He takes your personality and your character and He molds it into something that He always intended it to be to begin with.
Welcome to the popular Mountain Faith program with dynamic preacher and teacher Pastor David J. Gonzalez.
Prepare your heart for a good word, and have your Bible ready now for today’s powerful message with Pastor David J. Gonzalez.
There's something we do every Sunday, in the beginning of the service we take our bibles, we all stand to our feet, we wave it around. Let’s all stand to our feet here today. Let's take our bibles, stick it up in the air and say, “This is my bible (This is my bible), I can be what it says I can be (I can be what it says I can be), I can do what it says I can do (I can do what it says I can do), and I can have what it says I can have ( I can have what it says I can have), my mind is alert (my mind is alert), and my spirit is receptive (my spirit is receptive), to the living word of God (to the living word of God), in Jesus name (in Jesus name), amen and amen. (amens) You're welcome to take your seats here today. Greet two or three people around you and say your looking good. (Your looking good) Amen. Say it in faith if you have to but say it. (laughing) Praise be to God. Alright. We’ve been talking about what salvation means and what it truly means. And how salvation has been really misinterpreted and narrowed in view and in scope by Christianity and it hasn’t been intentional. But, like a lot of things you kind of lose the interpretation of why something was being done. You know, it was Easter one year and the little girl came and asked her mom, “Mom why do you take out the Easter ham out of the can and cut it in half before you put it in the pan?” She goes, “Well I don’t know, my mother always did that.” And so she said, “Why don’t you go and ask your Grandmother.” So she went to her Grandmother and said, “Grandma why did you take the Easter ham out of the can and cut it in half before you put it in the pan?,” And she said, “ Well I don’t know my mother always did that, why don’t you go ask Grandma she’s right over there.” So the little girl went over to her Great Grandma and asked. “Why did you take the Easter ham out of the can and cut it in half before you put it in the pan?” And she said, “My pan was never big enough and I had to fit it in just right.” And see traditions get handed down and we don’t recognize why we are still believing something or doing something. We need to go back to the original thoughts of what's causing something to occur. And we can maybe change or get a better understanding of why something is going on. (amen) And salvation means to be delivered from the molestation of your enemies. To be delivered from harm, to be delivered in this present age. (that's right, amens) God is no respecter of persons, He is no respecter of when He does it or where He does it. But one thing that can be guaranteed, He wants to see salvation in your life. (Amen) Salvation in your life doesn’t just mean going to heaven, salvation in your life means having victory. (amens) If you don’t want victory and you think victory is some sort of prosperity message that some people preach, then you're going to have to rip out most of your bible and the few pages you have left is going to be pretty scant. Because God wants you to have victory, (yes) Jesus wants you to have victory. (amens) And we are celebrating the death but not only the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pastor Roy Averill, who was at our Men’s meeting yesterday was talking about he had a good word. He heard the Lord asking him, “What do you see when you see the cross?” One of the thoughts I had, when I see the cross I see victory. (Amens) When I see the cross I don’t see death I see resurrection. I see that I’ve been resurrected out of my old life. (Amen) I don’t know about you but the only reason I came to Jesus was because I needed Jesus. It wasn’t because I was all cleaned up and perfect and I thought that it would be good to have someone in my camp that was as good as me. (laughing) It was because I needed Him. I was a failure as a man, I was a failure as a human being until I met Jesus. (Amen) And when I met Jesus everything began to turn around. And it was a transformation, it wasn’t just an instantaneous transformation, I was a new creature in Christ, but, then I began to see that not only was I a new creature but a new creature growing up in some new thoughts and some new processes. (Amen) It is easy to sin but thing is, is that we have an easy way to get out from underneath that sin and that’s through the blood of Jesus Christ. Can I hear an amen? (Amens) Let’s now go over to John 10. John chapter 10 starting in verse 9, "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (Amen) So as we begin to look at the study here this morning, some things are occurring here in verse 9 and verse 10 and 11 that I want to explain. First of all Jesus is the door. No one can come to the Father but through Him. It says so right here, “if anyone enters through Me he will be saved and go in and out and find pasture.” We know from other scriptures there is no other way to Jesus. You cannot be a devout Budhist and make it to God. You cannot be a devout Muslim and make it to God. Jesus is the door. Not Mohammed not any body else. We don’t worship the god of the moon over Arabia, we worship the God over heaven and earth. (amen!) Can I hear an amen? (Amens!) Give the Lord a hand clap here, amen.