Dying To Religious Approval

Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for a place of freedom Where we can share your word with our children and our children's children I pray that we would remain faithful That we wouldn't forget all your benefits In jesus name. Amen Psalm 106 And we sang that song the god of the mountain is still god in the valley And the lord tests us He tries us he takes us through things You know what I find that my children they really Love me and are happy with me when i'm buying them gifts and i'm doing nice things for them taking them on adventures but when it comes time for correction or for doing work or for chores or for discipline This is the most miserable You don't have to look too much too far to look in the mirror and realize that We respond the same with the lord when things are good, we're happy When things aren't going our way We get discouraged And we go back to old vices And it really shows where we're at spiritually speaking and this is really what psalm 106 is all about And the lord just seems to take us through this round the mountain Type thing but he wants us to grow from there.

He wants to bring us into a promised land A land flowing with milk and honey where we learn To overcome and battle against our enemies That's what his plan is Is is to try us and to show us the things that are in our heart by taking us Through a wilderness season after we sing salvation song after we get all excited about His mighty victories when we cried out to him You know and then so soon we forget the lord And we could turn against the lord we get bitter at the lord Maybe we'll read some of this psalm here psalm 106 and I see How we in the flesh? Can be a disappointment to the lord so we have to yield our flesh and our will to him Surrendering to him in the midst of the trial and that's where the victory comes and that's where the growth comes Praise the lord i'll give thanks to the lord for he is good his mercy endures forever. Amen Who can utter the mighty acts of the lord who can declare all his praise? Blessed are those who keep justice And he who does righteousness at all times remember me oh lord with the favor you have towards your people will visit me with your salvation That I may see the benefit of your chosen ones that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation that I may glory with your inheritance We have sinned with our fathers We have committed iniquity we have done wickedly our fathers in egypt did not understand your wonders They did not remember the multitude of your mercies, but they rebelled by the sea the red sea Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake You look at the children of israel And god is not in a hurry Like if you look at the generations like he brought a famine in the land and in the process of teaching all those 12 tribes That they need to love one another That they need to be a family that they need to yield themselves one toward another They need to have genuine care for one another not pick on one another And the whole process of the famine to bring them to egypt And to teach him his ways and to save them from the famine and then They forgot god's people when they and the lord blessed them and multiplied them then they became slaves there They were oppressed there. Then they remembered the lord.

They cried out to the lord And then the lord showed his mighty hand and his outstretched arm towards them and he delivered them from the pharaoh Then they come to the red sea And then the panic is on because this trial is there right in front of them. It's life and death And they call out to the lord But they were rebelling against him Like if we blame the lord for our circumstances But yet They acknowledge their sin. He saved them from egypt.

Now. He's bringing them through the red sea And then they forget all his benefits They forget how he pardoned their sins and how he healed them And this is really a testimony of us How many times we remember from the beginning what the lord did for us? And how we were pity pitiful and how he had pity on us and mercy on us Then we seem to become something And then we forget the lord and we kind of got it from here and and so on and so forth But he saved them and why did he save them because they were righteous? Because they were good He saved them for his own namesake That his name would be glorified and sometimes we forget In our serving in our giving in our helping in our living We forget it's for the lord. It's for him.

It's not for us And it's really not for others. It's for his glory That he might make his power known that he might make his might known he rebuked the sea he dried it up He led them through the depths As they were in the wilderness As through the wilderness he saved them from the hand of him who hated them He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy the waters covered their enemies There was not one of them left Then they believed his words and they sang his praise He did miracles for them. How many times can you can you count on your hands? How many times the lord you couldn't pay a bill? A check showed up.

You couldn't you you didn't have a job. The lord brought some work You didn't have food the lord provided for you You didn't have you ran out of gas somebody stopped and gave you a can like so many benefits He's done I remember a time. This is off the beaten track.

