naturally God plants his spirit in us look at Isaiah 6 chapter 60 chapter the first verse is arise shine from thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee for behold the darkness shall cover the earth and gross gross darkness to people but the Lord shall arise up on thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thine light, and the kings to the brightness of thine arising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see all they gather them together. They come to thee. Their sons shall come from afar, and their daughters shall be nursed at thine side. So God had gathered his people all about. And in Old Testament times was the example or admonition for what was coming to come to us. The spirit would come upon them, they would be driven by the spirit, but it wasn't permanently indwelling in them. That's why when he talks about the light arising upon you and he's giving us the light, he's the light of every man that's coming into the world. That's Christ in us. That's why if you do any good, that good is from God. That's why Jesus says there's none good but God. So let me read that same thing in the amplified version. It says, arise from spiritual depression to a new life. Shine, be radiant with glory and brilliance of the Lord, for your light has come, and the glory and brilliance of the Lord has arisen upon you. For in fact, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness will cover the peoples. But the Lord will rise up on you, Jerusalem, and his glory and brilliance will be seen on you. Nations will come to you and kings to the brightness of your rising because light has a tendency to draw people to it. The living version, I'm not going to read that, but it's in your notes that I'll email to you. But he's saying, arise, stir up that which God had placed in you. So we see a rebirth, a regeneration, But we see that there was an inner darkness in the people, so he would have to be talking about the sons of God, the children of God, where his word is planted in those. And he had given them his word. So this is, say, a prophecy, a calling out of the sons of God to rise up of something that had already been given you have to study the rest of the word you have to study it to see that this is a past action that something planted in you like the man uh... it's the same it's an analogy but it's not the same because it's not the church but you remember the pearl of great worth that he had found this merchant had found the pearl of great price and he planted it went and dug in the earth and planted it until he was able to buy that field Well, God's Word is planted in earth and vessel. He's planted in us until He makes that call. God's call. Now there'll be many a call, but a few chosen. So there are many of them that taste of the heavenly gift. So there'll be many churches and many people in the churches that know the Word of God that eventually fall away because of the four types of seed. that had received the word, that seed was when the sower sowed the word, and it fell on all different types of soil. Good ground, thorny ground, it fell into different places, it fell all in the wayside. So some the word was taken away, but some, until where this word was planted in the good soil, it was watered. It's not all told in that parable. But it's like in the book of Acts when it says that it was Paul watered, apostle one planted, God give it the increase. So we must continually hear the preaching of God's word, the sprinkling of God's word. God's word is what causes us to germinate. That's why we have to come keep hearing the word because Why? Because in this dispensation, if you want to call it, faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God. That seed of faith that's planted in you, it has to germinate. It has to have light to grow. Jesus Christ is that light. If we would see the menorah, I'll go all the way to the book, book of revelations, the seven, the light, the lamp, the candlestick with the seven lamps. The seven lamps allude to the branches of human knowledge represented by six lamps inclined inwards toward and symbolically guided by the light of God represented by the central light of the lamp. It's called the menorah. You've heard of the menorah. You've seen pictures of it. and it's different phases of different days the menorah symbolizes the creation the seven days of creation with the center light representing the sabbath that's why it's necessary for us to keep the sabbath in the menorah but also if you go to the book of revelations and read back where jesus is that light and those are the first chapter of genesis now i don't know if i've put that in a note that way I'm going to have to get down to it because of changing genesis uh revelations 1 12 through 13 says and I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one likened to the son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paths with a golden girdle. Write these things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. taking away that light of that candlestick at this period but we must live our lives accordingly as Jesus lived his life that he was the light of the world and he lighted every man that cometh in the world and John the Baptist bore witness to this lighting of each man that cometh in the world but before that time the whole world that gropeth in darkness He created man in his image and likeness, but through Adam it became a fallen image. The likeness was still of God, but the image was marked. It was in darkness to get back. We have to have a light, and that's why darkness was meaning a place of no knowledge, a place of a lack of understanding, and that's why the gentiles was in darkness and the jews the jewish the people of israel were in the light because god had chosen them to receive the light to be a pattern to be what the other world the people of the world was to see because he had gave them his law his law was that light the inches of god's word give it light that's why i say The preaching of God's word giving light to the inner man. That's what