The Lion and the Lamb

It's been 15 years since my last child was born, nearly 15 years, and I'll try to scoot into this mic so you don't have to turn it up too loud. I always get a ring. 15 years ago in two months, three months, my wife was coming down to the last few weeks of the pregnancy, and Morgan would be born on April the 5th. Two years before that, my son Carter, two years before that, Ethan, and I want to use an analogy for just a moment, an analogy from an unborn child's perspective coming into the world before we read what we'll use for our text. I'll use Morgan for an example. When Morgan was six months in the womb, we already knew what we would name her. We knew approximately when she would be born. And at that point, biologically, she was completely set for human life. At that point, she could live outside the womb. She had ten fingers, ten toes, two feet,

two hands, two eyes. The color of her eyes were determined from conception, but they were now blue. The color of her hair, what hair she had at that point. Her fingerprints were formed. She was complete, really. It was just a matter of development now. And at that point, her whole world is nothing more than the darkness of the womb she's in. The limits of her universe she can reach out and touch. She has eyes to see, but has never seen. She has ears to hear, but she's only heard faint rumblings, the echoes through the womb. She has feet to run and walk on, but she's never walked or ran. She has hands. About the most she can do with them at this point is maybe suck her thumb. She has a fully formed palate on her tongue. She could taste bitter and sweet and sour, but she has yet tasted nothing. She can feel hot and cold, but there's only one temperature she's

ever really experienced. Approximately 98.6. Now, if there was some way for her to be able to hear a voice from inside the womb, whisper in her ear and speak to her saying, I want to tell you about the color green. Let me describe it for you. Such a thing is beyond the capability of even her wildest imaginations to comprehend green. She's never seen the color purple, green, never seen bright yellow, but she has the eyes to see. She can't see them. If someone were to try to describe for her the taste of the strawberry, these are just words, no more than words having never experienced them. But again, she has the full capability, but no frame of reference. She has all of the capabilities to do all of these wonderful things, but no frame of reference by which to understand these phenomena that are being described to her. This is a very interesting situation for the human being. Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless

you're born again, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What's surprising in this discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus always catches me by surprise. It sounds almost humorous to hear Nicodemus say, but how can I be born again when I'm old? He thought I think he was being a little bit sarcastic, perhaps. I'm an old man, born again. And he, of course, could have been accused here of taking a metaphor too literally. Well, born again, that is a metaphor for something, right? The surprising thing in this dialogue is Jesus doesn't say, no, you didn't understand me. He just reiterates, only he strengthens it one more time, saying unless you're born the water and spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God. The baby, Morgan, six months in the womb, is about to be born into another world. Again, all of her experience says this is the size of the universe, and that's all there is. The eyes that she has say this faint,

dull, red, dark that I sometimes see is the only color there is to see. She has no concept of the taste of a lollipop. There's no concept of what it would be like to run in the grass barefooted and to feel the grass beneath her feet. No concept of Beethoven. All the capabilities, but no ability to see them. And if she were to believe that this is all there is, she could make a case. Yes, indeed, I have reached out and touched the limits of my universe, and this is all there is to know. Right? And yet, lo and behold, the day is going to come when a whole new world will appear before her eyes. At nine months, my wife is feeling the pangs of birth, and I'm excited. We're on opposite ends. I've had two boys, I'm ready for a girl, and so it begins. The child comes through the very narrow passage of birth. Head shaped like a cone, here

she comes. She's never seen any colors, she's never really seen any light, and she's only experienced the warmth of 98.6, and all of a sudden, everything is going to be turned upside down. She is going to feel the temperature of her body or the external skin feel the temperature drop from 98.6 to about 71. What is that? Perhaps most painful of all, I can't decide fortunately I have no memory of this day in my own life. She's going to open those eyes by instinct, and the shafts of light are going to come streaming into her eyes, compressing in, and she's going to feel the full force of a beam of light. The bright lights of the hospital ceiling, she will try to keep out of her eyes. She might even be able to have some facility with her hands and raise them up to try to close them to keep this light out. And then what might be more painful still, for at

