Okay, friends of the bridegroom, let's pray.
Holy Spirit, help me there, Joel.
Would y'all pray in the Spirit just
for 10, 20 seconds?
20 seconds.
Thank you, Lord.
Praise you, Jesus.
Come on, pray out loud.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord.
Now, just keep praying.
Now, Holy Spirit, I ask in Jesus' mighty
name that the word of God would be
seared in our soul, that you'd renew our
mind and feed our spirit, and that even
our bodies, Lord, would live in divine health
because your word brings health in life.
It is health to our bones and health
to our flesh.
Quicken us today in Jesus' name.
Amen, amen, amen.
All right.
Say this out loud.
I long to be a friend of the
bridegroom.
Say it again.
I long to be a friend of the
bridegroom.
One more time.
I long to be a friend of the
bridegroom.
Now, say this.
Forgive me for lying if I don't.
If you prayed in an art longing, the
Lord may forgive you.
Okay.
I want you to go to John 15
and go to verse 15.
You happy today?
Yes.
Okay.
Verse 15, no longer do I call you
servants, for a servant does not know what
his master is doing, but I have called
you friends.
Listen carefully now.
For all things that I heard from my
father, I have made known to you.
Say this.
His voice to me is a sign of
his friendship with me.
The people you are closest to and trust
the most are the ones you share the
most with.
Keep that in mind.
Exodus 33, verse 11.
Turn there.
Go, go, go.
I want you to get to know your
Bible.
Just hang a hard left.
Hang a hard left.
I remember years ago, my father-in-law
was doing a Bible study on Monday nights
in California when we lived there and there
was a pastor who used to sit next
to me and he asked the pastor to
read the verses.
He used to do that back then.
He'd have like three people read the verses
because it helps it go quicker.
And this guy struggled to find one of
the minor prophets.
I think it was Habakkuk.
And the guy was like flipping left, flipping
right, couldn't find it.
He's like, I know, it's close.
And Pastor Benny's like, just waiting.
And finally he goes, how can you be
a preacher and you don't know where Habakkuk
is?
It's a great way to grow up, I
tell you.
Verse 11.
So the Lord spoke to Moses face to
face.
Wow.
As a man speaketh to his friend.
And he would return to the camp, but
his servant Joshua, the son of none, a
young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
Say face to face.
Face to face.
There you go.
Genesis five, verse 24.
Move left, still.
Genesis five, 24, listen.
And Enoch walked with God.
Wow.
How's that for your resume?
What if that came through the email?
Somebody looking for a job, resume.
He walked with God.
That's pretty good.
And Enoch walked with God and he was
not, for God took him.
Hebraically, some of the picturesque nature of the
Hebrew language can imply in that text that
God took him as a man takes his
wife.
Or as a wife takes the husband.
It's a marital vow.
Do you take this man or woman to
be your lawful wedded husband or wife?
So here we see Enoch walking with God
in such a way that the Lord says,
I can't wait a few thousand years.
Get up here now.
And he was not.
Yeah, we got up our game.
Genesis six, nine.
Now before we read Genesis six, nine, I
just wanna say to you, I felt prompted
by the Spirit to do this right now.
If you get what I'm talking about, not
only will your dreams come true, God will
do so much with your life that you
wouldn't have been able to ask for it
even if you could.
If this becomes your goal, God is going
to blow you away with what he'll do
with your life.
Because there are many, many voices and very
few friends.
Genesis six, nine.
This is the genealogy of Noah.
Noah was a just man, perfect in his
generations.
Noah walked with God.
Here we hear that again.
Say, I wanna walk with God.
No.
Now go to Matthew 12, verse 34.
Now you go right.
Matthew 12, verse 34.
So what we've established here is that proximity
and voice speak greatly regarding our friendship with
the Lord.
If we walk with him and he speaks
with us, that is an awesome sign.
What we've also established is some walk closer
than others and some hear more than others.
That's that whole Mark four teaching I've done
here.
Take heed what you hear for by the
measure you use, it will be measured back
to you.
The context is hearing.
So the ones who walk the closest and
hear the most are the closest.
We love to hear that all of us
are just as close as the other with
the Lord and that God has no favorites.
I think we're confusing that with being a
respecter of persons.
But if the Lord has no favorites, then
how can he bestow favor?
Because the favorites carry favor.
He said of David, he's a man after
my own heart.
He said of Abraham, there was nobody else
like him.
