, but it's in Galatians 5.19-21. It's very characteristic of the flesh, this ambition thing, and in Galatians 5.19, the NIV has a pretty good Galatians 5.19, and Tony can tell us if it's true to the Greek, but it says the acts of the sinful nature are obvious, and then it comes off with the worst ones, sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, which is all immorality, and then it comes into idolatry and witchcraft, which go together there, and then you get, look at them, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy. All those things are the same. Look at the list of them. And that can go on, that's always been characteristic of the Christian churches and other denominations. We call it politics. Politics. Yes. You just said that all those things are the same. You mean that they're all our sinful nature, not that they're all the same. No, they're not exactly the same thing, but they're kissing cousins. They're kissing cousins. If you stop to think of it, strife, debate, dissension, factions, trying to get a group off after yourself, cliques, they're all the same thing. You want to add to that, Tony? Does anything? Okay, the NIV's got it handled pretty well, but you can read the New English Bible, Amplified, Rotherham, whatever, NASB, King James, New King James, but it's amazing. There's not enough really said about that in the churches because it's okay, you can put gossip under this. All this that causes intramural sports in the churches, where people are trying to get one up, one source is envy, but when you trace it all back down, it's personal ambition. See, that causes that. People getting in your way. They're not doing what you think, and it's a real mark of maturity to be free from this. Andrew, when you go to pastoring, you're going to find this is so common, and very often the target is the pastor's wife. We were warned of that when we began to pastor. I don't know why that is, but it happens a lot that the pastor's wife, when we were coming in, one of the district supervisors told us, they won't even treat you like you're human. And they do that, and Yvonne will catch it, and they'll all be jealous because she's pretty, and it'll go on and on and on like that, and there'll be a whole cartload of this. So, yeah, we have the King James, thanks very much, that's excellent. So we've got variants and emulations. Emulation is kind of, you know, we use that in computer terminology to emulate, to copy, and it all goes down to personal ambition, which leads to what I tell you it leads to. Supplanting. See how Satan's personal ambition led Yvonne to supplant. So all these things are kind of forms of supplanting. You're trying to get in there and outdo the other guy. So this is not a pardonable human attitude. This is, Paul said, you will not inherit the kingdom. Verse 21. You will not inherit the kingdom. And why not? Because these things don't exist in the kingdom of God. The people in the kingdom of God have been close enough. See, there's none of this in Jesus' nature. Did you picture Jesus with any of these things? Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, the party spirit leading off people in a party to follow you, and it's politics. Yes? Sedition. Well, let's see how it's translated. I'm not sure. Dissension? Sedition is a political sentence. It's used a lot, but not in terms of church politics. Bill, I think it's used in terms of within the service or things that you do like, well, what do you call it when there's treachery in the service when a man sells out his country? What do you call that? Treason. Yeah, you see that in connection with treason. Sedition, acts of sedition. So, I don't know, but right there, let's see, it's number, after is hatred, it goes one, two, three, four, five. So, after hatred is discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, and then heresies are factions. You get that a lot in churches. Oh, boy, do you. You get groups. We have been very fortunate in our council members that we have managed for, I guess, the last five years, we have had a very sweet spirit. We have had not one instance of guys ganging up on the outside and then coming in and putting on an agenda. We have not had that. We've had a very sweet spirit, because once you get into that, you're out of the kingdom. Church boards are into this all the time. Sandbagging and plotting and scheming and conniving. Oh, yeah. Typical worldly stuff. Goes on in the world, goes on in the churches. And it is of the flesh. It's of the flesh. It's not of the Christian nature at all. The kingdom of God is not in the kingdom. So, one of your first jobs, Andrew, will be when you're pastoring, will be very sweetly beginning to introduce the people to the idea that this envy and taking sides, taking sides is a simple way of talking about one of these, I don't know which one it is, but it's taking sides, faction, factionalism. You have to very sweetly tell them that it's just as bad as profanity and more destructive to the church than profanity is. But it has to be easy, because this has been the Christian M.O. for 2,000 years. This is the way denominations are full of politics. Inviting, backbiting, throat cutting. Goes on all the time. And yet, these are all good people that have been called to God and give their lives for the gospel. It's just amazing. It's just, the older you get, the more you realize it is not a black and white world. You know, you'll find people that will be in church factions, and yet they're people that have given everything they have for the gospel, and yet the politicking goes on. And the vying for preeminence, we used to call it the clashing of swords. The clashing of swords. You can tell when people come in the churches that are in this milieu, when they're striving for the mastery, and you can tell the sword clashing that goes on. They'll say something nice to you, Pastor, this was so nice, have you ever considered this? And boy, you can just feel that sword coming out. And so, the only way to overcome that is to let go of God, and let him hold you. There has to be that change of posture, and a short three-letter word for it is dying. Because these are all evidences of Adamic life. And of course, they destroy the witness. They destroy the witness. How many churches have split and fight each other, the denominations fight each other, and they jockey for position. Well, see, the world sees this, and it destroys the testimony. I would never curse, and I would never do amphetamines, and I would never get drunk and lay in the gutter and all that, and not think twice about gossiping and trying to get people on your side. Not think twice about it. It's really a neglected area, shall we say. Well, you see, we have not been this way before. We haven't been this way before. This is new to us, and God is preparing us to stand in the evil day. And you know, you can just get a church, and it's going great. Satan, if the people haven't died or are on the process of dying, Satan can move right in and split that thing. People get together in their home groups and criticize the pastor, or even at lunch in a public restaurant, it happens. There's nothing of it, because it's the way we all have done. And to recognize how terribly destructive this is to the work of God, and to the witness, takes a lot of preaching, a lot of teaching. There's a verse I wish I could lay my hands on that says the same thing, but it always eludes me. I think it's in the end of 1 Corinthians. But anyway, Paul is saying, when I come again, I'll have to bewail the