Churches in Wolcott

“If we were just making up a story, that's not how we would make our hero go. Our hero will be somewhere. You know, he would escape death. He would be on a he have a and fly away and do what he wants or whatever. But our main character, our hero was one that was on a cross. And that's why in the early church, they fought against the early church, tried to persecute them. They say, how do you serve a god? How do you serve somebody that was on that was crucified? Slaves died on crosses. People that were not Roman citizens were those that died on crosses. That was an embarrassing death. That was humiliating death. What kind of savior will come down to humiliate himself and to come and save you? Oh, god. I feel the holy ghost. What kind of savior is this that will come and do that? And that's what shows the power and the mystery of the love of god that the god we serve is not just so high and lifted up and removed from us that he doesn't care. He would debase himself to the lowest possible factor to save you. He would die a slave's death even though he's a king. Whoo.”

“So when we think about this, a man, you could work hard. As a man, you could work hard and and you do. You could pay the bills. You could be athletic. You could be real tough. Right? But you know what? You could be all those things and still fail spiritually Wow. Yeah. Right. If you're not leading your family towards God. You could be all those things, and all those things are good. You should do those, but you could still fail spiritually.”

“You have to be intentional and spend time with the word of God. Alright? The word meditate just means to repeat to yourself. That's what meditate means. It's not that's not necessarily what that means. I used to think that's what it meant, and I was very confused. Thank you. You're doing all that. You know, somebody come out and like, what are you doing? You know? Yeah. And and then it'll go put you to sleep again. See, I'm trying to help y'all stay awake. The word meditate means to repeat to yourself or to say over and over again. Right? It means to repeat to yourself. And so, again, when we meditate, we're not always meditating because we directly understand it. Sometimes we're meditating so that we can understand it.”

“When he comes to tell him to do that, Jesus could have eaten at that time. It wasn't him tempting him while he was on the fast. The fast was over. He could have eaten, but he does not eat because of who's telling him to eat. Right? And so, again and the other problem is that Satan wants a magic show from Jesus. He wants to do this and impress me and show me this and show me that. And Jesus' response to him is not to do it or to do another work, but the bible says that he says, it is written. I give you the word of God. And, Satan, if the word ain't good enough for you, do you might as well get this step in? That's right. That's right. Right? If the word of God is not enough for you and and the word of God is not enough to believe on me, then there's nothing I can do. Right? So, again, he relies on the sure word of God, the law of God, and he leans on his authority from the written word rather than just experiences. Amen? Alright.”

“A person you weren't even in your mind, and God just dropped the person in your head and say, pray for this person. I'm not even thinking about him. That's how you know there's no motive there. There's no desire there. And, furthermore, here's the other test. The word of the holy spirit, we know something's from the holy spirit because he's not afraid to challenge you. what you're hearing and what you're feeling always accentuates your flesh and makes you feel good and lifts you up and demeans everybody else, it's not the holy spirit. What makes the holy spirit the holy spirit is that he is holy, meaning he is objective and set apart. Meaning, the holy spirit will tell you something that you don't wanna hear. That's right. Because he's holy. He don't have no motive. He's not trying to get anything out of it. He don't need anything out of it. He's there's no there's nothing in it for him necessarily. Right? The holy spirit is the holy spirit because he is objective, and he will tell you the truth no matter whether you like it or not.”

“Then you need to kinda be alert and aware. Right? You have to be mindful of that. Right? So, again, what I and I tell people this rule all the time. Whenever someone says, I'm getting ready to tell you something that nobody has ever seen in the word of God before, it's probably heresy. People have been reading it's been the same 66 books for the past two thousand years, and nobody else saw this except for you, it's probably wrong. Now there's new applications. Sure. There's new ways in which you can explain something. We have new technologies, so there's new ways in which I could say it. You have, versions that kinda put it in different language. Yes. But the truth should not change. The truth needs to remain the same. It should be the same gospel. We should be preaching the same gospel and the same beliefs that the apostles did. If I would not preach it in front of Peter, I probably shouldn't be saying it now.”

“And many of us, we know how to read the word, we know how to get in the word, but we don't know how to the word is not able to live in us. We make it uninhabitable for the word of God. We have so many distractions, so many things, so much carnality, so much this and that, that we don't have room for the word of God to to properly sit and digest in your stomach. You understand what I'm saying? So, again, you've got to stay in that word and let the word of God stay in you. And when the word of God gets in you, the Bible tells it a morning star will rise. A star the purpose of a star is to shine for the people around it, for everybody to be able to see it. When you let that word get in you good enough, you'll shine. It'll shine out of you, and other people can see it. That's how you know you got good meditation when you're able to give the word to somebody else.”

“That's what meditation is. And how you meditate may depend on your personality type. So for some people, it may be saying it over verbally to yourself. For some people, it may be writing it down. You may be a writer. For some people, it may be drawing an image of what it looks like or what you know, imagining. But that's how you meditate, staying in that word, repeating it over and over yourself. The the important thing is repetition. And so, again, Peter says through this, he says the day will dawn. When we do this and we stay in the word, he says the day will dawn and the morning star will rise. He doesn't say the morning star will come or be invented. He says the morning star is going to rise in you. Meaning, the goal of meditation is that you stay in the word until the word stays in you.”

“Okay? What is the motive? So whenever people say I have a new thing, and this is this is not in the scripture, and this goes against the bible, but it's authoritative. Okay. What is the source of this? If you feel like what you're saying should be on par, and I've I've heard people say that, but what they're saying should be on the same level as the scriptures. Okay. Where is that coming from? What is your motive behind it? Because a lot of times, there is a motive that is behind it. It's usually power, sex, or money. So what is your reasoning for this? And if you dig at a lot of false leaders and cult leaders and stuff like that, you will find one of those three things present in that or all three in the case of Jim Jones. Right? I'm telling people he's god and whatnot and and everything else like that and starting his own thing. Again, that is an example of people doing their having their own motive and desire for power.”

“You understand what I'm saying? So, again, we have to be mindful of that. Most false doctrines and movements began with somebody studying in a room by themselves or not allowing anyone to challenge them or show them another way. And so they'll say things like, oh, well, you know, Jesus is teaching me. I don't need no church. I don't need no pastor. I don't need Jesus is teaching me himself. Well, if Jesus teaches himself, then keep it to yourself. I don't need no church. Well, stay stay in your room then. Don't, you know, but don't spread it. You know what I mean? And, again, it's it's off again because if you're saying you don't need community, don't need anybody else, you don't need church, why are you trying to recruit other people into what you believe?”