The Importance of our Attitude
09/15/18 (07/05) Video Broadcast
The way we approach life is determined by our attitude. We examine the scriptures which show us the blessings of a good attitude, and the dangers of carrying a bad attitude.
I've found that a lot of times that we
do experience trials and tests and
tribulations, and there's a Biblical
response to these trials and tests and
tribulations and there's an unbiblical
unrighteous response, and it all comes
down to one thing-and that is our
attitude. Attitude's very important-
how we respond to negative things in
life-how we respond to negativity
from other people from our
circumstances-just from life
itself, and our attitude
toward our Heavenly Father.
And so, gonna talk today about
What is our attitude? Are we allowing anger to rise-up within us over things going on-not going the way we planned-not having it the way we wanted it to go? Or are we choosing someone to blame for it and heap guilt on others for things happening? Are we worried about what may happen next? Are we complaining about our circumstances? Are we like - "Oh poor me"? Self-pity is just pride-"Oh look what I have to go through". Aren't I just amazing-how much things I've been through?" Or are we choosing thankfulness? You know what? Things aren't going the way that I would like it to go right now but a lot of times things go just perfect the way I like things to go so I praise Yahweh. I can't have everything my way. You know, if everything went my way, I would be the deity and Yahweh would be under my rule. If He answered every prayer of mine, I would be the one who's in control! I would just be using Him as an extension of my power, but instead, He does things the way He wants to do them and allows things in my life the way He wants them to be, and so I should just be thankful either way because whatever happens, it's for my good. And rather than blaming and blaming and blaming - look we've all made mistakes, right? So, the good thing is humility. Instead of worry, we have faith-both faith and worry project into the future. Worry says-doom and gloom and terrible things are gonna happen. Faith says-no matter what happens, it's for my good. I can complain or I can count the blessings I do have. It's so easy to count things we can be upset about or unhappy about or we can count the blessings that Yahweh has given us and be thankful for those blessings. And even in the negative things we think are negative, He's going to bring some kind of blessing out of it for our benefit. Instead of self-pity, which is glorifying self, we're going to glorify Yahweh through this trial, through this difficulty, through the things coming ahead, and we're going to move forward and press on and do the thing that Yahweh says. Now, when you go through
feasts. When you go to feasts and you're like-I'm going to get a huge blessing-sometimes what happens is you get all these trials. The enemy does not want you to go, and Yahweh wants to know-are you going to do this-are you going to come and seek that blessing or are you going to complain-are you going to walk in the flesh or are you going to walk in the spirit during this moment of testing and trials and tribulations? And Yahweh gave Israel a huge, huge, huge blessing. He delivered them from slavery, He fed them in the wilderness for years, and He brought them into the Promised Land. Actually, it's because they complained they had to go there and hang around in the desert for forty years. But He said- when you go in the Promised Land, you have a choice-you either have blessings or you have curses on your life. And our attitude can determine whether good or negative takes place. In fact, He told them this-He told them-
All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you- overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey Yahweh- did not obey the voice of Yahweh, your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. Did not keep the
commandments of Yahweh. Because-this is the reason why they didn't keep the commandments of Yahweh-Because you did not serve Yahweh your Elohim with joy and gladness of heart,- joy and gladness of heart-you know there's two ways of serving Yahweh-there's serving Yahweh begrudingly because you have to-because the Bible says it and you just have to do it-WAH-or with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. You know if the only thing Yahweh ever did for you was save you and give you eternal life-that's quite a lot. If all He ever did was deliver you from Egypt- from the slavery-you should be thankful. Therefore you shall serve your enemies-He says, whom Yahweh will send against you- you don't like the way life is serving Yahweh, then try serving your enemies for a day and see what happens-in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness,and in need of everything-why? Because the enemy doesn't provide those things, Yahweh does. Yahweh provides food, He provides drink, He provides clothing, and every need we have. And so, if you're not gonna to be thankful to Him for those things-then "alright-you don't like my yoke-then you'll take the enemy's yoke, and that yoke will be this yoke of iron on your neck until you're destroyed. So notice carefully who do the curses fall upon-who do all these things come upon? - those who don't serve Yahweh with joy and gladness of heart. And I see people
and they go through one thing after another, one circumstance after another, and all they do is complain every single time-you know. And the next thing you know, something else happens to them, and I try to tell them - "Well, try being thankful for whatever good is happening at the moment. Try serving Yahweh with joy and gladness of heart". In fact, I'll name four or five things-you know-that's going on right now even in this trial that very well could be positive things coming out of this trial. In fact, I suggest-make a list of potential positive things that could come out of this trial, and the positive things it's helping you with. So, think about that for a minute. Do we serve Him with joy and gladness of heart or begrudgingly or because you have to-not because you want to because you have to? Do you serve Him because you love Him, or you just serve Him because you're afraid of what might happen otherwise? Our attitude toward our Heavenly Father, our attitude toward one another, our attitude toward obedience to His commandments-especially our attitude in response to salvation are all very important. Now the word attitude is not really found in the scriptures, but the attitudes are there. We have an English word that maybe Hebrew doesn't have. It has to do with your approach-the way you're going to respond to life's circumstances. Now,
you look here at Numbers 13:33-they were about ready to enter the Promised Land and what happened? They said, "Oh we see the giants over there-we're like grasshoppers in their sight and so were we". And so, all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night. And they were upset at what they saw ahead of them-doom and gloom in our future-worry, fear-to the point where they thought we were out here-all this-out in the wilderness and suffered all these things-all these tests and trials and tribulations and they wept that night-they were so upset.
Numbers 14:2-All the children of Israel comp lained against Moshe and Aaron, and all the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness". So, before they were complaining about perishing in the wilderness - "If only we had died in the wilderness". LOL! They really got almost silly at times-
how complainy and whiny they became! And whining and complaining is not the attitude Yahweh wants from us. Suppose somebody got in a car accident, and their car was severely damaged. There's two ways they can look at it - they can be angry it happened and let guilt-maybe-look for someone to blame, be grieved of our loss and worried about the loss of our car or repairs and complain to everyone about the whole thing-that's pitying yourself-one of the worst places to be-it's very difficult to counsel somebody who's involved in self-pity - "Oh look what I have to go through-isn't it just amazing"! Well, it sounds self-sufficient-actually self-pity glorifies yourself by boasting what you have to sacrifice. If you display self-pity, you don't really want to be seen as helpless, you want to be seen as a hero. "Well, I've had this happen to me and this happen to me - I'm going through all this". See - self-pity. "Look at me-look at me-look at me". Our peace is not based on circumstances of everything going right. If your peace and happiness is based on everything going right for you, you're in for a life of misery, in all likelihood. Maybe even in a car accident, you can thank Yahweh that He's showing you the frailty of things and stuff, and how we should set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth-remembering our life is but a vapor, and Yahweh kept everyone safe. If we're at fault in the accident, we can rejoice that we're learning that Yahweh's teaching us better stewardship- humbling us for our grace-for grace. And if we experience the loss of a car, we're now more reliant upon Him for our needs, and He's going to get more of our attention. So, that's thankfulness instead of glorifying yourself, right? There's a difference. There was a man one time - I've told this story before-someone had stolen his-see he was a plumber-his whole livelihood was in the back of his truck. I mean, all of his tools, all of the extra parts and stuff he needed to do his job. And he went into a supply house in Cincinnati Ohio, and he left the car running. He didn't normally do that; he just wanted to go in real quick-he came back out and the truck was gone. So, he looked up toward heaven and he says "Well, Yahweh-I guess someone stole your truck-what are you gonna do about it"? LOL! So, he went home-someone picked him up, and he called people to pray and a day or so later-he called the police to let them know what happened and they said "Well, if this truck doesn't show up within the next 24 hours, it's probably out of town and out of sight and gone for good." So, he waited a day, and nothing happened and then someone called him up-a woman who had been widowed-her husband was a plumber, and she said,"I've got some tools and some things here for you-maybe you can take them". So he went and took them and, he got new tools. Another gentlemen who had formerly been a plumber had given him also other things and included pipes and extra stuff, and he was thankful for that, and he was just waiting to see what Yahweh was going to do with the whole thing. He praised Yahweh for the things he was given. Another couple of days went by, and he gets a phone call from someone in a pay phone, and they said, "Your truck is at such and such street" and they hung up. So, he went down, and sure enough, his truck was there, and he went, and he looked and most of his stuff was there. Only the most expensive tools had been taken. And so, he thought-well, I wonder where-you know-someone would probably sell one of these- maybe one of the flea markets in town or something might have it. So, he went to a random flea market and lo and behold, there was his tools with his name engraved on it and everything. And he told the gentlemen that-you know, this was stolen property, and the guy was upset, but he had to give him his tools back. So then he got his truck back, he got his tools back and extra tools and extra equipment from the people who had given him those things. And so, he actually ended up-in the end, being more blessed than he was in the beginning because he recognized who owns what. Yahweh owns everything-everything is His, and so, we're not going to moan and groan over what happens-we're going to rejoice. Remember when Joseph was sold into slavery? They falsely accused him-thrown him in a dungeon. What he did was make the best of his situation and trusted in Yahweh. And Yahweh lifted him up in due time. Yahushua never complained about what He had to do, and so we need to have the faith and realize who's ultimately in control of our lives, and who has our best interests-and that's Yahweh. The children of Israel complained at every negative thing that happened and they did not choose faith-they chose complaining. And
First Corinthians 10 verses 8-10 says - Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Messiah, as some of the also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. See they complained.