guides us. That's what helps us to grow in Christ Jesus, that light. My daughter was telling my grandson the other day that if he swallowed those seeds or whatever, that they would grow in his stomach, you know. He said, well, Mama, ain't no dirt in my stomach or whatever. Mama told me there wasn't no dirt in my stomach or whatever. And ain't know how the light will get down in there or whatever. And he was smart. He was right. But see, internally, we're talking in a spiritual sense here. Once God's word is in you, God had placed his word in you because what? He had predetermined. He had chosen us from the foundations of the world. In the beginning, he had determined who he was going to save. That's why when preaching comes, It's not that he's telling you something new, but it strikes a nerve. It strikes something in you. It's a catalyst. The word is like a catalyst that wakes you up. That's why it says arise. That's why, especially in a lot of Baptist churches, where they go to preaching and that wakes you up or whatever. But some people be awoken, awaken, awoke. But they don't have an understanding or wisdom to apply. So they just go out and they really can't even tell you what was preached or whatever. They have a zeal for God, as the Jewish people have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. See, you have to dwell in the light. You have to live in the light. And that requires fellowship with God. You have to become his yoke fellow. You have to become bonded to him. The cohesion, the spirit, quote, makes a cohesion there. That's why he has to give you a spirit. In the Old Testament, I told you the spirit would come and go or whatever. They would get a glimpse of it beyond the horizon. They would get a glimpse of God, but like Job, but he didn't have an understanding until God opens up your understanding to whereby you could understand the scripture. So that's why a lot of people get in the church. There was a lot of people. I don't know about the men that started this church. A couple of people say that they were going to this. You know, we come out of a Pentecostal church. They went and they heard about the baptism and different things. And they called themselves to be evangelists. And they left the church with what little knowledge that they had. Because they grasp a little, and that's talked about in the book of 1 John, I think it is. It says, they were not of us, or else they would have continued with us. See, evangelists don't leave his home church. He's representative of his home church. He'd go and plant other churches, but he'd still have to come to that central place of knowledge, the churches, the ecclesia, the call-out ones. So they sent out evangelists. So that message has to be the same. The gospel has to be universal. So we all have that one learning point in my home with my children. They have to continue to be in my home to learn my ways and everything. And that's why God patterned it with the husband and the wife because the husband would give it to the wife and the wife would teach the children. And that's how Moses became so knowledgeable and knew all these things because His mother taught him. His mother was his nurse. Pharaoh's daughter wasn't his nursemaid. Remember, she called for Moses' mother, told Miriam to go get one of the Hebrew women. And through God's providence, he was going to get Moses' mother to raise him. So she taught him of the Jewish or the Hebrew. And that's the woman's responsibility, was to teach the children. And that's why God didn't want them intermarrying or whatever. to be taught heathen practices and the things of the heathen. So we're to bear witness in these earthly vessels, we're to learn to bear witness of that light. Now I ain't got way, I kind of forgot where I was coming from with that in trying to stick with my notes here so I can cover everything. We must live our lives according to how Jesus lived his life. In other words, A lot of people here and coming up here at Eastern, they talk about the resurrection. But see, when you skip all the way to the resurrection, you're missing, how did Jesus live his life? We have to live our life as he walked. We have to walk as he so walked. That's essential. I can't say that's the only thing. The resurrection, the victory had been accomplished, but now we have to walk there in. We have to live as Jesus lived. So the life of Jesus, the death, burial, and resurrection, all of it's important, so you can't put it all on the resurrection. So Acts 1034 says now, how God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. So what did Jesus do? when anointed with the Holy Ghost and he told them to tarry at Jerusalem until you receive power from on high. You remember, Apollos was going around preaching what John the Baptist had preached to him, but he hadn't received the Holy Ghost. He was a good orator and had a large following, but something was lacking. Priscilla and Aquila pulled him to the side and asked him had he received the Holy Ghost. They received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. He says, dwell at Jerusalem and do, you know. So there's a lot of people out there preaching and teaching without the Spirit. That's why it says, Jesus said they're false prophets. They come in Jesus' name. The Jehovah Witnesses use Jesus' name a whole lot now. It's gonna be how many of people come in the name of Jesus But it's another Jesus. That's why I said we have to watch this. They're talking about Christian nationalism was a big thing. The day when they rose up was they sang to make a little more money or whatever. Donald Trump now some company is selling the Bibles to make America great again associated with Donald Trump. You see how he's pivoted to religion because he's seen how Joel Osteen and Preble O'Donnell was making money and getting jets and everything. He said, that's a nice racket there. See, Christianity has become merchandising. That's the highest songs of, you want to spend a lot of money on music, you buy Christian music. Now, all of the things, that's what Kanye