Las Vegas Faith Center - Gods Word, Faith Messages, Spiritual Coaching and Religion Studies

True Worshippers

The Las Vegas Faith Center
Message from Sunday, January 10, 1999
“True Worshippers”
by Tiger Todd - Sr. Pastor - Church Sermon

Today’s message is kind of difficult to put into words. It kind of poured out as little revelation spurts.
To begin, I’d like you to turn to Proverbs, Chapter 4. Joseph really likes when things flow together. If they don’t flow together, I guess it’s time to go to another church! Because if it’s just us, the Bible clearly states that we want the excellency of the power to be clearly of God, and not of us. Rock stars have power of themselves, but if you want healing, if you want freedom from poverty, if you want whatever the 6,000-7,000 promises are in the Book freeing your life, it’s going to have to be from God.
Proverbs, Chapter 4. Today, we really need to be caught conscious of how we read what we read. Inflection is crucial. Keeping track of pronouns is crucial. What comes out preached is different than what you would write to read. You even find that with the Apostle Paul. It takes him three chapters to just get the point across, because he says, “Now you know bretheren, it is important that I tell you this. And he is getting ready to tell them what it is, and says, “Because as you know, I went…..” and he goes on for three chapters until he finally gets back to this. That happens because, based upon who is in the room, and who needs what from God, God is trying to define it for every man to hear. Then he can finally get down to the point. So, please listen carefully. Many times we lose track of pronouns, and they shift halfway through the verse, and if you are not conscious of it, you’ll still think we are talking about the initial subject, not the subject God is trying to introduce us to.
Here in Proverbs 4, we’ll pick up in verse 20. It says “My son attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they (my words) saith the Father of the Son. Out life unto those that find them and health (Hebrew cross reference says medicine) to all their flesh.”
The reason why I began with that? It’s like, Why am I here? Why am I in church? What is the point? And even the people that once knew the answer may have forgotten the answer if they don’t go back and find out exactly why…Do I feel better? Do I like to hear the pastor make a
fool of himself singing a Sinatra song? Do I like to….whatever it is. What is truly the reason why you are here?
As in any job, any profession, any vocation, the more you understand about that job, the more of that job you will be able to walk in. Usually, it also directly correlates to a pay raise, to an increased benefit package, etc. A lot of people working at Taco Bell are not engineers due to a lack of understanding of engineering, right? So if a lot of people in the world are not living life to the fullest, it’s most likely because they have a lack of understanding about life. We have the instruction from the Bible that says, “My son attend to my words” because if you listen to these words, these are the only words in the universe that bring life to those who find them. And, (the other thing you can’t get at Taco Bell), health to all your flesh. Now, I don’t mean any disrespect to Taco Bell, I’m just saying that the only place you can get life and peace is in the Bible.
And he says, “Attend to these words”. If you are not healthy, get in the Word. GET IN THE WORD!. I was walking down the drugstore aisle looking for band-aids, and I saw Robitussin, and all these other cough syrups, and I saw “expectorant”. Well, I’m “expectorant”, I mean, expectant. We ought to have our own little faith bottles of stuff. When you need to get your faith up, when you need to expect for your healing, then you need an “expectorant”.
The Bible alludes many times to the subject “restoration”. It guarantees, in the last days, that there will be the restoration of all things. And up until this last week, I thought it really only meant natural things. “Oh, I remember when that dirty dog stole from me back in l9-whatever.” “I remember when I didn’t have this, I remember when this thing was taken from me”, and so on. And so we are looking for the restoration of all “things”. But I believe, just as Ephesians Chapter 3, Verses 1-5, says that, ” In the last days certain mysteries from God will be revealed”. And in the last days, Joel Chapter 2 says, “The Spirit of God is going to be poured out upon all flesh”. So we are going to have a lot of other types of restoration coming up, and this, I believe, is numero uno on the list.
Don’t think this is just what the minister does, or the minister doesn’t say, ...I remember calling up the Meyers one time and saying, “Boy, you’ve just gotta make it to Thursday night. This is the message of all messages”. And that was two years ago! But it seems like we are on a track where, if you go to our web site, and take a look at our book list, every week we write a new book that the rest of the body of Christ seemingly has no idea about, yet the content is all through the Bible. And as we talked about last week, sometimes we have to not do the Christian thing and do the Bible thing. Because sometimes, they are diametrically opposed to one another.
