Agent of Perfection | Ep. 152

Inspired by a vision from Elder Rayford Strange, we unpack the biblical concept of perfection, challenging traditional definitions and offering insights from figures like Noah, Abram, and Hezekiah and others. Through these accounts, we reveal the divine requirements of a perfect heart and the significance of sincere devotion to God's word.

Join us as we delve into the transformative power of God's love, reflected through Jesus' teachings and the commandments to love God and our neighbors wholeheartedly. This exploration highlights how agape love empowers us to live our faith fully and pursue spiritual perfection. We also examine the challenges faced by historical figures in maintaining a perfect heart and discuss how alignment with God's truth shapes our journey. 

From the steadfastness of Noah to the teachings of Jesus, we explore how embracing righteousness, repentance, and obedience leads to spiritual growth. The challenge is set for all believers to renew their commitment to living a life worthy of their calling, with the promise of being made perfect in Christ Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. 

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Episode Transcript

j - Jesus M. Ruiz (00:03):
The vision received was that of blood cells
traveling throughout the body,supplying the much needed oxygen
and other nutrients to thediffering members of the body to
fulfill their purpose.
Once the blood cells are spent,they must return back to the
heart to be refilled beforebeing sent out again and fulfill
their purpose.
I guess if we get with youindividually or with families,

(00:27):
we can do that and share.
I'm not going to make thisabout me or my family or our
trip, but, as I always do when Icome up here, it is a privilege
and an honor and I count it avery holy thing to be able to
come up here and be asked toshare a word with you that I

(00:47):
believe I've received from theLord.
And so I do that very humblyand I ask that your hearts would
be open to receive the word ofthe Lord and if somehow my flesh
gets in the way, just throw itto the side and stick with what
the Spirit is saying.
So let us be as Jesus said tothe churches let us hear what

(01:16):
the Spirit is saying andspeaking.
As I was asked to share thismessage, I was asking the Lord
what is it that I've received asof late, because I've been gone
for two and a half weeks and,to be honest with you, getting
into the Word has not been aregular thing for me because

(01:38):
I've been so busy with so manydifferent things.
But, like my wife said, overthe last part of our trip maybe
the last half there was so muchfellowship with the brethren,
with saints, that it was almostlike you were exchanging meat.
You were exchanging the word ofGod verbally as you conversed

(01:59):
and as you dialogued.
You know, to get up in themorning and fellowship for
almost two to three hours, Imean you just sat there at the
breakfast table and just sat andconversed and talked and heard
the different testimonies of theLord and I know I've shared and
taught on the testimonies ofthe Lord, are sure, and to hear

(02:20):
that again was almost like I'mreceiving of the word of the
Lord.
Hear that again, it was almostlike I'm receiving the word of
the Lord.
And the couple that we stayedwith over the last week is Elder
Strange at least that's how Iknow him Elder Rayford Strange
and his wife Marie Strange,sister Strange.
And as I was seeking the Lord, Iwas reminded of a testimony

(02:43):
that he gave to me.
That began to be the catalystfor the message for today, and
I'm going to share with you whathe shared with me.
It was a vision that he had, orhe might say that it was a
dream, and as I read it, I justwant you to listen to the words.
And when I give the message, ifyou can't get the scriptures,

(03:03):
don't worry about it.
I think what's really importantis that you hear what the
Spirit is saying.
If you can get notes, fine, Iunderstand that.
I'm very much like that.
I've got to write it down.
I have to do a lot of thingswith it.
I can't just, although I'm goodat hearing, I've got to write
it down, get it ingrained.
But for right now, just listen.
And if you can get notes, youknow, do that, but try.

(03:27):
Let me pray, Father, in the nameof Jesus.
I just pray, Father, thateverybody's hearts here is open
to you, to your word.
I pray, Father, that it beclosed to every other spirit,
not of the Holy Spirit.
I pray, Father, that theirhearts would only be open to
your word and that they wouldonly receive of your word,
Father, so that they can receivethe word of life, so that they

(03:50):
can receive the word of prophecythat they need from you, o God,
and I pray, Father, that Iwould just simply be a vessel
speaking forth your word, Father, and no other word.
Let every voice, let everythought, vain imagination of the
enemy and every shared with me.
He said, not really sure of thetime, but it was late in the

(04:30):
night or early hours aftermidnight when I was slowly but
partially awakened to faintlyrealize that there was a man
standing at the foot of my bedlooking down at me.
There was no sense of fear, asthere would have ordinarily.
Instead, I focused my eyes as Iseemed to awaken a little more.

(04:55):
Nothing was said at the moment.
Finally, I became awake enoughto fully realize that I was not
dreaming, that there wasactually a man standing there
looking down at me.
Presently, he raised his handswith palms facing each other,
about two or three feet apart,and said the church is far from

(05:21):
perfection, given the latenessof the hour, and I merely kept
looking and listening.
He then turned to walk from thefoot of my bed to the far
corner of the room.
He turned and looked at meagain for a moment or two.

(05:42):
He then asked me a series ofquestions which I may or may not
quote in exact order here.
He asked if you preach healingfrom the word of God, what do
you suppose will happen?
Of course, the answer to thatis simple.
I muttered something from yetmy drowsing condition that was
consistent with those that hearand believe are healed.

(06:05):
He said yes, that is correct.
He then went on what do yousuppose will happen if you
preach repentance?
Again, I answered those whotruly believe the word will
repent on hearing the message ofrepentance.
Again, he affirmed that I wasright.

(06:27):
What would happen if you preachthe message of perfection, he
asked, for whatever reason thatI cannot account for, I did not
answer.
It was obvious where he wasgoing with the question.

(06:49):
I can't remember if I turned myhead for a moment or if I
simply closed my eyesmomentarily, but at any rate,
when I looked again he was gone,still in a state of peace.
I soon went back to sleep,leaving me to ponder the strange
event.
Over the years In time, so manyscriptures having to do with the

(07:09):
message of perfection preachedby Jesus and his apostles have
pressed themselves upon my mind,and I have often wondered what
the state of perfection would belike once the church of Jesus
enters into that state, once thechurch of Jesus enters into

(07:31):
that state.
I want to talk to you todayabout the agent of perfection.
We can go into Vine's wordstudies for Old Testament and
New Testament.
Look up the word perfect andit'll probably give something
like this where the word istamim, it acts like an adjective
.
Perfect acts like an adjectiveand it means perfect,
blameless, sincerity, entire,whole, complete and full.

(07:52):
It could also mean to becomplete in the sense of the
entire or the whole thing.
You can do a word study on this.
It also means to be intact, tonot be cut up into pieces.
It could also meanincontestable, free from

(08:13):
objection.
In other words, the word meansthat the one so described
eternally meets all therequirements of God's law.
He has no blemish, as definedby God.
There is nothing in the outwardactivities or the internal
disposition that is odious toGod of that man.
So they'll use the word perfectand it describes his entire

(08:38):
relationship with God.
The adjective means complete orperfect, perfect, sound or
wholesome, morally innocent,having integrity.
It's also used as a nouncompleteness in the following
sense of being in the fullness,innocency, simplicity, integrity

(08:58):
, and it's used as a verb to becomplete, to be finished, to be
consumed, to be without blame.
It means to be finished orcompleted, and that's just a
quick word study, just to sortof kind of lay, a kind of
superficial foundation, so thatwe're all on the same page of
what it means to be perfect.

