Holiness - Part III | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter

have your bibles and return with me to first chronicles first chronicles chapter number 16 and verse number 29. our god is great and our god is greatly to be praised what a mighty god we serve what a mighty god what a mighty god we serve i'm so thankful do you know the strength the strength of a marriage is just as strong as an argument some marriages have never been able to weather an argument or a disagreement seeing things different so they just file for divorce they just can't weather an argument and i think anybody in here that's been married anyone at the time knows that that comes with the the package okay okay i should have locked my car tonight because if you lie about that you'll steal something out of my car tonight and do you know the strength of a church is that it can be preached to it can't be preached to it's not a church it is a spiritual social party it's all it is but one of the tremendous traits about first apostolic we're not only a missions giving church we're a church that can be preached to and i commend you tonight i've got a lot of a lot of text messages this week and a lot of people saying pastor um uh my job will not allow me to go into a crowd of more than 50 people and and on and on we're gonna get through this we are going to get we're going to get we're going to get through this and i just want to take a moment and say thank you so very very much um give unto the lord the glory do unto his name bring an offering and come before him worship the lord in the beauty of holiness it's my text for tonight worship the lord in the beauty of holiness as we pray tonight please remember the ruble in prayer his brother-in-law his brother-in-law and his sister sandy many of you may have known sandy she used to work at the clerk's office at the courthouse if you've got drop if you wouldn't get a a a tag for your car i talked to sandy and um sister ruble the brother-in-law's name is slipping me at the moment is he ken ken ken and sandy both were in fort sanders hospital with kovy and uh yesterday ken didn't make it ken passed away and so uh would you help me pray tonight for for that family that god that god would be the peace that passes all understanding father i just love you tonight lord times like this we have an anchor that is sure god when everything around us god is without our any control and it seem there's no end in sight lord we can come into your holy house we can bring all of our hurts god to you father i pray for brother rubel's family tonight i pray for his sister i pray for them as they're going through this as others i pray for the stevens family tonight you ought to ask your lord just to be upon and god be a healer and a teacher to us in this time lord i ask you tonight again to keep your hand upon those that are in the path of that hurricane god i ask you to anoint me tonight open our hearts jesus name amen you may be seated tonight thank you thank you for being thank you for being here worship the lord in the beauty of holiness i i know that some of you i've been on this series now for a few weeks and some of us are waiting uh when is he going to get to the external part when are we going to start talking about uh how long our sleeves should be and when are we going to start talking about uh what to wear and what not to wear and where we go and where we don't go and uh that will that will come but i do think there is a need to understand where holiness originates holiness doesn't originate in my closet it may be revealed in my closet but it does not originate in my closet holiness originates deep down in the heart of a child a son or daughter of god that wants to please god he said worship the lord in the beauty of holiness let's just take this last part of this verse apart let's start with the first word worship worship this word worship means to bow down to do obesity and that word obeisance means to do an outward gesture with your body that represents giving honor to means to do an outward gesture with your body that means you're giving honor to something it means to submit to submit to so when it says worship it's talking about giving an outward gesture with your body and to submit and us i pardon the pun but i submit to you that our culture for some time now has made that word submission a dirty word an ugly word but spiritual submission is one of the most beautiful concepts a child of god can understand so it says the worship submit to the lord yahweh the self-existing one jehovah beauty worship the lord beauty the word beauty means in the hebrew it simply means a holy ornament it means glory comeliness comeliness means befitting of it's an act that's befitting of what is being worshipped it's an act that is befitting of what is being worshipped it also means an ornament an ornament it means also an external ornament and holiness that word simply means apartments separateness consecrated and separated so if you would simply read this scripture this way submit to jehovah in an external order ornament of separation submit to jehovah in an holy ornament of separation the amplified bible says to worship the lord in the beauty of holiness and in holy array the emphasized translation says bow down to jehovah in the ornament of holiness the literal reading says worship the lord in holy attire submit to jehovah in the external ornament of separation so we must understand that first word worship because if we don't understand the concept of worship holiness will never make any sense to our lives the word holiness the first thing that we have to present to god to go another step in god is a spirit of submission a spirit of submission you see submission to god in his word begins deep down in your heart that simple word every relationship is built on it submission let's see what james in james chapter four and verse number one through seven james mentions a lot of turmoil was going on in some apostolic believers lives he said from whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your own lust that war in your members talking about