Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
we worship you this morning we worship you we thank you for the blood of jesus shed on the cross for us we thank you for the power of that blood to wash away sin god to bring deliverance from satan the powers of darkness lord to even bring healing to our bodies the blood of jesus gives access lord to the holy of holies to your presence the blood of jesus leads to everlasting life in heaven the resurrection of the dead we thank you for the power of the blood of jesus the thing that terrifies the devil that's defeated the devil lord i thank you the day is coming when all enemies will be put under your feet when you return again lord we praise your name we praise your name for that victory on the cross and your resurrection lord the power of your sinless blood lord it is holy it is precious it is amazing it is powerful it is eternal it is ever living the powerful precious blood of jesus we are grateful we are grateful for that thank you father thank you jesus praise you lord thank you lord just keep your head bowed your eyes closed for a minute just worship the lord and pray praises to you lord praise this to you lord say today for i am the lord god i am the one the true light for time is now time is coming times of the present get your house in order
it is time thus saith the lord as i have spoken i will judge america but i have heard the cries of my people and i have heard their prayers and i will not make a full in says the lord for i will bring forth a revival in the dark days for i say to you it will be the best of times and the worst of times for i will move among you i will move among my people i will heal i will deliver i will save but many shall be destroyed many shall fall but i will be with you praise you lord glory to your name praise the lord although you may be seated this morning wow amen the time has come you know this is kind of not i don't know kind of not part of the message this morning but i will share this i shared it on facebook the past few days but the other night nancy had a dream and i guess it was on the morning of the 20th or the 21st early that morning anyway i'm gonna go into all the details of the dream but in the dream um she walked out our front door and in our yard there were five bears big bears and they were chained and um basically she saw me and some other people trying to deal with them um as she put it but anyway she still felt they were extremely dangerous even though they were chained and being basically being held back and um you know i knew when she shared the dream that it was prophetic i didn't understand what the five bears meant i knew what the bears represented because bears in the bible if you go to the book
of amos uh chapter 5 if you look in second kings with elisha when the the the evil teenagers decided to mock the prophet and he called he cursed them and the bears came out of the woods and killed them represent judgment and particularly in time judgment um it's interesting that in our world today we have two things represented by bears one is a bad economy or a bad stock market they call a bear market and the other one is that that nasty russian bear that's keeps stirring itself but so i knew that the bear represented judgment and of course i've shared this many times that back in 2008 i had the dream of the two bears a baby bear and a mama bear big mama bear and in the dream basically i was trying to get everyone to safety again in the same i was trying to deal with the problem and i was trying to get everyone in safety from mama bear as much as i could because i knew that when mama bear figured out that the people were between her and her baby bear that she was going to tear some folks apart of course as many of you know the lord spoke to me very clearly after that dream and that was during the 2008 beginning of 2009 economic crash in america really the global economy was affected and the lord spoke to me very clearly and he said that the 2008 crash was baby bear but mama bear was coming what's interesting i didn't know i just posted it on facebook shared it with some people and said you know i know that it's a good thing i told her i said it's not a good thing that there were bears in our yard but it's a good thing that they were chained amen that was a good thing i said and then it dawned on me that they were being held back but i didn't under still didn't understand why five then after i posted it my brother alan odle who lives over in mcdonough georgia he said i came across this article he said i think i understand you know i think what the five meant so he sent me an article posted the same day now remember nancy had the dream in the early morning hours later that day cnn money posted an article about how we have been five years now in a bull market now bull market is good it means when the market is pressing forward and and and going up the stock market's going up and everything looks hunky-dory it says we've been five uh years in a bull market that means the bear market has been held back for five years okay but the article went on to say that the
wealthy people in america don't see and these are people who operate in the stock market day in and day out most of their lives they said they just don't see how it can continue the bull market can continue much longer so basically what they were saying is we don't even see how much longer the bears can be held back okay then i had a gentleman that you know i have many acquaintances now through the internet all over the world and i had a good brother uh who's down in um he's in in houston texas and he was in new orleans preaching on the street this past week and he shared that a brother in a ministry down there had a dream and a vision where he saw uh basically a bunch of people on a cruise ship and he saw a bunch of people on this cruise ship and he knew it was christians and frankly i think that's where american christians we we think christianity is a cruise ship and uh god's about to sink that ship but um god never called us to be on a cruise ship we're about supposed to be on a battleship okay that's what the church is supposed to be fighting the gates of hell and the powers of hell in this world but we're on a cruise ship having a good time and partying instead right but anyway he said that he saw these people gasp and i don't remember the exact details but anyway they went around