Now, if you get caught up in
the wrong agendas, you know what you'll do? You're gonna fight
for the wrong things. If you fight for the wrong things
and you get attacked for it, that's a whole nother story.
But if you're standing for the gospel, standing for Jesus, standing
with your brethren, standing with the people of God, believing
what he's given us to do, and that's your fight. and the adversaries
come against that, he says, look, don't let it shake you. Don't
let it shake you how they deal with it. God is just manifesting,
that's somebody who still needs Jesus. And he's manifesting his
work of Jesus in you. God is good, ain't he? He is
good. Now that's also a problem. If God is good, That's one of
the most dreadful things that anybody could tell you. Because
if he's good, what does he have to deal with? We're not good,
right? In and of ourselves. So if he's good, and he's always
good, and because he's good, he's got to deal with sin. If
he hadn't dealt with sin in your life, you're gonna have to face
a good God one day without having your sin dealt with, right? So
because he's good, he came and dealt with sin for himself, and
we get included in that trusting. So we wanna remember that, man,
he is good. And because he is good, that's
also a terrifying news. because he can't just do away
with sin, meaning he can't just look and turn the other eye to
it. He's got to deal with it. And praise God, he dealt with
it himself when he took upon flesh and lived and died for
us. Amen? Amen. Well, look, take your revelation
that you brought with you today. Let's jump in it. Let's jump
in it. If y'all would also remember
Stephanie and the gang today, they're gonna be headed toward
Atlanta here shortly from Columbus, Georgia. They're going to a kids
event over there with all our crew minus Elizabeth and them. It'd be Lauren and Lydia and
Blake and Marcus and all the kids. So I pray they'll have
a safe trip over there and a safe trip back tonight back to the
house. And I think they'll be coming
back Tuesday, Wednesday time frame. They'll be making their
way back across and coming home and she'll be with us next week.
but appreciate y'all praying for us. We had two good solid
weeks with two churches and thankful for the investment and you praying
over us and the liberty to be able to do that. We believe God
met needs, took care of some things, worked out some things,
and we had a grand time with both of the fellowships that
we got to work with. So your revelation today, let's
turn to the newer Testament. We're in the book of 2 Corinthians
right now. We're about to wrap it up. Tomorrow
we'll finish up, if I'm not mistaken. How many chapters we got in 2
Corinthians? 13, so we will wrap it up. We're
up to chapter 12 today, but I want you to turn to chapter 10 if
you would. So we got two more days, and
then I believe we're gonna be in the brief little book of Haggai,
if I'm not mistaken, and then we'll stay in the Older Testament
next month initially in the book of Hosea, in the book of Hosea. So we'll ask God's help that
he would continue to reveal himself to us, that he will show us ourselves,
that we will see him. He'll give us something to walk
in and be able to be a blessing and to help the other people.
I'll be in Sunday school class, talked a little bit about some
of these things in chapter 10 this morning and just talked
about how, what all the stuff that's going on around the world
right now and how we have to really, really really draw close
unto the Lord, to hear from Him, to lean in on Him, to acknowledge
Him, because if you're like me, and you're like what we talked
about this morning, you could easily, easily let them push
your buttons now. And when I say push your buttons,
you'll let the old man out. You'll let the old dead man come
alive. And that old dead man, every time he comes alive, Miss
Barbara, he's ugly and he stinks. Y'all ever realize that? Y'all
ever let the old dead man come alive? The old flesh, y'all let
him come out every once in a while? You know, something that's been
dead for a long time and he comes back out, it usually stinks,
don't it? And he's ugly. And that happens
when I let the wrong things push me the wrong way and stir me
up. Now, I can't put the blame on
them because God's given me the ability to mortify my flesh,
right? That's what he teaches us. Crucify
the flesh, mortify the flesh, take these cults captive, and
that's on me. I can't blame them. Keith, if
I let the old man out, that was on who? That's on me, that's
on me, that's on us. So we've got to confess that
and say, Lord, that was me, that wasn't him. Devil didn't make
me do it. The world didn't make me do it,
I brought him back up. I called him back up, and therefore
it's all on me. And I ask you to work with me,
thankful that he is merciful with us, amen, and that he can
repurpose us when we do, huh? He could bring us right back
and draw us to repentance and get us right back on the right
track again. But we see in 2 Corinthians chapter
