Pastor Erik West: [00:00:00] Come on back. Lord Jesus, praise God. Hallelujah! Amen, Amen. You may be seated. Let there be light. And there was a praise the Lord, he said, y'all, y'all may need another row in here. I said, well, we might, we might praise God. He said, well, did y'all figure replacing those I says, I should have, shouldn't I? He said, white and yellow. Amen. Well, God's good all the time. I'm glad that you're here this morning. Praise God we're going to continue do a little rehearsing from last week. We're in a series called don't know if the series ends today or When Jesus Comes back, which could be anytime, right? Called the mystery of his will, the mysteries of his will. Let's go to our text, Ephesians chapter one. I'm reading from the passage translation um, verses one through 11. I believe we're going to go, you know, Paul said that and we won't go there. But Paul said in first Corinthians four one and two he said, we are ministers in stewards of the mysteries of God. He says, so let a man so consider us as servants of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be faithful. Yes. Didn't he say suggested? So required. And so, uh, Paul went on to say in Ephesians chapter one, verses one through 11, pastor translation. Uh, well, I say one through 11. Then I my notes start at verse nine, so that won't be any good.
Pastor Erik West: [00:01:31] And I'm not going to look behind my back. So I'm going to go with the, with the King James. So uh, person will have a TV right there. It's wired. Put one in there. We just look straight ahead. Amen. Y'all won't be mad at a TV in church. We we're just going to. I'm not going to watch Bugs Bunny while I preach or anything. I'm just going to. I'll be I'll be able to see straight ahead of me. Ephesians chapter, chapter one. Uh, one through 11. Paul, he's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of the of a committee. I'm doing these to make points, not to be funny, but the mysteries of God. So Paul said, he's the apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from God. Our father said, no, not in not in every epistle, every letter. But you'll almost notice that in every letter that Paul wrote to, whether it was Colossae or, you know, Ephesians, Philippians, whatever, most every one of them started with grace and peace. That's how he started off his letter in salutation, Grace and peace be unto you. So I say, grace and peace unto you this morning. So Paul wants you to. So Paul is saying to you this morning, you who are here in 2024, grace to you and peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Erik West: [00:02:50] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him. Amen. Notice the tenses. These are very important. He hath past tense chose in you, in him, him. Hallelujah. See, Michelle was jokingly saying, like the thought is that he creates us, puts us down. So I'll come back and see you one day, or you'll come back and see me one day. But no, he chose you. But he chose you in him. When did he choose you? According to the scripture. When were you chosen? Before. Before Jamison became a city in the late 1800s. Is that right? No. Before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Notice he didn't even say holy and without blame before other people. He chose you before the foundation were to be holy, without blame before him. And if you can be holy and without blame before him, you've hit the mark. But how did you hit the mark? Because he chose you in him, and he knew him. Therefore he knows you. Now, if Jesus is trying to figure out himself in his identity, we are in a mess. We might as well just go fishing or, you know, go play, go to Chuck E cheese and play a few games and I might as well have a glass of wine, I don't know.
Pastor Erik West: [00:04:27] But anyway, if that's all there is to it, it's all over. But verse five says, he has predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the brave, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted, made you accepted. Now there are some people who don't accept you. I'm not asking for any show of hands. Don't point to nobody. Please. But I'm just saying there are some people who never accept you, no matter what you do. Because I have remembered they have remembrances, and sometimes some of you haven't done nothing to remember, but they're sure you're going to they're sure you're going to mess it up before you leave here. So, you know, we'll just love to move on, but move on is the chosen word there. Love them, but move on. Amen, Amen. Don't don't make them your steady company. Amen. So, uh, to the previous glory where he hath made us accepted in the beloved verse seven. In whom we have now, now we'll have. Yeah. Now. I grew up in church and sang the song. Did y'all see it when we all get to heaven. What a day of rejoicing that would be. We'd have any songs about what we're going to do today.
Pastor Erik West: [00:05:39] It was just a nasty here and now. Well here, he said, in whom we have thus now we have what redemption through his blood. We just sang the song. I had nothing to do with the songs. See how they just kind of coincide when people listen. In whom we have redemption through his blood. We have the forgiveness of sins. Plural, according to the riches of his grace. He's so rich he had to put ass on it. And he knew you might miss it more than once. A lot of times. So he went since. Yeah. Thank you. Lord. She's right. Amen. That's the best preaching I've heard a long time, Pam. Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. He knew he was going to need wisdom, so he had to bound it toward us. Look at verse nine, having made known. That's past tense unto us, the mystery. Oh, there it is of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. So the purpose is in himself. He's doing all this in himself, chose you in himself, before the foundation of the world. So they're going to need some wisdom abounded towards you. And you stand before him today without blame or guilt or condemnation. Amen. God, he looks at you and says, there's there's no faultless. I mean, all the translations say faultless. Well, look at there it goes all faultless over there. Amen. Now your brother in law won't say that, but he will.
Pastor Erik West: [00:07:20] Amen. Sometimes even a little bit closer than the brother in law. But anyway, let's not. Michelle, let's get in verse ten, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and on earth, even in him. So God has one family, the British, in two places at the moment. Yeah. Some in heaven, some in earth. Miss Barbara Tadlock is in heaven this morning. Amen. Amen. She left Thursday night about 1030. We were with her about lunch time, and she's like. She said, tell everyone because I'll. Well, this is about a week before. Then she says, tell everyone I love them dearly. She said, don't pray for me other than, you know, let's let's have the easy road going out. I mean, who wants pain? So we prayed for her, so she left about 1030 Thursday in glory. Amen. Amen. Well, haven't know something this afternoon about services. Probably Tuesday, I'm assuming. Or Wednesday. But anyway, in verse 13, now verse 11, in whom we also have obtained. An inheritance. Would anybody be mad about an inheritance? No. I had a well-meaning friend one time telling me, he said, uh, we've been praying for you. And I said, well, thank you. I says, uh, he said, well, let me tell you what we've been praying for. And I said, well, okay.
Pastor Erik West: [00:08:53] He said, well, you know, you know, just naturally on both sides because, you know, you had wonderful parents and, and he said, we never knew Michel's parents. He said, but there's no really no inheritance going forward. He says, so we're just going to pray. We're going to pray for you that God's going to raise up someone to to give you an inheritance. You don't have to be kind to them. You know, as you get older and stuff like this, we want you to have an inheritance. I said, well, I appreciate that. He said, we but we're going to believe God has raised up someone to give you one. And I said, well, Amen. I said, it worked. You're praying has already worked. He says, did something happen? I said, oh yeah, a long time ago. And I quoted the scripture. I said, I haven't obtained an inheritance, praise God. And this minister said, oh yeah, I know that. But I said, no, there's no but there. That may come through Jim, George, Bill, Sam, Bill or Bill. And Bill says faith without hence is death and faith that works. I know I knew something like that, but but here we have obtained an inheritance. Can you receive that by faith? Yes. Being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things. Look here, the mystery of his will. He works all things after the counsel of his own will. He's working this thing out for you.
