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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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Hey, One Family. Y' all look good. You sound good. It feels good to be with you. Can we go to First Peter, chapter two, verse nine? I'm going to read these two verses and then I'll let you sit down. Hallelujah. Such a sweet presence of God is in here right now. Start at verse nine. But you are a chosen generation. Look at your neighbor and say, you are. You are. You are a chosen generation. My God. You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Hey, I'm gonna read the rest of it. His own spirit. Special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. This light is marvelous. Who were once not a people. You thought you were a people. You thought you were an alumni of this college. You thought you were a member of this professional society. You thought you were a sorrel or a frat. You thought you were from this neighborhood or this family. But until you knew God, he said you and real people, just a bunch of stragglers hanging together. You who were once were not a people, but are now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his Word. Have a seat. That's old school. Y' all ain't heard that in a minute. You are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood. I'm going to back up and give us a little of the front matter that Peter wrote coming up to that point. First Peter, chapter two, starting at verse one, therefore, laying aside all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking. So first of all, get yourself together. This is what we do when we give our lives to Jesus. We leave this messy stuff behind. And I love that those first words, they're all. They're heart states. Malice, that's an intention. Deceit, that's an intention. Hypocrisy, It's a state. Envy. That's a mean emotion. That's angry and fearful too. It's like, I can't have it and I'm scared. You got it. And I want it. And all evil speaking. I point that out because the Bible says elsewhere that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if I'm speaking evil, then my heart must have some malice, some deceit, some hypocrisy, some envy. So clean your heart and all your evil speaking and be as newborn babes. Verse 2. Desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. When a baby is hungry, nothing else is going to satisfy him. You can put that pacifier in their mouth for a second, but they're gonna spit that out. I am hungry. And they will keep running their heads all around. I just want milk. This is how the Lord says for us to be as newborn babes who desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that. The Lord is gracious. Does anybody know? Has anyone tasted it? He is good. Good, good, good, good, good, good. My God, he's so good. Verse 4. We're coming to him as a li. As to a living stand stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also as living stones. Hey, Stone. Everybody say hi to our youngest member. Stone. The baby BAE over there. Hey. Who is a living stone. Are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then it goes to say in verse nine, you are a chosen priesthood. So I wanted you to see what is required of us now that we've given our life to Jesus. That we desire the sincere milk of the word, that we are offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. We are a holy priesthood, and this was always ordained for us. Exodus 19, verse 5 says, now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant. There's an assumption here that we are working to live according to the way God asked us to do. We're not perfect, but we're always chasing what he says is right to do. If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. Verse 6. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Now we were not. This was spoken first to the children of Israel. We are not a part of ancient Israel. So he's not talking about a nation like a citizen of a country. The kingdom is formed by bringing us into relationship with Jesus. These are the words which which you shall speak to the children of Israel. Through Jesus we are adopted into the family. Hallelujah. And then in Revelation chapter one, let's go to verse five. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To him who loved us, I love being loved by him. And washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us who kings and priests to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Why is it important to recognize that we are kings and priests? Because this is our spiritual posture. Once we have received Jesus as our Lord and savior. Lord, king, savior, sacrifice made. That speaks to priestly language. So when Jesus is my Lord and savior, I become a king and a priest in the kingdom. We're going to be talking about kings and priests for the next couple months. God laid this on my heart because it gives us a posture in the kingdom to live out abundance. Kings. What king ever lacked for anything? Oh, kings have abundance. Abundance, power, wealth, resources, relationship. Kings have abundant lives. But we're not just kings. It's not just about having all the stuff. We are priests. This is the most spiritually focused year of our lives. God said that we are standing under the banner of abundance for 2026 and that we must