Sermon Transcription:
I am so grateful that I get to praise Jesus with you guys. I was just reminded as we were worshiping, just about 12 years ago, I was living the life of a male prostitute in my country. And today, I get to worship Jesus with people who have begun to trust him, just like I learned to trust him, with people who believe that because of the power of the blood of Christ, their sins have been washed away. And God is able to do the impossible, and God makes a way for every person that puts their trust, however small it may be, puts their trust in him. He'll do the miracles, he'll do the leading out of Egypt, if you will. He'll part the Red Sea, he'll do whatever is necessary. But if he finds someone that is willing to trust just a little bit, that the blood of Christ has the power to do whatever we could never do, to do whatever is impossible to us, he will move in your life. And you end up worshiping with people that know what they've been set free from, they know what they've been delivered from. There's no lying in their life anymore, they can't speak lies, they can't manipulate, all of these things have fallen off of them. They never tried to become a good person, the Spirit of God came to live inside, and Jesus said, "You'll know them by the fruit."
When you run into someone and the Spirit of God lives inside of them, they may have every trouble in the world, they have the most difficult character, they may have the most difficult personality. But when my spirit actually lives inside of a person, you're going to see, you're going to see what I will do. You're going to see the fruit, they can't help but bear fruit, they can't help but be changed. All they ever did was believe on the Son, and then I will move in their life in such a way that all the nations around them will have to acknowledge that I Am Lord, and I am King, and nothing is impossible for me.
Never, ever believe that speaking in tongues is to prove you have been given the Holy Spirit. It's not in the Bible. We don't believe that as a denomination, we don't believe it as Christians, 'cause it ain't in the Bible. When someone is actually changed, now we have proof. There's evidence of the Holy Spirit, but proof, the only proof is change that no man could do in his own life, no woman could bring about in their own life. It's all just happening. I never did anything for it, I believed on Jesus. Now he's treating me as his bride, now we have proof. Amen. Don't ever settle, church, until you have the proof. Any spirit can teach you to speak in tongues, that's why the word tells us to test every spirit.
The title of this word is "The King's Word on the Great Fall". As the Lord told us that this year for you and I in our lives would be the year of the word. We've been seeing God give us words both in the teachings at the prayer service and also in the Sunday service. We've seen the Lord give us words that are really powerful, heavenly tools that God is trying to bring into our lives, to bring about in your life and in my life this year. How many of you know you can miss it? You see it in the word all the time, those that do not prioritize the words that God is bringing into their life, back in the day through the prophets, nowadays through the preaching of his word, and often the prophetic preaching of his word. Those that didn't heed those words at that time, or in your time, your generation, the outcome is always the same. What happens? People end up going the wrong direction. Any way you turn it, that's how simple you can make it. The people either ended up literally in the wrong country, or they ended up in the wrong situation, or they ended up serving the wrong God, or they ended up in trouble because God allowed them to go into exile, and to come to a place where life was falling apart to such an extent that they would finally cry out with all their heart to the Lord.
Let me give you, if you will, the key verse to the word that the Lord is giving us today, Matthew 7:27; "And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall." The King's word on the great fall. The Holy Spirit today is going to cause you and seek for you to understand the parable that Jesus shared about the one that built a house on the rock and the one that built the house on the sand. Because it is in the heart of Our Lord to keep your life, to keep your house, to keep you from the great fall. He gives the warning, but it's in his heart to keep you from it. But in order for us to be able to walk the narrow road and understand what the wide road really means, because until we realize, "Oh, that's wide road stuff," we don't understand why we should put in all that effort and the difficulty of entering through the narrow gate. We have to do that daily, we have to do it consistently, we have to do it in every area of our life, we make decisions. It's not just a one-time thing where the Lord saved me out of the tremendous sinful life that I was living, and now I can live however I want, Holy Spirit's just going to do all of the work. Like we just said, God is going to bring about the change, but I can just live however I want and it's all going to turn out fine. We don't see that in the word, we see warnings against it time and time again.
We don't see warnings against sin, because the moment you sin, you lose your salvation, that warning has changed because Christ died for the sins of the world. But now we see warnings against a lifestyle, including sin, but mostly a lifestyle of, "If you know to do good and don't do it, to you it is sin." The word takes it to a whole new level. If you know what God is saying, what he's leading you into, what he desires to lead you away from, and you're not following him on the day-to-day, then you end up on a journey that has a lot of dangers on its way. And the outcome of that journey can be quite hazardous, as we're going to look into it today from the word of God. I think that you're going to see so clearly that Paul and Jesus, in one heart and one direction, speak on this topic so clearly.