(clapping) And in verse 10 it says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Now I want you to look at that word “it”, that word “it” in your bible, in most bibles, is italicized, if it’s there at all, that means it was put there at the privilege of the translators to make it seem more easy to read. But let’s read it without what the translators did. And it says here, “ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have abundantly.” (yeses) In other words not it, just life, but have everything in your life be abundant. (Hallelujah) Have abundant life. The bible calls it Zoe life. Super hyper abundant life. That doesn’t mean the great by and by, Beau la land, when we get there. It means right now, right here. (amens) The bible says if we follow after, over in Jeremiah chapter17, if we follow after God, we will see when prosperity comes, our roots will extend out to the stream, we will not fear when the heat comes, (come on!) and in the year of drought we will not cease to bear fruit. (Amen!) Now that has everything to do not with heaven but with earth. (Amen) And that was under the shadow of the old covenant, now we are under a better covenant, with better promises. (amen!) That doesn’t mean that the old covenant was bad, the old covenant that was there, had promises attached to it. But now we have a new covenant with new promises or better promises, if it was good under the old covenant, it’s better now. (whoo, amens!) It’s way better now! (Amens!) Yeah man it’s better now. Amen? (yeses, amens) Everyone say, “it’s better now.” (It’s better now) Look at your neighbor and say, “it’s way better now.” (It’s way better now) It’s better now. We have a better promise. In verse 11 it says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” And Jesus said to the Father, I’m sure there was a conversation up in heaven, something to this effect, now God is perfect ,so I’m going to bring it down to human terms and do something with it, but you know God said the only way for us to really make this thing happen once and for all so they don’t have to offer bulls and pigeons and sheep every single year, is that we can send you, Jesus. And I can imagine in human terms Jesus saying, “is there any other way?” And God saying to Him, “there is no other way, you must go and live like a human being for thirty years. You must then go for the next three years and be a teacher of how I think and what I believe and then finally, at the very end of that, I want you to offer yourself up as a once for only sacrifice, for the sins of all mankind for eternity.” (amen, praise God, yes) And we know what Jesus said as a man, He said, “take this cup from Me.” He said, “if it’s possible” in the garden of Gessamene, “if it’s possible, take this cup from Me. But not My will be done, Lord God, but Your will be done. Not my will be done Father, but Your will be done. Always distinguish then, between who you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you.(amen) We saw then...when people in His day, they saw Him come back to His own home town and He could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief, they said who does He think He is? Isn’t He the son of Joseph and Mary and aren’t these his brothers and sisters here with us? Didn’t we grow up with him? Isn’t he the son of a carpenter? Who does he think he is? They saw him for who he was as a man. They saw him for who he was just in flesh and blood. And we need not to look at Jesus and go, “ooooh my Jesus”. But we need to not only know what He did, but who He is. (come on) What is He? He is the Salvation of the world. (amen, come on) He is the one who paid the price for you and for me, to not only make it into heaven, but to live out a salvation lifestyle. (amen, hallelujah) See when the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians, they went out and ten plagues came upon the homes and the lives of the Egyptians, but they didn’t come upon the Israelites. And that was the beginning of them seeing the salvation of the Lord. (amen) Today God wants not just your enemies to be taken care of, but more importantly, for you to be rising higher above your enemies. (amen) Amen? Rising higher above your enemies. Glory be to God. (Amen) People saw Jesus as a mere man, we see Jesus because of what He has done for us. You can watch the news programs and you can see who was Jesus, and it’s on the Discovery Channel. You know for a fact that, if you haven’t been coming to church you're going to have some lame brain concept after the end of that hour about who Jesus was. (Amen) You know they have programs coming out that Jesus was a homosexual, that Jesus slept with His sisters, that Jesus you know stole from His parents. You know they even said back in His day, as soon as Jesus made it known who He was, the devil found out about it, we found out at the end of 40 days that He was tempted by the devil. So the devil painted a target on His back and then went around saying He’s a glutton, He’s a wine gibber, He’s a drunkard, He hangs out with tax collectors, and with prostitutes. I mean they were saying all kinds of evil things about Him, and if they would do it back in that day, guess what the media is going to do today? The same things going to keep happening. (amens) Turn over to John chapter 1. We’re in John right now, go over to John chapter 1. John chapter 1 in verse 29 it says, “The next day,”, talking about John the Baptist, “ he saw Jesus coming to him and he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” That was a revelation that he had. Now jump over to verse 35, “Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" Now this is a lamb, now we have to understand where this understanding of the lamb came from. Let’s go over to Exodus 12, Exodus chapter 12 starting in verse 1. “Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, [2] "This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.” Now this is when the Jewish calendar was instituted. And so this month, we’ll call April just for a generic term, this month is the first month of the Jewish calendar, “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. [4] 'Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. [5] 'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. [6] 'You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month,” Now what’s going on here between verses 4 and 5 is they were to study that lamb to make sure that it is without blemish. “ then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 'Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. [8] 'They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” Now let’s jump down to verse 11. “'Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord's Passover.” Now remember the word Passover wasn’t being used in Israel up until this time. This is a brand new celebration, a brand new concept for them. Verse 12, “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord.” Verse 13. “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood,” Everyone say, “when I see the blood (when I see the blood)”, “when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” So this is a shadow of what is to come, the lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. This is a shadow, if under the old covenant there was promises made, we have a better covenant with better promises. And if under the old covenant, death would not come into your house, death would not come to your sheep or your oxen, to your cattle, or your children. When they finally left Egypt, the bible says that there was not one infirm person amongst their tribes. In other words there was not one sick person out of five whatever number you believe it to be, roughly five million people. There was not one sick person in five million people. Not a lame person, not a person with their eye out. Not one infirm person amongst their tribes. (amen) Extraordinary, you can’t go into a city of five thousand people, without going to at least, you know, one sick person in one out of every two homes. And this was through out the entire nation of Israel. The blood was for now. The blood was for right then, it wasn’t for later on. It wasn’t for getting into heaven. It was for right then and right now. Amen? (amen) So Jesus is the door and we see now that the lamb is the protection. I’m going to read something here to you. I have a little chart here to just kind of give you an image of what I’m reading from. I’m going to show you the sacrifice of lambs under the Old Testament first of all, then I’m going to go through it under the New Testament, and we’ll go and research, it if we have time, some of these scriptures. First of all under the old testament, the sacrifice of the lambs was made on the 10th day of Nissan and the lambs were set aside for inspection, just like we just read. The lambs were observed and tested for five days to make sure there was no imperfections in them. The lamb had to be spotless and with no fault. So you couldn’t bring a three legged lamb with one eye out with no fur, and say I want to offer this up to the Lord. That was against the rules in Israel and should be today. In other words, you don’t give your worst to the kingdom of God, you give your best. Amen? (amens) Then the lamb was prepared for death at 9 A.M. on the 14th day of Nissan. And then the lambs were killed at 3 P.M. on the 14th day of Nissan, which we just read in verse 6 of Exodus chapter 12. And then the blood was applied to the door posts and the lintels of the house. For the blood was applied so that the death angel, when he came, he would Passover the sin, he wouldn’t respond to the sin that was there. In Exodus 12:46 we can go there, we find that one of things about the lamb is, they were told not to break any of the bones of the lamb at all. That there should not be one bone that was broken. The whole lamb had to be consumed by 6 P.M. and the blood of the lambs saved the Israelites from the angel of death. They poured out that blood and it was the beginning of the institution of what we know today as to be Christianity. It was a shadow of things to come. Now under the New Testament this is what the sacrifice of Lamb of God is like. On the 10th day Jesus entered the city, which a lot of Christians call Psalm Sunday. He came in, He was riding on a donkey, if you remember, if you been in church long enough, they put down palm branches for Him to walk on and to ride over. And then the leaders in the city, as we’ll study here this morning, the leaders observed and questioned Jesus and the authority of Jesus for five straight days; just like the lamb was tested and observed for five straight days. And the scripture says, “that they could not find any fault in Him.” And the lamb had to be spotless and with no fault and at that same time the equal for that was that Pilot found no fault in Jesus and he said, “I don’t find any fault in this man.” And he washed his hands of His blood. Under the old testament, the sacrifice was prepared for death at 9 A.M. on the 14th day of Nissan. At that same exact time, Jesus was nailed to the cross at 9 A.M. on the 14th day of Nissan. Under the Old Testament the lambs were killed at 3 P.M. on the 14th day of Nissan. On the same day, at the exact same time, Jesus died at 3 P.M. on the 14th day of Nissan. (amens) Under the Old Testament the blood was applied to the door post of the house for protection. On that day that Jesus died on that cross, Jesus' blood was on Himself and He became the door, as we just read. (Amen) He is the door. Mohammed is not the door. (That’s right, Amen) Buddha is not the door. (amens) Some other eastern mysticism religion is not the door. (amens) Your worship of some strange Japanese god or Chinese god is not the door. (that's right, amens) Jesus is the door. (hallelujah, amens) There is no one else that can replace Jesus. There are many gods that mimic what He has done, but if they are men they died and their bones rotted, but Jesus’ bones were never found. (that’s right) Jesus’ blood was on Himself and He became the door for all mankind. Under Exodus, no bones were broken. One of the observations that’s made over in John 19, no bones were broken. Under the Old Testament the whole lamb was consumed. Under the New Testament the body was laid in the tomb by 6 P.M. at the same time the whole lamb had to be consumed. In other words His body was put away where it couldn’t be seen, it was consumed by the tomb. Under the Old Testament the blood of lamb saved the Israelites from the angel of death. Under the New Testament the blood of Jesus saves us, not only from eternal death, but from no victory in our life. Remember what John 10:10 says, "The evil one, the enemy, the adversary of your soul comes only to steal and kill and destroy;” But Jesus went on to say, “I came that they may have life, and have abundantly.” (Amen) Have abundant life. And so it’s not just for eternal salvation, but a greater promise based upon a greater covenant. Where under the old covenant was just a shadow, we now have a greater promise to increase. (Amen) You know one of the things that I truly believe is, that if, we confess something long enough, it doesn’t matter what our background is or what side of the tracks we came from, God is going to answer our faith statement. (Amen) I’ve been claiming my wife and I’ve been claiming that we are going to get back 400 years of back wages that have been stolen from my parents and their parents and their parents and their parents, and I don’t know what kind of a background you all come from, but man that’d be a good thing to pray. Where is that in the bible? I just read it. (amens) They're going to come out in a moment here. The Israelites are going to come out in a moment as we read here in chapter 12 of Exodus and their character so put the Egyptians at their disposal, that the Egyptians easily gave up all their silver and their gold articles to the Israelites. Because the Lord told Moses and told the people, he told the people you go and tell the Israelites tell the people to ask for gold and silver articles of all their neighbors and they were so well disposed to do so, because of the plagues that had already come upon them, that they gave everything that they had. (amen) And the Egyptians gave everything that they had and the Israelites walked out with four hundred years of back wages that wasn't paid to them and their parents. Everything that was in Egypt now belonged to them and they took it with them. (amen) Everything! Everything that was left and they walked out with that. Kathy and I, we've been praying and we believe we are going to see it, (amen) and it will manifest and it's already manifesting, (amen) that we are going to get back four hundred years of back wages. (hallelujah, amen) Now under that, if we just believed that you know the blood of Jesus get us into heaven, that would be a false claim to make. But the bible tells us that we have a better covenant ratified with better promises. Are you hearing what I'm saying? (amen) Then what the old covenant had, and if the old covenant Jews could walk out with silver and gold and not one infirm person being amongst there tribes, then we can walk out once we begin to make the claim, if we fall back and say no its not possible in this economy, and if we fall back and say it's not possible because of my skin color, if we fall back and say it's not possible because of my education, if we fall back and say it's not possible because I come from the wrong side of the tracks, if we fall back and say it's not possible because you don't know my family heritage and my family line, if we fall back and say you don't know where we came from, if you fall back and say I used to be a prostitute, I used to be a tax collector. If you fall back on anything, (Pastor yelling) anything, that man says will cut you out of the blessing, then you are missing God entirely, (that's right, amen) because God is no respecter of persons. (hallelujah, amen) The moment you buy into society...what's going on in society, the moment you buy into the economy, the moment you buy into prejudice, the moment you buy into background, the moment you buy into education, the moment you buy into any one of these temporary issues, you have negated the power and the salvation of God (amen) and you have told God basically, “yeah I'm sure it can happen, but not for me”, and there's going to be plenty of people that are going to make you out to be wrong, and there going to be willing to step into your place and take the blessing that you should have taken yourself. (that's right, amen) God is no respecter of persons, ( hallelujah) amen? (amens) God is no respecter of persons. We look at what happened in the past, let's say sixty years, we look at world war two and we look at what Germany did to the Jews and also to the infirm and also to a lot of people that just believed against them, I mean there was more than fourteen million people murdered by Germany. And yet if you were a German and you said, “well I don't believe God can bless me because I got German heritage in me, then your mistaken.” Are you hearing what I'm saying? (amens) If your saying I just don't believe God can bless me because I have Chinese heritage and because of that, I come from a long line of people right back to Mausatung, that believed in executing seventy million people in my country. See God doesn't look at your blood, he looks at the blood his son shed. (amen) He doesn't look at your background he looks at everything about his sons background and whether you're going to except it or not. (amen) He doesn't look at whether or not that you come from a background of people that used to rip off people for years but now you've gotten...are you hearing what I'm saying? (amens) You're not a hillbilly, your not anything... you are exactly what God wants you to be. (hallelujah, amens) Amen? (amens) Lets keep studying. Lets go over to John chapter 19, starting in verse 31, “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN." (amen) And again another Scripture says, "THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED." And so he was buried....Let's go over now to I Peter chapter 1. I watch a lot of historical movies and one of the series of movies that we have that's a historical reference, is called “Hornblower” and you may not have never heard of the story, but it's a true story based on seventeen century England, on a young man who goes to sea and becomes quiet a hero, before he even turns eighteen, and he keeps living it out. And one of the things...in my background I'm not only part European Spanish but I'm Jewish, I have some Jewish blood in me but I'm also half French, and when I grew up in my household, my parents, on my mothers side ,came from France and they where expelled during the great revolution during Boneparte's time and they came to Canada, but they still spoke French. And one of the interesting things, as we're watching the movie, is they call all the French people frogs, and so we'll be sitting there and they'll call them, “the frogs this and the frog that”. And I find it amusing because here I am, I'm half French, truly half French. And I'm watching that and they're insulting a nationality of people. And yet I don't base my performance on what God is going to do for me in my life on something that happened three centuries ago. (amen) Are you hearing what I'm saying? (amen) We can not go by what mankind sees. (amen) We can not go by what institutions say. (amen) If we go by that, we will not be walking in the faith that we need to be walking in. (amen) Now I Peter chapter 1, starting in verse 17, “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but...”, what? “...with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (amen, hallelujah) So you can not be continuing on in the thinking of your parents and your grandparents and your great grandparents, it is time that you change. (amen) It is time that you walk up and step up to a higher level in Christ. (amen) It is time that you stop hanging on to things that people want you to hang on because they say you need to hang on. (that's right, amen)
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Our ministry guest is Pastor Myles Holmes of Myles Holmes Ministries and TCT World Network of Marion, IL. We hope you enjoy his message.
Myles Holmes: I beg you, let's stop compromising. Let's stop excusing sin in ourselves and others. Let's stop tolerating the enemy making a mockery of our faith in our pulpits by enticing us to believe that this is a minor issue. Its' not, it's huge. Nations are at stake. Let's go over those four responses one more time and very briefly. 1. Deal with sexual perversion. What we need is an absolute zero tolerance policy. 2. Live in personal purity. We must stand for holiness and righteousness. Again not a legalistic, better than thou Pharisaical attitude, but a desire to please God. And 3. Minister deliverance to the struggling. Get involved in counseling, intervening, breaking demonic curses. Some sexual bondages are demonic in origin, in nature, but there is freedom. And 4. Minister rescue to the enslaved and oppressed. Millions around the world, literally millions are trafficked as sexual slaves every year. Just as the church was at the forefront of the fight against slavery generations ago, this is the call for rescue to this generation of believers. Live for something bigger than yourself. Rescue the perishing, reach out to the prostitutes in your city. There are ministries that will train you. Let's be the light and hope of Christ to the dieing world. I can see by the Spirit's eye an army of older women with their arms around the young street girls saying, “Come home, come home to Jesus. Let me be your mom, your grandmother.” I dare you to see what kind of Holy Spirit fire you can ignite in your community. Now for the good news. Settle this issue once and for all and watch God begin to give you power over the nations, because that's what Revelation promises. If you're a business man, that might mean your business is about to go multi-national. If you're a minister, preacher, teacher, prophet, pastor, evangelist, that might mean that God will give you the nations to lay at His feet. If you're a prayer warrior, that might mean your intercession will finally begin to shake nations to bow at the feet of Jesus. Power over the nations, authority, over entire countries. Sounds like a pretty good reward for living right, for keeping on Living The Word. Guys I feel so strongly about that I had to share that today because there's a call of the Spirit to get His church back to a place of living righteously. And I don't believe that today's generation has anymore of a problem in this area, some might argue with me, you might have better statistics than I do, I'm not sure it's a bigger problem. Internet pornography was not here fifty or a hundred years ago of course, but I'm not sure the devil has anymore power over the church, but what bothers me today is to see our compromising about the issue. That doesn't seem to bother us like it did a generation ago. It's almost we're ho hum when we here another preacher falling morally and that not ought to be. I'm praying that God would raises up in our spirits a holy revulsion, not against the sinner, but against the sin. Because there is grace and there is restoration, but if you kind of agree with that if God is saying the same thing to you, we would love to hear from you. We would love that encouragement. Rejoice at TCT.TV. Tell us what you think God is saying to the church in these hours. And let's go back to the topic because sexual sin or unfaithfulness, immorality means that there's been a spirit of discontentment in a relationship that Satan has plugged in there and This famous Hollywood actor, he's so famous, his name slips my mind right now, a Latin American actor with his beautiful Latin accent when asked what makes a great Latin lover, he said that's very simple, a man who can be satisfied and satisfied with one woman for his entire life. (wow, that's it) That's marriage, faithfully loving each other for decades and what a blessing that is to have marital contentment and knowing that is where the power lies. [Valerie Holmes: In this area of contentment, you know that verse just stands out, if you're looking to recognize, maybe expose the deception that the enemy has brought upon you, just remember this verse, Galatians 6:8 (NASB-U) For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (that's right) If we think about the twenty four hours that we have, how much time do we spend sowing to the spirit? Because, if you're reaping desires and thoughts and you're drawn towards things of the flesh, there's no doubt whatsoever you are sowing to the flesh, because that's what you're reaping. So it's a really pretty easy formula to turn around.] (It really is isn't it) Myles Holmes: A passage in scripture that says, “I've learned to be content.” It didn't come naturally, I wasn't born content. You never find a baby saying, “Nope I'm fine, everything's okay.” (laughing) A baby says, “Now, mine, me me,” and they're making it very clear, but this contentment is a spirit that we must learn and I think the only way we are going to learn that is to battle with discontentment. Battle with not quite having what I think I want and need right now and five times of it yesterday. We need to be able to settle ourselves, wait a minute I'm learning something here, I'm learning, and I'm in school to learn this...like Jeremiah Burroughs said three hundred years ago, “the rare jewel of Christian contentment”, it's a jewel, it's precious, but it's rare. We have to stay on this school of contentment and learn and Paul said, “I learn by suffering. I learn by need, I learn by lack,” and thank God he added, “I know how to abound”, there's a blessing, because there's days of recovery, days of restoration, enjoy it and don't feel guilty when God blesses you. When someone says, “Hey tempt me with a blessing, boy come on.” (laughing) I could do with a blessing, yes. It's learning, it's a process.
You can find out more information on Pastor Myles Holmes at www.tct.tv or www.mylesholmes.com. Now back to our regular message with Pastor David Gonzalez.
...hanging on to things that people want you to hang on because they say you need to hang on. (that's right, amen) You need to start looking higher. (amen) You need to start looking bigger. (amen) When people talked to me when I was little, I remember I was the shortest kid in the class of four hundred children, second shortest. And we all knew who the shortest was and everyone knew who the second shortest one was, his last name was Gonzalez, and he could run like the wind, and the only reason is that I learned how to run like the wind I was so short I got beat up all the time, it was run or get beat up and I wore these big horn rimmed glasses, if you remember what they look like back then, it was another reason. So I got called four eyes, and they said, “hey come here four eyes”, and as soon they came near me they would break those horn rimmed glass in half. They would throw them down, crunch on them. My parents weren't rich so I would go weeks without another pair of glasses or my father would just get out big pieces of masking tape and tape it together, we taped here, taped here, taped here. And I remember telling my parents and telling other people what I dreamed I was going to be like when I grew up. I remember telling people at one crazy time when I was twelve that I said I was going to preach. I don't know why I made that confession. (laughing) I remember telling people that I was going to be rich. I remember telling people...see remember what Joseph did? Joseph when he was young was given an inspiration saying his mother and his father and all of his brothers and sisters are going to bow down to him and they hated him for it. And they hated him so much they threw him in a well, sold him to the Midianites, and yet the miracle couldn't be kept from coming to pass. (amens) It's not who you are, it's what you believe. (amen) It's not what you've done, it's what you believe. (come on) See it's what Jesus has done for you, not what you have done for yourself. Amen? (amens) You have to make a decision that the blood of Jesus Christ is going to bring about your salvation, not your forgiveness of sins so you can get into heaven, that's easy. In fact it's so easy, ministers have to complicate it just to make it