"Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God" By Bob Heirtzler June 8th,
2014
Good
morning, everybody! Welcome
to Titus 2:1
But
speak thou the things which become sound
doctrine:
That’s
the verse of the month. Parrish
Lee
started us off with prayer—effectual fervent prayer.
He made four points:
Point number one was “Prayer is an attitude.” You have to have an
attitude when you’re
praying to God that God’s going to come through.
Number two, he said, “Teach us to Pray.” I’m going to touch on that
a little
later. Number
three, “God wants to bless
our prayers.” I was
thinking this morning
as I woke up before the sun came up, “It’s so amazing when we pray for
God to
bless people, it not only blesses them, but it blesses the people that
pray.” It
encourages them to know that
god hears our prayers. It’s
amazing how,
sometimes, names will pop into your head, and you pray for them, and
later on,
you find out that they were dealing with some things.
I know Jojo’s not in the room, but he was
heavy on my heart, because he lost a classmate.
When Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, back
in 1968, there were a
lot of fires in that town, where a riot broke out.
One building after another was caught on
fire. When we went
to school the next
day, there were two empty chairs in the classroom.
Two of our classmates were trapped in one of
those fires. It
just devastated us, the
teachers—Brother Malcolm, I just know what he’s going through. It’s just, they’re there,
and they’re not
there. I’m just
keeping him in prayer;
I’ve been keeping him in prayer. Part
four was, “Effectual Fervent Prayer Availeth Much.”
Brother Parrish made a statement, and Im
going to make a direct quote of what he said about our General Pastor,
he said,
“You know, we need more sound doctrine in our ministry.
We never want to forget the principles that
we learned, and that keep us strong, and that keep us consistent,
because, you
know, that part of the Word never passes away.”
The scripture that I want to say to that is: 1 Corinthians 1:10
Now I
beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye
all speak
the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye
be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
We’ve
got to stick to sound doctrine, so that we can make it to Heaven at the
end. Today, I’m
talking about the part
of sound doctrine that says, “…Seek ye first the MALCOLM:
God,
we come to You with humble hearts, Father God, and a mind that is ready
to
worship You, that You have put in place so that we could pray to You
and know
what name salvation rests in. For
there
is no other name given under Heaven among men whereby we must be saved,
and
that name, Jesus, as a wise man said, puts us all together. We thank You that we know
Your name; that You
have a name, and we can pray in
Your
name, and You will answer. We
don’t have
to wonder about it; we don’t have to ask somebody else—we can ask You;
we can
go directly to the source. The
veil of the
Amen. So
this Scripture thought for today is: Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and
his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
We
had a Bible study at It’s All Good, this past Wednesday; there were
about
twenty-five of us there. I
asked the
question, “When you read this scripture what comes to your mind?” OMAR: Seek
God to improve things in your life and to be wiser with people JEFF: Seeking
God Will – Doing what He says!! MATTHEW: when
you are seeking Heaven – all other needs will fall into place!! CINDY: Seeking
God when you are up and down in life – God will direct you!! MIKE: Seek
righteousness to be established – God to remove all short comings so
you can
flourish!! CHRIS
(RED):
Remove the worry and panic, gives you calmness, to
be thankful, have a stable
mind ED: Having
your mind on God, Mark 12:30
And
thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment. BILL: Relax,
there is a plan, and stay in the plan BRENT: Ask
God’s will above your agenda and feelings LUCY: Not to
be distracted from God’s path but to focus on what is going on in the
light of
God. JEFF
(again):
Proverbs 3:6 In
all thy ways
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
It’s
amazing how they actually said Matthew Chapter 6 in that. We’re going to turn to
Matthew chapter 6, and
I encourage you to read the whole thing, but I’m not going to read the
whole
thing today. I want
to start out where Parrish
stated, last week, “Teach Us to Pray!!” Matthew 6:9-13
After
this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be thy
name. Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven. Give
us
this day our daily bread. And
forgive us
our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil: For thine is
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
It’s
amazing that the next two verses talk about if you want forgiveness,
you have
to forgive others. If
you want God to
forgive you, you have to forgive others.
It’s amazing how that it rolls down to verse
thirty-three. We’re
not there yet, but at verse
twenty-five, Mathew 6:25-26
Therefore
I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or
what ye
shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the
life more
than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not
much
better than they?
Skip
down to Verse 30… Matthew 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the
field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much
more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Then
again, He says, Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What
shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed?
It
tells us that God will take care of all of our needs; not to worry
about
tomorrow, but to focus on what’s going on today.