Pastor Erik West: [00:10:14] But. But it's according to his own will. After the counsel of his will. His own will? So who's he receiving counsel from? No. Does he need counseling? Does the Lord need find someone to agree with him? If any of you shall agree. No. Is the Lord's hand shortened? That I can't say. No. Is the Lord figured this thing out as he goes? No. Has the Lord ever said, oh, no. No. Now we've come in things in life. Said, oh, no. But the Lord says, well, you know, we knew this before. They said it was before it was a girl. So everything's going to be just fine. Amen. Now we won't go there. But Colossians one nine said, for this cause Paul said, so this is another prayer. Paul prayed for the church at Colosse. But and just one verse I'm going to read. Colossians one nine if you're making notes for this cause. Also, since the day we heard it, Paul said, we do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So we see Paul praying by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit gave him this utterance that so really the desire is from the Father himself, that he wants us to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Pastor Erik West: [00:11:43] In other words, he doesn't want his will to be a mystery. He wants to solve these unsolved mysteries in your life. But you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing, being fruitful and increase in the knowledge of God. Notice that the fruitfulness. And being fruitful in every good work is intricately and tied to your knowledge of him, not of him. Him. And according to what we already read, uh, in him last week, we read this verse. It's in Deuteronomy 2929. It says the secret things belong to the Lord. But the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we might do all the words of his law. Jesus quoted and this is the NIV in Matthew 1311, Jesus told his disciples. He said, the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you. Not withheld. The secrets of the knowledge of the kingdom of heaven has been given unto you, but not unto them. You say? Well, I thought he was no respecter of persons. He's not. Because he also, if you read everything in context, read the chapter he says. He says they they hear because they have ears. He says they see, they have eyes. He said they are. They are seeing like you're seeing. And if I asked him, I'll repeat the last 3 or 4 words I said, they probably could repeat it.
Pastor Erik West: [00:13:29] So they're hearing, he said. But they do not hear and they do not see. And my father will not reveal this to them. To them. In other words, there had to be a heart change. And as soon as the heart is changed, he said, their ears will open up and their eyes will begin to see. Now, I don't know how that works. That part of me is a mystery. You're saying? Well, I heard it, he said. But no, you really didn't. I mean it. Growing up as a kid, did your mother ever tell you something 2 or 3 times because she didn't think you heard it the first time? Yeah. I mean, my mother didn't explain it three times. She two, two times. The third time you got the revelation, you heard. But sometimes we repeat things over and over again. Well, that's that's that's part of what we that's part of what meditation is on purpose. Where we hear, we ponder, we think. You know, we or we listen to a teaching over and over and over again. How many ever just found something that someone taught so interesting that you listen to it several times. And what surprised you was that you heard something different every time that you didn't hear the first several times. Amen. You know, we only retain whoever you know. We always say, I don't I don't know who they are. You know, we all use that phrase they say, but I mean, I'm like, give me a name of they who are.
Pastor Erik West: [00:14:53] Who are they? Well, I don't know, but they they know a lot. Well, so the experts, whoever they are. Say that we only retained about 10% of what we hear. Now we don't retain it and not forget it. We retain it. How many ever watched a show? You know, whatever the show is, or watched a movie or watch, you know something and you know you've watched it before, but you. But you don't remember everything about it, right? So I let you watch it again. If ain't nothing else on because you don't remember all of it. And, uh, I mean, there's some things like Andy Griffith, I don't I don't watch Andy much anymore because I know what they're going to say before they say it. And when I know exactly what you're going to say before you say it, I just don't have no interest in it whatsoever. It's a great show, but, I mean, but here the word we need to know not just what he said. We need to know what he said. We need to know. What has been said. Hmm'hmm. I mean, when we're in, when we're in a situation or we're in trouble, we don't want to think. What did he say? What did God say? We need to have already renewed our mind and think what he said. Now we all have to start with.
Pastor Erik West: [00:16:15] What did he say? But that's not maturity. But charity is when you know what he said. And when you know what he said in the context of the way, I mean that you know what he said that means? I'm saying you're believing it at the heart level, because now you're at the place where it's being challenged. Now I have is there anyone else in here ever been challenged? I mean, there's a lot more light in this room than it used to be. I don't see any hands of any, you know. Okay. How many? You feel like, you know, you've been challenged, and they put the throttle on wide open and then then add a little bit more. You like pretty sure. Like, you know, brother Hagan said one time he said. He said, he said I was so sick. He said I knew I wasn't dying because you'd have to be better to die. So. So I wondered a couple of times, you know, am I about that close? I said, I think you'd have to get better to die. Amen. Well, that's why that's where we need to know. So Jesus said, these are the things that I want to be revealed to you. I don't want these things to be mysteries. And so we'll go a little bit further today. Uh, Galatians chapter one, if you will. We're going to read a pretty much a whole chapter right here, if you don't mind.
Pastor Erik West: [00:17:40] And I'm really going to read it, even if you do mind, but I'd rather you not mind. It makes it better for all of us. Watch. I'll sit down. Make it easier for you. I'll have a root beer in a moonpie. Now watch here. I'm reading things that may not be pertinent, you know, just to the mystery of the will. But what I want you to see is, um. This is not of men. It's of God. And we're in him. So as we cooperate with him, these mysteries become unreal. In other words, we don't just stand back and say, well, God's in control. Uh, that that is the most misused, misinformed, uh, phrase that I've ever, ever heard in the Christian world. Is God's in control. Well, yes and absolutely not. Well, let me ask you. Do you think anyone's ever went to hell? Well, then God wasn't in control of all that. Does God want anyone to go to hell? Did you raise kids and they ever do anything that you didn't want them to do? Well, you was in control. Oh, but they had a will. And then, you know, you went down the hallway at 3:00 in the morning and they weren't in their room. You just thought they were. Yeah, well, that wasn't my will. They had a will. So. So my sovereignty didn't override their willingness or lack of willingness. It works that way.
Pastor Erik West: [00:19:15] But God is. God does God? Is God getting his way in everything? No, because he gave us free will. If he did, we wouldn't have room in here today. Not God's will as all men save. No, but the Scripture says he patiently waits for the fruit of the earth. Why? He wants all men saved to come to knowledge of the truth. So was God get his will? No. So as we cooperate with him, right then you can say, I lay my life before him, laid it down. His will, not my will be done. Now you put him in the driver's seat. He's not the co-pilot. Like the old. Someone finally had enough sense to change. They used to have a license plates. The god is my co-pilot. I'm thinking, man, you better change seats quick. If he's your co-pilot, you better come over and just take notes while he's driving. Uh huh, 000, yeah. I mean, this ain't. This ain't your permit test. You're going for your license. He's sitting over there. No, no, no, you watch him. Paul said, follow me as I follow him. In other words, Paul said, Paul didn't say, I'll follow you and teach you as we go. He said, no, you follow me. That's what discipleship is, right? Whether you're doing it at the home level, you know, training your husband or or your wife or whatever it is, or the kids or whatever. Someone asked my wife at one time they said, if your husband passes early, are you going to get married? She said, no, I said, I said that was like way past.
Pastor Erik West: [00:20:45] No. I said, because you're at the age you wouldn't. She says, well, yeah, she tried to make it nice. She said there was never one, no one be like you, she said. Plus, I don't have the energy to train nobody else. And I thought, that's so sad. I was kiddingly saying that we had a birthday party yesterday. I said, you know, I said we could have been in one of them religions where a man had several wives. But you was fortunate, you know, that. It was just, you know, that you have all this to yourself. And she just looked at me like, I got to go home with him, too. That's what I'm just believing the Lord for big things today. Anyway. What verse are we on? One one. Oh, I'm sorry, Paul, an apostle. What does it say? Not a bad. I can't tell you how many people can't function in ministry unless you call them the apostle or prophet or bishop. When Steve Sampson was here, he said he was at a church and he says, I'm pretty much called Apostle Bishop this, just like this. And he said, how should I address you? He said, uh, Steve. I mean, they're not going to give that to you at Walmart. If they don't know you.
