God is with Us, Part 3, Sub Part 1

Faith Life Church (Praise and Worship Team sing You Are Good) ♪ I will praise You oh Lord with all of my heart ♪ ♪ For you are good ♪ ♪ I will praise You oh Lord with all of my heart ♪ ♪ For you are good ♪ ♪ I sing praises to Your name ♪ ♪ For You are good ♪ ♪ I will praise You oh Lord with all of my heart ♪ ♪ For you are good ♪ ♪ I will praise You oh Lord with all of my heart ♪ ♪ For you are good ♪ ♪ I sing praises to Your name ♪ ♪ For You are good ♪♪ Deuteronomy 30:11. The Lord says here, "The command that I am giving you today is not too difficult or beyond your reach. It is not up in the sky. You do not have to ask, 'Who will go up and bring it down for us, so that we can hear it and obey it?' Nor is it on the other side of the ocean. You do not have to ask, 'Who will go across the ocean and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and obey it?' No, it is here with you. You know it and can quote it, so now obey it." It's here. You know it. You can quote it. So what? Do it. Obey it. It's not just knowing something that makes a difference in your life; it's only what you do. Keep going. Verse fifteen. He said, "Today I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death." Keep reading for a few verses here. Everybody say, "If." Congregation: If. "If you obey the commands of the Lord your God, which I give you today, if you love Him, obey Him, and keep all His laws, then you will prosper and become a nation of many people. The Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are about to occupy. But if you disobey," now this language you will see over and over again, Old Testament, Law, prophets, New Testament, epistles, you'll see this idea over and over again, if you do this, this is going to happen. If you don't and you do something else, then something else is going to happen. Everybody say, "If." Congregation: If. But if you disobey, "And refuse to listen, and are led away to worship other gods," what's going to happen? "You will be destroyed - I warn you here and now. You will not live long in that land across the Jordan that you are about to occupy. I am now giving you the choice," who has the choice? Is it God's choice? No. It's man's choice. I'm now giving you the choice, "Between life and death, between God's blessing and God's curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make." He said I'm saying this and I'm calling heaven and Earth to recognize and know that the choice is yours. I gave you the choice. And if in time to come you don't like what you got, you can't blame Me. I gave you the choice. Everybody in heaven heard it, everybody on the Earth heard it. In time to come if somebody's complaining, "Why did this happen to me? Why didn't that happen to me?" You can fuss all you want but at the end of life He'll look around and everybody will say, "He gave you the choice." And in light of that, why are so many millions of Christians trying to say it's God's choice? "It's up to God. All up to Him." "I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make." And then it even tells you which one to pick. "Choose life." Not death. People say, "I didn't choose this." Yeah, more than you know. Because if they say, "I didn't choose this life being cut short and this curse and all this." Did you choose not to obey Him? Because if you did, you chose death. If you want life, you have to choose to obey. You have to choose to do it His way. He said, "The choice is yours." Now we got into this a few weeks ago and I want to go further into it. There are beliefs that are held as sacred among millions in the church world. And there are preachers, and churchgoers that are adamant about things like, "God is sovereign." And most folks don't even know what they mean when they say that. What does that mean? "God is in control." Really? Of what? "Everything." Really? You? God is incomplete control of you? Let's just start with yesterday. Are we going to say that everywhere you went, everything you did, everything you said, everything you ate, everything you bought, was the predetermined, perfect will of God, all day and all night? Because God is in control. I've had people get upset with me about talking about some of these things. I had a guy come down after the service one time - he had fire in his eyes. He said, "I want you to know God is sovereign. And if He wants you to do something, then by God, you're going to do it." He was almost cussing. That could tell you something about where this is coming from. "You're going to do it. If God wants you to do it, you're going to do it, little man." Brother Hagin said - Kenneth Hagin, my father in the faith said years ago, he was preaching along some of these lines and a guy just jumped up in the crowd. And he said, "I don't believe it. God is almighty. God is sovereign. And if He wants you to do something, then you're going to do it." And without even thinking - he didn't even know the man, it just came out of his mouth and he said, "Why doesn't He make you pay your tithes then?" He said the guy was standing up and just ducked down behind the seat. See, he wanted to get mouthy, and God just told off on him in front of people. He said he sat down and put a hand on his mouth and said, "Where did that come from?" No, God is not making you do what He wants you to do. If He was going to make anybody do anything, He would make people get saved. Wouldn't He? He would