January 22, 2025 • 68 mins
The Bible constantly warns those of faith to be prepared and ready for the Lord’s Return. That readiness and commitment brings with it persecution and attack. The Porch’s lesson tonight is inspired by a direct Word from the Lord about readiness, urgency, and commitment.
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Firefall Talk Radio is archived with the ability to download the episodes. Feel free to share with others as the Lord leads. Please help us get The Word out.
If our teachings bless you, please let us know by using the contact button on the website.
If you would like to support what we do there are ways to do so on the main page for Firefall Talk Radio. We appreciate your support and encouragement.
Follow us on YouTube at The Firefall Network.
Links for all social media and streaming platforms can be found on the main page at firefalltalkradio.com.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Welcome, Welcome to the Porch on Firefall Talk Radio, where
you will find the uncompromised Red letter basics of the
Word of God and focus on the Book of Acts
Church to see how they serve the Lord. In doing so,
we find the church Lord intended, not the one Man created.
The Porch is here to restore the priesthood of the
(00:43):
believer and while regaining the world's shaking influence of the
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on the day of Pentecost. It's yours if you want it.
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(01:04):
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To support Firefall Talk Radio, go to Firefall talk radio
dot com for ways to do so. Reach out to
us if you need more information. We appreciate your support
(01:26):
and encouragement. Thank you for being a part of the Porch.
Thank you for being a part of our listening community.
If you need prayer or you want to pray for
others in the Porch community, just let us know we
will plug you in. Remember we care about you. You
are special and you are being prayed for. So Father,
(01:48):
we come to you in the name above all names.
You're sure Jesus your Son, We boldly approach the Throne
of Grace and mercy, saying, Aba, Papa, God Daddy, we
love you, We need you. We thank you for loving
us even when we were unlovable. Thank you for sending
(02:11):
you Shoe to die for us to pay for our sins.
We thank you that he did what we would never
have been able to do so that we could come
home and be reconciled to you Lord. Thank you for that.
Thank you for doing that. Thank you for setting us
free from sin and from the control of the enemy.
(02:36):
And thank you for giving us access to a heavenly father.
Once again. We look forward to the day when it
is face to face and we can love on you
and hug you and tell you how much we love you.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for coming and teaching and guiding
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us and walking with us and doing what we need
you to do in this time. So tonight, as the
word goes forth, we need your help. We need your wisdom,
we need your understanding, We need revelation knowledge, and we
asked that you would do that for us. We ask
that the technology that we use be protected. That we
(03:21):
hear you clearly, we understand you completely, and we say,
have your way, do whatever it is you want to
do in the name of You Shuah. And we ask
all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
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Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, open your bibles. Don't have to forgive the nasally sound.
And I may sneeze a couple of times. It's been wet,
cold and raining here. Last night a dog abbey would
not go out unless I went outside with her, so
I think I caught a little bit of a chill.
Go to Tewod Corinthians ten, starting of verse four, for
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the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Messiah
and being ready to publish all disobedien when your obedience
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is fulfilled. The weapons that we have is our warfare,
are not physical. They're not weapons of flesh and blood.
Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud
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thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God.
And we are taking every thought and purpose captive to
the obedience of Messiah, being ready to punish every act
of disobedience when our own obedience as a church is complete.
(05:48):
Yesterday I started working on this message. Then I got stuck.
I really just didn't know what the Lord wanted to do.
And then in the middle of the night, as he
is prone to do, he spoke that scripture to me.
The Lord warned us to be ready. That's what we've
(06:09):
been talking about over the last couple of weeks. We
are called to walk in the spirit with wisdom and
understanding while discerning in the times. That takes prayer and
spending time with the Lord. So Sunday, while Harry now
we're praying, the Lord spoke to me, as he does
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when we just stop and we listen and we see
what he wants us to pray about or to do.
And he said two phrases to me, and let me
clarify why he speaks to me that way. It used
to be when I first learned to hear the voice
of the Lord, it was flowing conversations. And then there
(07:01):
came a time where that stopped and he began to
speak to me in phrases or single words. And I
even said to him, s Lord, I miss I missed
those days. I missed those conversations we used to have.
I heard him say, I know you do, son, but
I need you to understand my will and what I
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want from you by a word or a whisper. So
he said two things. First he said get ready, and
then he said go time. Now, that could make you
think they mean a lot of different things. But then
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when he does that, the spirit then puts into your
heart what his intentions are and what he's saying to you.
And I immediately knew. And he said get ready, he
meant get prepared naturally and spiritually. That's what readiness is.
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It's the state of being prepared for anything. And it's
funny as he brought these same scriptures up that we
talked about last week, and Matthew twenty four, starting verse
thirty seven. But as the days of Noah, or so
also will be the coming of the Son of Man be.
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For as in the days before the flood they were
eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage until
the day that Noah entered the ark and did not
know until the flood came and took them all away,
so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then two men will be in the field, one will
be taken in the other left. Two women will be
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grinding at the mill, and one will be taken in
the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know
what hour your lord is coming. But know this that
if the man of the house had known what hour
the thief would come, he would have watched and not
allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also
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be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at
an hour you do not expect. He reiterates that Mark thirteen,
And if you don't already know Luke twenty one, Mark
thirteen and Matthew twenty four all a line in their message,
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just with slight very differences in variations as the person
heard it who wrote it. Mark is writing Peter's account,
Luke is writing the general account, and Matthew is writing
his own. But of that day and hour no one knows.
This is Mark thirteen, starting verse thirty two. But of
that day and hour no one knows, not even the
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angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father.
And he's speaking of a particular time. Remember he's sitting
at the right hand of the father. He and the
father are one. They are thinking and acting in unison.
But back then he said, nor the son, but only
the Father. Take heed, watch and pray, for you do
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not know when the time is. It is like a
man going to a far country who left his house
and gave authority to his servants to each his work,
and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you
do not know when the master of the house is
coming in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of
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the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he
find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I
say to all watch. He's speaking to the church. We
need to watch. In Matthew twenty five, when he told
the parable about the wise and foolish virsions. He pointed
out that the foolish virgins were not read. And while
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they went to buy their oil, bridegroom came and those
who already went in with them to the wedding, and
the door was shut. They were not ready, they were
not watching, they were not doing what they had been told.
And finally, to close out this particular thought in Revelation
chapter three, and as he speaking to the dead Church,
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to the Angel of the Church and t Sartis, these
things says he who has the seven spirits of God
and the seven stars. I know your work, that you
have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are
ready to die, for I have not found your works
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perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard.
Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch,
I will come upon you as a thing, and you
will not know what hour I will come upon you. You
have a few names, even in sardises, who have not
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defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white,
for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed
in white. Garments. And I will not blot out his
name from the book of life, but I will confess
his name before my father and before his angels. He
who has an ear to hear, let him hear with
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the spirit says to the churches. The church in Sardis
was dead. They claimed that they were alive, but they weren't.
They had a few people that would have been ready
for the Lord's return, but the rest were not. Then, finally,
in Revelation nineteen seven, it says, let us be glad
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and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of
the Lamb has come, and his wife his bride. It
has made herself ready. Over and over and over. Readiness
was a persistent message from the Lord. The second part
of what he said to me was go time. Now,
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that's a slang term, and it refers to the moment
of taking action, usually in some important event. It's go time.
That phrase is often used to express excitement and anticipation
for anough upcoming event or task. It can also be
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used in a more serious context, such as a military
operation or some sort of emergency. And I believe that
if it's all of the above, we should be excitement.
We should be excited about the upcoming event of his
return of what we're called to do in this time.
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But we should also understand we're in the middle of
a military operation, the Kingdom of God versus the kingdom
of darkness we'll call the tari Were occupy. We're an
occupying army and we're not doing our job. But it's
go time. That means we should be prepared to take
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on whatever challenge lies ahead with confidence and determination and
a sense of urgency. There's no time to waste. Action
must be taken immediately now. For every one of us,
that'll mean something different. For each of us in our
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calling and our understanding, that'll mean something different. But collectively
as his body, as his Church, it's pretty basic what
it means, and I'm going to cover that tonight. The
Spirit will have to reveal to you the other things
of how it applies to you personally and what you
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are caused to do, and you'll get that message from
within the Word. So go to First Peter, chapter one,
starting verse thirteen. Peter says, therefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and rest your hopefully upon
the grace that is to be brought to you in
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the revelation of Jesus the Messiah, as obedient children, not
conforming yourself to the former lusts, as in ignorance, but
as He capital h who called you as holy. You
also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written,
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Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call
on the Father, who without partiality judges according each one's work,
conduct yourselves throughout the time of your state here in fear,
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like
silver or gold from your aimless conduct, received by tradition
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from your father's but with the pious, precious blood of Messiah,
as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. Forgive me,
having a little struggle here breathing, we will press on.
He indeed was fordained before the foundation of the world,
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but was manifest in these times for you, who through
him believe in God who raised him from the dead
and gave him glory. So that your faith and hope
are in God. Think clearly, exercise self control, look forward
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to the gracious salvation that will come to you. When
you're sure. Hammah, Jesus the Messiah is revealed to the
world well he's speaking to the church. Builth jew and
gentile at that moment, be sober, brace up your mind,
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be morally alert, set your hope wholly unchangeably on the
grace the divine favor that coming to you when Jesus
the Messiah is revealed. Live in this world as children
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of obedience to God. Do not conform yourselves to the
evil desires that once governed you, but in your in
your former ignorance, when you did not know the requirements
of the Gospel. But as one who has called you
is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your
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conduct and manner of living. The calling here is to
brace up your mind, take courage in the faith of
trials that you're about to go through, that you've been
called to go through. But do it prepared and in holiness.