Pastor Erik West: [00:22:14] And, you know, if you go through the drive through and said, can I help you? He said, well, you should say, can I help you, Bishop? They don't care if you're a bishop, right? I mean, if you if you have to have more than Jesus did to function, you probably aren't what you think you are. Wow. Amen. If it takes 14 people to meet you in the car to get you out, and the right brand of water to drink while you're preaching, I don't know if it's worth it. I've had some people here to speak in the church. Never do you know what it was taken to just get them through the the 2 or 3 days they were here. Well, I can't eat that. Well, it's got to be like this. Well, no, I mean I can't. Well I need this done this way. Well, you know, I need the water. I said, what water? We have water. No, I can only drink a certain kind of water. I need the square bottled water, not the round one. And I said, well, it's really hard when you live in a city that we do, you know, we don't have all these options. I had one one time. He says, well, I mean, I'm going to be here three days. He says, I'd like to have a steak. And I said, okay, you know, this is years ago. I said, but we don't really have a steak house.
Pastor Erik West: [00:23:24] You know, we're we have a lot of Joes, you know, meatloaf and three vegetables. And they said, well, I really would like to stay. I said, well, we'd have to go to Millbrook. He said, well, how far is that? I said, 30, 35 miles. He said, well, I drive all the time. I don't want to drive. I said, well, I could go get it. He said, well, it wouldn't be warm. I mean, it wouldn't be as good. And I said, well, I said, you know, I lost. I said, what do you want me to do? I don't have a helicopter. We don't have a steakhouse here. We could cancel the meeting if you like. No, I'm not saying do that. So what are you saying? Right. I mean, in the pulpit, he was awesome. But outside the pulpit, I mean, I want to take a two before next year's here. And then he asked me several years later, we was at Kenneth Copeland Ministries conference, and he walked up to me and we, you know, we had saw each other in years. And he just asked me, he said, I want to ask you a personal question. I said, go ahead. He said, why haven't you had me come back in? I said, I know. Well, he says, no. I mean, there's you know, well, I knew if he was had asked me that he'd been asking somebody else that and I and I told him and I said, you, you know, the that you're teaching gift from the pulpit is awesome.
Pastor Erik West: [00:24:31] But outside that I said, you know, you weren't going to church with hundreds of people. Like I had 15 staff people, you know, could, you know, float you in and out. And I told him about the steak and he said, I did it. I said, yeah, he said, oh, he says, please forgive me. I said, I did. That's why you're still alive. I had to forgive you why you was here. And it went on and on and on and on. Like, I mean, when are they going to have my clothes picked up and cleaned? I said, you know, back and this is back when, you know, you got charged per minute for making phone calls. And he says, you know, I'm writing a book while I'm here. And but I also have to keep my schedule, so I have to call long distance. And, you know, the protocol is why I'm here. You know, I'm supposed to be giving so many long, distant minutes and so much like this. And I said. What you call them is prima donnas. Yeah. And just because you traveled with a man and sang on the stage before he preached, and you tell me all that anointing is on you. I never saw him do that. Now can we get off on all that? Well that scripture.
Pastor Erik West: [00:25:38] Paul, an apostle not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. Now let me say this, and I know you know this, but let me say this. We we it is good and right to honor one another and to honor the people that God brings into our life. But some of the stuff has gotten out of whack. You know, for years, when they talk about submission and authority and stuff like this and stuff like that, we are all the family of God. My function is just different. I'd be just as happy to come sit there and let you come teach her. I really would, but I know what I'm called to do. And, uh, um, maybe in my 30s. I had some of that on there. God forgive me, but, uh, it kind of vanished, you know, as the years go by. And now I just say, Lord, send them. I'm happy to see you do it. Well, so that is some level of spiritual maturity. So it is right to honor. Jesus taught that himself. He says, you know, he said, you know, if you don't receive the one who, who, whom God sent you, don't you really don't receive the father. So we always want to honor those to whom honors do. Paul taught that in Hebrews. You know, he was talking actually in a, you know, you could say about a pastoral situation.
Pastor Erik West: [00:26:58] Paul did he said, do not make the ones who's been instructed to teach you. Do not make it hard on their life, he says. For in heaven he says, in other words, heaven will deal with you if you make their job harder than it should be. Paul said. And let's read that in several translations. No no no no. Anyway, so. But all this was of God, not of man, he said, and all the brethren which are with me unto the church of Galatia. Grace. There it is again. Grace to you, and peace from God our father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. What's your verse? For who passed hence he gave himself for our sins. That he might deliver us from the present evil world. According to what? The will of God and our father. So what was the will of God? That you would be delivered from the president of the evil world? Uh, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now, Paul said, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel. Well, you know, I know most of you know, so Paul is preaching the true gospel, the gospel of God's grace, not of works, not of the not of the letter, not of the, you know, the not of the law, but of the spirit, because the law does what? Kills.
Pastor Erik West: [00:28:20] But, but but the spirit brings liberty and brings freedom. So people would receive and they would receive Jesus Christ, not according to their works, but according to his work. Then Paul would leave and go back, and he'd be gone for several weeks, a month or two, three months. And he would come back and he would find him with their knives, mutilating their flesh, you know, circumcising themselves once again trying to keep the law again. The Judaizers come right back and says, that's absolutely wrong. And Jewish people can't do that. And so everywhere they stepped, there was flesh all over, all around them, or they were cutting themself all the time and trying to keep the letter of the law. So Paul was saying, he says, he says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel. Look at verse seven, which which he said, there's not another gospel. You've been removed to another gospel, which is not another. But there's be some that trouble you, and it would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed. He said, sir, if you're hearing any other gospel than what I'm preaching to you, that word means doomed. Accursed. Actually, if you want to look up, it means banished to hell. So he said, if you're receiving anything that's not grace.
Pastor Erik West: [00:29:48] It's not the gospel. You've never heard the gospel? No. In the case. They didn't get that. Look at verse nine as we just said before. So I say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which is received, let him be accursed. He repeated himself. For? Do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men? For I have yet pleased men? I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify, brethren, the gospel which was preached of me is not after, for I received of it. For I received, I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it. But by revelation of Jesus Christ I must get to verse 15. But when it pleased God, and watch the mystery of his will. Who? Paul said, he separated me from my mother's womb. In called me by his grace. But you and I both know Paul wasn't on. Wasn't. He wasn't on track the whole time, was he? He was, what, 40? Paul. He was who he was. Saul. And was he preaching this gospel? No, no, no, he was a very educated man. One of the most educated man, probably the most educated, educated man here in the in the epistles. He had the he had the, the most intelligent, so to speak, scholars of of the time that he was taught the letter.
Pastor Erik West: [00:31:16] So the Bible says he was the Pharisee of all Pharisees. He was he had more intelligence than all the scribes, which means you have a zero IQ. I'm just saying he knew that he knew the law inside and out. Paul said he kept it. So you can see why he was so opposed to what he was hearing through Jesus Christ and what had happened through Jesus Christ. And he felt like it had to stop. And so he would do whatever he would do all the way to having you. You know, he had letters from that was given to him. He had the right to arrest you. He had many arrested. Saul did he had many imprisoned. Uh, he gave the order to have Stephen stoned Saul, which would later become the Apostle Paul gave the order to have stones. Stephen stoned. And then he held their coats and said, go. Then he's on the road to Damascus because he's got to arrest some more people in prison, some more people. And he had a visitor and his life changed. Boom. He saw Jesus in the light. And he said, what would you have me to do, Lord? He said, he said, who are you, Lord? Who are you, Lord? Now, he'd never met Jesus that we know of, you know, because he's never with the disciples. We don't know that he ever met Jesus. So he sees him in a vision, and he asks the question and then answers his own question.
