In Genesis 11, the people of Earth came together as one in an attempt to remove God from His place of authority and set themselves on His throne. Today, humankind is repeating this sad history in its attempt to globalize.

Let’s stand together right now as we continue on in our series.
It’s time you quit as we go through the book of Romans aid. It’s time you quit.
We’re talking about if you haven’t been here, we’re talking about leaving off, getting away from, quitting any religious approach to God works based legalism, approaching God.
You will not have it. You will not have none of it.
God is a person. He’s a personality.
He requires such a view to be the person that you are. Listen.
Jesus Christ died for your sins didn’t die for your personality.
In our insecurity, we always wanna be somebody else.
And I think that’s an insult to god. I really do. You don’t need to
be somebody else. God made you who you are. Here’s the deal.
What are you gonna do with who you are?
Are you gonna give yourself to god? Are you gonna fully surrender to him?
Are you gonna understand that quitting your own pursuits and giving them to god and living for him is the exact answer for your life.
It’s that very thing for which you were created. He died for our sins.
But he wants to take the very person of who you are, and his holy spirit wants to indwell you
which AI could never do
and use you both to his glory and to your pleasure. We know this.
As we read this together, that god is speaking.
I’ll pick up in verse 12 as you guys know, pick it up in verse 13, the odd numbers.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors. We are in debt, not to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh,
For as many as are led by the spirit of god, these are sons of god.
The spirit that is the Holy Spirit himself bears witness with ours, spirit that
we are children of god. Father, we pray that you had continued to teach us out of this word.
It’s deep theology, just the structure alone.
Remarkable word usage by the apostle, ultimately, of course, by the Holy Spirit, god, give us an understanding, give us an ability to learn this, and then lord, most importantly, after we’ve learned it to do it.
So god, please inhabit this worship we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated at church.
Romans chapter 8, the magna Carta of New Testament theology, and it is deep.
The Apostle Paul often when he was speaking, especially to non believing crowds like he did at caesarea.
where when he’s speaking bible doctrine, there are those who get it, and there are those who do not get it.
And that’s something to always keep in mind when you may be visiting today or maybe you stepped into this place for the first time.
Maybe you’re searching just know this.
You can’t have church without having true biblical doctrine be the governing power of what is church.
The church is built on doctrine.
And because it is, the church is the ground and pillar the bible says of all truth.
Isn’t that a tremendous statement? Paul told that to Timothy.
The church is the ground and the pillar of all truth. It’s not that the church is right.
It’s that if the church is rooted on biblical doctrine, the church will be right.
This is a great lesson for all of us. You don’t need to worry about what’s trending.
You don’t need to be worried about what’s happening or what somebody’s thinking.
If you know as a believer that what you’re standing on is biblical truth, you will not only be effective.
Listen. You’ll also be prophetic. Because god knows as he leads you that if you’re rooted and grounded in bible doctrine, then you’re you are always gonna be relevant.
You won’t have to change.
How many times have you seen ministers of the gospel where they constantly have to update or change their their narrative because they’ve gone with emotion or they’ve gone with trends.
How many pastors did we see during the BLM movement? The Black Lives Matter movement?
Make a big mistake with that one.
be it COVID, be it politics, be it church dynamics, be it whatever it might be.
When you are licking your finger and testing the wind to see what direction the church ought to go, you’re at sea without a rudder.
But if you understand the Bible, which never changes, the world around us appears to be changing.
Just know this. It appears to be changing. Solomon said there’s nothing new under the sun.
When we are anchored to the word of god, the storm of hurricane might be around us, but we will be as a pillar.
Why? It’s not us. It’s the ground we’re standing on. and that ground is bible doctrine.
That’s why in verses 12 to 14, we saw regarding its time you quit to just do something or don’t just do something.
We need to stop acting and actually stand still and see the work of god.
We can get so busy in religion that we saw 3 things that the counter to being religious, which is checking in and checking out, of the service.
I’ve done my time. Here’s my bible scorecard. I went to church these many weeks out of the year.
No, stop that. What we wanna do is know this, and we learned it already, and that is in verses 12 to 13, that we are actually in God’s debt.
we are no longer in debt to the things of this world, which led to us standing in his life.
Because we are now indebted to god, We stand and live in his life.
And then thirdly, we saw last time it is this, and that is we stand in his family.
that we are in the family of god. And that’s where we left off in that argument.
Look at verse 14. For as many, as are led by the spirit of god, these are the sons of god.
And I mentioned to you just in the closing last time that as many It means those who are as many as are led by the spirit of god, meaning you, if that’s your desire that god lead your life.
