← ONE | A Potter's House Church
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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our services from ONE in la. If you haven't been to one, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to one the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
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Oh, man, I'm gonna read a verse. Well, let me say Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and thank you so much for showering me with that love. I love being this house's mama. I love mama ing here. It is such a blessing that God would grace me. One to live. We got. It was just a blessing to wake up. I'm here. He blessed me to live and to live in his will and walk in his will. So, man, I couldn't be happier than to be a mom biologically today, but also in the kingdom. So thank you and want you to know I love you. And if you are far from your mom today, or maybe your mom has passed away or maybe the relationship is difficult, just take a moment and breathe in this mom love that I'm throwing out to you. I love you. I love you. I love you. You have a mama. Come get a mama hug anytime. And let me tell you all the things a mom would say. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you for being in church this morning. Good job, babies. I love it. Thank you so much. Let's get into the word first. Peter, chapter two, verse nine. Remember, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I'm so glad it's not dark anymore. Who once were not a people, but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Every people we were a part of before we came into the kingdom of God. We bring the gifts and the blessings and the testimonies from those spaces, but only to serve God with them. Because the people that we are, that matters most is that we are now the people of God. And we're grateful for his mercy. Grab your seats because I got a lot of word to give you and it's so critical. Y' all know you got a pastor professor. So we run every sermon, builds on the last sermons you gotta keep up in class. And this year, the word over our house, our movement is abundance. And we were instructed that we should make sure we are having the most spiritually focused year of our lives ever. And so we have seen how God is moving in big ways, right? It led us to make big moves. We have big faith. We are taking, took and are taking big steps. As a matter of fact, y' all met one of my spiritual daughters on the video this morning. Her and her husband, pastor in Richmond, Virginia. And that church is called Motivation Church. And that is where the faith and mental health conference that I'm counting on this year will happen. So I'm going to throw that out. More details are coming. But we're all making big moves, right? We're taking big steps, we're sowing big seed. Don't get off your seed because the enemy will come to try and steal the faith you placed with your seed. And I know it. Cause he did it to me. Caught myself stressing a little. I said, oh no we don't. I have a seed in the ground, a big one. And there is no reason for me to be using my human mind to try to strategize, how to figure out how to move. In some ways, I want to move. You have to catch yourself. Yes, we plan financially. And also before you get stressed, as Pastor EP said, remember, we move from what we have. But we have a seed in the ground. And you speak to it. You call return over every single thing that you have sown. You hear me? Because we have that authority in the kingdom. But anyway, and so we know that the Bible tells us that we are called to be kings and priests in the kingdom. We are royal priesthood. And so we learned leading up to Resurrection Sunday that Jesus is our high priest. And so now we are called to be priests and kings. So when we say royal priesthood, it's not a priestly kingship. And so we know the priesthood is the posture that matters because the crown of kingship, that abundance has to rest on a posture that is strong and straight. So where we are spiritually matters. Otherwise we want to grab the abundance, the power, the decision making authority of kingship without the right spiritual posture. And then we Become as those who are not pleasing to God. And so I challenged you last week to remember your sacred nature as priests and that we offer living sacrifices and that our sacrifices are not about our sin. Jesus died over our sin, and he was the sacrifice for our sin. We are the living sacrifice. We are offering the praise of our lips. We're offering our good works. We share with others. I challenged you to maybe take two weeks and only listen to praise and worship music as a way of letting my praise ever be on my lips. And some of y' all tagged me in some stories showing you working out to praise like I'm trying to. I'm so proud of y'. All. One person tagged me, let me know. Apparently, Chris Brown and Drake have legendary projects coming out in this period. I didn't know that, but the Lord knows. And see, he said, easy does it. And so you have been out here trying the work and seeing what it means to be a priest. I want to dive deeper into what it means to be a priest. Are we ready? I want to point out that there were other groups in the ancient Israel that looked like priests. They came from the priestly line, but they weren't the kind of priests we need to be. There were Pharisees and there were Sadducees. Now, the Pharisees were a