number 10, if you're there, I'm just going to start reading in
verse number one. And as we do this, we'll probably
use a few other passages, but we just want to think about some
of this stuff. These are some thoughts that
have been put in me. These are some suggestions I'm
going to put before you. in teaching these things. We
want God to teach us what it means. We want God to teach us
how we can apply it in everyday life. We wanna be able to illustrate
it to people around us. And we just wanna be able to
point people to Jesus, right? And what he's done in our journey. So, 2 Corinthians 10, in verse
number one. Now, I, Paul, myself, and pleading
with you through, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Notice how he takes us to Jesus. And that's so important for everything
we do. When we bring any ways of our
living or thoughts or anything we do, we always want to look
to the example, the example that Jesus set for us, because he
is our substitute. He is our savior. He is our shepherd, but he is
our example in every facet of our life. You wanna look unto
him. And it's always important for
us to point people to him. How did he deal with the same
things that we have to deal with? How does he speak of it? What did he say about it? How
does he work through it? What did he do? And that will
help you. Now, you can't do that without
God's Spirit at work in you. You need the Spirit, God's Spirit,
God's presence illuminating what Jesus did and why he did it.
Because we've been reading through Corinthians, right, for the last
little bit. We remember reading in 2 Corinthians
3 and 4 where we were taught that you can read the Word all
day long, but if you don't have Jesus, it ain't gonna make no,
it's got no life in it, right? This word will kill you without
Jesus. Matter of fact, you're already
dead without Jesus. And there's a covering, the Bible
speaks of, a veil over us that we can't understand it, can't
understand this gospel outside of God, what penetrating our
life with the light of the good news of him in Christ. So we need him, not only to know
him, but we need him to walk with him. and to continue to
walk with him. So hold your spot there with
that in mind, go to Philippians, go to Philippians, just a book
or two over to Philippians and let's consider this idea of the
meekness of Jesus. Philippians chapter number two. Today we'll spend this service
and tonight looking at some of these things in light of helping
and reinforcing and strengthening us with these issues that, man,
we all gonna have to deal with as the days continue to manifest
and what's going on around the world. It's crazy out there,
isn't it? I mean, it's crazy. Now, I don't wanna add to the
crazy. I wanna be able to be in a position, Rusty, where God's
doing something in me, and in the little corner of our world,
and the little space that he's given us, the little influence
that he's passed on to us, we're gonna leave the rest of it up
to him, but we just wanna be true to what he's given us, faithful
to what he's given us, and be difference makers, starting in
our homes, in our churches, in our community, and look, if he
decides to use us abroad, let him do what he wants with it,
but we wanna just be true to him right where we are, amen?
So Jesus is our example. Verse number two, verse number,
well, we so close to it. Let's just read this. Look in
chapter one. Brother Shannon, we gotta see this. This will
bless you. I know it will. Look in verse
27. 127 of Philippians. Only let
your conduct, your conversation, some translations may use, that's
just basically saying how you live life, Let it be worthy of
someone and something. Who is the someone? Jesus. What's the something? His message,
His life. Look, let your conduct be worthy,
let it fit in harmony with the gospel of Christ so whether Paul
comes to us, an individual comes and he sees us or he's absent. Others will hear of our affairs
that we stood fast with one spirit, with one mind, striving together
for the faith of what? Man, that right there ought to
help us shake off some of this other crazy stuff. It's so easy
to get caught up in agendas. It's so easy to get caught up
in pursuits. It's so easy to get caught up
with everything that's going to be thrown on us over the next
several days and the next several weeks and the next several months.
As long as you live in this world, this world's going to want to
throw things on you. So we have to be careful about the things
we take up and lay our hands to and what we stand for. He
says, whatever you do, whatever we do, we want our lives to be
in light of Jesus and the message that he lived, striving to that
together. Verse 28, when we do this, don't
in any kind of way be terrified by who? This way of life has
what? Adversaries to it. Our way of
thinking has adversaries to it. This gospel that we carry, Karen,
has adversaries to it. But I don't have to be terrified
by the adversaries. Why? He says, which is to them
proof of their what? Perdition, what does that mean?