West had delved in a little bit, and Bethany promoted him here at one time or whatever. You've seen the fall he's taken, but they are selling Trump, some people are selling through, Trump said it through his true social last night, I think the Bible, the 59-95. Well, the Christian world can't make too big an issue behind it because, well, all of the ministers and things have their own Bibles, you know, Jimmy Swaggart's study Bible, the John MacArthur study Bible. Every ministry or whatever has their version of their study Bible, a Bible, and, you know, they try to, but anyhow, You have to it says how god anointed him with power went about doing good So that's part of life is doing good and truth And it says in healing all that were oppressed of the devil and god was with them Now john went out and you remember what jesus told me said john didn't do any miracles, you know John didn't work one miracle But he had the holy spirit. He was born with the holy spirit He says, but he wasn't that light. He says, John 1, 6-9, he says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. Through who? The light that is Jesus Christ that they might believe. Here comes that menorah of fact that I was telling you about. John wasn't that light. And John would tell people, I'm not even worthy to untie or unlatch his shoelaces, the sandals on his shoelaces. He said it wasn't him. It says, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighted every man that coming into the world. Now, I don't know what religion you belong to or whatever, but if Jesus Christ doesn't like you, if it's not, that origin is not of Christ, if it's Buddha or Islam or something else where Jesus is not the son. Candace Owens is a young black lady that, you know, she's out on a friend's level or what, and she's of a Seminism, I'm getting tired talking, I need some water here, but anyhow, When you say Christ is king, that gets a lot of people, and they call you, sometimes they say you're being anti-Semitic, because you know, a lot of the Jewish people still don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. He's the king of the Jews. You remember they wrote that on his thing, and they rejected it. Don't put king of the Jews on there. And that was Paul's fight, because he didn't know Jesus. He knew God. He would die for God. He was going around persecuting them. But he didn't know Jesus. He says, Lord, who art thou? Until Jesus showed himself unto you, and then you take his yoke upon you, you hadn't received that light. So once he gives you of his light, he lighted every man coming in the world. So you know people that have received the light of Jesus Christ. It changes. They don't have to tell you. I don't have to tell you this is light. I don't have to say this is light. All I have to do is cut it on let your light so shine so you don't have to tell people people should see Your good works. It should see your action. It's from the life you live. That's why they say it's kind of blasphemous Everybody was saying how blasphemous it was for trump to declare last week He said it was comparing him to jesus for what he was suffering going the code or whatever and they say well look I think this is a bit hypocritical because he's going for to criminal charges for paying hush money to a prostitute. We don't see how y'all make an analogy to Jesus Christ here. I don't think it was an accusation of him with the woman at the well. I don't think it was sexual innuendos or anything about the life of Christ. If it was, it was some pagan religion or some Da Vinci code or something that had something like that. It's some paganistic thing. They tell you about Mary Magdalene or whatever, but it wasn't associated scripturally with Christ. But he was the light, it says. He lighted every man that come in in the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Because the world was in darkness, and the world is still in darkness. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the will of God." In other words, that's who gave birth to him because he had instilled his DNA in him. You remember he told Joseph, he says, fear not to take Mary as your bride because that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy Spirit. That which is in us, if you are born again as one Lord, one faith, one baptism, the Lord births you again, the Spirit determines those that receive the spirit. Man, handshake, nothing you can do. It says, not of the will of the flesh, not of the blood of anything. It's by the will of God. God determines who he places in it. Well, that germ, that seed, that word of faith, he causes that seed to grow in you. That's why you can't forsake the assembling together of yourselves and growing the Lord. You can't be a lone wolf going around and growing the Lord. Because he made the church, and he typed and shattered that in the Old Testament. It had to have a central meeting place. The church has a central meeting. That's why Jesus said that the church that met in the people's homes at that day, because he moved it out of the synagogue, out of organized religion, that they wasn't the light of the world. He said that we were the light of the world, and that we should let our light so shine that men would see So it ain't what you say you are. You go around doing what God had put in you to do. It's going to come out. You just has to have faith in what's in you, what you're thinking, what you're doing. In your actions, that's faith. You can't see faith. So God is telling you this, and you have to. That's why religion is so that you can't go to court with these things, because God can't be proven that way. You have to step out on faithful something that you can't see but on your belief. He says, to those that believe, those that believe on him, on his name, on who and what he done and what the testimony is on the word of God. And that's why we stand up on the word, he says. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we've beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth. Grace and truth. And so truth was that light. It was that light that decks up. So what we have is that light is within us, and it's a small light to begin with. The light doesn't start off so brilliant. It's like if you're in the dark or whatever, or you're sleeping or something, what happens? You end up talking to somebody, just switch on that light. If it was dark, it blinds you, doesn't it? If you were inside a while or whatever, we was in Carlsberg Caverns. Then it was in New Mexico or whatever, or wherever, Carlsberg Caverns. And they cut out the lights. And it's the darkness. You can feel the darkness around you. You ever been in darkness, but then stepped out in the light until your eyes get adjusted to that light? That light blinds you. That's why when they dilate your eyes or whatever, they give you the glasses or whatever. They give you the dark glasses and you walk around inside and if it's a sunny day outside, it really gets you. You're driving and they tell you you're bringing somebody with you or something, some people. Psalms 119 and 1, walking in the light, it says, happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God. Happy are all who search for God and always do His will. rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in its path. You have given us your laws to obey. Oh, how I want to follow them consistently. Then I will not be disgraced, for I have a clean record. And after you have corrected me, I will thank you by living as I should. I will obey. Oh, don't forsake me and let me slip back into sin again. See, because once he comes into your life, once he borns again, births you again, he justifies you. In other words, he puts you in right standing with God. He wipes the slate. He cleans the slate. You have a clean slate. Your sins are no longer remembered. There's no condemnation in Jesus Christ. Now, if you go out there and get dirty to the point that you don't believe, you're walking in the Word, and you're being washed by the Word. You're being cleansed by the word. It comes by obedience and walking in the truth. The truth is very important. This morning, I had gotten up and I had a 3 o'clock appointment at the physical therapist. And what I think about physical therapy, I'm not as needy here or there or whatever. It wasn't going to fit into my morning routine. It wasn't going to fit into me getting there at 3 o'clock today. I just had so much going on. A lot of places there, if you cancel and don't give them a 24-hour notice, they still charge you a fee. And if it's something unworthy or whatever, they just go cancel it without charging that fee. Now here's Satan telling me to tell I'd already told them the other day or whatever something was wrong with my wife and something was going on because different things had came up, but I never did lie about it. But this morning, something was said, well, just tell them your wife had, she still had to do this. It was coming up with all sorts of excuses and everything. That brings you into darkness, compromise. Remember I told you, compromise with the world or the things of the world or whatever? So I just told I said, I can't come today. I'm not going to be able to make it today. You say, OK, Mr. Jackson, you'd like to reschedule that or whatever? I said, yeah, can I reschedule it for money? I said, is it going to cost me a fee or whatever? He said, no, that's OK or whatever. But just think, to try to avoid the consequences of paying and getting out of it, I could have told what they call a small white lie or whatever, but a lie is a lie. Excuse or whatever, no matter. But when I just told her I couldn't come, I wasn't coming today, and she said, well, that's OK. Do you want to reschedule it or whatever? You see, a lot of times we do things to avoid the consequences of we try to sometime equivocate on matters or whatever. But God's looking for truthfulness and integrity in our walking and in our life. Continuing on, it says, how can a young man stay pure? by reading your word and following its rules. I have tried my best to find you. Don't let me wander off from your instructions. I have thought much about your words and stored them in my heart so that it would hold me back from seeing. Bless, Lord, teach me your rules. I have recited your laws and rejoiced in them. more than enriches. I will meditate upon them and give them my full respect. I will delight in them and not forget them. So that has to be precious to you. Meditate in the word day and night. Ask it to direct you. I told my wife the other day, was thinking about getting another vehicle. I said, have you been praying about what vehicle to get? Praying about this vehicle or whatever. For a couple of weeks or whatever, I was supposed to go see a car the other day. It was scheduled to go see one Friday. and all of these things, but it came to me today and I told my wife, I said, well honey, I think we're going to need to wait. I hadn't got any clarity or voice from God on this or whatever. I think we need to just wait and save up and just put the money aside and just make the down payment a little bit larger and make do with my car, the car we have. I was a little bit upset with it or whatever and wanted to But it would have been an irrational thing, and I wouldn't have had the green light. Because a lot of people go out and buy stuff and get stuff and say the Lord told them or whatever, and they're lying on the Lord. They didn't have a clear thing from the Lord. The Lord doesn't hinder you or whatever. Just say, you decided to get these. But a lot of people say, well, the Lord told me to do this. And they never carry out on what they say the Lord told them to do. They had got that to consume it upon their own lust. upon their own desires and everything. They do things without being led by the word of God. That's your lamp. God hadn't showed you a clear path in that. You've done this. What are you doing with that? You know, years or months later, you said God had told you to do this. Are you using it in a godly purpose? Is it being used for what you said God had led you to do it? God's not the author of