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Nov. 3, 2024 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
48:59
Sermon #097 - Mark Ch 9 - Jesus teaches MULTI-DENOMINATIONAL acceptance...
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Welcome to today's sermon.
I'm Mike Adams with the Church of Natural Abundance.
The website, of course, is abundance.church, and we have a really, just a couple of great topics to cover here today that are really important.
We're going to go into Mark chapter 9 in order to visit this.
We're going to be visiting a couple of things.
One of them is the subject of Jesus' openness to different denominations of worshipers.
And the other is the importance of prayer and fasting or cleansing in order to have that power, that capability of either defending yourself against demonic spirits or to be able to cast out demons as Jesus demonstrated here in Mark chapter 9.
We'll get to that.
There's an important discussion around this.
And I'm not saying that this is a simple DIY, like don't run around the world Just offering to cast out demons for everybody.
That's a very risky business if you don't know what you're doing and you're going to need a lot of guidance and so on.
This isn't like an exorcism do-it-yourself course.
No, that's not what this is.
We're trying to learn some lessons about spirituality and the power of Jesus' name and also the power of purification of your body and mind.
But let's go to Let's see, Mark 9, verse 14.
And when he came to the disciples, he is Jesus, he saw a great multitude around them and scribes disputing with them, you know, because men will bicker, right?
Immediately when they saw him, all the people were greatly amazed and running to him, greeted him.
And he asked the scribes, what are you discussing with them?
Then one of the crowd answered and said, teacher, I brought you my son who has a mute spirit.
And whenever it seizes him, and by the way, this is like a demonic infestation, okay?
Whenever it seizes him, it throws him down.
He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.
Now, by the way, notably in modern medicine, this would be diagnosed as epilepsy or epileptic seizure.
But in the context of the Bible here, we're talking about demonic possession that presents symptoms that would look like epileptic seizures.
Anyway, that's a different discussion.
Continuing, so I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not.
He answered him and said, oh, this is Jesus saying this, oh, faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I bear with you?
Bring him to me.
Then they brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, that's in the boy, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
So he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him?
So Jesus is asking the father of the child, how long has this been happening to him?
And he said, That sounds like a rough way to treat epileptic seizures, by the way, being thrown into the fire and then the water.
We'll burn out the demons.
It didn't work.
Let's drown out the demons.
Oh, that didn't work.
Do we have any ice?
Verse 23, Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
This is a key verse, not just in this chapter, but of all the Bible.
If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe.
Help my unbelief.
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more.
Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him.
And he became as one dead, so that many said, He's dead.
But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
And when he had come into the house, Jesus, his disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast it out?
So he said to them, this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.
All right, so a lot happened here.
So Jesus' disciples had tried to cast out this demonic spirit and had failed.
Jesus was able to do it.
And when they asked him why, he didn't say, because I'm the Son of God and I have extra power.
What he said is that this kind can only come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.
Well, what is prayer and fasting?
Well, of course, prayer is asking for the universe to bend in your favor.
It's asking or even commanding something to change, to change an outcome.
We covered this in a previous sermon that's all about how to amplify the power of your prayer.
But then Jesus says, and fasting.
Now, I think a lot of Christians might wonder, what does fasting have to do with prayer?
We talked about this in a previous sermon, where fasting or cleansing your body, purifying your blood, your body, also purifies your mind and your spirit, and it makes your prayers far more effective.
So here is Jesus saying exactly what we have talked about in a previous sermon, that if you want your prayers to be more effective, You need to engage in purification of your body.
Now, I don't think you can cast out demons if you eat a McDonald's a lot.
You know, you can't drive through, give me a Happy Meal, a Big Mac, and some Chicken McNuggets, and then chow that down, and then the next thing, and I'm going to cast out demons.
You know, I think the demons would be saying, we don't have to listen to you.
You just ate McDonald's, you know?
Not to...
Really harp on McDonald's here, but let's face it, that's not the cleanest organic natural food in the world, is it?
No.
There's only like three different shapes of chicken McNuggets because they're pressed.
They're pressed into the same three shapes.
Maybe it's four shapes, but they're not random shapes.
They're cookie cutter shapes.
Like, wait a second.
These aren't really just natural pieces of chicken.
These are pressed chicken parts.