(09:20):
But there's another word thatis very similar to it and it
came out.
I mean, the other word that isused for perfect is complete.
So I looked up the wordcomplete in Vines and it's a
verb and it means to finish, tocomplete, to repay the reward.
KingsThe Hebrew denotes perfection in
the sense that a condition oraction is complete.

(09:42):
Perfection and completeness isprimarily attributed to God.
He is deficient in nothing, hisattributes are not marred by
any shortcomings, his power isnot limited by any weaknesses of
any kind.
God reminded Job that he wasuninhibited, he was completely
independent and absolutelyself-sufficient.

(10:04):
He was without any deficiency,his, without any flaw in
executing justice, his judgment.
God is likewise never lackingin mercy and power to bestow any
kind of benevolence of everykind to any man that he so
wishes to do.
The God of perfect justice andgoodness expects total devotion

(10:30):
from his creatures and, as anadjective, God demanded total
obedience from his people.
He said let their hearttherefore be perfect with the
Lord, our God, to walk in hisstatutes, to keep his
commandments.
That was 1 Kings 8, 61.

(10:53):
But it also was used in SolomonIn 1 Kings 11, 4,.
Solomon failed to meet thisrequirement of being perfect.
It said his heart was notperfect with the Lord, his God.
In contrast to Solomon, youhave Hezekiah, one of his great,
great, great, great, great,great, great, great, great

(11:13):
grandsons, and he says I havewalked before thee in truth and
with a perfect heart.
Lord, when the prophet came tohim and said you're about to die
, but Hezekiah, all of his days,all of his reign, his heart was
perfect before the Lord and hesaid it to him.
He reminded him but, lord, Iwas perfect before you, I walked

(11:37):
in your truth, with a perfectheart, and you know the response
.
The prophet walked away.
And then Lord spoke to theprophet, told him turn around
and said I'm going to give himanother 15 years.
So with that in mind, my son isgoing to try to keep up with me
on scriptures.
Again, just listen to the word.

(12:00):
The word perfect is used inGenesis 6 regarding Noah.
These are the generations ofNoah.
Noah was a just man and perfectin his generations and Noah
walked with God.
Now, the definition of perfectto you, to me, to man, I believe

(12:21):
, is different than God's.
And the only way you're goingto find that out is if you look
in the scriptures and come togrips with "All have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God, yet Noah was said to be
perfect.
So, whatever you think ofperfect to be, knowing that

(12:42):
every man has sinned, yet Godstill called Noah perfect, then
your definition is out of linewith his.
You need to be renewed in yourmind with the word as to what
God means when he says that manwas perfect.
So I'm making a list here.
I'm going to give you somescriptures about perfect, and

(13:05):
right now I believe in thisscripture Genesis 6, 9, that
perfect is tied to being just,which is to be righteous.
It is tied to allowing one theopportunity to walk with God.
Because Noah walked with God.
It says in Genesis 17, 1,regarding Abram, who was 99

(13:27):
years old, and the Lord, godAlmighty, said to him walk
before me and be thou perfect.
That right there tells me thatit is required by God that you
walked before him and you beperfect.
Whether you like that or not,whether you think that's fair or

(13:50):
not, he requires that of you.
He requires that of me to beperfect.
So it is a requirement and itis commandment.
It is a command of the Lord.
We can turn to 1 Kings, 8, 6, 3,1, which I believe we just read
let your heart therefore beperfect.

(14:11):
And from that scripture I getthat to be perfect has something
to do with the heart of man.
Not that it doesn't haveanything to do with actions, but
God is tying this word to theheart of man.
So when he said to Abram beperfect.

(14:34):
And it says in first Kings, letyour heart therefore be perfect
, he was talking about his heart, the inward man, the inside of
you.
Yet it says be perfect with theLord, our God.
You can't be perfect withouthim.
I'm breaking it down in littlebite-sized morsels so that you

(14:55):
don't just read over andoverlook things.
Because you just read the wordperfect you say well, I can't be
perfect.
Yes, you can.
With the Lord God, you can beperfect.
And what will it look likeoutwardly.
It says to walk in his statutesand to keep his commandments.
So now he's taking somethingspiritual, a principle of that's

(15:21):
in the spirit.
It is in the heavens, it hasbeen declared in the heavens and
we're seeing it declared in theearth to be perfect and it has
to do with the heart and youcan't do it without the Lord God
, and it's going to look likeyou're walking in his statutes
and keeping his commandments.
It says of Asa, who was anotherking.

(15:41):
I remember I told you thisbefore because I talked to you
about the kings.
This was last summer but thehigh place remember, the high
places were not removed, butAsa's heart was perfect with the
Lord all of his days.
So what does that show me?
That your heart can be perfectin the midst of people around

(16:02):
you, in idolatry.
You can do it.
You can do it.
It said of Asa that it wasperfect in all of his days.
That speaks to me that ifyou're going to be perfect, you
need to endure to the end.
You can't be perfect for amoment.

(16:25):
You need to be perfect all ofyour days.
I've talked to you aboutHezekiah.
When he had a perfect heart, hewalked before him.
In truth, when we read 2 Kings20, verse 3, that's what it says

(16:46):
, and when we go to 1 Chronicles12: 38, it said all these men
of war, David's men, all thesemen of war that could keep rank,
came with a perfect heart toHebron.
What were they going to dothere?
They came with a perfect heart.
Oh, to make David king overIsrael.
And all the rest, also ofIsrael would of one heart To

(17:14):
make David king.
They came with a perfect heart.
They came all in agreement.
They came all utterly convinced.
They came all fully persuaded.
They came all singly, devotedto backing up David, the king of

(17:36):
Israel.
So to have a perfect heart isto be fully persuaded, to be
complete in agreement.
Now, they were in agreementwith each other that they were
going to make David a king.
But if you're going to have aperfect heart toward the Lord,
you need to be in completeagreement with His word.
You need to be utterlyconvinced that these are not

(17:59):
stories.
These are historical accountsof what happened.
These are the testimonies ofthe Lord and they are sure.
1 Chronicles 29.9 tells me.
Did I say 1 Corinthians 12.38?
Okay, if I said that I didn'tmean that I'm in 1 Chronicles.

(18:23):
Okay, when I'm in 1 Chronicles29.9, here's something else
that's attached to having aperfect heart.
Then the people rejoiced forthat they offered willingly,
because with perfect heart, theyoffered willingly to the Lord.
That tells me that a man, tohave a perfect heart, he must be

(18:46):
self-willing to give of himselfto the Lord, to give whatever
it is that is necessary to theLord.
He's not going to rape you,he's not going to tie you up,
he's not going to force you,he's not going to possess you
like the enemy does, but he'sgoing to give you the ability.
That's why He poured out hisSpirit To give you the power, to

(19:15):
cause you to walk in hisstatutes and to guard his just
judgments Ezekiel 36.
You must be willing, it must bein you to seek after him.
It must be in you to cry outfor him.

(19:36):
It must be in you to submit, tosurrender to him, to his ways,
to his commandments, to hisstatutes, to his judgments.
It must be in you, and if it'snot, then you will remain
imperfect.
In 2 Chronicles 19.9, it says hecharged them saying Thus shall

(20:03):
ye do in the fear of the Lord,faithfully and with a perfect
heart.
So to have a perfect heart, itis required of you to fear him
and to be faithful, which has todo with enduring unto the end.