your flesh ye lust that's the flesh and have not you kill and desire to have and cannot obtain you fight in war yet you have not because you ask not ye ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your own lust the adulterers and adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world now is talking to the church not talking to the sinner he's talking to the church because they've got a lot of conflict among them not just among brother brother or sister and sister but a lot of inner conflict there's a lot of war going on in one individual's mind so james begins to talk about this and he says the reason you have all these wars going on is because you have allowed your flesh you've allowed your your lust of your flesh to simply war and want and you can't be content and you always want more and you've even let it come into your prayer life you're even asking your prayer life for things and and you're not receiving them because you're asking it for the wrong reason you want your flesh to be gratified and then he called them spiritual adulterers and adulteresses now he's not talking about the literal sin of adultery it's talking about a spiritual adultery of trying to mix god with the world you're trying to mix a relationship with jesus christ that requires 100 of your life and you're trying to mix it over here with the world he said you adulterers and adulterers is know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with god that word enmity means hatred with god whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of god do you think that the scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lust at the end you got a spirit that's just lusting envying and wanting never satisfied but he give up more grace wherefore he saith and i read all that to get to this point god resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble verse 7 submit yourselves therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee from you you know why the devil will run from you if you resist him he knows what you're going to become he knows what you're going to become but all of that verse one through six the trouble the turmoil the lusting the wanting the never satisfied could all be remedied if you would just submit yourself to god just submit yourself to god and as you submit yourself to god it's twofold when you're turning toward god you're resisting the devil when you begin to submit your life to god when you begin to remember it was an outward gesture it was a it was an action befitting of the one that you were worshiping i don't know about you tonight but i'm not going to dare try to cut a deal with god god i'll do this if you'll do that no god here my god you know why hand hand raising like this in worship because it's befitting of the one that we worship because lifted up hands is a universal sign of surrender god i surrender to you tonight if you bring me out of this trial i still love you god if you take me through this trial and you don't answer my prayer the way i want it answered i want you to know god i still love you god i want to be 100 i really know this to be the fact tonight but so many people fall short of the full benefits of living for god because they're just not willing to sell out to god submit yourselves therefore to god we'll never understand holiness we'll never even we'll never even practice holiness that is true holiness unless we know how to submit our lives to god but what does submitting our lives to god look like after all god is a spirit we can't see what does it mean when it says submit yourselves to god well turn with me to second corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 18. what does submission look like i mean if you're going to tell us brother hammond if you're going to tell me to submit to god pastor would you tell me what it looks like would you tell me what it looks like ii corinthians 5 and 18. paul said and all things are of god who hath reconciled us to himself by jesus christ and hath given unto us that was the apostles or that was the ministry that was a pastor that was the ministry those that were ministering the word you have reconciled us to himself by jesus christ see we couldn't understand god to god come in flesh why did god come in flesh so that we could understand him he manifested himself in flesh so that we could grasp a concept of what god is like and so as we study the gospels of jesus christ we begin to understand a greater knowledge of what god is like because he wasn't one-third god he was almighty god robed in flesh and so we understand god because he become flesh but he became flesh for this who had reconciled us to himself by jesus christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation so what are we preaching we're preaching to be reconciled back to god to wit that word wit there means to know that god was in christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us to ministry the word of reconciliation now follow this closely please church now then we as ambassadors the ministry is as an ambassador for christ as though god did beseech beg you by us in other words he was they were saying when we're preaching get in your mind this is god preaching and it's simply coming through a man and if we can ever understand that it's not the man it's not the man but it's the word the man is preaching i don't know but during the the last covet come through the community and came reared its ugly head in our church i'll confess to you tonight that i had some low prayer times in my life not low as far as not praying but low as far as not understanding and i know none of you have ever had that but just not understanding and i think brother cincotti was about right over here where you and sister sutner are at tonight then i was laying my hands on the pews and i was praying for the people and i fell down on my knees somewhere in that area there and i began to well i just had something to say to god i just had something i wanted to say to god and i said god why i said god i stood and i rebuked i rebuked this virus god i spent days asking you and and god i i just