to this island and they saw these eagles dying now an eagle is a symbol of the united states and as they turned around and started heading back he saw a bear in the water swimming toward america and he knew that wasn't good and folks i want to tell you right now that bear is two things it's both the economic collapse that's coming and the russians that are coming and the russians are also involved right now in a currency war against the u.s dollar in retaliation for things that obama is doing uh in the world um and i can't blame i honestly have to say this i can't blame vladimir putin for being angry at some of the things that obama is doing like he did with trying to help the syrian rebels who are the syrian rebels are now this al qaeda isis group we trained them we funded them and we have equipped them with weapons these are the people cutting people's heads off and crucifying and killing christians throughout the middle east these are the people that obama secretly was funding through the libya cia office that they called an embassy in benghazi and this is why we were we were funneling money and weapons through
libya to this war in syria trying to hide it from the russians but you're not going to hide anything from any country that has a good intelligence agency so russia knew that we're funding the rebels to overthrow assad assad is their ally the russians have plans want to build a pipeline through syria to get gas natural gas and oil out of the middle east into europe so obama directly interfered with that and was willing see this right here ought to be an impeachable offense anyway to fund a terrorist organization who and equip them who really have are bent on destroying the united states i mean it's it's it's like giving a knife or a gun to the man who wants to rob and kill you what are you doing what are you thinking the only thing you can be doing is you must be on their side and i think obama is on their side but enough of that being said i really believe that the dream was a warning and confirmed by the article and cnn money on the same day that even the world can see how much longer can the united states economy stay afloat how much longer before the russians get ticked off enough with our back handed and underhanded dealing even in the ukraine how long are they going to put up with it and not hit us now the russians a lot of people would argue this point but i'll say this the russians know that they cannot fight a conventional war with the united states they would never win a conventional war they know that their military is still not caught up to ours it's they they've built a few new sophisticated weapons but they still have not caught up in the level of tanks and the level different things and they know they couldn't fight a conventional war so when you know you can't fight a conventional war what do you do well you do exactly what vladimir putin has been doing vladimir putin has foregone trying to upgrade his entire military he's only upgraded and made sure his nuclear missiles are all up-to-date upgraded and ready to go now what does that tell you what does that tell you when in the russian uh news mouth piece called prabda back about a couple of years ago putin said and trust me they don't print anything that putin doesn't want printed i assure you or you disappear in siberia somewhere okay but he said improv he told his generals to prepare
for armageddon okay he's getting sporty out there all right now we have a serious situation with iraq falling to these radical maniac psychopathic bloodthirsty killers who are really folks listen it's not just about taking over iraq and all they are intent upon wiping out christianity in the middle east completely and then over here you think that they're just satisfied the muslims are just satisfied with wiping out christianity in the middle east they're wiping it out in the middle east they're going to try to wipe it out in europe and they're going to try to wipe it out here i've told people i said the things that i saw on those videos when i was watching the other day the videos of what this group this muslim group isis al-qaeda whatever you want to call them jihadists what they're doing in iraq and syria what they're doing in nigeria and somalia you think that they're not going to do it here the only thing i believe there's only two things i believe that's held back muslims from going on full-on assault in america all the sleeper cells that are here in america i believe there's only two things that's held them back number one the sovereign hand of god in his mercy and number two that he knows that that 300 million americans have guns hence the push to get rid of our guns so we can't defend our families and children from psychopathic killers okay [Music] and trust me i know this may be a controversial statement coming from a preacher but jihad has come to my house to hurt my family it will not be good for them it's a different thing if i'm on the street corner preaching i'm not going to defend myself but you come after my wife or my child for my children i am 9-1-1 amen i'm not calling 9-1-1 i will be 9-1-1 okay this is where we're headed folks now i believe that the lord told me and i'm just speaking from the heart that's what i believe the lord told me and he spoke to me very clearly that he will and he is and even the tongue and interpretation the prophetic word this morning that time is running out
and that he will allow america to be judged to be crippled both economically and militarily and through some terrorist attacks but he told me and i said this when i preached the sermon index conference in september of last year when god gave me jeremiah 5 for the united states and i said the only good thing in that chapter is he said these words about the judgment coming on israel at the time and on jerusalem he said i will not make a full end say that's good news there were certain cities and countries where god completely destroyed them and never let them be a nation again just as sodom and gomorrah and the cities around them annihilated them and never let them be re rebuilt again right [Music] um hear what i'm saying to you this morning it is time for us as americans to understand that we are in very perilous times as a country we are on we are on we're at the tipping point or what they would call critical mass now we're we're beyond the point of return but hear what i'm saying god