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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Power Of Unity, Part 2 | Joel Siegel | Mississauga, Canada | Thursday AM | Miracle Crusade
01:33:56
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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It seemed good to me as I was. We were, you know, checking our heart about this morning, and it seemed right to me to, matter of fact, all week long, I had intended to at some point complete some thoughts that we started the first day. And man, was last night not ever a rich. Well, rich. I mean, that birthday anointing came on Pastor Nancy to minister last night. Yes. I mean, you ought to have a little extra on your birthday, shouldn't you? And I mean, you can't thrill me any more than just laying it out, laying out the basics, you know what I mean? And because that's. We know this anytime, anytime a sports team, team doesn't have a good game, they'll say, we just didn't execute. You know what I'm saying? We missed it in just what we know to do. We just didn't know what we. We didn't do what we know to do. And we didn't execute the basics. And so, man, it's such, such rich. If you go back and listen to messages, hello. If you go, Listen, you got, you gotta be family when you have, when you're this close to each other, right? I was saying if you go back and listen to some messages, these are, These are on YouTube afterwards, and you could go back and listen. And I want to. I know we're going to be listening, especially to last night, just to, just to get it again. Get it again. And so along those following that same pattern, I have absolutely no problem maybe turning to some of the same scriptures we looked at the other day, focusing on the subject of prayer in these morning services. And sometimes it's really directly right at prayer. Sometimes it's kind of in a roundabout fashion that we minister on it. But I think there's nothing more essential than making sure our approach in prayer is right. Because if the approach isn't right, the rest of it won't be effective. We're all about effective prayer. I told you the other day, there's really two kinds of prayer, effective and ineffective. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that most of the body of Christ practices ineffective prayer. Maybe it's the best they know, right? But we need to know better. We need to know better, right? Sometimes it's just a matter of you just don't know enough. I remember the story of Brother Hagin when he was on his deathbed and he was trying to believe God, the Best he knew. And the Lord ministered to him. You are believing as far as you know. But there's more you don't know. And it's that part you don't know that's keeping you, hindering you. Right? And so if you would please turn to the fourth chapter of Hebrews. And we're just gonna. We're just gonna look through what we did look through the other day and then add a couple scriptures to it, I think. Hallelujah. Remember what I been saying to you about not passing up an opportunity? That doesn't just apply when things are. When we're singing and dancing and praising and jumping in afloat. But how many know that when we're just getting in the word, you could be halfway in, or you can have. You can have your nose glued to what, what God's saying. And so allow me, please, to encourage you when we read a scripture, man, close off everything else and receive it as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually works in you who believe. So over in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, talking here about approaching God in prayer, verse 14 says, seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Infirmities just means weakness, inability to produce results is what it means. But was in all points our high priest, Jesus was in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin. He's my hero. Is he your hero? Because I don't know about you, but I haven't emerged victorious from every temptation. There's been times somebody pushed my buttons and the buttons reacted. You know what I mean? They were pushing the button. We use that term, push the buttons. What do we mean? We mean they're poking at your flesh. And there's been times my flesh has answered the door and I've responded according to the flesh. Yeah, and you know, you respond according to the flesh, you start and then the other person does the same thing. Next thing you know, you have strife and before you realize it, you. You're actually yielding to the flow of the enemy. You didn't mean to, but you did. I'll just talk about me. I did, but Jesus never did. Jesus never did. You might say, well, he overthrew the tables in the temple. Not in the flesh. He didn't not. It wasn't a work of the flesh. He did what he saw his father do. He did as he was prompted. Amen. He did that. You know why he did that? That needed to be done. Heaven needed that to be done. Sometimes things need to be flipped over on their side. Praise the Lord. So because we have this great high priest, verse 16 says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Well, this is. When would you come to the throne? A lot of times in prayer. Yes. Let us come boldly. Everybody say boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain. This gives us the idea that if we don't come boldly, not going to obtain. Come boldly that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. It matters how we come and what I dealt with for so many years what Christians deal with all the time. And we would be mistaken to think that everybody in this room just has the right mindset and the right understanding along these lines. We so often are overcome with our infirmities and how we've missed it, that we keep ourselves at a distance from God and that distance hinders our bold approach. Boldness without reservation, without inhibition, without any sense of inferiority. We are to come as though we belong. Amen. We're to come as though we belong. Then we looked at the tenth chapter of Hebrews. You remember that we're not going to take terribly long reviewing. You know, that's a faith statement every preacher makes that. Praise God. How many know the word we ate the other day is really good. I mean, you have to know this. I have more notes on the subject of prayer that I could preach that I could ever get to in one lifetime. I think I've got stuff that we've been just collecting for years on prayer.
