The Importantance and Power of Repentence

So I'm going to share on what I've called the importance and the power of repentance. It doesn't sound like a very exciting message, does it? But I'll come across here, then I can see Gary a bit better. So I'm hiding behind people's heads. So, no, that's fine. But, you know, repentance and sin, it seems are dirty words. Because people don't like being confronted by them and being told to repent. And Sandy gave a great word a month or two or three ago on a Wednesday night on repentance and sin.

It was a great little message that he brought. But the importance of repentance is a powerful thing. Repentance is a beautiful and powerful word that changes and transforms our lives into the image of the Creator. And he's wanting us to be renewed in our spirits so that we become like him. And repentance is the pathway that brings us into the image of our Creator. What a wonderful thing that is. And repentance brings us into harmony with YHVH and his word.

Repentance, of course, as we know, is a change of mind and heart. And to have remorse for sins that have been committed. And we repent of them. And it brings us into harmony with YHVH. Brings us into a relationship and a unity and a oneness that brings his blessing upon our lives. I mean, we couldn't ask for anything more wonderful. We don't even have to go to our bank and say, Father, will it cost me a thousand dollars to get into your favour? Can I do this or this or this? Can I walk a hundred miles for you? Can I go and chop my neighbour's wood? Can I go and cook a meal for a sick person for two months? Will that give me favour with you? And he says, no.

That won't give you any favour. No credit points whatsoever. Nil. That won't get you into the kingdom. Your neighbours might love you better. But it won't get you into my kingdom. It might be a good thing to do. But you're doing it for the wrong reason. Do it because you should. Don't do it because you want to get in my good books. Now you get into my good books my way. And my way is repentance. Deal with sin.

And deal with what is wrong. And you will walk into my favour, my blessing. And you will become like the creator that gave you life. That's repentance. Repentance is turning around 180 degrees from where we were going and what we were like. It's turning 180 degrees from sin and wrongdoing once we recognise it. You can't do it if you don't recognise it. You don't know you're doing it wrong. You can't turn away from it, can you? You don't know you've sinned.

Then it's pretty difficult to turn away from your sin if you don't know what sin is. Or if you don't know I'm doing something displeasing to YHVH. Then you can't turn away from it. But it's important that we understand that we're turning away from the things that own you and control you from the dictates of the flesh. You're turning away from those things that are controlling our lives. And we do a 180 degrees. And now our back is to the thing that controls us.

Our back is to the thing that owns us. And we're walking away from it. That's repentance. We're no longer walking toward it. We're no longer walking with it. We're no longer honouring it and obeying it. We're walking away from it because we have repented. We've changed our heart, changed our minds. We've said, that is wrong. I will turn away from it and confess it to God. And transformation comes into our life by the power of the Spirit of God.

Because we can't change ourselves. But when we confess it to God in Yeshua's name that he brings us to that place and turn our back on it then the Spirit of God comes and enables us, empowers us to walk a changed life. It's all based on this understanding of repentance. So we're walking away from wrongdoing and sin and self-centeredness and fleshly behaviours and desires and we're walking into his kingdom. Beautiful thing. In Mark chapter 1, verses 14 and 15 it says, now after John, John the baptiser was put in jail Yeshua came into the Galilee proclaiming the good news of God.

And he said, now is the fullness of time and the kingdom of God is near. Turn away or repent from your sins and believe in the good news. That was the beginning of his ministry. That's when he started. John the baptiser came and he said the Messiah is coming. I'm here to introduce you to the saviour of the world. And he did. And then Yeshua goes out into the wilderness spends 40 days and 40 nights fasting being tempted of the devil worked upon by the enemy to try and trick him up and through him and rob him of his purpose and being and then he comes back into the town and this is how he began.

And he says, I've come to proclaim the good news the good news of the kingdom of God. He says, the kingdom of God is near. Repent, repent and believe in the good news. I have to chastise myself all the time. I shouldn't say things that I say. He didn't say believe in and become a Christian. He never said that. Can't find it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say become a Christian. Doesn't exist. It says believe in the good news.

Believe in the kingdom of God. Become a disciple of Yeshua. Not my disciple. He didn't say believe in good news community. He didn't say attend their meetings and you'll enter my kingdom. You can come every day of the week if you like. It won't necessarily get you into the kingdom. No, he said believe in the good news. The good news that I proclaim. The good news that I preach. He said if you will repent and if you will believe in the good news of the kingdom Of course, our Bibles have the word gospel in there all the time.

It's a weak word. It's a human word. The word that is truer to the apostles and the Greek is good news. Believe in the good news because the gospel can easily be a misrepresentation of the good news. You can change the good news to mean what it means to you but you can't change the good news as it's written and as Yeshua preached it. He said believe in the good news of the kingdom. He said the only way you become part of that kingdom is repent.

The kingdom is near. And he was referring to himself. In me you will find the kingdom. I am the kingdom of heaven here on earth that you may enter through me. So, without repentance there is no access into the benefits and the blessings of the good news. There is lots and lots of wonderful things built into the good news. When he tells us about the good news he's telling us about the wonders of the heavenly. He's telling us about everything that heaven has in store for those that love him.

He's telling us about everything that Yeshua the Messiah has bought for us through his shed blood. He's brought us salvation. He's brought us healing. He's brought us provision. He's brought us blessing. He's brought us peace. He's brought us shalom. He's brought us eternal life. There are a multitude of blessings built into the good news. But he said the only way you can access those blessings is through repentance. Turning 180 degrees around from what is keeping you from those blessings.

So that we may enter into the blessings of the kingdom that is the message of the good news. Wow, isn't that amazing? I want to know what the good news is more and more. I want to read Isaiah chapter 6, 9, 11 when he describes the wonders of the kingdom to come. The new heavens and the new earth. The lion laying down with the lamb. Children playing on the cockatrice, the vipers' den and not being bitten.

