Omega Church with Ronnie Allen
Stay Close Part 2 | Tray New
Good day to you, this is Ronnie Allen. Delighted that you're with us today. Right here at Omega Church here in San Antonio, you can go to omegachurch.com. You can see the various social media platforms we use. Thank you for being with us today. We hope this message equips you to follow God's voice. We believe that if you're searching, today your search is over. Thanks for being with us and enjoy. - As I was sitting there really listening to that song this morning, I believe I'm impressed by the Lord that He wants us to, it's a prayer. And He said, declare this and pray this over our nation. Okay, and so when you come back at the end of service, let's do it with that frame of mind that we're praying this and we're declaring that song over our nation. The strongholds are coming down. Amen? (congregation applauding) Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. So 180, y'all can go ahead and y'all go back and y'all have a great time in small group this morning. (congregation applauding) That was a true story about, they did run a background check on me. (congregation laughing) And Uncle, I don't know if I can say this. Uncle Fred said, I don't know who this guy is. He don't exist. (congregation laughing) Well, I was born again. If my slave, my slave was wife clean. (congregation cheering) Amen? I did exist, he just, oh, it just, (congregation laughing) it just, he was, you know, my full name is William trade new. And so wasn't able to fight it. My dad is William new also. But yeah, true story, I came in and I had been introduced to pastors through a rodeo event, a bell racing event that my mom and Pam Rome had sponsored. It was a run, it was called running for Jesus. And they had that event at my parent's house. And y'all, anybody watch bell racing at the rodeo? Okay, so that's what my mom and Pam Rome, they do, they bell race. And my mom is, how's my mom? 75, 75, and she's, she just had knee surgery a few months ago, well, longer than a few months ago. But she's still riding. Yeah, she still competes. And all the younger ladies wanna be just like Wanda new. Still, she still beats them. (congregation laughing) That's where, that's where, I mean, she runs right up there with them and can, but anyway, my mom's awesome. And anyway, they had the running for Jesus thing. And so, Pam has been coming to church here forever. And y'all know who Pam is if y'all hear it. If she's here, you know she's here. (congregation laughing) And so anyway, they had Pastor Ronnie come do the service. And this was before I was saved. And my parents had been believing God, calling me into the kingdom. And so they wanted to have this running for Jesus thing. Team roping, at that time where they would have church with team ropings and stuff, you got to rope for free. And if you went to church, and so this bell racing thing was set up the same way you'd come to church and you got to run bells for free for all kinds of prizes, cash, saddles. And so it's like throwing out a net. Okay, throwing out a net for the gospel. And it attracts people there who have never, some of them never heard the gospel before. And well, not, I mean, I'm not saying that they haven't heard it, but they haven't heard it in their environment. - Right, right. - Okay. And so they had a prayer meeting before and I just happened to be in town because I used to live in over kind of in Southeast Texas. And I just happened to be there whenever the prayer meeting was happening to pray over this event. And pastors, Ronions on over there, I didn't know, I'd never met them before. And I'm just kind of hanging in the corner. I'm in on the prayer meeting 'cause I'm gonna help with the bell racing and as far as the function of it. And so that was my first encounter with pastors, Ronions on praying over, praying over that event. And through that event after, I mean, it wasn't too long after that, I gave my life to the Lord. And I was going to church in Sealy, Texas with Pastor Sonny Rice. He's a world champion cutting horse trainer and he has church over there in Sealy, Texas. Anyway, I ended up coming back and I went to a couple of churches and I was like, "You know what, I believe I need to go to church over here 'cause I've met Pastor Ronnie in Pastor Zona and he wears boots. (congregation laughing) So how, you know, how can I go wrong? And then I walk in, I'm telling you, it was the first day that I came. I sat right there where Brother Joe's sitting, right? Yeah, it was a fourth row, right there. And I see me to walk in. I'm supposed to be a church. (congregation laughing) But I'm already noticing, "Hey, I like this church." (congregation laughing) (congregation applauding) And then, so me and I, I mean, it was like a whirlwind, I'm telling you. And I got to meet, need a face-to-face at another Bell Racing event. Pastor Ronnie was invited to go to the Rose Palace, which is out in the Bernie area. And so he called me 'cause I'd come to church. I think I'd only come one time. And then that was like the next Sunday. And he asked me and my brother if we would come because they didn't know anybody. I was like, sure, you know, go have church 'cause I think the church was early and he was gonna go do church over there and then come back here and have, I think you're already having two services back then. So that was three services in one day. So anyway, I got to meet Anita and Uriah. And man, I just, I think we knew. At that very moment, they got to put us together. Amen. Now I'm not gonna be able to preach. (congregation laughing) Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. So yeah, if you're single, this is the place to mingle. But if you're not single, don't be mingling, okay? Thank you, Lord. I'm gonna review just a little bit from last week because after I really started thinking about it, what I talked about last week with my dad and coon hunting, I know, how does God bring coon hunting? Into real life, like what we're dealing with right now. And I believe he can use anything in our life to bring revelation, okay? And when you have revelation, the gates of hell cannot prevail against that, okay? And