Eagle Heights Cathedral

Bishop James E. Collins: Come on and praise the Lord as I know you know that you don't know where you would be without Him. What grace, what grace, what grace. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Take your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew 6. Matthew 6. Let's look at verses 19 through 24 and then 33 through 34.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Verse 33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for tomorrow, for the tomorrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Father, thank you for your word. I'm asking you to keep pointing us in the direction of kingdom focus. For, Lord, your kingdom always was, and it shall ever be. But you told us as your people to pray for your kingdom to come and your will to be done in the earth as it is in heaven.

May we understand that we are the conduits through which that which is in heaven comes into the earth. And so make us kingdom-focused people, and this day may we be closer to that at the receiving your word. This I pray for in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Amen. As we look at our second kingdom focus, I want you to keep that clip of that video in the forefront of your mind.

And I want to say something that is very important: you and I will never experience the fullness of the kingdom of heaven in our own personal lives unless kingdom culture becomes that which dominates our thoughts, our hearts, and our lives. The second thing I want to talk about today is that the kingdom-focused life is marked by an incessant desire to please God. It is marked by an incessant desire to please God.

These are the folks that want to live in such a way that their life brings glory and honor to God, to live a life that leaves no question as to whose side and whose kingdom they belong to. In 1 John 3:7-10, we find these words: Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to annihilate, destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in them. Stop right there and notice what John says. And what he does not say is just as important as what he does say. He does not say that the child of God will never sin again. What he says is that when he or she does sin, if they're truly born again, their salvation is real.

If that happens, they will pause, they will stop, they will change direction because the Holy Spirit, God's seed, remains in them. Verse 9: They cannot go on sinning, perpetuating a sinful lifestyle because they have been born of God. He's telling us that if your salvation is real in you, even when you sin, it will bother you. Let me tell you what I've learned about sin: it may not bother you while you're in the act of doing it.

But soon your conscience, called the Holy Spirit—someone called him the Hound of Heaven—he will deal with you, not in order to condemn you, but to convict you, to remind you of who your Father is and whose child you are. And if your life is a kingdom-driven life, listen to what verse 10 says: This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are.

Watch now: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother or sister. Grab the first part of what we read: anyone who does not seek to correct their life's direction when it is flowing in opposition to the heart of God, that one is not a child of God. If you really are a child of God—church, listen to me—no matter how often you fail God, it is still your desire to please God.

John 5:44, Jesus' words: How can you believe since you accept glory from another but do not seek the glory that comes from the glory of God? Many times we miss pleasing God because we're too busy trying to please man, and we want them to give us applause. And John said that what you should be shooting for is not the applause of men, but the one who really matters, the true and the living God.

Let me tell you that if you are kingdom-focused, there is more than just a desire to please God. There is an incessant desire to please him. Let me give you some synonyms of incessant. Don't try and write them down. I'm going to talk real fast, just listen real fast: unceasing, constant, continuous, never-ending, perpetual, eternal, everlasting, unrelenting, unremitting.

Are you getting the drift? When you are of the kingdom focus, there is this thing driving you that wants to live a life that is pleasing to God, which means now—watch this—the word the church doesn't talk about a lot anymore: it means that the goal is godliness. What is godliness? Godliness is God-likeness. You see, my goal of my everyday life is 2 Corinthians 6:17, where he said, "Come out from among them, the worldly culture, and be separate from them, not touching anything unclean."

In other words, if I'm going to live my life according to the Word of God, I want to live it in such a way that people look at me and they say, "He's not strange. He's just one of these people that he doesn't go where we go, he doesn't do what we do, he doesn't talk like we talk, but he emulates his Father." God says in verse 18, "When you live this way, I will be your Father, be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty.

So then he tells us that so that when you pray our Father which art in heaven, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, it actually happens. The need and the desire you have in the earth will be fulfilled by the overflow of what is in the kingdom of God. Let me talk to you today. Where there is lack in your life, it is not because there is a lack in heaven.

James 1:17 says, "Do not be deceived, my brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift is from above." So whatever you need, it's sitting up there in heaven, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows. Secondly, it's up there, but God says you can have it, and he has not changed his mind. So listen: if there is lack in your life, know that it can be filled by what's in heaven.