1 Corinthians 9, verse 24-27 is where we're going to look first, starting in verse 24. Paul speaking, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it." Paul turns to the church, he's speaking a language they know, they could relate to this example in a very clear way. They saw it around them all the time, people were running left and right, training left and right, because he's speaking to a church that was at the very center of the Olympic Games every single time the Olympic Games were held, right there in that city. And there were different games to the Olympics already at that time, and here Paul begins to speak about one of them, and begins to speak something to the church that they could understand, but it's kind of an extreme example. He uses the example of a pro-athlete in a competition where there's no participation prizes, there's not even a second place, you either won or you lost, that's all that there is to it. And he tells this church, "Church, you need to compete not like a hobby, not like a Saturday thing, you need to stop what you're doing and you need to compete as if your heart has decided, 'I, in my lifetime, am going to win this thing. I'm going to take this prize home and I need to defeat every person I will ever lay my eyes on in order for me to take that prize home. But I believe I can do it. I'm going to make the effort, I'm going to start training and I'm going to take that prize home.' That is the language that Paul is using. It's very extreme.
A lot of us, if we have played any type of sports in our lives, a lot of us feel like, 'I'm pretty good, I really enjoy it, but I would never pursue the top of the top 'cause I could never.' And Paul literally tells the church, 'You need to get rid of that thinking and you need to start competing as if you are able and as if you must win this thing, and run this race and compete and take home that prize as if your life depends on it.' Because Paul was seeing something ahead of the church, he was seeing something ahead of the church that caused him to speak to them like this, to speak in such extreme language. He was trying to wake them up. They probably had no idea they were asleep, they had no idea that a change needed to come in their lives, they had no idea that an adjustment needed to come into their lives, that's why this letter was written, they did not know.
But he's trying to wake them up and he's telling them, 'Church, I need you to compete as if you're the only one that is ever going to make it, as if no one is going to make it in the kingdom of God except the winner.' That's what he's telling them, he's worried for the journey of those that had believed on the name of Jesus. He's not speaking to unbelievers, these people have already believed that Jesus is the Son of God, that because he came, died in my place and was raised again, that because of him, I am forgiven, I am set free, I can rejoice, I can have joy, I can cast all of my worries on the Lord. But here Paul begins to display a worry that he has, as he cares for the church, something about their journey, he's not fully convinced that they're going to finish well. And so he's trying to send them a wakeup call, something that the church was able to relate to, they understood it in the Olympic games that were being displayed there in that city at that time. The prize was a wreath made of a pine tree, it was a pine wreath, that was the crown they competed for, that wreath would perish quickly, you could only wear it so long. But for those few moments that they got to wear it and it was full of health, that wreath, they got to parade with that thing and they received the honor, the greatest honor from men they could receive, they were the champion, they had defeated everyone.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27: "And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things, they do everything they do intentionally, moderately, they're temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, a mere wreath, a perishable crown. But we for an imperishable crown, therefore I run thus, in other words, I run in this way, tells them, I run in this way, not with uncertainty, says I leave all uncertainty behind, everything I know, everything I do, everything I think has to be absolutely certain, I don't want to leave the prayer closet until I have certainty, I don't want to start my day until I have certainty, I do not go into a meeting with a person as long as doubt is lingering in my heart or I have no clear direction. This is how I run my race, I leave behind all uncertainty, I do it daily, I'm temperate, I'm doing it for a price. And in this way, I fight, thus I fight. That word fight literally can be translated as boxing, it was one of the games that they would have at the Olympics every single time. That's the word he uses, in this way I box, not as one who beats the air, in other words, not as one that misses their target. That word beating in the air, if you look into the original language, it literally means the non-effort we use to do our breathing. We don't think about the muscles, we don't control the muscles, we don't have to consciously choose to breathe, that all goes automatically. We don't have to think about it. Paul says, I don't fight like that, I don't realize that when I get into a fight, I just do whatever comes natural. I've trained, I've practiced, I'm going to make sure that my hands do not miss, I fight in this way, not like someone who just goes with what they got naturally. I trained for this thing, I prepared myself for this thing.
