See No One According To The Flesh

Service and through US, amen. I, the Lord today. Sometimes we come to a service, and sometimes we come stressed, or we, of course, have problems and maybe issues. But the great thing is to come to the house of the Lord and feel the presence of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Amen.

I want to recognize our guests before getting the word. I just want to, uh, welcome and thank the Lord for, uh, Herbert Flores, who's part of the Chia family, came to visit today. Got this—no, no, it's Gilbert. Gilbert, sorry. Gilbert Flores. God bless Gilbert Flores. Amen. I haven't met too many Herberts in my life. So, say Carlos, Robin. God bless you. Said, “Come, visit you broke and did it.” Amen. Good to see you, Sister Marquez Sun. Amen. Praise God. Also Jesse VTO. God bless you, Jesse, back there. Jerry Chaston, Jerry. God bless you, Jerry. And also a friend of Sister Veronica, Sharon Pton. Amen. God bless you. She was out there in Stockton with us, and I heard she went out yesterday with Casper Valley and with Brother Dan, uh, went out to C Valley yesterday, and they put up our booth. And you know, uh, our band didn't play, but the director of that event called me and said, “Hey, I’m getting a lot of phone calls. I want to know if your band’s going to be at my event. We don’t even know you, but we want you to come and set up your booth anyway.” Hallelujah. So Brother D and Deacon Gus and some of the families went out there. Brother Daryl and Sharon went out there, and they promoted; they got to pray for some people, and we’re a blessing. Amen. Amise God. Also, uh, Jimmy Olivas. God bless you, Jimmy, today and family. You good to see you.

Um, just so you know, uh, our motto is, “Don’t come to religion; come to Jesus. Come as you are. Don’t come to men; don’t come to anybody else but Jesus.” Said, “Come to me, all that are heavy laden, and I’ll give you rest.” So, uh, it’s all about Jesus. Hallelujah. We love Jesus; we preach Jesus; we talk about Jesus; we worship Jesus because he’s the one that died on the cross 2,000 years ago and shed his blood for us. So we’re here because we love Jesus. Turn to your neighbor; say, “I love Jesus.” How about you? Come on, turn. “I love Jesus.” How about you? Hallelujah. I love Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise God. Hallelujah. Well, how many are ready for the word of God? Oh, I have one more announcement. Sorry, almost missed it, but I got it right here. See, I have an announcement. There’s a young couple getting married from Mission 24, Joseph and Priscilla Iran, and they’re inviting all Mission 24. I’m going to read it right here, but it is: “Two lives, we’ve, uh, heart joy together in friendship, united in love. It is with joy that that we invite you and share a celebration of love. The marriage of Joseph and Priscilla Iran, Saturday, September 24th, 2011. Ceremony will be, uh, at Lovers Point Beach—that’s a good place to be—Lovers Point Beach in Monterey, California, at 2:30 p.m. on September 24th. Reception will be at 4:30 at 774 Wave Street.” And Brother Joe Iran, raise your hand. He has some, uh, more invitations if you want the address. See Brother Joe? He’s inviting us all to go down and participate and and join them as they, uh, are joined together in holy matrimony and before the Lord and the church. And I know that God has great blessings for Brother Joe and Sister Priscilla. Amen. Amen. Praise God. Let’s give the Lord a hand. Bless what a blessing. Amen. Well, amen.

Open your Bibles to Second Corinthians, chapter, uh, 5 and verse 16, and I want to talk to you about—no, no man after the flesh. Uh, lately the Holy Spirit has, uh, given me this verse, so I want to share my heart with you, and I believe this is going to be for you and for others that may hear this message. Uh, we thank the Lord again for Brother Danny Das. He’s been putting our messages on Facebook, and every day we’re getting new people from all over the country and other countries that are tuning in and getting the word of God. So we greet all those that, uh, have been tuning in, and we ask that the Lord Jesus Christ give us revelation in all things. Now, if you go to 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, I’m going to read one verse, and verse 16, according to the New King James Bible. Again, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 16, the Bible says like this: “Therefore, from now on,” somebody say, “from now on,” “now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet we know him thus no longer.” Again, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet know we him no longer.” Let’s pray. Father, we thank you right now in Jesus’ name, asking for divine illumination and your grace to be with us. Father, you know the word of God; you know the hearts and the minds today. Ah, we ask the illumination, revelation of Christ to come forth in Jesus’ name. Ah, yes, God. Right now, I feel your presence, God, and I give you the glory because you said this is your word, is not our our word, God. We come reverently; we come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in the time of need, and we ask God for your inspiration and power for those that are wounded and brokenhearted today, those that need a word from God. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Somebody say, “In Jesus’ name.” Jesus’ name. Amen. Now, uh, the first verse here, I want you to see. English Standard Bible says, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. And even though we have known Christ—now just let me give you a little bit of introduction to this verse. What we’re talking about here is Paul’s writing to the Corinthian people. And people like to relate to people; people like to relate to one another. And there’s nothing wrong with relating to people, relating to one another. But what happened was everybody, they thought they knew Jesus, and they thought they knew Christ. But when he resurrected from the dead, they got a surprise. Hallelujah. They just thought he was another prophet. They thought maybe he was just another man. Maybe they thought he was a good teacher. But when Jesus resurrected from the dead, he showed everybody that he was the Lord of lords and the King of kings, and that he was the only savior of all men. Hallelujah. So, as people regard Christ in the flesh, you know, Paul says, ‘We knew him like in the flesh, but now he’s no longer in the flesh but in the spirit only.’ Next one says, ‘So we stop—’ this is the same verse, and looking at the New Living Translation. ‘So we have stopped evaluating, evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now.’ See, sometimes we make evaluations of things in our lives and evaluations of people, and we’re not always right. Amen. I’m going to say it again, just like you’re listening. Sometimes we evaluate people and we evaluate situations from a human standpoint, but we need to learn to evaluate them from a spiritual standpoint, because see, right here it says, ‘At at one time, one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view, but how differently we know him now.’ How many know Jesus according to his resurrection power and not just according to your own understanding, your mind? Hallelujah. How many know that you know that you know that Jesus raised from the dead? How many of you know absolutely that Jesus is just not another man, but he was a Lord from Heaven? Hallelujah. Next one: ‘Because of this,’ this is The Message Bible, same verse again. I’m doing a comparative method here for you to see. Sometimes some of the Bibles differently, but The Message Bible is kind of a paraphrased, but it says like this: ‘Because of this decision, we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look.’ That’s good. ‘We looked at the Messiah; we looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside. Now we look inside. Now we look inside. And what we see is that anyone united with Messiah gets a fresh start, and it’s created new.’ Hallelujah. I’m trying to preach here, and the Holy Ghost is up, man. Oh, God, help me today. See, ‘Because of this decision, we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look.’ How many have ever judged the book by its cover? Hallelujah. How many say, ‘Well, this person’s this way, and they’re that way because the way they dress or because the way they look.’ But I’m going to tell you, religion is always saying you have to dress a certain way and look a certain way. But when you come to Jesus, he doesn’t look at your clothes; he looks at your heart. Hallelujah. He didn’t come to save your Gucci bag; he didn’t come to save your Ray-Ban; he didn’t come to save your floor shine; he came to save your soul and heart that can be regenerated and on its way to heaven. Hallelujah. ‘Because of this situation, we don’t look like that, but now we look—we looked at the Messiah like that, but we got it wrong.’ See, some of the people thought the Messiah was a false prophet. Some men said he was a nice man and everything, and he was a good preacher, maybe, uh, he might be a a good, uh, prophet. But really truly, the Bible says that he asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” And Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You are the Messiah.” So praise God for the revelation. You ought to thank God. Did you even know that there is a Jesus? That’s right. You can’t even know there’s a Jesus unless Jesus reveals it to you, right? We think we know a lot, but we don’t know nothing. The Bible says, “Any man thinks he knows something, he knows nothing; he deceives his own self.” You know the Bible says, “When a man thinks he knows everything, he doesn’t know nothing; he deceives his own self.” You know the the hearts is simply wicked. Who could know? Is we think we know, but sometimes we don’t know that we know, and we think we know this, and we think we know that. But reality, I tell you, like Paul said, Paul said, “I don’t know nothing but Christ and him crucified.” I don’t know nothing except Jesus Christ and he crucified himself and and went to the cross for me. But I’m going to tell you today, I know that I know that I know that I know that I know, know that I know, yes, that I know that I know that I know that I know that I really know that I know that I know, yes, that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, and his name is Wonderful, the Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. He’s the earth, and he’s the last; he’s the Alpha, and he’s the Omega; he’s the beginning, and he is the end. He’s the Lord God Almighty from heaven. And I’ll worship him, and I’ll praise him. If nobody worships him, I’ll worship him and give him the glory and give him the praise and exalt his name, because there’s no other name given among men where we must be saved. There is no other name given under Heaven given among men where you must be saved. How many know you’re only going to get saved in Jesus’ name? Hallelujah. Now, let’s go on here because we’re talking about “I don’t know any man according to the flesh no longer.” Next slide: The flesh. I’m going to talk to you for a moment and give you—when we’re talking about the flesh, sometimes we hear the word, “Well, oh, they’re in the flesh.” And the flesh, really in the Greek is *sarx*, which means, uh, flesh, the soft substance of the living body which covers the bones and permeated with blood, both men and beasts. So everybody touch your right hand like this. This is my flesh right here. You got flesh and blood; you’re made out of flesh and blood. But the Bible also says when he’s talking about *sarx* in the Greek, it means born of natural generation. It also means the sensuous nature of man, the animal nature. How many heard everybody call you an animal before? You’re an animal; you eat like an animal; you look like an animal; you smell like an animal. Time to go to showers. Bible talking about the flesh, the animal nature with cravings which incite to sin. *Sarx* also means the animal nature, our innate fallen nature, which cravings which incite to sin. So our flesh is not a good K. The flesh is contrary to the Spirit of God. The physical nature of man is subject to suffering. The flesh denotes mere human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from the Divine influences and therefore prone to sin, opposed to God. So when we’re talking about the flesh, we’re talking about the human nature; we’re talking about your earthly nature of man apart from Divine influence. So flesh is a bad thing in the Bible. It means that part of us that continually would want to do wrong and go against God’s word and hurt one another and be self-centered and be all about itself and be sometimes like an animal. Amen. Now, let’s look at some of our fleshly motives. The football coach who chooses out his players is doing it to motivate them. The parent who demands, “Sit down and do your homework before you go on,” is seeking to motivate. The pastor who preaches a fiery sermon on coming to judgment and seeking to use fear to motivate his congregation to action. I remember back in the 70s, growing up, every sermon was, “You’re going to hell.” When I came to the gospel, everything was, “If you stand up and laugh over, you’re going to hell, brother. If you were this, you’re going to hell. If you do this—don’t drink root beer, cuz there’s beer in the can.” Hallelujah. I like that one. I almost put that one—that one still—I see people drink root beer to this day, and I’m like, “Oh, God, come, Jesus. Beer. Oh, Lord, help him. Jesus right now, cuz you know Jesus is tripping with wh be he he he’s like, ‘Huh, I don’t know about you, brother.’ But sometimes we were brought up in an atmosphere of fear. Now, sometimes remember the beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. So sometimes if you needed fear to motivate you, God says, “I’m going to kill you,” then yeah, that might wake you up. But if you need that, then more power to you, because for me, God told me, “Choose life or choose death,” when I was coming in. I had to make my choice, too, cuz the Lord says, “You’re going to choose death or life.” So I said, “I choose life.” So I’m going to tell you today, the choice is yours today. Choose life. Hallelujah. Amen. Hallelujah. Next one: The fleshly ways. We have so many ways of attempting to move people. We set goals for them; we urge to achieve; we make rules; we insist others to keep them; we shame; we urge; we condemn; we pl uh competition to hope that some will move others to respond. The unhappy wife nags her husband; the disappointed parent belittles his child; and even the proud parent with host praise and effort to stimulate still higher achievement. And all of them at times wonder why. Now I want to look at this for a minute because we’re—I’m going with this—is it our flesh? Sometimes it gets in the way of the glory of God. Our flesh, our fallen nature, sometimes our ways—the way we act with our family, our friends, and the church and our coworkers. We do things to try to motivate them or to get our way. But see, these are all fleshly ways. When you use and insist to shame people or to condemn, that’s not the Lord. When you come to Jesus, he doesn’t condemn you; he loves you. Yes, yes, that’s right. When Jesus spoke to you, he didn’t say, “Well, you’re such a worthless little worm; I don’t even know why you’re alive.” No, that’s a lie of the devil. When you come to Jesus, he tells you, “My son and my daughter, I love you so much. I died on the cross for you 2,000 years ago. I shed my blood, and I resurrected to send you Holy Ghost power that you may be teach and preached, and then you’re a powerful people; you’re a royal nation; you are great people; you are powerful people, and you don’t even know it. But I’m I’m sad to say that in many, many homes and and many situations is that we, uh, we use these condescending methods and condemn, uh, condemning, uh, one another, probably because you were brought up in an atmosphere of condemnation yourself. You’re used to condemning people; you’re used to belittling people because you were belittled, and you were probably condemned. But I’m going to tell you—I’m going to tell you—put on the mind of Christ and put on the love of Jesus, and let us change our minds and begin to walk like Christ, because all that is of the flesh and the devil. That’s all right if you don’t respond; it’s the truth anyway. And I hope the devil don’t like it, cuz I’m going to step on some some spiritual religious toes today. And I’m not going to step on your toes, but I hope this hits you right in your heart to change, because I’m not preaching for for for, uh, my benefit. We’re preaching the word because this is what the Lord gave us for today, and this is what I have a problem with. All you Latino people out there—God bless the Latino people—but you were brought up with a *La Llorona*. Everything your your mom and daddy would say, “Don’t go over there because I’m going to call *La Llorona*.” And the *La Llorona* apparently was some woman in Mexico that lost her children in an accident and and and she was going around crying and she’s like a ghost and she’s a spirit, and if you don’t behave, she’s going to come get you. So usually Latino community, they say, “If you don’t behave right now, then *La Llorona* is going to come,” and the little freaking out, man. And then we grew up, and we’re still looking like that. It’s like some of you Mexicans—you know you’re Mexican—you got hit in the back of the head with the *chancla*. Brother D was telling me, you know, you’re from San Jose East Side, and you went and you eat at the Greek Pit of Pur and and keys. See, sometimes you don’t even realize, but you were brought up with traditions and ideas and and and and and things that have been very negative, but we have to destroy it in Jesus’ name and come to the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let’s go to the next one. Look at this. It’s going to go a little deeper. Fleshly approach: “Why doesn’t my husband—why doesn’t my husband improve?” Some wives might say, “Why doesn’t my wife obey me?” She—God, quiet. See, I like that. None of them said, “Amen,” on that one. You know what that is? That’s called wisdom. Amen. You hear nobody say, “Amen.” “Why doesn’t my wife obey me?” I had a young man—I was a youth pastor; he called me up one time—this is back in the 90s; I was just a new youth pastor—and he called me; he says, “I want you to give me my wife Bible lessons.” And I said, “Okay, I’ll give you your wife Bible lesson.” He says, “Come over here and tell my wife she has to obey me. That’s what I want you to teach her.” So sure enough, I go over there. All he wanted to talk about was how his wife was going to submit to him and how she was going to be his obedient servant. He didn’t want to read the part where it says, “Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.” So he said, “You want your wife to obey you? You better have start loving her and treating her like she’s the best thing that ever happened to you, like you said you would. Start treating her like she’s what she is—is the best thing you probably ever happened to you. If you start to do that, she’ll respond, cuz women will respond to love. But women, women are not a doormat to be treated under the