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The two go hand in hand. Benjamin Franklin said, by
failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. And I
think that's why the Lord gives us these messages and
these words and these warnings, so that we don't fail.
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Our father God is holy, and he demands all his
followers to be like him under the law. He gave
them specific requirements that they had to follow the letter
of the law to have his holiness. But now through Yushua,
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through the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, we partake
of his holiness. We partake of his righteousness. But through
the Holy Spirit, it allows us to act accordingly. He
who has called you is holy. Be like your Father,
who is holy. Be holy in all your conduct. Why
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because it's written, be holy, for I am holy. See
Peter is writing to the church, the collective church. Is like,
I'm speaking to the collective church, the body, and he's
calling us to live a life of practical holiness. Well,
how does that apply to a word? Your word there, Richard,
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it sounded to me like that that was more prepared
for war. Well, guess what. The war starts from within.
It starts in our behavior, It starts in our actions.
It starts in a one to one dealing with the enemy.
In our lives. We are called to make a commitment
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to abstain from sinful desires, to live good lives with
good deeds that are evident for everyone to see. But
to do it all in submissiveness to God and to
his word. That's where holy life begins. A holy life
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is a life of godly biblical submission. That word submission
is a noun. It is the act or fact of
accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the
will or authority of another person. Well that person is
you sure? It's the Lord, It's our heavenly Father. So
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the pursuit of holiness is submission to his way over hours,
not how's the world does it? Not as even the
church and I did the finger thing. Church does it.
But as he does it. We can't water it down.
We can't. We can't modernize it. Well that was then,
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this is now. No, it's pretty basic. Don't do these
things he says not to do. Don't act like that,
don't don't think like that, don't speak like that. Yes,
you'll be forgiven. That's what grace is. It's unmerited favor.
But it's not an excuse or a license to sin.
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So holy holiness is something we're called to pursue, we're
called to seek, we're called to want it Hebrews twelve fourteen.
Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no
one will see the Lord. See. Part of the failure
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to walk in the spirit is that we walk on
and off this path of holiness. I got one foot in,
I got one foot out. I do the hoky poke,
I shake it all about, and then we stumble around
like spiritual drunknaress. Some days we get it, some days
we don't, but we're not really trying. God's holiness makes
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us stringent demand upon us, and it begins with it.
We must humble ourselves before Him and become marked with
the qualities that marked his own life. We must, to
the best of our natural ability, through the help of
the Holy Spirit, as well, reflect the Lord in everything
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we say and do. And boy do I fail that miserably.
And I know it when I do, because I immediately
come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther said,
my temptations have been my master's and divinity in his
classroom was the world being holy refers to being set
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apart and separate. You can be in the world, but
not of the world. The minute you become of the world,
a minute you mimic the world. A minute you transform
yourself into the image of the world. You are no
longer in the image of God, you're no longer pursuing
his character. So if we live a life dedicated totally
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to God mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and separated totally from the
sin of this world. Spiritual compromise won't be an option.
You won't even desire for it to be an option.
Now will never be perfect until we get our glorified
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bodies and this flesh is no longer a part of
our makeup. But until then, it's a struggle. It's an
everyday struggle. Will you get up and you after you
say good morning, and after you praise Him and worship him. Okay,
Holy Spirit, I need some help today. It's funny. It
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is how I started this day, knowing I had to
get this word together and it wasn't happening, and I
was frustrated by it. Of course, the Lord gave me
that scripture and I knew where to begin. So I
just said, Holy Spirit, I need your help. I need
your help and everything I say in do I need
your help specifically regarding the Bible study, but I need
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it and everything. I need your help be a better person,
a better husband, a better father, the better everything. Without
that help, you will mess up. Therefore, gird up the
loins of your mind. You know, just like the people
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in biblical times, they would gather up their long robes
or their garments and pull them up between their legs
and tuck them into the belt in front, so that
they could run when they needed to run, They could
move quickly and freely without anything impeding them. We're called
to do that. We're called to take our thoughts and
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gird them up and secure them so that it's on
the things that allow us to serve God successfully. Nothing
else there to trip us up. There's no other thoughts,
there's no other distractions. That's why you have to take
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your thoughts captive. That's why you have to consciously not
allow this world to sleep in, sleep in, don't sleep in,
don't sleep in, don't do anything. Don't sleep while you're sleeping,
and don't sleep and sleep at the same time. Don't
let the world in. If you feel it happening, turn
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it off, move away, don't listen. Stop whatever it is
you're doing. If it hurts you, if it hurts your soul,
if it hurts your spirit, stop it. If it hurt
your relationship with others, stop it. If it hurts your
relationship with the Lord, stop it and run from it.
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One Peter three point fifteen. But sanctify the Lord God
in your our hearts, and always be ready to give
a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for
the hope that is in you. With meekness and fear.
Set Messiah a part as holy, acknowledge him as Lord.
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Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone
who asks you to account for the hope that is
in you. But do it courteously and respectfully. Sanctify, set apart,
make it holy, make it special. Peter was explaining the
true character of God and the high cost of redemption
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were incentives to produce holiness in those reading his words.
He also demanded that holiness show itself in earnest love
for other believers and forsaken all militious attitudes. You should
read the entire first Peter. Read it all. Get his message,
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Roll up your sleeves, go to work. That's what he's saying.
It's go time. Be prepared to fight or retreat if needed.
But retreat doesn't surrender. It's regrouping for a future victory.
It's got time. Gird up your loins, strengthen yourself for
what is to come. Gird up, prepare, get ready, gear up, galvanize.
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Brace four to five psych yourself up. They girded themselves
for war. It takes effort. It doesn't just happen. Even
the greatest warriors in the world world, they have to
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work at it, that have the train that to concentrate.
It isn't instinctive. It's something that must be applied to
gain that outcome. We're living in both great times and
troubling times simultaneously. I think the weather that we're having,
(29:27):
if you saw it on the news, North Florida has
gotten a lot of snow, record setting snow, once in
a lifetime snow. It's not climate change, and definitely this
is not global warming. I believe there's a supernatural or
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spiritual component to what is going on in the weather.
Part of the signs of the times. It's going to
be uncomfortable, but it's going to be okay. There's gonna
be good days. It's gonna be bad days. There's going
to be good times. There's gonna be bad times, but
keep going. See, the church was beginning to feel the
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flames of persecution when Peter wrote that letter. They're being scattered,
they were being tormented, they were being ripped apart, they
were being set on fire, and it was this letter
was being funneled to various cities throughout the Roman Empire
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and throughout that world that they were reaching. So in
troubling times he called him to holiness. Isn't that odd?
He didn't give them an easy way out. He saw,
I don't worry about it. God will forgive you. You're
in a tough time. It's not gonna be easy to
be holy. I'm gonna cut you some slack. No, he
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tightened the belt. He said, gird up the loins of
your mind. Get ready. It's go time. And in this
letter there are no fewer than seven different Greek words
for suffering. Then we get the first Peter, chapter four,
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and it's a chapter about what persecution, suffering, tribulation topics
we don't want to talk about today. But one thing
on the porch I've always been with you is honest
that this is a great life, and this is a
great walk, but it is not an easy walk. Actually,
from one of the very first sermons I did in
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our home church in Tallahassee, that was what I taught on.
And one of the people that was part of our
church family, part of us, had brought a guest with
them who was visiting with her, and she came up
to me and said, finally, a preacher that told me
the truth that this is not easy, but the reward
(32:02):
is great. I've never forgotten that moment. That's one of
those seminal moments in my walk as a minister for
the Lord. It's going to be tough, but not only
is it going to be okay, it's going to be great.
(32:22):
The reward is great. I don't want the rewards of
this world. I want his rewards. I won't let the
cares of this world, or the deception of the enemy,
or all those things that I could allow to happen
to happen, just steal that from me. That's why I
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spend time with him. That's why I pray, That's why
I worship. But the perfection of our faith comes through exercise.
You know what That exercise is suffering. Our faith is perfected,
our efforts towards holiness is perfected through suffering. And that
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will keep us from sinning, or at least it should.
If you are born again, let me hit this drum again.
Let me get out my born again drum. Hold on
the got it, Let me get out my born again drum. Here.
Let me bang on it a little bit. The Lord
(33:35):
said it, I didn't. I just read it and repeat it.
You must be born again. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the
spirit of spirit. You must be born from above. If
you are born again, you will act differently. You will
think differently, you will feel differently. You will desire to
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be holy. You'll desire to be doing the things which
I'm sharing with you. More than that, you'll be awake.
You'll be understanding and discerning. The times that we're in
requires more effort from you. It requires an urgent desire
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to be different, to be better. In one Peter, chapter four,
verse seven, he says, but the end of all things
is at hand. Well wait, wait, that was a couple
of thousand years ago, wasn't it thousand years ago? Fifteen
hundred maybe two? What is that, Peter? That was then?
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This is now? It hasn't happened. I can't do this anymore.
Remember there is no time in the spirit realm. He
was telling the truth. The end of all things was
at hand, and it began on the day of Pentecost.
He's the one who gave that speech and quoted the
prophet Joel. But the end of all all things is
at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
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And above all things, have fervent love for one another,
for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable
to one another without grumbling. As each one has received
a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God. Jumping the verse twelve, Beloved,
(35:28):
do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which
is to try you, as though something strange as has
happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you
partake of Messiah's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed,
you may also be glad with exceeding joy. Get ready,
(35:54):
it's go time. It's gonna get tough, it's gonna get worse,
but it's going to be great because the King's going
to come and take us home. The end of all
things is at hand. Be serious and watchful in your prayers.