backbiting and the gossiping and the hatred and everything that's going on. Yeah, the first century church. See, it is characteristic of the nature of demons. That's the way the demon world is. It's constant criticizing, gossiping, jockeying for position, hatred, dissension. That's the demon world. And in the Christian religion, in which the people are spiritual babies, they demonstrate the demon world. And the church is, in fact, I'd like to say one brief thing. Now, Audrey, will I blow it if I tell about Diane's vision? That's so apropos. Should I go ahead about the wheelchair? Maybe I better say that. Maybe Audrey's gonna... Alright. But anyway, it was just something we got tonight, that Diane had a vision, not of this church, but of the church at large. And there were two things in the vision. You couldn't put them together. One was wheelchairs. What was the other one? It was the wheelchairs are tipped over. The game is over. I'm not playing by their rules anymore. The game is... Yeah, it's going through the whole body of Christ. This change is going through the whole body of Christ. And this has been, I dare say, of all the weapons of Satan, this hatred... Look at the attention Paul pays to it. He could have summed it up in one word and said hatred, or jealousy, or selfish ambition. But look at it. He's talking about things, the acts of the sinful nature. Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy. And they're kissing cousins. That's the nature of the Adamic man. That's the way he is. And we can go just so far in our religion, but that is so strong in us. You know, you think you're making good headway and then something comes up and catches you from left field and blindsides you. And the first thing you know, you're caught in the middle of some envious wrangle of some kind. And it just blindsides you. That's all. And so religion can only take you so far. We used to say, as Brother Dowell's idea, which is a good way to picture it in number, is that in religion you can go from one to nine. But if you want to go beyond nine, you have to become zero. One and zero. So that's very true. That's very true. Religion can take you up to nine. But if you want to go on to what God is calling for today, you have to be willing to go through this transition of letting God take hold of your hand. And that is trust. That's called trust. In faith, see faith and trust are different. Faith is what? The victory. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. And when you're on top of it and you have faith, you're kind of in control. That's why the big faith and prosperity movement is to put the Christian in control, never mind if he's righteous or not. Just put him in control and you do it with faith. That's not trust. Trust is when God takes hold of your hand and you lose control of the program. And that's the zero. That you becoming zero. And until that happens, God cannot get at that basic nature that we have. It runs even deeper than immorality. Yes? It's just that way. You have to go through it and experience it. When you go through a real long, hard place that may be three or four years or longer in duration, and when you're older and more mature and God can trust you with that without losing you, you'll see what I mean. Classically, it's called the dark night of the soul. You may have heard that expression. Well, you can read about it, but it's something to be experienced. And when you're there, your faith, you just don't have faith. All that you have is trust, which is a kind of a hanging on. It is hang on. Then when God speaks and restores faith to you, it's altogether different. You just know things are going to be alright. You're in control again. You're in control again. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. But trust, you find in Isaiah 12, where you're talking about the feast of tabernacles. Not I will have faith, I will trust and not be afraid. And faith and trust are quite different. And when you're brought through a real hard place, you won't have faith. You will not be in control. You just have to hang on and trust that God is true. And that's not for, that's for the senior citizens, that's not for the beginners. But you'll experience it in your own way. When things get beyond your control, see, then you have a choice to make, don't you? You're either going to manipulate and scheme and try to work things around, or you're going to trust God. That is not easy, because it requires your letting go of God's hand and God taking hold of your hand. And you think, what if he doesn't take hold? You know, what if he doesn't? God has taught me these things by several different experiences. One of them had to do with anxiety. I had a severe bout of anxiety that lasted about two years, and it came on just as I was finishing up the doctoral program at the University of Rochester. And it was very severe anxiety, and the psychiatrist did what he could, and the GP did what he could, but pills don't really do it for you. They help. They're like crutches. And I, of course, I couldn't sleep well, and I was taking Salmonix or something like that. And it was a nightmare. I swear it was a nightmare. When I wake up in the morning, I was wishing it was night, so I go to sleep. When it was at night, I was wishing it was morning, so I'd get up. You've got to be there to appreciate that. But anyway, I was just going through it. God did not heal me, did not heal me, and I was doing everything I knew to do, quoting scripture, just hanging on, keeping on going. And one night, well, it was morning. It was about two o'clock in the morning. I had my bottle of Salmonix there and everything. About two o'clock in the morning, and I was going through this. That's when it hits you real bad, you know, free-floating fears. And I felt like I was just falling, just falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, falling, like that. And I landed on a rock. And the minute that happened, I knew I was healed. I was healed. God, that was one of the things that God used to break my grip on Him and to lose control. But I was healed after that. The symptoms stayed on of insomnia and nervousness stayed on for maybe, they began to abate from that. I knew I was healed, because I'd been healed before, physically. And I know, you know, when you're healed, I mean, the faith just comes. And I knew I was on the rock, and I knew they weren't going to carry me out of the house in a straitjacket, which I was very much afraid of. I was afraid of what the neighbors would think. But I'd been to visit relatives in one of the institutions there that were mental institutions, and I knew what it was like, and I'd come to grips with that, but it still was a nagging fear in the back of my mind. And when I hit that rock, I knew nobody's going to touch me. I was out of that. It was so bad at one point that Audrey was having to stay with me when I ate and pray, and I was praying one mouthful at a time. She said, get a mouthful down, honey, get a mouthful down. I was losing weight big time. Get a mouthful down, spoonful down. It was severe anxiety. And, but God healed me at two o'clock in the morning. Now that's the difference between faith and trust. I was just holding on, trusting God. There was nothing I could do. It was beyond my powers. Just trusting. I didn't quit on God. Just trusting God. But when that faith came, the victory was there. No more somnacs. I didn't need it anymore. I just knew I was healed. And that's happened to me in other, in physical areas. You know when you've got faith. You can't