want to know why this has happened now i very seldom do that i'm i'm normally i'm normally way up here flying you know i'm normally that's the will of god that's the will of god take it leave it you know like it lump it go on you know god i wanna know why and a few days later he said he said this to me he said i was able to keep the plague from your city and i heard your prayers he said i heard your prayers and i was able to keep it from the city he said i could have caused this whole county not to have one case he said i could have kept it from your church i could have kept it from the church but he said and this is where i got to work on and we have to work on he said if i had answered your prayer son he said the people would have had more confidence in your prayers than my power he said if i hadn't answered your prayers the people would have never learned how to touch god for themselves and they would have always come to you and you would have gotten more attention than i so tell the people that i will do miracles but they've got to understand miracles don't come from a man they flow through a man they flow through a man i am flesh just like you are you cut me in i believe we're all flesh cut us and we believe so we gotta understand something about the word the word is not a man but the word is god and maybe they had miracle signs and wonders like never before in the book of acts because when they stood up and preached they didn't see them as paul and peter they saw them as the word of god no wonder cornelius can stand there and the holy ghost falls on his whole house and they start talking in tongues you know why cornelius didn't see him as a man he saw it as the word of god so what does submission look like let's go back to verse 20 again now we at now then we that's the ministry our ambassadors what is an ambassador what is an ambassador an ambassador is one who represents another country his country in another land he represents his country in a foreign land all right he is the ambassador of that country but he's here representing it he said we are ambassadors for christ as though god did beseech you that word that means to beg god did beg you by us we pray you in christ stead we're standing here in the place of jesus christ now we are not the ministry is not jesus christ but the ministry is standing in the place of jesus christ the ministry is not god but we are speaking the eternal words of god we we pray you in christ's dead be ye reconciled to god for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him so what does submission look like well i believe submission looks something like this that you go to the house of god on a midweek service like like you have or a sunday morning like you do or a sunday night like we do and you sit and wait for god to speak you say women no no you mean tongues interpretation no no i mean the preaching of the word because after all we want to know what submission looks like i want to know what it looks like if i am begin to worship god with submission then i've got to know what it looks like so what it looks like is understanding that god's word has all the answers not some of the answers but god's word has all the answers and you nor i will ever face a situation in our lives what god's word has not already answered it so our answer tonight is not within ourselves and our answer tonight is not without these walls everything we need answered in life we're going to receive it by the preaching and teaching of the word of god what does submission look like it was in jeremiah chapter 3 and verse number 15 that god began to speak for prophetically through the prophet and he says in jeremiah 3 and 15 he says and i will give you pastors according to my heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding and i didn't give you the next verse but would you give me the next verse what's god going to give them what's god going to now this is speaking prophetically i'm going to give you pastors and what are they going to do they're going to they're going to feed you with knowledge what's the pastor's going to feed you with knowledge and what else understanding but he said i'm going to give you a pastor according to my heart in other words i'm not going to give you a pastor as a form of punishment i'm going to give you a pastor because i love you i'm going to get someone i'm going to give you someone i'm going to give you someone that won't get off your back i'm going to give you someone who's going to be only interested in the most important time of your life is when you stand before god he said i'm going to give you a pastor because i love you and i don't want you to be lost and i'm going to give you a pastor and he's going to he's going to feed you knowledge he's going to help you to understand and then he says this i didn't put this down and he says and it shall come to pass when you be multiplied and increased in the land sounds like to me if we get a pastor we're going to grow sounds like if you want some growing to come in your life you don't need a preacher you need a pastor and there is a difference between a preacher and a pastor a preacher somebody preaches to you he can preach your wedding your funeral he can preach to you things you like to hear but a pastor that's a whole different that's a whole different operation there a pastor he's concerned about your soul he's a watchman on the wall he's a nurse it sounds like to me that if we let a pastor come into our lives we're going to multiply and increase in the land in those days what days the days you get a pastor said the lord they shall say no more the ark of the covenant of the lord you think about that you know hollywood the ark of the covenant is such an is such a piece of furniture that not only is the church world not only is the church world uh greatly curious about the ark of the covenant hollywood has made several movies there's documentaries about where the lost ark is at you know the lark the raiders of the lost ark and on and on he goes right i've never heard hollywood yet make a movie called raiders of the lost pastor in search