Tomorrow will get here if it gets here. Today could be the last
day; the trumpet
sounds, and the songs that we’ve been singing, we will be all changed,
in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we’ll be out of here. No more Monday morning
going to work; that
would be great, amen? Matthew 6:-34 But seek ye first the
I
will ask the special guests coming in—I got the youth department to
help me out
with a few things… The
part I want to
talk about, “…take therefore no thought for tomorrow…”
I want to talk about three people in the Old
Testament that didn’t know if tomorrow was even going to come; they had
to
focus on what was going on right now.
They didn’t care about tomorrow, because they took a
strong stand with
God, and they had to focus. The
Children’s Church Department has always been dear to me, because I was
part of
it, and I’m still part of it, for almost thirty years now. It’s just something that
God gave me, a
calling on my life to work with youth.
I
see people, I hear people sing, I remember Parrish teaching a Bible
study, and
the kids were answering your questions, Parrish.
That’s just awesome; that just blows me
away.
I’m
looking for David; where’s David?
Is
David here yet? Remember
the first story
of David and Goliath in First Samuel chapter seventeen?
King David—David, at the time—Jesse sent him
with some food, to take to his three older brothers that were in the
battle. He went to
the battle, with his
little basket of food, to give to his three brothers, but, when he got
there,
he heard this Philistine, bad-mouthing, trash-mouthing his God. He got upset.
He was like, “What are we going to do about this?” Everybody was afraid of
this nine-foot,
little wrench guy, named Goliath.
He was
a big guy. David
was just the youngest
of eight brothers, and he’s down there with a basket of food. His brothers said, “Why
are you here? Are
you just trying to find out what we’re
doing?” Anybody
have siblings younger
than you that always hung around with you, wanted to stay with you, and
you
said, “Hey, stay away from me, stay away, stay away…”?
that’s what they thought he was doing, and
David said, “What are we going to do about this problem?” he was like, “Let me take
care of it.” Saul
said, “Okay.” So
Saul started putting all his armor onto
David. His armor
was heavy. David,
said, “No, I’m not worthy of this
armor. I’m going to bring what I have.
My résumé is, I killed a bear; I killed a lion; this
Philistine is no
match for God.” So,
David picked up five
smooth stones and ran to the battle.
When he got there, he swung it, and hit the giant
right dead center
between the eyes. Just
imagine that hit
him right dead center between the eyes.
Such force did God give this young man, that the
stone was embedded in
right into his head. I
have been hit by
BB’s, and pellets, and paintballs, and nothing ever hit me that hard
that it
left a dent in me. What
a force! (1
Samuel 17:38-40, 46-48)
Now,
what’s that talking about? What
giants
do we face today? Anybody
want to shout
them out? What
giants do we face
today? Finances,
sickness, stress,
divisions, temptations, doubts… The
giants that we face today, God gave us in Hs Word, in: Ephesians 6:10-11
Finally,
my
brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of
God…
You
notice David didn’t put on Saul’s armor; he had the armor of God on. That’s how he took out the
giant. It’s
encouraging us to put on the armor of
God. what happens
when we put on the
armor of God/ Well,
let’s read: Ephesians 6::11-13
…that
ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you
the whole armour of
God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to
stand.
We
put on the whole armor of God. David
didn’t know if he was going to be around the next day.
Goliath was ready to feed him to the birds,
but God came through. So,
when we have
prayers, and seek God first, he delivers.
The
next story is about three Hebrew Children:
Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, and King
Nebuchadnezzar. When
they heard the music—Bill (Bill plays
“The Bunny Song” from Veggie Tales’ “Rack, Shack, and Benny.”) Thank
you—they
were supposed to bow down to the image that this king built, but they
didn’t. these two
people told him, “Hey,
Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, they didn’t bow down to your music
when it
played.” So, King
Nebuchadnezzar wants
to give them another chance. I’d
like to
read this word-for-word: Daniel 3:16-17 Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are
not
careful to answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to
deliver us from the
burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O
king.
This
king got hot. He
got mad. He cranked
up he heat on that oven, and he
had a group of soldiers that threw them into the fiery furnace. It was so hot, the
soldiers died, during the
process. Now the
three people are in there
walking around, and King Nebuchadnezzar says, “Hey, I thought there was
three. Why do I see
four?” And the
fourth one was like unto the son of
God. When they came
out of the fiery
furnace, the stench of smoke was not on them, their hair wasn’t
burned—you ever
go to a bonfire, and you go home that night, and you walk in, and you
smell
like the bonfire? You
know what I’m
saying? These guys did not smell like the bonfire.