Verse 27 "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." Here we have Paul, he wrote such a large portion of our New Testament today, planted so many churches, raised up great ministers in the Kingdom, bore great fruit, if you will. And here Paul says, listen, this is how I run my race, this is how I prepare myself for the fight, because I feel it's very possible if I do not apply this kind of discipline on my body, I can become disqualified. If Paul feels that his journey is very important, yes, salvation and the first meeting with the Lord, forgiveness of the sins, unless we have that, the journey hasn't even started, absolutely incredibly important, unarguably the greatest day of your life. But then a journey starts, and Paul does indicate there's great significance to that journey, and there's great threats to that journey as well. And if Paul feels that there's a possibility for him to become disqualified unless he lives his life as a pro-athlete who just denies himself stuff that is not even sinful, other people do it all the time, but I'm trying to win a race here, and I need to pay attention to the details 'cause I have to defeat everyone along the way, because I need to do this thing as if there's only one price, and by the way, it's an imperishable crown. If Paul feels that way, how much more do you and I need to pay attention? How much more do you and I have need of doing things or abandoning things, whatever it may be, we're going to see it in the word, in order to not end up disqualified somehow? If Paul indicates this is a possibility for his life, how much more do you and I need to pay attention to the word?
Paul says, I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection. When you believe in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you've given him your life, Jesus fills you with the Holy Spirit. You'll have the Holy Spirit from that moment on, and the Spirit will start to show you what is good, what is right, what God would like for your life, what he's drawing you away from in your life. And your spirit has been made new, the word tells us that your spirit has been made alive with him, and your spirit is now able to have relationship, have communication with the Holy Spirit who comes to walk alongside of you. You can hear from the Lord, you can receive conviction from the Lord, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that, I don't feel condemned but I'm convicted that that's not God's plan for my life, that's not the direction for my life." But the body is sold under sin. Your body is still very much an earthly body, one day you will receive a new one, one day you will receive a heavenly body, but still today, you very much have an earthly body. And that body that you have today still wants to live on earth, and that body wants to be spent on earthly desires, lusts, and unholy behavior and unholy speech. What does unholy mean? Unholy means unseparated.
If you have been made holy, you have been separated, set apart specifically for a purpose. Your body wants to indulge in unholiness, but that doesn't necessarily mean gross sin; it simply resists being separated only for Jesus. Your body doesn't want to restrict its speech only for Jesus; it wants to speak the way it desires, and it wants to act according to its own will, whenever it wants. The flesh still desires to live here on Earth.
Paul calls the church to wake up to this reality: your spirit has been made alive with Christ, but your body is still destined to die. Your body will still be exchanged; you will have to leave this earthly tent and receive from God a heavenly body. Paul describes how he lives a disciplined life, training himself because, by the Spirit, he can hear from God, understand the Lord's will, and trust Him. Through the Spirit, he subdues his body and brings it into submission, fighting the constant battle against the flesh. He doesn't intend to miss when he needs to strike a blow against his body to bring it into submission, so he can run the race set before him by Christ.
Paul tells the church they must compete like never before, with the kind of effort and dedication that professional athletes put in. They must alter their lives to accommodate the rigorous training needed for the most important race, the most significant fight they will ever face. Paul warns that unless he disciplines himself, he risks becoming disqualified. The same Greek word Paul uses for "disqualified" is found in Romans 1:28, where it describes those who reject God and are given over to a debased mind, doing things that are not fitting.
Paul's warning is clear: if you don't fight against the flesh, it will continue to fight against you. If you relax in the spirit, the flesh will grow stronger, and you risk becoming disqualified. The church must wake up to the reality of the journey after salvation. There's a price to pay, decisions to make, things to walk away from, and directions to choose. Every time you ignore the prompting of the Holy Spirit, whether by neglecting the Bible or ignoring God's voice in your heart, you brush off God's breath.
Church, you have to compete like you will never do again. Not in this time, never again in eternity. That's what Paul is saying. You have to compete like there's only one prize, there will only be one winner, and unless it is you, you are going to lose out.
Jesus, our King of Kings, has done something so powerful, so majestic over every single one of our lives as he bought us free from sin. That after we have been bought free from sin, he gives us direction. Now you're free. Now you can walk. Now you can make decisions. You're no longer a slave to sin. You're no longer in the dominion.