But I want us to look at the crux of what brought James to make that statement. James 1:13 says, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me,' for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

Now I want you to hear me. When you and I go from mere temptation and mere enticement, we have now stepped into the danger zone. And I'm going to say it again: we all sin sometimes. But the longer you walk with Jesus, the less frequent and less detrimental your sin should be. Now listen up. If your sin no longer bothers you or never has bothered you, I want to tell you where you are today.

2 Timothy 3:5 says this: Having a form of godliness but denying its power. It is sad for me to say this, but like no other time in the history of Christianity, these people are the majority today, church. We have among us, as never before, an overwhelming bundle of people who have a false, inauthentic godliness. Now listen to what Paul says when you run into those people.

He says when you run into those people in this kingdom, people who have this form of godliness, have nothing to do with them any longer. Stop running with them. Now, he says form. What is the definition of form? The definition is a shape, it's a silhouette or an outline. It does not refer to full substance. So when you see a person's shadow, you only see their outline, you see their silhouette.

Let me tell you what that means. And many people don't like to accept what this means. When it comes to this which is called godliness, there are people who by their lifestyles, they inform us that you can look the part of a godly person with no substance to back it up. Let me help us to know how we can identify when we're looking at a shadow rather than the authentic thing.

The Bible says that false godliness has no spiritual power attached to it. In his book, *Kingdom Focus*, Dr. Tony Evans says it's like putting on a Superman costume but not being able to fly. Someone who is impersonating Superman has the form of power and flight. He has donned the attire of power and flight, but take him to a high-rise building, give him a quick shove and yell "Fly," you will readily discover he does not have and possess the accompanying power to pull off what form declares can be done.

The form is useless. It is merely a costume. And the one who has a form of godliness, theirs is a costume Christianity. The form of godliness is without power because it is not in relationship with God. It is religion. It's an epidemic. But listen to me, because religion, church, gives the impression of something related to God, but it's not in reality the substance of a relationship with God.

Let me talk to you for a moment this morning. A person can look religious, a person can talk religious, a person can walk religiously, a person can claim to be religious, a person can carry their paperback, hardback, cell phone, iPad Bible, take notes like it's going out of style and yet be void of God's power. When the power of God is ruling in our lives, church, it means that the presence of God is dominating our life.

And when the presence of God is dominating your life, you begin to understand that there's someone living on the inside of you, and because that very presence of the Holy God is residing in you, your burning desire is not to offend him. Fact of the matter is this: I've seen people go to church for years and they're never changed. Our youth conference speaker talked about the young people, and he told them about proximity.

Let me help you understand this. There are people who do not understand: you can be in proximity in the vicinity of God and yet have no power to conform to his image and character. And much preaching today—listen, much teaching today—does not compel people toward kingdom-focused living. Therefore, they don't know that attending church and getting whipped up in a frenzy is not nor equal sufficient to actually thriving in the Spirit of God that is resident on the inside of them.

Listen. I grew up in a church where physical gymnastics was the proof that you knew God. But yet you could step in that parking lot, cuss people out, say things that heaven shuts its ears to, and people would say because you shouted, you got it. Somebody needs to hear this: God wants relationship with us, not religion. Now, you may be desiring to live for God, but you keep flopping.

I'm going to tell you some things that are not talked about much in the church. I want to talk to the floppers, of which I used to be one. Jude 24 says, "Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless with the presence before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." This is what I'm talking about. Now, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:7: if you want to live a godly life, if you want to stop flopping, if you want to stop stumbling, you have got to discipline yourself.

Now watch this. Discipline is the Greek word related to our English word gymnasium. 1 Corinthians 9:27—I like it in the King James Version—Paul said, "I keep my body under, I buffet my body, and I bring it under subjection." I take my body through a daily workout lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be lost. Listen to what Paul is saying. He says, "I don't let my flesh run my life. I tell my flesh what to do. I tell it how to behave. I make it submit to me."

Now I want to show you something. You go to a gym to work out and get in shape. Please understand this. You don't go to the gym to create muscles. You were born with muscles. You go to the gym not to create muscle but to build the muscle you already have. The gym is designed for a purpose. The purpose is where you go to develop the physical attributes you already possess.

Let's get real for a minute. The reality is that a lot of people is that most of the times, they don't even want to work out. Many of them give off the impression that they want to work out and get in shape. I have an illustration of that at my own health club. This one lady, she would walk out of the into the club every day. She would put on her tops and her shorts.