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Then I tried to organize some stuff when. When these meetings first started. I. I haven't preached but a very little bit of it yet. So it's not like there's nothing else to preach. But this is what this is. Reviewing. This is what I sense would help us the most right now. Verse 19. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not so fast, brother Joel. Glory to God. Let's start at verse 15, whereof. Well, no, you know what we could do? We could just start in Genesis 1 and read the whole thing, can't we? Verse 14 says, for by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. This is what offering? It's talking about Jesus offering himself for by one offering he has perfected forever. I am forever perfect. You are forever perfected. It's like you don't know what I did. You don't Know what he did? For by one offering he's perfected forever then that are sanctified whereof. Or regarding this, we could say the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. He'll witness to this fact on the inside of you that your right, right. The spirit Himself. Romans 8. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit. That we're 50 miles away from God. Is that what he. No, he bears witness that we're children, sons, family, close. For after that he said before, this is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts. And how many know that's good when it's in your heart, needs to be in your heart. But you know what else needs to happen in their minds? Will I write them? Your mind needs to be reprogrammed, renewed, rewritten with God's laws. Amen. And verse 17. Don't get too excited, but this is exciting. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. No more. Now, is God a liar or is God telling the truth? So the problem lies in the fact that we remember what he doesn't remember. Again, I'm just preaching about me, right? I've got enough history on me. I've got enough dirt on me. I mean, no, I haven't knocked off a grocery store, you know what I mean? I haven't held up a bank and haven't done anything like that, really, by the grace of God. You know, there's a lot of things I haven't done, thought about a lot of them, but haven't done them. Glory to God. But yet there's a lot of areas you can miss it in, you know what I mean? And if we wanted to, which we don't, but if we wanted to, I mean, I could resurrect some history. But see that's you're putting in remembrance what God doesn't remember. And folk carry around for years and even decades things that they did and things that they said in ways that they missed it, that they still feel bad about. And if you talk to God about it, he'll say, I don't know what you're talking about. He doesn't know what you're talking. And I've actually done this. I've actually brought up things to the Lord. He said, I don't know what you mean. I mean, I could sense that's what the Spirit was saying to me. I don't know what you mean. Well, you remember. No, no, no, don't remember your sins. And your iniquities will I remember no more? Why would you want to think on something that unpleasant anyhow? But we do it with ourselves, and some folk do it with other people. Now, how my wife remembers things that I did. It's like, now I've forgotten that I did that. How's you remembering? Do I have any? Do I have any? No. No. None of you all are even brave enough to say it. But I know there's other guys in here. I mean, we just look straight ahead, but I know there's other guys in here. You're like, how does she remember that? How does she remember that? Get my nose back in the Bible, Ladies. Be like, God, Remember no more. Remember no more. No more. No more remembering. Guys. You're welcome. You're welcome. Gift cards, all that stuff. Drop them off at my book table. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more? Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin or no more offering of sins. Require having, therefore, brethren, boldness. Why? Because he doesn't remember. He doesn't remember sins and iniquities. I know what you're thinking. I'll get to the other side of it. Just flow. Stay with me. I know there's another side to this. We'll get to the other side. Having, therefore, brethren, boldness. Boldness t. To enter into the holiest. The holiest. You've been perfected forever so that you can enter into God's holiness, God's holiest place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he's consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having a great. Having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Now, you could preach just a month or two or three months on that. I mean, there is so much in these passages, but in full, draw near. Draw near. Draw near with a true heart. No pretense, no falseness, no powering down in unworthiness. Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. You know, you could have a CEO of a big company, you know, the proverbial penthouse office. You know what I mean? The big office. And everybody's scared. And, you know, you have five layers of secretaries before you could ever get in that office, right? And everyone knows, stay away from there. Stay away from there. That's the big dog. That's the big boss. That's the big boss. You don't go in that office. But, you know, if that CEO has a daughter or a son, They just. They just. With a smile, they just march right past all the layers of security and secretary and this, and they'll throw open the double doors, and they don't care if he's in a meeting. They don't care if he's on the phone. They'll just jump right up in his lap, huh? Because they know who they are. Has the daughter missed it before? Of course. But she don't remember. She's focused. What's she doing? She's focused on Daddy. Right. And so we need to erase the mentality of this whole outsider mentality. I told you, told you some of my. How I dealt with that. You know, I got hired to be Brother Hagin's musical director for the singers and band, meaning I'm rehearsing the group and writing for the group and producing recordings for the group and then got to travel with them and all that. And I had no problem doing that part of my job. But I remember I told you when I'd get around him, I just had this outside. I just had this outsider mentality about the whole thing. Meaning that if there was a group gathered, I'd just be on the outside of the group. You know what I'm saying? I'd stand back. I wouldn't jump in like I'm part of anything. Church members, listen, listen. You know, every pastor can think I've got people in my church that are just that way. They won't join the family. You do everything you can to make them feel welcome, but they just don't want to be part of the family. And sometimes it's not that they don't want to. They just have this thing like, well, they don't know what I've done. They don't know my past. They don't know my history. And so if they did, they wouldn't receive me. Gotta erase that outsider thing. If you're born again, you're in. You're in. You're in God. God's in you. You're in the family. But you have to be part of the family that you're in. You've got to take your place. Amen. You've got to take your place. So I traveled with Brother Hagin for seven years. I traveled with him. And for about five of those seven years, I. I had this outsider mentality. Finally, somehow I got past it and acted like I belonged, just took my place. And what's interesting is there's things that I couldn't receive for those first five Years. I mean, in the services, there's things that were happening, and I'm like, why am I being bypassed? Why am I not? Huh? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong? Well, when I took my place as who I was, I started receiving everything that was available. Draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Glory to God. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful who promised. Now, flip on over, if you would, to First John. This is the other passage that we looked at the other day. So we're still reviewing. How many know our clock doesn't start. My preaching clock doesn't start till after we review. Then we start. Yes, First John, what? Chapter three. First John, Chapter three. Glory to God. It was good to hear it the other day, but is it good to hear it again today? We looked in the 18th verse, 1 John 3:18, where it said, my little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. That doesn't mean you can't express love with your tongue or with your words. But it's saying, don't only don't just talk it, but not act it. You understand? That's what it's talking about. And it says hereby. In other words, if we do this, we'll know that we're of the truth. And. And I'll notice this phrase again and shall assure our hearts. Assure our hearts. We'll have this knowing, this belonging, this inhibition to come. Yes. For if our heart condemn us. Now, when the scripture talks about the heart, a lot of times it's referring specifically to the spirit of man. Other times it's. In this case, it's actually talking about what we could call all of our inner man, meaning our spirit and our soul, including our thoughts, including our feelings. And you could study that out scholars, and I think you'd find that to be the case. So it says, if our heart condemn us. And really it's our thoughts and feelings. I said it's our thoughts and feelings that bring condemnation. Right. How many? Here, you're like me. If somebody else misses it, you're pretty okay to forgive them if they, you know. But then if you miss it, you get a hammer in this hand. You get a hammer in this hand, you just. You just start beating yourself up over it, you know? Why did I say that? Why did I do that? Listen, after I preach, I could do that all day long I could sit there and go, why did I say that? Why did I say that? And sometimes I'm. Sometimes people tell me what I say and I say, oh my God, did I say that? Did I really say that? You know, I just blame it on the anointing. That's my standard answer. Well, that just came up. But no, your thought, see, you could analyze, right? And your thoughts and your feelings can take hold and say, well, I fell so short and that was so poor. And I'm just, you know, I've been at this for. I've been at this for X number of years. And if I was going to be good at it, I'd be good at it by now. Hello, whatever it is you do, you know what I mean? And just say, well, I guess I'm just a big zero with the rims kicked off. You know what I'm saying? I'm just nothing, right? And that's exactly where the enemy wants you to be. That's exactly what he wants. Because as long as you believe that. What have you done? You've created a divide to where you can't sense God and you feel inhibited in your approach to God. Not good. Can't. Can't do that. Can't do that. So we need everybody sitting here in this room and everybody watching on livestream.
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We need you to be able to freely come, boldly come. We need you to be able to conduct kingdom business. We need you to be able to conduct transactions spiritually. We need you. God needs you. God needs you. And listen to me. Those who might be here and those who are watching you think that you've missed it. And even ministers that are watching you think you've missed it and that God's not going to use you anymore. Friends, the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. He still desires to use you, but you must become usable. And part of that is letting the blood and the water of the word cleanse you and bring you to the place where you're no longer occupied with what you did as we said the other day, but you're occupied with. Tell me with what he did. With what he did. So it says, if our heart condemn us, God is greater. How many know he's greater than what you feel? He's greater than what you think. He knows all things. And what we need to do is we need to get what he knows. We need to know what he knows. And it'll help us to find, forget, like he forgets, not remember things no more. Amen. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, this is where we want to be. Yeah. Then we have confidence. You see, the language of Scripture, we've looked at assuring our hearts coming boldly, having confidence. This is necessary. We have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. Now, here is. This brings us to the other side or one of the other sides of this truth. And that is one of the reasons that people have difficulty coming is because they're not keeping his commandments and not doing those things that are pleasing in his sight. Well, in that instance, it's not just a matter of forgetting. See, when we talk about forgetting what you've done, we're talking about things that you've repented for, things that you've turned from, things that you've brought under the blood. Yeah. And that's really what we're talking about. Because, see, Christians, well, go to the first chapter, because you know where I'm going. First John, first John 1. And this great verse, I don't know if. I don't know if I've used every verse in the Bible, but I've used this verse. This verse here, verse nine says if we. Who's we, huh? He is writing to believers. He is writing to believers, no question about it. So if we, the church Christians, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, the problem with this verse is that people know what it says. And because they know what it says, because they know what it says, they don't feed on it in such a way that they hear it where it produces faith. And so I tell you, one of the big reasons people don't get past their sins, not because they don't know this and not because they don't go through the motions of practicing it, but because they just don't believe it. And as pastor preached Sunday morning, sometimes what needs to happen is that you believe more. You might say, well, I missed it big. Then you need to believe big that if you confess now, when you confess your sins, you're not informing God that they happened. He was there when it happened. And the knowledge that he was there when it happened should be enough to keep it from happening. Thank you. So when we confess, we're not letting him know what happened. Confess means to speak the same. That's what the word means in the Greek, to speak the same. And when we're Talking about, you know, the confession of our faith. Well, then that's speaking the same as God. As God about it. When we're talking about confessing our sins, we're talking about taking our words and speaking about that the way God speaks about it. So if God says that whoever hates his brother is a murderer and that he calls his hatred sin. Amen. And if you find yourself there, then you need to come to God and speak the way he