Now look, everybody this place is packed out right now. God bless you for coming to church so early.
That’s wonderful. But let me ask you. Don’t don’t respond.
Do you crave do you long to have your life be led by the spirit of god as being a child of god?
Meaning this.
And I’m trying to control myself right now.
I mean it because I’m I’m I’m asked this question every week.
People come
to me and they say, Pastor Jack, and I get it. I get it.
And every church in California, here’s the same thing. Pestra Jack, we’re moving. We can’t take it.
Gavin Newsom’s a tyrant. We’re moving.
And then the next question they ask me is, we’re moving to Tim Book 2 or something.
do you know a good church? Yeah. Listen. Listen.
What are you moving for if you haven’t found a church yet? Yeah.
Oh, the money’s better. The government’s better.
I don’t care if there’s a pot of gold at the end of that perceived rainbow.
If there’s no unified work of the spirit speaking to that husband and the wife together?
How can the Bible says the name is 33? How can 2 walk together and listen to agreement?
Listen, you can move to paradise If god didn’t tell you to go there, you’re in trouble.
I’m here to tell you, listen.
I would rather be right in the middle of the will of god with bullets flying and noosem on the throne than to be out of the will of god.
Listen. Are you being led by the spirit of god?
Those who are the children of god are led by the spirit of god.
the spirit of god desires to lead us, and a family asked me last week. They they listen.
When people make the declaration, I never I never touch it.
When they say, we’re moving, where should we go? I say,
I have no answer for you. Look. I may be ugly, but I’m not dumb.
You don’t ever step into that one.
You don’t wanna know why? Because if they go away and it doesn’t go well, then I’m to blame.
And I’m not gonna do that. No. Listen.
If God is leading him, you pick sir, you pick up the Bible by yourself, study the Bible, read, read, read, read, ask God to speak to you.
Listen, wife, you pick up the bible. You read, read, read, ask God to speak to you.
And when both of you come together and say, I think the lord has been saying this to me.
Listen, if you’re in agreement, second thing is find out where there’s
a bible teaching church in that country or in that state that you’re going to.
don’t get ahead of god. When you’re led by the spirit of god, you will not
get ahead of him. Yeah.
And the human nature is prone to get ahead of god.
We’re in a family, and god is at work.
The bible here there here in verse 14 says, that we are led.
Look at that word led. It’s an amazing word,
and I’ll put it on the screen
for you to bring along. I like that. To bring along to carry along. I like that picture.
The Holy Spirit wants to bring you along, carry you along.
The word means to travel with or alongside another I really like that.
By the way, has anyone ever read or seen the manifestations through cartoons or whatever of Pilgrim’s progress?
It’s beautiful because Pilgrim’s progress written by John Bunyan is really all about this being led by god.
comes alongside you. Firstly, to be in session the word means.
Secondly, to be in class or as a learner or a third an apprentice, forth, we have the word disciple.
God, the Holy Spirit wants to lead you in life. It’s not a mystery.
So Jack, it’s so hard for me.
Listen. It’s hard for us when we’re not in the word listening for him to speak, then yes, it is hard for us.
And by the way, with all due respect, he loves you so much.
He’ll let it be hard for you.
He won’t make it hard. You and I make it hard.
He just says you wanna drive down that road?
Yeah. Yeah. I do.
He said he says, well, you just go ahead.
I’m gonna wait right here. And then when you come back
and your teeth are all knocked out and
you got a bruised forehead, and it’s been a rough day.
He says, now are are you ready to quit now?
And go on the the path that I’m showing you. Yes, sir.
He wants to lead you because we’re in a family.
And by the way, it’s a continuous leading.
I take pleasure in this, The very theology is that the Holy Spirit wants to lead you forever — Yes.
— every day. that none of us get up and go and live the day alone on our own without help.
Oh, he’s there. And Matthew chapter 28 verse 10, the bible says, Jesus said, do not be afraid.
Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me.
I love that passage because Jesus is resurrected from the dead. People are freaking out not knowing what to do.
And Jesus says, I’m going ahead to Galilee. Tell everybody.
I’ll meet them there. 80 get on your donkey. Go eighty eight miles north out of Jerusalem.
Let’s blow this town. I’ll meet you in the country.
I love it. He’s leading them. Psalm 23 verse 2. 23rd Psalm verse 2.
He makes me to lie down and green pastures. Watch. He leads me besides still waters. He leads.
Know today, church that god wants to lead you personally in your life.
This should be a game changer for some of us.
If god wants to lead us and if I just take the time to listen, then I don’t need to go through all of the bumps and bruises of life that I could experience if I do it on my own.