That they are under judgment. And how they treat the message,
how they treat the messengers, how they treat the mission of
Jesus is gonna either be proof of their judgment that they're
still under perdition, meaning they're under condemnation, and
it's also proof that we have salvation and that salvation
is from God. So when you are attacked for
what you believe, you don't have to fight it, you don't have to
resist it, you don't have to be terrified by it, because God
will allow it, number one, to show you who they are, and number
two, show you what he's done in your life. That's a gift,
amen. And now he's gonna explain just
that. If you get caught up in the wrong
agendas, you know what you'll do? You're gonna fight for the
wrong thing. If you fight for the wrong things and you get
attacked for it, that's a whole nother story. But if you're standing
for the gospel, standing for Jesus, standing with your brethren,
standing with the people of God, believing what he's given us
to do, and that's your fight, and the adversaries come against
that, he says, look, don't let it shake you. Don't let it shake
you how they deal with it. God is just manifesting, that's
somebody who still needs Jesus. And he's manifesting his work
of Jesus in you. But your battle's not with them. Your battle is what they still
thinking. Our song, our last song we sang,
remember it says that he delivered us from sin and darkness. Amen? This world needs to be
delivered from what? Sin and darkness. darkness. That is what we bring to the
table. We bring light and the life and
the love of Jesus to what? Penetrate that darkness and set
people free from the sin of unbelief of where they are and it changes
everything about them. Starts within. Starts within
and now they no longer persecuting the people of God. You know what
they're going to automatically do? because the Spirit poured
out the love of God, love of Christ in them, now they're gonna
love those that they once were an adversary to. Isn't that what
happened with you? And it happened with Paul. Wasn't
Paul an adversary to the people of God? Oh, but when Jesus was
poured into his heart, what did he do? He laid his life down
for the brethren. He became an advocate for the
people of God. Same thing happened today. That
person or those groups of people or wherever they are in the world
and the agendas they have, Man, they're adversaries, but tomorrow,
maybe even today, they become the greatest advocate of the
kingdom of God, amen? Just like that, with one transformational
work. of the cross of Calvary in their
life. Look, verse 29. Man, this blesses me. For to
you, for to you, for me. I'm just gonna put Nick in there.
Y'all put your name in there. When I read it, you say your
name. How about that? Verse 29. For to you, Nick. Y'all
say it, what's your name? Go ahead, for to you. Come on
now, y'all ain't saying it. Come on now, for to you, Nick.
Boy, we gotta get some rhythm going here, Keith. What's going
on? For to you, Nick, I'm giving
up. For to you, Rusty, it has been
granted. It has been granted. Listen to that. It has been granted. The idea of being granted is
the fact that this is a gift. It's been graciously granted. It's a gift. What is the gift? It is a gift on behalf of Christ,
not only to believe in him, but also to what? Suffer for his sake. Not suffer for my stupidity,
not suffer for my foolishness, but to suffer for, that's right,
amen. Remember I said if y'all can't
say your name, he'll say it, amen. Verse 30, having the same
conflict which you saw in me and now you hear is in me. That
Paul was constantly under the threat of adversaries, but those
threats were also gifts of triumph because they proved they were
a token, they were a token. to prove those who still didn't
have Jesus, therefore they need Jesus, and those who had him.
