Having The Mind of Christ

of the wonderful works of God, Lord, that you're doing. And we pray, Lord, that you would continue to work in our own lives, that we would be able to have a testimony, not a testimony from 10 years ago, Lord, not a testimony from two years ago, Lord, but a testimony of what you've done for us yesterday and today, and what you will yet do in anticipation of, to see the power and glory of God in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Wanted to read something from Philippians. Philippians chapter 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but yet he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Jesus and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, of those on earth and those under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus gives us an example of how we brothers should conduct ourselves in this lifetime. Jesus didn't come to be served, but he came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. When I first got born again, I thought that I had all these natural qualities and natural abilities. I was a leader and I thought that now I could enhance the kingdom now that I had added Jesus to my life. And now there was nothing stopping me in what I could do with God and for God. And then these prophets that Dan spoke about started to come out of the woodwork. And I was one of those men that the Holy Spirit was convicting of sin. And I went forward, I humbled myself and found repentance after many years of practicing the grossest sins. But within days, the false prophet started to read my mail. And he was able to discern the motives and intents of my heart that I was a lover of money. And I was standing there and he was giving us words from the Lord and I thought they were words from the Lord. And he told me that the Lord had millions in store for me. And then he went over to my father and he said, the Lord is going to give you billions. I heard it with my own ears. And I thought, well, this is fantastic. So the next verse was, you need to sow your best seed. The Lord loves the cheerful giver. Using scriptures to manipulate, as Dan shared about manipulation. Sow your best seed. The one who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. And they called for, it was the year of Jubilee at that time, every 50th year. And it was all about giving your best gift and all that. Because if you sow sparingly, then you're not going to bring to pass this prophecy. Well, it led me on a path to start investing in things by blind faith. And what happened is instead of using the natural wisdom that I had at that time, when I was walking with the devil to make money, where I had a gift to make money, I started to use blind faith. And it led to me almost going bankrupt. And I had a wrong understanding of God, because I thought when I read the verse, you cannot serve God and money. I believed that I wasn't serving money because I was giving my first fruits to God. And then if I gave 10% to God and maybe even 20% of Heave offering to God, then I would be able to spend 80% of millions. It's still a lot of money for me. But you see, they come with a message and they tickle your ears. That itching ears want to hear. And you know what? Our flesh likes to hear things that are in our hearts. And we have to be careful that we become a discerner of spirits. That we can discern what the word of the Lord is. Because when God says you cannot serve God and money, I thought somehow in my heart, I wasn't serving money, but he was going to give me all this money so I could spend prodigally on myself. But then we see this example of Jesus, who being in the form of God, he didn't consider it to be a blasphemy to be equal with the Father. Because the brother said, show me the Father and it's enough for us. And Jesus said, to see me is to see the Father. Sounds like a blasphemy, but yet he agreed with his father that he would become obedient to come to this place to humble himself. He wasn't born in the five-star Hilton and he wasn't born in a king's palace. In fact, there was no room for him in the inn. And it says that he was born in a manger. He was not too ashamed to come to the lowest place. And he's not ashamed to call us his brothers. If you want to do something great for God, then you've got to become like Jesus in this regard, that you're willing to go to the lowest places to find the people who actually need Jesus. Being found in the likeness as a man, he humbled himself. Not only did he humble himself and become like a bond servant, he took the form of a criminal, having been nailed to the tree, having disarmed principalities and powers. It was the only way, because in Adam all die. I was reading this morning about a man who was born blind. He needed a miracle. And then the brothers asked, they said, was it this man who sinned or was it his parents who sinned? And he said, not because of sin, this one, but that the glory of God would be revealed in him. And Jesus made mud on the ground and put mud on his eyes, clay on his eyes, and told him to go and wash in the pool Siloam. And he went and washed and something like scales fell from his eyes. And he could see. And he came in, was amazed that this