of the pastor you know why because they don't know something god knows he said i'm going to give you something better that's that's a little bit mind-boggling is it i'm going to give you something better than that ark of the covenant i'm going to give you a pastor and once i give you a pastor you're not going you're you're not going to be looking for that you're not going to try to go to india and find where the lost or the ark of the covenant it's that way once i can give you once i give you a pastor you see that some folks they'll they'll they will go all over the country because somebody's prophesying lord i believe in prophesying i prophesy myself i believe in it or they'll go all over the country because somebody has the gift of healing and that's all well and good that's all well and good but it's like a lot of folks it's like a lot of folks that let the internet be their church time now i i'm i'm not saying brother so-and-so's over here prophesying i may go hear him myself or so-and-so is over here holding hold uh revival and he's he's a man of faith and miracles happen i may go see him myself but can i tell you come wednesday night i'm going to tell you where i'm going to be i'm going to be where my pastor's teaching the bible listening no it might not be fire flying from his fingertips it it may not be all of that but when god gives us a pastor that's somebody to say hey i may not be in trouble right now but i may have some trouble coming down the road and i'm going to make sure i'm at church i'm going to hear something tonight that might help me out a year from now i'll give you a pastor you ain't think about that ark of the covenant no anymore well now go to the new testament hebrew excuse me go to the new testament ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 11. is this all right tonight ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 11 talking about that jesus died rose again ascended into heaven verse number 11 and he jesus christ gave son that's gifts apostles some prophets some evangelists some pastors some teachers for the perfecting of the saints he didn't give all the he didn't give us the five-fold ministry he didn't give us the five-fold ministry he didn't say it's for the punishment of the saints he said it was for the perfection and i know i i know that sometimes there's been abuse come from pulpits i understand that i understand that but can i tell you that for everyone egotistical person who uses the bible to beat people up there's thousands of shepherds that want to take the word of god and see lives healed there's nothing there is nothing more beautiful we've got several little couples around here and some uh you you know you tell they're real sweet on each other and maybe even looks like i know that some of them has even set dates to get married and all that you you it is indescribable the feeling that a pastor has when he sees these kids making the right decisions you know why they're making the right decisions i promise you that after sunday after last sunday sunday morning's message sunday morning sunday night i promise you that there was more people thought about coming to church tonight than before see yeah they thought about it because you preached on it that's exactly right if you don't preach on it if you don't preach on it they don't if you ever heard this said that which ceases to be preached ceases to be practiced you don't have to get up and say we don't do that anymore just don't preach on it you know you don't have to get up you don't have to get up and say it's not important to be at church as long as you're here once a week that's what you know my new standard is you know i'm not saying this i'm saying that which is what it said my new standard is that i just you know i i've heard people say if i can just get them there once a week i'm happy brother carpenter well i'm not because how can we claim to be in a relationship with god when we're doing less today than we did 10 years ago that sounds like backsliding to me i thought we started off once a week and then we got the holy ghost and then we started coming all the time i didn't know that we start off all the time and as we get jobs and prosperity and and soccer matches and beauty pageants and all kinds of uh uh leads to get our kids involved then we go from every time the doors are open to once a week you know why they're here tonight you know what more people got up this morning and thought about church is because god gave you a pastor god said sunday morning and god said sunday night no no that wasn't god said how was you saying that no that's where you that's where we can't go on into holiness until you understand it's not the words of a man it's as if god is standing here and god is saying don't forsake my house don't forsake the assemblies of yourselves together don't allow the world to get a hold on you don't allow the world to get a hold on you for the perfecting of the of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the of the body of christ i know these i know these these these scriptures seem egotistical they seem egotistical but listen to paul in first corinthians 4 and 16 listen to writer of over half of the new testament listen to him first corinthians 4 16 wherefore i beg remember the word beseech means debate wherefore i beg you be followers of me be followers of me you see paul had an understanding that we need he understood it's not don't don't be a follower of paul be a follower of the god who's speaking through paul you know if you get up and say that today you know hey people i want y'all to follow my example it's like boy who's he think he is who does he think he is but that's that's the culture where we're living in today that's the culture that i'm fighting with strong i'm fighting to keep off of our strong tower students because that culture first corinthians 11 1. he he only said it once listen to him again first corinthians 11 1 be followers of me even as i also am of christ that's why you ought to follow someone a pastor if you don't have if you don't have confidence in the spiritual condition of