Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Living in Liberty Pt.5

Praise God! Amen! It's great to have our confidence in a risen Savior, amen? Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2-3). That's a great promise, amen? Right now that place is prepared, waiting for us and we're waiting for the trumpet to sound. Any moment now the trumpet is going to blast, praise God! The dead in Christ will rise. Those of us that are alive and remain will be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. Hallelujah!

I'm looking to be changed, aren't you? Just think, all that is corruption will take on incorruption, mortality will take on immortality. Jesus reigns today as the first fruits of our resurrection; because He lives, we're going to live. Praise God! As the apostle said, "If He's not risen your faith is in vain and you're still in your sins." The good news is He's alive, ever living to make intercession for us. What a great day! Jesus is praying for you right now. Anybody here need a little bit of motivation today? Anybody need a little bit of comfort? Anybody need a little bit of illumination? Anybody need some infusing with wisdom and power? Jesus is praying for you. He knows your name. The hairs of your head are numbered. I've always loved, and kind of meditated upon--just think when we get to see Him. He has that stone that has a little pet name on it. I think He's going to call me, "Slim." What is it that you desire? Everything that you could imagine--it's going to be exceeding abundant above anything you could ask or think. He loves you. He's interceding for you. He died for us. He is raised. He has ascended and He's coming back again.

What are we investing right now in time and energy to prepare ourselves for that coming? How much do we really believe that? It's all seen in the degree of sanctification that's taking place in our lives; because His bride, the one that loves Him, the one that has Him for a lover, is adorning herself right now with all of His character, with everything that He delights in. Not what we delight in, what He delights in. When you love somebody--you know, ladies, if you love your husband, you don't dress for yourself; you dress for your husband. When you get married, your tastes change, many times, from what you used to like. You now like what your husband likes for you. That's how it works. And some of you young ladies are saying, "I don't know about that. What if he doesn't have good taste?" So we realize that's how love works and we don't live for ourselves, we're living to please the Lord. So as His bride, right now we're preparing ourselves for that marriage. I believe we are in the last stages. The wedding isn't being planned anymore. All the showers are over. (Dear God, there are no showers in the Bible.) Anyway, the marriage--sorry about that for our new bride coming up, just a pet peeve of mine. And you realize that we're preparing and it's not invitation time, it's not shower time. It's last minute primping and He's coming, praise God. "I've gone to prepare a place for you. I'm going to come and receive you unto myself."

So let's go back to Romans and take a look at that primping period and what it is that He's expecting of you and me in this hour; those of us that say He's our first love; those of us that say, "I love Jesus." Are we adorning ourselves for Him? Are we dressing for Him? You see, He's actively involved in our lives to prepare us how He wants us, and it's so important that we realize that involvement. We're not living for ourselves. That was something that I always enjoyed doing. I hate shopping, but I always enjoyed picking out clothes for my spouse, for Janet all those years. I enjoyed that. I enjoy going with Greer and picking out clothes. I had to make some adjustments and I enjoy that because it's something that you delight in. Here's someone that you love, someone that loves you and you want to just be a part of that. These are things that are appealing to you and so you're contributing into that. That's what the Lord is doing in our lives. If we're listening, He will tell us where He wants us to spend our time, how He wants us to spend our recreational time, how He wants us to spend that that He's blessed us with. It's all preparatory for His coming.

And so we've been in Romans 6 through , and we've been talking about our identification with Him, that we've been crucified with Him. If we've been crucified with Him, buried with Him we're going to be raised with Him, the Scripture says. That resurrection that He talks about in Romans 6 is not just the final resurrection, but it's a resurrection in Christ that frees us from the power and the dominion of sin. We've been raised with Jesus and therefore sin no longer has dominion over us, and as that new creature we live free from sin. "For he that is dead [to self, verse 7 of chapter 6] is freed from sin." Now, remember we were talking about the fact that when we are referring to sin in Romans chapters 6, 7, and 8, when we're talking about carnal mindedness, when we're talking about worldliness, when we're talking about the flesh, we're talking about the same power. All of those things are aspects of the existence, that independence or separation from God to where we're out from under His lordship. Some, as we've said, believe a lie and think that they are independent individuals. The Bible makes it very clear that mankind has never been independent or free. Man has always, from his creation, been under lordship, either that of a loving, heavenly Father in the Garden, or under the lordship of the Prince of Darkness. Man has never been free in the sense of independence.