speaks about it. In other words, agree with God. Agree with God and say, father, I did this. No surprise. He was there. You were there. I did this. And I agree that this was sin. I agree with what you say about it. I agree that it's wrong, and I turn from it. And with your help, I won't do that again. I confess this. And if you do that, if you'll confess your sins. He is faithful. He didn't say he's unfaithful. He is faithful and just. Legally obligated to forgive that sin and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. Meaning at that point, when he forgives and cleanses, it never happened. Apples, right? But what's the issue? I still feel bad. I still feel guilty. What's that? Your heart? Huh? You on the inside. Your thoughts, your feelings. Right? You're can. You're. You're still. That condemnation is still there. That feeling of separation is still there. What will overcome that faith? Preach it louder. Come on. Faith. Faith. How does faith come. How does faith for forgiveness and cleansing come? Hearing it, Hearing it. Listen, I'll just tell about me because you don't want me telling about you. There's times. There's times. I don't mean every day. I don't mean every week. I remember years ago. I'll get to that thought. Remind me of whatever thought I was on. But. If you've ever been around religious Christians or folk that lack revelation along these lines, they'll say things that by and large is adopted as truth, believed as truth, and it's just not true. And I remember hearing a friend of mine say, I sin so many times every day, I couldn't possibly confess it all. Well, what meaning? That's just the mentality out there. That's the sinner mentality, that everything I do is probably sin compared to God. Friends, you ought to go for long periods of time without having to practice 1 John 1:9. You know, actually, the first verse of chapter two here says, my little children, these things I write to you because you can't help sinning. Every day is that what it says? Anybody reading the Bible along with me? What's it say? My little children, these things I write to you that you sin not. You don't ever have to sin. I don't ever have to sin. But if we do, we have an advocate. And if we do, we can go to 1 John 1:9 and I'll sometimes have to repeat it. That's what I was saying. Sometimes I'll just have to meditate on that verse until I get to the point where I'm like God, I. I would be dishonoring you by not forgiving myself. I would be dishonoring you by beating myself up. I see in the Word where you are faithful and just to forgive. Did he do it? Does he do it? Yes, he did it. Then am I forgiven? Does he remember our sins and iniquities anymore? No. Then I am not to remember it. I'm not to dwell on it. Wives, you know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. You're not to dwell on it. We. We don't dwell on it. Did he repent? Did he. Did he genuinely repent? Did he. Did he agree with you? Wives, did he agree with you that it was wrong? That he was wrong? Then you know what to do. Just let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Thank you. Somebody hearing from God this morning? Yeah. Glory to God. Whatever we ask, we receive. Whatever we ask, we receive. Whatever we ask, we receive. And really what God has done for us in Christ through his blood is outstanding. Now that we start the clock for today's sermon. You ready? That was review. Would you go? I'm not a long winded preacher usually, but would you go to second Corinthians, the fifth chapter? And again, we want to reinforce. But also, these truths aren't preached all the time, maybe as much as they should be. So for some, you might be hearing it for the first time. We really want to get you established in who you are, who you are, because it is amazing. You are amazing in Christ. The 17th verse, you're probably familiar with it, but look at it. Read it as though you've never heard it before. It says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature or a new creation. Old things, old behavior, old thinking, old patterns, our past away. Behold, all things are become new. You know, I've practiced First John 9 before. Come to God, approached him and said, I did this. I agree with this. And I've even said this. That's not how a new creature acts. I'm a new Creature. You know, we had to correct our kids often as they were growing up, just like you, just like everybody. But what we tried to say to them, you know, because I heard, I've heard other parents and as I was coming up, I tried to. Tried to model, you know, good parents, but I had good parents, but they weren't saved when I was growing up. So I mean, we actually. A lot to be thankful for, that being not being born again, that they actually stayed together and you know, gave us all kinds of opportunity and benefit and were real great towards us, but didn't know the principles that we know now. But, you know, I've heard other people say things to their kids and just tell them how rotten they are when they miss it. Well, where's the faith there? Where's the faith there? I heard a friend of mine, I mean faith believing Christian, he had young kids, he said, stay here and if you touch anything, I'll break both of your arms and both your legs. And I thought, can we do better? Can we do just better? How many know it wouldn't take much to do better than that because are we people of our word, you're really going to break both our arms and both our legs. And so when our kids miss it, we say, this isn't who you are. You're better than this. We're new creatures. And we tell them who they are, remind them who they are. You get before God, take His word, remind yourself in his presence, this is who I am. That behavior, that behavior, that wasn't me. That wasn't the new creature. That kind of behavior has passed away. Amen. And school yourself in it. So behold, all things are new and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. Reconciled. We don't do it much anymore, but anybody old enough to remember reconciling your bank statement with your check, what's it mean? It means really, it means to bring into a right relationship to where your bank statement and your checkbook, they match. Does the Bible really say that God has reconciled us to himself? No. No. Does it really say that God has reconciled, made us match him? You're a new creation. Come on now. Preached. I was preaching on something when I pastored in Buffalo one time, and I remember this older lady that we had in the church and she was real vocal. You know, sometimes folk get past the age where they think they need any discretion to say, to say things. Remember Dr. Dufresne would talk about that. Where's my dinner? And she came up. I was Preaching something. And she came up and was trying to tell me why she didn't need to do the word we were preaching. She said, you know, you can't teach an old dog. And before she could finish, because she was saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I said, the Bible says you're a new creature, not an old dog. Praise the Lord. God has reconciled us to himself. Now, if that doesn't excite you, fine. No problem. But I match him. Me, the new creation. The new creation. Part of me matches him. And he's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. What's that mean? That means that your job is to go tell other people that God's made them match him, too. And verse 19 says, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world, the world, the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. God has. As far as God's concerned, the whole world is okay to come to him. He reconciled the whole world. He's not mad at anybody. He's not saying no to anybody. But only those who come get to experience that. Amen. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us. Oh, man, there's so much in here. But I just got to be careful not to sit and pick it apart. Too bad. We pray you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God, for He has. Has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. If you're a new creation in Christ, if you're a new creature, you have been made righteous with the righteousness of God. Meaning you're righteous just like he's righteous. He made you that. He made you that. Some of y' all look at me like this. Sounds like that grace teaching. You have no idea. He's. Listen, First John. Are you good? Are you good? First. First John. I don't care that you were just there. Come on. Why are you making me turn back there? How many? Remember the Yellow Pages. Let your fingers do the walking. Right. Come on, now. Help us. Oh, my goodness. Listen. First John, chapter three, verse seven. Little children, let no man deceive you. Don't be deceived. Don't think wrong about this. He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. You have the righteousness of. Of God. You've been made righteous. Didn't earn it. You received it. You were made. When you were made a New creature. When you said yes to Jesus on the inside, you were recreated and you were created in the image of God and in his righteousness. Do you want to see one more little passage along these lines just to. Just to help you? You okay? You sure? All right. Because I don't. Romans, chapter three. Then, if you would. We're just feeding. We're just feeding this morning. How many know that when the. That certain things you got to chew a lot before you swallow their soup and their steak. And we're not just slurping a little thing. This takes some chew. Alright, so Romans 3. Praise him. Praise him. Verse 21 says, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God. You see, it keeps using that phrase, doesn't it? The righteousness of God, God's righteousness. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all. He's actually extended his righteousness to the whole world when he reconciled the whole world to himself. It's to all, but it's only upon all that believe, for there's no difference, for all have sinned. So let's just for a moment pause this and let's talk about not just the person who is like me, who thought, you know, I'm an outsider. I just don't need to get that close just because maybe I'll get burned up or something, you know what I mean? Or maybe I won't be accepted, or maybe I'll be rejected. But what about the person that was just so raised in the things of God, always been around the things of God. And they think they got no sin. How many know it says, all have sinned. All have sinned. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, verse 20, if we make it through the next three verses, y' all are really mature because there's enough fiber in these three verses to you be digesting this for a while. But verse 24 says, being justified freely by his grace. See, this is grace preaching today. Being justified, freely justified simply means to be made righteous. And clever scholars have come up with this, that the word justified means that I'm just if I'd not sinned. Just if I'd not sinned. That's what it means to be justified. I'm just, if I'd not sinned, I'm justified freely by his grace through the redemption. The price that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Just Means a sacrifice, a sacrifice through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission or the rolling back of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Verse 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness, that he might be just. Now remember that verse we quoted a long time ago, that by one offering he's perfected forever those that are sanctified. Perfection. Obviously none of us have attained that in the flesh. All have sinned. But perfection is who God is. That's his standard. And if we could say, you know, this is 0, this is 100 right here, then he's here, right? To say he's just perfectly righteous. He's here. And notice this verse here. What does it say? That he might be just and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. Look at it. Look at me a second. Here's God perfectly righteous. Now don't get mad at me. I didn't write the Bible. I'm just preaching the Bible. And I didn't just give you one little verse from one little place. I've given you more than you wanted. But the Bible, not me. The Bible says that God is just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. He is just perfectly righteous. And he is the justifier, meaning he brings you to that same exact place, to where you are as righteous before God as Jesus is righteous before God. You've been given the same level of access to God that Jesus has. Now that's what you've been made. Is that what you're walking in? That's why we have to hear it, see it and walk in the light of it. And really, friends, it's not a matter of trying to be righteous. It's a matter of acting as righteous as you already are. He is just and the justifier of them that believe the blood has brought you to the same place, to where you don't go, praise God. You don't have to go before God with this. I'm such a lowly sinner. I'm just so. No, you come boldly like you belong, because you can't be any more righteous than you are. You can. You can walk in more of it, you can have more light regarding it, but you can't be any more righteous than you have been made. You've been made righteous. You can come boldly. Now there's one more itsy bitsy little tiny thing, just a little, tiny little thing that I want to tack on the end of this and then we'll wrap this up and we'll pray if we haven't taken all of our time. Do you want to know what it is? Besides coming boldly, there's another part of our approach that I want to make sure that we have in place because it's necessary. All right. And so go to that scripture that In Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews 12. Man, reading these verses, it feeds you, doesn't it? Doesn't the Bible just feel like you're going to be leaving with something this week? Right? I am. I am. Verse 9, Hebrews 12, verse 9 says, Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, talking about natural earthly fathers which corrected us and we gave them what reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live we give our natural fathers when they correct us or our earthly parents? If you're smart, if you're a smart child, you give them, you learn reverence to your parents. Right? And you could include some other big terms here. Honor, respect. Reverence. What is reverence? It's really a healthy version of fear. It's a reverential respect. It's a weighty respect because of the place you give them and because you know that their hand can embrace you, but also their paddle can. You know what I'm saying? Right. They can correct you and we give reverence. Right. Well, I won't get the story correct, but I remember Pastor Nancy Sharon about. I