Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Present Day Ministry of Jesus 3
This eye-opening teaching explores the often-overlooked present-day ministry of Jesus Christ and our role within it. Drawing from rich passages in Hebrews, we discover that Jesus serves as our High Priest—authorized to implement and carry into effect our confession of faith. As Mediator, He stands between God and humanity, making salvation accessible even to those who don't yet know Him. His role as Intercessor means He's constantly praying for believers at the Father's right hand, while as our Advocate, He represents us before God when we stumble.
Let's lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Say this together, say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here in your presence. I can never take for granted the anointing of God, the presence of God. I walk in it daily, I walk in it constantly because of the blood, because you've gone behind the veil and you paid the price, and it's up there in heaven Testifying on my behalf, and that's why I can come boldly to the throne of grace To obtain whatever it is that I need In Jesus' name. Amen, you can be seated, and junior high can be seated, and Junior High can be dismissed. They're going to go out and be taught on their level. Hebrews 8, please. And we're going to continue on a teaching that this is our third week on the present day ministry of Jesus. Hebrews 8 is our foundation.
Speaker 1:Scripture, verse 1. And of course you know that the book of Hebrews, the whole theme of that book, is that Jesus is better, our covenant is better, the covenant that he cut is better, everything is better, so Jesus is better. Chapter 8, verse 1,. Now, of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who has sat on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary or holy things, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man, for every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this man, jesus, have somewhat also to offer. Verse 6,. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry. By how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, established or founded upon better promises, and so it's vital.
Speaker 1:You know we're teaching on the present day ministry of Jesus. We need to have an understanding. You know you can study the Gospels and find out Jesus' life while he was on earth, before the cross, the man of sorrows. Then you can talk about Jesus on the cross. The Catholic church is big on Jesus on the cross. They have crucifixes with Jesus on the cross, easter time, all the Good Friday services as I was an altar boy, raised Catholic, and it was a big, big deal. It was real focused on the suffering, the man of sin, that's when he took his sin on him. He's not there anymore. He's off the cross, he rose from the dead and now he's triumphant. And when he ascended into heaven, and you know, in Acts, chapter 1, we preach these verses on Easter.
Speaker 1:You know, the disciples were looking up to heaven seeing he was received. He was taken up into the heavens and received in a cloud, and that's the mighty cloud of witnesses that he had saved. And they received Him into heaven and the angel appeared to them and said why are you standing here looking up to heaven? You know, the same Jesus is going to come, in like manner as you've seen Him to go into hell. He's coming back, in other words, get to work. And so we celebrate the fact that he's not on a lazy boy, he's not up there on a recliner twiddling His thumbs.
Speaker 1:He's got a ministry and we've talked about this five-fold ministry that he has as a high priest we talked about it in week one one that's authorized to administer, execute, implement and carry into effect our profession or our confession of faith. I mean, we do the believing and speaking and he does the performing. It's good to understand that's part of his high priest ministry. And then, but of course you know he told us we were kings and priests unto God in Revelation. So we have a kind of similar ministry to his in that down here we're priests, we're not the high priest, but we're priests. We're priests. We're not the high priest, but we're priests, and we can enter into the ministry of that same thing, of administering and executing and implementing and carrying into effect what he wants. Done down here we pray to the, our Father. As it is in heaven, so shall it be also on earth. Well, thy will be done. How's it going to be done? Is he going to come back down? No, we're here, we've got a part to play.
Speaker 1:And then we talked about Jesus, the mediator. And the mediator is one who intervenes between two, either in order to make peace and friendship or for ratifying a covenant. And so the mediator, if we can think about it this way, a mediator is very similar to advocate, very similar to intercessor, and really all five of these ministries kind of flow together. They kind of overlap. But the mediator I like to think about the mediator this way the mediator between God and man is between the unsaved and God, because Jesus, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us, for every man, woman and child on the earth that is lost. Christ died for them and he's their mediator. When you study your Bible, you realize that God has been reconciled to the world. See, before Jesus, god was not reconciled to the world. There was not one son on the earth. The Jews were not his sons. The Jews were his servants. They had a covenant with God and they could only approach God over the side of a bleeding sacrifice. Nobody else on earth could approach God. They had no approach. But now, since Jesus died and did away with sin, now even the lost have a mediator. How do you figure that anybody can get saved? Well, they've got a mediator up there Reminding the Father. Well, this is my blood that was shed for that Muslim Shed. For that Hindu Shed. For that heathen Shed. For that gang member Shed for that heathen Shed. For that gang member Shed for that trans.