make it our most spiritually focused year ever. So kings and priests defines that posture. But when Peter talks about it, he says that we are a royal priesthood, so he brings it together. It's important that we start with understanding what it means to be a priest. Because royal is the king part, but priesthood is the state. It didn't say we were a priestly kingship. We are royal priesthood. So we got to get our priest stance on so we can put on our crown. Right? Because if we go after abundance without the formation of our spiritual posture, See, too many of us want to let Jesus get us to kingship. We want to get the stuff. We want it to be our motivational run. I want the job, I want the breakthrough. I want the relationship, I want the finances. We want to be kings before we are priests. We are a royal priesthood. And so today we are going to start our journey on truly understanding what it means to be a priest in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:11 now, you guys know, for those of you who are first time visitors today, first of all, welcome. I'm so happy to see you're here. My name's Dr. Anita, by the way. I'm the lead pastor here, but I have some other things. Hallelujah. And I love this job. I hope you'll come back. But I'm also a therapist and I've also been a professor. I love to teach in order. And so this entire year, by the time we finish this year, you're gonna feel like you were in a class. We're building on every message. Amen. And so for those who have been with us, if not go and hear the messages online. We talked about Jesus as our high Priest. We learned about what it meant for him to replace the High priest. In the system of ancient Israel, the high priest was the priest of priests. He went in and made sacrifices behind the veil once a year for the sin of the people. It was about atoning for s. And the high priest had to do that every year because the sin atonement wasn't permanent. They sacrificed animals and asked for forgiveness for the people. And so we know when Jesus came through his miracles, through his ministry, as he walked around the area and made his way ultimately from Galilee to Jerusalem to die, he kept fulfilling the practices of the High priest. But not behind a veil out in the streets. He healed people, he forgave them, he made them sons and daughters. And then when he died, he ripped the veil of the holy of Hol. So there was no separation between God and us. Don't forget that it's not just an easter message. Hebrews 9 says at verse 11. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come. So if he is the High priest of good things to come, then we must be priests of good things too, because there was a high priest, but then there were many priests also who worked in the temple day in and day out. They also had holy oil and they made sacrifices of worship. So they were busy too. There was one high priest, but there was a whole bunch of priests. And that's still the truth. We have our High Priest, Jesus, but we are also priests in the kingdom. So Jesus came and he made those sacrifices for sin that's finished. Hebrews 10:12 says, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews 10:19. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, verse 20, by a new and living way that he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Again, hearts are being changed and our bodies washed with pure water. Don't bother about getting your body clean if your heart's not right. Don't worry about trying to change your behaviors. If you don't change how you deal with people, how you think about the world. Don't be nice and smile, but gossip and be mean and nasty later. Because that means your heart is still dirty even if your hands are clean. Oh, Jesus, that was the Holy Ghost. Speak truth, speak righteousness, speak love, speak joy. Because it's easy to be silent when your heart is dirty. And that makes it look like you, right? Stop playing the part. Get in that heart. We have to, like, hey, it's Mental Health Awareness Month. Let me hear. Get in this. Get in, get in. The Bible gives us so much guidance. It's always heart, heart, heart. Why? Because that's where our emotions live. And your emotional life is the soil of your garden. It is the most powerful area in your life. If you don't know how you're feeling, if you can't and name those emotions, and not just sad and happy, but envious, covetous, jealous. If you're not willing to know how you're feeling and admit it and process that and throw it on the altar in front of God, you can't change anything. You gotta get emotional about priesthood. Because I want to be clean here. Because emotions themselves are not sin, but if you don't deal with them, you will behave in a way that doesn't please God. So you got to catch it before you do it. All right? All right. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. That was verse 23, verse 24. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more, as you see the day. That is what is required of us now that the high priest of good things is seated next to the Father and we ourselves are priests. And so I want to point out that as priests, our primary job is not to be worrying about sin all the time. We should be past that. The high priest has made the sacrifice for sin. We receive him as our Lord and Savior. Our hearts are changed Many of us continue to wrestle with sin because we are not wrestling with our hearts enough. Because if we shift our affection. See, when something has my affection, it absorbs so much of my emotional energy that I can't help but take actions in line with my affection. When I fall in love with a neighborhood and I dream, God, one day I want to live in this neighborhood, my affection is such that I'm on real estate, just looking at stuff I can't afford yet. And then I tow out of my way driving home from work and drive through that neighborhood, drive real. Anybody ever do that? Just drive up and down, One of these days I'm gonna live here. Maybe you drove around Studio City, said, one of these days my name is gonna be there. I'm have a writer's bungalow over here one of these days. Because your affection draws you to the thing. And so when we have received Jesus, but we are continually wrestling with sin in our lives, I think just, just it's not an easy thing to do. But once you have the consciousness, it will be your affection, Father, fill this place with more affection for you. Because when I am that crazy in love with Jesus, the more I fall in with him, the more he occupies my thoughts and my mind. And there's less room for other stuff. See, you try to get the messiness out and it leaves a hole. And then you think, well, God, help me deal with the hole. Because there's an assumption that I can't be at peace without this thing in my life. But God will help me deal with the absence of that is one step short. I put this thing away. It left a hole. It left a hole in my heart, a hole in my affections, a hole in my attention, a hole in my tools for getting relief from my stress. Oh, that weed will leave a hole. That sex will leave a hole. Oh, I'm in a mood today. I'm in a mood. And then we think, God, just help me deal with it. Help me deal with missing. And instead of God, now there's more space for you. Fill me up with your presence. What would it look like for the anointing to take up as much space as this thing was? Take it up, baby. If I make more room for God, he will fill me to overflow. And I'm a witness he'll do it for you. But you're just asking him to help you survive. There's more, there's more, there's more. God, let me long for you. Like I've longed for things I'm laying down God Let this longing be sanctified and give it to you. Fill me up until I can think of anything. But. When all of our prayer is directed towards the old thing, we don't want to desire anymore. We're still desiring it. Turn your attention, Turn your attention. Oh, I'm ahead of myself. I'm ahead of myself. And so this is not what our primary work should be as priests. But the enemy tries to keep us in that loop. This is sin. Priest has done the thing. My role is to be a priest of the good things to come in this life. Romans 12:1. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. Didn't I just read the verse? And Peter said, we have the mercy. By mercy we've obtained it. By the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Priests offer sacrifices, but we're not offering it for sin. That's a shift. I'm a priest of good things to come, serving the high priest of good things to come. So I'm offering myself for the good things of the kingdom, but I am also the offering. So just as Jesus, the high priest, became the sacrifice that the high priest offers, he was both priest and sacrifice, I too now am both priest and sacrifice. I present my body a living sacrifice. So my job as a priest, all day long, every day of the week, is to present the sacrifice to God. And I'm it. And when I realize that I'm the sacrifice, it will change how you move all day, every day. What I need you to leave here with today is an awareness of your sacred state. I'm a priest, and this is the sacrifice. The sacrifice that was brought in the ritual system of ancient Israel. Those sheep had to be spotless, perfect, blameless. Not perfect like I never did anything wrong, but perfect. I'm not bruised up and broken up. God fixed that. So now I'm bringing myself. But I gotta watch how I handle myself in this world. I gotta watch who I let there put their hands on me. I gotta watch how I talk and speak and what I absorb and what I listen to. Because I have to be the sacrifice. I'm priest offering myself. I'm gonna need us to get a little more intense about our walk with Jesus. I'm gonna need us to get more intense about how I move in the kingdom, because before I get to that king cry, I need to present myself a living sacrifice. See, the priests of the old system, they presented dead sacrifices. They killed the animal and gave it But Jesus ended the need to kill something. He was the last kill. He was the last death. He presented himself a sacrifice that was. Was crucified and died. We are living sacrifices that mean it ain't over till it's over. Hey. And it's my reasonable service, baby. This your baseline? This your baseline. I was talking to a young woman this weekend who took a long time for her to get out of a toxic, difficult relationship. She tried. She tried the person. They were both Christians. But you know, how many know you can date a Christian, and Christian date a Christian, and the relationship's still not healthy. Just because y' all both know Jesus don't mean y' all know how to be in this relationship together. My God. Okay? And so the relationship wasn't healthy, and it was very difficult. And she got out of that relationship, and now she's met some new people, and it seemed like ever since she got out of that relationship, that girl ain't having no problem getting a date. When I say she can get a date, she can get a date. And these people love the Lord and they are treating her so good. And she was like, man one sent me flowers. They took me out to super nice place. All stuff she wasn't experiencing in her previous relationship. And I said, good. Your baseline is better, right? Baseline is higher. Now she understands that's your reasonable. You with me? So think of the minimum thing you will accept. God is saying this your minimum. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. This our entry level. Next verse. And do not be conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Hebrews 13:15. Therefore, by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of what? Praise to God. Hebrews 13:13. Our sacrifice is praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. And do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. So as a living sacrifice, I keep the sacrifice holy before the Lord. And as the priest, I continue to offer it. And how do I offer it? By praising him. Let his praise ever be on your lips. He's asking for a sacrifice of praise. See, that's not hard to give. And if you gave it more, you would have more affection. Somebody caught that. If you gave him more praise, sacrifice, more affection for him would grow in your heart, which means it would take up more space than the other thing. Again, we've been so focused on what we can't do, what we have to give up, what we got to stop doing, instead of what we should be offering, giving, participating in. Take two weeks. And don't listen to. To nothing. No music but music that praises the Lord and see what happened to you. Not because it's a sin to listen to secular music, but because when music is so emotional. Oh, I got. I'm gonna do a post about this. Music is so emotional. It takes. It touches every part of us. It touches our spirit. Because spirit, our spiritual wellness is based on the sum total of what we believe. Your spirit is where your beliefs live. That's why we want you to believe on Jesus. So that truth can change every other truth you hold. Because your beliefs will guide everything that you do. They are the seed in the garden. When you hear music, those words, they either confirm or reject or renew things that you already believe. That's why you like to. In a song, you be like, oh, that song, that's just how I feel. And when you get the ones with the right lyrics, you like, click. That's just how sad I am. Or that's just how excited I am. Because the words, seeds are words. Matthew 13 Power the sower, the word, the seeds. So music with lyrics brings us that. And then it touches our hearts. Music moves us emotionally. How many people ever chose a song to shift their mood? That's why we got hype songs. I'm a theme song. Girly, y' all know that I love a theme song. I will play it for weeks to be like this, My theme song right now. Because it gets me into that emotional place. It gets that heaviness off my body, and I'm like, oh, yeah, I got this. I got this. Music is emotional. And once your emotions shift, your mind changes. Then you start thinking different thoughts. Like, oh, yeah, that's right. That song reminded me that I can get somebody else. Now I'm thinking different. Or that song reminded me that I can get this book written. I can do what I'm my dream. I can run faster, faster, higher, jump higher. So music shifts that because it goes from words, lyrics, it taps into the belief we want. Then it shifts our emotion, which shifts our thoughts. And don't get to, because it moves our bodies too. Music is completely a wraparound experience. And so while praise music is not the only way to praise, it is a powerful, beautiful way that he called us to, to praise. And so if you will offer him the sacrifice of praise, fill everything with that kind of praise. Two weeks, you're going to Be catching me in the lobby telling me how it changed your life. Well, I can't work out to praise music. You'll learn. I can. You know why? Because my body was trained for it. Consider that part of your training. And the reason it was trained for it is because I grew up in old school. Old school, old school church. And we weren't allowed to listen to secular music when I was a kid. And it wasn't worth the risk because you could have it on as low as you wanted on that volume, but you heard that belt buckle. Jesus. It was not safe. It wasn't safe. Somebody know what I'm talking about around here. It wasn't safe. And so I just went ahead and enjoyed my church music because I wasn't a risk taker. My sister was a risk taker. She would listen to it. I'll run. Cause I'm not paying that cost. It wasn't worth it to me. I'm just to me. But because of that, all I ever listened to was church music. And so it became part of me. And so if I'm in a workout and I start getting tired, all I gotta do is swip on a gospel choir song and I'll get energy. Cause all of a sudden I'm like, hey, I used to do that in Taibo. Y' all too young to know what Taebo is. Y' all know about that? Y' all know about that? When I first started doing Taebo when my son was 2, and I'm