least you have eyelids to shut and hands to put over, but the sound of the un-muffled voices, the cries of her mother, the excitement of her father, the sounds echoing off of the walls, this strange world into which she's come, and all of the beeps and the clicks and the whirs of the hospital room come unfiltered right into that brain. For the first time, I can't imagine the kind of screaming headache I must have had, and she must have had, and it is no wonder the first human response to this world is, whaa! But, again, what if this world we were born into from our mother's womb is just yet another womb from which we need to be born again? Isn't this what Jesus was trying to describe? And would it be any more reasonable for me, a mortal of this world, a mortal of this womb, to say, would it be any more reasonable for me, who's only experienced this world, to

say there's nothing else besides this? Would it be any more reasonable for me to say that than it would be for the child six months in the womb to deny the existence of the color green, based on her experience? But you must be born again. This is not it. This is not all. You have not been able to touch the limits of this universe. No. But you know they're there. What if you're in another womb? And the wonders that will be opened up to you when the kingdom of God comes fully formed, how are you going to handle that experience? Again, I want to stress the absurdity of denying the existence of yet another world based solely on our experiences in this one. Are there not rumors from another world? Are there not whispers? Were there not clues in the child's mind when the child was in the womb of another world? Were there not echoes that suggested something beyond? What about this

life? Are there not whisperings from somewhere called eternity maybe? A thin veil between this world and the next world that we cannot experience beyond but nevertheless every now and then something seeps through and reminds us, oh my word, this can't be all there is. Can there? For every desire that the human has, the world tends to supply the solution, the satisfaction to that desire. The human body craves food. That must be a sign in this world that there is such a thing as food to satisfy that desire. My desire, in other words, for food is evidence of the existence of such a thing as food. The thirst I have, evidence of the existence possibly of something that can quench that thirst my desire for companionship, friendship, marriage, evidence that these things exist, a wife or a friend. But what if I have a desire that thousands and thousands of years of human history have testified to the fact what if I have a

desire that no human record and no human being has ever been able to find satisfaction for in this world? What if that is out there? What if a human being has a desire for something called God, something called heaven? But isn't that evidence of its existence somewhere? If this world can supply it, perhaps I'm in a womb ready to be born into another. Yes? The kingdom of God. Now, I could describe to you and if I was sitting down and teaching a Bible study, this might be how I would start. I don't know. Depending on the person, depending on our relationship. But if that person were to ask, well, have you experienced a birth like the birth of the child? Have you experienced a second birth? I would tell you yes and no. Yes, I remember the day I was baptized. I was six. I was so yearning to be baptized that I was baptized in a three-piece suit in the cold water

of a cast-iron bathtub. My uncle said, you know, it's really late. It's a midweek service, nephew Jeremy. How about we had a long altar call and you received the Holy Ghost? It's really late though. What about Sunday? Let's do this Sunday. I promised that night when I went down to the altar, I had no idea what my uncle preached. I only knew I wanted to get to the altar. And I promised I went up to the altar with one proviso. God, I will repent of all my sins and surrender all. I think that might have been the song that was playing. I surrender all. But I have one, one caveat. Don't let me cry in front of anybody. Six years old, boys aren't supposed to cry and I'm practicing that hard. Well, I kind of didn't care after a little while. It didn't really matter. You understand. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. But I was to cry not once that night, but

twice now because my uncle said Sunday, well, you know, I've been having a lot of prayer meetings at home and my dad and mom are telling me the Lord is coming soon and very soon. And you need to be right with God. Adding fuel to that fire. We had just received communion the night before. I received the baptism of the spirit on January 3rd, 1983. January 1, December 31st, actually, watch night service. We had taken communion, but my uncle scared the tar out of us, kids, and said, nobody, that no one that has not been filled with the Holy Ghost is allowed to take communion tonight. Okay, all right, fine. But then the second part of that message was, unless you take the communion, something's wrong with your spirit. So, heads I win, tails you lose. And I watched everyone take up the cup of communion and break the bread. And then I watched what happened afterwards. I saw people that I had

