A lot of life going on, amen? As Steve was sharing that word, the Lord began to show me something in a vision, and there's a couple in here, I don't know if you used to own a Volkswagen convertible, Volkswagen, but the Lord had the word for you. You used to be fun. He lifted you, but it used to be fun.
And what I saw was this Volkswagen bug, with its convertible removed, top removed, and it's raining, and the two of you were just laughing. Just having a good, the windshield wipers were going to rain, falling down, the convertible's up, and the two of you were just having fun. And the Lord said it's time to return to that fun time together. Whether that means you had the Volkswagen, or I mean just that's a picture the Lord showed me, but you used to be fun.
God said it's time to become fun again. Boy that's a big deal, because guess what? When God says you're not fun, you're pretty boring. Amen?
So if that works the land, it comes to you, it comes to you, I have to say hey, I got landed with me, but man I tell you what church, there is no place like home. Last Sunday I was in Grinam, our Grinam church is just blowing and going through the roof, what a great church, what a great environment, but there is just something about being home. I was in Grinam and I went out to Kerris for a passage of download, just a great time, but it's like man it's good to be home in church. We kicked this series off two weeks ago, talking about obedience, the blessing of obedience, and some of y'all said, ooh you challenged me.
I had some y'all who had lunch with said, ooh the challenging pastor, and no I didn't challenge you, the word of God challenged you. And then last week, oh my gosh, Andrew did a phenomenal job on Jesus's life. I mean just the reports of some y'all talking about it, man just the life of Jesus. Andrew Jesus set the standard pretty high.
Yeah, hello. And sometimes we live at a standard that's so low, and Father God's saying it's time to get up, to come to that next place. Now some of us grew up in Baptist churches, some of us grew up with some old hymns, some y'all remember the song, just a closer walk with thee. So if you don't see it yourself, you don't mean to sing it, so I'm gonna read the words to you.
Just a chorus, just very simply, just a closer walk with thee. Granted Jesus is my plea, daily walking close to thee, let it be dear Lord, let it be. And some y'all sing in your head, and it's like oh you got it, you don't want me to sing that at all. But here's a fallacy about that hymn.
God, you don't have to beg Jesus, you don't have to beg God to walk closer with him. He's already opened the door for us to have a walk with him that's just so close. And it's not just one of those close walks, it's kind of like your wife, your whole, your wife, and you're trying to get as close as possible, to hold her to your side. That's not even how close it is to walk with Jesus.
That's not even close enough. Because with Jesus he says, I'm gonna walk inside you. I'm gonna have the Holy Spirit inside you to walk with you. I mean you are not just step in step, your spirit is spirit and spirit, and you're walking in such a way it's like, go left.
What was that? Go left. Go straight. Go right.
It's not just a closer walk with thee, but it's the walk with him. And what we're gonna see is John 15, four through five. John 15, four through five, and I know you title people are just like, what's the title message? I'm gonna get to that in a second.
John 15, four through five. A-vide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit from apart from me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Oh that is so powerful for us to understand it in obedience.
But apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Well Pastor Michael I'm doing pretty good without Jesus in the Holy Spirit. No you're not. No you're not.
It's a thought but no you're not. Nothing without him. Nothing without him. And I wanna stop and I wanna really focus on that word of buy.
That word of buy in the Greek is the word minnow. Minnow, and it means this, to remain, stay or continue. To remain. To stay or continue.
Oh Pastor Michael, my Christian walk was, it's pretty strong. Look at what happened is the Holy Spirit overwhelmed you. Because he knew you couldn't walk correctly. And he walked with you and he held you up and you wobbled a little bit and he walked and he wobbled and he held you and you wabbled a little bit and you began to walk and you began to listen to his voice and hear his voice and you began to walk and you could hear his voice and you'd walk and you hear his voice and he put his hands next to you and he said guess what?
Let's function this together. Let me come live inside you. Let the Holy Spirit just live inside you, baptize you into the Holy Spirit. So you know how to function in life.