She slapped her headband around her head, put on her $300 walking shoes, walk out of that locker room, step onto the treadmill, and she's standing there and for 20 minutes she's pressing buttons. I'm standing over there thinking, "What in the world is she doing?" All of a sudden she gets that thing moving, and as she's moving, she's not even moving at the speed of light.

But I'm saying at least she's doing it. And I watch her, and two to five minutes on the treadmill every time without fail, she turns the machine off and goes, "Whew! Oh! That was a great workout!" Let me tell you something. If you ever get serious about getting in shape, you will find out real fast how out of shape you really are. So the question that pertains to us as children of God is: how do you know when you are out of shape spiritually?

Here's how you know. If ungodliness is the god of your lifestyle, then you are out of shape. Watch me now. If you desire to pursue a lifestyle more akin to the world than the kingdom of God, you are spiritually out of shape. And hear me: there is a big difference between buying a membership with intentions of working out and then actually going in and doing it.

If you are going to really live a life that is pleasing to God, your plan for getting in shape has to go beyond your intention. Just as you must follow through on your commitment to go beyond your intentions to remove King Flab physically, you've got to make a commitment to get rid of unhealthy fat on your soul. Come on now. I guess I got about four people who like going to the gym.

Let me tell you something. One of the major reasons Christians fail to remove flab from their soul—watch me now—is that we think that one workout a week on Sunday morning will cut away King Flab. Let me tell you something: if you work out once a week physically, I promise you, you will not prevail over King Flab. The same principle works in the spirit realm.

You work out spiritually once a week only on Sunday morning, the rest of the week you do nothing, that one session is meaningless. Let me help us today. What most Christians want to do is go to a spiritual workout session on Sunday morning, only then to get up on Monday morning and for the rest of the week, dine on Wendy's for lunch, on a Baconator and his little son Babynator and some French fries, and then think a Diet Coke will balance it all out.

Let me talk to you for a minute. And what it does is it cancels out whatever workout they had on Sunday, turning it into a religious routine. Please look at me for a moment. One of the biggest problems in the body of Christ is that we have made church a religious routine rather than a relationship with God. And so we kind of treat it like a job: I punch in my card and then I can say I was there.

But watch this. Godliness must be treated like a workout routine if you're going to see results. Paul said physical exercise brings small profit to your lives, but exercising godliness is the priority because here is what we all know. You may not know that you know this, but we all know this: our spirits have been made right with God and so it saves our bodies from burning in hell.

But in between the body and the spirit is the soul man who sometimes wants to raise hell. And when I don't consistently get my workout in in my physical body, let me tell you something: my body informs me I haven't worked out. All of a sudden I start craving the run, I start craving the weights, I start craving this thing. And I want you to understand something: it's the same way in the same vein of the soul man.

When you are a spiritual person, your body, your soul man begins to tell you, "I'm begging, I'm craving for godliness." And the reason that it does it is because it knows that there is great gain in godliness. Your soul man knows that when you give your spiritual life attention, it builds up the power of resistance. And the devil knows it too because he knows James 4:7: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Now please look at me. The devil will work hard to distract you. He will always give you a reason to not be at church. He will give you any excuse. Fred was telling me he and Shana had a gentleman pull up beside him in the car. Then he asked him, he says, "Where you been?" "Oh, you know, I've been going through some stuff." Let me talk to you, church.

The stuff is a distraction that the devil uses to keep you out of the place where you can get the help that you need while you're going through the stuff. Now watch. The devil loves it when you ignore your spiritual workouts, for if you ignore consistently building up your resistance, you won't build up the spiritual muscle you need to resist him. When he comes to tempt you, you won't have the power to resist him.

You cannot build up consistent resistance to the devil without consistently going to the spiritual gym. Let me say this: many are weak because they fail to come to God's gym weekly. Hebrews 10:25b: "Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing." Now don't tell me that does not mean what it says that it means because it means exactly what it means.

Let me break it down in case some of us don't understand this. What that means is that if you have a healthy body that doesn't limit your church attendance, you need to get yourself out of the bed—let me throw this in the middle of it—on time. Listen, I was telling Lady Brenda, "Man, I felt like I slept all night but I feel like I didn't." But I had to still get up and shake myself and get myself together.

