You said, study to show yourself approved, a worker that need not be ashamed. And we're studying the 66th chapter, the fifth of the sixth verse tonight. And see, because a lot of times the problem, especially in this end time, is gonna come from within the church, within the church. And you see a lot of, I'll tell you, the other day, there was three pastors, I think they were saying, from the Dallas area. One of them had a congregation of maybe 120,000, and the other one, he's been in ministry for 30 years, and he had thousands, five, 10,000 people, plus whatever's following, but churches like that, we know it don't happen overnight, but if you're not studying, if you're not understanding that a lot of people that's leading the church are in the churches, is where the battle is being waged at, because that's where Satan ministers have came, have been transformed into ministers of light, leading, and that's how you deceive the whole world. So if you're not in church, you're not fighting the battle, but the battle is raging within the church, and God's judgment begins at the house of God. So we have to make sure that We're purging ourself that we're being washed by the word The fifth verse says hear the word of the lord you who tremble with awe fear reverence at his word those that fear god's word that are trying and studying and doing their best. It's not all of the church, and we see them talk about the church in Smyrna this weekend. He didn't rebuke, if you notice, there wasn't a word of criticism to that church, but it was a persecuted church and one in poverty. But it says, your brothers who hate you, who exclude you from my namesake, have said, let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy. But they will be put to shame. And as I was saying, there's many a preacher, there's many a people in the church that God's putting them to open shame now. It's a humiliating fact. Just think, it's not just that the minister that fallen or whatever. Years back, I think it was Eddie Long or something, his ex-wife came out against him after he was cast out of his church or whatever or resigned. But then what you have to think about, it's just not him facing the humiliation or shame of falling. He's the one that sinned against God. But how about the wife? that she's been going along all of that time. That's why it's paramount that she know the word of God and studying the word of God because it don't come in pairs. Each man has to give account for his own salvation. Eve didn't have to fall. I mean, Adam didn't have to fall because Eve had eaten up the tree. If you listen to other person that you following, each man has to give account to God. So I don't know what was between the husband and the wife, and a lot of these when the minister fall or whatever. But just because he or she has fallen in the fornication or adultery, they was talking about Paula White had been married and divorced several times or whatever, and that's one of the spiritual advisors for Donald Trump or whatever. But just because that minister fall, that don't mean the wife falls also. She could be a God-fearing woman that reverends the word of God and it's the man or the woman or the spouse, whatever spouse that's causing the problem. God judges that spouse. And he talks about that in Corinthians. How about the children? You know, their fathers then did this and the children and the grandchildren, everybody was going to the church. Do they want to switch churches, or do they feel people looking at them and saying things that your father that led this church for X number of years? That's what he told David. He said, you caused my name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles, because everyone around the palace and a great deal of people knew about this. But see here, God's a good judge, and he says, they could be brought to open shame. The sound of an uproar from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord, providing retributions to his enemies. So it's God that destroyed, God tears down, vengeance is his, he's gonna vindicate his people. So that's what we have to do. But we have to, the entire Sunday's message, learning to talk with God about those or dealing with people with hatred or something. I forgot the name of the message. Anger and resentment, you have to watch how you manage that because that could be part of Satan's vice to bring you down. Your resentment or your bitterness or hatred towards your brother or what your brother or somebody did to you years ago, that could be your downfall, even though they did that to you. They may get repentance or forgiveness for God, but you didn't cause resentment, hatred, or bitterness because of you feel some injuries, you know, something they did to you years ago. So anger or resentment may flash into our minds and we might not have sinned, but we abhor these things in us, or root of bitterness develops. And so we have to continually purge, cleanse ourselves of all unrighteousness. But if we hold it and allow it to burn, it could very well destroy us. It's like taking fire in your bosom, like they tell you about the scorn of a woman or whatever. Well, if you take that and nurse that for years and everything and to get even, to bring them down or bring that individual down with you, you want to sink both our ships. You're not talking about being saved yourself, but you're thinking about vengeance. That means you're not a child of God either. Maybe that's where the confusion was that neither one of y'all was children of God. Hatred also is the spirit of murder. That's what Cain had. That's why he says, are you a spirit of the wicked one? But we must beware of having hatred. Human nature can lead us into thinking that hatred has no serious immediate consequences. because the lake of fire seems so far off and you feel that you could nourish this vendetta, nourish it for a while or whatever, that's because your preacher is not preaching you the immediacy of sin, of judgment, fire and brimstone. I think about most of these churches and they preach what people want to hear or whatever, And their preaching is hypocritical preaching because this guy was telling you about he had something, two or three campaigns against the LGBTQ or whatever, and they were talking about another minister, a popular minister that I listened to. He was retiring or resigning. I don't want to name his name. That's because a lot of the