The wonderful things that will take place in the kingdom. The book of Revelation describes an amazing heavenly scene of heaven and its worship and praise in the angelic host. It tells us amazing things in Ezekiel. As Ezekiel plunges into the river, ankle deep, knee deep, and the waters to swim in. And he gets out of there and he sees trees on every side of the river of life. Fruit every month, every month. Fruit, fruit, fruit, all the way down.

It's all about the blessings of the kingdom. When he comes, wherever the river flows, there is the power of the blessing of YHVH. That's the good news. And when we understand the message of the good news, we want it. And YHVH says the only thing that's keeping you out of all of that is sin. He says repentance will bring you into the blessing of my kingdom. That's the message. Well, it's simple, isn't it? Simple. So, the good news is about the kingdom of God and all that it contains and is for us.

Yeshua is the foundation and the cornerstone of that kingdom. And that's why he said as he walked into the cities of Israel, the kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is coming into your life. You'll hear it from my lips. You'll see it in my life. If you walk as I walk, if you talk as I talk, if you live as I live, you will be embracing the kingdom and the blessings of it.

That's the good news. He is the good news. He is the kingdom of heaven here on earth. He says in me you will find it. Walk the narrow path with me and you will have everything that you need in your life. It's the message and the promise of salvation and healing and eternal life. It's all built into the good news of the kingdom. What do you need? What do I need? It's there in the good news message of the kingdom.

I need to be able to access it. That's all. And it's all accessed through confession and repentance. So simple, isn't it? Repentance and confession. What do I need to repent of? I don't know. Father will tell me. This is not a once only thing which the church calls the sinner's prayer. We're not talking about the sinner's prayer. We're not talking about saying I'll give my life to Jesus. No, we're not talking about saying the sinner's prayer.

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about something you do every day of your life. Something that becomes part of your natural walk. I keep short tabs with my maker. No matter what I do wrong, keep short tabs. I have to repent 20 times a day. Repent 20 times a day. The disciple said to Yeshua, Must I forgive my brother 7 times? He keeps suspending me every day. And even though he knows I hate it, and that he's wrong and he shouldn't, he keeps doing it.

I want to smack him in the face. Yeshua says no, you should forgive him 70 times 7. Every time he comes to you, forgive. He's not saying say a sinner's prayer and it's all done forever. That's not biblical. That's not biblical. That is Christian theology. That's not true. So, it's a lifestyle based on our relationship with the Father. Every act of disobedience, every act of rebellion, of breaking his commandments, every act of the flesh, requires repentance.

Why is that so hard for us to get a hold of? Pride stops us. Pride. Every thought must be brought into captivity to the word of Yeshua. Paul reminds us that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in the unseen world. But, never forget, we are in a fight for our survival. I came through in the songs and what Annette was saying. We will fight. We will fight. We will not lay down our lives without a fight.

We are fighting for our survival because Satan wants to make sure that you do not access the benefits and the blessings of Father's kingdom. The enemy has an objective and he's not an enemy for no reason. He's an enemy because he's always going to be there working behind the scenes to make sure you do not take a hold of your benefits. And he will stop you from understanding how to get the benefits of blessing in my life because he will teach you lies, false truths and deception, so that you will not understand what God requires to access the best of everything that he has for your life.

In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 to 13, we know this passage really, really well. It's the one I just mentioned from Paul. Finally, why in the world are people reading that? Finally, be strong in YHVH and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you are able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Do we read that often enough? I don't know how often you read the book of Ephesians, but you should read it regularly along with all the others.

I don't know how often you read your Bibles, but you should be reading it all the time. It should be as natural as picking up your phone, picking up your computer, picking up the newspaper and reading something. You should do that. It's a good book. Too often people don't. I don't like reading. I don't like reading. I'm not a reader. Then I read for hours on the tablet. I think to myself, you're deceiving yourself. Of course you're a reader.

Everybody's a reader. You read what you like. If we don't read the Word, we don't know the Word. If we don't know the Word, we cannot access what the Word says and be blessed by it. Put on the full armour of God so that you are able to stand against the schemes of the devil. God is telling us the devil has schemes. And those schemes are against you because he knows you. He knows your comings and your goings.

Every demon in hell knows where you go every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. He tracks us everywhere. I don't want to get too silly and pedantic about it. But he knows what we're about. And he has schemes and plans to trip us up and to cause us to doubt. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against the rulers, against the powers, against the worldly forces of this darkness, as people. And against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So he's saying you've got enemies in two places. You've got enemies in this world, men, women, and everything else that will keep you from the will and the ways of God. And then you've got the powers of spiritual forces and evil in Satan and his demons who also are working to make sure that you do not succeed in your spiritual life. And he keeps you where you're at. Because he inflicts things upon us and we don't even know he has inflicted things upon us.

He has used our sins to bring us into captivity. And we didn't know. Because nobody told us. He will capture us if we walk in his ways and in sin. Then he will capture us, inflict us, and beat us, and destroy us. Paul is saying, don't get caught up with fighting flesh and blood. Fight the principalities and spiritual darkness that's behind those things, trying to destroy your life, my life, our reason for being here in Mildura.

He will do everything to try and stop it. He will use people and he will use his own demon forces to try and rob us from saying what God has told us to do. But he will not win. Because we know his strategies. We know when he's at work. We hear his voice, in other words, other people's words. And we know what we're dealing with. We got Flora Avenue because we prevailed over the enemy. God's will shall be done if we stay true to God's word.

But we have to know it in the first place. Or we won't live it, act it, and walk on it. So, therefore, take up the full armour of God so that you may be able to resist when the times are evil. We have to resist. Resist. How much resisting do we do when hardship and hard times and evil and circumstances and losses come upon us? How hard do we resist? How much do we pray, fast, wait, move, meditate, read? Resist.

Turn 180 degrees away from the thing that's distracting. And after you have done everything, stand firm. Do everything you can. Pray. Seek help. Read the word. Reach out for other's help. Whatever. When you've done everything you can, stand firm. I will not lose my resolve. I will not doubt. No matter what is happening. No matter how long it takes. I will stand firm. He sang the song at the end. He's a covenant keeper. He's a miracle worker.