Pastor Erik West: [00:32:53] Who are you, Lord? And Jesus said, Lord Jesus, why do you kick against me? You know, why do you kick against like the pricks? Why are you doing this? He says, because what you do to them. Watch here. I take it as you do it to me. Now we need to remember that. That what you say to them. Jesus takes it personal. A little side note when you when you speak about the love of God. Jesus said, it is. It is the will of the father, that if a man has wronged you, that you are to go to that person, not to the community, not to the gossip column. Yeah, man. Amen. The pastors get this all the time. All the time. I mean, I can't think of a time I didn't get it. Someone would call me from the community and say, you know, did you know your your members doing this and that? And they're here and they're there. And I said, no, I didn't know. Well, I just thought you ought to know. Then they'll call me a week later. Saw him again. Did they do anything in the church? I'm thinking yeah. They come. Yeah, but do they do anything in the church? And what do they teach or whatever? Or do whatever, you know, saying. Are they up front? Do anything, play instruments, whatever, because you know that that's wrong. And I said, would you like me to give you their number? Oh no, no, no, no, I didn't feel like I need to talk to him.
Pastor Erik West: [00:34:31] I said, you feel like you need to talk to me? Well, yeah. And then they would check on me periodically and know had I done anything, you know, had I tarred and feathered them yet? And I said, no, no, I'm just preaching the word. It's not my job to clean them. If they're off, they have to. I have to trust the same word that brought them in that even if they get off, the same word can bring them back. I said, have you ever read the story of the prodigal son? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I said, reread it again and don't call me back. The same word that saved them, even if they get off, will be the same word that will bring them back. I can't do that. I can't do that. And I won't do that. Well, you ought to get them out of the church, because, you know, that's 11in the church and it'll blow up. I said, well, if it becomes 11, I'll deal with it. Don't don't call me back. And they didn't. But you could just tell it didn't bother them. I mean, they would have felt better, you know, if if I just blasted them. Well, I could never remember what Jesus blasted me when he had reason to do it. Mm.
Pastor Erik West: [00:35:46] How about you? Jesus blasted you. So he said, when you see your brother sin, he says, we see your brother sin. He says, uh, cover it. Don't don't let it be heard. If it needs to be dealt with with you personally, you go to them. If they're if they refuse to change, take 1 or 2 with you as a witness, then Paul, only one time in this whole what we call New Testament in the Corinthians church said, you got a young man in your church who is sleeping with his mother in law. Get him out of the church and turn his flesh over to the over to the devil, because he won't repent, so that even when the affliction comes to him, at least his soul will be saved. And apparently the boy repented, but they weren't bringing him back in and Paul had to write a letter again. He said, stop it. He said he's repented. He said, if you don't bring it back, back in now and show him the love of God, he said, we'll lose him forever. Paul writing by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He says, so if one sin, he says, don't reveal it, cover it. I mean, would you want everyone to know everything about you? Everything? Yeah. I mean, like you say everything. Would you want everything to be told? Y'all look at me like. What do you mean? Like y'all mean everything. Everything that you thought this week.
Pastor Erik West: [00:37:15] Everything. Everything you're thinking right now. When I say about everything, everything I know, I don't, I know I don't. And so that's what the love of God does. It doesn't destroy. Tear down. It builds up. See, people will live. Your kids and people will live to the expectation that you put that you have of them when they know that you believe in them. And I'm going to tell you this. And I know you know it. But I always give mercy when you can give mercy. Because if you live long enough, you're going to need it yourself one day, and you're going to be glad that you gave others that same mercy. Amen. You know you didn't live there. Life doesn't mean it was right, but you didn't live there life. Maybe you didn't know. You know why it brought it to that situation. But all you have to do is go to the cross and ask yourself this question. When Jesus went to the cross, who did he go to the cross? For those who was guilty right now, who was guilty? Oh, everyone. So he took the shame, the pain, all of it for the guilty. He knew they were guilty. That's why I did it. So sinners love Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees hated him. Sanders would've done everything they could to keep him alive. I mean, he he didn't become them, but he you know, we see sometimes where the Pharisees says, you think he's the Messiah.
Pastor Erik West: [00:38:54] He's over here eating with sinners. But if he knew if he if he actually knew, you know, the the when Martha was washing, you know, his feet with her hair and expensive. In other words, like if he knew what man or woman she was and here she is, you know, with her tears, she's washing his feet and she's drying his feet with her hair. It's funny how she got the Bible by name and they didn't. She. It says that. It says that what she poured out was worth a year's worth of salary. Jesus answered the question. He said, if a man send a little bit was forgiven. He'll be. He'll be somewhat relieved and happy. But if he's been forgiven much, you'll be very happy. When you know that you you failed many times and the Lord won't bring it up. You think? You see, sometimes we think you brings it up. You think. You think he's bringing it up to you. Because you're feeling the condemnation and the guilt. It's never coming from him. You say? Yeah, but this is been repeated over and over and over again, and the goal is for that to stop. But the combination is never from him. He's not the Lord who condemns. He's not the Lord who condemns. He's the answer to the combination. He's in. He's in about five more pages right here. I'll be to it.
Pastor Erik West: [00:40:24] It's called the accuser of the brethren. The devil's called the accuser of the brethren. And we don't need any more of his disciples. So? So don't fill out any more applications. So don't fill out any applications. So I'll help you with that. He's the accuser of the brethren. Well, let's just go there real quickly. Our time's gone away. Y'all doing okay? Um. I have to do this part. I'll go. Go quickly. Isaiah 55. Scriptures you're familiar with. But but, uh, 6 to 11 he says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while near. Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways. Your ways, says the Lord. Now I'm not through reading, but first off, know this. The scripture I know you're familiar with. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. He's talking to lost people. He's not telling you that. Your ways are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. Don't ask to join the club no more. We're not taking applications. You can't think like I think. You can't tell the church until Christian believers that your ways are not my ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. And then tell them, let my mind be in you.
Pastor Erik West: [00:41:57] Right? I mean, Lord, you can't have it both ways. You can't tell me I'm a rapist, a moron. You can't tell me I'm ignorant, but also tell me I have the mind of Christ. So he's not even when you read this, go back. When you get home and read this in context. You see, there's no there's these are not his people. These are all lost people. So so it is true. There are ways and their thoughts are not the same. He says the heavens are higher than the earth. So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. Verse 11. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth, while each year he said, well, my word goes out of my mouth, my word does not return to me void, but my word accomplishes that which I sent it out to. In other words, when God speaks, he says, I'm not just talking when my word goes out. It does not return back to me. Void. Many. Uh. Other translation says it does not come back. He said it does not come back with unaccomplished results. Ever. But it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing until I send it.