Because that word of buy means a steadfast connection rather than a transient state. It means you're connected. You're not just skipping along the water like a rock. Oh I skipped it 21 times.
That's not the walk with Christ. That's not the walk with Jesus. That's not the walk with the Holy Spirit. He wants to abide in us, a constant state of him being in charge.
Thank you for the 80 who said amen. Because Jesus is in charge. The Holy Spirit's in charge. Father God's in charge.
It's a constant steady state. Abiding in, in gagnes the whole person, the mind, the will, the emotions in a daily life giving communion. Oh that's so good. And according to the Bible, abiding in Christ is not optional but essential for spiritual life.
Not optional, it's essential. Daily communion with Father God. Daily communion with Jesus. Daily communion with the Holy Spirit.
Why am I separating the three different parts of the morning? Because it's very important for us to understand there are different parts that we're gonna look through this morning which talk about obedience. But not only talk about obedience, but talk about abiding in obedience. Amen?
So for your title, people here's your title. True obedience. True obedience. Oh, true.
Okay Pastor Michael, so is there such things as false obedience? No, there's such things as false obedience. You're either obedient or disobedient. Well, can I be partial obedient?
No, that's disobedience. So then why true obedience? Oh, it's amazing because the word true, we have to look at the word true and understand true obedience is being in tune with Father God. And to be true means to live in continual fellowship with Him.
And so many times we use the word true. We use the adjective of the word true when we think of the word true. You know what we're gonna do? English lesson as well as a sermon?
You're gonna get both this morning. True uses the adjective means this. Faithful, trustworthy, honest, steady and adhering to promises, friends. That's the adjective.
That's the old English version of this word. But the verb is totally different. The verb true means to make true in position, form or adjustment. To make it fit nicely.
When you're true something, you make it fit nicely. Now some of you go in, what's to do with a bicycle? Well, you just figured out the answer to the question, didn't you? Those of you who understand how to true a bicycle tire.
If you don't have a true bicycle tire, you understand something very simply. A bicycle is very simple in walking through true in a tire from you going, I have no idea what you're even saying, true. Is it like really there? No, no, to stay true, this is our first thing is this number one is trueing.
Understanding how to true yourself and true obedience. It's just like a bicycle. A bicycle has how many wheels? Two wheels.
Here's what's interesting about a bicycle and two wheels are very much like us humans. Father God allows us to sit on the seat. Well, hold on, I thought he was in charge. He is in charge.
But he allows us to sit on the seat. Because there are two wheels. We function as their driver of this thing, but we also are the back wheel. Why is the rear of the back wheel?
Because the front wheel, at any point, can go left or right. The rear of that is, that's the Holy Spirit. He can go straight, he can go left or right. We have to listen to him to direct the bicycle.
But he's the one in charge of everything. We in our human power push the pedals and make the tire move forward. But here's what's funny and interesting in life. The back tire is the tire that always needs to be true.
Because it's the one that takes the bumps, the bruises in all the hard parts of life. The back tire, all it has to do is simply go straight. Follow wherever the Holy Spirit is going. And whenever life throws bumps and bruises at you, the back tire becomes wobbly.
I'm not acting drunk. I'm acting wobbly. But what's wobbly? Come on, Christian, you know when you're walking on wobbly.
What is it? So insecure, you don't know who you are. Life beats you down. It's like, man, I feel like man, I'm just anxious.
Oh, I mean, everything's just always, we just come wobbly. And what's amazing is we can see other people become wobbly. We can even see ourselves become wobbly. So this tire has to be taken off the bicycle and has put on what's called a true-ing stand.
And you put it on a true-ing stand. It's just amazing. So many details, maybe you said overboard. As I was playing a turtier, you go overboard.
Be simple. You're going to talk too much. Do too many details. I'm going to go to the deep side.
OK, let's find out. OK, let me get the video. I watched some of the YouTube videos these past few weeks. Just watching all this cool stuff.
But just long story short, but very simply this. When this tire becomes wobbly, it becomes out of true. What you simply do is you put it on a true-ing stand. And what's so amazing, our God is so good.