Think of it like an arched bubble of the power of Satan, and you were just stuck under it. It didn't matter if you turned left or right, up or down. It didn't matter if you got one sin out of your life; a new one would be introduced. It didn't matter. You were in the dominion of Satan. Now you've been set free. Now you may abuse that freedom from time to time, but Jesus says, "I set you free. Now let me tell you what I set you free for." He gives us direction as to what to do now, now that we are free from sin, free from the dominion of Satan. And he teaches us incredible concepts.
Most of them I hope you've heard before, if not read them before by yourself. But we see them all throughout Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. And I wrote some of those concepts out. There's many more, but I gave you just a few. These are the things Jesus says. And he says this right before he goes into the parable of the man who builds his house on the rock and the man who builds his house on the sand, of which its house will be a great fall. This is what he teaches us, the concept.
"I made you the salt of the earth. Don't lose your flavor or you'll be thrown out," that's what he says. "Let your light shine so people glorify my Father because of your life," that's what God tells you. "If you call someone made in my image a fool, you put yourself in danger of Hellfire. So rather, forgive and be reconciled," that's what your God tells you. "Whoever looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery," that's what your Lord tells you. He says, "Don't use strong language ever to make people believe you. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more than that comes from Satan. Whoever insults you, let them continue. Whoever wants to sue you, give them more than what they ask for. Never defend yourself in a lawsuit. Love your enemies and bless people that cuss you out. Be very giving in your finances but don't ever take credit for it. Pray at home alone to the Father and don't repeat yourself all the time. Trust me, if you are fasting, make sure no one ever knows. Gather up treasures for yourself in heaven or else your heart will be turned away from me. If you look at unholy things, your body will be filled with the power of darkness. You cannot prioritize working for God's kingdom and working for money. You will choose between the two. Don't worry if you prioritize God and his kingdom. It's going to feel like things won't ever work out, but my Father will always take care of you. To arrive in eternal life will be difficult and a costly road for you, and most people give up on it. People will speak to you as if they belong to me, but I never send them to you. Stay away from them. The fruit of their life is not good. Not everyone that speaks from the Bible and performs miracles in the name of Jesus is mine. They won't be with me in eternity."
All of these concepts in three chapters, Jesus is teaching about. And you can find more. These are just a few, but these precede this very famous parable we are about to get into. Let's start with the promised part of the parable, Matthew 7 verses 24- 25: "Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock."
That word "does" them, that they do the word that they just heard. All these sayings that Jesus gives to you, don't think for me, He gave them to you. The one that does these sayings of mine, that word "does" means this: commit without delay to exercise. That's what that word means, commit without delay to exercise. And this is not only referring to the list of things that we just looked at together. It's not just referring to all these scriptures spread out over those three chapters right before this parable, because the Spirit of God speaks to every single believer. At least that is what the Lord Jesus Christ said the Spirit would come to do. The word tells us, He will take of what is mine, and He will make it known to you. He will not speak of His own accord, but whatever He hears, He will speak. The truth will set you free. The Spirit will guide you into all truth. Those people who commit without delay to exercise the words of their King, here's what Jesus himself says: you'll never be beat down, you'll never be overcome. Rain will come, floods will come, the wind will beat down on you, but your house will never, ever fall. That's what He's saying. That's what He says to those that do the word because it is founded upon a rock.
And that rock represents the revealed will and the revealed word of God. I'll prove that to you because Jesus himself uses that word here, and He uses that word also in another place in the Bible. He uses it when He tells Peter, "Peter, on this rock, I will build my church." What had He told Peter? He asked him, "Who do you say I am?" Peter said, "You are the Son of the Most High God. You are the Messiah. You, in other words, you are the one that is the reason that we're forgiven. You are the reason that forgiveness is possible. You are the reason that redemption, setting free for sinners, is possible." And Jesus responds to Peter and says, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who's in heaven. And on this rock," same word, "on this rock I will build my church."
The Father had given revelation to Peter of the will of God over his life through the Christ and the word of God revealed to Peter who Christ was, who the Messiah was. And every time that you and I, every time that you saw the scriptures, you picked up your word, and you tried to read it as good and as bad as you could, every time the Spirit of God whispered something to your heart, every time He whispered to you as we worship together, every time that He whispers in a teaching or when the word comes forth, every time you committed to that word as if the Lord says, "No price was too big for you to be adjusted to My word instantly without delay. No inconvenience was too big. Whatever it messed up in your day, whatever difficulty for your future it was causing, you committed. There was no delay, and you exercised. You began to be trained based on these words that God was speaking into your heart, that Christ was bringing into your life, so that the flesh did not push out the spirit but the opposite began to happen.
