Love With No Limit | 4Aug2024
Pastor West: [00:00:00] Is the Lord God Almighty. And the Scripture said, and they praised him for the beauty of his holiness. Thank you Lord. Glory to God. You know you don't hear words like that anymore. You don't read it in a hallmark card. They praised him for the beauty of His holiness.
Congregation: [00:00:19] Hallelujah. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Glory to God.
Pastor West: [00:00:23] 1st Chronicles you see three armies against one. And they did the math and said, this is not going to work. They're utterly going to be destroyed. And they said, Lord, you're a great God, and we serve you with all of our heart, but we have no ability. We have no strength for what this situation. And they begin to seek the Lord. It says, and then the spirit came upon Amasai, came in the midst and began to prophesy and talked about how great their God was.
Congregation: [00:00:51] Hallelujah!
Pastor West: [00:00:52] And God gave them a strategic plan. How would your outnumbered with all the odds, 3 to 1? And think about this. There's actually going to be a war, right? And here's the here's the plan from the greatest minds, the greatest counsel there was. This was the plan. What should we attack with? You know, what are their weapons? You can be seated. What are the weapons? What do they have? But here was the plan. Put the artillery in the back. Bring the praisers out front, man. Take the machetes, the slingshots, the spears, the swords, anything that could physically be used in battle.
Pastor West: [00:01:41] They said, put it to the back and bring the worshipers and the praisers up front.
Congregation: [00:01:45] Amen. Amen. Thank you. Father. Glory. Amen.
Pastor West: [00:01:49] And the Lord and the Lord said, here's how this this is going to happen. He said, by this time tomorrow. He said, this is where your enemy is going to be. It's almost like the Lord knows what's going to happen tomorrow.
Congregation: [00:02:03] Amen.
Pastor West: [00:02:06] I mean, I read that, so I'm assuming he kind of knew where there was going to be tomorrow. But he said about this time tomorrow and this is where they're going to be. And he says, he says stand still and watch. He said, he said for the Bible does not belong to you but the battle belongs to me. The battle belongs to the Lord. He said but I want you to have a good seat.
Congregation: [00:02:27] Glory to God. Amen.
Pastor West: [00:02:29] Because when the show starts, if you wasn't there and they told you, no one would believe it.
Congregation: [00:02:34] Amen.
Pastor West: [00:02:36] At that time they went out. And sure enough, just like God said, here was their enemies. And they're outnumbered 3 to 1. And they begin to implement what the Lord told them. And the worshipers and the prayers and the singers and the musicians begin to sing. For the Lord is good, and his mercy endureth forever.
Congregation: [00:02:58] Amen.
Pastor West: [00:02:59] And it got louder. And they said, say it with me. For the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever.
Pastor West: [00:03:06] And it said, and the Lord is good, and his mercy endureth forever. And as they begin to worship the Lord, it caused such confusion in the other camp. Of these three armies that they said the three armies, the three armies began to turn on each other, and they began to kill one another, while the ones that they were come to destroy were sitting there watching them. And it said, not one man lost his life. Not one man entered into the battle, but the three armies that had come to attack them attacked each other. Now, here's the good. Here's here's here's the kicker. You want kicker? No one went to battle. And everyone in the three armies is dead. Outnumbered right now they're all dirty. Dead. Right? Terror. That's a lower Mississippi talk. And? It said then they went out among the people and they gathered up the spoils of war. They got the fine linen. They got the silver, they got the gold, they got the horses, they got the camels, they got the double hump or camels, which is like a like a Cadillac, like a it's a SUV Cadillac, a double jumpers. I mean, because because, you know, the single humper going to be like this, but double you can recline. Yeah, you I tell you, I haven't studied enough anyway. So if you're going to get a camel, camel, get a double humper. All right. You want to be able to climb when you're on the ride.
Pastor West: [00:04:43] And. So it said there was so much spoil. There was so much wealth that it took the army three days to gather up all the goods. There were so much. So when you feel outnumbered and you feel like the odds are way too much, just remember the way that they entered in to the fullness. And the victory is with their mouth. By speaking words of praise. They weren't saying, oh my God, we're not going to make it. They just begin to worship the Lord. Amen. If you have your Bible, if you will go to Romans chapter eight, I'm going to be in the Passion Translation. And well, not not Romans eight. I'm sorry, but we get there in just a moment. Ephesians chapter three, please. We're still ministering on the love of God. You could stay there forever. Actually, you know, I don't know how you'd ever. Doesn't really what what someone ministers on if it's not rooted in the father's love, then. Because that's his motive for everything, isn't it? I said, isn't it? It it really is. But in Ephesians chapter three, there's there's a prayer that we started with when we was teaching on the wisdom of God in Ephesians chapter one. But now we're in Ephesians chapter three. And these are two prayers that Paul prayed over the church at Ephesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to pray these prayers because they're in the New Testament. And Paul was talking to a New Testament church.
Pastor West: [00:06:23] And since the Word of God was written to us, for us, especially as New Testament believers, this prayer would belong to you. You can pray this prayer over yourself, and you can pray this prayer over anybody that you want to pray for. And you know, and some of you may not be familiar with Ephesians chapter one prayer, but if you're if you want to go back and look at that, it's Ephesians one starts in verse 16 to the end of the chapter. It's very powerful. I don't have time to comment on it or I'll lose my place. But in Ephesians chapter three, verses 14 is where Paul prayed this prayer, and in the passion translation Paul said, I kneel humbly in awe before the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the perfect father of every father and child in heaven and on earth. And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and his favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power. Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and then the resting place of his love will become the very source and the root of your life. That is just too good. Then. Now watch. And because of that. Now watch. And then you will be empowered to discover whatever your Holy One experience is the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions.
