Transcript
Speaker: Hello everybody. I'm Apostle Ed. Bye. felt impressed this morning to do something here to to bring another message probably a short message before you all because god has been laying a lot of things in my heart And, of course, one of the things this morning I'm going to be having on our program tonight at 7 o 'clock, God's Team for Truth, Heart to Heart with Ed and Sabina.
Speaker: And, uh, there's something else he had given me now and i want to bring this to everybody and i didn't want to write it out so a lot of times it's better to actually speak it because you can write things and post and things but it's a lot better if you're speaking it because you can you can put the wording in there that takes a long time if you try to write it well he's laid this in my heart this morning it's a really simple title it's called walk worthy.
Speaker: What were they? And I want to read two scriptures to you. And before I read them, you know, there's a lot of things that God shows me. or foundational things, things that we have to...
Speaker: base at the very bottom. but build everything else upon them. And if we don't have that foundation built or like building your house upon the rock, the other things don't really count because they're not going to amount to anything. They'll just fall away. And a lot of times they won't even be recognized because it's in these things that people take notice.
Speaker: These things are basically what most people want. But if they aren't seeing that, they they soon write it off because they're looking for the real deal, the real people, the people that are very sincere and really mean business, even though none of us are perfect. But yet we should be pressing towards the mark. And that's that's the bottom line. We should be on the pathway to it. Many people who are not even on the pathway to it. It's about doing business. And I'm not about doing and and maintaining what these two verses say. I want to read them. If you have your Bible.
Speaker: Go to Ephesians 4 .1. First of all, it says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the location wherewith you are called.
Speaker: Amen. Second verse is 2 Timothy. two five And if a man also strive for the mastery, yet is he not crowned except He strives lawfully.
Speaker: they're pretty strong verses there they're really heart examining verses that we have to examine ourselves many times we can get really excited about what we're doing we get so excited and involved we do and we jump into things real quickly we can make a lot of mistakes And we have the wrong principles, the wrong attitudes, the wrong everything. And many times when we're that way, we're not really hearing from God. We're just hearing our own thoughts and mind. Because God doesn't give you things if you go off half -cocked on things. he
Speaker: He wants to get you to a place where you are hearing from him and can do what he tells you. He doesn't take people and they're jumping out, not paying attention to anything, just tell them to do this and to do that. God is an orderly God.
Speaker: He does things in order and he wants to get us all to the place we need to be, that we are truly hearing from him and truly not using our opinions or our thoughts that we're using. Thus saith the Lord. Amen. That's what it's all about, because I can tell you what I think and what you do this, you do that. But that means nothing unless it's God, unless it's God's word, because what we think and say in our attitudes and what our opinion is.
Speaker: opinion is means absolutely nothing so we have to really desire what god wants and how to get it and these are principles right here If we don't start out with that and with that attitude and keep that in mind, not just start out that way, but to take it. daily.
Speaker: i'll read Let me read those verses again. Let's start out with the first one. Therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Okay, we're all called to something for God, okay? Not everybody's in ministry, not everybody's in five -fold ministry, but everybody has a calling in their lives that naturally to be saved. First of all, to get saved, right? to come to Jesus Christ, make him your Savior and your Lord. But after that, he has something for you to do for him.
Speaker: You can work a secular job, but yet he he still has you doing something, you see. We're all ministers. Some are five -fold ministers. Others are are workers. They work in shops. They work in businesses, whatever they might do. But the bottom line is they have a mission that God wants to use them in, to be an influence, to bring people to Jesus. We all have Adam. call upon every one of us.
Speaker: and first of all he says walk worthy of what you're called to do so we established that we all have a calling in our lives to walk worthy of it. That is a big thing. And, you know, that takes a lot of self.
Speaker: honest examination our lives first of all we have to be honest with ourselves and we want must desire it and then as we do that ourselves we must ask the lord to show us if there's anything in our our structure that is cracked or has holes in it we need to correct we need to know we need to make that right don't we so the first thing we do is we need to make sure that We are walking worthy. Now why should we walk worthy?