All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. So, we need to be willing to give thanks for our circumstances, and not complain.
One example of a man who had the opportunity to be upset. He was a fairly righteous king is in Second Kings, chapter 22 and verse 18-it says-As for the kind of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, in this manner you shall speak to him, 'Thus says Yahweh Elohim of Israel: "Concerning the words that you've heard--
because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, "says Yahweh. "Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see the calamity which I will bring on this place." So here is an example of Josiah-a righteous king, and he humbled himself-knowing that all these curses were promised to Israel for their attitudes and their disobedience-he humbled himself before Yahweh, and Yahweh heard him. We can change our attitude. If we have complained, if we have chosen to worry-if we have chosen all these negative things-we can change the way we respond from this point on. And
in the case of Ahab-Ahab had a lot coming to him, but he actually humbled himself before Yahweh, and Yahweh says-"I will not bring the calamity on his days. In the days of his son, I will bring calamity on his house." So,
we need to recognize from which our blessings come. And remember, we have a Savior in Heaven, who went through a whole lot more than we will ever go through-a whole lot more. And so, what's going to be our response to life-to circumstances? Even those who don't believe go through hard things, but we have Yahweh. And we should be thankful and realize He has done so much for us-so much for us-while were yet sinners and
while we did not love Him-He loved us. And so, we need to love Him in return. Elohim demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. He loved us when we were in rebellion toward him, and when we heard of His love for us, it compelled us to love Him back. In Him, we receive salvation, eternal life, and the more Yahweh does for us, the greater our thankfulness ought to be. It's too easy to forget all the goodness of Yahweh
when we're faced with trials and tribulations. But it's during those times we need to remember Yahweh's goodness the most. Remember Yahweh's goodness. Sometimes our trials are from other people who hurt us. What did Paul do? He was under the sword a lot. He said-
I rejoice now in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Messiah, for the sake of His body, which is the assembly. So, he looked at the sufferings as an opportunity-actually to rejoice in his sufferings.
First Peter 4:12 says-Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but-what? - rejoice to the extent that you partake of Messiah's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. When Yahushua lives in us we don't need to hold bitterness toward
others for their afflictions toward us; we can be willing actually to bear that pain others cause us that we might have fellowship in Yahushua's sufferings. He bore pain for us. Our attitude should be a willingness to bear pain for other people, even to the point of giving up our very lives for another person who hates us. Could you do that? Think about the person who's caused you the most trouble in your life. Would you lay down your life for them and die for them? Yahushua did for you. A greater love has no man than this. So, our attitude toward others is one of forgiveness-one of love-demonstrating the presence of Yahushua in ourselves-in our lives. If that's lacking-Yahushua's lacking. Will we let Him reign in our hearts-keep Him on the throne? Or are we going to demand our own way? Our thankful attitude will permeate through many things that we do. It will affect the way we treat other people-the faith we have in Yahweh-the amount of joy we have in our lives. Having a thankful and a good attitude does not just affect the way we respond to Yahweh's offer of salvation through Yahushua, but in everything that we do. What is our attitude toward salvation? Sadly, many today actually teach we don't have to love Yahweh back-they may not realize it, but they don't.
In Matthew 22:35, one of them says-a lawyer asked Yahushua a question and testing Him saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Yahushua said to him, "'You shall love Yahweh your Mighty One with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' Everything you got.
"This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it-'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Now, if all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments-everything written in the Law and the Prophets are basically commandments to love. And the details of how to love Yahweh and love one another. Now, there are many people who do love Yahweh with all that they know, but there are commandments that they don't observe such as keeping the feast days that they don't keep, and so, they're failing in love towards our Heavenly Father. Maybe they don't realize that they're
failing at love. But we understand that all the Law and the Prophets hang off the two great commands. You can't take a set of bolt cutters and try to cut the Law and the Prophets off of the two commandments from which they hung; you can't do that. Yahweh hung them there because each of these commandments are expressions of love toward Yahweh. A failure to keep any of these commandments in the Law and Prophets are a failure to love Him. So, we're going to let Yahweh define Himself by His love language, and not try to form our own Elohim into what we want and like. Our reference point should not be old time Christianity-our reference point needs to be the ancient paths seen in Yahweh's Word. Letting Him define Himself and how He desires to be loved. We should be seeking to fit our lifestyle around Him and His Ways rather than trying to fit Him into our lifestyle. We should be seeking to mold our life around Him rather trying to mold Yahweh around our life. And so, our response to Yahweh should be true, genuine love with all of our heart, strength and mind. All throughout history, Yahweh sought to lead mankind to a lifestyle of loving one another and loving Him with all of our hearts. And all throughout history, the enemy has sought to redefine that-severing the Law and Prophets from the two commandments upon which they hang, and therefore, lacking in love. And so,
our response to salvation-our attitude toward salvation is "Yes, I want to love You back Heavenly Father Yahweh. I want to love You back." You need more than just faith-you need also a faith that works. Some say - "I got faith, I got works". I think our faith is a faith that works.
So, we don't make void the law through faith. Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. So, our response and our attitude toward the wonderful offer of salvation
through the Messiah Yahushua is - "Oh wow! I want to do what Your Word says". We don't keep the feast days because we're trying to be saved by them-we're keeping the feast days because He saved us-and we rejoice in it! And He calls us - "Go out-go camp-go camp and rejoice before Me", He says-"Seven days-rejoice before Me". And they're awesome-they're wonderful Holidays, and I enjoy them every year! And listen-this will by my 29th Feast of Tabernacles, and I have loved every single one of them. There has not been one that I ever got discouraged with-every single one of them-I have been very thankful that Yahweh commands these things because they are awesome. And so, I'm not going to do what
some might do and say - "Well that law's void." Because we don't make void the law through faith-we establish it. What's the word void
mean? It means to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative. No, I don't do those things-I establish it through my faith.
What's it mean to establish? - to cause or make it to stand.
And so, I'm going to love Him with all my heart, all my soul, and everything I have. That's the greatest commandment in the Bible, right? And therefore, I'm going to keep those commandments with all my heart, all my soul and with everything I have, and be thankful for them. And we can do that. And so, our attitude toward His
salvation should be one of obedience-not of disobedience. Some people have the attitude-"Well, you know, yeah, I mean-we can do that if we want to but-since I'm not gonna lose my salvation over my obedience or disobedience to those things-it's not salvational, and so I don't have to keep those things, and I'll just go about my normal business. Why is it that people try to figure out how much disobedience they can get away with and still make it in the kingdom? I don't understand that-why do that? There's these huge debates about whether or not you need to be baptized because someone can say - "You don't have to because baptism doesn't save you." What kind of debate is that? What kind of debate is that? I don't understand the mentality of that. Yahushua said it-we believe it-we do it-that settles it. Why do you have a debate about whether you need to do it-unless there's an attitude problem? Many people say this in response to a conviction about using the true names or keeping the Sabbath or other things we share-"Well, I don't believe I'll lose my salvation over it so..." You hear this - "Oh well" humdrum attitude toward obedience. And one guy tells me years ago - "I think you're right about the Sabbath, but you know, I'm not gonna change my life over it". You know that's the wrong attitude. Serving Yahweh is not about what you can get away with-it's what you wanna do-it's what you get to do! It's about wanting to serve-about, you know,knowing that we can never make up for our sins that we've committed-we're not trying to make up for what we've done wrong, but our service to Yahweh is the least we can do. There's a lot of focus today about what Yahushua has done for man, and I praise Yahweh for that-He's done a lot for man. But what about what He desires to do in man? He wants to keep the same commandments in you that He kept while He was on the earth. If indeed, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And He kept the feast days; He kept the Sabbath Day-He did these things. And so, if Yahushua dwells in you, don't say - "Well, I'm not gonna-Nah-I won't lose my salvation over it". That's like saying - "I don't have to really love Yahweh that much-I can still love Him a little bit less and still make it in." What kind of attitude is that? Is serving Yahweh really about what you can get away with and still make it? I say with that kind of attitude, you're not likely to make it at all! And therefore, your attitude becomes a salvational problem. So, the truth is-you know-Yahweh comes along and tells you something bizarre-you know - "Go stand on your head for ten minutes a day," and you said "Nah-I won't lose my salvation if I don't do it." You're demonstrating that you've not really repented-even a simple command becomes salvational because of your attitude. So, what becomes salvational is not-do you keep this A-B-C-D-E-F-G - it's whether you are a truly repentant person, and that means that you want to do the Will of Elohim. And so, when you hear something, He asks you to do-are you willing to do it? That becomes salvational because if you're not repenting-what that means is-if someone came along and told you - "You need to do this thing over here"-and the Bible says it-you see it in the Bible, but you're like - "Nah-I've got my Savior, I'm not worried about it." There�re two things He requires of us for salvation-repentance and faith in Messiah Yahushua. Two things. You put your faith in Messiah for forgiveness of sin-that's all well and good, but the goodness of Yahweh should lead you to repentance, according to Romans 2 verse 4. Repentance means you turn away from the things that you know are wrong. And when He shows you something that you're supposed to do that's supposed to be right. To him that knows to do good and does it not-to him it's sin. You can't willfully walk in sin, and just say - "I'm gonna do what I wanna do", and not care and expect to be saved because you're not repenting-you're not loving the Father-you're not loving the Messiah.