Who has a Christian emblem, a fish symbol, on their car? I saw one the other day, and this is actually what tipped this thing off. Again, I’m not picking on Taco Bell today. I’m not picking on Christian fish. I was driving along last week, and I saw this fish that had a “Jesus” within it. As I saw it, a scripture was immediately quickened to me….just came alive as it happened. Without reading the scripture to spoil the ending- I mean, we DO have a schedule to this thing- It dawned on me that Jesus would be nothing except what was defined by his relationship to the Father.
Think about the ministry of Jesus without the Father. Can you think of what there would be? Now this is interesting, because I saw on this fish emblem that Jesus had been glorified. And I could not find a scripture where people were ever supposed to glorify Jesus. That bothered me. It bothered me so much that I realized when we had “Jesus” stuck on the side of the van… and again, please know, Jesus is my Saviour, I have chosen Jesus as my Lord, and I have the highest respect for Jesus. As many of you know, throughout the years, I have already been criticized by my preacher peers throughout the country for not really talking much about the blood of Jesus and all these wonderful things.
Well, we have extracted things out of the Bible from the theme of this thread of God which moves through the Bible, not just from traditional slogans. And there are a lot of slogans in the church…so many slogans that it is hard for me to even want to talk about one, but I keep thinking you’re going to think it’s the same old slogan you’ve heard. For instance, “every head bowed, every eye closed”. I can’t even say that without laughing anymore. It’s become such a repetitive thing, that it’s not even holy any more. And that’s sad, because it’s a wonderful thing to have you head bowed and your eyes closed. We recite jingles, “Yo quiero Taco Bell”. We get these slogans all over. But we don’t need them in the church. All we need is some power in the church. If you want to find out where the real church is, we need to see Christians lay hands on the sick, and we need to see the sick get up well. We don’t need to have healing lines when people fall down, but then get up sick. They can fall down if they want to, but we want them up, and well. I come from the standpoint that if we were doing it right, it would work every time, that is, every person that laid hands on the sick, every one of those sick people would be well, just as it said in Mark 16.
“You will lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover”.
So I’m constantly pressing to try to do things right, because God has done it right. So it must be something that I’m not doing right if it’s not working the way He said it would if I did.
Turn with me to Exodus, Chapter 20. The Jesus emblem brought up this scripture. The Children of Israel are finally out of Egypt, the law of commandments have been passed down, and here’s how they read:
God spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which is brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage.”
How many of you guys would like to get out of any house of bondage?....bondage to any addiction, sickness, disease, I mean, you are bound.
#1 Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. That’s a fair request.
#2 Thou shalt make unto thee a graven image (or any fish for your car, or any cross around your neck. Don’t get mad, ‘cause I’m not saying that’s wrong. I think it’s right. I’m all for people wearing crosses, and I’m all for the fish emblems. But now we have a problem with the scripture, don’t we. We’ve got a problem with graven images. We’ve got a God against graven images, but all images, but all of a sudden, we’ve got Jesus fish on the car. How about this? This was not Jesus talking…it was God talking. Thousands of years before Jesus was even born. Well if we treat Jesus as God, and the Bible says God called him God, (which means he has to be), would it be inappropriate to put Jesus before God based upon the scripture “Thou shalt have no other God before me”. Now I’m just trying to make your heads hurt. We need to answer these questions. I don’t think we should leave these things as mysteries. I think we should find out exactly what’s up. What I don’t want is a person in the world , that doesn’t know anything about the Bible, but is a good reader, to bring this to me and tell me this is why I’m full of….....bunk. And that’s exactly what they would do if we don’t have an answer.
The Bible Code. A wonderful book. It’s an insight about how they found hidden codes in the Bible, and the author, Michael Drosnin, and his ability to predict the future based upon a hidden code within the Bible. The “code” put certain events that happened a couple thousand years after the Bible was penned, (or the first five books were penned), and predicted future events within this code. Well if you go to the World Wide Web, and you type in “Bible Code”, you get all these hits where they find that all these assassinations were also in works such as Moby Dick and War and Peace, so some have made a big game of this thing. Well, I don’t want someone to come to me and tell me that his God is a big white whale! And that’s what they’ll do. They’ll laugh at my Book and call it literature. And I know that this Book has saved my life. You know that this book has saved your life. So you know there is something else, but we need to be able to explain the “something else” and not just go to the world with a slogan. Is everyone starting to see where I’m coming around to?