priestly line that believed very strongly in what the Torah said, the first five books of the Bible. But they also embraced oral tradition, things that had not been written down. And so it was in that oral tradition that the church culture, if you will, developed. That oral tradition included belief in the resurrection and in angels and spiritual things. They did have focus on the invisible world, but also they inherited an oral tradition on how the laws of God, the ten Commandments, were to be carried out. And so they were in charge, so to speak, of making sure everybody followed the rules. And so when the Bible says that you should rest on the Sabbath, that was one of the commandments. They were carrying on the traditions of what that exactly meant. And so they stayed on people's case if you're not supposed to work on the Sabbath, that's all that the commandment said. But they're like, well, don't walk more than this many steps and don't stand up too long. And so they were trying to come up with ways to help us figure out how to keep the law. And after a while, instead of that oral tradition just being helpful, it became confining. And so we see Jesus arguing with the Pharisees. So, for instance, there's a Passage where Jesus and his disciples are hungry on the sab. They're out walking in the cornfields, they get some corn to eat. And the Pharisees are like, you're working. He's like, we're hungry. There's another time that Jesus heals a man in the temple with a withered hand on the Sabbath. And they're like, you're healing on the Sabbath. He's like, come on, dog. Yes, I'm healing someone. And so Jesus wasn't arguing with the law that we rest on the Sabbath, but he was pushing back at the rules they had put in place to try to make plans. People keep the law. Do you hear what I'm saying? And so every generation of the church comes up with ideas on how to make sure that people don't break the rules. And then what happens is their idea on keeping you from breaking the rule becomes the rule and make you lose track of the rule. And now we say, if you don't follow the way that we think you should keep the rule, you're not keeping the rule. When my thing I told y', all, when my grandmother was growing up, she didn't drink soda because the Bible said no strong drink. But in her generation, that was their interpretation. And Coca Cola did used to have a little Coca. So they weren't entirely wrong, right? But Coca La Cola don't got the Coca no more. But Nana was 70 when I was born and still holding on and wanting us to follow. She didn't wear pants, they didn't wear earrings, they didn't wear makeup. And so she would fuss at my mom for letting her daughters wear pants because they felt that was sinful, because that was one of the ways that we could keep the Bible saying that women should. You see what I'm saying? And so each generation comes up with some ideas, but then they make their ideas about the law. The law. And we have to be very careful with that. Because in the Book of Mark, chapter seven, this is verses eight to nine. Check it later. It says, for laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the traditions of men. Be careful that we don't take the traditions of men as the commandments of God. It says to be holy. Holy might doesn't necessarily mean I can't wear makeup, pants and a toe ring. But to my grandmother, it meant that. And so they will keep you in bondage by saying, this is how you follow the rules, rather than this is how you live out what God was trying to say. So the Pharisees were really always There to police everyone. Then there were the Sadducees. Now the Sadducees came from a priestly line as well. But the Sadducees only dealt with the Torah, those first five books, and none of the oral traditions, which made them less spiritual in a sense. Because when we talk about spirituality, you know, some people say I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious. When we talk about spirituality, what we're really saying is things that are happening in the unseen realm when we say we're spiritual. And I believe every human is spiritual in some way. Spirituality is about the things that we believe about what we cannot see, what we believe about the deities, about life after death, about the purpose of life, about morality. These things come more from our ethnic spaces than they do from any specific religion. This is why the same religion can look so different on different people, because the spirit of the people comes. And so if one of the high values in life's purpose in your ethnic space is community and connection, your Christianity is going to look different than a spirituality from another space where the high value is power or winning. Oh, and so then when they put it on, it looks different. So because Christianity is not indigenous to any group, you have a pre existing spirituality, a general belief about whether the gods are powerful or loving or vindictive. And that comes with the people. Then when they become Christians, they put it on. So just like if you put this outfit on, it might hang on your body totally different than mine. It might even look like the same outfit. Christianity looks so different in different places. It's not only Christianity. Other monotheistic religions vary like that as well. Okay, I know I'm in another place, but it's important because we forget to consider our frame and how Christianity fits over us and then demand everybody