Pastor West: [00:07:58] How deeply intimate and far reaching is his love, how enduring and inclusive it is. Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding. This extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God. Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all of this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest requests, your most unbelieving dream, and exceed your wildest imagination. He will outdo them, and for his miraculous power constantly energizes you. Now we offer up to God all the glory, the praise that raises from every church and every generation through Jesus Christ, and all that will ever be manifested through time and eternity. Can you see why that prayer belongs to you today? Amen. The exceeding riches of his glory and of his grace, which he said, there is no limit to it. So Paul wanted us to give a revelation of how much God loves you. When I say that, and if you say that in church and and you say, how many know God loves you, then people, everyone will say, yeah, we know that. Amen. And And I don't doubt that they do, but I do doubt that we all know how much he loves us Humans put limits on love. Most, most people have. They have a limit to the love. And when we're talking about this kind of love, we're talking about not just the word.
Pastor West: [00:09:34] You know, as the words used love all the time by people and music and, you know, and we were talking about I use those song for a title a couple weeks ago, What's Love Got to Do with it? But all that has to do with all those things you're talking about a phileo type of love, a worldly love, a people that have one for another and they may mean it, you know, from their heart and their emotions, but it has limitations. So in other words, it's if you love me, I'll love you. If you're kind to me, I'll be kind to you. If you help me, I'll help you. If you bless me, I'll bless you. But if you. If you slap me, I'm going to slap you back. Spit on me. I'll spit on you. If you kick me, I'll kick you back if you kill me. Well, I guess I don't know. Whoever gets there first. Well, so that's not. That's not the kind of love. Because the love of God is unconditional. And yet the church is trying to make some man made rules, to make conditions to come to God. It's just it's human nature to do that. Human nature is that you need to earn something to have approval. So really, what we're what we're really trying to do, whether we realize that is we're trying to earn his love. Amen. And how many of you have children? Or you know someone who does? I should I should have got everybody.
Pastor West: [00:10:51] How many once was a child? Okay. I still ain't got everybody. Who in here had a mother? Amen. Praise God I finally got there. So? So at once. You as a child. Right? And so just having a child like faith. You as a child, or did your children have to earn your love for you to care for them? What did they do for you when they were born? And most of them that I know when they're born, they come out screaming, right? I don't think they do it. You know, in our day, they used to hold them up and slap them on the rear end. And I think that's where my mother learned the method, I don't know. So and then, then when she couldn't do me by the ankle, she just get me by the nape of the neck. And she went like this. And she got a good, good rotation to her, you know, it was called the windmill and she had a perfect rotation. Well, but we didn't do anything to earn our parents love. Matter of fact, we were costing them. We were costing them time, energy, money and a lot of sleep. Right. But yet, you know, they didn't have to earn the last name. They didn't have to earn their breakfast or the bottle. Michelle was feeding Louis yesterday, and he's a really sweet, affectionate little boy.
Pastor West: [00:12:22] Big little boy. But he is just so happy about everything. And if you just barely give that boy a smile, it's sowing and reaping. If you need a smile, you need someone to smile at you. Go to the nursery and find Louis and smile at him. And it will fix your life today. And when you give him a bottle, you are in the you're on his best friends list. I mean, there's nothing wrong with you if you feed that boy. And so he's just a joy to, you know, to have and to spend time with. But, you know, we having four kids, we didn't get four just like that. Our first experience was an absolute nightmare as a as a baby coming with colic. Six months of colic. We would ride around. I put him on the dryer in the pumpkin seat, not in the dryer. I just want to make sure. I think I said that one time by mistake and I, you know, I had people writing me and and but no, we put him in a punk, you know, movement or something. Vibration sometimes that wouldn't work. So we would get up 3 or 4:00 in the morning, put Chad in a car seat, and we'd ride around, you know, and sing. Neither one of us can really sing, but we'd sing Christmas songs or whatever, you know, just whatever. We just 3 or 4:00 in the morning or just riding around And then the doctor gave us.
Pastor West: [00:13:46] What was it? You didn't like it, but I liked it. What was it? Paragard do they still make it? It was amazing because he was in bad shape and bad condition. But he went to sleep and, and he slept for 12 or 14 hours and she felt so guilty. I didn't feel guilty at all I mean, it was actually the first time I slept over two hours, you know, without major interruptions. And she. She was crying. Young mother. She was 20, 23, four years old. And when Chad came around and then. But he slept 12 hours. But when you picked him up, he just draped over your hands, you know, like like a wet dish rag. She said, I, I look what I've done to my kid. I said, it's amazing. It's amazing. It took us a half a year to find this stuff. I said, when's his next dose? Let's get, you know, let's get past the past the teething stage and then we'll, you know, we'll do something else. Well, she didn't she didn't heed my counsel. So when we thought, you know, the next one would come around, we were like, oh no, oh no, I don't know if. Are we strong enough for this? And it was quite the opposite. It didn't need anything. One to be in the room by himself, didn't want any kind of light. If you turn any kind of light on a little night light, I mean, he'd be crying because you gave him light.
Pastor West: [00:15:14] But that means everybody who was only a two bedroom trailer. So that means everybody else slept in in us. So it was Michelle and I, and and Chad and Amy and we were all in one room and the room was kind of small, this trailer, you know. So the only way that you could get up and go to the bathroom, would you have to go to the end of the bed and crawl over the side? You ever woke up at 3:00 and you're not really awake, and you're trying to be quiet because you don't want to wake up? I mean, who who wants to wake up a sleeping baby? I mean, you need counseling if you want to do that. And because we had, you know, baby bed here and, you know, and another little place to sleep here. So the only place I was just at the end of the bed. And so everything, everything was different the second time around. And then I know Amy wants to tell if she was a good person, a good little baby, and she was. What else did you tell me say about? Oh, yeah, that's right, that's right. You didn't cause any trouble. And they were all leased except for the first one. And so you can compare it with that. So what did we do to earn the father's love? We're just his children. And you know, he loves you more than you love yourself.