(36:14):
No time for foolishness, no time for distractions, No time
for some of the nonsense I see in the church
by false teachers and people that may have started out okay,
but that are so far off that one degree off,
they're lost. They're nowhere on the path, They're nowhere on
the map that the Holy Spirit laid out before them.
(36:38):
The return of the Messiah, the return of the Lord,
should inspire you, give you hope and stability in the
face of persecution. We are lazy in the Western Church.
We've had it too easy. Our brothers and sisters around
the world don't need to be taught about persecution one
(37:00):
through it. I have no idea how many believers died
in the thirty five minutes or so that I've been
speaking to you, but they have. They've been tortured, but
they did it with joy because they knew they were
going to see him face the face. The return of
(37:24):
the Lord should inspire us, but it should also motivate
us to be awake one Thessalonians five to four. But you, brethren,
are not in darkness, so that this day, meaning the
day of the Lord, should overtake you as a thief,
(37:44):
we should be ready, and we should be prepared for
that day. We should be prepared for go time. It
hit me this morning, as I was praying and working
on this, I see I took go time. As it's
time to go. It's time to go do the things
I've called you to do. Go time for the enemy,
because while you're doing your job and fulfilling your mission,
(38:06):
the enemy is fulfilling there. So there's this simultaneous parallel
track going on of activity, of warfare, back and forth,
of progressing towards a final goal. But then I thought,
wait a second, that go time isn't just out. That
go time could be up. It's go time. At any moment,
(38:27):
he may snatch the church out of here. And if
you don't believe in the rapture, that's fine. It's not
life altering in the sense of losing your salvation. But
scripture bears it out. You're free to believe it or not.
We have not been appointed to wrap, and the time
of Jacob's trouble is for the Jews that have not
(38:49):
accepted him as Messiah. But be that as it may.
We should be time, We should be ready to go
for him to show up. We should be living in
that mindset of go time. Continuing in First Thessalonians, picking
it up with verse five of chapter five, You are
(39:14):
all sons and daughters of Light, and sons and daughters
of the day. We are not of the night nor
of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do,
but let us watch and be sober. For those who
sleep sleep at night. Those who get drunk are drunk
at night. But let us who are of the day,
(39:37):
be sober. Putting on the breastplate of faith and love
and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God
did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
through our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, who died for us,
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together
with Him. Therefore, comfort each other edif I one another,
(40:02):
just as you are doing. Are you hearing this? Is
it clicking? Is the Spirit revealing things to you as
I'm saying this of the thoughts coming? Are you taking notes?
I mean, if you're one of those people that got
the scriptures that I'm sharing with you, there's a space
at the bottom for notes. You can either print it
(40:23):
out and write it on there. These technological wonders of
smartphones and tablets and everything that we live in right
now allows you to take notes on them. Is the
Spirit speaking to you? If he is, you need to
hear have an ear to hear. Let us not sleep
(40:43):
as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
The world's asleep for those who sleep sleep at night,
those who get drunk and drunk at night. So stay alert,
be clear headed, keep wide awake, alert, watchful, cautious, be
on guard. I sleep on guard. I don't sleep deeply
(41:07):
that way. If I hear the alarm go off, or
I hear a noise that is out of the ordinary,
I can react to it. And of course somebody would say, well,
that's not nhealthy, Richard, you need to get into a
deep sleep. That's not the way I'm designed. I've never
have been. I'm always alert, I'm always on guard. So
let us be sober and calm, collective, and circumspect. That
(41:32):
word sleep refers to moral indifference, and then word drunk
is a metaphor for those who don't exercise self control.
Those people are going to be surprised by the day
of the Lord. Now remember he's writing to the church,
he's not writing to the world. So he's saying, there's
(41:55):
some of you that are morally indifferent and you have
no self control. That moral indifference is an apathy towards sin.
And unrighteousness that eventually leads to immoral behavior. But did
(42:16):
you catch how we ended it in verse eleven. Encourage, admonish,
exhort one another, edify, strength, and build up one another,
just as you're doing. We're living in a fallen world
and that requires encouragement and support from the Church, from
(42:37):
your family. That's why I do these That's why I
try to encourage you and edify you and build you up.
If I interact with you through emails, if you're a
part of the active porch community, I'm always trying to
edify you. Maybe it's by something I post, maybe by
something I say to you directly. But my goal is
(42:58):
to get you ready not just for the bad stuff,
but for the good stuff too, for the blessing, Because
good and evil it exists all around us, and it
will until the Lord returns, and there's nothing you can
(43:21):
do about it except don't let it seep in while
you sleep in The Lord told us that over and over.
I am so surprised when I hear some of these
false prophets, false teachers, and of course false believers who
listen to the false prophets and the false teachers. Oh
(43:43):
God's going to wipe this group out. And he's going
to do this, and he's going to send this group here,
and it no that comes at the end. This isn't
the old Testament, where now in a period where he
lets the weeds and the terrors grow together. I say
that because he said that Matthew thirteen, verse twenty four.
(44:05):
Another parable he put forth to them, saying, the Kingdom
of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed
in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came
and sowed tars among the wheat and went his way.
But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop,
then the tars also appeared. So the servants of the
(44:27):
owner came and said them, sir, did you not sow
good seed in your field? How is it? How does
it have tears? And he said to them an enemy
has done this. And the servants said to him, do
you want us to then go and gather them up,
meaning the terrors? He said, no, lest while you gather
up the terars, you also uproot the wheat with them.
(44:52):
Let them both grow together until the harvest. And at
the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers,
first gathered together the terras and bind them in bundles
to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.
I bet that confused the Jews, because there is laws
about contamination of the field. So the disciples came to
(45:16):
him in verse thirty six, and said, explain to us
the parable of the terrors in the field. And he answered,
and said to them, he who sows the good seed
is the son of Man. The field is the world.
The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But
the tears are the sons of the wicked one. The
(45:39):
enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is
the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore,
as the tears are gathered and burned in the fire,
so it will be at the end of the sage.
The Son of Man will send out his angels, and
they will gather out of his kingdom all things that
offend and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them
(46:00):
into the furnace of fire. They will be wailing and
gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as
the sun and the kingdom of their father. He who
has ears to hear, let them hear. If you ever
wondered why they're going to be gnashing their teeth and wailing,
(46:21):
Because when he casts your supernatural soul into the fire,
the lake of fire, you'll never die. That electrical creation
of the soul cannot be destroyed. So they will wail
and gnash their teeth for eternity in a lake of
(46:44):
fire created for Satan and his angels. The field. The
world around us is a field, and the harvest will
happen at the end, at the end of the world.
And the wheat and the terrors, the sons of the
Kingdom and the sons of the fallen are growing together.
(47:09):
Both the children of God and the sons of the
evil one live side by side in the world. I
said something recently, and I'll say it again. We are
all creations of God, but we are not all children
of God. Unless you are his. You're not his child,
(47:32):
jew or gentile. The only way that happens is through
the acceptance of His son as Messiah. And those wheat
and terrors are indistinguishable until they get fully grown and
their true nature is revealed for all to see, But
especially by his glory, God's righteous judgment will reveal it
(47:59):
all in the end. You know there were some people
that wanted me destroyed because of what I did walking
out of my family, all the laws and spiritual things
that I was doing against God. But he had a plan.
He didn't want that destroyed, as some would say. See,
the servants wanted to gather up the tears, but in
(48:19):
doing so they would have harmed the wheat at the
same time, how many times have we tried to gather
up the tears and hurt the wheat too. See to
the Jews this was shocking, as contamination of the crops
was punishable by law. To the contemporary Jews of his day,
(48:42):
it was a stunning proclamation, since they assumed the coming
of the Kingdom of God meant the destruction of the wicked.
He came to say that which is lost, we're not
called to seek the destruction of the terars in the field.
He'll do that. He tells us that in Luke chapter thirteen,
(49:03):
starting verse six, another parable, a certain man had a
fake tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking
fruit on it and found none. Then he said to
the keeper of his vineyard, look for three years, I've
come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground.
(49:27):
But he, the keeper of the vineyard, said to him, sir,
let this alone this year also until I dig around
it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well,
but if it doesn't, you can cut it down. God
is the owner of that vineyard. He shoe is the keeper,
(49:50):
and he's saying, let me work on this one, and
if it doesn't, you can cut it down and destroy.
At the end. That should be our heart. There are
people in this world that my natural human instinct is, Lord,
(50:12):
strike them down, hit them with a bolt of lightning.
Do whatever it is you have to do. But I
always preface it.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Lord.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
If you can save them, save them, and I pray
for their salvation. But if they're reprobative, they're beyond salvation,
then do as your word says, do and destroy them.
But I know that that will happen at the end,
that I'm never going to see God's judgment on people,
(50:41):
and I really shouldn't want it. My heart should be
like the Lord's heart. And that's the thing about spiritual warfare.
It must be done with his heart. So we started
with this scripture. The weapons of our warfare are not
physical weapons of flesh and blood. Our weapons are divinely
(51:07):
powerful for the destruction of fortress's strongholds. We are destroying
sophisticated arguments in every exalted and proud thing that sets
itself up against the true knowledge of God. And we
are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience
(51:27):
of Messiah, being ready to punish every act of disobedience
when our own obedience as a church is complete. The
believer's study Bible clarifies this another way to review. Another
way to view the Christian task of witnessing and ministry
(51:50):
is to see the effort as a type of warfare.
As such, there is both a negative and positive aspect
to this mission. Positive aspect one word, not two word aspect.