spoke to jeremiah and and told jeremiah the prophet that he was going to bring nebuchadnezzar in to jerusalem that that jerusalem would be destroyed the temple would be destroyed that people would be taken captive that the destruction would be thorough that many would die by the sword and by the famine and by pestilence he said but i will he told jeremiah this promise but it will be well with you and the remnant that have listened to you it will be well with you listen to me god can even in the midst of judgment in the midst of his wrath in the midst of of of him finally taking his hand back and letting our enemies come and and really hurt us he can protect us he can provide for his people he can even in the midst of that darkness bring forth a move of his spirit a revival um and i believe that's what he's going to do that doesn't mean it's going to be easy it doesn't mean that none of us will be martyred or pay with our lives it doesn't mean that we won't suffer anything matter of fact i think americans have the hardest time with the subject of suffering as a christian i mean we don't like it we don't like it when the microwave doesn't work when we lose blow a gasket right we can't handle it the air conditioning in the car doesn't work right you hear what i'm saying we we've got a
long way to go and that was something when we were singing and worshiping this morning lead me to the cross really most american christians don't want any part of that because because the cross doesn't mean doesn't mean easy does it mean pain free there's nothing about carrying a cross or being nailed to a cross that even remotely sounds comforting right and that's why we were when we were singing it was just like we have got to we've got to understand that there's two crosses there's two crosses that we have to embrace and see i think of a lot of christians a lot well a lot of christians a lot of americans a lot of western people say they embrace the cross of jesus and what jesus did on the cross for our sins is the messiah and his resurrection they say oh i embraced that cross but then the lord goes here's yours take up your cross now and follow me deny yourself and follow me give up everything even your life and follow me give up your pleasures give up your sins give up your plans give up your will give up your desires give up everything take up your cross and follow me dying to self and see i believe why god is going to allow americans to be judged and and the other nations who are pointing their fingers at us and all of our sins it's coming to them too but the reason i believe god's going to allow america to be judged is because the church and people who've named the name of jesus have have embraced his cross but not the cross that they're supposed to carry and so he says if you won't pick it up on your own accord i'll see to it you have to pick it up and you know what that is that's god's mercy two crosses and can i tell you you never really get to experience the benefits of his cross for eternity unless you take up yours see people think this is optional just dying to self and dying to sin and dying to the world and dying to lust and materialism and entertainment and dying to idols and they think this is optional see that's the problem because joel osteen and rick warren and all of them made it sound like just believe and you're cool no no no that was never the message of jesus that was never the gospel of jesus
the gospel of jesus christ is about two crosses his and yours how can you preach your best life now and preach deny yourself take up your cross and follow him and it may be suffering and death it may be being in poverty instead of being rich it may be being hated by everyone no that's not the gospel they preach jesus said you'll be hated of all nations for my name's sake they will deliver you up to be afflicted and will kill you they're going to put some of you in prison some of you are going to suffer some of you are going to go through these things that's not the gospel of american preachers on tv and radio no it's because jesus christ jesus died on the cross for my sins so i get everything free i get all the good stuff [Music] no if that's what you believe about christianity this is all about getting you a better job a better life a better situation if that's all you believe about christianity you have never ever believed the true gospel of jesus christ and that's why god is going to allow americans to go through what these other countries have gone through how many have you been to a third world country you've been to a third world country i have folks america is about to go from a first world country to a third world country and that money you think you got in your wallet it's in your bank account that paper stuff with ink on it is really nothing better than monopoly money and one day the monopoly board where you think you got hotels and houses and you own the railroad and all this is going to get flipped upside down folks will be taking american green dollar bills they'll be taking those to burn and their fireplace or to start a fire so they can cook food turn with me to luke chapter 13. let's read a few verses on this subject because we we've got to grasp a hold of this because i'm watching i'm watching christians in syria and iraq
lebanon and egypt they're being beaten they're being shot and cut up and raped and burned alive and hung and crucified and beheaded right now right now this is going on do you pray for them does this shake you at all out of your selfishness and it out of your self obsession god american christian i'm going to tell you american christians are some of the most self-obsessed people that i've ever seen in my life it's all about me me me mind my mind we sound like little two-year-olds who don't want to share a toy we've got to grow up we make it odd that family members and friends and co-workers don't like us because we're christians or because we stand up for the truth we think jesus said it y'all you will be hated for all from all nations all groups of people all kinds of people will hate you for my name's sake if you say you're a christian and everybody loves you i'll tell you right now you're not a christian you're not standing up for the truth and you're not living it because if you were the bible says that the godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution if you're preaching it and you're living it and you're standing up for what's right you will be reproached for the name of christ you will be hated you will be rejected you will be spoken evil of you will be you will look like an outcast and sometimes even among christians because some of these christians won't embrace the cross they won't embrace taking up the cross and denying self and getting rid of sin so they think you're strange because they've been told by some tv preacher that they don't even have to confess sin anymore that they don't even have to repent [Music] oh man let's read let's go back hold your spot in luke 13 go to luke 9 first let's read this luke chapter 9. [Music] we welcome those listening by blog talk radio this morning luke chapter 9 verse 18 and it came to pass as he was alone