This is true. Listen, we’re all sinners. None of us are perfect, but I can tell you this.
When you wait upon
the lord, he will lead you. We need
to learn to wait. Sometimes it drives you nuts, sometimes it drives me nuts.
But when we when we wait upon god until he answers, It may take some time. Maybe not.
Could be an hour, could be a year, could be longer.
You say, Jack don’t talk like that. The outcome is confidence and peace.
He’s in it.
Have you ever been called to something by god and it’s very difficult?
God called you to maybe be at that job or to be at that thing or be involved in that ministry, and it’s hard.
Somebody told me just before service today, I
never knew that signing up for ministry would be so much filled with spiritual warfare.
Now you say, Jack, I can hear all the ministry leaders saying, don’t say that.
We need help more we need more help, Nong, to be honest with you.
I I think you can take it. We’re not playing games here. The bible’s real. God is real. Christ died.
Christ rose again from the dead. He’s seated at the right hand of the father.
he’s real. And because he’s real, the enemy’s real. Yes. And there’s a war.
And if you wanna pretend to be a Christian, That’s on you.
But if you want to be a Christian, just know this.
The enemy is gonna oppose you and what a blessing battle that is.
It brings me great confidence to be opposed by the enemy.
Enemy doctrine enemy views, enemy positions
that are in a front to god. It’s not personal. Remember that.
We talked about that a few weeks ago.
It’s not personal? When somebody’s going after god, you should get caught in the middle. Amen.
That’s that’s my calling in life. when somebody attacks god, I
should get caught in the middle
of that. If somebody shoots god, then I should have that wound on me.
That’s part of the ministry.
Oh, but it’s part of the glory.
There’s a day coming when god will make it alright. in Psalm 23 verse 4.
Yay, though I walk. Remember, you’re not alone.
Through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear, no evil
for you are with me. Is that listen, is that true, really?
If that’s absolutely true, then why is
our nation gripped with fear? The answer is they don’t know god.
This reality will will result in a passionate willingness, I believe, for you and
I to yield to the authority of god Yes, lord. You lead. Here. Take the wheel. You lead.
You drive. And being led by the spirit, let me tell you what it doesn’t mean.
Let me tell you what Being led by the spirit does not mean.
I wrote some things down for myself because a lot of people use terminology as a cloak to get their own way.
Things like this. This is what it doesn’t mean.
Are you with me, everybody? Yes. It doesn’t mean this. I prayed about it, and
I believe that this is what the lord is saying to me. Okay. You’ve prayed about it.
And you believe this is what the lord is saying to you,
so watch this. That sounds great.
Where’s the scripture that back that up as a believer, I walk in scripture.
You ought to be able to come to me and say, why are you doing this Pastor Jack?
And I ought to be able to turn to chapter verse and say, right here.
You know, I just believe that god wants me happy.
You know there’s books on this right now. There’s big christian books for sale right now on this issue.
I just believe God wants me happy. Why don’t you read that?
How about this? God wants you joyful. Yeah.
That’s a separate difference.
Because if god wants you happy,
I got news for you. Newsflash is when bad stuff happen, you’re gonna think god abandoned you.
We’re not on listen, we’re not happy all the time, but you can have joy all the time.
Yeah.
So be careful. when the spirit’s leading, it’s not that he’s gonna speak to you something that is you’ve already predetermined, and he’s not gonna speak to you something that is contrary to Scripture.
Never. He can’t do it. He can’t lie against his own word because he can’t lie.
He’s the Holy
Spirit. But
I wanna point out what being led by this spirit does look like.
This is fun stuff. You’re gonna wanna write this
down. Psalm 33 verse 6. I’m
gonna give you a bunch
of stuff here. Psalm 33 verse 6 says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made.
Sales strong, the bible is that makes the bible of the authority, the word of god.
And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth, the starry sky.
He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap He lays up the deep in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. I love that.
Verse 9, for he spoke and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.
That means he spoke creation out of nothing, and there it was. It stood fast.
When I hear when I hear that, it stood fast. I see Jupiter hanging out there on nothing.
You know, there’s some religions. I won’t mention their names right now. They’re very popular.
They believe right now that the earth is going through the universe on the back of a gigantic turtle.
Look it up. No no no turtle.
The bible says,
by the way, listen. The bible says he has suspended The sphere, the circle of the world, he has hung in space upon nothing.
that sphere, not disc, not flat listen, flatties. No. Round.
It’s round. Chris Columbus figured that one out a long time ago.
We shouldn’t shouldn’t worry about that.
