02-10-23

The speaker starts by greeting everyone and expressing his joy at seeing them. He mentions that they won't be on for long, but they will read a verse and discuss it. He then addresses someone who shared that their child was told by their teacher that Jesus was transgender, expressing shock and sadness. He clarifies that using violence to progress the gospel is not Christian behavior and highlights the humility of the Apostle Paul. He then reads from 2 Corinthians chapter 12, emphasizing the importance of grace and how it is made perfect in weakness. The speaker encourages listeners to rely on God's grace in their struggles and not to deny the storms they are facing, as God's grace is sufficient. Good morning, good morning, good morning. That is good. That is good. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. It's good to see you. Good to see you. Good to see you all this morning. Good morning, good morning, good morning. We won't be on, we'll pop it on. Good morning, Kayla, good to see you. Good morning, good morning, Miss Stacey, good to see you. Good morning, good morning, good morning. We won't be on this long this morning, that long, but we're going to read a verse, we're going to talk about it a bit, and I've got to get going, I've got to take care of something for Miss Debbie. So, give us, matter of fact, while you guys are waiting, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Good morning, good morning, H. Logan, good morning, good to see you this morning. Good to see you this morning, amen. Hope everybody's doing well this morning, praise God, another day, it's Friday. I guess y'all have been reading, I guess you all have been reading or seeing on the news, we've got a little sports event going on here in Arizona. The traffic has been horrific. I live in California, my son's teacher told the class Jesus was transgender. Are you serious? On what grounds? How old is your son? That's the question. How old is your son? Good morning, lamb, good to see you this morning. Real quick, let me, let me, let me, I just, I underscore underscore with a little ant and duck, I just followed you. I just followed you. Are you serious? Are you messing with me? I like the Palestinians. Thank you. Back to good morning, good morning. Good morning. All right. Oh, wait, age 13, 18, 13 years old. I don't know if it would, for those of you who are just joining on, uh, uh, this wonderful individual just shared that they live in California and that her 13 year old child was told by their teacher that Jesus was transgender. Now I hope you're being real. I hope you're not just messing with me. I hope you're not just messing with me. I'm not, I'm not, you know, doubting what you're saying, but I hope you're not messing with me because you know, some people get on here and then I get caught up in my emotion and then it backfires on me. Uh, uh, uh, amen. Please. Oh, wow. Please, please help me out here. Please help me out. If, if don't joke with me, are you being very serious? Is that what your teacher told your 13 year old in class? Oh my, my, my, my, I'm man, man. Oh my, my, my. That's sad. Well, I, I, I, I hope that didn't happen. Seriously. I hope that didn't happen, but that is a sad commentary. That is a very sad commentary. And I agree with everybody. We must understand that Jesus went to the cross for the world. This is why the scripture is quite clear that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Jesus loves, how can I put this? Jesus loves the individuals in the world that know if, ands, or buts, but Jesus also hates sin. He hates it. And because, let me look here. And because of the wickedness, the righteous judgment of the Lord will become on this world. So oh my, my, my, that is, that is very sad. Okay. I won't be on this long this morning, not as long as I have been. God bless you, buddy. Thank you so much. But I have to take care of something. But turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians. We've been talking about grace. I want you to see grace. Turn your scriptures to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Also yesterday we got in a little heated debate with somebody saying that Christians progress the faith by violence. I want you to understand something and I want this to be very crystal clear. There have been people that have called themselves or declared themselves Christians that have used acts of violence to progress the faith. Let me repeat that. There are people that have declared themselves or claimed themselves to be Christians, followers of Christ, and they have used violence in the name of Jesus to push the faith or to progress the faith. If one uses violence to progress the message of the gospel, they are not a Christian. Because when we look at the example of Jesus, we did not see violence. We don't see it. We don't see where Jesus committed violence. We do not see where Jesus caused hurt or pain or sadness. We don't look at the apostles. As a matter of fact, we looked at the conversion of Saul into Paul. He started out as a non-believer, or I should say he started out as a non-Christian. He always believed in God, but he didn't have the complete understanding. He was in a violent movement, but when that conversion took place, you can see that Paul never, thank you, Paul was never the same after that. He never wrote in the scripture, use violence to progress the gospel. We know Peter was violent. He cut someone's ear off. But