How can I judge Sodom and not talk
to him about it, right?
So certainly some people walk much more closely
with Jesus than others.
Now all of us have the opportunity.
I said all of us have the opportunity.
I'm gonna say it again until that gets
in you.
All of us have the opportunity to walk
with Jesus should you want to and I
highly recommend it.
But now let's talk about the fruit in
a life that claims to be a friend
of the bridegroom.
Matthew 12, 34.
You ready for this?
Don't you love the Lord?
Look how this begins.
Brood of vipers.
I'm leaving that church.
Has a pastor ever called you a brood
of vipers?
Jesus here calls them a brood of vipers.
Listen, how can you being evil speak good
things?
For out of the abundance of the heart,
here we go, get this, the mouth speaks.
My words are an indicator of my heart.
Well, now you're freaked out.
Now you're freaked out because you should be.
For you to say, well, I said that,
especially if you say it consistently, but my
heart is pure, it's a lie.
Well, words are a revelation
of the heart.
So if somebody has a talking issue, they
have a heart issue.
Now, when you put on a display and
a facade, at times you can kind of
breach the flow of what's really in the
heart.
But what I can promise you, like if
you came to Jesus School, for instance, you
would do that well for like maybe the
first two weeks.
But if you sit under that worship and
the word and stuff starts getting unearthed, and
then you're in a comfortable setting in your
presence groups, those are smaller groups that meet,
how many times a week, once or twice?
You really just can't hide it long.
Because God's presence is a light.
He's a light.
And the best thing you can do is
repent when that's revealed rather than try to
hide it.
So I have really struggled, like eventually, I'm
good to talk to people for a while,
but eventually our convos get to Jesus.
And I used to be embarrassed of that
until a leader go, I love, a leader
said, I love that you talk about Jesus
all the time.
That means that's burning in your heart.
So I think, one of my kids walked
in today when I was getting ready, and
they said, what are you gonna preach on?
And in my head, I thought, how long
shall I suffer?
How long have I been with you?
I thought to myself, you know what I
said?
I'm gonna preach on, I just wanted to
see what they do.
I'd say, I said, I'm preaching on squirrels.
And their kids were walking, and then it
stopped, he goes, squirrels?
I said, what do you think I'm preaching
on?
Jesus.
Well, when the Lord is on your heart,
you're gonna speak of him.
Ah.
All right, give me permission, just say please.
All right, now I feel better, so you
can't get mad at me.
If the Lord is on your mind, you'll
speak of him.
If you're gossiping, it's proof that he's not
in your heart and not on your mind.
Well, not that he's not in your heart.
It's proof that you've turned your attention away
and that your thoughts are not on him.
And so here, Jesus is going, of course
you speak the way you do, you brood
of vipers, because your heart is dirty.
Luke 6, 45, go there.
Can I have a few extra minutes?
Come on, are we gonna need a double
dose because of last week?
Hopefully you're hungry for the word.
Luke 6, 45, a good man, listen, out
of the good treasure of his heart brings
forth good and an evil man, out of
the evil treasure of his heart brings forth
evil.
For out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.
Now notice what the Lord's saying here.
He's calling speaking, bringing forth.
That's how to look at this passage, contextually.
He's saying when you talk, you are bringing
something forth.
You may not be able to see the
words, but they are creative in nature or
deconstructive in nature or destructive in nature.
When you talk, something is coming forth.
Now I love what Bill said.
I thought this was so powerful.
If thanksgiving gives me an audience with the
Lord, who does complaining give me an audience
with?
Oh, I'm glad he said that.
He said it and not me, but I'm
glad you just heard it.
You complain around me long enough, you won't
be around me very long.
I'll walk you through it for like 15
minutes, but if you're gonna live a life
of complaining, you will not be my friend.
I don't have time for it.
I have a lot to complain about, but
I have a lot to rejoice about.
And the same with you.
You actually, listen, you actually get to choose
who you hang out with and who you
listen to.
I don't care if you're related.
I don't care if it's your culture to
whine.
I don't care if that's just what we've
always done in our family.
Shut it down.
You want an audience with demons?
Well then don't do it.
Jesus didn't say you company of people on
a journey.
He said you brood of vipers.
You ever seen a brood of vipers?
It's a cluster of them in a dark
pit.
He said that's what you are.
And so in Luke six, it takes it
a step further and illustrates that to speak
is to bring forth.