It’s round, and god says, by my word, it hangs
in space. Nothing holds it up. Is that awesome? I love that.
Psalm 1, verse 1.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, so stop listening to dumb friends who don’t know god.
nor stands in the path of sinners. Stay away from people that
are gonna ruin your life. North sits in the seat of the scornful, bitter, ugly people.
Don’t have anything to do them.
Just move on. But as the light is in the law of the lord, and in his law, he meditates day and night, He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in its season whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
This is God’s will for your life. Put him first. He wants to lead you.
It’s part of him being our head as it were of the family.
2nd Peter, chapter 1 verse 19. 2nd Peter 119 begins, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed.
which you do well to take heed do as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy that is utterance of scripture is of any private interpretation, you can’t make things up.
Well, the bible says this and I think and I believe it means this. No. No.
The bible says what it says and it backs itself up. Why? That’s how God leads us.
the bible, the bible, the word of god.
The more you read it, the more guidance you have, the more leading you’ll hear.
Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again.
Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.
Surely, we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and place in our faith.
And, god, these are
these are fundamental basics we move on from.
We already know all this. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, an eternal judgment.
And so god willing, we will move forward to further understanding.
God wants to lead you, watch everybody, where you’re at today, where I’m at today.
God wants to lead us into a deeper walk. Yeah. Now I’m
gonna say this and I’m talking to people who have been I’m just if you’ve been christian for a Christian for 30 years or more, Oh, I wanna speak this to you because I I’m with you on this one.
In some ways, our walk with Jesus get easier as
the years go on in other ways, it gets harder.
It gets harder because we can become complacent assuming that this
is what he’s going to do.
And I’ve often said we wanna be very careful that we don’t get old as a Christian, but as we spend more time with Christ, we become more childlike in our faith and relationship with him.
All for this reason The goal for the season saint is to keep that relationship fresh Look, you know
it’s true. How many of you been married for over 40 years? Raise your hands. Wow.
Listen. To keep your marriage, listen,
It’s a it’s listen. It’s it’s awesome to get your marriage to that point, and it’s more awesomer.
to continue on from that point because, listen, you gotta you gotta think about it.
You gotta you gotta keep it sparky.
You gotta keep it men, the less you wanna do is say, oh, good morning.
Hey. Good morning.
How many years? I don’t know. You got me. I don’t know. No. No.
You don’t wanna do that. Listen. Everybody, especially single people. Listen up.
You wanna be married to the person that god wants you to be married to so that when you’ve been married 40 plus years, that it gets better because you’ll work at it.
Yeah. have to think of new ways of like, hey. How do we keep this fresh?
Let’s do something crazy. Lisa and I did something crazy.
We put on our robes, and we drove to jack in the box and got those talk those tacos that only god knows what’s inside of them.
Let’s let’s be honest.
I have I just I take it. Don’t ask. Don’t tell. just eat it.
And so now in our minds, it’s that do
you remember we drove through Jack in the box in our robes? Don’t tell anybody that.
And don’t tell Lisa that. She’s not here right now. She’ll come to second service.
So when the Holy Spirit is not leading, we have a tendency to lean on other people’s experiences.
when the Holy Spirit is not leading, we tend to try to mimic somebody that we might be impressed by.
When the Holy Spirit is not leading, we will seem to fumble from one mistake to the next.
But when the Holy Spirit is leading, We will walk in that path.
God will prosper the way in which we are going. Because why?
Matthew 633 says seek first the kingdom of god. and all
these other things shall be added to you. It’s beautiful.
Psalm 32 verse 8. I told you
I was gonna give you a lot of scriptures on this point.
This is very, very important, especially if you have young people in your life.
Psalm 32 verse 8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go.
I love that. I will guide you with my eye.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridal, else they will not come near.
God says, what a great verse? That’s so amazing. I wanna lead you with my eye.
God says, come on. Let’s go with my eye. I’m leading you.
Versus dragging a donkey along. Why should we yield 2nd Timothy
3 verse 16? All scripture is given by inspiration of god. Now that’s a huge statement.
People will say, that’s a you know what, pastor? You’re not helping.
You’re just you’re making a bible claim to back up a bible claim. Oh, no. You’ve misread something, my friend.
the bible makes a claim, and then because it does make the claim, the burden on is on you to disprove it.
For example, the bible says, in the beginning, God created. The evidence is overwhelming.
If you don’t like that, then disprove it.
God says, all scripture is given by inspiration of god.
All of the bible’s been breathed out by the Holy Spirit. We don’t believe that.
If you don’t believe it, prove it wrong.