praying speaking of jesus his disciples were with him and asked him and he asked them saying whom save the people that i am and they answered said john the baptist but some say elijah and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again and he said to them but whom say ye that i am and peter answering said the christ of god and he straightly or immediately charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing saying the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be slain and be raised the third day and he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it for what is a man advantaged if he gained the whole world and lose himself or be cast away for whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels now let's go over to chapter 13. you know as you're turning there i like what jesus says there in chapter 9 down toward the end in verse 43 it says and they were all amazed at the mighty power of god but while they wondered every one of these things which jesus did he said to his disciples listen let these sayings sink down in your ears for the son of man shall be delivered in the hands of men but they just he was telling them again and again and they weren't getting it well i know how that feels all right chapter 13. everybody there now these are probably some of the most scary verses for the so-called disciples of jesus listen a lot of people listen a lot of people name the name of jesus aren't going to aren't going to go into heaven they think they are but they're not not even close they've lived for self they've indulged every sin they make up excuses they're all about me me me me me mine my mind doing what i want doing my they've done their own will their whole life and they think they're a disciple of jesus no they haven't embraced both crosses just one let's read this verse 22 luke 13 verse 22 and he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward jerusalem then said one in him lord are there few that be saved
and he said unto them strive to enter in at the strait gate for many i say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able let's just stop right there for a second do you see what i just what i just said to you jesus said plainly right here they ask him are there few that will be saved and jesus his answer is strive you know what that means fight struggle even with agony to make sure you enter into the straight gate that leads to heaven do whatever it yet you must do because he says look what he says for many i say unto you will seek to enter in but will not be able frank that'll scare the hell out of you a lazy lukewarm indifferent worldly lifestyle if you're living it ought to scare you i hope it does i hope it scares you he says strive to enter into the straight gate for many i say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able now let's flip over to luke 14. jesus continues don't you see how he continues this thing he doesn't just he doesn't just say it one time kind of you know in passing it's no big deal y'all don't worry about that statement don't think about that one now he keeps pounding this thought now with me luke 14 verse 25 jesus preaching before great multitudes he said there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters and yea his own life he cannot be my disciple and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple cannot be if you don't take up the cross your cross to die to yourself to die to your sins to die to your will to die to your self absorption and follow jesus even to suffering even to death even to poverty even to lack if you don't take up your cross you cannot be his disciple you will hear the words in the day of judgment depart from me you lawless ones what you did your own will you didn't do my will you did your own thing
or whosoever verse 27 whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple he says it twice in verse 26 and verse 27 for which of you intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and count at the cost whether he has sufficient to finish lest happily after he hath laid the foundation is not able to finish it all that behold it began to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first and consulted whether he will be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand or else while the other is yet a great way off he sends ambassadors and desires conditions of peace look at verse 33 so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsake is not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple three times three times he says i know we have all sinned even as christians and fallen short and i've preached it many times it's the difference between falling falling in the mud and building a fence around it and living in it right but hear what i'm saying to you taking up your cross is not always just about sin let me let me speak to you about something i remember when the lord spoke to me about this my christian life for the last 27 years has been a constant confrontation with this issue of my will or his will and it started early on when i came to the lord at 19. i wanted to play football in college i wanted to become a medical doctor i had the intellect and the ability to do it i had a modeling contract screen test open doors to go into the movies and become rich and famous very quickly and i remember when i came to jesus and this is what i love about how the holy spirit worked in my life and how he used the people around me to give me the truth i love the man his name is david veracruzzi i don't know really where he is