Speaker: Well. First of all, people that see us if we're not walking worthy we bring reproach upon the gospel don't we And, you know, something else, not us bringing reproach upon the gospel by our walking wrongly and doing wrong things. Another thing we have to recognize Now, take myself as an example. I always like to use myself in the picture because I don't want to point at anybody else, but myself will say.
Speaker: or or anybody else that that's in the the light. or the limelight to a degree a certain level i didn't say around the world a world name or everybody knows you at every household it doesn't have to be like that it can be a person only a few people know you because every person no matter what they do Somebody has their eyes upon somebody. Somebody sees them.
Speaker: Somebody knows them. In other words, they'll look at that person. Okay. Here's a responsibility we have in a lot of times. You don't really think of this I'm like... look at somebody.
Speaker: And I might like almost endorse them. We'll say endorse them or they'll see me putting an A -OK sign on them. OK, somebody that's following me will say, well. if Apostle Ed does goes that person, it must be okay or he wouldn't approve of it. Well, you see, there's another responsibility I have because the decisions I make and seeing others, me making sure that it's of God or not of God.
Speaker: can have an influence on them because if somebody's misleading me and I'm not finding out the truth, not no not really seeking God myself. Is this person credible? Is this right to do this? Is it right to do that? If I'm not seeking that answer, I can... approve of something that's wrong and because i proved that something was wrong these people don't know they'll just say well hey apostle red says it's okay so go ahead you follow them what's going on in that person. Then they fall in the same trap.
Speaker: So you see. that brings up the situation right there that hey no matter who approves of what you individually find out for yourself you see first of all you can never depend on any person i don't care who they are i wouldn't care if it'd been apostle paul would have been here or any of the the great biblical characters ones are great women and men of god Always find out for yourself.
Speaker: Make. the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God and the Word of God, your final answer before you sign your name to anything, not on somebody else's recommendation.
Speaker: We go to a certain degree what people say, but that should never be the final say. You need to say, well, that sounds good, but I still need to make sure for myself. You see? Make sure.
Speaker: It's Bible. Make sure you have the witness of the spirit in you because you're going to have a hedging inside of you. It's going to say, no, you're going to be drawn back. Hey, I don't think this is right. Something wrong here. You're going to have that in you if it's wrong, if you're in tune with the Holy Spirit at all. And that's why you have to know the word of God also, because where does the Bible say this? Where does the Bible say that? And I'll give you something else about the Bible. A lot of times I have a lot of people ask me biblical questions from time to time. And, you know, there's times I have to do this myself also.
Speaker: I Google. i google something you know if i have something all you have to do is google it and and then they'll give you a bunch of verses that pertains to whatever you're you're seeking google it and then you can find so that's just a little something in there because i've given people that advice too because i use it myself and that works better than anything that i've seen yet
Speaker: And I've even asked AI ah some things sometimes. And even though we can't go spiritually by that because that's man, but yet there's there's something there. But then I take it by the word of God and by the spirit of God. But always examine for yourself or you cannot be fully persuaded. Nobody can be fully persuaded on what somebody else says unless they've proven it themselves. You've got to prove it yourself, right?
Speaker: You got to prove it, you know. It's just like you're reading the Bible different times and you've heard this many times that people will buy livestock or buy horses and things that they have to prove them and and there's a certain quoted or something they must do in order to show that they're worthy to be bought with that Man with the bomb, you see.
Speaker: But they can do something. They're able to do certain things. They have to be proven to them that they're going to be valuable to the person that buys them. So you need to prove what you put into yourself, and into your spirit, man, what you live by before you.
Speaker: put that approval there you must be fully persuaded yourself don't
Speaker: grab onto what everybody said because there's so much going on in the world today. People are saying this or saying that. And there's just lies. There's truth. There's everything mixed together. That's why we must have discernment. And the Bible says in James 1, 5, that if we lack wisdom, ask, and he gives it to us liberally. He gives it to us. Wisdom. We need wisdom. We need understanding. We need discernment. And they are the the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Speaker: and understanding. knowledge, you know that? The fear of the Lord, respect the Lord, but the fear of the Lord is simply... We know who he is. We give him the honor and respect of who he really is. We see him as he really is.
Speaker: And I'll tell you this, you never are going to see him as he really is, but we're getting a better glimpse. We're seeing him better in a deeper area as we go along. He's becoming a bigger God, you see. We never see him in his fullness, but we see him here now.