Pastor West: [00:16:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. He does. People are suffering all kinds of situations. It's because they don't know the father's love. They have all kind of pain in their life. That the life has brought them and people's brought into their life. And then they not wanting to, but they internalized it, absorbed it, fitted into their frame thinking, well, yet they're still trying to somehow, you know, not embrace. But it's become part of their identity. And so sometimes you have this, you know, rough or not rough, but you have this exterior like, we're good, we're all good. But but they're not. There's actually scars on the inside. And sometimes you don't even know a lot of us in there until later on in life when something happens and it triggers something. Am I talking to anybody? Sorry. Yeah, I did this in my 30s at Bible school. You know, where you had to preach for 15 minutes at least, because you had to preach, you know, twice or you weren't going to graduate. They were just trying to give you a way to. You got to make an outline and the outlines got to be like this. They're going to grade your outline and then you have to deliver. And then you got to do all in 15 minutes. You know, now, you know that was a miracle for me to open up and then be through in 15 minutes.
Pastor West: [00:17:56] The bell went off when the bell went off. You through whether you through or not. But I was so I never had I never ministered and I was so nervous. I was within their room with 150 people. The, the my instructor was one of the associate pastors of the church who ministered to thousands. You know, Ramos had several thousands of people there. And now you got you got one of the pastors of the church, and you're going to preach in front of, you know, Pastor Watts. And then a lot of these people had already been in the ministry of preaching. And I'm like, oh, gosh, I could count. Okay, we're going to do three every day. And I could see when my time is going to come in. I was like, and I was I was so scared and I was so nervous in the night. And on the front row, the front row changes. You have classmates, and the classmates there posted grades you to based on certain criteria. So you get a grade from your classmates and you get a grade from the teacher on your outline, plus your delivery. And I saw these people. They were like judges, you know, now, like in music, you know, things that we watch on TV, you know, the chairs turned around. Well, these we didn't have they didn't have turning chairs. And the night before I ministered, I had a dream. And that dream was I saw these people on the front row.
Pastor West: [00:19:25] Everyone on the front row. And they all had the same face because their job is to, you know, judge my delivery of the of the sermon. And every face was the same. Everyone was the same and every face was a male. And that male and that face To judge me was my father. And I was going to preach to see if I could gain his approval. And I didn't even know that was in me. Because I'd always tried to get that. Amen. And he probably thought, I'm fine with you. But there was so much wrong with him that came into us that he didn't know I was suffering with that all my life, and I didn't even know to that extent that I was I was trying to get this man's approval. And now I'm 30 something years old at Bible school having to preach, and I'm seeing my father's face over and over and over again, and I knew I was going to get a failing grade. You want to know how it went? Okay, well, it went good, but the reason it went good is because the guy before me, he was in his 40s, he got up and he started crying. He was so scared when I saw him crying. I'm talking about, like, like a kid in the nursery. And you take away the toy and it's red sucker, and you pull it out. And he started crying, and he didn't do anything.
Pastor West: [00:21:05] They told him he did everything they told him not to do. He ministered on subjects he was not allowed to minister on. And so there's there wasn't much time to say, well, try it again, because there was only so many days and everyone had to minister. So there was only like two days you could play around with. And so he said, if you can fix this. We'll give you a moment and let you fix it and go on. If not, I don't know, he said. We might have one extra day this month that we'll try to work it in. Can you fix this? He said, I think so, but you can't mention this and you can't mention, you know, the Raymond. You can't mention Brother Hagan. You can't. You knew that. You knew that. I'm sorry. I can fix this. And he went up there again, and the first thing he said. Now, brother, he said. And then. And he said, then he realized he was doing it again. And then he started crying. I mean, full I mean, I'm next. And so I don't have no preaching experience. So the guy sits down and Pastor Watts, he said, where's come here? I said, yeah. He said, well, are you okay? I said He said, I mean, that's kind of. He said, have you ever ministered very much? I said, no, sir, I've never. Not really. He said, are you okay? And I said, well, can we get the worship team down here and sing a couple songs for us? He said, no, no, that's no biggie.
Pastor West: [00:22:26] He said, no, he says, so it's kind of a tough spot. He says, so I hate to put you behind that. And then I just checked down here with the Holy Spirit. He says, go ahead and do it. Everything be fine. And I got an A plus. I don't think I was that good. I just looked that good behind him. And somehow I just knew if I didn't cry, I'd be okay. But I was searching for approval. And, you know, people are still searching for approval from people in their lives parents, grandparents, workmates, husband, wife, dada, on and on and on. But ultimately we're trying to get we're trying to be good enough, whatever that looks like. And you're thinking in mind that the father will accept us. And every time you make a mistake, maybe you don't, but I do sometimes. I know you probably don't, but I'm just telling you I do. Sometimes I make a mistake. What happens on the inside of us internally is we we we we feel condemnation and guilt because we already told the Lord. That won't happen again. If you know you ever struck a deal, don't raise your hand. If you ever struck a deal with the Lord. You know, if you don't growing up as a kid, don't. If you don't let momma know this.
