You Can't Have That!

Title of my sermon is, You Can't Have That! You Can't Have That! I looked back on that wonderful table back there and I see all those sweets and I realize that Mary will say, You Can't Have That! And I don't eat hardly anything with sugar unless it's a natural honey or something. And so she's always telling me, she's got her head down now, You Can't Have That! 40 years! She's been telling me about certain things I don't need or can't have or shouldn't have. And it's for my, it's every one of them has been my for my benefit. She's not been wrong, except in my mind it's like, Mind your own business. Don't tell me what to do. Don't tell, yeah, you're not the boss of me now. But that's made me think of this sermon because there were times when I was growing up and that's what I heard. You can't have that. No, you don't need that. That is the first lesson that I have for us today. The first lesson and why it's so important because God tells us in this book, 31,102 verses, He tells us many times, You Can't Have That! He may say it in different words, but that's what He means. You can't have that because it's not good for you. And growing up, my parents would say that quite often. That is why I had to sneak around and get into some food that they didn't want me to have or they wanted me to have one piece. But it was all for my benefit. I want to look at it because God tells us you can't have that. And one of the ways in which He does it is the giving of the Ten Commandments. Now, Ten Commandments are very important, and most of us do. We still know those. I, for the benefit of this group, and some people say, I take it lightly because I will hand this out. I'm not taking it lightly. I don't want you to take. I'm not mocking God's Word. But any way in which people can understand the Ten Commandments and keep them, I'm all for it. Now, where do they have to understand? There's different translations of the Ten Commandments. There's like 30 or 40 different translations out here now. All same things a little bit different. Richard, could I get your help? Can I get your help to hand this out? Give everybody one of these. Bill, if you don't mind this one? I'm taking this side. I may have to have all of those. Because here I want to give you, since we did have the passing of a famous, she called herself hillbilly this week, Dolly Parton. And so she said she saw an interview with her and she loved the word hillbilly. She didn't mind being a hillbilly because it meant you were close to the country. So here I have the hillbilly Ten Commandments. Ken? This is for country people that hopefully you understand. Did you get one? And if Bill doesn't. And this puts it in a way that maybe only hillbillies can truly appreciate it. So if you'll go ahead and read those. And if you need any more, does anybody need another one? No? Get that. Bill's handing those out.

Now let's talk about ours. That we have, hopefully, are Ten Commandments that we keep from the new living translations. Because in the Ten Commandments, there's a lot of can'ts, isn't there? Even though it doesn't say it, it said that shall not. They put it in a different way. I'm using the word can't. And I want to ask you the very first one of the commandments. We can't have other gods. Is this on? Can you turn this on? I'm going to turn this around. Okay. Why not? What's wrong? What's wrong? Distract everybody. Distract everybody. Anybody else? There's only one guy. What's wrong with just, you know, a couple? Yeah. No. He's a jealous guy. He is a jealous god. Very good point. But let's go further. You can't have a graven image. I mean, I can't have something wood or stone or anything that really, I mean, I've seen some beautiful carvings. Wouldn't that honor God if I had a just a beautiful wooden carved out in my view of what God might look like? Nobody knows what God looks like. So why would you say that limits him? Take away from him. Take away from him. Replacing him with something. Okay, but this is God in your own image. Ah, very good. All right. I can't take God's name in vain. Now, you've got to tell me that he can't be too offended at O-M-G, can he? What? Well, this just typed. It's not the words aren't really out there. Really? Why would that bother him? Oh, everybody's quiet. No. Trivial.

Disrespectful. Well, you're not really talking about him, you know, in a respectful manner. It's true. Have you been looking at my notes, girl? I'm talking to my kids that when you say God's name, you're either talking about him or you're praying to him. And that's it. Very good.

All right, let's go to some other camps on this list up here. I can't worship on just any day, any time, when I've read quite a few papers that if you're really spiritual and you're professed to be really spiritual, that you worship God on every day, every day. And that every day can be special with God because you are worshiping on every day. You agree with that paper?

