Jesus Is Lord

Pastor Pete recently returned from a trip to Arkansas to meet with other Influencers regional directors. Their purpose was to help men become self feeders on the bread of life, Jesus Christ who is the word of God made manifest. The director of Influencers Rocky Fleming developed a discipleship training program called the Journey. This program has changed men’s lives in areas of the country where Influencers groups have sprung up and flourished.

Pete was also blessed to spend time with his brother in Alabama and an old friend from Oxford, Mississippi. He had a chance to visit his hometown of Birmingham and reconnect with friends from his High School and from Auburn where he attended college.

Pete recalls that he had a mentor in the high school where he worked who would say to the guys he met, “you’re a man of God.” Pete introduced 4M (four men) disciple training groups to this man who has recently retired. He is interested in starting 4M training in Alabama.

Recently tornadoes have devastated areas of the South including Birmingham. Pete was impressed by the destructive power of these natural disasters and is thankful that there were no deaths despite the destruction.

He was glad to reconnect with his Southern roots but he is blessed to be back in Irvine with a new perspective of why God has planted him here.

In order for men to grow in their fellowship with their Lord Jesus Christ, men need to develop a hunger and thirst for the Word of God. They need to become committed to fellowship with other men who love the Lord and have a heart to serve God. It’s important to remember the men and women who planted the word in our own lives… those who walked alongside us to train us, mentor us, and raise us up to appreciate the love of God and the love of serving God’s people.

Pete recalls the men he worked with at Briarwood Christian school. These lifelong friends he developed many years ago are still walking in fellowship with the Lord.

As Pete thought about the path that God has taken him, he remembered his ministry in Germany during the fall of the Berlin Wall. He recalled a retreat in Europe where one of the speakers was the popular Christian author Oswald Sanders. Pete asked him this question that was the topic of debate in Christian circles: “Do you think that it’s possible for a man to be saved without making Jesus lord?” Sanders said, “I was saved before I made Jesus lord of my life. This was because of poor teaching. But when I was taught correctly about the lordship of Christ, I dedicated my life to serve Him as Lord.”

According to Franklin Graham, the name of Jesus shouts out a choice: to whom will you give your life? The Apostle Peter said, there is no other name whereby we must be saved. He is not a negotiator, he is Lord. According to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

We must come to the Lord Jesus Christ on his terms, not ours. When you come to Jesus you are no longer your own…. you give up the right to yourself. Lord means owner. When Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, you have surrendered your life to him. Christianity is not who we are but rather whose we are.

Following the Lord Jesus Christ is not politically correct. Oswald Chambers said in his devotional for November 1, You are not your own. God will make your life a thoroughfare for the world when Jesus is Lord. No human can stand that on his own unless he is empowered by the Holy Spirit. The point of the Christian life is to strive to become just like Jesus so that people will be attracted to him. Everyone is watching when you’re a follower of Christ. God will bring us to the rugged reality where we no longer care what happens to us so that he gets his way for the purpose of redeeming others in Christ’s name.

The greatest life lessons are learned through the greatest tests. You can’t have a testimony without a test. We get angry with God when there are trials if we view God’s tests from the world’s perspective. God taught Pete to praise him in all things the day that his wife was in the delivery room during the birth of their second son. The doctors had said, “we’re losing the baby’s heartbeat.” Pete prayed earnestly in the Father’s waiting room, “Lord, please save my wife and child.” God had asked Pete, “will you still honor, love and serve me no matter the outcome of this situation?” Pete searched his heart and answered, “Lord you know all things. Yes I will love and serve you no matter what.” Then the doctor came up to Pete and said, “I’m sorry, but we lost the baby.”

CTo love God is to rest in the reassurance that he comes to us with the grip of his Son’s nail-pierced hands to take upon himself our own pain and suffering. If through a broken heart God can bring his purposes to pass in this world, then thank him for breaking our hearts.

As our savior, Jesus Christ has rescued us from the destruction of this world. He is our savior and Lord. Lord means one who has supreme rank. A soldier falls in line according to his Lord’s command. A disciple is disciplined to man his post until he is relieved by his commander in chief. Lordship means absolute ownership. The Lord has Sovreign control over the life of his servants who are bound to him by the bond of love.

There are many dangerous places in this world. The safest place is to be where the Lord has assigned us. When we are in the protection of his will, if God be for us who can be agains us?

According to Philippians 2:5-11, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

It’s an honor and a privilege to bow down to the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing is to walk in fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father, and one with another in the household of faith.

Who is our Lord? According to the Puritan prayer from the Valley of Vision, Christ Is All:
Thou hast loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,
may I ever love thee as I am loved.
Thou hast given thyself for me,
May I give myself to thee;
Thou hast died for me,
May I live to thee;
In every moment of my time,
In every movement of my mind,
In every pulse of my heart.
May I never dally with the world and its allurements,
But walk by thy side, listen to thy voice,
Be clothed with thy grace, and adorned with thy righteousness.

… that in serving our Lord,
we may ever live to the praise of the glory of thy grace!

Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Pete McKenzie
it was good to see you guys you know the ongoing saga of the times that we live in and God has given us a great privilege and opportunity to live in these times. And I think that’s what it is to it’s a privilege and an opportunity to be alive today to be Christians today to turn one cheek turn the other when someone forces you to go one mile volunteer to go to

when someone

Sue’s you for your coat shirt, give him your coat also.

Pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you. That’s what I’ve told you to do.

So why do you say you love me, but you don’t obey me. You’re not obedient and that the ram of that wheel was obedience, obedience to the being a man of the word obedience to be a man of prayer, obedience to be a man in fellowship with other men that are chasing after Christ’s obedience to witnessing and sharing your faith, obedience to the Lordship of Christ, bringing yourself under, and you bring yourself under. In the army, the drill sergeant made me bring myself under.

And I did more push ups and I’ve ever done in my life, the first day I showed up.

And he made me do it. But it was good for me. It made me strong. I had the best year in the minor leagues that I had, in five years of playing. I had the best year after going through basic training in the Army during the offseason.

And doing all that exercise and doing all those push ups and getting in shape the way I did, I had a good year, that next year, it paid off all the exercise paid off all the push ups, all the sweat and the strain that getting up early and running.

And trying to get in trying to forget that

the man of God could be adequate, equipped, and for every good work, is that what you want in your life? Do you want to be a man of God that’s adequate and equipped for every good work for everything God’s called you to do? I had a guy’s talking to you yesterday, and he’s got a really tough marriage. And he’s wondering if he should leave in just because he’s under such pressure from his wife and stress in the relationship.

And he is wondering if he should leave.

And

I don’t think I told him what he doesn’t want to hear.

Because it’s like the guy that I saw last week, I’ll get back to this guy. Maybe.

Think guy I saw last week had this beard and it was full and white. And I said, Boy, you’re looking more like Santa Claus every week.

He says, Yeah, but my wife didn’t like it. And she wants me to shave it off. I said, What a great opportunity. He said, What do you mean? I said, Man, the army opportunity, you get to do something your wife wants you to do that you don’t want to do.

And you could shave that off and you get a lot of brownie points in that relationship. She would know that you care about what she thinks and you want to please her.

It loves righteousness and rejoices when truth wins out.

And I said, Lord, you’re right. I don’t know how to do that. I’ve proven that. And it just blessed my socks off that God cared about my character. And where did I learn about my character in God’s Word? I was reading God’s word. Now I bet there’s a lot of testimonies in this room of guys of you reading God’s word and having similar situations. You picked up the devotional book that morning, in the thing you’re going through the thing you need to hear. God just showed you that in the word and the word came alive in the word is alive and fresh, and

LD on a be fresh in my hunger for the word and joining guys in prayer and my own personal prayer life. I wanted to get stronger, not weaker, I want to be more at it not less. But I need guys like you and we’ll talk about that when we get to fellowship. But I need guys like you in my life to serve me on to show me what the way to do it with me to watch my back to take care of each other,

Now, what’s it useful far? It’s useful for teaching. In other words, I’m teaching right now. The Scriptures are useful for teaching. It tells us which way to go. It tells us what’s good and bad. It tells us you know what, to where to stop and when to go.

And you know that lifestyle and when you’re doing those kinds of things people take notice. They’re not surprised or impressed, might be depressed to see me grumbling and complaining about it. But when they see me helping that guy that I should be playing and he’s playing, but I’m helping him be successful. People take notice it’s very evangelistic

And say, I’m going to quit going in this direction. I’m going to go in the other direction. I’m going to go in the direction God said go in is maybe harder and maybe more rigorous. It may be requires me and you know what it always requires me dying to something in me. Some right? I have some expats, some lust, I have some pleasure, I have this not good, it’s sin. It’s going to hurt me. And that’s why God rebukes us and corrects us because he wants us not to be hurt. He wants us to live lives, where we can’t be hurt. That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. sermon on the mount is about talking to people who cannot be hurt. Why would he ever tell us to turn the other cheek? Go the second mile? Why would you ever do that? What spirit in you, it’s the Holy Spirit in you. But the spirit of justice in this spirit of self and pride always jumped started a fence. And it says that’s not right. They’re wrong. They treated you unjustly. It’s not fair. You can’t let them treat you like that. They’ll just run over you.

And we hear that voice. But if you’re not in God’s word, you’re not going to hear his voice, his voice, his son, humble yourself and the mighty hand of God and I’ll exalt you. I gave my son when he humbled himself, I exalted him and gave him a name, which is above every name, the name of Jesus, every knee would bow. But if he bade me if he hadn’t humbled himself in how many himself even the point of death on the cross, I couldn’t have resolved at him, I want to exalt you.

And you’re going to have to be like a child, it’s mature. maturity means that you’re childlike, doesn’t mean you stay in an infant Taub condition, but you’re growing and the more you grow, the more humble you become. And the more humble you become, the more needy you become, and the more you depend on him. And that’s where spiritual maturity is, it’s that paradox of the Christian life. If you want to go up, you have to go down. If you want to live, you have to die, if you want to be first you have to be live, if you want to be great, you have to be a servant.

He said, Yeah, well, you’ve given me he said, I’ve had three wives. None of them have like my beard.

And I didn’t say what I was thinking.

So the guy yesterday, I just said what an opportunity you have. Now you could leave and that would be easy on you. And it might be better for her. He said, Well, I just want to make her happy. I said want you to become the man and the man of God and the husband that God’s called you to beat her. He’s in a situation with his wife and some of you guys have been there for years. And the situation is that she’s pretty much done with a relationship. So anything he do does to try to please her she’s going to kick back in his face. What’s the word say about that? The word says that you be the husband that you’re supposed to be no matter how she responds. That’s what a GOP a love is. He’s not a friend yet and haven’t phileo love going for him anymore. That’s friendship and they’re not best friends is husband and wife. He doesn’t have any arrows going much. At least not much. As far as romance in the relationship. Then have any store gay going? They got between them. They got seven families, children. And so the family stuff is very difficult and the blended family. So what is the guy do? What’s the word say? The word says it a Gabriella Love is always there. If you look at first Corinthians 13, four through eight. Love is very patient and cain is never jealous or envious, never selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It loves.

So it’s not selfish. It’s not love will be keep be dutiful and it’ll do its duty level believe the best of you. Level hang in there when the hanging gets tough so that a gap a love will leap over walls it good friends and arrows and family love can’t do that it’s all reciprocal. But God’s love is a gobby. It can keep loving even when there’s no love and return. It can do what you’ve been called to do. Even if there’s no payoff and

That’s a difference in ministering to your wife and manipulating your wife, ministry is when you do the right thing or manipulating is when you do the right thing. And you’re hoping to get a good response from it. And when you don’t you quit doing it. And that’s manipulating minister ministering to your wife is doing the right thing, no matter how she responds, doing the right thing and loving her and serving her. And even if she throws it back in your face, now that can only come when you make Jesus Lord of your life and the Holy Spirit is controlling your life. You’re not going to do that in your natural self. It’s unfair, it’s not right, it’s unjust. And you’ll never do it in your own flesh. The only way you can possibly do it is when you’re filled with the Spirit and you get filled with the Spirit in the word and worship, fellowship, all the basics. But if you’re going to turn the other cheek in the he’s being required to do that, now didn’t get the idea that he enjoyed this council. Or that he was like the guy with the beard, when that guy with the beard walked out, walked away said you give me a lot of wise counsel, but I’m not gonna do this one. I’m not gonna buy this one. And I was thinking that’s why he gave we’re gonna be on your fourth wife in the not too distant future.