(20:24):
In all of his days, asa's heartwas perfect.
You're going to see thisrepetitiveness.
You're going to see God sayingthe same thing in different
words, and what we're doing iswe're not looking at Vine's
definition Not that he was wrong.
We're not looking at Vine'sdefinition of what perfect is.
We're looking into thescriptures and we're allowing
the scriptures to dictate to uswhat it is that he meant when he

(20:47):
used that word.
We're looking for thedefinition contextually in the
scriptures so that we have aproper understanding.
We've done that before.
Bishop has tried.
I don't know if it's worked,but he's tried to teach us to
just don't take the definitionthat's in the vine or the
thematic or the topical index,but just look in the scriptures.
It'll define itself.

(21:09):
God hasn't done anything that heneeds to have a secondary book
on the side so that you canunderstand.
He doesn't require you to be ascholar in the seminary so that
you can understand his word.
He's already translated it intoyour language.
That's all you really need, andhe took care of that for you
too, because you weren't thereback in 1611 when they
translated it for you.
And he still is giving you aidsto just help you.

(21:32):
Make sure that you're on theright track and you didn't get
some bastardized version of thescriptures that perverted it
completely and watered it downto where it doesn't make
anything what God intended it tobe.
We have enough, so let's notmake any excuses.
It says of Job.
There was a man in the land ofUz whose name was Job, and this

(21:53):
man was perfect.
Yet it said all men have fallenshort of the glory of God.
And just to make sure that youdidn't think that it was just a
writer that was saying it of Job, that he was perfect and
upright and one that feared God.
In verse 8, it says and theLord said unto Satan have you
considered my servant Job?

(22:13):
There ain't none like him inthe earth.
He's perfect.
God said that himself.
And he's an upright man and hefears God and he eschews evil,
he turns away from that.
He doesn't walk in that.
So what that tells me in thescriptures is that to be perfect
is to be walking upright, notlike an animal, not like a beast

(22:34):
.
You walk upright in integrity,in honor, in charity, in
integrity, in righteousness, intruth, and you fear God.
There it is again.
Fearing God is integral tohaving a perfect heart and
eschewing evil.
That means you're not walkingin evil.
That means you're turning awayfrom it, and the fear of the

(22:55):
Lord does that.
You've read Proverbs enough,you would have realized that
already the fear of the Lordwill make you turn away from
evil.
You won't have nothing to dowith it.
In 1 Kings 11, 4, it says ofSolomon, for it came to pass
when Solomon was old that hiswives turned away his heart
after other gods and his heartwas not perfect.
So if I look at the other side,what it is, what it is, what it

(23:19):
is to be perfect.
What it is not to be perfect isto have your heart turned away
after other gods, idols.
And we think, well, we don't dothat today.
We don't carve up idols, wedon't put them on our doorstep
or we don't put them hanging inour cars.
The idols are all over theplace and they are in your heart

(23:45):
.
That's why they're not seen.
And it is he that looks intothe heart of man.
He does not look at theappearance.
You could be flashy preacherfrom the richest mega church on
earth and you could be the mostcrooked criminal.
That's looked that good andyou're deceiving the masses.

(24:10):
It says in 1 Kings 15, 3, ofanother king, king Abijam of
Judah.
And he walked in all the sinsof his father, rehoboam, which
he had done before him, and hisheart was not perfect with the
Lord, his God.
Contextually, that's telling methat if I'm going to walk in

(24:30):
the sins of my father, then myheart is not perfect.
You cannot be walking in thesins of your ancestors.
And he says in 2 Chronicles 25,too Interesting, this one
really hit me, so I hope it hitsyou in the same way.
And he did, speaking of this man, and he did that which was
right in the sight of the Lord.

(24:51):
Sounds good, so far right.
But then it says but not with aperfect heart.
So you can look like you'redoing right in the sight of the
Lord and you can still not havea perfect heart Because your
actions are not the be-all,end-all.

(25:11):
Judgment of what is really inyou To have a perfect heart is
not always easily judged by whatyou've done.
By action it is in a sense, butnot fully, and only God, who
sees all, can judge that matter.

(25:33):
So I've given you a lot ofscriptures and if you want me to
email them to you, I will, andyou can look at them on your own
.
But I think that is the type ofdefinitions that we need to use
these connections betweenfearing the Lord, being able to
walk with God, to be just, to berighteous and to do it all of

(25:54):
your days and to continue in it,walking in truth, to be fully
persuaded, to be fully andutterly convinced, to be
completely devoted, in agreementwith his word and his ways, to
be completely willing on yourpart to do these things, to keep
his commandments, his statutes,his judgments, to fear the Lord
and to do it faithfully allyour days, not or parting away

(26:18):
from evil.
That's the definition we needto have for perfect, because we
think of taking a hundredquestion test and getting every
answer right that's perfect.
We think walking this life andnot making a mistake, that's
perfect.
Not stumbling, that's perfect.
But look at these men who weresaid to have perfect hearts

(26:41):
before the Lord.
How were they able to do itwhen they did not have the Holy
Spirit?
Ha ha ha ha Thought about that.
They were perfect and they didnot have the Holy Spirit Not
indwelling, like us who havebeen born again, who are in the

(27:02):
covenant, who have absolutely noexcuse whatsoever.
Think on that.
It says of Jesus that He is theauthor and He is the finisher of
our faith, in Hebrews 12:2.
He is the author.
He is the finisher.

(27:22):
He is the beginning.
He is the end.
He is the first.
He is the last.
He is the root.
He is the offspring.
What's in between?
He starts it, he ends it.
What's in between?

(27:48):
It says in 2 Chronicles 16, 9,that the eyes of the Lord are
running to and fro throughoutthe earth to show himself strong
.
He wants to show himself strongon behalf of those whose heart
is perfect toward him.
He's looking all over the earthfor people who have a perfect

(28:10):
heart toward him.
It says in Job 8, god will notcast away a perfect man.
He won't do it.
That's who he's looking for.
That's who he wants to embrace.
That's who he wants to embrace,that's who he wants to capture
to his heart.
It says in Psalm 101, 6, verse 6, mine eyes shall be upon the

(28:34):
faithful of the land.
That they may dwell with me.
He that walketh in a perfectway, he shall serve me.
That is the man that God canuse, because that is the man
that is humble enough, that iswilling enough, that has made

(28:57):
himself available enough to walkin his truth, to walk in his
way, to walk in his truth, towalk in his way, to walk in his
righteousness.
What's in between of the rootand offspring, what's in between
of the author and finisher isus and what we decide to do.

(29:23):
What we decide to do with whathe has done for us.
That's what's in the middle.
His word is sure His children,his people, those that are led

(29:47):
by the Spirit, are the sons ofGod.
He has promised to completethem.
Amen.
He has promised to completethem.
He has not promised to completethe world.

(30:08):
It says he died for the sins ofhis people, does it not?
No, I caught you on that one.
He died for who?
The sins of the whole world.
That means he's given every manthe opportunity to make the

(30:33):
right decision.
Choose you this day.
Whom you will serve?
Choose life, choose death.
The choice is yours.
Right in the middle of whatJesus is going to do, whether
you cooperate with him or not,is your decision to cooperate
with him or not.
It's all up to you.
Jesus has made it possible foryou to be perfect.

