“If
You Wear it, You Need to Share it” By Arman Jorge May 6th,
2018 Thank you,
Brother
Ken. God bless you. That was—we have to
say it like we mean it. I've got to do the same today. This morning,
when I was
preparing to come to church, this morning, I was forgetting a lot of
things, a
couple of things. I'm really thankful that there was the Holy Ghost; He
brings
it to your remembrance. I want to thank Him. Every time I was going out
the
door, He was like, “You forgot this.” “Oh, thank You, Jesus.” You know? Let me come
to the front, I want to show you something, because I wore my favorite
shirt
today. My shirt says, “Elohim, Adonai, and Yahweh.” And, then the back
says, “Acts
4:12.” I'm hoping you can tell what I'm about to share with you, this
morning.
I actually wish that I could just show this to you, and then sit down,
and,
like brother Ken said, just be done with it. You know? But, you know, I
won't
do that, because you deserve to hear from the Lord this morning. You
know? So,
the question remains, it says, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man,
am?” You
know, when I was reading that, I wondered what kind of reaction the
disciples
had when Jesus, the Almighty God, asked that question. You know? Were
they
nervous? Did they start going like this, sliding to the side, and
started going,
hiding someone's back, and ducking down, and start completely avoided
the
question? Or, were they all like Peter, like Brother Ken has said,
“You're the
Christ, the Son of the Living God,” just like Peter. But, we obviously
know
that that didn't happen, because Peter was the only one that got the
keys to
the kingdom. The message today happens to be, it's called, “If You Wear
It, You
Need to Share It.” If you wear it, you need to share it. And, I have
two points
to share with you this morning. One is, Whose Name Do You Belong to?
And, number
two is Assurance for Obeying. Part
1: Whose Name Do You Belong to? Names have
been a very important part of human experience throughout history. It's
one
that defines you and I, you know, who we are. And, you know, because
you’ve got
your first name, your middle name, your last name, and you've got your
nickname
that your friends give you. Yeah, that's right. And, you also have your
secondary name, such as your job title, your relationship status, Mr.
and Mrs.,
and you have your educational level name. And, the reason I say that is
because,
in the Old Testament, Jesus used so many different names and titles.
You know,
and just like Kirk said, He used different names and titles. Why?
Because God
is deserving of praise and honor. He is deserving of praise and honor
from us.
You know, celebrities do that a lot. I mean they did the same thing.
Let's—
athletes come okay let's say athletes, Wayne Gretzky, one of the
greatest
players in NHL hockey, and they give him a name, “The Great One.” Wayne
Gretzky, the great one. We all know this: MJ, Michael Jordan; everybody
thought
he could fly. They made a song for him, they made a movie for him, and
they
give him the name the air Jordan. How many of
you have older sisters? I do, too. I do. I have four older sisters. I
know, we
were a big family. I actually have six sisters, two of them younger
than me,
but I have four older sisters. And, you know, I got to tell you, it
should be
considered a crime to have four older sisters. I think it's one of the
most
greatest sins that my parents did, when they had them. Seriously,
seriously.
Because, when I was younger, when I was younger, I was probably about
ten, eleven,
twelve, I learned, I learned how to cook rice without the rice cooker,
I
learned how to wash clothes without the washer and dryer. We used to do
like
this (pantomiming using a washboard) and hang it up to the line, and
let the
sun dry it. I learned how to iron clothes. And, I've got to tell you,
in our
house, my wife, she doesn't let anybody leave the house for church
without
ironing their clothes. Guess who's the iron man in the house? Yep. And,
you
know, my wife tells me, I do great ironing, you know, I do better than
her. And,
I think sometimes she tells me that so I can keep doing it. I do it, I
don't
mind. Yes, it's encouraging, yeah. And, I learned how to wash dishes,
and I
learned how to clean the house. You know, my sisters made me do their
chores,
you know? They did. It's terrible. And, the bad thing about that, is
the worst
thing about that is if I refused it do them, they made names for me. I
mean, ugly
names. I mean, it might not sound so bad in English, but in my
language, in the
Philippines, it was so terrible, it's ugly. They made names for me
like, “Swollen
Arman,” because, when I was younger, I used to have a lot of, you know,
bumps
on my head, because I played a lot, I had bumps on my head, so they
called me, “Swollen
Arman.” And, then, they called me—they said my eyes were big as an
owl’s, so
they called me, “Owl Eyes,” You know? It
was like, oh, goodness. And, the funny part about that is, if I don't
do what
they say, they would go around and tell my friends that I was adopted.
They
told my friends that when I was born, that my parents found me in
animal
droppings and they said I smelled so bad that my parents washed me, and
I
thought they believe that, so I kept asking my mom, “Is that true?” I
just wanted
to make sure that that's not real, you know? But, anyway, I said that,
that was
terrible, you know? But, in Judges chapter one, verses one and two, and
Joshua
died, and, so, the Israelites are looking for a new leader to take them
to the
promised land. So, in Judges, chapter one, verses one and two, and it
says: Judges
1:1-2 Now
after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel
asked
the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first,
to fight
against them? And, the Lord said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have
delivered
the land into his hand. You know, in
this text, it was used the word, ‘Lord,’ in the Hebrew tongue, the
word, ‘Lord,’
it means Adonai. It means, master or owner. And, God is saying, look, I
own
everything. I own it all. And, I'm giving it to you. I'm giving you
this land,
I want you to take it, I want you to own it, and drive the people away.