Speaker 1:Talk about a lie. There's no such thing as transgender. That's a lie. There's no transgender, it's just male or female. There's no trans. See, it's a whole lie.
Speaker 1:It's time the church get up and say that. I mean, it's not going to make people happy to hear it, but they need to hear the truth. Alright, so, and then today we're going to get into again. Why do we preach this? Well, because if we don't preach this, we don't have access to all the benefits. If you don't understand what Jesus is doing for you and in in turn, you're part of his ministry. That's the thing I want to really stress today that that ministry that Jesus is carrying out up there, he expects us to carry that out down here and get with the program. It's not all about just me. Yes, it's important for me to have these things, but it's also important for others that don't know what we know. You know, that's the reason we keep going all over. That's why we're having capital worship in all the capitals. We've got six states so far and we're going to expand and we're going to go to all 50 states. In Jesus' name, it's going to happen. What are we doing? Well, we're doing part of what Jesus is doing up there.
Speaker 1:So if we talked about Abraham as a mediator, he intervened between God and Sodom and Gomorrah and you could see intercession in that too. You could see but mediator, especially because they had no approach to god. And he, so he's in, he's saying okay, well, there could be righteous people there. Don't, don't kill the righteous with the wicked, and that's true. Now, I mean there's judgment going on and people as a result of these judgments. Well, you mean god is mad. No sin requires an answer. It fills a cup and it's just built into His Word. It's not that God is actively killing anybody, it's just that sin causes disorder and disorder is dangerous.
Speaker 1:And so, people, we have these terrible crimes. I mean it's amazing what unsaved people can do anything. They can do the most heinous crimes and we wonder how could that be? Well, they're lost. They don't have what we have. We have a conscience. We might do bad things, but you know our conscience will fight us every step of the way. Our conscience is going to try to get control of the situation.
Speaker 1:All right, so Christ the mediator he loves the sinner, hates the sin. He's made a way for the sinner to approach God. Now, today we're going to talk about Christ the intercessor and advocate. Let's look at Hebrews 7.25. It's right there, on the same page as our scripture, that we read for the foundation, wherefore he is able, talking about Jesus, able also to save them to the uttermost, those that come unto God by Him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. He ever liveth to make intercession for them. So Jesus is praying at the right hand of the Father to save those who come to God by him. See, he's the only way he said I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. There's no access to God through Islam. There's no access to God through Jehovah Witnesses. There's no access to God through Mormonism.
Speaker 1:Mormonism is a cult. Mormonism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, their Jesus is not the Jesus. Their Jesus is an angel. You ever see the big old mosque over here on Champion Forest Drive. What has it got at the top? It's got an angel. It's not Jesus up there. There's not a cross up there. So it's a cult and they're well-meaning.
Speaker 1:I've known a lot of Mormons in my life who did business with Mormon businessmen. They're straight, they don't drink caffeine. They don't drink caffeine, they don't drink alcohol. I mean, you know the outside looks like righteous, but it's a cult. There's no salvation in it. They sound like it. In fact, really, one of the ways they deceive Christians that don't know the Bible is they look a lot like Christians and they have an appeal and uh, and they go out evangelizing in their way and it's you know. They ever have a guy in a white shirt and black pants. Come to your door. I mean they're out there, they, they. They have to earn their way to heaven. That's what they're doing. They're earning their their way to heaven by doing missionary work, and so we ought to do it because we love God. We ought to evangelize because we love God, not because we're trying to earn our salvation.
Speaker 1:Amen, all right, so he is an intercessor. He is able to save them to the uttermost, them that come unto God by Him. That word save is a Greek word, sozo. It doesn't just mean save from hell, it means everything. It means provision, protection, favor, promotion. Everything you need down here is accessible and he is praying for you at the right hand. You don't ever have to feel lonely, you don't ever have to feel. You will feel it, but you don't have to obey that, you don't have to give into that. Why? Because he's praying for you. Thank God, he's praying for us.