(30:59):
What will you do with that?
In our day and age, we've takenthe what do you call it?
Potential energy of a river andwe've harnessed it with these

(31:20):
things so that we can getelectricity, so that we can get
energy.
We had to decide that, but thepotential was always in that
river.
The river flows from the throneof God throughout this earth,
giving wisdom, crying out fromthe rooftops.
Who will listen?

(31:41):
Who will heed?
Who will respond to my call?
Because many are called but feware chosen.
You are chosen because of thechoice that you make.
Then you become chosen.
This is not a doctrine ofpredestination.

(32:02):
You don't get a choice in thematter.
Yes, you do.
That's a lie from the pit ofhell to make you think that you
don't have anything to do aboutit.
That doctrine will send youstraight to hell because it'll
leave you in your sofa waitingfor God to do something, when
God has already done everything.
He's waiting for you to get inthe river Flow with him.

(32:23):
Where is he going?
Go with him, don't he going?
Go with him.
Don't get stuck on shore.
Don't get stuck in an eddy Flowin the midst of the river of
truth, for wisdom is theprincipal thing.
Let wisdom be your guide.
That's all Old Testamentscriptures.
By the way, I haven't eventouched the New Testament.
The New Testament says the NewCovenant says Matthew 5, 48,.

(32:47):
Jesus said be ye thereforeperfect.
What a surprise, what asurprise.
Be ye therefore perfect.
I wonder why Scripture saysJesus is the same yesterday,
today and forever.
No surprise.
The requirement of old is therequirement in the new.

(33:11):
Be ye perfect, as your Father,which is in heaven, is perfect.
He says in Luke 6.40,.
The disciple is not above hismaster.
He says in Luke 6.40, thedisciple is not above his master
, but everyone that is perfectshall be as his master.
He was the master.

(33:34):
He was talking to his disciplesyou want to be perfect?
Then you will become just likeme.
You want to be perfect.
Take, you will become just likeme.
You want to be perfect.
Take up your cross and followme.
I have left you footsteps.
Walk in them.
What I go through, you will gothrough.

(34:04):
In Matthew 19, 21,.
Jesus said to a man who came tohim, who asked how to be
perfect, how to be complete, howto do everything that God
required of me.
And Jesus answered and saidunto this man if you want to be
perfect, go and sell that thouhast.

(34:26):
Give it to the poor and you'llhave treasure in heaven.
And come and follow me.
I find it interesting that Inever heard Jesus, and it's not
like we had a record ofeverything Jesus ever said and
did.
So I understand that, but Inever heard Jesus say that to
anybody else.

(34:46):
Work with me now, given alittle latitude.
This tells me, because he saidother things to other people,
what they needed to do, but hedidn't say this.
In order for you to be perfectmay not be what is required in

(35:09):
order for you to be perfect.
Everything that we just defineperfect to be is required and
necessary, but there's somespecific things in regards to
you and in regards to how hemade you and how you've
responded to life, how you'veresponded to the trauma and the
experiences that you have, thathe requires specifically of you

(35:33):
that he may not require of him,and you need to respond to that
specific word from God in orderfor you to be perfect.
Go and sell all that thou hastDoes not mean the same for
everybody.
You can go from generation togeneration past About how people
were thinking it was the end ofthe world.

(35:54):
We're going to go selleverything and it ain't the end
of the world.
And they all thought the samething.
But you know why they thoughtcarnally.
We must understand that hisword is spirit and it is
discerned spiritually and it isdiscerned and given meaning and
interpretation by the spirit ofGod for you.

(36:17):
And what he says to you doesn'tnegate or contradict some other
person, but it means that he'sspeaking specifically to them.
But it does have all of thoseother requirements that we
talked about from before.
Some people laugh at the thingsthat I had to give up in my life

(36:37):
.
Over 10,000 comics, over$10,000 worth of comics, all in
the garbage Music that I listento, all in the garbage, burned
up.
That's what I had to do StephenKing books, litter, litter,
lacrosse Throw them away, firethem up.

(36:59):
I needed to do that so that Iwould get rid of the things in
my life that were making myheart imperfect and divided.
Does he require that of you?
I have no idea.
I can't say, oh, he's going torequire everybody to get rid of
their comics, he's going torequire everybody to get rid of
their music.

(37:20):
I can't say that.
That's what he said to me andfor me.
I needed that.
I could testify of that.
That's what he said to me andfor me.
I needed that.
I could testify of that.
Now, I needed that because Iwould spend weekends spending
over $100 a weekend buying 30,40 comics and spending the whole
weekend reading them, and if Ididn't finish it, then I'd go
through the week.
I literally did that.

(37:40):
I did, but I'm not ashamed tosay that because that's what God
got me out of, and some peoplemight laugh at that.
Well, that's ridiculous.
That's funny.
Okay, I'm where I am todaybecause of the things that I
sacrificed, because I wanted Him.
Jesus prayed for us in John 17.

(38:00):
In verse 23, he said I in themand thou in me that they may be
made perfect in one.
Perfect has to do with being inone, in agreement on the one
that we talk about for years now, on the one.
That's what perfect is, to beperfect in one, that the world

(38:23):
may know that thou hast sent meand hast loved me, and that thou
hast sent me and hast loved meand that thou hast loved me.
So to be of one heart, to be ofone mind, to be of one spirit,
to be of one accord, to be ofone body, requires that you have
an undivided heart.
That I can say blankedlyforever.
You must have an undividedheart.

(38:44):
You cannot have other idolsthere.
There should be one throne onyour heart with one Lord seated
upon that throne, but a lot ofus like to call him our Lord and
our Savior.
He's the throne of our heartand we've got all these other
altars to other idols in ourheart that nobody sees.
And I can name a list of allthese other altars to other

(39:07):
idols in our heart that nobodysees, and I can name a list of
all these natural things thatdistract us from the ways of
this world.
But if you're going to hear theSpirit of God, then you need to
hear for yourself.
What are your idols that youneed to get rid of?
Because I can say that the Lordhas spoken and counseled and
instructed so many here and it'salmost like there's been an

(39:30):
invisible barrier right here,because the word has been spoken
.
It went right to the ear.
It like deflected, like abullet off a Superman.
It just went.
It didn't even get in there, itdidn't get received because
there was no change, there wasno acknowledgement.
One of the signs of repentanceis that you acknowledge the

(39:53):
truth.
You could shake your head inour faces all you want, and
months down the line, whenyou're still stuck in the same
position that you were in beforeand you're still struggling
with the same position that youwere in before and you still
struggling with the same messthat you were before.
Don't come to me, because youain't listening.
Don't come to God either.
You ain't listening.

(40:13):
You don't come to God until youhave obeyed him and you've done
it His way.
And there were many things in mylife that I was not sure of,
that I was maybe not inagreement with, but my heart was
willing to say you know what,Lord, I don't know about that,
but I'm going to do it your way,even though I'm not sure how

(40:36):
that's going to turn out,because I really kind of I'm not
, I'm not unbelief, I'm notpaddling my kids was that.
And that's why I tell you thatDisciplining kids was not in my
repertoire, it was not in myexperience.
For me, well, that's notnecessary, I didn't have to go
through that, but I had to do itGod's way.

(40:58):
If I was going to call myself aChristian, I had to do it God's
way, according to his word, andtrust that God will work out
the fruit of righteousness thathe promised would come out of
that.
But that was not really of me,and that's what I mean when I
say that.
It's not that I had anundivided heart.
I just I don't know.
I'll do it, but that's the key.