then, if we look at the scripture, we never see an incident where Peter used violence to progress the gospel. So let me make that quite clear. You can read in history that there were people that would, under the banner of Christianity, would progress their agenda, and they would progress the gospel through violence. That does not make them a follower of Christ. So the individual who declared himself yesterday, I'm here, I used to be a Christian, but after, no, I'm sorry, you have to look at history for what it is. My pastor says we're allowed to hate non-Christians. My question then is to ask your pastor to show that clearly in the scriptures, plural, line upon line, precept upon precept. If your pastor, now, I hope he's indicating that you hate their sin, but I don't believe that you can prove in the scripture that one says hate non-Christians, alright? So let's make sure we get that clear one last time. There have been people, even in the last 100 years, 50 years, there have been people that have, in the name of Christianity, have used violence to progress or move the gospel. That is not a Christian. That is an imposter. That is a sheep in wolf's clothing. But that is not Paul the fisherman. Paul wasn't a fisherman. Paul was a religious leader. Peter was a fisherman, but Paul was not a fisherman. He was a Pharisee, to be exact. Okay, let's get to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We've been looking at grace. We can't be on long this morning. I've got some things I need to take care of, but here we go. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, starting in verse 7. Let me pray real quick. Father God, thank you. Thank you for waking me up. Thank you for waking us up. Thank you for grace. Thank you for mercy. Thank you for blessing us. Thank you and praise you. We honor you. We lift you up, Lord, for you are worthy of all our praise, Lord. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So it looks like it's 2 Corinthians, starting in chapter 12, verse 7. Unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me. Lest I should be exalted above measure. We are talking about the subject of grace. We have identified that grace is unmerited favor. We looked at mercy, meaning to not receive something I deserve. But we're reading the writings of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was brilliant. The Apostle Paul could have spoke two, three languages with ease. He was a Roman citizen. He probably lived in a community where the intellects were on the street corners, speaking their philosophy, their ideologies. He lived in maybe a college town to some degree, where he was seeing the many thoughts of the world being executed right in front of him. He studied religion, the Jewish religion. He was a Pharisee. He was deep in his understanding of God. He understood the law. He studied under the feet of Gamaliel. Paul was a very deep person, an intellectual by today's standards, maybe an Ivy League graduate to some degree, illustratively speaking. But he says right here, he says, "...unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation." Paul, in the case when he was Saul, he had that intellectual capacity. But when he understood the revelations of Jesus Christ, I tell you what, he went from A to Z, because when he had the full counsel and the understanding of grace, the understanding of mercy, the understanding of the Messiah. Because remember, the Orthodox Jews did not receive Jesus as the Messiah. So he had the mindset that they do, even the Jews today that are in Israel. They are waiting for the coming of the Messiah. But Paul had a revelation that Jesus was the prophesied intellectual. But he got the full revelation of who Jesus was. As you remember, on the road to Damascus, he was knocked over his horse. Jesus asked him, why do you persecute you and me? He is conversating. He finds himself in a state of blindness. And for the next three days, he is within his inner thoughts. And Jesus revealed himself. And now Paul has the full counsel, the revelation. But now the interesting thing about Paul, there could have been some arrogance. There could have been some self-arrogance with regards to Paul seeing things that most did not see. But he says right here, unless I should be exalted... You know what? Let's go to the NLT on this. 2 Corinthians 12, 7. We're going to go to the NLT on this. I want to hear the contemporary language on this one. Because I really want you to hear what is being said here. Not that you can't there. But I just want to really make sure that we can hear it. It's clear. Watch this. Watch this. He says right here, and what did I say? I'm on 7. 