spiritually now but he was my boss that led me back to the lord in 1987 but i'll always be grateful to him because he gave me the chick tracts he gave me the keith green material he gave me the david wilkerson material he gave me the leonard ravenhill stuff he gave me the truth and these men back in those days preached this thing about turning from sin and denying self and taking up your cross and doing the will of god with your life and dying to what you had planned and i remember as i gave my life to jesus as i repented of my sins of of sexual immorality and drunkenness and drugs and just partying and doing my own thing i'll never forget when the revelation i'm just sitting there one day no one had to tell me you can't make movies that depict every type of sin in the world and be a christian i mean do we remember die hard the movie i was supposed to be in 1987 88 remember that naked women there was nudity there was sex there was violence there was cursing and cursing god's name could i be in that promote that and be i i knew no i don't have to hear god's voice on that one that's obvious right and i remember as i dealt with that issue and said i died to that i'm going to walk away from that i never called my my agent again not one time and i knew they didn't know how to find me back then i mean there weren't cell phones back then so it's like we don't know where he went they just think i disappeared they're like this crazy guy he here we were handing it to him on a silver platter and he just never called back what happened to him i found the pearl of great price when you find when you find him you really find him nothing in this world nothing nothing's better but that was the beginning and then i remember thinking i had my plans well you know i'm going to work here finish working here for the summer i was in arkansas i'll finish working here for the summer and then i'll go back to school at troy and i'll get my my medical degree or i'll start on my pre-med and and and i'll go down that road i play football there's no sin in playing football there's no sin and going to college there's no sin in in in doing those things and pursuing a career there's nothing wrong with that if that's god's will for your life well how do you know well you have to know him you have to spend time with him you have to be able to hear him and so god began to show me as i began to pray and fast and study the word and
read and i began to hear his voice and got filled with the holy spirit i began to realize that it was not god's will for me to go back to college it's not god's will for me to play football anymore but he had another plan for my life now here's why god's will is so important and you better listen close everybody thinks those decisions that you make like that are just no big deal they're just kind of your choices [Music] but what what what we don't see and it's why it's so important to obey god no matter how because we don't know how the future works itself out but every decision that we make every action that we take will affect someone else's eternity had i disobeyed god and went back to school there are a lot of situations a lot of people i would have never led to jesus there were a lot of situations i could have never addressed and dealt with that matter of fact the foundation of my spiritual life even to this day the foundation that everything is built on was those first five years of intense prayer fasting study meditation in god's word reading spending hours upon hours days even whole days upon days upon days and studying the bible studying history studying and it laid the foundation for everything but had i disobeyed god and gone to school i wouldn't had time to do to i'd had to give myself to my studies now if that was god's will he would have given me grace and that's fine you want me to live out my christian life as a medical doctor and be a witness in that that would be fine if that's what god's will for me but that wasn't my cross my cross was to deny those things that i wanted that i planned that weren't even sin you hear me it doesn't have to be sin your own will most of the time is not god's will i remember many times i remember when i thought that god was going to have me be an evangelist and travel all over the country with a very famous and well-connected minister and help start a bible college and be one of the professors one of the instructors and travel all over the world and hobnob with with all the elite of
the christian world and the charismatic pentecostal world and i remember when the lord said no you will not go that direction you know what i said yes sir thank you very much now i look back on that thank you god for keeping me out of that right i was too young and stupid to know what i know now 20 something years later right but i remember another time and let me speak to you about this and parents listen to me on this we're supposed to love our children provide for our children best we can teach them the truth leave them the truth but you know i remember you know when i went through the divorce as a pastor in 2001 2002 and i remember the lord allowing me time to deal with all that all that turmoil and pain and everything there's a lot of details that go went on through that but i remember that was in 2001 2002 by 2007 the lord was like it's time for you now to get back to what i've called you to do and i remember i had been in this battle with him because i was like lord you know my heart is broken i messed up i really don't know if i can do this and i even taught him i don't know that i want to do it but again what i want to do what you want to do god's not interested in what you want to do he knows what you need to do he knows what you better do because he knows what's good for you he knows what will save your soul he knows what will get you to heaven he knows what will keep you in his hand he knows so i remember in 2007 i'd lived in montgomery for a long time my girls were in montgomery but by this time their teenagers are getting into their teenage years and i remember when the lord told me to leave montgomery that was a hard thing because my kids were there and then i went to georgia for a little while and well georgia's not that far from alabama so i went to georgia for a little while and i remember when when the door opened for me to take a job pastoring a church in washington dc now can i just tell you that this southern boy loves the south i love the trees i love the green grass