(41:20):
I'm willing to do it,regardless of my disbelief, if
you will.
So to be of an undivided heart.
If you turn to Matthew 6, 22-24,Jesus said the light of the
body.
The light of the body is theeye.

(41:40):
Weird stuff he sometimes spoke.
The light of the body is theeye.
Well, I know of the body, okay.
If, therefore, thine eye besingle, thy whole body shall be
full of light.
If thine eye be evil, thy wholebody shall be full of darkness.

(42:02):
If, therefore, the light thatis in thee is darkness, well,
how great is that darkness?
And to help me understand, Istarted realizing that the light
of the body is the spirit, thespirit of man that is in that

(42:24):
body.
The light, the candle is thespirit of man that is in that
body.
The light, the candle is thespirit of man.
And if it's full of light, whois light?
God, and full, are you in thatlight?
But if the light, the spiritthat you have, is darkness, evil
, oh how great is that darkness,how great is that evil.

(42:51):
No man and then he comes with noman can serve two masters, for
either he will hate the one andlove the other, or else he will
hold to one and despise theother.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
You can't be of an undividedheart.
You cannot be of an undividedheart, you cannot be of an
undivided spirit.
The heart of man, if you didn'trealize, is the spirit of man.

(43:12):
It's the inward man that isspoken of in the scriptures.
This body's gonna go away.
This is not you.
What's in you is your spiritand that's the breath of life
that you have.
Your spirit cannot serve twomasters.
Jesus said four chapters later,in Matthew 10, 37.

(43:35):
He said you have to be sosingly devoted and committed to
me that you must.
Let me put it his way he thatloveth father or mother more
than me, that you must.
Let me put it his way he thatloveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me.
He that loveth son or daughtermore than me, you're not worthy

(44:00):
of me.
Well, how could Jesus say thatwe're supposed to love our
neighbors as ourselves?
What does he mean by that?
Did he not tell Abraham tosacrifice his only son?
I didn't get any answer.
Oh my gosh, does everybody knowthat account?
Did God tell Abraham sacrificeyour only son, the one that I

(44:24):
promised you sacrifice him?
Was Abraham willing?
He was willing to sacrifice hispromised son.
Don't know what was going on inhis mind, don't know whether
God's a boy.
You can raise him from the dead.
I don't know what he knew, buthe was willing to sacrifice his

(44:44):
only son Because his heart wasafter God.
It says he was looking for acity whose builder and maker is
God, and he was willing to getrid of everything, whatever was
necessary, whatever God requiredof him, in order to have that.

(45:06):
And so he had to be willing tosacrifice his son.
And so there, god saw okay,you're willing.
That's what I need, that is aperfect heart.
Did he literally sacrifice hisson?
No, but there are things inyour life that need to be
sacrificed.

(45:26):
And there are things in yourlife that you're going to be
asked to sacrifice.
And you just said okay, now Iknow your heart is after me.
And it's not even that God knewI mean, come on, he's
omniscient.
It's that now you know thatyour heart is after me.
It was really to show yourselfthat you really will want me.
Because how many times have wefailed?

(45:47):
How many times have we provento ourselves my heart is not
after him?
Forgive me, forgive me, forgiveme, Lord, we must have an
undivided heart and must besingly devoted to him In the
beginning of the end of ourperfection, the beginning and
the end, the beginning of theend of our perfection, the

(46:07):
beginning and the end.
The beginning and the end ofour perfection is Jesus, and in
between, the issue is our heartand what we decide for ourselves
.
If you turn to Proverbs 11, godalways does this.
We're doing some sort ofdevotion with the kids and it
becomes a part of the message.
So in Proverbs 11, I'm justgoing to highlight a few things,

(46:31):
because it just came to me andI said it to the kids and then
my wife's like oh my God, yeah.
And then I started reallydawning on me wow, how well.
Anyways, let me read it soProverbs 11, verse 3.
The integrity of the uprightshall guide them.

(46:52):
I'm only going to pop out somethings here.
The righteousness, in verse 4,delivereth from death
Righteousness.
The righteousness of theperfect shall direct his way.
The righteousness of theupright shall deliver them.

(47:15):
Now, it didn't say therighteousness of God, it didn't
say the righteousness of theLord.
It said the righteousness ofthe Lord.
It said the righteousness ofthe upright.
Their righteousness shall guidethem, shall keep them, shall
deliver them.
It says in verse eight, therighteous is delivered out of

(47:40):
trouble.
It says in verse 18, he whosoweth righteousness shall be a
sure reward.
It says, as righteousnesstendeth to life, the seed of the

(48:01):
righteous shall be delivered.
In verse 21.
23,.
The desire of the righteousshall be delivered in verse 21.
23,.
The desire of the righteous isonly good.
In verse 27,.
He that diligently seeketh goodprocureth favor.
In verse 28,.

(48:23):
The righteous shall floorth asa branch, and it dawned on me
he's saying this to people thatare not born again.
God is looking for people withthe perfect heart, with an

(48:45):
inclination to righteousness,even though they may not know it
.
It is him who he's coming afterwe talk about.
Well, what is God going to dowith the people that have not
heard the gospel?
And I tell you that the Lord islooking to and fro throughout
the earth for those whose heartsare perfect toward him.
And if one of those people hasa heart that's perfect toward

(49:06):
him, then he's going to reachout to them Because he sees that
their hearts are inclinedtoward his righteousness and he
will come and rescue them.
He will come and save them.
And if he doesn't, is he notjust in his judgment, is he not
perfect in his judgment that heknows what was in the heart,

(49:28):
whether you saw it or not?
Why do you keep coming up withexcuses for obeying his word?
And then it said and he's givingthese revelations in Proverbs

(49:49):
of man, he says the fruit of therighteous is a tree of life.
When did you hear about a treeof life?
In the scriptures before thispoint?
All the way back in the gardenof life.

(50:09):
In the scriptures before thispoint, all the way back in the
garden.
The fruit of the righteousleads where?
To the tree of life.
It leads to Jesus.
Jesus is looking for that heartthat desires to walk in
righteousness even when theworld around him is not.

(50:30):
Noah was that type of man,because the world was as sick as
it had ever been in the days ofNoah.
But Noah was righteous, noahwas just.
Noah would not conform to theirways.
His heart continued to followafter righteousness.
The tree of life is the fruitof the righteous.

(50:56):
The Lord demands.
Thou shalt be perfect with theLord, thy God.
It says in Deuteronomy 32, 4,.
He is the rock.
His work is perfect.
All of his ways are judgment.

(51:20):
A God of truth, withoutiniquity.
Just and right is he.
His ways are judgment.
His ways are of justice andthey're in truth, and there's no
evil in him.
There's no darkness in him.
He don't make mistakes, he hasno blemishes.

(51:42):
His judgment is just and true,for he is truth.
It says.
As for God, his way is perfect.
It says that in several places.
It says in several places,first by Samuel and then in the
Psalms God is my strength andpower and he maketh my way

(52:05):
perfect.
The Lord's ways are perfect andhe makes my ways perfect.
This next verse propheticallyreveals the burden and the
responsibility that the Lord hasover those that are walking in
righteousness.
He says the Lord will perfectthat which concerneth me.