Yeah.
So if you want to cast out demons, probably don't eat a lot of junk food.
Also, don't drink a lot of alcohol and abuse drugs and also don't be an immoral person, etc.
We've talked about this.
And that's why those who are able to cast out demons, because demons are real.
I hope we're past understanding that.
Demons are real.
Infestation is real.
Possession is also real.
We've talked about this.
And influence is the least of those.
But in the Catholic Church, exorcism is a common practice to this day.
And the exorcist himself must be someone of great purity.
Otherwise, the demon laughs in his face and says, I don't have to pay any attention to you.
You're not a holy person.
The demon would say, well, you're an unclean spirit.
I don't have to listen to you.
So think about this when it comes to what you consume, what you put on your skin.
I've talked about all of the toxic chemicals that are in personal care products.
I would imagine that if Walmart existed in the day of Jesus or if Procter& Gamble existed, Jesus would say, You know, prayer and fasting and don't use any of these Procter& Gamble products because, you know, they're filled with all these crazy ingredients and fragrance chemicals.
I mean, I'm just imagining that, obviously.
I'm not putting words in the mouth of Jesus.
I'm just saying it's consistent.
You know, be clean.
Well, you can't be clean if you're using a cheap sort of junk-processed personal care products and junk-processed food, etc., right?
So purification matters when it comes to the power of your prayer.
And this matters in many things beyond just, let's say, casting out demons, which is not a task to be taken lightly.
But I'm talking about just everyday prayers and praying for someone to heal.
Praying for God to help heal the sick.
Praying for yourself to heal more quickly.
Or praying for a positive outcome or praying for peace.
Your prayers are more powerful if you are more pure.
And that also includes purity of your mind and consciousness, which is why I've talked about the importance of getting away from the news cycle and getting off all the screens and the internet and all that noise.
If you want to have purity of body, mind, and spirit, which includes consciousness, you actually have to distance yourself from modern society because it's so polluted, it's so demonic, it's not really healthy to just be saturated by the modern electronic world of so much information overload,
you know, and all of the psychological operations and All the chemicals of modern medicine and all those kinds of things.
Okay.
Now, continuing here in Mark chapter 9, there's something else that I find really intriguing that we need to cover.
So this continues with verse 30.
Then they departed from there and passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know it.
This is Jesus.
For he taught his disciples and said to them, The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him.
This is one of the many times that Jesus foretold his own murder at the hands of, well, the Jews.
The Jews demanded he be crucified, and then they threatened Pilate, the Roman judge, until Pilate gave in and allowed the crucifixion of Christ.
But it was the It was the Jews, the Israeli religious leaders, that demanded that Christ be killed.
And Christ knew that ahead of time.
He knew he was going to be killed.
So back to this verse, he says, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him.
And after he is killed, and by the way, he's speaking in the third person here, and after he is killed, he will rise the third day.
So not only did Christ see himself being murdered, but he also knew that he would be resurrected.
He knew that he would transform into spirit, in other words.
Verse 32, but they did not understand this saying, and they were afraid to ask him.
Nobody was like, Jesus, what do you mean?
You're going to die, and then you're going to rise again.
Because this had not happened yet.
So nobody wanted to ask him.
Verse 33, then he came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?
He's talking about the disciples.
But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest, right?
They're comparing their own egos and power, right?
Not a good thing to do while you're walking down the street with Christ, probably.
You're in the presence of Christ.
Nobody has any level of greatness compared to Jesus of Nazareth who is walking with you.
That should be your focus.
But, I mean, hey, hindsight is 20-20.
We know that now.
But in his day, before he died and was killed and resurrected, his disciples died.
Didn't really know what to make of him in many cases.
So verse 35, And he sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.
And I love this quote because the world in which we live right now is ruled politically by people who want to be in charge of everybody else, but they are the worst possible people.
They're the most satanic, wicked, demonic, deceptive, dishonest people, right?
And Jesus is speaking to this, saying, you know, if you want to lead the group, well, I'm going to make you last, and you're going to serve everybody else.
So don't be someone that thirsts for power in this religious group.
That is not an acceptable, you know, attribute or goal.
Verse 36, Then he took a little child and set him in the midst of them.
And when he had taken him in his arms, he said to them, Whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me.
So he's saying that, Jesus Christ, I am a proxy for the Lord, and that if you adopt and help save children, presumably children who don't have parents, right, orphans, then you will earn my favor, and thus, by extension, you will also earn the favor of the Lord.
Okay.
Verse 38.
Follow me here because we're getting to something even more interesting.
Verse 38, now John answered him saying, teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.
Okay, so understand that the name Jesus has power in it.
We've talked about this and Even in the day of Jesus, people knew that.
Jesus' name has power.
And so what the disciples witnessed was somebody else who wasn't part of their group.
Let's say someone who was not a, quote, Christian, although that definition wasn't even well formed in this time.
But just for convenience sake, we'll say someone who wasn't a Christian casting out demons in the name of Jesus.
And the disciples stopped that person.
And you can imagine how that might have gone.
You know, how dare you invoke the name of Jesus?
You're not even a follower of Christ.
You know, that kind of thing.
So what did Jesus say in response to that?
This is really important to understand.
Verse 39, but Jesus said, do not forbid him for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterwards speak evil of me.
For he who is not against us is on our side.
See?
So, Jesus had the bigger picture in mind here, which is that he's hoping to expand Christianity, let's say.
Again, they didn't call it that at the time, but As we understand it, that's the concept.
And in order to do so, the teachings of Christ needed to be shared with a larger and larger number of people, and the miracles of Christ needed to be understood by a larger number of people.
And so those who understood that the name Jesus Christ has power in it because Christ is the Son of God or a representative of the Lord, if those people are In their own way, attempting to cast out demons by invoking the name Jesus.
Well, Jesus himself does not have a problem with that because he's saying, you know, at least they're working with us.
They're pulling in the same direction.
And he goes on and says, for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.
Okay, so what does this mean?
What reward is he referring to?
Well, obviously, salvation.
The reward of heaven.
The reward of being looked upon with favor by the Lord.
And so Jesus is here saying, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, which obviously he's not just talking about cups and water, he's saying that those who carry out deeds in my name They will be recognized by the Lord.
And what's implied here is you could add, regardless of their church affiliation.
And that's a tough one for a lot of Christians to understand.
That's a tough one.
Now, importantly, Christ does say that He is the Son of God and that He is the way and that His name is important.
Well, if not critical, that these deeds are done in His name, and the casting out of demons is done in His name.
So the name Jesus has incredible power.
But the person invoking the name of Jesus, or let's say the person honoring Jesus, recognizing Jesus, worshiping Jesus, that person does not themselves If we were to extend this into the modern-day world, that person does not have to be a member of a Christian church.
That person does not have to go to a Christian church.
That person does not have to have, frankly, any association with a particular religious group.
That person could be, theoretically, a Buddhist group.
Who also recognizes the power of the name Jesus and is perhaps a multi-denominational spiritual person who honors Jesus and carries out deeds in the name of Jesus, even though they are a Buddhist.
Does that exist?
Yes, it does.
Yes, it does.
Or a Muslim.
Same story.
Could a Muslim carry out deeds in the name of Jesus and honor Jesus and worship Jesus as the Son of God?
And if they were a, quote, Muslim, if they went to a Muslim church, but they carried out these deeds in the name of Jesus, would they be welcomed by the Lord in heaven?
Jesus says yes.
Jesus himself says so here.
I say to you, quote, he will by no means lose his reward for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name.
Okay?
But now, he also goes on to say, what we'll read next, verse 42, that even those who call themselves Christians, if they engage in evil deeds, well, they will be sent to hell.
They will be judged harshly by the Lord.
So let me read you some of this, verse 42.
But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, he says.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands to go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that shall never be quenched.
And he goes on.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
This is some pretty harsh words here from Jesus, right?
It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes.
I should imply, than to be cast into hellfire, although the word than is not technically in the Scripture, but it's implied.
All right?
So then he says, for everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.
Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?
Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another.
So there's a whole discussion here around salt and seasoning and being seasoned with fire, which is, you know, being challenged and having obstacles and so much more.
And seasoning with salt also refers to the spiritual subtleties of how you overcome sin and how you grow spiritually as a person.
But ultimately, he says, have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another.
That is, season yourselves.
That is, grow from wisdom of overcoming obstacles.