never seen before in this way begin to be filled with a, it was a joy that I couldn't quite understand because usually tears came with sadness and smiles came with happiness. And these people were crying and laughing at the same time, it seemed like. But I felt excluded. And so there was the inspiration of the communion service, and there was the inspiration of my mother and father's nightly prayer meetings in which we sought the Lord for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And then I'm filled with the spirit that night and baptized Uncle Keith agrees to baptize me. He saw my tears and had mercy. I don't think I would have lasted my sanity, that is, knowing that I had received aspect one, but not aspect two, that I had been partially saved, I guess, the way a child might think of it. So that night didn't care. The water felt warm, but it was only, it was cold. And I came up

out of the baptismal tank and I was only six, but I can remember it like it was today because it has been the summit of all of my experiences in life. And every other experience is measured by that one. And so it set me up for all kinds of disappointments, I guess, in all of the other ways I tried to find satisfaction. But I distinctly remember walking out on the lawn and looking up at the cold stars and for the first time in my life almost seeing beyond them and saying to myself, going and being able to say that with 100% conviction. No doubts. All those doubts that plagued me. No more. There's nothing like that. And indeed, that was a world I could never have been prepared for. But in another sense, I said a moment ago, if I were to teach a Bible study and if someone were to ask me, well, have you experienced in your second birth something on

the level of what you described in the first birth? I would say yes and describe that experience but then say no because the fullness of the kingdom of God while it is in part in me and in part in you, it is not realized in its fullness yet in the world. I has not seen, ear has not heard and Paul when he writes these words is speaking to those who have already been born again and saying it's still beyond your imagination what lies in store. So yes, we have been born into the kingdom of God but the kingdom of God has not been born fully in the world. I guess you might describe it that way. So we're in the in-between and I was about to say and now let me read my text but then I'm afraid that might scare you because we've been going for a while now but is it okay if the text comes in the middle, I guess?

All right. Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 he shall come forth as a chute from the stump of Jesse says the prophet and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge, the fear of the Lord and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord he shall not judge by what his eyes see I hate to get sidetracked but this is a Bible study so while I'm right here let me just point something out to you real quick this is a prophecy of the Messiah and it's outlining his attributes and characteristics okay, he's a root and branch of Jesse and it's hard to fathom how somebody could be both a root and branch metaphorically speaking be a father of Jesse and an offspring of Jesse at the same time but this is exactly who the Messiah is described

to be spirit of wisdom, understanding he has counsel and might the spirit of knowledge, the fear of the Lord his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord he shall not judge by what his eyes see interesting description of the coming Messiah he shall not judge by what his eyes see apparently those who beat Jesus when he was blindfolded they blindfolded him and then smacked him and said, prophesy prophet who hits you you know why they were doing that they were knowledgeable of the scriptures apparently they thought, they believed that the Messiah would be able to know things with his eyes closed based on this passage of scripture so there's the sting in all of that ironically at the same time this is happening Peter is denying Jesus and Jesus had predicted a few hours before that he would do just that so in a sense his prophecy is coming true at the very moment he's being denied to be a prophet

but anyway there's a little sidebar right there we are speaking of a prophecy of the Christ he won't decide disputes by what his ears hear but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked this is a strange weapon his mouth what other ruler has ever ruled by his word righteousness shall be the belt of his waist faithfulness the belt of his loins the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the lion the fatted calf together and a little child shall lead them pause for a moment I began this reading with a discussion of the kingdom of God here in the prophet we find out here's what the kingdom of God will look like when it comes to the earth

the Messiah will be there he will rule with his word and then this striking metaphor beautiful so beautiful that it has lived on in poetry and song and imaginations says the wolf shall dwell with the lamb not typically we for whatever reason somewhere along the way this became the lion lying down with the lamb but it's the wolf with the lamb the lion isn't typically the lamb's arch enemy it's the wolf and here is the prophet using a metaphor to describe what is going to happen to the world when the Messiah institutes the kingdom of God in its fullness the state of human existence will be as follows look at the impossible the impossible idea of a wolf and a lamb getting along together and there you will see by analogy what the kingdom of God will be like in our relations with each other the wolf will lose something of his predatory instinct from the moment the wolf comes of age there's