people saying the elders of the people were coming up to him disliked it because he attended one of those LGBTQ or whatever weddings. And, you know, I didn't know all the circumstances, but sometime that may occur. So you may not can use that to judge that person or castigate that person because we're not being merciful or very Christlike. We don't know the circumstances or the wedding that Jesus went to. We know that they ran out of wine and that Jesus was there and he provided some of the better wine that they had had all evening. But the spirit of murder must be nipped in the bud before it leads to murder or to the lake of fire. And the book of Matthew, the fifth chapter, the 23rd and 24th verse. The verse is immediately after Jesus' statement on the spirit of murder he talks about. He says, therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled unto your brother and then come offer your gift to God. If you're not right, if there's a problem between you and your brother or someone in the church, some crises have happened. If you can't just come to God, God's not accepting those offerings in a spirit of anger or where there's chaos. Now I'm not saying, that's why I say it's according to the situation. Whether you're being convicted in the spirit or what, we don't know why of this, but this is a case in where Jesus says that you need to think about this to get right to make sure that you're not the instigator of the problem is not there. It says follow peace as much as possible with all men. With some people it's not possible to follow peace no matter what you do short of laying down and letting them walk on you. Do not attempt any offering to God while in a spirit of enmity. Jesus' word clearly implies that God would not accept our worship if we hate another person. Can we honestly say we are worshiping God in spirit and in truth if we hate our brother? Because that says the love of God is not in us because we have to be reconciled one toward another. Now that's why I say we have to have been here or follow Bible study and teaching to know that I can't go back and parse each time when I'm talking about here. But there are situations where that does happen. So the Bible is not universal in applying all of these in each particular instance. How can a heart burdened by grudges offer God complete adoration? That you carrying a grudge against this person, and you come to God and ask him something and say, well, you will be forgiven as you forgive others. Have you forgiven your brother? Have you forgave others? Are you merciful to others because Here you desiring God to be merciful to you, but you won't forgive your brother or your sister or someone that sinned against you. Even though they've sinned against you countless numbers of times, you still carry around resentment. You asking for something from God that you won't give to others. And we know what happened with the man that owed something. and asked for forgiveness. The king forgave him, but he found somebody that owed him less than what he was asking for, and he choked this man and put him in the jail. And the king said, well, look, I forgave you all of that debt. So a lot of times, our sin is much larger than other people's sins, but yet we still are castigating them over something very small. Within God's court, there are no unresolved crimes, nor does he lack introspection into our inner motives. And that's what we talked about last week. What's the reason or the motivation behind what you're doing or your hatred? What's the inner feelings there? Because hate is a very strong emotional feeling that's a human feeling. I need to hurry up so I can define some of what I'm seeing. But he says, anger here, Matthew 5, 22 to 24 says, by saying to you that everyone who continues to be angry with his brother or harbors malice against him shall be guilty before the court and whoever speaks contemptuously and insultingly to his brother calling an empty-headed idiotic fool shall be guilty of the Supreme Court before the court, and whosoever says you fool shall be in danger of fiery hell. And I tell you, we then got into a political, religious world where they have mailed together, and we're not separating the two and judging character in these things. And I'm telling you, the person running for president often calls the is competitive, stupid, or dumb, and talks different things, sarcastic, and then says about insulting. We have to watch the words, what we're saying, and that's why I start backing up, because it's causing me to choose sides and go over redundancy of what someone is, and ask They said, well, let's turn the page because I don't want to get entangled in this constant insults. If this person's not going to change, I'm going to become like Esau or whatever. I see his destruction and I see the demise of this individual and it's like I'm piling on. I need to start walking on and say there's nothing new here, there's nothing because I'm helping empower this if I know this person's character is below the character of what I want my children to do. If I'm causing the vision, I'm lying, I'm doing all sorts of things, and I help empower that. If I vote for this person, I'm part of the problem. That's why I say our secular lives also matter. And that's what was wrong with Israel during that time. They were looking at it from a spiritual point of view, but their spiritual point of view was hypocritical, because their lives that they're living, their character didn't match what they were preaching or teaching. And you see, Isaiah called them a bunch of hypocrites, where God wasn't accepting their prayers. He wasn't accepting their offerings. just as the time when Jesus Christ came. He was saying about the widow had put in more than the rest of them, even though they had materially gave just because she had given two mites on the principle and precepts of giving, she had did much, much more. That's why he says, your house is left unto you desolate. And he went away from the synagogues and he said that that temple would be destroyed, not a stone upon a stone. because their religion was a sham. They had their belief system, the structure of their belief system was wrong. Judaism, that's the problem with Judaism. It says, it could be difficult to understand what scripture means when it describes one who is angry without a cause. One might think a person has a cause to be angry. But Jesus is saying that