Because there is what is known as the consistency or the expositional consistency, the integrity of
the bible.
And it is profitable for doctrine, for reproved, for correction, and instruction and righteousness.
Well, that’s a beautiful statement. Nobody can deny that the bible teaches you how you ought to live.
By the way, can I say this sarcastically? That’s what’s wrong with the bible.
People don’t want it to tell them
how to live. I wanna do what I wanna do. So keep your bible to yourself.
They don’t want any manifestation of Christians the bible
or the 10 commandments anywhere. Why?
Because it makes them feel bad. Why? Because they’re on their own course.
And they know
that they’re not walking in his righteousness.
Verse 17, that the man of god may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work.
That’s what happens when he leads us. So we wanna ask ourselves, are we being led by the Holy Spirit?
listen to this powerful verse, Psalm 107 verse 19.
Then they cried out to the lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of all their distresses.
He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.
oh, that men would give thanks to the lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.
Is god your father? Is god your family head and your household?
I sure hope so. Regarding spiritual development, by
the way, it’s certainly the greatest exercise that we can possibly experience
as Christians Everything I’m encouraging to do in the reading of these verses is to exercise your heart and your brain and your mind.
to do god’s will. You gotta flex it and all this stuff?
First Timothy chapter 4 verse 7.
First Timothy 47 says, do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wise fables.
Oh, isn’t that great? Instead, train yourself to be godly.
This is hard work. I’m telling you. You wanna work out? I wanna work out, man. Okay.
That’s great. Go ahead and work out. But do you want it really work out? Like, yeah.
We have in mind. discipline your life in spiritual development.
I’ll submit to you. It’s very, very hard. Look,
40
years ago, I used to work out. Wait. That’s not true.
I’ve been married 43, 44 you
43, 40
oh, no. I’ve been married 44, 43 years, and doesn’t mat the moment I met Lisa, I stopped going to the gym.
I I’m just honest. Why? Because because I didn’t wanna waste my time.
She probably wished I would have gone to the gym, but I didn’t. I wanted to be
with her when I had the time.
And that was a long time ago.
I can tell you, yeah, get in up at 4 o’clock in the morning and go onto the gym and working out.
And and you’re not too motivated unless you have a partner, then you know they’re gonna be there.
So now you gotta be there. And then once you get there, people are working out, and Pride kicks in.
Pride says, hey. That guy’s arms are better than yours.
You need to work on that. So you’re you’re working on your biceps or that guy, hey.
That guy can bench press more than you. So now
you start bench pressing. It’s all like, it’s all carnal. I get it. But the bible says, you know what?
Physical exercise profits a little bit. The bible says, don’t it doesn’t say don’t do it.
It just says, notice,
you’re gonna pull a muscle?
It didn’t say pull a
muscle, but it says, it profits for a little bit.
But there’s a spiritual exercise that profits forever. And that’s what
I’m supposed to be reading to you right now.
Train yourself to be godly, verse 8.
Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better.
Promising benefits in this life and then the life to come.
Isn’t that awesome? Like, imagine
how many buff people there are in
hell because they forgot to do the latter part.
hell could be filled with a bunch of people that are all buffed out.
But they’d never got into the spiritual matter of things. That’s not a problem getting buffed out.
but get buffed out first in the spirit. Yes.
Know your bible, no doctrine, know why you have a life. What are you doing with it? And then listen.
If you have the time, don’t do a sit up or
2.
He says that this is a promise with benefits in this life and in
the life to come. Verse 9, this is a worthy saying, and Everyone should accept it.
What a great statement that is.
But it’s all about us being led by the spirit of god. The bible says these are
the sons of god.
Are you led by the Holy Spirit? That’s what you wanna ask yourself.
And by the way, look at
the word sons. This is sons regarding us, not sons like god. God has one son.
That’s Jesus Christ. when we are his children, there’s an affectionate term here as you’re gonna discover where we are called sons.
Now in this day
and age of of people being offended over everything.
The word you know, that you know what the word man like We created we created these health things to to help man.
This do people know today what that means? Do you know it has nothing to do with men?
It has to do with with man
Man means mankind or humankind. Okay?
When the word says sons, someone’s gonna say, It should have said daughters. Where’s daughters?
Don’t worry about it. It means male, female us who believe. — Amen.
—
by the way, in Christ Jesus, there’s no rich or poor.
Slaver free, male or female, we’re all 1 in Christ
— Amen. —
which is cool. Anyway, it means
a descendant as a son by birth or by adoption.