He says-"If you love Me-keep My commandments." - John 14:15. 1 John 3:4 says-Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. If sin's a transgression of the law, and it is-according to 1 John 3:4-King James Version-then you know the law says, "do this", and you say "Nah, I'm not gonna do it," - all of a sudden, you've committed willful sin. That's the wrong attitude. I realize we may be ignorant of something and maybe not realize that's something He wants us to do-Okay, fine, but now that you know, what are you gonna do? Is the law going to
stand-are you going to establish the law by your works-by the things that you're doing through your faith? Are you gonna love Yahweh or not? Is Yahweh's Law gonna stand as a standard of righteousness that you're gonna guide your life by? Because it says
right here if you violate the law, then you're in sin. Do you realize
that if the law says-Keep the feast days, and you choose not to do it, you're actually in sin? Because sin is a transgression
of the law. You may not think it's sin because the culture you live in doesn't treat it like it is. But suppose everyone
on the planet kept the feast days, and you decided - "Nah, I'm not going to". Would it influence you at all if everybody in the whole world kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and you said "Nah, I'm not going to" - would you still say you're not going to? If you say - "Well, if everybody else kept it, yeah, I'd keep it." Alright, then who are you actually following? Are you following the Heavenly Father and Messiah? Are you following the Messiah who kept them or are you-just because nobody else does,or very few peple do, you're just gonna - "Nah it's not that important?" What men do or what men doesn't do doesn't determine its importance. Are we like a child-always pushing the limits of what, you know, what you get away with or are you like a child that says - "I want to do my Father's desire." It's all about attitude. Maybe the children of Israel thought - "Well, you know what - we'll be alright-He'll still take us to the Promised Land". Maybe they said - "You know what-I like Egypt better." And so they kept wanting to go back to Egypt. In fact, in
Numbers 14, verse 4-5 it said-"Let's select a leader and return to Egypt." Then Moshe and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of Israel. You know what happened?
They actually at chapter 14, right here. That generation was sentenced to death in the wilderness. Yahweh said - "I'm going to wait until this generation dies off, and the children of these men and women-they will inherit the land. The generation I took out of Egypt-they will not." He rejected them because of their bad attitude. We cannot continually exhibit bad attitudes-we've got to change-we've got to be willing to go through this wilderness and accept the trials and tests and tribulations that will take place as a result of our faith in the Messiah Yahushua and our obedience to the Word of Yahweh. We must press on-we must and consider our former Egyptian ways nothing but loss.
As Paul said-I indeed count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Messiah Yahushua my Master, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Messiah and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which is from Elohim by faith. So, what Paul experienced was he believed he was made righteous because of the law-what he learned was he's made righteous through the Messiah Yahushua. And so, his former mentality, the gospel he was following was a false gospel. But that was his Egyptian way of thinking-it was an unbiblical way of thinking. And today, it's usually, you know,the polar opposite - "Oh we got Messiah," and forget about leading us. You need to forget-that's the Egyptian way of thinking. You think that you can
accept the Savior Messiah and not make any changes in your life? That's Egyptian thinking-that's the worldly thinking-that is unbiblical thinking. So, we need to, as he did-reject the former ways of thinking as rubbish. Now, our righteousness does not come by our law keeping-our righteousness comes through our faith in the Messiah Yahushua-that's where our righteousness comes from. But once we have salvation-you want to go back to the vomit again-have sin and breaking the Torah and disobeying the Father's Word-and just doing your own thing? No-no because that is what He saved you from-I mean He saved you from sin-He saved you from the slavery to sin. Now, we're not saved by our own righteousness, but we are saved from our sins, and because we're saved from our sins, we want to cease from sin and not transgress the law any further. So, we press on toward the goal, which is the high calling in Messiah Yahushua, right?
if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Messiah Yahushua has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to the things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of Elohim in Messiah Yahushua. That's what we do-we press toward the goal.
Now, as we're pressing toward the goal, we may fail from time to time. And what scripture says is-A righteous man may fall seven times but rise up again, but when the wicked fall, it's by calamity, and they don't rise up again. So, when we have difficulties-we have tests and trials and tribulations, we don't stop-we press on-we keep going-we don't want to return to the vomit-we don't like the vomit of Egypt. Because the kingdom's at hand
and we need to be seeking kingdom things. We're not this-world minded-we are Messiah-minded. Again, we're not made righteous through our law keeping-we're being righteous through the Messiah, but we also need to repent-that means turn away from law breaking. How can we be rulers in the kingdom-if we don't care to know or obey the rules ourselves? The kingdom's rules will be the law in the age to come. It says
Now it will come to pass in the latter days-Micah 4:1-that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.
Many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths." For-what! For out of Zion the law shall go forth-the Torah-that is where we find out what His paths are and what His ways actually are-and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. That's our future.
But everyone will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken. For all people walk each in the name of his elohim, but we will walk in the name of Yahweh-so we got the name, and we got the
Torah-the law as part of our future.
Why do I use the name Yahweh? Why do I believe in keeping the law? Because that's our future. And if I'm going to compel other people to follow the kingdom and its rules, I must be faithful to them myself. So, that's the goal we press toward-press toward the goal-press toward the high calling of Messiah Yahushua. But in
land between, we're strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And it's a narrow way, and few find it. But we're gonna choose to trust Yahweh-we're gonna choose to seek His Ways, and there's a Promised Land that awaits us, and there's a man named Yahushua who's going to take us across the Jordan. And our attitude along the way is very, very important-if Yahweh's in the lead-you have nothing to fear. If you're in the lead-you have every reason to fear. Step out and let the one who holds your breath in His hands lead you into the Promised Land. Yahweh is the most powerful being in the universe; He's quite able to handle your life. If you're not sure who's leading-seek Yahweh's leading, and know His mercy will be with you because you have the attitude of seeking His Will for your life. And add it to the obedience and willingness to let Him lead you is at the very heart of salvation; it's evidence of humility and trust and love for Him-it's evidence that we've chosen to repent. What was Yahushua's attitude toward truth?
He says-"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth". Ever wonder what truth is-look to the Holy Scriptures. Paul and Timothy wrote saying that reprobate men resist the truth, but we're sanctified by His truth-His word. And yes, we have weaknesses-we have times where we have difficulty,
but we don't have a High Priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Every single person
listening to our message today has some kind of sin in their life-everyone-everybody-knowingly or unknowingly. You may not realize you have something in your life that's sin, but you do. And you need to seek out what that is-something in your life that Yahweh wants you to change-seek out what that is. How do I know there's something?
Scripture says that-if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The difference is in our attitude! The difference between a believer and an unbelievers-both believers and unbelievers have sin in their life-the difference is the attitude! One is content to live in it and wallow in it like a pig going back to the-after being washed, lays there again, and a dog returns to the vomit and is content to drink it. We can't be content to drink the sin and lay in it-that's not an attitude of repentance. The Day of Atonement is coming up here in-this week on the 20th-five days-it's the time to confess our sins. Seek Yahweh about what your sins might be and turn away from them. And if you confess your sins, you have a promise in Messiah Yahushua-He is faithful-He is just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Every unrighteous thing-He is able to cleanse you from it. But you must confess it-recognize it as sin-repent humbly-seek forgiveness-seek His strength to overcome, and He has a promise here in the Word that He is faithful and just to forgive you. Awesome promise!