if a person has an angry nature, if he just flies off the handle at the drop of a hat, he has a character flaw of which he must repent. And like I said, this person or these individuals get mad, they say all kinds of things, but somebody says something to them about them, they get all mad and disruptive and start going lower and lower. and they're vindictive and that character needs to be repented of or turned or changed. The source of murder comes from the heart. You remember, I tell you, the mind, the noose, that's why he gives you a new heart, because the old heart is depraved, and it's enmity, the flesh, the carnal thoughts, and the minds. That's without Satan, you see, because Satan's gonna be bound. Everything didn't come from Satan. I tell you, we had that Flip Wilson mentality about the devil made you do it. But no, you're responsible for your sin. It's not Satan that's doing it, it's self. It's pride, it's arrogant, it's the evil wickedness that allows Satan to do this. An individual's character to the core, who that individual is. That's why God gives us a new mind and a new heart that's transformed. He said, where hate and anger are, it's festered by Satan. That's why it says that he was a murderer in the beginning, because why? His way of thinking influenced Cain and Cain followed his way of thinking and God warned him and gave him opportunities that your sacrifice will be accepted if thou doest well. But if thou doest not, sin lies at the door. See, his thinking, his thoughts was wrong. He came and offered up to God when he was already in the process of thinking of destroying or killing his brother. He wasn't in the right state of mind. He wasn't giving with the right motives in mind. It wasn't what the offering was, but it was his state of mind, his thoughts. Sin was there. He had anger, he had malice toward his brother, and he eventually fooled his brother out and murdered his brother. If we have these evil traits in our heart, we are fostering a spirit of murder, and that's what I said, we're fighting against powers and principalities and wickedness in high places. It's not against flesh and blood, but flesh and blood allows these things to take a harbor, to take up refuge in them, and that makes us, that's our father, because we are slaves of servant who we yield our bodies unto. See, so we should be mortifying the deeds of the body. We should not be healing ourselves under unrighteousness. We should have the love of God, and the love of God in our heart doesn't foster murder. That's why Jesus said, you of your father devil, because your actions and things, you go about to kill me. And if you were of God, you wouldn't be trying to kill me, because I've told you the truth. But we see a lot of people in these political parties and in these religions suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. So if thoughts precede actions and hatred precedes murder, the book of Genesis says the thoughts of man was evil continually. When Jesus came back, he says, If you think it less than after a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery already. So our thought life is important. That's why we have to take every thought into the captivity and obedience of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because our thoughts are not like his thoughts. We have to get a new thought pattern going. We have to have that same mind in us that's in Christ Jesus. That's the call for a transforming of the mind, a renewing of the mind, a regeneration of the mind. If we hate someone, we break the sixth commandment, which is thou shall not kill. Because you're thinking of murdering or you murder your brother or murder someone in your thought life. So the thoughts of man, the intentions and the motivations that are wicked continually are what's in the heart of man. So Matthew addresses just the 15th chapter of Matthew, the 17th and the 20th verse says, do not yet ye yet understand that whatsoever entered in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile a man. But out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These things are things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashing hands defiled not a man. So because our actions follow thoughts, Jesus' anger is against hatred, malice, and envy, all of which are included within evil thoughts. That's why I say I have to watch the shows that I'm watching on television because what it was, Law and Order SUV or something. Me and my daughter had watched that once or twice. I couldn't watch that no more because the stars of that show and the writers of that show are more wicked than the people that they're prosecuting or going after. Because you make the sexual crime or the crime horrendous or whatever, and then you go after the perpetrator with the ungodly hatred of vengeance. It causes you to be a murderer in your heart. You want to destroy. And it says God doesn't take pleasure in the death of the wicked. But we enjoy horror. And that's why I said I had to quit watching criminal minds it is because it was too gruesome of evil. Some of the darkness of man is what God didn't want us to see or find out. That's why He forbade Adam to eat of the tree of the knowledge of evil, good and evil, because he didn't want man doing evil. But that's the love of the world. We want to know both. And you're slipping in the darkness to know both because you can't handle both. That's a problem. Because each is a form of spirit of murder. His concern is not only with how we act, but also why we act. Not only in what we actually do, but also in what we desire to do in our heart of hearts. What is your inner man? There's a lot of people too shy to carry out things or whatever. But the Internet, social media has opened that up because a lot of things that we wouldn't say to somebody, we hide behind that computer and say it and do it. We watch it on that computer. We do it on messages and text. It's a lot that we see, the eyes visualize this, and a lot of this conception of pornography, of romantic escapades and everything. And you notice on every show, all of the people want the star to go with the co-star, the female lead to go with the male lead. Everything is about sex. They don't feel the surest driven without them, whether they're married or not. They want those things to happen. That's the influence. That's the world. And God warns us about the love of the world and the things