Positive aspect to this mission. Everything that exalts itself against
(52:10):
God must be thrown down. Every thought must be brought
into captivity to Messiah. Paul would alert us to this
reality that the greatest battles of the believer's life, the
Christian life, are fought in the mind. So our weapons,
(52:31):
what we've been given, have divine power over spiritual strongholds,
and that power comes through the light of the Gospel.
Everything is about the Gospel. I see all these people.
Suddenly everybody's fascinated again with the nephil and with the giants,
(52:52):
with the demons, with the fallen angels. Videos all over YouTube,
hundreds of thousands of views, and I'm looking at it, gone,
Why this is old news to anybody that listened to
the porch or reflections in the dark starting twenty ten.
And it's really not that important. We weren't called to
(53:12):
study that, we weren't called to do anything but get
people saved, healed, and delivered. And through that we destroy
the work of the enemy. Through that we destroy the fallen,
through that we destroy the demonic powers and their hold
on this world. Therefore, as Paul says and Second Corinthians four,
verse one, to the church and con corinth Therefore, since
(53:35):
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we
do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden
things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience and the sight of God.
(53:58):
But if our gospel, if our good news, has veiled,
it has veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds
the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the Gospel, of the glory of Messiah,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Messiah is sure
(54:22):
the Lord, and ourselves your bond servants for your suer's sake.
For it is God who commanded light to shine out
of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
and the face of Jesus the Messiah. That's the job,
(54:43):
that's the calling, that's the mission. We have a ministry
of the Holy Spirit. We have a ministry of life.
We have a ministry of righteousness and liberty and light.
With the capital L the God of his age see
the God of this world Satan and his actions according
(55:07):
to the word of the quote, the hidden things of shame, craftiness, deceitfulness, sin,
rebellion against God, blinding the minds to the light of
the Gospel. See, unbelievers, just like we all did before,
had a barrier in our minds and our hearts to overcome.
I know I did. It was a stronghold, It was
(55:29):
a fortress, it was a citadel, it was a fortified
hiding place. And it took the light to break through
bad darkness to set me free, for me to see
what was really there. And just as he said, let
(55:50):
there be light and commanded the light to shine in
the darkness at creation in Genesis chapter one, verse three,
he turned on the light in people's hearts so they
can see who you show is as Messiah. See, we
can just share, we can point out things, we can
(56:10):
give them our testimony. But unless His glory, unless his
spirit shines that light into their hearts, they're never going
to see. People who do not believe, they're blinded by Satan,
pure and simple, he's the one doing it. But believers,
(56:37):
we see the light. We've seen the light. Believers are
the light of the world for those who are blinded
in darkness. See how it's so important Why you have
to shine? You walking in holiness, walking in the spirit,
(56:59):
not fulfilling the light the flesh, you living as an
example of your shoe m could shine a light into
somebody's heart and mind to begin to crack the fortress
and the prison doors. But it's not easy. We're in
a fallen world under the control of the wicked one
(57:21):
Tewod Corinthians fourth, starting verse seven. But we have this treasure,
his glory, his spirit, what He's given us. We have
this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellence of
the power may be of God and not of us.
We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed.
(57:41):
We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken,
struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
of Jesus, the life of your shoe, also may be
(58:01):
manifested in our body. Pause. Words to the church in
corinth tie into Peter's exhortation about persecution, hard pressed, troubled
on every side, inside and out, We're not crushed by
(58:22):
the squeeze of troubles of this world. We're not perplexed,
We're not in despair. We're not utterly at loss. We
have hope and we have grace. That word persecuted, to
be persecuted means someone, or in our case, something, is
determined to harm us, causing suffery, injury, or even death.
(58:49):
Did you know that the Bible begins with the persecution
of the righteous by the unrighteous. And Genesis chapter four,
verses three through seven, when Cain killed Able, the Bible
begins and ends with the war between good and evil,
between the righteous and the unrighteous. That's the world we
(59:12):
live in. Revelation six, starting verse nine, This is about
the Fifth Seal and the cry of the martyrs. When
he opened the fifth seal, I saw unto the altar
the souls of those who had been slain for the
word of God and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, how long,
o Lord, Holy and true, until you judge and avenge
(59:36):
our blood on those who dwell on the earth. And
then a white robe was given to each of them,
and it was said to them that they should rest
a little while longer, until both the number of their
fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as
they were, was completed. It cannot be escaped. It's going
(59:59):
to be okay, but it's gonna happen. And the Sermon
on the Mountain Matthew chapter five, verse ten, Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is
the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they revile
and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against
(01:00:21):
you falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. For so they
persecuted the prophets who were before you. I mean, Paul
was literally struck down in Acts fourteen nineteen when he
(01:00:42):
was an antioch and Aconium, and the Jews there persuaded
the multitudes and stone Paul and dragged him out of
the city, supposing him to be dead. But he wasn't.
If he was, he was brought back to life. He
was not destroyed or he was killed. The Lord's Spare
heard his life. He states pretty clearly what he went
(01:01:05):
through in Tewod Corinthians eleven, about abundant and stripes above
measure in prison, more frequently in depths, often for the Jews.
From the Jews. Five times I received forty stripes minus
one thirty nine. Three times I was beaten with rod
(01:01:28):
once I was stoned, three times. I was shipwrecked a
night and a day. And I've been in the deep
in journeys, often in perils of waters and the peril
of robbers, and perils of my own countrymen, in perils
of the gentiles, and perils in the city, and perils
in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils
among false brethren. In weariness and toil and sleeplessness, often
(01:01:53):
in hunger and thirst, and fastings often in cold and nakedness.
Besides the other things which come upon me daily, my
deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak and
I am not weak? Who was made to stumble? And
I do not burn with indignation? He'd been through it all,
(01:02:15):
and he had hope and he kept going. As believers,
we will face trials, Oh boy, we will face trial.
But we got to remember one thing. God controls the trials,
and he uses them to strengthen his people. So God's
glory is manifested through broken vessels, through people who endure
(01:02:39):
troubles by relying on His power. That's you in me.
The Nelson Study Bible says for Paul, the death and
resurrection of Jesus was a model for his ministry. In
his suffering, he participated in Jesus's suffering and death, but
Paul's endurance of all types of hardships produced eternal life
(01:03:01):
in those to whom he preached the gospel in the
same way. Issue his death, we're merely a precursor to
his resurrection to eternal life. Go time. Both the Kingdom
of God and the Kingdom of Darkness are in action.
That's where we are. You may think, well, I thought
(01:03:23):
that's where we were the whole time. Well it changed,
it shifted. Lord himself said, get ready, Go time. So
let me read you this encouragement from Isaiah thirty five,
starting verse four. Say to those with fearful hearts, be
(01:03:45):
strong and do not fear, for your God is coming
to destroy your enemies. He's coming to save you. And
when he comes, he will open the eyes of the
blind and unplug the ears of the death. The lame
will leap like deer, and those who cannot speak will
sing for joy. Springs will gush up forth in the wilderness,
(01:04:06):
and streams will water the waste land. The parts ground
will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy
the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will
flourish where desert jackals once lived, and a great road
will go through that once deserted land. It will be
(01:04:27):
named the highway of holiness. Evil minded people will never
travel on it. It will only be for those who
walk in God's ways. Fools will never walk there. And
this began at the coming of the Lord. He was
the one who opened the eyes of the blind and
unplug the ears of the death. The lame would leap
(01:04:50):
like a deer and sing for the mute and death,
and they would sing for joy, a highway of holiness
that we are called to walk on. Then again, Isaiah
in chapter forty, starting verse twenty eight, and I read
this to myself A lot part of it. You hear
(01:05:11):
me say a lot. Have you not known? Listen to me, please,
whatever else you're doing beside listening to me right now, stop,
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God,
the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth,
(01:05:33):
neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He
gives power to the weak and those who have no might.
He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait
on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount
(01:05:57):
up with wings like eagles, shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. Gird up those loins.
It's time for fight or flight in the midst of
fulfilling the great commission. So get ready. It's go time. Father.
(01:06:23):
I pray your word has done what you wanted it
to do. Today, Lord, I pray that you have stirred
the hearts of your children. I pray that you have
shaken some awake that might not have been completely awake.
They might have still had some sleep and slumber in
their eyes. Wake us up, Holy Spirit, Make us alert,
(01:06:46):
make us clear minded, sober, Get us ready to run
and do what you've called us to do, and not
be weary, to walk and not faint. To rise up
above the storms, to rise up above the secution, to
rise up above the clouds, to show the people the
way out, to shine that light into the darkness, to
(01:07:08):
do everything we need to do to make straight the
highway for the King. Help us, Help us, Holy Spirit,
each and every one of us, to be holy as
our father in heaven, as holy. Burn off of us
right now, anything listen, not of him. Burn off of us.
Anything that distracts us, or weakens us, or allows the
(01:07:31):
enemy to have access to us, and fill us, Fill
us to overflowing. Fill us with the oil. Fill us
so that we can do what you've called us to do.
To shine, to rise and shine, shine the light, set
(01:07:53):
the captives free, to do everything you need done before
that day. Let it be so, and your shoe his name. Amen.
Made the Lord bless you and keep you. Made a
lord make his face to shine upon you. Me gracious
(01:08:13):
to you. Made a lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Give you shallam. I'm Richard Grunn.
This has been the Porch on Firefall Talk Radio.
Welcome, Welcome to the Porch on Firefall Talk Radio, where
you will find the uncompromised Red letter basics of the
Word of God and focus on the Book of Acts
Church to see how they serve the Lord. In doing so,
we find the church Lord intended, not the one Man created.
The Porch is here to restore the priesthood of the
(00:43):
believer and while regaining the world's shaking influence of the
early Church. Because the Church age isn't over, the Upper
Room experience is as much for today as it was
on the day of Pentecost. It's yours if you want it.