And somehow, someway, the power of the Holy Spirit, He's the source of our power. There will never be a strong Christian, there will never be a powerful believer, there are those that are walking by the spirit and those that are walking by the flesh.
When we walk by the spirit, the fruits of the spirit are evident, and the flesh is brought into submission by the power of the Holy Spirit. Those that walk in the flesh, you couldn't even tell if the spirit had filled them, but to those that say, "Lord God, I want to be a doer of every single thing you whisper to me, every single time I notice my Bible," and it just kind of jumps out at me, "I don't want to read it, I don't want to sit down, but I'm going to obey the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to take the time. I'm going to pay the price. I may make some less dollars today. I may not be able to run my errands, but I'm paying the small and the big prices because I need to obey, I need to trust and commit without delay to this word and exercise it. I want to see the spirit of God push out my flesh. I want to see the spirit of God rule and reign in my life, not just have this great start of a testimonial journey of when God saved my life, redeemed my life, and now my journey, honestly, if everyone could see my journey, there's no testimony to it. I don't hear from the Lord, I'm not His word, I'm not on fire in prayer, there's very little testimony, I'm telling very few people about Christ, I tell them more about church than about my Lord."
The word says, "If you become a doer of the word, life will have its trials, but your house will stand, no matter what comes." You understand that? Jesus picks His words very carefully when He tells us, "Your house will stand." This represents something. He's not telling people, "When you're not doing this, all of a sudden you'll lose your salvation like that." That's not what He's saying. He's talking about a house. This is the place where you meet with people. This is your place of safety. This is your place of rest. This is your place of peace. This is the place where your children are developed and should turn out as ones that trust the Lord. That is what He says. It will all fall apart unless you build your life on every whisper of the spirit, every verse you ever read, is it allowed to move you around or are you trying to move it around?
Are you deciding what God is allowed to do and on what day, or is the word the authority in your life?Let's look at the prophecy part. We just did the promise part. Here comes the prophecy part of the King, Matthew 7: 26-27: "But everyone, everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall."
Church, both of these men in the parable had a house. At certain times, it looked the exact same. In many cases, the house of the one may have looked greater, more impressive, more beautified, and to the untrained eye, way more blessed. Until the rain came, until the floods came, until the wind began to beat down on that house. And there comes the prophetic word. Those that hear My words, in other words, those He's talking to, His people, He's not talking about the unbeliever, He's talking about those who know My words. They've read them, they've heard them, they're going to be judged by them. As we heard a couple of weeks ago, those that hear My words, those that hear from God but do not commit without delay to exercise, in other words, God's word doesn't stop you in your tracks, you're willing to show up to church, you're willing to do what a Christian, whatever that means, does on their Sundays, Tuesdays, Fridays, whenever you're able to make it. But God's word on the day-to-day, it doesn't stop you in your tracks. Your life doesn't look different every single year because you're growing in Christ. It's kind of the same. You're doing the same stuff. You're making the same mistakes. The same stuff seems to be happening. The same trials are unresolved in your household. There's no power of God. There's no presence of God. The spirit of God is not governing it. He's not building the house. The word of God is not allowed to change your day. It's not allowed to interrupt your plan for the day. It's not allowed to readjust your plan. It's not allowed to demand from you instant obedience. The word of God is not allowed to demand your instant obedience.
Here's the prophetic word of Christ. He says, "He will be like a foolish man." He says, "Life will have its trials. The rain will come. The floods will come. The wind will beat on the house, just like with the righteous, just like with the one that's building his house on the rock, the same things will come, but your house will fall. No matter what comes, every time a calamity takes place in your generation, it will be allowed to touch you and your children, anyone that seeks refuge, safety, and peace in what is called the house of your life. Anyone close to you will be affected by it, and there will be a great fall. It won't be a thing you easily recover from. Every trial, every single birth pain, the word calls it towards the end of our time, the birth pains will become more and more frequent, the Lord tells us, and more and more we will see our world in moments and seasons of turmoil. He's saying, every time those things happen, you will not have peace, you will not have rest. It'll feel like your life is being attacked, your life falls apart, your shelter is not there, protection is not there. While nothing is going on, it looks like the same house is being built. In many cases, the worst one may look better. But when those things come down, this man, I will liken to a fool because his house will fall, and great will be its fall."