Pastor Erik West: [00:43:17] Now I want to parallel what I just said with Galatians 329, then go right into Genesis chapter. I mean Galatians 329, and then Galatians four one through seven. Remember what we said in Isaiah 55? Now let's go to Galatians 329. Paul said, and if you belong to Christ and are in him who is Abraham's seed, then you are Abraham's offspring, and you are spiritual heirs according to the promise. And I'm gonna look quickly. So, uh, we're not the wicked in Isaiah 55. We're not the ones he says your ways. And my your thoughts are nothing like mine. And in Galatians you find out, he says, if you belong to Christ. And I think everyone here does. And then you're Abraham's seed. And and if you are, you are an heir according to the promise. Now, here's where we'll get to in this teaching of unsolved mysteries. It's time for heirs to become heirs. It's time to have the experience and not the sermon. It's time to spend. It's like when I walked in here, the end of the day and I saw these lights. I was standing in the foyer and I thought, oh my gosh. He says, you feel like you're in a hospital out there? I said, oh my gosh, I should have bought some more lights. He says. He said, well, let's see, $100 a piece plus labor, 25 more.
Pastor Erik West: [00:44:57] That's 2500, labor 3400. And he says, he said, well, you know, God said, let there be light. I said, he sure did. It was just that much difference. But not but just being in the same atmosphere all the time. You you didn't know it, you didn't see it. But when you had something to compare it to, I. So. So he was laughing at me. He was about he was doing sound booth, doing the switches, uh, you know, so we could turn them off and mail it where later, instead of running back and forth. And, uh, he was watching me look back and forth and he said, uh, kind of kind of contrast it. And I said, yeah, kind of contrast. He said, we can actually put one more row in here. He says, you can get rid of any more shadows. I said, no, I think we're all right. And, uh, but who knows, we might use another row. But, uh. But when you didn't see the contrast, you were just used to what it is. In the church has become used to sermons about who they are and what they have, and they still don't experience it. And then we go to our deathbed saying, we know. We know this. I'd rather be honest. About it and just say, Lord, you know it's not your fault. But my experience is not matching up with these books. So there's something wrong here.
Pastor Erik West: [00:46:21] It ain't there. So let's remove let's remove the limitations and the barriers in me of why? Because this is supposed to be happening in my life. Amen. I don't care what your age, you know. Whatever. Moses went up the hill unaided at 120 years old, and his natural eyes wasn't dim. I mean, they didn't even have Medicare for him at the time. I don't know, I don't know what he did. There wasn't no doc in the box. There wasn't nothing. And God says you're through that. Come up here and and it's time to die. He says, how did you die? He says, I'll show you. Come on up here. And he walked up the hill unaided. That's pretty good, isn't it? At 120. Have you have you saw any 120 year old people? No, I haven't saw anyone. 120. Have you seen one walk up a mountain? No. You remember what? You remember what, Joshua? You know, after 40 years of being stuck, you know, with the children of Israel waiting for that generation to die off. He said, I was 45 years ago. We started this thing, he says, and now we're going to go again. He says, he says, Lord, give me a mountain. He says, I'm just as strong today, 85 as I was when we started this campaign 45 years ago. You heard anyone say 85. So give me a mountain. No, I said, give me a wheelchair. No. Like Brother Copan.
Pastor Erik West: [00:47:49] You know whether he does or not. I like the idea. I like the I like the idea. I mean, he says the Lord let him do this. I don't know, maybe he did, and he believes he did. I'm I'm fine with it myself, personally, none of my business. But you know, do you know what you'd have to do in your mind if your brother Copeland, to think, what's it going to be like to live to 120? Can you can you think of all the ministers who lived and died before you, that no one ever come close to doing that? And how you have to even change your thinking to think, I may feel this today. How could I go 40 more years with this? I mean, I can't imagine what this looked like. 2020 more minutes. I must have 20 more years. So you'd have to change your entire thinking, right? I mean, if you're going to live to be 120, do you realize how many funerals you're going to go to? And it could even be children, right? So I'm just saying your natural way of thinking. You'd have to get rid of that. Was there anything wrong with that? And I know someone says, well, now the Bible says over in Psalms, you know, that man's life would be, you know, three score and you know, but by reason of strength, in other words, 70 to 80 years. Well, if you just read the footnotes of that 78 years, it says this is Israel's penalty for sin, that God reduced their age to 70 or 80.
Pastor Erik West: [00:49:15] And we made it our goal. So when we got that in our thinking, that man lived to 70 or 80. Our body adjusted to what we just accepted. What was the span of a man and woman's life? So you could see things closing in and in your mind, and your body began to respond to all that, and it corresponds with your thought process. But if the Lord sent you an email today or a text, however you get your your information, it says no, I want you to be here to your 120 years old. And you're, you know, I'm 62. I know I don't look 40, but I mean, thank God for that, huh? No amens at all. Praise the Lord. Just like. Anyway, so at two three. Now I'm just saying. Then can you see how you're thinking? Would have to just you like. Well how how how could I live financially for for that for that long? All these things will begin to change. So your body only does what it it thinks it's supposed to do based on the information that you fed it for a lifetime. And you can be an heir, but it doesn't mean that you're the heir apparent. Yet. You. It's in your lineage. Maybe it's. Maybe it's in the will. But you. But you didn't get that until someone passed. But the one who gave your inheritance passed. Died.
Pastor Erik West: [00:50:51] But to make sure the will was enforced, he came back again. He's the only one who ever did that. Can you imagine? The one who gave you an inheritance came back to see how it was going. This is. What do you do? What do you. What do you think you're doing? I mean, I don't know, maybe they would fix nothing. I bet some of them would fix some stuff. They would fix some stuff. Well, so we have things in our past that that limit us. We have natural situations. We have people in ministry. We have people who minister with a gift and they have a glorious gift. And people have they have influenced the people they speak to and people who listen to them, but they have unsolved issues in their life because maybe the way that they grew up, maybe how their parents, how they were parented, that they have insecurities in them. I don't care how many thousands of people in the room. I mean, I would.
Pastor Erik West: [00:51:53] Dare not use anyone's name, but just people that I know, some of some personally, personally, who has some fairly large ministries and I've seen many insecurities in their own life. It probably stemmed from their childhood. And what they didn't receive. What they weren't given. Well, they can talk about that song. Uh, he preached much about it, but there was times he talked about it. I mean, his father left them when he was five. Never came back. During during the depression with three kids in his condition. You know, he's he's got three major diseases. And he left all three of them, abandoned him. And and his mother had a nervous breakdown and his mother had to move in. They had to move the family in back with the parents and move him in. You know, they had to come pick him up because he was already paralyzed and dad was nowhere to be found. Never came back. So how could a prophet of God, who God used to help change a whole world? What did he have to deal with in his own life? Being abandoned as a child. That wasn't on his face series, but there were some people he talked to about it. You know when you don't ever hear the words I love you as a child and you say, well, I know the dude because obviously I guess they do, but you never hear it. You may not think that never affects the child, but it does.
Pastor Erik West: [00:53:37] It does. So you could have a great gift to minister or teach, but have insecurities. In other words, you can't tap into your your resources that's been given to you. Because whether we realize that we are the ones who has them on hold. Because we never things never come. Rise above the level of where we are on the inside. If you're going to pour concrete within a, you know, in other words, you frame where you want the concrete to go, whether it's a two by four, a two by six, whether it's 50 foot long or 30 foot long, and they fill up that space, they generally just don't keep on pouring concrete and spill over the edges and goes down the side of the hill. They bring it to what you have. So so how you have framed your thinking and your world is what has been poured into it. And you don't rise above the level of your thoughts and your self-image as a man thinketh. That's what he is. Plus 25%. Now, that's not a scripture. As a man thinketh, what so is he. So how do you think? If you don't know what I've been through. But that's not what the scripture said. So it's what you've been through. Been through what I've been through or going through presently, which is what is defining your life. How you respond to what's going on in your on in your life is how you're going to respond from here forward.