That's only because of what Messiah Yahushua did for us. He is willing to forgive you and cleanse you, but He wants you to have that attitude-confessing, seeking mercy, seeking strength from Yahweh to overcome-knowing we have a High Priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, and knows how to deliver us from our sins-knows how to resolve a problem, and wants us to be overcomers. And don't think for a moment
He came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. Yahushua said He did not come to destroy them-did not come to abolish them-He came to fulfill them. This word "fulfill" - pleroo means to do it. If I said to my son or daughter - "Will you please get me a glass of water?" - and they brought me a glass of water-they fulfilled my command. So, the Messiah came to fulfill-that means to do what the Law and Prophets had commanded Him to do. He didn't come to take them away! He came to show you how to do them. And until heaven and earth pass-and it hasn't passed-you look outside-you see heaven; you see earth are still there-not even one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until all is fulfilled. Messiah did not fulfill everything there was to fulfill-He has to overcome death still in the sense that
the last enemy that will be destroyed He says is death. There's still death on the earth. And so, heaven and earth are still here, and when He does that reign for a thousand years, and put an end, and throws death in the Lake of Fire, then there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
But right now-heaven and earth hasn't passed away yet. And so, not even one jot-not even one tittle has passed from the law. Whoever therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments-what commandments? - the commandments in the Law and Prophets, right? - and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now, I once heard a preacher tell me - "Well, you know - I'll settle for least." And he did-and he went out and taught men you don't have to do these commands-don't have to do these commands. Well, you know-whose the least in this kingdom? The serpent-it says - on your belly you shall go, and every other animal-you will be beneath them. And so, in the age to come-the least in the age to come will be the enemy and his servants in the Lake of Fire. They're in the kingdom, but they're in the Lake of Fire. So, I wouldn't put your confidence that you can go out there and break all of the commandments and teach men so-big mistake! You need to be doing and teaching the commands, and then you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And the ones called great are the ones who are putting their faith in Messiah for forgiveness of sin and willing to repent and turn away from even the smaller commands. So, what are we shooting for? Some say - "Well I'll
just be happy just to be a gatekeeper, you know and be content with that-you know-sweep the floors or..." You can't go there! Listen! If you're going to shoot an arrow at a target, and the only thing you're aiming for is the target-you'll probably miss the target. If you aim for the bullseye-at least, you'll hit the target! You know-I mean you can't be aiming for; you know what you can get away with-get in by the skin of my teeth. You may not make it at all! You gotta aim to be great-aim high, right? Where Messiah is seated, right? And seek to do the things He did. And not only do we see the Messiah was to fulfill the law we read here that
we're supposed to fulfill the law. It says-Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. So, every commandment in the law that's explained to us exactly how He wants us to love each other is, you know-explanation of how to love. Now, you can't love anybody until you love Yahweh. 1 John 5:2 says that by this we know that we love the children of Elohim, and we love Elohim and keep His commandments.
So, are you seeking to be great or is your attitude just like - "Yeah, I'll do the bare minimum here, and hopefully make it in." So, what's your attitude? Scripture says
He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of Elohim is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. How did He walk? How did our Savior walk? - He kept the feast days, and the Sabbath, and did all these things that we're talking about today. He did not fail to love Yahweh, even in one point. He had the right attitude in all circumstances-He had the right attitude toward Yahweh in all things.
He taught - Matthew 5:47-You greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. The path to perfection is faith and trust in Messiah Yahushua for the forgiveness of sin, and truly repenting-turning away from what you know He says not to do, and turning toward what He tells you to do, and then you'll be complete. So,
people will despise you-call you a legalist for trying to be too perfect-you know-trying to do things just too right but seeking perfection's the right attitude according to Yahushua. With men, it's impossible to be perfect before Him, but with Yahweh-Messiah cleansing you from all sin-Him directing you toward perfection, you will obtain it in the age to come. So, let's seek it, and don't worry about what people say when you do.
Jeremiah 6:10-To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised, they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of Yahweh is a reproach to them; they have not delight in it. Jeremiah speaks of those who have no delight in the Word of Yahweh. Why would we not delight in the Word of Yahweh? It's awesome words-words of life-words of love!
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR ATTITUDE and we see a baby there on the left-a little bit upset, and that's the kind of thing that we're trying to avoid there-our preference is the baby on the right in response to life's circumstances. So, which one are we? Are we the baby on the left-got her lip stuck out-you know-we didn't get our way-things didn't go the way we wanted it to go, and so therefore, we're gonna pout, we're gonna be upset and we're gonna complain or can we take life like baby #2 there on the right and say "You know what? This life's all temporary-Praise Yahweh! He's going to do something good through this thing that is about ready to happen or is happening, and I'm going to trust Him that He knows exactly what's going on, and He will take care of me, and I will be just fine". Right? So, what is our attitude? That's a very important question-in terms of a lot of different areas. In fact, it can be salvational-our attitude.
So-Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the unrighteous, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of Yahweh-that's how it is-first-you know-you know-you're just walking in the counsel of the righteous-standing in their path and sitting in their seat-you're walking along and you - "Oh, what's this over here?" - and so, then you're standing there, and pretty soon, you're sitting in it. What we need to do-the counsel we need to listen to is in the law of Yahweh. In His law we must meditate day and night, and then we'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever we do will prosper. But the unrighteous-not so-they're like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore, the unrighteous shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the unrighteous shall perish. Seek the river!
Seek to be that tree planted by the rivers of water. Today the waters are muddy by men who teach we don't have to heed the words of Yahweh. But what I read is that we need to pursue it. Don't let a
lackadaisical, blas� kind of attitude toward obedience that we see too often in churches today impact your love and passion for the things of Elohim. Because the day is going to come when the truth is going to come out about who His people really are. His people fear Him.
It says-They that feared Yahweh speak often one to another, giving Him proper reverence-spoke to one another and Yahweh listened and heard them; so, a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear Yahweh-and don't have this blas�-whatever attitude toward their sins and they meditate on His name-because the future is-everyone will walk in the name of Yahweh.
They shall be Mine, says Yahweh of hosts, On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Yahweh knows we're not perfected yet, so He'll spare us from judgment. It says-Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves Elohim and one who does not serve Him. Yahweh wants to feed us pure water-
living water. Bringing us truth-bringing us life. Our fathers have inherited lies, and maybe we don't know or understand everything yet, but if our attitude is right-that will account for something, and Yahweh will spare the jewels just as a man spares his own son that serves him. If you had a son-his attitude toward you was like - "What can I get away with and still be your son"? How would you feel about that? "How much disobedience can I get away with, Dad-Mom and still be your son and still be accepted by you"? Wouldn't a son like that be a grief to you? We wanna be a joy to our Father in Heaven, who looks down upon us. We want Him to rejoice over us and say, "That's My jewel-that's My special treasure-they're doing their very best." Don't you give mercy to the child who's really trying to do your will but maybe he has weaknesses, and he humbly admits them, and he asks Yahweh - "Please will you have mercy on me and forgive me? I'm really trying-I failed-I'm sorry". Wouldn't you have mercy on a child that did that for you? Absolutely! What if the son had said - "Well, all my friends are doing this wrong thing-all my friends and their moms and dads let them get away with this stuff-why don't you?" You know-he wants to follow their friends. That's just like us-we wanna follow what everybody else is doing. We're not willing to stick our neck out and be different, and we're ashamed of Yahweh's Ways-and we're ashamed when we say - "We don't do that because our Father in Heaven told us not to, and we're embarrassed". We can't be way-can't be that way at all. Because the day is coming
when that pride, we're manifesting, and those kinds of attitudes-it's not gonna go well for us if that's the attitude we're exhibiting. Because all the proud and those who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day is coming which shall burn them up, says Yahweh of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name-he says-The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings-that sun-Messiah Yahushua-will shine brightly and destroy the wicked with the brightness of His coming, but to those who are willing to be refined by the fire now-He will come and heal us-He says-you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves-He's gonna take care of you. And you'll trample the wicked-they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet-the least of the kingdom-on the day that I do this, says Yahweh of hosts. And interestingly, this place is the very last chapter in the Old Testament-almost like a little warning. Remember the Law of Moshe, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Don't forget. And then John the Baptist came. So, let's remember
the standard that Yahweh has given us of love in His Word. And when we're encountering trials and tests and tribulations as a result of our keeping of His commandments, in case, coming up here the Feast of Tabernacles-remember-stick with it-don't falter-you're going to keep the commandments of Yahweh. You're leaving Egypt to go keep the feasts in the wilderness, right? We're gonna leave Egypt for a while, so they'll keep the feasts in the wilderness for nine days. And also remember-trust Yahweh in His mercy or you may fail Him, and don't give up. You may fall seven times but get back up again. And when you fail, don't have an "Oh well" attitude-"I've got grace-whatever." But say - "Oh no", confess it to Yahweh, seek forgiveness, and you receive the promise that He promises
If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive you. He wants you to overcome-He wants to help you overcome. He wants you to be like His Son, Yahushua Messiah, the righteous. Therefore, let our hearts be tender before Yahweh-
Ready to be molded and formed into whatever's beautiful and whatever is precious-departing from the wrong attitudes of anger, self-pity, of complaining, and just lay our lives wide-open before Him-giving everything fully to Him-turning away from pride and bitterness and hate-turning toward humility, forgiveness and love-turning away from temptation to worry about tomorrow-instead have an attitude of faith that the most powerful being in the universe has us in His hands. Turning away from temptation to complain about our circumstances, and humbly bowing before the King and rejoicing in the trials, knowing nothing can happen to us that He won't turn into something good. Turning away from prideful desires to glorify ourselves in self-pity and focus instead on glorifying Yahweh, knowing that even if He slayed us, we still trust in Him. Instead of manifesting the negative attitudes, lets manifest
the joy of salvation. So, in all things,
let's seek to have a heart that's humbled before Yahweh. In all things, let's seek to have a heart that trusts in Yahweh. In all things, we count our blessings-we walk in faith, and in all things let our attitude be
right before Yahweh.