So God has called us to be men of the word. But let’s just make sure we’re not like that this crowd in Ezekiel 33. When God told us EQ As for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother saying, Come now and hear what the message is which comes for from the Lord. They come to you as people come and sit before you is my people in they hear your words, but they will not do them. For they do lustful, the desires of Express by their mouth and their heart goes after their gain. Be how you are to them like a central song by one who has a beautiful voice in plays well on an instrument, for they hear your words, but they do not practice in. So when it comes to pass as surely as it will, then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst when it comes to pass. He’s talking about when the consequences of their disobedience comes to pass. They all know that he was a prophet, he said this was going to happen. He warned us not to just be hearers of the word but to be doers of the word. So God wrote his word and it’s God breathed because he used men just like you use a fountain pen. He breathed he It was his thoughts. It was his instructions. It was his commands. And he had these men, over 40 of them write their words. He inspired them. If you ever written anything that was inspired, encourage someone and they really got encouraged and it was a note that you sent them or maybe it’s a note that you got and they were inspired and it came to us The right time. And maybe there was a verse in Scripture. I’ve shared this with you guys before. But I was in spring training in 1970. And they came out to the spring training field where we were practicing they said they want to see in the front office in this entire town in Lakeland, Florida. And so I went up and they said we just sold you to the Minnesota Twins see ever been sold. Well, I didn’t like it. And but I went and joined their triple A team, which was in Evansville, Indiana, and I was sitting on the bench behind a guy thought I was better than had been the all star and double A the year before he had been in the same league, and he won the all star. So out to be playing every night. And this guy’s playing in the manager was there with him last year. So he’s playing his favorites. And I’m sitting on the bench and I wasn’t I didn’t have a real good attitude. And then one night, I got called into pancha. And I said, Boy, I need to get a hit here and show the manager I need to be in the game. Close situation. Unfortunately, that night, a guy named Pedro borbone, was on the mound. Pedro was a starting pitcher. A few years later, when the Reds won two back to back World Series. I helped him get to the big leagues at night. He struck me out. And as we say in Alabama was Lorna and ducks instead. And went back to my room that night I’d been reading every night and Ken Taylor just come out with a Living Bible prayer paraphrase. And I was reading in Hebrews 12. Now this is the way God works right when I needed it. That was a young Christian didn’t, you know this fresh off the turnip truck spiritually. And I didn’t understand how God worked. But God was teaching me how I worked in God. It wasn’t a mistake that that night I struck out, I was discouraged. I was crumbling in my beard that I wasn’t playing every night. And God had me reading in Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12, in that portion of the chapter, says, you know, God disciplines us because we’re his children, and he doesn’t discipline us, then we’re illegitimate children. We’re not as children at all. But you know, the problem with discipline is it hurts. But what we see as a result is a quiet growth in grace in character. And that just not me right out of the bed. And I was thinking, and the reason it knocked me out of the bed was because the first thought I had was, there’s a God who created this whole world who created the universe, and every star knows him by name. He’s all powerful, omnipotent, and he knows everything. And he cares about my character, me, he cares about me and my character. He cares so much that he’s explaining to me what’s going on. And then he went on to say, you know, Pete, let me show you what you know. You know how to be in the lineup every night, you know how to be an all star.

But let me tell you what you don’t know you don’t know how to sit on the bench and pull for that guy in front of you and help him be successful.

It’s useful for teaching us the doctrines in the ways of the Lord. It’s also useful for rebuking, I had a friend one time tell me he said, Pete, if you’re not being rebuked, it’s not because you don’t need it, is because people don’t think you can take it. Can you take a rebuke because if you can’t, you won’t be reading the Bible very much. Because the Bible rebukes us for other ways that our laziness for our habits for our lustful heart. So lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh or boastful pride of life when those things are showing up the scripture Ruby,

rebukes all rebuke means it’s correcting as Ghana, what God was doing with me in Hebrews 12 he was correcting me. He was saying, Pete, you’re grumbling, you’re complaining. You think more highly of yourself than you should you should think of others is more important than yourself. Help that guy be successful. Forget about yourself, be a blessing to him.

to live the lifestyle that Jesus Christ gave us. People take notice when you turn the other cheek. You could feel the room fill our pockets. You didn’t deserve to be slapped back handed across the face. But your response was, you turn the other cheek slyke me playing golf with this guy one day I was in my 30s or 40s. And he was in my age in his mid 70s. And they just put us together because we had a to some and they had it too soon. So they put us together and we’re walking off the 18th hole and he says you some kind of Padre or something. I said why did he ask? He said I never seen a guy so many three foot putts and never cuss.

So people are watching. They watch how we respond. They watch how we say our children watch us our grandchildren watches they see how we spend our time. They see what we value and they want to be valued it’s a it’s also for correcting you’re going in this direction stop. You need to go in this other direction. Are you teachable? Are you coachable? When someone says you’re going in a direction that you shouldn’t be going in? that’s hurting others may be hurting you and most assuredly hurting you. And they say stop hold it. That’s the wrong direction. You need to turn around and go in this direction. That’s what repentant means I’m going in one direction, it’s the wrong direction and us know it and I stop.

And that’s what God has called us to. And he’s called us to be men of the word. So I don’t know where you come in from this morning. I don’t know what your habit has been in the word. But it’s also good for instruction in righteousness. So maybe you’ve been a backslider in the word maybe you’ve counted, hit and missed. But I know this for sure. And this is true for me. It’s true for you. You can do more. You can be in the word more. You can decide to make the Word of God your final authority more. You can taste more and see more, that God is good and his word is sweet. And his word is alive, and it’s fresh every morning. It’s alive in our hearts. It inspires us own. It encourages us. It rebukes us, it corrects us all the things we need in life to be trees planted by rivers of water that bear fruit, that are prosperous, and everything he does, he prospers. God, that’s what God wants for you is what he wants for me. But if we’re going to be lazy, if we’re going to be backslidden, if we’re not going to be diligent in the word, then we’re not going to be able to be that prosper successful guy. He just won’t happen. God wants to exalted his children, he disciplines. So the purpose of godliness we need to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. So you have to take yourself by the nap of the neck sometimes and take your heel and kick yourself in the butt. Or maybe you need another guy coming along and doing it for you. Like getting up and going, we got four m groups get in one. Maybe you’re in another group, great. Praise the Lord. Maybe you don’t need a forum group, you already got a group of rights God. But if you hadn’t got something going on, you’re not going to go into life with man. If you’re not in a to seven, study and memorize in and studying and

reading and hearing and meditating. Then get it out of low gear. Be the guy be the reliable one. And when the pressure comes, and courage is required, you won’t be the reliable one. If you’re not a man of the word, if he hadn’t practiced obedience to the word, you’re not hiding it in your heart. I had it in my heart that I might not sin against him. And so you’re sinning against him because you’re not hiding it in your heart. So you got to decide. We started at the end of that verse, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped, the way you’re adequate and equipped as being God’s word. Next week we’ll talk about being a man of prayer. Being a man who’s comfortable in God’s presence, Being a man who’s not afraid to go to the Lord and who believes that prayer is the word prayer is not helping the word prayer is the work. That’s what we’ll talk about next week. But let’s finish this off today. I pray that Lord, if we’re going to go over this message today, give me a message. It’ll move men’s hearts that will make him be hungry for your word. Make them be, decide, decide today, what you will, who you serve, what you’ll do, determine if you’re going to be a man of the word or not. You have to decide I can’t decide for you. I can’t get you up early every day. I can’t keep you up late at night. I can’t get you in a Bible study, you have to decide you have to take yourself by the neck of the neck and do that. Nobody’s gonna do that for you. Sometimes you’ll get a guy that will grab you and Scobie knob and say, Come on, we’re going we’re doing this and you do it and you find out what’s the best thing ever happened? You rise up and call that God bless it because he wouldn’t take no for an answer. But God will take no for an answer if that’s what you want to give him. But there’s sometimes he compels us there’s sometimes we don’t have an option. I don’t think Apostle Paul had an option on the road to Damascus. He was going to kill more Christians. He was going to throw more I’m in jail. Paul Paul, why do you persecute me? who aren’t that Lord? Um, Jesus of Nazareth, the one you’re persecuting? Why are you doing that? What will that have me do, Lord? Now? I got a feeling that in that encounter one like, well, I want you to hit the road. I don’t care. I mean, he has a bright light shine it blinded him. And I think he comes to us sometimes in such a way that we’re compelled to do it. I hope you’re compelled today to decide that I’m going to be a man and I’m going to be in God’s word. I’m going to journal I hate journaling. I never want to journal. I got seven reasons why I don’t need to journal. But you need to journal. You need to write letters to God. You need to let God write you letters. Dear Craig, dear bill, dear Ron, dear Michael. If God knew God, no one you like he knows you today were to write you a letter? What would he say? Don’t you want to hear what God would say. And I can guarantee you from years of experience, he’s never going to say boy, you’re never going to amount to nothing. I knew I couldn’t depend on you. You may have heard that from your dad or your coach, which you’re never going to hear that in the Word of God from God. God is gentle in his approach. He’s gentle in his rebuke. He’s gentle in his correction. He loves us. He understands the struggle we have with sin. He understands our tendency to be procrastinating and lazy. He understands that he will always meet us when we come. If you decided to meet with God and you met with him three days within four days went by and you hadn’t met with him and you go back to meet with him. And he’s been there all the time we known you. Any done lecture you when you come in, he’s glad to see you. He didn’t invite you in and then rebuke you when you come or make fun of you when you come. He didn’t do that. That’s not who he is. So he’s speaking to your heart today. And he says I won’t fellowship with you. In the way we fellowship is in my word. I want you to know me. Because the more you know me, the more you’ll be like me and the more you’re like me, the better your life is going to be and the more effective and fruitful your your life will be in the harvest field. Because we have a harvest out there and we got work to do. And there’s never been more crucial time in the history of this country and maybe the world. When we need reliable man who a man of the word, who lived the word and study the Word and read the word, meditate on the word, memorize the word.

Today is what we need. And you have to decide I can’t decide for you and you can’t decide for me that you’re going to be a man of the word and not Is that what you’re going to decide to do. So I’m going to give you a few seconds just to talk to the Lord about whatever he’s saying to you and your heart. Something that will last and go with you out of this place in. So Lord, speak to our hearts

Lord Thank you for being the Lord God, the living word, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your patience with us. Thank you for your exhorting us and encouraging us and saying, Come to me, come to me Come to me. And we come to you through your word. We come to you, Lord, because we want to know you. Put it in our heart to want to know you, Lord. You said in Jeremiah 24, seven, I will put it in your heart to know me. And so Lord, if you’ve put it in a man’s heart, any man here today and you put it in his heart to know you how pray, you put it in his heart to make a decision today, a decision that’s going to change his life, it’s going to make him a better husband, a better follower of Christ, a better dad and grandfather. The things that make a difference in the world, the things that will change this world in ways that nothing else can, is a man who’s fallen after you a man of the word and a man who is Jesus is Lord of his life, a man of prayer. And that’s the kind of man we want to be Lord. So we asked you to help us in Jesus name And all God’s men said give them Heaven, guys.

Thank you. It’s good to be back.

You know, I was flying back on the plane, I asked the Lord, I said, What? What do you want me to teach when I get home. And basically, he said, you know, those five goals that bill puts up every week on the board, and you guys are starting to learn, if we put didn’t put them up, I think you can name two or three, if not more.

And he said, You need to go into those things and go deep with them. You need to talk about Jesus is Lord of your life, that God’s words a final authority in your life,

that you become an A man of prayer, that you link together with like minded men who are chasing after Christ, and you give it away. And so over the next few weeks, we’re going to be going through each one of those. And today, we’re going to talk about making Jesus Lord of your life. And what does that mean? You know, when I was

living in Germany back at 1689,

they were having a debate here in the theological world, in the church in America, and I’ll get I got to miss that debate. But when I got back, I heard about it. And the debate was is can you receive Jesus as Savior, but not Lord.

And so they were debating and like many debates and things that go on, there are good men on both sides and prophesy again. Yama, Linnaeus or post millennial is telling mom a panel.

So I’m going to pan out in the end, right.

And so they were good men on both sides of that debate. But I happened to have an opportunity to be at a retreat that Dr. J oswaal. Sanders, not chambers, but Sanders, he wrote the classic book on the subject, spiritual leadership.

And he was speaking. And

so I had the opportunity. I saw him sitting in the lobby one day, and he was sitting by himself. So I walked over and introduce myself. We were talking and I asked him the question I said, Dr. Sanders, do you think you can receive Jesus as Savior but not Lord? And he said, I did.

And he said, but it was because no one ever taught me about Jesus being Lord of my life. And when I was taught about it, and I learned about it, then I made Jesus Lord of my life.

So what does that mean? When we talk about Jesus being Lord of our life.

I was in my cousin’s house, where I stay when I go to Alabama, and they’re strong Christians. And they had a book that Franklin Graham wrote about 20 years ago. And it was called the name and it was in regard to the name of Jesus. And I read the back of the book, and sometimes when I pick up a book, I read the front inside front cover, I read the back and just see what the book is all about.

And here’s what he wrote. The name of Jesus is a lightning rod because his name represents the division of life between good and evil, God and Satan, light and darkness, righteousness and sin, heaven inhale.

The name Jesus shouts out a choice. Whom will you serve? And give your life to and depend upon. rebellious self, well, sinful people want to retain the right to themselves, what way they will take. Jesus denies that option. Speaking on his behalf, the apostle Peter said there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.

Jesus is gentle, but he’s not weak. He loves the sinner, but is absolutely intolerant of sin. He’s not a negotiator, He is Lord.

Yet it is this bristling truth that in Vokes intolerance towards Christians, Jesus did not say do your own thing, all roads lead to God?

That would have made Jesus politically correct.

And Jesus is not politically correct. He is Lord.

You know, CS Lewis said and see he’s a renowned British thinker and writer and one of history’s greatest defenders of the Christian faith. And he wrote this, a man who was merely a man and said the sorts of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of the man who says he’s a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.

You must make a choice either

This man was and is the Son of God, or else he’s a madman or worse, you can shut him up for a fool, spit on him and kill him as a demon. Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord, and God.

But let us not come to him with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left, that option opened us. He did not intend to.

When you think of Jesus as Savior, and maybe you remember the time when you came to know Jesus Christ,

and it’s important that Jesus is your Savior. Because savior means well, it’s written down here savior means one that says from danger or destruction. One who bring salvation, Redeemer, deliver rescue, or do you remember when you were rescued? You remember when you were delivered from Sandy, remember the first time you realize that I’m not going to hell, I’ll get to go to heaven. And you had the assurance of going to heaven because he had saved you and forgiven your sin. If you can think of that time, and you need to be able to think of that time because I think people have a hard time with Jesus is Lord if they haven’t got Jesus as Savior first. If he hasn’t forgiven your sins, if you’re not excited about what God has done, the song that was sung up here a few minutes ago, that we all enjoyed so much. I feel good, James Brown saying a lot about that. But I don’t think it was that same issue.