Speaker 1:But then again, see, we can enter into that ministry of intercession down here for others. When you grow up enough in God, god will use you to pray for other people. You cease being so careful about your own life and your own needs and you start looking. When you start to grow in God, you start to grow in the things that I'm preaching, you'll get mature enough to where you know that person needs help. I'm going to pray for them. I'm going to intercede for them. I'm going to intercede for them. I'm going to lift up their arms, as it were. I'm going to pray for them. So valuable to be able to pray in the Holy Ghost. Pray in your prayer language for other people. You don't know exactly how to pray for some folks, so what do you do? Pray in the Holy Ghost for them. And so you're entering into that intercession.
Speaker 1:Let's look at Romans 8, present day ministry of Jesus. And we all have a part of it. That's what I wanted to really emphasize today. It's not Jesus working by Himself. We're one with Him. He's the head, we're the body. The head's not doing one thing, the body's something else. I mean, when you go to HEB, you know and you think about going to HEB. Does your head go and your body stay at home? No, you're doing the same thing, right? We're in different places, all right. 834, romans who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather than is risen again. See, let's get Christ off the cross and get him where he is right now.
Speaker 1:Catholics they elected a pope. I don't think they did any better than the last time. But anyway, whatever he's for open borders, he's got a couple of things that recommend him, but a lot of it is just globalism. You better watch out. Better watch out Catholics. If I were you, I'd bail out of that mess.
Speaker 1:I heard Sean Hannity the other day on the radio and I know he was raised Catholic and he just basically said look, I'm non-denominational. Now I finally just realized that I just needed to leave the Catholic Church. I thank God for my background. I'm glad too for my background. I wasn't raised a Muslim, I was raised a Catholic. But I caught to the place where I had to make a departure and I did because the Holy Ghost urged me to leave. I wasn't sure to leave. I thought maybe I was supposed to be a light within the church, but he let me know no, I'm going to use you more in Catholic lives away from the church. I tell you, god has used me with Catholics more than any other denomination. And I don't sound Catholic, do I, because I ain't one.
Speaker 1:But going back to John Paul II, he was still alive. He was a good man. He had some good things about him. I don't know all about him, but I do know he loved Jesus. Lonnie Rex had an audience with him one time, went up to the Sistine Chapel and they had priests playing the guitar playing. This is the day this is playing our songs. You know he was charismatic but I don't know all of his doctrine wasn. He wasn't straight, but he was a good man. And then you know he had been shot and that hurt him his life and it shortened his life. He lived into his 80s but he was a pretty young man, as popes are, when he took over A man from Poland and God spoke to me one day.
Speaker 1:He says this pope is about to die and the next one after him won't last long and the one after him is anti-semitic. And I'm going what in the world am I? Why am I hearing about this? I mean, I don't even know what in the world that. So I started saying it. How many of you remember me saying it? I mean I said it on church on Sunday morning. I said it. I'm trying to influence Catholics.
Speaker 1:I want Catholics to get out of that mess and I mean they know a little bit, but there's so much wrong. There's so much you know idolatry, praying to Mary and all of these dead ends. You need the Word. It's the Catholic Church that held the Word of God captive and wouldn't let the common person read it In the dark age. Ever heard of the dark ages? That's when the Catholic Church was in charge. And so there's a billion Catholics on the earth. That's why God told me about it. There's a billion of them Probably more than that now.
Speaker 1:That was back then and they're growing, and they've had a lot of trouble with all the you know they. 1,200 years they didn't say anything about priests being married. All of a sudden, after 1,200 years, they decided that priests couldn't be married. Well, that was not God. That's not in the Bible. In fact, it's a direct. That's a direct violation of what the Word says. Tells you something. That's why you've got weird priests. That's why it's a depository of pedophiles and LGBTQ. Plus. They've changed the letters now so I can't keep up with the letters. I don't know what all the letters mean. They keep coming up with another group that needs civil rights, you know. So anyway, he told me that, and sure enough so.