Speaker: larger and larger as we grow in the lord you see so we need to see him who he is give him love and respect for who he is and worship him but also have a relationship that he's your daddy also in other words he's a great mighty god the creator of all things the alpha new mega of all things creator of all things everything he's everything he's i am everything but
Speaker: Also, he's your daddy. He's large enough to serve you and small enough to know you, like the old saying, there used to be a saying of that, large enough to serve you like certain businesses and small enough to know you. And we have to seem like that. That's what Abba Father means. It's like a daddy -daddy type thing in a relationship, a loving relationship of father and his child. We're children of God if we know Jesus as our Savior.
Speaker: Okay, let's move along to that second verse right there. If a man also strives for mastery, in other words, I want to be a master of what I do, what God's called me to do. I want to be a master. I want to be good at it. I don want to be anointed. I want to be better at it. I want to improve in it in every way.
Speaker: We should all want to prove in everything we do and every way. There shouldn't be one thing in your life that you can't. approval. We all. can improve, can't we? I believe we'll all come to agreement on that. So you're asking him if you want to be a master. Okay.
Speaker: There's another scripture. I'll bring it up in 1 Corinthians 9 .25. They're just driving for the master. temper to self -control all areas that's driving for the master so that means you need to be able to control yourself you need to control take control over self we talk about taking control we have authority over demons we do we have authority but the first authority and the first move we make authoritatively is taking authority over old self old self wants to do this spirit of god wants to do something else our spirit man said do this our flesh said i don't want to do that i don't feel like doing that spiritual man says, no, do this. We need to take authority over that flesh and stop it.
Speaker: You see, in other words, we have authority over our will. Jesus gave us that at Gethsemane the first time he shed his blood. We sweat drops of blood. So you and I have authority over ourselves. So if we strive for the master, we have to get a hold of ourselves in the name of Jesus. You're going to do what you're supposed to do, what God wants you to do. Then he says,
Speaker: when we have We're striving for the mastery. He said, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Some people say the end justify the means, but that's not true at all.
Speaker: That's not true at all. What you do, you must be fair and honest and above reproach. the things that god wants in fact a lot of things are common sense it isn't great spiritual depths of things many times every person has within them ah a knowledge of of right and wrong, basically, unless they have a reprobate minds, which some do. But the bottom line is, you know what's right. You know what's wrong. And God.
Speaker: would tell you, he would lay it on your heart. he He moves upon you when you're going to do something wrong. but a Many times if we're not careful, we just resist that and say, no, I'm going to do it anyhow. in No, words we're stronger in the realm of our flesh. Instead of saying no to our flesh and yes to the spirit, man, is the spirit of God directs us through our spirit, man. We say, no, I'd rather do this. My flesh is stronger than my spirit, you see. And that's where we get ourselves into trouble. We have to make our spirit, man, which is a real us, control over this fleshly man. This fleshly man is temporal, will be gone someday, either through the grave or through the rapture. But the spirit man is going to live on. The spirit will live on, whether it's in heaven or hell. and I want to keep my place in heaven amen so I need to follow that way so but
Speaker: The influence, first of all, of ourselves, what happens to us when we put things in and order, we do things lawfully and and what we do, we we do it worthily.
Speaker: And according to God's law, his book, his Bible, we do that for ourselves first.
Speaker: But then we have to consider those that have their eyes upon us, watching us, you see, not following us in a sense, maybe ah of their whole life. But yet we have a certain influence upon people. that They take what we say and what we do is saying, hey, I'll make that part of me, too, because this man or this woman is doing is a good woman, man of God. And I trust him. I trust your judgment. So that's why we need to make our judgment right and our attitude and our motives right, that what they're following is what God is. They're not following us and our fleshly man, you see.
Speaker: We get others in trouble. We can cause other people problems in their lives because they are doing wrong, not even recognizing people are following us. Because how many times have you been in a situation? I see a lot.
Speaker: I never realized somebody was watching a program. People weren't watching me, whether in this country, other countries or around us or something. And they'd say things. I said, is that right? They were watching. They knew it all along. I never even had a clue.