Pastor West: [00:23:50] And if I just get past this, it'll never happen again. And it worked out. Then you're doing it again in two hours. And again and again and again and again again, again, again. So it's hard for us to believe that the Lord would continually forgive us because no one else does. You know. You know it doesn't. Because in the world, in the United States, just not my statistics, but statistically, every every person, every other person who gets married in the first five years will be divorced, right? And sadly, the church almost has the same statistics. Do you know anything that has that high a percentage of failure? I mean, you've heard me do this before, but would you go to a restaurant? They don't know why they're trying to figure it out. They ain't figured it out. I mean, it doesn't seem to have any sense make any sense to it, but every other person goes there, gets food poisoning. Would you eat there? Oh. You would. How about if every other car they made was like the days of the week talking about the Toyota Prius. Remember that key? I mean, the car that. What'd you say? Michelle keeps on running. What do you want? Oh, yeah. You remember the Toyota Prius years ago? The accelerator stuck, and they couldn't get the car to cut off, and it caused all kinds of accidents. So the joke was, was what now?
Congregation: [00:25:13] Moving forward, whether you like it or not.
Pastor West: [00:25:16] Moving forward, whether you like it or not. So it probably didn't make you want to go buy a Prius. Until they worked that out. So the marriage has a 50% failure rate. But but why is that? Well, they just the wrong person. Oh, or maybe they had that song. What's love Got to do with it? Or maybe they lost those emotions. Maybe they didn't have that warm, tingly feeling. What was it that you thought? What is it that you expected? Most people, it's a fantasy, a feeling, an emotion. I can't live without you. Then I'll find out. Then. In a few months or years, they find out they can. You know. You know, the next highest rate of failure. But behind that, it's it's the second marriage and the third marriage. Because if we don't go to the root of the problem, right. And it's just surface stuff, then it will happen again and again and again. And so it dawned on me one day that the problem is going to be hard to believe. The problem might be me. And here's the thing that I found out about this thing that wherever I go, there I am.
Congregation: [00:26:44] Yeah. Amen.
Pastor West: [00:26:47] So you ladies, you know, you could have a name change by marrying someone else. But if there's root problems are rooted on the inside. Changing your address won't fix the problem, will it? So we all have these things like so. So last week the Holy Spirit had this to minister to people. And that was an awesome thing that people could receive help that way. Mostly what we need is to be taught, you know, not not not even preaching so much is just is taught. And we need both to be ministered to and taught. But the problem that we all have in church, because if you're saved, if you're born again, your spirit is completely sealed. The moment you get born again, the Scripture says the moment. The moment you're born again, all things passed away. All things become new. But where do they become new? Only in your spirit. Not. Not in your mind. Not in your emotions. But your spirit is clean and holy and righteous before God. Then he seals it so sin can never touch it again. So to borrow things from other folks, you said it really good. I can't make it any better. Then one third of you is completely righteous and holy because one third of you is completely God.
Pastor West: [00:28:12] Wall to wall God, one third of you is just as righteous as Jesus. One third of you is just as holy as God Himself because God came in and then the vacuum packed sealed you. So you say, well, then why would we have problems? Well, the reason why we had problems last week, and why we might have problems today is because we have the other two thirds, which is the body, which is just neutral a body. And when someone dies, the body's there. James gives that illustration about, you know, when someone dies, the body is just there. You can see there's no life in it. There's no movement in it ever again. Right? So it's just like putting your hand in a mint in your glove. It just lays there dormant. But when you put your hand in it, you give it expression. But who is really expressing? Is it the glove expressing? Did the glove come to life? No, it's just your hand gives it expression and gives it movement. So the body is just neutral. So if the spirit is 100% God, correct, righteous, holy, blameless in the body is just there, then what is our problem?
Pastor West: [00:29:32] And Solomon, you ever heard of him. Yeah. He said as a person thinks in their heart that is who they are. So we have things in our life in our mind and that's why he said you have to renew your mind day by day. And it is a process. Now, the mark or the measurement that we used to know where we're going in this. I mean, I'm, I don't even know why I make notes. I have no idea why I make notes. They're just they're wonderful notes. There's hours invested into those notes. And here I am over here. Thanks a lot. Praise the Lord. So. The measurement is in Ephesians four and we won't go there. But Paul said, here's the measurement. He said, this is what you're attaining to the fullness of the stature of who you are in Christ. Not not Paul, not Mother Teresa, not great great granny, although she was a wonderful person. All those are wonderful. But he only measures you and says, here's the place I'm bringing you. I'm bringing, I'm bringing you because I'm in you and you're in me. And there's only one spirit. And as the Holy Spirit. And now the Bible says, he that has joined to the Lord. And if you're if you're a believer, you have joined yourself there. This is you. This is him. And when you become born again, you become one spirit. You're two that becomes one. And Paul teaches that through the marriage union.
Pastor West: [00:31:19] So by union with him, you became one spirit with him. So it's no longer you that lives because he lives and you died. You now live because you have died. And now it's just him. But your mind doesn't know all that. All that just yet. So there's a struggle between the old, not the old. There's not a dual nature, even though a lot of people like to preach that. No. He died. That died? Yeah. You don't have the old man and the new man and the Holy Spirit's bedding down, you know, in a double room with, you know, your old Adamic nature in the new nature. No. That died, but it doesn't look like it died, you know. So when you get saved, you don't you don't necessarily look different. I mean, I've seen people take on a different look and persona and a glow about them and all that. But pretty much if you was five, four when you were lost and then got saved, if we measure, you're probably going to be five four. If you like chitlins before, you may like chitlins after Neath. If you liked ice cream before, come on somebody. You might still like ice cream afterwards, right? So that part didn't change. What did change? The old man. So now we have what we call the new man or the new person in Christ. So what is what is our job? Our job is to find out. Not who, not not about you.