foot of some big old Mexican child.” CL—the old, old school, growing up. I remember the old Latino men. I go to the house, and they would say, *Soy el rey de la casa*, which means, “I’m I’m the king of the house here. Nobody says nothing; nobody does that. I’m the ruler of the universe.” See, I guess it, you know, it’s just like us in the—we want God’s word where it says, “Husbands, obey your wife,” but we don’t want the part where it says, “Husbands, give your life for her. Love her. Love her. Treat her like you want to be treated.” And said, “Why don’t my children—why doesn’t my child try? Why don’t members of our congregation get involved?” The answer to all these questions is—say it—it’s because we’re trying to use men’s approach to move others, as Paul taught in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1:2, “Human wisdom is not God’s kind of wisdom. God has his own unique and vital way of doing his work in our lives.” Amen. Amen. See, this is why we still have—let me back up from it. This is why—it kills me. You got, uh, 30-year-old woman; her mother called her on the phone, still yelling at her and meting up. And the husband’s like, “Why are you letting your your mom yell at you and and put you down?” And you—they’re crying on the phone. I remember back in the 90s, the first job I had, uh, full-time ministry. I came in ’99 full-time with the ministry. My first job was to help a mother-daughter relationship that had gone sour, cuz the mother would call their daughter, and the daughter was 32 years old, and the mother would stay an hour on the phone saying, “You’re so worthless; you’re so worthless; you don’t know how to run your house; you don’t know how to do this, and you don’t know how to do that; you’re so worthless.” And the poor girl, they’re 32 years old, has young children and her husband. She’d be on the phone for an hour with her mother just berating her. And when the—while they get to me is because you don’t understand the word of God. When a man and woman get married and says, “The man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife,” so that means, too, the wife will leave the mother and father, and now they’re one in Christ Jesus. The authority that the woman has is the man, and the man’s authority is a woman. Hallelujah. If I have to answer to anybody, I’m sorry, I love my mother, baby, but my wife is the woman that I have to answer to. I’m messing around today. I love my mama; she she she from I was y she would chastise me and do a you know and and and and rebuke me and train me or teach me—taught me a lot of things. But when I got married, my wife was the one who was telling me, “I’m watching you, boy.” So I got two women watching me. You thought you had it easy. But see, there’s a law in God’s Kingdom, right? And it’s called the divine order. And when we get out of order, we don’t know why our lives are all messed up. It’s because we get out of the laws and order of God which he has planned for his church and his people. When we follow after the commands and the knowledge and the wisdom of God, we begin to understand that there is a way of life that God has called us to, and that way of life is *zoe* in the Greek, which means the highest life, the best life, the life. And the way we get there is following the Lord Jesus Christ. See, because you know my wife and I were discussing this and in part some of the sermon I have today from the discussion I have with my wife. We were discussing; she said, uh, “Why is it that, um, that the we have daughters and and sons that, uh, the parents come and they’re still berating the children?” Because you know, they—she she brought to remember a lot of people says, uh, “Children, obey your parents, for this is right in the Lord.” Is it what the Bible says? So us Latino people and some of the other cultures, I’m sure you know our kids are, uh, 40, 50 years old, and we want to talk to—

Them like you're 16 still, and we hurt them, and we embarrass them, and we shame them, and we hurt them, and we cut them off, and we we don't want to talk with them because we're we're too holy. Please, so let me tell you this: when it was written, "Children, obey your parents," it was talking to little children, not married couples. All right? If you look at the Greek, you'll find out that it was talking to little children. But your mama and your daddy turned that verse and said, "Well, children, you have to obey your parents. You're 55 years old, or if you're 45, you still have to do what I say." No, you do what your husband says, and you do what your wife says, because the two shall be made one, and you go your way. You follow the Lord Jesus Christ, you follow his Commandments, you follow his word, and those are the blessings that will come to you. Because I don't know longer know any man according to the flesh. Let's go. Are you ready? We're going to go a little deeper. Now, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. If you have your notes, or I'm going to read it from the Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and I'm going to uh use this chapter, verses 1-6. I'm going to emphasize a few of the verses. The Bible says, "Brethren, I came to you not with uh come with excellent of speech or wisdom or declaring you the testimony of God; for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." Did I just quote that verse? "I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasions of men of human wisdom, but a demonstration of spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power power of God." Do you hear what the Bible's saying here? He's saying that Paul says, "I'm not coming to you because I'm the best preacher. I'm not coming to you because I use big words. I'm not coming to you because I'm perfect in speech, but I'm coming to you because I have the power of God inside of me, because your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." And what is the power of God? The power of God is to do miracles, signs, and wonders—things you can't do. Because we're not serving a God that makes us feel good; we're serving a God that can transform lives. We're serving a God that transforms hearts. We're we're serving a God that transforms situations and brings us out of darkness into the light. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. See, we're not serving a dead God; we're serving a living God, right? We're not serving a God that can't hear and can't see. We're not serving a God that is just a a God that's always on vacation. He's a God that is so intimate with you; he knows how many hairs are number on your head. Amen. And that's be before bald and after bald; he knows how many hairs are number. So we're talking about a God that is very intimate with you. He knows the secret of your hearts. He knows the very destiny in your life. He knows the purpose and the plans he has for you. And we like saying that because we know that it is true. "The power of God. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, not the wisdom of age or the rulers of age who are coming to nothing." Verse 6: "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom of God, ordained before the ages of glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." That means that if the men were so smart in the time of Jesus, why did they crucify the Lord of Glory? And the people of this age, if people are so smart, why do they reject Jesus? Amen. And people are so brilliant and so smart, they don't even know and can't see by the very elements that God created the heavens and the Earth. But instead, we have men that rationalize and say, "Oh, well, you know, the Earth just happened to be in this perfect spot, and we just happen to have gravity, and the sun just happens to make and so happens in a perfect place." I mean, we have astrologers looking into thousands of light years away, and they can't find another Earth like this. But I don't know, we just ended up here. We came from the monkeys. We're from the planet of the apes. Well, I'll tell you, but I don't have a gorilla Bob for an uncle. I ain't got no chimpanzee for a sister. We are made after the similitude of the likeness of the the Lord himself. We are the creatures, and we are the serpents, and the very likeness of Jehovah himself. We are the made of the likeness of our God. All right? We have intellect. We have grace. Hallelujah. So I don't care if you go see "Planet of the Apes" or not. Go ahead and watch "Planet of the Apes." Go and trip on it, but just remember when you're watching it, those are not your family. That's all I'm saying. Don't come back scratching yourself off funny, and you know, "Dude, man, I'm going to use me some bananas right now." All right. And husbands, don't go home and start acting like a gorilla with your wife, trying to pounce on her. Yeah, we are not from the monkeys. Amen. We are from the Lord, from Heaven, and sons of the most high God. This is why the Bible says in verse 10—now this is one of my favorite verses; I'm going to preach out of right now, so I want you to get this second where in uh first uh Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 10 says like this, or verse 9: "It is written, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor in heart of man conceived, all the things that God has prepared for those that love him,' but God has revealed them to us by his spirit; for the spiritual things of God." See, the Bible says, "Your eye has not seen, nor your ear heard, nor have you even thought in your heart all the things that God has for you." Now check this out. But everybody say, "But," but God has revealed them to us through his Holy Spirit. So what does this mean? That means right now you're limited by time and space. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. The Bible says, "Let let don't let nobody say tomorrow I'm going to do this or that." We have to say, "Lord willing, we're going to do this or that," because the Bible says tomorrow's not promised to nobody. I could die tomorrow, but I pray my heart's ready to meet Christ. So I'm going to encourage you: we don't know what tomorrow may bring, but the Bible says you haven't seen it all, you haven't heard it all, you haven't even thought of it. Do you understand what that means? That means God has more blessings for you and graces coming your way. You haven't seen everything God has for you. You haven't heard everything God has for you, and you haven't even thought of all the blessings he has for you. The devil is a liar. I said the devil is a liar. The devil says you're not going to make it. The devil says you can't do this. The devil says you can't do that. But God, he always says in his words, "My thoughts for you are thoughts of of blessing, to prosper you and to give you an expected end." God, his ways are always for your good and benefit, because you know what? He loves you like a good father. Yes. Yes. The problem we have is that many of our poor children and us ourselves have been brought up with bad parents. All right? You don't know that, but some people have parents that weren't even there, right? We have other people we work with that have parents that were there and abused them—mentally, physically, spiritually. Because there's no perfect parents, because there's no perfect people. Now I'm going to tell you this: I'm old enough now, thank God, I'm not waiting for my daddy to do something with me, 'cause I have a daddy up in heaven, and his name is Abba Father, who hears my prayers and is looking out for my best all the time. So I'm not holding to the flesh; I'm holding to the spirit. I'm not holding to the flesh; I'm holding to the spirit. I'm not holding to somebody; I'm holding to him. Yes. Yes. Amen. Now, going to verse 13. I'm going to end this chapter with these things: "We also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." This is the reason why not everybody serves the Lord, because they're in their natural mind. They just go by what they see, they smell, and what they hear. But the Bible says right here, "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Somebody say, "Spiritually discerned." Discerned. "But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." Somebody say, "We have the mind of Christ." So, dealing with spiritual versus natural thinking: natural thinking is always going to be the negative—"I can't"—but the spiritual is always going to be, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." The natural is going to be over here: "My life is terrible. Uh uh, everybody stinks. Everybody's rotten, and and there's nobody good." While you're right there, there's nobody good, because the Bible says there's only one good, and that's the Lord from Heaven, and his name is Jesus Christ, and to trust in him and rely on him. What I want to get you is out of the natural mind and try to pull to the natural and holding to the