Speaker: a lot of times we don't know who is watching us folks whether it's some uh movie star or a sportsman or another. prominent minister and i've had this happen in my life and prominent people watch or said something and and i'm sure some of you others have so you don't know who's watching even the president might see something you know something like that it makes no difference though whether what their walk is in life how famous or how
Speaker: Unfamous they are. The bottom line is they're human beings. And God puts a value on that. And God doesn't want his people. Deceived in any way and in in a place in a position that they're going to make wrong decision because you let them that way And uh...
Speaker: That's, so to speak, a blood on our hands. You know, really, when you stop and think about it, somebody messes up and gets in trouble or even goes to hell because of us. That's like blood on our hands, which it is. And I don't want to be a liability to somebody else. I know you don't want to be that either. But that's why we must consider and walk worthy that God wants us to walk. And before we do anything, make sure we get it together in our minds and hearts.
Speaker: And then go forth in those things. Now, we're not perfect at it. We're not. we're not Experts, we we don't walk exactly like Jesus. We all fall short, and let's let's be honest about that. Don't expect...
Speaker: a Christ -like person than me or anybody else because it's it's a certain amount of Christ -likeness in us, but we aren't the the real deal. None of us are going to be perfect in our walks. We have to give what God does with all of His mercy and grace because He knows that I'm not going to be perfect um in my walk. I'm going to make mistakes. I'm going to fall short. But the bottom line is He expects certain...
Speaker: realm or level out of me in other words there's expectation that god puts in us as we walk his path and we must it be in that level whatever that level is before him to have his approval in other words i know right now as i'm sitting here before you guys i'm right before god i'm at his approval I am.
Speaker: And that doesn't mean I'm perfect in my walk because I surely am not. But yet I'm at the place where God wants me. I'm at the level God wants me now. He wants me to improve to be better, but I'm satisfactory to him now. I mean, his perfect will, his will, right? But I'm not perfect yet. That's what I'm saying. What his expectations are, the only way you know them is when you have peace in your heart about it and you don't have anything on you that you need to correct, you need to do or add to or whatever. And as he shows you things, you do them as he tells you things. stop maybe you stop doing them too but uh it's a matter of being led by the holy spirit but you have that inner witness and that is the greatest thing of all the inner witness because that only comes from god
Speaker: And. So you see, that's what we all want. So that's when we can say, hey, I'm pleasing God, okay? So please keep those in mind, those scriptures there, and walk with it because many people have their ambition, their goals on what they want, and they want to be a star, or they want to do this, I want to be this, I want to be that. And they put that so far ahead that they run so fast that they don't even give a count or even think about the foundation of what they're doing. They just want to get this thing built.
Speaker: And what would happen if you were a builder?
Speaker: and you would not put a good foundation on the house you was building we just put uh put something like building upon the sand what would happen when you had the first gulf of wind or something would happen that house would collapse right and that's why some people collapse in their ministries they collapse in their lives everything goes uh south so to speak because they didn't have a foundation and the strength to support it whenever the waves and the winds came by, you see. Because things do come by, folks.
Speaker: You're tried and you're tested. The enemy comes in, things come against you. And if you're not building your house the way God wants it, well... With the description in Psalms 127 .1, except the Lord... build the house, stay at labor, labor in vain.
Speaker: Thank you, Lord. Yes, that that that is it. Except we build, that the Lord builds a house the house. How does he build the house? He uses you and I. He tells us what to do, like he did for Noah's ark when they built the ark. He told them what to use, what type of wood, how much, how long it should be, whatever it might be, you see, what kind it should be. He tells you how to do it.
Speaker: But we need to follow his instruction because they're explicit. and all that he tells us. We must do it his way, because if we don't do it his way, it's not going to work out. So. Folks.
Speaker: Walk worthy of what you're called to do. Be honest and open before the God be. before God be teachable. don't be proud recognize who he is recognize who You are.
Speaker: And a important is to love one another in all things you do. Do them in love, because the Bible says in Galatians 5, 6... Faith works by love. So let it all be enveloped.
Speaker: In the name of love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And that's really what it's all about. okay well you guys have a blessed day and remember go with God and he will go with you Amen. Love you all.