Links to all of our social media and streaming sites
(01:04):
are on the main page of Firefall Talk Radio. Subscribe
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To support Firefall Talk Radio, go to Firefall talk radio
dot com for ways to do so. Reach out to
us if you need more information. We appreciate your support
(01:26):
and encouragement. Thank you for being a part of the Porch.
Thank you for being a part of our listening community.
If you need prayer or you want to pray for
others in the Porch community, just let us know we
will plug you in. Remember we care about you. You
are special and you are being prayed for. So Father,
(01:48):
we come to you in the name above all names.
You're sure Jesus your Son, We boldly approach the Throne
of Grace and mercy, saying, Aba, Papa, God Daddy, we
love you, We need you. We thank you for loving
us even when we were unlovable. Thank you for sending
(02:11):
you Shoe to die for us to pay for our sins.
We thank you that he did what we would never
have been able to do so that we could come
home and be reconciled to you Lord. Thank you for that.
Thank you for doing that. Thank you for setting us
free from sin and from the control of the enemy.
(02:36):
And thank you for giving us access to a heavenly father.
Once again. We look forward to the day when it
is face to face and we can love on you
and hug you and tell you how much we love you.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, for coming and teaching and guiding
(02:56):
us and walking with us and doing what we need
you to do in this time. So tonight, as the
word goes forth, we need your help. We need your wisdom,
we need your understanding, We need revelation knowledge, and we
asked that you would do that for us. We ask
that the technology that we use be protected. That we
(03:21):
hear you clearly, we understand you completely, and we say,
have your way, do whatever it is you want to
do in the name of You Shuah. And we ask
all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
These lessons are proprietary information, except where not of the
information comes from outside sources. Combination of that information. The
manner presented is exclusive, cannot be repeated over used without permission.
The date of this broadcast serves as the registered date
of the following information.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, open your bibles. Don't have to forgive the nasally sound.
And I may sneeze a couple of times. It's been wet,
cold and raining here. Last night a dog abbey would
not go out unless I went outside with her, so
I think I caught a little bit of a chill.
Go to Tewod Corinthians ten, starting of verse four, for
(04:39):
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Messiah
and being ready to publish all disobedien when your obedience
(05:02):
is fulfilled. The weapons that we have is our warfare,
are not physical. They're not weapons of flesh and blood.
Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud
(05:26):
thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God.
And we are taking every thought and purpose captive to
the obedience of Messiah, being ready to punish every act
of disobedience when our own obedience as a church is complete.
(05:48):
Yesterday I started working on this message. Then I got stuck.
I really just didn't know what the Lord wanted to do.
And then in the middle of the night, as he
is prone to do, he spoke that scripture to me.
The Lord warned us to be ready. That's what we've
(06:09):
been talking about over the last couple of weeks. We
are called to walk in the spirit with wisdom and
understanding while discerning in the times. That takes prayer and
spending time with the Lord. So Sunday, while Harry now
we're praying, the Lord spoke to me, as he does
(06:35):
when we just stop and we listen and we see
what he wants us to pray about or to do.
And he said two phrases to me, and let me
clarify why he speaks to me that way. It used
to be when I first learned to hear the voice
of the Lord, it was flowing conversations. And then there
(07:01):
came a time where that stopped and he began to
speak to me in phrases or single words. And I
even said to him, s Lord, I miss I missed
those days. I missed those conversations we used to have.
I heard him say, I know you do, son, but
I need you to understand my will and what I
(07:22):
want from you by a word or a whisper. So
he said two things. First he said get ready, and
then he said go time. Now, that could make you
think they mean a lot of different things. But then
(07:42):
when he does that, the spirit then puts into your
heart what his intentions are and what he's saying to you.
And I immediately knew. And he said get ready, he
meant get prepared naturally and spiritually. That's what readiness is.
(08:03):
It's the state of being prepared for anything. And it's
funny as he brought these same scriptures up that we
talked about last week, and Matthew twenty four, starting verse
thirty seven. But as the days of Noah, or so
also will be the coming of the Son of Man be.
(08:26):
For as in the days before the flood they were
eating and drinking, and marrying and giving in marriage until
the day that Noah entered the ark and did not
know until the flood came and took them all away,
so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then two men will be in the field, one will
be taken in the other left. Two women will be
(08:48):
grinding at the mill, and one will be taken in
the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know
what hour your lord is coming. But know this that
if the man of the house had known what hour
the thief would come, he would have watched and not
allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also
(09:10):
be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at
an hour you do not expect. He reiterates that Mark thirteen,
And if you don't already know Luke twenty one, Mark
thirteen and Matthew twenty four all a line in their message,
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just with slight very differences in variations as the person
heard it who wrote it. Mark is writing Peter's account,
Luke is writing the general account, and Matthew is writing
his own. But of that day and hour no one knows.
This is Mark thirteen, starting verse thirty two. But of
that day and hour no one knows, not even the
(09:54):
angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the father.
And he's speaking of a particular time. Remember he's sitting
at the right hand of the father. He and the
father are one. They are thinking and acting in unison.
But back then he said, nor the son, but only
the Father. Take heed, watch and pray, for you do
(10:14):
not know when the time is. It is like a
man going to a far country who left his house
and gave authority to his servants to each his work,
and commanded the doorkeeper to watch. Watch therefore, for you
do not know when the master of the house is
coming in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of
(10:37):
the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he
find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I
say to all watch. He's speaking to the church. We
need to watch. In Matthew twenty five, when he told
the parable about the wise and foolish virsions. He pointed
out that the foolish virgins were not read. And while
(11:01):
they went to buy their oil, bridegroom came and those
who already went in with them to the wedding, and
the door was shut. They were not ready, they were
not watching, they were not doing what they had been told.
And finally, to close out this particular thought in Revelation
chapter three, and as he speaking to the dead Church,
(11:24):
to the Angel of the Church and t Sartis, these
things says he who has the seven spirits of God
and the seven stars. I know your work, that you
have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are
ready to die, for I have not found your works
(11:46):
perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard.
Hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch,
I will come upon you as a thing, and you
will not know what hour I will come upon you. You
have a few names, even in sardises, who have not
(12:08):
defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white,
for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed
in white. Garments. And I will not blot out his
name from the book of life, but I will confess
his name before my father and before his angels. He
who has an ear to hear, let him hear with
(12:30):
the spirit says to the churches. The church in Sardis
was dead. They claimed that they were alive, but they weren't.
They had a few people that would have been ready
for the Lord's return, but the rest were not. Then, finally,
in Revelation nineteen seven, it says, let us be glad
(12:53):
and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of
the Lamb has come, and his wife his bride. It
has made herself ready. Over and over and over. Readiness
was a persistent message from the Lord. The second part
of what he said to me was go time. Now,
(13:16):
that's a slang term, and it refers to the moment
of taking action, usually in some important event. It's go time.
That phrase is often used to express excitement and anticipation
for anough upcoming event or task. It can also be
(13:39):
used in a more serious context, such as a military
operation or some sort of emergency. And I believe that
if it's all of the above, we should be excitement.
We should be excited about the upcoming event of his
return of what we're called to do in this time.
(13:59):
But we should also understand we're in the middle of
a military operation, the Kingdom of God versus the kingdom
of darkness we'll call the tari Were occupy. We're an
occupying army and we're not doing our job. But it's
go time. That means we should be prepared to take
(14:19):
on whatever challenge lies ahead with confidence and determination and
a sense of urgency. There's no time to waste. Action
must be taken immediately now. For every one of us,
that'll mean something different. For each of us in our
(14:42):
calling and our understanding, that'll mean something different. But collectively
as his body, as his Church, it's pretty basic what
it means, and I'm going to cover that tonight. The
Spirit will have to reveal to you the other things
of how it applies to you personally and what you
(15:05):
are caused to do, and you'll get that message from
within the Word. So go to First Peter, chapter one,
starting verse thirteen. Peter says, therefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and rest your hopefully upon
the grace that is to be brought to you in
(15:26):
the revelation of Jesus the Messiah, as obedient children, not
conforming yourself to the former lusts, as in ignorance, but
as He capital h who called you as holy. You
also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written,
(15:48):
Be holy, for I am holy. And if you call
on the Father, who without partiality judges according each one's work,
conduct yourselves throughout the time of your state here in fear,
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like
silver or gold from your aimless conduct, received by tradition
(16:10):
from your father's but with the pious, precious blood of Messiah,
as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. Forgive me,
having a little struggle here breathing, we will press on.
He indeed was fordained before the foundation of the world,
(16:32):
but was manifest in these times for you, who through
him believe in God who raised him from the dead
and gave him glory. So that your faith and hope
are in God. Think clearly, exercise self control, look forward
(16:54):
to the gracious salvation that will come to you. When
you're sure. Hammah, Jesus the Messiah is revealed to the
world well he's speaking to the church. Builth jew and
gentile at that moment, be sober, brace up your mind,
(17:22):
be morally alert, set your hope wholly unchangeably on the
grace the divine favor that coming to you when Jesus
the Messiah is revealed. Live in this world as children
(17:42):
of obedience to God. Do not conform yourselves to the
evil desires that once governed you, but in your in
your former ignorance, when you did not know the requirements
of the Gospel. But as one who has called you
is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your
(18:04):
conduct and manner of living. The calling here is to
brace up your mind, take courage in the faith of
trials that you're about to go through, that you've been
called to go through. But do it prepared and in holiness.
(18:27):
The two go hand in hand. Benjamin Franklin said, by
failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. And I
think that's why the Lord gives us these messages and
these words and these warnings, so that we don't fail.