drum up faith. People are crazy when they say, oh, just get faith. Just believe, believe. Yeah, you soulish men can't believe. Faith comes from God. It's supernatural. And it comes into your spirit. And you know when you've got it, and you know when you don't. That's what I've been through. It's just Bible school. You know, try to get people to heal. I believe, I believe. God's getting ready to move. Just get ready to step out of faith and all that. I'll tell you who describes that beautifully is the visitation. And Peretti describes a person coming up in the Pentecostal ranks. And if it isn't typical, oh Lord, all the Bible school prophecies and prayers and all that. It's not God. But God loves his kids just like we love babies. He loves his little children just like we love babies. And they think they're, you know, some big man of faith and power. And they don't have any idea what faith is. Faith, when faith for healing comes, it's like a Mack truck. I mean, you got it. You don't have to say I believe or anything. It's there. So anyway, there's a big difference. Are there any more questions on Galatians 5.19 through 21? It's very critical. Paul says, those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. I don't know where people come up with this eternal security and all this stuff. But they sure don't read their book. They sure don't read their book. It makes you wonder how they deal with a scripture like this, doesn't it? How do they deal in the grace message with a scripture like this? How do they tell us, Colleen? How do they do it? Justify it because the same preacher will declare that he believes in the full verbal inspiration of the Bible. I mean, he'd go to the stake for that. Never deny the Bible. But he wouldn't. Read the Bible, preach the Bible, and just say what it says, and say amen. Think of what a difference it would make in the Christian church if the ministers would do that. That's called expository preaching, where you take the passage and you explain the passages. You just explain it. You don't reason around it. This is it. You have to say amen to every word of God. Yes? Okay, so the idea there is that salvation and the kingdom of God are two different things. Okay. You could reason it away. Now, how many know the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning? You don't? I see a lot of negatives. Well, it's very... does anyone want to explain it? Ed? Inductive is where you have an idea and you go look for the facts of the Bible. And the deductive is you take the facts from the Bible and come up with the idea. Everybody got it reversed? You got it reversed, but it's all right. In deductive reasoning, you take a verse, like I think it's John 5, 27, where it says, If any man will hear my word, believe in him that sent me, he shall not come into condemnation, but passes from death unto life. That is a prime axiom of evangelical teaching. Then they take that verse. I think it's John 5, 23 or 27. If any man will hear my word, believe in him that sent me, he shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life. Then, that's made an axiom. And then from there, you make deductions. For example, since that's true, no Christian will be judged. Shall not come into condemnation, but shall pass from death unto life. And, well, you can build up. You take three or four of these, and you can build, you know, for by grace you say, through faith, that and out of yourselves. And you build axioms here, and then you deduce from that your philosophy of religion. And that's what evangelicals have done. It's purely deductive. And what you're describing is deductive reasoning. And you also, see, there are certain things they believe, they're axioms. And then, you can't perceive the other because it doesn't fit the axiom. Inductive reasoning is the way you have to approach the Bible. You build truth by taking everything that's said. So, you're constantly building on your store of truth. And every time you come to a new truth, you adjust your understanding of God. See, that's called inductive reasoning. Now, if you knew every verse and you said amen to it, you would have the full body of truth. Because there are many seeming inconsistencies in the Bible. For example, the famous free will versus predestination. See, which seems like it's absolutely opposed. But when you take the whole thing, you say, yes, it's up to you. Yes, it's by predestination. I don't understand it. Big deal. Who are you, God or something? You don't understand everything? No, I don't understand it. That cuts the lies. I know you can choose. Choose you this day. I know that God, you can't come to Christ unless he chooses you. I know those are both true. See, I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any difference. In inductive, if you're going to approach the Bible inductively, you say, yes, that's true. Everything else is true. It's all true. And when you get it together and then you live with it for about 40 years, it all begins to make sense. You say, that's right. It's your choice. But it's Christ who's working in you to make that choice. But it's still your choice. Can I choose? Yes. But you won't choose unless God moves in you to choose. It's kind of tricky. But it's all true. You cannot. The Holy Spirit has inspired the Bible word by word. And you can go from one translation to another. And honestly, they're all saying the same thing. There are a few little things like going from Westcott and Hoare to the one on which the King James, the Textus Receptus, but it's not really material. The basic truth is all the same. So the truth is, if you live like that, if you live with hatred towards someone, blood on your hands, that's blood on your hands, discord. There are people, I swear, that when everything could be harmonious, it's like they're trying to start an argument. You just, they're not happy unless they're arguing. They have a spirit of discord. They're not making peace. They're making discord. There are people like that. Jealousy, that's being envious of someone. Now that will operate kingdom wide in the big kingdom sense. It will operate in the local church. You get your little piece of porridge. It doesn't mean a thing in the worldview. And the people are in there jockeying for position and arguing and criticizing one another and everything. And like little bubbles in oatmeal. One bubbles up and the other bubbles up. That's the way it goes. That's the way churches are. All right. Brian says he's an old hand at this by now. All right. Now, fits of rage. Fits of rage. Are you a person given to fits of rage? Put your fist through the drywall? Okay. Selfish ambition. Now, ambition, I mentioned that as being the source. This is the bottom thing. So when we've got our hand on God, it's because we're in control. We've got something we're trying to do. And do you know something? That religion, the Christian religion works to a great extent on ambition. And God uses it. He uses all these things. He used them. He said, how could he use them and still I don't inherit the kingdom? Because he's hoping you'll change. But if God waited until everyone was perfect to use them, nothing get done. So he's a sinful people in the hopes that we will all bounce on one another until we improve. That's the way it goes. Yes. Another verse to add to our body of truth. He's not, you know, the simply Jesus that's presented today. He's a hard master, but he's also a loving shepherd. Well, which one is right? Both are right. They're in the Bible, they're right. Period. That's why he's called the