(52:30):
Thy mercy, o Lord, endurethforever.
Forsake not the works of thinehands.
I am a work of his hands andDavid was crying Don't forsake
me, lord.
Make all of my ways perfect,everything that concerns me,
every little closet that I'mhiding.

(52:51):
Make it perfect, clean it out.
But I have to be willing.
The Lord will perfect the worksof his hands.
There are more than just methat is the work of his hands.
All of creation is the work ofhis hands.
There are more than just methat is the work of his hands.
All of creation is the work ofhis hands.
Does not Revelation tell us heis going to restore everything

(53:14):
to its pristine, originalintention and condition and
state Perfection?
It was all good, good, good,all very good, he said.
But here's what we do.
Paul spoke of this in Galatians3.3.
Paul said to the Galatians areyou so foolish?

(53:35):
What's the matter with you?
Having begun in the spirit, areyou now going to finish it in
the flesh?
That's what we do.
I'm talking to saints.
I'm talking to people bornagain of the water and of the
spirit.
We start in the spirit.

(53:57):
Everything was initiated in thespirit by Jesus.
And then, for some reason,pride rises up and we're content
to have gone through the cross,and after that we can begin to

(54:20):
walk in our own understandingand we stop doing what was
required of us in the beginning.
If you were born again, it'sbecause you obeyed.
If you were born again, it'sbecause you obeyed the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
But then, after that, youslipped up and now you try to
finish in the flesh what wasbegun in the spirit.
You can't do that.

(54:41):
You listen to the preacher whowas sent to you preach the
gospel of the kingdom, and youobeyed and you were blessed and,
man, everything changed in yourlife.
And then, all of a sudden, youstop listening to the preacher,
you stop listening to thecounsel of God because you know

(55:04):
better.
Well, you didn't know betterbefore.
You didn't know better before.
You didn't know better before,but you had enough wits about
you that you obeyed the gospel.
Then afterward you're going togo back.
What's the matter with you?
You can't finish it in theflesh.
You must continue in the spirit.
You must continue in thecounsel of God.

(55:29):
And Jesus left us an example,because it says it became him
from who all are all things, bywhom are all things?
And bringing many sons to glory.
It became Jesus to bring manysons to glory.
It became Jesus to bring manysons to glory.
God made him the captain of oursalvation to bring many sons to
glory through suffering.
Perfect through suffering, itsays Hebrews 2.10,.

(55:56):
Perfect through suffering.
The captain of our salvation,who was to bring many sons to
glory, was made perfect throughsuffering.
Take up your cross and followme, follow me.
I went through suffering,follow me.
I didn't tell you you wouldnever be persecuted.

(56:19):
On the contrary, take up yourcross and follow me.
I didn't tell you you wouldnever be persecuted.
On the contrary, take up yourcross and follow me, for they
will hate you because they firsthated me.
They will persecute you I'm notgoing to hide that from you.
And through suffering you willbe made perfect, it says Jesus.
Jesus and he, being madeperfect, became the author, the

(56:44):
alpha, the beginning of oureternal salvation.
Unto Hebrews 5, 9.
Unto.
Did anybody know the finish ofthat?
All to them that obey Him,thank you.
It's not reserved for the worldhe may have died for the sins

(57:05):
of the whole world, but to bemade perfect, to bring salvation
, to bring many sons to glory.
It is only for them that obeyhim.
Because you know what the lawmade nothing perfect.
It did help not man to know thelaw.
It did not help man to eat ofthe tree of the knowledge of

(57:31):
good and evil.
It did not help man to knowbetween good and evil.
It was their downfall, it wastheir ruin to know it.
The law was a shadow of goodthings to come.
That's all.
It was just a shadow.
And we have dearly belovedsaints walking in the law,

(57:55):
feeling the need to keep theSabbath, feeling the need to do
all of these ordinances of thelaw.
You're going to finish in theflesh what God began in the
spirit.
Do you not understand the newcovenant?
I guess not.
The law was not the very imageof the things because they

(58:20):
needed sacrifices year afteryear after year.
Why would you need to continuesacrifices if the law was going
to make you perfect?
It didn't do that.
But God it says in Hebrews11.40, provided something better
.
It's the new covenant, it's thelaw of the spirit, of life in

(58:45):
Christ Jesus, spoken of inRomans 8.
How does God begin to work withus when we commit our hearts to
Him to have a perfect heart?

(59:05):
You can turn to Ezekiel 16.
I'm only going to highlightsome things.
But although this was spoken of, to the origin of Israel, it is
easily applied to us if wethink spiritually.
The origin of Israel, it iseasily applied to us if we think
spiritually and we discernspiritually.

(59:26):
The Lord God said unto Jerusalem, in Ezekiel 16, 3 and on In the
day that you were born, Ipassed by you.
I saw you polluted in your ownblood, in your own sin.
I said unto you.
You know what?

(59:47):
The first thing I said unto youLive, live.
He spoke life.
I want to describe what.
All of the?
Why did he do all of these acts?
We're going to get to that in asecond.
But the first thing he did washe spoke life and he caused the

(01:00:09):
people of God to multiply, tomultiply, to multiply.
And he said but when I passedover you, when I looked upon you
, it was a time of love.
Verse eight A time of love.
I loved you with an everlastinglove.
I saw you in that wretchednessand I loved you and I pronounced

(01:00:31):
life upon you because I wantedyou, I desired you.
That was my love for you.
Because I wanted you, I desiredyou.
That was my love for you.
And when I loved you, I coveredyour nakedness.
I spread a skirt over you.
I covered your nakedness andthen I swore to you and I came
into covenant with you Because Iloved you.

(01:00:59):
And I washed you with water, Icleaned you up.
I thoroughly washed away all ofyour blood, all of your sin
from you.
I anointed you with oil.
I began to clothe you.
We can speak about how this he'sclothing you in His

(01:01:21):
righteousness.
You will have the garments ofrighteousness in the end, and it
will be His righteousnessbringing Him the glory.
I put badger skins on you.
I girded you with fine linen.
I covered you with silk.
I decked you with ornaments.
I put bracelets upon thy handand a chain upon thy neck.
I put a jewel in thy foreheadand earrings in thy ears and a
beautiful crown upon thy head.

(01:01:42):
I made you majestic.
You are full of my majesty.
I glorified you.
It says in verse 14, for thybeauty went among the heathen.

(01:02:03):
Everyone knew about you and itwas perfect through my
comeliness.
It was my doing all along InIsaiah 30 and Isaiah 4,.
There are a people out therethat are not people that are

(01:02:29):
perfect toward the Lord.
It says in that day, sevenwomen shall take hold of one man
, saying we will eat our ownbread, we will wear our own
apparel, just let us be calledby thy name to take away our
reproach.
That's undivided.
Excuse me, that's a dividedheart.

(01:02:49):
I want this from you, but I'mgoing to keep this.
I'm going to keep doing it myway.
I'm going to keep dressingmyself.
Just give me your name, let mebe called a Christian, but I'm
going to still walk in my way.
That's a divided heart andeventually that leads to what he
says in Isaiah 30.

(01:03:10):
A divided heart always leads tothis, always because you cannot
serve two masters.
You will hate one and not theother, or you will love the one
and hate the other.
It is a spiritual principle.
You cannot serve two masters Ifyou have a divided heart.
It leads to Isaiah 30 that saysWoe to the rebellious children,

(01:03:32):
sayeth the Lord, that takecounsel, but not of me.
They heard me in the beginning.
I delivered them out of Egypt,but afterward they did not take
counsel of me.
They covered with a covering.
They covered them.