Speaker 1:The next guy, gregory, lasted for what? Eight years and he resigned the first Pope to resign and retire while he was alive in 800 years, and this you know. Francis was elected and he was a Marxist. He is for Marxist dictators in Argentina and in Venezuela. Maduro, he was from Maduro. He's a globalist Marxist. See, jesuits have that. If you ever hear the word straight Jesuit here in town, the Jesuits are pretty Marxist. They're Marxists. They're the ones that get on the side of communist guerrillas to overthrow dictatorships in South America and Central America, and they're off, they're wacko. He was wacko and this guy is not much better. Augustinian he's St Augustine order, a friar, a monk, but his, his politics are not pro-American. He's American, born in Chicago, but he's not pro-American. He's not going to be a MAGA, he's going to be a globalist.
Speaker 1:Are y you all with me now? Get your Catholic friends and witness to them, all right, so he's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. All right. And then, 1 John 2, we talked about the intercessor. He's praying. Jesus is praying, we should be praying. 1 John 2, verse 1, my little children, these things write I unto you that you sin, not In fact. Let's just go back to chapter 1, verse 9. Just a few verses up there.
Speaker 1:If we confess our sins he's talking to Christians If we confess our sins. See, I've seen people do altar calls for the lost and tell them come up here and confess your sins. Well, they can't do that. What if they forgot one? They have so many sins they can't possibly confess the sins. That's not how you're saved by confessing your sins. That's how you get right with God. Once you are saved because you don't sin that often and you know it when you do because your conscience gives you trouble. I'm going to give you the word on that. All right.
Speaker 1:So he said, if we confess our sins, he God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. See, I mean, if you justify yourself, oh well, god understands me, he knows how I am it's not really a sin. Well, now you're lying because you know your conscience already told you that you sinned. You missed the mark. Why don't you just admit that you're wrong? Why don't you admit? And that's what it means. Confess means admit that you're wrong, admit that you've sinned. I mean, it's not that hard. Oh God, I missed it. I've sinned. Please forgive me. Thank you, lord. I believe I've received my forgiveness and cleansing right now. And then you forget it.
Speaker 1:And then chapter 2, verse 1, my little children. These things write I unto you that you sin not See, I'm not encouraging you to sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, jesus Christ, the righteous, and he, jesus, is the propitiation or mercy seat. He's the mercy seat for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So he's our advocate, he's our attorney, he represents us.
Speaker 1:What would you do if you went to court? You'd been arrested for some terrible thing. I mean, I mean we, we've seen the weaponization of our government against Christians. I mean they, they've arrested little grandmas just because they're standing outside of an abortion clinic praying. They're not doing anything, they're not blocking the entrance, they're not screaming, they're praying and been arrested. And they threw, they thrown them in jail the January 6th. That was a horrendous miscarriage of justice. They, they absolutely targeted those people and made them, you know, plea bargain to a lesser degree and then and held them in solitary confinement. I mean it was horrible. What would happen on January 6th? The people that need to go to jail are Pelosi and all the people that had that kangaroo court. They're the ones that belong in prison. I'm glad we're pardoning all of those people.
Speaker 1:So everybody say advocate, see, we have an attorney. Jesus is our attorney. I mean, what would it be like to stand before the judge and it's just you and the judge and the prosecuting attorney. And the prosecuting attorney is reading all of the indictment, reading all the things that you're accused of and you're really not guilty, but he's accusing you. It's sounding pretty bad. If you didn't have an attorney, I mean you'd be down the tubes, wouldn't you? But we've got an attorney right there and he's able to point to the blood even when we are guilty. Are y'all with me now? So why does he have to do that?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, when we first get saved, and even later, we do things and say things that strain our fellowship with God. I mean, you know, I remember what it was like when I first got saved. I still drink drinking beer. I told you she was going to say amen at all my sins. She joins in when I start talking about my sins. But I hadn't heard yet. I mean, I didn't see anything wrong. I knew it was wrong to get drunk, you know. But remember I was drinking my beer that I had made. That's 14.2% alcohol. One of my beers is worth two and a half of regular beers and worth five Bud Lights or Coors Light. Light is real light. If Coors is light, mine is heavy. Of course is light, mine is heavy, heavy, double heavy.
Speaker 1:And so you know, you do things that strain your fellowship with God. You do it in ignorance. You need an intercessor, you need an advocate, and he's going to cover you until you know better. And that's why we've got to be careful treating our baby Christians like they need to be grown up. You know they need to grow a little bit. Give them a little grace. Okay, don't expect them to. You know, be so holy that every little thing falls off of them immediately. It takes time for stuff to come off.