great miracle had been done. And no one had seen this, that someone born blind could see. But brothers, sisters, we've all been born blind. You were dead in trespasses and sins. And then all of a sudden, as a brother shared testimony, the doctor report said, there's no hope. You'll be on antidepressants, psychotics, medication for life. No hope. You're going to be slave of pornography for life. You're going to be a drug addict for life. You're going to be slave to sin for life. But Jesus said, come to me. All you are weary and heavy laden and trying and light knuckling it on your own power and your own light. And you've always failed. And you spend all that you've had on physicians and the issue of blood remains. And come and receive rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Brothers, sister, we have to learn his way. We've had the yoke of Satan on our backs. I remember when I got born again, it was like 50 pounds came off my back. I cried for an hour and I said, Jesus, I don't know what happened. Because the devil was telling me, why are you going to go forward? I've never gone forward because I would not humble myself. I always prayed a thousand prayers in my house, in my basement. But I was never going to humble myself and confess that I needed help. I was running a construction company. I was building hundreds of homes. I had apartment sites, townhouse projects. And now I'm going to humble myself and I'm going to say I need help. And the devil said, why are you going to do this? They're going to see you at the bar next week. And they're going to see you dancing with women and living like a devil. And then you're going to blaspheme your God. And I said, never mind, devil. What matters now is I obey God and humble myself. Jesus humbled himself and he was found in the likeness as the lowest man. Born in the lowest place with animals, perhaps in a stable, in a manger where animals eat. It's ironic that he was born in a manger when he spoke to those animals. And he said, eat my flesh and drink my blood where you have no life. Come and feed at the manger. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, makes the Lord his strength. But cursed is the man who trusts in proud men. It says the man who trusts in the Lord, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life. And his leaves shall be green even in tough times. Job said, though you slay me, he'd lost his children. He'd lost his business. He'd lost his animals. He'd lost everything except his wife. He'd lost his health. Yet will I trust you. Though you slay me, yet will I trust you. You know, when after I've made those stupid investments and I thought that the Lord was going to make me rich, I didn't understand the Lord's ways. He did not allow me to prosper in that. And when I came to a point where I could no longer pay my men at Christmas time, their wages, first time in my life, I got on the ground in my kitchen with tears flying out of my eyes. And I said those words, though you slay me, yet will I trust you. He was made of no reputation. Brother, sister, God's not wanting to bring you down a notch or two. He wants to bring you to zero. And if he can accomplish that in your life, then he can entrust you with the true riches. And the true riches aren't silver and gold and precious stones in the natural. True riches are the souls of the saints. Can you be trustworthy with the inheritance that Jesus gave his life for? If he can trust you with that, then he can put weight on you. And you can become one who is trustworthy, not to be seen by men, but to become part of that foundation, which is hidden on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Those men of God who were murdered because of their faith. The Lord spoke to me yesterday and he reminded me of something. He spoke to me when I was young in the Lord. He said, I'm going to give you a call of Ezekiel to speak to a rebellious house, whether they will listen or whether they will not listen. You speak my word. And I remember receiving that and I said, I will go and be that man if that's what you want me to be, Lord. I didn't understand it at the time. But it was through many dealings and many breakings and many humblings that he's bringing me low and lower and lower. And now we see the state of many people who are Christian, so-called Christian, we're a lukewarm bunch. We don't love the Lord. We honor him with our lips, but our hearts are so far from him. And when we hear convicting words, they bounce off us like popcorn from a pea shooter. But the Lord wants to raise up a standard against the enemy schemes. And we have to begin to ask the Lord to give us soft hearts because our hearts have become hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And that is why the word of God does not impact us anymore. It's not that the word of God is of no effect from Romans 9, but the people of God, they're not Israel who are of Israel. And neither are they all children because they're descendants of Abraham. But they're not children of faith that Isaac their seed have to be called. That is the children of the flesh of Ishmael. These are not the children of God. I remember a time I was with a number of elders and they