Get yourself out of bed. Don't press the button for live streaming, but rather stream your body into the church where there are physically live people so they can help you do what you need help doing sometimes, help you consistently build your spiritual muscles. Now your question should be, "Well where'd you get that from, Bishop?" Same book, same verse, Hebrews 10:25a: "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."

Along with regular church attendance, if you're going to live a kingdom-focused life that is incessantly marked by a desire to please God, you must come to the understanding that relationships really do matter. Church, listen to me: we all need to be around people who will encourage us in life and the things of God, who will help us develop our spiritual muscles. Hear me, because I know what we do.

Some of us still got the COVID demon. We don't have COVID, we have the COVID demon. Listen to me: you can't develop your spiritual muscles if you decide next Sunday, "Oh, I don't feel like going to church," sitting on your couch eating bacon and eggs, sipping on Colombian Supreme coffee and streaming, spitting at the TV, "Preach, Bishop!"

Let me say something: you will never grow spiritually without the influence of other people. I showed you that clip, and I'm going to go back to it a couple of times. Coach Carter was a real person. Timo Cruz, who was played by Rick Gonzalez, was a real person in a real high school in Richmond, California. The boy was hurting, he was in pain, and he liked to act like he was a bad dude.

He walked up and he threw a punch at Coach Carter. Coach Carter caught his arm, slapped it around his back and pinned him against the wall because Coach Carter told him to get out of his gym because he kept running his mouth. He comes back and he begs the coach, "Let me back on the team," and the coach says, "All right, but you owe me this many suicides. You owe me this many sit-ups. You have till Friday to make the mark."

What you didn't see in there was that had they not jumped in and taken his burden as their own, had they not taken his suicides, his pushups, those things and made them his own, their own, he would never have gotten back on that team. Listen to me, church: that's why you need to quit playing with church attendance. Because church works the same way when you come consistently.

Sometimes you come through that door and it took you everything to get through that door. You don't just get lifted up by the praise and the worship, you don't just get lifted up by the preaching, but every once in a while God will speak to somebody. They will walk over to you and say, "Let me run some suicides for you. Let me do some pushups for you."

They will make your burden their burden. They will come to you and have a word in due season. Now, let me say something else about that that is really not a part of this message but it needs to be said. It's also amazing to me the world gets this but not the church. Who did the suicides for him, who did the pushups for Timo Cruz? Say this with me: not the coach.

And now follow me: we think the church in the church that the coach and his staff are supposed to do everything: visit the shut-ins, find out why folks are absent from church, go to the hospitals, run small groups, deliver groceries. Whatever it is needed, and we'll say, "Why is this need not being met? Why isn't the church doing something?" which actually means, "Why isn't Bishop doing something?"

Everybody look at me. No. I'm the coach, the staff is the team. You, church, are the team. Watch now: when the church is being the church, they joined the Timos on God's great team. They run the suicides for them, they do the pushups. That's why you need to be connected to the body of Christ. But watch this now: while all relationships are of great import in the kingdom of God, not all relationships are of equal value to your life in the kingdom of God.

Don't miss this. When the writer of Hebrews 10 speaks of relationships in the kingdom of God, pick up on what he does. He speaks with specificity concerning the role of those relationships that they are to play in our lives. Let's look at it again. He says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing."

Now see this, "but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching." Encouraging one another toward what? Love and good deeds. Now pay attention to what I'm about to say. We've pretty much got it mastered to an extreme now: we're pretty really good about spurring each other on to love, and you're going to hear me talk about that in just a moment.

Let's focus on the words good deeds. If the kingdom-focused life is marked by an incessant desire to please God, you had better understand that relationships are more powerful than we grasp. And the wrong ones, the unhealthy ones, will impede your spiritual growth. And if you are going to live a kingdom-focused life that is marked by an incessant desire to please God, listen very carefully what I'm about to say: your closest relationships must be with people who will spur you on and encourage you strongly toward good deeds.

Now let me help you understand something. A better translation says God-deeds. You need people in your life who will spur you on to godliness, to a lifestyle that reflects the image of the kingdom of God. It is the lifestyle of Colossians 3:17: "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."

It's 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether you eat or drink, whatsoever you do, do all for the glory of God." So what Paul is saying is that your talking, walking, doing, living, it is all to be done in such a way that it honors God. And listen now: and the people you surround yourself in your life—listen—should be people who spur you on—listen now—encourage you, and just not encourage you but hold you accountable for striving to live a lifestyle that is governed by the Word of God.

What kind of relationships spur you on to God, good deeds? Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron, so as a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." Let me talk to you. Your closest friends should sharpen your spiritual blade, not dull it. You should sharpen their blade, not dull it. If they are not encouraging you toward kingdom lifestyle of good deeds, God-deeds, then they are not sharpening you.

Because I want you to hear something: every true kingdom relationship does that. If you are not better when you come into contact with certain people and leave them, then maybe you ought to think about that relationship. Let me tell you something. I'm not trying to pump up my staff's egos. I'm not trying to pump up my deacons' egos.

But I can tell you to a person: every time I go around one of them, I am better and I am sharper because I have been around them. Now watch this. I'm going to illustrate it this way, and I know some single folks going to get real, real mad now. But it's all right. You're going to be all right in the kingdom if you just listen to what I say.

A true man of God—let me back up and say this: kingdom people in kingdom relationships sometimes help you protect you from yourself. Watch now: a true man of God will protect the young lady he is in relationship with. He will go out of his way to do everything that he can to not take unauthorized rights within the relationship. I'm talking about unbiblical moves.

Now stay with me: he will do everything he can to treat her as though he really believes 1 Corinthians 6:19—that her body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. And I want every single man in this room to listen to me: until you put a ring on a woman's finger, her body does not belong to you. Let me talk to you. Taking what does not belong to us men is sexual exploitation.

Listen now, even if she offers it to you. See, I know it's going to get quiet in here now. Some of y'all are going to have to go home and really exercise your spiritual muscles so you come back next Sunday. Hear me: your job in the dating process is to make sure that your dating is done in such a way that you are sharpening her spirit by showing her this is the way we are going to date so that we bring glory and honor to God.

Now everybody look at me. I find that men want to be males, want to be the man, until I say that. Let me tell you something: if you're going to be the man, you need to be the man, not part-time. Watch this now. My single folks, y'all be going on vacation together. You're not married. "Well, you don't understand, Bishop, we go on vacation, we stay in separate rooms."

First of all, ain't nobody buying that. The fact of the matter is this: let's say by a splinter of a chance you're telling the truth. God says in 1 Thessalonians 5:22, "Abstain from the appearance of evil." Even if what you say is true, please understand that people will imagine things and say otherwise. And you say, "I don't care what people think. They should mind their own business."

Let me say something to you: you are absolutely wrong because as a child of God, you and I should care about what people think, both those in the body of Christ and most importantly those outside the body of Christ. Because Pastor Lopez, I'm going to work on my Spanish: *numero uno*, we are to live in such a way that we don't even give the inkling of sin.

Your spiritual life is other people's business because Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to all in the house. Light your light, so let your light so shine before men that they may see your God works and then thereby your Father in heaven is glorified."

Now look at me. See, here's what I wish: I wish that when I was growing up and I was dating, somebody would have told me that instead of just telling me, "Don't have sex." No, tell me why. Now, I didn't have sex because by God's grace, the seed, the Holy Spirit convicted me every time I was tempted. But let me say something: don't get mad at me.

I wish someone had told me that. See this: we are to live in such a way that we don't give even the inkling of sin. Let me say something: when we have sex outside of marriage, we are taking what really does not belong to us. So here's *numero dos*. I want you to listen to me, and especially men—no, ladies too—when we behave that way, that's the way of the world.

Let's go back to 2 Corinthians 6 and start with verse 14: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. Let me stop and say this: when somebody really believes something, they do that something. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

What agreement is there between the kingdom of God and idols? For we are the temple of God. And God said, "I will live among them and walk with them, and I will be their God and they will be my people." Therefore, "Come out from among them and be ye separate," says the Lord. "Touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty.

Well, Bishop, we've come out, we're saved. Look at me. When God says come out, he means more than repeating a sinner's prayer, filling out a salvation card. If you meant the word, you are truly saved, but let me tell you something: if your salvation has not caused you to come all the way out—listen now—God means come all the way out from among the culture of the world, spirit, soul, and body, and to submit to the comprehensive rule and authority of the heavenly kingdom.

And when he says what does the believer have in common with the unbeliever, he is saying that as a believer you are no longer to operate your life with the familiar spirit of the world. You are no longer to think world because though you are in the world, you are not of this world. So, *numero tres*: listen very, very closely.

The reason we got all this mess on earth called sin is not just because Adam and Eve ate the fruit. It is the end result, but the reason sin entered the earth and we're now paying for it is because rather than being a protector and covering for Eve, Adam was somewhere else. Now I want to show you something that I just found yesterday. It really hit me.

Listen to Genesis 3:6: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it. Now pay close attention to the rest of the verse: She also gave some to her husband—watch now—who was with her, and he ate it. Watch what I'm about to say.

We have said that Adam must have been off somewhere physically doing something else. No, the Bible says that while the conversation was going on, Adam was sitting there. While she was taking the fruit, Adam was sitting there, and he took it and he ate it. So what that says, men, is that Adam was there physically, but he was somewhere else spiritually.

And why am I on us men? Because if we're men of God and not just males, we say, "Devil, you ain't getting to my family unless you go through me." And you're going to have a hard road to hoe because I've been consistently going to the gym in my spirit so I can resist you when you come. Listen: his lack of spiritual attention messed it all up.

Let me say something else. And I'm not trying to be mean, I'm trying to help us, because what I'm saying can apply to everything. This thing that I'm talking about has become a god in the kingdom of God. We've got people—and the preachers know they're doing it—doing it on Saturday night and lifting up filthy hands to lead people in worship on Sunday.

Men, watch me. Let's see if we're honest. If I take Lady Brenda—we weren't married—and I take her on vacation with me and I put her in a room with me, let me tell you what I've just done: I've set both of us up for failure. That's how the devil works: he sets you up, then he takes you down. Listen now.

Here's what I'm driving at, whether it's that, anything you deal with: you follow the Word's prescriptions, prescriptions for relationships, you will eventually begin to see and feel the side effects of the world's prescriptions. Because no prescribed medication comes without side effects. I was watching these commercials—I don't know about y'all, but I hate commercials.

And I really hate medical commercials. They tell you, "Take this medication and your bladder will go back to normal." Oh, but if you take this, it will fix your bladder, but then they rattle off 15 or 20 side effects. And my favorite one is, "By taking this, there is the possibility of it killing you." Now listen.

Their line is "these are not all the side effects." The Bible says when we are in this kingdom and we don't live and operate by the prescriptions of the world, he says and when we do this, we see the side effects from operating off of the prescription of the world. And Romans 6:23 says it's still in effect: the wages of sin is still death.

You see, sin unchecked always produces, at the minimum, spiritual death, simply because two of God's children let the prescription of the world control their thinking rather than the prescription called the Bible. All right. Look at me. There is a reason why the Bible is still the number one best-selling book on earth.

It's because it's got prescriptions in it that when you need something, it'll bring you life. It is the book that people run to when they need peace of mind. It is the book that they run to when their life is desperate and in need of hope. It has a prescription for everything you need in your life, and it too has side effects, but its side effects bring blessing into our lives when we take its medication.

So let me say one more thing and then I'm going to leave this alone. This is for the parents. We are living in a day and age where Christian parents will take the boyfriend and the girlfriend on vacation and then pay for the room. That's a good place to go, "Ooh." Then when the daughter ends up pregnant or decides to move out of their house and into the boy's house, they wonder how did that happen?

Because you set them up. You taught them that's the way it should be. Now listen: I know what I'm saying is not popular in church. I know it's not popular in this room because some of y'all are looking at me—I should be glad you don't have poison darts to shoot. And the reason what I'm saying is not popular is because the culture of the world has so invaded the kingdom of God.

And how did it get in here? Listen to me now: it got in here because we got overdosed on Jesus is love. And now we don't even put Jesus in front of it. We just talk about love. Because Jesus is all about love, so I can love anybody any way that I want. God doesn't care if we have sex outside of marriage as long as we love each other.

God doesn't care if we live together as long as we love each other. Kingdom-focused minds and lives don't think like that. It has a marker of an incessant desire to please God in spite of its flesh. Now, as I begin to wrap this up, I want to tell you right now: this is the toughest of the ones I've preached and I'm going to preach.

If it is your desire, then number one: you must go to the gym regularly if you're going to live a life that pleases God. Number two: you must surround yourself with people who will sharpen you and not dull your spiritual knife. Let me give you the last one. If you're going to keep that kingdom-focused life, you must cautiously choose who you listen to.

Now listen to me: these are spiritually dangerous and demonically influenced times in the church today. Now I said I would only share names when I need to, and I need to today. Pastor Paula White serves not only on a board of pastors chosen by our president as her spiritual advisor—as his spiritual advisor—she now serves as the head chair of this group of pastors.

She made the remark that saying no to the president, to President Trump, is like saying no to God. That borderline on blasphemy, for God said in Exodus 20:3, "You shall have no other gods before me." Look at me. We have made politics and political people God. Isaiah 42:8, He says, "I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to a graven image."

So here's what I'm going to say: pray for our president, pray for those that surround him. And pray that God gives them the courage and the discernment and the ability to step out. Because here's the problem: I love him. He's saying and doing things, though, that he has no business doing. And I'm asking the question: if you got 40 preachers in that room, why are you out of control?

Listen now: Edmund Burke said—and everybody listen—that is not a political statement, that's a biblical statement. Edmund Burke says the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Now, I said that because I want to show you something else. I was sent a clip. It was of Pastor Paula White and her husband, Jonathan Caine.

And I made sure that it was real and not AI. Because AI can do anything to anybody. But I found out that it was true, and they must have been sharing some kind of couples' conference. And they were handing out to couples the importance of sexual proclivities. Jonathan took the mic and he said, "I think to women have to—well, they don't have to, but women should look at a man and find out what turns him on. I mean, and you can talk about this.

This is something that you know: how freaky do you want to get? You know what I mean? You may like if you don't have have that conversation with your man, if you don't have that conversation, then you're not fulfilling everything that he really truly wants. And so this part, the sexual fulfillment, comes with deep study within each other. You have to look inside and say, 'What turns you on?' and 'What is it that you like to do?' And if you don't have the conversation, it's going to be broken sometimes."

Now I want you to stay focused on this because this is going to really go somewhere. And it goes again with the truth that I'm trying to tell you that the culture of the world has so invaded the kingdom of God that there is very little in many cases difference between them and us. He says in another part of it, "Ladies, if you don't know what he likes, you know, figure it out. Get a book. Go get some porn. Do something."

"He likes to watch porn? Watch porn with him. You know what I mean? It's like you gotta go where you gotta go. Figure it out." Then the pastor tried to clean it up, and she did a very poor job. She said, "I will clear some stuff up because I know the church..." Now stop right there. She said, "I'm going to clear this up because the church is the problem."

Watch now. "John and I don't watch porn. We have never watched porn together, okay?" That right there made me freeze. "We don't. He doesn't watch porn without me." Frozen again. "And we're not advocates for saying go outside, but what he is saying is educate yourself on sexuality." I said, "Are you joking me? You got to have porn to get..."

Let me say something. When I got married, I didn't need no edjumacation, and I got two daughters to prove it. Keep listening now. She says, "He's not saying get addicted to porn. He's saying educate yourself." I said, "I don't care what he says and what he's not saying. I know what he did say, and that's what matters."

So listen: first and foremost, I could not believe that he was actually speaking this. And as he was saying it, you could hear people in the congregation snickering. Secondly, I was overcome by the reality that these remarks were made when—listen to me—I've been a pastor for 40 plus years, and I have seen the reality that all it takes is one look at pornography for some to get hooked.

Third thing is this: understand there is an epidemic of people hooked on pornography. And listen now, Leslie Worth said this: "Many people view pornography as harmless form of entertainment, but emerging studies prove it can have negative impacts on the brain when consumed regularly. Prolonged exposure can alter brain structures, brain function, and consequently behavior."

We are living in a day according to Barna Research: 61% of US adults report viewing pornography. Some say it's as high as 81%. 44% believe watching pornography has little impact on the other aspects of their life. 62% agree a person can regularly view pornography and live sexually healthy. I'm talking about Christians here now, who have bought the lie. I want you to listen to me. 67% of US pastors have personal history of porn use.

Now, some of you might be wondering: why is he talking about that on Sunday morning in church? Let me tell you why: because we got all this mess because the church did nothing, said nothing. Number one, I have seen pornography cripple and destroy more marriages than any other diabolical tool of the enemy. Number two, somebody needs to shake the apple tree and wake up not only the church but parents.

89% of youth leaders wish teens were taught about sexual health and behavior by parents. Why? Because nearly seven in 10 youth leaders, 69%, believe friends and social media have the biggest influence on what young people learn about sex. And we've got people with spiritual authority indirectly promoting sexual promiscuity.

Number three, the job of spiritual leadership is to help people get delivered from worldly bondage, not to encourage them to dive headlong and deeper into a cesspool of sin. Therefore, I live by 2 Timothy 4:2-4: "Preach the word and be prepared in season and out of season. Correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a number of teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."

Listen to me, church: the thing that feels best when your ear is itching and the worst thing you can do is stick a Q-tip in there. And too many of us are looking for Q-tip gospel. It feels good on the edge, but stick it in there too far and ask your ear how it feels. Number four: I shared this this morning because I love you so much. And I want God's best for you.

And you can't have it without God's truth. I did a memorial service here at the church Friday night, and I told them the true story about a young girl who went to her pastor and she asked him to do her wedding. And he told her he would not do it because she was a Christian, her fiancé was not, and therefore they would be out of order with God's Word and unequally yoked.

He told her that because of this: later in the marriage, they would incur problems. The girl got mad, stomped out of the church and found another preacher who married them. Three years later, she called up her pastor and said, "I have a problem. I am legally separated." And then she said, "My main problem is that I can't understand why God let me get into this mess."

Pastor was trying to save her unnecessary pain. Real pastors will tell you the truth, and it may be painful in the moment, but we're trying to save you unnecessary pain. In that movie clip, what you don't know about that true story is this: when Coach Carter took over that team, he took over a bunch of boys who nobody believed in.

Even the school principal, all the people in the school, the teachers, they said, "The only thing these boys have is basketball." So he told them, and he made up an agreement and he said, "One of the things you got to do is keep a 2.3 grade point average. You got to go to class every time. On game days, you got to wear a necktie." They didn't like it; that's why Timo ended up off the team for a while.

They were a 3 and 20-something team the year before. 1999, he makes them come up; they are 13 and 0. They decided they're going to buck. They said, "Coach, we're the ones winning the game. Who are you?" Well, Coach Carter don't play. He chained the doors up and they couldn't play basketball. The parents got mad, the kids got mad, then they got together, had a meeting, they wanted to get rid of Coach Carter.

All of a sudden the light came on in the minds of those boys. Those boys who the people said, "Most of them, all they have is basketball, they'll never do anything." They submitted, he got them back in the gym. They were one game away from winning the state championship, from 3 and 20-something to like 20 and 2. Listen to me: because of Coach Carter, the years that he coached that team, every one of his players in that inner city graduated and went to college.

Six received scholarships. So here's how I'm going to conclude this. I came across this; it's called *Memo to My Congregation from Your Pastor*.

When you rise to your highest and best, I am your pastor. When you yield to temptation and fall to your lowest, I am your pastor. When you live in the Spirit and manifest the attitude of a Christian, I am your pastor. When for a time you sink to the level of the flesh, I am your pastor. When you walk in the pathway of duty and God's will, I am your pastor.

When you enter the path of disobedience, I am your pastor. When joys come to you that swell the notes of praise in your heart, I am your pastor. When sorrow comes as a dark shroud over your life, I am your pastor. When you have done your best and deserve the approbation of others, I am your pastor. When you have done your best and your good is spoken of as evil, I am your pastor.

When you have all you need and more than the necessities of life, I am your pastor. When you remain sweet and gracious as a mature Christian ought, I am your pastor. When you act childish over some real or imagined wrong, I am your pastor. When everything goes right and you have not a care in the world, I am your pastor. When nothing seems right and burdens multiply, I am your pastor.

When you disappoint me and cause me sleepless nights, I am your pastor. When you are living life to the fullest, I am your pastor. When your health fails and the end of your mortal life seems near, I am your pastor. When I reveal that I am human and have my own weaknesses and infirmities and you are charitable and understanding, I count it a privilege to be your pastor.

I want you to understand that I mean what I say. I love you. And I know what sin can do to our lives. And sin is—don't let anybody tell you that sin is not fun. It is fun, otherwise we wouldn't run after it so heartily. But it's only fun for a season. And so when I produce and speak a message like this, you can do with it what you want to do. I can't make you do anything.

But as Maya Angelou says: until you know better, do the best with what you got, but once you know better, do better. Today we all know better. I take this word today and I apply it to my own life because what tempts you may not tempt me, but something will. And so, God help us to desire a kingdom-focused life. Amen.