something in the wolf that just it just automatically attacks the lamb and sees it as food it can't see it as anything else there's a predator instinct and this describes our world right now while the kingdom of God has not yet been experienced and realized in its fullness human relations are characterized by a hunted and hunter relationship did any of you lock your doors in the parking lot for your cars why'd you do that did you lock your home when you left why'd you do that why'd you go through that strange ritual oh oh oh we gotta go back I forgot to lock it if somebody were to visit us from Mars and look at us doing such things they might ask why and you might ask yourself ever ask why has the world always been this way have we always and will it ever be otherwise there's blood in the eyes human towards human there's a killer instinct and what's strange is

that we don't think it's strange anymore if anybody isn't confused these days you're not thinking straight think about the things you do and ask why why do I have a thousand passwords how many passwords do I have to it's not enough to use one or two or ten and then you can go and you can get a company to manage all of your passwords but you have to have a password to get in to use all of these passwords and you're still left with the same fundamental problem they know your password if there's an area of life that is untainted by this wolfishness it will soon be capitalized by some great entrepreneur who will create an industry of fear where none exists how many different things do we have to have insurance for and then you hear the commercial protect this, protect this and then you start thinking well I never thought of protecting these things I never thought they needed protection but

what if and then you have this whole cottage industry that's built almost on this kind of mob mentality mafia it's a, it's a I'll protect you forget about it just what will you protect me from from myself so the wolf lupus lupoi wolf against wolf well that's where we are and spend for a long long time but there's another side to the equation the wolf shall lay down with the lamb is it just that the wolf changes and becomes less wolfier or does the lamb change and become less lamier I don't know whatever the cause when the Messiah comes we will no longer lock our doors no longer have to remember passwords I walked I have a very very long walk once a day and sometimes it's in the dark and you know I've been doing this for years walking is a part of my day a couple miles every day and it happens every night I turn and look over my shoulder

every few minutes I hear a sound look over my shoulder I can't let my daughter my wife go out at night without worry when my wife starts the car early in the morning five something worry how long don't get used to this let me just say this don't get used to this stuff there needs to be a yearning and that yearning is an evidence perhaps of a peace to come something to strive for something to look to hope that lies within us but the wolf shall lay down with the lamb peace shall reign between two seemingly mutually exclusive opponents born opponents from the moment of conception the wolf and the lamb are arch enemies well for the lamb the wolf is the arch enemy for the lamb the wolf is the devil it's that's the way it is but it will all change and this is the great vision cast by the prophet and it's summed up in this beautiful line and the

child shall lead them there'll be a gentleness there won't be hard core tactics that are used to force people to righteousness it will be something that people can be led by a child too the cow and the bear shall graze their young shall lie down together the lion shall eat straw like the ox no more carnivores anybody disappointed? no more the nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra no fear none whatsoever there will be no more fear that's what the kingdom of god is going to look like so with that in mind I'm kind of doing this bible study in reverse so please bear with me I'm going to close now with two passages from Paul 1st Corinthians chapter 10 Paul doesn't talk much about the kingdom of god at least if you mean by talking much about it using the word basalea tone phion the kingdom of god he's speaking to Gentiles for whom this concept is less familiar

the kingdom of god was a Jewish hope the Gentiles hoped in Rome Pax Romana, the peace of Rome so he doesn't use the explicit language that say a Matthew who's writing to Jews will use about the kingdom but he's always talking about the kingdom of god it's the crux really of his theology 1st Corinthians 10 and 1 to catch you up to the context that I'm parachuting you into Paul is trying to urge the church of Corinth to not use its freedoms in Christ to offend other people so one is not supposed to be guided simply by one's own convictions you can't just say I have my convictions you have your convictions and let's just follow each other you follow yours I'll follow mine Paul's urging no, no, no actually you're supposed to look around for who the weakest brother is and consider what might cause that person to stumble and live accordingly to avoid that so our conscience is supposed to become

larger than just ourselves we're supposed to have a conscience that includes or is informed by other people's consciences and so he reads or he writes this passage and he brings up a passage of scripture from the book of Numbers chapter 25 that describes a moment in Israel's history when they're wandering around in the wilderness and they're next to Baal, Pior and some of the men are tempted are seduced by the women of Baal, Pior okay and they have relations with those women and then the next thing you know there are people being men being hoisted up on the darts being kind of hung and this is where Paul this is his frame of reference I do not want you to be unaware brothers and sisters that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the