your pastor run from here run get find you somebody that you've got confidence in their walk with god because when you're sitting in that pew listening it's not reader's digest time it's not time for you to preach in me to decide what i'm going to believe and what i'm not going to believe and i'll take it home and what i believe my family needs you can't you can't that's not even bible that's that's not even bible to do that that's not even bible submission works wonderful when the man of god is submitted to god follow me as i follow christ first thessalonians 1 6 and and ye became followers of us and of the lord and having received the word of much affliction with joy with joy of the holy ghost now let's throw this one in here hebrews 6 and 12 that you be not slothful but followers but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise the word submit the word submit means to arrange under it means to subject it means to subject oneself it means to submit to one's control it means to yield to one's admonition or advice it means to obey be subject the word submit this word was a greek military term meaning to arrange truth to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the command of a leader in non-military use it was a voluntary attitude of giving in cooperating assuming responsibility and carrying a burden so this spirit of submission is something that we should covet in our lives we should well i don't understand it go ahead and pray for it go ahead and pray for it before you go to bed tonight ask god god give me the spirit of submission give me the spirit of submission i don't want that spirit that if god says go left i want to go right i don't want that spirit if god says wet paint don't touch i don't want that spirit because that's my flesh i want the spirit i want the spirit it says god here am i lord speak to me god what do you want me to do god how can i help god what can i what can i do turn with me to ephesians chapter 5 verse number 21. listen to this verse ephesians chapter 5 verse 21 submitting yourselves one to another and the fear of god submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of god do you know what that means that means that each should esteem another better than himself that means that we should be willing to work together nobody needs to try to be the right one we all should try to be right so the spirit of submission it should be over all the church but then he comes down to verse 22 and he goes to the family he goes to the family now i've arranged this tonight in in this fashion because i really believe that every family needs a pastor i really believe every family needs a pastor i really believe for every husband and every wife and every father and every mother need to have the backup power and strength of a pastor in your life i promise you things will work much better and flow much smoother when you have a pastor husband wife then it starts off by saying wives of course you know people laugh at you today the world laughs at us over this i mean there's sometimes people from the world come into a bible study like this and i i mean it just blows me are you is he for real i mean y'all don't really do that do you yeah why do we do it because it's the eternal word of god wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the lord in other words your being pliable to your husband is similar to your submissive spirit to god for the husband is the head of the wife even as christ is the head of the church but see again our culture we don't like that word head because that means somebody's going to tell me what to do see how ugly the world has tried to make these words but how beautiful they are and how protective they are hey there's no one that has ever loved you like god no one that's ever loved you like god for the husband is the head of the wife even as christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body therefore as the church is subject unto christ so let the wives be unto their own husbands and everything husbands love your wives even as christ loved the church gave himself for it that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word that he might presented to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself for no man ever yet hateth his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it even as the lord the church for we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh this is a great mystery but i speak concerning christ and the church nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband what a beautiful thing what a beautiful thing for a man to be in line with the will of god and the love of god he's not in love with himself he's not looking out for number one he loves god and that same spirit comes over toward his wife and he loves his wife as he loves himself and he nourishes and he cherishes it because it's valuable to him and in return this beautiful this beautiful thing called submission as that man is subject to god he is broken by preaching he hears the word of god and he doesn't make excuses for why he does this but he hears the word of god and he's driven to an altar and there he lets his spirit comes out god help me be the man that you've called me to be god help me to be that man that you've called me to be give me strength god and god answers his prayer and that man grows in grace and in knowledge and he's not the same man today that he was a year ago and he pours himself into his wife he loves her he nourishes her he cherishes her the relationship is a beautiful god-ordained thing and then the woman oh she is not driven by this culture today of the women and not driven by the culture of looking down on a woman that's at home and cooks for the kids and make sure the kids have their clothes and make sure the husband's got a lunch box full of food and make sure that the money that he goes and makes that that it's spent wisely and and the culture of today they laugh at women oh you need to be out of the home and be your own this and be your own that i'm not saying that you can't but don't forsake the calling of a wife to be anything