confusion. So you were in darkness. You didn't have fellowship, or you wasn't in union with God. That was self. That's your worst enemy. You remember, when you attempt to do good, evil is right there. If we understand the Old Testament laws have applications under the new covenant, we should also understand that Psalms 19 and 1 was written for us. And walking is an action. We could know the word, but we must be doers of the word. and put it in use in our everyday life. It requires effort for us to get somewhere. That's why I say it's a walk, a life. It requires effort. A lot of people think when you just come to God, then everything is automatic. No. Then it becomes more precarious and circumspect, because Satan's going to try to complicate your life. And it's going to be a worse thing, because if they did it to the green tree, they're going to do it to the dry tree. It is doing something. God's laws have a physical application, and they are to be used, to be kept, to be observed in our life experiences, interacting with other people in the rest of God's creation. You have to do it as Jesus did. If not, that darkness will stay in you. The word comes in to shine a light on you, shine a light on your actions, what you're saying and what you're doing. It may cause a division in your home. It may cause divisions. We have to observe or keep them. We have to walk in them to be sanctified. For the word to wash you and cleanse you, when we say sprinkle, it's going to come a little at a time. It's a process how you get stronger because It's like taking medicine, sometimes you have to get used to the consequences of telling the truth. But you have to learn to do it no matter how bad it hurts, no matter what the consequences are. You have to be truthful, you have to be faithful to God. Put another way, the character God is creating in us does not become ours unless it's put into us by way of practice. That's why you're not saved and he just takes you on home. He says, I've provided the way. I've provided the path. He was the pattern rafter. He was the example. That's why Jesus came as a man. If he wasn't a man, he didn't have the ability to die. It wouldn't have been a death if the spirit that affected, the spirit that was in him, he came as a man so that we as men would be able to follow him. If he was God, we couldn't do what God did. His faith and trust was in God. Our faith and trust has to be in Jesus Christ. Everything is given to Jesus. We have to get sight of him now. We have to get our eyes on him. 1 Thessalonians 4 10 to 12 says, but concerning the pure brotherly love that there should be among God's people, I don't need to say very much, I'm sure, for God himself is teaching you to love one another. Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christian brothers throughout your whole nation. Even so, dear friend, we beg you to love them more and more. This should be your ambition to live a quiet life, minding your own business and doing your own work, just as we told you before. As a result, people who are not Christians will trust and respect you, and you will not need to depend on others for enough money to pay your bills. You don't have to go out and say sell or do something to make a living because God guides you in living, God provides as he provides for the lenders of the field. But a lot of people stoop to the practices and the things of the world. They start playing the lottery, they start gambling, they start missing church, they start doubling up in working in business ventures and things that they shouldn't have because they hadn't learned to trust God and to concentrate on themselves. They start keeping up with someone else. I could have, you know, my daughter was showing me how to go about to get this vehicle or whatever, but I said, well, no, because that may put me in a bind here at the church. I may not be able to pay this. I may not. Because it's a sin to get yourself too far in debt till you can't pay what's promised and live so you can help others and do for others. Some people start working so much they don't have time for themselves. It is beyond question that Christians should be compassionate. And that's what we have today. of Christianity that's not compassionate, of Christianity that's full of hate, vitriol. They're very pugnacious. Just Christianity today is blasphemous to the name of Jesus. That's why a lot of people are upset, and that's why we see the division, because they're not in light. They're in darkness. They would see that they're walking in darkness and lacking integrity in these areas. We are to give to the poor and aid the needy, which they don't want to do now. They want to close down all types of entitlements. They want more and more. They love mamma. They love prosperity. And Jesus says, what you've done to the least of these, you've done unto us. See, because in the way that Satan's teaching them, you remember I told you when Cain started to come into the church when the sons of God allowed this wall to be breached, just like when the United States allowed the chapel to be preached, breached. And now the guy that's running for president said if he becomes president, he's going to pardon everyone that was jailed in that insurrection. So that That in itself, those of us that are in light can see that democracy is about to fall. We can see that this division has come about. We can see what's going on if you're walking in the light. We are to lend a helping hand to those who have stumbled and bear the burdens of the weak, according to Acts 20, 35, Galatians 6, 2, James 1, 27, and et cetera. It is sin to us if we know to do good and fail to do it, according to James 417, Proverbs 3, 27 to 28, and so forth. But how far does this go? See, that's why I say, since Satan ministers have turned themselves into ministers of life, how many of us, our children, are sitting in churches where Satan is the head of that church. Well, these are ministers of darkness that has been transformed into ministers of light. Because why? The blind is leading at the blind, and