And,
they did that Judah and Simeon did that. Interestingly, though, some of
the
tribes of Israel didn't do it. They didn't do it. Instead of that, they
went in
that land, and they lived with them. And, in the end because, in Judges
chapter
one verse twenty-one, and it says: Judges
1:21 And,
the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited
Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in
Jerusalem
unto this day. You know, we
complain a lot about things about what's happening around us, like gun
control,
high school shootings, gun violence, you know, politics. I mean, do we
really
have—do you know what the biggest challenge that we face in this world?
It's
not really a gun violence, it's not really politics, it's not really
any of those
violence things. The biggest challenge that we face in this world is
about
accepting the Word of the Lord God, and obeying it. That's the biggest
challenge that we face in this world, accepting the Word of the Lord
and
obeying at. This is one of the prayers that Jesus prayed in the garden,
when He
was praying with the disciples, and He said, and He said in John,
chapter eight,
verse—I'm sorry, John chapter seventeen, verses eight and nine, and He
says: John
17:8-9 For I have given unto them the words [Jesus is
praying for the disciples, praying to God] which thou gavest me;
and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from
thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray
not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And, in John
chapter seventeen, verse fourteen, and it says: John
17:14
I
have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because
they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Today, I
believe every single one of us has got a Promised Land. One of my
Promised Land,
that I know that God is giving me, is that children's church
department. Because,
be in children's church department, you're not only educating the kids
with the
Word of God, you're evangelizing, you're educating, and you’re
equipping them.
What's your Promised Land today? Are you driving them out spiritually,
just like
God says, or are we doing like the children of Israel, letting them
live right
next to us and just be with us? You know, or, are we praying for God to
be
received in just like Jesus prayed in the garden? You know, sometimes,
the Promised
Land is right at home. Part
2. Assurance for Obeying Assurance for
obeying. There's seven feasts and festivals the Jews celebrate each
year. I'm
going to tell you all of them: one is the feast of the Passover, feast
of
unleavened bread, feast of the firstfruit, feast of the weeks, feast of
the
trumpets, feast of the day of atonement, feast of the Tabernacles. And,
if you
have time, you need to study this, I mean, it will bless you. It comes
together
with the resurrection of God and the rapture of Christ. But, today, I'm
only
going to talk about number three: the feast of the first fruit.
Because, in First
Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verse twenty, and it says: 1
Corinthians
15:20 But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. Well, what
does it mean when they say Christ has become the firstfruit of them
that slept?
Well, Leviticus, chapter twenty-three, verse nine through eleven, and
it says: Leviticus
23:9-11
And, the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give
unto you,
and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the
firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And, he shall wave the
sheaf
before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the
sabbath the
priest shall wave it. Okay, when an
Israelite farmer, would first come into his harvest that year, when he
first
came into the harvest that year, he would take a bushel of his harvest,
then he
would give it to the priests, and the priests will wave it before the
Lord, and
it says here, “…on the morrow after the Sabbath.” Translating it out,
it could
be Sunday, it could be, you know, but, do you know that Jesus Christ
rose from
the dead on the feast of the firstfruit? Jesus Christ rose from the
dead on the
feast of the first fruit, which we call Easter, or Resurrection Day.
Think
about this, things that come out of the ground, that are dead in
winter, and
suddenly, in spring, they come to life, all those flowers bloom, fruit
appears,
colors appear, Christ was the first of those that arose from the dead
on the
feast of the firstfruit, and just like the fruit was waived before the
Lord,
and accepted, Jesus Christ went up, ascended up to Heaven, on our
behalf, and
waved to the Lord, and as a result of that, because he was accepted by
the Father,
as a result of that, all that come after Him, and in Him, are accepted
and
dedicated to the Lord. That's one of the reasons—did you ever wonder
why Mary,
when—I think it's in John, chapter twenty, verse seventeen, when Mary
came to
Jesus in the tomb and tried to see Jesus, and it was empty, and Jesus
came to
her, and Jesus told her, “Don't touch me, because I have not ascended
to the Father
yet.” (John 17:20) That time, right there, Jesus is preparing to go up
to Heaven,
to ascend to Heaven, to wave the firstfruit, so that all who comes
after Him,
in Him, will be accepted, too. Jesus Christ celebrated the feast of the
firstfruit
by rising from the dead, and all that come after Him, and in Him, will
be
accepted, too, and, as you read in the Bible, the graves were all
opened and
all that were dead came alive again. So, the question still remains,
today, “Who
do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Well, today, Jesus Christ is my
firstfruit. Jesus Christ is my firstfruit. So, how about that name
Jesus today?
Does that name satisfy your soul? Does that name—when you wear that
name, do
you feel powerful? Well, if you wear it, then you need to share it. God
bless
you.
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