And have peace with one another.
In other words, find peace in wisdom.
And what's implied in this entire passage is that if you cannot find peace, you will burn in the fires of hell.
So this is another example of Jesus calling for peace.
And then combined with what we just said earlier in verses 39 through 41, Jesus is saying that even those who are not, quote, Well, I mean, that's not an actual quote, but I mean, between you and I, what we understand as Christians, Jesus says that you don't have to be a Christian in order to receive your heavenly reward.
You just have to recognize and honor Christ and perform deeds in the name of Jesus Christ.
That is the requirement, he says.
So this is really interesting to understand.
And this is what I love about the few words that we get from Jesus himself.
I wish we had a lot more, obviously.
But also the teachings of Paul and Timothy, and in some cases Peter.
What I love about this is that being a person of faith, it's not a question of performing rituals.
It's not a question of going to the temple or going to the church over and over and over again.
And even, it's not for the Jews, it's not a question of being circumcised.
It's not even a question of consuming only kosher foods.
None of that actually matters according to Jesus himself.
Of course, the Jews don't recognize Jesus, so they still adhere to the Old, Old Testament, the first five books of the Old Testament.
And circumcision and kosher foods and all kinds of rituals and holidays.
Even the Lord got sick of all the holidays and the sacrificing of all the chickens and the goats and the rams and the cows.
You know, even the Lord is like, I've seen enough dead goats and rams, but you people still, you're still wicked and evil.
You know, we've covered that.
But Jesus said, It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what you call yourself.
You could call yourself a Buddhist, a Sikh, a Hindu.
He didn't say these exact words, but I'm attempting to explain what Jesus meant.
You could call yourself a Muslim.
You could even call yourself an atheist, I suppose.
You could call yourself anything.
But if you perform your deeds in the name of Jesus, then your path to salvation is intact.
Of course, you still have to be a good person and you still have to be someone who advocates for peace.
Because if you sin, like you said, you cut off your hands or pluck out your eyeballs or all these horrible things.
Pretty graphic.
Getting pretty graphic there, Jesus.
But he's trying to say something important, which is you would rather be maimed than to carry sin.
Much better to lose a foot than to lose your soul, is what he's saying.
So whatever part of you is steeped in sin, cut it off.
Get rid of that, even if it hurts, so that you can enter the kingdom of heaven with a pure soul, and that Jesus himself is the pathway to heaven.
Now, there are all kinds of interesting conversations surrounding Jesus.
Just this chapter.
And also surrounding Judaism and modern-day Jews, because essentially according to what Christ says here, Jews do not have a pathway to heaven because they do not recognize Christ.
But followers of Islam do have a pathway to heaven because they honor Christ and they consider Christ to be a prophet and they honor the Virgin Mary and so on.
That's interesting.
There was a news story where the Pope, many years ago, said that Jews, even though Jews don't recognize Christ, they still have a pathway to heaven because there's a special exception for Jews, which sounds exactly like what you would expect to hear, special exceptions, you know?
But Jesus didn't offer that exception, did he?
Jesus said the pathway to heaven is through him.
And through no other.
Right?
That's what he said.
So according to Jesus, Jews do not go to heaven.
So that's going to obviously strike up a lot of debates.
Well, it has over all the decades.
That's interesting.
But also according to Jesus, Buddhists don't go to heaven if they don't honor Jesus at the same time.
Or, you know, Hindus or Sikhs or what have you.
None of them go to heaven according to Jesus.
Okay?
But as I have explained several times, and I definitely take heat on this point from Christians, but as I have explained, we're talking about the world of essentially 2,000 years ago.
There was no internet.
There was no mail.
You couldn't send a message.
To some other country, you know, telephones, nothing, right?
And so the people who lived in the Middle East, they never had any contact with people of, let's say, China, typically, unless somebody went on a multi-month journey of some kind, like a Silk Road journey or something.
But it was very rare for that to happen.
The people of the Middle East had more contact with the people of India.
There were trade routes and spice routes set up, but still that wasn't very common.
But surely the people of the Middle East had no contact with Mesoamericans or ancient civilizations of Central and South America who became ultimately Native Americans of North America that we know today.
And what I have proposed is that The Lord, the creator of all children on earth.