But if you feel good about your salvation, if you feel good that you’re saved, if you feel good, you’re forgiven, if you feel good that you’ve been given grace, then it’s gonna be a lot easier step for you. To make Jesus Lord of your life.

lordship means this one who has supreme rank in power and authority over now, you know, As Americans, we like to be democratic, we like to have a vote, we like to have a say so. But when you come to know Jesus Christ, and any dictators like this, whether they be evil dictators, or benevolent dictators, they’re they the same thing. They want supreme control. And that’s what’s going on in our country today. It’s really not about Democrat and Republican and race issues. It’s not about all the things that divide us today. And all the problems that we’re seeing happen. It’s about power and control.

The reason that they have people running for offices they want to, and many do it with good motives. Many do it because they want to serve, but you don’t hear politicians call public servants much anymore. But it wouldn’t. It all boils down to one thing, we want to be in power, and we want to be in control. There’s nothing wrong with dictatorship, as long as you have the right dictator. When you have the wrong dictator, you’re in trouble when you got Adolf Hitler or Stalin or Mussolini or the Khmer Rouge. When they’re in power, they do nothing but kill and death and slaughter and ruin and bring doom. That’s all they can do, because that’s who they are. And that’s a god they serve. They call themselves atheists, but they’re not they believe in the God of death, and not the God of life. So let’s go on on our country today. But Jesus wants to be the supreme ranking power and authority over you and me. Do you think that’s egotistical? If you know what he hung on the cross, it couldn’t be egotistical. He didn’t do that. For ego. He did that to save us to deliver us to rescue us, to make it possible for us to be forgiven for sin and go to heaven and spend eternity with Him. He wants absolute ownership. He wants controlling influence. He’s the king of kings, and the Lord of lords. And being king of kings and Lord of lords if that in fact, who he is in your life then that deserves are being controlled by him and him having absolute ownership over us. That word absolute means outright unmitigated being totally governed by you know, when I came to know Jesus Christ, I realized that I was playing baseball so I get my picture on a baseball card and make a lot of money and impress a lot of people. And that was my motive for playing ball. But then something happened to me I had a dramatic change in my life. And that change came along with realizing that I wasn’t playing baseball for those other reasons anymore. One about ego and money and fame and baseball cards. It was about a play. That form, it was about an opportunity, opportunity to share the gospel with people because you’re an athlete, because that’s a platform that God gives you. God gives us platforms and opportunities to honor him and point people to him and teach people about him. And being a ballplayer was that for me. So I got a whole new reason for playing ball. Right now we got a lot of people leaving California and you can hardly blame them. They say you can’t find a u haul anymore u haul truck. Because they’re all in other states. I don’t know how many are coming. But there’s a lot going. So Matter of fact, I talked to a lot of people in the south and they’d be moaning the fact that we had so many people from California moving into the south and Nashville, and parts of Alabama and Tennessee, Ohio, Texas, Idaho, South Dakota, they’re moving out of here, because they’re looking at the power and control in what’s going on, especially if they have young families. And you can hardly blame them on one hand. But on the other hand, someone asked me and I’ve my ask, every time I go back to Alabama, met with some of the guys that always meet with these guys, they get together on a regular basis. And they have breakfast or lunch together. And so I met with them. And were there guys I played baseball with in basketball with in high school and a few I’m in college. And we’re reminiscing and we’re talking about thing, but one of the questions I’m almost always asked is you got to move back to Birmingham. Since Susan’s going to you’re going to move back here and I say that’s not my call. See, if Jesus is Lord of your call, you don’t just get up and move by whatever circumstances are going on, you get up and move when you if you’re in an army, and you have a general if you have a king, then you go at his bidding, you only go with His permission, he has to cut orders for you to do that. You put yourself and submit yourself to Him and surrender to his will not your own. When Susan, I now shared this with you before, but it fits in this message today. When we found out we had a brain tumor. Then God said two things to us. It’s not about you. And then the second thing is this could be the hardest thing that ever happened to you. It could be your finest hour. So we’ve got a choice. We could say this is hard. This is terrible. Why’d God let this happen? Or we could say,

God, let this happen. This is something God is doing. It’s good thing. It’s not fun. It’s going to be some heartache and suffering. But God, Jesus went through heartache and suffering and disciple is not above his master. So the heartache and suffering we were going to go through is something that came from him. So when you come to know Jesus Christ, and he’s Lord of your life, then you see everything that happens in your life is no surprise, happenstance is no things that happened that shouldn’t have happened. when these things happen in Jesus is Lord of your life. You see him in them. And you see opportunities to make it your finest hour, Jesus’s finest hour, I think was in the seminary. And it was his finest hour because he had to fight through his human humanity. And the thing I like about that series, if you’ve been watching it, the chosen. The thing I like about it is most of the movies that I’ve seen that King of kings and Lord of lords and the greatest story ever told in other movies about Jesus, he’s always the Holy Jesus risen up Jesus is always heavenly Music Playing when he’s on the screen. And sometimes they show him from behind and don’t even show his face. But in this when they show the humanity of Jesus, they show the hurt or they’re hurt, the disappointment. They show how he treats and interacts. He’s got a sense of humor. He’s real. He’s somebody you can relate to him when he was in a cemetery. He was real. When he was in the cemetery. He was a man like you and me and he was he knew he was going to the cross. So he didn’t share His deity but he also had his humanity. So he knew he was going to the cross and He didn’t want to what man would want to and he asked his father, father, would you deliver me from this cup? Take this cup from me. In three times, he asked him, and every time God said, God said, No. You have to drink this cup to the drags. And then Jesus is okay not my will but your will be done. That’s what it means. So Jesus to be Lord of your life. You give up your will your desires, your Raise your plans. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. They say, well, that’s what you give up. When you make Jesus Lord of your life. You make him the supreme authority, you make him the absolute ownership of your life, unmitigated, totally governed by complete, offering little chance of change or relief, you know, the thing about giving God permission to help himself to your life. And I was sharing this with a young man that wants to do a forum group in Birmingham, and I had him in the Christian school that I was principal ob and coach and different sports and things. So he was one of the guys I met with about eight of these young men that I’d had in that school. And we just had a great time, remembering all the days we had together there, and all the paddling they got from me and all the laps they ran, and the games we won and lost. But as I was sharing with them, and I had breakfast with one of them, and the next day, and I was sharing with him in the course of our sharing, I was saying, you know what it what it means in your situation, is giving God permission to help himself to your life. He wrote me a text yesterday, and he said, You know, I was thinking about what we talked about at breakfast. And it’s such a scary thought to make give God permission to help himself to your life. And I think when I say that you can identify with it, can’t you? Guys, whatever, what what was he afraid of? Was it scary to him? To give God permission, here’s the thing you need to understand about that God’s going to help himself to your life, whether you give him permission or not. We’re going to have a brain tumor, whether you’ve got it set us down and said, well, Pete and Susan, you’ve had a good life, you got a good marriage, you bear some fruit for me. You could keep living this, this life that you’re living in, it would be good. Or I could give Susan a brain tumor. And you’d go through the whole situation with that. And then she would die. And I’d bring her home and Pete, you’d be left, you get a choice. What would you like he didn’t do that. He didn’t give us a choice. And I’m glad he did. And I’d like to think I would say, Oh, yeah, let’s give her a brain tumor. But I’m not too sure, I would have said that. God gave her one anyway.

He just gave us a choice whether we would bow to His Lordship in it or not. And that’s what he gives me every time. Sometimes I bow to His Lordship, sometimes I take it in the flesh, and seriously preoccupied with me. And that’s why we don’t give God permission. We’re afraid of what he might do. And then we forget all the things that God promised us, I’ll be with you always, I’ll never leave you or forsake you. All things work together for good. So if I’m putting it in or taking it out of your life, that’s a good thing. And I can work it for good in your life. And I like you have to make me Lord to the point where you want my glory more than you want yours, your comfort, that you want to lift up my name, rather than have your name. If did did you’d rather talk about me than talk about yourself? And so when you ask Jesus, and give him permission, all that does is it prepares you for the things he puts in and takes out. If I don’t give him permission, I’m probably going to get mad and upset. How many times have you been mad and upset with God because of things he put into your life you didn’t want, or the things he took out and the losses you had. Because that’s our option. And when you don’t make Jesus Lord of your life that you You’re more likely going to be mad and upset and angry or confused and frustrated. But you don’t have to be. Because when you make Jesus Lord of your life, you see him in all things and he gives you grace. He gives you mercy. He gives you patience. He gives you understanding, he gives you wisdom. And that’s what happens when Jesus is Lord, because when Jesus is Lord, and if you look at those five things, those goals, you make Jesus Lord of your life, then you want to make when Jesus is Lord of your life, you want to make God’s word, the final authority in your life because it’s his word. And it’s his word that you’re looking for. It’s his wisdom. It’s his guidance. It’s his will, that you want in your life. But if you’ve never made him Lord of your life, you’ve probably never made God’s word, the final authority in your life. You probably never know when you’re not becoming a man of prayer. Because if you’ve not made Jesus Lord of your life, you’re going through the frustration and the anger and the confusion that happens when you don’t make him Lord. And you’re not going to be comfortable in his presence. You’re not going to want to come to the prayer meetings, you’re not going to want to have a prayer life in your own life. You’re not You don’t want to journal, you’re not going to want to do the things that nurture the Spirit of God and the abiding in Christ. If you abide in me, you’re not going to want to do that you’re not going to want to abide in him. And then if you’re not praying, you’re probably not gonna be hanging out with guys who do. The guys that are chasing after Christ. And I’ll never forget my mentor Chuck Singletary is if you find guys that love Jesus more than you and hang on their screen door, and don’t let them shake you off. Find guys that love Jesus more than you and hang out with them be with those men. But I’ll be honest with you before I really truly came to Christ, and I thought I was a Christian, I was uncomfortable around those kind of guys, I admired him, I’ll be honest with you, I admired him, I wanted to be like them. But I was also uncomfortable in their presence. They weren’t my best friends. But then when I came to know Christ, I started hanging on screen doors, I started finding guys that were growing. And I came to California with a navigators because I looked at those men, I looked at those navigators. And I saw a memorizing scripture and quoting it WordPerfect. And I just thought, Boy, that’s impressive. But I can’t memorize. I saw I’m jogging around the field and being disciplined and do exercise and go to the gym and do all that stuff. And I said, I admire that, but I’m not gonna do it. I saw I’m doing other things with their families and with their wives in the way they treated them in their the way they fathered their children. And I admired it. And I wanted to be like that. When I came to Christ, I started got to hang out with them. And so seeing those guys and what they were like, and I was invited to come on staff with the navigators, and I had to move to California to do it. And nobody in the south wants to do that. But I won my call anymore. It was God’s call. I’ve had parents that children were being recruited by mission organization hours at the time. And we were going to, they were going to go the Middle East, it’s dangerous over there. They were going to go the Amazon is dangerous down there. They were going to go to parts of the world where you don’t know what you’re going to eat, and you don’t know what the climate is going to be. And you don’t know what the political atmosphere might be and what might happen. They didn’t want their children to go.

And I had the opportunity to tell them, Well, here’s what you need to understand about missionaries about going here and going there and serving in different places and being in danger. People don’t want their people, their children to join the army because especially in more time, they could be killed. But if God is calling you to go to an Amazon or going to the Middle East, or join the army, or whatever else is dangerous and might have a threat to it. The safest place you could possibly be is in the Middle East, if that’s where God wants you to be in the end God’s Will where God wants you to be doing what God wants you to do how God wants you to do it is the safest place you could ever be. It doesn’t matter where the geography is, or if it’s comfortable or not, if it’s dangerous or not. All it matters is you’re where God called you to be. That’s what lordship means. You’re in the army, you get cut orders, you say Yes, sir. What’s the question? The answer is, Yes, Lord, what’s the question? And that’s what it means to make Jesus Lord of your life. You just wake up in the morning, say whatever you want me to do this morning, Lord, nine, do you always do it? No. They always go back and NASA go back and ask that guy to forgive you. That’s a hard thing to do sometimes, but the Holy Spirit’s nudging you to do that if Jesus is Lord of your life, you go back and ask that guy to forgive you, you mend the fences. What’s even harder is is good to forgive that guy that hurt you, that wounded you, that let you down that disappointed you that stole from you. That’s even harder. And so if Jesus is Lord of your life, you’re gonna do those things hard or not. And you learn to do those things. It’s a process of making Jesus Lord of your life. It is not a one time thing, just like salvation. It’s a one time thing. I’m saved. I know I’m saying, but now I have to grow in Christ. And I have to grow in lordship, as what discipleship is all about as what growth in Christ grow into maturity, having the character of Christ and so that’s lordship.