other than a wife because if you do you are stepping down the highest level you could be is to be a wife that loves her husband and the highest level you could be is to be a husband that loves your wife sister carpenter i don't believe i've ever shared this with the church and i may be wrong i may be wrong and it would be the first time but i don't think i've ever shared it with you but i'm going to share something with you very early on in pastoring this church i was 23 i was 23 years old when i became the pastor of this church a month later we were married and we started off pastoring a church and building a church and building a marriage and during that time i began to see some things that needed to be in line in my life i began to see some priorities begin to see some priorities um there's nothing any more devastating there's nothing any more devastating than a ministry family break up you know a family can break up in the pews and it it's devastating wherever it's at but it's horrific when it's here it is horrific you have people struggling i get phone calls of folks wanting people wanting to be re-baptized would you would you baptize me brother carpenter wait a minute you've been in church for years with a man that bapti the man that baptized me backslid and and i i just you know we'll see then you have to teach what i started at the very beginning your sins wasn't remitted because that man was living right your sins were emitted because god's word says it so i started i started a little something that i've used for all these years but god showed me the five levels of the will of god for my life five five levels of the will of god in this in this order so it's it's it's nothing else touches it first and foremost first and foremost first and foremost i must be saved i must have a personal relationship with jesus christ i must know him and he must touch me and i can never allow my life i can never allow the ministry i can never allow it to become a a occupation i must know jesus christ i must have a personal relationship i got to have a relationship with him the second will of god in my life is that that woman i want you to stand right now honey just for a moment the second will of god for my life is our marriage the second will of god for my life is that we are married that's the second will of god in my life thank you sweetheart the third will of god is our children our children our children mean the world to us i love my children more than i can describe i love my son-in-laws i love the choices my daughter's made i love the choice my son made i love my grandchildren i love my children more than i can tell you that's the third level of the will of god the fourth level of the will of god is my calling to preach that's the fourth level of the will of god and i'm sorry to tell you no i'm not you're number five the church is number five your last your last and i'm gonna tell you why you're last is because if i let you become first if i let you become first and then i let my ministry become second and i let my children become third and i let my wife become la forth and i let my walk with god be the last thing what good is it to have a pastor that doesn't know god oh he can deliver a good sermon you can get online at sermons.com you can get online we've even seen this even seen this in in in in uh uh uh even a tv evangelist well-known evangelists i i i brother tony sent me the other day a little deal on the phone it was 15 seconds of brother tony preaching and then a renown if i called his name must give you a known a renowned nominal preacher 15 minutes to brother tony preaching or 15 seconds and then he sent me 15 seconds of this man word for word well you think well that this you know it's just word for word but when there was eight different segments and the only time the man deviated is when brother tony said you need to be baptized in jesus name for the remission of sins and he turned and said oh the name is so powerful so you you get your sermon off a piece of paper but a sermon is not a pastor but if you just understand the levels of the will of god how beautiful this is i want to be submitted not to a church not to a wife not to children but i want to be submitted to the almighty god and when i'm submitted to the almighty god i can love her more than i could love her if i wasn't submitted i can't love her the way husbands we can't love our wives to the level that they need to be loved if we're not in a right relationship with almighty god and when we get in the right relationship with god i can love her in return she can love me back we are a unit we are glorifying god we are a typology of christ and the church then we turn to our children where's our children come in you see as this submission flows down this submission flows down pastor i'm submitted to our pastor and that wife knows that she submitted to you because you're submitted to somebody that submission don't start mid-stream it don't start midstream there's going to come a day you hear me tonight there's going to come become a day men that you're going to need the backup of being submitted to your pastor and if it's not there you're going to lose out because you're going to try to pull the bible card out but she's going to look and say it don't work like that it don't start here but how beautiful it is when a man is subject to the pastor because it's the word of god and when trouble comes she's got confidence that's what every man every man thrives on the confidence of his wife she he wants that confidence and you know what women want women want respect and when we can get in god's word and we can begin to mix that chemistry the man has the confidence that his wife loves him and trusts him and in return she knows he respects me and the third level comes in and i will close with this the third level comes in ephesians 6 and 1. ephesians 6 and 1 children obey your parents in the lord for this is right now let's don't get sidetracked because a lot of times people want to get away from what the bible means by hypothetical well what if my dad's not living what if my parents no no