When we come to realize that we're going to be slaves to one kingdom or another, the choices we make don't free us. Some of us want to be free from parental authority. Some of us want to be free from the law of God. What you're saying is, "I want to be under the power of Satan." If you're a young person living in your parents' home right now and you want to be out from under their authority--"I just don't want them telling me what to do"--what you're saying is, "I would rather have Satan telling me what to do." It's that simple. That's what you're saying. You're not an entity to yourself; you are never going to be independent. Every thought that you think originates from the power of darkness, the kingdom of darkness, or the kingdom of light. There is no original thought that a human being has ever had. It all comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or from the wisdom that's from above. Man has never had an original thought.

Now hopefully, this will clear things up and show you how simple it is to walk in the spirit and to walk free from the power of sin. Hopefully, it's going to show us that many of these trivial decisions we make are not so trivial because we're identifying with one kingdom or the other. These lusts, these demands, these rights that I have--anything that you say is "my right, I deserve", is of your father the devil. So it's very important to draw this distinction if we're ever going to walk free from the power of sin, because otherwise we're going to think that some of the things we're doing are innocent. This is amoral. Did you know that every amoral choice that a man makes separate from the Spirit of God is immoral because it originates in hatred for God, enmity with God? The carnal mind is at enmity with God. The carnal mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. It may seem innocent. It may even seem humane, but as we shared before, if it doesn't originate in God, if it's not for the glory of God, it's evil. It's opposed to God. It's glorifies man. It is the source; it's the author of humanism, secularism, as we know it in our day.

Do you see how clear it is? You say, "It can't be that simple!" It is! Only man, only philosophers, have tried to make it more difficult. It is that simple. The Bible is full of it being that simple. "You love Me, you hate Me." "You're for me, against me." "You can't get fresh water and salt water." It is the most simple of all principles and yet probably the most misunderstood because we don't want to understand it that way. And you get different people like I was sharing with you, this Assembly of God pastor that Rob has been talking with. He made a statement just the other day. He told Rob, "I sat down with my four associates. We listened to what you said and we believe that you and the ministry there at Calvary Temple interpret Ephesians in an extreme manner." Now, if "wives submit to your husbands", literally, is an extreme interpretation, what would any other interpretation be? What does submission mean? How do you not have an extreme interpretation of submission?

Now, we're just talking about the Word. I know with application that you can get extreme, couldn't you? Extreme would be trying to convince somebody that submit means you have to do whatever a husband tells you even if it's sin, murder, commit adultery or whatever. It would be extreme if we said that was the primary truth of all the Scriptures. But when you interpret it in light of the Scriptures in its context, Hermeneutics 101, you can't come up with any other interpretation. Well how then do we get this mindset? How can people who have been to the same bible college, how can people who have been preaching the Word of God for 20 years not understand or apply this properly? Because the carnal mind is enmity. What makes the mind carnal? The moment it becomes secular; the moment that it becomes focused upon man as the central theme instead of God. That's why we have all of this psychology in the churches today. And it's tragic, but it can be under the guise of being compassionate. It can be under the guise of being humane. It can be under the guise of being philanthropic. It doesn't matter how you wrap it. If it's not of God, for God, then it's carnal, it's the world, it's fleshly, it's earthly, it is sensual, and it is demonic in its origins. And that's how simple this thing is.

"So those of us that have been crucified with Christ are free from sin," verse 7 said. And if we're dead with Christ, crucified with Him, identifying with His death, in other words we say, "Jesus is my Lord. I accept His death sufficient to propitiate for my sins." God's appeased through that work. My righteousness is imputed to me and imparted to me because I abide in Him. I have no life to myself. I cannot approach God in myself. I approach Him through the finished work of Jesus and I am righteous with His righteousness. I have access through His blood. "It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." Now he that is dead and identifies with the lordship of Jesus, the Scripture says, is free from sin. "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; [it's a finished work. We are now living a life of sanctification, of victory over sin in Him.] death hath no more dominion [it has no dominion] over him" (verses 8-10). It has no dominion over us; the power of death, the power of sin. And, so he goes on and he says now because of that, verse 11-13, "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God." That's where we left off in our last session. Yield yourselves unto God.