JOHN 15 and this relates to what we’re going through today. If you belong to the world, the world would love you as its own. In would treat you with affection. But you’re not of the world. You no longer belong to it. For I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you. Remember, and continue to remember that I told you that a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, you can be sure they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they would keep yours also, but they will not keep my word. And they will do all these hurtful things to you for my namesake, because you bear my name. You’re identified with me. They do not know the one who sent me. Jesus was preparing his disciples for the persecution they’re going through. And in the chosen, there was a part where James was martyred. They say and I don’t know, this is probably more legend than truth. And I don’t think they know every way that every disciple died, that they basically were all martyrs. Jesus, in Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it like this, when Jesus bids a man come, he beats him come and die. Data yourself data, your plans, data, your dreams, and we’ll be alive to God’s plans and God’s dreams and God’s will. So he says, If you belong to the world, they would love you as their own and treat you with affection. But right now they’re trying to figure out ways in every communist power that ever came into power, gets rid of the church gets rid of Christians, because they want to say, not bless it be God, but bless it be the dictator. blessedly the government. They don’t want to say anything that’s going to take away from their power and their deity. They want to be God in your life. And they’re doing everything they can do to make people subject to the government now and all the financial things we’re seeing in the stimulus checks and everything that they’re using this crisis, to do it, all we need to do is understand this. We don’t need to hate them for it, we just need to understand it. It doesn’t do us any good to hate them and complain and be sarcastic and in griping about it that doesn’t do any good at all. what God wants us to do is to understand what’s going on. And he was preparing his disciples and he’s preparing us today to be ready for what’s coming. Unless he intervenes in a supernatural, powerful, unbelievable way. It’s coming. But you’re not of the world, for you no longer belong to the world. So you were called out of the world. And that’s what he says here for I have chosen you out of the world. You’re handpicked, you’re chosen. You have a job to do. You’re in a world of chaos, you’re going to be challenged, you’re going to be persecuted, you’re going to be taken advantage of your rights are going to go away. You’re going to be rationed and put under rationing. You may go to jail. It may shut you up. These things happen in every communist country that’s ever been. We don’t know what it looked like. We don’t know how long it’ll take. But that’s the direction it seems that we’re headed. Jesus was preparing him and he’s preparing men of God today that they understand that your chosen, you’re not your own. You’re bought with a price. There’s a legend of Abu Tabor. I shared it over the years a number of times. But I will Tabor it’s a legend goes. He was a young chieftain. And he had an army of about 200, there was another king in this other close territory. That was very powerful. And he added hundreds if not 1000s in his army. And so every year during the spring, it would be time to go and expand his territory and he would go and take territories away from people like whatever Tabor so he got up to the he had been taking territory after territory and adding people to his army and to his ownership. And he came to the border of Abu Taylor’s territory. And he knew the October had had a reputation for having a bunch of Green Berets, much of the Army Rangers a bunch of Navy SEALs. And he had about 200 of them. So he said, you know, rather than go in and wipe them out and kill them like we use, they do listen to an emissary and give him a chance to give up and join the army and we won’t kill him. So he sent his emissary in to see aboute Tabor. And when he found him, he said Mark King is at your border of your territory.

And he was gonna come in and wipe you out, but he decided instead to give you a chance to surrender and become part of his army. Now Batavia just looked at him, and he called one of his men over and said, took his dagger outside style, stabbed yourself with this now your dagger and he stabbed himself in the heart and failed dead at the emissary sweet He told another and jump over that cliff, they jump over the cliff without a word to his death. And he looked at that man, he says, I have 200 more men just like these two. And if you march on me, you tell your king that he’ll be chained with my dogs by evening. You can imagine how the chain King responded, he sent his army and his legend goes, the king was chained with Abu tablers. Dog. By evening time. It’s not how big a dog you have, it’s how big a fight you have in your dog. So this, we’re going to need some Abu tapers spiritually in the days that are coming. So I’m going to be comfortable. It’s not going to be fun. But God’s not going to give us a choice. God is telling us this is going to be the hardest thing you ever dealt with, or it’s going to be your finest hour. You can stand and stand firm in the faith, you can be on your guard stand firm in the faith that like me and be strong, you can put on the fall the whole armor of God. And you can stand your ground or not. But you have to prepare for that. You have to get ready for that. You have to ask yourself if I’ve given God permission to help himself to my life and the big things and the little things every day. We have to be prepared. That’s what God has called us to be you’ve been chosen and never forget you’ve been chosen. If you’re saved today, you’ve been chosen. He didn’t just pick a lottery out and say, well, who’s going to be saved today? Oh Dave Larson’s gonna be saved today is going to be saved tomorrow. Let me say yeah, Craig Herrmann will get him tomorrow. He chose you, your his plan, your his ob o Tiber guy, you’re going to get in you are called and he’s growing us up to stand our ground. And you’re not going to stand your ground. If Jesus is not Lord of your life. You’re not going to stand your ground. If God’s words not the final authority in your life, you’re not going to stand your ground unless you’re a man of prayer. That means there’s gonna be a few men standing because not many man a man of prayer, you’re not going to stand your ground if you’re not standing with men who are standing with you and behind you and protecting each other’s back. And you’re not going to stand if you’re not committed to make it your finest hour and representing Christ and given that gospel away. So that very guy who’s been beating you like the missionary that spoke to our church one time, he was taken captive for three months in Lebanon. And they beat him. And they’d come into a sale and beat him. And he said, One day I crawl through my own blood and kiss the feet of the guy who was beaten me. I thought, Man, that’s what it’s all about. He crawl through his own blood, to get the feet of the man that was beaten him. That’s what Jesus did on the cross. And you’ve been chosen to do the same thing. Now, if you’re not up for that, just how just quit kidding yourself about being a Christian? Quit kidding yourself about being saved? And what good are you? One man said, there’s a lot of guys in heaven that shouldn’t be there yet. Because they were doing more damage here than they were doing good for the gospel. So guys, I think we have to just ask ourselves a question. If I given Jesus permission to happiness after my life, you know, a lot of guys hadn’t done that. Because no one ever asked him to do that. No one explained it to him like that. Maybe today, you’ve not had explained to you like that. That’s what Jesus is calling you and made it be. That’s what he’s calling us to do. To give up ourselves to say, not my will, but your will be done. To understand that you’ve been chosen, you’ve been bought with a price, you’re under his leadership. And you by the act of your will say, Lord, I make you the Lord of my life, the absolute authority, the controlling influence, I don’t make a move unless you are leading and directing me, I’m learning to do that I’m growing and doing that I’m growing and being obedient. And when I’m disobedient, I repent. You forgive me, and we go on, and I go to more obedience and more victories. And that’s what it’s all about. And that’s what God is preparing us to do today. So I’m going to give you 30 seconds to do some work with God.

You got to decide today, he didn’t leave us a choice. We have to decide one way or the other to decide not to make a decision is to say no. If Jesus came in today and said, Would you make me Lord of your life would you say yes, I want to make you Lord cuz you understand a little better. You’ve been refreshed on what that means, at least today. Would you say God, I give you permission, to help yourself to my life to be my control. influence to be the Lord of lords and the king of King in my life and I don’t move without your permission. I don’t do without what you tell me I can do. I stopped doing what you tell me to stop doing and what I don’t. I’m quick to forgive, ask for forgiveness. And you forgive me and we go on in our growth in our growing pattern of you being the Lord of my life. Everything else depends on this guy’s you being a man of the word, a man of prayer, having men around you that are chasing after Christ and being useful in the harvest wheel depends on you making him Lord of your life. So I’m going to give you 30 seconds to deal with him. And however, he’s dealing with you right now.

Does anyone want to stay on right now right where you are and say I’m making Jesus Florida my life today. If you’re not, that’s okay, you got to do you got to work it out. But if you wanted to stand in this, let guys know they can hold you accountable, that Jesus is the Lord of your life. And you’re not backing up? Well, he’s proud of you. And I’m proud of you. And I’m proud to be among the bunch of men just like you. And God’s got great things ahead for us and opportunities ahead for us. And this is how we prepare for those opportunities. And let’s tell God we love him, that he’s a God of gods and he’s a king of kings. And let’s just sing that song as we close today. I love you Lord. I love you Lord.

My god

my

joy my case it

may be sweetly

Nord. That’s why we pray to be a sweet sound in your ear. You are God and you’re our guide and you’ve chosen us to be yours and we were so grateful and thankful. And Lord, we look for opportunities to honor and glorify you now. We want to go out and give them heaven. We want to be the your emissaries, your army, moving forward, moving the gospel forward. And there never been a better time in America to do that than today. Thank you for that in Jesus name And all God’s men said give them heaven guys

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Distributors of the Bread of Life

We’re living in a generation where there is so much disctaction and division around us. The church at Laodicea was reproved for being lukewarm. The church in America can learn from this reproof… to gird up the loins of our minds and to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding.

Paul wrote to Timothy his “son in the faith” in a time of history similar to ours. The scriptures speak of the high ground, an “advantage vantage point” where we can view the spiritual battlefield from our position seated in the heavenlies from God’s perspective. A godly man is a man whose heart’s desire is to spend time with the Lord. In Psalm 27, God set David upon the high rock so that he could survey the lay of the land from the Lord’s vantage point.

God warned David about the divisions between families and between those whose relationships we value. It grieves our hearts when people we love turn their hearts away from the Lord.

True religion according to James is to minister to the widows and the fatherless… God will give a man of God a heart to serve those in need. As Mother Theresa said, “God works best with nothing.” Jesus said, in that thou hast done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-2: “I CHARGE thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

The preaching of the word implies that Timothy knew the word of God. Always be ready in season and out of season for an opportunity to speak the word of God. It is profitable for doctrine, reproof and correction which is instruction in righteousness.

Jared remembers that he learned from Chuck Smith how to minister in all categories of church ministries. He moved to Northern California to minister at Cornerstone church in Livermore. Then the Lord called him to plant a church in San Ramon serving as the senior pastor. His next call was to move to New Mexico. His oldest son wanted to get out of the house so they sent him away to a bible college. That’s where his oldest son met his wife and they now have two young boys. God works in mysterious ways. He works in us and through us to will and to do of his good pleasure as we delight ourselves in the Lord.

Through experience God tests our character through the crucible of life. The pressure of this world tempers us and refines us to prove what’s really important… living this life in the hope of the return of Christ with the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. (Romans 5:3)

The devil will attack “out of season.” His tactic is to attack us at our weakest point. In the wilderness, Jesus was tempted for forty days in all things like as we are yet without sin. He was continuously under satan’s attack, not just the three temptations that we read about in the gospel records.

As men of God we’re to reprove, rebuke, convince and exhort with patience the right teaching of the word of God. This is our charge to teach those whom God has called us to minster. The sound doctrine is the foundation of our faith: the word of God and Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh.

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”

When the storms of life come, the foundation upon which our lives are built will be revealed. Jesus said, the wise man built his house upon the rock. Jesus Christ is the rock, the firm foundation. Then when the rains and storms came that house stood fast.

Like the people at Mars Hill, men of this world have “itching ears” looking for some new thing to believe. To those whom God has called, the seed of the world of God will take root in the lives of men who “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” In the parable of the sower, the four types of soil represent the four kinds of hearts of men. Only the “good soil” will take root and produce fruit, “some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold and some a hundred-fold.” As the Apostle Paul said, some are called to plant the seed of the word of God, some to water and cultivate the field, but God gives the increase.

Continuing in 2 Timothy 4, “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

Paul reminds Timothy that he was called as an evangelist, one who delivers the truth of the gospel… the good news of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

We’re called as men of God to distribute the word of God. According to John 6: “And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples (distributed) to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.”

We are called to be “distributors” not manufacturers of the Word. We’re to distribute the bread of life. Jesus Christ is the bread which was broken for us. He was broken like a flask of perfume to permeate the church, the body of Christ, like a sweet smelling fragrance unto God.

According to John 6:22-28, “The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone; 23 (Howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:) 24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.”
25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? 26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. 28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

They sincerely wanted to know how to further God’s kingdom. The answer is in verse 29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”

The freedom is in believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus the Christ the son of the living God is the work of God.

God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. Continuing in verse 30: They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? 31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 43 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.”

What can we do to distribute the true bread from heaven, the bread of life? According to Verses 6-8 of 2 Timothy 4, Paul said by revelation, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

Therefore watch and pray. In the Old Testament, Ezekiel 33 says that the watchman was responsible to warn the people when the enemy approached. If the watchman blew the trumpet and the people did not heed the warning, then the blood of the people would be on their own hands. However if the watchman failed to sound the alarm, the blood of the people would be on the watchman’s hands.

As men of God we’re called to sound the alarm. The battle is a spiritual battle. As watchmen on the wall, in the hedge of God’s protection, we need to watch and pray… To sound the alarm and warn God’s people of the enemy’s approach.

Like the disciples distributed the loaves and the fishes to the multitude, our call is to distribute the bread of life…. the gospel of Jesus Christ. How do we distribute the word of God? Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine…

…. that despite the enemy’s onslaught, we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Pete McKenzie 0:06
Well, it’s, it’s good to be back, I had a great trip I was in Alabama for about three weeks. It is, it seemed like it went fast. The reason I went back to begin with many you guys don’t know or maybe you don’t care who influencers really is and what the scope of our ministry is. But it started in Arkansas with my best friend rocky Fleming he gave rocky a tool called the journey. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to figure out, you know, when guys are in Bible studies, or some type of small group, if they’re reading a book, they may read the chapter in the book, if they’re filling in the blanks, or do that or whatever that they’re doing in their Bible study. But when the Bible study is over, they don’t keep studying, they just wait until the next study goes, they’re not self feeders. What we were asking God is God, how can we help men become self feeders, so they can get in the word on their own. And journaling is a major part of that. So Rocky, God gave rocky over a period of years, the journey and he was in Northwest Arkansas, and he was in the real estate business. And he was ministering or had clients that were Walmart executives and hunt foods executives, and our Tyson Foods, executives, and then hunt trucking company, there’s a lot of billionaires in Northwest Arkansas. And so he was taking these guys through the journey and it changed their lives so badly that they said, you need to do this with me and all over the place. So rocky called me and said, we’re going to start a new ministry and want you to be a part of it. And that’s when I joined rocky in doing that. At the time, we were the first ministry outside of Northwest Arkansas to be with influencers. And then I had a guy that I’ve been mentoring and coaching up in Bakersfield. And he went out and spoke at some of their retreats and one thing led to another and they started using the journey and now there’s a men’s revival that’s been going on for 15 years in Bakersfield. It’s amazing. And then that spread over to Pismo Beach, and that spread up to Sacramento and to add up and just a lot of stuff going on in California now. And then they met a guy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it’s I have a thriving ministry in TELUS, Oklahoma. And in Memphis, Tennessee. And we have buddy ministries in Maine in North Carolina, in Wichita, Kansas. And so the thing is starting to grow. And so we had a regional directors meeting at Gulf Shores, Alabama, where I kind of grew up every summer we’d go down, spend a couple of weeks ago shores. And so we just spent three or four days just telling our stories, I had 16 guys there, and 12 of them are regional directors. And the rest were what we call champions that have ministries that are budding, but they’re not ready to become regions at this point. And so that’s why the why I went back there, but I’ve decided to, as long as I’m going back there, I might as well spend a week with my brother up in Florence on the Tennessee River. He’s got a bachelor pad on the Tennessee River. And so I spent a week with him, we played a little golf and hung out and got to go to Oxford, Mississippi. And so about a two and a half, three hour drive over to Oxford. And that’s where the University of Mississippi is. And so he had fire his fight all five of his kids went to Ole Miss. So went over and had a family dinner and I got to see all them and their kids and that was great. his oldest daughter is the mayor of Oxford. And so that’s a lot of fun to go there and see them. Then I went down to the retreat in it Gulf Shores and spend a week down there with the guys. Then I grew up in Birmingham and played ball baseball and basketball. And we have some of the guys that were a year or two ahead of me and have a breakfast every third Monday at Cracker Barrel in Birmingham, and so I try when I’m in town to be there on the third Monday so I can go and see those guys that I played ball with in high school and then I had breakfast one day and lunch another day with that group and we just reminisce and talk about stuff and I couldn’t believe how they had all laid so much. They really got old and then I had a chance I was a principal of a Christian School in Birmingham for six years eminently qualified is my degree in Melbourne in textile management.