make them get born again because that's eternity. Right? And if He's not going to make a person gets saved, certainly He's not going to make people do this lesser stuff. The truth is He gave us a choice. Did He or not? You could believe it or not. You could obey Him or not. And so what we have in our life is this way or this way depending on the choice we make. The truth is there are all kinds of things happening in this world that don't please God, that are not His will, that are not His plan, and people are going through all kinds of terrible stuff because of their, and their parents, and their parents before them, choices. Oh, but friend, there are some people that have come out of some terrible stuff, whose life is totally better than the people that they've known or been around, and getting better all the time. Because they have chosen to believe Him and chosen to go His way, and obey Him. Can you say Amen? Look with me at two openings. Revelation, they'll put up on the screen. Why don't you go to Ephesians two and we'll just put Revelation on the screen. Put Revelation 3:20 on the screen, and you be turning to Ephesians two, please. The Master said this in Revelation 3:20, "Behold," I'm sovereign. And I go where I want, when I want, no matter what you say. No. Behold what? "I stand at the door," and do what? "And knock: if," this is big. People say, "God is in control." If is God is completely in control of everybody and everything, there can be no if. Come on, meditate on it, think about it. If God is really controlling everybody and everything, there is no if. There can be no if. But He says , "If any man hear my voice," that's not just notice it, but acknowledge it, and do what? And do what? "Open the door," what's going to happen? "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." You have to go back to if. What if you won't open the door? If He doesn't come in, then He's not in the room with you. Your room is without Him because He is without what you're doing and where you are. In order for Him to be within, you have to ask Him in. You have to open the door. And He said if you'll do that, I'll be in. I'll be involved. I'll be with you in it. What if you don't? In Ephesians two, notice this. Ephesians 2:12, well back up to verse 11. He said, "Remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; you are at that time you were," what? You were, "Without Christ..." You'll notice the New Testament, I can think of four instances in the New Testament where people that are without is mentioned. You were without Christ, "Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and," what? "Without God in the world..." Everybody say: "Without God (Congregation repeats) in the world." And also what? Hopeless. Without hope. Everybody say: "Without God (Congregation repeats) is without hope." This word "without God", the two words without God, represent one word in the Greek. The word "atheos." Which is where we get our word "atheist" from. Is there such a thing as an atheist? Yeah. But it's not how some think. What is an atheist? Well, some atheists, self- prescribed, would tell you and would assume that they are of superior intelligence to folks like you and me. Simpletons, like us, who need the crutch of religion. We're just some way or another not bright enough to see all the inconsistencies in this old, patched together literary work. Why pick this religion instead of the other plethora of religions available to believe? And so they are above it and they have pulled themselves away from our company, and they're out of the muck of this thing called religion. It's not true. The truth is all they've done is make them self without God. That's what the word means; "without God." Now what if you are without God and without hope? Then is everything that's happening in your life the plan of God? The will of God? No, actually God is not in your life. You are without God. Are y'all with me friends? This is a different mentality than many have. Go with me if you would to the Book of Matthew. There are some things here that can answer a lot of questions for us. Some of this you may have to chew on a bit. How many understand if it's meat in the word, you couldn't just swallow it; you'd choke. You have to chew on it. Right? So some of these things you need to chew on. Don't just take my word for it now, search this Book. And if you think you believe something different, don't just say, "I believe differently." Where is it in the Book? Discipline yourself. Make yourself find the verses. And if you can't find them, that should tell you something. That should be a wake-up call for you. You're going to Matthew, the twenty second chapter. And let me remind you of what we studied last time along this line. Well, we'll read this verse and then I'll say it like that. Matthew 22:14. It says what? "For many are called, but," what? "Few are chosen." You see this more than one time in the New Testament. Many are called, but few are chosen. Now some folks would read that in hear that and think, "It's still up to God whoever He chooses or not. It's His choice." But back up and read the previous verses and see how Jesus got to this statement. Verse one, "Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they," what? They what? They, "Would not come." Think about the King of kings ask you to come to something He's doing and you say, "No." The Head of the Church calls your