flesh and not realizing that you're a spirit being. And those that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth, because God is spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Hallelujah. That's why you need the Holy Ghost. You need the power of God that you can even understand and walk with him in a right way. See, the Lord gave me this verse. Before I go on, I just want to say, before I go on, the Lord gave you this verse. I I've been telling some of our ministry, I don't know anybody any longer according to the flesh. I I don't know any man according to flesh because I knew Christ. What the Bible says. But now he's resurrected; he's walking; he's all spiritual. So here's here's the thing, people of God. Here's the problem: we have too many people holding to flesh and not Spirit. You have too many associations and friends that you're holding on to in the natural, and they're hurting you. Do you know that there's people that hold on to bad relationships in the natural, and they keep trying to make it work work, and they pray to God for it to work, and they fast and pray for God to make it work, but maybe it's not God's will for you even to be around those people. But if you would pray in the spirit and ask God, he would lead you and guide you into all truth and connect with people that are walking in the spirit, that are walking in God's kingdom, that will be a blessing to you and stop taking from you, stop robbing from you, stop stealing from you, and stop lying to you. But we human beings, we want to hold to the flesh. We want to hold to our fleshly ways and our fleshly families, and so, "Well, you know, my family, this my family that." Well, I'll tell you what Jesus said about family. Now get this: Jesus was preaching to a whole bunch of people, and his mother stood outside and said, "Uh, Jesus, come out now; it's time to go." And they told Jesus, "Your mom's waiting for you outside." Jesus, what did Jesus say? "Who is my mother, and who is my brother? Those that hear God's word and do his will, that's my mother and that's my brother." Hallelujah. See, because this is the ministry. I've been doing this for about 25 years. I got to tell you, I had to learn to walk in the spirit, because there's been times where I walk with men in the ministry, or situations have come, and I've had to take hits because I thought in the natural they were my friend, but they ended up turning around and stabbing me in the back. "I thought you were my friend. I thought you were my brother. You said you were going to be there for me. Yeah, but now I got all these holes in my back." Go ahead, I'm more holy for being around you. I'm a holy man, got stabbed all up to the to come on. So what the Lord's been talking to me, and I'm sharing my heart today, is that I no longer know any man according to the flesh. Uh-huh. Come on. That means, as I'm walking in the spirit, God's going to show me who you are, not in the natural but in the spiritual, and I'm going to tell you to do the same. I challenge you today. I'm going to challenge you: you pray. I'm not afraid. Go ahead and say, "Lord, show me is uh Pastor Rangle, is he a nut fruitcake or is he a real preacher?" Come on. All right? Is he a false prophet? Show me, Lord. And I have no problem with that. You go ahead and ask the Lord, 'cause I don't want you to know me according to the flesh no longer. I want you to know me according to the spirit of the Lord, because there's too many negative relationships. People are sick. People are worn out. People are depressed. So I pray for people. I minister to people, and I do hours, thousands of hours of counseling over the years, and why? It's because of bad relationships. It's because you're hanging out with somebody that you shouldn't be hanging out with, 'cause you pulled in the you pulled in the flesh, 'cause you thought they looked good, but she looked good, but you didn't know it was going to almost cost you your life. Oh, Hallelujah. I'm talking to some today. See, because with your eyes and your natural eyes, you only can see so far, but God and His profound wisdom looks at the heart. Yes. And if you walk with God, he'll show you those that belong to him, 'cause the Bible says in Romans 8, "My spirit will bear witness with your spirit that we are sons of God." Can I give you one more example? When Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit drove him to the wilderness, the devils came and said, "Why don't you eat these bread? Turn these stones to bread." And Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Then he tried to get him to bow down and worship him. He said, "If you worship me, I'm going to give you all this. Uh-huh. I'm going to give you all this. Give you all the riches. Give you all the fame." But see, one preacher said like this: "Don't do deals with the devil. Don't do deals with the devil. Don't say, 'Come on, devil, I make a little deal with you. If you give me this and that, you're going to have my soul.'" Don't do that, because he'll take it, and you will go down down to you know where. I ain't a hellfire and brimstone preacher, but I will tell you there's only two places, and I'm going to tell you, I want to go where Jesus is at, and that's to heaven. So you businessmen and you pastors out there, you prophets and apostles, he this, we're coming into a time in our society, the kingdom of God, right, that every man of God must walk walk in the spirit in such a way that all those around him, he must be able to discern between good and evil, because the devil has gotten in the churches. The devil has gotten in the ministry. The devil has gotten and took a place in the seat in the realm of our people, in the midst of our people, and we have allowed it. But I'm going to tell you what the Bible says: God's coming back with a church without spot, without wrinkle, that's with white robes, that is full of righteousness, walking after the Lord, serving the Lord, and being powerful about their loyalty and their passion for Christ. There's no time for no games. There's no time to allow the devil to sit at your table and say, "Well, let's do, devil, I buy you a bagel, or maybe you like some angel food cake." He, what I'm saying, we're at a place now where we must know that we know that we know that we know who we are, where we're going, and what relationships we're invested in. There was an old preacher; they wanted to leave the ministry 'cause all the men he worked with, he he spent years teaching some men, and they kept falling out, and the preacher said, "Lord, I'm going to leave the ministry. I'm tired of teaching because everybody I work with, they keep living—" I don't have any fruit. The Lord said, "I've been waiting for you to pray to me, because I'll show you who to work with. And when you find the ones I need you to pour yourself into that one, because then you're going to have maximum fruit." But the problem is what the devil does to us as we spend time, money, and effort with people that only take from us. Come on. And don't bless us, but curse us. All right? They don't walk in the spirit; they walk in the flesh. That's why you can be on the phone for half an hour, 40 minutes, talking about your neighbors and talking about your family and how messed up your family is to your other friends and family, and they're getting on your knees and praying for your family and asking God, "Lord, I put everything in your hands. I'm going to walk in the spirit of faith. I'm going to walk in love. I'm not going to use that yoke no more. I'm not going to call my 30-year-old daughter and say, 'You better watch out; the yoke is going to get you,' 'cause they ain't going to work no more, 'cause after they hear this sermon, they better get right with God and be in divine line and walk according to his will, his way, and according to his specific purpose for them." Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Because too much flesh brings death. Yes. The Bible says, "Those that walk in the spirit shall walk in life, but those that walk in the flesh shall bring death." You can read in Romans 8. Now, with conclusion, I have one more. Is all right? You have five more minutes. Is that all right? You sure? This this the Lord has made. Go to Acts chapter 9. I want to give you an example now, a Biblical example of what I'm talking about. Acts 9. Apostle Paul, uh before he was Paul, he was Saul, and he was persecuting the church, and he was a bad dude. Amen. Remember, don't mess with Bill, what he said, don't mess with Saul; it's going to mess you up. That's right. Act Acts 9:1: "Then Saul, yet breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and asked letters of him to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem." Now, Saul was a Pharisee and a very learned man before he became Paul the Apostle. He was a militant soldier that was breathing threats and murder to the church. That means if you would have found some of you Christians today, he would have dragged you into court and had you persecuted or killed because you were preaching false religion according to his standards at the time of the law. But we know the story. If you keep on reading, verse 3: "And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" And he said, "Who art thou, Lord?" He said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." So he trembling and astonished said, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" And the Lord said unto him, "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." So here Paul's on the road to Damascus; he's very high and mighty; he's very powerful, and God knocks him down to the ground. And I just want to remind some of you good Christians out there: you went and walked the way you want to walk; you talk like you walk; you talk, and you did, and you went, and you did, and you went, and all of a sudden God showed you up and knocked you down. Thank God he knocked you down and woke you up and stopped you going on the road of destruction and put you on the road of everlasting life. You ought to thank God he got you off that crazy road. He got you off drugs like he got me off drugs. God bless the drug addicts. I'm not saying for them to do it; I'm saying thank God that their salvation from drugs, 'cause he sent me free. He got me off my road and put me on the high road to everlasting life. Hallelujah. So God, Jesus, right here, knocked him to the ground, all showed to him, told him what he needed to do, and then the Bible goes on to say that "the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. Then Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was there three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink." Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Everybody say, "Ananias." Ananias. "To him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias." And he said, "Here am I, Lord." He said, "Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight." So God's talking to Ananias, a servant of the Lord, not an apostle, not a pastor; he's talking to a disciple. So this is why you people of God, it doesn't matter what title you have, you're still a man and woman of God. You don't have the title of minister or deacon or evangelist or prophet; it don't matter; you're a man and woman of God. If God speaks to you, step out and go. If God speaks to you, step out and go. If God gives you a word, step out and move on the word. It doesn't matter what title you have; you are a son and daughter of the most high God, and the Holy Spirit comes to you; move with him. Amen. So Ananias hears this word, and God gives this revelation in the vision. He says, "Go over there to one called Saul of Tarsus." And I like his response at verse 13. This is like a lot of us. He says, "And said, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name." Here God calls Ananias to go do a work, and he's like, "God, do you know this guy, right? Did you hear about this guy? He's bad news." See, Ananias was looking in the flesh. Amen. Amen. At Saul. He was prejudging and saying, "Lord, this guy is messed up. I don't want to go over there. I don't want to deal with these people." Come on. Preaching. He's no good, God. Come on now. Here what I'm saying. Look at me. We all prejudge people, thinking they're AAs, but they're really a Paul. Here's the other side. I told you long, I don't hold the flesh. I'm going to check in the spirit who you are. But now we have people that look at other people and say, "Ah, that no good, no-down world, that cockroach." We talk like that about our family and our friends. We don't want them to hear it, but we've been talking like that. But I'm going to tell you something, people of God: sometimes we judge people, not knowing who they really are, because God's not looking at where you are today; he's looking where you're going to be tomorrow with God. Ain't tripping.