of the world. That's the matrix that we're in. That's this matrix. But God has called us to another matrix where he's creating us anew, that we are a new creation in Christ Jesus and that we're not shaped by the world or conformed to the world. He's calling us out of the world. Proverbs 10, 12 says, hatred stirred up strife, but love covered all sins. The Amplified reads, hatred stirs up strife But love covers and overwhelms all transgressions for giving and overlooking another's faults. But now we seek to expose one another's faults and we delve deeper and deeper into gossip and tail bearing to dig up that which is hidden. And that's a sin within itself, exposing one another's faults. But remember now, I'm not saying journalists and all of these people are evil or wicked. We're saying, what is the intent of motivation? That's what God looks at. He says the spirit, it's a discerner of the spirit and the thoughts. Young lady, I said it was like my daughter. I told her she was like my daughter, her closeness of what she was and my family, my daughter-in-law or whatever. And I was saying something, one of her cousins, some treachery she did against her or whatever. And I came up here, I was praying for her, and I consistently pray for her or whatever. Because why does some of the people of our relatives, and that's why Jesus says the enemies will be within your own homes. This will be your relative relationship. That's where we have the most problems. And Malachi talks about the husband or the wife that deals treacherously with the spouse of thine youth. That's treachery. Because if you're in a covenant marriage, if you're in a marriage, you can't break that covenant. I don't care. There's no reason God hated divorce or putting away. So I was laughing when somebody was saying that T.D. Jake said, well, you just stuck. Well, if you married, if you won, you can't separate and become two. The Catholic Church can't disannul or annul a marriage or whatever. If God hated putting away, now we know these things happen and that's what the Pharisees was talking about, a bill of divorce. But let me not get sidetracked here because I'm behind you. Hatred makes mountains out of molehills, but love covers or puts them out of sight and enables one to overlook insults and wrongs. Sometimes people can insult you or do you something wrong, but it's the bigger person that can overlook that. That's why I say, you pray about it and you talk to God. You give the problem to God. Address the problem in the Lord through prayer, through the proper avenues of channels. Adam Clark's commentary says, hatred seeks for occasion to provoke enmity. It delights and broils. On the contrary, love conciliates, removes aggravations, puts the best construction on everything, and pours water, not oil, upon the flame. In other words, it's a beatitude. It's one of the beatitudes. God says, blessed is the peacemaker. Not the one who calls and says, oh, girl, you should have heard what he said about you. Or have you heard this person? You're stirring the pot. That's Satan that puts out rumors and lies and devices that the Haitian community is suing one of our elected officials because you've caused grievances, you've caused harm, you've caused bomb threats, and you've caused all kinds of turmoils by something that was a rumor or a lie, and then after you found out, instead of apologizing, you're still stirring the pot. So there's no forgiveness for that. You see, you hadn't conceded and say, I was wrong. I shouldn't have done those things. FCC Cook, a commentator, writes, love first hides and does not expose, and then forgives and forgets all sins. You've heard of some people and sometimes they say the Catholic Church was wrong in covering up a lot of these priests, the things the priests did or whatever. That's why I say Have we consulted God on about covering this? Hiding these things we know that love forgives and hiding But is this the will of God in this is this because he says everything that's done in the darks will come to the light What you hear us see that God giveth you he says speak that on the rooftops Hatred against a brother can lead to a person of terrible acts, most often, misunderhanded acts. And that's what I told you. I don't know, God, it's not Esau. That's why I told you he's individual. It's not Esau. When he say Edom, he's talking about the family of Esau, because it seems as though Esau and Jacob was reconciling one another, what I was talking about, suddenly, because Jacob tried to bribe Esau with all of these gifts and things and put his wives and things ahead of him, except for Rachel and sent him all kinds of Gifts and things and money and herds of flocks and things. Esau said no keep that I don't need it God has blessed me Esau was well Esau had material prosperity and they buried the father together and so He didn't care try to carry out the threat of killing Jacob or whatever, but we know Edom Esau's people Carried out a whole lot of treachery and hatred against their brothers. It was like They are part of the Amalekites, you remember Amalek. And God took this vendetta against Amalek to destroy Amalek and he had told Saul to utterly destroy Amalek because Amalek hated their brother. See, you can't hate your brother. Moab tried to curse Israel for coming across the property, but God had already told Israel that he wasn't going to allow them to take Moab's property because that had blown it to Lot's daughters, that had blown it to Lot, and that he said Moab and Ammon, that he wasn't going to allow them to do that. See, that was the flesh reacting. So, some hatred that we have or whatever animosity, calls vicitudes. And it says, in the case of the Edomites, their vile attitude first manifested themselves in such as gloating and rejoicing over Israel's demise. That's good for them. I'm glad they have it. And then they took advantage of them. If you read the book of Obadiah and you see where Israel was put to flight and was being destroyed, instead of lending a hand, that they had a lofty position over Israel and they didn't help their brother. You see, it's nothing your brother should be able to do that goes against these things to where you can't be reconciling to your brother. That's why it says reconcile you and then God will prosper you because that's the image of likeness of God is keeping or helping your brother. The fifth commandment, Matthew 10, 37 