Pastor Erik West: [00:55:07] Paul would say it this way. Hebrews chapter 11 God framed the world with his words, which tells you you are framing your world with your own words. But your words aren't just words, because if it's just words that won't do it, but they have to be words believed by the heart first. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Salvation is made unto God. Amen. So it's not just words spoken, it's words believed. The church wants to change people, but they want to do it through religion. God doesn't work through religion. He actually hates it. Now there is a pure religion James talks about. But onto my religious practices. Looking at religious. Amen, brother. Amen. Well, if that's what it is. Okay. But but religion works outwardly. Christ works inwardly. Religion says pray more, witness more, give more. Do this more, and then you'll be more like God. Then God will come to you. And help you when you, you know. In other words, pick your game up and then you'll get God. God will be attracted to you. And God comes to you at your worst point. When you're utterly nothing. He didn't die for good people. He didn't die for good people. The scripture, and I would use it too, if I was the evangelist. I mean, it's not wrong. It's just. But it's not what it's talking about. It says, well, Jesus came to seek that which was seek and save that which was lost.
Pastor Erik West: [00:56:47] And we're thinking, well, he's, he's he's trying to find people who's lost. So they'd be saved. Well, who was lost when he came? Well everybody was I mean, he didn't have I mean, if they were walking around, they were lost. It includes mama, right? What was lost? It was lost back here in the garden. What did. What did man lose back there? Dominion. Mhm. He came to restore that. Yes. Everybody was lost. So what was lost in the garden. He came to restore that. Yes. That's what he came to restore. Yeah. Amen. Come on. So when we're not restored inwardly. How do you think externally your life's going to be that going to be grander when inwardly? See, God is an inside job. Greater is he that's in me, that he that's outwardly on the outside. Amen. Amen. Have you all got three minutes? Yo! It's not even 12. Praise the Lord. Uh, our shift's over at 12, so I gotta. Let me go past Galatians and give you what I wrote down this morning at home. This is what I heard. The devil keeps a record of your past. But those records are powerless without your agreement. The Bible says he's the accuser of the brethren. But Jesus is your defender. We make agreement with the accuser whenever we look at our past apart from the blood.
Pastor Erik West: [00:58:18] When we agree with the devil, we empower him. When Satan is empowered, he's always devours. But agreeing with God empowers us. It frees us from the power of a lie, and his grace enables us to live according to his will. The atoning blood of Jesus did not just cover my sin. The blood of Jesus removed them. The book of Hebrews makes a clear distinction of the New Covenant being far superior to the Old Covenant sacrifices for man's continual sins. Jesus, the only man was the was the only man without sin, guilt, commendation he offered himself. He was the high priest of the Old Covenant. First he had, you know, the the, the the covenant. You know, in Hebrews it talks about he contrasts the, the priest of the old covenant to Jesus, being the priest of the New covenant and the old Covenant. The priest had to make sacrifice for his own sins first. Jesus did not have any sins to make sacrifices before he went to the cross. That's the type in the shadow of what was to come. So Hebrews gives you that contrast. So when Jesus offered himself, he offered himself as our sin, not for your sins. I know you heard me say that, but there was a time that I didn't even see it that way years ago. But that is that that made it sound like, you know, it's just semantics words, but it's not. Listen, when Jesus offered himself, he did not offer himself.
Pastor Erik West: [00:59:48] Uh, for your sins. He he offered himself as your sin. Amen. Not for your sins. As your sin. He shed blood, did not cover your sins. We use the word atonement. Sometimes we like want a better word, but really atonement is really old covenant because atone means cover. And that would have been true under the Old covenant when the priest yearly made a sacrifice and he covered your sins for a year. If I told you now that today is what marks the what 17th? And I say now your sins are covered till next March 17th, then we're going to have to get you up. And we're going to take the carpet out here, and we're going to put some drains in the floor, because we're going to be cutting some lamb's throats and all that. And, and, uh, how me glad you're born on this side of the cross. Amen. Yes. Me, too. I really wouldn't want to be called as a priest. Like like like God have knives and blood and guts and. Oh, gosh, go through all that. And, man, what a gory job. Then go home and try to have some peace to sleep and have to hear everyone saying, how would you like to be the priest and hear someone sins all day long? People do it every day. Give me 15 push ups for four Hail Marys. And Pastor Buddy said, well, you say man.
Pastor Erik West: [01:01:11] He says, Hail Mary, full of grace, give me a Cadillac. I don't know where you got that from. He always added that Cadillac. Hail Mary, full of grace. Give me a Cadillac. His sacrifice. By his sacrifice, our sins were taken away, not covered. Here's the scripture for one of them. Hebrews 926. But now, once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. I looked at the words put away. In the Greek language. It means this put away is actually one word in the Greek. It means this to to disannul, to do away with, to completely destroy. His sacrifice completely dis annulled, done away with and completely destroyed sin forever in your life. He did not come to cover your sins. He came to take sins away. Hebrews 1011 through 14 said, Every Old Testament priest stands daily ministering, offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for all time, for all people, sat down at the right hand of God by one offering he has perfected for all times those who are sanctified by one sacrifice he has forever perfected. I'm reading the Bible if it's okay. He has perfected for all times those who are sanctified. So it's actually great news to know that your sins are not under the blood of Christ. They're removed.
Pastor Erik West: [01:02:53] There's nothing if you look under the blood. They're not there. They're removed. Yeah. People say, you know, get it on the blood. Uh, you know, I'm not trying to. But if you look down the blood, they're not there. They're removed. I mean, we could sweep the dirt under the rug. We pick up the rug. There's the what? There's the dirt. But Jesus didn't have a rug. He swept your sins under. If they picked the rug, you say, oh, you actually cleaned the place? Yeah. He cleaned. He cleaned it out completely. So never agree with the cures of the brethren. When you walk in the light as he's in the light, you step into the power of truth. Remember, Jesus did not die for us, but he died as us. We are not changed. We are not changed and transformed from our old nature to our new nature because we believe, try and be a better life, trying in your mighty and ability to be holy. But we don't change from bad to good. We don't change from unrighteous to righteous. Then God comes to help us overcome. Now what we change is our heart. What you believe in your heart inwardly will be what will change your life externally. We showcase and display outwardly what we internalize. Emily, in your hearts. I had to write this fast this morning, but the Lord talks fast sometimes. If you're struggling with and trying to gain God's love and acceptance through acts of obedience produced by the flesh, you are doomed to failure.
Pastor Erik West: [01:04:10] You have fallen from grace. If you're trying to do it in your ability. You have fallen from grace. Years ago, if you'd asked me what that means, I thought, well, I guess you can't say anymore. Falling from grace has nothing to do with that. You went back to your mind instead of his. Everything by him is by grace. And when you try to fix it yourself and do it yourself, he says, now you have fallen from grace. You put yourself right back under the law, and now you're doomed to fail. Could I read you just a few scriptures now? Now, this is scriptures. I didn't make them up. Galatians 216. No, knowing that Paul said, know that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Hmm. Well, how is he justified, Paul? By a faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by works of the law. Shall no flesh be justified. Mm. Paul said, if it's by your works, know this, that no man shall ever be justified by anything he does. Now there is a good work. There's the works of righteousness, but it's not works unto salvation because of salvation, because of who you are. Galatians 311 I'm driving this nail down a little bit deeper because I don't have one in powerguns like Scott has.