What is this thing about idols and graven images? If the scripture were true, and the emblem was false, why didn’t we burst into flames when we put a cross around our neck? Children of Israel? It’s funny for them, but not ha-ha funny. Why didn’t our Lexus turn into a goat when we put a Christian fish symbol on it? I mean, it could happen! These people heard the law and when a few thousand stepped over on Moses’ side, the other ones went down with their “holy cow”! So there must be a difference.
Turn to John, Chapter 4. Verse 22. Now read this carefully, and look at this carefully.
You worship you know not what”
Oh, I love that! You don’t even know what you are worshiping.
We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews.
The words are in red in your Bible. You know, when they’re in red, that’s Jesus talking.
But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
True worshipers are separate from worshipers that don’t have any clue what they are worshiping. They are worshiping, but they don’t know what they are worshiping. And because they don’t know what they are worshiping, they end up after the preacher is gone, making golden calves. Mark Chapter 4 talks about these are they that heard the word and immediately received it with gladness, but they didn’t have any root in themselves. They personally rooted in God. They were rooted in somebody else who was rooted in the Gospel. And so they only endured but for a time. But Jesus is saying that there IS a place where you can become a true worshiper.
I have wondered what that meant. I wanted to be part of that militia…the “Jesus Seals”...or whatever they call them. I wanted to be part of this, but I didn’t know how. Notice the two things. A true worshiper, worships (1), in spirit, and (2), in truth. I suspect that if we find out something about the spirit and something about the truth, we’ll find out something about true worship.
How many of you have prayed, and it didn’t seem like God answered. That bothers me too. And your Christian friends might have told you, “Well sometimes He answers prayers, sometimes He doesn’t. And God always answers prayer, I’ve seen this in some preacher handbooks where it says, “But He sometimes says “yes”, sometimes “no”, and sometimes “later”. Hey! “Later” would have been what the people who were worshiping the golden calf would have asked for. “OK. Just give us a little more time here”. But God is not a “later” God. He’s now. He’s the “Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”, as Hebrews 11:1 says.
Well, those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, and now look at the next line. The Father seeketh such to worship him. Wait a second. If I had a problem and I needed a prayer, I needed an answer from God. I needed Him to move quickly, dramatically, drastically. How many of you know that we’d be in good shape if it was God seeking me out to get the job done instead of me running around saying, “Oh God, Oh God.”..... and God is saying, “WHAT??? What’s the problem. I heard you the first time”. The Father is seeking a certain type of worshiper. Does anybody here want to be that type of worshiper? I think this might be the first time this has ever been found out. You know this message. But if we really KNEW it, our Christian radio station would have a different voice. If they really KNEW it, people wouldn’t just keep losing legs, and saying, “It’s just my cross to bear”, they wouldn’t just keep evolving downward. And then there’s the Christian story,....when the tires wear out on the car, you’re done. I mean, when you’re driving on the rims, and the rims wear out, you’re done. Or, you’re done with the rims when you try to stop at a stop sign. THEN you’re done, OK? So, there comes a time when you can only wear out. I mean, when your shoes wear out, and you are down to your feet, what happens when your feet wear out? And, boy, if the Father is truly seeking, then something must be up with somebody’s worship.
Let’s see if we can pick this apart. Turn to John 5, because part of the problem we have is not understanding this thing about Jesus. Remember we talked about, that if the Father wasn’t around, Jesus would have had no ministry. John Chapter 5, Verse 17. Jesus answered and said (he just got done healing another guy on the sabbath day. Oh what a tragedy. He got someone healed in church. You’re supposed to wait till the work week). So the Pharisees, the people in church were actually giving him a hard time, but Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
He said, “My Father works too.” Remember, “Our Father, which art in Heaven”...remember that Jesus taught the disciples to pray that prayer? Well, why didn’t the Jews go stone his disciples? They said, “Our Father which art in Heaven”. Why didn’t they go and stone the Catholics? Why didn’t they stone the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, and on down the list. How many people have prayed the “Our Father”. You just, all of a sudden, got numbered with Jesus. And this is important, because no one has a sticker of me on the back of their car, yet I’m doing the same thing.