says, he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. But he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. As I told you in studying the Bible, we know that that means in comparison too. Because it goes on to say, if any man come to me and hate not his father, 1037 Matthew 37, that go to word hate. If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. The Amplifier says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, listen at this that's in parentheses here. It says, in the sense of indifference to a relative disregard for them in comparison with the attitude toward God. In other words, in comparison to God, my family doesn't come first. God comes first. I'll tell you about Brother Allman, who was pastor of the church. That has to be the first thing in your life. It comes before you. Now, in order of sequence, the wife should come before the children. Your husband should come before your children, because your children is a product of your husband and wife. The one is of the husband and wife. Joe was able to have more children But we don't know what happened to that wife, whether the wife, that's why I say the accountability of that individual, that's why I say these men that are divorcing their wives that's in the ministry or not, the wife has to stand up on her own. So if the wife is right, God justifies the wife just as you remember he took Nabal and killed Nabal. Abigail married David because she was a righteous woman. She was a good God-fearing woman whereas Nabal the husband was wrong. That's why I say God is the only one that can judge and he looks at the inner motives and aspirations of each individual. The word hate is not an absolute term but one that's relative. I tell you hate was a feeling. Hate in Luke 14 26 means love less by comparison. In other words, he loved Jacob and hated Esau. There's no favorite children, but it may be that you like this one more in comparison to that one. You understanding what I'm saying? So in comparison to my wife, children, and everything, I love God more. In comparison to myself, I have to die to self. If I don't hate myself, because why? I'm human. God can give me a new life and he does give me a new life, a new creation. We have to see human depravity and that we were all in sin. If our love for our parents interferes with worshiping and obeying God properly, we do not love God genuinely because it's become a point in time you say, well, you know, my mom and dad, they was telling me about Santa Claus and all of these or whatever. The love changes or shifts. But God is always what? Preeminent. We give Jesus the preeminence in our lives. Nothing comes before Him. Matthew 10, 37 shows that Christ refers to those who place their father or mother above God in obedience and reverence. This is idolatry. Anything between you and God, if money, time, anything, anything that's between you and God, you have an idol there. That's an idol. That has to be first. Anything that's before God is an idol. He's not the suffering. He's a jealous God. If anything, you give more reverence and time to your wife, your mother, your father, or yourself, you have an idol. There's an idol on the throne. The time may come when it is no longer necessary Right for us to obey our parents a man leave his mother and father and he go on and him and his wife has become one You understand That's become a time because you know God may not be shining the light in your mother or father's life as much light as he's given you Even so we should never cease to honor our parents That's a big difference there We're going against the commandments. We must honor our parents, just like loving our wives. You must love your wife and submit to one another. And that requires respect. Honor indicates a high respect for their worth. for a high respect and esteem and reverence. That's why I say, well, I couldn't do this. I can't be caught with another woman. The husband should say, I couldn't do that. My wife says, I couldn't do that because think of what my children would think of me if I'm caught with another man or whatever. The highest reverence and esteem is for that spouse. That's another part of me that I'm doing this to me. You understand what I'm saying? So, even though you have other pulls and things, that's of Satan because God is not doing that. When Anthony Sanders or whatever, Governor of California that was and he left with this woman on this Mount Appalachian trail or something say she was his soulmate There's no nothing that God had put between you and your spouse Because he hates the but so it's something else. It's lost. I don't know why it may not be physical I was telling someone the other day this might have not have been a sexual pool. It might have been something else. I the inappropriate relationship might have been. You two close it. If you sit down and discuss that this woman friend that you have, that you talk about matters with her before you talk about your wife, you better watch it because she's gonna end up taking the place of your wife. You can't talk certain things with another woman or another man in place of your wife. That's a relationship, that's a reverence that you should respect that. You can't say, And then now you're talking back and forth and texting and now you're at work and doing these things. Well, the friendship between y'all, you should have burned that down because It's hard to love too, and now you didn't put someone, you brought this, you opened the portal of that door. You're flusher, you're carnal nature. You would have just had to suffer if your wife, you can't talk to your wife about it and everything. In their situation, your wife may not can talk to you about it. You may not can talk to your wife about a certain thing. But that's what you have to suffer in that you have to go talk to God. He says, I'll be a wife when you don't have a wife. I'll be a husband when you don't have a husband or friend. Well, your husband or your wife may not understand you, but you stop. You need to talk with God because it's wrong to go talk to some other woman or some other man about a problem that only you and your spouse should be able to share. That's a consecration unto them. That's Satan. That causes a hatred. But then, right now, none of these spouses in these situations, when Eddie Long's wife came out against him or whatever, it looked vindictive or hateful. She should have just left it alone. I