won't mention the name of one of her sons, but the one that he mouthed off or he did something, and she made sure that fear was restored. And she said that for a period of time after that, every time you called his name started trembling. How many know if you were. If you were. If you were short on reverence, that's okay to get over. That's okay to get over there. But we're to also bring reverence to our Father, matter of fact, in this same 12th verse, and this will be the last verse we look at here today. I think, Pretty sure verse 28 says, Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably. With what? Reverence and what else? Godly fear. That's acceptable. Not having reverence is unacceptable. So what we're wanting to do is get us in the middle of the road, because the ditch on one side of the road is, I don't belong. I'm unworthy. I'm just going to stay at a distance. When you've been made righteous, the ditch on the other side of the road and Is not having this reverential awareness, this. This awareness of his greatness, this awareness of his presence. Right. This reverence. And this is where some, maybe who have come up in the things of God sometimes, sometimes that's. Who's missing this. Come on. How many know that God is big God. So there is a sense that, yeah, we're his kids. We're his children. We can come flying into the throne room. But also part of our approach is that we approach Him, Reverend. And when you approach him with reverence, you don't miss all the things that you miss when you come without it. Praise the Lord. Talking this morning about our approach to God in prayer, how we. How we come, how we come. I trust that through some of what we've heard in the Word, that some. Some gaps of distance have been erased, some things have been closed. Amen. And then also there's. There's a. An awareness of who. Who we're in the service, who we're here to worship. Yeah. Come on up. Love. Praise God.
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Praise the Lord.
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Anything you want to help us with?
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Well, I just want to mention Praise the Lord. When I was getting on the plane to come here, when I stepped onto the plane, a verse came up, just up in my spirit, and it was this. And when you stand praying, forgive me if you have ought against any. And then Tuesday morning when I woke up, it was there again. And when you stand. When you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any. And what I want to point out this morning is that that also means you, yourself.
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Forgiving you, forgiving you.
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You're an any. If you have ought against anyone, including yourself.
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Yeah, forgive.
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It's part of your approach to be able to enter boldly. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I have a dog at home. I do. He endures. My dog. My dog, really. He thinks my sole purpose in my house is to let him out and let him back in. Let him out and let him back in. Let him out, let him back in. We live in Colorado, and it's beautiful there, especially in the summer. It can get hot during the day, but it cools off at night. And so in the morning times, I like to get up early, typically. And I will go and open my doors. I'll open my porch door from my kitchen, and if it's really nice and there's a little breeze out, I'll open my front door to let the breeze blow through and let the cool air come in. My dog is so accustomed to coming to me to let him out and to let him back in, let him out, let him back in. That he doesn't always pay attention to the fact that the door's open. I've opened the front door. And so this one morning, I opened the front door. He let him out, let him back in. He comes back in on his own. The door was open. He came back in. He ate his breakfast, and then he came out to me on the deck. I was like, what do you want? He's, like, just looking at me. What? He's waiting to go. He's waiting for me to let him out. And I looked at him and I said, the door's open. He just kept looking at me. And I said, the door's open. He sat there looking at me. Now, he is a dog. I said, his name is Bugsy. I said, bugsy, the door is open. Open. And I had to get up off the couch, walk through the kitchen. He's still following me. He's not looking at the door. And I stood there and I looked at him, and with my hand I went. And he's looking at me.
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I. He saw.
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Finally he followed my hand and saw the doors open. And you know what he did?
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He went up.
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What we've been ministering here. You can approach.
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Boldly.
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Just go through the door. If you haven't been able to forgive yourself, today's your day. Let it go. Go through the door.
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That's all. Shoot. That was the best part of the whole morning. I sat there and fumbled and stumbled. You come right up and just deliver. Sister's getting paid for today. That's what I'll tell you about it. Write it down.
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C
Praise the Lord.
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No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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That's another story.
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What we should. We. We should pray.
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We should.
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Yeah. Let's give us the opportunity to draw near. Amen. Listen, I know some. Sometimes things are. More services are more exciting than others. I wasn't trying to be exciting. I want us to have a landing spot when we come down from the excitement and make sure that we right. That we have some road underneath us. Praise God, but this will help us. Father, we thank you. We so appreciate you, Master. You're good to us. All you've done for us is. I'm not so sure how or why, but I'm so thankful it's in there. Thank you for your word. Thank you for what you've done for us, who you've made us, what you've given us. And thank you, Father, that you have us here on Earth to participate in your plan. Thank you for that great plan. Thank you for the fullness of that plan. Thank you for that plan in this region, in this area, in this country. Thank you, Father, for the fullness. Thank you for the power of God radiating from this place and from other churches throughout this country like a nuclear reactor, that your power would spread and affect people everywhere. We thank you, Father, for the harvest in Canada. We thank you for the harvest in this region. Hallelujah. And we say it all comes in. It all comes to pass. Glory to God. We're not moved by what we see. We're not moved by what we feel. We're moved by your spirit, by your word. We thank you for it. Glory to God. Now, Holy Spirit, we trust you for utterance in this regard. In Jesus name.