trying to lose that 50 pounds of baby weight and child Tavo was wearing me out, all that kicking. And then Billy Blanks be like, go double time. You like my leg? My leg? And so whenever I couldn't keep up with the workout on him, I would just start going like this because my body recognized church shout. And he would get excited. And then I have energy again. Why my body was trained, My flesh had been buffeted. I kept it under like a boxer, and it learned a different lesson. Oh, y' all don't know, but see it's not. That was a scripture, by the way. Paul said, I buffet my body. I train it like a boxer so that I don't fall spiritually and morally. You can teach your body something different. You can teach this old dog a new trick. But until you realize that it could contribute to your affection space, you won't think it's important. And the little things that you don't realize can make a difference are actually draining you. Two weeks sacrifice of praise. That is the fruit of our lips. Giving thanks to his name. And then don't forget to do good and to share. Did y' all sign up for Good Neighbor Day? Amen. Because you know what? That takes up time. Maybe if I was tired from Habitat for Humanity all day, I might not feel like going the place I didn't need to go on Friday night. Maybe if I was tired from doing good and sharing, maybe if the weed I'm trying to stop smoking because all I do is run to that instead of going to a therapist to deal with my anxiety. I said was mental health awareness month. I'm just saying. But won't take a medication from a psychiatrist because you don't want to be on medication, but you'll smoke that weed. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm all over the place today. I'm all the place today. As a therapist, we call that self medicating. So don't tell me you don't want to take medication for your mental health. Yes. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. Pinot grigio. Yes, you do. Nyquil. Yes, you do. Cheesecake. Yes, you do. Don't tell me that. Because when you're feeling stressed emotionally, nobody ever said, I need a boneless, skinless chicken breast right now. Said, nobody ever. So if you were about to say, I don't medicate with food and drink, I challenge you. The next time you feel down, reach for a boneless, skinless chicken breast. No one has ever. Because you're medicating with food. Oh, she's in a mood. She's in the mood. And so if I decide I'm gonna stop medicating with stuff and I'm gonna turn to the Lord instead, then that might save me some money. Or I could just go ahead and spend this month's weed budget on good works. Put it in the offering, give it to the homeless person. Do something now. You can't afford your problem. Praise from the fruit of your lips. Do good and share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Now, this is important because I hope it makes you more willing to step into your priestly role. Because we have confused the word sacrifice with suffering. And so when it says, be a living sacrifice, you're like, oh, Lord, I done suffered enough. Is my name on the strongest soldiers list again this year? How many times? How many lessons is the Lord gonna send me to learn how much? We think it's all about suffering. But a sacrifice is not the same as a suffering. Sacrifices are voluntary. When you feel like you're suffering, it's cuz you feel like something's being taken from you, snatched from you, forced out of your hand. A sacrifice is voluntary. I know. I'm gonna let that settle for a second. Because so much of our walk with the Lord as we try to do the live right as we have thought it meant, is that this idea that I'm always needing to give up something, suffer something, and that means that there's some type of tug of war between God and me. I know I should, but a part of me doesn't want to. A part of me does want to, but a part of me doesn't. I used to teach people, when you don't want to do something that God wants you to do, pray the want to want to Prayer God. I don't want to but I want to want to. I want to want to. I want to want to, want to. Cause I don't want to. I want to want to want to want to want to Because I don't want to. But at least now you honest. It's not always about that. The sacrifice is voluntary, it's not performative and it's not pressure. Remember it said, if you have tasted of the good mercies of God. See, when you start feeling like something you wanted to give freely, doesn't feel like it's freely. Reflect on the mercies of God. When you remember what he's done for you, how he got you where you are right now. Nobody would believe the story that led you to the seat you're sitting in on this morning, May 2, 2026. Nobody would believe who you were, how you behaved, what else you tried before you tried Jesus. Nobody would believe. Some people wouldn't even recognize you. And we don't remember enough. Because when I remember, when I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me, the song said my soul cries out Holland the Hallelujah. I thank God for saving me. Not just saving my soul, but saving me from me. Saving me from me. Saving me from being in the wrong state. Saving me from being attacked or hurt on the way home. Saving me from the accident. Saving me from that person who meant me no good. He saved me from so many things. And when I remember that, the praise