think Anna Stanley, Charles Stanley's wife, when she divorced him, nobody never found out what it was about. I don't think, in his situation, it was about another woman. He could have been that he was too busy butterfly watching and too dedicated. until his thing, because Jasper Williams had said that's what happened to his marriage, that he was too busy following the Lord. And the book of Corinthians tell us that a married man can't serve the Lord a way a single man can. because his wife has needs. She has a place in his life. His body don't belong to him, so he has to have time. Your mama told you, I have to have time. I go in there and watch television with my wife. I do a lot of things. I may not be one to watch television or do this, but that's a responsibility. That's a position of duality. you in the body, so your children, they deserve some of your time. That's why I was telling you against Elon Musk, well if you got 10 or 12 children and they outside the home or whatever, now that's kind of incent or adultery or something against your children at your home. Yes, he's outside of your children or whatever, but those within your home, those are the ones that requires your time and everything. But you shouldn't have. The Bible tells us about allowing our stream to flow all over the cities and everything. You shouldn't have children all over the place. So those four or five children require your time, but those two or three outside, well, that's taboo. You shouldn't do that. You shouldn't be in that situation. God didn't put you in that situation. Self did. But I'm getting too far off the subject here. Without this, we cannot properly revere God, and it causes hatred. Some of the children hate the children, or the outside children, the stepchildren, or these other children. Hatred and division starts. I don't know how that works with the Mormons and everything. We don't see a case in the Bible where a man that had multiple wives, that it worked out. Because I can't see how, with Rachel and Leah, you see the friction that was between them two sharing Jacob? That's not how God designed it. Do we have it in the Bible? Yes. It's an ideal situation? No. One man, one woman. He recalls what he said to Peter after the resurrection. As a result, we honor and respect our parents with a shadow of our subjection. That's a pattern. I'm repeating the same things. What was the first question? He says, do you love me? He says, do you love me more than these? Now, who were the these? I don't know whether these, the other disciples or whatever, or were he talking about the fishnet? Because you remember Peter says he was going fishing or whatever, or was it material things or something else? But it was more likely that he was actually, you have to, if you love me, feed my sheep. You have to be dedicated. And it's, they, I don't want to read the fox books of Mars and tell you about that, but a lot of the apostles, they say their wives and things, They left their wives and things because of persecution and different other things would happen in their lives. But that's not in the Bible, so I shouldn't preach and hear things that's not in the Bible. You can read that in extra stuff on the side. But that's why Paul says, don't I have a right to carry or have a wife or go around like Cephas or the rest of them? So apparently Peter's wife was going with them. But a lot of places they were going were dangerous places and places that wasn't conducive to taking their wives and families along with them. That was a very dangerous situation the apostle was in. But we have to live life the way God gave us life to live. That's our responsibility. 2 Corinthians 5 and 10 says, for we believers will be called to account and must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. so that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or bad, that is, each will be held responsible for his actions, purposes, goals, motives, and use or misuse of his time, his opportunities and abilities. That's why I say, if we say redeeming the time because the days of evil, we must give account of our time, what we have been doing since we've been saved. of our actions, of our life, of our character, all of these things. It does not matter in terms of judgment. What matters is, is whether we are striving to live what we know to be the way God lives. Because that's how it is in his kingdom where we'll be living. So once we are born again, once we know, and that's why it says those that know and don't do good will be whooped with many more stripes. If we know to do good, we should be doing good. If we pray that his kingdom come, so the opportunities he give us, the time that he give us, we have to maximize the use of that time. We can't squander that time off. He says, his way is the way of love, and love is something what? We do. Love has a reciprocal action. We love him because he loved us. Your wife, you give and love your wife. It's reciprocal. You have to actually do that. You can't just say, I love you. Love is also an action. Just like faith. Faith has works. Humanly, I told you I would come back to that. Secularly, humanly, the opposite of love is hatred. Love-hate relationships, right? Love-hate. But this is because we judge things largely according to the senses, and that's what I was telling you about movies and televisions and shows and things about feelings, and they tug on your manic strings and everything. And the woman's built differently than the man, but she can overcome that because there's no male or female in Christ Jesus. But a man has to overcome his manhood to have that feminine side come before it, because if there's no male or female, both of them have to understand each other. Love, therefore, is a strong feeling for a person of faith. Hate is a strong feeling against it. This is not a biblical definition. Remember I said we have to have biblical definitions. Biblically, the opposite of love is sin. The opposite of love is sin, biblically. Like love, sin is also something we do. Sin is something we do. According to 1 John 5 and 3, love is keeping God's commandments and sin then is the breaking of his commandments. Right? If he says, Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. That was his job. If you love me, Keeping the commandments. That's why we have the petition. We have because we keep his commandments We love God though feeling is certainly involved