Sunday_Service

Good Morning everyone from Hawaii to all of the world. I am so glad I can reach so many across this planet. The Church does not sell anything, we are some of the few that just teach the bread of life, and we want our Sunday services to help as many people all across the world. We also give much prayer for so many people that need prayer so desperately. The church prayer ministry was a lot more active then it is now with me lying on my back., and the frustration that I am to weak to communicate like I want to, with many brothers and sisters, this has hurt me but in I will not be able to sit for longer periods of time. God has opened the heavens with different rewards this week with so many blessings as we approach the sermon in more detail, you will see that God truly is in control, no matter what Satan and his agents can cause with all sorts of havoc and fear and pain and complications. I am not going to put up with it anymore. What I do want to say is why we should even be slightly moved by a defeated foe. Our Lord Jesus has already defeated the evil one, and holds the keys of heaven and hell in His hands never to be taken away. There are new days ahead with peace and tender tranquility. Our aim at The Church Ministries is not only saving souls with just the sinner’s prayer, what our plan is for people to see the power of the Holy Spirit demonstrating the full power of people getting healed in malls, the streets, in gas stations, supermarkets and most everywhere in our town of Hilo, Hawaii. Since the apostles went around and performed healings through our Jesus Christ of Nazareth, just imagine when people actually getting healed in front of so many witnesses, this will bring a heavy attention to all people, and they all will want to be saved. I feel this revival coming, I feel it all about to happen, this way we could all reach the masses, better than just witnessing one on one. Now that God who is always in control brought upon this possibility for a small segment of time which we can use in a church in the exact area of downtown Hilo, where the original plans were to take from back in August of 03, we don’t know the possibilities that will arise from all of this, all we do know it is a definite answer to prayer, and I feel many works of God for His glory will arise. The Great Commission is already in progress with The Church Ministries website, and we can tell by all the letters plus the fact to give an education of Christ and the bread of life and to plant more seeds. Jesus commanded us to make new disciples to educate our people with what the bible says also teaching others to continue His evangelism and the healing of others, we are looking at a massive change for Christianity, on a very large scale. I have to keep my dreams and outlooks on a very high level, that is why the testing and the attacks on my health plus all the internal attacks of where they are focused like not being able to speak will soon be over, there is so much good this church wants to do, and we came to a screeching halt with this whole health affliction. So once God heals me of all these afflictions then we have the true testimony of the truth of God’s immaculate healing, then others will gain faith and in turn they themselves will be healed of any sickness or burden or any other problem. So I feel thousands will be changed by this whole fresh news of God working within His church that is why I probably have suffered for so long.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are all here and I do not know how many and I do not know which and when by the different time zones that we are here, but we are here to worship you no matter what time or day it is. We are here to bring joy to you Father with worship, praise and prayer and it is just for You. There is so much going on all around everyone’s lives we still want to praise You Father, we want to thank you for everything your doing and everything you have planned for us. It is written in (John 4:18) that you will not let the evil one touch us and maybe we think at times evil is getting away with things, but we all know better. You are watching and guarding and doing all things for us and at times we do not know it or feel it and some of us do not notice, but we are here to tell you no matter what happens to us we all love You and when we think we are alone we are not, we have the Holy Spirit, we have angels and we have Jesus in our hearts. We pray for all those in hospitals, medical units and nursing homes that are suffering. We pray for all those with disease and loneliness. We pray for anyone that is part of this Church in which we want to follow your statues and Your guidance we do not want it to be commercial or worldly, we just want you Father to be a part of it. This Church is Jesus’ Bride this is a gathering for all people with no prejudice or any pride or disorder. We pray to You Father that it is an oasis a place where truth is the reality, and we only look toward others feelings and in their hearts plus the Heavenly realms of peace and tranquility. Please influence and refine our spirits, please do not let our sinful flesh control us. Please protect our minds from sin to think clear and of Heavenly things. Please anoint us all with the Holy Spirit, we need that warmth and the gentleness of a tear to know the Lord is present with us. Lord we love You and honor You. Please stop all spiritual warfare that comes upon us. Let the Spirit of the Lord control our minds, please let us all think and have the mind of Christ.