Pastor West: [00:32:51] But our job is to find out about him. Because as he is. The Scripture says as he is, as as he is, so are you in this life, not in heaven. So then the question then becomes, how are you? How is he? How's he doing? What does it look like? So the question Jesus, you know about the father all the time. And Jesus said, he said, well, have you seen the father? He told Philip. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. That was a brain twist, you know? And it's like, you know, Philip said, if you'll just show us the father, then we won't have to talk about all this stuff. Just show us the father and then we'll be satisfied. He said, Philip, I've been with you so long. He said, Philip, Philip, Philip, he said, come here, let me slap you. He said, but I do love you. That's a loving slap. Every church needs a slap line. Kim said. And so he said, when you when you've seen me, you've seen the father. Because the Scripture says that Jesus is the express image of God. How many ever took, you know, in school, you ever took a quarter or a nickel or a half dollar or whatever, And you could use that onionskin paper and take a pencil and just draw. Anyone ever done that? And what does your paper look like actually then? It resembles what it resembles the coin.
Pastor West: [00:34:28] That's not a hard one, you know. It resembles you traced over it looks just like the coin. Can you spend it? Why? Because it's not the coin, but it resembles the coin. But in your spirit, you are that coin. As he is, so are you. You're. You're one spirit with him. You probably never knew this verse was in your Bible, but you ought to read it sometime. It's over. There. Y'all ever heard of revelation? Okay, then pastor. Pastor revelation is called. I call it the Book of Maps. So come backwards. Book of maps. Revelation. Then there'd be one page, one page, and it'd be the book of Jude. And I would say, read Jude. You're going to think I'm saying for a spiritual reason. And that would be true. But here's why. Jude's going to ask everybody. Did you read my one page? I mean, they might give you a pass on, you know, Leviticus and the baguette and the baguette and the baguette and the baguette and the baguette and the baguette and the baguette. But Jude is going to say, tell me you read my book. He's just one page boy. So, Jude, I think it's the verse 24. He said, the day will come that you, that we're standing, we're in heaven and and Jesus is going to take you personally all by yourself. Jesus is going to escort you to the father. Did you find that, Barbara? What does it say?
Pastor West: [00:36:18] Where's that microphone? Let's get it on there. Can you turn it on? Read it good and slow. I mean.
Congregation: [00:36:30] Now unto him.
Pastor West: [00:36:32] When we're in heaven one day.
Congregation: [00:36:35] That is able to keep you from falling. And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Pastor West: [00:36:46] Okay, so thank you. The day will come that the father. And before you get to heaven, he's going to keep you from falling. Who is? He is. He's going to keep you from falling. You say, well, I've fallen many times before. Well, your definition of falling and his is not quite the same. You say? Yeah. You know, you don't even know what all I've done. And don't tell me. I mean, you need to. Okay? But I don't have to know. But it's like someone's grip, you know? You see movies where they the. They were capsized in a boat and canoeing or whatever it was, and they got into the water raft, and they shouldn't have been on the boat capsized and and they're floating down this, you know, torrential. And they grab on to what, a rock or an edifice right there. But then he's pulling them, pulling and pulling them and pulling them. And some of them make it, some of them don't. They lose the grip or appear, you know, or whatever, or off of a building. If you're watching action movies, you know, and they're trying to hold on, hold on, hold on, but you can see their hands slipping. And that's how a lot of Christians live. And it's a terrible way to live, because it's based on your strength of trying to hold on and your strength not to give in to that situation or to that addiction. It's you and your strength trying to survive. And it's based on you being able to do it in your in your power.
Pastor West: [00:38:30] So everyone who got ministered to Sunday, it was it was a soul issue, right? It couldn't be in your body Has no expression. Couldn't be. Your spirit is perfect. So the problem would just have to be in the soul. Would you agree with that? That's all of us. That's me. That's all of us in here. There were soul issues. So now tell me, how does the soul person fix a soul problem? It can't be done. You can have better days and worse days. It depends on how strong you are. You might. You might pull it off for a week or a month. But you you can't take tools of the trade. You can't take you can't take fleshy tools to fix a fleshy problem. And it's not just a fleshy problem, it's actually a spiritual problem. It's a spiritual issue. So anything in our life that that doesn't need to be there, that's hurting us, that's pain that's causing suffering, that is controlling us. And we know it's not of him. We know it's not godly. Whatever it is, it's standing there because it has the ability to stand there. How many ever cut, watched, or cut a tree down? I don't think you ladies probably cut a lot of trees down. But you saw, right? And anything in the. In the plant life, tree flowers, whatever has to have a root system. Agreed. Everything. I mean, if you pull weeds out of your and you're not, you know, if you don't get to the root, you didn't really solve the problem, right? Right.
Pastor West: [00:40:31] But when you watch a tree, if a tree is standing, it's because it has life. And if it has life, it has roots in it. And if it has roots, something is feeding it. That's just basic how things live. Take it into our life. If you're if you're living and breathing, it's because you have life. And if you have life, then just because you're rooted in something and if you're reading something, it's because something is feeding it. If someone has a cancer in their body, something produced it. If cancer is there, it's because it has life. And if cancer has life, then what's feeding it? And then cancer has roots. Your hair has roots, right? Everything has a root system. Everything. Jesus said, if you abide in me, which means remain, does it mean come visit and go away? If you abide in me and my words abide or take root in you? Now if he would have just said, if you abide in me, we'd had it made. Because if you're born again, you're abiding in him. But he went past that. He said, if you abide in me and my words take root in you, then you can ask whatever you will and it will be done. Well, see, you wouldn't ask for something stupid or crazy if you were abiding in him. Rooted in him. Right. Then you can ask what you will. So that's what I was reading last week, you know, in the parable of the sower, which I didn't get anywhere near finishing.