We’re gonna learn this in a moment about adoption, to possess our own sonship, to share in the same nature as the father, implying that a son of god is one who has been adopted and has experienced the legal right to be.
That is reborn into the family of God through faith in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Now that latter end in
the in the parenthesis is simply explained it in
a Christian context. Back up a moment though, one who has been adopted and has experienced legal right to be.
That’s a clause from 1st century Rome. This is absolutely amazing. Mark this down.
It’s a verses 15 to 16, and it’s this. Don’t just talk about it. Say it.
Don’t just talk about it. Say it. You see, what do you mean by that?
Look at verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, you didn’t come out of religion and become a partner and some new religion that is crippling and somehow keeps you bound?
No. Not at all. but you receive the spirit of adoption. Notice the liberty. It’s a remarkable statement.
You’ve been freed by adoption.
by whom we cry out or the source because listen.
Because the adoption is true in our lives, we, with meaning, call him Abba. Everybody listen.
This is a big church. This is a big streaming audience. There’s a big television audience.
And for me to offend someone in this next statement is highly probable, but I do not say it to offend anybody.
Listen, Abba, it’s aramaic, not Arabic, aramaic, one of the oldest languages in the world.
Jesus spoke often in Arameic. Alright? Sometimes Hebrews sometimes Greek. Arameic.
When he says or when the Bible says Abba, it’s rooted in the aramaic.
It’s been adopted by the Greek. It’s been adopted by the Hebrew.
It’s been adopted in other cultures, the verbiage I’ve told you before, the cutest most applicable is what Italian would would say of of dad.
It’s papa. Here’s where the offense comes.
Somebody’s now leaping for their TV set turn it off because they think that’s offensive, that the believer is to call god papa.
Abba and Aramic. There’s no closer term. This is the bible.
The apostle Paul. the Jew of Jews?
The Hebrew of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, the greatest Jew that’s ever lived outside of Christ.
Think of that. If you think about it, certainly the greatest convert to Christianity hands down.
And he’s the one who says, wait a minute, As the spirit of god moved upon him, the understanding of the old testament scriptures brought Paul to this conclusion.
Those who are in the family of god with belief in Abraham refer to god no longer as some distant deity, but
Abba father. And if you’re Italian, the word is papa.
What a tender thing.
If you’ve ever been to Israel
or if you’re Jewish today, I love being in Israel especially with all of you, and you’ll hear the kids running down the street, and they’ll be yelling for their dad.
And what do you hear them yelling? and and you go, I know that.
That’s in the bible. That’s in the bible.
Yes. You’re correct. This is a little boy calling out or a little girl calling out to their daddy.
And right here in the bible, god is saying to you. You’re my child.
You’re my son. You’re my daughter. and your response back is to cry out to him, Abba?
Don’t just talk about it. God this. God that. The lord this. The lord this. Jesus this?
Jesus that. Hey. Listen. It better be personal. When his name comes off of your lips,
it ought to be tender and sweet, Christian.
It’s the ultimate relationship.
That one that you’re lacking in this world, he’s got for you right here right now.
And he says, call me Abba.
Jesus referred to the father in his prayers and in his teaching as Abba.
And that offended a lot of the Jewish listeners because they wanted the distance between
who they are and who god is. You gotta put god up and away somewhere.
People do that. Listen in religion. People do that. Listen. People do that here sometimes.
I have to tell people. I’m not kidding. People will come and they’ll say, father, Jack. No.
I’m serious. And I said, stop right there. Look over here.
The Bible says in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus said, call no man on earth father for you have only one father, and that is he who is in heaven.
I’ve been called priest. I was introduced recently as a reverend.
want you to keep that in mind from time to time.
Say it meaning this, the lord has called me, called you, his own.
He’s called you his own.
For you to not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you’ll receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba father.
Running through the meaning of these words, I want to get to the conclusion of this.
Look at the word receive, very powerful, receive.
Receive means to pick up and or to take up into one’s heart, accepting, to catch, or to have caught something or someone receive.
You did not receive the spirit again of fear.
The Christian is forbidden to be fearful. There’s no reason for it. It’s silly.
But look at this.
It’s what we did not receive,
and that is the spirit of bondage. Next word, bondage is this, a self induced slavery.
Listen. This is this is very, very disturbing. in our modern age.
A self induced slavery, placing yourself in the place of a or a situation of being a slave or to be under the control of another.
This is the this is the goal of a narcissist.
regarding those in their lives.
A narcissist is manifesting
certainly what has fallen in nature, and it certainly may even be an attribute of of satanic influence.
to get you, one who
has been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, you who trust him, your name is written down in heaven, You’ve been liberated and set free.