In Jesus Name, Amen

I have to thank Susan Jones she is still sending me all kinds of letters and get well cards like 5 on one email, she has given me more love and care then maybe anyone on the whole planet. Johan from South Africa is still sending me all kinds of letters, he is another blessing, and I have been sick this week, and I am not the same, more stress is involved and I am broke again for Christmas, I wanted to get something for the neighbors this year and I want to thank Eric for saving my life last Monday and to thank Al for talking to me, plus the Pastor from Faith Hi-way ministries, who set this whole thing up, plus Marcella from Living Waters is still at prayer for me, have not heard from Randy and Joanna, my mother went on a cruise and left me with a Christmas present that will not even cover food, she knows the bills are way behind, and she thinks I live on tea, how am I going to gain weight if I have nothing to eat, I have caned stuff but I have to watch those one exploded and took 2 days to clean up. Botulism all over the place.. My little brother has 4 cars including a corvette and a large truck that carries two of those 4 wheel all terrain mini jeeps, so he is loaded and I will not see anything for Christmas from them, or my Dad who is also loaded, so I just sit and pray for them and cry. What a family. Bishop Shawn was a life saver along with Willie and Liz, plus I finally got a hold of William. And I need to call Eric again but he lives so far away. Plus Elena has been a blessing still writing me, and Hugh Keith sent me a card in the mail also. And I got a card in the mail from Evangelist Gideon Yathirajam from Gideon Gospel Ministries from India.There is so many people I need to thank like Shannon at the Pharmacy and there is Keith Ratcliff from Amarillo Texas calling me and keeping my life going. I am still very lonely. Joaquin one of my Bishop Directors is still sending out prayer letters and sending them to me. He is a blessing, I have not heard from Jacob or Vijay two of my Bishop Directors, this is getting very hard to keep the tears from flowing especially during the holidays. It is hard being behind on everything and no money for a tree, or there goes Christmas, and I am supposed to see the doctor on the 13th this Wednesday, and take another trip to Honolulu, and the last trip was hard and I have to carry all the films and reports,so I don't know what will happen. I miss Craig and Linda, and Scott and Eileen, Robert and Judith, Rebecca, and Phillip and Marie, plus I am still praying for all of them, I had a spot open on the NEXT in the menu so I put an old candlelight prayer to connect to it, so visitors can understand what I used to do. And give them who are all connected with the church, and all the people that care and all the people that have other things to do. I still love all of you even more then ever, and I have gotten bad news this week and that is another story. Well let us do this sermon.

This morning we’re going to launch into a new two-part series on one of the most the most misunderstood realities of our spiritual journeys. My message this morning is entitled “Freed to Be Holy: Reclaiming Your Birthright.” What I want to talk about over the next two weeks is that frustratingly elusive concept that the Bible simply refers to as holiness. Now before I begin, I need to confess that I’ve never really found this an easy topic to speak on, because it always makes me feel a bit like a hypocrite. The problem is that I struggle as much with inner transformation as the rest of you. Now I know that some people really don’t want to hear that. Some people always like to get their pastor up on a pedestal. It’s comforting to believe that the leader has it all figured out.

So I guess we need to be clear that if you’ve chosen The Church Ministries as your church family, get used to being uncomfortable…because what we want to do here is real faith for the real world. So regardless of how it makes you feel, I’m going to hang myself out there and tell you that I’m the kind of pastor who gets tempted to watch a secular movie…who gets distracted by mini-skirts…and who has to fight to resist gesturing to the person who just cut me off in traffic that he’s “number one” in my books. It’s like I told the sweet old lady a few years ago who was shocked to hear me admit that I struggle with sin… “I’m a pastor. I’m not dead.”

Besides, what good would it do even if I did have it all figured out? That’s like hiring a mountain guide who’s already on the peak and he just sits up there radioing down instructions. We’re on this journey together …and so, together, we need to figure out from the Holy Spirit how this thing called faith actually works in life. Now I’m not talking about figuring out what the truth is. Truth is the easy part. All you’ve got to do to is read the Bible to get truth. That’s the minimum starting point. If you’re not reading God’s owner’s manual, you should be, so we all need to be doing that which is major in life today.

But what calls to me…and what I want to be able to help engage you guys with…is how to get the truth to work. That’s the real problem isn’t it? Truth that you can’t get to work in the dirt and grit of life is really annoying. It creates guilt. It creates an enduring sense of failure. So the struggle here is how to get the truth out of the pages of the Bible and into our hearts so it can rise to the surface and actually become a reality in our lives. That’s what I’m going to try and help you with over the next two weeks. I want to help you be freed to be holy.

Now I think we need to start by making some statements about holiness. First, holiness is not an optional component of faith in God. Unfortunately, most Christians living in today’s culture have simply thrown up their hands in defeat and have said, “I can’t do this. There’s no way God can be expecting this of me.” There’s a great tendency in our day to take the situations we find ourselves in and read them into the Bible. What we need to do is take the Bible and read it into our situations. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.” So right off the bat, we need to put aside all the other voices in our lives and be thinking, “Whatever this holiness stuff is, I gotta get me some of that, because the alternative is unimaginable.” The whole purpose of having a relationship with God is to arrive at the destination of seeing the Lord and spending an eternity with Him. If I can’t do that without holiness…then I gotta get me some.