Talk about Jesus properly with a heart connected
to him, he'll come.
If you were to say what's been one
of the keys to meetings filled with the
presence of God?
Worshiping Jesus, preaching his word, and being aware
of him and talking to him.
And he just starts coming because he has
ears.
And he hears it when his name is
called with a heart that really burns for
him.
You need both.
So maybe you ask what's the big deal
with just saying a few things?
My heart is pure.
Well, your word issue is a heart issue.
And why is this important to be a
friend of the bridegroom?
Well, if you wanna be his friend, you
must learn to tame the tongue.
If you speak of encounter and your tongue
has not been tamed, you need another encounter.
I think one of the most marking things
that has happened to me since that Friday
night at the pastor's conference is the awareness
that he's there.
I've been overshadowed with the awareness of the
Lord's presence since that Friday night.
I don't know how to explain it.
Dave Papavisi texted me this morning.
I thought this was so powerful.
He asked me, what has shifted since that
Friday night?
What is the fruit of this move of
the Holy Spirit?
And I answered, a habitual awareness of his
presence throughout the day and a deep desire
to feed on his word and respond with
worship.
A boldness to declare his will regardless of
pushback and at the same time, a broken
lowliness.
He said, what else?
I said, at the end of the day,
it's his presence quickening us all.
We find less and less to glory in
it seems.
He goes, that certainly sounds like a move
of God in the midst of his people.
Say amen.
Amen.
But what I've been stricken with is this
awareness of his presence and the fact that
he's listening to what I say.
I don't know how else to say it.
And I've never, I don't ever curse.
I would never say those, like I don't
talk like the world.
I joke all the time, but I just
think that's horrible and if something like that
comes on, it gets turned off.
You cannot steward the move of the presence
of the Spirit in a manifest measure in
your home and you be lackadaisical regarding what
you allow to come through a screen.
And any teaching that says you can and
claims position to justify it is to prostitute
the position and negate the beauty of encounter.
It's called using God.
Well, I can do this because I'm under
the new covenant.
And the reason you shouldn't do it is
because you're under the new covenant.
And so in Isaiah's vision, something happens.
And you have to understand why one of
the reasons this is so important to me,
because in our world, I am surrounded by
people who tell me I'm shutting away to
pray, I'm spending time with the Lord, I
am in his word and I'm having dreams
and visions and encounters.
I say, okay.
And then instantly, as a pastor, I'm looking
for fruit.
So if you're becoming more and more sinful,
and claiming encounter, I'm gonna question it.
Unapologetically.
You can't have a team in this environment
and not do that.
Do you follow me?
So all of us need to be looking
for fruit in our own lives, in the
lives of our families, especially in this type
of environment where we long for the presence
of Jesus and a highly valued prayer.
But if our prayer lives are not birthing
a more and more Christ-like nature, in
us, our prayer lives need help.
And that's not an indictment.
It's just to say, we need help.
What are you really doing in that room?
Do you know what you're doing in that
room?
There's a difference between waiting, for instance, and
napping to music.
Now we've all done it.
Somebody said, what happened?
I'll never forget our first year.
He goes, I'm still like, I wanna seek
him.
Come on, they're the best, the first years.
I wanna seek him, but I'm just, I'm
so tired in the morning.
I've never been an early morning guy, and
I'm more of a night guy.
And I go, uh-huh, uh-huh.
But the biblical pattern is morning.
And I can tell they're always waiting for
me to go, well, God, why are you
differently?
And I never do that.
I always go, turn in your Bible.
And then they go, I said, well, what's
the fear that you get up and seek
the Lord?
They go, one of them goes.
Which is, what do I do if I
fall asleep?
And I say, you wake up and keep
going.
Do you think God would rather you fall
asleep in prayer or stay sleeping in the
bed?
Do you think he's freaked out if you
just doze off for a moment?
No.
So you wanna look for markers for people
who claim intimacy with God.
Markers.
Here's one of them.
Isaiah 6, one.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I
saw the Lord.
Wow.
Sitting on a throne.
High and lifted up.
And the train of his robe filled the
temple.
So now you're gaining a majesty for Jesus
being disrobed, stripped naked, and receiving the purple
robe of mockery.
You realize what he traded?
Above it stood seraphim.
Each one had six wings, with two he
covered his face.
That is basically the Lord's way of making
sure that Isaiah did not glory in the
angelic.