Church, the Spirit of Christ has been working throughout the generations. He's working right now, in this very moment, as Christ is praying, interceding over your life in this very moment. The Spirit is working. He's seeking to do all that He can do, every single thing the Spirit is allowed to do, without overruling your free will, to make sure that the house of your life does not end up in a great fall. He's seeking to prevent it. How does He do it? John 16: 13-14, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you."
The Father has sent the Holy Spirit to make the words of God, the revealed will of God, the words of God known to you. You don't need to be a special Christian. You don't need to be saved long enough. You don't need to work stuff out of your own life. All you need to do is say, "Lord, when You speak to my heart, Lord, when I open Your Word, whatever it may require of me, whatever direction You are sending me into, God, I want Your Word more than I want my will. God, I want Your Word more than my plan for the day. God, I want Your Word more than my quick fix, my quick direction, my desires. God, I want what You speak."
If you commit without delay to exercise those words when the Spirit whispers to you, I meet way too many people that tell me, "I don't know if I've ever heard the voice of the Lord. What does it even look like? I don't think I hear from Him." Here's what the Bible says: No one does good, not even one. When you are in a situation and you see someone suffering, you see someone in pain, you see injustice, whatever you may see, and in your heart, you are stirred up because you can tell what would be the good thing to do in that moment, the Spirit of God is speaking to you, Church. No one does good, not even one without the Spirit of God communicating with your spirit, you would never agree with what is good. As a matter of fact, it's been said many times, in a generation when a generation pulls away from the Holy Spirit, they always turn whatever was good into evil, and whatever was evil becomes good. But not if you walk with the Spirit. You will still be able to identify, "That is wrong. That shouldn't be done." Why do you think the Spirit is letting you know? You are the hands and feet of Christ.
He's giving you direction, but is it allowed to mess up your calendar? Is it allowed to mess up your day? Is it allowed to mess up how people look at you? No one does good, not even one. There's no one who seeks God. The word says, "There is no one who seeks God."
Every single time you notice your Bible, think of it: the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, giving you an invitation. "Hey, I'm trying to bring the Word into your life. Remember that Rock? That Rock is the revealed Word of God. The Holy Spirit is trying to build your house. The Holy Spirit is trying to build the foundation so that when the rain comes, and it will, and when the flood comes, and it will, and when the wind beats down on you, and those times will come, that you come to find out, 'I'm immovable. What has God done? I cannot be moved. My peace is never touched.'"
When the Spirit reminds you of the Bible, read it, Church. I don't care if you read one verse. The Holy Spirit wants you to read more. He'll convict you, but He can use one verse to speak more to you than I ever could speak to you in a lifetime. When the Holy Spirit reminds you that God would like to speak with you, that He would like to hear from you, take your time, make the sacrifice, set yourself apart, get along with the Father, and whisper to Him. You don't have to be loud in prayer if you don't want to be, but talk to Him, take your time, give it to Him because He's trying to build your house for you. He's not giving you some kind of an incredibly difficult assignment in this lifetime to build yourself a solid spiritual home that can withstand some beat downs. He's trying to build your house for you. Let Him build that house. Commit without delay. Exercise those words that He has given you.
When the Spirit of Christ whispers to your heart, turn that off. Don't watch that. That's not good. You know how you know? You want to do it alone. You're kind of worried if the wife walks in right now and sees this scene, I'm going to have some explaining to do. If my mom walks in right now and hears these words come from the TV, she's probably not going to be too happy. The Holy Spirit is reminding you there's a standard, and right now, you're swimming below it. Is the Holy Spirit, no one seeks to do good, not even one? You're discerning what is good. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Let Him speak. Instantly, commit without delay, exercise that word. Trust God's Spirit more than the amount that the flesh wants to be fed. You understand that battle? The flesh is constantly trying to be fed by you so that it is allowed to stay strong and survive, and the Spirit of God has come alive in you to teach you what God is actually saying. The question is, do you trust the flesh more? And you want to feed it? Or do you trust the Spirit more? And even though it's going to be very displeasing to the flesh, I know what God is trying to do. He's going to build such a foundation, He's going to build such a rock in my life that no matter what comes my way, I'm not going to be shaken. My peace will never be gone. I understand what He's doing. I trust Him. I'm going to let the Spirit lead me. This is why Jesus sends His continuous word into our heart. He's seeking to keep you, and He's seeking to keep your house from a great fall.
- Pastor Stan Mons