I was uh missed my flight to go to alberta We had to go work there and I was grumbling against the lord and I said lord Why in the world did I miss my flight with the time change? I somehow I missed it And I had to jump in my pickup and drive Uh to alberta and I was like there's what possible good could come from this okay, and Before I was going The holy spirit prompted me which I never do to bring a jerry can of gas With me I had a gas vehicle to bring a jerry can of gas I put that thing in my truck and i'm driving up to coca hala And i'm going up there and I see a car on the side of the road And the guy's going like this I pull over on the side of the road. He's a priest He's an orthodox priest going to officiate a wedding in colona And he ran out of gas on the coke hollers. No gas And I pull over and I share the gospel with this priest I tell him that the holy spirit spoke to me I don't even know if they what if they believe in the holy spirit or how they believe in the holy spirit I said the holy spirit spoke to me And told me to bring a can of gas And I didn't understand at the time, but I was obedient and I said and now I understand why I says jesus is alive It's not about religion.

It's about personal relationship with the lord. Obviously. He loves you And you need this gas and this is his kindness toward you And I just grabbed that gas and I put that into his car there and the tears were running down my cheeks You see I missed my flight.

I had to drive 12 hours to edmonton It made no sense to me But for the purpose of one testimony of a living christ to a dead orthodox priest That's his kindness To religious people and for whose sake for his name's sake That he might be glorified. I bet you that man never forgot that Then they believed his words they sang his song how many times have you seen the power of god and you believed his words And then you went through hard things that you don't understand and then you get into this evil heart thing Of unbelief and you isolate yourself and you hide And you seek your own thing And you figure well, you know, it's useless to serve the lord. I may as well go serve money serve myself serve the flesh And all the while you you still do your religious activity But it's in unbelief Well, what good is that? It's useless and what's the manifestation you're getting angry you're getting frustrated sometimes the odd swear comes out of your mouth Well, you know what it says in james chapter one.

It says if a man thinks he's religious And he can't bridle his tongue His religion is useless And this is something that when we look in the mirror, I have to ask myself is my religion useless They believed his words they sang his song verse 13 They soon forgot his works And they didn't wait for his counsel So we're not hearing from the lord kind of like saul didn't hear from the lord. So he went to a witch for some counsel Rather than getting counsel from the lord. You see the lord had departed from saul, which is what? What shawn was talking about? He wasn't hearing from the lord So he just started to kindle his own fire and try to make something happen You know and just push ahead without waiting on the lord and hearing from him You see the opposite of that is when david was plundered by the amalekites And all their family and children everything were gone.

Those guys were raiders. They were warriors. They were fighters You know, but then when they lost all their family and their possessions, they all cried they became like weak weaklings And then they turned on on david How many times when we go through something husband wife we're going through something and we turn against each other? Right.

Our kids are going through something and then they turn on their parents The parents are struggling with things and they yell at their kids We turn on one another this is not how it's supposed to be david's men turned on him But you know what he did He didn't panic He'd finished crying he wiped his tears and he called on the name of the lord he strengthened himself in the lord He encouraged himself when he was down He called on the name of the lord and he waited for an answer from the lord He grabbed the epod which was for the priest. He said man by faith i'm grabbing this thing. I need to hear from the lord Should I go after them and pursue them or should we not? How many those guys they were warriors? That's what they did is they they plundered people But he needed to know this was a clearly a discipline from the lord And he needed to know if god was going to be with him Or if he was going to do a saw move there He didn't know what had happened to Saul But if he was just going to go on his own and just try to kindle his own fire and make something happen Just trying to make something happen.

You can find yourself fighting against the lord You see how do you know it was a discipline from the lord you want to know how it was a discipline from the lord Because god had anointed him king over israel his brother shared And then after many years of being hunted like a dog by his father-in-law Saul It came into his heart and he said within his heart now, I know One day i'm going to perish at the hand of saul unbelief came in discouragement came in and unbelief came in and he chose rather than keep trusting in the lord and Waiting on the lord's timing to go and join himself with the the king of the philistines And then he found himself there in the philistine land even ready to fight against his brethren He would have fought against them. The lord restrained him the madness of the prophet And then he was there with the amalekites When when they were out raiding and the malachites came and took his wives took their children took all their burnt their houses to the ground He flushed them right out of that place Because he had no intention of letting him go back there Because god had called him to be king of israel and the purpose and time was not yet fulfilled We have to wait on the lord we can't just kindle a fire in our zeal and try to make something happen How many times we've tried to do that try to force something? You know what? It's from pride It's not from humility wait on the lord They soon forgot his works and they did not wait for his counsel And what was the result of not waiting for his counsel? They didn't wait for moses to come down from the mountain They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness And they tested god in the desert And god gave them their request They wanted meat to eat they weren't happy with the man They weren't content. They wanted more More and more and more because more is better To the flesh But you know what the more you have the more you want You know after a season of fasting I've heard it said that the stomach shrinks And so you you can have a a small plate and be full But in a season of feasting, I see people they go back for seconds and thirds And the flesh is even thinking about going for a fourth.