2 Corinthians 12, starting with verse 7. Here we are in the NLT. He says right here... We're going to back up. You know what? I'm going to start with verse 1. I'm going to really back up and start with verse 1. I'm still in 2 Corinthians 12. Thank you for Lambriel. I want us to hear the complete back prior to 7. I want us to hear also the information leading to that. He says, This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell you about a vision and revelation from the Lord. I was caught up to the third heaven 14 years ago. Whether I was in my body or out of my body, I don't know. Only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside of my body. But I do not know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell. So Paul is talking about a vision. He's talking about being caught up to the third heaven. Now the third heaven. What is the third heaven? We have night, day, and the third heaven is the throne room of grace, where the presence of God is. And he is saying he is caught up and he gets this incredible revelation. Now this explains what we were talking about in 7. This revelation could create some arrogance or he could be conceited. This revelation could cause an individual to be hyper religious. But look what he says. We keep going. He says in verse 5, that experience is worth boasting about. Now he says that experience is worth boasting about. He says, but I'm not going to do it. I will boast only about my weakness. Now did you all hear that? Did you all hear that? See, there are a lot of people that get the full counsel of God. Maybe they've really studied and God has revealed that to them. And all of a sudden they become arrogant in their ways. They become arrogant about their knowledge. They've met those people. They want to always push upon you their understanding of the scripture. They always want to push upon you how much they know about the Bible. You've been around those people. These are the people that you will go to the church and they want to showboat. They want to be the ones that, oh, I know it. And they want to belittle you as if you don't know. But Paul is saying this is a revelation to boast about. But look what he says. I will not boast. I repeat, he says that experience is worth boasting about, but I'm not going to do it. I will boast only about my weakness. Now this is all leading to grace because Paul lets us know that in my weakness I'm made strong. See, Paul is understanding his finite thinking. He's understanding how frail his body is. He understands that he needs grace and he needs mercy. He needs Jesus. So we have to get out of ourselves. We have to decrease and we have to understand that we need the Lord. Some of you work out every day. You're strong. You're vibrant. You have great minds. But don't get so full of yourself that you forget that it was by God's grace that you are strong. It is by God's grace that you have intellect. It is by God's grace that you've done financially well or you have good health or you have a wonderful family. It is by God's unmerited favor. Do not boast. Do not boast. Let's keep reading. Verse 5. That experience is worth boasting about, but I'm not going to. I will boast only about my weaknesses. Watch this. Verse 6. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so because I would be telling the truth. But I won't do it because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message. I love Paul's humility. I'm not going to boast because I don't want you to give me credit. I'm not going to boast because I don't want you to look at me through a lens of praise. Let's stop right there real quick. Let me take a sip. Do you know there's a lot of pastors and preachers that like to be praised? Let me repeat that. There's a lot of pastors, ministers, preachers, religious leaders that like to be praised. And that's a scary thing because why? They want the light to be on them. Ricky, one of the guys in church, sent me a video, and I know I'm going to mess it up, but I like what he said. He said, when a pastor is shaking your hands at the end of church, the very thing that he should want to hear is, wow, that was an incredible message with regards to Jesus. Did you get what I said there? This is what this preacher said. I didn't make that up. I just love it. That was an incredible message about Jesus. When you walk out the door, wow, pastor, you did a great job. Wow, pastor, you moved me. Wow, pastor, you're a great preacher. Wow, pastor, you broke that down. There's nothing wrong with letting the man of God know that he served the Lord. But what that preacher should be doing is pointing to Christ. What that preacher should be doing is pointing to Jesus Christ. But Paul says here, I don't want you, I don't boast about these things. And he says they're true. He says the revelation that God gave me, that I went to the third heaven, it is something to boast about. But I don't want you to look at me as someone special. I am pointing you to whom? Jesus Christ. I am pointing you to the one that went to the cross and resurrected on the third day. I'm pointing you to the one that sits at the right-hand side of the Father. I am pointing you to the one that saved us from damnation. I am pointing you to Jesus. And he says, I don't want you to view me in any other way, or exceptional, or better than. But I am pointing you to Christ. But I won't do it. Because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message. Even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh. Did you hear that? This person said it right there. Paul got closer to God and left feeling more humble, not more righteous. Not more righteous. See, that's the problem with a lot of people, self-righteousness. We think we're better than. We think, somehow, we think God has blessed us more than the other person. But what does Paul say? He says, this is such a wonderful revelation. I'm looking at verse 7. This is such a wonderful revelation from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, because you know what happens when there's pride. He says, to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, watch this, a messenger from Satan to torment me and to keep me from becoming proud. We don't know what that is. I know people