How about last week when we found out what persecution was all about? Are you really being persecuted for the Word’s sake, or are you being persecuted because you were stupid? It’s one thing to flub up and be persecuted. It’s another thing to do something righteous and stand up for it and take the persecution.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
OH! Do you see what they did in their heads? Well, we’ll get there.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; Say,“the Father”. Every time we read the word “God” today, we need to be thinking “the Father”.
For what things soever he (the Father) doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth; and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. Verse 21 - For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Do you believe that? The words are in red. Jesus is talking about church. Your Christian symbol is still in good shape.
We have no trouble with Jesus, we have no trouble with the Father, but here’s where this thing gets kind of backwards in our worship, and it’s how I think we’ve missed this.
Turn to John 3:16. Maybe you won’t even have to turn to it because I believe it is the most quoted verse in all of Christianity.
For God (the Father) so loved the world that He (the Father) gave His (the father) only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now if Millie were to give me a gift, I mean, we’re friends, and she said, “Oh, I just want to bless you, Tiger” so she just gave me her car. Millie has given me the gift. We’ve been friends for years, and what happens….I take the car, and she never sees me again! She hears reports of me driving the car all over the country, the western world, I’ve even driven to Paris (somehow). I’ve had it repainted, new wheels put on, I’ve done everything for that car but have never spoken to Millie again. Wait a second! The Father gave the gift. Would that be a wrong thing for me to do? Would it be wrong to take that gift and worship the gift instead of the gift-giver? Well, isn’t Jesus the gift? God so loved the world that he gave Jesus, Right?
So why don’t we have “the Father” stuck to the back of our cars? I love these good questions! How did we get off worshiping Jesus at the expense of the Father? I mean, Jesus came. He said, “I don’t come doing anything that I don’t first see my Father do”. The disciples came up to him in John 16 and said, “Show us the Father”. Now, wait a second. For someone to come up say, “Tell me about this Christ thing”, implies that they’ve heard me talk about this “Christ thing”. But the disciples ran up to Jesus and said, “Show us the Father”, which leads me to believe that Jesus constantly, incessantly, and only, preached “the Father”!
How do we glorify the Father? Let me show you. You see, in the Old Testament, they had no idea about the Father. They knew “God”, but they didn’t know him as their Father. The Jews even stood up and said, “We have Abraham as our Father”. But Jesus came, and said, “NO, the Father sent me because you had no clue about the relationship He wants with you”. So in trying to imitate Jesus, we didn’t imitate Jesus, we glorified Jesus. Let me just close off that scripture. You’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. I haven’t done anything that God didn’t tell me to do. I haven’t done anything that God didn’t show me what to do. When I laid hands on the sick, it was the Father that told me to do that. I have tried to show you the Father. Why is it so important to send Jesus, a gift, to you, to show you the Father? Another good question. Because part of the purpose of the Bible is to bring many sons to glory. Jesus even went to the disciples and said, “Hey, when you pray, just pray “Our Father”. God, the Father, sent Jesus, not to glorify Jesus. He sent Jesus as an example of HOW to glorify the Father. You’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. You’ve seen me, you’ve seen how I worship the Father. You’ve seen me, you’ve seen how I pray. You’ve seen me, you’ve seen how the Father deals with situations. You’ve seen me all so you can glorify the Father. Not Me! (meaning Jesus). In fact, on one occasion, Jesus went out wrapped in a towel and just went down and washed the disciples feet just to show them that it was NOT about Him, it was about the Father. Jesus was the son of God. But doesn’t it say in Romans 8:14 that, Those that are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God?
Jesus was the only begotten son, but not any more. The Bible refers to Him as the first born among many brethren. Do we have any brothers and sisters in this room? Sure, we do. Now, one is not worshiping the other. They’re brothers. They’re on the same plane. Jesus was the heir of all things, right? Does everyone know the scriptures, so everyone kind of gets this relationship, without going to them? It says that we are supposed to be joint heirs with Jesus. Heirs to what? ..the inheritance of the Father….joint heirs, not sub-heirs. If I go ahead and put “Jesus” on my car, I guarantee that Jesus will go ahead and put “Tiger” on his car. It’s only fair. He’s my brother.