same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them and they were struck down in the wilderness now these things occurred as examples for us so that we might not desire evil as they did do not become idolaters as some of them did as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play we must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 fell in a single day we must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents and do not complain as some of them did Numbers 11 and were destroyed by the destroyer these things happened to them to serve as an example and they were written down to instruct us and I want us to focus for a few more minutes on this word on this

phrase right here on whom the ends of the world are come first of all the question we need to ask here in regards to the kingdom of God is why did Paul use as an analogy or a reminder this particular point in Israel's history the moment they were in the wilderness and tempted by idolaters the women of Baal Pior why? of all the different examples Paul could have used he had the entire Old Testament at his disposal with many great great analogies examples of people that fell to idolatry this one is a little bit more obscure than some of those other examples but he uses this one and I would suggest to you that it is very strategic on Paul's part to use this particular moment in Israel's history to use to instruct the people of Corinth here's the reason perhaps just like just just like the children of Israel the children of Israel are in this in between state they're not quite

all liberated yet but they're not either slaves of Egypt anymore they are in between Egypt and the promised land they're not there yet they haven't already they have already experienced a bit of freedom from Egypt but they have not yet experienced the full freedom of the promised land they're in the in between and that's what the wilderness for Paul represents it's an in between it's a kind of limbo you're in between two ages they're overlapping you're free but you're not free they have been set free from Egypt as I just mentioned but they are still they have still have a lot of Egypt in them they have the hope of the promised land in their minds and in their hearts but they're not there physically and I think Paul used this particular point in Israel's history because this describes exactly the church's point in time in history we're in the in between state we have been set free from the world but we

still have a lot of the world in us and we're not yet in the promised land right? okay? so Paul is saying if they who just seen the fire of Sinai and the baptism of the red sea but have not yet tasted the milk and honey of the promised land if they on the brink of their moment of being birthed could stumble and fall into idolatry and follow God's not of freedom but a bondage couldn't have happened to us for aren't we there in the wilderness too and for the last 20 centuries we have been in the wilderness for one reason or another we're still wandering we have experienced the fire of the Holy Ghost in the baptism but we have not yet tasted in its fullness the kingdom of God what will we do? get impatient take shortcuts so the reason why I have underlined this I've asked you to underline in your minds upon whom the ends of the world have

come notice the direction if I had some kind of visual here I would try to draw for you representation but I don't so you'll just have to imagine it these things if you could imagine for me that this is the past oh I can't do that if you can imagine for me that this is the past and this is the present and this is the future these things were written unto us what things? the things in the past were written to us to us the past comes forward into the present to inform to teach but that's not all for Paul has a kind of bifocal vision of history not only is the past informing us and warning us and giving us an advantage that the children of Israel themselves did not have they didn't have a scripture but the ends of the world have come to us upon whom the ends of the world have come that does not say that the church

has come to the end of the world it says the end of the world ends of the world have come to us and if Paul believes that Isaiah sees the wolf and the lamb characterizing what's going to be at the end of the world this peace if this is the way the future is going to be okay in Paul's mind then think about it this way the past in scripture is informing the present and the future reality of the peace on earth the spirit of God ruling and reigning in complete and utter sovereignty that's coming at the end but that is not stationary and we arrive at it someday it has actually something about it has come back upon us when you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Paul's theology you have received a taste of the end of the world the rule of the spirit the sovereignty of God the peace that passes understanding the unity of the church

the wolf and the lamb that has come back from the future and empowered us in the present so we are on both sides surrounded by the help of God the past coming to inform and warn and the future coming to empower and inspire you are walking forward in this it's as if to draw a really crude analogy but it's all I have it's as if Bill Gates with all of his understanding technology or to somehow get into a time machine and go back a thousand years and land in the tiny kingdom of Armenia into the little tiny palace of that little tiny kingdom for that little petty king and say you see all these powers of the world all around you well I've got something that's going to give you a little bit of an advantage and then all of a sudden you've got iPhones Microsoft Word oh no not that that won't help anybody um Microsoft works great great oxymoron um all