God protected them inside the furnace. So, how does that relate
to today? You ever
think about, “I’m a Christian, why
am I going through all these battles?”
As human beings, we think, “Why am I going through
this? I thought it
was going to be roses and ice
cream every day!” 1 Peter 4:12-14 Beloved, think it not
strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange
thing happened unto you: But
rejoice,
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his
glory shall
be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you…
This
is how you know that the Spirit of God resteth upon you, because you’re
going
through battles. If
you’re not going
through battles, you should check yourself, you know?
If you’re not going through anything at all,
check your prayer life. If
you are, that
means His Spirit resteth upn you, but if you’re not, that means… what?
You’re missing something.
Right. 1 Peter 4:16
Yet if
any man suffer as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
Parrish
talked about this Scripture.—Nope, that’s another Scripture he talked
about. 1 Peter 1:6-7
Wherein
ye
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in
heaviness
through manifold temptations: That
the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that
perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and
glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
When
you heat up gold to a liquid state, all the garbage floats to the top. What they do is, they skim
it off to purify
the gold. So, when
we go through trials
and tests, like fire, it causes us to pray and to seek like crazy, and
Go’s
able to remove something that might be hindering us, and give us
something else
to purify us better, so that you’re ready for the next battle. Did you ever notice that
when you get through
this battle, there’s a next battle?
Because you went through this battle, it helps with
that battle, and when
you get to the next battles, then you realize that those battles helped
you get
to this point, so you’re getting purified al the time.
Does that make sense?
I mean, battles, to your flesh, is like,
“Augh! Again?” but
it helps us, right?
The
next story is Daniel and the Lions Den. Daniel was a praying man. There was a whole bunch of
people that got
together and got the king to sign something about no one could petition
the
Lord or anybody for thirty days. Daniel
was aware of that. So
what did David
do? He just went to
work? Nope. He went
fishing? nope. He
prayed anyway. Church,
let me share something with you: Don’t
let anybody tell you—in Hell or out of
Hell—that you cannot pray to God.
You
can pray to God at all times. He’s
there,
He’s just a breath away. “Well,
the rule
says we can’t pray in school.” You
can
still pray. “Well,
the rule says we
can’t pray at work.” You
can still
pray. God has
called us to pray and to
seek His face. If
we stand, strong,
against that—we have testimonies after testimonies of people that stood
the
test. You’ll be
able to talk about
Daniel, talk about David, talk about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
talk
about Ruth and Esther and all those other people in the Bible. If they didn’t make it,
their story wouldn’t
be in there would it? I don’t know, I’m just thinking out loud. Don’t anybody tell you
that we can’t
pray. So the king
found out, through his
group of people, that Daniel prayed anyway, and, because he signed the
decree,
he had to throw Daniel in the lion’s den.
Now he’s in the lion’s den—you ever have a cat bump
against you? Any of
you that are cat lovers? I
imagine those lions were bumping into
Daniel that night; I can imagine him petting them, and they’re just
purring,
you know? I imagine
they were taking
catnaps, while he was praying. To
the
point, the king fasted all night, because he didn’t like what he just
did. Ha called
Daniel the next morning, and Daniel
answered and said, “I’m here.” The
people that accused Daniel, he (the king) threw them in, with their
wives and
kids. Anyone that
thinks that the lions
were not hungry, they wiped that whole clan out quickly—you could hear
crunching of bones the Bible says (Daniel 6).
They were hungry.
So, what are
the lions that we have today? I
like
what you said, Parrish, how that God would deliver us out of every evil
work. 2 Timothy 4:17-18
Notwithstanding
the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching
might be
fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered
out of
the mouth of the lion. And
the Lord
shall…
I
like the word, ‘shall.’ That
means it’s
going to happen. It
doesn’t say should,
it could, maybe; it says shall. 2 Timothy 4:18 …shall deliver me
from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom:
to whom
be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Satan
walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter
5:8). As soon as
you came out of that
tank of water, you were an avowed enemy.
You got baptized and called on His name; now you’re
an enemy of Satan,
which s a good thing. Right? Stan is going to throw
everything at you to
try to get you to stop doing what you’re doing.
The first thing he threw at me was my past. God forgave me of my past,
but sometimes he
(the devil) likes to bring up my past to try to stop me from doing what
I need
to do. I have to
remind Satan that I was
forgiven of that. Other
thing is,
sometimes ailments of your body will stop you from doing things. I have seen testimony
after testimony here,
where you have not let the ailments of your body stop you from
worshipping
God. that ain’t
going to work, so now
he’s going to find some other way to attack the flesh.
