Amazing Facts – Study #7

• Great video on Sabbath
• God will judge based upon the light available to the person
• Whenever in doubt – Do What Jesus Did (DWJD) – Sabbath
• The commandment about the Sabbath begins with the word ‘remember’ – maybe God knew people would forget…
• Jesus wants a love relationship with us.  In order to have a love relationship, you need quality time
• “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God;” – Exodus 20:10
• It’s not the Sabbath of Israel, not the Sabbath of the Jews, it’s the Sabbath of the LORD thy God
• You can’t keep the spirit of a law, but break the letter of a law
• It’s the seventh day, not a seventh day
• God gave us baptism to remember the resurrection – it never says He changed the Sabbath day to Sunday to remember the resurrection
• Am I going to follow Jesus, or am I going to follow what’s popular?
• His elect will be sealed in the last days.
• A seal represents three things: territory, title and position
• The characteristic of who God really is, is in the Sabbath commandment: in six days, the Lord (position), created (title: creator) the heavens and the earth (territory)
• By recognizing the Sabbath, God will bless you through the observance of His day.

The Rock San Diego – 9/21 message – Fasting

• Christianity is not about rules, it’s about Jesus, the person, and your relationship with Him
• In Heaven, the church is married to Jesus – men and women aren’t married together
• The pleasure of the oneness between the bride and the groom on earth is a foreshadow of the pleasure of the oneness between the church (bride) and Jesus (groom) in heaven
• God wants to be one with you, but you have entanglement with the world
• Satan is real – there is evil in this world
• The way people know that you know God is not by what you know, it’s by how you live – that you and Christ are one
• What is fasting – to voluntarily abstain from eating or drinking for an extended period of time
• Why would I voluntarily not eat?  Because I want to be one with God – because your food is in the way of God
• Fasting is intended to separate you from your perceived life support, that you may focus exclusively on the Lord, your actual life support
• Out of all the food that is man-made, none of it is as good for you as what God made
• Fruits are ovaries of plants – they have the seeds in them
• The pulp of an orange regulates the sugar into your blood
• How are seeds so smart???
• When you separate yourself from food, you’re going to realize you have addictions
• When you separate yourself from your addictions, you remove your social crutches, and all you’re left with is Jesus
• The fasting goal is a personal encounter with the living God. “He must increase, and we must decrease” – whatever you remove, God now replaces that
• When you fast, you get to the point where you don’t get hungry any more
• There are some things (afflictions) that only fasting will repair or resolve
• The Devil has you addicted, thinking you need the cycle of food
• For most people, 90% of what they eat is no good for them
• What’s better, eating garbage, or not eating at all?
• #1 – prepare your heart – “God, I want to have an encounter with you”
• You will lose weight, your senses will become more acute, your body detoxes – you may get a little sick or feverish and you may start to smell worse than you do normally (just for a while as you get cleaned out)
• #2 – check your motives – establish spiritual goals
• #3 – prepare your body – fruits and vegetables only for 7-10 days, then drink juices, water, then come off gradually with another period of time with fruits and veggies (can use a little protein powder if you want)
• You could fast from sweets; white flour, white rice, white sugar;
• If you’re a healthy person, your body can do a lot more than you think
• #4 – prepare your schedule – spend time with Him – keep your mind on God
• Hunger pain is way overrated – nothing will happen – they actually start subsiding
• If you don’t need food, what else are you perhaps addicted to?
• Keep your fast a secret – avoid people as much as possible, avoid meals with groups of people, spend as much time alone in prayer as possible, tell your family what you’re doing (I’m not going to eat, please don’t ask me)
• Drugs get you high by telling your body to release drugs you already have in you (dopamine)
• You don’t know what you don’t know until you do it

The Rock San Diego – 9/14 sermon – Love

• Christian rules are foolishness to the ‘natural’ man
• Love is our greatest commandment
• Unconditional love is obedience based on Truth, not unconditional approval of behavior based on emotion
• Love is God obedience based on Truth (His word)
• To love God is to obey God
• If I love someone, I show that love by helping that person obey God
• Satan’s options for handling of Christians
• Conform or be labeled as a militant
• Conform or become irrelevant
• Don’t blame people, pray for them
• Conforming with Satan’s rules force you to compromise God’s word
• Wake up and acknowledge the terms that Satan has redefined
• When Christians are called ‘haters’, it’s because we don’t condone and tolerate what some people may want – it’s like a toddler throwing a fit because the mom or dad says ‘no’ about something and they say ‘I hate you!’
• Obey the word of God – period.
• “If you’re tolerant, why can’t you accept that I’m a Christian and I live by God’s rules?”
• Therefore, God’s love has nothing to do with giving us what we want, and everything to do with bringing us closer to Him through obeying His word.
• “How are you connecting me warning you about dangerous behavior and me saying you’re a bad person?”
• “If I’m wrong, please show me how to be right, according to the word of God”

Ezekiel 22-23

• God’s laws / rules are black and white.  Do not get coerced into relativism and accepting shades of grey, when there ARE absolutes of right and wrong, good and evil.
• Cities tend to be the focus of all that is evil.  People tend to get their spiritual strength, their growth, away from cities, when they are by themselves
• It is even a sin to cloud / grey the distinction between good and evil
• “The only thing that man has learned from history is that man has learned nothing from history.”
• God uses the object of our lust as the mechanism of our judgment
• Forgetting God is the fundamental issue behind all sin
• The two crimes in the OT that were punishable by stoning: murder and adultery.  Our current culture seems to wink at adultery

Fasting

I am now on a 40 day fast – my one and only intent is to experience God in a powerful way that I trust Him to know how to direct.  I have questions, and it would be great to receive answers, but God knows what those questions are, and He will provide the answers according to His timeline.  This fast is my way of subjecting my desires and putting God first, so that I may experience being one with Him in the way He chooses to bless me with.