What's that telling us? That sin can never overpower you. "I just couldn't help myself. The sin came in and just overpowered me." No, it's impossible to overpower you. It does not have dominion over you. You choose it. In every temptation, at every moment, there's a way of escape. You know it yourself. When you have willfully sinned, you can see it coming, you could feel it coming, you knew there was a time to escape and you went past that time and sinned. Whatever it might be, you did it because you chose to, but it does not have power over you. So the way for you to begin to live free and have this life of liberty is to begin to realize sin doesn't have power. All of those things that I say dominate me and the besetting sins, all besetting things are--it doesn't mean that besetting sins are irresistible. It means that they are constant. They're always there. That's something in you that you're going to deal with probably the rest of your life. Now if your besetting sin is Häagen Daz, (we've talked about that,) all of a sudden God chooses to bless you with a job that pays you twice what you're making right now and they will conform the schedule around church for you. You're going to get paid twice as much. You're going to be able to set your own schedule and you get to be Mr. Häagen Daz. God is blessing you. He's prospering you. How many of you think it would be wise to go work there?

So here we are faced with choices to take fire into our bosom and then believe we're not going to be burned. What you're going to see is a biblical principle that tells us to abstain from these things, the very appearance of evil. We know what's evil. We know what our weaknesses are. Abstain from these things. Flee youthful lusts. How do I do that? In the day that you and I are living it's very difficult because everything is so accessible to us, instantaneously accessible. It's all a button click away. It's all a phone call away. We don't even have to go looking for sin anymore. We can have it delivered to our house in our generation. Then somehow we think that we can just sit back and coast and trust in our knowledge of the Word. We think that like Samson, we can rise up whenever we want to shake ourselves and fend off the enemy. We are being constantly vexed and seduced by the spirit of Sodom, by the seduction of Delilah. Instead of constantly seeking for ways that we can adorn ourselves with the full armor of God, instead of looking for ways to deny the flesh, to seek righteousness, to yield our members as instruments unto God--you want to know how to stay free from those other things? Get so involved in serving in the kingdom, so involved in serving other people that you don't even have time to think about yourself. Used up on behalf of the glory of God; used up, my energy has been totally used up in others' riches and not my own. I don't have any time left for self.

That's what Paul is saying right here in these verses. King James makes it a little tougher to understand, but that's basically what he said right there. Look at verse 13. "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Don't say you can't do it. Sin is no longer the dominant force in your life if you are regenerated. "...For ye are not under the law, but under grace (verse 14). Know ye not [verse 16], that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death [devils, world, flesh, lust that bring death], or of obedience unto righteousness" [spiritual mindedness, peace?] To whom do you yield yourselves? What are you choosing to do with your life? There's a book that many of you are reading, "Don't Waste Your Life." I want to tell you something. Being productive, being creative, industrious, successful in business, social, the ideal domestic is a waste of life if it's for yourself, if it's not for the glory of God, if it's not by the Spirit of God. You can find the cure for cancer, you can solve the hunger problem in the world, and if it's for the glory of man, you've wasted your life.

When you come to understand the absolutism of the two kingdoms, you're going to be able to make proper choices in where you're going to yield your life and where you're going to use it, and not until then. When you think you can cross back and forth, when you think there are gray areas, when you think that somehow you can be a citizen of both kingdoms--the double-minded man is unstable in, say it, "All of them!" You're no good for anybody! That's why people look at me shocked sometimes when I've told young Christian people this forever. "Don't sneak around and take little tidbits and have a carnal mind and love the world and be held back by some type of moral dilemma as to whether you should or not. If you're heart is there, if you love the world, if you love the devil, if you love yourself more than God, then don't settle for little piddley stuff. Go out there and eat, drink and be merry." If I'm going to go to Hell, I'm going to get something before I go. "Well, that just doesn't seem right." Well now, wait a minute. What are you thinking from? Does right mean that we live some type of a moral life for ourselves? Is that right? You're not understanding this. You're not understanding the principles of these kingdoms. If you're guilty of one, you're what? If I'm guilty of just the self-life, I'm going to the same Hell as Hitler. So why piddle around? Choose this day who you're going to serve.