Pastor Erik West: [01:05:28] You know, I'm still like hitting it like every fifth time, you know, you're like, oh, God. Uh, so but I'm put this nail down a little bit more. Uh, Galatians 311 but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident the just shall live by faith. But faith in what? Faith in who? Jesus. So how do we live by faith in Jesus? Are we? Because you're an heir. We skipped over Galatians four, but I'll get it next week. And he's just making a contrast. He's just saying, for example, example. Like if you got servants in the house, you got employees, and then you got a son, he's seven years old. I mean, are you going to give him a 36 shot gun at that time? Nathan, are you fixing to get your son a shotgun? No, just a bottle right now, you know? Right. Just so. So he's not going to do that, but he's saying. But he's. But he's an heir of everything. But. But because he's not mature enough to handle that, he looks like he he's on the even plane with the employees or the servants. He said, but until he grows up. He finds out he's not the employee. He finds out he's the son of the man who owns who owns all of it. He said, you mean that I own this place? He said.
Pastor Erik West: [01:06:41] Uh huh. Well, I don't know. I can't play with you no more. That's probably not a good way to say it, but I'm just saying he finds out now who he is. He said, I'm not a servant. I'm a son. And until we fix that inwardly, externally, it'll all stay the same. Even though it's not true on the inside. It's not true on the inside. It is not true. Your body is doing whatever. It's not true. Your mind is doing what is not true. It's a lie from the pit of hell. Amen. Amen. We're praying back there this morning, and I said I can't because maybe it'll come out here. I mean, I've never had. The Lord told me this before. I mean, I mean, it's not like it's, but it's but it's in the moment where he's praying. He said, did you did you ever hear my word back before service? Praying. He said, did you read my scripture that I'll come close? I'll come as fast as the twinkling of an eye. And I said, yes, sir. I mean, while we're praying, he said, that's how quickly I can change any situation in your life. And a twinkle of an eye, he said, but do you believe that? Hallelujah! Whether it's your home life, your relationships, your finances, your your body in the twinkling of an eye like it was there and it's gone and you're looking for it everywhere.
Pastor Erik West: [01:08:02] It's just gone. Amen. I mean, why would I come up with that? We're praying, you know, over here. And the Lord's talking to different people, saying different things in the twinkling of an eye. Well, father, I just thank you that you helped me wear this thing off. Well, now, that's not a scripture, but we wear it off. Sometimes we say, oh, the Lord, heal us. Actually, you just wore the cold off that. And, you know, 10,000 Tylenol and ibuprofen and NyQuil, you know. Page some people use that can't afford, you know, alcohol. They drink NyQuil. It's got it's got the same stuff in it. It's like, oh, it helps me sleep good. Yeah. Usually does when you drink a fifth or whatever. You slept it off. You wore it off by a stripes. You were healed. But what if we emptied our medicine cabinet? Oh, don't don't preach on that now. Oh, yeah? Why not? Lord, do y'all want us to use common sense? Where's that scripture at? I need to, we got to define common. What's common? Common could be the flesh. Right. And no flesh is justified. Well, there's levels to this, right? I mean, you don't, you know, you got a kid. You're going to teach him to swim. You know, you don't always just throw them at the deep end. You know, it's like your kid, you know, his first meal won't be a steak. Well, you're going to have a son.
Pastor Erik West: [01:09:28] You're going to have a Delmonico. I mean, it's going to be a three inch steak. No, we're going to go to a Gerber jar. Right. We're going to put some veggies in there with them. Something sweet in there. You don't you know, you don't take an infant. You know so well you can go ahead and give them cereal. No no no no. We're going to do we're going to do steak. We're going to do a T-Bone tonight. That's just that's just dumb. Well, that's what Galatians says. He says, you know, you came into this thing as a child, but you just need to know this. Even though you're a child, you own everything. You are the heir apparent to you. A joint heir with Jesus, even though you were a child. But this is the truth. This is what you have access to. This is legally. Legally by my blood. Yours. Whatever you bind will be bound. If you speak it and say loose. It has to be loose in heaven. We'll back you up because I did it. My blood for you. You are in charge of this thing. Amen. Amen. But then you ask your mind and your body. No, we don't want we. We want a break. We want Jesus. Come today. And the Lord is trying to go. I got something for you to do **imitating a baby with thumb in mouth refusing to remove it** Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. I could preach that but I thought the illustration would you know save some time. **imitating a baby* My daiper full.
Pastor Erik West: [01:11:03] I only got just a little bit. Religion works on the outside while through a person's will can bring them. Religion works on the outside and through a person's will. It can bring a measure of conformity or or behavior modification, but it's powerless to bring transformation. Philippians two five say, let this mind be in you. That's the mind of Christ. And that only is true repentance. The mind of Christ is only true repentance. You agree with Dennis the I mean, you have a the mind of Christ. What does what does repentance mean to change? Right. Change the way that you think. The mind of Christ is the only way that you can have true repentance. Changing our minds at the heart level. Renewing your mind is to think as he is. I wrote this down and I'm about to read you. And I thought, well, I mean, is that scriptural? My gosh, don't even try to think as he thinks. That's what he told me. I'm like, I don't want to write that down. I mean, I didn't even know what was coming next. I was like, don't even try to think as you think. So, like, uh, that's heresy. He said, he says, think as he is. Because as he is, so are you in this world. See, that's not. That's the higher level. I'm not, not I'm not. I'm going to try to think as he is. No, no, no, you are that. You are the sun. You are one with. You're in union with him. He that joined Lord is one spirit you're trying to be like when you already are like.
Pastor Erik West: [01:12:44] This is the same thing I stumbled just a little bit with. Here is why they stumbled in the garden. And if you eat this, you'll be like that. Oh, we got them jumpers out and you just took off, right? The life that you are to live is not a changed life, but an exchange life. You die in him. When you lay your life down and you never pick your life up again. That never gets. No one ever wants to buy the series on that one. But in Christ, in him there's no you. You don't get offended and live in bitterness and anger and envy because there's no you anymore. It's only him. If it's him, then how do you get offended? I ain't talking no more. I'm offended. Okay. Who's you? Well, you mean well. You mean you can't forgive them? Well, they. But. Yeah, but you said you couldn't forgive them. Who's you? Is that you, the new Christian Christ, or. That's the that old thing you used to hang around here all the time. Amen. Well, now you're making it hard. No, I'm making it easy. Ah, my job is just to help keep you dead. Starts right away. Bam! That's all I got in the first time, George. Bam! Sometimes I shoot them down like, what's his name? David. Dickson. Mississippi, doctor. He said doctor. Dead. Right. Terror. Right. Terror. Bam! There's no you anymore. Read this. Two scriptures and we'll be through. Galatians 220.
Pastor Erik West: [01:14:26] This is the passion translation, verse 20. My old identity has been co crucified with Christ. No longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine. For the Anointed One lives his life through me. We live in union as one. Y'all hear me? My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God, who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine. Amen. So that's why I don't view God's grace as something peripheral for keeping the law could release God's righteousness to us. Then Christ died for nothing. If it was just you, you know, getting your act together, then why did he come? Mm. Last passage first John 416 1718. Passion. Translation. Verse 16. Be part. Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. Verse 17 by living in God. Parentheses. Footnotes. In the passion says, those who are living in God are by the relationship with God. Love has been brought to its full expression in us. Our love has reached its goal, its destiny within us, so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment. There are make parentheses can be translated. We will have open faces. Oh, this is so good. We will have open faces on the day of judgment. For the true believer filled with God's love. The day of judgment is not to be feared, but look forward to for perfect love. Will have made us completely like Christ. Love provides us with no reason to fear punishment from God of the future.