His name is YHVH. That's my God. So, the worldly forces of darkness in this world are controlled by the principalities and powers that reside in the heavenlies that are above us and surrounding us. They live in that realm. We can't see it. We don't fully appreciate and understand it. Satan and his fallen angelic hosts that followed him were cast out of heaven. Down to the earth. And now they surround this earth so that they can harass God's people.

And he uses the powers of this world to access your life. Financially, physically, spiritually, emotionally. In every way. He will use systems and people and things to harass you. To hold you back. To make life hard for you. And the devil gets in there and he says I'll help them make it even harder. Resist him. Put on the armour. All around us is this unseen world from where Satan and his demons control and rules over this world and over all of our lives.

But he only rules to the degree that we let him. He cannot stop us being what God wants us to be. If we will stay true to God's word and we, as his children, stay true to him he will give us greater power, authority and victories than anything the enemy can give anybody else. In verses 14-20, we'll just keep reading. He says, Stand firm then, buckle the belt of truth around your waist. Put on the breastplate of righteousness.

See, truth and righteousness go together. I'm a righteous person. Well that righteousness is based on truth. We may think we're righteous but if we're not living according to the truth we're not as righteous as we think we are. And if there is unrighteousness in our life the enemy knows. He knows the word better than you and me. He quoted it to Yeshua. He knows the word. He was created by God. He was the most powerful and greatest angelic being in the heavens.

He knows God well. That he wanted to be God. And he knows the word of God better than you and me. And here Paul is telling us put on truth. Put on righteousness. Make sure they're working together. Make sure your righteousness is based on truth. And not on just doctrine. Not on tradition. Not on church attendance. Not on doing this or that. Make sure your righteousness is based on the truth of God's word. Therein is your armour of strength.

It has to be based on the truth. And the righteousness has to be the kind of righteousness that the word of God talks about as being righteousness. Truth and righteousness are the Torah and the Ten Commandments. That's the foundation of truth. And so he says keep Torah. Keep my commandments. That's truth. Truth is foundation on it. And he says if you walk according to my commandments you're a righteous person. You're a righteous person. If you obey me you are righteous.

If you have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. If your righteousness is based on your relationship with Yeshua your Messiah. He became your righteousness. But righteousness has to have fruit. The fruits of righteousness. What are the fruits of righteousness? The Ten Commandments. The Torah. He says if your righteousness is found in Yeshua then you're going to have the fruits of that righteousness that Yeshua teaches and talks about. That's not rocket science. That's just obedience to the word of God.

And he goes on to say Strap up your feet in readiness with the good news of Shalom. Shalom is more than peace. Shalom is peace. But it's also prosperity and blessing and provision and overshadowing and well-being. Body, soul and spirit. That's Shalom. He's saying the good news ministers to the whole of your being. Body, soul and spirit. That's Shalom. I'm ministering into your life. Your heart. Your mind. Your peace. Your needs. Your well-being. Your joy. Your satisfaction for life.

Regardless of my circumstances. Be satisfied with life in Yehovah Yeshua. Shalom. That's Shalom. Belongs to us. And he goes on to say Thou wilt take up the shield of faith. Well amazing isn't it? Faith means I never doubt. Never have a doubtful thought. Faith is just another word that means trust. Faith is just another word that means what I believe. What I believe in I trust. If I believe in Yeshua I trust in him. Therefore I will never doubt anything he says.

I will never doubt anything that's in the word of God. That's faith. He says if you've got faith it's a shield from all the darts of the enemy. All the negative thoughts. All the doubtful things. All the fears and situations and circumstances that come to oppress us and rob us of daily joy and life. All the pressures that this world brings upon us and the enemy behind it uses to make it even feel worse as he oppresses my mind and my thinking and my emotions to make the things out there even worse than they are.

But if we have the shield of faith it means I'm trusting what the word says. I'm trusting in my saviour Yeshua. I am believing that Ruach HaKadosh within me is more powerful than the enemy without. That's the shield of faith that protects you from every dart and arrow he fires at you. Very important. That's the good news of the kingdom. The good news of the kingdom. And so, and above all take the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

You can extinguish every flaming arrow that he shoots at you to make you depressed and unhappy and doubtful and uncertain. All of those will fall flat and not be able to do their work from the enemy's hands. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. You can't fight the enemy without a sword. Always stand on the word. Always wave your word around. Quote it to him. Quote it to the air.

Quote it to the circumstance. Quote it to the enemy and say, This is what the word says. I stand on it. He has given us everything we need to be greater than the enemy. And if we want to be greater than the enemy, and we must, then he's told us how to go about it and what will work for us and how we will access every blessing that the kingdom has in store for us. Pray in the Ruach on every occasion with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, keep alert with perseverance and supplication for all the Kedoshim, all the believers, all those who are part of your life in the faith. Keep praying one for another. We all face the same challenges, the same difficulties, the same opposition, the same thought patterns come in to try and take over our faith all the time, me as well as you. Doubts come in and the enemy wants to have a go. Yes, got to deal with them, got to deal with them.

Pray one for another. We're all in the same battle together. That's why it's so important to be together at fellowship. That's why the scripture talks about it all the time. We are each other's resource material. We all have giftings, we all have loving kindness and blessing and we bring the faith of YHVH together and we worship the one God and it brings an anointing and it makes us strong for the next day. Pray, meet, fellowship with one another.

Pray for me, Paul says, for when I opened my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the good news. That was his ministry. That was his calling. But there were times when he was so under the pump, so challenged, so hated, so threatened, so chased, stoned, belted, beaten, thrown into prison. You can't blame him for saying, please pray for me that I may be able to declare the word of God with boldness. Because sometimes I don't feel like it.