(01:03:54):
They dressed themselves.
It looked good, but it was notof my spirit.
I did not sanction it.
I did good, but it was not ofmy spirit.
I did not sanction it.
I did not sanctify it.
It was the flesh and I will notdo that.
I will clothe in my spirit, Iwill clothe in my righteousness.

(01:04:15):
What is the agent of perfection?
It was described here inEzekiel 16.
The agent of perfection Jesuswas teaching and one of the
scribes came to him.
You know how they always cometo him, try to trip him up, try

(01:04:37):
to ask a question.
But this particular scribe,after they tried to trip him up,
try to ask a question.
But this particular scribe,after they try to trip him up,
and he had answers.
I mean, he was just he's God,just put their foot in their
mouths.
He answered all of them.
Well, but this scribe askedJesus, in Mark 12, 28, which is

(01:05:01):
the first commandment of all.
Jesus answered him.
The first of all thecommandments is Hear, o Israel,
the Lord, our God is one Lordand thou shalt love the Lord,
thy God, with all thy heart andwith all thy soul and with all
thy mind and with all thystrength.
This is the first commandment,this is an undivided heart for
the Lord.
You will recognize who he isand you will love Him with every

(01:05:25):
fiber of your being.
But he did not end there.
He said.
The second is like, namely thisThou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.
There is none other commandmentgreater than these.
And the scribe said unto himsincerely well, master, thou
hast said the truth, for thereis one God and there is none

(01:05:47):
other but he.
And to love him with all theheart and with all the
understanding and with all thesoul and with all the strength,
and to love his neighbor ashimself is more than all whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices.
He acknowledged the truth.
He is willingly acknowledgingthe truth.

(01:06:13):
And when Jesus saw that, heanswered discreetly.
He said unto him Thou art notfar from the kingdom of God,
maybe not to embarrass him,maybe not to, because he was
amidst of people and his purposewas not to judge but to save

(01:06:35):
the souls of men.
So maybe whisper to him Thouart not far from the kingdom of
God.
And no man after that askedthem any question.
The agent of perfection I'mgetting to it now is in John.
Well, it's in these verses John13, 34, for a new commandment I
give unto you that ye love oneanother as I have loved you,

(01:07:02):
that ye also love one another.
Now, ezekiel 16 showed how Godloved the people whom he called
out.
You see it in action.
He cried out what First to themLive, be made alive.

(01:07:23):
And then he cleaned them up,took care of them, decked them
In John 14, 31,.
That the world may know that Ilove the Father.
And as the Father gave mecommandment, even so I do Arise,
let us go hence.
For in 15, 12, he said this ismy commandment, even so, I do
Arise, let us go hence.
For in 1512 he said this is mycommandment that ye love one
another as I have loved you.

(01:07:47):
The love, the love of God.
He was very angry with thePharisees.
Woe unto you, pharisees.
You tithe, mint and rue and allmanner of herbs and you pass
over judgment and the love ofGod.

(01:08:07):
You just bypass it entirely.
These ought ye have to done,but not to leave the other
undone.
Yes, you should have judgedrighteously amongst the people,
but you forgot the love of God.
You left the love of God, youleft your first love.

(01:08:29):
In John 5, 42, he said but Iknow you that ye have not the
love of God in you.
The agent of this perfection inyour life will be the love of
God, because in Romans 5, 5, itsays and hope maketh not ashamed

(01:08:53):
.
Anybody know what it says,because the love of God is, is,
it's already done, is shedabroad in our hearts.
The agent of perfection hasbeen poured out in you, the love

(01:09:15):
of God, by the Holy Ghost whichhe gave to you when you were
born again.
I know, you know Bishop talksabout how Pentecost fulfilled
everything.
It made everything possible andit kind of did.
When you got the Holy Ghost,when you got the Spirit of Jesus

(01:09:35):
in your life, it was the loveof God and that love of God
permeates through your spirit tobring you to perfection.
It's already there if you'vereceived the gift of the Holy
Ghost.
It's described this way by Pauland Titus to Titus for we
ourselves, we were foolish, wewere disobedient, we were

(01:09:58):
deceived.
We served our own lusts, weserved our own pleasures, we
lived in malice and in envy andhateful.
We hated one another.
But after the kindness of thelove of God, our Savior, toward
man appeared, it wasn't by theworks of righteousness which we
have done, it only attracted him.

(01:10:19):
It attracted him to us, butit's not what saved us.
It was the love of God thatsaved us Because, according to
his mercy, he saved us Not bythe washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
The love of God is found in thewashing of regeneration of his

(01:10:39):
word and the Holy Ghost.
The love of God is found in thewashing of regeneration of his
word and the Holy Ghost which heshed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ, our Savior.
That's Pentecost description.
The love of God poured out inus.
Paul said in 2 Thessalonians tothe saints the Lord direct, and
I pray this today that the Lorddirect your hearts into the love

(01:11:02):
of God, into the patientwaiting for Christ.
Because after the kindness ofthe love of God, our Savior
toward man, appeared Jesus.
In 1 John it says but whosokeepeth, whoso keepeth his word.

(01:11:25):
Notice that the definitionswe're seeing of this perfect
here are the same in the OldCovenant Whoso keepeth his word
in him, verily, is the love ofGod Perfected.
1 John, 2, 5.
Hereby know that we are in him.

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The love of God, love, that'sthe word agape.
And love, I believe, issacrificial, it is selfless.
It is not about trying togratify or pleasure itself in
any way.
It is sacrificial toward thebenefit of others.
That's agape.

(01:12:08):
It was an exercise of hisdivine will in deliberate choice
.
See, even he had to be willing,he had to make a deliberate
choice to come after you Torescue you, to clean you, to
save you, to declare Live, live,live.
That's the nature of God.

(01:12:32):
God is love and when we talkabout Christian love, it is
primarily expressed, first ofall in obedience to his
commandments.
That's what the scriptures justgave us in 1 John.

(01:12:53):
Love seeks the welfare of all,as it says in Romans 15, 2.
It works no ill to any Romans13, 8 through 10.
Love seeks the opportunity todo good to all men, especially
toward them of the household ofthe faith.
That's Galatians 6, 10.
That's love.

(01:13:15):
And when this love of God from aperfect being toward objects,
toward people that arecompletely unworthy, it should
produce in those receiving thatlove a referential love back to
him, not out of obligation.

(01:13:38):
Back to him, not out ofobligation.
But, my goodness, does anybodyremember when they first maybe
fell in love and you had theflutter and you just wanted to
spend all your time with thatperson?
You just wanted to be with thatperson.
That's how we should beresponding to the love of God.
I want to be with you, I wantto be in your presence, I want

(01:14:04):
to hold your hand, I want tospend all my time with you.
Hereby we perceive In 1 John 3,16, the Apostle John is
describing he's trying tocommunicate, to share, to teach
this love of God.
He says we perceive the love ofGod, we can see it, we can

(01:14:28):
understand it, because he laiddown his life for us.
And because he laid down hislife for us, we ought, we ought
to lay down our lives for thebrethren, because I can't hug
God right now.