Pastor Erik West: [01:16:22] Because you're already been judged. You're not going to heaven to be judged. There will be a judgment and there'll be the second death. The second death is those who has already died will be raised from the grave. The second death of those who's already in hell, who hasn't even been judged yet. But we'll be judged. You go through no judgment. You accepted Jesus and you are forever forgiven in him. So you have no fear of punishment ahead of you. That is the gospel of grace. That is the true gospel. If anyone preaches any message other to you that let them be accursed, Paul said, I'm not. That's kind of hard for me to say that, but I'm just. That's what the Bible says. But watch it, because all that Jesus is now, all that Jesus is now, so are you. I didn't finish the message. I didn't finish the sentence. Because all that Jesus is now. Now. So are you. But in this world, what is Jesus now? He was doing pretty good here, right? So? So what is he now? He says, so are you now in this world? Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. It is, isn't it? But love's perfection drives the fear of punishment far from your hearts. Whoever walks around afraid of punishment has not reached full maturity anyway. Of God's love. God give you a spirit of what? Fear, power and love and sound mind. So live in his love.
Pastor Erik West: [01:18:07] Live in his grace. Live in his mercy. Live in his compassion. You said, but I failed many times. Well, that's why Peter asked him. He says, I bet you I bet you'd forgive God. Knowing you, Jesus, you'd probably forgive him seven times one day. So yeah, but 70 times seven. Can you imagine someone doing the same thing to you 490 times in one day? Robert Scales. You know, he still preaches on the low God all the time. He kiddingly said, you know, he said, I hadn't quite reached that place. I said, you haven't. He said, no, 409 times. Same thing, same person, same day. I said, no. He said about 485. I'd probably have to check out and get me a hotel, get away from him, get some rest and get up in the day and then do it again. He said, I ain't got 490. I said 490 times. Same person. Same thing every day. Wow. If someone cursed you out 490 times in one day, and then you said, father, don't you know they're putting the spear in Jesus, the crown of thorns? And when his last words he said, he said, Lord, don't, don't, don't lay that to their charge. For they know not what they're doing. If someone put a spear in my side. I'd like to think I could say what he said. I mean, after I got over the. Ouch. Bam! Dr.. No. So we. But but we even made what, like him as he is in heaven. So are you now on the earth?
Speaker4: [01:19:35] Yes.
Pastor Erik West: [01:19:37] What does that mean? That the name of Jesus every knee shall. What? Where? In heaven? In the earth and beneath the earth. When does that start? Now. Now. Beneath the earth. Is is in the second death. When they're raised from the. When they're raised from hell, they're brought back, uh, those who reject him during the millennium, even though they can see him, hear him preach. We say this is I mean, I mean, you're going to tell them, uh, I believe in this book and the one who lives in me, but that's him. And. But someone's going to say no, I don't want nothing to do with him. It's like, then we're going to slap him around a little bit. Pap pap pap pap pap. But but there's still some rejection. So all those are brought back from the grave. And then that is the second death. And the Scripture says at that point, before they are doomed for eternity for hell, their knee will go to the ground, including Satan's Satan. And the day will come. We'll all see where his knee will bow and say, Jesus, you are. You are King, you are Lord, you are the Messiah. And then he says, you're right and he'll banish him to hell forever. So every knee shall bow in heaven and in the earth and beneath the earth. So what do you have right now to rule with his name and his authority on the earth? So as he is now far above all principality and power and might and dominion, so are you in this earth with his name and with his authority.
Pastor Erik West: [01:21:07] You are the. You are the manifested sons of the living God. Today. As long as you have a body, you have this right, this power and this responsibility to act in his stead. That's why you are his representative. That's why you just can't say things that's not scriptural or out of your feelings, because you don't want you say things like that. You don't represent him. You can only say and represent the one who said what he said. And when you say what he said, you are now representing him. When you color outside of the lines and you get into your flesh and your feelings and the cardinality of your five senses, you are no longer representing him. Would you say that you just ain't going to work. You're not his. You're not his spokesman. Would you say I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me? And your body says you didn't ask us about that before you said it. He's like, did you look at the chat book, fool? Well, my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches, not yours. Right. See, it's. I'm not saying it's real easy to live. It could be. It can be hard a couple of days every now and then, right? Right. I mean, every now and then, you know, if you're 12 years old, you know what I'm talking about. But I'm talking about just keep on moving on up to the mansion in the sky. When you go through an elevator, you know, you got to. Yeah. It's like construction. When I worked for, uh, this is my closing argument.
Pastor Erik West: [01:22:42] Uh, when I worked, I mean, I just as a carpenter's helper and just a laborer. When I got out of high school for Daniels construction, I remember some of these high rises. And when you get those guys out there walking across steel and concrete, and when you see all the concrete and the rebar and all that that puts into it, and you know, you know, most people, they just walk in the afternoon and they say, well, that's a nice office and they hang the furniture. You ought to see when all this stuff's gone and what it took, you know, level by level, by level, by level, by level. And you up here on the 12th floor, and when you on the 12th floor, you better be thankful for the man who knew what he was doing before you saw the first floor. So to get us where we are far above all principality and power and might and dominion, Jesus had to go to hell. Literally. You think you've been through hell. Sometimes he went to hell. You ain't been to hell. You ain't suffered what Paul suffered for this gospel. Have you been snake bit Shiprock beat with rods, stoned to death, put in prison? No. Paul went through hell and he gladly suffered it because he said, I do this. He says, not only do I rejoice in the inheritance, he said, but I also learned how to rejoice in the sufferings, as you know, because we're representing him. Amen. Because you can't compare what you're going through to where you're headed. Amen.
Pastor Erik West: [01:24:04] Amen, Amen. That's why Miss Tatlock, she says, she says, now, don't don't pray for me. I said I said she was pointing up like this. She couldn't speak real well. About a week and a half ago, she was just like she says. I said, you headed there? Um, three and I said three. She says, well, it wasn't three. It was about a week after that. She she didn't. She wouldn't ask him for the week. And then she just smiled. I said, so I can't pray for you. She says. Just. She says just one of them goes out. She says, send me out in style, in other words. So that's how she went. And when you think about that, you know what? What a what a testimony. To someone who lived by faith for her for 85 years and fought the fight. Fought the fight. And sometimes the fight was difficult and hard. But, you know, for the last several months, either she called me or I called her every week or every two weeks because I knew she needed to. She needed that. And sometimes she called me and she said, she just she says, now, pastor, she says, I just wanted to hear your voice.
Pastor Erik West: [01:25:16] I says, yeah, I get that all the time. She said, no, you don't. You know, she was I mean, you'd have to wonder what she's like, and she'd tell you. And she said, just, just tell me something that's true. Just. Just preach to me something that's true. I said, I can do that, and I go about five. She says, no, no, you always preach longer than 5 or 10 minutes. She says, she said, don't short change me. She said, I said, you got time. She says, yeah. And so we just preached that and she, she said, Amen. Glory to God. She said, I'm going to beat the devil's brains out the rest of the day. And I said, yes you are, yes you are. Amen. Amen, amen, Amen. And then the last thing she said, she says, please tell all the people in my church I love them. And I'll see you over there. Glory to God! What a testimony! What a testimony! I love you, but I'll see you over there. Amen.
Pastor Erik West: [01:26:12] Isn't that awesome? Well. God's good.
Write a comment