So first, holiness is not optional. Second, holiness is not easy. It’s not even an easy concept to understand. It sort-of falls into that category along with other baffling Biblical ideas like the trinity and the virgin birth. For 30 years I’ve been listening to people try to rationalize the Trinity. How can God be only one God but self-revealed in three persons…Father, Son and the Holy Spirit? And I’ve heard all the explanations. You know, “God is like an apple. It has a peel, a juicy part and a core, but it’s still one apple.” I don’t know about you guys, but I’m much more comfortable thinking that God is a mystery who I just don’t understand than I am thinking that he’s an apple.

But holiness kind-of falls into that same category. To most of us, it’s a mystery. It’s hard to understand and even harder to get to work. So to start off with, I think we need to get comfortable with the idea that there’s a mystical and supernatural element to holiness. It’s not just trying to be a better person. We have to wrap our heads around the fact that this is one of those “God things.” So that said, let me do what I did one week when I spoke about passion, and give you a definition. Here it is. Holiness is God’s transforming presence working in us, not a program to improve our lives. Let me say that again. Holiness is God’s transforming presence working in us, not a program to improve our lives. A lot of people never make it to first base with holiness because they believe that it’s nothing more than God’s self-improvement program for humanity. Holiness was never intended to improve us. That’s a vital concept to lay hold of. God doesn’t want improved sinners. He wants us to be a new creation. God doesn’t re-form. He trans-forms.

Now the Bible tells us that our God is a holy God. The ancient Hebrew word for

“holy” is “qadosh.” It means to separate something or set it apart from other things. More precisely, when the Bible refers to God as being holy, what it really means is that everything that God is…and the world isn’t…that’s what defines holiness. Holiness is the sum total of everything that separates God from that which falls short of his glory. Holiness isn’t something God does.

It’s something he is. Holiness is not the act of being good. Instead, it’s the very character and nature of God. When God first appeared to Moses through the image of a burning bush in Exodus 19:1-6, he revealed his holiness to Moses. He did that because he wanted to raise up a people who, in their way of life, would reflect the very nature of God. The only people God draws people to himself are those in whom he wants to reflect his nature and character. And in Exodus 19:6, God said to Moses, “…out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession…you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Sixty eight times in the Old Testament God said, “Be holy, because I am holy.” Holiness comes from no other source but God. When an atheist does something good and righteous, it’s only because that person, regardless of their beliefs, was created in the image of God and something of that image is spilling out of them. The wellspring of holiness is the character and nature of God. Now I want to explain to you why this is so important to lay hold of. If you can’t remember anything from the rest of this message, try to burn this one point into your memory…because if we get this wrong, we’ll always make the mistake of believing that holiness is the WAY to God.

Holiness is the nature of God flowing out through us. It is not the way to God. Hundreds of well-meaning God-seeking religions all over the world have made the mistake of believing that practicing God-like behavior is the way to God. God-like behavior is merely a reflection of the reality that humans have been created in the image of God, it is not the way to God. The Bible contains a record of the Israelite nation getting this wrong. They believed that obedience to the law was the way to God…and they never arrived at their planned destination. Paul made this crystal clear in his letter to the Galatians in chapter 2, verse 16. He said, “..by observing the law, no one will be justified.” And in Romans 7:10 he said, “The very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.”

The way to God has been made absolutely clear in the pages of the Bible. God came down to earth and took upon himself the form of a human being. He became like us…the God-man….Jesus Christ, and he took upon himself the penalty that each of us deserved for our rebellion against God. Romans 6:23 says that “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” God came to earth in the form of Jesus and stood-in as a substitute for us…in essence, trading places with us so that he suffered the death we deserved and we receive the blessing that was supposed to go to him. That’s why Jesus Christ said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The way to God is by receiving in faith the free gift of forgiveness that Jesus died to offer us.

There’s nothing we can do to earn our way to God. Now that said, there’s still a bit of a problem with how most of us understand this concept of holiness. The Bible still says, “Without holiness, no one will see God.” What’s that all about?

Well, this requires a little bit of wisdom. Holiness is a two-sided coin. Let me explain what I mean by that. Let me read to you a scripture out of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 23 and 24. Now before I read this, I need to explain that there’s a word that’s used in this scripture. That word is sanctify. “Sanctify” means to make holy. So when you see that word in the New Testament…sanctify…or sanctification…it means holiness. Now let me read this scripture… “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”

Now we read this scripture and we think, “Good news. This holiness thing is God’s job. He’s the one who’s going to make it happen in my life. I don’t have to do anything but sit back and let God do his thing.” But then we turn to 1 Peter 1:16 and read, “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.” Now that sounds like a directive to me. God is commanding me to do something here…to be holy. So what we see here is what appears to be a contradiction. One scripture says that holiness is a work of God. The other one says that we’re supposed to work at it. That’s pretty mysterious, right? And in our western industrialized world of logic and black and white answers, we don’t really like mystery all that much.

Now we’re getting better at it. But because the Bible was written from the perspective of an eastern culture, it’s OK with the existence of truths that are in tension with one another. And what I love about the post-modern culture we live in is that we’re starting to get as OK with this as the Bible is. But let me explain to you what the two realities are that we find in tension here. One is the grace of God. The other is our human response to that grace. The grace of God says that Jesus Christ forgives us…adopts us into God’s family as his children…and then positions us as a holy people, even though we fall short of God’s character and nature.

Now I struggled with that for a long time until I read the story of Jacob and Esau in the Bible. Esau was Jacob’s older brother, and the Bible tells us that their father, Isaac, loved him and favored him over Jacob. When Isaac was blind and on his deathbed, he called for Esau in order to bless him and assign to him the family leadership. He did that because in those days, a deathbed bequest carried the same weight that a written contract does today. But Jacob, working in cahoots with his mother, Rebekah, tricked his father.

He put on Esau’s clothes, served Isaac the kind of food that only Esau would prepare, and even covered his arms and neck with goat skin because Esau apparently was a really hairy guy. Now I’ve never met anyone so hairy that his father couldn’t tell him from a goat, but apparently the deception worked and Jacob hid in Esau’s identity. He received his father’s acceptance, his love, and his

Our Father in heaven loves and favors his son, Jesus Christ. But because of the substitution that Jesus made on the cross…because he took the initiative to trade places with us, God has given us the right to hide in his son’s identity whenever we approach him. Now here’s the thing in this…knowing that we’re accepted and loved by the Father means that we don’t have to perform to earn God’s approval. Let me say that again…knowing that we’re accepted and loved by the Father means that we don’t have to perform to earn God’s approval. You’re hearing that. Are you getting it? Do you own it? Knowing that you’re accepted approval. You’re hidden in the identity of Christ. Period.

That’s the first part of what God does for us. That’s the first part of what Paul was talking about when he said, “The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” God hides us in the identity of Christ. The second part of what God does is even more exciting. In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22, Paul, in writing to the believers in Corinth said, “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He appointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” Now did you catch the key phrase in that verse? He put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit. This is also what Paul talked about in Colossians 1:27 where he wrote about “…the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The first part of what God does in working holiness in our lives is he hides us in the identity of Christ. The second part is he places his Spirit…the Holy Spirit… the Spirit of Christ…in our hearts as a deposit. Holiness is the character and nature of God…so if God deposits his Spirit in us, then the natural by-product of that is going to be holiness. Holiness isn’t something we do. It isn’t something we white-knuckle our way through. You know… “I can do this. I can live in holiness. I can perform! I can do all the “dos” and don’t all the “don’ts”. No you can’t. If there’s one lesson you’ve learned from being in relationship with God, it ought to be that. No you can’t.

Listen to the way God intended it to be. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his glory and goodness…”

“Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” Holiness is God’s transforming presence working in us, not a program to improve our lives.

So there’s the work that God does in us. That’s one side of the coin…hiding us in the identity of Christ and depositing his Spirit in our hearts. The other side of the coin is how we respond to the work of God. Now here’s the thing in this…what God is after is real transformation in our lives. If all that work he does for us…if all that work he does in us doesn’t produce change in our lives…then something’s wrong. If our lives aren’t increasingly reflecting the nature and character of God in us…in other words holiness…right down here in the dirt and grime and temptation of real life…then something’s not right. Jesus Christ didn’t die on the cross so that people could live the same way they did before they came to him…and then sneak in under the fence because they prayed some magic prayer.

When the Bible says, “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord,” I’m pretty sure it means what it says. So we need to understand what God is expecting from us in this. Our role in the process of holiness is to create an environment so the Spirit of God can flourish in our lives. It’s not to try harder…or hang on just one minute longer. It’s not by setting goals or disciplining ourselves to be improved people. In Colossians 2:23, Paul said, “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom…but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.” Our role is to create a home for the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Now there’s ways we can do that…and there’s also ways to hang a sign on the door of our hearts that says, “Holy Spirit, Keep Out.”

And that’s what I’m going to talk about latter in a message entitled “Freed to Be Holy: Recovering Your Heart.” In that message I’m going to show you how you can create an environment in your heart for the Holy Spirit to flourish so that His character and His nature will begin to spill out of your life. But this morning, as you’ve been listening to this message…and hearing these truths from the Bible…for some of you, even though you may have been Christians for years, for the first time the light is starting to come on. You may have never known that holiness is simply the life of God in you...and that it has nothing to do with being good or trying harder. You may have never realized that because Jesus traded places with you, just like Jacob was hidden in the identity of Esau, in the same way you are hidden in the identity of Christ when you come before the Father.

For years you may have been trying to perform in order to win the love and approval of God. You had no idea that it was already yours.

Some of you may have been living under the misconception that God placed his Spirit in your heart only so you could manifest the gifts of the Spirit…or so that you could feel the presence of God in your life. You had no idea that God has shared his nature with you so that you can have the power to reflect His holiness in your life. Perhaps it’s time this morning to reclaim your birthright. Did you know that God’s presence in you is your spiritual birthright? It’s not a privilege. It’s not a special present that God gives to only his really good children. It’s not a reward for good behavior. It’s your birthright! In John chapter 1, verse 12, John said, “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Some of you may need to reach out and lay hold of that birthright for the very first time in your lives this morning. Others of you may need to re-claim that birthright. Don’t leave here this morning without doing that. Take back what is rightfully yours and allow yourself to be free.

This morning, we’re in the second part of a two-part message on holiness. Earlier this morning we went over “Freed to Be Holy: Reclaiming Your Birthright,” we explored that stream of revelation running through the pages of the Bible that unfolds to us the reality that holiness is not simply a matter of working harder so we can be better people...instead, holiness is God’s transforming presence working in us. We looked at the two gifts that God has given us in order to make holiness a reality in our lives.

The first gift is to hide us in the identity of Christ. I spoke earlier about how Jacob hid himself in the identity of his brother Esau, in order to receive the acceptance and blessing of his father. In the same way, God has given us the right to hide ourselves in the identity of his son whenever we approach him. And knowing that we’re accepted and loved by the Father means that we don’t have to perform to win God’s approval.

The second gift of God is the Holy Spirit. Holiness is the very character and nature of God. So the more we allow God’s Spirit within us to flourish, the more we’ll experience authentic holiness. I ended the message with the question: “How do we go actually go about creating an environment in our hearts for the Holy Spirit to flourish?” In other words, how do we move toward a place in our lives where it’s more natural for us to think, feel and act in a way consistent with the nature and character of God, rather than by the urges, passions and reactions of our own damaged hearts?

Now I know it would be simple for me to stand up here and give you a series of steps that you can follow in this process. But I think that as a spiritual family here at "The Church", we’ve moved beyond canned answers. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking for truth that invokes life...not just head-knowledge. So I want to begin by being real honest with you this morning.

And I think a lot of the turmoil I was going through had to do with my own failures in this area. You see I’ve been a Christian for 30 years, …and although I have my bright spots…I’ve got those places in my life where I find the groove and the character and nature of God rise to the surface and holiness becomes a real experience to me….there are still many times and places where I am not so good at this. And I think, “Holy mackerel. I’m supposed to preach on this stuff? What a joke!”

And that’s where I was at this week…feeling really inadequate to tackle this subject. But let me ask you something…do you ever get stupid with God? I do it all the time. A little while ago I had blood in my urine for two blood tests. So it could have been a kidney stone and now I don’t have any more blood in my urine. So it either passed or I just got healed by God.

“Great, now I’ve got what’s a divine healing. God is trying to guilt-trip me into doing any message.” I have been so sick it is almost torment to write a sermon. Like I said, sometimes I get stupid with God. But that’s just to share with you some of the struggles I had this week with doing this message. I thought about 1John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

Do you know what that means? That means that I cannot show you how to eliminate sin in your life. Sin is simply everything that contradicts the nature and character of God. The nature and character of God is holiness. Everything that contradicts that holiness is sin. And the Bible says we’re never going to be able to eliminate that in our lives. The moment we think we have…John says we’re deceived. Now I don’t know about you, but there’s something liberating in that. God knows that I’m not always going to get this right…and he’s OK with that.

But even though we’re never going to be able to get this totally right…what we can do is create an environment in our hearts for the Holy Spirit to flourish so that His character and nature will begin to spill out of our lives. That’s what I want to talk about this morning, but I’m going to do it in something of an unusual way. What I’m going to do is I’m going to show you some pathways… some very Biblical ones…that will help move you through the process of opening your heart and mind to the increasing presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now I tend to think in terms of metaphors. I’m a graphic thinker, so what I want to do this morning is give you some metaphors…some word-pictures to help you understand some of these pathways to holiness.

The first pathway I want to show you this morning is something I’ve called “Living in the Goatskin.” I talked about the story of Jacob and Esau and how Jacob approached his blind father in the guise of his older brother, Esau. Jacob dressed like Esau, prepared food like Esau would prepare, and even covered himself in goatskin so he’d be really hairy like Esau was. Now I drew a parallel between that and how Jesus has allowed us to hide in his identity as we approach our heavenly Father. I know this is a bit of a rerun of earlier, but I also know that while all of you who were here heard that truth, only about half of you really believed it.

Living in the goatskin is about taking a journey down the pathway of accepting acceptance. Romans 15:7 reads, “Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you.” I believe…that there’s far too many believers…who don’t believe. In your heart, you hope for acceptance. You yearn for acceptance. You strive for acceptance…but you don’t really accept acceptance. Here’s the problem in this. It cost Jesus Christ his life to make us acceptable to God. To doubt His gift of acceptance is to say to God, “I don’t believe that the cross works. I don’t believe that the life of Jesus was a high enough price to pay for the acceptance of someone as unworthy as me.”

Do you see what I’m saying here? This isn’t about our insecurity. This is about the integrity of God. It’s not a good idea to call God a liar. The Spirit of God cannot find a home in a heart that doesn’t accept the acceptance of God. Accepting the fact that God loves and accepts you …regardless of your performance…is the launch pad to inviting the Holy Spirit to make a home in your heart. Now I know I covered this earlier, but I’m going to say this again as clearly as possible. God loves and accepts sinners and failures when they come to him hidden in the identity of his son…so learn to live in the goatskin.

The second pathway to holiness is what I call “Embracing the Mosaic.” We all know what a mosaic is. It’s a big picture made out of tiny broken pieces. To embrace the mosaic of your life is to be at peace with your brokenness. The person in the Bible who really had this nailed was King David. In Psalm 6, verses 6 and 7, David wrote, “I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes.” In Psalm 38, verses 13 and 14, he wrote, “I am like a deaf man who cannot hear, like a mute who cannot open his mouth; I have become like a man who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply.”

David knew that whatever picture God was creating out of his life, it had to include the broken pieces. He allowed God to use all the pieces of his life to complete the mosaic of his soul.

Unlike David, most of us take the broken parts of our lives and we lock the pieces up in little rooms in our hearts. Then we hang a sign on the door that reads, “Keep out! P.S. That means you too, God!” Then we wonder…especially when something in life something in life touches the memory of that brokenness…why the door bursts open and instead of the nature and character of God spilling out of our hearts…we get garbage instead. The Spirit of God will transform only what He can get at.

Embracing the Mosaic is the process of allowing God to take the broken pieces of our lives…all of them…and turn them into a beautiful picture. In my life, I’ve been rejected by those who ought to have been mentors, abused by many people, betrayed by a best friend. I’ve been accused, mocked and attacked. At age 12, my mother told my dad she was cheating on him for years. At age 15, I was running away from home not to get beaten. I’ve been in a gang. I am the sum total of a life of brokenness, but…I’ve given the pieces to God. We need to understand that God can’t make the mosaic without all the pieces. If we don’t let the spirit of God in…He’ll never spill out. Something will spill out. It always does…but it won’t be holiness. It won’t be the nature and character of God.

The third pathway to holiness is something that in my own life, I’ve come to call “Gazing at the Gorgon.” The Gorgon were three snake-haired sisters from Greek mythology. They were so grotesque that the heart of anyone who gazed upon them was immediately turned to stone. The Gorgon of Christianity is forgiveness. You see, forgiveness is a thing of beauty just so long as it applies to us. But in Matthew 6:14 and 15, Jesus said, “If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” What Jesus was saying is that if we don’t forgive, then the work of the cross no longer applies to our lives. The problem is, when you’re a victim, forgiveness is grotesque. It’s like a Gorgon. It’s enough to turn your heart to stone.

How do you forgive someone whose actions cost the life of your loved one? How do you forgive an abuser who’s left you scarred and emotionally damaged? How do you forgive the ex-spouse who’s made your life your life a living hell? How does the concentration camp victim forgive? It’s grotesque. Unimaginable. This is simply one topic that you do not agree with Jesus on. Some people ought to pay for what they’ve done.

But here’s the thing. Those people don’t have enough to lose to pay for what they’ve done. There’s not enough credit in their soul-wallet to make the payment. That’s why they did that stuff in the first place. There’s simply not enough in the bank account of their hearts to make amends. The only one with enough to lose to pay for what people like that have done is Jesus Christ.

Maybe you didn’t know this, but Jesus didn’t just die for sins committed against him. He also died for sins committed against us…and the sins we commit against one another. No you don’t have to gaze at the Gorgon. You don’t have to forgive. But if you don’t, the Spirit of God will never find a home in your heart…and you’ll sit alone in your cage and weep.

The fourth pathway I want to talk about is something I call “Finding Your Logos.” The book of John chapter 1, verse 1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John goes on to say, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” It’s a little cryptic, but John was talking about Jesus Christ…who he called “the Word.” In the ancient Greek language that John was writing in, the term he used was “Logos.” It’s kind-of a hard term to define, because we don’t have an English word that really says the same thing. What it really means is “the unfolding narrative of truth embodied in a person.” “Logos” is the story of truth told in human form. In 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Paul talks about “the word of God”…or the “logos” of God…“which is at work in you.” It’s more than just written information.

For years I listened to people saying that reading the Bible exposes us to truth which we then work harder to obey. But I believe you can read the Bible from cover to cover without finding your logos. Finding your logos is embarking on a journey into the place where the words of the Bible overlay the words of our lives so that a unique story of truth is told in human form…your human form. Now I don’t believe you can do that without reading the Bible, so for what’s probably the hundredth time I’ll say it. We must become a people of the word. The Spirit of God will not make a home in a heart that’s not being shaped by God’s scriptures, but we also need to approach the Bible in such a way that it begins to become our story…the narrative of our lives. That’s what I mean by finding your Logos.

The fifth and final pathway to holiness is something that I call “Wooing the Wind.” We all want to be Spirit led. We all want to reflect the nature and character of God in our lives. We all want to possess what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. We all want to experience the gifts of the Spirit…whatever he might choose those to be.

To one it’s the gift of prophecy…to another tongues…to another it might be gifts of teaching or being a pastor. Our God is a supernatural God who does supernatural things in his people. And the Bible promises all these things to those who receive Jesus Christ and ask the heavenly Father for the gift of his Holy Spirit. But what God really wants to know is this: Do you also want him as the lover of your soul?

Have you been captured by the love of God? Are you caught up in a wild, unpredictable, intimate…love affair with God? You know, I think that guys especially have a struggle going down this road. It’s too touchy feely…too emotional. But let me tell you something. I’ve spent my life in the company of some unusual men…mountain climbers and trappers…members of Sioux, Ute, and Pueblo, street people, city crowds, gangs, and ex-bikers… These are guys I’d walk down any dark alley in the world with…and not one of them was too tough not to fall in love with God.

None of them was too manly that they didn’t yearn to hear the voice of God whispering in their minds. None of them was to macho to have their hearts left unstirred when they knew God was in the room. Too many people approach God like he’s some kind of intellectual exercise. They want God’s blessings. They want God’s benefits. They want God’s activity. But I wonder sometimes…do they really want God himself? They want the stuff…but do they want the person?

In the Bible, the word for the Holy Spirit is “pnuema”…it means “breath” or

“wind.” Do you woo the wind in your life? Last week I was out with a friend “He said, don’t talk to yourself. People will

think you’re crazy.” I said, “I’m not talking to myself. I’m talking to God.”

He said, “Well don’t do it,…especially in Wal-Mart You look like a

schizophrenic.” Do you want to know what my answer was? I said, “I don’t

care. I don’t care who sees me talking to God.”

Let me close with a question this morning: I’ve shown you five pathways to holiness this morning. The first was living in the goatskin. Just like Jacob put on goatskin so he could hide in Esau’s identity…so we have to get comfortable with accepting the acceptance of God as we hide in Christ’s identity. The second…embracing the mosaic…allowing God access to ALL the broken pieces of our lives, even the ones we keep locked in the recesses of our hearts…so he can shape them into a beautiful composite picture of life.

The third…gazing at the Gorgon…forgiving the unforgivable…so that the death of Jesus on the cross can pay the price for those who have wounded us…because those people don’t have enough in their spiritual bank-accounts to pay for it themselves. The fourth…finding your logos…allowing the story of God’s truth to overwrite the story of our lives…so the two stories become one story…so we become a walking narrative of truth. And finally, the fifth…wooing the Wind…falling head over heels in love…a passionate, yearning, unpredictable, moment by moment love affair with God.

All five of these pathways are really necessary journeys to embark on if you want to create an environment for the Spirit of God to take up residency in your heart. But here’s my question: Which one of these pathways do you think is the most important? I mean they’re all important….but which one stands out to you as the real key? To me, it’s wooing the wind…that’s where it’s really at. What kind of heart does God wants to make a home in? What kind of heart does God wants to use as a conduit through which he pours his nature and character? God is looking for the heart that loves Him so much that it’ll allow Him to rub off on it.

That’s what I’m after. I not only want God to find a home in my heart so the character and nature of who He is flows out from his Spirit within me, but I also want him to rub off on the “me” part of my heart…so that I start to think and act like the one I love…like the one who loves me…and I think that’s the real key to holiness. The Bible says, “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” At the end of my days, I want the Holy Spirit in my heart…to return to God’s throne room in heaven…taking my spirit captive with him…my spirit captured by the love of his Spirit. Like Paul said, “Christ in you…the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)

We Know this world is full of false teachings and doctrines but today let us focus on the truth. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and we all know who we are and “we” are the ones that need to change, “we” are the ones carrying sin and the carnal flesh of this world. We all understand that pain, hurts, sufferings and all kinds of different burdens can change anyone, but we are carrying the faith of Christ and we will triumph over all. Jesus does not change we do. We are a race of people that in scripture are compared to as filthy rags* We also are a race of people that God’s grace has made us new again. We are new again and we change for the better day by day, and we shouldn’t listen to people, or preachers or our bosses, we are changing, - the word says so, we have to stand on the word. God looks at us as true Christians, if we are, and maybe that will be what we find out today, we don’t want to be an enmity towards God. God Loves us so much, He had His son come down to earth and suffer and was ridiculed and not believed, laughed at, then tortured beyond what you or I could ever live through and He then died on the cross for “us.” So God could look at each one of us and see Jesus, not the sinful man of Adam, God went a step further and provided a way through redemption and away of confessing all our sins to be holy, sanctified, set apart and beloved of God. What more could we ever ask for. Praise the name of the Lord!

Dear heavenly and gracious Father, we all love You, and your Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please help all of the prayer efforts that have been mailed this week, please help all the people that are suffering, and in mourning, and trying to work out some type of burdens, and please help those who need You. Please guide us down the road of righteousness; please continue to guide our paths to lead us to the Kingdom of Heaven. We thank everyone that has come, and to here, read, or listen to your Word of life, please give them, and us all a special anointing through the Holy Spirit. Please grant us grace and peace, to bring us closer in Christ, not to become weary in our service for you O’Lord and Your people. Please give us that great light so we don’t need to struggle, and not be blinded by the darkness of evil. Please let us all remember the ones that cannot work the sick, the aged, and the ones who cannot find work. Please help the children of all the related families, and to hold all our hearts as one, as You and Jesus are one. Please forgive us of all our sins, please hold us up this next week, as we try to live in this world but not to be a part of it, or care about the accomplishments and the possessions that goes along with worldly living. Father please use your gentle quietness to settle our hearts and minds, for the families that have to be separated at this time. Please hold all of them up with grace upon grace. Thank You Father for helping us all to complete this Sunday sermon, until next week hold us all in your righteous right hand. Please protect, and touch the ones that have been calling out to You O’God, please help us to get through another week with Your loving peace, and please shower us all with blessings, even though we still are of a fleshly nature, and some of us feel unworthy, we are all sinners, please with Your great love, be there for us and with us all. We Love You, we want to honor You in spirit and truth, thank You for hearing our prayer, In Jesus Name, Amen and Amen.

I hope you all learned something today I have been very sick again, and it is getting to a point that I am so poor I can't even pay for the CD for the pictures, or the gas to get to Wal-Mart, for new pictures to be made, my camera has pictures taken and it has been weeks to have just 8 bucks. and of course I had some help with this sermon from Timbers Community Church, I would still be typing until late Sunday night, this is getting to hard, and I can't sit longer then a few minutes, and it is getting quite ridiculous, I work on this church for I don't know how many hours a week, the sermon takes a straight 24 hours usually and that is only one day, plus Thursday and Friday, everyday I am on this computer working, and it is getting too hard, the emails are stacking up and I am to weak to even delete them, I get bad news after bad news, and it seems I am broke and alone. This is not fair after 3 years, people just hurt me, and there is only a few that really love me. Yes I do sit and cry and I don't play my instruments or read my bible anymore, and I only have about 15 different bibles, mostly leather bound and had them for a long time. There has to be a evil spirit lurking over me. Everything I loved to do, I don't do anymore, and that makes no sense, I have had so many people hurt me and I forgive them, pray for them, and even black out the memory. I pick up the bible every day but it just is not fun anymore, I loved it for years, and every morning you would see me on the porch at the table with all my colored markers and I just now sit and shake in the morning and go through pain and torment and I am a child of God, that is supposed to prosper and be able to help so many others, "that" breaks my heart, I was born to help others, that is my joy, and it just does not happen anymore. I have not even been diagnosed, and I don't know what I have wrong with me, plus that alone hurts. My candlelight prayer is from weeks ago, and I just don't have the strength to sit and type 10 pages or more now. All I can do is have faith and trust the Lord and know that everything will work out for good. It would be nice to have a family, even a few friends to have a bible study. I don't go out and don't go anywhere, even to have someone to talk to, or play music with. I would like to play a game of chess. And now that Christmas is coming up with no tree, nothing under the tree, and no money to even buy someone a gift. This whole affliction has destroyed my body, face, mouth and teeth.