Speaker 1:Are you with me now? We live in a world dominated by satans and demons. We live in a body of flesh. The Bible says in your flesh dwelleth. No good thing. I mean. I'm sorry, but Jesus died for your sins and he recreated your spirit. You've got a brand new spirit, made in the image and likeness of God. But where does it live? It lives in a body of flesh that doesn't want to do right. It wants to do the same things it always did. My flesh still wanted to drink that beer. My flesh still wanted its way. I made some changes, oh, no question about it. I made some big changes, but there were things in my life that had to. Finally, I had to grow enough to where I put those off, and I did put them off Eventually.
Speaker 1:I mean, the Lord just got a hold of me about drinking and says you don't need to be drinking any alcohol at all. You're almost an alcoholic. Besides that, it spoils your witness. I had gone to lunch with some of my friends, two of which were alcoholics. I sat at Strock's Barbecue on Louetta and I had a big old plate full of barbecue and I was of the opinion that you couldn't have barbecue without beer. I mean you couldn't do it. I mean there's just no way. You've got to have that Mexican food beer. You have to have that. There's no way. Iced tea is not going to work Long neck beer. And so I had two or three beards while I'm talking to them about Jesus and they're kind of looking at me like you're nuts. You look just like you did before. They didn't know, they couldn't tell any difference. And after that the Lord just replayed that scene for me and says you know you're ruining your witness. You didn't. You didn't do any good at all at lunch. They're looking at you like you're the same as you always were. You need to lay that aside, and I did.
Speaker 1:I dumped it all out. I emptied my bar. We had a wet bar in the den. I took all the whiskey and all the scotch and all the tequila and the rum and the bourbon and whatever else I had, creamed them in. I don't know what I had. I had a lot of crazy stuff, dumped it all down the drain, killed every bug in my plumbing. We need an intercessor, we need an advocate.
Speaker 1:Look at Hebrews, chapter 2. Are you getting anything out of this? See, this is I'm preaching this because you need to know what he's doing and it kind of gives you a hint about what you should be doing, because we're His representatives down here. Yeah, he's doing it up there, but we're a little closer to the situation so we can be part of what he's doing, one with Him. You see Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 17,.
Speaker 1:Wherefore, in all things, it behooved Him, that is, jesus, to be made like unto His brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able also to succor or to comfort them that are tempted. He allowed himself to be tempted. He laid aside his deity, he lived as a man anointed of God and he lived subject to temptation. That means that it was not automatic that he was sinless. He had to exercise his own authority and control as a human being not to sin. He had to choose it. It didn't come with the territory, it didn't come. Oh, he's just Jesus. He's sinless because he's no. No, he was a man anointed of God and he resisted temptation, and he did that successfully, to give us an example. And so he knows how we're tempted because he was tempted. And then now he can intercede for us and he can advocate for us.
Speaker 1:Look at Hebrews 9, 24. See, I told you I'm going to make the case for you, because it's all in the Bible and we need to get the Bible in us, for Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the truth, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. See, on our behalf, he's there on our behalf. See, he's praying for us, he's representing us as our attorney, he's intercessor, he's advocate, he's high priest, all at the same time. Mediator for the. I like to say that he's mediator for the lost and he's all those other things for us. Even the lost have access to God through Christ, the mediator. So then now let's go back to 1 John.
Speaker 1:What happens when a believer sins? I want to clear up some. I say this on a regular basis, usually around communion time, but I've heard so many people talk wrong, say wrong things and have human reasoning and religion and all that. About the sin issue, with Christians sinning. Yes, certainly Christians sin. It's not automatic that they sin, but they do sin and there's a remedy. I mean, that's why Jesus died on the cross, so we could have a remedy for that. 1 John 3, verse 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him, or persuade our hearts before him. Hearts means what? Spirit? When you see the word hearts, it's talking about your spirit. It's really talking about you. You are a spirit. You're not your body, you're not your mind. You are a spirit. That's helped me so much. It'll help you, and if you don't keep that in mind, you'll get a hopelessly under condemnation.
Speaker 1:I see Christians that are unskillful in the word of righteousness. They're more conscious of sin. When they do sin, they're so ashamed they run from God, they close themselves off. Many times they incorrectly think they're not saved or they wouldn't have done such a thing, when the opposite is true, because if they weren't saved, if they were lost, they wouldn't have a guilty conscience. The fact that you're guilty means that you're saved. Hello, don't run from God, run to Him.