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Brother.
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King gray. Domain.
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We call for it. We call. Your way, your plan, your way. Right.
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Ministers. Of life, Increasing. Increase in.
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For the pastors. For the pastors.
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Ah.
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The increase the increase in anointing, the increase in revelation. Increase. The increase.
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In the flow of compassion.
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That will know.
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To new places.
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Praise.
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Praise.
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Praise. Praise. Praise. Praise.
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Praise.
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Praise. Praise. Praise. Praise. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, master. We've done a good amount of praying, but let's, let's make sure we add some thanksgiving onto the. You know, the Bible talks about in everything by prayer and something supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God. So, you know, we could do it congregationally, but let's just. Let's just each of us lift your voice in thanks for all the answers. All the answers. Thank you, Father. Thank you. Thank you, master. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, my. Thank you for all we receive. Thank you for all you've done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We give thanks. We give thanks. We give thanks. We praise you. We worship you. We're so grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you, thank you.
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Thank you. Thank you.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank.
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You, thank you, thank you. If we ask anything according to your will, you hear us. And if we know you hear us, we know we have the petitions we desired of you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I think we're done, Pastor.
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Hallelujah. I just want to tag on a couple of things. I'm not going to re. Preach anything, but I just want to tag on some things when most every time you go to pray or worship God and you start by repenting That's a sign of sin consciousness. Telling him what you're not telling him, where you've missed it, that's a sign you need to learn to recognize. That's not a sign of humility. That's a sign of sin consciousness. Don't misunderstand me. If you sin, repent absolutely. But the moment you sin, you should, right? Then do it. So the next time you go to talk to him, that should be over. It's sin consciousness to start with. This what I'm not where I've missed it, this. This stance. If it's reverence and worship, that's fine. But if it's guilt and condemnation, it's an insult to what they're teaching us and what the Word says. Ed went home to be with the Lord in October of 2013. In June of 2013 was our camp meeting there at our ministry headquarters. And that was the last main meeting that he did there. And one of the, I believe, morning services, he was exiting out and those. Some of you may have been there. And he had an experience. And he fell kind of like into a chair right by the exit door, not at the front. He was walking out and the anointing came on him. And he had an experience. He saw his mother. Now, his mother had. He got her saved the night before she died. Years and years ago. And Jesus was there, but his mother was standing there. And his mother said to him, because he came from a very difficult childhood, there was alcoholism, there was mental illness in the home. Ed was the oldest of five children. He had to do a lot of the raising of the young ones. He didn't really have much of a. Of a. Of a childhood because he had adult responsibilities early. Early. And because his mother died the night before. Excuse me. Got saved the night before she died. He did not get to talk to her other than he won her to the Lord. And that was the last conversation they had. So there was no conversation she got to have with him other than that before she left. And in this experience at campmeeting in 2013, she said to him, I'm sorry for the childhood difficulties. Now, see, she's in heaven, but she's aware, not in a tormenting way, but in a responsible way. And she said, I'm sorry for the difficulties in your childhood. And he said, that's okay, Mama. I knew immediately when he told me that why that happened, why did not it just wait till he went to heaven and saw her? He's going to see her. Heaven knew he's going to see her in a matter of just months. Why did he have the experience? Because God did not want their first greeting to be a repentance. He wanted it to be a joy. Not a sorrowful conversation or a sober. He wanted it to be a joy. And I knew, I just knew when that happened. I said, I know why that happened. Because God wants your first meeting to be something remarkable. Our meeting coming to him should be remarkable. Not greeted by repentance every time. If you miss it, stop right there and repent so that from then on every approach can be a joy and a rejoicing and. Quit repenting over and over and over for the same thing. That's not spiritual. It's not, it's not spiritual maturity. It's ignorance of, of these things. And like you said, it's dishonoring to not come up to the light and walk in this. It's dishonoring. We don't mean to be, but that's the way it is. So we need to recognize when our approach is always this. Because what you're doing, you're approaching me minded instead of God minded. And you're not righteous. Because of you. Amen. Sin consciousness comes when we're turned toward our mental arena. So when people are approaching God so often and it's about, I'm sorry, I'm not this, I know I need to be better at this, I'm not that, I haven't done this. What they're doing is they are expressing their mind, they're turned toward their mental. And your mental will beat you up. The mental arena will beat up your life. We have to become skilled at turning away from the mental and toward our spirits. That's where the righteousness is. It's not in our mind, it's in our spirit. And we are to renew our mind to what is in our spirit. Righteousness is a feature of your spirit. I remember I woke up, this was probably about six, seven years ago. I woke up at 3 o' clock in the morning and I just, I don't, I don't remember. I just laid there. I don't know if I, I don't remember if I picked up a device or just laid there and thought about something. I don't remember exactly, but I remember what the spirit of God said to me when I woke up and I turned towards something natural. And he said to me, when are you going to quit turning toward your mind and turn toward your spirit? And he was talking about, when I woke up, I woke up. When you wake up, turn immediately the right Direction so that you don't live out of the wrong place. You turn toward the mind. You're going to live out of the mind. You turn toward the flesh, you're going to live out of the flesh. You turn toward an offense, you're going to that's going to color it. You start what you start start thinking of immediately when you wake up is going to set you. Now, you can change at any time of the day, but it's just best to on purpose develop the habit of turning toward your spirit. Turn toward your spirit. It's easier to turn toward your spirit when you wake up if you go to bed turned toward your spirit. Amen. So we, this is part of walking in our righteousness. We have to turn the right direction. You can't turn toward your mind and walk in what they're talking about because the mental arena will is the place that the accuser of the brethren works and he's there accusing you in your thought life. Amen.