kicked us out of their church and we lost our church membership in those days. It was tough because I didn't understand what the Lord was doing. I was very lonely. And the Lord showed me they're not all Israel of Israel. And we had another church meeting and I went there and I said, well, brothers, brothers, I was talking to the elders and so on. And one of the elders was trying to accuse us of sin. And one of the elders, he got very angry. And he said, tell us, don't lie to the Holy Spirit. You brothers practice sexual sin. And we all sat there and we said, the Lord has given us victory over sexual sin. And every one of them said how long they'd had victory over over pornography and masturbation. And it had been years. And this elder said, you guys lie. There's no victory over masturbation. This was a gray haired old man. And we said, brother, this is from the devil. And then the pastor said, why do you call us brothers? Because I have a sense that you don't feel that we're true brothers. They were making excuses for sin. But Jesus came to set us free from our sins. I said, Abraham had two sons. That's why I can call you my brother. He said, are we of Ishmael? Are we of Ishmael? I said, so you say. This blind man who opened his eyes. He went to the synagogue and the Pharisees called him in front and said, said to him, who opened your eyes? He said, I don't know who opened my eyes. But he put, what did he do to you? He put clay and spit or whatever. He put on my eyes and told me to wash. And now I see. And they said, we don't believe it. They called the parents and they said, is this your son? Yes, he's my son. Who opened his eyes? Asked him who opened his eyes and how he can see. We don't know. Ask him, he's of age. They were fearful because he said, anybody who confessed that Jesus was a prophet or from God or the Christ or whatever, they would be put out of the synagogue. Brother, sister, there's a time coming when they're going to put you out of the synagogue and they're going to kill you. That's not going to be the unbelievers. It's going to be those your brothers and they'll think they're giving God service. Look at this one apostle, Paul, who was then Saul. He went after the stoning of Stephen and went into Jerusalem to every single house. Can you imagine going in Abbotsford, where we are here, in every single house, searching for people preaching the heresy of Jesus as the Christ, arresting them, both men and women, and dragging them into prison. This is the kind of thing that was going on when the revival was breaking out. Whenever God is doing something, a persecution happens. I've seen it in times past, and we will see it again. They'll put you out of the synagogue thinking they're doing God's service, and then they call the blind man back in. Well, tell us again what happened. Who was the man? What do you think about the man? Well, for sure, he's a prophet. I mean, he's from God. I mean, stop this blasphemy. The man is a sinner, they're saying of Jesus. And this man starts preaching to them. And he says, now we know that God doesn't hear sinners. How can he open the blind eyes if he is a sinner? And they got very angry. And then the man went back to Jesus, and Jesus gave him the revelation. Jesus told him, I'm the Son of Man. I'm the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He said, who is he, Lord? He said, I am that man. And that man worshipped Jesus. You know, I want to say something about Jesus as a man. He was fully man, but he was also fully God. Because no one ever in history could receive worship as Jesus received worship as a man and never rebuked him. Any angel who comes and then fall down, he said, don't do that. See it, you don't do that. We don't receive worship from men. Only Jesus receives worship. Because he humbled himself, even to the point of death, even bearing our sins on the cross, so that he could reconcile a fallen race in Adam back to God through the shed blood of the cross. And without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness or remission of sins. But we have to be careful how we live. Because if we willfully go on sinning, after we have a knowledge that it's wrong, and we rebuild again, those altars and those idols that we once destroyed, we prove ourselves transgressors. And there remains from Hebrews 10, verse 26 and 27 and 28, no sacrifice for sins. If we willfully go on sinning, it says in 1 John 3, the one who's born of God doesn't practice sin, because his seed remains in him. The word of God living, powerful and active, and it becomes effective in us, so that we both will and do his good pleasures. Do you have his seed in you? The seed is the word of God. And it's not that the seed is ineffective, but some people don't hear the word of God and receive it by faith. And so it falls on deaf ears. Jesus came that we might have life, and that we would have it abundantly. And when we receive the living word of God, we receive his seed, then you receive Christ. That if we confess with the mouth from Romans 10, 9 and 10, the Lord Jesus. But equally important is to believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. And I say, what shall you be saved from? You're going to be saved