Well, let’s knock over some more sacred cows. Don’t misunderstand me. Jesus is wonderful, but the glory is supposed to go to the Father. I was driving along, and we were just having a little preach-fest (with someone in my congregation), and we were starting to say, “We are going to change the world”, I mean, all this revelation just started to flow. And I said, “Every knee shall bow”, and he said, “Even Madonna?” And I said, “Yeah!’. Dennis Rodman? “Yeah!” And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord… and we stopped. Because the verse says that every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And we glorify Jesus. It’s cool. Jesus is fine, but we’ve missed out on God,the Father, seeking out our situations to fix them. The Bible says that God does not look upon sin. When he sees me, he sees his righteousness. But if I am misdirecting my prayers, I mean, Jesus said, Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he giveth you. But if your motive and intention is thinking about Jesus, and again, there’s nothing wrong with thinking about Jesus, but we are trying to build a Father/Son relationship. He’s been trying to build it for two thousand years. But instead, we’ve got a Father/Son relationship with the Son. I’ll claim that most of the body of Christ are a bunch of grandchildren. They think their Father is Jesus, and Jesus is the son of God…the only son….the only one with the heirship privileges.
Let’s see what more we can dig up here. John Chapter 14. John, by the way, please read through it again, and look at “the Father”. We’ve come up with all these little assumptions on why certain things happened. Of the eleven remaining disciples, ten of them died a martyr’s death. They chose to be crucified, a couple of them upside down. “Please chop my head off for Jesus”. I’m wondering if they got the message. Jesus said, My life is mine to pick up and lay down and no man can take it from me. Well, are we going to believe the words of Jesus, or the martyrdom of a saint? We’ve got to believe the words of Jesus Christ if we are even going to have a doctrine called Christianity. I know it’s tough when you follow the acts of the apostles and they are not the words Jesus spoke! Nonetheless, the words that Jesus spoke, well, He was the only one that plainly showed us “of the Father”. Isn’t it interesting that John, the Gospel writer of John, 1 John, Book of Revelation, John is the only one that did not die a martyr’s death. And its not that they didn’t throw him in hot oil. He just got back up. Read through the book of John, and you’ll see that he, indeed, had a revelation of “the Father”. I don’t think that the other disciples did. In fact, if you read their gospels, they didn’t.
Turn to John, Chapter 14:8.
Phillip saith unto him Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
Well, Jesus could be telling the church that for the last two thousand years. Have I been so long with you…......Have I been so long with you and you still don’t know me? .... he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; You know what that means. All those people spouting off Jesus never really saw Jesus. They saw a slogan, an emblem. They saw an outer representation. They’ve never really seen Jesus, their brother, or if they had seen him, they would have seen the Father”. Keep reading. Oh gosh, I’m backing up now.
How sayest thou then. Show us the Father? He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. How saith thou then (verse 9 still) show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. I’ve got you under my skin, don’t you know what’s going on here???
A lot of people, even Christians, when they are coughing sick and stuff like that, say, “Oh,don’t come in. I’ve got something”. Well, do you think Jesus would say, “Yuck, I’m sure glad you told me! I could have caught that! But you know, Jesus laid hands on the leper, and he wasn’t afraid that leprosy was going to come on him. Why wasn’t he? He was just filled up with the Father. Leprosy wouldn’t have room to fit! And I believe that more and more as we become more “Father minded”, taking Jesus not as our God, but as our example of what we are supposed to be. Again, this sounds like stuff we are supposed to know. Well, let’s see if it jibes with the rest of the scripture.
Turn to Ephesians, Chapter 3. Look at verse l to start,
For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God (the father) which has given me to you-ward How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read. ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
Did you see that? He’s talking about the Father, but he said the mystery of, he said first “the Father”, but then he says “Christ”. Well, I thought “Jesus Christ”. No. Jesus was Jesus Christ because the Father was in him. The Christ is the Father. The Christ is from the Father. It is a spirit from the Father. It’s not Jesus’ last name. It’s not his lineage. It’s what happens when Jesus of Nazareth leaves Nazareth and meets God. He becomes Jesus Christ.