so it's all helping to bring revelation. Maybe not for, if it doesn't bring revelation for you, it's sure helping me stand strong. Let's go to, I wanna read Ephesians chapter five. So we're, everybody say stay close. One more time, stay close. Ephesians chapter five. And I'm gonna be reading basically everything today, just for time's sake. I'm gonna be reading everything out of the passion translation, okay? So if y'all are able to get that up there, that's great. If not, I'm just gonna read. Ephesians chapter one, I didn't read this verse, I just kind of mentioned it on last Sunday. Ephesians five verse number one in the passion translation says this, says this. It says be imitators of God. So what does it mean to be an imitator? It basically means to be a copycat, okay? I know that whenever my brother and I were growing up, he would copycat me a lot, and man, it would get so, I would be so aggravated about it. I know that our kids do that to each other now, like if they say a word, they're just gonna, they copycat. But God doesn't get mad about it and he doesn't get aggravated about it. Because he desires and he wants us to copycat him, okay? So it says be imitators of God in everything you do. In some things, no. In everything. In everything that we do, be imitators of him. I heard Pastor Bill Johnson say this week on a podcast that I was listening to from him. And it just really just like hit me. It hit me right down in here, and I know that it was God trying to get some revelation to me. He said, Jesus Christ is perfect theology. So I know sometimes in certain religious, denomination and stuff, we get all tore up and we get into division about theology. But Jesus is perfect theology. And so if we're following him, then we know that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. Amen. In fact, whatever we see Jesus, whatever Jesus done while he was here on earth, that's what we can do. You say, well, what if it doesn't match somebody else's theology? No, if Jesus done it, then that means we can do it. Amen? Did Jesus forgive? Yes, he did. He did forgive. He forgave on the cross. Whenever crucifying him, he forgave. And so that means that we can forgive. Did Jesus heal the sick? Yes, he did. So has it passed away? No, it hasn't passed away. So did Jesus heal the sick? Then he fully expects us to heal the sick. In fact, in Matthew chapter, I mean, Mark chapter 16, it says those that believe they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. He tells us to go preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers. Freely we have received, then freely give. Did Jesus cleanse the lepers? Yes, he did. Did he cast out demons? Yes, he did. And so for anybody to say that all that stuff has passed away and that it's no longer for us today is not perfect theology because Jesus Christ is. Perfect theology, okay? I don't know why I got off on that mate. I think that's just because I don't know, it did something on the inside of me that Jesus Christ is perfect theology, amen? So be imitators of God for then in everything you do, for then you will represent your father as his beloved sons and daughters. And so if you've been listening on Wednesday nights, I've been talking about who we are, knowing who we are in Christ and that we, one of the things that we know that we are in Christ is that we are his ambassadors. That means that we represent him. We represent the king of kings, the anointing one. And here's anointing. We represent his power, we represent his love, we represent his forgiveness. And so that word, I'd like to say it like this, we re-present him. So as we're following God and we're copycatting him and we're imitating him, then we are re-presenting Christ. Y'all getting this? For then you will re-present your father as his beloved sons and daughters. Listen to this, and continue by say continue. Does that kind of sound like staying? Does that kind of sound like abiding? Okay, those words can be put together. They mean the same to continue means to abide. I mean, I don't know if that's perfect in English, but that's what I see that it means. If we're abiding, then that means we're continuing. If we're not abiding, that means we're quitting. And continue to walk surrendered. Surrendered. We will not imitate if we're not surrendered. Surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ for he surrendered his life. So why are we surrendering our life to him? Because he surrendered his life. He gave up his life. Before he surrendered his life as a sacrifice for us, his great love for us, well-pleasing to God, and like an aroma of adoration, a sweet healing fragrance. So we will not imitate God. We will not copycat God. We will not follow him if we are not close to him. And so I told the story about coon hunting with my dad. And really, and I just remembered that story right before I came up here to preach last Sunday morning, because I was just asking God, well, I know I need some kind of example. And he gave me one to write right before. And so whenever we'd go coon hunting with my dad, when me and my brother, my brother and I, my brother and I were small in junior high. And in elementary school, we'd go coon hunting with my dad. My dad had hounds galore. Everybody say hounds galore. I mean, he had them, every kind of hounds. And my dad would hunt coons to be able to sell the hides, to make extra money for the family. And whenever we'd go coon hunting with him, sometimes we'd have a flashlight, sometimes we wouldn't. After a while, he did buy us some of those headlights, those carbine headlights. But as we were going through the woods, he would be leading and we would be following. And he would say what? He would say, stay close. Why did he want us to stay close? Because he knew if we were close to him, then he would be able to protect us. He would be able to guide us. He would be able to show us the way because we were like little children. We were little children. And we wanted to follow him. We wanted to imitate him. And so he knew if we stayed close, then we'd be able to see him. You see, some of us get so far from God that we can't even see him. And so we want to stay close