have speculated. But there was an illness. There was a discomfort. There was something in Paul's flesh that caused him to stay on his knees and keep his head up and to understand grace and to understand mercy. Some of you might be experiencing something right now. You might be dealing with something that you have been struggling with. People ask me all the time about prayer. And there are some of you right now, you've been struggling with an illness, you've been struggling with a relationship, you've been struggling with your finances, something. I'm not sure what it is. It might be a relative. It might be a parent. I'm not quite sure what it is. But you are continuously struggling, you're serving God, God has given you revelation, you study your word, you are just an on-fire Christian. But there's this part of your life where you're like, Lord, why? Why? Lord, I come to the throne room of grace, I come to you seeking, I come to you as a child of God, and I ask you, why, Lord? Some of you are dealing with that right now. But let's look here. Let's look. He says, and I read what we just read again. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan, to torment me and to keep me from becoming proud. Verse 8. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. As your scripture says in King James, he says thrice. Three times Paul goes to the Lord and says, and I'm sure those prayers were, Lord, I've converted from Judaism to Christianity, I serve you, I honor you, I preach the word. And he did that over and over and over again. But look what he says. He says, three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, my grace is sufficient. And in the NLT it says something different. Each time he said, my grace is all you need. When I go through my storms, when I'm going through the tough things that life offers, when I have prayed continuously to the Lord, when I've called upon my King, my Creator, my Father, I've even said, Abba, Father, in other words, I'm saying, Daddy, help me. Help me, Lord. I cannot help but go back to this, because I'm a child of God and I can't help but turn to this. And in the KJV, he says, my grace is sufficient. My unmerited favor is sufficient. Watch, watch. He says, three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. And each time he said, my grace is all you need. My power works best in your weakness. Oh, let's read the KJV on that one. That is so powerful. I don't want to miss that. He says, for this thing I have sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. In the red light in verse 9, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Folks, in our weakness, in our anxiety, in our depression, in our sadness, in our relationships that don't seem to be going the way they want to with regards to our children, and maybe it's not where it needs to be, whatever it is, if you are serving the Lord in your weakness, you are made strong because it is in your weakness that you have that prayer meeting. It is in that weakness that you call upon the name of God. It's in that weakness that you find yourself, that tears are coming out of your eyes, and you can't help but be on your knees, and you're calling upon the name of Jesus, and you feel the comforting of the Holy Spirit. This is when you are made strong. So don't deny the storm that you're going through, because Jesus is in it with you. I know we want to be comfortable. I know we want life to be full of cherries. I know that we want everything to be easy, but that's not how it is. There are Christians on this app right now that are dealing with a terminal illness, but God's grace is sufficient. There are people on this app right now that haven't been able to speak to their children. They've raised them in the faith. They've taught them of God, and their kids are dabbling in drugs or alcohol or just in the world. There are people on this app whose marriage is about to fall apart. They've prayed to God. They've said, Lord, help me. There are people on this app right now that are Christian folks that just got notice from the company that we don't need your services anymore. But what does Paul say? He says, for the things I have besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me. But what did God say? My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect, and weakness, we've got to get to the point that we say, Lord, I can't do it without you. But I can do all things through you. For you are my buckler, you are my shield, you are my high tower, you are my strength, Lord. I cannot do it, but I know that what you start, you shall bring to completion. Oh, my, my, y'all. There's a word here for us. There's a word here for us. I've got, let me name them off. I'm not going to name names. I just had a young lady in my church who just found out she has kidney failure, young woman with young kids. I got another young lady in the church. Her hemoglobin is so bad, after church, she immediately had to go in and get a transfusion. I've got another individual in the church that just found out she had MS. And the list goes on and on and on, but they're praising God, and you can see the movement of God in their bodies and in their spirit. They've got a joy in their heart. Because why? They understand that God's unmerited favor or God's grace is sufficient. Come on. I know we want the easy road. Paul did not have it easy. Paul tells you right there, I had a thorn in my flesh. It kept me humble. I had a