But we cannot associate Christ with Jesus all the time, because Jesus,... we’ve already screwed up by worshiping Jesus. And we worshipped him because He always had God attached to His name. Christ. But you have to separate it as best you can for a moment so that you can see that Christ wasn’t just meant to stick with Jesus. Verse 5. Notice, it has been a mystery, but the mystery has been revealed.
Which, in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs,
Fellow? Not pawns in the big chess game of heaven. No fellow heirs….
And of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
And it sounds like we are talking about Jesus, but hang in there, because we are not, anymore than we are talking about Him being the gift that the Father gave to get this work done.
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God (the Father), who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God (the Father) according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: (the Father is not the Lord, Jesus is Lord) In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because God gave a gift. God is ready to reveal this mystery. ln other ages, no one knew about this thing, but now, because people have been able to see the difference between Jesus and the Christ, they have been able to know the Father. For this cause I (Paul says) bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ but keep going….of whom, of the Father the whole family in heaven and in earth is named. What does that mean?
Well, in Acts, Chapter 8 they called them first CHRIST-ians in Antioch. That was the way they said they saw people like Jesus. By Acts Chapter 8, some of the disciples had got on it… they started acting like Jesus acted, and showed everyone the Father. And so they were called CHRIST-ians. And they said, “Here comes Vicky Christ, and here comes Peggy Christ, and they look like Jesus Christ. They are acting like Jesus Christ. They’re showing us examples of Jesus Christ. And here comes Dani Christ and Millie Christ”. Is that too hard to imagine?
Turn to Philippians, Chapter 2. They must have had trouble believing this in the church of Philippi, or Paul wouldn’t have had this written.
Let this mind be in you. Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
This is not about making yourself a God, it’s about giving glory to the Father. But we have been so afraid of people calling us “gods”, we’ve been so afraid of even walking in that area, that we have just played around with our gifts and left the Father to think….“Well, there’s another kid that only wanted my keys”. It’s no wonder He wasn’t seeking us. We weren’t seeking Him. It said, “in spirit and in truth”. Jesus actually said when some Jews who did believe came up to Him, I believe in John Chapter 8, and said “Thy” (talking about the Father) “Thy word is truth”. Well, we found that in Proverbs 4.
“My son, attend to my words incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them; and health to all their flesh.
Well, the spirit is a Christ, the spirit is what was in Jesus. The Spirit of Christ.
Turn to 1 John, Chapter 3. I should go have some “Father” emblems made. In fact, I declare for the Faith Center for 1999 that this is all about being a true worshiper. This is all about seeking the Father, glorifying the Father, and just seeing what….Maybe this is the secret to 24 hour miracles….to the way of life where…”.Why did it take so long for that mountain to move? God, is this too big for you???” No. It’s because we need to learn something. 1 John Chapter 3. Now here’s where you have to pay very close attention to your pronouns and your subject, predicate, object, and prepositional phrase.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, (are we the “us”? Sounds like us.) that we should be called the sons of God: (We’re being called the sons of the Father, aren’t we?) therefore the world knoweth us not, (they’re too busy with Jesus.)
People are too busy throwing Jesus at people instead of throwing themselves at people as a servant of God, as in washing their feet. They are throwing, “Well, if you don’t know Jesus, you don’t know my God.” Well, you obviously don’t know Jesus, because the Father sent Jesus to give the example of someone who washed a foot, not beat someone over the head with a fish emblem!) Every time you see “the Father”- say the Father- every time you see the word, “God”, say the Father.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God, (the Father). Therefore the world knows us not because it knew him (the Father) not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God (the father) and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when He (the Father)...Oh. boy, does that blow the whole rapture argument for that scripture out of the water….“Well, when Jesus returns, we’ll be like him.” Hey, if you aren’t like Him, He won’t be coming back for you. No. He said, As He is, so are we in this world. And the Father is saying, “and you had about two thousand years to get it right”. Well, I don’t know, that’s what it said.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God (the Father) and it doth not appear yet what we shall be but we know that when he (the Father) shall appear, we shall be like him (the Father). No wonder those Pharisees threw a fit when Jesus said “Our Father” because he made himself equal with God. But Paul said, “Hey, Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus who thought it not robbery to be equal of God. It’s his idea! It wasn’t my idea. “Who do you think you are?” Well, as Jesse DuPlantis says, “Well, how much time have you got?” Holier than thou? I AM holier than thou. That’s what its about, kids. The Father.