In other words, the angels are going, don't
look at us.
I'm not even gonna tell you what I
look like.
With two, they covered their feet.
Speaking of the purity and the walk of
holiness.
With two, they flew, speaking of a life
of ascending worship.
And one cried to another and said, listen.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
Behold, earth is filled with his glory.
Which is another invitation to live a thankful
life rather than a complaining life.
Notice, it was clear to Isaiah that heaven
was filled with the glory of God, but
the seraphs say, you know what?
Put your head on a swivel, Isaiah, and
say, I can see the work of God
on the earth.
Look at creation, look at the goodness of
the Lord.
Don't get, he's saying the glory of God's
being manifested all around you.
Verse four, and the posts of the door
were shaken by the voice of him who
cried out.
And the house was filled with smoke.
And listen to Isaiah's response.
So I said, woe is me, for I
am undone.
For I am undone.
That's what the presence of God does to
us.
I've known such moments.
Not like as glorious as this, but I've
known such moments where somebody would say, what
happened?
I'd say, I don't know.
How do you feel?
I'm undone, I've been unraveled.
I've been short-circuited.
He went deep, he touched me deep.
He grabbed me in the deepest places that
I didn't even know I had.
Messed me up.
I talked to Michael Miller last night.
He said, I still haven't recovered from that
Friday night.
He said, and the Lord's glory came to
the upper room that following Sunday.
He said, I flew home and they started
worshiping and the Lord just filled the upper
room.
He goes, he said, I'll never forget leaving
worship to go use the restroom that Friday
night at the pastor's conference.
And I used the restroom and I come
back in right when that wave of worship
hit the building.
He goes, I fell on my face when
I opened the door.
He said, I didn't even get near my
seat.
I didn't even get close to my row.
The moment I opened the door from backstage,
I felt the presence of God.
I hit a wall of presence and fell
on the ground worshiping.
And then last night he goes, and I
still have a rug burn on my head.
Woe is me, for I am undone.
Because, listen, I'm a man of unclean lips.
And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips.
Notice that the first thing that's being targeted
here is what do you talk about?
I'm a man of unclean lips, and that's
connected to his vision of the Lord.
For my eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts.
And then one of the seraphim flew to
me, having in his hand a live coal,
which he had taken with the tongs from
the altar.
And what did he do?
He touched my mouth with it.
And said, behold, this has touched your lips,
your iniquity is taken away.
Do you know what iniquity is?
Inner sin, iniquity.
That's why Jesus was bruised for our iniquity.
He bled internally for internal sin.
But from God's perspective, the lips are connected
to the internal life.
Because it's from the abundance of the heart.
The mouth speaks.
Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin
is purged.
Let me just read one more passage to
you.
I'm gonna need next week too.
But don't worry, we're gonna talk about Jesus
until we die, and then we're gonna do
it in heaven.
So, and we're gonna do it through the
scriptures in heaven too.
So if we don't finish it all on
earth, perhaps the Lord will give me a
Bible study in heaven to lead.
Not that you'd want to be part of
mine up there, but I'd be happy to
help.
All right, let me knock this quote out
real quick, then we'll receive communion.
You've heard it once before, but I want
you to hear it again.
Criticism, or criticizing that which we have no
God-given authority in is a sin that
is hated by God.
This destroys churches and brings division.
And destroys families.
It often shrouds itself in kindness, in tears,
in concern.
And what seems to look and sound spiritual,
and often begins with this statement, have you
discerned?
I would love to lovingly invite you that
if you're gonna take that route, rather than
say I'm concerned or have you discerned, to
just begin your statement with, I'm about to
gossip to you.
And then I'd like to give you full
permission to be a powerful Christian and shut
it down, rebuke it in love, use the
Scriptures, and say find somebody else to gossip
to.
Okay, because if your unity, you say, well,
what about unity?
Your unity depends on Jesus.
The presence of Jesus is what and who
unites us.
So it's only when we live in the
light, in fellowship, John's epistle tells us, in
fellowship with the Lord, that we have fellowship
with one another.
Our fellowship with one another depends on our
fellowship with Jesus.
And what I wanna say unequivocally is that
if you gossip, you are joining the other
side.
And you are breaking down the beauty of
fellowship.
Shut it down.
Now if God's given you authority, now look,
if you're part of a structure and there's
sin, and it's damaging, you're a powerful person.