thorn in my flesh. It kept me on my knees, but when I called upon God, and I did call upon God because that's what we do, but God responds, my grace is sufficient. Don't lose your faith. Don't turn from the Lord. Don't give up. Don't retreat. Don't surrender. You keep pressing in. Don't you give up. Because I said, and I will keep saying it, we do the possible. I pray, faith, trusting in the Lord, and God does the impossible. But it'll be to a point where I look back, and I said, the Lord showed up there. There might be a point that I look back and say, I don't know how we got through, but by the grace of God, he got us through. Miss Debbie and I have been homeless. Yes, we lived up and down the central coast in the center of California. And I worked. We had two kids. We lived in a little bitty camper, maybe the size of a closet. Matter of fact, when we bought our first house, the closet that we got, the master closet was bigger than our camper. I went to the closet, and I started crying. I walked in the, I know some of y'all take for granted a closet, but I remember we had a little camper, me and Miss Debbie, two little kids in diapers, homeless, took our showers at the campgrounds. We ate the best ever in our life, because we only ate organic, natural food that was grown on the local farms. I worked every day. I would go to work, come home to a homeless family. And we lived up and down in a camper. Ma'am, I've told you all this, but God made a way. When we bought our house, the master bedroom was so big, I remember walking in the closet just crying, just crying, because I was like, Lord, how do you bless me? But God's grace was sufficient, and he didn't have to give it to me. He didn't have to bless the family. I remember the house, Miss Debbie can tell you, the house that we bought remained empty for a long time. We would sleep with the kids in sleeping bags in the front room. This house was, to us, it was a big house. To others, it's not that big. But it was 2,000 square feet, and we slept in a tent in the front room in sleeping bags, me, the wife, and the babies, the kids. They were kids then, they were five and four. But God's grace, and even if God didn't give us that house, even if God didn't give us that closet, God's grace was sufficient. Think about it. Let's finish this up. Let's finish this up. I'm going to read it one more time, we're going to wrap this up. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I'm glad to boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ can work through me. That's why I take pleasure in my weakness and in my insults and hardships and persecutions and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am made strong. Don't deny the power of Christ. Don't try to avoid what God is doing in your life. Don't get upset because you're going through a storm. Don't get mad at God and shake your fist when the doctor gives you a bad report. Don't get upset because in your weakness, according to the scripture, in your weakness, you are made strong through Christ. Grace, everybody. God is good, and all the time God is good. In God's grace, which is sufficient, but in our weakness, we're made strong. Don't deny that grace. You might be going through a storm. You might be going through a circumstance or a situation, but I challenge you to amp up the prayer. I challenge you to intensify that Bible study. I challenge you to be made strong in your weakness because you're seeking the guidance of your Creator, your Savior. And if you look at history, you want to talk about history, someone coming on this app talking about the Christian movement was progressed out of violence. No. The movement was pushed and progressed on the knees of the praying saints. It was progressed by the proclamation of the gospel. It was progressed by the study of the scripture. It was progressed by the unification of the church, for the gates of hell shall not prevail on the church. That's how the gospel, that's how Christians do it. We don't come to kill, steal, and destroy, that belongs to Satan. We come to share the truth. We come to share the gospel. We come to share love. If need be, we will turn the other cheek, and if need be, at the midnight hour, we will give you a loaf of bread. We will visit the sick. We will take care of the orphans. We will visit the ones that are incarcerated. We will give water to those that are thirsty. We will be the ones that stand strong when it comes to social injustice. That's who we are as Christians. That's what the scripture says. We don't come to kill, steal, and destroy. That's what the enemy does. I hope you have a beautiful morning. I hope God blesses you. Remember, as Paul said in his scriptures, in my weakness, in my weakness I am made strong. Why? Because God's grace is sufficient. It's all you need. I'll leave you one last example. I've been in the medical field since the 80s. Rest assured, I've been in rooms that were with Christians, and I've been in rooms with non-Christians, and you could always tell the difference, even though they might have the same illness, which is going to lead to the same outcome, and they might only have days or weeks to be in this world, but the Christian folks understood God's grace was sufficient. They had a joy in their heart, a smile on their face, because they knew that any moment they were going to see their maker. God bless you all. Have a good day. May the Lord bless you. Keep your head up. We love you.