Colossians Chapter 1, and Ephesians 2 at the same time. When he shall return (He, the Father). OK. What’s up….The Father returning. I didn’t hear anything about the Father returning, did you? Did you hear anything in the Bible about the Father returning? Is the Father supposed to return? I thought Jesus was supposed to return! And we would rule and reign with him. Well, let me show you how the Father is going to return, and why this is such a big deal.
First, we will read from Colossians Chapter 1…about verse 24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh Oh! There’s going to be Christ in your flesh. Better be. That’s how you become a son of God. That’s what being born again, or born from above is all about. The literal Greek says “born from above”. You get a new spirit in there. A new creature with a new feature. And fill up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his Body’s sake, which is the church. Now it’s interesting, we’re talking about God here, we’re talking about the Father…whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God. Fulfill. Fulfill!
Ephesians Chapter 2, Verse 18. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone. Do you begin to see what this is like? OK. Verse 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye are also builded together for an habitation of God (the Father) through the Spirit
Now wait. Imagine for a moment, that I have a cinder block here, a standard size cinder block. If you are going to build a house with cinder blocks, chances are, they will need to be the same size Chances are, you’ll want them to look the same. Don’t bring me some little red brick, put it next to the cinder block, and say, “That’s my little red brick. All of it. Only one I’ve got”. The house won’t stand. Jesus is the chief corner stone, which means that all of the other stones that build this house that the Father wants to dwell in better be the same size….better look like Jesus, better act like Jesus, better treat the Father just like Jesus did, better glorify the Father just like Jesus did.
Flip over here to Ephesians, Chapter 4. Verse 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, but the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth (oh, in spirit and in truth) in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: Now in my King James, the word “even” is in italics. That means the translators didn’t think when they translated from Greek to English, that it read well enough. They just added that word in there. But they didn’t have a revelation of Christ. They didn’t have a revelation of the Father. They called King James “sovereign”. But now read it without the italicized word. 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, (every brick the same size) maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. And I missed verse 15…But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. He’s not the only Christ, he’s the head Christ. If He is the only Christ, I mean,God can’t dwell….“which side of the brick do you want me to stand on, Jesus?”
He’s trying to live with his people again. He’s trying to walk with Adam in the cool of the day. He’s trying to walk with the animals. The Father is trying to come back to the planet like he was in the beginning. The Father is trying to live for eternity with his kids, but the kids are grand kids. “Well, we are just paupers, we are unworthy”. Well, you may have been unworthy, but He who knew no sin, Jesus, the gift, was made to be sin for us that we, the unworthies, could be made the righteousness of God. He wrote it. I didn’t. Just agree with it, and start working on getting your block to start acting, looking, glorifying, and preaching the Father. The Father! Jesus made it available, but I’m not going to spend my life on Jesus. These guys already did. I’m supposed to take up the mantle of what Jesus did to free me so that I am able to reconcile people unto their Father.
I wish we had time for one more scripture. OK. Luke 15, Verse 11. The story of the Prodigal Son with a new twist. He (meaning Jesus) said a certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his Father, Father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself (when he finally came to himself), he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be ;called thy son. But the father said to the servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry.
Now wait, this has been about the Prodigal Son, the one who lived rampantly, and then came back to his father, and said, “I’ll just be a servant to you. I’ll work for the Kingdom of God.” The sons that were seemingly in the Kingdom of God, in this case, this son, look at this….And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet (or a good thing) that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
Now, what is so interesting about this Jesus thing in the church, in Christianity, and again, I have no trouble with the Jesus thing. You should have no trouble with the Jesus thing. But we need to rightly divide the word of truth. There are going to be a lot of “Jesus people” coming out of the woodwork thinking they know their Father, and the Bible says they don’t, and isn’t that the message of the Prodigal Son? The ones that have come together in the Faith Center came from all over the place, coming to serve. And they found out about their Father. The son that lived with them all along didn’t even know that all the stuff the father had was theirs all along. He didn’t even know his own father.