I did not realize this. But these spokes are just like a guitar. When you pluck the spoke, it makes a sound. And when it's out of tune, out of true, it makes another sound that's flat.
And so you simply pull the spoke. If you're a good mechanic, you pull the spoke and you hear it go bling, bling. And then you pull the next one, it goes bloom, bloom, bloom. Hold on.
OK, mark that right there with the chock. Now keep going, bloom, bloom. That sounds good, pretty good. Boom.
Sounds good. Go all the way around the whole tire listening for which spokes are messed up. And it's usually one spoke that's messed up. Sometimes other, but most times you're usually just one spoke that's out of tune.
Just one tune, out of tune. So if it's out of harmony, if it's out of tune with the things of God, you have to simply tighten it or loosen it. Oh, my brain went, oh, you've got to tighten everything down. No, no.
Sometimes you have to tighten it. Sometimes you have to loosen it. Why? Because this may not be the problem.
It actually may be on the entire other side of the tire. And so many times Christians go into counseling, go see Craig and say, Craig, here's my problem. And Craig goes, OK, let's talk about it. And 15, 20 minutes later, Craig goes, Michael, that's not your problem.
That's the symptom. Here's your problem. All right, so we've got to be in tune with the Holy Spirit. Our sound, our sound, needs to be just like his sound.
So we've got to true ourselves. And when you true yourself, then you can be obedient. Because if you're not true, you're wobbling all over the road. He's trying to keep going straight.
And you're wobbling all over the road. Called life. So let me ask you, here's some ways that you can identify if you're true or not. When you speak.
Oh, Megan, sing that song. It's when I thought, oh my gosh, Lord, you were so good. I didn't speak the way I used to speak. I didn't talk the way I used to talk.
When you talk right now, do you speak the way the Holy Spirit speaks? Loving, full of optimism. Is your language not like it used to be? Well, I don't cuss anymore, but I Christian cuss.
Darn it. Shucks, come on. We know what you're saying. You just Christianized it.
When you respond to people, bit my tongue. No, you didn't. Everybody in the ground knows you're biting your tongue. You didn't bite your tongue, right?
No, you bit your tongue. Because your face is hurting. You want to say it. You're like, oh, come on, church.
If he's in five, three, four. Because I'm going to talk about tuning ourselves this morning, truing ourselves to mean true obedience. To true ourselves to obedience. Here's the first thing.
You are God's people, so don't let it be said that any of you are immoral or indecent or greedy. Don't use dirty or foolish or filthy words. Instead, say how thankful you are. So it's true that real quick.
Is there any area in your life that somebody could say, you're immoral, you're greedy? Why don't you quiet all of a sudden? Indecent. Come on, using filthy language, filthy words, foolish stuff.
Oh, well, bachelor, you're too serious. No, no, no, I like that fun. I like to laugh. But you know what?
I don't need to have fun the way the world expects me to have fun. I don't need to live the way the world expects me to live, because I want to be true, and I want to walk in true obedience. How about 1 Corinthians 13, 4, through 8? Love is patient.
Oh, I'm done. Let me sit down, I'm out. Come on, let's be honest. I need to true myself and walk in true obedience to God with patience.
I get so aggravated so quickly, so easily. Over silly things. I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one.
And those of you who are kindred spirits are out there, look at me going, no, I'm with you. I'm with you, but you're being quiet. I got you. Love is patient and kind.
Never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn't selfish or quick-tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that let others do. Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil.
Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails. Is there any area in your life right now in any of those two scriptures that need to be true? Because this morning I want us to walk in true obedience.
We need to true ourselves in these different areas. Line ourselves up perfectly where the Holy Spirit's taking us this morning. Correct. And if we're going to do that, then we have to do what Jesus said in John 638.
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will, my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Here's the obedience factor. Here's the obedience factor of what we just talk about. I want to be counted with none of those things that are ungodly, but I want to be true in my obedience.
I want to walk the way God called me to walk. I want us as a church to walk the way God called us to walk. Oh, come on church. This is so powerful.
This is so important. So here's my question for you this morning. Is your life true? Is it in line with Jesus?