So when we look at the Scriptures and we see the power of what's being said here, he speaks to us and says, "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.... Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (verses 17-18). When you come to this awareness that we're making reference to of the kingdoms and you make the choice for righteousness for the lordship of Jesus, you've now freed yourself and enabled yourself to make right choices. It doesn't mean that the temptations aren't still going to be there. It doesn't mean that the same appetites are not going to be there. I'm going to still have the same appetites, because in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. I am an individual who in the natural will always, in the natural, the carnal man, gravitate toward sin. What looks good to me in the natural is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. But I daily reckon myself dead. The flesh speaks up and says, "I want to do this or that." You say, "No you can't do that anymore." It used to be the most powerful force in my life. It's what I loved, so I chose to side with it. I chose to lie in the bed instead of go work. I chose to get out of the bed and go to the Häagen Daz store. I chose to turn off my PC Study Bible and turn to the porn station on the Internet. I chose...and you can go on and on and on.

Now, that's what I used to want to do, but I don't want to do that anymore. That's offensive to me. It's offensive to me to lie in the bed and be a lazy slob. It's offensive to me to have my appetite out of control and not be able to control my eating habits. It's offensive to me to feed the lust in my members with all of the pornography. It's offensive to me to have to be a hypocrite in the way that I conduct myself in the world to be accepted of men and honored of men, the way that I have to talk, the way I have to dress, the way I have to show myself at the company parties. That's offensive to me now that I'm a new creature and I choose not to do that anymore. It used to have power because I used to submit to it, but now the Scripture says, "There's a new law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus that has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:20). It's the law that says the more I yield myself to God, the more I am strengthened, and by reason of use or obedience my senses are exercised to discern good and evil and to he that has shall more be given. The more I do good, the more I want to do good, the more I'm empowered to do good. The more I do evil, the more I do evil. Which way are you going this morning?

"Well, you know, I seem to be going in the wrong direction." Then change. "But I don't feel like changing." It's not a feeling, it's a choice. "Well, I failed every other time and it has such power over me." Well then, choose not to let it. "Well, that's easy, I've chosen many times." Yes, but once you chose and you repented and you turned, you didn't do anything to feed yourself and strengthen yourself through obedience. You just stopped doing that, but you didn't start doing righteousness. You stopped sinning but you didn't start doing righteousness. You didn't start emptying your life by serving others, by preferring others, seeking other's riches and not your own, doubling up in prayer, begin to fast a little bit. Look for ways to go out and witness and be a fool for Jesus. Let people persecute you and say all manner of evil against you for His name's sake so you can rejoice in that. That's what makes you strong. That's what lets you identify with Jesus. But instead, so many of us, as we were going over and over in the passage in Luke, we want to be esteemed in the eyes of men, and that's an abomination with God.

So, as we look at these different passages, it's a very interesting principle that he speaks of, and he says, "The way this is done is by continual mortification of the flesh or of the old man." Look over to Romans chapter 8 for just a moment. In Romans chapter 8, as we talk about the flesh, remember we're not talking about just the socially unacceptable sins. When we talk about the flesh we're not just talking about drunkenness, and fornication, and lasciviousness. We're talking about independence, separation from God, the self-life, living for self. So Paul goes on in Romans, chapter 8, and gives us the good news coming out of chapter 7. You know chapter 7. You see the man in turmoil and he says, "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ... Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 7:19 - Romans 8:1).

No condemnation, that doesn't mean we're not convicted of our sin. It doesn't mean that conscience doesn't prick us and say, "You're going the wrong way, man. You'd better back off of that thing." Guilt, because when you know to do good and you do it not, to him it is, say it, "Sin." We're going to talk about conscience here in just a moment when we go to Corinthians 8 and 10. But what we need to look at here is that there's a new law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus that has made us free from the law of sin. There's a new law that we can embrace. And that law of living in Jesus allows us to yield habitually our members as instruments to God. It allows us now, this new law, where we were the slaves of sin and we could not help ourselves, as regenerated men we now, under this new law, are able to mortify this flesh with all of its deeds. It's not dominant. It's not going to control us any longer. But part of what allows that to take place that we shared earlier is, what is your mindset. What are you intent upon? What are you using your time and your energies for? The carnal-minded man minds the things of the flesh. That's what he thinks about. That's what he delights in. He prepares to be successful in that realm, in that world. We learn all of the techniques about how to be successful out there in their world. We learn how to intimidate, and we learn how to manipulate. We learn how to live in what the world so delights itself in, image. Substance isn't necessary it's image, and we're inundated with that. The kingdom that you and I live in is the exact opposite. Image is nothing; substance is everything. So, many of us are not free.