Sometimes I want to say, Father, I want to get out of this city. I don't want to go to that town. Let me go to the Gold Coast and swim for a while and stay in a luxury hotel and put my feet up. Father says, no, no. So I prayed for that grace three times and every time the Father says, no, my grace is sufficient for you. That's the way it is. He goes on to say, for which I am an ambassador in chains.

He said, while I'm writing this, I'm writing it in prison. Pray for me that I'll still have the boldness to proclaim the message that put me in prison. That's boldness. He said, I need that. Sometimes I don't feel like it. But I must not stop proclaiming the word and the message of the good news of the kingdom of God and repentance. And even though they throw me into prison because of it, please pray that I'll be bold enough to keep preaching it.

Pray that I may speak boldly the way I should. Tells us a lot, doesn't it? Have you had people tell you, shut up and stop preaching so hard? Plenty of times. I've had plenty of people leave the church because I'm not nice enough. Sorry, I try to be very nice the way I be hard. But I'm nice while I'm hard. I could tell you a story but I'm not going to tell you. I can't remember if it was here or Echuca 40 years ago when I left the church there.

One of the two, doesn't matter. But, it is, you have to proclaim boldly the truth of the word or it's of no value to anybody. It's of no value. It doesn't help them get through life. Paint a false picture. So, if we don't listen to this advice that we find in the word of God that Paul is writing about, then we will have no hope of understanding or be part of the mystery of the good news of the kingdom of God.

As he just said there, he's talking about the mystery of the good news. And for most people, the kingdom of God is a mystery. They don't understand what it means. They understand how to say the word, the good news of the kingdom or the gospel of the kingdom or something, but they don't understand really what it is all about. He says, I want you to understand the mystery of the good news because it is a mystery and only heaven reveals it and opens our eyes and understanding to embrace it and to run with it and live it.

And if we don't listen to the advice we find in the word and stand on it, live like it and put it into practice, then the devil will have easy access into our lives. Very easy access. So what is it that becomes a very powerful force that gives or that can give Satan so much access into our lives? What is it? What is that powerful force that allows Satan to have such access into our lives? I'll tell you what it is.

The love of the world. Think of that. The love of the world is his greatest access into our lives. 1 John chapter 5. This is what it says. You know this passage well. I'm sure you read it regularly and often. 1 John chapter 1 verse 5. Now this is the message we have heard from him, Yeshua. And he says, I'm announcing it to you. That God is white and in him there is no darkness at all.

And if we say we have fellowship with him but we keep walking in the darkness, that is walking in sin and the flesh in wrong ways, we are lying. And we do not practice the truth. Practicing the truth is walking according to the commandments, the Torah. It's walking according to the rules of God's kingdom because they are the rules of his kingdom. But if we walk in the light, the ways of God, the truth of God, the word of God, if we will walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of his son Yeshua purifies us from all sin.

He says it's only as we're all walking in the same way in the same walk that we can have proper and true fellowship with one another. If we're all walking differently, then it ruins our fellowship. And John says he's later writing his third epistle he says so many people left us and he said if they were really of us, they wouldn't have left us. They never really were of us or for us or they wouldn't have left us.

And here we find that he is saying the truth is we must walk in the light, the same light, the same word, the same truth. Then we will have fellowship with one another. He goes on to say but if we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. I can't say I have no sin. I'd be lying. I'm not perfect. My name is not Yeshua. My name is John Pike.

And I will kick the cat as quick as anybody else. I will do wrong. I will say wrong. I will get angry when I shouldn't. I will have a bad thought when I shouldn't have one. And he says if we say we have no sin and Christian doctrines will tell you that you don't because you gave your life to Jesus and therefore sin's past present and future are all in him. You don't have to worry. That's not Bible.

That's false truth. If we confess our sins he's faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness. He says if you do something wrong, confess it. Confess it. Repent of it. And then we will be saved. We will be set free. We will be forgiven from our sin. We will have righteousness purified from our unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

The word's coming from somewhere else but it isn't coming from him or from here. It's coming from the mind of man and the traditions of man. Sin we must understand that sin has an increasingly negative impact on us if we let it continue. And if we don't take notice of his commandments and if we don't walk the same walk as Yeshua walked, we're in trouble. We go on into chapter 2 and verse 1 to 6. He keeps on saying my children I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin.

But if anyone does sin we have an intercessor with the Father, the righteous Messiah, Yeshua. He is the atonement for our sins. Atonement means the one who brings us into oneness with the Father. In him we have been brought into a relationship for our atonement for our sins and not only for our sins but for also the whole world. His sacrificial shedding of his blood is sufficient to bring forgiveness for the sins of the whole world.

Even Hitler and the Holocaust. Now now we know that we have come to know him by this. How do I know if I really, really, really know God? If we keep his commandments. If we don't, we only think we know God. If I want to walk in disobedience to what he asks us to obey, then I don't know him. I have no comprehension of the judgement that's coming my way. I have no comprehension of how angry he's going to be with me.

I have no comprehension how great his love is in wanting to bring me into the fullness of his kingdom ways. The one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar. I'm not saying this. John the Apostle is saying this. If somebody says I know God but I don't have to keep his commandments then you're a liar. He might know he's a liar but God's calling him a liar.

That's worse than me calling him a liar. And the truth is not in him because he's just said no to the truth. Read Psalm 119. The commandments is truth. The commandments are righteousness. That's where we find truth and righteousness. In the commandments. In the Torah. That's where they're foundationed and based. He says if you say no to them and you say I know God, you're a liar. You don't know God at all. You only think you know God.

You don't really know him because you're walking in disobedience to him. You're not doing what he asks you to do. So how can you say you know him? You don't know him at all. You just think you know him. But whoever keeps his word in him the love of God is truly made perfect. We know that we are in him by this. Whoever claims to abide in him must walk just as he walked. Yeshua. That defines it pretty well doesn't it? How did Yeshua walk? If we don't walk the same walk that Yeshua walked then we're not part of his kingdom.