And, but I got really rooted in there and had a chance to minister to a lot of kids who are now in their early 60s. And I met with about eight or 10 of them for lunch one day at a good barbecue joint there in that part of town. And just got caught up with them. And and there was one guy, and I’ve mentioned him before when we talk about the man of God thing and putting wristbands on guys and three questions about a man of God. And, and I’ve told you before that that whole thing started when I was invited to speak to a retreat with a bunch of millennials, about 15 years ago, and they wanted me to talk on what is a man. And so I thought of Jeff young and Jeff. I’d hired Jeff at the school to teach some Bible and PE and coats and JV sports. And Jeff had this annoying habit of seeing me and other guys, as we walk down the hall toward him, he’d look at us and go man of God. And then we’ll always look around to see who came in. And because we never felt like we were a man of God. Men don’t wear that mantle too good, because we’re mostly on a workspace basis with the Lord. And we don’t work do enough, serve enough, give enough, no one of study enough, memorize enough. We’re not all that great as husbands and fathers and so we don’t feel like we’re men of God. And you all know that I’ve been teaching that for a lot of years. But I met with those guys. And I started telling them about for him and one of them was just retired from being the president, that Alabama gas company. And the other is an executive in an insurance company. And the other is Jeff young. Jeff was at the school after I left for 40 years. And he just retired last year. And this an amazing guy. And so I started telling Jeff about for him. And so Jeff wants to get a 4am going in Birmingham and I talked to Ken Smith, who is he was probably that he and john Donaldson, the two guys that I also met with for breakfast after that meeting, and told him that for him, and they both want to get for him started in their churches and cans, and they older in the church and teaches a class and so does john and his church. So it was a great trip, got a lot done. I saw a lot of people and stayed with my cousin who’s more like a sister to me than a cousin. She used to come and stay she and my mom had a great relationship. And she’s about 10 years older than me. So I had to help her and her husband get out of their chairs a good bit. But they still want to go play some golf, and we never got around to it with them. But I did play with my buddy as a shortstop on our high school team. I was a first baseman and he and I played a couple of rounds together. But I had a great trip. But I was looking forward to getting back. Because I think God’s doing great things here. And I think God’s got great things in store for us in the days ahead. There’s going to be some interesting days ahead. We’ve already been through some interesting days have rocked our world quite honestly. And you look at the things in nature. There was a tornado warning Sunday night before I left on Monday morning to come back. And tornado hit Atlanta and then my cousins were there suddenly have pretty close to them in that part of Birmingham. And so they had these tornadoes roar in through about a month ago through that area, and they went over to their son’s house because he had a basement so they got in the basement as soon as they shut the door in the basement the lights went out and the tornado hit their house and it tore the roof off and I got pictures of it and now that whole neighborhood I got a new respect for tornadoes. It was taken oak trees this big around and twist in them like they were straws and it just leveled it they had they had debris that they had gathered out of the street so people could drive them down the street about half the size this room in this this all the way up and down the street. Nobody got killed. That’s a amazing thing about it. Five people had gotten killed about two weeks before that and one of them that came through there but that was that was pretty interesting site. It looked like it literally looked like it bombed Berlin and in the all the rubble of all these houses. So it was an interesting trip and I really enjoyed being there. But again, I look forward to coming back and you know Bill shared with you guys.

He is he is he does on Fridays and when Stace, and we do it. Because we didn’t ever want to forget who we are and why we’re here and where we’re going and how you’re going to get there. I mean, one thing and leadership and this is true, if you’re just a leader, if you’re a leader in your home, or your family or in your work in some capacity or church, you want people to know, to keep on target, keep on mission, this, don’t get out of this, don’t lose our vision for who we are, and why we’re here and where we’re going and how you’re going to get there. And that’s what leadership keeps in front of the troops. And so what we do is we say, Look, guys, we have five goals. And these are not just something we write down, these are something that we adhere to, this is something that we want to be marinated and that we want to become our identity and who we are. And the first thing is is Bill said a few minutes ago, make Jesus Lord of your life. He’s not just Savior, but he’s Lord. Make God’s word, the final authority in your life, you put yourself under the authority of God’s Word. So if it doesn’t match with God’s word, then it’s not true. And we want to be obedient. And it really if you’re going to be a man of prayer, and that’s the third thing, if you’re going to be a man of prayer, you need to be a man of the word because you q if you’re going to pray rightly, you then have to pray those scriptures, you’re gonna have to pray the mind of God, you’re gonna have to pray the truth. And so that’s why we say, Be a man of the word, then you’ll have more perfect prayers. And then if you’re going to really grow in your Christian life, you’re going to need guys around you that love Jesus more than you do, you’re going to make you’re going to chase after like minded men that are chasing after Christ. And we can all think of men in our lives that have mentored us and model for us. And maybe it one dad, maybe it was, but there are other men in our life coaches and teachers and next door neighbors and grandfathers that mark our lives. And we want to hang with guys that heard this fine in what what my mentor told me is find guys that love Jesus more than you do and hang on their screen door and don’t let them shake you off. And then finally, we give it away. We’re committed to the Great Commission. We’re committed to evangelism, we’re committed to telling people look at the chosen, if you’re not looking at if you’re not looking at chosen right now, and you’re not seeing that series. You’re missing the boat. You’re missing something that I think is one of the best things it’s been let that God has created and let loose in the Christian life, especially for such a time as this. I was with my brother in law in Auburn, I got to see Auburn play Florida, when on Friday night and Saturday, we were going to go back and see him play and it’s thunderstorms, inhaling, and now all kinds of weather. And so we didn’t get to do it. So we were just spending all day Saturday watching movies. And about I don’t know how many 10 years ago or something I was on TV, hence praise the Lord show. And I was last gown on the docket. They had singing groups in other Christian leaders, and they interview him kind of like Johnny Carson or something like that. And so they were my brother in law was saying what do you want to watch now? And I said, you guys know about TBN? Well, we’ve heard of it. And in my brother in law was eight years old, and I started dating his sister Susan and married her. And I was kind of his hero. I was playing minor league ball. And he lived one summer with us when I was playing in Montgomery. And he’d go the part with me every day and shag balls and have a good time for a kid his age. And so he had a lot of memories I’d forgotten. And it was fun to talk to him about those days. But I said your you want to see that? Oh, yeah, we want to see it. So we watched it about 20 minutes, and they watch that interview on TBN. And now I said have you ever heard of the chosen? They said now I said, you know, it’s really good. It’s about the gospel is about Jesus. And I’m really enjoying it. So we watched an episode and they say, let’s watch another one. We ended up watching five episodes, is eight of them in the first season. And so I’m hoping I haven’t checked back with them yet, but I’m hoping that they have been watching some more. I shared it with another friend and he stayed up to two o’clock in the morning watching five episodes. And so I encourage you, you can go to YouTube and just put the chosen and it’ll come up in the second season. They’ve had three episodes of the second season so far. They’re planning on having eight seasons. They’ve had over 100 million people watching all over the world, the chosen and their goal is a billion. But I watch it in literally cry

when Jesus cast a demon out of Lilith who was I just wept, and just to see the freedom and just how she responded to that and how she was once like this, and now she’s different, changed her life when he when he met the woman at the whale in sumeria. And now we’re up and she did such a good job of acting. As the guy that’s directing. It is a solid guy, and he interviewed the guy, Jonathan Nomi, who’s playing Jesus and he’s my all time favorite Jesus. In this the way he talks in the way that in they interviewed him and he just said, I’ve always felt so uncomfortable trying to portray him it was just an awesome task to try to do, but he does such an amazing job. Nick Kadima says, Remember, Nicodemus came in the night and met Jesus. And he said, I in Nicodemus tried to cast they have a lot of backstory that’s not necessarily in the Bible, but it builds up to the scripture in the Gospel. But Nicodemus had been called on to cancer demon out of Lilith. And he tried to do it and she got this this evil demonic look on her face and said, You have no power over me. So he ran out the door. And then later one, the Pharisees it had been with him at the time saw her after he, Jesus had cast a demon out over, and she was so different, and she was a beauty and she had just a different look on her face, and she was just changed. They went back and told Nicodemus and Nicodemus had said, after he ran out of the room, he said, Only God could fix this woman. And then he heard that she had been fixed. And he thought that it was a delayed reaction, and he had actually done it. And so she said, it had nothing to do with you. It was someone else. And he said, Who? She says, I don’t know his name. But I’ll remember him the rest of my life. And so then Jesus found out I mean, Nicodemus found out Jesus had cast it out. So he asked for a meeting with him. And he’s telling him and he said, I have so many questions. In the end. Nicodemus, if you remember, God put it in his heart to know him. And he had a real hunger to know the Messiah. And he showed up after Jesus died to claim his body with Joseph of empathy and bury him. But, and he said, I knew and I told people, that only God could fix this woman. And Jesus said, how’s that working out for you in the Senate. And that’s one of the things most of the movies I’ve seen about Jesus, King of kings in the greatest story ever told in other movies that are made, they just really accent and put all the focus on His deity. And he’s just so holy, you can hardly relate to him. But in this one, he’s got a sense of humor. And you see him interacting with his disciples and how bamboozled other disciples were about everything he said, and we’ve been reading that for all our lives. But when you see it in, in being acted out, it’s just amazing. And so anyway, you might get from all this, and I’m excited about it. And I am. But what I’m going to do is over the next few weeks, I want to go over those five goals with you. Jesus is Lord of your life, God’s words, and final and thority in your life, I just want to drive it home and all of our hearts. So it really does become not just theology, but practical reality in our lives. And I think that’s one of the things it’s these kids that I met with it Brownwood there was Bob Welch and he taught Bible at Brownwood while I was there, and Jared Leachman, and he was a football coach and taught some Bible classes while he was there. And now this is 50 years later, and Jerry’s still burning up for Christ in Bob Welch is still teaching the Bible and teaching kids and they all have told him that we hated you, because you made us memorize all those verses. And but we love you now. Thanks for doing that. And then then I’ve been consistently walking with Christ through the years and these kids was just so grateful that these men had been all these years and they’re still on fire for Christ and they’re still walking in this in the spirit and whatever you want to call it. And so today, I want to talk to you about making Jesus Lord of your life.

You know, when I returned from Germany, I lived in Germany my family did in in the late 80s 86 through 89. We came home in September of 89. And we had been attending Navy free for 10 years before that, and we came home and ate Nando wall in September in the wall came down in December. And when we were over there, we’re traveling in five Eastern European countries. And we’d go in his business man or something, depending on what the country was and how hard it was to get into and out of. But we came home and in the late 80s, I don’t know if you guys remember this, but there was a big debate going on that I missed because I was in Germany. But the question was, can you make Jesus can Jesus be your Savior and not Lord of your life. And so that was and there were this godly guys on both sides of the issue and and as well, Sanders, not chambers, but Sanders wrote about 40 books, and he’s a New Zealander, and just godly and stately, and his classic book is spiritual leadership. If you ever want to book on spiritual leadership, it’s Oswald Sanders, and it’s entitled spiritual leadership, and it’s excellent. But anyway, I happen to be at a retreat. And during those days, and he was a speaker, and it the camp where we were having a retreat, there was a lobby in the main building, and I was walking to the lobby one day, and he was sitting over by himself and a chair. So I went over to him and I introduce myself, and we were talking later on, I got to have him for dinner at my home and had him speak at a singles group that I was teaching at the time. But I asked him, I said, Dr. Chambers, do you think you can receive Jesus as your Savior, but not Lord? And he said, I did. He said, but it was because of poor teaching. I didn’t know about the Lordship of Christ. But when I heard about the Lordship of Christ, I made him Lord of my life. So I think it’s important for us to know what that really means. Sanders. Yeah. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate that.

