Good evening everyone. This is Bishop Collins from the House of Worship and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And I have a really strong message tonight entitled the Laying Down of the Holy. The Laying Down of the Holy.
And I don't know about you, but as I look through the world today, as I look through how people are operating in the world today, as I look at people who I would call leaders in the world today, I see more and more and more of us as a culture laying down the holy, putting down the holy and picking up something else that doesn't honor God and in fact this honors God. Holy Spirit wants to speak to that tonight. He wants to speak to what our response should be to that tonight as we witness it. And so I want you to just come in and check out the message and I'll be back in just a few moments.
So as I maneuver through this journey that I'm on, I've told you about this before but I have this incredible burden that God gave me in 2021 as I looked at the church. I looked at the churches response to the culture. I look at how we respond as I'm on calls with different pastors from all around the country. And I hear their input and their thought.
One of the things that the Spirit in me said to the Holy Spirit is how did we get here? As the church, as a body of Christ. When you look at the Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures and you look at Christ and he hands the church to the 11, to the 12 if you want to add it to it. But he handed the church to these 11 men of God, these 11 apostles who have been walking with him and watching him operate.
He hands them this church that is clean, that is pure, that is powerful, that is un-negotiating, that is uncompromising, that is truly and completely holy. How did we get to where we are today? And I'm struggling with that. Of course, the Holy Spirit is spoken to me and said the key piece of this is that we're no longer worshiped.
We don't worship. We don't understand who God is. We have this errant view of who God is. We have an errant view of the Scriptures.
And the Holy Spirit gave me this picture of how God gave this perfect thing to the apostles and the generation of the generation of the generation and a little bit of water to the purity of the wine. They had a little bit of water. I didn't like the way that tastes. I didn't like the way that made me feel.
I didn't like the way that people responded to it. Whatever the issue was, they added a little bit of water over and over and over and we were disappointed where we are today. Christ, the word is show up in our churches today. Christ would have show up and began to do an evaluation of who we are and where we stay in relative to the church that he gave to the apostles.
So much of it, he would be disappointed with the name of Jesus Christ. So much of the stuff that we call holy, that we call righteous, that we call purity, that we call faith, that we call the church, if you will. I really believe that God would look at it and really be disappointed by it. So I came today to encourage us and to point us into the direction that God would have us to be disappointed in.
The story that God gave to me this morning, if I went to your job, if I went to the place where you worked and I asked people that worked at the place that you worked, wherever that is, is that person a Christian? What would their response be? So much of it is, we don't affect the culture but the culture affects us. We see that in the church today.
The church is not necessarily having this huge impact on the culture but more the culture is affecting the church. The culture is coming into the church. The culture is already in the church. It's expanding in the church.
Not so much us affecting the culture. So we went to your job and we asked the question, if Tony Sade is Edward Sade, is John Sade, is Susie Sade, is Mary Sade, what would the response be? I'm going to preach here in just a minute. What would the response be?
We hope that the response would be absolutely. We know that that person is saved without a doubt. They pray over their food. When it comes to the spiritual issues, we know where they're going to stand.
We find them praying with people. Sometimes when they're hurting, they've always got a word for the Lord for people in their difficult situation. Absolutely, we know that person's saved. Or would they say, I'm not sure if they're saved or if they're not saved.
Or maybe they might even say, in some cases God forbid, they're definitely not saved. They're not saved, they curse like everybody else. They tell the jokes of everybody else else. They're happy hour.
They're the first ones to be at the bar at happy hour. And every now and then I see them hitting on women. I think they're married. They're definitely not saved.
So today I just want to encourage us and remind us, in the name of Jesus Christ, as believers, as children of God, that we are people that make a difference in the world. We are people. The purpose of us as believers is to advance the kingdom of God in the earth and make a difference in the world. So people encounter us for any length of time.
They ought to walk away from that encounter believing there's something different about us. Something different about us relative to the world. So I want to share with you this scripture today, if you don't mind standing on your feet and grabbing your Bible and turning to Matthew 15, we do that in our Oak Ridge campus at our 10 o'clock service. Matthew 15, beginning at verse 1.
Now, I have been preaching for almost 20 years, no effect over 20 years. In the years that I've been preaching, God has never done what he did today. Let me tell you what he did today. I'm not aware ever of preaching the same scripture.
I'm sure I have it on 20 to some point in time I preach the same scripture. Matthew 15, 1.9 is the scripture for today. I preached this scripture a month ago. Same scripture.
Completely different message. Completely different message. The idea behind this is different, everything in regards to it is different. Matthew 15, 1 through 9, I'm reading out of New American Standard Bible.
This is what my Bible says. This in Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? Or they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And he and Jesus answered and said to them, why do you yourself transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
For God said, honor your father and mother, and he who speaks to evil, a father or mother, he has to be put to death. But you say, whoever says to his father or mother, whatever I have had that would help you has been given to God. He is not the honors father or his mother. And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
You hypocrites. Right? They did Isaiah prophesy of you. The people, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
But in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrine the precepts of men. Maybe sin has got. So, let's talk about this for a minute. This idea of the laying down of the holy.