Pastor West: [00:42:07] But but that's okay. And it says where? But I will refer back to that for just a moment. So in Mark chapter four, when we was reading that last week, he said they get excited to meet, you know, initially they get excited when they heard the word. I mean, they go like, wow, that's awesome. I'm going to I'm going to do that right now. I'm going to believe God for that too. Right now. You ever you ever been that I was that person. It says endure for a while. But then in a little while, affliction and pressure comes. And what was that after? It was after the seed. Because what does seed do? It produces a harvest. And what does Satan not want in your life? He doesn't want the harvest because he knows the power of his seed. So if he if he if he goes and chokes the seed with thorns and thistles and rocks and everything, then he can choke out what the fruit would have been, right? Because, you know he will he will disengage that seed. In other words, he'll choke the life out of it. So the Scripture says uses the word choke. He says he comes immediately. And because they don't, they get excited initially, but they don't have any roots in themselves. They're not rooted in me. They're not rooted in the word. They have this hope and this dream and thrill and like, woo, I mean, the Scripture says, when you cast out a demon, the person needs to fill themself back up because that demon does not want to be homeless.
Pastor West: [00:43:35] They prefer a body so it can. So it's cast out and it goes, but it's going to come back to see if that house is empty or vacant. If it finds the house vacant, Jesus said it'll come back and bring seven worse. And that was because the house is empty, swept out, and no one ever filled it up. So the authority is to get rid of the enemy. But then you have to fill yourself up. You have to put in roots. Anything standing in your life right now that's wrong is because it has life, and it has life because it has roots, which means something or someone is feeding it. It's not just there. Like, this is the devil, okay? Yeah. It's always go all the way back. Of course it's the devil. Well, but what about you? Anything in my life that doesn't line up with that is because I'm letting it stand. Now, when you watch a tree being cut down wall and it'll start to lean here. What's that? And if you're close by, you don't need to be too close. You can hear things popping, though. I don't know. What would you call that? The. Just the wood. But I'm going to call the. The fibers. Whatever it is, you can hear them because now it's leaning with the weight of the tree. But it's losing strength. But it hasn't given up yet, right. Yeah. It hasn't given up. But the more you continue to cut it, you know, whether you're using a saw or whether you use an ax or an old boss or whatever it eventually the weight of it will lean and you can hear breaking, and then it'll get to the place it falls.
Pastor West: [00:45:23] All right. Now, whether that be a limb or whether that be a tree, when that tree falls, the tree's gone, but it's still carrying some life in it when it falls. Did you notice the leaves? The leaves don't change color, but in 3 or 4 days you look out there and then leaves are brown. Now, why are the leaves brown? It got. It got disconnected from the root system. So we got it has no way to feed anymore. So what happened to it? It dies because it lost its life source. Right. Simple. But everyone understands that. So anything standing in your life right now, the reason why it's there is because it has life and it's feeding and it's standing erect. And you have a choice. You can either feed it and let it grow, or you can starve it and let it die. And the choice is yours. You know, a lot of times when people make mistakes, they're not living their destiny. They're just they're simply living their choices. You know, when people go through situations or they have, you know, I was talking to a marriage the other day and had trouble with, you know, grown kids and, and and that's what I was saying to him. I said, well, I mean, this is you and I both know that's not his destiny.
Pastor West: [00:47:01] They said, well, he's this and that and got himself arrested 2 or 3 times and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And well, I know he didn't learn that from you know, he knows he says I said, well this is just his choices today. It's not his destiny. But at any time at any time. So I want you to see it that way that if something it could be grief. Why let grief control you? Why does grief stay there? It's because you're feeding it on an untruth. This life is the shortest thing you're ever going to do. It's the shortest gig you're ever going to do. If you lived to be 120 like Moses. God ain't going to go like, wow. I always said his the laces and his Nike's. His shoes are older than Moses was when he left. You're not going to impress God with how long you live. How do you know how God is? When was he born? Who was his mama? Who's his mama? Nem. He's always been. How can that be? I don't know. So longevity. No one's going to impress him with that. So if you put your whole thinking in this life, and then some part of your life changes like that, it's understandable that, you know, we go through the emotions of all that, but none of it is actually true in the sense of I'm without so and so. No, you're actually with the most important person that you can be with is God.
Congregation: [00:48:43] Amen. Amen.
Pastor West: [00:48:45] And we know, because we're believers, that even the people that we are missing right now, we will be together for ever. I mean, during the millennium when we're all back here for a thousand years, you know, after we go to the marriage supper of the lamb and eat nonstop for seven years. Oh, Hallelujah. No carbs. No one needs to check their levels. Then we go. Then we go to the Bema Seat, which is the reward seat. It's called the judgment seat. But it's not. It's not. I think everyone knows this, but I wish someone told me this when I was going church. For a believer, I thought the judgment seat, the God's going to get to heaven judges. And I knew my mama was going to be right there. And I didn't tell her anything. She. She found out a lot of things, but I didn't tell her anything. And somehow I'm still a little arrogant. And still she's going to be mommy in heaven. And I was like, oh, boy, here we go. Oh, and I'm going to say, Chris made me do it. My brother. It was Barbara. She made me and my older sister and brother. I mean, I wouldn't, you know me, I wouldn't done that. When you go to heaven, a believer is never judged. Because Jesus has already been judged for everything that you've ever done or will do. And he took all the punishment of your past, present, and future mistakes. And because of that, he got him killed. And he laid his life down, the only one with no sin.