It’s good to be back. You know, I was at my cousin’s house, and they’re strong Christians in notice the book, and it was by Franklin Graham, and it’s sitting on their counter, and it’s in It’s entitled, The name. And it was all about the name of Jesus. And I looked at the back cover, because that tells you a little bit about what the book is all about. And this is what it said on the back cover. The name of Jesus is a lightning rod because his name represents a division of life between good and evil, God and Satan, light in darkness, righteousness and sin, heaven and hell. The name of Jesus shouts out a choice. Whom will you serve? Who will you give your life to in depend upon? rebellious self will sinful people want to retain the right themselves, right to themselves, what way they will take. Jesus denies that option. Speaking on his behalf, the apostle Peter said there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved. Jesus is gentle, but he’s not weak. He loves the sinner, but is absolutely intolerant of sin. He’s not a negotiator. He is Lord. It is this bristling truth that endorses intolerance toward Christians. If you notice any intelligent tolerance toward Christians lately, you haven’t seen anything yet. He’s not a negotiator. He is Lord. Jesus did not say do your own thing. All roads lead to God. That would have made Jesus politically correct and Jesus is not politically correct. He is Lord. Men do not love holy praying because they don’t love holy living. Do you not know that you’re not your own? Oswald Chambers. And I read this before, but I think it’s appropriate to read again today. Oswald train chambers has a devotional November the first you’ll have to give me a commercial break here. I’ve got this Parkinson’s disease and it makes your nose run all the time so I’m not sick or don’t have a cold or anything. It’s just bothersome, especially when I’m teaching. You are not your own. One core one Corinthians six. 19 says no, do you not know that you’re not your own? You know, I think that’s a penetrating question. You don’t belong to yourself when you come to Jesus. When you come to Jesus, I use the words like surrender. And surrender means you’re giving up. You’re given up, you’re right to yourself. What good is a servant who has his own agenda? So lordship, and we’ll look at that lordship in a minute. There is no such thing as a private life a world within a world for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ, sufferings, no private life. Once I came to know Jesus Christ, the whole world has a right to look at me and judge Jesus by my life. And so it behooves me, to know Him and to learn to be like him. And the third question we asked before we put a man of God bracelets on the guy is, do you want to spend the rest of your life learning to become just like Jesus? Why do we want to become just like Jesus? Why do we not live in in a closet anymore, the whole world is judging him by wow act when I missed that three foot putt. How you act, when the spill the coffee on your white rug, gravy, God breaks up your private life of his saints and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on one hand, and for himself on the other. He makes your life a thoroughfare for the world and for himself. That means Have you given up your right to yourself. Because if you’re calling yourself a Christian, if you’ve received Jesus and been redeemed and delivered and healed and saved, then that means that you’ve given up your right to yourself. And he gives a world a right to judge him, by your attitudes by your behavior and conduct. No human being can stand that unless he’s identified with Jesus Christ. We’re not sanctified for ourselves.

sanctified means you’re becoming more like Jesus, you becoming more pure and holy, you’re growing in that you take two steps forward. And in one step back in the process, you can take one step forward, and two steps back sometimes. But it’s a process of going forward and growing into maturity, setting your roots down, as you have ever received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in him, haven’t been firmly rooted, and established and built up in your faith. We say that’s the whole point of the Christian life and why so that we could look and act and be like Jesus, so people would be attracted to him through us. So people would look at us someday, and oh, I don’t know what you got, but I need it. That’s the goal. You’re not sanctified for yourself. You don’t want to learn versus and memorize scripture and know the word and become a man of prayer. Just for you, if you’re doing that itself is it’s fair SEO. You just want people to think you’re a holy guy, and you’re better than you really are. And you may even think that you’re better. Most guys don’t, but some guys do. Let him have his way. If you don’t, instead of being have the slightest use to God, in His redemptive work in the world, you’ll be a hindrance and a clog. That’d be a backslidden. Christian, that’d be someone who’s hindering the work of Christ rather than helping the work of Christ by the way you treat your wife, the way you live with your kids and raise them the language that you use the jokes you listen to until the things you watch on TV, the things you read. everybody’s watching, everybody’s noticing. We may you may not think so you may you have us. Maybe you have a secret life. You hear about guys all the time having secret lives, things that are going on underneath everything else, they look good on the outside, but underneath their dead men’s bones, as he said to the Pharisees, your whited sepulchres on the outside, but inside, you’re really dead man’s moans. The first thing God does with us is to get us based on the rugged reality until we do not care what becomes of us. And this is a hard one. Rugged reality said. That means that you’re going to have to do some hard work and your soul in your heart in your mind. Some rugged stuff, denying yourself taking up your cross every day being crucified with Christ. That’s rugged reality. That’s what it takes. It’s not an easy road. It’s a tough road. It’s a discipline road. It’s a surrendering road. His way of purpose in it so that he gets his way for the purpose of his redemption. The whole thing is that he could use you and redeeming other people for Jesus Christ. That’s the purpose of your life. The purpose of your life is not just to be a husband or a father, or a church member or an insurance guy or religion. State guy or probate ballplayer. The whole point is that God could use you and help himself to your life in my life, for the purpose of redemption and our wives, our children, our relatives, or friends or co workers. That’s the point. That’s what it’s all about. Don’t ever get confused about that. Why shouldn’t he we go through heartbreaks. I can’t tell you how much this meant to me when Susan died. Why shouldn’t I go through heartbreak? I told God years ago when we lost our baby at birth, God you can help yourself to my life. God put me in a position when our baby’s life was in danger. He was losing oxygen, you know the story. And Susan’s life who knows if he was in hammer Jane or what her situation was going to be? I was in the father’s waiting room. God I just pray Susan be okay, I pray the baby would be okay. I prayed that for about 10 minutes. And that’s totally my God. That’s all I got. I don’t have any real great powerful prayers. He said, Well, let me ask you a question. How much control do you have over what’s going on with Susan and the baby? I said, I got no control. I like to be in control. But I’ve got no control in this one. You’re the God of all control. So I’m praying to you that they’d both be okay. He said, Well, if I have all control, then let me ask you another question. Would you purpose in your heart to praise me no matter what happens to Susan the baby? You mean if they die? Would I praise you? I need an answer that one because I knew the answer to that question. He in a sense, was saying if I want to help myself to your wife into your baby, will you praise me anyway? Who would ever do that?

We get mad and angry with God when he takes our loved ones away. We lose our job COVID hits. We have lockdowns instead of praising God and thanking Him. And that’s what God is looking for. Because that’s acts of faith. God always honors faith. He never honors fear. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks? What’s the answer to that question? How does God use us the most God is used and given me more opportunities through losing that baby then I would have ever had if we hadn’t lost a baby for Christ for the gospel. He taught me more things through that than I could ever learn any other way. He couldn’t teach me any other way to praise him no matter what be a no matter what, Christian. God if I get the job, I’m going to praise you. If I don’t get the job. I’m going to praise you if that surgery comes out. Okay, I’m going to praise you if it doesn’t their complications. I’m going to praise you anyway. You’re in charge. You’ll use everything, every heartbreak, to glorify yourself and to bring people to Christ. That’s redemption. That’s the purpose. That’s why we go through heart right? That’s why God puts things in and take things out of our lives. That’s why we get to spill the gravy on the floor and miss a three foot putts and get caught in a traffic jam. When you got to do the you’re gonna make you’re late for that important meeting. It’s all about the redemption. It’s all about the way we learn to respond the patients that goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, the hope. All of those fruits of the Spirit, self control. God uses all of that, for the whole purpose of redemption. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks through those doorways God has opened up ways of fellowship with his son. And you know many of us have testimonies right now that we know Christ more today. Because of the heartbreaks we’ve been through we’ve gone deeper with him. We’ve we know him better, we love him more because of heartbreak and difficulty and trials and troubles. Most of us fall in collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose and die away of self pity, and also called Christian sympathy will just ate us to our deathbed. Sometimes people are feeling sorry for themselves and get mad at God. Don’t be sympathetic with them. You don’t have to hammer them at that point. But at the same time, encourage them point them in his direction. It sounds so trite to say well, you know all things work together for good. Well, the truth is all things work together for good. It’s not trite. For those who love the Lord and are called upon according to His purpose. Are you Do you love the Lord are you called according to His purpose? Then God will take this and he’ll use it no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it breaks your heart. You’ve already given God permission to help himself to your life. He’s Lord of your life. What good is a servant who has his own agenda? So you’re not working on my agenda, God, and then you can now see you later. You’re going to take that out of my life and I’ll see you later. What good are you? If you can’t even say my baby, if you want, where’s the love in that? In God’s God would say, it’s at the cross. There’s where it is. That’s what it means to be crucified with Christ. You You willingly go to the cross with whatever you’re going through. And this is I love this quote, but God will not give you that sympathy. He comes with the grip of the pierced and of his son and says, enter into fellowship with me or Rise and shine. He comes with a grip of the pierced hand. I love that picture. When you’re going through heartbreak, and you’re going through difficulty and pain and separation and trouble, and the pierced hand comes into view and you just see him hanging on the cross. Taking the heartbreak, the humiliation, the pain, the suffering. Sure, should the servant not be like his master, willing to do that, willing to go through that make him Lord of your life. If through a broken heart, and this really sealed it for me when Susan died, if through a broken heart, God can bring his purposes to pass in the world. And thank him for breaking your heart. If the broken heart God can bring about his will his plan, what he’s trying to accomplish in the world by breaking your heart, then thank him for breaking your heart.

That seems like inhuman it seems like it’s where’s the where’s the love in that. And I wish it was different. I wish we didn’t have all the pain and the trouble and the trials in life, but God uses every bit of them and every one of them to glorify himself through us, to grow us up to become like him.

CS Lewis, a renowned British thinker and writer and one of history’s greatest defenders of the Christian faith wrote this. A man who was merely a man and said the sorts of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on the level of the man who says he’s a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make the choice. Either this man was and is a son of God, or out otherwise, he’s a madman or worse, you can shut him up for a fool. You can spit on him and kill him as a demon. Or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord, and God. But let us not come to him with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to.

Jesus is our Savior. That means that it’s one that saves from danger and destruction. We’ve been beaten but we’re not beaten down. We’ve been stretched but we’re not broken. Who brings salvation, redemption, deliverance. And who rescues us? That’s our Savior. And that’s what Mary when she was so changed and he cast the demon out of her and she was this a new person. He delivered her he rescued her, he saved her and he’s kept her from destruction they showed in the movie where she tried to commit see what’s going to commit suicide and jump off a cliff into the rocks the ocean. And adult flew over and got her attention and she followed that dove into town. Then later Jesus cast her demon out, delivered her He is our Savior, but he’s also Lord that means one who has supreme rank. And, and when I’m back in Alabama, it happens every time I go back, they’ll say, Susan, how are you going to move back? Once you move back to Alabama? Now Alabama is a great place. It’s the best kept secret around Obama, California. Don’t start moving there. They are weather wise people. It’s a great state. And it’s beautiful and rivers and lakes in the OED squat sandy beaches down south and Tennessee River up north and it’s just a great state. But I told him I’m, it’s not my call. Moving back here, I wouldn’t mind moving back. It’s a great place to live. But I’m in the army. Now I’m in the Lord’s army, and I don’t move unless I get orders cut. So I don’t just pick up and move to move and get out of a tough situation. People are leaving California, right and left, I don’t blame them for a second, especially with young children. On the other hand, if Jesus is Lord of your life, you don’t get to make that call. You don’t get to sell your house and make a profit if you want to, unless he gives you permission, and He will give you permission on occasion, it’s a time to do it’s the right thing to do, it’s a smart thing to do. On the other hand, it may not be as well. And even though you could make a profit, here to stay, put where at where you are, until he says move. That’s what it means for Jesus to be Lord of your life. And that’s where you start getting the habit and the freedom and the power in your life, to thank him for the hard things. To thank him for what he puts in and what he takes out that they are uncomfortable. And there’s some times that you don’t want to do the right thing. But you do it. And it’s hard, and you didn’t want to do it. And it could be something like going back and asking forgiveness, going that and making restoration for something, someone you offended or someone you hurt. And the Holy Spirit is saying, if you’re my disciple, here’s what my disciples do in this situation. They go in, they ask forgiveness, they name their sin, and they ask forgiveness of the for that person. And they make it right as best as they can. They may not get forgiveness, they may not respond the way you had hoped they would respond. But that’s not your problem. Your your assignment is to go and do it. If it’s something you damaged, or cost of money, you go and pay it back and pay more than it cost. Well, those are the things that guys do when they’re jesus is lord of their life. He’s supreme and rank in power, and he has authority over us. And you know, here’s the way it works. We’re selfish, and we want our own way. We want to stay in control of our own life. We want to be Christians and be in control of our own life at the same time. That’s natural. That’s getting rid of the flesh and dying to the flesh, being crucified with Christ, and then making our lives the whole purpose of our lives Christ and the gospel and redemption.

lordship whose means absolute ownership, controlling influence, why does Jesus want to be the absolute influence in controlling person in our life, because that’s our safest place to be the safest place I can possibly be. And it may be in jail. It may be in California, maybe an Alabama, it may be in the jungles of the Amazon, maybe in the Middle East and being a missionary over in very difficult places. And I’ve had parents who just did not want their children to go to the Middle East to serve because it would be dangerous era go to the jungles where there’s really people down there that will kill you like Jim alga got killed in Central America. And they don’t want their children to go and I tell them I said the safest place they can be is in the Amazon or be in the Middle East. If they’re in God’s will. They’re safer there than here out of God’s will. So all you want to do if you’re a Christian, and Jesus is Lord of your life, you just want to be where he wants you to be doing what he wants you to do, how you do it, and what you do, in what you do. That’s the Lordship of Christ in your life. You don’t call those shots anymore. You just obey. And you learn to obey by disobeying and it didn’t work out right. That’s how you learn to obey. Your parents tell you don’t do this and you do it and it didn’t work out too good. And that work out for you. didn’t work out worth a flip. Or then maybe your obey next time. And that’s how we learn obedience. We’re hard headed aren’t we? Can I get an amen from the congregation? Jesus loves hard heads. He loves to so soften him up. Well, I’m out of time. I think you get the picture. Jesus Lord of our life, have this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being found in the parents of a man did not regard equality and that the word equality is a big word today we want to be equal without paying the price. Who did not regard equality with God is something to be grasped, but he emptied himself even to the point of death on a cross and then why then God highly exalted Him and we stayed on him a name which is above every name, that the name Jesus, every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. One day you will make Jesus Christ Lord of your life. Why not today? One day you will bow your knee, every liberal, every conservative, every Baptist, every Catholic, every Islam, Buddha, they’re all going to buy a bow their knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we get to do it today. We get to do it now. And people are going to watch you and watch me and they’re going to judge what Jesus is like you mean, that’s what Jesus is like the way you’re acting. And we don’t act always the way we ought to act. But we can learn. And Jesus is patient, we put a man of God helmet on a guy, he may not be the most mature man of God, but God gives him time and grace to grow into it. What a God, what a Savior, we haven’t Jesus, what a lord. If you’re going to follow our Lord, I suggest Jesus Christ. That’s the safest place to be, let’s pray. And Father, we thank you for being Lord, we thank you for not just being Savior, but your Lord of our life. And we would ask you today to help yourself and give us that spirit heart attitude to say thank you, God for breaking my heart, because you’re accomplishing your purpose in the world. And that would be redeeming other people. And you’ll use this hurt this heartbreak, this trial, to give us the opportunity to participate with you in the Gospel, in the Great Commission. It’s the best way to do it. They don’t look at us, so our victories and we’re happy and we’re blessed. And they they’re not surprised. But when we go through heartbreak, when you put things in and take things out, Lord, inward peace. And people ask me all the time, Lord, how you doing? Listen, Susan, I miss her every day. But Lord, I have a great piece about it, because I know you’re working in there and you’ve got her in heaven now and I’ll see her again. Now see you. But right now you’re giving me the wonderful opportunity of not having her and having peace. And it’s a great message for others.