We're not walking into his kingdom. We're walking away from his kingdom. No matter how religious we are. No matter how much we pray. No matter what things we do. No matter how much we serve our church. If we're not walking as Yeshua walked it all means nothing as far as the kingdom is concerned. It may mean lots to the pastor. It may mean lots to the church. It may mean lots to the people that are being served and helped.

But it may mean nothing to God when it comes to the kingdom and our place in it. That's a totally different message isn't it? That's the good news of the kingdom. He says I want people to run my kingdom. And how can you run my kingdom if you don't know how my kingdom runs? It's not that I don't like you. It's not that I don't love you. It's not that I haven't died for you. But I don't want you running my kingdom.

Because when I come back and I raise people from the dead at the first resurrection I'm raising them for one purpose only. To run my kingdom for the next one thousand years. I don't want anybody else running it. I want those ones who know how to live my kingdom and run my kingdom to run it for me when I return. And they shall become my witnesses to the rest of the world for the next one thousand years.

And those that are given resurrected and given eternal life have just been saved and given eternal life. They have eternal bodies. This mortal has been given total immortality and we will live forever. Our life has just become eternal. But everyone else is just going to keep living and dying living and dying, living and dying for the next one thousand years except you and I won't. They've got to wait another thousand years before their turn comes. But where is that message told? Who preaches that to you in the churches in this city or around this nation? That's the good news of the kingdom of God.

It's not the gospel of man. Keep reading. Did I read the verse 6? Now we know that we've come... Okay, let's read verse 15 of the same chapter of 1 John chapter 2. It goes on to say do not love the world, which was my reference back before. What is the greatest powerful force that gives Satan inroads into our life? The love of the world. That's his greatest root into our lives. Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the boasting of life, is not from the Father, but from the world. The world is passing away along with its desires, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. They're words worth thinking about, aren't they? Worth focusing on and giving some thought to. If what the eyes see, if what the heart desires, what our flesh wants, if that controls us, then this love of the world around us and its ways will own us.

John is saying be very, very careful what you love about this world. Be very, very careful about what attacks you in this world. Be very, very careful what this world offers you to satisfy that which your eyes enjoy, that which your heart and emotions love. He says, if you love that more than you love me and my word, then it will control you and own you. We become slaves to what the flesh desires. That's the problem.

We become ensnared and entrapped to what we love out there in the world. Because those things take the place of what God asks of us all the time. I'd rather be down the beach swimming on this hot day than in the house of God worshipping. The love of the world, the desires of the eyes. He's trying to get our attention. He's saying the world will ruin you and Satan will use those things to even make it harder for you to resist them.

Our flesh is a powerful force. Our flesh wants to be satisfied. We want what makes me happy. We want what makes me forget about my hard days and do something down somewhere else. I want to do what will make me popular with people. God says, I want you to do what might make you unpopular with people. We all just have a choice to make. You should think about these things. Because we're talking about the kingdom of God and the powerful blessings that are built into that kingdom being part of our lives.

And we lose them if we let the love of the world be more important than the love of God and his word and his ways. We cannot afford to become slaves to what the flesh desires. This will define and restrict our spiritual lives and tell us where we really are at with God. If we want to know where we are at with God, just look at where I'm at today instead of worshipping the Father. It tells us a lot about where we're really at with God.

I think I'm spiritual until I look at what is spiritual in God's eyes instead of my eyes. This is Satan's world. Make no mistake about it. He controls it. He owns it. Satan is the God of this world according to Yeshua. This is Satan's world. It's not God's world. Scriptures tell us and Hebrews tell us that Yeshua is seated in heavenly places. God has given him all authority over all things. He says the earth is his footstool, the heaven is his throne.

And he will rule over all the world. But then it goes on to say, but just not yet. But just not yet. Satan is the God of this world. And this is so because Adam and Eve gave Satan legal rights over this world and into their lives. Thank you Adam. So, YHVH said to Adam of creation, he said to Adam, this world is yours. He said it's beautiful. It's perfect. It's good. He said live in it.

Enjoy it. Multiply in it. Rule over it. It's my gift to you. And a wonderful thing. And then Adam and Eve handed it over to Satan. The deceiver and the liar. All legal rights gone. Given to Satan. And now he is the God of this world. We were meant to rule as God over this world. Now Satan is. This happened because they broke the laws and the instructions that Elohim had given them. And they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

He told them how to live in the world. He told them what to eat and what not to eat and what to do and what not to do. Name the animals, do this and this. And they did the wrong thing. There's only one answer to their problem. The shedding of the blood of an innocent animal and being clothed by its skin. It's the only answer to the problems they had created. And this act of YHVH slaying an animal, shedding its blood so that they could be clothed in its skin, is summed up in the words confession and repentance.

That's the picture. Confession and repentance. YHVH says to Adam and Eve, why are you hiding from me? Why are you wearing clothes? Why are you covering yourself up with leaves? Have you eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? They had to confess. We have disobeyed you. And then YHVH had to put in place some remedy for the sin that they had committed. Repentance. They had to turn away from that and walk back in the ways of God, but still at great cost.

And that solution has not changed from that day to this. There is only one answer to the sin problem, and that is the second Adam, Yeshua our Messiah. Same answer to the same problem of sin. We are clothed in Yeshua the Messiah. We are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. And it comes about through repentance and confession. And always will. For as long as we need until Yeshua comes and this mortal puts on immortality.

We all want freedom. It's one of the emphases the songs were making and that it was making in those songs. We all want freedom. Freedom to live our lives in the way YHVH intended it. In peace. In harmony. In joy. In bliss. In blessing. But so often very few seem to have it fully, if anybody. If that's what we want. Why? Because Satan steals it by lies. By deception. By subterfuge. He lies to us about what is pleasing to God and what isn't.