so that we can see him. So we say, I can't see God with my natural eyes. No, but the eyes of your heart, the eyes of this right here can see God. Amen. You can see him, the veil's been torn. You can see him with the eyes of your heart, okay? And so we would follow him. And sometimes, most of the time he'd say, we'll just turn off your light because he's going in the direction that we need to go. And if we turned on our lights, we would be shining the light and all the trees everywhere, doing our own thing. And you know, actually, I was thinking about this because I didn't remember it last Sunday. Why he would say that, but I remembered today. And it was because if we were shining the lights in the trees, it would confuse the dogs because they're watching and they would think, well, because when you get to, okay, I gotta give you all some education. When a coon dog trees a coon, it has a different bark and you can recognize it. You have to train your ear to be able to recognize whenever a dog is treated, okay? That's what it's called whenever a dog is treated. And when you get to that tree, then you shine your lights up in the tree to try to find the coon, okay? And what the dogs are living for is whenever you squall that coon out of the tree, it's called, you can squall a coon out of the tree without shooting you. And I'm not gonna squall for y'all, but it sounds like a coon that's being eaten by dog. (audience laughs) I must do like pastriding y'all a bunch of city folks. (audience laughs) But you could squall like that coon and the coon because he thinks there's a fight going on down below, the coon will actually jump out of the tree. Y'all need to listen to Jerry Clower. That's what y'all need to listen. Anybody ever heard of Jerry Clower? (laughs) And the coon will jump out of the tree and that's what the dogs are living for. They are living for the fight. They wanna get that coon. And so if you're walking around and you're shining the lights and trees, the dogs will get off of whatever they're running, whatever they're trailing and you come to that tree where you're shining lights at, because they think you're looking at a coon. And so they'll come back there. And so that's the reason why dad wouldn't have us shine the lights everywhere 'cause they didn't wanna confuse the dogs, okay? How many of us have gotten confused because we're looking other places? (crowd murmurs) And not following who we're supposed to be following. I know this sounds just real basic, but I don't know, it's doing something for me. And then I brought up the scripture in Isaiah 26, verse number three, three through four. He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him because he trusts in thee. So he will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, okay? My brother and I were at perfect peace with being with my dad in the woods, why? Because our mind was stayed on him. And we know that he is not gonna lead us and guide us into somewhere we're not supposed to be. We knew that we were safe, we knew that we were safe, we knew that we were sound, and we knew that we were secure with him. And whenever we know that we're safe, we're sounding, we're secure. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding comes in and just takes care of us, amen? Peace is what we need right now. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding. And if we're imitating him and we're looking at him, there's just something about that peace, amen? He's not gonna lead us or guide us into any kind of destruction. He's gonna Bible says that he's gonna lead us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake, amen? Hallelujah. And so to stay, what does it mean to stay? It means to stay in the same, to remain in the same place or to remain in a specified state or position. I like to say a posture because when you stand, that's a posture, okay? When you're standing, that's a posture, and that means that you're staying. That means I'm not gonna move off of the word of God. I'm stayed right there. I'm not gonna let circumstances, I'm not gonna let pressure, I'm not gonna let the world system, I'm not gonna let anything that the enemy is trying to bring up against me, move me off of what I know is the absolute truth. Or who is the absolute truth, I should say. All right, so that's what it means to stay. How close we are to God is really up to us. God has already made his decision. The question is how much of our life are we really willing to invite him in on? How much are we gonna surrender? How much are we gonna yield to him? I needed what's saying earlier, you know, some will let God in on this area over here, but then there's areas over here that we don't wanna let him in on. Yeah, we trust him with the salvation of our loved ones. I trust you with that Lord, but you know what? With my finances over here, I think I know better than you do, and I'm gonna take care of my finances myself. I'm not gonna put your plan into place. And that's just a simple example, but we can do that in every area of our life. There's dark places in our life that we sometimes don't allow God in on and to shine the light on. No, why do we not do that? Because we like what we're doing. Our flesh enjoys it, and so we're just gonna not let God take care of that situation. I'm gonna keep doing what I wanna do. And all the time, all we need to know is that the grace of God is available to help us do it. We see, when we think about the grace of God, we only think of it in areas of us like maybe finances, or maybe getting work done, or something like that. No, really the grace of God is there to help us and give us the power to get over, and to allow the light of the gospel to shine in those dark areas of our life, amen? To help us get the victory over it. Because, trying to think, oh, in Titus, it says that the grace of God has been made available or has been shown to all men to do what? To show us how to live godly before God. So, grace is really the power of God to help us do with these, what we couldn't do on our own. There's areas of our life that we just need to let the gospel shine in on. Amen? Yield and surrender to the grace of God. Man, that