To be part of the redemptive process, thank you for giving me and all these men an opportunity to participate with you in the Gospel and redemption of others. And so will give you the glory throughout all eternity in Jesus name And all God’s men said give him having guys

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Mercy

Ron Tovar’s father passed away three years ago. On his death bed, Ron asked his father, “what do you want me to say at your memorial service.” His dad said, “the message for my eulogy is “I surrender all.” Life is more precious the less of it we have upon this earth. It’s precious because it’s rare. Life on this earth is but a vapor… a nanosecond in time.

We’ve been given life because of God’s mercy. Mercy is the nature of God himself. Loving kindness and tender mercy are often-used descriptions of the Lord God Jehovah in the King James Version of the Old Testament. Mercy is God’s forbearance, abstaining from his righteous judgement that we deserve…. not because we’re deserving of his mercy but because love and mercy is the nature of God himself.

Ron is honored to minister to prisoners. He enjoys speaking to a “captive audience.” Prisoners realize that they need mercy and forgiveness through God’s loving kindness and compassion. God is benevolent… his goodness and mercy endureth to all generations.

It’s the goodness, the loving kindness and tender mercy of God that calls people to repentance. (Romans 2:4). Repentance means to turn from sin and toward the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not the threat of eternal death and judgement that motivates people to turn to God…. He has called us unto himself from the darkness of this world and into the glorious light of the gospel of truth.

According to Ephesians, God in his foreknowledge knew us before the foundations of the earth. God inhabits eternity and there is no time in eternity. He saw the timeline of all history from his perspective outside the bounds of time…. before the foundations of the earth he saw that we would be holy and without blame before him in love. God called us to his righteousness through his grace and mercy

Someone said, “I wish God would give me my just desserts.” Be careful what you pray for. If God gave us what we deserved we’d be dead… for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ his son. Ephesians 2 says, you who were dead in trespasses and sin hath he quickened (made alive) for by grace are ye saved.

It’s by Gods mercy that we draw breath upon this earth. We were not deserving of the breath in our lungs. However, even though we deserve death, Jesus Christ who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Prisoners understand that they have lost everything… their possessions, their families, their loved ones. However, as Mother Theresa said, “God works best with nothing.” You can never understand that God is all we need until he’s all we have. The prodigal son’s point of repentance was when he had lost everything, having squandered away his father’s inheritance with riotous living. Then he got the only job he could find, tending the pigs for a heathen pig farmer. He sank so low that he “feigned did fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat.” In other words, he craved pig slop. As a Hebrew, this is as far as a good Jewish boy could sink. To a good Jew, if you associate with pigs, then you are numbered as one of these accursed animals. The point of repentance is when he “came to himself” and realized that he was not a pig… he was still his father’s son.

In Matthew 12:13, Jesus said, God requires mercy, not the sacrifice of bulls and goats. He said, Go learn the meaning of mercy. Then when you learn by experience God’s divine forbearance, then go tell others about God’s loving kindness and tender mercy. Go demonstrate God’s mercy as God’s living epistles known and read of all men.

Living in God’s mercy means to present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable act of worship. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

What brings us together within the church the body of Christ? We’re here because we share in God’s loving kindness and tender mercy.

God gave his righteous laws so that his people would understand how to “walk circumspectly” inside the canopy of God’s protection. Laws are to define the bounds of God’s righteous standards. His laws define our freedom within the framework of his blessings. However, when we trespass and exceed the bounds of his protection, because of God’s mercy and grace, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Why is God merciful? It’s because mercy and grace is the loving nature of God himself. How can you describe the bounds of the love of God? In these immortal words of Rabbi Meir Ben Isaac Nehori…

Could we with ink the oceans fill,
And were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Because of God’s indescribable love, what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God…

…that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Ron Tovar 0:01
About three years ago, my father at 94 years old passed away, went to be with the Lord. And when I was talking to him or asking him Well, when I speak at your memorial service, what would you like me to say? I mean, our family for generations are going to be together and what do you want me to tell them? And, and as the worship team was singing, and it was seeing a nice surrender, I just began weeping because that was my father’s message. He said, Tell our family, to surrender to God. Tell our family not to backup not to flinch, but give everything they have to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was because I have. And as Joe was talking, I was thinking that it wasn’t time for Joe to surrender his last breath. And just as, as he, all of us are here, all of us are here. And by the mercy of God, and that’s what I’m going to talk to you about today. God’s mercy. You know, when when I was young, and I first heard the idea of mercy I, I learned it in a memorize prayer. That’s how I remember that word. Mercy, it was a prayer that I had to memorize, and repeat many times. So I could have been saying snow cone, it had about the same effect on on my heart on my soul, just didn’t mean a whole lot to me. And I really went through many, many years without thinking about God’s mercy. But I want to give you a word definition for mercy, which is, it comes from dictionary.com. It’s not like I’m so profound or smart, you know, I know how to steal things off the internet. So mercy, actually that word is it’s a noun, a noun. Now, I got to think back to to the third grade. Remember, oh, some of you I know are like really smart and have all these letters, pasture name and all this stuff. So this is just basic bear with me. And now on a person, place or thing, right? That’s, that’s what a noun is. Is that right? Third grade was about 67 years ago or something like that, or no. But anyway, a person place or thing so mercy, is it a person? It’s not Is it a place, it’s a thing. It’s an it’s a, it’s a substance that’s, it’s a thing that is not tangible. It’s a thing that you can’t open up your heart or your mind or someone else’s, and grab a hold of it and go, this is a big hunk of mercy. You can’t You can’t do that. And, and grace is the same way. And love is the same way. It’s something that you can see, but you can feel it. And when you and when you experience it, you know it. Faith is a substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. So Mercy is is something that it’s it’s something and that didn’t go on to go on with that definition. It’s compassion, compassion. God is compassionate to us. Empathy, there’s the word empathy, walking in another man’s moccasins. That’s how I learned it. Compassion that God has towards us mercy, compassion, same thing. To extend that it means a kindly forbearance. Now there’s a there’s a thing that I need sometimes, there’s a thing that I longed for, sometimes, that word forbearance means to abstain from, to forego to keep from to refrain from to withhold from that now put all that together and and your relationship with God. God abstains from squashing me like a bug. God, oh God, four goals from from punishing me as I should be punished. My wife says I’m perfect. And I agree to keep to keep fighting

Hey, good God, God for goals, he keeps us from what the constant How many times have you sinned and done something wrong and, and God just kind of covered your play. You know, and you go God, thank you thanks for that one. And he refrains from God is a God that is wholly impure. He is wholly impure. And just think of this stench of, of man’s heart. I did I have done, I’m not now but we’ve pre COVID, I was spending an hour a week with 18 men on probation. And now we’re a week and I did that for six, eight years, maybe longer than that. And when you talk to men that long, some of them for five years, some seven years, just spending that time with them and, and hearing the deep recesses of their heart, you find out that the heart of man is evil, it is very dark into and as it’s been said, by other speakers, if we were to project our thoughts on that thing up there, and everyone could see them our sins, our deepest, darkest evil that runs through our mind and the one that we harbor and concupiscence. And hold on to and let it play out until it becomes sin. If we were to do that, probably no one would like us anymore. You know, that’s how I feel about myself. However, because of forbearance, because of mercy, God accepts us in the beloved, how many are accepted in the beloved. That means he accepts you in and wraps his arms around you. You know what my prayer for you tonight is, is that when you go to bed tonight, and you lay your head on the pillow tonight, this is my prayer for you. That God gives you a hug of God gives you a hug, and, and you feel the warmth of His love. And you feel peace. When you lay your head to rest, that’s my prayer. You can accept it. Or you can say, Oh, this guy’s poco loco from the other end of town. But you can you can you can walk in it, you can dwell in it, surrender, surrender, to continue with that compassion or kindly forbearance shown towards an offender or an enemy or other person in one’s power, compassion, pity, or benevolence. You know, there’s, there’s a YouTube that went viral. And there was a there was a protest, it’s, we see those right? A little bit. There was a protest, and it was, it was a protest, people were protesting against racism. And, you know, nowadays, those kind of protests, they used to be all ethnic. They were all blacks or Browns or whatever. Used to be protests like that. Now, they’re, they’re diverse. There’s all kinds of people in those protests. Well, this was one of those. And I think half of them were white, that were protesting. And Along came a guy with a group of kkk people, members or whatever. And he had SS tattooed on his on his arm, he had a leather vest, and he had a confederate flag, a T shirt with a confederate flag in the front. He didn’t have believe in across his own thinking a little different. I told the guy the other day, if you’ve catch me without a T shirt that says something like this, I’ll give you $10 catch me anywhere. You know, I’m always advertising. But anyway, he came walk in and he and he met with these people. He sort of strayed from the others and somebody hit him. And another person hit him and they had these big long doll poles, you know, like you hang your clothes on. And people were hitting this guy and they were kicking them. And this 18 year old black girl and you and she was aggressive looking. I mean, I wouldn’t want to mess with that lady. She was 18 she dove on top of him and covered his body with hers. And all the protesters stopped and it stopped hitting and kicking. And she screamed at him and said Lee Malone stop.

And they backed off. Someone was filming and it went viral. It was a couple of months later, this young lady that was 18, she was in high school. She was in a coffee shop. And a young man walked up to her, a white young man walked up to her. And he said, Thank you. And she said, Thank you for what? He said, that was my dad, that you threw your body across and cut and protected him. I just want to thank you. And don’t you know that that’s how Christians and believers and you and I are to win souls, man by man. Man by man. Family by family. And, and that’s what she was doing. She changed the thinking of one young man. And, and that’s what we do. That’s what we do. And for him, we bond together. we strengthen each other. We edify each other. We pray for each other, we cry together, we call out to God together. We enjoin them prayer, because two are stronger than one and a three fold cord cannot be easily broken. So, mercy. When did it begin? in your life? So a question and a thought I had when, when did mercy begin? Some people would say, Well, you know, I’m from the streets. I’m from violence. I’m from all of the bad things. You guys, when you guys were praying and collecting money, and praying for the last I was there. I would you guys paid a lot of money for me to be here. So listen, good. So, when did mercy begin? Some would think well, when I accepted Jesus, oh, I experienced the mercy of God my life, because my life was dark, and it became light. Oh, that’s when God demonstrated His mercy or when Jonathan sorella was gasping for breath and trying to get one more day of life and he was unconscious didn’t know we’re all praying. I was praying for you, Joe. I don’t know you but I was praying for you. And in God had mercy. But as I went to began, the Bible says that he knew you before the foundation of the earth. very mysterious concept. He knew you before the foundation in the earth. So when? When was that? Where were you? You know, Bill Cabo wasn’t always so cute. Like he is before the foundation of the earth, he had a different form. I would imagine maybe Tonio Antonio Banderas, I don’t know, whatever. But he was different. And so were you and so as I but God newest, it’s hard to understand that but you remember some of you that had kids that wanted them, you know, you knew that they were they were going to be born and and you went and you bought you went to the baby shower, and I didn’t like that part. It had baby showers and, and then you get this crib and, and then you go in, assemble it with a screwdriver, we’d have screw guns back then. And you and you go and put all this stuff together. And, and because the baby’s coming, paint the room put this up, put that up, because the baby’s coming. And you have all these hopes and dreams. And then this the baby’s born. And within two days, the baby becomes like Adolf Hitler or Napoleon. Because they start controlling the house. They cry and everybody scurries around and runs their diaper gets wet and whatever and that’s all mercy that you’re expressing mercy, thinking about pre thinking the baby’s coming now. Now let’s help the baby do what he needs and, and they’re pooping in their diapers in some regard. I don’t know about that. And, and and you change them and all that. There. There’s some guys over 60 still walking around acting like they got dirty diapers, crying and complaining and all that. But all of that is encapsulated in God’s mercy. You were you were he knew you before the foundation of the earth you were born. You went through all that baby process and somewhere along Live someone

lined you up and you figured out there’s rules and guidelines and whatever. Some of us had dad, some of us did it. Some of us were abused, some of us weren’t, some of us grew up in, in good nice families and others didn’t. And, and whatever was lacking in our life, we have this resentment thing and, and and we don’t get it. And there’s this in gratitude that hovers over all of us even today. Mercy for you began today, when you took that first breath. And every single breath you take, and since that first breath today, is by the mercy of God, just the simple thing of being able to process and think, and the processes of thinking are God’s mercy, the beauty and wonder of a person who doesn’t agree with you. And, and you can sit down and you can talk and have a conversation. How beautiful is that? God’s mercy that we can think and process and, and forgive and listen and all that. There’s two things, you know, the I’m gonna read you some thoughts that I had when thinking about mercy. There are two things for sure. In life, two things for sure. the stupidity of man and the mercy of God. I’ve done some stupid stuff. Some really stupid things. I’ve said some stupid things. And and I said some really stupid things to my wife. I’m not the only one. Why are y’all looking at me?

Unknown Speaker 16:51
Amen.

Ron Tovar 16:53
I got an Amen. Honey, I got one. She’s looking. So um, but you know, there is the holy spirit that has a way of smoothing things over. Did you ever see or do something really dumb and stupid? And then and then you prayed and you ask God to forgive you and, and then you got to the place where you’re gonna apologize or whatever, and got it already. Holy Spirit already prepared that, you know, that’s the Holy Spirit. That’s God’s mercy. God’s mercy was, was with us all along, up until today, even right now. I’m here, sharing with you, because of God’s mercy. There’s no other way that that could be. You just couldn’t be like that. It was the mercy of God here was the thought that I had. It was the mercy of God that drove Jesus to the cross. That was his mercy to the cross. He had you in mind. And to the crossing God’s mercy was the beginning. It was in the beginning, His mercy does not grow as you behave better. Think about that for a minute. You can become what you think is a better Christian. And once you start thinking that you’re a better Christian, now you you’ve sinned in thinking that you’re better. Who invented all that? Now I am, I am a good strong Christian I I am walking with when we start thinking like that. Now we’re in Galatians chapter six man when you think you’re strong, watch out. What about that scripture that in Romans 12, verse 22, that says, The weak are necessary in the church. What about that? Ever been the weak one in the church? Ever been the one that didn’t measure up to one that the one that you felt like you were the, the worm of the whole church, like, I’m the worst guy in this old place? God’s mercy, that compassion, that forbearance that relieving you from that? You know, I’m sharing this with you. And when you or I, if you’ve been there, I have in a dark place where you have lost everything. Where there, there’s no way out. There’s nothing you can do you. You just messed up. If you’ve ever been in that place, but Having a life controlling problem by a divorce by rejection of parents, rejection of our children. You know, I’m still trying to work on that one. I don’t understand how I’m worse than my kids are to their kids. I can’t figure that out. But, but these things can play on us. And, and if you’re in that place where you have no way out. You don’t need to read a book about mercy, calling out to mercy. You don’t need a definition about mercy. You have no way. No answer. But Jesus, when you’re at that place, mercy is all you have. Mercy is all you have in working with these guys, that that I’m telling you about. lost everything. Have a felon attached to their name. Family rejected them. They’re all alone. No one, many people don’t want to talk to them. They’ve disappointed and disappointed and disappointed people. What do you have left? What What is left in life, all that’s left in life is Jesus. And all that’s left in life is miracles. You gotta have miracles. But we get in this whole hum lithological thing that that that we just take for granted God’s mercy. And it converts into in gratitude, really be conversant in gratitude, don’t throw tomatoes at me. In gratitude, when when in gratitude sets in, we just you know, that’s the way it is. It’s the normal, it’s here, things work, right?

I pay my bills every month, and it’s, I just keep paying them it’s on auto pay my life’s on auto and and everything just goes fine. And it’s it’s, it’s all cool. Well, isn’t that Mercy is not God’s mercy. One disruptive thing can throw that whole thing out the window. So sometimes when things go wrong, you’ve got to drag your wounded soul to the gates of mercy. To get your wounds healed, and, and, and but and through those wounds. He can deliver you from anxiety and depression and things like that. Yet last night, my wife and I were watching this, this movie about a soldier, I think it’s called welcome home Joe or something like that. Maybe you’ve seen it. It’s about a soldier who was in Iraq and, and the torment when he came back all the things he saw, and all of that some of you veterans understand, I I just have an from a distance, a view and opinion. But at the end of the movie, he kills himself. And then there’s this little blurb that says that veteran 22 veterans kill themselves every day, every day. And as we’re working with police officers, which I had to ask God to help me to forgive, because sometimes they took me places I didn’t want to go. As as we’re working with police officers, we find out that they suffer from the same thing. And, and if you’ve been delivered from depression, guess what? No one can help a guy in depression better than one that’s been delivered. Did you suffered depression and you’re on the high end of it, and I’m feeling good today. Hey, go call some depressed people. You know, it takes alcoholic to know an alcoholic, a drug addict can spot a drug addict. 50 feet away. A person who’s having marital problems can note a guy who’s going through it to one who has a child that’s a black sheep hears and detects things. And so we unite. We get together we encourage It’s my dream. And maybe, maybe I’m being foolish. But it’s my dream and my hope that from this little talk right here. We share God’s mercy with somebody whether it be on the freeway on the way home, or whether it be at the store at stater brothers or, or at Denny’s or wherever we go whatever we do, God’s mercy. God’s mercy you can’t share mercy unless you’re violated in some way, you can’t be merciful again, unless someone imposes their tries to impose their will on you. You can’t be merciful unless someone insults you or does something that all these things that Pete talks about all the time, carrying the cloak another mile, if they slap you on the right cheek, give him the other cheek and all that he says like that, for us to express mercy, some of those things have to happen. So there’s this process with including mercy and grace and forgiveness and repentance that God has for us to to cause us to mature called perfection maturity. And, and you know, you can’t buy your way out of it. There’s no money to buy your way out of that process. There’s no shortcut out of that process. I’ve done and Todd 12 step classes, Celebrate Recovery. I’ve never been a drug user, but I did abuse alcohol, some but 12 step classes in different groups, and I don’t know how long, maybe 10 years, 15 years, something like that. But I’ve taught something that I don’t really believe. You know, I believe it’s one step. Just one step. It’s Jesus. Some people need 12 steps, because they don’t want to accept the first step, which is Jesus Christ is Lord. I got delivered from alcohol. When I accepted Jesus,

I got delivered from anger and hatred and violence. When I accepted Jesus that day. Two weeks later, I looked at my life and I go,

Hey,

what happened?

I pulled those cigarettes out of my pocket that I’ve been trying to quit for 15 years and throw them in the trash. Two weeks later. I looked at my, the way I was talking and I go, man, I felt this light. Just wonderful contrast to how my life was. I the anger was gone. The hatred was gone. Mercy, God’s mercy. It’s God’s mercy. You know, I’m going to read you the scriptures real quick. Jesus talked about it too. He said, In Matthew 913. He said, But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. He says, go and learn what it means. Did you ever go and learn what it means? Jesus told us go learn. It’s almost like Paul in in Romans chapter 12. When he says, I beseech you by the mercies of God. I’m begging you. Hey, Hey, you. Hey, you, doctor, hey, you construction worker, hey, you fruit picker? Hey, you, you know, by the mercies of God. Present your body is a living sacrifice. He says, Jesus says go learn what it means. This thing mercy, compassion, empathy, forbearance go learn what it means. And when you learn what it means. Go spread it around. He also said, If you only knew that in Matthew 12, seven, If you only knew the meaning of desire, a meaning of quote, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. You wouldn’t have condemned the innocent. You only knew the meaning of it. I think we better go learn the meaning of it. And I am incapable I’m not. I’m not qualified. I don’t really know how I’m doing my best right now. To try to to direct you because that’s all a person can do. I don’t think really anybody teaches anybody anything. I think that we can just point you in a direction. Go learn. Go find out. And when you find out when you know and understand mercy. Go up to your wife and demonstrate mercy. Go to your children and demonstrate mercy and the one that you don’t know and that black sheep in your family and that person who who via laded your space? When salted you? Do we have to be right? Do we have to win the argument? Do you have to be Captain carnitas of the show? You got to do the whole deal got to be john wayne and in the story, do I have to come out to hero? Or can I humble myself before many people and, and open doors to win souls. It’s about winning souls. It’s not about an egocentric life about what I feel what I care how I do. That’s not Jesus. Jesus is said three things to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and make disciples and obey. He didn’t say Go into all the world and be a Republican.

He didn’t say good all the world, going all the world and because become this or that or anything. He said, going to all the world and preach. That’s what he said, preach the gospel and say going to all the world and hate and be delivered from eight. How do we deliver from hating myself? From hating specific groups? I even hated Mexicans. And I’m one. So how do you do that? How do you deliver yourself from yourself? So, here, here we go. Find mercy, find out what Mercy is there. There are some political people that say things that I don’t like, really, because they are against what I believe. Now stepping on toes. I don’t believe the same. And maybe there’s some in here in this room that don’t believe like I do politically? Is that why we got together? Is that why we’re here? We’re here because we believe that the word of God is the word of God. We believe that. And there are some people that believe some things about the Word of God, not the same way that I do. And they have the right to be wrong. Doesn’t everyone have the right to be wrong? And are we not here to instruct and to teach and to nudge? The best thing we can do is nudge. nudge, nudge people into truth. Even those that are deceived. I’m very hurt today. I’m very hurt today, because I read something yesterday about Manhattan, how they, they change the laws about prostitution. And it’s not illegal anymore. And I’m very distressed because they change the marijuana laws. Because I think marijuana is a gateway drug. And you may not think that but or you may but this is my thinking on that. Laws are not made. And I spent a lot of time with criminals. Okay. Laws are not made to keep criminals from committing crimes. I don’t know if you knew that. Laws are made to keep people who are not criminals from committing crimes. You cannot keep a thief out of your house if he wants to get in it. He wants to break into your house and steal from you. He’s going to break into your house and steal from you. But as to keep honest people honest, so that the honest guy who’s going for a walk and sees your door wide open and then sees your most precious things right there doesn’t go Hey, that doors open, there’s no one around abl go in and take a look. So when when they relaxed the laws for prostitution, we all know that prostitution has been around forever. We all know that we all know that people break the law and they go do it. But now the regular people, the masses, it’s not illegal anymore. See all the signs for marijuana this and marijuana, that and all that. I come from a drug culture. I come from being slammed against a car at 10 years old and searched in because my whole family was related to things. And I come from that. And it all began with pot. So that’s why I have that thing. That’s my personal experience. So So when when I see billboards, and I see people going, Oh, this and that, and it’s all cool. Oh yeah. All right. It’s all cool. So what’s the next level? prescription drugs, I get really mad, that grant that senior citizens are getting hooked on drugs by by doctors, prescribing drugs. And now my 8595 year old grandpa is is is, is a drug addict when he spent his whole life not doing drugs. And and then I say, well, the people of God gotta rise up. We got to hold our own self to that standard, that I will not cross those lines, I will not do this. And where else are we going to? Where else am I going to find guys that are more qualified, that are going to hold the line? They’re going to say no, when when temptation comes and knocks on the door, right now the devil and people are devising more schemes to try to

fool us, pull us into evil, pull us into things that, that are, are not the cause habits and vices, where the devil gets a grip on us. So as you know, God’s mercy, we have to demonstrate we got to be different. and demonstrate that we that like these lines are not to be crossed, that when you pick up your phone, it upsets me because I can put on messages that I’m sharing the word and then it’s over. And now there’s some girl with about two ounces of clothes on in the next video. On on the phone. And, and then there’s another one and another one. And pretty soon a person gets roped in a lot of a lot of things going on. So if you’re plagued by any of those, I would say hold on to the Lord. seek His mercy. seek His grace, get in his presence, get delivered, get healed. Remember I said earlier, evangelize those that have already been evangelized. We need to stand up and, and hold fast to God’s word and promote God’s word. I’m going to finish with this. A Saint Augustine said trust the past, to the mercy of God, the present to his love. And the future to His providence, Providence is is that influence of God, that the divine influence of God in your life? Charles Spurgeon said God’s mercy is so great, that you may sooner drain the sea of its water or deprive the sun of its light, or make space to narrow, then diminish the great mercy of God. I’m going to finish with this scripture and then we’ll pray. Micah six eight says he has shown me he has shown you, oh man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God. I asked the Lord to to help us in a desperate way that I can learn God’s mercy. And I can practice it to you I’m I’m embarrassed to practice a tea. I reluctant to practice mercy. I have difficulty doing it. It’s not easy for me. I’d rather sit back and be quiet. I would rather not say anything. And just say all. I’ll be merciful to them. But I just you know, right here. But God wants us to express it. To spread it like Pete always says spread heaven. Let’s pray. Let’s pray. And my prayer is going to be I’ll tell you ahead of time what the period is going to be. Like, like the trucker said, Let’s get her done. You know, let’s get her done. Let’s get with it. Let’s pray. Lord, we come to you and although we are not, and all that we are and we ask you, Lord, to be merciful to us.

You’ve been merciful to us. But we asked you to help us to see it. To recognize your mercy, to not be ungrateful, to rejoice in your goodness, to be thankful moment to moment that we’re still breathing and we’re alive and, and stop focusing on the negatives and, and rejoice in the positive things in the blessings that you’ve given us all. We can breathe, we can lift our arms, we can hug our family, our loved ones, as we have the strength right now give us the strength to hug our family and our wives and our children. And those that were mad at and forgive those that that have hurt us and, and stabbed us in the back and done things that make us feel bad and angry and cause roots of bitterness. Help us to demonstrate mercy, Lord, help us to press the reset button. And I pray for this band of brothers right here, Lord, that begin right here in the interaction before we leave, and that your mercy spread throughout the county, throughout the state throughout the world. let it begin right here Lord, a spirit of mercy and grace, forgiveness, repentance in Jesus name. We thank You Lord, Amen. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai