0:00 This word perfect means in God. Those of us that are actually born again, those of us that have made it into the body of Christ, that's what he's talking about. So, as many of us that have made it into the body of Christ, as many of us that are there, Amen. Let's have this same mind. The mind that we have to press. We've got to press. Amen. Keep that mind that you have to press toward the mark of the high calling. Amen. 0:30 You know that you know what that he he said the prize of the high calling. You know that I looked at that in light of the the um Bible prophecy and that prize is to be with Christ when he comes back. To be with him when he comes back to set up his kingdom. I want to be with him. Is Is that what we're looking for? I I want to be with him. Glory to God. Amen. Because there's some sad consequences to 1:00 those that are not. Bless the Lord. And can you imagine having been born again for many, many years? Many of us have been saved a long time. I've been saved and preaching the gospel over 55 years now. Glory to God. And so, uh, would it would be a horrible thing for me to end up in hell. Having known the way, preached the way, brought others into the way, and then I end up being a cast away. That's possible, though. A lot of 1:30 preachers don't want to accept that. But glory to God, we got to do the same thing everybody else has to do to get to heaven. We don't have a a a pass. We don't have any special passes. Glory to God. Amen. It takes something to get to heaven. And that something is called holiness. It's called holiness. Daniel, there's a scripture in Romans 12:1. Would you read that? Go there for me, please. See, we we've got to go back to where God is. 2:00 God is not coming where we are. We got to go back to where he is. Are you working with me? Because this the sad thing about it is that there are many there are many of us who have been born again and we we know the way, but we're just not walking in it. And we use this cliche all the time. God is still working on me. No, he's not. He He not working on you. God God said, "It is finished. It 2:30 is finished." He said, "I gave you all things that pertain to life and godliness. I've already given it to you. I gave you the Holy Ghost. That's my spirit. What else do you want?" If you can't live holy with the Holy Ghost, then that makes God a failure. If you can't live holy, just can't do it, then you make God a liar. You make him a failure. Amen. And God has never failed at anything. And he definitely cannot lie. Are are you 3:01 working with me? Amen. So God is saying that if you want to make it in, if you really want to be with me in eternity, it's going to cost you something. It's going to cost you something. Romans 12:1, what does it say? Daniel, 3:19 I beseech you therefore, brethren. Now, now notice this. He's talking to the church. I'm glad he used the word brethren. He's talking to those who are kinsmen in the body of Christ. Are you working with him? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, by mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living, come on. That you present what? Your bodies. 3:50 Uh-huh. A living sacrifice. Now, now this is a contrast to to the old covenant because the living the sacrifices that they presented were animals. Glory to God. Amen. And God said, "I'm I'm weary of that. I'm sick of that because you you you kill this animal. Glory to God. Offer them up to me and then you go back the next day and do the 4:20 same thing that you did. So I'm sick of sacrifices and offerings. Amen. I'm sick of them. Glory to God. I'm going to do a new thing. Glory to God. I'm going to give you one last sacrifice. One last sacrifice. Glory to God. And that sacrifice, glory to God, is going to be sinless. And he's going to be he's going to he's going to be 4:50 related to the human race. He's going to be a kinsman, a fellow kinsman. Glory to God. He's going to Amen. He's going to be the son of God, but also the son of man. Amen. And he's going to come down and he's going to walk among you for 33 and a half years. And and and in that time, he's going to take on your 5:20 infirmities. He's going he's going to know how you feel about everything. Come on, somebody. He's going to know every emotion of the human race. Glory to God. But he's going to be endowed with my spirit, says the father. He's going to have my spirit. And therefore, he can walk and live in this world righteously because he has my spirit. And I'm going to allow 5:50 him to stay there 33 years. Glory to God. I'm going to allow him to stay 33 and a2 years just to show you that you can do the same thing with my spirit. You can live in a hostile environment. You notice you notice the things that Jesus had to deal with, glory to God, that he just did wouldn't even deal with the political environment. 6:21 See, see, we we get caught up in the political environment. Jesus didn't get caught up in that. There they were there there were factions uh all kind of political factions all around him, but he never got distracted by them. The Zelics even had one of them on his team. Glory to God. And converted him. Come on, somebody. Amen. Changed his mind. Amen. Are you 6:51 working with me? Glory to God. And see, that's a testament to us because if you have God now and he can't change your mind about the world, then something's wrong with your salvation. Something's wrong. Something's wrong with you. Something's wrong with you. There's something about your salvation that you are denying, that you are not allowing to take root. Are you hearing God? Are you 7:21 hearing God? Now, for those of you that don't know God, this is an opportunity. Amen. To learn of him. When you come to the household of faith, you should learn of God. Amen. And I hope that in learning of God, it will cause you to prefer God, to want God. Are you hearing him? Amen. He says, "Now I beseech you, brethren," glory to God. 7:51 Because we're brothers. We're brothers in this. Amen. by the mercies of God that you present your body. Glory to God. Now see there that's a requirement now to present your personage what a living what a living sacrifice. Wow. Can you all understand what I'm saying? I don't speak Spanish, but do you understand what I'm saying? Oh, praise him. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I I'm 8:21 I'm I'm standing here thinking, am I alienating the other half of the church? Praise you, Jesus. Glory to God. All right. Praise the Lord. Amen. So God is saying, now if you want to make it in, listen to me, saints. You can't ignore scripture. You must pre present this a sacrifice. This has to be a sacrifice. Now Jesus said something and not notice what 8:52 he notice notice what Paul says here. Let's look at what he says. Your body is a living sacrifice. Acceptable holy holy holy holy holy and acceptable unto God. the word holy. Somebody said, "Well, how do I how do I know if I'm holy?" How do I know if I'm living holy? I tell you simple answer, short answer. If everything you do is acceptable to 9:22 God. If everything you do is acceptable unto God. Now I'm a realist. I don't put on any airs. Glory to God. And I tell myself the truth. I don't lie to myself. It's a good habit not to lie to yourself. That's a good habit. Amen. When you stop and think about how you live right now, your interaction with people, your conversation, your daily conversation, 9:52 your thoughts, things you think about, your desires, things you want. Can you truly say that everything I do, everything I say, everything I think is acceptable to God? Can you really say 10:09 that? Let me show you how you can be deceived in that. Let me show you how the devil can deceive you. I asked the question, is everything that you think is acceptable to 10:28 God? Everything you think is acceptable to God. And you would say, "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah." Sometimes we quickly say, "Yeah." But let me show you deception. When we walk in our own way, when we walk in our own ways, any way that's not pleasing to God, are are you hearing me? If we if we're walking in anything that's not pleasing to God, for 10:58 instance, in our thoughts, if there if our thoughts are not pleasing to God, but we we have a See, when you walk in your way, you get um it becomes a habit. It be it's just it's just our way, right? That's just how I am. And you and and that that disposition as to how I am can deceive you. It can sh it 11:28 can foreshadow what you really are. Are are you working with me? When you walk in your way, if you if you have if you have become accustomed to walking in your way, it can foreshadow what you really are to the point where you won't really tell yourself that I'm really not pleasing God in this, especially in our thinking, right? Because if I ask 11:58 if I ask everybody in here right now, do you love all your enemies? You know, a a because the scripture tell us to love our enemies. Most people would say, "Yeah, because most of us don't deal with our enemies." Come on. Most of us don't deal with our enemies. We know a person is our enemy and we know that they're trying to hurt 12:28 us or trying to destroy us or trying to destroy our marriage or trying to destroy whatever we're doing. We don't deal with that person. That's right. Come on. So, so it's easy to say, "Oh, yes, I love my enemy." But don't you don't don't let's let's not be deceived. God knows the heart and God is judging the heart. You may never ever judge 12:58 whether you love your enemies or not. You may never even think about it because you don't deal with those people. So, you may never even think about whether you really love an enemy, but God does. God thinks about it. God is looking at you and he's looking at your heart and he's saying, "Now, if I bring this this enemy forward in your life, 13:28 no, you wouldn't have no great love for him. God knows that you you just kind of ignore it." That's what we did. We kind of ignored it. Is anybody with me today? We we kind of ignored that. Praise the Lord. Because we didn't have to deal with them. Glory to God. But God is dealing with our personage, our present personage. and and and 13:59 and that tells him when he looks at us, that tells him, "Well, if next month I bring this enemy into your environment and put them close enough to really affect you, I know what you'll feel. I know what you'll think and I know what you'll do." You didn't think about it because it wasn't happening. And that's why the scripture tells us, examine yourself 14:29 to see if you be in the faith. Oh, come on, somebody. First of all, why don't I think about it? Why? Why? Why? Why is it Why isn't it even a 14:44 thought? I'll tell you why. because we don't anticipate having to do it. Especially if our enemies are kept at bay if we don't have to deal with them. You know, let me show you how intricate and detailed God is. Someone can really do you harm. I've had people that just defamed defame me. They've called me witches. They've called 15:15 me everything you can think of. Glory to God. Bless the Lord. When they were when they were with me, I was Amen. Amen. Pauline preaching just like Paul. Glory to God. Glory to God. But the moment they departed, then I became Jezebel. I became the the wicked witch of the east, west, and north and south. But now the 15:45 question is this. That's their disposition. What's mine? What's my disposition regarding them? Right? Because what did the scripture tell us? As many of us as be perfect, let's have the same mind as God, right? So what is my mind? Well, let me show you what God will do. Two things you two ways you can judge this. What do 16:15 you feel when you think about that person that has defamed you, lied on you, maybe even stolen from you, taken from you, hurt you in some way? What do you feel when you think about that person? Those feelings don't lie. They tell your spiritual location. Are you hearing me? That emotion you feel at that time, that's where you 16:45 really are. Not Not the one that you get when you put a scripture on top of it. Not the one you get when you hear somebody preach love your enemy. Oh, hallelujah. Not that script. Not Not that. That's not That's not real. The real thing is when you think about that person that has defrauded you, that person that 17:16 has tried to hurt you, has defamed you. Glory to God. What are you really feeling at that moment? That's number one. Number two, you want to test it again. God will allow them to do all manner of evil against you and let them go on and then suddenly he'll bring them into your environment where you have to be 17:46 face to face with him. You have to interact with them. What do you feel then? 17:56 Do you look at that person and think, "I know I can't trust her. I know I I I I can't trust him." See, see, 18:14 love, love doesn't make us ignorant. I may know that you have character that I cannot trust. I may know that but I am never allowed to treat you as such. Are are are you in my heart? Are are are you working with me? The the the thing in my heart should be pitiful toward you. I should be pitiful toward you enough to pray for you. Therefore, if I'm pitiful toward 18:44 you, glory to God. That's an act of love. That that's a sacrifice. That that's me suffering myself not to feel anything but what Christ would feel for you. Are are you are you working with me? I got to make sure I feel what Christ would feel. What do you think Christ felt when he was in the last supper and and he's looking at Judas? He says, "One of you going 19:14 to betray me tonight. You're going to betray me." And then and and and and watch this now. He even he went so far as to say, "And the one that's going to betray me is the one that's going to dip in his in the same sock that I'm dipping. He's going to dip his hand in there, too. His bread in there, too. He's going to eat with me." That's what 19:44 Solomon said. It wasn't the stranger. Solomon said it was those that walked in and out of the house of God with me. my common friends. What do you think Jesus felt sitting there with Judas knowing Judas is going to betray him? How did he feel about that? And all he said to him was, "What did I do? Do it 20:12 quickly." But now we go all the way to the book of Revelation. And what did it say? I even gave him a space to repent. Come on. So from the time he left there on his way to pick up those 30 pieces of silver, which only added up to about $17.50 in our current currency. On his way to get that little money, he had an opportunity to 20:42 repent. God said, "I gave him a space." Why? because I was pitiful toward him. I was pitiful. I did love him. I I I did love him. I knew he was a devil from the beginning. I knew that. But I wanted I was hoping that something I said would reach him. See, that's the that's the mindset you have to have about your enemy. I hope that there's 21:12 something I say or I hope that there's some way that I live that will reach them that they will see Christ and that Christ is is larger than whatever's going on between me and thee. 21:29 So you got to deal with the fact that God now he says he says if you have any other mind I reveal it to you. And in many instances, if if we have different mindsets about people, God will either let us think about what they did or let us hear something. Have you ever had an enemy and you gone on, they gone on, it's 22:00 been years later, then someone come and remind them of what they did to you just in a conversation. What do you feel then? First of all, that conversation shouldn't have taken place. We don't need any reminders of the sin that's been done in our lives because we don't want anyone to remind us of the sin that we committed in other folks lives. Come on. 22:30 Are are you hearing me? But what do you feel? What do you feel? What do you feel? Let me show you how. how powerful the spirit of iniquity 22:46 is. There are married couples. Marriage is a very good example of the church. He Jesus used it. Paul used it to explain the church, his relationship with the church. 23:07 There are husband and wives that really love each other. They love each other. But let something go wrong. Let one of them get really hurt by the other. 23:31 I want you to examine this because God used marriage to teach us how to entreat one 23:43 another. You get hurt, your spouse hurt you. Doesn't matter whether the man or the woman, whichever your spouse, you get angry. We're not even talking about fornication, adultery, just stuff. Life happens, you know, just disagreements, whatever. But that spouse is really not only hurt, but 24:13 angry. When you put those two together, you got a problem. Especially if the candidate is the woman. I can talk about us ladies. I can talk about us. Glory to God. Glory to God. Hallelujah. If If one of us get really hurt and angry, let 24:44 me show you something, brothers. Let me let me show you something. If your spouse gets hurt and angry and you wake up in the middle of the 25:03 night and she's sitting on the side of the 25:15 bed or she sitting in the living room somewhere in the middle of the 25:24 Hey, you in trouble. That brother is in trouble cuz she 25:37 thinking ba? Why you? Cuz she, you know, it's just so true. She thinking and that's that space that either God is going to invade or Satan going to invade. You're going to either allow God in or Satan in. 26:02 Are you hearing me? That's a space right there. That's a that's an open door for one or the other to come on in. And when we come to that place where 26:18 You know, we can 26:23 get What are you thinking? What does he want the most from me? Am I right? Come on. You might well tell the truth. Shane, devil. What does he want? What does he like? 26:47 I can't. He's He's a man. I can't duke it out. Oh, but I'm his glory. God made me so. So now the thought is, how do I 27:07 punish? You wronged me. How do I punish? And see, It could be a little thing like not speaking. Hey babe. 27:22 Hey. How was your day? It was all right. Like any other cold. That's a that's that's one of those things the scripture call little fox. But let me tell you, let me tell you how detrimental it is. It's not Christ. We should never seek to punish or get revenge. Oh, come on, y'all. Come on. That's a little bitty thing. That little argument. We had an argument last 27:52 night. Well, I'm not speaking until tomorrow. Maybe I'll talk to you tomorrow, but not now. Now, it's a diff I'm not talking about getting so angry where you need to just go off and cool off. That's a good thing. Cool off before you say something you shouldn't say, do something you shouldn't do. I'm not even talking about it. I'm talking about this normal stuff that we do 28:22 that we think is no harm. But it shows God is saying don't ignore that because that's not Christ. That's still not Christ. And and and the the deception in that is you would think that that's just a little small thing. But no, that defines where you walking at. You don't just jump out of the spirit when that little thing happened. No, you didn't just yo you when 28:52 you walked into that situation, you weren't in the spirit. Are you Are you all following me? And God is saying, "Glory to God, do you think that there is that that that there is anything that you can do that's not Christ that I'll excuse?" You really believe that when I gave you instructions to present your body a living sacrifice? And then there's another scripture where you talk 29:22 about self-denial. Let's find that one. Oh, that's the one we don't want to deal with. Come on. We don't want to deal with that one because that just says that's just too strict. Now, come on. God didn't really mean it like that. We we come up with all kind of excuses to give ourselves a pass at not being Christ. 29:51 Jesus said something. He said, "Except you do what?" Read. Read, baby. Then Jesus said unto his disciples, who are we? Matthew 16 23 24 23 says 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew. No, not Matthew. 16. Okay. The 24th verse. 16:24. He said to his disciples, "What now? If any man will come 30:21 after me, Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now, first of all, you got to deny yourself. Then you got to take up a cross suffering. You got to be prepared to suffer some things before you can follow me. Listen to him. Now, this is salvation. This is not this is not the Old Testament. This is not him talking to Israel. When when he told Israel, he 30:51 said, "Oh, you guys don't have to suffer anything if you just obey me. Just obey me and I'll fight all your enemies for you. I'll do all of that. I'll drive them out the land. I'll bless you going in. Bless you coming out. I'll bless the fruit of your basket, fruit of your store, bless the fruit of your womb. I'll bless bless bless bless." There won't be any suffering. But that's not 31:21 what he said to the church. Amen. That's not what he said to the church. when he got to the church, glory to God, he said, "You got to take up a cross. You can't even follow me without carrying a cross." God, you can't you and and and he said, glory to God, in one scripture, he said, "You cannot be my disciple except you're willing to deny yourself." God, what does he mean? 31:51 You can't be my disciple unless you're willing to deny yourself. What does that really mean? That mean you know we know what a disciple is one that has taken on the mind of Christ. And he's saying you can't take on my mind until you deny you. Come on. Come on. You got to deny self before you can even take on my mind. See the deception here is that I can read and 32:21 I can study and I got the mind of Christ because I can I can reiterate. Amen. I can I can uh orate the things that I've studied. I can teach it. I can preach it. I can counsel it. Knowledge. We have substituted knowledge for the mind of Christ. Because I have the knowledge of what that mind is doesn't mean I walk in that mind. Come on. Are are y'all working with me? 32:51 Oh, I got the knowledge. I can talk it all day long. I can talk it all day long. Glory to God. Amen. I've been I've been preaching glory to God in the Glory to God over 50 years. But there were times when Oh, gee. I was snappy quick. You know, I had a sharp tongue. Glory to God. Emotions. I would I would jump inside of emotions so quick. Glory to God. Dr. 33:21 Banks. And one of my members said to me, she was a she was she was in the youth ministry. She wasn't even on my level. 33:33 See, that's why we preachers better get rid of them levels. But that that little no-name youth said to me say, "You know, doc, sometimes when things happen, we can make them worse by the way we deal with it. Good God almighty." And we were we were at a youth advance. My first youth advance. After that, I turn over the mic. 34:03 You take it from me on. We walking all the whole about a hundred youth walking behind us and she walking upside me and I'm just fussing. I'm just fussing about something. I don't even know what I was fussing about. Just fussing. And she said, "You know, doc, we can make things worse by the way we handle them." Oh, God. I 34:34 want, you know, that that that commercial said, "Want to get away?" I just wanted to get away. They had a pool out there. I wanted to go jump in the pool because she was so right. And I learned something. It took me a little while to harness that and say, "Devil, your self, you're not going to control me." No. No. 35:04 No. No. No. No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no. I'm g I'm not going to walk in this flesh. I learned how in the midst of someone wailing and doing all their thing, pointing their finger at me, even spitting on me. I learned how to take it patiently. I learned how to hold on to the peace that God gave 35:35 me. How did I learn? What was the catalyst? That's what you want to know. What was the catalyst? What caused me to learn that? 35:48 I looked at what was written and see there's an attribute that you have to have in order to know God. You must believe on him the way the scripture say. Now the scriptures say in the midst of adversity hold your peace. Hold on to the peace I gave you. Now, if I can't do that, then something wrong with that Bible. If I can't 36:18 trust that that that verse, then why should I trust all the rest of them? So, that verse tells me that in the midst of turmoil, in the midst of chaos, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of abuse, in the midst of all of the evil that the devil has thrown against you, you can hold on to the peace of God. Thank 36:48 you. How is it that God demands demands not ask demands that we turn the other cheek. They strike you on one, turn them, let them strike you on the other. How can he demand that? You know how he wrote it in the scriptures. 37:10 You told us to walk in the spirit, right? What is the spirit? It's the kingdom of God on earth that's living in us. And the kingdom of God is righteousness, joy, and peace. Where? In the Holy Ghost. So if I walk in the Holy Ghost, I have the peace of God. Come on, God. And and and what we have to 37:41 deal with is if I can't do that, why? Answer that question. Why can't I do it? Because I prefer not to. I prefer to be angry. I prefer to take revenge. I prefer to make you hurt a little bit, punish you just a little bit. I prefer that. I prefer that because if I don't do that, I'm showing weakness here 38:11 and you're going to take advantage of me again. If I don't show myself strong or I'm going to let you have it, you're going to take advantage of me again. I can't I can't risk that. So, I got to let you feel my wrath rather than my kindness, my love. for you. My pitifulness for you. I'd rather you feel my 38:41 wrath so you won't do that again. Are y'all hearing God? Are you Are you hearing him? And we want to say that that's Christ. We don't have any situation where we can take revenge in this world. I was studying I was studying these these guys. I think we mentioned it the other night, Daniel. Those prophets that were under the altar. 39:12 Remember the martyrs? These these people had been killed for the testimony of Jesus Christ. They were at sleep. The souls were asleep under the altar of God. And they woke up. They woke up. They woke up during the time when the Antichrist was on the earth. Glory to God. Killing Christians, anyone that didn't take his mark. And they said to 39:42 God, "How long," this is what they said to God, "How long will it be before you avenge us? 39:56 Avenge our death, those who killed us. How long must we wait before you revenge us? Now I thought about that. I looked at that and I said, "Wait a minute. Now, we as saints have never been allowed to pray to God for us to pray for those who despitefully use us 40:26 and abuse us. He told us to forgive 490 times in one day even. And now all these souls are waking up saying, "When are you going to re revenge us?" Praying for 40:47 revenge. How could they do 40:53 that? They were no longer in the flesh. There was no flesh barrier. They had transcended and they were Amen. They had been brought into the prize of the high calling that's in Christ Jesus. They had already secured their place in the body, that eternal body of Christ. They had their spot secured. They were in him solidly. Glory to 41:23 God. And there was no no barrier, no flesh barrier, nothing nothing that they had to be approved of. See, as we're in the flesh, we living in the flesh, we have to be approved to get there. We have to live in such a way that we are approved worthy of eternal life. That's what Thessalonians told us that our 41:53 suffering is just a token that gets us into the gate. Come on. But these guys already made it in. They already and the flesh the flesh barrier was gone. There was no flesh. There was nothing to be approved. And now they're thinking with the mind of God. They're talking like God talk. Glory to God. And they they're communicating 42:23 with the father just oh this oneonone face tof face one-on-one thing with God. and they're they're thinking because they know he's going to avenge and they are part of that. They said, "Well, how long before you going to do this?" He said, "Just it's okay. Just lay down and rest a little bit because there's some others down there 42:53 on the earth that must be killed the same way you were killed. And after that, I got it. I will avenge all my enemies and yours. Do you hear God? But that's not for us. We're not to pray for revenge. Honey, she talked about me. Oo, she talked about me. I know she was talking about me. And and 43:23 yesterday she walked out the door and broke her ankle. Praise the Lord. Messing with one of his saints. That's not Christ. That's not Christ. That's not Christ. But haven't you heard that? I've heard people testify that in church. Amen. Come on now. See, if you're going to come, if you're going to be loyal to God and you're going 43:53 to come and you're going to sit before the Lord and listen to his word, then you got to be willing to walk in his word. He want more than hearers. He want doers. Come on. So, you got to walk out of here changed. If some of this stuff hit you today, you got to walk out of here and 44:23 say, "You know what? I heard I heard God today." Anybody heard him. Anybody heard God? You got to walk out of here and say, "I heard God today." Glory to God. And I'm going to walk out of here changed. I'm going to walk out of here changed. Glory to God. And if that's where God have us at, saints, 44:53 I want you to think on this. I want to make it to the prize of the high calling that's in Christ Jesus. Is that your goal? I don't want to miss heaven. Huh? Because of foolishness, things God has warned me about. I'm not going to take his warning and ignore it. I want to get to heaven. Anybody else 45:23 want to go with me? I want to get to heaven. So, I choose I choose to obey God and all things at all time. That's what makes us perfect. Not whether I put on a brown sock and a black sock. by mistake. Perfection is determining that I'm going to obey God in all things at all times. Clap your 45:53 hands and tell him thank you, Apostle Mike. [Music]