Road rage, maybe.
Whatever your weak point is, Satan knows it
and pings on it. He’ll
ping on it and
ping on it until your weak point becomes strong, then he’ll find some
other
weak point to ping on. He
might find
somebody to accuse you of something you’re not doing, try to set you up. We’ve had that happen to
us, right? Satan
doesn’t play by any rules but his
own. Does that make
sense?
So,
I mentioned about Daniel, David, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego; they
weren’t
promised tomorrow. They
had to focus on
what was going on now. They were seeking first the
We’re
going into the third part, seek ye first the
We
all understand, those that work, we have a boss, or a manager, or a
supervisor,
or a foreman… They
all have different
titles, but we answer to them. If
we
want that paycheck on Friday, or every other Friday, or whatever dates
you have
arranged to get your paycheck. Right? We got hired there, and
they taught us. The
supervisor probably came alongside us and
taught us the functions that we needed to do, or he had somebody do it
for
him. Also, the
supervisor wants us to
communicate with them when we want a day off or a vacation, or personal
time. He also, when
we call in sick, he
wants a telephone call by a certain time.
Or, if you running late, he wants a telephone call
by a certain
time. You
understand the picture I’m
drawing here? We
have to work with our
manager, our supervisor, our boss if we still want that paycheck. You might not like where
you’re at, but at
least it’s a stepping stone to where you’re going.
If you’re thankful for where you’re at, then
God will give you a better job. We
have
testimonies of that in this room, too.
So, we understand that concept, then we should
understand the concept of
God and His leadership. God
has set
things up for us to do our job, and to make sure that we are doing what
we are
called to do. According
to two Scriptures
that came to my mind out of Wednesday night’s Bible study: 1 Corinthians 14:33
For God
is not
the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
He
doesn’t want confusion; He wants consistency in the ministry. And, just a few verses
down: 1 Corinthians 14:40
Let all
things
be done decently and in order.
He
wants order, and he needs a structure.
Does that make sense?
Okay. When
I was baptized, God taught me that there
was a structure to follow. When
I got
baptized, I came out of the water, and I didn’t know anything except,
“He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved…” (Mark 16:16). That’s all I knew. That’s the only scripture
I knew. I had to be
taught, and un-taught the way I
was raised to be taught the way God wants.
So, there was a structure.
I
learned that God gave us pastors after His own heart to help us. It says: Jeremiah 3:15 And I will give you
pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and
understanding.
The
word ‘shall’ feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Hebrews 13:16 But to do good and to
communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
If
we communicate with our supervisors and our managers that we’re running
late,
or we’re calling in sick, shouldn’t we do that with the leadership of
the
ministry? Let them
know? “Hey, Brother
Parrish, I can’t make it in
today, I’m sick.” He’ll
keep you in
prayer. Me knowing
Parrish, I’m going to
get a call at the end of the end of the night, asking how I’m doing. Or from Brother Andy. You’re communicating. If I don’t show up for
three weeks without
calling, what message am I leaving to the congregation and the
leadership
here? I died; this
is not important to
me; maybe I got discouraged; maybe something that I went through that I
can’t
explain; maybe I’m crying out for help and I just don’t want to reach
out and
talk to anybody about it. That’s
why
communication is important. You
know,
I’ve never been judged by anybody in this ministry in the thirty-five
years
that I’ve been here. God’s
always judged
me. Every time I’ve
had a need for
prayer—it says to confess our faults, not our sins, to each other
(James
5:16). Yeah, I get
mad sometimes. I
caught every red light on the way
here. Every red
light; do you know how
many red lights there are between here and Hebrews 13:17 Obey them that have
the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your
souls, as
they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with
grief:
for that is unprofitable for you.
Obey
them that have the rule over you…
My
boss’s name is Leslie Ramsey. She’s
my
supervisor. Sometimes
I have to get
pulled into the office for a mistake that I did.
I got written up a couple of years ago. I didn’t even know that I
did what I did, but
I got written up for it. Sometimes
the
supervisor has to correct us. If
you’re
late a certain number of times, you get a verbal.
Then you get it in writing, and then you get
three days off without pay, and then you’re gone.
There are some things people have dne that
they skipped all three and just got fired right on the spot. See, we understand that,
but sometimes the
leadership has to talk to us, “Hey, brother…” “Hey, sister, I’m not
understanding what’s going on here; make me to understand. What are you going through? Why did you say what you
said? Let’s get
this right.” You
know?