On your present problems, God is not looking at the mistakes you did before. Because he knows when he picks you up and sends you on the road, you're going to do great and awesome things for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not looking at you now, and that's what we do. We see people in their present state. Oh, they're just a drug addict. Uh-huh. They're, they're, they're low people. Well, I'm going to tell you something, honey: the lower you go, the more I like it. You know why? Because my God specializes in taking the very low of the lowest and transforming them to the great of the greatest.

The Bible says everybody that joined themselves to David at the cave of Adullam, all that were discredited and discouraged, and all those that were discomforted—David took in all the people, 400 men in the cave of Adullam. All the people that were messed up. Come on, the broke ones, the ones that have bad credit, come on. All right, I mean, the bank wouldn't even talk to you. It's all right. Or you had a bad name. Oh, here comes So-and-so. Everybody leave, man, because here goes—well, I'm going to tell you something beautiful. And everybody that joined themselves—house to David at the cave—the cave of—remember me, Justice for the people. God took those messed-up men under David and made them the Mighty Men of Israel. Oh, I love God. I love the Lord because he's taking the weak things to confound the strong. Yeah, he's taking the weak to confound the strong. He's taking the feeble and those of lower education to confound the wise.

That's why when Peter and John preached Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 3 and 4, they said, "These are unlearned men. These are just little fishermen from the east side of Galilee." Right? They have no credence, they have no popularity, they have no papers, they have no degrees; they're nothing. Yeah, but they—wait a minute—but they were with Jesus. But they were with Jesus. Right? But they were with Jesus. But Jesus was with them. See, it doesn't matter what papers you have, honey. It doesn't matter what you came from. What matters is, do you know Jesus today, and does he know you, and is he with you? And he's going to pick you up and do great and awesome things. All right.

So here's—Lord, I heard many things about this man, like he's telling the Lord of Glory—God knows everything. Say, "Lord, did you hear about this guy?" Like God doesn't know. So when you start complaining about your neighbor to God and say, "You know, my sister is this and that, my brother is this and that, my people this and that," like God doesn't know how messed-up things are. He's just waiting for you to get right, because if you get right, maybe your family will get right. All right. Oh, I'm sorry, it's the truth. All right. Oh, God, have mercy on me. I heard many things that he said, he has authority and he has all this, and the Lord says, "Look, this, in verse 15: Go for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." Oh, what a call. So as Agag is complaining to God about Saul, God tells him, "Go, for he is chosen vessel." So I'm going to tell you this, people of God: most of the time you have it against somebody, or you see somebody in the flesh, or you're fighting—you don't realize that you're not fighting against men, you're fighting against God. You're fighting against a destiny and a purpose that God has for that person. You don't even know, because you're looking at him right now in the natural, but God's looking at yesterday, today, and forever. God sees him as a victorious victor in Christ and a righteous person that is powerful, doing great things for his kingdom. Amen.

So we need to take out those negative things out of our mind and our mouths and realize that when you speak about your neighbor, you're speaking about the body of Christ, and if you're speaking about the body of Christ, then you're putting Christ down himself. Oh, you don't want to hear that, though. See, don't say that one. You don't want to hear that. No. See, when you put your daughter down and your son down, you're not putting your son down, you're putting yourself down. Come on. You put your wife down, you're not putting your wife down, you're putting yourself down, man. God—and why—when you put your husband down, say, "Oh, he's just—he's got skinny legs, and you walk like a duck. I wish you were better-looking." While you chose him. Come on. All right. So don't complain about what you got, because you picked it. So I tell you, men and young women, wait on the Lord. Young women and young men, wait on the Lord. Let the Lord be your guide. Let him choose for you, so that later on you will be blessed, not holding to the flesh but to the spirit, knowing what the spirit of the man is and the spirit of the woman, because you get married, it's for life, right? Let's bow our heads. Father, we thank you right now, in Jesus' name. Oh, Father, we thank you right now, in Jesus' name, for the Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Love, Spirit of Grace, Spirit of Mercy, uh, for the revelation of Jesus Christ, you that are—yesterday, today, and forever.