is really good. To yield and to surrender to the grace of God in every area of our life. You say, well, I can't, I just can't get in on God's plan to tithe and to give. I see it in the Word of God, but I just don't see how it's gonna happen. Allow the grace of God to help you in that area. Amen? - Amen. - I have found that neither, neither and I, and this may surprise some of y'all. Neither and I have totally, we have totally quit tithing and giving out of the law. Because we have to, in other words, that's what I like to say, because we have to. God give us our own free choice. We don't have to. And if you do it according to the law, you'll do just enough to get by. Or y'all get, I want y'all to get this. But if you will give according to the grace of God, if you'll honor God because of grace, and you'll give because of the grace of God, you'll go over and beyond every time. Why? Because Jesus is grace, and let me tell you what he done at the cross went over and beyond what we could ever ask her to think. Amen? - Amen. - So I wanna encourage you, don't tithe and give just because you're afraid if you don't, then bad things are gonna happen. No, we are under, we're not under the law, but we are under the grace of God. And if you will do that, and you will operate in the grace of God, you will go over and above each and every time. Why? Because Jesus Christ, or Lord and Savior went over and above. Amen? I don't know who that was for, but somebody needed to hear that. Because I believe there's some people that are just tithing to the very penny, just to the very penny of what comes into your hands, and you're doing it, you're only doing it because you feel like you have to. And that if you don't, you're gonna be cursed. That's Old Testament. It's Old Testament. No, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says, how can you curse what God has blessed? Amen. If we will understand this, if you will understand this, finances will flow like a river. Amen, because we have an understanding about the grace of God. Okay, let's get off that. But that, I mean, that's something that's gonna set somebody free. Amen? We don't tithe because we have to anymore, or that we're tithing to try to get blessed. No, I'm tithing we're giving because we are blessed. Why are we blessed because of the grace of God? Man, I could stop right there, but I'm not. 'Cause we got somewhere to go. So it's really our choice. James 4a says this, says, we draw near to God and then he draws near to us. We draw near to him, he draws near to us. So it's our choice to draw near. God has already made his choice in Proverbs 18, 24. He's a friend that's six closer than a brother. In Romans 5a, God proves his great love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ, he still died for us. Even though we were in our dead, in our trespasses and sins, and we were hostile towards God, he still went to the cross and he died for us. Not only did he die for us, he rose again on the third day. Not only did he raise again on the third day, but before he rose again, he went into hell and he beat up on the devil and he emptied it in there. And he rose again the third day, and then he showed himself to people, and then he was exalted, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father. Amen. Everything that grace has made available has to be received by faith. It is possible for us to reject the closeness of God. We can totally reject God. We can reject His closeness, we can say you can be in this area of my life, but you can't be in this area. And we can reject the love of God in those areas of our life. So it's up to us. Psalm 91, verse number one, it says, "When you abide under the shadow of the Almighty, "then you're in the strength." Well, let's go over there too. Let's go to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. We're gonna be coming back to Psalm 91 later on too, 'cause I believe the Lord wants to just show us something. (paper rustling) So in the Passion Translation, it says, "When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai." When you abide, when I abide, so the abiding part is up to us. God's already made His choice, okay? He's given us our own free will. He doesn't, he's not a dictator God. He wants us to choose Him each and every time. He wants us to choose to be close to Him. So when you do this, when you abide in Him, then here's the promise. You are hidden in the strength of God, Mosai. So when you're, to make a decision to come close to Him, to abide in Him, then you are hidden in the strength of God, Mosai. Need and I have prayed many times, especially whenever things were tough. (laughing) Can I say that? Okay. Whenever things were tough and we're tithing and we're giving mainly out of obligation then. But we, like I said, we have a revelation of that now. God, why aren't you doing this? We couldn't pay our car, our car payments. I said, "Payments," 'cause it's happened on a couple of vehicles. And we're like, okay God, you're gonna have to hide us out because we're abiding in you. (laughing) We'd park here on Sunday. All our cars are paid for now, okay? And that's a free way to live also. I just want to encourage, when you don't have a car payment, oh man, you talk about freedom? Freedom, oh man. It's good. Somebody turn to your neighbor and say, "It's time to get free." You know, we decided we don't, we believe that God wants us to have fancy vehicles and drive nice stuff. But we made a decision, we're not gonna do that at the expense of where we're gonna have to make payments and pay somebody else for our vehicle. Nope, we'll drive something. If it's lesser, look, it's just transportation. That's all it is. It's to get you from one place to another. I've noticed that whenever I'm doing spiritual warfare, the enemy doesn't come to me and say, "Well, you don't drive the right kind of car." The only thing that the enemy is concerned about is do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord Savior? And do you know who you are in Him? And if you don't know who you are in Him, the devil's gonna come as pastor says, he's gonna steal your sack lunch and then he's gonna pop the sack right in