Oh Father Yahweh-thank You for Your love and mercies, and kindness, and compassion, patience, and the ways that You have led us-we thank You. We thank You for everything that You've delivered us from-things we don't even realize-You have delivered us from. And we long, Father to let the life of Yahushua the Messiah be manifested in our lives, knowing He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And allowing ourselves to manifest His life-to keeping Your Torah, keeping Your Word. We trust in Your mercy, Your compassion, Your forgiveness, and Your grace, and not by works are we saved. But Father, we so much desire Your work that You did in Messiah Yahushua to be done in us by Your power and Your might. For truly Yours is the kingdom and power and glory forever and ever. And all praise, honor and worship belong to You, Yahweh, our Mighty One-Yahweh, our Elohim forever and ever. In Yahushua's name we pray these things. Amein
What is our attitude? Are we allowing anger to rise-up within us over things going on-not going the way we planned-not having it the way we wanted it to go? Or are we choosing someone to blame for it and heap guilt on others for things happening? Are we worried about what may happen next? Are we complaining about our circumstances? Are we like - "Oh poor me"? Self-pity is just pride-"Oh look what I have to go through". Aren't I just amazing-how much things I've been through?" Or are we choosing thankfulness? You know what? Things aren't going the way that I would like it to go right now but a lot of times things go just perfect the way I like things to go so I praise Yahweh. I can't have everything my way. You know, if everything went my way, I would be the deity and Yahweh would be under my rule. If He answered every prayer of mine, I would be the one who's in control! I would just be using Him as an extension of my power, but instead, He does things the way He wants to do them and allows things in my life the way He wants them to be, and so I should just be thankful either way because whatever happens, it's for my good. And rather than blaming and blaming and blaming - look we've all made mistakes, right? So, the good thing is humility. Instead of worry, we have faith-both faith and worry project into the future. Worry says-doom and gloom and terrible things are gonna happen. Faith says-no matter what happens, it's for my good. I can complain or I can count the blessings I do have. It's so easy to count things we can be upset about or unhappy about or we can count the blessings that Yahweh has given us and be thankful for those blessings. And even in the negative things we think are negative, He's going to bring some kind of blessing out of it for our benefit. Instead of self-pity, which is glorifying self, we're going to glorify Yahweh through this trial, through this difficulty, through the things coming ahead, and we're going to move forward and press on and do the thing that Yahweh says. Now, when you go through
feasts. When you go to feasts and you're like-I'm going to get a huge blessing-sometimes what happens is you get all these trials. The enemy does not want you to go, and Yahweh wants to know-are you going to do this-are you going to come and seek that blessing or are you going to complain-are you going to walk in the flesh or are you going to walk in the spirit during this moment of testing and trials and tribulations? And Yahweh gave Israel a huge, huge, huge blessing. He delivered them from slavery, He fed them in the wilderness for years, and He brought them into the Promised Land. Actually, it's because they complained they had to go there and hang around in the desert for forty years. But He said- when you go in the Promised Land, you have a choice-you either have blessings or you have curses on your life. And our attitude can determine whether good or negative takes place. In fact, He told them this-He told them-
All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you- overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey Yahweh- did not obey the voice of Yahweh, your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. Did not keep the
commandments of Yahweh. Because-this is the reason why they didn't keep the commandments of Yahweh-Because you did not serve Yahweh your Elohim with joy and gladness of heart,- joy and gladness of heart-you know there's two ways of serving Yahweh-there's serving Yahweh begrudingly because you have to-because the Bible says it and you just have to do it-WAH-or with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. You know if the only thing Yahweh ever did for you was save you and give you eternal life-that's quite a lot. If all He ever did was deliver you from Egypt- from the slavery-you should be thankful. Therefore you shall serve your enemies-He says, whom Yahweh will send against you- you don't like the way life is serving Yahweh, then try serving your enemies for a day and see what happens-in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness,and in need of everything-why? Because the enemy doesn't provide those things, Yahweh does. Yahweh provides food, He provides drink, He provides clothing, and every need we have. And so, if you're not gonna to be thankful to Him for those things-then "alright-you don't like my yoke-then you'll take the enemy's yoke, and that yoke will be this yoke of iron on your neck until you're destroyed. So notice carefully who do the curses fall upon-who do all these things come upon? - those who don't serve Yahweh with joy and gladness of heart. And I see people
and they go through one thing after another, one circumstance after another, and all they do is complain every single time-you know. And the next thing you know, something else happens to them, and I try to tell them - "Well, try being thankful for whatever good is happening at the moment. Try serving Yahweh with joy and gladness of heart". In fact, I'll name four or five things-you know-that's going on right now even in this trial that very well could be positive things coming out of this trial. In fact, I suggest-make a list of potential positive things that could come out of this trial, and the positive things it's helping you with. So, think about that for a minute. Do we serve Him with joy and gladness of heart or begrudgingly or because you have to-not because you want to because you have to? Do you serve Him because you love Him, or you just serve Him because you're afraid of what might happen otherwise? Our attitude toward our Heavenly Father, our attitude toward one another, our attitude toward obedience to His commandments-especially our attitude in response to salvation are all very important. Now the word attitude is not really found in the scriptures, but the attitudes are there. We have an English word that maybe Hebrew doesn't have. It has to do with your approach-the way you're going to respond to life's circumstances. Now,
you look here at Numbers 13:33-they were about ready to enter the Promised Land and what happened? They said, "Oh we see the giants over there-we're like grasshoppers in their sight and so were we". And so, all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried and the people wept that night. And they were upset at what they saw ahead of them-doom and gloom in our future-worry, fear-to the point where they thought we were out here-all this-out in the wilderness and suffered all these things-all these tests and trials and tribulations and they wept that night-they were so upset.
Numbers 14:2-All the children of Israel comp lained against Moshe and Aaron, and all the whole congregation said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness". So, before they were complaining about perishing in the wilderness - "If only we had died in the wilderness". LOL! They really got almost silly at times-
how complainy and whiny they became! And whining and complaining is not the attitude Yahweh wants from us. Suppose somebody got in a car accident, and their car was severely damaged. There's two ways they can look at it - they can be angry it happened and let guilt-maybe-look for someone to blame, be grieved of our loss and worried about the loss of our car or repairs and complain to everyone about the whole thing-that's pitying yourself-one of the worst places to be-it's very difficult to counsel somebody who's involved in self-pity - "Oh look what I have to go through-isn't it just amazing"! Well, it sounds self-sufficient-actually self-pity glorifies yourself by boasting what you have to sacrifice. If you display self-pity, you don't really want to be seen as helpless, you want to be seen as a hero. "Well, I've had this happen to me and this happen to me - I'm going through all this". See - self-pity. "Look at me-look at me-look at me". Our peace is not based on circumstances of everything going right. If your peace and happiness is based on everything going right for you, you're in for a life of misery, in all likelihood. Maybe even in a car accident, you can thank Yahweh that He's showing you the frailty of things and stuff, and how we should set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth-remembering our life is but a vapor, and Yahweh kept everyone safe. If we're at fault in the accident, we can rejoice that we're learning that Yahweh's teaching us better stewardship- humbling us for our grace-for grace. And if we experience the loss of a car, we're now more reliant upon Him for our needs, and He's going to get more of our attention. So, that's thankfulness instead of glorifying yourself, right? There's a difference. There was a man one time - I've told this story before-someone had stolen his-see he was a plumber-his whole livelihood was in the back of his truck. I mean, all of his tools, all of the extra parts and stuff he needed to do his job. And he went into a supply house in Cincinnati Ohio, and he left the car running. He didn't normally do that; he just wanted to go in real quick-he came back out and the truck was gone. So, he looked up toward heaven and he says "Well, Yahweh-I guess someone stole your truck-what are you gonna do about it"? LOL! So, he went home-someone picked him up, and he called people to pray and a day or so later-he called the police to let them know what happened and they said "Well, if this truck doesn't show up within the next 24 hours, it's probably out of town and out of sight and gone for good." So, he waited a day, and nothing happened and then someone called him up-a woman who had been widowed-her husband was a plumber, and she said,"I've got some tools and some things here for you-maybe you can take them". So he went and took them and, he got new tools. Another gentlemen who had formerly been a plumber had given him also other things and included pipes and extra stuff, and he was thankful for that, and he was just waiting to see what Yahweh was going to do with the whole thing. He praised Yahweh for the things he was given. Another couple of days went by, and he gets a phone call from someone in a pay phone, and they said, "Your truck is at such and such street" and they hung up. So, he went down, and sure enough, his truck was there, and he went, and he looked and most of his stuff was there. Only the most expensive tools had been taken. And so, he thought-well, I wonder where-you know-someone would probably sell one of these- maybe one of the flea markets in town or something might have it. So, he went to a random flea market and lo and behold, there was his tools with his name engraved on it and everything. And he told the gentlemen that-you know, this was stolen property, and the guy was upset, but he had to give him his tools back. So then he got his truck back, he got his tools back and extra tools and extra equipment from the people who had given him those things. And so, he actually ended up-in the end, being more blessed than he was in the beginning because he recognized who owns what. Yahweh owns everything-everything is His, and so, we're not going to moan and groan over what happens-we're going to rejoice. Remember when Joseph was sold into slavery? They falsely accused him-thrown him in a dungeon. What he did was make the best of his situation and trusted in Yahweh. And Yahweh lifted him up in due time. Yahushua never complained about what He had to do, and so we need to have the faith and realize who's ultimately in control of our lives, and who has our best interests-and that's Yahweh. The children of Israel complained at every negative thing that happened and they did not choose faith-they chose complaining. And
First Corinthians 10 verses 8-10 says - Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Messiah, as some of the also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. See they complained.