(18:48):
Our father God is holy, and he demands all his
followers to be like him under the law. He gave
them specific requirements that they had to follow the letter
of the law to have his holiness. But now through Yushua,
(19:09):
through the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, we partake
of his holiness. We partake of his righteousness. But through
the Holy Spirit, it allows us to act accordingly. He
who has called you is holy. Be like your Father,
who is holy. Be holy in all your conduct. Why
(19:35):
because it's written, be holy, for I am holy. See
Peter is writing to the church, the collective church. Is like,
I'm speaking to the collective church, the body, and he's
calling us to live a life of practical holiness. Well,
how does that apply to a word? Your word there, Richard,
(19:57):
it sounded to me like that that was more prepared
for war. Well, guess what. The war starts from within.
It starts in our behavior, It starts in our actions.
It starts in a one to one dealing with the enemy.
In our lives. We are called to make a commitment
(20:23):
to abstain from sinful desires, to live good lives with
good deeds that are evident for everyone to see. But
to do it all in submissiveness to God and to
his word. That's where holy life begins. A holy life
(20:45):
is a life of godly biblical submission. That word submission
is a noun. It is the act or fact of
accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the
will or authority of another person. Well that person is
you sure? It's the Lord, It's our heavenly Father. So
(21:08):
the pursuit of holiness is submission to his way over hours,
not how's the world does it? Not as even the
church and I did the finger thing. Church does it.
But as he does it. We can't water it down.
We can't. We can't modernize it. Well that was then,
(21:31):
this is now. No, it's pretty basic. Don't do these
things he says not to do. Don't act like that,
don't don't think like that, don't speak like that. Yes,
you'll be forgiven. That's what grace is. It's unmerited favor.
But it's not an excuse or a license to sin.
(21:55):
So holy holiness is something we're called to pursue, we're
called to seek, we're called to want it Hebrews twelve fourteen.
Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no
one will see the Lord. See. Part of the failure
(22:18):
to walk in the spirit is that we walk on
and off this path of holiness. I got one foot in,
I got one foot out. I do the hoky poke,
I shake it all about, and then we stumble around
like spiritual drunknaress. Some days we get it, some days
we don't, but we're not really trying. God's holiness makes
(22:44):
us stringent demand upon us, and it begins with it.
We must humble ourselves before Him and become marked with
the qualities that marked his own life. We must, to
the best of our natural ability, through the help of
the Holy Spirit, as well, reflect the Lord in everything
(23:06):
we say and do. And boy do I fail that miserably.
And I know it when I do, because I immediately
come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther said,
my temptations have been my master's and divinity in his
classroom was the world being holy refers to being set
(23:31):
apart and separate. You can be in the world, but
not of the world. The minute you become of the world,
a minute you mimic the world. A minute you transform
yourself into the image of the world. You are no
longer in the image of God, you're no longer pursuing
his character. So if we live a life dedicated totally
(23:55):
to God mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and separated totally from the
sin of this world. Spiritual compromise won't be an option.
You won't even desire for it to be an option.
Now will never be perfect until we get our glorified
(24:19):
bodies and this flesh is no longer a part of
our makeup. But until then, it's a struggle. It's an
everyday struggle. Will you get up and you after you
say good morning, and after you praise Him and worship him. Okay,
Holy Spirit, I need some help today. It's funny. It
(24:40):
is how I started this day, knowing I had to
get this word together and it wasn't happening, and I
was frustrated by it. Of course, the Lord gave me
that scripture and I knew where to begin. So I
just said, Holy Spirit, I need your help. I need
your help and everything I say in do I need
your help specifically regarding the Bible study, but I need
(25:04):
it and everything. I need your help be a better person,
a better husband, a better father, the better everything. Without
that help, you will mess up. Therefore, gird up the
loins of your mind. You know, just like the people
(25:24):
in biblical times, they would gather up their long robes
or their garments and pull them up between their legs
and tuck them into the belt in front, so that
they could run when they needed to run, They could
move quickly and freely without anything impeding them. We're called
to do that. We're called to take our thoughts and
(25:48):
gird them up and secure them so that it's on
the things that allow us to serve God successfully. Nothing
else there to trip us up. There's no other thoughts,
there's no other distractions. That's why you have to take
(26:08):
your thoughts captive. That's why you have to consciously not
allow this world to sleep in, sleep in, don't sleep in,
don't sleep in, don't do anything. Don't sleep while you're sleeping,
and don't sleep and sleep at the same time. Don't
let the world in. If you feel it happening, turn
(26:32):
it off, move away, don't listen. Stop whatever it is
you're doing. If it hurts you, if it hurts your soul,
if it hurts your spirit, stop it. If it hurt
your relationship with others, stop it. If it hurts your
relationship with the Lord, stop it and run from it.
(26:55):
One Peter three point fifteen. But sanctify the Lord God
in your our hearts, and always be ready to give
a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for
the hope that is in you. With meekness and fear.
Set Messiah a part as holy, acknowledge him as Lord.
(27:17):
Always be ready to give a logical defense to anyone
who asks you to account for the hope that is
in you. But do it courteously and respectfully. Sanctify, set apart,
make it holy, make it special. Peter was explaining the
true character of God and the high cost of redemption
(27:44):
were incentives to produce holiness in those reading his words.
He also demanded that holiness show itself in earnest love
for other believers and forsaken all militious attitudes. You should
read the entire first Peter. Read it all. Get his message,
(28:15):
Roll up your sleeves, go to work. That's what he's saying.
It's go time. Be prepared to fight or retreat if needed.
But retreat doesn't surrender. It's regrouping for a future victory.
It's got time. Gird up your loins, strengthen yourself for
what is to come. Gird up, prepare, get ready, gear up, galvanize.
(28:43):
Brace four to five psych yourself up. They girded themselves
for war. It takes effort. It doesn't just happen. Even
the greatest warriors in the world world, they have to
(29:03):
work at it, that have the train that to concentrate.
It isn't instinctive. It's something that must be applied to
gain that outcome. We're living in both great times and
troubling times simultaneously. I think the weather that we're having,
(29:27):
if you saw it on the news, North Florida has
gotten a lot of snow, record setting snow, once in
a lifetime snow. It's not climate change, and definitely this
is not global warming. I believe there's a supernatural or
(29:48):
spiritual component to what is going on in the weather.
Part of the signs of the times. It's going to
be uncomfortable, but it's going to be okay. There's gonna
be good days. It's gonna be bad days. There's going
to be good times. There's gonna be bad times, but
keep going. See, the church was beginning to feel the
(30:11):
flames of persecution when Peter wrote that letter. They're being scattered,
they were being tormented, they were being ripped apart, they
were being set on fire, and it was this letter
was being funneled to various cities throughout the Roman Empire
(30:32):
and throughout that world that they were reaching. So in
troubling times he called him to holiness. Isn't that odd?
He didn't give them an easy way out. He saw,
I don't worry about it. God will forgive you. You're
in a tough time. It's not gonna be easy to
be holy. I'm gonna cut you some slack. No, he
(30:54):
tightened the belt. He said, gird up the loins of
your mind. Get ready. It's go time. And in this
letter there are no fewer than seven different Greek words
for suffering. Then we get the first Peter, chapter four,
(31:14):
and it's a chapter about what persecution, suffering, tribulation topics
we don't want to talk about today. But one thing
on the porch I've always been with you is honest
that this is a great life, and this is a
great walk, but it is not an easy walk. Actually,
from one of the very first sermons I did in
(31:36):
our home church in Tallahassee, that was what I taught on.
And one of the people that was part of our
church family, part of us, had brought a guest with
them who was visiting with her, and she came up
to me and said, finally, a preacher that told me
the truth that this is not easy, but the reward
(32:02):
is great. I've never forgotten that moment. That's one of
those seminal moments in my walk as a minister for
the Lord. It's going to be tough, but not only
is it going to be okay, it's going to be great.
(32:22):
The reward is great. I don't want the rewards of
this world. I want his rewards. I won't let the
cares of this world, or the deception of the enemy,
or all those things that I could allow to happen
to happen, just steal that from me. That's why I
(32:44):
spend time with him. That's why I pray, That's why
I worship. But the perfection of our faith comes through exercise.
You know what That exercise is suffering. Our faith is perfected,
our efforts towards holiness is perfected through suffering. And that
(33:11):
will keep us from sinning, or at least it should.
If you are born again, let me hit this drum again.
Let me get out my born again drum. Hold on
the got it, Let me get out my born again drum. Here.
Let me bang on it a little bit. The Lord
(33:35):
said it, I didn't. I just read it and repeat it.
You must be born again. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the
spirit of spirit. You must be born from above. If
you are born again, you will act differently. You will
think differently, you will feel differently. You will desire to
(33:59):
be holy. You'll desire to be doing the things which
I'm sharing with you. More than that, you'll be awake.
You'll be understanding and discerning. The times that we're in
requires more effort from you. It requires an urgent desire
(34:22):
to be different, to be better. In one Peter, chapter four,
verse seven, he says, but the end of all things
is at hand. Well wait, wait, that was a couple
of thousand years ago, wasn't it thousand years ago? Fifteen
hundred maybe two? What is that, Peter? That was then?
(34:42):
This is now? It hasn't happened. I can't do this anymore.
Remember there is no time in the spirit realm. He
was telling the truth. The end of all things was
at hand, and it began on the day of Pentecost.