from your sins. He's going to deliver you from depression, from pornography, from anxiety, from pornography and sexual sin, every other kind of form of ungodliness, from being a manipulator and a liar and a deceiver and an antichrist. And he's going to seat you with princes and grant you a home. The Lord said, I who speak to you am he. And he said, for this reason, the son of man came that those who were blind may see. And those who say they see might become blind. And the Pharisees who heard it, there were some Pharisees there who heard Jesus speaking to the man. They were offended. They were upset and angry and they piped up and said, are we blind also? Jews would have been right justified to say, you be of Ishmael, you be born blind, but you say you see in your sin remains. But if you would say, I am blind. Then the Lord could do something for you. Lord, help us to humble ourselves and say, Lord, I see in part, even Paul wouldn't say I see 2020. He said, I see in part. But I want to see better. We all see in part. God's given us some revelation. But we have, but we ask for more. To see him as he is. I shared this with the brothers yesterday from 1 John chapter 3, verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the father has lavished on us, that we of all peoples should be called the children of God. And it has not yet been revealed or manifested what we shall be. But when Jesus is revealed in us, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him, he purifies himself just as he is pure. Brothers, we need to go greater than faith. We want it to translate into hope. So we can hope. Hope is greater than faith. Faith, hope, and love, these three. The greatest is love. But hope is greater than faith. So we can hope for what we don't see. So when we see the drug addict on the street, we cannot see him as he is. We can see him as what he will be in Jesus' name. When the brothers, John and Peter, went by that synagogue there, and the man there, the beggar, who was lame, was sitting there asking alms. They said, silver and gold have I none. The problem is, brothers, our pockets still have some silver, and we have a little gold. But when we can come to the end of ourselves, and we can realize it's not of what we can do with the millions and the billions, but it's what he can do with whatever we bring and put in all into the money plot, and say, Lord, have all of me, all my hopes and dreams and plans, all my ambitions, I surrender these in your hands. Then we will have the hope, which is greater than faith, to say to the man who is sitting there, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ. Rise up and walk. And he grabbed him, and they pulled him up. They had hope to see that that man would have faith to walk, and they just lifted him up, and he went walking and leaping and praising God. This is the power of God. I want to see the power of God. There are so many spiritual cripples in the churches today. And they say, you know what? We're sinners. Yes, we agree with that. And a preacher would come and say, there's a lamb to possess, flowing with milk and honey, but they would cry and say, the giants are today. And they would listen to the physicians, and they would listen to the Pharisees, and they would listen to the psychologists, the sociologists, and the philosophers, and they would say, it's impossible to have that land in this life. That land is not for now. It's for heaven. And leave the people there crying while they prescribe them with all kinds of other antidotes to cope with their sin, to put a band-aid on it. It says, they healed the hurt of the daughter, my people slightly saying, peace, peace, giving you a little peace. It says in Proverbs 31, it says, give wine to him who is perishing, and strong drink to him who is perishing. It heals the hurt a little bit. These safe injection sites, they just help people to cope with the torment and the hell that they're on. They heal the hurt of the people a little bit, but the end goal is that they're going to be destroyed. Satan would seek to keep them there by just comforting them in their sins. But they have to first be wounded before they can be healed. We need to preach repentance to the people. When the brother Stephen was preaching there, and he said, you stiff-necked hard-hearted, you always resist the Holy Spirit. It says they were cut to the quick. They were cut to the heart. Now there's two responses that can come. One response is, fall on the rock and be broken. And cry out to the Lord for mercy. As 3,000 were added when Peter preached, and 5,000. What shall we do? Repent and be converted. Let times of refreshing come from the Lord. Or we can become angry when we're cut to the heart. You shame me. And we go like Cain as a murderer, and we go and stop the mouth of the righteous. Stop preaching this gospel to us. And they kill the prophets. Two responses. We can humble ourselves and repent. Or we can become angry and we can oppose and exalt self. It says we are not to be like Cain who was a murderer and killed his brother. These were brothers. We have to stop among brothers trying to become bitter and envious and jealous of one another. If you're bringing a half-hearted sacrifice and the Lord hasn't accepted it, the word of the Lord to you is, you can do better. And if you bring a whole-hearted sacrifice, will you not also be accepted? Repent then and be converted. Repent of your bitterness and your jealousy and your gossip and your slander, your backbiting, your unforgiveness, all that. And return to the Lord. He has wounded you. But his desire is to bind you up. He has struck you down. But his desire is to heal you. He wants to come to us like rain. Spring rain. Both the spring rain and the latter rain we need in order for there to be a harvest. And the harvest that we're talking about is not just seeing people repent and come to Jesus. It's to see the fruit of the Holy Spirit manifest in our lives so we can come to the true love of God. Faith and we spoke of hope and now we speak of love. The love of God. We sang that song. How great, how far that tongue or pen could ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star. It reaches down to the lowest hell. How low will you go, brother? How will you go as low as Jesus? Who being in the form of God did not consider it to be robbery, to be equal with God, but made himself of zero, zero, zero reputation. Will you be made of zero reputation to go to the lowest hell to find one lost soul for Jesus? And stretch out your hand to him and say, I was but for the grace of God, I am like you. And say in the name of Jesus, cripple, walk. That's when we'll see people walking, leaping and praising God. That's when you'll see people giving glory to Jesus, not because of our own righteousness, but according to his own mercy, he saved us. It just pleased him to have compassion on us. And you want to know why? Because he came to those who were wise and he came to those who were something and he came to those who were of reputation and they were too busy for him and they rejected him. They wanted the vineyard for themselves. And so he said, call in those from the highways and the hedges to those on the outskirts, to those who are unclean, go as low as you have to go into the ditches and compel them to come to my banquet for my table is ready. The word of the Lord is he's brought me to his banqueting table. And his banner over us is love. Oh, what manner of love the father has lavished on us that he should call us to be children of God. If you don't get a revelation of what Jesus has done for you, then you're still a Pharisee saying, if this man knew what kind of woman this was, he would not even allow her to touch his feet. And Jesus said, Simon, when I came into your house, you didn't offer me any water to wash my feet. Yet this woman has not stopped washing my feet with her tears. It says the one who loves little has been forgiven little in their own understanding. But the one who's been forgiven much loves much. This woman has been forgiven much and she loves much. We need to understand that we've been forgiven so great a debt. He paid a debt we could not pay. I owed a debt that was too great. I needed someone to wash my sins away. And now we can sing a brand new song. Hallelujah praises all day long. He paid the debt that I could never pay. What mercy and grace. What love. And everyone who has this hope in him, we have to keep going, brother. We have, but still we ask for more as he gives us light on ourselves as we say, Lord, I've come this far, but take me lower that I might be a vessel of mercy to extend an old branch to others who need mercy. Let me not judge them. Lord, where would I be but for the grace of God? Help me to love them and preach a holiness gospel, a gospel which accords with godliness. To see the power and the glory of God. Not comfort people in their sins, give them the word of faith that can save them. Not just confessing the Lord Jesus with their mouth, but their actions deny the Lord. We want our actions to line up with our confession and the power to be able to obey the word of God, because it's not the hearers of the word that are justified before God, but them that do his word. But then again, brothers, how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they hear unless a preacher is sent? A lot of us have went in the flesh, done things for God, but it's left us with nothing. But now we want to hear his voice. And when he says go, we go. But we need to sit at his feet until we can hear his voice. And then we're going to see the results that we're looking for. Once we come to know our God, once we come to understand his ways, once we begin to see the power of God in our life, and we can actually become humble. My prayer yesterday again with the brothers is, Lord, I'm not humble. Make me humble. Help me to humble myself where I have been proud, where I still think myself to be something because of maybe what I have or what I've attained to. But Lord, help me to become like you, Jesus. Everyone who has this hope in him walks just as Jesus walked. From 1 John 2, 6. We ought ourselves to walk in this world just as Jesus walked. That's the goal. Not measuring ourselves among ourselves, judging one another and comparing ourselves by ourselves. Not getting angry because your brother's not going further with God. Looking unto Jesus and praying for your brothers that perhaps God would stir him up. Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. Who's going to follow Christ like Paul followed Christ? It's rare, brothers. In your prayer time, when you're really ready and you're really right with the Lord and your heart is sincere, say, Lord, make me like that. I want to be that man. I want to be like that man. Worldly pleasures, all forsaken. Take me, Jesus. Make me that. I was crying when I was sharing with the brothers. I can't sing that song. I'd be a liar. To worldly pleasures, half forsaken. I don't want to be like Ananias and Sapphira, giving a pretense that I've got it all figured out and I'm wholehearted. In my heart, the Lord is calling us further. Can we really sing, I surrender all? Maybe we can in a moment in time and then tomorrow the Lord shows us. There's something to surrender to me. All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, I surrender these into your hands. Lord, help me to surrender all my ambitions, hopes and plans. So that I might become a bondservant of Jesus Christ, to do thy will. That it would be written in the volume of the book about me, Lord. To do thy will, O God. Jesus came to do his will. And he calls us to pick up our cross and to follow after him. If anyone desires to come after me, he said, let him deny himself. Have him crucify the flesh with his passions and its desires. He gives us all things richly to obey. And he gives us all things to enjoy. But at what cost? If he gives you all these wonderful blessings and all these gifts, would you then say, Lord, thank you. I have. But Lord, I don't want just all the earthly things and the blessings that you give. I wanted to know you, Lord. The power of your resurrection, along with the fellowship of yourself. And I count all these things, including these gifts that you've given, the blessing of family and all this. I'm willing to sacrifice it all on the altar for God, to know him, to know Jesus. To put my head on his chest and to hear him whisper his secrets. That I could become his. It says in Malachi in chapter three, it says, when they that feared the Lord spoke to one another. And it says the Lord listened in to their conversation. And he listened in to hear what we as brothers are saying about him. He's listening to hear, not that we're talking about the football game or who won the hockey game or how much money we made or what our plans and hopes and dreams are. He's hearkening in to see what we're saying about him. He said, they shall be mine, saith the Lord. On the day these brothers who fear the Lord and talk about the Lord, he says, when I make them my special treasure, when I make them my jewels, as a man spares his own son who serves him. Jesus said, no longer will I call you servants, I'll call you friends. And now we get this revelation that we should be called the sons and daughters of God. Let's keep going, brothers. We have, but we need more. We need more to be able to feed at his table. He brought us to his banqueting table. He says, you prepare, brother, a table before me. Doesn't matter where you work or who your roommates are. In the presence of my enemies and my cup can overflow in that place, the anoint of my head with oil. I have the joy of the Lord there. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord. One thing I desire of the Lord and that I may seek that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, to see him in his beauty, that I could become like that. That we could be his hands and feet in this world. That people could see Jesus. Do people see Jesus when they see you? You ask that before God when you look in the mirror. Can people see Jesus? If you're honest, because God knows if we're honest, ask him that question. And if the answer is, I don't see him yet. I don't see him the way I ought to see him. And ask the Lord to give us clean hands and give us pure hearts. So we wouldn't lift up our souls to an idol nor swear deceitfully. Then we shall receive the blessing of the Lord. We need his blessing, brothers. We need the spirit to come down and visit us again. We need to see the power and glory of God in our lives. We want to see the lost saved. We want to see people who are sinners repent and get the victory in Jesus' name. It says, these signs shall follow them that believe. And we're not seeing it here. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. They shall cast out evil spirits in my name. They shall do many wonders. In fact, Jesus said that we would do greater works than him. With the power of the Holy Spirit in this last hour. We're not seeing it, brothers. So we can claim that we have the truth. How about you? And we claim that we have the spirit. How about you? But brothers, let's keep going. Let's keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Brothers, there's some things we need to die to. To continue to surrender of our hopes and dreams and our ambitions. And let Jesus be lifted up. That he would be exalted. May the Lord help us to fulfill that purpose and the call of God. For each one of our lives. That we would be able to hear those words. Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord. In Jesus name, be blessed.