The laying down of the holy. The idea obviously is that at some point in time I had the holy. I had the holy. I held it in high esteem.
I had it where it was supposed to be. But at some point in time over time, over time, over time, over time situations change. And I decided instead of holding the holy where I should hold it, I should have it in the place of esteem. I have it in the place of exaltation.
I took the holy and I laid it down. I took the holy thing and I put it in a place that it does not appear that it should be. So let's make sure we're in the same place and we're talking about the same thing. So when we say the laying down of the holy, what we're talking about here is the laying down of the apartments that God has established in us.
See, God is a part. When we look at the holiness of God, we're talking about the apartness of God. He is like nothing else. He's like nobody else.
He is a part. He is separate. There's nothing that you and I can compare him to. There is nothing that even comes close.
There is no competition when it comes to God. Now we take things and we try to make them competition. We want to make them how we feel compared with God. We want to take money to compete with God.
We want to take our little gods. We want to somehow make them compete with God. Please let me explain to you today in the name of Jesus Christ. There is no competition when it comes to God.
But there is an apartment, an apartment here that we are set apart for God. The idea of consecrated for God. The sanctified for God. We are of God.
We are sacred. Whatever it is that's holy. It's all these things. Whatever it is that God has, whatever it is that is of God, it is holy.
His word is holy. His name is holy. His habitation is holy. His people are holy.
Whatever it is, it belongs to God. It is holy. It's heaven, not holy. It's holy.
Whatever it is, this house is holy. If he was, if he walked on it, it's holy ground. We are talking about today how we have taken that which is holy. That which is a set apart for God, for God, for the purpose of God.
And we have somehow down through the ages taken that thing and making it common. It's just everyday stuff now. When we do this, when we lay down the holy. We don't have the view of God that God has.
We don't have a view of the things of God that God has. We don't have a view of the word of God that God has. We don't have a view of the house of God that God has. We don't have a view of how we should respond to the word of God, the way to God.
We don't have a view of how we respond to God, the way that God has. There's a couple of things that happen. There's a couple of things that happen. And I want to warn you and I today to make sure this is not who we are.
One of the things that happens is we produce the common instead of the holy. We produce it. We produce the common instead of the holy. Verse 6, he says, he's not to honor his father or his mother.
And by this you have invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. That is the production of the common instead of the holy. God's word is holy. God says, this is how you operate here.
This is how you deal with this here. And so the traditions of the Pharisees have been, we can set aside God's word and we can do it this way because it benefits us better to do it this way than to follow God's word. That is the production of the common. When we don't see things the way that God sees things and we pick up the traditions of men instead of the word of God.
And as high standard he is set for us, we have a life that produces the common. Help me Jesus. I'm talking from the pulpit. Now the pulpit, when the pulpit doesn't stand on the exaltation of the word of God.
When the pulpit doesn't have the all of God in the name of Jesus. What we produce to you is common. We produce the common instead of the holy. Here it is.
It is the trick of the devil. One of the greatest tricks of the devil is a systematic attack of the enemy. The people of God and the house of God and the name of Jesus Christ is that we would produce the common. We would respond to situations exactly the way that the world does.
Don't you see it today? Can you look around? Can you not perceive it today? The attack on the church house on the people of God and the men and women of God.
The attack is that we would respond to whatever the trouble is in life, whatever our situation is on. We would respond to them exactly the way that the world responds not as men and women of God. Not based on the word of God. Not based on the power of God.
Not based on the love of God. Not based on the name of Jesus Christ on our peculiar heritage as we stand on a word of God apart from the world. Instead we are allowing the culture that you and I. This is an attack about that home.
We have got children now talking back to mom and dad telling them how it is going to be. That is producing the common. What happened to children who say yes sir and no sir that were man-able. Even children that new Bible verses tell me Holy Ghost.
Who can tell you Bible stories at an early age but instead we don't bring out children to the Sunday morning Bible study. We don't teach our children the scriptures. We don't even know the scriptures ourselves. Tell me Jesus.
We are producing the common. Let's go read the headline today. You have to be a genius to figure this out. The attack is also in the school.
It won't be long but you won't be able to say mommy and daddy in the school. If you allow it to be that way you can't say mommy and daddy in the school anymore and evil is being brought in and taught wrong error. The thought process is being brought into the school and nobody seems to care. Nobody is pushing back.
We are producing the common. We are not talking about mistaking us to be Christians. They are canceling Christians today. I don't know if you know that or not.
They are canceling Christians. If you are looking for the promotion or you are identified as somebody who is outside of the mainstream of the culture of this organization. You are not going to get promoted. If you are praying over your food, you are not going to get promoted.
If you are making a stance, we are producing the common. On our jobs, on the church house, how we recreate, stay with me, even when we pray. Praying common prayers. We are no longer asking God for the big stuff.
Here it is. John Hakey says it this way. He is incredible and powerful. He knows everything that is happening.