seem like it's more hocus pocus. It's easy! (yeah) This is what is so offensive to people today. People say, “do you mean to tell me all I have to do is confess Jesus as my Lord and my sins are forgiven?” Yep! “Well no, that's too easy.” Yep! “Well no, there's got to be something else that I got to do. I got to light some candles, I got to do a novena, I got to crawl on my knees.” Huh? “I got to go see the priest, I got to have my sins forgiven, I got to have hands laid on me. I got to right out I'm sorry one thousand times on the blackboard,” Nope! All you have to do is confess (amen) Jesus as Lord and your sins are instantaneously forgiven. (hallelujah, amens) Instantaneously, (hallelujah) but that is the beginning of salvation, not the end of salvation. (come on, amens) The blood of Jesus brings to pass what no man can bring to pass. (that's right) Amen? Look at this again. Look at this again. Verse 18, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,”. What do you think people inherit? They don't inherit money, they inherit attitudes (yeah), bad attitudes! (that's right) You know? What did your mother tell you, make sure you wear clean underwear in case you get hit by a car and end up in the hospital. (laughing) Why don't I just plan on not getting hit by a car and not ending up in the hospital? (yeah, amen) Huh? Put on a coat or you'll catch your death? Why don't we just say put on a coat or I'll slap you upside the back of the head? (laughing) Why is it said you're going to catch your death? Huh? (yep) Look both ways or you'll get killed? (laughing) Well why don't we just look both ways? (yeah) Right? Because it's a good thing, it keeps are insurance rates down if we look both ways. Amen? (yeah, laughter, amens) We don't have to get killed, amen? (amens) But we hear all kinds of things and there are things that we've been taught since childhood, there are slogans, they're things that we have to remove from our thinking (that's right) because they came from our forefathers. The ham is still being cut in half and we still don't know why. (yeah, amen) Amen? (amens) Let's go over to Romans chapter 3, I'll read it from the Nasb first, then from the Amplified. Romans chapter 3 verse 21, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;”, everyone say, “no distinction” (no distinction), say, “that applies to me” (that applies to me), say “that's mine” (that's mine), “that's my hope” (that's my hope), “that's my belief” (that's my belief), “no distinction” (no distinction). Verse 23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;”. Didn't we just study that? (yes) See they passed over the sins; they didn't wipe the sins away. Verse 26, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and justified of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Now I'm going to read this to you from the Amplified. “But now the righteousness of God has been revealed independently and all together apart from the law. Although actually it is attested by the law and the prophets,” we just established that, you cannot read the old testament and not read the new. You cannot read the new and not read the old. Each one fulfills the other. Verse 22, “Namely the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And it is meant for all who believe for there is no distinction. Since all have sinned and all are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives, all are justified and made upright in right standing with God freely and gratuitously by His grace, His unmerited favor and mercy, through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus.” This is a lot of deep stuff here. (yes, amens) “Whom God put forward before the eyes of all as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood,” now listen to this, “the cleansing and life giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation to be received through faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment. Praise be to God. (yeses, amens) God is saying here that we're not just resurrected and going to enter in to heaven ourselves through Christ but we're going to be co-resurrected with Him. (yes) We already are. When you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you were co-resurrected with Him. (amen) Not only was Jesus Christ resurrected but you've been resurrected from the shame and the guilt of the background and the failures of your life.(amens) God doesn't take you and make you somebody completely different, He takes your personality, and your character, and He molds it into something that He always intended it to be to begin with. (amens, hallelujahs) That doesn't happen overnight, but it will happen if you let Him do that. (amens) And He'll mold you into something with your own personality, your own character, your own flavor, your own background, but you are resurrected with Him. There's a co-resurrection going on. You are baptized with Him. There's a co-baptism going on. (amen) You were raised to life with Him, and there is a co-living going on. (amens) You're not living because of Him, you're living with Him. (amens, hallelujahs) And everything now that He would touch that would turn good, you can touch and would turn good. (right, yeses, glory) Everything that He would get honor out of, now you, doing it, get honor out of it, (amens) because it's cooperation with Him. (amen, right) The blood of Jesus Christ brings about salvation as He received what He was to receive, and that is sitting down at the right hand of the Father in heaven, sitting down with all the work done, having all glory and honor come to Him. (amen) Having Him now be the door, we now are given in a shadow, the same kind of glory that Jesus has been raised up in. (yes) We now are raised up and God wants us to be raised up with the same type of glory in our life. (hallelujah, amens) You got the blood of Jesus Christ and that blood is going to give you the salvation, (amens) and that salvation is the deliverance of the molestation of your enemies. It's liberty, it's increase, it's deliverance, it's the glory of God in everything that you put your hand to. (amens) Amen? (amens) Finally we're going to close it here in Luke chapter 7 starting in verse 40, “And Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he replied, "Say it, Teacher." A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. "When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?" Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have judged correctly." Verse 44, “Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. "You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. "You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume."For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little." Then He said to her, "Your sins have been forgiven." I want to tell you today, that maybe you're all cleaned up and you came to church today and you don't think you have anything that stinks on you, that even your feet smell good. You can come and say that you don't know if you needed a message like this today, it was kind of hard hitting about the blood and all that; well little forgiven, little love. (you're right) But for the rest of you who need Jesus, for the rest of you who have a spotted background, for the rest of you who need some victories in your finances or in your health, for the rest of you who need to have four hundred years of back wages come to you, for the rest of you who want to see miracle upon miracle, if you've been forgiven much, you're going to love much and you're going to expect much. Amen? (amens) Let's all stand. Let's bow our heads here today. What Jesus did for you is to wipe away completely the crime of everything that you have ever been connected to. (amen) With every head bowed and every eye closed. If you have things that need to be forgiven, whether you just have a few things you need to be forgiven or a lot, if you've never made Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior and you would like to do that right here this morning, with every head bowed please. This is a private time. Every eye closed. This is a private time. It's between you and the Lord, where you know God is right there at the door knocking. If you've never given your heart to Jesus Christ before and you would like to do that right now, slip up your hand and say, “Pastor, pray for me, I want to receive Jesus Christ into my heart right now.” Just slip it up an put it back down and say Pastor pray for me. I see that hand. Any other hands here today. I see that hand, praise be to God. I see that hand. Praise be to God. Any other hands here today? Please no turning around in the sanctuary, let's be respectful in God's house. This is a private time. Any other hands here today. Just slip up your hand and put it back down and say Pastor pray for me, I want to receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Slip it up and remember God is no respecter of persons. Remember God forgives all your sins, and He doesn't care about your past. He cares about your future. Slip up your hand and put it back down. Say Pastor pray for me, I want to receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Slip it up and put it back down. Any other hands here today? I know we had three, I see four now, praise be to God. Amen? I want everyone to look at me now. You are all welcome to look at me. The bible says over in Romans chapter 10, “that if you confesses Me before men, I will confess before My Father who is in heaven, he who denies Me before men, I will also will deny before My Father who is in heaven. The bible says that if you confess Jesus Christ as Lord and believes in your heart that God raised Him from the dead then you shall be saved. (that's right) It's really too simple. Takes a preacher to complicate that. (laughing) It's too simple. If you raised your hand today, I want you to know right now as we begin to go forward here in what we're going to confess, that it's just that simple. (yes, amen) Don't let the devil mess it up in your brain and say, “well it's too easy.” It's suppose to be easy. (amen) It's suppose to be easy. That's why Jesus died, he did the hard things so you can do the easy things. (amens) If you came with someone here today, take their hand and all you who are saved plus those four that raised their hands, that I believe for the first time, I want you to confess out loud these words after me. Say...Dear Jesus, (dear Jesus) come into my heart right now (come into my heart right now) and make me a new person make me a new person) a new creation (a new creation). I don't want to be (I don't want to be) that old person anymore (that old person anymore). Thank you Jesus, (Thank you Jesus) for dieing on the cross for me (for dieing on the cross for me) so that I don't have to die (so that I don't have to die) for all the things that I've done wrong (for all the things that I've done wrong) in Jesus' name, amen (in Jesus' name, amen). Now watch this. The bible says that when one sinner repents that all the angels of God in heaven rejoice. (whhooo, amens) Over one sinner who repents (amen). I believe the yelling going on by the angels right now could throw a planet out of order somewhere in the heavens (rejoicing & clapping). Glory be to God.
(Ending credits, music playing)
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