Amen. All right. Now, selfish ambition. Ambition by its nature is selfish. Unless it's, you know, unless you're an unusual person. That's what got Satan into trouble. What did I say it leads to? Supplanting. You want to bump someone over. We had a dog like that. The dog's name, singularly enough, was Joshua, but it had nothing to do with this. It came to us, was given to us because people had been very cruel to it. And the dog was really a basket case emotionally. But they wanted to get rid of it and they gave it to us. And we were very kind to it because we are great animal lovers. But we had another dog, two dogs. Joshua came in where there was a well-established dog of a good nature and a tolerant nature. So this other dog would try to come up, you know, to us or anything, and Joshua would bump this other dog out of the way. It had to be number one. And this would happen all the time. We're paying attention to our old dog, Jenny, or Joshua would get right in the middle there. And so we refer to that as the Joshua syndrome. And you'll see that sometimes in people. They want to be first. They just want to be noticed. Get right in there. Well, that's something we have to watch out for. Selfish ambition. Now, when the Lord gets into the death situation where He's really bringing us down and shaking off our grip and getting His grip on us, then there's really no place for ambition because Christ is not ambitious. It just isn't there. It just is not there. People want to do it. Fine. They want to be first. Fine. They want to be last. Fine. They're in the middle. Fine. I don't know. Let them have the well. But it takes some dying because that's not true to most of us. Well, some of us may be apathetic and lazy by nature, but I'm talking about people that are normally ambitious. Yes. It's not true to the nature of Christ. The more Christ we have, the less we're tempted to do that. See, that's where we're going. We're moving toward the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, we're talking about 1999 and the year 2000. This has not been true before. God is moving His church forward and everything's coming together. The wheat's growing and the tares are growing. And we have to tell people this. Do you know one of the major problems that happens in the Christian kingdom, in the kingdom of God, is that people reach a certain level and it's so comfortable. It's like something comes up to a certain level and then God begins to bless it horizontally. See, God can bless you vertically and then stop that and just spread out. Well, it's like the way a child grows. You know, they may grow tall all of a sudden and then they've spent a couple of years, they don't get taller, they fill out. I didn't mean out like this. I mean, they just get a lot stronger. Well, that's the way it is in the spirit realm, is that there will come a time when God is really pressing us for growth and we're grappling with God and we're growing. And then that kind of abates and He spreads and we begin to bear fruit. And then I become known and we have a niche for ourselves where we're known. And then the time comes when God wants more vertical movement and we don't want to move. And you'd be surprised at how, what a trap. It may not sound like I'm talking to you, but it is a tremendous trap. You take a minister, maybe he's, he'd become known. Maybe he'd become Mr. Pentecost or Mr. Tabernacles or whatever, and he's known for that. And God says, hey buddy, you know, you've compassed this mountain long enough. It's time to go on. And they can't hear God. They can't hear God. They just vegetate at that level. And you can tell, you can tell when you talk to them, hey, you're three years back down the road. Come on, let's go. But they can't. Their nature is such they've lost their their contact and it's pruning. See, you've got to be ready for that. God says, change. Okay, we're changing. Everything has become, behind us, great, cool, it's been very good, but I won't do anymore. It's yesterday's manna. And we're on. So if you're going to make, I remember one time Audrey and I were in a church. We'd been there for a while. And there was a prophetic presbytery there. I mean, they were powerful. One of them was shocked, David Shock. And there was others of that, you know, really had the stuff. And boy, they were coming down with the word of the Lord and it was strong. And they prophesied over the pastor. And they said, you're to spread out, you're to spread out, you're to spread out. And he did. I mean, he, tremendous things that he has done. And when, and then Audrey and I, they laid heads up, they didn't know us at all, whatever. And, and they began to yell, go on, go on, go on. And people will come to you and they'll say, look at this and look at that, but it will be empty crackers, empty crackers. Go on, go on, go on. We've still got that prophecy. They, they made a habit of typing those out and giving them to you. And I had them in triplicate, one for the church, and I guess one for the prophets and one for the recipient. I'll never forget that. And that's exactly what happened. We didn't last in that church. We were out of there in a few months, but that church has been blessed and has gone on to wonderful things. But, but as that challenge was given to Audrey and me, just go on, go on, go on. I still feel the same way. I have no intention of ghosting on my laurels, that's as slim as they may be, because the spiritual atmosphere now is just charged. It's just charged. And the Lord is saying, come on, I'm going to move my church forward. And I'm going to, I'm through with the games and I'm going to kick over the wheelchairs. And if you want to lay there and paralyzed, thinking, poor me, then lay there. But God's not going to wait. He's moving because the world is such that God is. So Larry, there's no stopping. There's no stopping. If God has you go on and expand, that's wonderful. But just remember the peril there is in that, is that you can't move after that because people have all these expectations and they don't want you to go raging around like you did when you were younger. And to keep that fire and that life and iron going on and on when you're in a comfortable church, a comfortable situation. And ministers have gone on and the church just threw them out because they didn't want them to change. There's a price to pay for always going on with God because people want you to be like you always were, and here you're changing, and they don't like it. They want to stay where they are. I can't do it. I cannot do it. When the Lord blows the trumpet, hey, I'm on my way. Hopefully the church will follow. But if they don't, then that's their business. God bless them and be with them. But don't expect that of me and Audrey because we have no intention to stop. I want to see this thing all the way through. I want to see it all the way through. We got this far. Hallelujah and all that. So I didn't mean to talk on any of this tonight at all. And envy, then it goes on to something else. But here's drunkenness. We say, oh, he's a drunk. Oh, you're in the right foot of fellowship. But in the same people, you got hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy. I'm not making a case for drunkenness. I'm just telling you, we kind of got, we need to balance out our priorities here. We need to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes. So these things have plagued the church of Jesus Christ, according to Paul, from the first century. And they're still plaguing the church of Jesus Christ. They are Satan's