else to be like us. Okay. And so the Sadducees didn't believe in many of the spiritual elements of the oral tradition. So even though they were very religious, they were rule following, but they weren't as spiritual. So they didn't deal with the invisible realm as much. They got very concerned with the seen realm and they aligned themselves with the political power of the day. So the Sadducees were cool with the Romans. The Roman Empire was in charge and their power was derived from being in line with the Roman government. And so instead of doing their priestly duties, as we're called to be priests, their duty was focused on maintaining power with the government place. Let's go into a story to help you see it. Luke, chapter 10. Remember our friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus, we're going back to see them. Let's start at verse 38. Now, it happened as they went that he, being Jesus, entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus feet and heard the Word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, lord, you do not care that my sister has left me to serve alone. Therefore, tell her to help me. Don't get mad at Martha. Some of y' all are like that. You'll just be like, I'm doing all the work here, okay? Therefore, tell her to help me. Next verse. And Jesus answered and said to her, martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. How often in our faith are we troubled and worried by so many things that we're moving, moving, moving, trying to take care of business instead of sitting down at the feet of the Word Jesus himself trying to make it happen. Well, faith without works is dead, yes, but them works are not faithful, so they are also dead. All right? Not every work is attached to faith. Faith without works is dead. But not every work is an evidence of faith. John 11:17. So when Jesus came. We're gonna skip forward. So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb for four days. So Lazarus is dead. But I wanted to introduce y' all to Mary and Martha before. All right, so now Lazarus has died. Y' all know the story, and Jesus is on his way. So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the tomb for four days. Now, Bethany, their town, was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, who was Lazarus sisters, to comfort them concerning their brother. Now, Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, But Mary was sitting in the house. Their dynamic has not changed. One is moving, one is not. Now, Martha said to Jesus, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Pastor Charles preached through this, right? She got religious. Martha is very pharisitical. She believes in the oral traditions that include the resurrection of the dead. She knows the Bible. She recognizes that Jesus is the son of God. And now she quoting scripture. She quoting the Word to Jesus. She went walking out on the road and confronted Jesus. I need y' all to. She walked out there. If you had, oh, he coming to my house now? Oh, no, he not walk right out the door, walk right up the road before you even get to my house. If you had been here, my brother would not have died. And Jesus was like, easy does it. He didn't get worked up. She. She tried to fix it. But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you. You ever try to fix it with God, God, what you doing? I mean, I believe you. She was like, maybe I got a little too bold, a little too loud. And in verse 23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Verse 24, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Still with verse 23, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. You're so busy quoting what you think you know, you don't see God standing right in front of you. Some of you are holding on to scripture in fear and anxiety, and it is limiting your capacity to actually see God moving. You have to check your heart, your body, your nervous system. Where am I? Because if I am agitated, anxious, angry, scared, I may be holding onto a scripture just because I think that's what I'm supposed to do. But instead I need to sometimes say, I don't know, but I'm looking for God because Jesus was standing right there. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this she said to him? Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God who has come into the world. That's not what he said. So you mad and people pleasing at the same time. Oh, that people pleasing will get you in trouble. She don't want to say the wrong thing, but she's still not listening to Jesus. She's repeating what she has told herself over and over, ruminating on these things over and over in her mind. And some of you will do that. You ruminate on scripture in a way that anxiety is taking it away from you to actually be able to see God, it's better for you to just sit there and say, jesus, I don't know what, but I do know you. Than to try and twist the word over the anxiety wound in your heart. I promise you that. I promise you that. And so she says that to him. So then what happens? Martha goes back and tells, I'm gonna abbreviate this story, but there's a lot of scriptures. Let's go to verse John 11:28. And when she had said these things to Jesus, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, the teacher has come and he's calling for you. She's trying to start stuff. Jesus didn't ask for her. But she's so mad that Mary is always sitting down that she gonna lie on Jesus. My God, lie on Jesus, he's calling for you. And as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and went to him. So Mary runs to Jesus. Now, Jesus had not yet come into the town and but he was still in the place where Martha met him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house and comforting her when they saw Mary rose up quickly and went out. They followed her, saying she must be going to the tomb to weep there. But Mary wasn't running to the thing that died, she was running to Jesus. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping. I'm sorry, verse 32. Then when Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet and she said the same words, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But there's a difference between if you had been here, my brother would not have died, and Lord, oh my God, if you have been here, my brother would not have died. She's saying how she feels, but she's at his feet. There's a submission with her honesty. See, you can be authentic with God, but I suggest you do it at his feet and stop trying to get in his face. Because he is the God of the universe and he holds the whole world in his hands. He moves the hearts of kings, the earth is his footstool. So baby, you better get low. Be honest, but get low. She had the right posture. Mary had the Pharisee posture. I'm sorry Martha had that Pharisee posture. But Mary is showing us a priestly posture. Worship submission. Even when I don't understand. Ah, Jesus. Even when I don't understand, I submit to you. I trust you. And I said even when I don't understand. Not even when you hurt me, because that's you coming to a conclusion. Now, even when you take away the thing that I love, that's you coming to a conclusion. I suggest that if you are tempted to come to a conclusion that does not align with the love, character and power of God, close your mouth and stay without the knowledge. Just. I don't understand. But I'm here with you because we often rush to conclusions. Especially in the issues of death. We rush to conclusions. Oh, well, the Lord needed Another basketball player on his team in heaven. He needed that voice in his angel choir. If someone ever has spoken that over your broken heart as you buried a loved one. On behalf of all preachers, I apologize. There is no place in the Bible to support that. But when death comes, we get a little extra. Anyway, anyway, anyway. And so she says that to him. Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, he groaned in his spirit and was troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? See, when Martha came, it didn't move the compassion of Jesus. But when Mary came to his feet, he said, where is he? Take me to the place that it hurts. Stay at his feet. He'll get you there. They said, lord, come and see. Verse 35, shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. Hallelujah. A grown man wept in public. Happy Mental Health awareness month. Verse 36. Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. And some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? And so, of course, we know that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. He comes forth. He prays. He's being. He's acting in his high priest role. He's overcoming death, which is a consequence of sin. He prays out loud. He says, I'm praying out loud so that the people will hear me and because I want them to know that you have sent me, not because I'm showing off. Read that verse later. And then Lazarus comes out and he. He's raised from the dead. And their response is to decide to kill Jesus. And so they go to a council to talk about the need to let somebody die for the people so that they can continue to appease the Romans. Read that whole chapter later. This is where the Sadducees showed up. They are on the political council and they are recommending that something happen to Jesus. We need to kill Jesus. In John, chapter 11, verse. I'm going to read these verses 49. And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, you know, oh, no, I'm going to go backwards. I'm going to go backwards. Let's go to verse 46. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things that Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, what shall we do? For this man works many signs. If we let him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation if we let the Real Jesus be seen. The powers that be will take our power away. So in order for us to continue to have power with the government in this moment, we have to hide who the real Jesus is. We have to stand out here and we have to to be secular instead of priests. We have to stand out here and show government power. Instead of actually letting people believe in Jesus. I'll move on. And so we see how the Pharisees moved in a Martha watch for a Pharisee trying to get up and take the place of the priest you're supposed to be. Be careful that you are not so unbendable that you don't recognize a brother and sister in Christ because they don't come from your tradition. Be careful that you're not so unbendable that you lose the opportunity to share Jesus with someone because you want to share the rules before you share what he did for you. Be careful that you don't get so caught up in your knowledge of spirit scripture and the apologetics podcast that you listen to and your preparation to go out here and argue with someone of another faith that you don't forget that as priests, we are those who obtain