You have a choice to leave it, report
it, all that.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about judging brothers and sisters in
areas that we all need to be judged
in.
All right, let me read this to you,
and I promise we're done.
Leviticus 10.1. Now remember what they said
at the wedding, Feast of Cana.
I'm gonna spiritualize the fact that I've gone
a little long this morning.
It's an old pastoral trick.
Here it goes.
The best wine is saved for last when
Jesus is at the wedding feast.
Leviticus 10.1. The Nadab and Abihu, the
sons of Aaron, so they're sons of the
high priest, each took his censer and put
fire in it, put incense on it, and
offered profane fire before the Lord, which he
had not commanded them.
So fire went out from the Lord and
devoured them.
That's pleasant.
And they died before the Lord.
The Lord wouldn't kill anyone.
He sure would.
And Moses said to Aaron, this is what
the Lord spoke, saying, by those who come
near me, I must be regarded as holy.
And before all the people, I must be
glorified.
God saw this judgment as a method of
glorification.
Or I should say, not glorification, as bringing
glory to his name.
So Aaron held his peace.
These are his sons who died.
And Aaron wouldn't speak up.
And then Moses called Mishael and Elzophan, the
sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and
said to them, come near, carry your brethren
from before the sanctuary out of the camp.
So they went near and carried them by
their tunics out of the camp, and Moses,
as Moses had said, and Moses said to
Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons,
do not uncover your heads, nor tear your
clothes, lest you die, and wrath come upon
all the people.
But let your brethren, the whole house of
Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord has
kindled.
You shall not go out from the door
of the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die.
In other words, you don't get to mourn
this one.
For the anointing oil of the Lord is
upon you.
And they did according to the word of
Moses.
What happened here?
Two sons thought that they got preferential treatment.
And they decided that they were anointed.
They decided that they were ready for something
God had not given them.
And they copied, listen, they copied their father
perfectly.
Perfectly.
Did everything he did.
They saw the high priest offer fire in,
I grew up with these, they're little incense
burners, and the fragrance would go up, speak
of the intercession of the church and the
nature of the Lord.
And they said, we're just gonna do what
our father did.
But here's the problem.
God had not entrusted them yet.
Now, you've heard me tell you many times,
we don't call ourselves.
Of course, we all have permission in the
Great Commission.
Yes, go preach the gospel.
Yes, there are basics to the Christian life,
of course.
But it's very dangerous when somebody whispers in
your ear before God is whispering, hey, they
don't see your gift.
In fact, this would be one of the
most consistent things that happens when someone gets
totally pushed away from the perfect destiny of
God.
Someone goes, they're blind.
Do you know how anointed you are?
Here's another one.
You built this thing.
Oh yeah.
Or if you go, the whole thing collapses.
That's called idolatry.
I will build my church.
I, me, Jesus.
I will build my church and the gates
of hell won't prevail against it.
A million pastors could fall tomorrow.
The church is moving forward.
So it starts like that.
And then you end up like Nain, Dab
and Abihu.
You go, well, I didn't dig it out
of the dirt like my dad.
I didn't dig my own well, but I
can copy what he did.
So I'll just get my own incense and
my own burner and I'll walk into the
presence like only my dad is supposed to.
And they offered fire, but the scripture says
it was profane.
That means God does not accept all ministry.
Even if you do it identical to the
person next to you.
It's not about the method, it's about being
entrusted.
Now, what did they offer?
Say fire.
What consumed them?
What you offer wrongfully out of God's timing
will ultimately be the method and the means
by which your legs are broken from under
you.
And the Lord said, I must be regarded
as holy to Moses.
In other words, me building me and promoting
me is unholy.
So the next time somebody comes to you
and says, or you, you, feel like you're
not being used enough, the best thing you
can say is, this is the Lord's house,
not mine.
But notice, help me there, Joel.
Notice, I don't know if I wanna say
that.
I will say it.
Notice the Lord tells the Levites when he
addresses Korah, and this is what I'll read
next week.
He goes, you want to do what Moses
does?
And the Lord says to Korah's clan, was
it not enough to be a priest?
In other words, for us today, what's that
mean?
If we want more, and the Lord often
says, wait, isn't it enough to walk into
my presence and sit at the seat and
worship me?
Because do you know who belongs to the
priests?
The Lord is their inheritance.
It's a ploy from the devil.
We are train wrecked inside when we don't
get what we want the whole time we
have everything.
The Lord is our portion.