front of you. But he's not concerned about, what you drive, where you live, all that he can see is that you're a child of God and the blood of Jesus covers you from the top of your head, so's your feet. And you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of Christ. You got the Holy Ghost on the inside of you. So he doesn't care about, the enemy's not concerned about status in the world. He's only concerned is your status with a father. Are you abiding in Him? That was free. Man, God is so good. So get free from that car payment. Get free from all the payments. Amen, and you can live free. When you live free, when you're free from that stuff, then you can, listen, you can absolutely, hell, I'm trying to get the words, trying to get the words. You can finance the gospel. The enemy wants to keep believers bound and all bound in Babylon, wants to keep them bound in a Babylonian system so that they don't have the freedom to finance the gospel. This is not condemnation. You can get free from it, I promise you. You got to do a debt snowball, do it. Get out of debt. Oh no, man, nothing but to love Him. Get out of debt. You say, is it possible? Yes, it is possible. Hallelujah. Needing I done it a couple of times and do it again, right? Oh man, Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Everybody say it's time to get close to God. So abide here in Psalm 91, it means to live or to dwell. I know that this is review, but I just feel like there's some that probably didn't hear it, hear it last week, but it means to live there, to live in the presence of God. Dwell there. Praying sometimes, worshiping sometimes, reading my Bible sometimes, or just running to God whenever I have some kind of trouble is not living there. That is called that is called that you're stopping by for a visit. Stopping by for a visit. I know that whenever sometimes, whenever family members or friends stop by for a visit or when I've stopped by for a visit at my parents, most of the time it's just to unload all of my trouble. And I really don't wanna hear what they have to say. I just want them to listen to what I'm saying and pat me on the back and say everything's gonna be alright and play a little violin that everything's gonna be alright. I'm not really looking for any kind of deliverance. I just wanna pat on the back and say everything's gonna be alright. But when you live and you dwell in the presence of God and you live there and you abide in Him, God is going to correct you. He's gonna prune you. And why is He gonna prune you so that you can bear much fruit? The word of God is always gonna correct us. Now God doesn't correct us by putting sickness on us or breaking our arm or doing anything bad to us. No, God always corrects with His word. And usually He's gonna do it in a tender, loving way just like He was doing it just a while ago about getting out of debt. It's in a loving, tender way that He corrects us with His word. Okay? Amen? Hallelujah. So, it's time to stop stopping by for a visit. I think Nita said that on Thursday, she said there's ER Christians. Emergency room Christians that stop by for a visit at the ER room, sometimes on Christmas, sometimes on Easter, and sometimes whenever they're going through a divorce, they wouldn't be going through a divorce had they been dwelling and abiding in the presence of God, abiding in the vine. And we talked about that, about abiding in the vine. That's in John chapter 15 about, and God talked to us about grafting, about what grafting looks like, okay? John chapter 15, so if we abide in Him, He abides in us, let's go on over there, and let's just read a little bit of that. I'm glad that we're going back over this again, because there's fresh revelation that comes out every time we go over something. John chapter, oh, this is out of the, out of the passion too, it says I am, I am a, shouldn't say the true vine, it says it should be the true sprouting vine. The farmer who tends the vine is my father. He cares for the branches connected to me, so we're abiding, we're connected to Him. To me, by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches, propping up, propping up and propping up the fruitless branches. And so those areas of your life that aren't barren fruit, God is not saying that He's gonna cut you off. No, He's saying, look, I'm gonna lift you up off the ground, I'm gonna lift you up out of the myri clay, I'm gonna lift you up out of that situation so that you can start bearing fruit. Amen, then whenever that branch starts bearing fruit and because we're abiding in Him, He's gonna prune those branches, those areas of our life wise so that we can bear much fruit. Amen, a lot of times that's what coming to church is, we're lifting up the name of Jesus, we're lifting Him up, and that's what we're supposed to do, that's our purpose. Our purpose is we were made by Him and for Him, and so our purpose is to lift up Jesus whenever we come here. But as we come here and we begin to abide in Him, then you say, well, you're just kicking me in the shin, preachers are just, you know, they're just trying to fix me all day. No, that's God pruning us so that we can bear much fruit. Amen, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. By lifting up and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest, the words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you, so you must remain. So what's our part to remain or to stay or to dwell? Amen or to abide? You must remain in life union with me. For I remain in life union with you, so His choice has already been made. He's gonna remain in life union with us, it's just up to us if we're gonna remain in life union with Him. That branch that is grafted in, if that branch is not grafted in right on a pecan tree, then that branch will die. Or if you don't, if you take that branch, if you don't ever grafted in, you don't ever put it in that host tree, then that branch is gonna die, okay? For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless your life intimately, your life, it may join to mine. And so there's an intimacy there to be joined to Christ. Amen, it's just like a husband and wife. I'm joined to neither. I know things about her, nobody knows. She knows things about me, nobody else to know. I am the sprouting vine and you're my branches as you live in union or abide, I like to say abide there with me as your source of fruitfulness. And so we abide in him because he is our source. He is our source of supply, he is our source of joy, he is our source of gladness, he is our source of love. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by how the Holy Spirit. Source of fruitfulness will stream from within you, but when you live separated from me, you are powerless. And so when we live separated from God, we hold him at a distance then we are powerless. We do not need to be walking around powerless in this day or time. We need the power of the Holy Ghost, as I heard one preacher say, we need the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives just to go to Walmart, right? I mean, and I saw something yesterday on our street and I'm not going to say what it was, but I'm like, man, what is going on around here? And then I said, there is never ever a dull moment on the south side of San Antonio. You just never know what you're going to see. You don't know how people are going to be dressed, you don't know what kind of flag they're going to fly. I mean, you just don't know. You say, well, what kind of flag? There's all kinds of flag flying right now that don't need to be flying. Okay, you just don't ever know. I mean, you need the power of the Holy Ghost just to leave your driveway. I need the power of the Holy Ghost to get up in the morning and to face today. Hallelujah. If a person is separated from me, he is discarded. Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire to be burned. But if you live in a life union or abide with me and in my words, listen to this, in my words, now this has reference to Rama. So really, when we read this scripture, if we have revelation knowledge from God's word, then this is what happened. We'll live powerfully with these revelation, the revelation of God's word living in you, live powerfully within you, then you can ask. Are y'all getting this? We just always read this scripture that if you abide in me and my word abides in you, but it's not just the word abiding in you, it's revelation of that word. It's that revealed word. It's that Rama word. Then you can ask whatever you desire and it will be done. When your lives bear abundant fruit, you demonstrate that you are my mature disciples who glorify my father. So you abide in him, you live in him, and his word, that revelation that comes from his word, then because you have revelation, you know what is available to you and you know that you can ask for it. Okay, y'all getting that? So what does it look like? What time is it? Okay, I'll do it. What does it look like? This is where we're gonna start fresh right here. All that was review. And I just have one, two, three, four, five. No, four scriptures. What does it look like when we're abiding and we're staying close to God? It has to look like something, don't you agree? If we're staying close to God, then it has to resemble something. It has to resemble him, we know that. It has to resemble Jesus Christ. Let's go to first John. First John chapter number two. I've got a lot of writing on these pages, so I gotta do this to see through all my writing. Verse number 22, I'm gonna read verses 22 through 26. Who is the real liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? So who are the liars today? Those that deny that Jesus is the Christ. And there's a lot of that going on right now. And it's in the political party that sounds like, and it sounds a lot like demon. He is the real antichrist. So he's the real antichrist who, he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. The one who denies the Father and the Son, whoever rejects the Son rejects the Father, whoever embraces, embraces kind of sounds like closeness, right? Sounds like staying close to God. When I embrace Nita, I won't, I won't hurt close to me. Amen? Whoever embraces the Son, embraces the Father also. So you must be sure to keep the message burning. Everybody say burning. Those two words right there can also mean residing. All right? So keep the message residing in your hearts. What message? That is the message of life which you heard from the beginning. The message you heard that Jesus saves, Jesus went to the cross for you. He died for you. And according to John chapter one, he is the light of the world. Amen? He's the life of men. He's the light of the world who is the life of men. Go read John chapter one for yourself and do you good? You heard from the beginning, if you do, if you do what? If you keep this message residing on the inside of you, you stay close, everybody say stay close. If you do, you will always be living in close fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And he himself has promised us the never-ending life of the ages to come. And here's verse number 26, this is what I really wanted to get to. I've written these things about those who are attempting to lead you astray. If we stay close, when I was coon hunting with my dad, as long as I stayed close to him, I was not tempted to be led astray. There are many Christians that are being led astray. I'm gonna say by demonic activity because they have not made a decision to stay close to God and to abide in him. If we're abiding, listen to this, if we're abiding, then that means we're not gonna be tossed to and fro by every wave and wind of doctrine. That means when we hear something on the state media, we're not gonna be led astray by it. Why? Because we're abiding in him and if we're abiding in him, then we know the truth. Also heard a preacher say that if you're getting all of your information from, I'm calling it state media now. If you're getting all your information from there, then the things that you're going through, the depression you're going through and everything you're going through right now is self-inflicted. We can get our news right from the presence of God. And if we stay close to him, we're gonna be able to discern what is right and what is wrong. We're gonna be able to do it. And we're not gonna