God said it and that settles it. He said to worship him. Yes. Okay, then let's move on to another one. I have no problem. I'm sure you don't either. We can't murder someone. And I agree with that. I think that's a very good one. Okay, I sleep better with that. But then there's the next one. And it says that Mary cannot be polyamorous. For you that don't know polyamorous, it means Mary can't be married to me and have John Bon Jovi on the side. Okay? It says, you can't commit adultery. And yet the Bible is full of leaders who did. Multiple wives and concubines. The wisest man who ever lived had how many wives? Two thousand, seven hundred, seven hundred, and had concubines. Look what happened to him. Too many! We can't keep it up. And it wasn't good. It didn't turn out good. None of them turned out very well, did it? He got distracted and looked at how bad I was wearing that one. So, Mary, you've got just me for quite a few years yet. Okay. You can't steal.

Is that...

Does that include someone who is starving to death? That their kids are starving and don't have food and this man goes out and has to steal for his family to live?

He should not steal.

Go ask somebody for a hey. Can I pick a bushel apple from your garden?

I bring that up because about 40 days ago, in our backyard, in our neighbor backyard and my yard, there were a couple of young boys. And because mangoes were everywhere, this man has seven trees. They are all seven different kinds of mangoes and they're all growing. He eats hardly any. He gives us what we want and a few of the people will come and ask him. He will give them, let them go back because there's so many on the ground. But a few weeks ago, six weeks ago, two young boys showed up in his backyard with a basket loading up mangoes.

What did God say about that?

He said you're able to go and it'll be that way in the kingdom. You go by somebody and it's on the ground. You want to pick it up or you pick one from it and eat it. That's fine, but you don't put it in a basket. These boys didn't like it when the owner came out. Oh, I can hear you smell. And I was just walking by and you know the owner next to us. He never saw an F word he didn't like. And he let these young boys know it. And they just kind of walked by me and one of them goes, he's mean. I believe if they've gone to ask that he would have allowed them to ask. So that is a part. It says you can't lie. God says you can't lie.

A little white lie? Um, as we discussed the other day about lying to protect someone. Was Rahab wrong? Was Rahab right? Did Jesus Christ ever lie?

So who do we pattern ourselves with? Rahab or Jesus Christ? That's what we've been given to go by. Hey, you forgot number five.

I like how it says you shall not bear false witness. Yes. Because people do tell stories about other people that are not true and it causes a lot of harm. Very much so. It's gossip, it's slander, all these things are part of it. That's what God, God, He wants us all living by the same rules, doesn't He? He wants us all to all have the same mentality. He wants us all to have the same spiritual laws in our hearts, not just the physical laws that we're thinking about. It's interesting that one of the big debates, especially in the Jewish world, is that they do not put lying in the same category as bearing false witness.

Their understanding is that bearing false witness means up on a witness stand. When you're called up before and you're to tell the truth. And that's as far as it goes. I think we understand that's not God's intention on this part.

And then it says, I can't even covet or lust this Toyota Tacoma that pulled in front of us today at church. Because I want a truck back. But what's wrong with saying, man, that's a beautiful truck? Nothing's wrong with that? No. When does it become wrong? When I really, really want it. So if I just want it, it's wonder, but I really, really want it. That's when it's wrong. Oh, you think it's beautiful, but you don't have to want anyone in place. And if it's all you think about. It becomes God to you. It comes like God. Well, overspending yourself to get it. And afterwards, you have a lot of pain and sorrow to pay off that vehicle. That's why I'm saving my money.

Why so many can't in this Bible? Why does God want us? Because if you look at that list, it's more negative than it is positive, isn't it? Wouldn't you want a positive God to, you know, put a little more positive spin on that? But he didn't, did he? And why are there so many can'ts?

For our own sake. For your sake. Say that one, John. They're not negative, actually. Yes. They shall not instead of can't.

Mm-hmm. But let me ask you this. Does he want us all just to think alike? No. He wants us all to be of the same moral character. Once it's all to develop or have the same moral character, what moral character is that? His. Yes. His. His. Yeah. He even sent his son down to model that character, didn't he? And prove.

Proved? Yeah. Proved? Yeah. And to prove it can be done even in the human flesh, which is not always easy. I could turn to Amos 3 and chapter 3 and verse 3. Because to me, this is what it is all about, especially when you study the Hebrew and how it's all written here for us, saved for us. It says, Can two walk together, lest they agree? After we which way to go?

Yes. And the actual meaning of it in Greek is the same path together, walking side by side, going the same distance on the same path as everything lined up. Now, I think we understand that God is not going to go down a path of anything but righteousness. And he wants us to. But we don't always do that, do we?