He's the one who gave that speech and quoted the
prophet Joel. But the end of all all things is
at hand. Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
(35:06):
And above all things, have fervent love for one another,
for love will cover a multitude of sins. Be hospitable
to one another without grumbling. As each one has received
a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God. Jumping the verse twelve, Beloved,
(35:28):
do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial, which
is to try you, as though something strange as has
happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you
partake of Messiah's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed,
you may also be glad with exceeding joy. Get ready,
(35:54):
it's go time. It's gonna get tough, it's gonna get worse,
but it's going to be great because the King's going
to come and take us home. The end of all
things is at hand. Be serious and watchful in your prayers.
(36:14):
No time for foolishness, no time for distractions, No time
for some of the nonsense I see in the church
by false teachers and people that may have started out okay,
but that are so far off that one degree off,
they're lost. They're nowhere on the path, They're nowhere on
the map that the Holy Spirit laid out before them.
(36:38):
The return of the Messiah, the return of the Lord,
should inspire you, give you hope and stability in the
face of persecution. We are lazy in the Western Church.
We've had it too easy. Our brothers and sisters around
the world don't need to be taught about persecution one
(37:00):
through it. I have no idea how many believers died
in the thirty five minutes or so that I've been
speaking to you, but they have. They've been tortured, but
they did it with joy because they knew they were
going to see him face the face. The return of
(37:24):
the Lord should inspire us, but it should also motivate
us to be awake one Thessalonians five to four. But you, brethren,
are not in darkness, so that this day, meaning the
day of the Lord, should overtake you as a thief,
(37:44):
we should be ready, and we should be prepared for
that day. We should be prepared for go time. It
hit me this morning, as I was praying and working
on this, I see I took go time. As it's
time to go. It's time to go do the things
I've called you to do. Go time for the enemy,
because while you're doing your job and fulfilling your mission,
(38:06):
the enemy is fulfilling there. So there's this simultaneous parallel
track going on of activity, of warfare, back and forth,
of progressing towards a final goal. But then I thought,
wait a second, that go time isn't just out. That
go time could be up. It's go time. At any moment,
(38:27):
he may snatch the church out of here. And if
you don't believe in the rapture, that's fine. It's not
life altering in the sense of losing your salvation. But
scripture bears it out. You're free to believe it or not.
We have not been appointed to wrap, and the time
of Jacob's trouble is for the Jews that have not
(38:49):
accepted him as Messiah. But be that as it may.
We should be time, We should be ready to go
for him to show up. We should be living in
that mindset of go time. Continuing in First Thessalonians, picking
it up with verse five of chapter five, You are
(39:14):
all sons and daughters of Light, and sons and daughters
of the day. We are not of the night nor
of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do,
but let us watch and be sober. For those who
sleep sleep at night. Those who get drunk are drunk
at night. But let us who are of the day,
(39:37):
be sober. Putting on the breastplate of faith and love
and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God
did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
through our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, who died for us,
that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together
with Him. Therefore, comfort each other edif I one another,
(40:02):
just as you are doing. Are you hearing this? Is
it clicking? Is the Spirit revealing things to you as
I'm saying this of the thoughts coming? Are you taking notes?
I mean, if you're one of those people that got
the scriptures that I'm sharing with you, there's a space
at the bottom for notes. You can either print it
(40:23):
out and write it on there. These technological wonders of
smartphones and tablets and everything that we live in right
now allows you to take notes on them. Is the
Spirit speaking to you? If he is, you need to
hear have an ear to hear. Let us not sleep
(40:43):
as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
The world's asleep for those who sleep sleep at night,
those who get drunk and drunk at night. So stay alert,
be clear headed, keep wide awake, alert, watchful, cautious, be
on guard. I sleep on guard. I don't sleep deeply
(41:07):
that way. If I hear the alarm go off, or
I hear a noise that is out of the ordinary,
I can react to it. And of course somebody would say, well,
that's not nhealthy, Richard, you need to get into a
deep sleep. That's not the way I'm designed. I've never
have been. I'm always alert, I'm always on guard. So
let us be sober and calm, collective, and circumspect. That
(41:32):
word sleep refers to moral indifference, and then word drunk
is a metaphor for those who don't exercise self control.
Those people are going to be surprised by the day
of the Lord. Now remember he's writing to the church,
he's not writing to the world. So he's saying, there's
(41:55):
some of you that are morally indifferent and you have
no self control. That moral indifference is an apathy towards sin.
And unrighteousness that eventually leads to immoral behavior. But did
(42:16):
you catch how we ended it in verse eleven. Encourage, admonish,
exhort one another, edify, strength, and build up one another,
just as you're doing. We're living in a fallen world
and that requires encouragement and support from the Church, from
(42:37):
your family. That's why I do these That's why I
try to encourage you and edify you and build you up.
If I interact with you through emails, if you're a
part of the active porch community, I'm always trying to
edify you. Maybe it's by something I post, maybe by
something I say to you directly. But my goal is
(42:58):
to get you ready not just for the bad stuff,
but for the good stuff too, for the blessing, Because
good and evil it exists all around us, and it
will until the Lord returns, and there's nothing you can
(43:21):
do about it except don't let it seep in while
you sleep in The Lord told us that over and over.
I am so surprised when I hear some of these
false prophets, false teachers, and of course false believers who
listen to the false prophets and the false teachers. Oh
(43:43):
God's going to wipe this group out. And he's going
to do this, and he's going to send this group here,
and it no that comes at the end. This isn't
the old Testament, where now in a period where he
lets the weeds and the terrors grow together. I say
that because he said that Matthew thirteen, verse twenty four.
(44:05):
Another parable he put forth to them, saying, the Kingdom
of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed
in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came
and sowed tars among the wheat and went his way.
But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop,
then the tars also appeared. So the servants of the
(44:27):
owner came and said them, sir, did you not sow
good seed in your field? How is it? How does
it have tears? And he said to them an enemy
has done this. And the servants said to him, do
you want us to then go and gather them up,
meaning the terrors? He said, no, lest while you gather
up the terars, you also uproot the wheat with them.
(44:52):
Let them both grow together until the harvest. And at
the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers,
first gathered together the terras and bind them in bundles
to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.
I bet that confused the Jews, because there is laws
about contamination of the field. So the disciples came to
(45:16):
him in verse thirty six, and said, explain to us
the parable of the terrors in the field. And he answered,
and said to them, he who sows the good seed
is the son of Man. The field is the world.
The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But
the tears are the sons of the wicked one. The
(45:39):
enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is
the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore,
as the tears are gathered and burned in the fire,
so it will be at the end of the sage.
The Son of Man will send out his angels, and
they will gather out of his kingdom all things that
offend and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them
(46:00):
into the furnace of fire. They will be wailing and
gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as
the sun and the kingdom of their father. He who
has ears to hear, let them hear. If you ever
wondered why they're going to be gnashing their teeth and wailing,
(46:21):
Because when he casts your supernatural soul into the fire,
the lake of fire, you'll never die. That electrical creation
of the soul cannot be destroyed. So they will wail
and gnash their teeth for eternity in a lake of
(46:44):
fire created for Satan and his angels. The field. The
world around us is a field, and the harvest will
happen at the end, at the end of the world.
And the wheat and the terrors, the sons of the
Kingdom and the sons of the fallen are growing together.
(47:09):
Both the children of God and the sons of the
evil one live side by side in the world. I
said something recently, and I'll say it again. We are
all creations of God, but we are not all children
of God. Unless you are his. You're not his child,
(47:32):
jew or gentile. The only way that happens is through
the acceptance of His son as Messiah. And those wheat
and terrors are indistinguishable until they get fully grown and
their true nature is revealed for all to see, But
especially by his glory, God's righteous judgment will reveal it
(47:59):
all in the end. You know there were some people
that wanted me destroyed because of what I did walking
out of my family, all the laws and spiritual things
that I was doing against God. But he had a plan.
He didn't want that destroyed, as some would say. See,
the servants wanted to gather up the tears, but in
(48:19):
doing so they would have harmed the wheat at the
same time, how many times have we tried to gather
up the tears and hurt the wheat too. See to
the Jews this was shocking, as contamination of the crops
was punishable by law. To the contemporary Jews of his day,
(48:42):
it was a stunning proclamation, since they assumed the coming
of the Kingdom of God meant the destruction of the wicked.
He came to say that which is lost, we're not
called to seek the destruction of the terars in the field.
He'll do that. He tells us that in Luke chapter thirteen,
(49:03):
starting verse six, another parable, a certain man had a
fake tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking
fruit on it and found none. Then he said to
the keeper of his vineyard, look for three years, I've
come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground.
(49:27):
But he, the keeper of the vineyard, said to him, sir,
let this alone this year also until I dig around
it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well,
but if it doesn't, you can cut it down. God
is the owner of that vineyard. He shoe is the keeper,
(49:50):
and he's saying, let me work on this one, and
if it doesn't, you can cut it down and destroy.
At the end. That should be our heart. There are
people in this world that my natural human instinct is, Lord,
(50:12):
strike them down, hit them with a bolt of lightning.
Do whatever it is you have to do. But I
always preface it.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
Lord.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
If you can save them, save them, and I pray
for their salvation. But if they're reprobative, they're beyond salvation,
then do as your word says, do and destroy them.
But I know that that will happen at the end,
that I'm never going to see God's judgment on people,
(50:41):
and I really shouldn't want it. My heart should be
like the Lord's heart. And that's the thing about spiritual warfare.
It must be done with his heart. So we started
with this scripture. The weapons of our warfare are not
physical weapons of flesh and blood. Our weapons are divinely
(51:07):
powerful for the destruction of fortress's strongholds. We are destroying
sophisticated arguments in every exalted and proud thing that sets
itself up against the true knowledge of God. And we
are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience
(51:27):
of Messiah, being ready to punish every act of disobedience
when our own obedience as a church is complete. The
believer's study Bible clarifies this another way to review. Another
way to view the Christian task of witnessing and ministry
(51:50):
is to see the effort as a type of warfare.