He has a child who meals in prayer. He wants to come with a nation full of wickedness. We have children being murdered every day. We need spiritually in the name of Jesus Christ.
What does this God hear? What are the grass that take care of the parake? We are producing common. God is calling to believe in you and I.
The name of Jesus Christ to lift up his high standard of living that he calls holiness. Here it is, the church family and friends. Not here at the house of worship. We are not careful.
We can become too easily convinced about what honors God. Men can tell us that this will honor God. In reality, we cannot find any evidence of that in the scriptures. We are not the spirit.
We are too easily convinced about what honors God. We produce the ordinary instead of the extraordinary. Nobody can heal anymore. Not in church house.
No demons get cast out. Not in church house. We are the spirit of God. We are the spirit of God.
We are producing the common and ordinary instead of the name of Jesus Christ, the holy and extraordinary. We turn on the TV and watch church. We are producing the common instead of the holy. The temple of God is holy.
The temple of God is holy. The temple of the Lord is holy. Say it to yourself. I am holy.
Look in the mirror. I am holy. I am walking in the identity today because he says I am holy. I am holy.
Is he saying perfect? I am holy. I am holy. I am holy.
When we are not following God's word about what is holy. We have been set apart for God. We are the first in the earth. We produce the common instead of the holy.
The second thing we do is produce falsehood and stood in the truth. Look at verse 7. He says you hypocrites. Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you.
You hypocrites. They will come out and pretend to be something they are not. They call the actors hypocrites. He is saying here that when I lay down the holy.
When I say that what God has declared is holy. That is set apart. That is sacred. I don't deal with it that way.
I treat it as common. What he is saying here is I produce a lie instead of the truth. I am faking. I am faking.
I am faking to be something that I am not. Jesus. We have to be careful. We are the name of Jesus Christ.
That is what is happening here in scripture. You know the situation financially. You have money. Go take care of your mom and your dad.
The tradition they came up with was I don't have to do that if I go down to the church house and say I am going to give it to the church. The money I was going to give to the church. I take the money and give it to the church. The church takes a part of it all and gives it back to me.
He says that in the name of Jesus Christ when I look at what is holy. God is declared as holy. God says this is holy. I am holy.
My word is holy. I don't respond to that. The way God desires to respond to it. He says the name of Jesus Christ.
You are producing a lie instead of the truth. We can't make our tradition the will of God. We can't deify our will. We substituted something for the real God.
Stay with me Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ. The God that you serve is not the God of the holy scriptures. That is not even God.
You have made my own God. I believe that is happening all around the world today. The churches that are open. They have a God that calls Jesus.
It is not the God of the holy scriptures. It is not the God that they serve. Don't care about sexual immorality. Don't care about homosexuality.
Don't care about transgender. Don't care about all these things that God has called in abomination in the Word of God. That is not even God. That is not even a church.
What are we laying down that we shouldn't lay down? What is it that we are doing that maybe we are not even thinking about that is dishonoring God? How have we gotten off of the path that we were on or that we should be on? What is it that we are willing to do to change it?
That the one that died, the one that suffered and bled and died on the cross for our sins might be honored. Ultimately that is the question that we have to answer as we live our lives every day. The first answer to that question is to give our hearts to Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for that purpose.
For all of us to be saved that none of us will be lost. That none of us will go to hell when we die. That all of us might be saved and spend eternity with him in heaven. The choices that we make matter.
The things that we do. It matters. It matters to God. If you are here today and you have been making choices that dishonor God and you are not in a right relationship with God, in other words, you have never asked Christ sincerely to be your Lord and your Savior.
I will give you the opportunity to do it right now. Here it is. None of us know when the next moment is. When our last moment is, should I say?
None of us know the answer to that question. Don't postpone the something that is important to do to a moment that you are not even assured that the next moment is not a moment. Now is the moment. Now is the time for you to give your heart to Jesus Christ.
Ask your Lord, your Master, your Savior. Send your heart to Him. And ask Him to come into your heart. He will do it.
It will change your life in an amazing way. Perhaps you are saved. But as you look at your life relative to what it was six months ago or nine months ago, maybe even three months ago, you are not in the same place spiritually. If you had to be honest with yourself, you have drifted away from your relationship with Christ.
Time to come back. Time to come back home. Time to come back to the old ways. Time to come back to the old path.
To the place of holiness. To the place of sanctification. To the place of consecration that you might walk in the blessings of God in a way that you never have. That you never even imagined.
That's what God loves you so much. He loves us so much that's what He wants to do for you in your life. I pray that over you now. I pray those prayers over you now that you that don't know Him will come to know Him and that you that do know Him that you will walk in a path that brings Christ the maximum amount of glory for His glory and for your benefit.
I pray that prayer right now in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak to you tonight.
I hope you found this to be a blessing. Hope you found to be encouraging. That's what we want. And that as a result of your time with us that maybe there's been some change for God's glory.
Amen. Well we love you. See you next week. Have a blessed week.
Take care. Bye-bye.