All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. So, we need to be willing to give thanks for our circumstances, and not complain.
One example of a man who had the opportunity to be upset. He was a fairly righteous king is in Second Kings, chapter 22 and verse 18-it says-As for the kind of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, in this manner you shall speak to him, 'Thus says Yahweh Elohim of Israel: "Concerning the words that you've heard--
because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, "says Yahweh. "Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see the calamity which I will bring on this place." So here is an example of Josiah-a righteous king, and he humbled himself-knowing that all these curses were promised to Israel for their attitudes and their disobedience-he humbled himself before Yahweh, and Yahweh heard him. We can change our attitude. If we have complained, if we have chosen to worry-if we have chosen all these negative things-we can change the way we respond from this point on. And
in the case of Ahab-Ahab had a lot coming to him, but he actually humbled himself before Yahweh, and Yahweh says-"I will not bring the calamity on his days. In the days of his son, I will bring calamity on his house." So,
we need to recognize from which our blessings come. And remember, we have a Savior in Heaven, who went through a whole lot more than we will ever go through-a whole lot more. And so, what's going to be our response to life-to circumstances? Even those who don't believe go through hard things, but we have Yahweh. And we should be thankful and realize He has done so much for us-so much for us-while were yet sinners and
while we did not love Him-He loved us. And so, we need to love Him in return. Elohim demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. He loved us when we were in rebellion toward him, and when we heard of His love for us, it compelled us to love Him back. In Him, we receive salvation, eternal life, and the more Yahweh does for us, the greater our thankfulness ought to be. It's too easy to forget all the goodness of Yahweh
when we're faced with trials and tribulations. But it's during those times we need to remember Yahweh's goodness the most. Remember Yahweh's goodness. Sometimes our trials are from other people who hurt us. What did Paul do? He was under the sword a lot. He said-
I rejoice now in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Messiah, for the sake of His body, which is the assembly. So, he looked at the sufferings as an opportunity-actually to rejoice in his sufferings.
First Peter 4:12 says-Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but-what? - rejoice to the extent that you partake of Messiah's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. When Yahushua lives in us we don't need to hold bitterness toward
others for their afflictions toward us; we can be willing actually to bear that pain others cause us that we might have fellowship in Yahushua's sufferings. He bore pain for us. Our attitude should be a willingness to bear pain for other people, even to the point of giving up our very lives for another person who hates us. Could you do that? Think about the person who's caused you the most trouble in your life. Would you lay down your life for them and die for them? Yahushua did for you. A greater love has no man than this. So, our attitude toward others is one of forgiveness-one of love-demonstrating the presence of Yahushua in ourselves-in our lives. If that's lacking-Yahushua's lacking. Will we let Him reign in our hearts-keep Him on the throne? Or are we going to demand our own way? Our thankful attitude will permeate through many things that we do. It will affect the way we treat other people-the faith we have in Yahweh-the amount of joy we have in our lives. Having a thankful and a good attitude does not just affect the way we respond to Yahweh's offer of salvation through Yahushua, but in everything that we do. What is our attitude toward salvation? Sadly, many today actually teach we don't have to love Yahweh back-they may not realize it, but they don't.
In Matthew 22:35, one of them says-a lawyer asked Yahushua a question and testing Him saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Yahushua said to him, "'You shall love Yahweh your Mighty One with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' Everything you got.
"This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it-'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Now, if all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments-everything written in the Law and the Prophets are basically commandments to love. And the details of how to love Yahweh and love one another. Now, there are many people who do love Yahweh with all that they know, but there are commandments that they don't observe such as keeping the feast days that they don't keep, and so, they're failing in love towards our Heavenly Father. Maybe they don't realize that they're
failing at love. But we understand that all the Law and the Prophets hang off the two great commands. You can't take a set of bolt cutters and try to cut the Law and the Prophets off of the two commandments from which they hung; you can't do that. Yahweh hung them there because each of these commandments are expressions of love toward Yahweh. A failure to keep any of these commandments in the Law and Prophets are a failure to love Him. So, we're going to let Yahweh define Himself by His love language, and not try to form our own Elohim into what we want and like. Our reference point should not be old time Christianity-our reference point needs to be the ancient paths seen in Yahweh's Word. Letting Him define Himself and how He desires to be loved. We should be seeking to fit our lifestyle around Him and His Ways rather than trying to fit Him into our lifestyle. We should be seeking to mold our life around Him rather trying to mold Yahweh around our life. And so, our response to Yahweh should be true, genuine love with all of our heart, strength and mind. All throughout history, Yahweh sought to lead mankind to a lifestyle of loving one another and loving Him with all of our hearts. And all throughout history, the enemy has sought to redefine that-severing the Law and Prophets from the two commandments upon which they hang, and therefore, lacking in love. And so,
our response to salvation-our attitude toward salvation is "Yes, I want to love You back Heavenly Father Yahweh. I want to love You back." You need more than just faith-you need also a faith that works. Some say - "I got faith, I got works". I think our faith is a faith that works.
So, we don't make void the law through faith. Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. So, our response and our attitude toward the wonderful offer of salvation
through the Messiah Yahushua is - "Oh wow! I want to do what Your Word says". We don't keep the feast days because we're trying to be saved by them-we're keeping the feast days because He saved us-and we rejoice in it! And He calls us - "Go out-go camp-go camp and rejoice before Me", He says-"Seven days-rejoice before Me". And they're awesome-they're wonderful Holidays, and I enjoy them every year! And listen-this will by my 29th Feast of Tabernacles, and I have loved every single one of them. There has not been one that I ever got discouraged with-every single one of them-I have been very thankful that Yahweh commands these things because they are awesome. And so, I'm not going to do what
some might do and say - "Well that law's void." Because we don't make void the law through faith-we establish it. What's the word void
mean? It means to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative. No, I don't do those things-I establish it through my faith.
What's it mean to establish? - to cause or make it to stand.
And so, I'm going to love Him with all my heart, all my soul, and everything I have. That's the greatest commandment in the Bible, right? And therefore, I'm going to keep those commandments with all my heart, all my soul and with everything I have, and be thankful for them. And we can do that. And so, our attitude toward His
salvation should be one of obedience-not of disobedience. Some people have the attitude-"Well, you know, yeah, I mean-we can do that if we want to but-since I'm not gonna lose my salvation over my obedience or disobedience to those things-it's not salvational, and so I don't have to keep those things, and I'll just go about my normal business. Why is it that people try to figure out how much disobedience they can get away with and still make it in the kingdom? I don't understand that-why do that? There's these huge debates about whether or not you need to be baptized because someone can say - "You don't have to because baptism doesn't save you." What kind of debate is that? What kind of debate is that? I don't understand the mentality of that. Yahushua said it-we believe it-we do it-that settles it. Why do you have a debate about whether you need to do it-unless there's an attitude problem? Many people say this in response to a conviction about using the true names or keeping the Sabbath or other things we share-"Well, I don't believe I'll lose my salvation over it so..." You hear this - "Oh well" humdrum attitude toward obedience. And one guy tells me years ago - "I think you're right about the Sabbath, but you know, I'm not gonna change my life over it". You know that's the wrong attitude. Serving Yahweh is not about what you can get away with-it's what you wanna do-it's what you get to do! It's about wanting to serve-about, you know,knowing that we can never make up for our sins that we've committed-we're not trying to make up for what we've done wrong, but our service to Yahweh is the least we can do. There's a lot of focus today about what Yahushua has done for man, and I praise Yahweh for that-He's done a lot for man. But what about what He desires to do in man? He wants to keep the same commandments in you that He kept while He was on the earth. If indeed, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And He kept the feast days; He kept the Sabbath Day-He did these things. And so, if Yahushua dwells in you, don't say - "Well, I'm not gonna-Nah-I won't lose my salvation over it". That's like saying - "I don't have to really love Yahweh that much-I can still love Him a little bit less and still make it in." What kind of attitude is that? Is serving Yahweh really about what you can get away with and still make it? I say with that kind of attitude, you're not likely to make it at all! And therefore, your attitude becomes a salvational problem. So, the truth is-you know-Yahweh comes along and tells you something bizarre-you know - "Go stand on your head for ten minutes a day," and you said "Nah-I won't lose my salvation if I don't do it." You're demonstrating that you've not really repented-even a simple command becomes salvational because of your attitude. So, what becomes salvational is not-do you keep this A-B-C-D-E-F-G - it's whether you are a truly repentant person, and that means that you want to do the Will of Elohim. And so, when you hear something, He asks you to do-are you willing to do it? That becomes salvational because if you're not repenting-what that means is-if someone came along and told you - "You need to do this thing over here"-and the Bible says it-you see it in the Bible, but you're like - "Nah-I've got my Savior, I'm not worried about it." There�re two things He requires of us for salvation-repentance and faith in Messiah Yahushua. Two things. You put your faith in Messiah for forgiveness of sin-that's all well and good, but the goodness of Yahweh should lead you to repentance, according to Romans 2 verse 4. Repentance means you turn away from the things that you know are wrong. And when He shows you something that you're supposed to do that's supposed to be right. To him that knows to do good and does it not-to him it's sin. You can't willfully walk in sin, and just say - "I'm gonna do what I wanna do", and not care and expect to be saved because you're not repenting-you're not loving the Father-you're not loving the Messiah.