He who created all human beings on earth, because he also created every planet and he created every star and every star system and every galaxy, he created the entire cosmos.
He is the creator.
So he created life on countless billions of other planets, countless billions of other stars.
We are not alone.
And he also created life on different regions of earth.
And I've asked the question, why would he only send one messenger to one region?
Why would he only send Jesus to the Middle East?
And why would he choose to make Jesus look like the people of the Middle East?
They look exactly the same.
That's why the Romans couldn't even tell which one's Jesus, you know, when they went to arrest him.
Which one's Jesus?
Because he looks like everybody else.
Well, why did God make him look like the people of the region?
Well, because that's the most effective way to send a messenger, to send the Son of God or the prophet, as he is referred to in the Bible, by the way, the prophet or a prophet of God is sent to the people in the Middle East to look like them and speak with them and talk with them.
Well, why wouldn't God also send other prophets to other civilizations around the world to speak to them, to teach them the same lessons?
Morality, you know, be good people, stop being wicked.
And isn't it interesting that in ancient lore of every region of the world, There are stories of wise men being sent to them, wise men who appear and speak their language, and usually they speak multiple languages, and they teach skills.
They teach agriculture.
They teach about planting food and harvesting seeds and so on.
They teach them skills.
They teach them about water handling and irrigation and basic civilization-level skills.
So what we know from history is that wise men did appear in multiple cultures with teachings that clearly came from somewhere else.
Did God send multiple messengers to multiple civilizations?
And is it that Jesus was one of those messengers?
He is a son of God.
And can God have more than one son?
Well, of course.
I know families that have like seven sons.
And then one daughter or something like that.
Of course God can have multiple sons.
To say that God has multiple sons does not deny that Jesus is the Son of God.
Not in any way whatsoever.
It also does not deny that Jesus is the way to the Lord.
And is it possible that there are other sons of God who did the same thing, that they were brothers of Jesus and they were sent to teach and to uplift other civilizations and to look like them, to appear like them and to speak their languages in order to reach those people?
Because I think the answer is obvious.
The answer is yes, and the way we know that is because, well, Jesus didn't travel to other planets and teach other planets the same teachings from God.
Clearly, if God wants to talk to other civilizations on other planets, he would send emissaries or prophets to them that look like them and talk like them on those other planets.
I mean, you don't think we're alone in the universe, do you?
You don't think that God created this massive cosmos with countless numbers of galaxies and stars and then only sent one sun to talk to one group in one region, not even to cover the whole planet, not even to cover all of Earth?
Why would God create everybody else and then just abandon them?
Like, you're on your own, Central America.
You're on your own, you know, China.
No.
I think God speaks to people through his sons and through his messages and through his angels, and he attempts to speak to everyone.
And the reason this is important in the lesson here today is because I have found that mainstream Christians are incredibly narrow-minded.
It's almost like they have a religious racism or something.
Seriously, I've found mainstream Christians are so narrow-minded that they can't imagine anybody else being accepted by the Lord other than people who believe exactly what they believe and who say exactly the same things they believe and who read the same books that they read,
etc., and who believe the same structure of the tribulation and the rapture that they believe, etc., I've found Christians, again, mainstream Christians by and large, to be just incredibly narrow-minded and lacking openness to embrace other people, other cultures, other languages, other religions, even if the people in those religions also honor Christ.
And the very idea that God may appear to different cultures through different sons and different prophets, that idea seems alien to Christians, as if they've never even thought about the fact that God is bigger than one region of the world.
As I've said before, it seems to me that mainstream Christians have a very tiny view of God.
They believe in a really small God, almost like a false idol version of God, like a really limited God that doesn't have much power.
And all he could do was send one sun to one region of one planet, and then he ran out of power or something.
So somehow God created the entire universe.
All the matter that we see, all the suns and the billions of stars and galaxies, but he ran out of power when it came to teaching people.
So he could only muster up the strength to send one guy, Jesus, and that's it.
What an incredibly small view of God.
It's an unimaginably tiny view of God.
And I believe in a much more powerful God.
I believe in an infinitely powerful God.
I believe that God speaks to every conscious being in the entire universe.
Yeah.
And I don't even think that's a big claim.
I think that's just common sense.
That's not a stretch.