So he goes on in verse number one of chapter two. Therefore,
if there is any comfort in Christ, if you his and you being comforted
by him, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any affection and mercy, if you have any of those things
happening in this salvaging safe work of Jesus, Fulfill my joy
by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord
and one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish
ambition. And all God's people said, we
got to be careful. Remember, we want to stick with
the right agenda, right? Let nothing be done with conceit,
but in lowliness of mind, let each of you esteem others better
than yourself. Verse four. Let each of you look
out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of
others. Man, that'll put us in a good
position. Why? Because now we're gonna
start looking like somebody. Who are we gonna start looking
like? We're gonna start looking like Jesus. Look at verse number
five. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This is how Jesus lived. This
is how he walked. who, Jesus, being in the form
of God, did not consider it robbery, didn't consider it being cheated,
something to be held on to, to be considered, this is the idea,
to be considered as equal with God. Now why does it read that
way? Well, verse seven's gonna say,
what did Jesus do? Jesus made himself of no reputation. He took on the form of a bondservant
and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point
of death, even the depth of the cross. Therefore God also has
highly exalted him and given him the name which is above what? Every name, no matter what name
is ever thrown out there, there ain't no name like Jesus. There
ain't no one like Jesus. There ain't no one who everybody's
gonna bow to one day, as he says here, that at the same, at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and those
on the earth and those under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father, amen? Now, what does that mean? He
didn't consider it as robbery. What it means is the fact that
Jesus was not offended when people didn't recognize he was God.
Was Jesus God? Let's go to that first. Was he
God? Well, instead of using the word
was, can we say this, is Jesus God? Yes. Did people treat him
as if he was God? How did they think about him?
What did they say about him? What was the deal with how they
approached him? If they would have known that
he was God, the Bible tells us that we just read it in Corinthians,
if they would have known who he was, they would have never
killed him. They wouldn't have killed him. Had they known? And the idea of knowing is that
they could see him and know who he was for who he was, they would
have never done what they did to him. They had no clue and
still don't have a clue of who he is. But Jesus didn't see that
he was being cheated or robbed by anyone or anybody if they
didn't recognize him for who he is. That's that meek, in lowly
mind that we're to take upon. This world doesn't have to recognize
us as disciples of Jesus. This world doesn't have to recognize
us as being servants of the Most High. This world can look at
us as being foolish and unwise, as being weak and feeble and
needing a crutch of quote-unquote religion or the Bible and mock
us and go against us. But you know what? Did it affect
Jesus? And when we are meek and lowly
in heart, it will not move us to let that old ugly dead man
out. What it'll do is keep us mortifying this flesh to say,
Lord, I don't want them to see me. I need them to see who? You in me. And that is where
this war that we are in is in the battle. That's what we're
dealing with. Because we're not fighting against what? People,
flesh and blood. Man, I have to remember that
because I see people do things. I hear about things that happen.
I hear about events that are going on and things that are
said and how they portrayed it and what they did. And if I'm
not careful, you know what that'll do to me? It'll enrage me if
I let it get under my skin, under my flesh. I'll let it get to
me. Not that it doesn't initially
grab me and have a sense of, I can't believe they would do
that. Or, man, I hate that they did that. Man, it burdens me.
But then what do I have to do instead of feeding that thought,
I need to what let this mind be in me that was in Christ Jesus
who didn't see he was being cheated as what a man who is God who
can't be recognized as God and you see Jesus is living in us
that belong to him and people don't always see Jesus in us
even when we are displaying Jesus before them. But if they don't
see it and they only see you and they don't like you that's
okay. You keep humbly walking with him and demonstrating his
love by which he loved you. What did he do for you and me
when we didn't love him? He laid down his life. And he
says, this is how we can know love. That while we didn't love
him, while we were yet sinners, God demonstrated, proved his
love toward us and given in us his son and his son did what?
Lay his life down for us when we didn't want anything to do
with him. Matter of fact, we would mock him. We would despise
him. But it didn't prevent him from
doing what he did. And that same mind has to be in you and me. So when Paul approaches this
idea of warfare, in dealing with strongholds and thinking and
accusations and speculations and arguments and things that
exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, what did he
do like we ought to all do? Take us back to Jesus. Take us back to Jesus. How do
we do that? What does Proverbs 3, 5, and
6 teach us? Trust the Lord with what? You'll
never get away from Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 if you walk by faith.
And y'all know we bring this up a lot, don't we? Why? Because
it's fundamental. You'll never walk by faith without
walking in the principles of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. What does
it say again? Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Our understanding is limited. We can only see a narrow view.
of any given circumstance, of any given day, we only see a
partial part, we don't actually see necessarily the motive of
a person. We don't see what's behind what's
going on. We don't see all the elements
and the factors that have played into what's going on. So we have
to be very cautious to go beyond what we understand because you
know what assumption will do. Will assumption get you in trouble?