you can't distinguish or make a difference. Watch what happens this coming Sunday. Watch what happens. And it's a lot of men that's going to compromise themselves. They may have weak spouses that may not stand up or may not even understand or know they're walking in darkness. God may save them because they're doing it out of ignorance or being deceived as Eve was deceived and was doing it in ignorance. Whereas Adam received a severe punishment because he knew better. That's why we just said, to know good and not do it, it's even worse. You could be beat with many more stripes. He knew what God had said. He wasn't deceived. The woman was deceived. She was deceived, but that's why God promised her a redeemer. But Adam knew. Adam was in transgression. We have to be strong. And sometimes it may be better for your spouse to go their way. It may be better for your children not to visit you. It may be better for you and your parents to part ways. You still love your parents. You still go around. That's why I purposely said that we must love one another and that brotherly love must continue. So we have to seek the spirit to teach how to keep the peace. how to be diplomatic about these things. We can't hate one another. Why it says you must hate mother, father, brother, because that's a spiritual speech when it says you must hate them. In other words, you must be steadfast, immovable in the faith, but your light has to draw them to you or repel them away from you. Father in darkness, they'll be punished by Satan, and you have to be strong enough to allow that punishment that Satan would destroy the flesh. We don't know what Job's children was doing, but Job's friends indicated the reason Satan, the reason Satan was allowed to take Job's children, that Job's children had transgressed, just like when God took Nadab and Abihu. And he told Aaron not to say anything, or else he would punish Aaron also, maybe even with death. Because Aaron knew his sons had transgressed. It was plain, the priest had to take fire from that altar. We have to take fire. We have to get our light from Jesus Christ. They were drunken. They used fire from another altar from a different place than what God took. Stop getting your gospel. Stop bringing back into our churches all of this, as Jasper Williams would say, all of this old foreign doctrine. I can tell if you didn't went to your wife's church, or you didn't went to your husband's church, or this is your family or somebody else's, because you bring it back in here. You start talking like, you can tell when your children's friends are influencing them or whatever. You can tell when somebody's been around the room. It says bad company corrupts good manners. Be careful who you associate with. Philippians 2, 14 through 16. Do everything without murmuring or questioning so that you may prove yourself to be blameless and guileless, innocent and uncontaminated, children of God without blemish in the midst of a morally crooked and spiritually pervaded generation. among whom you are seen as bright lights, beacons shining out clearly in the world of darkness. So we have to maintain this, it says. Do everything, no matter what it is, without murmuring or complaining. But how can you do it that way? Because why? The spirit that's in you, the light that's in you, is what's leading you in this way. And that's the word of God. That's why I say study to show yourself approved. Because you have to know, not your mama, not your daddy, not somebody else. You have to know God for yourself. You have to work out your own salvation. When I say work out your own salvation, in other words, It's not how to be saved. In other words, the process you go about while saved. You see, because faith has words. A faith without words is a dead faith. So you have to have this insight in God's word is the only thing that gives you insight from meditating on it day and night. That's the light. It's the light that's in you. And the only way that that light could become brighter The only way that that light can shine is like Moses when he went up the mountain and he sat in the presence of God all of that time when Moses came down he had to put a veil over his face to speak to people because his face shone. It was so shiny. People can tell when you're in the presence of God. At the council, they said, this fearful little Peter that the maidens had scared into him saying, I never knew him to sway and curse. Now when they was about to flog him and they was about to take his life, and they said, didn't we command you to not preach in this man's name? And Jesus said, man should obey God, because now they know he's been in the presence of Jesus. He learned it's all for nothing. I got to let that light shine. People got to see my boldness in Christ. You have to start bringing this out. That's what's going to shock your wife. That's what's going to shock your husband, children, or parents, or whatever. When you start taking a stand somewhere, stop being a pansy and letting everybody push you over. People have it to where they think, just because you're a Christian, you're supposed to let people step on you and walk on you. And that's not so. We don't see Christ being stepped on and walked on. He gives you a holy boldness. The living version says, in everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like a beacon like holding out to them the word of life. You constantly hold on to the word of God. No matter what happened with Job, he held on to God. He said, go and slay me. You have to have that flickering light. He's not going to put that, God's not going to allow that light to be put out. It's like the lighthouse. You're in the midst of darkness, but that light's going to so shine. If you will arise, he said, arise. In other words, the reason he said arise, in other words, you must take an action. Don't be naive. Don't just sit at your back, stir up that thing within you. Sometimes you have to stir this up. You have to bring this thing out. You have a rowing line chained up in you. Why not just open the cage? Just