that technology imagine how powerful that kingdom suddenly becomes the advantage from the future um this is why Paul is talking again and again and again and again about a couple of different things you're not under the law of Moses anymore you're under the law of the spirit why the law of the spirit because that's going to be the only ruler at the end and you already are under that jurisdiction not only that but you are led by the spirit and filled with the spirit and therefore you have the love of the spirit the joy of the spirit the peace of the spirit all the gifts of the spirit are at your disposal you have it already you don't need to wait you already have a taste you already have a glimpse and what's important what is essential in Paul what is urgent in Paul is church if you don't get along if brothers are taking brothers to court if a man is having

relations with his mother in law if you're unable to have if you're unable to to have a conscience that includes other people's weaknesses then that puts in doubt the spirit's visitation upon us and ourselves as vessels and signposts that point to the end the world needs to be able to look at us and see what the world could be and will be one day yes you remember that phrase Paul said why would you take your brother to court for a judge, a worldly judge to decide your case do you not know and here's the telling, telling response do you not know that you will judge angels what is he saying he's following this paradigm live now walking worthy of the vocation where with you are called now don't wait to get to the end of the age to put on your costume and suddenly be able to judge angels no the end, what you're going to be in the end needs to inform

what you are now how you're going to behave in the end needs to inform the way you behave now it's not just a list that you're handed do this, do this, do this don't do that, don't do that no, all of these things are being taught because they are signs of the end the world can't get along the Israeli and the Arab it's a good example characterizes really human relations can't get along nowhere in the world can you really find a gathering of people like this you all come from different backgrounds you all have different callings you all have different cultures some of you different languages you have different likes and dislikes you have things that drive you crazy but other people love here and vice versa and yet here you are worshiping together a sign of the wolf lying down with the lamb that's what you are so brother Blankenship said an hour and you could even go an hour and 10

minutes if you want he said wow usually when somebody hands me the mic they say 30 minutes is good so I was impressed right there I guess that's a lot of trust seriously sometimes I think I can go on so long I get too excited about things I get just going and going and going and I think Peter might have been talking a little bit about preachers when he said maybe a thousand days to the Lord is as one day it just goes by really fast up here when you are excited and out there can be a different story different times but I do promise this is my fifth close and this is my last Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 1 I want to read a series of verses and finish Ephesians 4 and 1 therefore a prisoner for the Lord I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called that's pretty heavy stuff considering

what he means by the vocation walk worthy of it again you can't get to the end and when you're expected to judge angels you can't even judge matters in your own house and you can't even get along with somebody who has so much in common with you so walk worthy of this vocation it's holy you're carrying a sign of the end in the world's last hope it's way out with all humility and gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the what unity of the spirit the wolf and the lamb in the rule of the spirit in the bond of peace there's one body one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call one lord, one faith one baptism skip ahead to verse 5 he gave the apostles, the prophets the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of

Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ the fullness of Christ, the fullness of Christ this is the end of the age, the end of the age the end of the age, the fullness of the kingdom of God being realized here until that time work to build up and then at last there will be a unity of the spirit Ephesians 5 and 1 therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints the word saints is hegeoi holy ones let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place but instead let there

be Thanksgiving for you may be sure of this everyone who is sexually immoral or impure who is covetous that is an idolater has no inheritance and here is that phrase that he so rarely uses but always talks about shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of God, Christ in of God it's pretty serious task a lot of responsibility let's stand awake oh sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you look carefully then how you walk not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of God is don't be drunk with wine but filled with the spirit addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody to the Lord in your heart giving thanks always for everything to God moving ahead we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places therefore put

on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day all of this war dear God was there an earthquake in North Korea today man made what is going on North Korea South Korea China against the world Iran against the world Russia against the world the US against the world the upper class of America against the middle class the middle class against the lower class white against black go down the list but here the law of the spirit is at work and reigning Heavenly Father thank you for the spirit that empowers us to live contrary to the world may we be led by the spirit sons of God the world does not know how to achieve peace it never has there have always since Adam and Eve there's always been anger, jealousy envy, hate selfishness Lord I rebuke those things in the house of God in Jesus name let your spirit reign in Jesus name everyone said

amen brother do you have a song you have a song he's thinking of one I wish I did I don't can't think of one sister blankenship to be like Jesus to sing it with me amen