in biblical love feeling is involved to a point But that's where past the point that you have to be able to tell your mother when she's wrong I have to preach to y'all when y'all are wrong, but It can't be about feelings. The wife or the husband have to beat those children. You don't raise them by putting them in time out in all of the psychological ways. It says, sparing the rods for the child. We have to do this biblically, but biblically love is tough sometimes. It's not about the heart feeling. It's about what God says, the word of God. What does God say to any sisters? Because biblically, it tells you if a child is disobedient or drunken or whatever, that they was to kill the child, right? Well, we don't kill anymore. We handle these things differently because he says, thou shall not kill. But then we have to learn how to turn a person over to Satan, as they did in the Corinthian church. Paul says, turn that person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So don't keep supporting your spouse or your children or something in their wrong ways. Sometimes the wife will get mad, oh, you could take her side, or you could take his side. No, I have to take the side of what's right. I have to take the true side. I have to stand in truth, because if I don't stand in truth, both of us are gonna go down in flames and wrong. The will of God and the truth play a far larger role biblically. In biblical, we have feelings, but what's the will of God in the truth? That's the larger role. Are we understanding what I'm saying? Seriously consider this, if we sin, then biblically we do not love God. nor our fellow man, or for that matter, even ourselves, because sinning means we have taken steps toward committing spiritual suicide. Because we know God's Word says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. So if you commit sin, if Eve listened to that Satan and said, I shall not surely die, No, you need to keep God's commandments. You need to do what God said. Because you do that, that's disobedience. That's sin. And rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Sin is sin. That's what's greatest against God, to sin against God. If we do this, it also means that we do not appreciate that God has given us life and has given us His life. Has given His life so that we can claim His awesome promise of living eternally with Him. So what? He died so that we could continue in sin? No. He says he's died so that we should not that seeing wouldn't have rule over us that we wouldn't know basic We have to be overcomers in him and the only way we could do that is by his word and through his word Running out of time. Yeah, I gotta get me. I've got eight more pages to go and I'll never make it strip of all possible nuances that might affect God's judgment This is a stark reality what faces us once God has opened our eyes and revealed us. Once we are born again, once we get that light, we have to walk in the light. If he's revealed this unto us and if we love what he has revealed, then we must hate sin because it destroys everything God's wonderful revelation stands for. Sin destroys and brings darkness into our life. If we walk in the light as he's in the light, then we have fellowship one with another. But sin breaks fellowship with God. It takes us in the darkness and he had brought us into the light. the love of God, 1 John 2, 8-11. On the other hand, he says, I'm writing a new commandment to you which is true and realized in Christ and in you because the darkness of moral blindness is clearing away and the true light, the revelation of God in Christ is already shining. The one who says he is in the light, that is, who is in consistent fellowship with Christ and yet habitually hates or works against his brother in Christ is in darkness until night. He's lying. That's not in you. It's you in the body of Christ, but you following or you hate those that are in the light of you working against your brother. It's a contradiction. God's word is not a walking contradiction. You're the contradiction. You're the hypocrite. Your profession is saying something that you don't have. The one who loves and unselfishly seeks the best for his brother lives in the light, and in him there is no occasion for stumbling or offense. That is, he does not hurt the cause of Christ or lead others to sin. But the one who bitch who habitually hates that is works against his brother in Christ is in spiritual darkness and in walking in darkness and you're leading others to walk in darkness if I tell you to hate someone and I build up my character nature you and not God's character nature I'm antichrist I'm against the things of God I'm against the light and you're going to because the light has blinded you the spiritual light has blinded you. It's like seeing, like they say, if you look into the Ark of the Covenant, the light would destroy you. Have you ever been in a dark room, had your eyes dilated, but then a burst of light comes there, it almost blinds you? And I say, yeah. That's why we have to grow in Christ Jesus. Yet we have the love of God. He has shed it abroad in our hearts by His Spirit. If He has given us the love of God, It shed abroad and hope make it not a shame this Romans 5 and 5 because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. I was watching a show with my wife the other day and I got up and left out of it and finished watching and it was America's Greatest Catches or something she watches, River Monsters or something with Jeremy Wade. It wasn't the fish or whatever. It was the poverty of this Amazon village. The life these people live and the poverty they was in. And one person, Jeremy Wade, was talking about catching the fish and letting the fish go and go back. But the man over the village said, well, no, you prayed to your God to catch the fish. But I prayed to my God to catch this fish and eat it, because the whole village could eat this fish or whatever. Their poverty was so extreme, and that's what I say. If the love of God isn't shared abroad in your heart, but TV has desynthesized us or whatever, are you feeling the hurt for the Palestinians that's being bombed over there that has nothing to do with Hamas? Are you feeling bad for the Ukrainians that are being bombed by the Russians or whatever because a dictator wants to just take over? Are you feeling about Uganda and what's going on in the Sudan because those African tribe leaders or