God looks on you and sees no mark upon you.
He sees you according to the Bible as perfect as his son Jesus is. That’s all bible.
Yet there are some believers who are under a self induced slavery.
They’ve placed themselves in some place or situation of being a slave or under the control of another or something else.
And listen, you need to know. That’s not from God.
He doesn’t do this.
Take this and do the opposite regarding Christ.
And the word fear, you actually know this word Phobos.
You ever can you go you know where I’m going with this? Phobos, Greek.
phobos phobia to be put to flight or to run-in terror.
to be in dread terror, to be fearful and in a state of intimidation. Satan loves this.
Are you in a state of fear? He loves that. He loves to keep you scared,
fearful, listen child of god, son and daughter of god.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you now need to say, lord set me free from the fear.
that encroaches upon my life. Is it a boss? Is it a person?
Is it a situation? Is it time itself? Are you prone to worry? listen.
You need to say god, here’s my worry and give it to him.
And watch how he shifts now into the positive.
And it’s the word try, crosos, the word in Greek.
And it means this, to shout out or to scream to cry out with a loud voice to be crying.
This is loud. Listen to this. We cry out with a loud voice, Abba.
It implies watch. It implies fear is coming in. Are you guys with me, everybody?
Fear is coming after me. Something’s coming after me. It’s coming.
And you’re running.
You can just watch a little kid when something scares them.
they drop what they’re doing, and they run straight to mom or dad,
and they might even be yelling out.
Now you know what god doesn’t do?
He doesn’t start running when you start running to him.
He also doesn’t turn around and plant himself and hold you back from getting near him.
I think one of the most beautiful beautiful manifestations of how our walk ought to be with god is when you see a two year old latch on to mom or dad’s knee, when they’re scared
or terrified about something. Or when I was growing up, when something was really bad, I would say, I was scared.
Us scared is really bad.
That is being scared and afraid compounded. afraid.
When I was as scared, I ran and grabbed on.
God expects you to come
and grab on. And hang on.
This week, there’s a situation with
a friend of mine and her dad had experienced a a very, very critical heart issue and close to not living, close to not surviving.
And immediately, she texted me. She lives in another state. And she immediately texted me.
And I said, I’m praying now, and I’m sending it to our prayer team.
and I copied it, and I sent it to
the prayer team. And then the whole week, I just simply said, how’s he doing? Give me updates.
And it was, well, he survived the night, Well, he’s doing this. He’s breathing on his own.
He’s the and and as the week went on, this family was put through the ringer and yet god walked them through it.
And the last text I saw yesterday was everybody’s saying this has just been a miraculous time. Listen.
No matter how it ends, by the way,
at this family, they’re all believers, and they all watch on on line here. But just know this.
What if it
went the other way? God is still perfectly god. God is still perfectly good.
God has still done perfectly what is best. that we may
not understand, god does what’s exactly best. In the positive, we cry out to him no matter what.
You need to check the base’s friend in your game and ask yourself, when when somebody so to speak situations smack you upside the face.
Where do you run? Where do you run?
I do I do now believe part of the preparation for this ministry where in the years, 13 years, I worked for Baxter Healthcare, Edwards’s division down by John Wayne Airport, and I to this day, I have no I just cannot thank god enough for putting me in a situation like that because I worked with a bunch of brainiacs who didn’t believe god.
They didn’t believe in god, but they knew I did So it
seemed like every weekend on Monday morning, it would come with
some new question for me. Really? It was absolutely amazing. It was fun. And it was listen.
It wasn’t that I was smarter than them. My god was smarter than them. Yeah. And
they would ask me, so what do you
think about this? And I could just see them all weekend long with their friends.
What what are we gonna do?
And I just remember saying, you know, God
I don’t even belong, you know, in this corporation and the and what I’m doing, and this is amazing, god, and thank you.
And but
you need to give me the mouth of Stephen Remember the mouth of Stephen in the book of acts?
Stephen spoke in such a way under the Holy Spirit’s power that nobody could refute what he was saying.
So they got so mad they stoned him to death.
So I am the quoted part of that verse to the Lord in prayer.
And and
I gotta tell you, I would simply say, I’d I’d go
to the rock. I just go to
the rock. They would ask me a question and would say, well the bible says this.
and that was so frustrating. But what do you believe?
That’s what I believe.
Oh, so you believe the bible? Yes. Here’s where they come back. That’s ridiculous.
When they say that, say, why? Why is it ridiculous?