i love the bushes i love the summer and the very little bit of winter all right i love the spring i love the fall i love the south i love it i hate big cities hate them okay i've lived in big cities i've lived in dallas texas that's a big city i've lived in washington dc big city all right i've lived close enough to atlanta that we were close enough okay and the traffic 30 miles south of atlanta is horrible but i remember when the lord told me to take the job and to go to washington dc in 2008. now washington dc is a good 800 miles from my girls in montgomery that was an agonizing decision i knew it was god's will i also knew at the time there was a certain set of circumstances there was no other avenue but to do that i mean god had actually made it where it was almost impossible i had to go that direction and i remember agonizing in prayer and just i mean being in tears over but i'm going to be 800 miles from caitlin and bethany and i remember when i mean just in agony over and i remember when the lord spoke to me and he said this is your cross this is your cross obey me it was hard i obeyed i moved to washington dc i took the job i hated living in washington dc i hated it i hated the beltway i hated i-95 i hated driving through the university of maryland i hate it people i know people washington dc maryland if you love it god bless you i didn't but i knew god wanted me there and i was giving it you know i was gonna we were we you know nancy and i got married at that time and we were she resigned from her job in georgia everything we had a house up in dc area we're getting ready to move she's getting ready to move i'm already up there and of course you all know the rest of the story of course i got fired but god told me the exact day i would get fired before i got fired and he said when you when that happens on that day i want you to go back to auburn alabama and start a church now you see i didn't know that it would take less than a year
for all that to work itself out and god put me right back 40 miles 45 50 miles from my daughters can somebody say test test will you take up your cross and denies even if it means turning loose of a family member a child even you know what i'm saying abraham was tested with isaac i mean come on we got to think about that test think about that here god tells you you're going to have a son you're not able to have a child on your own you and your wife sarah you can't have a child but yet god's telling you you're going to have a child and you're going to be the father of many nations and you can't even have us you can't even have any child much less a son you can't you you can't do anything and then god waits till he's about 100 years old where it's really impossible right for both and you sit there and you go boom so god gives him his miracle child isaac but can you imagine finally you've wanted your entire life to have a child and you have one and then you're with him for the for 12 years and then god says to the man of faith the father of our faith the man whose relationship with jehovah is still to this day said that if we're of faith we're children of abraham the man who sat with jesus and jesus preached the gospel to him long before jesus ever came and died on the cross for our sin for those of you listening if you don't understand what i'm talking about jesus was smelling no kids a day yeah yeah we'll have to do that study one day yeah oh yeah it's jesus melchizedek just for those listening just so you know melchizedek is spoken of in the bible as meeting with abraham after he went to war against the the kings of that day and it says he came back and he gave tithes abraham gave ties to melchizedek well the bible tells us in the book of hebrews the apostle paul under the inspiration in revelation of the holy spirit tells us that melchizedek was without beginning of days or end of life that he was the king of peace he was the king of righteousness and that he lived in salome or jerusalem was his home on the earth which is why david knew to capture jerusalem and that that was would be the holy city because that's actually where jesus dwelt upon the earth when he would come upon the earth he was the king of peace the king of right yeah bread and wine they had they had communion see how do we know this
because the book of galatians also says that the gospel was preached to abraham amen and then jesus made this statement in john 8 he said that abraham saw his day how did abraham see it because jesus himself met with abraham in jesus name you've got to remember that the name of jesus yeshua was hidden and that's why you see many times matter of fact you'll see many times in the old testament when you see the word the angel of the lord a lot of times it's not an angel it's jesus appearing but he's hidden he's that's why he rebuked jacob why do you why do you ask after my name seeing it is hidden it was jesus he was wrestling with if you ever see an angel in the old testament allow people to worship him that wasn't a real angel that was jesus the word angel anyway just means messenger okay so jesus appeared many times and you people say well how did jesus appear many times before he was born listen you gotta understand in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god jesus is eternal he always has been eternally god he became the son of god when he decided to be placed inside of mary's womb and to be born as a man right he became let people say he's just the son of god no he's always been god he chose to become the son of god as an example to us all right so that's just i mean that's just the way it is but where was it abraham sacrificed it i i can't imagine but you know what it says in the book of hebrews in the book of james is interesting because it says that abraham so believed that god's promise that through him he would be the father of many nations he believed that even if he obeyed god and sacrificed isaac killed him that god would raise him from the dead because god had to fulfill his promise and it says that that was a figure of god allowing his own son to be killed for our sins and raised from the dead but you see what i'm saying abraham was willing to obey the knife was lifted and god said stop sometimes that happened but let me tell you something else there's some things god wants you to kill not people not your children make that clear but there's some things that god wants to put on the altar and never take them back again that you walk away from i put my my career desires