name, invites you, and you say, "Hmm, no, I'm not coming." Verse four he said, "He sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden," he gives them another opportunity; they ignored and blew off the first invitation. He said tell them, behold means look, "I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready," come on, come on. Verse five. And they what? Oh friend, this is serious. The Lord said, "Those that honor Me, I will honor. Those that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." In the word of God to despise something could be as simple as ignoring it. If the Lord says something, it's not to be ignored, right? If He calls you to do something, it's not something to see if you can squeeze into your schedule, it's time to push the schedule off the desk. Right? Why? Because He called. You drop everything. You change your plans. If Jesus is your Lord, that's how you operate. There's a lot of folks Jesus is their Savior, but He's not their Lord. They won't be inconvenienced to serve Him. "They made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully," and they killed them. Now see, the Lord is telling you something that portrays what has happened from the beginning up until now. "The king...was wroth..." Let's just stop right here. We see in other places where the Lord was wroth, angry with His people. If they're doing what was predetermined for them to do, how could He be justified in being angry with them when they couldn't do anything else because it was God's plan for them to do it? "He was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy." I invited them, but they weren't worthy. "Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, bid to the marriage." I want you to get the picture here now. Who is getting invited now? Somebody else. We're going to have a wedding. We're going to have a feast. The Lord is going to have His party. And it's going to be good, and it's going to be full of guests, and it's going to be awesome. The question is, are you going to be there? Am I going to be there? Bid them come in. Verse ten, "So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found," these were people that had not been previously invited. But some new openings have just occurred. There were some free places at the table. Why? Because people were too busy. They were called, but because they wouldn't respond, they weren't the chosen. See, all this builds up to that phrase "many are called, but few are chosen." That's what He said at the end of this whole story. So the they found them, "Both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests." Everybody say: "The wedding was furnished." Congregation: The wedding was furnished. It was furnished. Some people say, "God is sovereign. His will is going to be done. His plan is going to be completed." And I say, Amen. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. But He can do things more than one way. And it does not have to be with the ones He first called and asked. Though He needs us, me or you as an individual are not replaceable if we decide to ignore Him and rebel against Him long enough. This is something I am just recently understanding better. There's been more than one instance in the last thirty some years of ministry where the Lord would send me, send Phyllis and myself, the ministry, to do certain things, certain parts of the country, certain parts of the body, and man, you could tell it was supernatural, it was God. And you thought this is going to go like this, and it didn't. And people that said they wanted it, decided they didn't want it. And things just didn't go that way and weeks turned into months, and months turned into years, and then the Lord would deal with you do this over here in a completely different place and you would think - it bothered me at first because I thought Lord, You dealt with me to do this. He did. But they didn't want it. They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't receive it. And it made me scratch my head for a while. And one day while I was praying about this I said Lord, You don't change your mind. You know the end from the beginning. You're not going to tell me this way and then later on, well no, do it this way. But He does. I said, He does. There are instances of it the Scriptures. Why? Because He's not going to make people receive Him and do His will and plan - and many are called, but not everybody responds. And He brought me to this passage in Exodus; we talked about it earlier, when the Lord was angry with His people because they have forsaken Him and made these golden calves. And the man of God came off the mountain and He told them, "Leave Me alone." Let me just read it to you it's Exodus 32:9. He said, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people," how many know stiffnecked is bad, bad, don't be stiffnecked. Why don't you tell your neighbor, tell them right now: "Don't be stiffnecked. Congregation: Don't be stiffnecked. Don't be. Anybody know what stiffnecked is? You're getting instruction, you're getting correction and what do you do? You ain't going to do it and nobody can make you do it. No! Friend, that can mess you up so bad the Lord Himself can't help you. I know that's a giant thing to say, but I said it, and I meant it. Search the Scriptures. Why? Because He has chosen not to force you to do something, and He said it is your choice. Announcer: CHILDREN'S MINISTRY WILL BE PROVIDED.