If I have a problem with Abby, I’m not going to tell
Sonia about it; I’m
going to go to Abby. If
I have a problem
with Parrish, I’m not going to talk to Andy about it, I’m going to go
to
Parrish. We need to
stop talking to
everybody else except for the person that we need to talk to, right? Maybe we don’t want to
communicate with the
leadership because we’re afraid that we’re not doing what are we
supposed to be
doing. “I’m not
going to call Parrish,
because I’m not really sick, I just don’t feel like going. Okay, I just made a
mistake.” This
guy’s got the gift of discernment; he
knows. He knows,
because God tells
him. You know what
I’m saying. Maybe
we don’t want to share something,
because, well… Does
that make sense? I
thought you had to seek ye first the Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith
ye are called,
See,
he’s telling the congregation to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are
called. Bill Adams
said, “Are we all
ushers? Are we all
singers? Are we all
preachers? We all
have a calling on our lives.” Make
sense?
Then he’s telling us to walk worthy of it. Whatever that calling is. With what? Ephesians 4:
With
all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace.
Bill
Adams mentioned about one. Ephesians 4:4-5
There
is
one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling; One Lord,
one faith, one
baptism,
Ever
since I’ve been saved, I’ve heard of so many different ways of being
baptized
outside of the Word of God. I’ve
heard
so many different ways to make it to Heaven.
I mean, they compare, like, “Well, you know, Bob,
there’s a hundred
different ways to Ephesians 4:6-7
One God
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us
is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
God
put people in the ministry to be our leaders.
In my family—the Heirtzler side of the
family—whoever is oldest is in charge.
That would be my Uncle Ed.
He’s 82 years old.
Everybody—that’s the way my family is set up
on that side—everybody goes to him for advice.
When he asses on, it’ll be the next person; that
would be my dad. He’ll
be in charge of the family. But,
in God’s ministry, He doesn’t go by
age. He goes by the
heart. King David
was the youngest of eight, yet he
was the king. According
to tradition,
the oldest should’ve been, right?
But
King David’s heart was chosen. So,
sometimes I have to forget that Parrish is younger than I am—now Andy
is
younger than I am—Right? Why
do I have
to listen to these young guys? How
do
they know? Right? We can’t have that
attitude; you know what
I’m saying? God
called them, and placed
His Spirit upon the leadership of this ministry.
I’m not lifting them up; I’m just using them
as examples. We all
answer to God, but,
what these two guys do, they have to answer not only to God, but to
Pastor
Paine, of all the things that go on.
You
already know that those that are talking to us said, “Give Pastor Paine
a
call. That’s not my
area.” Know what
I’m saying? We have
a structure here. Just
because our pastor’s one thousand and
twelve miles away, doesn’t mean that we can’t call and talk to him. Don’t even use that as an
excuse. He’s
available. You can
call at two in the morning, but make
sure he’s awake. But
it better be
important; there’d better be a reason.
I
told the youth here—me and Country made an oath, we made a promise to
all the
youth, all the teen-agers over the years, if you ever get yourself in a
situation, call us, we’ll come and get you, no questions asked. We’ll come and get you,
take you out of that
environment, and take you home, no questions asked.
But they have to deal with their parents
about it. We’ve got
to be there for each
other. Does that
make sense? We’re a
family.
So,
what’s the leadership to us, now?
The
Word says, Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some,
apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors
and
teachers;
For
what reason? Ephesians 4:12 For the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of
Christ:
Until
when? Ephesians 4:13-14
Till we
all
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no
more children,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive; I
was raised differently, and I had to be re-taught
again the Word of God. I
was taught that
there was three: There
was a Father,
there was a Son, and there was a Holy Ghost; there was three totally
separate
people. I used to
talk to the Son, to
talk to His Dad, to talk to my dad, not to give me a spanking. It never worked; I got the
spanking
anyway. The Holy
Ghost, I didn’t want to
talk to any ghost—I stayed as far away from Him as possible. He did some things that I
can’t explain, and
I just stayed far away from Him. I
didn’t know that Jesus and God was all one until I came here. I thought—I didn’t
know—standing in line for
communion at church, I had wine on my forehead and said I was part of
the Body
of Christ. Wine
sprinkled on my
forehead—I thought I was in, but I still felt empty.
“This can’t be it.”
Right?
I had to be re-taught again.
That’s why God set up pastors and teachers to teach
us the Word of
God. Amen? Ephesians 4:15-16
But
speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which
is the
head, even Christ: From
whom the whole
body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint
supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. The leadership’s job is to edify the Body of Christ. Make s |