starts to come up and the space available for the thing I need to let go of gets smaller. Because then the question becomes, why wouldn't I trust a God like that? I want to let this thing go. But a lot of times we're scared that God's not going to give us an alternative that he's not going to meet the need that we want the thing for that the pain of letting it go will exist always. But your life with Jesus has taught you that is not true. It's okay for you to acknowledge your pain. I want you to. But don't let it lie to you. You got to learn to be present with your painful emotion without letting it determine a truth. I want to feel it, not be guided by it. I have to let it run through me and have the experience. I got to sit down on the floor and cry the tears. I got to be mad. I got to express it. Because when I don't do that, it goes from my feelings to my thoughts. And then you try to fix the thought when the thought pops up, but you didn't deal with the feeling that watered the thought in the first place, so it's just gonna be a loop. You cannot renew your mind without shifting your heart. Ah, my God. I'm God. I'm back. I'm back. So I want you to be willing to do a sacrifice for God, but not think of it as suffering. The reason we've been stuck on the suffering framework is because we have considered that sacrifice to be the same sin that we're trying to stop when it is. The praise of your lips, good works, sharing your resources for the good of the kingdom, whether that's giving to the church or to your neighbor who you know needs help. I'm not. That's not me sneaking, trying to raise an offering. Let me say that for the people at home and everywhere else, but God did call us to be generous. And so if I focus on those three sacrifices being made all the time, I am moving into the good life because I am now a priest of the good things, that he was the high priest of the good things to come. I'm a priest of good things, not death. All the time, it's about devotion. It's about discernment. It's about surrender. That's the thing that we want. Sacrifice isn't just suffering. And how do you know if it's about suffering? Because you're scared not to do it? The presence of fear will tell you if you're on suffering or sacrifice. I want to give this to God, but I'm scared if I let it go. I'm a pre. I'll preach this next week. I'm gonna say, but the presence of fear will let you usually know that you are dealing with, I'm trying to suffer instead of just have the sacrifice. If you feel pressured to do It I gotta do. I don't want. If I don't do this, God's gonna be mad at me. And then when I pray, he won't answer my prayer. That's not the posture that we want. And sometimes we cling to that. Right? Let me just be a good girl or a good boy so that he'll give me what I want. Even though I don't want to be good. I know I'm not the only one that ever been there. It's good to fear the Lord. Fear has kept me from going off the edge a couple times, but that's not how I want to live my life. I shouldn't have been that close to the edge in the first. In the first place, I have a quote written in my Bible that says, those who stand too close to lines that should not be crossed walk around life with chalk on their toes. In other words, if I'm always on the edge, even when I back up, you're going to be able to tell because it's going to affect me in every way that I live, because I like to see just how close to the edge I can get. That's not sacrifice. That's suffering. Sacrifice is going to be aligned with God's will. Now, y' all know I don't want y' all off the deep end about his will. We know what his will is. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. This is the will of God concerning you. First Thessalonians 5. It's not. I gotta know exactly what I'm supposed to do. Am I supposed to make a left turn or a right turn at the light? That's not. That's not what his will is about. Too many of you are using the idea of his will to keep you from making a bad decision that you're scared to make because you're scared to make a decision decision that's not the same. His will is an overarching story of your life that you can't really mess up. You can't. Oh, I'm late. Oh, God, it's 10:38. I'm enjoying this word, but y' all gotta go. Okay? God didn't ask you to kill yourself trying to live right. Receive Jesus. He did the work. You are making the sacrifice for the good things to come. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Last thing I'm going to read and I'm going to stop. And I'm looking forward to having more time at 11:30 because I love this word. 2 Corinthians 4 a set of verses that I've loved. But seeing this has changed the way that I feel about it. I'm going to start. Actually, I'm going to read from verse 1 all the way down to verse 12 and then we will wrap. 2nd Corinthians 4. Therefore, since we have this ministry as priests, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Skip to verse six. For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of. Of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Verse 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. It's one of my favorite scriptures. That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. Forget your impostor syndrome. You don't have to feel good enough. When I get it done through his power, knowing I'm not