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B
Now.
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A
Why I said that is when you turn toward your spirit, you're turning toward everything that's in your spirit. Romans 14, verse 17 says, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it's righteousness, peace and joy. Look what's linked to righteousness, to walking in righteousness. Your peace and joy are linked to that. To turn away from righteousness to sin consciousness. There's no peace and joy linked to sin consciousness. So you know whether or not you're walking in your righteousness by whether the flow of your daily life is a flow of peace and joy. Okay. When you live mindful that I am righteous, you don't have to work up peace and joy. They're there. You don't have to try to find it. It's there. Many times people notice notice the order, righteousness, peace and joy. People are trying to have joy, but with no peace, there is no joy. With no and without righteousness, there is no peace. Righteousness, peace, joy is automatically linked to it. Amen. Your peace and joy levels are in direct connection to how you think toward your righteousness. If you don't have much of a hold on righteousness, the peace and joy is going to reflect that. Life has gotten for me so much easier because I'm becoming more and more skillful at not turning toward the mind and start thinking about what I've done wrong, what I'm not, what I. And I wake up in the morning going, I'm not even touching in my thought life, me. You have to on purpose wake up and quit thinking about you turn away from you, and I immediately started. Thank you, Father. Praise the Lord. I get my mouth going so that my attention goes to the right arena, not the mental arena, the spirit arena, to break the bad habit of sin, consciousness. It's a bad habit that the mind just goes there, just goes there, just goes there. You wake up thinking about you, thinking about what somebody said. Think about what somebody did. If you will put in place turning toward your spirit, you will step. You will tap into the flow that will mean peace and joy to your day. If you're sad, if you're moody, you need to. You need to deal with this righteousness revelation. Get a handle on it, meditate on it, because peace and joy will automatically be the link to that righteousness, that understanding of it. You can tell how far people are renewed in these directions by watching their peace and joy levels. And your peace and joy levels are visible to others. Amen. That means we become joyful in this life. We're not trying to work it up and find it. It's already. It's attached to our righteousness. Amen. So we practice turning away from this arena, the mental arena. That's huge. Because seeing consciousness is seeing consciousness because it's entrenched in the mental arena where the accuser of the brethren is accusing you with all your faults, failures, weaknesses. Quit giving him the audience, quit being his audience. And he's using. Like, he's using your mind for his grandstand. And he has seated all these things in the seats of your mind, of you're not this and you're not that. And it's filled up the arena of your mind with all the false failures, weaknesses, not just of you, but of someone else. And many people. Many people. There are a lot of Christians. I'm not talking just in here, but just there are. There are Christians that are not married to someone who's renewing their mind. Some. Many are married to some who aren't saved. They made. Maybe one spouse got saved after they were married, and one spouse isn't saved. Or if they are saved, sometimes they're not interested in renewing their minds. And so there's no spiritual advancement even though they're saved. They live like they're unsaved, they behave like they're unsaved. You go, it's just hard. My life is hard. My home is hard, because this person isn't renewing their minds. But the thing is, whether or not someone else is renewing their mind or not, it doesn't affect your righteousness. So therefore your Your. Your peace and joy is linked to your righteousness, not to their behavior. So that means become skillful at being peaceful and joy right in the middle of what is not as you wish it to be. Because that skill. Skill is not. Skill in your righteousness is not waiting for someone else to do different and to be different before you enjoy peace and joy. I'm righteous, therefore you ain't give. You know, I remember years ago there a guy got up and sang in our church this song. Ain't no devil gonna take my joy away. Why? Because he can't take your righteousness. Joy is not an emotion you work up. It is an outflow of being right with.
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C
With God.
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What's this mean? You're authorized to live peaceful and joyful every day for the rest of your life. And if you're not, go back to this righteousness thing, this righteousness flow, this who we are. And what's it say over in is in Isaiah. Someone will have to help me because I haven't even thought about until this. Thou shalt be established in righteousness. You shall be far from terror and fear, depression, oppression. You'll be far from these things. Why? Because in righteousness is peace and joy. There's no terror, there's no fear attached to righteousness. And people are just trying to address the emotional arena. Address righteousness, meditate on that, get a firm handle on that. And the in the peace and joy is automatic. Amen. How do you know if you're turned toward your righteousness, decide to be joyful, decide to be peaceful. And you can't be peaceful. Turning toward your mind to examine yourself under the light of the accuser of the brethren. Hallelujah. Well, praise the Lord. I said praise the Lord. Let's just stand up for a moment and worship the Lord. Father, we thank you. We thank you that this righteousness. Listen. This righteousness absolutely affects how we approach him, but it affects how we live every day in approaching others and approaching every situation. Amen. Hallelujah. We worship you. Father, we worship you. We worship you. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at dufresneministries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries.