Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: Today on the Dwelling Place. The virtuous man need not fear in these last days for three reasons. Number one, because God regards him. He's under God's divine surveillance. Oh, his eye and his ear are with you.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman of Al Pittman Ministries. The purpose of this radio program is to encourage you, strengthen your walk with the Lord, and grow.

To support this ministry financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at alpittmanministries.com. That's alpittmanministries.com. Your donations keep this radio ministry going. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here's Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Good is not only an antidote against the evil for the evil against us, but also for the evil within us. We think we have to do good to that evil person at work. I am going to buy Joe a sandwich when I see him Monday.

Joe, would you like a sandwich? I am buying. I am doing good to Joe. God says he wants you to do good because it overcomes the evil that is in you because you want to kill Joe. You lay in bed at night thinking about how to get even with Joe. God is asking you to do good to overcome the evil within you.

We are called to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Galatians 5:25 and 26 says, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Verse 26 says, "Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." Envy, the Bible says, is rottenness to the bone.

Walking in the Spirit is relying on the Holy Spirit to assist us in obeying God's Word rather than our wants. I want to yell at my wife. I want to make my point. There is a difference between being righteous and being right. You can be right and be wrong. You can win the argument with your wife and be wrong and end up on the couch for a week.

Choose your hard. It is hard to be married, but it is hard to be lonely. Jesus said the way is narrow and difficult is the way that leads to life. The way is broad and easy that leads to the world. It is hard either way you go. One way leads to life, the other leads to death.

The devil says it is hard and you deserve a break. Everything he offers us is even harder and steals even more from us. He has come to kill, steal, and to destroy. Lord, we want your will, we don't want our wants. Help us to walk in the Spirit, not just be in the Spirit, to do what is right and to be righteous men.

One of the most profound acts of Christ-honoring good, righteousness, that our nation has ever seen was demonstrated a few weeks ago when Erika Kirk forgave Tyler Robinson on national TV, the boy that had killed her husband. You could feel the gates of hell being shaken the moment she said, "I forgive you."

By her demonstrating the goodness to the glory of God, it just ruined the devil's whole plan. What he meant for evil, God in a moment turned around for good. Praise his holy name. Matthew chapter five, verses 43 to 48 says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven."

He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good. Don't you hate that? Wouldn't you wish for your evil neighbor that the sun wouldn't rise in the morning and their house would be all dark and snowing while there is sunshine on your house? That is not the way it works. God blesses the evil and the good.

If you love those who just come to your church, who are the same color you are, who live on your side of town, who vote the way you vote, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? The IRS. If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?

Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. The perfection Jesus is speaking of refers not to perfection of the flesh, but perfection of the heart. When our heart is right before God, we become a vessel yielded to his workmanship for good. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

The third and final virtue that Peter mentions here is about being blessed in suffering. The Bible says that we are called to suffer for Christ. Who wants to serve Christ? Great, come suffer. How many people do you think come on that altar call? Show me the money. Prosperity, yeah. No, come suffer.

In the suffering, we are blessed. First Peter 3:14 says, "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled." Second Timothy 3:12 says, "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." If you don't want to suffer persecution, just be ungodly.

If you desire to be godly and follow Christ, you are going to suffer persecution. Everybody is not going to like it. When you desire to be godly in your home, your kids aren't always going to agree with it. We had trouble with one of our children and I used to think maybe I should leave the ministry. God said they are rebelling because your house is in order.

Continue to pray for them and keep loving them and give them God's Word because it will never return void but accomplish what he desires it to do. For us as believers, it is ludicrous to believe that we can walk with Christ and not bear the marks of Christ. Paul said, "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The wounds or the scars that we have of Jesus Christ are evidence of the fact that there has been healing. You may have a wound, but it is a scar now. We all have scars from sports or something like that. You are here today because that scar healed. When you look at it, it reminds you of that thing, but it is healed.

It is a wound, but it has been healed, and we can show other people. We minister out of our wounds, not our wins. We like to tell people what we did, how we got on our knees and prayed for 12 hours and never had a problem with that. We like to tell people the formula. It is you running into the wall, breaking your nose three or four times, and then telling somebody what God did for you.

We minister out of our wounds. They look at you and go, "If God could do that for you, I guess he can help me." Did Jesus not minister out of his wounds? He was wounded for our sins. By his chastisement, we have been made whole. It is ludicrous for us to think that somehow we are going to serve the Lord and we are not going to have marks of his suffering.

Peter exhorts the church not to be afraid of their threats because in the suffering, there is blessed fellowship. John chapter 15, verses 20 and 21 says, "Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep your word also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me."

Only twice is the phrase mentioned: "A servant is not greater than his master." Here and in John chapter 13, verse 16. In John 13, he was washing the disciples' feet. In John 15, he was telling them they were going to suffer. The idea here is that if the Master suffered and served others, are we not to do the same?

If he is our Master, suffering and servitude is at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. For the believer in suffering, we find blessed fellowship. It is a call to divine fellowship. The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:10, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death."

It is when I am being conformed to the death of Jesus where I find fellowship. Ignatius of Antioch was a church father in the first century, a bishop in the church at Antioch who was martyred, thrown to the lions by the Roman Emperor Trajan. In his final letter to the believers in Rome, Ignatius wrote the following words while in a dungeon getting ready to be fed to the lions.

"My desires are crucified. The warmth of my body is gone. A stream flows whispering inside me, deep within me. It says, 'Come to the Father.' I am near to God. In the company of wild beasts, I am in company with God. Only let all that happens be in the name of Jesus Christ, so that we may suffer with him. I can endure all things if he enables me. I am God's wheat. May I be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts until I become the fine white bread that belongs to Christ."

Ignatius, being conformed to Christ's death, became the bread of Christ to believers in his day and even today. What does being conformed to Christ's death look like on a daily basis for us as men in these last days? It looks the same as it did in the early church. Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:9-12 that he is always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. Death is working in us, but life in you. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

To carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ is to bear one's cross. Upon it, we are called to set aside our wants, our desires for God's will, to die to self and live for the Savior's glory. Death is working in us so that life can be working in my family, in my wife, in my church and in my community and in my nation.

John the Baptist said in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." We increase by becoming fine flour, being grounded into fine flour through our sufferings, so that we might become the bread of Jesus to those who are around us.

In conclusion, the virtuous man need not fear in these last days for three reasons. Number one, because God regards him. He is under God's divine surveillance. Oh, his eye and his ear are with you. He hears our cries. David said, "Out of the depths I have cried unto you, O Lord." I have learned to hang onto Psalm 131 as a life preserver in my life.

There the psalmist says, "I will not concern myself with things that are too lofty for me. But like a weaned child, Lord, I'll cling to you." There are some days, God, I don't get it, but I'm going to hold onto you like a weaned child. I'm going to stay under your eye and your protection because I know I have your ear. You're listening to me.

Stay under God's divine surveillance. The second thing is we can overcome evil with good. Don't be overcome by the evil today. Overcome evil with good that glorifies God. The third thing we need not be afraid of is because in suffering, we are predestined to be blessed by God. No greater example lately than what happened with Erika Kirk. Look at what God is doing.

It doesn't make sense to our human finite minds, but God is able to take what Satan meant for evil in your life and in my life and use it for his greater glory and our greater good. Proverbs 28, verse one says, "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion." God wants us as virtuous men, you call it virtuous masculinity today, to be men who are masculine but who have virtue, to be as bold as a lion.

The time for neutrality is over. He wants us to have a boldness not according to our virtue, but the virtue of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. That life reflects the boldness of our God and the love of our God and the virtues of our God. Paul said it well and I will close: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Amen.

Guest (Male): Learn more about Pastor Al and his ministry by visiting alpittmanministries.com. Also, consider supporting us financially. You can send a gift to Al Pittman Ministries at PO Box 50584, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80949, or visit us online.

Thank you for your prayers and your support. Your generosity keeps this radio ministry going. Lastly, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us by emailing info@alpittmanministries.com. That's info@alpittmanministries.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Again, thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time on the Dwelling Place. God bless.

Have you been wanting to hear Pastor Al teach live? Now is your chance. Join Pastor Al at Legacy of Faith Church in Denver, Colorado on Palm Sunday, March 29th. There, Pastor Al will be teaching a dynamic Palm Sunday message that you don't want to miss. Doors open at 9:15 AM, service begins at 10:30 AM. Head to legacyoffaithchurch.com to get directions or get more information. That's legacyoffaithchurch.com. We'll see you there.