He lies to us about what is okay and what isn't. He fabricates doctrines of demons and hands them out to church leaders so they preach them for him. Scripture tells us this. We should be aware of it. He says Satan's apostles and Satan's prophets and Satan's teachers are running multitudes of churches all over the earth and he says they are dressed like angels of light. They masquerade as angels of light when they're preaching darkness. That is meaning not the truth of Scripture but the truth of their religion.

He says Satan's behind that. We must understand how Satan works. We must understand that he's a liar and a deceiver from the very beginning and he is more subtle and slyer than a fox and he will deceive even the very elect if they don't know their word. And Yeshua prophesied and the apostles taught it that in the end days the proliferation of false apostles and prophets and teachers and rabbis and pastors would be gigantically enormous because they're preaching that which is not true to the word.

Some aren't most are. He said many are called, few are chosen. He said I will only find a remnant to run my kingdom. He said will I find faith on the earth when I return? He's talking about not just faith in general, he's talking about the kind of faith we read in the book. He says I'm looking for the true faith, the kind of faith that represents who I am and knows how to defeat the devil and recognise him.

How many of those people am I going to find he says. Very few, just a remnant but enough to run my kingdom. So we find that Satan and his lies and deceptions and subterfuge is all around us and it's in all our lives to one degree or another these loss of freedoms. We have pain, we have suffering, we have loss and fear and anxiety and depression domestic violence and rape and greed and anger and theft and lies and sexual immorality all around us.

It's out of control. Diseases and epidemics taking over the world. This is the world we live in. We all want freedom from something in that list. Isn't that true? That is true. Every day I have to guard against anxiety. If I'm looking for God to do something that I'm in need of and it's taking too long to come, I can get anxious about it. Then I remember the word says, be anxious for nothing. By faith. Pull myself into line and say sorry Father, forgive me.

I lost my trust for just a moment. Keep it short. Always keep on top of what the enemy is trying to rob you of. Your faith. Your confidence. Your answers to prayer. The needs that you need to have met. Never let him rob you of it. Repent of any of those things that want to come and rob you. The enemy is always behind it. Yeshua said the truth will set you free. And it's only the truth that will set you free.

Nothing else will set you free. Just the truth. Satan won't set you free. This world won't set you free. It will own you, control you and bleed you blind. And throw you out on the street to rot when it's emptied your bank balance and kick you out of the hospital bed and they've got no more time for you. Can't do nothing for you. Rot in the street. That's how it is. Not literally, but sometimes it is.

But the world including Christianity doesn't want the truth. I went into every church in Mildura and preached this. They don't want this. I'd be thrown out before I got halfway through. They don't listen to what the word says, if it's different to what they believe or if it's different to what they practice or understand. They don't want to hear what you've got to say. John chapter 8 and verse 31 I'm going to hurry to the end I think.

Well I better hurry, don't I? I have no time for a cup of tea. Then Yeshua said to the Judeans who had trusted him, if you abide in my word then you are truly my disciples. The only people that he classifies as his true disciples and followers are those who abide in his word. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's children and have never been a slave to anyone.

How can you say you will become free? Yeshua answered them, truly, truly, I tell you everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now the slave does not remain in his household forever, but the son abides forever. In other words, the son is going to kick out the slave sooner or later and take over the house. Talking about your life and mine. If we are slaves to sin of some kind He says, get rid of the slave and let the son come in and take over.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. He is truth. I am the way, the truth and the life. I will set you free. There is truth found nowhere else but in him and his word. Chapter 16 of John. Yeshua goes on to teach. This is in the upper room at the Last Supper. He says in verse 13 But when the spirit of truth comes, isn't it amazing that Ruach HaKadesh is called Ruach of truth.

In him he knows nothing but truth. Only truth comes from the Ruach. If the spirit of God put something into your heart and it's not true to the word, then it wasn't the spirit of God. It was some other spirit putting something into your heart and your mind. The spirit of truth, the Ruach HaKadesh of truth comes. He will guide you into all the truth. If you want truth, Ruach will bring you into all truth. He will open scripture and give you understanding.

But you have to want the truth. That's what I was saying at the beginning of this, before this message. God looks for people with hungry hearts. Hearts that want the truth. He's looking for people who want to be like him and receive from him. And he says people who are like that, I'll make sure they will get the truth. And it will set them free. He will not speak on his own but whatever he hears he will tell you and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will exalt me, glorify me because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said the Ruach will take from what is mine and declare it to you. So everything about truth is always based on what the Father and the Son have both said. And if it's not according to what YHVH said in Torah, what Yeshua said about Torah and lived and walked, then it's not based on truth.

He said Ruach HaKadosh will only reveal things that are based on truth found in my word. And so truth is paramount to freedom. If you're believing in the wrong stuff it won't set you free. If you're believing in the wrong things it won't release you from your bondage and your fear and your worry and your anxiety. It won't set you free from our sicknesses. No it won't, only the truth. Only when we get a hold of the truth can we exercise the truth and make it work for us.

So Ruach is the spirit of truth and what he said always matches what Yeshua and the Apostles taught. Always matches. Anything contrary to that is not truth and it's not of the Father's word. Too much of Christianity doesn't want the truth. Christianity wants what the world has to offer and joins forces with it. Without people even realising that it happens. I guess at this time of the year the elephant in the room is Christmas. They're happy to join their religion to Christmas.

Christmas is of the world. The world loves Christmas. It makes them a squillion dollars. It empties your bank account and fills theirs. It's based on the worship of Mithra the sun god and the Catholic church says we want all those pagans to come into our church. We want the whole world to belong to us. And here the pagans are worshipping on the 25th of December. The sun god, Mithra, they throw great festivals every 25th of December.

Great parties, great holidays, lots of immorality, drinking and feasting and gift giving. That's the celebration of the sun god Mithra from Rome. And Rome says the Pope and Constantine have become a quasi Christian. Well a real Christian because he's a Catholic one. You know what I mean. So then he says, I know what we will do. We will take the story of Jesus and add it to the pagan festival. Because Mithra is a celebration of the sun god who gave birth to.