i put them on the altar and walked away i put being rich and famous and put it on the altar i don't care about that listen the scariest thing to these bunch of illuminati satanist globalist nuts out here the the the thing one other thing that scares them to death is a man or woman that can't be bought you can't buy me you can't intimidate me you can't shut me up scares them to death i mean i have my friend out in hollywood i mean he's just like i'm so it's so he always tells me it's so nice to see a man that's free to speak he's not he's not owned by anyone no no man i'm not owned by any man but god almighty the lord jesus christ amen you know i don't fear any man and that's why i speak the truth it's kind of like i told you guys you didn't hire me you can't fire me i'm not scared of you and if you all walk out the door tomorrow i'm not changing i'll be the same person almost with a sense of relief but i'd be the same no i love y'all i'm just explaining to you if everybody walks out of your life is that supposed to change you see that's what i'm saying the self-denial issue you even die to whether people like you today or don't like you tomorrow i've learned enough listen i know y'all love me today trust me you could not like me tomorrow i've i've had that happen so many times i can't even count it right sometimes it happens quickly too i get these emails oh man we love your sermons we love your preaching man there's not too many preachers like you and then they'll find out i don't agree with them on some one little thing or something and cut you off never speak to you again yeah oh yeah false prophet meanie you know i'm like wow you loved me yesterday you hate me today that's why my favorite line from the gladiator movie is the mob is fickle right jesus even knew that i mean listen the same people the same massive crowd who were saying hosanna son of david saying he was the messiah waving palm branches where the same group a week later who's saying crucify him release the murderer barabbas that's when you learn not to trust people
right i don't trust people i love people i love y'all and that's another thing y'all better be glad i'm a man that doesn't go by my feelings be glad also that i'm a man that controls some of my feelings and does not say everything i think because i would have cleared house y'all would have just cleared on out if i told you everything i thought at any point in time right oh and just a side note let me say this though please understand something if you disrespect my wife you disrespect me i just want to make that clear anything my wife does whether through text or emails or counseling or meetings or anything she always checks through me always so if she does it i've okayed it okay you don't return her phone call you don't return her text you disrespect her it's disrespecting me i and i take it personally so a lot of people think they treat the pastor's wife differently they treat the pastor no we are one and can i just say this about my wife i want y'all to understand something my wife bears a great portion of the load of the ministry of this church she loves each of you even though sometimes i know some of you think she's direct and to the point or harsh or sarcastic or blunt or whatever i assure you one thing she loves everyone and she probably carries more in her heart because of her woman side of being concerned for all of you and i will tell you right now that she is the best christian that i know in trying to live genuinely for the lord and i'll just say this if you have an issue with her you need to deal with it asap before i deal with you because i'm about up to here and you know my wife the ladies meeting this past week she spoke something and she told me about it beforehand and i agree with her listen
even though our little church has a lot of truth we have the gifts of the holy spirit we have people called to ministry that are gifted our church is still very disjointed and divided and people have these little secret issues with each other and nobody obeys the bible when you you have these issues go to the person or you know what sometimes you don't even have to go to the person you just need to repent of your selfish absorption that it's about you you know something in the bible says a wise man will love those who bring rebuke and correction a fool despises them you know sometimes my wife is almost too blunt for me but you know what but you know what though i'm gonna tell you something that woman loves the truth more than she's worried about your feelings about it she wants you to get she i'm gonna tell you what discernment-wise she sees right through all your crap sometimes better than i do she sees through all your little stupid i mean she'll come tell me she goes you know i know this one's got an issue with that one and they won't deal with it and they put on these smiles and they do these things i said yeah you're right you know and sometimes she comes to me and she goes you need to you need to go talk to them about this and i'm the one that goes i have they don't listen to me after i speak to him two or three times about i've none hard head all right but what's what i'm getting at let's [Music] and and i was almost going to preach on the issue of true unity and loving one another and and can i add this our church needs to be very careful that we don't have an attitude in our hearts we're better than that church over there or we're better than this group over here or we're better because we got this or we know this or we know that no no no no no if that attitude ever gets in your heart you are headed down a road of to fall yes there may be things that we'll preach and teach that another church will not they have their problems but don't think for a second that we are free of sin or problems in this church and so don't think for a second we're better than anybody else what we you gotta focus on is let's focus on dealing with our problems and let them see us