whatever is just like the leaders of the United States of America or whatever? Are you feeling bad for those that are oppressed in this nation and places? That's why my son had bought me an iPod to listen at a song that Solomon Burke was singing. And it was, as long as one of us abound, none of us are free. As long as mankind is in poverty and there's hurt, I felt the pain of my son and he had a toothache the other day or whatever and I was telling him to go to the dentist or whatever. But are you feeling the pain of people that don't have proper health care or dental service or whatever? Is that love shed abroad for people that you don't know? People that you see That's why I say I was shaken up by this thing about the preacher and his wife and the divorce and everything. Because that's what Jesus and that's why I say you couldn't be God because he feels all of our pains and afflictions. Do you see the people that are homeless in the streets and the things that are going on? Is it touching? Is the love of God shared abroad asking God about this and praying for people that you don't know? and the situation and thing that you're in, or do you just care about what you're doing, more money, more that way? Your thought line is not concentrated on people. That's what Jonah's problem was. He was a Israelite. He had the things and resources necessary, but he was mad because God didn't destroy the cities. I know what kind of God you are and you're merciful that you forgive these people. See, he didn't have a heart that go out to people, and that's what I'm saying about the preachers today, that they can preach great sermons and have mega churches with thousands of people. Jonah preached to Nineveh, just one flat sermon, repent. I know he didn't preach repenting. He said, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. But the people repented and turned to God, and Jonah was mad because God had mercy upon him. Now, I got a long ways to go. I'm going to have to save this. And I don't like doing this, but I'm going to have to continue this teaching Sunday. But Jonah didn't care about that whole city. And God says, these people didn't have the knowledge or understanding of that, but yet still they fasted and prayed and turned. And now you careful about a gourd or something. See, that's what's been happening to this nation. And as we're coming up to this election or whatever, no matter who wins the election, the nation has to fall. Babylon has to fall. Whoever gets the blame for it, the blame is godlessness. A hypocritical nation. And God, just as he punished Israel, has to punish this nation. Babylon is fallen. So I'm going to stop right here, and we'll continue on, that the love of God has to be shed abroad on us, but we can't love God and hate our brothers. How can you love God who you had not seen, but you don't love your brother who you have seen? Those that you oppress, those that, and like I said, we have to teach what oppression and what hate and what all these words encompass because resentfulness is right there in hatred. Bitterness is there you bitter with somebody are you for? Unforgiving all of these things as he says a murderer is one that slanders another also You don't have to murder with a gun a knife or whatever the criminality and the reason we all criminals are because we all sinners and sinners is against God you remember I tell you the opposite of love is sin and And so we're all sinners, and so we all need God's mercy and grace. And when he gives us eternal life, that means he gave his life to save us from sin, to redeem us, to reconcile us into him. So he tell us, love your enemy. Love those, but it requires a hatred of sin. To love your enemy requires not showing us how to love. It requires not a humanistic love. This love is the Holy Ghost being shared abroad because there's so many preachers and things out there now, and they're false prophets. How many people sitting in those churches could imagine Morris was the man's name? I didn't know anything about him before that time, but had a congregation of 122,000 people, the lead preacher. But for 16 years or so, he had been in a relationship where he had been molesting a girl ever since she was 12 or 16 or something like that. But he's the lead preacher. Don't we owe it to ourselves to study? Don't we owe it to ourselves to stand strong and for God to remove that, remove those from us because those incidents where that's why the word of God seems to be having no effect on people that are Christians, that they are so hateful. They said it was the conservative religious right that put the last president in office before Joe Biden. But it's people that even the human, even the people that are not Christians, a lot of people that have lost, left their churches and everything because they're saying, if this is your Christianity, I don't want to have anything to do with it. But these are people that are doomed. God uses the enemy, like I said, he can use Satan to find out the true followers of God, because if you were a true follower of God, you'd have never given up on God, because sometimes Satan's seed is in the church. So you can't return against the word of God, it's just that you allowed yourself to be deceived. It's just that you wasn't studying enough, that you had placed yourself in a position, and that you empowered the wicked one. That's why I say, we think we got this thing religiously, and we're like the Laodiceans. You know, the Laodicean church thought they didn't have any need, anything, and Christ was outside of the church. That was the worst church. Those seven churches in Revelation are indicative of all of the churches during all times. It's not one particular church during one church age. So the church that was poor, that was in poverty, that was suffering, was the church at Smyrna. But he said that they were rich, though materially they were in poverty. But the Laodiceans was rich and thought they had need of anything, but they were poor, wretched, naked, and blind. So they were in horrible shape. So the things that you're suffering and the people that hate you and work all manner of wickedness against you, the Beatitudes say, bless the year. Bless the year when these things happen. But are you hungry and thirsting for righteousness? Don't pat yourself on the back if you're not filling in what you should be doing. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you.