Speaker 1:Hereby we know that we're of the truth and shall assure or persuade our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemn us, god is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. How does he know? Because Jesus was just like us and he was tempted in all points, like as we are. He knows exactly what we're going through. He knows exactly you know, and he conquered it. Maybe you didn't conquer it, maybe you gave into the temptation and sin, but he still loves you and he's been praying for you and he's advocating for you. Who is he that condemneth, it's your heart, beloved. If our heart condemn us not, then when we have confidence before God.
Speaker 1:So then, what is it when you sin? It's not the Holy Ghost. Well, I've been convicted. The Holy Ghost convicted. I've heard Christians say this forever and it's wrong. Oh, the Holy Ghost convicted me. Oh, I felt such conviction. Well, no, you didn't. That's not the Holy Ghost convicting you of anything. He's not in you to convict you of sin. He's in there to help you, he's the way out. He's not the convictor, he convicts the world of sin. So that in this congregation, boy, you know, the presence of God is dripping off the walls. In here, I mean, in our Founders Banquet the other night, it was dripping off the walls and people couldn't understand what they were feeling. Well, it was the anointing. And in that presence and in that atmosphere, the Holy Ghost can make a sinner realize he's a sinner. And then that that's when they can get saved, when the Holy Ghost convicts them of their sin. Now they can get saved, and then he convicts the world of righteousness. When they get right with God, then they, the Holy Ghost, lets them know Abba, father, it's the Holy Ghost that does that, not man, it's supernatural.
Speaker 1:But for the believer now, when you sin, it's your own spirit that condemns you or your conscience. You get a stabbing, you get a pang, and you need to listen to that because that tells you that you've done something wrong. Find out what it is. If you don't know what it is, you probably know. But if you don't know, then stop it now and say, uh-oh, something's wrong. What did I do? Are you with me now? No, we don't run from God. We run to Him because he's representing us, he loves us and he's not the one that condemns us. It's our own spirit that doesn't agree with the decision you made to give in to your flesh. See, because when your carnal mind that's not renewed to God's Word and you're not thinking like God thinks and who does when they're first saved? Nobody does At first you've got to wait.
Speaker 1:It takes a while to reprogram this up here and it's easy, when a believer is first saved, to fall back into what they came out of. You're not going to get condemned around here just because you fell off the wagon. You're not going to get condemned around here. We're not going to condemn you. We're going to work with you until we can get you strong enough. What's the answer? Get your spirit strong enough, get your mind renewed to the Word of God so that your spirit and mind agree and you can rule over your flesh. Now, now, when your mind and your spirit agree, then you can rule, you can say no to your flesh, no flesh.
Speaker 1:You're not going to have that daiquiri, you're not going to have it. Remember the last time you had a daiquiri you got drunk or whatever. You're not going to smoke that weed. You don't need weed, you need the Holy Ghost. Be not drunk with wine, where is an excess, but be being filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen. I'm still a drunkard. I just changed the medium. I'm, you know. So in 1 John 1, 9,.
Speaker 1:Then all we have to do is admit to God we've done wrong. We're obeying our conscience. Paul said one time he said I always want to walk with my heart, tender conscience toward God and toward man. He was always careful and he didn't want to take advantage of the position he held as an apostle and he had started many churches and birthed many churches and had to write some hard letters and had to correct people in some of the things that they were doing. But he said I always want to be right with God in my dealing, because I will have to answer to God one day. That's the way I am. I do my very best to teach you the whole counsel of the Word of God and if I have to say hard things, well, I've had to say them and it's not easy for me to say it, but I must. That's why everybody needs a pastor. You can't make it out there without a church and a pastor.
Speaker 1:Are you getting anything out of this? So once you confess that sin, you know Jesus has been praying for you. No telling who else has been praying for you. You know mothers I mean mothers. This is Mother's Day and I just want to remind you. Nobody's got more. I've told many mothers this. Nobody's got more influence over your kids than you do. You pray moms. I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:God hears those prayers, especially when you base them on the Word. And I think about moms. You know, even in the world I see these criminals. You know they're standing in front of the judge They've done some horrible thing, and usually who's in their corner? Front of the judge. They've done some horrible thing and usually who's in their corner? Mom? Mom's up there standing right next to them. You know it's just built in, isn't it? It's built in Well.