moving forward in jesus and maybe they'll come ask us and say hey how do i fix this i see you fixed it in yourself novel idea in it i'm just saying you know we need a little more humility knowledge knowing something doesn't make you right or better than other people matter of fact paul said knowledge puffs up in pride but love will edify see part of deny of dying to self part of dying to self is how do i put it it's it's really dying to have to be somebody in the eyes of other people you know we all have this deep down desire we want to be special we want to be liked we want to be loved those are normal desires but they a lot of times begin to rule us and as a christian that's something we've got to crucify you know for instance i'll give you a little insight and i'm gonna i'm gonna finish this but just to tell you i i was praying about a week ago i was praying and the lord laid something on my heart and he told me that he was gonna be opening some doors in other ministries and other realms to preach and teach okay now when i was a young man i would have about just been dancing the lord's gonna open some doors for me i'm gonna become mr fancy band preacher man and everybody's gonna love me and know me and all that stuff you know what i said now i was like lord that's fine i'll do it don't want to do it don't care i got enough to do right now you know what i don't care i don't care i don't care if i'm on tv i don't care if i'm on the radio i don't care why all i care about now is if it's god's will to be on that radio show or to be in that church preaching or to be in that conference preaching or i don't even i don't want to do anything unless i know it's his will and his anointing and presence and the holy spirit will be there to help me i don't want to do it i don't want to look big i don't want to look fancy i don't want to be famous i don't care if he's with me though and it's his will i'll do it and now let me tell you until you die to
you know just because somebody comes along you know i may get a call tomorrow and somebody invites me to to to preach a conference in california it's got thousands of people okay let me pray about it just because you get the phone call doesn't mean you do it god may not want me in california at that time as it falls off into the ocean you see what i'm saying there's a lot of people think oh that's got to be god because you know i now i get to be somebody now you might be dead everybody thinks every ministry thing is is god's will no it's not see this is what happens if you don't die to self i learned the hard way i almost got killed in nigeria in 2006 because i didn't listen the timing was off and i was in the most dangerous situation i've ever been in my life held captive by muslims with ak-47s in nigeria i shouldn't be here i exactly they had me in a holding area you want to talk about a moment of this may be it when they come at midnight with soldiers and start marching you down a building with no people in it that goes on for miles and march me outside i thought they're just they're about to shoot me i mean i'm not exaggerating i wasn't i wasn't terrified or fearful but i thought you know they wouldn't even speak to me they wouldn't even take my money i tried to bribe them and that's pretty bad when a nigerian will not take american money at that point because one dollar equals 135 of theirs at the time i pulled out hundreds of 100 bills wouldn't take it because i've always heard you know they told me you're getting us getting a situation in nigeria you can usually drive your way out of it when they won't say take your money and they leave you there at midnight till midnight and you've been there all day and men come with guns and soldiers and uniforms and they march you down a building by yourself i thought i'm a dead man and i didn't listen to god you want to talk about relief they marched me down this building i mean it was a hangar type building empty airport building
you know been in atlanta airport did have the the buildings go on for it looks like for miles and we walked down i mean you could hear the steps it was just echo click click click flicker walking walking nobody's saying a word what what what i mean we walked i know it was hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of yards we go out this back door also i don't really know for sure where they're taking me we go outside we're standing out on the runway one of the runways i look over and i see one airplane a dutch 747 klm right okay we start marching toward it we get to the steps that's got the ladder you know the steps going up to the plane they don't even speak go go [Music] all right okay i go up the steps stewardess says your seats right here first class first class recliner on a 747 anything to drink sir anything to eat sir would you like some of these fresh baked cookies sir i wasn't happy until the door closed and the plane started moving all because i didn't listen and because i had many hours in that holding cell to pray and god supernaturally and in his mercy got me out of there had that happened at this time in nigeria i probably would you've never seen me again but i was all excited about going to nigeria and preaching in the stadium and all that stuff see just wanting to be somebody can blind you to great danger so let's die to self well jesus what's interesting the passage we read jesus said if anyone will not take up his cross daily daily every day paul stated it in first corinthians he said i die daily there will always be opportunities the flesh will rise up the self will rise up oh here you can be somebody here you can be special here you can do this here you can do that here you can have this if you'll just do this now you know what you're going to have many opportunities to die daily amen two crosses his cross your cross you got to have both amen let's pray
father in heaven i thank you for this day i thank you for your mercy and lord just the very definition of mercy is undeserved kindness how many times lord we sin and we we're absorbed by self we get ourselves into trouble and we cry out to you and you have mercy and you forgive us and you deliver us lord let us not ever take that for granted father i ask you to show each of us where we need to die to self whether it be in our emotions or some sin or some plan we have or some desire to be somebody that will just die and take up our cross and follow jesus and let the holy spirit speak to us and guide our steps even if it's into suffering even if it's into difficulty even if it's in to to lack you know moses forsook the riches of egypt to do your will father we ask you to help us to die to self to take up our crosses and to follow you that we may be people willing to lose our lives for your sake father i ask you to touch all of our children to understand this concept