no just stop right there we'll we'll talk about that a little later i'm talking about people understanding the will of god men and women marriages understanding the will of god children strong tower listen to me tonight you're going to think the next time you see if i don't say this you're not going to think about it but the next time your parents tell you to do something you or at least think about this whether you do it or not would determine your own level of consecration to god but if i don't preach it you won't think about it children obey your parents and the lord for this is right honor thy father and mother honor which is the first commandment with promise honor honor don't have a bad attitude towards your parents don't have a bad attitude honor them i'm gonna tease something besides god there's nobody loves you like your mama loves you besides god there is nobody that loves you like your daddy loves you and strangers and friends that you will honor and and and be more cheerful to smile at them and look at and and be respectful of but your parents walk in the room and you look like you've swallowed a pickle sideways oh my mom you're my mom you're my dad here come on god's not pleased with that you need to understand the world will walk out on you but your parents will stay right there and they'll love you when everybody has walked out of your life they'll be right there to say i love you i care about you when you can do one thing wrong that a friend doesn't like and they won't speak to you forever you can do your parents wrong time after time after time and guess who shows up at the hospital guess who shows up at the crosses in your life you got it your parents so children tonight let's honor our parents let's honor them in the lord for this is right that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth the quality of your life strong tower listen to me junior high senior high the quality of your life is determined right now by how you respect and honor your parents because if you don't respect and honor your parents you won't respect and honor your job foreman and if you want respect and honor your parents you won't respect and honor your boss on the job because it's not that you don't like what your parents tell you it's that you've got a spirit in you that's fleshly driven you don't like what anybody tells you if it's something you don't want to do get delivered from that get a spirit of submission about you get a spirit of worship about you a spirit that says you know this is life and and and i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna my mom and dad are looking out my pastor looking out for my best interests and that foreman on the job he's looking out for the best thing in the job and you know what even if if i'm being wrong at the end of the day god can write every wrong that's ever been done to any of us but if you're on your own you're on your own i don't know about you but i don't want to be on my own i want to have a god that looks out over me and says hey he's being done wrong but i'm going to go back around here and i'm going to bring it back around and i'm going to change i'll close with this tonight would you stand with me moses was a mighty man of god moses the mighty man of god he is a stone silhouette is chiseled on houses and courthouses all over but god wanted to see if he'd pass the first test it would have been to moses if he hadn't passed the first test what was the first test moses take your shoes off for the ground you stand on is holy take my shoes off nobody else is taking their shoes off take my shoes off well let me go poll and see what everybody's doing it all stopped right there it all stopped right there you know why god told him to take his shoes off he was giving him a submission test yes lord yes lord that's right it took a little time for moses to take his shoes off but it was a submission i'm test going any further i'm not going any further you can see some things you can see some burning bushes we get burning bushes going all the time but that's all you ever get to talk about it's burning bush because you failed that submission test naaman you would have died a leper man of god god said god said man of god tell him go wash seven times in the river go wash i've got better rivers than this i don't understand why that you read the whole story he he when the man when the servant walked out said hey naaman the man of god said you go down to jordan river and wash seven times in the jordan river and you'll be healed he flew mad this is in the scripture he flew mad turned around and was going home are there not better rivers in my country don't i have clearer water in my country i have better this and better that yes you may but the power was not in the water the power was in the word and the power was in your submission to the word yeah there's little little folks who get all around you and start telling you everything why you should this is the man this is 20 20 what's what are you listening to this is 20 20. the man came up to me said hey hey naaman if the prophet would have told you to do some great thing like climb some great mountain or give some great amount of money you would have done it you ever notice how silly the world is in some of its entertainment and i look at them i think and they make fun of us i mean men football season they'll take their shirts off and paint on their big bellies the the the letters to the to the team and stand in a line so they can spell out their team but they'll but brother tyler they'll come to an apostolic church on a sunday night and see ben lee running around saying that's crazy that's a little lost there mommy around here but you know what naaman did he dipped he took a bath seven times and when he did he came up the seventh time and his skin was like a little baby skin he was healed folks god's word submission it still works amen it still works would you lift up your hands right now dismiss yourself in jesus name give him a praise right now come on lay your hand lay your hand on your heart and ask god to give you the spirit of submission you