mercy, not apologetic degrees. It's that you have obtained mercy. When's the last time you told someone about the mercy you obtained? Your testimony of the hope that you have because of Jesus is what changes people. Watch your Pharisee nature. Watch your Sadducee nature. Make sure that you're not more concerned with power than keeping a praise on your lips. Maybe you do that with your vote, but maybe you do it at work. And maybe you want to align with the decision makers so much that you're willing to put a little bit of your Jesus nature aside to be in relationship with those who have power to make the decisions in your field. You meet people, yes, we network. But don't lose your mind. You remain a priest in the kingdom of God. Do not slow down in allowing yourself to live. I'm not saying you got a Jesus, Jesus, Jesus all day, everywhere you go, in a way that makes people think you're crazy. But do not be silent when evil is happening because you don't want to lose your proximity to power. There can be a little sad. You see, in all of us. Let us be careful. Let us learn what it means to be a priest. Watch Mary. Mary stayed at the feet of Jesus. She was unconcerned with institutional status, unconcerned with political calculation. She was fully consumed with Jesus. Radically centered Jesus in your life, if you follow his footsteps, we used to have those bracelets back when y' all were just being born in the 80s. That said, WWJD. What would Jesus do? What would he do? But it's a good challenge. What would Jesus do? He challenged the Pharisees. He rejected the Sadducees. But he went after the people that were seen as outcasts and outsiders and marginalized. And he loved them. Be like Jesus. Stay at his feet. Mary teaches us what it looks like to be a priest from her posture. Let me show you another example. John, chapter 12. Let's start at verse one. Jesus is now coming back to Bethany after he has raised Lazarus from the dead. And then on his way to Jerusalem, it says. Then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus, who had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served. Martha's still moving. I mean, she done seen her brother get raised from the dead. You would think Martha's like I'm sitting next to Mary on the feet with Jesus. But, oh, no. Even a miracle like her brother being brought out of the tomb didn't shift her. What has God done in your life that should have changed you more than it did? When did he show up, shift, resurrect, overcome, transform, heal in a way that you said, I'll never go back. But somehow, as you move forward and you got new dreams and new goals and new plans, you have forgotten some of your testimony. What has he done in your life that should have changed you more than it did? Recall it today. Journal it this week. Be fully transformed by what he's already done before I ask for anything else. And so there it is. Martha served. But Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. Then Mary, this is Martha's sister, Mary. Many of you don't realize this. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. It was Mary who came with the alabaster box of oil. This is the same Mary that Martha was mad at for always sitting near Jesus feet. This is the same Mary that ran out and said, if you had been here, my brother would not died. But she worshiped him anyway. And now as she sits there at a table where her dead brother is alive, she never stops worshiping God. She comes and brings the most expensive perfume and she breaks it open on Jesus feet. And she washes his feet with her hair that represents her human glory. A woman's hair is her glory. She pours it all out at the feet of Jesus. But then she does something else. In another gospel, in the book of Matthew, starting at verse six, it says, and when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, this is the same dinner, a woman came to him having an alabaster flask of costly fragrant oil and she poured it on his head. So not only did Mary anoint his feet, but she poured oil on his head. That was a priest's act. One of the roles of the priests in ancient Israel was to anoint people for special purposes. And so they poured oil on their heads. No woman had done such a thing. No non priest had done such a thing. But Mary poured oil not just on his feet, but on his head. Now some of you who love your Bible are like, are you sure that's the same woman? Yes. Because if you look at Matthew 28, 26 and 12, Jesus says, for in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she did it for my burial. If you go Back to John 12 where Mary's name is actually there mentioned, he says in verse seven, Jesus said, let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. So he says the same thing in both accounts in the same scenario. This is the same woman. And she comes and acts in a priestly fashion by anointing him. And he says, she's anointed me for my burial, which is so important to look at because people are not usually anointed for burial until after they're dead. So then she also was priestly in discerning the times recognizing Jesus moment. And priests were not allowed to touch dead people. So it would have been a violation of her spiritual priestly duty for her to touch him dead. So she had to anoint him for burial while he was still alive. My God. And this becomes a form of worship. So what does it mean for us to be priests after the order of Mary? Worship. What valuable things