Or does it still need some truing? Oh, Pastor Michael, you're challenging. Yes, I am. Because this whole series about obedience.
This whole series about lining our lives up properly with Father God. No crookedness, no out of order, no out of balance. Well, Pastor Michael, that's a big, you know, ho. Yes, it is.
That's a big road to ho. But Andrew said that last week, Jesus is our model. And if we're going to be like Jesus, then we have to walk in true obedience. We have to walk in obedience to guess what?
When we get out of line, we say, no, I want to come back to true. When I walk this way, I want to come back to true. When I get out of line, I want to come back to true so that I can become who God called me to be. John 14, 15 through 17.
And I pull aside the Amplified because the Amplified be just so beautiful sometimes. If you really love me, doesn't Jesus have a way with words? If you really love me, you will keep obey my commands. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another comforter, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, and stand by.
And He may remain with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive. Welcome, take it to its heart because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him, but you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you constantly and will be in you. Oh Church, come on, come on Church, it's so important. And when we true ourselves in obedience, as I said a while ago, you don't just fix the one spoke.
You have to fix the spokes to the left and to the right of the original spoke. God's kingdom is always so interesting. He always does things with such perfection, even with bicycle tires. Three things, one, two, and three.
Why is that? Because God very simply, in the first lesson means 523 rocks our world if we get this, about true obedience. First lesson means 523. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely. May your spirit and your soul and your body, one, two, three, be preserved and complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are tripartite beings, we are made of a spirit, soul, and body. Spirit, soul, and body.
Well Pastor Michael, I'm gonna fix this one thing. No, no, no, no, you had to fix all three things. Well this one part's broke, I tell you it's not a three or a broke. Because if it's out of harmony in one spoke, the other two spokes are out of harmony.
Well I'm gonna work out this year. I'm gonna lose some pounds this year. Well that's great. Well I go to the gym every single day, that's perfect.
And you work out, you work the body out. But after you work the body out, you go over to Burger King and get a double whopper. You're so hadn't figured the problem out yet. So guess what, you fixed one problem, but you didn't fix the other problems.
Come on church. So this morning at this point of truly ourselves, I wanna look at just the soul, just the soul for a second. I wanna line our soul for a second. We say what about the spirit in the body?
That's not for this morning's message. I mean I wish I had enough time to spit here for three hours with you, but this morning's message is very simply this is your soul. Okay, to true your soul is number one is to true your mind. You have to true your mind first.
What do you mean true my mind, Romans 12 to? And do not be conformed to this world. What's this world? It's rebellious and disobedient.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that you may prove that the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. We have to renew our mind. And it's amazing with so many Christians, they go to church, they come to church and say, I heard the gospel message, I heard the message on Sunday morning, I heard what Pastor Michael said, I heard what Pastor Andrew said, I heard what those guys said, and they removed one piece and said, I need to change my mind.
And they changed their mind, say, I'm not gonna do that anymore. Well, hold on a second. Just because you don't think that way, you gotta put something else in there fresh and new. There's a pulling out of the weed, and there's a planting of and removal of that weed, and put something in it's good.
It's like Kingdom families, you take something out, you pour something in. Come on church, we need to renew our thought life, renew it with scripture, renew it with song. Oh my God, people singing all the time, it's like they sing all these songs, I'm one of the worst ones in the world. I go shopping with Becky, we'll walk in the mall and walk in one of those stores, and all of a sudden it's like, oh good to have any song.
It's like, okay. And all of a sudden I'm walking two stores later and I'm singing that same song. It's like where did I pick that song up? Two stores ago.
Okay Becky, 15th dress we looked at today. Are we gonna buy one yet? Yeah, we're gonna get there at three, fours later. But in the midst of that first store, I said, you know what, I'm gonna be here, enjoy it.
So I said listen to the music, I'm not singing the music. And tonight it's good music, sometimes it's not so good music. But our mind will pick up things, and we have to renew our mind. Sing songs that stir things, repeat scripture, that says things, renew that spirit with inside of us our thought life.
So let me ask you a question, what do you think about most of the day? What's that thing that stirs the brain most of your day? Well man, my boss, it just gave you, okay. So I guess you don't like your boss very much.
Cause you grind your boss all day long. Oh, what's gonna happen this afternoon when I get home and check the mail? Is there gonna be another bill there? So all day long you're anxious.
Anxiety is just running rampant in your mind. Not even true. You get home, get to the mailbox, you open the mailbox up, and there's a check, rather than a bill. And you're like, oh my God, this is so awesome.
Yeah, if you thought that way, rather than grinding all day long on anxiety. So to true your mind, you have to renew your thoughts. Here's the second part, the wheel, the wheel, the mind, and the wheel. Oh boy, this is a big one.
So many telling Christians to get hung here than anywhere else. The wheel is a big deal. Numbers 30, one and two. Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes and the sons of Israel saying, this is the word which the Lord has commanded.
If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an ode to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. If you tell God you're gonna do it, do it. Make your will come in true, line it up with the things you say you're gonna do.
As the old saying goes, be a man of your word. Well here's the deal, don't be a man of your word just to other humans. If you told God you're gonna do it, then do it. God I'm gonna change.
I'm gonna change the way I think. And my wheel is not gonna make different choices. Going back to the whole generalist duration. You start working out, wonderful.
Well guess what, your friends of Waterburger, your friends of Burger King, your friends of McDonald's, they're gonna go, where are you being partner? Because you make different choices. And the guy in the produce, how are the HGBs gonna go, who are you? And your bank is gonna say, what is all this spinach and all this lettuce and zucchini and tomatoes and carrots?
What is all this stuff? Because the wheel says I make the choice. But here's an even more opponent scripture I think is Psalm 15, four. They hate worthless people, that's pretty strong.
But show respect for all who worship the Lord and keep their promises no matter what the cost. I'll be there, then I'm there. God I said, I'm reading my Bible every morning, then I'm there every morning. Because the wheel is the choice.
We can't just change the way we think. Oh, I want to, I want to, I want to. No, make that renewal, it's like, I said in appointment every morning with Father God at 615. That's my appointment time, I'm gonna be there.
We do it with Dennis, we do it at doctor's appointments. We do it for all kind of appointments. I'll be there and we show up early for those appointments. Even though we know the doctors gonna be late.
What Father God's never late. If you tell me he's gonna be there, guess what he's already there. What is he gonna show up in a bigger force at that point? No, your mind, no your will.
Oh gosh, what kind of choices are you making every day? Here's the third one, emotions. And gentlemen, let me speak to you for a second. Years ago, this used to be a female thing.
At first, the church taught it, psychology taught it, the world taught it, emotions. The women are just so emotional. Oh my gosh, where did all these men get all this estrogen from? I mean, just amazing.
You heard my feelings. Oh Pastor Michael, you shouldn't say things that strong. That's just so, that's just so hurtful. Wow, who put the IV in the church and put estrogen in the IV?
What happened to the testosterone? And now the women had the testosterone, the men had the estrogen, it's like, what is going on here? Well, who's leading the house? Well, I'm leading the house, no you're not.
Okay, she heard your feelings last week. Now please listen to me, I'm not saying feelings are important. Their emotions are important. But there are so many men in the world around us.
And in the church world around us, that man alive is like, you sound more like a girl than you do a guy. Well, no, you don't know who you're messing with. Yeah, I do sit down, well, man, you talk to, no, I just know who I am and God, but you don't say, oh, you hurt my feelings. Then you don't know me, because I don't intentionally want to hurt anybody's feelings.
I want to speak life, but we have to get our life in tune, our emotions in tune. Ladies, the exact same way. Psalm 86, three to four. Be kind to me, I pray to you all day.
Make my heart glad, I serve you and my prayer is sincere. Make my heart glad. Joy is an emotion. Joy is one of these emotions.
So you know what, God, I choose to be in your walk and walk with you according to your emotions. I want to be joyful rather than depressed. I want to be full of life, whether it be an E, or oh, the world's so bad. Here we go.
Come on. I mean, and there's other people like this, emotional roller coasters, they're up, they're down. They're up, they're down. It's like, who am I calling today?
Who am I going to get on the phone today? And for some of you, who am I going to get on the phone an hour from now? Yeah, wow, yeah. But here's another one I'm talking about going towards the men.
Oh my God, did you see that on Fox News? Oh my God, did you see that on Hex? Oh my God, it's like up and down. Did you see the present?
And it's like, holy cow, the Trump derangement syndrome is real. And it's not just for liberals. People's emotions are just all over the place. And if we're going to fine tune and true our obedience, we got to get our mind, our will, and our emotions in tuned with the Holy Spirit.
So I'm going to come back to my question a while ago. When's the last time you got on the truing stand the Holy Spirit and said, Holy Spirit, is there any place in my mind? It's at tuned. Nope, Michael, you got the mind pretty solid, okay?
Is there any place in my will it's at tuned? Because just because my mind's right doesn't mean my wheels right. My choices are right. And if my choices are not right, then I got to get that in tune.
Well, if those two are in tune and my emotions are out of whack and I got to get my emotions in tune. So my question this morning is which one, or is it two, or is it three, they need to come and be true to the obedience of Christ? Your mind, your will, or your emotions? Oh, that's great.
Well, Pastor Michael, how do I stay true? That's point number two, staying true. How do you stay true? How do you stay true in life with your mind, your will and your emotions, with your soul?
Very simple, number one, spend time with the father. Spend time with the father. Men, you know if you had a great father. Say, well, I had a great father.
He was the kind of man at times, you know what he would do? He would whoop your butt. Why? Because you need your mind right.
Other times, he would give you chances to make right or wrong choices. And when you made the wrong choice, he didn't be little you. He helped you figure out what the right choice was. And he helped you become a man and walk in healthy emotions.
He told you he loved you. Well, Pastor Michael, I didn't grow up with that kind of dad. Neither did I. But I found a father in Father God, who said, I'll teach you all those things.
I will teach you all those things. But to be honest, church, it doesn't happen naturally. It happens out of choice. John 5, 19.
So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the father doing, whatever the father does, the son also does. How did Jesus know what the father was doing? He watched him do it.
And there's this crazy thought that Jesus and Father God sat down in heaven and said, OK, Jesus, get your pencil and paper out. OK, here's the deal. On this date, this is going to happen. On this date, this is going to happen.
On this date, this is going to happen. On this date, this is going to happen. It never happened like that in heaven. Every single day, Jesus had to go sit and spend time with the father.
If Jesus had to go sit every single day with the father, what excuse do we have of not spending every morning with the father? Well, Pastor Michael, in my childhood messing me up, well, guess what? If you go stand with Father God, he's going to correct all those messes. He's going to true you.
He's going to put you in tune. He's going to true your life. To understand the fallacies of your natural father, of the other men in your life, God is going to make it true and walk straight in your life. Oh, come on, man.
Every single day, Jesus had to go and figure out what Father God was doing. That's what he did. Well, you mean like one of those remote control people? No, not one of those remote control people.
And people go to the other end of it. So what do I do? I just say, OK, Father God, what do I do next? No.
In the mornings, Father God will talk to you about your day. He's not going to tell you A, B, C, D, E, F, G down the whole alphabet. He's going to say, this is coming. You're prepared for it.
Scripture, reading, worship. He prepares you for the day. And then he turns you loose. Just like you do Jesus.
And Jesus went about his day and you see things pop up and Jesus could handle it. He could handle it. Why? Because he spent that morning with the father.
Let me add this to the dinner. The daughters and your sons come and say, Dick, can I spend some time with you? Do it. Do it.
Hey, I only got Julia at home now. And I'm like, yeah, come sit beside me. If I'm not middle of something, I sit beside her. And there's time I'll say, give me a few minutes.
I'm working on something. I'll come sit beside you. And then, evidently, her head's on my shoulder. And then, inevitably, she slings over and all of a sudden, I feel like half her body's on me.
And then, inevitably, at some point, she's laying on me. Because I want to be a model for her of what her father is for her. Then when she grows up, she can say, my dad did this. My dad did that.
My dad did that. And her husband, her kids, will say, Mom, honey, that wasn't your dad. That was the dad. Well, Pastor Michael, I've never experienced that.
Tomorrow morning, you can experience that. This afternoon, you can experience that. Tomorrow tonight, you can experience that. Oh, I just need my dad to hug me.
My dad's been calling forever. He'll take something. Your father, God, is better than any natural man can ever be. And church, it's impossible to have continual true obedience without continual true communion with the Father.
Amen? That's how you say true. Here's number two. How you say true?
Spending time with Jesus. Spending time with Jesus. It's the same. Oh, yes, but no.
Amen? I got so excited I got to hit myself. Let me read a quote to you real quick. Andrew Murray.
Andrew Murray says this. Only when God, Father God, comes into our lives in a degree and a power which many never consider possible. Let's stop and read that again. Only when God comes into our lives in a degree and a power which many never consider possible.
Because I think sometimes the church doesn't think it's even possible. When his presence as the eternal and ever present one is believed and received, even as the son believed and received, can there be any hope of a life in which every person? Every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Oh, Pashon, I'm not sure that day's ever possible.
No, not until we will leave it and receive it. We can spend that time with Father God that every thought can become captive. Oh, Pashon, my thought life is a wreck. It can be true and we come to true obedience in Christ.
Amen? So now let's talk about spending time with Jesus. You ready? John 1, 1 through 4.
In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and truly and was truly God. From the very beginning the Word was with God and with this Word God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word.
Everything that was created received its life from him and his life gave light to everyone. Oh, I got that. I got that. Hold on.
Because so many times we say reading your Bible is important. It is. But the Word of God is Jesus. So how do you spend time with Jesus in the Word of God?
We read our Bibles, we get the things from the Bible, we draw from the Bible spend time with Jesus. Oh, I'm spending time in quiet with Father God, but my time with Jesus is in the Word of God. It's in the Bible. Oh, come on, Church, this is so important.
Because Jesus is the Word, the Word is the Bible. If we're going to stay true, we have to know what the Word of God says. Years ago I had to, when I considered the craziest question in ministry ever asked of me. Meckin' I was sitting there and we had this young man come and he was at our house.
He said, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. I was like, anything, I think anything could be anything scriptural. I mean, anything just kind of out there.
He says, is it okay to marry your second cousin? And I went, whoa. That's not what I was thinking this morning. I was thinking, holy cow.
I said, well, I can't quote, unquote, give you a scripture. I can give you my thoughts. And in this process, he goes, well, I was looking for like a scripture reference. I said, well, I can't give you one.
He said, well, you know, in the Old Testament, yeah, in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant had many wives and some of those people were brothers and sisters and all kinds of weird things that happened in the Old Testament. But when the blood of Jesus came, it separated those two different pieces. He said, oh, okay. And so I thought, oh my gosh, this guy can go and marry his cousin.
He'd say, what in the world? To be prepared for any question that your kids may ask, your spouse may ask, your friends may ask, because it's part of our job to true other people as well. But if we don't know the word of God, then no way can true them. 2 Timothy 3, 14 through 17.
Keep on being faithful to what you were taught and what you believed. After all, you know who taught you these things. Since childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make you wise enough to have faith in Christ Jesus and be saved. Everything in the scriptures is God's Word.
All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. The scriptures train God's servants to do all kinds of good deeds. If I don't know the Word of God, how can I walk consistently, walk true to the things of God if I don't know my Bible? So church, let me ask you a question this morning.
How are you doing reading your Bible daily? How well are you reading your Bible? Good question. Let me ask you another question.
I think it's fun. For just for fun's sake. How have you ever gone down the wormhole of YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, what I mean, the wormhole? You start on one video in three hours later, you go, oh my gosh, I'm going to make dinner.
Oh my gosh, I've been doing this. So you sit there watching Netflix series. Saturday, you started 8 o'clock in one of Netflix series and it's 2 o'clock in the morning. Amazon Prime series.