Speaker 1:And when you're a saved now, when you're saved now you know you can pray for your children. Even when they're not serving God, even when they've never really been saved, you can pray with great assurance. You can know that God is hearing. You can know you can really. You can quit praying and start thanking God for their salvation. You get to the place where you don't even pray about it anymore, you just thank God. They're saved. Ha ha ha. Glory to God. You can come easier, you can come hard, but you come in. Oh, thank God for mamas, mamas and their prayers. So one more verse here. Hebrews, chapter 4.
Speaker 1:Everybody say I'm entering in to my part of the present day ministry of Christ. See, I mean, he's not by himself, he's got the whole church that he can assign certain things to and he will assign you folks to look after. I use this example. You know I was watching back in the first building. We had, you know, lots of different families and we had this one family. They had a brand new baby and the oldest sister was about 10 years old, just like a stick you know about, just straight as a little stick and she's got her hip cocked out there and she's got that baby and she's holding that baby right here walking around the church for that baby. And I just laugh and I said, you know, it doesn't take a grownup to carry a baby. You know, sometimes you can get enough of the word of God in you that you can carry a brand new baby Christian on your, on your hip, so to speak. You can carry them around, you can pray for them, you can be their advocate, you can speak little good, encouraging things to them. I just remember back when I had milk all over my mouth and I had men that would come to me and tell me the truth, and it made all the difference in the world to have somebody that can tell me when I wasn't quite right.
Speaker 1:Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 14. 4, verse 14,. Seeing then we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, jesus, son of God. Let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, to find a grace to help in time of need. Glory to God. I mean, that's the scripture.
Speaker 1:No, let's huddle in our bedroom, let's close the door. Let's not go to church. I don't want anybody to see me. I'm doing penance, I'm fasting and praying, trying to get this sin off. No, you just confess it and get it done. It's gone, his blood is enough. And I've had to say his blood is enough. I've had to say it yeah, thank God. I mean, the devil tried to condemn you for a mistake you made. You're a pastor here. You are a pastor. You did that. I can't believe. You know I don't listen to that. I said well, his blood is enough. Praise God. I don't deny I did that, but it's under the sin. He doesn't remember it. I'm not going to remember it either. You might as well forget it because I'm not going to listen to you. So let's come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and let's help others do the same.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, when you see somebody struggling and many times people do struggle they have issues in their life. We live in a very complex society. There's lots of blended families. You've got all kind of family issues where you've got half brothers and sisters, and you've got this and you've got that. It's complicated anymore, and holiday time comes around like Mother's Day, and well, there's a stepmother and not a mother, and then it's this and it's that and it's. You know, there's places where families can get into strife and division.
Speaker 1:Listen, you just got to know that you have an intercessor. He's been tempted in all points, like as you are, yet without sin. He's been tempted to walk in vindication. He's been tempted to walk in unforgiveness. He's been tempted to walk in all the things that you're tempted to do. And if you do succumb to it, all you've got to do is obey your conscience and know you did it, confess it and come boldly to the throne of grace and then act like nothing ever happened. Well, it did happen. No, it didn't. It's gone, it's erased.
Speaker 1:See, because God has this way of forgiving and forgetting. He forgets. Now, we're not that way. I've heard people say now you know, if you still remember it, you haven't forgiven. Well, I'm not God, I have brain. My brain remembers just about everything.
Speaker 1:Okay, I can't help it that I remember the sin I can't remember. I can't help it that I remember the sin I can't remember. I mean, I remember the wrong that was done to me. I remember it, but I have put it under the blood. I release forgiveness. If I think about it, I'll remind the devil. Well, I've already forgiven that person. I don't need to think about that issue. See, don't let the devil lie to you and keep you under bondage. Come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find the grace to help in time of need. Praise God Present day. Minister of Jesus, come on, let's lift our hands. Father, we thank you for that wonderful Word of God. We thank you that it's keeping us free, it's keeping us cleansed and washed. We've been washed by the washing of water, by the word. Thank you, lord. We're so grateful for it in Jesus.