good enough, that's how the glory goes to Him. We have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. This is it. This is the sacrifice and the resurrection. We are carrying about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Now I'm not being crucified. I'm not dying. So what does this mean? It means I'm laying, I'm sacrificing the things I'm called to sacrifice. I've laid sin aside. So I'm crucifying those parts of me that were sinful. I'm offering the sacrifices that I'm called to offer, of praise, of good works, of sharing. And because of that, the life of Jesus shows up in my body. See, when I move the dead thing aside, that makes room for the life of Jesus. And so when it says I am hard pressed but not crushed, I have died in something. Now I'm alive again. I am perplexed, but not in despair. Because if I don't die to the thing that's perplexing me, I can't be resurrected to not be in despair. The reason I'm not in despair is because the Life is being worked in me. Do you understand? So when it says persecuted, not forsaken, it says dead but alive, struck down but not destroyed, dead but alive. Always carrying in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. That the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus sake. That the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. This is not a everlasting ever after in heaven. In our mortal flesh. Right now, the thing that your body craves can die. And his resurrection can be manifested in your body to bring you life and affection for something new. So then death is working in us, but life in you. Stand to your feet. My God. Priests. Are there any priests in the room? He's called us to be priests of the good things to come and also to be living sacrifices. We don't need to die because Jesus did it already for us. And so we come to offer the sacrifice of praise, of good works, of sharing. If I can remember all day, every day the sacred nature of my calling and position as a priest, it changes everything. The thing you've been fighting against will die because the life of Jesus will resurrect parts of you that you haven't even known before. It says to crave the word like a baby craves milk. That's all newborn babies eat. It literally is the only thing that they want and it fulfills them. And did you know that a mother's breast milk changes formulaically based on what the baby needs? There's such a deep link between a mother and her infant that her breast milk is continually changing in its nutritional profile to fit exactly what the child needs. That Bible will take care of you. A verse you read last week that didn't pop up will pop off this week meaning something totally different. Because the profile of that word will change for what you need in the moment that you need it. And we don't say babies always, but some parts of our lives we're babies, while in other areas we're eating meat. You can be super strong in one area, mature eating steak. And in another area, you are a baby in Jesus. And that is okay. Don't starve yourself of milk trying to prove that you. Is there anybody who doesn't know Jesus? You've heard me talking about this incredible opportunity that we get to to be priests along with Jesus. You've heard me talking about how when he absorbs our affection, it can change everything you've been trying to fix, but you don't know him in that way. If you want to give your life to Jesus in that way today, just slip your hand up. I know we're over time, but it's. It's always time for this. Is there anyone who wants to give their life to Jesus today? All right, I'm going to believe you're either already giving your life to Jesus or he's working on you and you'll be be back. If you're watching online and you want to give your life to Jesus, just type it in the chat and one of our prayer team will jump in there with you and make sure that they pray with you to give your life to Jesus today. There's no life like the life of Jesus. Let's pray together, Father. Let the revelation of the priests we are called to be sink deep into their hearts. Let this spiritual truth take root and grow. Incredible fruit. Fruit that cannot be shaken. Holy Spirit, let this word stick to them everywhere they go. That any moment that they are about to be less than priestly, that you just gently remind, invite them back into the posture that you've called us to be that we follow the high priest of good things to come and we have the privilege of being priests then of the good things to come. Let us continually offer praise. Stir us up so that we can hardly contain your praise, that we need it, that we want to offer it. Help us to have a new experience with what it means to be a living sacrifice form us in this way that we will not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind towards what it means to be a priest. So that as you prepare to crown us in a fresh way as kings in the kingdom, standing under the banner of abundance, that our spiritual structure will be sturdy enough to not collapse or be distracted by how you bless us. Cover us as we leave here. 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 called T H E C A L L E D with myself, Ture Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But, hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the call. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.