He says-"If you love Me-keep My commandments." - John 14:15. 1 John 3:4 says-Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. If sin's a transgression of the law, and it is-according to 1 John 3:4-King James Version-then you know the law says, "do this", and you say "Nah, I'm not gonna do it," - all of a sudden, you've committed willful sin. That's the wrong attitude. I realize we may be ignorant of something and maybe not realize that's something He wants us to do-Okay, fine, but now that you know, what are you gonna do? Is the law going to
stand-are you going to establish the law by your works-by the things that you're doing through your faith? Are you gonna love Yahweh or not? Is Yahweh's Law gonna stand as a standard of righteousness that you're gonna guide your life by? Because it says
right here if you violate the law, then you're in sin. Do you realize
that if the law says-Keep the feast days, and you choose not to do it, you're actually in sin? Because sin is a transgression
of the law. You may not think it's sin because the culture you live in doesn't treat it like it is. But suppose everyone
on the planet kept the feast days, and you decided - "Nah, I'm not going to". Would it influence you at all if everybody in the whole world kept the Feast of Tabernacles, and you said "Nah, I'm not going to" - would you still say you're not going to? If you say - "Well, if everybody else kept it, yeah, I'd keep it." Alright, then who are you actually following? Are you following the Heavenly Father and Messiah? Are you following the Messiah who kept them or are you-just because nobody else does,or very few peple do, you're just gonna - "Nah it's not that important?" What men do or what men doesn't do doesn't determine its importance. Are we like a child-always pushing the limits of what, you know, what you get away with or are you like a child that says - "I want to do my Father's desire." It's all about attitude. Maybe the children of Israel thought - "Well, you know what - we'll be alright-He'll still take us to the Promised Land". Maybe they said - "You know what-I like Egypt better." And so they kept wanting to go back to Egypt. In fact, in
Numbers 14, verse 4-5 it said-"Let's select a leader and return to Egypt." Then Moshe and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of Israel. You know what happened?
They actually at chapter 14, right here. That generation was sentenced to death in the wilderness. Yahweh said - "I'm going to wait until this generation dies off, and the children of these men and women-they will inherit the land. The generation I took out of Egypt-they will not." He rejected them because of their bad attitude. We cannot continually exhibit bad attitudes-we've got to change-we've got to be willing to go through this wilderness and accept the trials and tests and tribulations that will take place as a result of our faith in the Messiah Yahushua and our obedience to the Word of Yahweh. We must press on-we must and consider our former Egyptian ways nothing but loss.
As Paul said-I indeed count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Messiah Yahushua my Master, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Messiah and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which is from Elohim by faith. So, what Paul experienced was he believed he was made righteous because of the law-what he learned was he's made righteous through the Messiah Yahushua. And so, his former mentality, the gospel he was following was a false gospel. But that was his Egyptian way of thinking-it was an unbiblical way of thinking. And today, it's usually, you know,the polar opposite - "Oh we got Messiah," and forget about leading us. You need to forget-that's the Egyptian way of thinking. You think that you can
accept the Savior Messiah and not make any changes in your life? That's Egyptian thinking-that's the worldly thinking-that is unbiblical thinking. So, we need to, as he did-reject the former ways of thinking as rubbish. Now, our righteousness does not come by our law keeping-our righteousness comes through our faith in the Messiah Yahushua-that's where our righteousness comes from. But once we have salvation-you want to go back to the vomit again-have sin and breaking the Torah and disobeying the Father's Word-and just doing your own thing? No-no because that is what He saved you from-I mean He saved you from sin-He saved you from the slavery to sin. Now, we're not saved by our own righteousness, but we are saved from our sins, and because we're saved from our sins, we want to cease from sin and not transgress the law any further. So, we press on toward the goal, which is the high calling in Messiah Yahushua, right?
if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Messiah Yahushua has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to the things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of Elohim in Messiah Yahushua. That's what we do-we press toward the goal.
Now, as we're pressing toward the goal, we may fail from time to time. And what scripture says is-A righteous man may fall seven times but rise up again, but when the wicked fall, it's by calamity, and they don't rise up again. So, when we have difficulties-we have tests and trials and tribulations, we don't stop-we press on-we keep going-we don't want to return to the vomit-we don't like the vomit of Egypt. Because the kingdom's at hand
and we need to be seeking kingdom things. We're not this-world minded-we are Messiah-minded. Again, we're not made righteous through our law keeping-we're being righteous through the Messiah, but we also need to repent-that means turn away from law breaking. How can we be rulers in the kingdom-if we don't care to know or obey the rules ourselves? The kingdom's rules will be the law in the age to come. It says
Now it will come to pass in the latter days-Micah 4:1-that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.
Many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths." For-what! For out of Zion the law shall go forth-the Torah-that is where we find out what His paths are and what His ways actually are-and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. That's our future.
But everyone will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken. For all people walk each in the name of his elohim, but we will walk in the name of Yahweh-so we got the name, and we got the
Torah-the law as part of our future.
Why do I use the name Yahweh? Why do I believe in keeping the law? Because that's our future. And if I'm going to compel other people to follow the kingdom and its rules, I must be faithful to them myself. So, that's the goal we press toward-press toward the goal-press toward the high calling of Messiah Yahushua. But in
land between, we're strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And it's a narrow way, and few find it. But we're gonna choose to trust Yahweh-we're gonna choose to seek His Ways, and there's a Promised Land that awaits us, and there's a man named Yahushua who's going to take us across the Jordan. And our attitude along the way is very, very important-if Yahweh's in the lead-you have nothing to fear. If you're in the lead-you have every reason to fear. Step out and let the one who holds your breath in His hands lead you into the Promised Land. Yahweh is the most powerful being in the universe; He's quite able to handle your life. If you're not sure who's leading-seek Yahweh's leading, and know His mercy will be with you because you have the attitude of seeking His Will for your life. And add it to the obedience and willingness to let Him lead you is at the very heart of salvation; it's evidence of humility and trust and love for Him-it's evidence that we've chosen to repent. What was Yahushua's attitude toward truth?
He says-"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth". Ever wonder what truth is-look to the Holy Scriptures. Paul and Timothy wrote saying that reprobate men resist the truth, but we're sanctified by His truth-His word. And yes, we have weaknesses-we have times where we have difficulty,
but we don't have a High Priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Every single person
listening to our message today has some kind of sin in their life-everyone-everybody-knowingly or unknowingly. You may not realize you have something in your life that's sin, but you do. And you need to seek out what that is-something in your life that Yahweh wants you to change-seek out what that is. How do I know there's something?
Scripture says that-if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The difference is in our attitude! The difference between a believer and an unbelievers-both believers and unbelievers have sin in their life-the difference is the attitude! One is content to live in it and wallow in it like a pig going back to the-after being washed, lays there again, and a dog returns to the vomit and is content to drink it. We can't be content to drink the sin and lay in it-that's not an attitude of repentance. The Day of Atonement is coming up here in-this week on the 20th-five days-it's the time to confess our sins. Seek Yahweh about what your sins might be and turn away from them. And if you confess your sins, you have a promise in Messiah Yahushua-He is faithful-He is just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Every unrighteous thing-He is able to cleanse you from it. But you must confess it-recognize it as sin-repent humbly-seek forgiveness-seek His strength to overcome, and He has a promise here in the Word that He is faithful and just to forgive you. Awesome promise!
That's only because of what Messiah Yahushua did for us. He is willing to forgive you and cleanse you, but He wants you to have that attitude-confessing, seeking mercy, seeking strength from Yahweh to overcome-knowing we have a High Priest who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses, and knows how to deliver us from our sins-knows how to resolve a problem, and wants us to be overcomers. And don't think for a moment
He came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. Yahushua said He did not come to destroy them-did not come to abolish them-He came to fulfill them. This word "fulfill" - pleroo means to do it. If I said to my son or daughter - "Will you please get me a glass of water?" - and they brought me a glass of water-they fulfilled my command. So, the Messiah came to fulfill-that means to do what the Law and Prophets had commanded Him to do. He didn't come to take them away! He came to show you how to do them. And until heaven and earth pass-and it hasn't passed-you look outside-you see heaven; you see earth are still there-not even one jot or one tittle will pass from the law until all is fulfilled. Messiah did not fulfill everything there was to fulfill-He has to overcome death still in the sense that
the last enemy that will be destroyed He says is death. There's still death on the earth. And so, heaven and earth are still here, and when He does that reign for a thousand years, and put an end, and throws death in the Lake of Fire, then there will be a new heaven and a new earth.
But right now-heaven and earth hasn't passed away yet. And so, not even one jot-not even one tittle has passed from the law. Whoever therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments-what commandments? - the commandments in the Law and Prophets, right? - and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now, I once heard a preacher tell me - "Well, you know - I'll settle for least." And he did-and he went out and taught men you don't have to do these commands-don't have to do these commands. Well, you know-whose the least in this kingdom? The serpent-it says - on your belly you shall go, and every other animal-you will be beneath them. And so, in the age to come-the least in the age to come will be the enemy and his servants in the Lake of Fire. They're in the kingdom, but they're in the Lake of Fire. So, I wouldn't put your confidence that you can go out there and break all of the commandments and teach men so-big mistake! You need to be doing and teaching the commands, and then you'll be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And the ones called great are the ones who are putting their faith in Messiah for forgiveness of sin and willing to repent and turn away from even the smaller commands. So, what are we shooting for? Some say - "Well I'll
just be happy just to be a gatekeeper, you know and be content with that-you know-sweep the floors or..." You can't go there! Listen! If you're going to shoot an arrow at a target, and the only thing you're aiming for is the target-you'll probably miss the target. If you aim for the bullseye-at least, you'll hit the target! You know-I mean you can't be aiming for; you know what you can get away with-get in by the skin of my teeth. You may not make it at all! You gotta aim to be great-aim high, right? Where Messiah is seated, right? And seek to do the things He did. And not only do we see the Messiah was to fulfill the law we read here that
we're supposed to fulfill the law. It says-Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. So, every commandment in the law that's explained to us exactly how He wants us to love each other is, you know-explanation of how to love. Now, you can't love anybody until you love Yahweh. 1 John 5:2 says that by this we know that we love the children of Elohim, and we love Elohim and keep His commandments.
So, are you seeking to be great or is your attitude just like - "Yeah, I'll do the bare minimum here, and hopefully make it in." So, what's your attitude? Scripture says
He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of Elohim is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. How did He walk? How did our Savior walk? - He kept the feast days, and the Sabbath, and did all these things that we're talking about today. He did not fail to love Yahweh, even in one point. He had the right attitude in all circumstances-He had the right attitude toward Yahweh in all things.
He taught - Matthew 5:47-You greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. The path to perfection is faith and trust in Messiah Yahushua for the forgiveness of sin, and truly repenting-turning away from what you know He says not to do, and turning toward what He tells you to do, and then you'll be complete. So,
people will despise you-call you a legalist for trying to be too perfect-you know-trying to do things just too right but seeking perfection's the right attitude according to Yahushua. With men, it's impossible to be perfect before Him, but with Yahweh-Messiah cleansing you from all sin-Him directing you toward perfection, you will obtain it in the age to come. So, let's seek it, and don't worry about what people say when you do.
Jeremiah 6:10-To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised, they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of Yahweh is a reproach to them; they have not delight in it. Jeremiah speaks of those who have no delight in the Word of Yahweh. Why would we not delight in the Word of Yahweh? It's awesome words-words of life-words of love!
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR ATTITUDE and we see a baby there on the left-a little bit upset, and that's the kind of thing that we're trying to avoid there-our preference is the baby on the right in response to life's circumstances. So, which one are we? Are we the baby on the left-got her lip stuck out-you know-we didn't get our way-things didn't go the way we wanted it to go, and so therefore, we're gonna pout, we're gonna be upset and we're gonna complain or can we take life like baby #2 there on the right and say "You know what? This life's all temporary-Praise Yahweh! He's going to do something good through this thing that is about ready to happen or is happening, and I'm going to trust Him that He knows exactly what's going on, and He will take care of me, and I will be just fine". Right? So, what is our attitude? That's a very important question-in terms of a lot of different areas. In fact, it can be salvational-our attitude.
So-Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the unrighteous, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of Yahweh-that's how it is-first-you know-you know-you're just walking in the counsel of the righteous-standing in their path and sitting in their seat-you're walking along and you - "Oh, what's this over here?" - and so, then you're standing there, and pretty soon, you're sitting in it. What we need to do-the counsel we need to listen to is in the law of Yahweh. In His law we must meditate day and night, and then we'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever we do will prosper. But the unrighteous-not so-they're like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore, the unrighteous shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the unrighteous shall perish. Seek the river!
Seek to be that tree planted by the rivers of water. Today the waters are muddy by men who teach we don't have to heed the words of Yahweh. But what I read is that we need to pursue it. Don't let a
lackadaisical, blas� kind of attitude toward obedience that we see too often in churches today impact your love and passion for the things of Elohim. Because the day is going to come when the truth is going to come out about who His people really are. His people fear Him.
It says-They that feared Yahweh speak often one to another, giving Him proper reverence-spoke to one another and Yahweh listened and heard them; so, a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear Yahweh-and don't have this blas�-whatever attitude toward their sins and they meditate on His name-because the future is-everyone will walk in the name of Yahweh.
They shall be Mine, says Yahweh of hosts, On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Yahweh knows we're not perfected yet, so He'll spare us from judgment. It says-Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves Elohim and one who does not serve Him. Yahweh wants to feed us pure water-
living water. Bringing us truth-bringing us life. Our fathers have inherited lies, and maybe we don't know or understand everything yet, but if our attitude is right-that will account for something, and Yahweh will spare the jewels just as a man spares his own son that serves him. If you had a son-his attitude toward you was like - "What can I get away with and still be your son"? How would you feel about that? "How much disobedience can I get away with, Dad-Mom and still be your son and still be accepted by you"? Wouldn't a son like that be a grief to you? We wanna be a joy to our Father in Heaven, who looks down upon us. We want Him to rejoice over us and say, "That's My jewel-that's My special treasure-they're doing their very best." Don't you give mercy to the child who's really trying to do your will but maybe he has weaknesses, and he humbly admits them, and he asks Yahweh - "Please will you have mercy on me and forgive me? I'm really trying-I failed-I'm sorry". Wouldn't you have mercy on a child that did that for you? Absolutely! What if the son had said - "Well, all my friends are doing this wrong thing-all my friends and their moms and dads let them get away with this stuff-why don't you?" You know-he wants to follow their friends. That's just like us-we wanna follow what everybody else is doing. We're not willing to stick our neck out and be different, and we're ashamed of Yahweh's Ways-and we're ashamed when we say - "We don't do that because our Father in Heaven told us not to, and we're embarrassed". We can't be way-can't be that way at all. Because the day is coming
when that pride, we're manifesting, and those kinds of attitudes-it's not gonna go well for us if that's the attitude we're exhibiting. Because all the proud and those who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day is coming which shall burn them up, says Yahweh of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name-he says-The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings-that sun-Messiah Yahushua-will shine brightly and destroy the wicked with the brightness of His coming, but to those who are willing to be refined by the fire now-He will come and heal us-He says-you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves-He's gonna take care of you. And you'll trample the wicked-they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet-the least of the kingdom-on the day that I do this, says Yahweh of hosts. And interestingly, this place is the very last chapter in the Old Testament-almost like a little warning. Remember the Law of Moshe, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Don't forget. And then John the Baptist came. So, let's remember
the standard that Yahweh has given us of love in His Word. And when we're encountering trials and tests and tribulations as a result of our keeping of His commandments, in case, coming up here the Feast of Tabernacles-remember-stick with it-don't falter-you're going to keep the commandments of Yahweh. You're leaving Egypt to go keep the feasts in the wilderness, right? We're gonna leave Egypt for a while, so they'll keep the feasts in the wilderness for nine days. And also remember-trust Yahweh in His mercy or you may fail Him, and don't give up. You may fall seven times but get back up again. And when you fail, don't have an "Oh well" attitude-"I've got grace-whatever." But say - "Oh no", confess it to Yahweh, seek forgiveness, and you receive the promise that He promises
If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive you. He wants you to overcome-He wants to help you overcome. He wants you to be like His Son, Yahushua Messiah, the righteous. Therefore, let our hearts be tender before Yahweh-
Ready to be molded and formed into whatever's beautiful and whatever is precious-departing from the wrong attitudes of anger, self-pity, of complaining, and just lay our lives wide-open before Him-giving everything fully to Him-turning away from pride and bitterness and hate-turning toward humility, forgiveness and love-turning away from temptation to worry about tomorrow-instead have an attitude of faith that the most powerful being in the universe has us in His hands. Turning away from temptation to complain about our circumstances, and humbly bowing before the King and rejoicing in the trials, knowing nothing can happen to us that He won't turn into something good. Turning away from prideful desires to glorify ourselves in self-pity and focus instead on glorifying Yahweh, knowing that even if He slayed us, we still trust in Him. Instead of manifesting the negative attitudes, lets manifest
the joy of salvation. So, in all things,
let's seek to have a heart that's humbled before Yahweh. In all things, let's seek to have a heart that trusts in Yahweh. In all things, we count our blessings-we walk in faith, and in all things let our attitude be
right before Yahweh.
Oh Father Yahweh-thank You for Your love and mercies, and kindness, and compassion, patience, and the ways that You have led us-we thank You. We thank You for everything that You've delivered us from-things we don't even realize-You have delivered us from. And we long, Father to let the life of Yahushua the Messiah be manifested in our lives, knowing He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And allowing ourselves to manifest His life-to keeping Your Torah, keeping Your Word. We trust in Your mercy, Your compassion, Your forgiveness, and Your grace, and not by works are we saved. But Father, we so much desire Your work that You did in Messiah Yahushua to be done in us by Your power and Your might. For truly Yours is the kingdom and power and glory forever and ever. And all praise, honor and worship belong to You, Yahweh, our Mighty One-Yahweh, our Elohim forever and ever. In Yahushua's name we pray these things. Amein