And then they’re gonna tell you
what they believe in. Let them tell you. When they’re all done, shake their hand.
say, dude, I’m impressed. That knucklehead story you just told about what you believe in, you’ve got way more faith than I do.
everyone believes in something or someone. Yeah.
The question is, who is it? And what is it?
In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 15, the bible says, but the Holy Spirit also bears witness with us.
Isn’t that awesome? For after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds, I will write them.
God would god first promised that to the Jews, and secondly, to any or all who would believe, gentiles.
all of us. This is an absolutely beautiful, remarkable truth of god.
Listen to Galatians chapter 4 verse 6.
And because you are sons, god has set forth the spirit of his son into your hearts.
crying out of a father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son.
And if a son,
then an heir of god through Christ. Is that awesome? Yes.
So here’s where we begin
to end this here. Adoption. Pick it up next time. adoption.
Paul, everybody, this is so fantastic.
Judaism does not believe in adoption. You will not find adoption in the old testament.
Not gonna find it. Adoption.
In Jewish theology, it’s birth, it’s blood. It’s blood brights.
It’s name brights. Are you is your last name Levi or Cohen?
Are you a coathite or a levite?
What’s your bloodline?
Paul, the consummate Jew, who knew all this and could argue it perfectly, winds up getting saved by the power of god, meeting Christ Jesus on that road to Damascus and begins to be taught by Christ the relationship that every true believer must have with god, and it’s not by birth.
It’s by adoption. You have to be adopted.
I read.
The Roman law of adoption and inheritance The founding father of the Roman Empire was the man Julius Caesar.
Now as Caesars go, we have all heard of him, but what we might not remember is that at the time of Julius Caesar’s death, he had no heir to receive his throne or his wealth.
But that didn’t keep Julia Caesar from taking care of business.
Julia Caesar asized the Roman right of adoption.
A Roman adoption placed 1 single individual into the full status of being the sole heir of all that the pater, p a t e r.
Have you heard that? before pater, its root word to patriarch or paternal or head who owns who who who upon his death, at his death, his will was opened and in it was this declaration by Caesar, by the right or by the Roman right of adoption.
that Gaius Octavius would become his only son and heir by the Roman law of adoption.
At the moment of the announcement being made, Gaia Octavius was summoned.
He didn’t even know. He was summoned and in
a moment of time was given a new name. The new name was Caesar
Augustus.
Normally, at the Roman forum, a legal transaction would take place that required the Petron, Julius Caesar,
who would publicly proclaim this is my only son.
He could have 10 natural born blood sons. Are you with me, everybody?
But it’s his sovereign choice to choose who he leads the empire to.
And as Caesar surveyed,
he decided this one. This kid I
know It goes to him, and Octavius became Caesar Augustus.
And if Caesar Julia Caesar wouldn’t have died, it would have gone the normal way, which is this way.
This is my only son
It had to be said at the forum in Rome before 7 eyewitnesses.
The eyewitnesses had to be younger then Julius Caesar.
So that over time, they would all say the same thing about this person being the only son.
I leave you with this. Jesus was baptized
in the Jordan river and came up out of the water, and god the father says, this is my only son.
Over and over again, g the god the father say, this is my only son. This is my son.
This is my son.
Hear him. This is my son. Believe in him. This is my only son. This is
my only son. God says to you today, you are my only daughter. You are my only son. Exclusive.
This is perfectly built off the old testament doctrine that if Adam and Eve had one child only and no one else, Christ still would have come and died for the family of 3.
It’s not a it’s not about numbers. It’s about you and him. Is that amazing?
You wanna know how what you don’t wanna know how wealthy you are?
and how valued you are, that if you’re the only child of Adam and Eve, god would have still come and died for your sins.
That’s a theological fact. Now that ought to that ought to put something in your tank.
You know? Father, we thank you that your bible tells us that you have adopted us into the family of god.
We praise you, lord, for your goodness, and we thank you father for your generosity.
And so, lord, god, we pray that today.
We would live, act, talk walk be sons and daughters of god. We’ve been adopted.
chosen, and all of which you have bestowed upon your son, your bible tells us you’ve bestowed upon us.
So father, we pray now for your touch.
May we go from this building today, blessing heaven, and being a terror to hell.
We pray it in Jesus’ name and all God’s people said, Amen. Church, let’s stand together.
And I just want to encourage you, church, that the lord bless you this week, and the lord fill you with this holy spirit.
God watch over you and keep you.
And this is my blessing I prayed upon both my family and your family that all this week, no matter what’s going on in your week, that we are very attentive to his voice what he is saying, how he is guiding us and that we are looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen. And all God’s people said — Amen. — amen. God bless you guys.