listen and we're not gonna fall for the lies of the enemy. So if we stay close, we're not gonna be led astray. Amen? Okay. So that's what it looks like. If we're staying close, then we're not gonna be led astray. Everybody say stay close. Let's go to Psalm chapter one. Psalm chapter one, verse number one out of the Passion translation says this. What delight comes to the one who follows God always? So we're talking about being imitators, right? He won't walk in step with the wicked. So if somebody is professing to be a follower of Jesus, but supports all kinds of evil, you know, they're not following Jesus. Amen? You know, 'cause it says here, what delight comes to the one who follows God always? He won't walk in step with the wicked. That means he's not gonna compromise to get along, okay? And how are we gonna do this? We don't battle against flesh and blood, but our fight is against powers and principalities and in high places, okay? But one way you can fight against this is that the body of Christ, the real body of Christ, those who profess Jesus Christ as a Lord and Savior have gotta get out and vote. - Yes, amen. - You gotta do it. That's how we make our voice known. Amen? Gotta do it. Say you gotta do it. - Gotta do it. - We won't walk in step with the wicked nor share the sinner's way. Nor be found sitting in the corner's seat. So in other words, I wrote this down. So in other words, this person who is united and imitating God and is abiding in him will not be influenced by the evil. - Right. - Not gonna be influenced by it. When we abide or stay in him, we are now influenced by him, Jesus Christ and him alone. So that's what that first verse speaks to me. Verse number two. So remember, we're talking about what it looks like when we're abiding and we're staying and we're dwelling in him. This is what it looks like. Some, some, this whole chapter. His passion, who's passion? The one who is remaining in him, who is stayed in him, who is abiding in him. His passion is to remain true to the word of I am. To remain true by his word and to his word. How, how is this person? I mean, God answers all these questions for us. How is he doing this? How is he remaining in the I am? Next part. By meditating day and night on the true revelation of light. And so how are we abiding in him? By meditating. You say, how, I said this last week. How, I asked God, how close are you? He said, I am as close as your next fault. That's how close he is. And whenever we're thinking, what are we doing? We're meditating. We're meditating on his goodness. We're meditating on his forgiveness. We're meditating on his power. We're meditating on, on his deliverance. We're meditating, I mean, God's good. Amen, we're meditating on his goodness and his love for us. That we're strong in him and the power of his mind. We can do all things through Christ, the anointing one. Amen. Meditating day and night on the true revelation of light. So we're remaining true by meditating. He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree. So in other words, you're gonna be, you know the Bible calls us oaks of righteousness? That were trees of righteousness? I think that was from a movie I watched. We got trees of righteousness to be planted of the Lord. He will be standing firm like a tree flourishing. So you're not an old dead tree. Yesterday I saw an old dead tree. I don't know if neither news this or not. There's an old dead tree, old tree at my parents' place. And I pulled up yesterday and it's old, we call it the hanging tree. And that's what it looks like. It's an old dead and it's beautiful, but it's old, there's no leaves or nothing on it. And I pulled up yesterday and it had fell over. Sorry, babe. It had fell over, but it was dead, it wasn't flourishing. And the roots had, why did it fall? Because the roots were dead also and it fell over. Okay, but we're not like that. We're a tree that's planted. And the King James were planted by the rivers of water. In other words, we're planted in the presence of God. We're not pop planted. We are planted in the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. We are planted there not to be moved. And whenever we're planted in the presence of God, then you know what? We're gonna be fat and flourishing. Amen. Planted by God's design, deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss. So why are our roots deep? Because we're planted in the presence of God. Why? Because we're abiding in Him. And this is so good. I'm not bragging about me. The Lord is unfolding all this. Deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss, bearing fruit in every season of life. So this is what it looks like when we're abiding, when a believer is abiding in Him. It doesn't matter what the economy's doing. It doesn't matter what's going on in the natural. No, we are bearing fruit. And we're bearing fruit in every season. Every season. You know, there's a scripture, I just talked about this. There's a scripture in the word that says that that the harvester and the planter, everything can be going on at the same time, that the harvester can be overtaking the sower. That sounds like prospering and flourishing in every season of life. So there's no more to the believer who is sowing and tidying and giving by the grace of God. There is no reason for them to have seasons of time that they're not flourishing and they're not prospering and they're not doing well. Everybody say I'm doing well. - I'm doing well. - I'm doing well 'cause I'm abiding. I'm doing well because I'm staying close. I got peace because I'm gonna stay close. You know, and I was thinking that on Wednesday nights, what we've been talking about and on Sundays, I thought it was kind of two different, two different things we've been talking about. But you know what? We will never know who we are in Christ if we're not abiding in Him. Amen, so it's all, everything is like all flowing together. And if you haven't been listening on Wednesday nights, I mean, get in there. I know some of it, you just gotta catch it by, in the spirit, some of it 'cause, you know, I don't always, the way I hear it in my spirit, it don't always come out like that. So