It's like if he created everything, surely he can talk to everything.
Why wouldn't he?
If his goal, as we've talked about in previous sermons, is to give the gift of life to Grant the gift of consciousness and free will so that those beings who have free will can learn to love him and can learn to be good and holy beings.
And this is the experiment, apparently, of this cosmos, this 3D space.
It's a grand experiment, a grand simulation.
God's saying, let's give them free will and see what happens, right?
Well, why wouldn't he offer some guidelines through wise men or prophets or sons of God to appear to different cultures in different places and teach them the basic rules of the simulation?
So I hope you understand that when Moses, for example, when Moses was speaking to the ancient Israelites, you realize that that was God just trying to tell them, here are the rules of the simulation.
You know, Ten Commandments.
Try not to break these things, you know?
If you want to graduate from this simulation and have a place in heaven, then you're going to be a good person.
And here's what that means.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Just lays it out.
Bullet points, right?
And then later on, after the Israelites reject God and continue to be incredibly wicked, God sends another person.
Jesus, you know, this time I'm going to send you the son of God or possibly a son of God.
I'm going to try to teach you this.
Let Jesus speak among you and teach you all these things and demonstrate all these amazing miracles and, you know, casting out demons and all the rest of it, healing the lame, you name it.
We'll see if that convinces them.
And what did the Jews do?
Well, they murdered him.
And they denounced God and they censored the name of Jesus, didn't they?
They censored the name of Jesus, Acts chapters 4 and 7, which we also covered.
They censored the name.
They chided Peter for daring to utter the name of Jesus.
And they stoned to death Stephen for daring to remind the Jews that they killed Jesus.
You know, so...
Of course, God is trying to reach human beings and trying to teach human beings and trying to show people the rules of the simulation.
God is trying to give you the answers in advance of the final exam.
That's the essence of what He's doing.
He sent you, Jesus, or us.
He sent us, Jesus, to give us the answers to the final exam of life.
I believe he also sent other ambassadors to other cultures and other beings on other planets through other times, maybe before us, maybe in the future.
But I believe that this is something that the Creator is capable of doing all over the cosmos.
And then he gets to see, you know...
Who decides to be good?
Who decides to have a civilization that's sustainable?
And then who self-destructs?
And who ends up embracing Satanism?
And who murders their babies?
And worships Bollock, right?
And if you look at Earth right now, the answers are kind of not that great.
Earth, by and large, has rejected the teachings of God.
And that's why the comets are coming, by the way.
That's what the book of Revelation is all about.
The Great Reset approaches unless, you know, unless Earth changes its ways.
And I would imagine that in the cosmos, some planets succeed in the challenge and other planets completely fail.
And the thing is, there are a lot of comets out there and God can just guide them wherever there needs to be a reset.
And frankly, if he runs out of planets, well, God could just create a whole other universe.
Another quote, Big Bang, which is an odd name.
I've heard it referred to, I think, more accurately as the big breath.
It's like the breath of God.
The breath of life is breathed into the universe.
I think that's more accurate.
The big breath.
In any case, God can create another universe if he doesn't like this one.
And he can surely destroy entire civilizations if he doesn't like what they do.
But he gives you the answers in advance and says, these are the answers.
It's your choice of whether you want to follow them or not.
So, yes, everything that Christ taught is true.
It is accurate.
Christ is true.
One of the key messengers, the key wise men, the Son of God, to bring you this information.
If you ignore Christ and his teachings, you do so at your own peril.
But for all those other people throughout history that never had access to Christ, I mean, think about all the Polynesians.
What happened to the Polynesians?
Were they abandoned by God?
Do all Polynesians go to hell?
No!
No!
No, God sent wise men and messengers to all the cultures.
Give them the same rules.
Here's how you pass the test.
Here's how you pass the final exam.
So this is a universal thing.
And going back to Mark chapter 9, even Christ himself said, you don't have to be someone who practices rituals of religion.
You don't have to be someone who goes to church.
As long as you do good deeds in my name, and he even says that whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.
What he's saying is that he, Jesus, is simply a proxy for the Lord.
So whoever's doing deeds in Jesus' name is doing deeds in the name of the Lord.
It's faith in the Lord that determines the final judgment.