Well we will say, Jesus was born on the 25th of December as a baby and he became the saviour. And we will mix the two together. And that will make it acceptable. And then they can come into our church and they can still worship on their celebration on the 25th of December. And that will make them happy. And we will say it's all about Jesus because we will say he was born on the 25th of December even though he wasn't.

And they know he wasn't. And every Christian knows, oh most Christians know. Every Christian should know he wasn't born on the 25th of December at all. But we will say he is and worship. So they're mixing the things of the world and it's becoming that which is the church is wanting what the world has to offer without realising it. And they join forces with it. Does that make God very happy? No, it makes God very angry.

Is Jesus happy when we go and celebrate on the 25th of December with a great meal and we're eating ham and oysters and all of this stuff that Yeshua never ate. Wouldn't touch it, wouldn't go near it because it's unclean. And yet it's celebrated by all of Christianity in the name of Jesus doing stuff he would never do and never ever did. They're not walking like he walked. What the eye see, what the heart desires, what we mix and mingle it with out there in the world will own us, control us and rob us of our freedom.

And we wonder why we cannot get the blessings of YHVH at work in our lives. Those things are the reasons why. It's a religion that denies the true power of Godliness. I went for a walk past a church today just to check it out and have a look. And they've got a nativity scene in their window. Of course they have. Two nativity scenes in their windows. Well all churches will have a nativity scene celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I had a nationwide music organisation send me an email this week. AWN, Australian Worship Network. It's a bit like Bethlehem, the big charismatic networks of music in America. This one emulates it. It's quite big. It's grown quite fast. Sent me an email today, two or three days ago, and it has a nativity scene. And above it, it has the word Jesus. And below it, it has the reason for the season. My heavenly Father, how blind and stupid can these people be.

Yeshua, the birth of baby Jesus is not the reason for the season. The reason for the season is the celebration of the God Mithra of Roman paganism. Paganism is the reason for the season, and Christianity joined themselves to it just to get some more people into their church. And they're too blind to see the truth. That's the world of the church that we live in. And so, I'm going to close with this scripture. 2 Timothy chapter 3.

This one. But understand this, that in the last days hard times will come. But we mustn't fool ourselves about hard times. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hard-hearted, unforgiving, backbiting, without self-control, brutal, hating what is good, treacherous, reckless, conflated, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. That's quite a list compiled there, hasn't it? Doesn't sound like today? In the last days that's what it's going to be like.

Exactly like it's like. Holding to, and he's talking about the church, holding to an outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people. Fancy saying that. Avoid these people. So, these are the last days that we're living in. And what Paul is saying here to young apostle Timothy is, what is on offer is a powerless religion that is not able to change people's lives to match the image of God. It is a religion that is based on the fact that they have an outward form of godliness.

An outward form of godliness. But it denies the power of true godliness. So, a form of godliness that hasn't the power to change people's lives into the image of God and his holiness or his godliness. Every church is supposed to be producing people that are in his image of godliness and holiness, of righteousness and truth, based on confession and repentance and understanding what is truth and what isn't truth. What is righteous and what isn't righteous. He says, their message does not have the power to change their lives to that.

They are not Kedosh, in other words. They're not living in godliness and holiness. They are in love with worldliness. They love celebrating what the world celebrates. Have nothing to do with them. He said. It's a religion that doesn't walk the narrow path into the kingdom of God. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't have any friends in the Christian church. I have lots of friends in the Christian church. But I don't listen to what they try to tell me.

I don't do what they do and I don't go where they go, but they're still my friends and I still talk to them, relate to them, all of that stuff. I still hope to have an input and sow a seed here and there into their lives. But they will not own my life, control my life, or tell me how to live my life for God. But I will always want to be a witness to them. And I won't go to places where they want to go if it conflicts with what I believe and what God is saying to me.

I will not sacrifice what God wants of me on my day and my worship and my feast days and all of that, just to satisfy what they want. I have nothing to do with it. Doesn't mean I can't be a friend with them. They'll walk away from me before I walk away from them. It's just the way it is. Just the way it is. Yeshua said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. Yeshua's life, teachings, practices, traditions, customs and observances are the only way, the only truth and the only life.

He alone and His truth brings freedom from all your fears, your sins, your sorrows and your sicknesses. Nobody else can set us free from all of those things. The world solutions. What is the world solutions? And too often the church has solutions to these problems by fighting flesh and blood. The church is good at fighting flesh and blood. Paul says don't worry about fighting flesh and blood. In other words, they think that flesh and blood has the solutions and answers to this world's life, life's problems, and it doesn't.

What form does fighting flesh and blood take? Governments have the answer. Governments are the problem and governments are also the solution to our problem. So, the church of Jesus Christ says, let's lobby parliament. Let's become a political party. Remember Family First? I wept when they came into being. Andrew Evans, I knew him so very well. I'm leaving the ministry to become a politician and we're going to make a change to this nation. What utter foolishness to think a parliamentarian is more blessed than a preacher of God's Word.

And to think that he can change the nature of this nation's political direction by joining a government party. What stupidity. What led him into that? Certainly wasn't the Spirit of God. Let's become one of those instead of being a preacher. I'll put my name on a ballot paper and become a member of parliament. I know a pastor this year who became his own party. Got enough people to sign a petition and saved up enough money because you've got to have certain rules to become someone to be voted for to become a member of parliament.

And this man I know quite well. This man I had an encounter with in Queensland and he didn't like me at all. And I was very nice to him and I'd never met him before and he was talking to a whole group of pastors and I sort of walked into the conversation and I added a little something here and he tore me apart. I thought I was being nice. And then a few months later, I don't know, I went to a conference up there and he was at this conference.

And a little sometime later, 12 months later, God says, I want you to go to Canberra and I want you to take a warning message to that pastor. This pastor had hired a conference hall in Canberra, Parliament House. They've got conference centres and ever been into Parliament House? It is some place. They've got more than one. Went into Parliament House, went to the conference room that he had hired and he was holding this big conference and this, you know, he's going to save the world and he's going to change Parliament and Australia's going to become this amazing place and the nation will repent and all of this kind of stuff.