open the cage and let him out. And if you keep growing in the word of God, the more you study that word, the more you water it with prayer, the more you come to corporate prayer, the closer you get to Christ, the more you will shine. And people will start seeing what you take in that stand. It's a lot of people come back and tell their sisters and brothers or spouses or their friends that they're in church now or whatever. Well, what gets that friend or whatever that kind of bewilders them because they never did tell that sister or brother or friend about church or about anything Christ-like. And if they're not in church or doing that, they will have to say, you know, that was a good move. That's a good thing or whatever. And they will have to be mighty strong to be able to challenge them on what they're saying on their church or something. So that means that you have to be strong in your faith to believe else you will get swayed along with them and what they believe in. They're going to start saying, you know, in my church, we're doing this and we're doing that. Well, how can you draw a line there? When people be telling me about certain things in their churches and everything. And I said, well, no, we have church on Saturday. If you want to go into that Sabbath argument or whatever, I can go into it with you in a wise way. I'm not looking for a fight, but I'm not fit to get blistered in this thing. You will realize that you've been in a stuffle. You have to bloody his nose, because it says, soon you shall crush Satan under your feet. But you're not going to do that watching television and playing video games, because why? The enemy has already went in the church and hid. And while he's in there hiding, he's reading the books, and he's doing all these things. And he's learning the counterfeits. When I first came in the Pentecostal church or whatever, call itself speaking in tongues or whatever. The pastor had to be his assistant pastor. And then as he passed, and I started pastoring or whatever, and they start right before this church split, they had this family come in. And some little woman or whatever and her brothers and things was in there. And she come, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. And I'm like, what is she doing? It's like a pygmy or something running around there. What did she say? Her brother would come in. Anything they would say was the same mumbo-jumbo in interpretation. OK, so I'm supposed to believe that's what she said just because you telling me that, and I don't trust you? You don't understand this thing about tongues and why tongues was in the church, and it was in the infantile state. That's why I said study to show yourself approved. So ain't no use in me and you getting into that argument. You sit down, y'all sit down, don't interrupt the church anymore. OK, well, you can't stop times in this area. Well, Paul did. Paul said to stop it. See, we're not looking at what's going on. We're being mesmerized by some people when they get up and say, the Spirit of the Lord told me and the Lord told me. OK, there's no way I could confirm that or whatever. You sit down until this gets another way. Everything is done, decent and in order. But if you're not spiritual enough, if you're not strong enough, you say, oh, that is scripture. But you're going to be led away. Why? Because there's always a Judas goat. You never get rid of the Judas goat. You have to get rid of the weak followers. So there's no reason God's going to allow Trump to get pummeled now. But just like the lady the other day that has Ronald Daniels that They had to resign their job or whatever. You have to get the followers. You have to don't get the one that's able to lead others astray. That's why Jesus didn't burn. That's why Jesus didn't kill Satan. He needs Satan to help prove y'all. You remember I read that scripture to you a few weeks ago that he left the people in the land to test those that wasn't used to war. Because you could think the world is rosy, rosy, and all those walk hand in hand. But you better beware of some preachers, teachers, and deacons, and people in the church, everybody to hug your neck. We in a warfare now. That's why I say, Paul say, if a brother be a fornicator or a thug, don't fool around with him. It's better that somebody outside the church. But if you in the church doing all this foolishness, we need to start learning church discipline. It says, Ezekiel 9, 1 through 6. Then he thundered, call those to whom I've given the city. Tell them to bring their weapons with them. Six men appeared at his call coming from the upper north gate, each one with his sword. One of them wore linen clothing and carried a writer's case strapped to his side. They all went into the temple and stood beside the bronze altar, and the glory of God rose in Israel from between the guardian angels where he had rested and stood above them. And the Lord called to the man with the righteous case and said to him, walk to the streets of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who weep and sigh for the things that are done in the city." So that's what I'm saying. God had already marked his people. He knows the true believers in everything. But it's time for us to start using the sword. He says, in the last days, he's going to send his angels, his messengers. They're going to separate the wheat from the tare. The sword is the word of God. That's your rod. That's the hammer that he's going to put on the nation. We have to learn how to wield the sword, wield the word of God, because some people wield it to their own destruction. But we're not fit to just walk along the road kumbaya just because you're going along with that. That might be your Jesus. That might be who you believe in. But I'm saying, let's put him to death. Let's put him under our foot. Let's shine the light on him. See, light dispels darkness. They don't want the truth. So when you come to me talking about Good Friday or whatever, can you prove that scripturally, that from Friday to Sunday, It's three days, because Jesus said he was going to be in the salt of the earth three days and three nights. And I think he knew what three days and three nights was. You can't get that from Friday to Sunday morning. We can't get that. Matthew, the fifth chapter, says, I'll close with this. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its savor, well, which shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that's set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bush, but on a candlestick and give it light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The Amplifier says, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste, in other words, its purpose, if we lose our purpose and our way, what are we good for? We going to hold hands and let the wolves take over? Or we going to snatch that sheep's clothing off of the wolf? That's another sheep he killed to get that clothing he has on. The wolf that comes into you in sheep's clothing, he hadn't put on Christ. He had put on another saint. You didn't put on some other preacher or what somebody else say. But let me see what you believe. Let's put you to the test. Let's put you to the trial. Let's turn up the fire under you, because you didn't found the sheep that was on the stray. You didn't fleece these sheep. This lady, I seen her the other night, Rona Daniels, and Kristen Walker was grilling her or whatever. She was the only one that got a chance to grill her. But she's saying, well, it was my job to do this and this. OK, I don't know if it was your job or whatever. You gave all of us a job and a purpose or whatever. But you're working with the wrong one. Your boss paid the wages of what your boss paid is sin. But the gift of God, he gives you that. That's the gift my boss gives to me is eternal life. And I have to stand for that. And I can't compromise. That's why it says you have to stand your ground. Don't back it. If he gives you a piece of ground, stand on it, and he's going to give you more. But if you yield that piece of ground, you can't advance the cause. And if you let somebody that just joined the church, somebody that joined the church for intentional motion, your salt didn't lost its savor. You know, salt is a funny thing. You put too much salt in your beans or in your greens or something, you can't hardly eat it. But have you ever had a bit of watermelon or whatever or something, and you sprinkle just a tad of salt on it, same like it makes it sweeter? Salt is a preservative. But if it lose that quality of preserving something, you just want to save it and get a truckload of it and throw it out there on the road when it freezes. At least we could travel it underfoot, it'll keep us from slipping. You can drive your car on it. That's the only thing that's good for it is walking on. You know, salt is a sterilant. That's what they sold to Jordan with Jericho. That's how you make ground sterile is you put salt in it. It says, how can it be made salty? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and walked on by people when the walkways are wet and slippery. You are the light of the world that is the light of Christ to the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put on a basket. But I tell you what, though, they will come trying to draw from your fire. They will come warming themselves like Peter kept warming himself to somebody else's fire. And every time he would go to somebody else's fire, they would call his hand and he would have to go denying he knew the light of the world. But when the light of the world set him on fire, when it lit him, they couldn't tell he had been with Jesus. They told him, this man's been with Jesus. He didn't have to tell them that he didn't know Jesus. Now we know you do know Jesus because of your boldness. You're not a coward anymore. So if you're at home and your spouse is stomping on you and treating you the wrong way, maybe your light is not shining the way it is because God puts order back in the home. God's gonna put order in this world of chaos. He's gonna bring order because he says, let light be. Light moves upon the earth and it dispels the darkness. The earth was out, which was out formed in void. It was darkness because Satan had brought it to that condition. If you notice, Satan was already in the dark. God took that one point, the garden, in this world, all that other darkness, and God set Adam in that garden. To tend the garden, he gave Adam dominion. But Adam ceded dominion. And it was because of the woman. It's always the woman. It's always the woman. The woman's stronger than me. And God told him that you shall that your desire shall be under your husband. That woman's going to seek to control her husband if she can get the control in. But see, God had told her that he shall bear rule over you. See, but the husband's not feeling that role. How many churches you see where the wife is running things? That's why I say if a man can't run his own house, he can't run God's house. We know who wears the pants in most families. Have you seeded that power? But if you in God, God had set an order, and all you have to do is walk in God's order. God's going to put it in order. You don't have to do anything. All you have to do is walk in what God gives. Walk in the light. That's it. Here's the instruction book. Walk in his light. He's the light. It says, he lighted every man coming into the world. He says, if you are the light of the world, a city set on a hill. So he had lit us. We walk by his light. Don't walk by anybody else's light. It has to be by the word of God. He given us the spirit. He given it to each man that he had predestinated, chosen. But it's not going to get any brighter. It's going to get dimmer. It's like glaucoma. Sometimes the doctors say, well, we will have to come in and clean the top of your eyes because they've come cloudy or whatever, we would have to do laser surgery. Well, that's what God's Word do. The interest, I have it on here later on in the notes, not tonight, that the interest of God's Word give it light. But you have to let that Word keep coming into you.