Or maybe one of those readers said, I started this book and you read it all in one day. No, no, that's not too many people. You say read a book. That's about 10 or 12 months in this room over 500.
Netflix, TikTok. Yeah, that's for me. But read a book. When's the last time you worm-hold the Bible?
You start reading that morning and you read and you jump from here and you jump from there and you jump to this. I wonder what the Greek says and you jump into the Greek and you run down the Greek and you're running to the vines. It's all over the place, worm-holing the Bible. There's times that happen, there's times that comes into the house and she's like, oh my gosh, there's five or six books all over the coffee table.
You got books sitting next to you. It's like, I just worm-holed all over the place. Can I touch this or not touch these things? You're good.
I'm done by now. And then they're too late right. Go back here. Where's that book at?
Come on, church. If we're going to walk in true obedience, we have to spend time with Jesus, the Word of God. Here's the next piece about that. Spending time with the Holy Spirit.
You knew that was coming. You knew that was coming. And we're going back to the very first I started with because I think we've got to get this. Show it by doing what I told you.
I will talk to the Father and He will provide you another friend so that she will always have someone with you. This friend is the spirit of truth. The Godless world cannot take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him. Doesn't know what to look for, but you know him already because he is staying with you and will even be in you.
I used a reference while ago, Andrew Murray, but there's a guy by the name of Brother Lawrence. If you've never read the book, practicing the presence of God, let me encourage you, go buy that book. Some of you have Brother Lawrence references, don't even know it. Some of you are aware that WWJD bracelet, what would you just do?
He came from Brother Lawrence's book. And Brother Lawrence was somebody who literally, he was a monk, a little different than us. But all day long, he would say, Lord, what do you think? And he would pledge life?
Lord, what do you think? Lord, I praise you. I mean, it's a wonderful connection with Father God and the Holy Spirit. But I think sometimes some of us forget 1 Corinthians 6-19.
You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. If we lived that way, would we sin the way we sin?
You mean I'm making the Holy Spirit do the things that I'm doing? The things you're seeing, he's watching. Well, yeah, he's watching globally. Yes, he's watching globally, but he's also watching internally from you out.
The things you're listening to. Oh, they're not that bad. Well, the fact is you say that bad qualifies. There's a problem.
Well, I don't listen to the lyrics. I listen to the music. Gotcha. But if you want to stay true, then when the Holy Spirit says, no, it's no.
When the Holy Spirit goes, that's questionable. Then it's questionable for me. I'm speaking a week late. OK?
And there's a pro in the con speaking a week late. This last week was a Super Bowl. OK? And we've been about to speak a week late.
I wasn't here last Sunday. But I've said the same thing. Maybe I don't know if that's what Lord of W And you can take it. Which piece of that part you want?
Because there were so many parts. There were so many pieces. There's so horrible in the whole concept. But very simply this, not as Super Bowl.
NBA, hockey, soccer. You name it. Movies, television. They're actors.
You're going to say, I'm crazy. They're actors. I just wake up. Because of who they are as people.
I refuse to pay money to watch them. And if there's garbage that I have on my Apple TV, I wish I could get rid of. I mean, I mean, it's like, man, I have five or six movies on my Apple TV. Probably so.
But the day of when the Holy Spirit says, no, it's time for the church to say, no. We're talking about true obedience. Amen? I'm going to close with the brother Lawrence quote here.
All we have to do is to recognize God as being intimately present within us. Then we may speak directly to him every time we need to ask for help, to know his will in moments of uncertainty, and to do whatever he wants us to do in a way that pleases him. So church, I want to close with this. All of us, if we're honest.
We're untrue this morning. I've been untrue, trying to get true this, getting ready for this message. Am I still complete true? No.
There's still some place of untrue in me. Whether it's my spirit, whether it's my body, whatever it is inside of my soul, whatever it is inside me. But this morning, Father God, I believe is sitting me to us to simply say this, where do you need to be true this morning? So I'm going to ask you to stand with me.