Carol and I, we go in and this conference centre, it's angled like this. It's got a steep seating all around down to the bottom where the main speakers are at the bottom and they all speak up to the people above them. Like a stadium amphitheatre inside. And I'm sitting in this conference watching this pastor and all the stuff he's putting on, all his musicians and everything he's talking about. He's a real Israeli man, loves Israel, blah, blah, blah and stuff and I'm sitting there and I'm going, I don't have to do this, I don't have to do this.

He wants me to take this message to him and I know exactly what I'm going to tell this man and I know he's not going to listen to me because he hates me and I've written it all down so when he gets angry with me I can give it to him on paper. And I'm just sealing myself up. I'm waiting for this meeting to finish and I'm waiting for most of the people to go so I can go down there and have a speak to him.

So I go down there and I say hi, I won't say his name, and then I say to his wife, come here. I didn't want to save him without witnesses. Then I said to his prophetess, I said, come here, I've got something to say to this pastor. And then I began to tell him the message that God sent me to tell him. And he became angry, I mean aggressively angry. He wanted to rip my head off.

And then the prophetess lady said to him, no, listen, listen, what he's saying is right. Listen, listen to what he's saying. They knew something. And he wouldn't, he just, he ordered me out, because I wasn't going out. And then I took the piece of paper out of my pocket and I said, here, I've written it down so I won't say any more and you can read it for yourself. This is what God is saying. And he screwed it all up and he threw it away.

And then he called a couple of his henchmen and said, get him out of here. They escorted us out of the place. This is true. Principalities and powers. They think they can change the world. That man, that same man, this year, at this election, where Albanese was just elected and the Liberal Party was a massive just destroyed and he was going in as an independent and he saved up all this money and he got signatures to make it so he could run his own little party in Parliament at Canberra.

And of course he lost. Lost. Because he thinks he can make changes to the government and the direction of this nation by becoming a parliamentarian instead of a preacher. What a fool. Governments are not the solution to the problem, even if they are the problem. You're fighting flesh and blood. Paul says you're not going to win anything by fighting flesh and blood. So Satan knows how to destroy such foolishness. I'm getting the wind up. Won't be long, dear wife.

Some people say money is the answer. They say let's spend a few more million dollars on education programs. Build more shelters for abused women and children. We will solve this epidemic of domestic violence. Pigs might fly. It's going to get worse, not better. I know a decade ago the government said we're going to spend this many million on sorting out domestic violence and helping women abused and battered. And over that ten years we're going to educate our young boys of how to treat women properly.

And by the end of this we will have resolved this problem. It's only got worse and it will get worse. This is a problem. You can't fight flesh to solve the problem. It's a spiritual problem. It's in the heart of man. It's in the evil of the mind and the heart. It's wickedness. We want freedom from that. We want to see women and families and children set free from that. And only can be done in the name of the Lord the Almighty.

You get the picture of what I'm saying. Flesh and blood does not have the answers to this world's problems. We're not fighting flesh and blood. We're fighting principalities and powers. We're fighting spiritual problems in the heart that has to be dealt with. Of course mankind is responsible for everything that is going wrong in this world. But Satan's the mastermind behind it. We're fighting principalities and powers. And if you and I don't get spiritual about our problem, we don't get spiritually in understanding about why I'm in the condition I'm in and the situation is as it is and that I'm dealing with Satan and a spiritual problem, we're never going to solve our problem.

We have to come to that place. They are the unseen realm behind the effects that we see. We see the outworkings of the curses that we have released into our world and into our own lives because of our disobedience to God's laws and commandments. It's very very plain. Yeshua said in Deuteronomy, these are the blessings these are the curses. Keep my commandments you'll be blessed. Don't keep my commandments. Don't live by my laws and curses will come upon you.

If we don't understand that we'll never be set free. And we have to understand that the things that God says comes to pass and will take place. The problem is a spiritual one and flesh and blood has no answers. And so if our lives are out of sync with God's word it destroys us and it will destroy every other religious system. So let me just say, if we want Father's best we want to enter into the fullness of Father's blessings remove ourselves from the curses and we do that by repentance.

Father I want to just repent of the things in the past that have helped create the situation I'm in today. That's how we live our life every day. And the present life the past and the present life the reasons so much for our sicknesses and our fears and our anxiety our depressions our poverty our bad relationships He says there are things to repent of. There's unforgiveness to be dealt with. There's bitterness there's anger, there's resentment there's sexual sins, there's rebellion.

We have to be aware of anything the Ruach of truth brings to our mind. He says repent of that and you'll be set free. That's a lesson I've had to learn. Something I had to come to understanding of. If my past if my attitudes, my actions and my behaviour gave the enemy an opportunity to release something into my life into my circumstance into my marriage, into my job into my health I must repent of that and it'll break the curse.

It'll set us free. So let me just say to you today pray and say Father show me anything I need to repent of. Doesn't matter how far back it goes 5 years, 10 years 30 years Don't go and try and dredge up everything you've ever done wrong Just say Father you show me what I need to repent of. What did I do wrong? What did I say wrong? How did I behave wrong? How is my attitude wrong? Where is my anger? Where is my unforgiveness? Where did this bitterness come from? Whatever it is.

So Father you show me when that gained an entry into my life. And I will repent of it. And you will break the power of the enemy over us in it. There is no more important message than that in our life. To give us victories and freedoms. And we all desperately want those freedoms. Heavenly Father we are children in your hands We have hearts of love for you We are here because we want your blessing upon our life.

Father break us free from the curses of sin and our past. What others have inflicted upon us What others have done to us Father we may have contributed something to that Take us through the pathway of repentance and break it in Yeshua's name and set us free That we may live in the blessing of the good news of your kingdom. Amen Amen