big guns. Those are his big ones that he blasts churches with. And it's all over. The game's over. And the wheelchairs are going to get kicked over. The game's over. We cannot gossip. When we hear ourselves gossiping or criticizing or anyone doing it, it's just like if you have a friend, and that friend, you see, is doing something wrong, doing drugs or something else. You know it's wrong. You would warn them as a Christian. If you see that envy and jealousy and hear that factionalism, do the same thing. It doesn't go anymore. It was sweet when I was, but no more. It doesn't go anymore. Yes? There was a documentary on the rise of Satanism in the United States, and they interviewed this one single shipper. Matter of fact, one guy said that his whole job... You think a witch going to come in here on a broomstick? They don't come in a broomstick. They come in a t-shirt. Or whatever. They deliberately make themselves look like everybody else. But they have one job in mind, and that is to tear up that church. And you wouldn't know them unless you had some real supernatural discernment. If we had a witch in our congregation, you'd never spot them. You'd begin to hear them talk, and they'd begin to feel you out about the pastor. Boy, that was sure hard today, but maybe it was needed, waiting for you to say, yeah, it was hard, and I think it was too hard. Well, come to think of it, yes, it really was. It really brought more condemnation than conviction. But he's a really good man. He loves the Lord, and he preaches the Bible. But if you notice, there's a lot of hurting people in the church. A number of times I've heard that there's hurting people in the church. Well, so is the pastor and his wife. We're all, and anybody here that's not hurting? Those of you that I know, what's going on in your life, you're hurting. That's been used more times. Oh, try to get us off the wall. Oh, the church is full of hurting people. Just let me loose, and I'll pastor the church for you, and all you have to do is write your books. You think people don't do that? We know you're busy, pastor, and so we made these decisions without your knowledge, because we know you're busy, and we didn't want to bother you. Guess how many times I hear that? I said, please, would you please, before we have to sweep up the mess, would you please let us know that we're not too busy? That's another criticism. You can't get to him. He's too busy. There isn't a person in this church that ever called, ever, at any time, I mean, any time, day or night, that we have not responded. Never. That's what witches do. They're deliberately looking for something that will cause misappearance, because God will not dwell in a church where there is not love. Once the church is given over to this kind of stuff, you might just as well call it quits, start a church somewhere else, because God will not dwell there. He will not dwell where there is demonic activity like that. And Satan knows that. So once he gets that going, the pastors go on and on, because their retirement is fixed into it, and their status, maybe they're too old to work, or whatever, and they hang on there hoping something will happen, and meanwhile the whole church has become a beehive of criticism, and people seeking to supplant, seeking to get in there and say, well, he's old, he'll die, you know, any moment now. You notice he's getting feeble. Have you noticed that? Well, just hang on a little bit and we'll be there, you know. When the cat's away, the mice do play. But that's human nature, and we're not suffering from that, because we've experienced so much, we're kind of calloused, but the Lord wants it mentioned, because the Lord does not want that in his end-time witness. It will destroy the witness. And so you don't take it lightly. You don't take it lightly. Yes? You know, because we think the early church was just kind of walked three feet off the ground. They're just like us. Are you getting education tonight, Brian? Listen, people are lovely. Don't ever give up on them. God doesn't give up on them. You just have to keep telling the truth. You're prophesying to the bones. All right, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions. That's dividing up into parties. Who's on my side? Slander? Oh Lord, we have been slandered. Gossip, arrogance, and disorder. See, the sin is not like we think of. Rape, murder, stealing, profanity, pornography. These are not the things that wreck churches. This is what wrecks churches. Heavy sins. Yes, that's precisely it, Mark. Thank you. I never can remember that, and I'm always wishing I could. 2 Corinthians 12, 20. I remember that. But that's what Paul was facing. And he says, you know, that's not the way I want you. My God will humble me, and I will grieve over you. So, and how do they get, I mean, Colleen and Sandy have both been in the same kind of church. How do they get past these words? With the grace, grace, grace, grace, grace. It's incredible. Yes? I remember talking about this a month right before I started coming here, and we were talking to a guy that came up. The church is not the church. It's just people who really don't believe in what they're even trying to say. That's true. And when they say the kingdom is different from going to heaven, boy, you have no Bible for that. I mean, I don't care if I'm in the kingdom, but I want to be saved. I mean, the apostle Paul heard a statement like that. He said, why don't you read the book? Sandy? Yeah. When you say some part, just a normal person, it seems like a part that was just rounded up. See, the word, Paul called it labor. The labor. And the labor was made of bronze. And they got the bronze from the looking glass, from the mirrors of the women of the congregation, turned in their mirrors. The mirrors were polished bronze. They melted it down, and they made this labor. And whenever the priest went into the holy place, he always washed in the labor. Well, the idea is the labor is the word of God, and you look in it, and you see your face. That's the purpose of the labor. That's not the purpose of the labor. That's the purpose of the looking glass. And the purpose of the word of God is you look at that and say, whoa, my face is dirty. And then you go to the Lord, and you get grace to help in time of need. And God helps you with that thing. But you can only go so far trying to work the moves. The main spring of sanctification and consecration is death and resurrection. That's the main spring. And until you assent to that, and say, all right, Lord, and that's what we've always said. Jesus, I give you my heart, but we just never thought what that would mean. And we say, okay, Lord, I'm giving you my life. You're Lord of my life, and that's all we're saying. But it's just never been that real before. And partly because the preaching that's going on, that salvation is different from the kingdom. Somehow I'm saved anyway. I may not be in the kingdom. I may not have all this fruit and everything, but I'm saved. See, which is a complete misnomer, because what you mean is that you'll go to heaven to sit in a mansion, and that isn't scriptural. Yes? It also has something to do with the fact that many of them believe that Jesus did it all on the cross, because he did it all on the cross. I've no longer had that vocation to me, because I believe in what he did on the cross. Yeah, that's deductive reasoning. See, that's what is used, is deductive reasoning. And if they would take what Paul wrote, and he certainly wrote it after Jesus died on the cross for his sins, and all