you just gotta catch it in the spirit. Amen, but I'm passionate about this. I'm passionate about Jesus. It's time for the body of Christ to become passionate. Amen? Let's go, I was gonna, oh. Intimacy with God allows closeness, okay? Intimacy with God allows closeness. Now I wanna go to Psalm 34 and we're gonna be closing. And I just want you to listen what the Lord is telling us here. And then we'll sing that song and we'll pray, whatever the Lord wants to do. Verse number 13, Psalm 34 verse number 13, the Lord sees all we do. He watches over his friends day and night. If you're abiding in Him, you're His friend. Amen. If you're close to Him, my real friends are the ones that are close to me. Dave is my friend 'cause we're close to each other, okay? Y'all are my friends 'cause we're close. We're family, okay? So the Lord sees all we do. He watches over his friends day and night. His godly ones receive the answers they seek whenever they cry out for Him. But the Lord has made up his mind to oppose evil doers. And to wipe out even the memory of them from the face of the earth. Yet when holy lovers of God cry out to Him with all their hearts, the Lord will hear them and come to rescue them. (congregation murmurs) Rescue them from all their troubles. And here's really the verse I wanted to get to. The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain. And the King James, the Lord is near those, is near to the brokenhearted. And whenever we hear that word brokenhearted, we think that somebody, maybe it was a loved one that broke our heart. You know that that's a small definition of what it means to be brokenhearted. You could be brokenhearted over dreams that didn't come to pass the way that you thought they should. Maybe you're not where you're, where you think that you're supposed to be. Let me tell you what God has you right where He wants you to be. The Bible says that God heals the brokenhearted. It's not just those that have been betrayed by somebody. You know what, you could have broken heart, you could have a broken heart because of yourself. The Lord, the Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain. And He is always ready to restore the repentant one. Listen to this, even when bad things happen to the good and Godly ones, the Lord will save them and not let them be defeated by what they face. God will be your bodyguard to protect you when trouble is near. Not one bone will be broken. Evil will cause the death of the wicked for they hate and persecute the devoted lovers of God. Make no mistake about it. God will hold them guilty and punish them. They will pay the penalty. Listen to this, but the Lord has paid the freedom of His servants and He will freely pardon those who love Him. He will declare them free and innocent when they turn to hide themselves in Him. Hallelujah. He's close to the brokenhearted. He hears those who are in close relationship with Him and He calls them friends. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Baby, you have anything? I'm trying to just trying to see where the Lord wants us to go right now. I don't know, I feel like good. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. You know what? Let's declare this song. Let's declare this over our lives. Let's declare this over our nation. Let's look at it in that frame of mind and then we'll see what God wants to do. I don't know, I just, there's just, I just love being in the presence of God. Yes. Never underestimating the power of the gospel to transform a life, your life. If you'll take it and you'll receive it, you'll receive His love, your life will never be the same. Sometimes I feel like Christians are so, because really it's because of religious tradition, they just, even when, I'm not saying this was y'all, but sometimes come to a prayer line and come to the altar. The altar really means to alter your life. Okay, you come to the altar to have your life altered. Changed into the image of His dear son. And sometimes because we get a little fearful about what might happen up here in the altar, I'm telling you, I won't God. I won't God to do what He's gonna do. I don't care what it looks like. Amen, yes. And sometimes we come up, we're so closed off and I can tell whenever we're closed off, I can tell by your posture and your hands. And so that's the reason why sometimes I ask y'all, hey, raise your hands, why? Because when you raise your hands, that's a sign of surrender. That means you're open up to receive what God has for you. Hallelujah. So whenever you come to the altar, come open and ready to receive, not closed off. Amen? Hallelujah. God's got you. Oh, this is for you too. God's not leaving you out. He's not leaving you out. - Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus. - Hallelujah. - Yes, I do believe you. - Thank you Lord. Amen, Pastor Phyllis, you have anything? Glory to God. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord. Amen. All right, y'all glad y'all came to church? Yeah. (audience cheers) I'm glad I came. Thank you Lord. Father, we just thank you as we leave today. We leave full of you. We leave full of hope and expectation of what we've received today. And Lord, most of all, we thank you for your closeness. We feel like we've drawn near to you and you've drawn near to us. We've turned our attention towards you. And we thank you for your anointing God that removes every burden and has destroyed every yoke, every stronghold that has tried to hold us back is broken in the name of Jesus. And we leave here free because whomever the son has made free is free indeed. That word indeed means in doing, in Jesus' mighty name. Thank you Lord. All right, I don't know if I have any announcements, I don't think that's it. So love y'all, y'all go in the power. Yes. And the love of God, in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for joining us today. I'd like to say thank you for all those who give and support this ministry. I pray that you've been blessed and challenged by the podcast today. For more information on how to give, you can visit omegachurch.com/give. Thank you for believing in our mission. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]