It's like I said in men's breakfast yesterday. The question was asked, "How do we learn and how do we teach our young people to walk in this liberty that you're talking about?" There were some comments about different fashions and fads of the day and how we relate to those things. And we made some comments along that, but the thing I that I want to spend just a few moments on right now, the reason so many of us are still battling this is because we have not come to grips with who we are yet. Many of us have not gotten quiet before God, gone to the mirror of the Word of God, sat there and said, "Show me who I am." We don't look in the mirror. You know what we look at? There's this poster over here on our wall. Here's the mirror and here's a poster. And this is a poster that your PR man, Satan made up. And you think that's who you are. I'm here to tell you they're two different images. And when you can look in the Word of God and really begin to search your own heart, because, you see, the fact of the matter is, most of us want to be esteemed in the eyes of men as we shared out of the Luke passage. Jesus said it's an abomination to God. Why do we do what we do? Motive is everything in the kingdom.

The question was asked, "Why is it that so many of our high school kids, living under the law here do what's required, but as soon as they get out of the house"--and this is something for some of you parents to get a hold of. The fact that a kid gets a diploma, the fact that a kid turns 18, does not put them out from under your direction and your counsel. Chronological age does not break the law of submission, of authority, oversight. I went into detail some and shared how we make mistakes at the younger ages. (You ladies can talk to your husbands. I'm sure they came home and gave you all the details. Come on guys! You're dropping the ball, man! I know that most men are broad strokers. The reason we have the men's breakfast is for you to go home and share what was dealt with there, with your wife, with your kids so that as a community we're all on the same page.) Too much, not all, but too much of what happens is, somehow because of the effect of secularism in our minds we think that when our kids get into college or become young adults and they're out working, that somehow they're free. They are not free. Now we're not talking about micromanaging. We're not talking about here's a kid and he's living at home and he's 47 and you say, "Now you be in at 9:00." That's what happens in too many of our homes. We micromanage and deal with all the nonsensical, nonessential things and the things that are eternal, the things that are spiritual we don't address. And the problem--we're doing this, we're breeding hypocrites. We're breeding people that will play the game until they're old enough to do what they really want in their hearts.

Do you young people know what's in your heart? Do you parents know what's in your kid's hearts? "Well, how do you know?" Put some pressure on, you'll squeeze it out. I shared with the men, and some of you ladies, you need to hear this too. We're living in a society--you know what people almost never hear anymore? "No." Now, granted, I grew up in an area that was a little extreme, but when we were kids we would just open our mouth and--"No!" Why? Because our parents knew we were stupid and what we were going to ask for was probably stupid, and that everything we really needed they already had for us so why were we going to ask for something else. "No."

Today we live in a society where every adolescent thinks he knows better. We live in a day where parents have let them not only think that, but also express it and live it. Some of the young people right now are going, "Oh Pastor, please spend more time on this explain it further because I know I'm going to get..." No! We're talking about knowing your children. We're talking about helping them and you discover your own heart. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Now, there's no difference, we talked about it in the men's breakfast. We talked about this stupid stuff that's down there hanging in Abercrombie's. You know the pants and you pick them up and they're like 80 percent air, and they're all shredded. And our kids want to wear those and we say, "You're not going to wear those things!" And many of us say, "You're not going to wear them because I don't like the way they look." What does your taste have to do with whether your kids can wear them or not? Don't put your tastes off on your kids. Put your convictions off on them. That's what I said where we major on the minors. We want to deal with taste. We say, you can't do this and the kids want to paint their room a certain color. You're not painting your room that color in my house! And you're worried about the color of their bedroom and not that they're lying in bed till noon. You're emphasizing the wrong things. Get them up at 7:00 to paint the room, but let them paint it.

I went by the house that I grew up in the other day. I think I told you all this. It was really funny. We went down there, this little house. I can remember my folks sold it for like $10,000. I asked the guy what this thing appraised for. He said, like $750,000 or whatever, that's about where it was. We're sitting there and I was talking to this guy, it's interesting, and the house was still really nice. It was probably, at that time, one of the nicest homes in that area, the first multi-bath house in that whole area. Many of us remember, you all remember when there was one bath? You all remember sharing? You know, today, we think kids have to have their own bedroom with its own bath, butler. You all remember when you shared beds? Not bedrooms--beds, clothes! My brother and I fought every night. "Get over on your side of the bed!" "I am on my side." "Your pajamas are over on my side, get them over there!" "Don't touch me!" That's tough when you're on a twin bed.

So, we're sitting there and the guy says, "I have a question for you." I said, "What?" He said, "Whose room was purple?" I said, "That was my brother's room." I said, "Why?" He said, "The closet is still purple." I don't know how many times that thing has been painted since it sold in 1964. And he said, "So, you had the blue room." I said, "Yeah." The closets have never been painted. Purple room! And we get all concerned. "As long as you're living in my house your sideburns will not be over 3/4 of an inch in length." I think the sideburns are going down now so I'll just talk about those things. Elvis would have been devastated. Okay, that's cool, but that's your taste, it has nothing to do with morality. It has nothing to do with the condition of the heart. It has nothing to do with building character. And we're really doing nothing but causing them to just do what they're told. We're breeding kids who can't think for themselves, can't make decisions, have no idea of the responsibility of independence, and I use that not in the bad sense that we've been talking about, but in the ability to move within the parameters of the law. There's an independence from the law and there's an independence within the law, the moral law of God. We all have that, and we're all to learn to make decisions within that, and we're all to learn to walk in the Spirit. We're all to work with our own consciences within that parameter of the law of God. So we need to encourage one another,

So, here we are and we're back at the pants and we're almost out of time, so we better get our pants on here and get ready to go. So here we are and we say no, and we're saying no for a number of reasons. "I don't like those things. They look stupid. I am not paying $75.00 for an ounce of denim." The real issue is not that you're going to have to lay out $75.00, the real issue is not that it's stupid looking. Why do you want those? The only reason you want those things is because the world is wearing them, to be esteemed in the eyes of men. "You're not getting those things and I'm saving $75.00. And I can put that toward my Armani suit because I have a big business deal tomorrow and when I walk in there I want to be cool and highly esteemed." Well, now, wait a minute, we have a problem. What's right, shredded Levi's or Armani suits? And the issue is not style. The issue is not cost. The issue is the heart.

Why do I drive a Mercedes and not a Chevy? I can say that now because I sold my Mercedes and am driving a Chevy. Why do I drive a Mercedes and not a Chevy? Image. "I want people to know that I'm successful. I want people to know that I'm better than they are. It's a better car and I can afford it." If you're driving it because it's a better car and you can afford it, and it is a better car, no problem. So I buy the Mercedes. And now we're taking up an offering for Africa. Everybody is giving and contributing, and somebody comes in and says, "You know, God just moved upon my heart. I had all this money saved up and I was just getting ready to go down and buy a Mercedes, and God told me to give the money to Africa. So I gave the money that was above the Chevy to Africa." And the other guy goes, "Aw man, now what's everybody going to think? I'm driving a Mercedes. Now I'm going to have to sell this Mercedes, give the money to Africa and drive a stupid Chevy." And so I do that. I sell my Mercedes and give the money to Africa and drive this stupid Chevy." Is my heart right with God? Am I looking to be esteemed in the eyes of God or men? I did all the right stuff. How about being so free in the Spirit that when everybody else is bringing the money in like that, you can drive your Mercedes because God didn't tell you to do it? And I'm not looking to be esteemed in the eyes of men; and I didn't rob anybody to get my Mercedes. How free are you this morning? How free are you to eat or not eat? "You're no better by eating. You're no worse by eating," is what Paul said. How free are you this morning? How liberated are you in the confidence in Jesus' lordship in your life, knowing that whenever He tells you to do something you do it? That's free indeed, praise God! That's the maturity that we want to see ourselves come to. Tonight we're going to talk about being a stumbling block, because the problem is that many of us here are evangelists for the world. In fact, many of us here are more involved and more fervent in our evangelism for the world and carnality than we are for the kingdom of God. There are many of us here that are more interested in promoting our diets, in promoting our haircuts, our style of clothes, our conscience and our liberty, and you should be free to do this, than we are in trying to promote people into a walk in the Spirit, into a selling ourselves out and extending ourselves fully to apprehend that for which we've been apprehended. We may not be doing it in a verbal way, but we are doing it in many other ways and trying to put pressure on people to put our convictions off to them, to get them to compromise their convictions, to get them to live their lives the way we're living our life than we are trying to get people to be totally free and totally given over to the kingdom of God. As we close for this morning, which kingdom are you an evangelist for? Which life are you promoting? To whom are we yielding our members and in which way are we influencing the lives that are around us? That's the real question of liberty.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning, as we celebrate the great resurrection, that that gives us the power to be free from sin. I am raised with Christ, crucified with Him, buried with Him, and raised with Him! Because of that, sin has no dominion over me. I stand free this morning to love others better than myself. I stand free this morning from the power of sin to promote the righteousness of God. I exemplify by choosing righteousness, by life of obedience, not what men expect but what you've expected when you say, I go. Here am I, send me. Whatever you want, Father, I make myself available as a member of righteousness.

When Paul said all things are lawful, they don't all edify and I'll not be under the power of any, are we still slaves to the secular mind? Are we still bound by the esteem of men? Do our members still control our actions or are we free indeed? Help us to walk in that liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and never again be under the bondage of men, of flesh, is our heart's desire, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. As Gary plays for us and we just rejoice in the goodness of the Lord this morning, we're free this morning because of His resurrection power. Your victory, your liberty is only one decision away. It can be made right here in a moment. As Gary is playing, you can be free. I choose life. I choose the kingdom of light. I choose to die to self. For which kingdom are you effecting the most influence? Are you more worried about how your children look than what they are even in the eyes of this little community here? How others perceive them instead of the eyes that search to and fro and how they perceive? What's way down in there? What's way down in there that's the source of all that we choose to do? Make preparation to exhaust yourself in the kingdom of light and there'll be no strength to the flesh. As we sing this let's just rejoice in His goodness and the victory that's been won in each of our lives. Today is your victory. Let us be changed. Thank you, Jesus. "I Stand In Awe." Hallelujah!

For you young people, the young adults, all of us that are here, don't for a moment think that we are in any way putting you down or not proud of where you are right now. You all as a people, from the youngest here in this room, are doing a good job, and by the standards of those around us, a great job; but we're not judged by ourselves. We're not judged in comparing ourselves with others. You're doing a good job, but we can do better. You're doing a good job, but unless you do more there's a chance you won't finish this race because it's only going to get worse. As I listened to this other pastor and his reasoning, I see why they're going to kill us. There is no common ground that we have with men who say they're saved, believe in the infallibility of the Scriptures, that they are Spirit-filled, they talk in tongues, and we have no common ground with them. And you look and you go, "Lord." I told Robbie last night, he said, "I'm hearing so much," and these different things. I said, "Let me tell you what I always do. Because I happen to be an expert on people hating me and criticizing me. Listen to everything they're saying to you. Take it to heart. Get down before God with the Word of God and take everything that's been said about you and hold it up to the mirror, and anything that they're right in, change. When you can rise up and say--without interpretation, without twisting, without self-benefit, without pride, without malice--you can stand up and say, no that's what the Word says. Then you're safe and go on and do that." This [the Bible] is the more sure word of prophecy. This is our foundation. This is the source of our faith and it does not need to be dummied down for the 21st century. The youngest child can read it and understand it. You see, preachers are not to get you to understand the Word. Our job is not to bring you understanding. It's to bring application, to bring instruction, to lead through obedience; but you know the truth. You know the truth when you hear it. What are you going to choose to do?

Turn to the person next to you and say, "The truth will make you free."

Amen! Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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