It wants more That's the nature of the flesh It wants more and more With wages You're never satisfied With what you have we're never content We want more there's a lust in the heart for more and the holy spirit want us to be content And to trust in the lord And so when we beg for things You give us what we want if we beg long enough But he said after he granted them their request He sent leanness into their souls So they were full naturally But spiritually they were hungry Because they had missed the point of what god was trying to accomplish When they envied moses in the camp and aaron the saint of the lord the earth opened up and swallowed dothan and abiram those rebels A fire was kindled in their company a flame burned up in their wickedness They made a calf At horrib and they worshiped the molded image Thus they exchanged the glory into the image of an ox that ate grass and they forgot god their savior Who had done great things in egypt the wondrous works? This is the nature of us as men When we get humbled We cry out to him Then we get our legs under us and we say we got it from here and then we take dumb decisions And the lord has to discipline us because he cares about us You know and sometimes it goes ill to the point where some of them perished In the rebellion and it's supposed to put some good fear in us So we don't lust after evil things it says in one corinthians 10 These things were written for our example in one corinthians 10 that we don't lust after evil things Because it's in us to do that But We need to restrain ourselves this is picking up the cross has to do with restrain ourselves deny self Pick up the cross and follow him. We sang that song The world behind me the cross before me I was like really You know i'm looking forward to another vacation soon world behind me the cross before you really can I sing that? But it's really a mindset It's not in where you are or what you're doing. It's is the lord always before your face I've set the lord before my face Or do we just lust exceedingly in the wilderness and and just make him angry? It says here he got angry with them The awesome things that he did by the red sea therefore he said he would destroy them I don't know if he's if he's not going to destroy them if he's if he's not angry with them He said he would destroy them had not moses his chosen one stood in in the gap in the breach Before him at the porch there To turn away his wrath lest he should destroy his children Then they despised the pleasant land they did not believe his word so You know, you can start in faith.

You can have faith you can do start well, but it's not how you start Is it it's how you finish It's not how you start So you can start in faith. You can start in believing they believed in him But then they soon forgot his works And it says here they despised the pleasant land and they did not believe his word What was his word that he would bring them into the land, but they went by what they saw Rather than what the what the lord had said And and this is where the lord really come to test us do we really believe his word Then our actions should line up with what his word teaches what his word says to us So when we read our bibles, we're not reading it to send it to uncle john We're reading it as in one who looks in the mirror and say lord. That's me or that's not me And I need you really to help me because I want to be that man who loves the lord with all the heart Just like his word commands and to take a stand and to be set apart even if I get rejected Rejected indeed by men, but chosen by god and precious I could keep going but I feel led to just go over to galatians in chapter 2 You know dan you shared about wanting praises and honor for men, you know, it's in us Which one of us want to be hated by our friends and our brothers and our neighbors and our countrymen none of us And so our tendency can be to compromise You know when jesus was there there were a lot of people who believed in him But they wouldn't confess him why? Because they might get ostracized they might get put out of the synagogue They don't want to lose their friends.

They don't want to lose their security. They they loved synagogue. That was their life You know, I remember a time when I got put out of synagogue so to speak for confessing what I believed And to such a vocal point that they decided they didn't want this guy at their at their fellowship And so they rejected us on a transfer of membership to a church It can happen.

I remember crying The rejection is hard. It's not easy The easiest thing is to conform to comply When we look in galatians in chapter 2 verse 4 and this occurred because false brethren Secretly brought in Who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty? Which we had in christ That they might bring us into bondage So sometimes people can come to a fellowship we've had this in years past And they come and they spy out our freedom And they say well, you know what we think That you would do far better If you guys wouldn't wear wedding rings We think you would do far better if the women would all wear head coverings Not just in service, but all the time And we think we you would do far and all of a sudden those who seem to be something began to Put a yoke on us We're doing quite well with these guys they had another way worked out which seemed to be far better But I didn't see the love and I didn't experience the life With their rules and their regulations and that's what's really happening over here These jews had come in by stealth To spy out their freedom and their liberty that they had in the spirit To bring them back into religious bondage To whom Brother paul says we did not yield submission even for an hour now some would say well, that's rebellious You won't trim the edge of your beard then you're with us. You trim it.

You're not with us You know, you won't wear certain garments you're not with us You know you you wear your wedding rings. You're not with us You see and I can feel like rejection being rejected But paul knew this was A scheme of the enemy to bring religion of men back into the circle of the work of the spirit And it affected the church here big time Now verse six says From those who seemed to be something whatever they were it makes no difference to me. I like his attitude It sounds prideful But you know what he can discern that this is a serpent's tool to bring men back into religious bondage to Bring pride back into the hearts and the group Rather than just childlike simple childlike faith and just expressing themselves even if there's some you know some stuff that needs to be discerned and Things because they were the corinthians who were working in the gifts of the spirit.

I'm sure the galatians were also On the contrary when they saw that the gospel for the circumcised had been committed to me as the gospel for the circum Or the the uncircumcised to me as the gospel for the circumcised was to peter For he who worked effectively in peter for the apostleship to the circumcised Also worked effectively in me toward the gentiles two different ministries, but one spirit one body one church And sometimes we can get caught up in this like i've seen it Like you know in with judaism and and you become like a messianic jew and we're just trying to conform to the old paths Well, you know what in christ? There's a new creation Neither jew nor gentile neither male nor female you say well, there is jews and gentiles. There is males and females, but one in christ There's no partiality there's no two-tier christianity You know if you can memorize certain things praise the lord if others can't or they haven't put invested time well, so be it But before god if you're living pure before his face That's the main thing to love the lord with all your heart soul mind and strength to love your neighbor And they didn't even give them 10 commandments to work with They just needed the holy ghost And the holy spirit would help them. You say well don't commit sexual immorality.

Don't drink blood and eat food sacrifice out You start there you're going to do just fine Because the holy spirit's gonna he's got you You know what if you're yielded to the spirit the holy spirit will lead you and guide you in all truth. I remember I had some Some illegal cable box that I had in those days and the holy spirit said take that thing in the driveway and smash it with a hammer well part of me was like That's the holy spirit. The other part of me was like, well, what are you going to watch your movies? Then you're going to have no movies to watch And I thought I better not think too long on this I just went and I said lord help me I just grabbed the hammer and just smashed that illegal thing that I had bought for 300 bucks The flesh was not too happy, but you know what the holy spirit was leading me I don't know where that's written But the holy spirit was speaking and he's able He's able to speak He goes on from there Those who seem to be something whatever they were makes no difference to me god shows personal favoritism to no man For those who seem to be something added nothing to me On the contrary when they saw the gospel for the uncircumcised was committed to me and all that He said when james and peter and john who seemed to be pillars perceived the grace had been given to me They gave me and barnabas the right hand of fellowship And that we should go to the gentiles as they did to the circumcised.

They desired only that we should remember the poor The very thing which I also was eager to do which brings me back to james the next verse If anyone thinks he's religious And he doesn't bridle his tongue. His religion is useless, but pure and undefiled religion before god Is what? You want to be religious pure and undefiled? You start remembering the poor and you start making yourself available to to widows and orphans That is the gospel When you start bringing those who have nothing and who can't repay you to your house And you take some of your children's bread and you sacrifice it for the poor and for and for those who are needy And you open up your heart and your home to them now you're getting the right kind of religious But if you're sitting in meetings where you're just doing things in a certain kind of religious way, that's demonic The holy spirit's not part of that And we need to get out the fear man out of our hearts And we need to start to move in the measure of faith And we need to walk in the spirit because those who are led by the spirit of god. These are the sons of god God is not with religion.

He's with religion. That is in this kind of manner Remembering the poor the widows the oppressed The one who is downcast You know if we talk about the the fast which god has chosen from isaiah 58 He said is this not the fast that i've chosen to share your bread with the hungry To bring to go to your house those who are oppressed and who are needy Right to keep from doing your own will on the sabbath. You say oh Sabbath, you know, we keep friday night to saturday night.

Praise god. We keep saturday night to sunday night. Praise god Some people keep every day the same.

They say jesus is lord monday As well as on sunday and saturday Every day is the lord's day And to the lord you keep it if you keep one day over another praise the lord If someone sees that jesus is lord of sabbath and and he is our rest then keep every day the same Don't do your own thing monday to friday and then Do all your religious mantra on one day of the week and the rest of the week you can't you can't control your tongue That's useless May the lord give us understanding in these things Now it happened that these sincere brothers got caught into bondage and you know what We can get caught into bondage These brothers got caught into bondage. It says before certain men came from james He would eat with the gentiles and then they came and he withdrew and separated himself fearing those who were of the circumcision This fear of man is just a dangerous thing If we respect the face god will not respect us We have to respect the lord we have to fear him if you fear him you don't have to fear no men Doesn't matter. They're going to kick you out or reject you Better to be accepted by him and rejected by men What does it say rejected indeed by men but chosen by god and precious? We've come to him The chief cornerstone and the rest of the jews they also played the hypocrite with him So that even barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy this fear man brought the best brothers the strongest brothers into bondage But paul when I saw this that they were not Straightforward about the truth.

They were just kind of had this kind of religious side they had this jesus side they had this top tier jewish thing you know They're a little better than the rest this pride when it creeps in It comes before the fall and haughtiness before destruction They weren't straightforward about the truth I said to peter before them all if you being a jew live in a manner of gentiles and not as jews And why do you compel gentiles to live as jews? We who are jews by nature and not sinners of the gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law But by the hearing of faith in jesus christ Even we believe in jesus christ that we might be justified by faith in christ and not by works alone or by works of the law Now we know what james says Show me your faith without works and i'll show you my faith by my works but beginning in the spirit and then Seeking to become more righteous by doing or not doing certain things has an appearance of righteousness But it is man's righteousness and not his righteousness A righteousness which is by the law and not being justified by faith verse 17 But if while we seek to be justified by christ, we ourselves are also found sinners is christ. Therefore a minister of sin By fearing man, that's a snare Certainly not for if I build again those things which I destroyed I make myself a transgressor If I bring religious activity back into my life And I seek the honor and praise of men and I seek to establish my own righteousness by seeming to become something You see there was a time in my life when I thought there would be no opportunity for me to have a platform To share the gospel because I knew in my heart god had called me to preach the gospel I didn't know what that would look like. So I decided i'm going to bible school Now what should I do which denomination there's about a hundred of them and I thought okay Well, I lined up most closely with the pentecostal assemblies And so I went there and I got the books there and my wife remembers i've come home with a big stack of books I thought I was going to enroll in the holy spirit said stop Just stop building so much houses Right and start to spend some time in the word and you don't need some man to teach you all the little intricacies of his gospel You can learn some things there, but you need to be learned you need to learn some things from the spirit You don't need men to teach you.

You need the holy spirit to lead you and guide you in truth. So I spent a year Most of the year I throttled back the business. I spent most of a year in the word That's how the holy spirit led me And you know what i'm not a pentecostal I'm, not a charismatic I love jesus And then i've had to take some of my doctrines like speaking in tongues and like brother Zach says that they make that thing like the pinky 10 feet long and wherever you go You're whacking someone and the ministry you have is trying to get them to speak in tongues So you can boast in your flesh and boast in their flesh that they're filled with the spirit But they can't control their mother tongue, but they can speak in tongues They swear like sailors when they get angry when they hit themselves in the thumb with a hammer But they can speak in tongues when they're in church and shout hallelujah.

What is that? Now i'm not against speaking in tongues Or the gifts of the spirit i'm for it all But you know what the holy spirit has to show us you can't elevate one portion And neglect the other they have their rightful place He's given some to be apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors some teachers. However, the order is And you know what? We all evade the pastor above the apostle. He said well, there is no apostles today Well, there is people who go and plant churches and those who lead men to christ and disciple them There were apostles then they're still apostles now.

We don't go by titles. You know when someone says oh, oh, you're a pastor Okay Like do you go around and say? Well, i'm a plumber or i'm this i'm that if they ask your occupation you may say what you do That's why it says don't call anyone father. You have one father even god.

Well, does that mean I shouldn't call my dad father? He is my father Right. You are a pastor But we elevate pastors Over prophets we elevate pastors over all these other things And it has its place the pastor has his place, but so do all the other parts The church was never designed to be a one-man show to have some guy stand up here and just run the whole deal He's given bishops. He's given elders.

He's given teachers. He's given prophets. He's given apostles He's given evangelists that the whole body might function he's also given a gift of help and all these other gifts Some people who love money they love the gift of giving that's how they justify their lust I just thought i'd say that for the record When I grew up that's what I wanted to be I wanted the gift of giving So I could spend on myself You say you got the gift of giving but compared to how much we make we don't give our 10 For honest and we're not supposed to just give 10 that's the tie then there's offering So you got the gift of giving you should be given 20 30 percent You don't got the gift of giving Some people they don't have nothing And they give when they have nothing that's the gift of giving like the woman who put two mites in a jar She had the gift of giving She gave out of her need After peter was stood them to his face He goes on from there If I rebuild the things that I once destroyed and make myself a transgressor For I through the law died to the law That I might live to god.

We got to die to this religious junk that we take pride in I have been crucified with christ It is no longer I who live but christ lives in me in the life I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not Set aside the grace of god for if righteousness comes through the law christ died in vain, you know in philippians He says there's one thing I do I think it's philippians I forget those things that lie behind What's he talking about his righteousness which come through the law because according to the law he himself thought himself to be blameless But he was a violent arrogant angry brother Thought he was doing god's service by arresting christians and seeking to put them to death in some cases One thing he did he left his religion behind and he looked unto jesus Pressing forward to those things which lie ahead to become christ-like That's godliness that's true religion Wherever jesus went he remembered the poor wherever he went.

He helped the sick wherever he went He ministered to the hurting and he was always looking for the one that was humble and hurting to minister unto them He goes into chapter three oh foolish galatians who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Where jesus was clearly portrayed among you is crucified Only this I want you to learn did you receive the spirit from the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? He goes on to address this thing in the in the galatian church Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? You're now being made holy through perfecting the flesh Have you suffered so many things in vain if indeed was in vain therefore he supplies the spirit among you He works miracles among you Did he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Just as abraham believed god and went on to his account for righteousness Therefore knowing this that only those who are of faith are sons of abraham And the scripture foreseeing that god would justify the gentiles by faith preach the gospel To abraham beforehand saying in you all nations of the earth shall be blessed So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing abraham May the lord help us Not to trust in our own righteousness or in man's wisdom Of what righteousness looks like or in how we can ascend who's going to ascend unto heaven for us Or who's going to go into the abyss for us? No, that word is near us It's a righteousness that comes by faith in believing the word of god You know isaiah 53 lord who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the lord which is jesus christ by the way been revealed Who has had a revelation of jesus who has believed in his word? Who pardons all of our sins who heals all of our diseases We need him to do a deeper work in us We forget Where we came from sometimes we're so eager to do something for god when god like sean was sharing want to do something for us David wanted to build god a house and god want to make you a house Before he can build us a house. He has to purge us of junk Man's ways man's religion religious junk That hinders us from walking freely in the spirit I think the most free david ever was when the ark of the covenant was coming into jerusalem And that guy was dancing before the lord with all his might the freest he ever was May the lord give us that kind of a heart to be free in the spirit and to love him wholeheartedly Justified by faith we have peace with god may the lord bless you in jesus name. Amen You