do you have to pour out at the feet of Jesus? It is prayer. It is worship, but it is also representing Christ. Let me teach you a little something about the fragrance and I'm done. Psalm 141 says in verse 2, Let my prayer be set before you as an incense. The lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice. She poured out something that brought a scent up. The Bible says the smell of what she put on Jesus filled the whole house. Our prayers also have a scent that rise to heaven. And so when you pray, when you get at Jesus feet, when you break open, what is authentically going on for you, the parts of your heart that are so valuable, your prayers rise as a scent to God. So part of my duty as a priest in the kingdom is to pray. We must pray. Some of us just don't pray enough or our prayer has become methodical. I pray at this time each morning. I go in, I go in my prayer closet. I get on my knees at 6am I put this on my prayer board. You got your war room off, laid out just like the movie. And you do it every day and you start it in a certain way, you end it a certain way. But I need you to ask the Holy Spirit this week to guide you in prayer in ways that you haven't prayed before. Don't try and get yourself together before you start praying. Come in messy, come in brokenhearted, come in scared. So often we're like, let me get myself together. I want to come to God in faith. That's not you pouring out the thing. Come honest. Your prayer smells so good to God. It's a scent. Philippians 4, verse 17. This is Paul talking to members of the church who had sent him gifts to help him continue to do ministry. It says, not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds. To your account, Paul was like, it's not what you give me, it's what God's going to do for you for giving it. Indeed, I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things you sent, the things sent from you. A what sweet smelling aroma. An acceptable sacrifice. Again, as we saw last week, our giving is a part of our priestly duty, our living sacrifice work. And it smells good to God. Her offering smelled good to God. Amen. And right after that it says, and my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Period. That thing smells good to God. But here's the best part, and I'm going to close with this second Corinthians 2, starting at verse 14. Now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the what fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things for we are not as so many, peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God. We speak in the sight of God in Christ. What is the saying when he said, now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph to Christ. Paul was a Roman citizen. He. And he's actually making reference here to a Roman triumphant parade. When a Roman general would win a war or a battle, he would come back into the city and they would have a triumphant parade for him. And their pagan priests would go in the front and send up smells, incense. There was a scent that surrounded the entire parade. And that scent smelled like victory to some people, but it smelled like death to the captives from the place that they had just come. And so what this is telling us is that when I pour out my offering of my heart on the feast of Jesus, as a priest before him, not as a Pharisee trying to control everybody, and not as a Sadducee trying to be at power, but when I'm at his feet, I will also carry this aroma. Because you can't pour out something and wipe something with your hair that smells like that and not have the smell get on you. And so the Lord is saying as a prayer priest, when you break your heart open and give your most valuable thing, the sense of Jesus will remain on you. And when you walk into victorious spaces, you will smell like victory. And when you get in the presence of your enemy, you'll smell like death to them because they know that because you won, they are going to perish. Honey, anywhere I go, if somebody gets upset with me, they must smell death. Because the smell of Christ on me is about the to take my enemy out. But when I walk into a place with other people who know Jesus, you smell good and I smell good. And we are reminded that our prayers and our worship and our love for the Lord that passes all knowledge, changes the atmosphere because of the scent of Christ. Do you smell like Jesus? I want to smell. Smell like Jesus. I don't think Martha and the Pharisees smelled so good. I don't think the Sadducees, seeking their political power, smelled so good. But it says to the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death, but to the other, the aroma of life leading to life. We are the scent, the fragrance of Christ. Now, thanks be to God who leads us in triumph. Amen. Stand to your feet, priests. Oh, man, I hope you spent last week offering the praises of your lips, doing good works, giving to God. Because that's our sacrifice, remember, not our suffering, our Living sacrifice. And now we add to that our prayer and our submission. Because when we pour out those things at the feet of Jesus, we identify him as the sacrifice for sin. We see ourselves also. See, when she anointed Jesus, feet, she acknowledged and his head him as both high priest and sacrifice. When she poured that out to Jesus, she became both priest and sacrifice. But she was a living sacrifice. Her prayer. And again, man, do not allow anxiety and fear to power this fear, obligation and guilt are not the ways that we power our faith. Faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. If you're not doing it for love. Pause. If you're driving home from work and all of a sudden you realize you didn't pray today, and you go. You get scared. Oh, gosh. Just sit there for a minute. Don't move in fear, don't move in guilt. Just be like, oh, man, I missed you today, and I know you missed me. I'm so sorry. If you're in a healthy relationship and you drop the ball on something, do you expect in that healthy relationship to get punished terribly for it? Do you come home to your partner or to your spouse or to your best friend and you're just like, oh, my gosh, I forgot X. Do you expect them to be like, yeah, I know you did. Dang. You don't expect that response from someone who loves you. But if you're in an abusive or unhealthy relationship, you're braced when you fall short. If you catch yourself bracing before you talk to God, just know he is not that one. He is not the people who broke you, who lied to you, who didn't take good care of you. Because when we come in with that anxiousness, we get in trouble. We're either gonna start rolling the Pharisee area to protect ourselves with how many scriptures we can quote and do the right thing, or we'll end up in Sadducee area trying to find power outside of ourselves and God. But the priest is about a love connection. Be like Mary. She shows us what it means to be a priest in the kingdom. No fear, no obligation, no guilt, just love. This week, I want you to emphasize, focus on not just how often you pray, but what is happening when you're having that conversation with. With him. That openness, that honesty, that radical acceptance. He loves you exactly where you are right now. You don't have to be better. He already loves you. Let his love help you develop. Not a fight from within yourself. You can't hate yourself better. You can't. But you can be loved into another shape if you'll bring it all to Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Is there anybody here who doesn't have this love relationship with Jesus? You've never said Jesus. I wanted you to be the lover of my soul for life. I want you to be my savior, my Lord. I want you to guide me. I want to be at your feet. I want to trust you and try this life with you. If you've never made that commitment, I want to offer you the opportunity today. And if you'd like to just slip your hand up so we can pray with you. I never want to assume that everybody is in the house knowing Jesus. Is there one who wants to say, I want today, May 10, 2026, to be my birth date with Jesus. Not a one. I want to believe we all. Hey, I see one. Yes. Hey. Birth date. Hey. Birthday. Birthday. Can I pray for you? Would you. Are you open to come in and let me pray for you? I'd love that. Come on down. Is there another one who wants this to be their birthday? May 10, 2026. Me and Jesus locked in. And that was it. I'm so excited. Can y' all let her hear how heaven sounds when one soul comes to give their life to Jesus? Hey, what's your jaichina? Welcome. This is a really good choice. It's a really good choice. I bet you've heard of Jesus before, but I'm so excited that you're like this. My day. There's no going back. He will never let go of you. The Bible says that even when we're not faithful, he yet remains faithful. Because he cannot deny himself. Because when he looks at you, he sees himself. You are unabandonable by Jesus. Hallelujah. So this is easy. Cause all we need to do is. Is be sure that you believe him. So I'm going to ask you a few questions, and if the answer is yes, say so. And if it's not, that's okay. We'll talk some more, all right? Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God? Do you believe that he died for you because he loved you to cover all sin? Do you believe that he rose from the dead, like, for real, literally got up from dead place? Yes. She said yes. Do you believe that now he's in heaven sitting next to God, praying for you? Welcome to the kingdom of God. That's it. So easy. Can I give you a hug, y'? All? Excuse me. Hallelujah. We're not done hugging, so I'm gonna Pray for y'. All. She's gonna stay right here. Lift your hands. Father, you called us to be priests in the kingdom, and that posture means being at your feet in this most spiritually focused year of our lives. Let revelation break open in our hearts from this word of how we can break open our alabaster box as we remember what you've done for us and how you've changed our lives as we acknowledge you for who. Who you are and where you are sitting next to God. You are the ultimate Savior, our high priest of good things to come. Help us to be priests of good things here that people would smell you on us everywhere that we go. And let that fragrance replace fear, obligation, guilt, anger, frustration, all of the things that get in our hearts and drive us in the wrong direction. Hey, family.
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Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades, and I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called it's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast, you can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Terre Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people to weekly podcasts and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the called. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.