Pastor West: [00:50:15] So the Bible says, so that you could become what he was, the sinless, perfect lamb. He was the righteousness of God. So by his action he took all your guilt so that you he would swap with you. He says, here you be holy and perfect, and I'll become sin. So when he goes to heaven, June 24th, he's going to keep you from falling. Then he's going to prevent you. He's going to present you to the father as father. This is Carol. She's faultless. She's perfect. She's never missed it. Who's he talking about? The real. The real you. But who are you identifying with? The one in here or what's happening in here? So the more that you can find out about the new person, the new nature of who you really are, it will begin to change the actions of your life and the decisions and the choices of your life. But if you live only for the soulless realm, all you're going to produce is death. It's either life or death. There's nowhere in between. There's no gray matter. The spirit imparts life, and sin imparts what it is death. Because both of them are rooted. Life is rooted in some one, and death is rooted in some one. It's not just the words life or death, it's a person. It's two kingdoms, the soul. Romans eight says, the spirit of life which is in you. What does it produce? Life which is what? What is? Who is life rooted in Jesus and the father and the Holy Spirit? Who is death? Who is the author of death? So everything wrong in our actions and our thinking.
Pastor West: [00:52:11] If it's standing erect, whatever it is, the choice is the decision, the addiction, whatever it is in our life, if it's standing, if it's still there, if we're still thinking about, if it's still dealing with, if we're still failing, it's because if it's standing, I'm trying to use the word standing. So you'll see it like a tree. If it's standing, it's because it's alive. If it's alive, it's because it has a root system. If it has a root system, that means something is feeding it. When you remove the roots, you remove the fruits. But if all you're doing is trying in your own effort to get away the fruit. And you don't get rid of the root, then you're going to be repeatedly failing in the same area because you're just a fruit snatcher. Then, which means you're in a continuous cycle of good days and bad days. Feel good about yourself. Some fall again. Condemnation in your heart. Feel good. Don't feel good. Condemnation. Had a good day. Had a bad day. Blew it did really bad. I'm ashamed. I'm guilty. I don't want to go to God because I want, I want. It's happened again. Am I the only one here knows anything about that? So you can see why the church hasn't produced many victorious people. Because the church tells you. You know God's watching you. You better be holy, I am. Why? Because he is.
Congregation: [00:53:56] Amen. Amen.
Pastor West: [00:53:57] Oh, you can't say that. Well, I can read. I can read.
Congregation: [00:54:02] Amen.
Pastor West: [00:54:08] Why would you say that? Because as he is, so am I. I'm talking about him, I died. Paul said I died with Christ. Well, they didn't they didn't crucify Paul. There were three people, right? It was Christ in the middle, and there was two thieves. Paul went up there. Paul put himself up there. Paul didn't come around to. A few years later, he wasn't there when Jesus died. Paul said, he said when they crucified Christ, they crucified me. I'm quoting Galatians 220. Man, would you put that up? Galatians 220. No, just King Jimmy, I guess. Sometimes you get people write to you. So, I mean, how come you don't, you know, you don't preach in the King James the Real Bible? This is for y'all who need that. This is the Bible Jesus read from. I am crucified with Christ. But was he actually crucified? No, he wasn't there. So he sees this as in substitution I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Now if someone was actually crucified, did they say they crucified me yesterday? But you see, I'm alive. No substitution. I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. But yet it's not I but Christ. Who what lives in me. Who's living now? We've got some roots here. Don't we? Got some identity. Does Paul know who he is? Is he struggling with spiritual gender? Does he know which bathroom to go into? Okay.
Pastor West: [00:55:57] And the life which I now live in the flesh. So Paul said they didn't actually kill me, but I'm identifying myself with being crucified with him. And when he died, I died. See, he said, but but you see, I'm actually living here, so I'm not actually dead. He said, but the life which I live in this body, in the flesh I live by what? See the word of it doesn't even say n of is the right is the right interpretation. You're living by the faith of you. Say, what are you saying? I'm glad you asked the question. Whose faith is that? Paul said I'm living by. I don't know if my faith is strong enough. It's not. I can tell you. I don't know if I have strong enough faith. Well you don't. Well, now. Now that we got that settled, your faith ain't strong enough. That's why he didn't give you your faith. Romans 12 three. He said. He said he gave you the measure of the faith of Christ. So according to the Scripture, according to the New Testament, according to the Pauline revelation, who his faith is that that you are now living by the faith of who? What's wrong with his faith? Does he need the faith it up? Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. Jesus. Need to read a list? A bunch of CDs about faith to faith it up.
Pastor West: [00:57:22] Now. So you're living by the faith of the Son of God. Who? What? Oh, he loved you. How do we know that? Keep reading. He gave himself for me. Next verse, which most people never read. So since that happened, then I won't frustrate the grace of God. You mean you can frustrate grace? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Grace can get really frustrated with you. What causes Grace to get frustrated? Obviously, that ain't going to happen. For if righteousness or for if I became right with God by keeping laws and rules, then you frustrate Grace. How do you fall from grace as a kid out here? I hear the minister preaching and they're falling from grace. Well, I thought they meant they lost their salvation, didn't they? Never thought that. Was I the only one who thought that. And I thought that every week. Because they said it every week. Then they get the same people who got saved two weeks ago. And they, you know, you know, you've been a bad person this week. I've heard things that you've done. And it's a it's a hard thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. And God goes on forever. And varicose veins are scare the ever living hell out of you. What they were trying to do. But see, that doesn't produce children and it doesn't produce sons.
Pastor West: [00:58:59] It produces fear. So this loving father, you are scared of him and you share because you've made mistakes. You're going to go down, down, down, down down down and burn, burn burn burn burn. So you're scared. So you run back to the one. I mean, I you've heard this said before, but I know idea personally. My teenage years I wore my rededicated out. It couldn't be overhauled. So I come back up and, you know, get another dip. You know, put my life back in order. It's like Pastor Buzz, you say, three times a week. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Take the same bunch of folks you know you ain't right. You ain't done right like this. You following you. You know, you said you love God. And now here you are, sin and you're this. And bring it back and squall them out. Bring them, set them down, squall them out, set them down. Squall them out. Kleenex. Squall them out, squall them out, you say, oh, we had a wonderful service there. Oh, the altars was filled. Yes, because the pastor don't even know who he is, so he can't tell him who they are. And you got a bunch of spiritual babies being led by a spiritual baby in the pulpit. And you think you had a great service in kindergarten is stronger than that.