It's faith in the Lord and deeds that are consistent with the teachings of the Lord that determine the final judgment.
And that's why, by the way, all Jews aren't going to hell.
Because Jewish people practice Judaism, who are people of faith, if they are good people and holy people, they are also rewarded in heaven, even though they do not worship Jesus.
Interesting, right?
Now, I've had people argue with me on that, Christians in particular, say, nope, that's not true.
They're all going to hell.
Well, okay, if that's what you think.
If you think God...
Sends people to hell, even if they're holy and good people, just because they are Jews who don't recognize Christ.
If you think that, then I don't think that you understand the teachings of the Lord, by the way.
The Lord wants people to be good people.
Christ wants people to be good people.
And the Lord judges you based on your deeds.
Not based on your rituals.
Alright?
Something to think about.
The most important bottom line takeaway from all of this is to, number one, be a good person.
Be a person of good deeds, which is defined repeatedly throughout the Bible.
And secondly, don't be a small-minded person.
Be an open-minded person.
Be open to people of other denominations.
If they are good people, if they are people of faith, Don't discriminate against them just because they don't go to the same kind of church that you do, or they don't practice the same holidays that you do.
If they are good people, embrace them, because the Lord will embrace them, by the way.
The Lord created them all, did He not?
Didn't the Lord give them all the gift of life?
Why would He abandon them and throw them all into the fire pits of hell if they were good people?
He would not.
So if you disagree with me on this, ponder your own beliefs because I assure you, you are believing a contradiction.
You're holding a contradiction.
On one hand, even Christ said, it doesn't even matter if people go through these rituals.
It doesn't matter if they're circumcised or kosher.
It doesn't matter if they go to the church.
All they need to do is to receive me.
And he says, whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me.
So that's Jesus right there saying that he's a proxy for the Lord.
He's a representative of the Lord.
It's the Lord's judgment that really counts.
And does the Lord judge all human beings fairly and firmly?
The answer is yes.
Yes, He does.
All right, so that's my take on things.
Believe in the greater God, the big God that created the cosmos and has love in His heart for all of His children, which includes all conscious beings on every planet, Everywhere in the cosmos.
Believe in God.
And when God sends you a messenger, a son, a prophet, an ambassador, understand that person, like Jesus, is a proxy for God.
And so, yes, it's perfectly okay to worship God through Jesus and to invoke the name of Jesus to help invoke the powers and the strength and the faith of the Lord himself.
But don't run around the world thinking everybody else has to approach faith in exactly the same way that you do, because that's a very small world.
You know, that's a very narrow path.
And Jesus wanted open acceptance to all those who are people of faith and who are consistent with the teachings of the Lord.
And through many of his actions, he demonstrated that again and again.
He didn't even mind people casting out demons by invoking his own name, even if he didn't know those people.
You would think there might be a trademark violation in that.
Jesus' attorneys might have sent out letters demanding royalties.
Alright, in any case, if I haven't stirred up enough for you yet today, all you have to do is listen to some other sermons.
I will challenge your beliefs, and I will try to, let's say, exorcise contradictions, if you're holding any.
And perhaps I hold some too, and I'm always looking at them as well.
But as you can tell, I believe in a large, loving God who is the creator of all that is, this entire cosmos.
I believe in a God that wants you to succeed in terms of passing the spiritual tests, and I believe that He gives you the answers in advance of how to do that.
And He does so through prophets, through angels, through Through sometimes direct communication, you know, he spoke to Moses, and the angels talked to John of Patmos, you know, he spoke to Ezekiel, and he sent Jesus, and he speaks to people directly sometimes.
I mean, it's kind of like God saying, well, I sent emails and faxes and letters, you know, I tried to tell you, here's how you win the simulation.
And if you still didn't hear it, that's on you, not me.
It's like he used every form of communication possible.
So there's no excuse to not hear the message of the Lord.
No excuse.
All right?
That's my take on it.
Anyway, check out the other sermons at abundance.church.
And thank you for listening today, and God bless you.
We're headed into some very, very difficult times, and we will need the Lord by our side in order to make it through this.
So, read Scripture, practice it, follow it, walk with Christ in your life, and don't be too quick to harshly judge others if they have a different way of being good people.
All right, thank you for listening.
God bless you all.
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