Have you ever assumed things that somebody was thinking and
you told them you assumed what they were thinking? But they
really wasn't thinking that, but now you done planted a bad
thought in their mind, and now they are thinking what you thought
they were thinking, but they wasn't thinking it, if that makes
sense to you. People have done it with you
before, haven't they? They said, hey, hey boy. They said, hey, I know what you're
thinking. You said, no, I wasn't, but now
I'm thinking it. Now you done planted a bad seed
in me. Now what do I have to do with that bad seed? I gotta
kick it out, right? I gotta take it captive. Well,
how do I do that? What does he say? Trust in the
Lord with all your heart. Lean not upon your own understanding. What? Acknowledge. Acknowledge him in all thy ways. In all your ways, bring it to
Jesus. Bring it to Jesus. How do we
bring it to Jesus? Well, we ask the question, what
did Jesus say when he dealt with this? What did Jesus do when
he had to face this? How would Jesus handle this situation
as he walked through this life? Well, see, the Word of God gives
us answers to all those questions if we'll just go look to Jesus,
right? If we would get in the Word, that's why it's so important
to what? Hide the Word where? Why? As David would say, number
one, he says, how can a young man cleanse his way? Well, by
taking heed to the word of God. How can a young man cleanse his
way? By taking heed of the word of
God. I hid your word, oh Lord, in my heart that I may not, what? Sin against you. Why? Because
when things come into my life, I want to know what you said.
and why you said it, and how you said it. So I wanna grab
it so that I can take this bad idea that I have, this wrong
idea, or this corrupt thing, this error, and bring it in view
to what you said. I could acknowledge you. And
see, that is not only something that I do with my own journey,
but I'm responsible to do it when Danny tells me something
that don't make sense. that ain't up line with the Lord,
I've gotta be able to what? Take Danny and bring him to the
truth. Or when Danny hears the preacher
say something that doesn't line up with the Lord, he's to say,
preacher, we need to think about this because you remember what
Jesus did and how he did it? And I said, oh yeah, that's right,
Keith. Keith's helping me what? Acknowledge the Lord and when
we acknowledge him, what does he promise to do? He'll direct.
How many of you want Him to direct your path? We need Him directing
our path in every facet of our life. Now, we'll fail in it. But when we do, we quickly come
back. We don't want that sin to be
full grown. So we jump on it early, right?
and ask God to sever it in our life so we can get our thinking
back in order. Because look, the world we live
in right now, there's so many ideas and so many thoughts and
so many things that are coming out every day. You gotta learn,
I have to learn how to filter every one of those through the
truth. I gotta take it captive. Gotta take it captive. Take it
captive. But I gotta have the truth in
me, right? I got to have it in me to be able to grab it and
measure it up to the truth. Because if I don't have it in
me, you know what's going to happen? I'm going to be carried with
this and with that and I'm gonna be tossed. You know what I'll
be? The scriptures refer to it like this. The scripture says
you'll be tossed to and fro with every wind and doctrine and change. Every day, you'll be, like the
waves that are what? Tossed and fro by the wind. You'll
be easily moved by the atmosphere that you're in. But it also speaks
of it like this, that we are the head and not the what? The
tail. See, a tail is drug around wherever
the head goes. So wherever the head that is
in our life is taking us, they drag us with it. And I'm not
the tail. I'm the head, amen? And therefore,
the crown on my head is to be the Lord who's directing me and
not being the tail. And I don't wanna be just led
astray all over the map with what's going on in our society
today. I wanna be able to recognize what is wise, and what is unwise. I wanna recognize what is light
and what is darkness. I wanna be able to recognize
what is truth and what is lies. Because every lie, every untruth,
every falsehood, every wicked way, every ounce of darkness
builds strongholds. Builds a stronghold in your mind. And if you're not careful, those
strongholds just get fortified and bricked up to the point that
you become a captive or a prisoner in the stronghold. And it takes
the penetrating work of God to what? Penetrate that, to tear
that stronghold down and every other argument that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God so that we can be what? Persuaded
that God has our solution and we can trust Him with it, amen?
So we see in Philippians here where We're reminded that, hey,
let this mind be in you. When they don't get us right,
it's okay. When they don't get our stuff right, we understand. Does it burden us? Yes, but what's
even more burdensome, if I'm not going
to the right one, for the right solutions with the burden that
I have, amen? Because if I don't go to the
right one with the burden, what's gonna happen is I'm gonna get
unbalanced. And when I get unbalanced, I'm gonna teeter all, and anybody
on the teeter-totter with me, I'm gonna lose them too. So I
gotta balance this out. Go back to Corinthians real quick
before we wrap it up and come back tonight. He pleaded with them on the meekness
and the gentleness of Christ. who in present is lowly among
you, but in absence and bold towards you. But I beg you that
when I am present, I may not be bold with the confidence by
which I intend to be bold." Paul knew he had to deal with some
things, but he didn't want to go to them in that spirit. He's already told us, remember
when you was reading through 1 Corinthians that he said, I
tried to persuade Apollos to come to you and Apollos says
he's not coming. Why? Because Apollos was one of the
issues, wasn't he? Remember how the people said,
well, I'm with Apollos. Some said, I'm with Paul. Some
said, I'm with Peter. And some said, I'm with this.
And when Apollos got word what was going on, Paul encouraged
him to go to Corinth. And he said he was adamant that
he was not coming. Paul said, I'm not coming. Because
if I come right now, I'll probably do something I didn't intend
to do. but I'm gonna send somebody else and I'm gonna let them lead
you in these things because the tension is too high right now.
That's good for all of us. If there's some animosity and
you know some things are going on and you gotta correct some
things, it's always good to give it a little time so that they
can cool off, you can cool off. Why? What do you wanna do in
it all? You wanna glorify Jesus through it all, amen? So he says
here, Verse three, for though we walk in the flesh, in this
human body, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons
of our warfare are not, what? Carnal, but mighty in the pulling,
for the pulling down of strongholds. Okay. The idea of that which
is carnal, usually, 99% of the time, really just about
100% of the time in the scriptures, the reason the word carnal is
used in regards to the flesh, it is used toward believers,
Sandy. Meaning that a believer has access
to something else other than that which is natural. See, somebody
in this world without Jesus, all they have is that which is
common to every other man. But a believer, on the other
hand, has access to that which is supernatural from God, but
he doesn't always access it. And when he doesn't access it,
he's operating in his own strength or her own strength. They're
operating in cornality because they're choosing the lower means
rather than the higher means about which they can function
in this life. And what they're doing is common to other people,
meaning anybody could do what you just did. You don't need
Jesus to do it. That's the idea of cornality.
What you said or how you dealt with that situation or how you
thought about it is common to everybody on the planet. It's
just natural. Anybody could have done what
you just done in their natural flesh. They didn't need the Spirit
to do that. You see, but when the Spirit
gets involved with the truth of God and His presence, things
change from that which is natural and they become supernatural.
And life, the supernatural life at work within that is what is
being manifested or seen. And the weapons of our warfare
are not common to men, they're supernatural. And those supernatural
weapons, that tool that we have, is able to penetrate an impenetrable
stronghold wall to go in and rescue the captives behind it.
Now the strongholds are not something physical and they're not people. They're the way people think.
They're ideas. They're ideas that govern and
guide people through life. And they come in all kind of
forms and fashions. Right now There's a big split
across the country in ideals and way people think and who
people support and eventually who people will vote for. And
there's a battle in ideas over those thoughts. But see, we don't
use common tools to wage war in this warfare. And our warfare
is not against people. It's against the way people think. and what they have built up in
their life to support them in that thought process. And we
take light, God's light, His life and His love to do what? Penetrate into that darkness
so that we can see people set free by Jesus and set free in
His truth, amen? That's the war that we're in
every day. So when they come against it with their thoughts,
We're not terrified by that. We're not shaken by that. Why? Because it's proof they still
need Jesus. And it's proof, man, I've got
somebody working in me, helping me. Why? Because my animosity
is not against them. All I desire to do is tear down
what they believe in and thinking so that they can see Jesus and
put their confidence and trust in Him. And I'm just a vessel
that they could abuse and misuse as they see fit because my shepherd
is more than able at any time to change them from being that
adversary to an advocate to His glory. And I don't wanna use
common things. So how we talk to one another,
if I'm talking to one another just like anybody else could
talk with one another, meaning if I'm bashing and slandering
and bad-mouthing and mocking, anybody can do that, right? Anybody
can do that. Man, but to take a blow and to
love them through the blow, Now you're dealing with somebody
else, amen. Now you're dealing with somebody. You're going from
operating in pride to operating in the promises of God. And you
become where you're more concerned about defending God's promise,
not necessarily, because you ain't got to defend His promises.