As such, there is both a negative and positive aspect
to this mission. Positive aspect one word, not two word aspect.
Positive aspect to this mission. Everything that exalts itself against
(52:10):
God must be thrown down. Every thought must be brought
into captivity to Messiah. Paul would alert us to this
reality that the greatest battles of the believer's life, the
Christian life, are fought in the mind. So our weapons,
(52:31):
what we've been given, have divine power over spiritual strongholds,
and that power comes through the light of the Gospel.
Everything is about the Gospel. I see all these people.
Suddenly everybody's fascinated again with the nephil and with the giants,
(52:52):
with the demons, with the fallen angels. Videos all over YouTube,
hundreds of thousands of views, and I'm looking at it, gone,
Why this is old news to anybody that listened to
the porch or reflections in the dark starting twenty ten.
And it's really not that important. We weren't called to
(53:12):
study that, we weren't called to do anything but get
people saved, healed, and delivered. And through that we destroy
the work of the enemy. Through that we destroy the fallen,
through that we destroy the demonic powers and their hold
on this world. Therefore, as Paul says and Second Corinthians four,
verse one, to the church and con corinth Therefore, since
(53:35):
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we
do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden
things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience and the sight of God.
(53:58):
But if our gospel, if our good news, has veiled,
it has veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds
the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe,
lest the light of the Gospel, of the glory of Messiah,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Messiah is sure
(54:22):
the Lord, and ourselves your bond servants for your suer's sake.
For it is God who commanded light to shine out
of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
and the face of Jesus the Messiah. That's the job,
(54:43):
that's the calling, that's the mission. We have a ministry
of the Holy Spirit. We have a ministry of life.
We have a ministry of righteousness and liberty and light.
With the capital L the God of his age see
the God of this world Satan and his actions according
(55:07):
to the word of the quote, the hidden things of shame, craftiness, deceitfulness, sin,
rebellion against God, blinding the minds to the light of
the Gospel. See, unbelievers, just like we all did before,
had a barrier in our minds and our hearts to overcome.
I know I did. It was a stronghold, It was
(55:29):
a fortress, it was a citadel, it was a fortified
hiding place. And it took the light to break through
bad darkness to set me free, for me to see
what was really there. And just as he said, let
(55:50):
there be light and commanded the light to shine in
the darkness at creation in Genesis chapter one, verse three,
he turned on the light in people's hearts so they
can see who you show is as Messiah. See, we
can just share, we can point out things, we can
(56:10):
give them our testimony. But unless His glory, unless his
spirit shines that light into their hearts, they're never going
to see. People who do not believe, they're blinded by Satan,
pure and simple, he's the one doing it. But believers,
(56:37):
we see the light. We've seen the light. Believers are
the light of the world for those who are blinded
in darkness. See how it's so important Why you have
to shine? You walking in holiness, walking in the spirit,
(56:59):
not fulfilling the light the flesh, you living as an
example of your shoe m could shine a light into
somebody's heart and mind to begin to crack the fortress
and the prison doors. But it's not easy. We're in
a fallen world under the control of the wicked one
(57:21):
Tewod Corinthians fourth, starting verse seven. But we have this treasure,
his glory, his spirit, what He's given us. We have
this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellence of
the power may be of God and not of us.
We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed.
(57:41):
We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken,
struck down but not destroyed, always carrying about in the
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
of Jesus, the life of your shoe, also may be
(58:01):
manifested in our body. Pause. Words to the church in
corinth tie into Peter's exhortation about persecution, hard pressed, troubled
on every side, inside and out, We're not crushed by
(58:22):
the squeeze of troubles of this world. We're not perplexed,
We're not in despair. We're not utterly at loss. We
have hope and we have grace. That word persecuted, to
be persecuted means someone, or in our case, something, is
determined to harm us, causing suffery, injury, or even death.
(58:49):
Did you know that the Bible begins with the persecution
of the righteous by the unrighteous. And Genesis chapter four,
verses three through seven, when Cain killed Able, the Bible
begins and ends with the war between good and evil,
between the righteous and the unrighteous. That's the world we
(59:12):
live in. Revelation six, starting verse nine, This is about
the Fifth Seal and the cry of the martyrs. When
he opened the fifth seal, I saw unto the altar
the souls of those who had been slain for the
word of God and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, how long,
o Lord, Holy and true, until you judge and avenge
(59:36):
our blood on those who dwell on the earth. And
then a white robe was given to each of them,
and it was said to them that they should rest
a little while longer, until both the number of their
fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as
they were, was completed. It cannot be escaped. It's going
(59:59):
to be okay, but it's gonna happen. And the Sermon
on the Mountain Matthew chapter five, verse ten, Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is
the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they revile
and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against
(01:00:21):
you falsely. For my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. For so they
persecuted the prophets who were before you. I mean, Paul
was literally struck down in Acts fourteen nineteen when he
(01:00:42):
was an antioch and Aconium, and the Jews there persuaded
the multitudes and stone Paul and dragged him out of
the city, supposing him to be dead. But he wasn't.
If he was, he was brought back to life. He
was not destroyed or he was killed. The Lord's Spare
heard his life. He states pretty clearly what he went
(01:01:05):
through in Tewod Corinthians eleven, about abundant and stripes above
measure in prison, more frequently in depths, often for the Jews.
From the Jews. Five times I received forty stripes minus
one thirty nine. Three times I was beaten with rod
(01:01:28):
once I was stoned, three times. I was shipwrecked a
night and a day. And I've been in the deep
in journeys, often in perils of waters and the peril
of robbers, and perils of my own countrymen, in perils
of the gentiles, and perils in the city, and perils
in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils
among false brethren. In weariness and toil and sleeplessness, often
(01:01:53):
in hunger and thirst, and fastings often in cold and nakedness.
Besides the other things which come upon me daily, my
deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak and
I am not weak? Who was made to stumble? And
I do not burn with indignation? He'd been through it all,
(01:02:15):
and he had hope and he kept going. As believers,
we will face trials, Oh boy, we will face trial.
But we got to remember one thing. God controls the trials,
and he uses them to strengthen his people. So God's
glory is manifested through broken vessels, through people who endure
(01:02:39):
troubles by relying on His power. That's you in me.
The Nelson Study Bible says for Paul, the death and
resurrection of Jesus was a model for his ministry. In
his suffering, he participated in Jesus's suffering and death, but
Paul's endurance of all types of hardships produced eternal life
(01:03:01):
in those to whom he preached the gospel in the
same way. Issue his death, we're merely a precursor to
his resurrection to eternal life. Go time. Both the Kingdom
of God and the Kingdom of Darkness are in action.
That's where we are. You may think, well, I thought
(01:03:23):
that's where we were the whole time. Well it changed,
it shifted. Lord himself said, get ready, Go time. So
let me read you this encouragement from Isaiah thirty five,
starting verse four. Say to those with fearful hearts, be
(01:03:45):
strong and do not fear, for your God is coming
to destroy your enemies. He's coming to save you. And
when he comes, he will open the eyes of the
blind and unplug the ears of the death. The lame
will leap like deer, and those who cannot speak will
sing for joy. Springs will gush up forth in the wilderness,
(01:04:06):
and streams will water the waste land. The parts ground
will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy
the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will
flourish where desert jackals once lived, and a great road
will go through that once deserted land. It will be
(01:04:27):
named the highway of holiness. Evil minded people will never
travel on it. It will only be for those who
walk in God's ways. Fools will never walk there. And
this began at the coming of the Lord. He was
the one who opened the eyes of the blind and
unplug the ears of the death. The lame would leap
(01:04:50):
like a deer and sing for the mute and death,
and they would sing for joy, a highway of holiness
that we are called to walk on. Then again, Isaiah
in chapter forty, starting verse twenty eight, and I read
this to myself A lot part of it. You hear
(01:05:11):
me say a lot. Have you not known? Listen to me, please,
whatever else you're doing beside listening to me right now, stop,
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God,
the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth,
(01:05:33):
neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He
gives power to the weak and those who have no might.
He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait
on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount
(01:05:57):
up with wings like eagles, shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. Gird up those loins.
It's time for fight or flight in the midst of
fulfilling the great commission. So get ready. It's go time. Father.
(01:06:23):
I pray your word has done what you wanted it
to do. Today, Lord, I pray that you have stirred
the hearts of your children. I pray that you have
shaken some awake that might not have been completely awake.
They might have still had some sleep and slumber in
their eyes. Wake us up, Holy Spirit, Make us alert,
(01:06:46):
make us clear minded, sober, Get us ready to run
and do what you've called us to do, and not
be weary, to walk and not faint. To rise up
above the storms, to rise up above the secution, to
rise up above the clouds, to show the people the
way out, to shine that light into the darkness, to
(01:07:08):
do everything we need to do to make straight the
highway for the King. Help us, Help us, Holy Spirit,
each and every one of us, to be holy as
our father in heaven, as holy. Burn off of us
right now, anything listen, not of him. Burn off of us.
Anything that distracts us, or weakens us, or allows the
(01:07:31):
enemy to have access to us, and fill us, Fill
us to overflowing. Fill us with the oil. Fill us
so that we can do what you've called us to do.
To shine, to rise and shine, shine the light, set
(01:07:53):
the captives free, to do everything you need done before
that day. Let it be so, and your shoe his name. Amen.
Made the Lord bless you and keep you. Made a
lord make his face to shine upon you. Me gracious
(01:08:13):
to you. Made a lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Give you shallam. I'm Richard Grunn.
This has been the Porch on Firefall Talk Radio.
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