(01:14:48):
That's how we normally showaffection one to another.
Hey, how you doing?
We give you a kiss.
You know I can't do that withGod.
What God wants me to do to showhim my love is to love my
brethren.
That's how I show him love.
And the great white thronejudgment says well, when did you
give me drink?
When did you do this?
When did you do that?
Well, you did it when you didit to the least of these.

(01:15:09):
That's when you loved me.
We have to change our definitionof perfect.
We have to change ourdefinition of love and see what
God is intending by using thatword.
Whoso hath this world's goodand seeth his brother have need
and shutteth up the bowels ofcompassion from him.
How dwelleth the love of God inhim, children love not in word,

(01:15:33):
neither in tongue, but in deedand in truth, in action and in
sincerity.
In this was manifested the loveof God toward us, because that
God sent his only begotten soninto the world that we might
live through him.
That's 1 John 4, 9.
He's giving a whole teaching in1 John of the love of God.

(01:15:57):
He says in 1 John 5, 3, forthis is the love of God.
He says in 1 John 5, 3, forthis is the love of God.
He's describing what was itlike when we perceived the love
of God through Jesus.
And then he comes out and says1 John 5, 3, for this is the
love of God, that we keep hiscommandments and his
commandments are not greediness.
That's how we love him.
That's how we love him inreturn In 2 Timothy, that the

(01:16:23):
man of God may be perfect,thoroughly furnished, thoroughly
clothed, thoroughly decked out,like it says in Ezekiel 16,.
For what?
For good works?
James says Whoso looketh intothe perfect law Of liberty and

(01:16:44):
continueth the law of the spiritof life in Christ Jesus.
When you look into that law,Into the spirit, the spirit that
is residing in you, when youreceive the baptism of the Holy
Ghost and you continue therein,he being not a forgetful hearer
but a doer of the work, this manshall be blessed in his deed.

(01:17:09):
Yes, he most certainly will.
He will be blessed beyondbelief when Jesus is manifested
in him.
James spoke of Abraham.
Do you see how his faithwrought with his works?
Do you see how it workedtogether with his works?

(01:17:31):
Did you notice that?
James is saying Did you noticehow Abraham believed God, but
works was working together withhis faith?
And it says by the works wasfaith made perfect.
Are you willing, are youwilling to begin listening to

(01:17:53):
the Lord again and get back ontrack, get back into walking in
this spirit, this perfect law ofliberty Colossians 3.14, and
above all things put on charity,which is the bond of

(01:18:15):
perfectness.
Love is the agent of perfection.
It'll make you perfect untoevery good work to do His will,
because it will be Him workingin you, that which is
well-pleasing in His sight,through Jesus Christ.

(01:18:46):
But I told you before, for somereason, when we get born again.
And initially what brought usinto covenant was obedience, was
listening to the word of theLord and taking it to heart, and
we become born again.
And then, somewhere along theway, we start stumbling and we

(01:19:11):
start falling.
And it's described inRevelation to one of the
churches they did this, they didthat.
I mean, they were doing allthese good things and just like
in the Old Testament, it's like,wow, he did that which was
right in the sight of God, buthis heart was not perfect.

(01:19:34):
You come to church every week.
That's not what it's about.
Come to Bible study that's notwhat it's about.
Come to Bible study that's notwhat it's about.
Somehow we get lost and thewarning that he gave to that
church in Revelation is you lostyour first love.

(01:19:56):
We came to the cross.
We came to the cross.
We came to a man, a perfect man, that was whipped, beaten to a

(01:20:17):
bloody pulp.
His back was ripped open.
He was scarred everywhere, butthat wasn't the worst of it.
He was ripped up in his soul.
Inwardly.
All his disciples had left himand he went to a cross and he

(01:20:38):
stumbled, trying a cross, and hestumbled, trying to carry that
cross up that street to thatplace where he was nailed, with
nails in his hands and nails inhis feet, with a crown of thorns
on his head, being mocked asthe king of Jews.

(01:21:04):
And we've lost what that tastewas like, how it meant something
so precious to us and ithumbled us.
It brought us to our knees toknow that a man, a perfect man,
died for my sin, for everysingle thing that I did wrong,

(01:21:31):
in ignorance and with knowledge.
He not only did it for me, hedid it for the whole world, and
knowing that the whole worldwould not choose him, the whole
world would not choose him he isgoing to save a remnant, a

(01:21:54):
small piece of the 6 billionpeople that live in this world
today and the countless numbersthat have lived all throughout
the earth.
There's only going to be asmall remnant.
And he still went to the cross,he still died for our sins and
we've lost that.
That's how you lose your firstlove, because you forget

(01:22:14):
everything that he did for youand how that should break you,
how you should do justly, howyou should love mercy, how you
should walk humbly with your God.
And you don't anymore.
You don't listen to his wordanymore.
You put a deaf ear out there.

(01:22:35):
What is it going to take?
Because once you get to thepoint where you, where you
willfully, sin willfully, youcannot be renewed again unto
repentance, because what you'redoing is trampling under the

(01:22:59):
foot the Son of God and theblood that he shed for you so
that you can walk sinfully.
God forbid, he will not save aman who refuses to repent,
acknowledge the truth anddesires to walk in a manner that
is unworthy of what he's beencalled to.

(01:23:22):
You see, jesus said to thespirit, he said to the general
assembly and church of thefirstborn, which are written in
heaven, to the God and judge,judge of all, to the spirits of
just men, to the spirits ofrighteous men made perfect, you

(01:23:49):
need to walk in righteousnessand God will bring you to
perfection.
In the day of Christ Jesus, hesays I will bring you to
completion, I will perform it,but let patience have its
perfect work in you, that ye maybe perfect and entire, wanting

(01:24:10):
nothing Till we all come to theunity of the faith and the
knowledge of the Son of God,unto a perfect man, unto the
measure and the stature of thefullness of Christ.
That is our destiny.
Embrace it and know what it isto allow the agent of perfection

(01:24:35):
, the love of God, to work inyou, to bring you where he wants
you to be, because Paul saidit's not like I've already
attained it.
I'm not there yet, I haven'tbeen made perfect, but you know
what, you know what I followafter it.
Paul said I follow after it,after it, if I may apprehend, if

(01:24:59):
I may grab and hold on to whathe grabbed on to me, for what he
held me for, because I have tofollow after it.
You cannot sit back and rest onpast experiences and past
knowledge.
You must move on in the spiritof God and the present day word

(01:25:22):
that he's giving you today.
Strive, he said, to enter thenarrow gate, strive to be
perfect, strive to be of aperfect heart before the Lord.
Follow after it and the God ofall grace, which had called you

(01:25:46):
into the eternal glory by JesusChrist after you have suffered a
while, he will make you perfect, he will establish you, he will
strengthen you and he'll setyou, for the upright shall dwell
in the land.
The upright shall dwell in theland and the perfect shall

(01:26:07):
remain in it.
Mark that perfect man.
The scripture says Behold theupright.
The end of that man is peace,shalom, completeness that is the
love of God in you.
That is where it will bring you.

(01:26:29):
Do not forget your first love.
Do not forget to heed the wordof the Lord when he speaks to
you.
Get rid of the idols that causeyou to have an undivided heart.
Find out from him what it isthat you are troubled by, what

(01:26:50):
it is that's causing you thisdistress in your life, and
acknowledge it, repent of it andbe willing to do whatever he
says to do Amen.

(01:27:11):
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