His promises stand alone. They don't need to be defended.
But that means you're standing with His promises more than you
would be standing up for your pride, amen. We all need help,
amen? All need help. Because what bothers
Pam and Keith may not bother me. But what bothers me may not
bother Brother Shannon. But what bothers Brother Shannon
may not bother Brother Charles, and vice versa. But see, the
closer we all drove to the Lord and hearing from Him and learning
from Him, our one spirit and one mind is getting more condensed
and tight on the narrow path that He's given us to walk in.
And we support and stand with one another and stand up for
one another and realize that, hey, He's called me to walk what?
Worthy of the gospel. Worthy of the gospel. And that
I've gotta be careful about the agendas that I get caught up
in. World may do it, but I don't
have to. I got something that can change
people's lives because he's changing my life through it, amen? He's changing my life through
it. So we'll gather back tonight, look at a few more things that
I think just would be important for us about dealing with these
things in everyday life. Man, if anybody wants to know,
and anybody can recognize something in us, you know what we want
them to know? We love Jesus. We love his people. We love his
truth. And we'll lay our lives down
to reach people for him. In this world we live in. Amen?
Man. That preaches, that preaches. Life's lived out to his glory,
amen. Now you gotta trust him though.
You gotta trust him. You gotta trust him with your
life. You gotta believe him. Not believe about him, you gotta
believe him. You gotta believe him. You gotta take him at his
word. And boy, will he make a difference
in you, Brother Shannon? Woo, he sure will when we trust him. So let us pray. Father, we bless
you, we thank you. We ask you to help us with this.
I need this today more than anybody in here. And I pray that you
will reinforce me. You'll keep me humble. You'll
keep me low. You'll keep me meek, dependent
upon you. And that I recognize it's not
in my might. It's not in my mind. It's not
in our monies. None of those things avail, but
that we glory in your wisdom, in your sanctification, in your
righteousness, that we glory in the fact that you exercise
your loving kindness and your judgment in the earth and those
things you delight in. And so many things are out of
our control, but one thing is today that we can commit ourself
to you and that you will establish the way we think. So Lord, I
surrender, ask you to do your work in me and we're gonna praise
you in Jesus' name, amen. There's room, there's room, and
we need to go tell folks there's still room at the cross, amen?
Gotta keep tellin' them, keep tellin' them, keep tellin' them,
before it runs out for them, because it may run out. Time
may run out for them, but boy, we wanna stand in the gap in
between and help. Anybody have anything before
we go today? School tomorrow? Well, good deal,
Carolyn. We sure will. We'll be praying
for you. Anybody else have anything before
we go? We will. Come on up here, Carolyn. Anybody
else? Alrighty. Love y'all. Let's pray. Thank
you, Jesus, for this day. Thank you for the time you've
given us. Thank you for the sweet wonder of your message that helps
us. Lord, we want you to grab our
heart and mind and that we can have the heart and mind of Christ,
that we would be humble and kind and gracious. and truthful in
what you've come to do and how you make such a difference in
their life. We're not always gonna get it right. We recognize
that, but help us throw our imperfections upon you. Help us confess when
we get it wrong and help us just help lift and edify other people
so that you could be glorified in their life. So thank you for
our faith family. Continue your favor upon them.
Thank you for the giving, for the resources that you've provided
today. to do your work and we just gonna
thank you for it all in Jesus name. Amen. Love y'all.