their sins, they'd have to realize, well, that doesn't make any sense. That doesn't fit. So you just have to take what you want to believe, deduce from it, and anybody says anything different, just figure they're a Pharisee or a legalist or there's something wrong with them. What? I kind of feel like it's flying in an airplane from Los Angeles to New York, and then going through the map of what you covered when you flew there. That's kind of the way they feel. I'm already in heaven, and I already got my ticket, and this is just me going over what doesn't count anymore, stuff I blew up when I was going from Los Angeles to New York. Well, it's just ignorant preaching. That's what it is. It's just... You won't be judged either, Scott. And you won't be judged, which is another deduction made from a verse in John, going from 1 Peter 4, it says, judging begins in the house of God. And elaborating on that, when he's standing before God, to be judged, he will be criticized, and then that will weigh on everything. It's all reason. It's all reason. We have a dearth of the Word of God. What needs to be done today is for the ministers to preach the Word of God. That's all. Just preach the Word of God. And they say they're preaching the Word of God, but they're not preaching it, and they don't believe it either. Yes. When I bring up 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, where it talks about the judgment seat of Christ, many of the people say that has absolutely no application, because it's a reward seat, not a judgment seat, that they've translated the word wrong. There's several very popular men in their circles now, and I get this from the prison system quite frequently, who are listening to the tapes. And when I'm telling them one thing, with the explanation of the grief, as to what it means versus what they're telling, there's a real conflict going on, because one is presenting it as a reward presentation, and the other is presenting it as an active judgment seat. Now, we should remember the Greek word. The Bema of Christ. Yeah, the Bema of Christ. I checked it out, every use in the New Testament. I checked out every use of the word Bema, and it is never used for an awards ceremony. Never. The Bema was a place under Roman law, where it actually, the word technically means elevation, I believe. It's a step up, and it's only for accused criminals. Only an accused criminal stands on the Bema. You have to be an accused criminal to stand on the Bema. It's used exclusively, but there's no other use of it in the New Testament. So this is all deductive reasoning, all based on verses in John and other places that it couldn't mean. See, there's no changing of the word Bema. The word Bema is there. You can look it up in Vines, which is the most exhaustive treatment of Greek words in existence, always has been. Check it out in Vines, in the word Bema, and you'll see it's never used as an awards ceremony, like a Nero in Rhena or something. Yes? Just to show you how twisted it is, I heard the word... It's just a kind of an appealing to authority, and of course the average church member says, well, you know, they don't know Greek. It's Greek to them. So they believe it. And here it isn't even true. You wouldn't believe ministers would do this. They don't even have academic integrity. They're willing to do that, and they figure, well it means justifies the ends, you know, we're trying to do good to people, and so they won't be terrified of Christ, and also it's justified. Yes? Is that called denominational thinking then? They have to say it isn't denominational thinking? I've never, certainly not in our denomination. No constraints are put on you. They'd never say a word to you unless you're some wild thing like Christ never rose from the dead or something, or didn't die for our sins. But as far, they've got something like 13 accepted views of the rapture in the fourth square. They don't do that. Now there may be, I've never heard though of a denomination, mainline or Pentecostal or anything, that would ask a minister to give a wrong translation of a Greek noun like that. Never. I've never heard of such a thing. If you're giving an accepted view, nobody's going to say anything to everybody else. Every other minister in your organization says the same thing. They're just going to contradict you. Well, what happens is, the mainline denominations produce a lot of scholars, like people that have brought forth, for example, I was looking at the English Bible, and you see the high churches of Scotland and other places that scholars have brought that forth, and the NIV. These are bodies of scholars, and if you know anything about scholars, they all criticize, they all, like they say, women dress for other women. Well, scholars work for other scholars. They get so far out beyond what anybody would ever understand, but see, they're always aware of the other scholars, how they'll view it. And I've heard the craziest things about the NIV, but it's very sound. It's the one I use. I don't like them saying reverence for fear, but outside of that, it's pretty good translation. Because you see, if they went way off, why, the other scholars and Christians would be writing in all the academic journals and everything, tearing them apart. Because they've got a not only, they've got to satisfy a scholar who's translating and being published, and his name is on there, has to satisfy not only all the other Greek and Hebrew scholars, but all the scholars of archaeology. I mean, all the current, they have to be abreast of everything that's going on. So, oh no, they don't play fast and loose. They may be cigar chewers, but when it comes to, because I know, because I've lived doing graduate teaching at the University of Rochester, and I was with scholars, and I know how they operate. And their lives may be a moral shambles, and they weren't necessarily, but they weren't up to Christian standards by any means. But boy, when it came to their field, you know, they were working for other scholars, and for the president of the university, and for the reputation of the university, and everything else. So you don't get monkey business. But you do get it at the, at the, what do you got, Vines up there? Alright, good, let's see. At the Bema, alright, let's see what it says. In two passages, the word is used of the divine tribunal before which all believers are hereafter to stand. Okay, let's go on. Okay, this is more of a commentary than it is an actual Greek exegesis. Yeah, yeah, yeah, see that, that, that is not a Greek exegesis. That's a, that is, that reflects evangelical thinking. That's not an exegesis there. And that's Vines? Oh, he should be listing every, every place that it's used so that you could see it. See, he's making comments on it. It's to be distinguished from the pre-millennial earthly throne of Christ. That's not true. That is absolutely not true. It's all one judgment seat. The great white throne is also a part of the judgment seat. He's left, that's what happens when you come into things that affect evangelical tradition. It affects even the scholars. See, what he should be doing is listing like in a lexicon. And that's what he usually does. Yes? Even though you say they try to maintain scholarship, they don't, because as soon as they come up against the part of the belief, they twist it to, to, otherwise nobody's going to find That's right. Zodiotes, a Greek scholar, does that. It's terrible the way they do it. But that, you want to know that you can see there that that's all judgment. That's not exegesis. Exegesis is when you take the, the Greek terms and go right on down and explain the syntax and how it's used in other places, et cetera, and so on. You don't make judgments in exegesis like that. Yes? I think a lot of it also stems from the, go out and save the world, and there's, there's a lot of denomination. Well, there's one denomination where they have, it's presently the drive through. I'll tell you where the ultimate basis is. The ultimate basis is Satan. Now, you've got to see where Satan is coming from. I don't mean these mad people are demon possessed. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about why Satan has worked so hard. You see what, I have not seen an exception to this. I have not seen an exception that any commentary on the Bible will treat Hebrews 6, 1, 2, and 3 as it stands. They will not do it. A, a reason and reason, because the, the, the Protestant basis of belief dates to the Reformation. The Reformation stressed faith. They were fighting penances, but they ended up fighting all righteous behavior, which was this characteristic of people. They get messed up. And that's, that's, and, but where Satan is in this is that as long as he can keep Christians immature, his kingdom is not in jeopardy. As long as he can keep us believing that we are in a dispensation of grace, uh, meaning that God has changed the rules of the game. We don't really have to be righteous to ascend Mount Zion, except by imputation. As long as we believe that, we present no problem to Satan. We present no problem to him until we begin to live righteously. That's all Satan is concerned about is behavior, and it's all God is concerned about is behavior. Not doctrine, behavior. God and Satan. They are both the most practical people you'll ever meet. There's God and Satan. They're extremely practical. And so, God has given us a New Testament, which has a little bit about imputed, imputed righteousness to get the Jews off dead center from the law. And then all the rest of the New Testament is about righteous behavior, whether you're talking about the Gospels, Epistles, or Revelations. It's all about righteous behavior. And some very strong stuff, too, like in 1 John, if you keep on sinning, you don't know him, and you're a liar, and the truth is lying, and so on. But you see, Satan has managed with this reformation theology of faith and grace to completely influence Christians, and I don't mean by that dead Christians. I mean where Christian life is, whether it's in early Methodism, or the Baptists, or the Nazarenes, or wherever it is, or even in the Catholics, where there's fervency. And that's why you won't find Vine or anyone else bucking it, because they're bucking everything in the church. You read other dissertations, and I'm amazed at this, because almost anything else in Vines will give you all the uses of the word, and how it's used, and not comment on it like this. This is terrible. You don't often see that in Vines. I just went to a Greek lexicon, and I looked up the use of the word Bhima, to see how it was in a Greek lexicon. And that's how I know what I'm talking about. Yes? Another confusing theology was the fact that... Is the definition of what you mean by sin. And when you're talking about sin, you're basically talking about three things. First is guilt. See, they don't make this distinction. They say sin is gone. Well, do you mean the guilt is gone? Which is altogether different from the power of sin. The guilt of sin is one thing. You're guilty because you broke God's law. Christ took care of that on the cross. That's no longer an issue. For one's sacrifice is perfected forever those who are sanctified. Those who are sanctified, not those who took the four steps. Okay, the next part of sin that you have to think about is the... Why do the Jews call that compulsion, or the wrong motivation? They have a term for it. The Jews have it wrong. The evil compulsions. Evil inclinations. Evil inclinations. The evil inclinations is the second factor. The third factor in sin is the presence of sin itself. Sin can be in us in a warped, Adamic nature, or it can be in us in the actual demonic. You know, in my flesh dwells no good thing. It's not talking about our fallen nature. It's talking about demonic strongholds. So, if you don't discern between these three, and say the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, you lump it all together and say sin no longer is an issue. If sin no longer were an issue, then most of Paul's writings in the New Testament would be superfluous. It would be absolutely superfluous, and that's the way to treat it. So you have to be thinking in your mind, when the Bible says about doing away with sin, you have to read the context. Is he talking about guilt? Which is one thing. And we're all, you see, there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ, so guilt is not an issue. But is there any evil inclination? Well, answer that yourself. Now, the presence, how do we deal with the actual presence, the removal of sin itself? You notice in Romans 8.13, I use it a great deal, it says, put to death the deeds of the body. Well, basically what that is, is to gain the upper hand over the thing, kill it. But my personal opinion is, many of these things, there'll be a lot of demonic removal during our lifetime, but I really believe if we have been faithful in confessing our sins, and in overcoming them, whatever is left, the vestiges of it will be, the vestiges of the presence of it, will be taken care of by the Lord when he comes. And that's a salvation reserve from the end time, and that will include a body like his body. But the principle that obtains there is that he that is faithful in the little will be trusted with the greater. So you can't say, well, I can't make it now, but when the Lord comes, he'll do the job, because you've broken the principle. You have not been faithful today in taking the little step of consecration that the Lord asked for. Now, tonight, for example, we've talked about envy and jealousy and rage, and maybe some in here saw their face in the mirror. All right, God isn't going to saddle you with the entire thing. It just may be this one thing in your life. Okay, the Holy Spirit's made that real. Okay, that's the way God works. He's bringing you along city by city. He wants you to gain the upper hand over that thing. Now, whether it's completely removed from your life so that you're never even tempted again is one matter. Or whether it's subdued, and you have to be alert all the time that it doesn't spring up is another matter. But we know that when the Lord appears, the work will be finished. That will be it. And then we'll be like him, see him as he is. We'll be like him. So that's the three stages. And you have to keep, because that's how the argument is made today. How can we stand before the judgment seat of Christ when sin was settled on the cross? Yes. The guilt of sin was settled on the cross. First John tells us that Christ died not only for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. Hebrews tells us that by one sacrifice, he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. So it is not countenanced in the New Testament plan of redemption or salvation. It is not countenanced that you should ever be under guilt. Never. Never. That is not countenanced in it. It's not part of the package. The assumption is that when you accept Christ, you will reckon yourself dead on the cross with him and reckon yourself to be alive with him in his resurrection and in his ascension, and that