Congregation: [01:00:16] Amen. Oh, man.
Pastor West: [01:00:18] According to this verse I'm saying now. So Paul said, I'm not going to frustrate the grace of God. Well, what did the grace of God do for you? Oh, wow. I mean, it's 12:00. Do you think I can tell you the answer to that? Tune in this same time next week. Same time, same bat channel. For if righteousness came by you doing it right. Then Christ died for nothing. If Christ came. And you said, I'm. I'm going to dot every little I. I'm going to cross every little t then God's going to grade my performance. But you know, somewhere you're going to fail and you have failed. We all have failed. Right. Paul said that everyone came short of the glory of God include Mother Teresa, including Billy Graham short. So the Scripture says that Jesus paid the price. He said, the priest of old, they would come and, you know, once a year, bring their goat, bring their calf, bring their best. I mean, it had to be the best, the best, because it was going to be a type and shadow of the lamb that was going to be slain. Jesus. But in the old covenant, once a year they're going to come and and then the priest is going to have to examine to make sure there's no blemish. There's nothing wrong with your lamb to see if it was worthy to be used, and if it was, they put it on the altar and they slit its throat.
Pastor West: [01:01:53] I'd like to go to that church every Sunday wearing galoshes. Then you got to tell the priest, well, I hate my mother in law. My husband, he's a sorry piece of chewing tobacco. You know, I drank a little watching soap operas and cussed 14 times, you know? Oh, God. It's terrible. I have to tell you. Could you just cut his throat? Then they apply the blood. What's the blood? What's the blood going to be for? What can wash away our sins? But what? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So this was the type in shadow. So it said. It said the priest's job was never done because there was going to be no end of sin. But then it gives you a it gives you a crossover with Jesus. It says, here's the, here's the perfect high priest, because in the old covenant, the priest, before he could do anything for you, he had to have something. He had to go through the same process with other priests so his sins could be forgiven. So now he can come to you and say, you know. In other words, the priest has got his things. I don't care what he's wearing.
Congregation: [01:03:02] Amen.
Pastor West: [01:03:04] You got a bathroom like everybody else. You pair on, you know, you put on your you put on your Levi's like everybody else. No one jumps off the bed and both legs at one time. Watch this. I'm anointed. Now you got two casts. So this priest, he's in a mess, so he has to go to it. I mean, just just read the Bible. It's very fun and entertaining. So the priest real? I mean, if he didn't do everything just like God said, had to be done. And he got in there to the presence of God, it would kill him. Amen. And it killed many of them. Read your Bible. So they would put a rope around his ankle and they put bells on it. And am I telling the truth? Yeah, right. I mean, you know, don't don't let me exaggerate. But he's he's coming in here and he's doing everything just the way he's supposed to do it, as prescribed in the commandments. And he's in there because he's going to work for you, but he has to go in there just right. And if he does anything wrong, he's dead instantly. He dies like that in the presence of God. Because sin can't live in the presence of God. And if they didn't hear him and his name was preached, Bob or Gomer and I said Gomer are you okay. And every now and then if they were still alive what they'd do. I mean right.
Pastor West: [01:04:30] They would shake their hand so you could hear the bell say so far so good. Until they got everything. And they said and if it wasn't good, you know what the rope was for? Drag him out, because who's going in there after him? And you see, you ought to read your Bible. You ain't gonna watch TV all the time. This is this is amazing. This a true story? So the rope was like, if he didn't make it in there, you think I'm going in there? Because I told my mother in law where she could go last week, and I know I ain't going in there. I got a I got to get rid of that to somebody. And if Gomer can't make it. Well let me tie the rope around you. Ain't no one tying a rope around me. I can kill myself out here I ain't got to go in there and get killed. Let me bring this to a close. It's time to go. So the priest is examining your sacrifice. And like I said, it couldn't be old gimpy because, you know, we got one. And you know that's not there. Blind. He got a bad leg. You should get rid of him. No, can't get rid of gimpy. You had to bring your best because Jesus is the best, right? Type and shadow. What will to come? So they're examining it completely. Can't have a flaw on it anywhere.
Pastor West: [01:06:00] And when you fail and when you make mistakes and when you sin as you say what it is, the Bible says in first John that you can come before the father and ask forgiveness for that sin, and you are cleansed and put right back into your place of righteousness. Actually, you never lost your righteousness. Amen. Actually, what you're doing is you're just fixing your soul with that confession because you was already forgiven past, present, and future before you actually did it.
Congregation: [01:06:32] Amen.
Pastor West: [01:06:33] The confession just cleanses the soul. So there's not condemnation living in you. So when you come before the father and you say, I did this. He doesn't examine a goat or a calf or a sheep or a lamb. He examines Jesus and says, let me see. What? What? Your sacrifice. Oh. My son is your sacrifice. My son was perfect and blameless and holy before he, my son, laid his life down. No man took his life, he said from him, but he laid it down willingly. So is Jesus a good enough sacrifice for our mistakes?
Congregation: [01:07:22] Amen.
Pastor West: [01:07:24] So can you see why Jesus one day is going to take you to the father and said, this is the one I died for. This is your perfect Carol. This is your faultless Carol. This is. This is her father. This is the one I'm talking to you about all the time. And he's dancing, he said with joy.
Congregation: [01:07:40] Hallelujah.
Pastor West: [01:07:42] Same bat time next week.
Pastor West: [01:07:49] Amen.
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