your life is now at the right hand of God. Obviously, you may say, I just came up wet out of the water. I don't see this. You take it by faith. You take, that's, that's your position that you take by faith. I am crucified with Christ. I have risen with Christ, and I have ascended with Christ, the right hand of God. And that's your position that you take every day. That's your orientation to yourself and to life and to the kingdom. Okay. As long as you have that, the Holy Spirit will begin to lead you in the work of sanctification. And as he does, see, now look at, listen to First John 1.7. If we walk in the light, that's God's will shown to us each day, as he, that is the Father, dwells in light, is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. We have fellowship one with another, that is with the Father, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. Now that is the normal Christian life. If we, if we say we have no sin, First John says in 1.8, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But in verse 9 it says, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So it's never countenance that at any time that you are in a state of guilt, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Can there be conviction of sin? Absolutely. Absolutely. When that man was committing incest, with his, they think it was with his stepmother in Corinth, Paul didn't say it's alright brother, God sees youth in Christ. He didn't say that, did he? What did he say? He, he, he harangued the church. He said you let this stuff go on, and I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna, I'm gonna turn this man over and give him to Satan, and let Satan deal with him. Maybe his spirit will be saved. And then again in 1 Corinthians 11, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are what? Chastened, chastened by the Lord. He chastens us, he sends sickness on us, he sends problems on us and everything. So we won't be condemned with the world. And he says some are sick for this reason, some have died for this reason. Once you accept Christ, he chooses you, you accept him, you take that first step, you reckon yourself dead and alive and you go on your happy Christian way, God isn't, God always wants to see you full and clear. He doesn't want you under any condemnation. And it's not common sense that you'd be under any condemnation. All that you have to do is follow the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will always lead you, step by step, in getting rid of the sins of the flesh. Sometimes through the minister's preaching, sometimes from a friend, sometimes by your own conscience, sometimes by an unsaved person, but little by little the Lord will point out to you the things in his nature that he does not want in his kingdom. And that's the normal Christian life. And I don't know how long it lasts, but I've been at it for 54 years and I'm not there yet, but then I didn't get a great start. I wasn't raised in a Christian home. I know I've got a lot of stuff in me that's wrong, I know that, but God is working it out. He's working it out. And I'm not under any condemnation tonight, I stand before you, I'm clear in God's sight, because I've done all I know to do. That's all he asks of anybody, just do all you know to do. All I show you to do, you do that. But where Christians mess up is they don't pray, they don't read their Bible, they don't gather with the saints. When God does show them something, they're careless about it, they say, well I'll take care of it later, everybody's doing it, or I'm saved by grace, or whatever, and it'll come down on it, like God says, put it to death through the Spirit, I'm giving you the power and I'll put the thing to death. Get the upper hand over it, kill it. And when I come, I'll remove it. And I'll remove everything in you that's not right and clothe you with a body of glory. A body that loves righteousness. If you didn't, your body will. So your body has a mind of its own. So your body today has a mind of its own. You say, I'm going to serve God. And your body says, you know, you and what platoon of marines, forget it. You're going to do what I say. Doesn't it? Doesn't your body tell you that? Alright, it's going to be reversed. If you will overcome and get a body like Jesus, you start to do something wrong, your body will say, you and what platoon of marines, we're going to do righteous. So your body will still have a mind of its own, but it will be to serve God. And that's what Paul was after. See, that's the greatest reward you can possibly have, and it's the reward for serving God in a body that wants to go the wrong way. The reward is a body that wants to go the right way. Can you imagine anything more wonderful than that? When you're trying to mess up and your body won't let you. Oh boy, shall we stand? God has wonderful things out there for us, but it's time to grow, people. The old man is breeding worms and stinking. You can smell it a block away. Smell it a block away. Yeah, more than a block, actually. I said that to be conservative. It's like you run over a skunk. You're 50 miles down the road, you can still smell the thing. That's the way it is with the old stuff. Yesterday's gone, people. It's gone. It only served to bring us where we are. That's all. It only served to bring us where we are. Father, we give you thanks tonight in the name of Jesus. Oh, hallelujah. Lord, what a plan of salvation. What a plan of salvation. You didn't come to do it all for us. Lord, you came to make it possible for us, through your strength, to flee from Satan, to be redeemed. I praise your name. People, while we're on this, I want to give you a chance now. Right now, if you saw your face in the mirror, tell God about it. Just say, Lord, I didn't realize this was that bad that it would keep me out of the kingdom. You tell the Lord about it now. Tell him from now on it's history. By his grace, that's what repentance means, is when you tell God it's history. That's a definition of repentance. And by his grace, it's gone. Hallelujah. Father, here's the things that are being said right now, Lord. We don't treat them kindly. We renounce them. We denounce them. We say they're fit only for the lake of fire. We don't want anything to do with them. Even if everyone in our family is doing them, we don't want them. Even if all our friends are doing them, we renounce them. We denounce them. Lord, we are on your side. We're on your side, Lord, not on people's side. We're on your antics, Lord. So whatever you've shown us tonight, Lord, we do heartily renounce and denounce it in the name of Jesus Christ to deliver from God. Hallelujah. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. We thank you, Lord, for that fountain that's open in the house of David, Lord, that we can go and be cleansed from our sins, walk out of here tonight with perfect confidence before God, perfectly without condemnation, without guilt. Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah. Through the blood of the cross, Lord, we are cleansed tonight. Hallelujah. We are cleansed tonight. Oh, Lord, hallelujah. And we're with you in the heavenlies rejoicing as your enemies are put under your feet. Blessed be your name, Lord. Blessed be your name, Lord. Oh, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. Oh, hallelujah. Now, Lord, let your good hand of glory be upon each one, Lord, as we go our way. Keep us safe on the highway and healthy in our homes and at peace. We ask for your peace, your peace, Lord, your peace. In Jesus' name, everyone said amen.