Occasionally, we take a fork in the road, don't we? Or we don't walk at the same pace with God. And that's on us, isn't it? God can't follow our ways, but he knows we can follow his way. We were not put on earth just to spend our 80, 90 years. There is a purpose. And that's one of the reasons we have the Holy Days. It points to that future. The spring Holy Days is more of a focus on you and what's in your heart and accepting and appreciating what Jesus Christ did for us.

That's a focus even for the first first. But the next four Holy Days, they are about a future and eternity with God. No way, shape, or body. He's going to be on the road to eternal life. He can't go any other way. He asked us, will you join me? But you're going to have to walk with me, and you're going to have to walk on the same path. I find it interesting as I was counseling two from marriage a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, that I was going to get married at the feast this year, just before, on the island of Saint Lucia.

But they asked me to do the counseling. So over Zoom, we did this with the young man and young woman. Since I knew him, I didn't really know her that well. But this is one of the scriptures that I took them to in this counseling, which was actually three sessions. The first one, where I get to know them, and then the second counseling is where I show what God expects from them and their marriage. And the third one is usually, I will spend my time trying to talk them out of getting married.

Because if I can talk them out of getting married, they don't need to be married. It's not, I want to get married. It's like, I must desire to get married. I want this. But this is one of the scriptures, because when you're talking about marriage according to God, then you become one flesh. The two become one. He says that in the first book of Genesis. And in John 17, he tells us that Christ wants us to become one with him and one with God.

To go down this path, to go down this road. In marriage counseling, I talk about the major causes of divorce in America, even though they weren't in America. The first one is communication. It's one of the leading causes of lack of communication, where they just shut each other out. You'll shut each other out. You shut the other one, or you just don't want to talk, or there's real problems, but you don't want to address them. Communication. And second one is financial. And I always laugh over that one, because one of them is a spender, and usually the other one is a saver.

And so guess how you're going to walk down that path? And it's interesting to see their view of, okay, do you plan? Would you like to have kids? Well, she said yes. How many would you like to have? Three or four? And he looks. I said, what was your idea? He said one or two.

And I said, so you guys are going to have to work on this together, because that's a big decision in life. That's big time. As financial, as also communication. And then, you're worship of God. I don't put it down that low, but religion does play a part in divorces today. You cannot walk together unless they agree. So God is planning for us. We are told at the Feast of Trumpets, and we'll talk about that here. The dead in Christ will rise and meet him in the air. No, Stan, the dead in Christ will rise.

And then we who are alive will change in a moment, a twinkling of an eye. And then we will marry Jesus Christ, as Revelation 19 says. Oh, we see the marriage supper. We marry Christ. We're to be one with Christ. We're in the engagement time right now. So we have to be sure what we're about. Are we ready? You know. But then, God demands eternity in Revelation 21-22. He demands eternity, because that's where he is coming down, and everything from that time at that time will be spirit, and we're going to dwell with him. So all we're doing now is practicing, practicing, trying to be at one with Christ, trying to be at one with God. And some can't do it. And God gets to see if you can't do it. When he says, you can't have this, you can't do that, you can't do that, because it's all for our benefit. And then we say, I can't live like that. He doesn't. I'm not going to do it.

Because two cannot walk together unless they agree in his word, he can't spend eternity with you. Remember, he doesn't even want his son spending a thousand years with you. That's serious. That's serious as we look into the kingdom, because that's the promise. Well, this is another one.

You can't have your own holy days. That's what he says in here. You can't have your own holy days. I'm going to give you seven annual holy days. They're mine, and I'm giving them to you, and you can't have your own. Well, what if I want more than that?

But is it because he said so? That's like my parents when I was younger. Go to bed, it's nine o'clock. Why? Because I said so. Why? Why? You don't have to know everything. No. When Jesus Christ was born, and so many of the theologians and scholars today realize he was born in the fall of the year, and many of them put it on the date of Feast of Trumpets.

Why then why don't we celebrate the Feast of Trumpets as his birthday? Because it was not denoted in the Bible in his birth. Yeah, but he said keep his house over.

He has a thought of specificity. He put it clear for us. But I'm just trying to add to it.

I think I went over that scripture too many times in this congregation.

Yes, ma'am. He said that death is more important than the birth. Okay, yes, it definitely was what Jesus Christ was. I mean, his birth, and even ours, because of what we will become. Good point. Let me go to, because it's about the number one. You remember we did our number Bible study? Do you remember how one was the number one? Yeah. Let's go with you. Go with me to John, John 17.

John chapter 17 and verse 21. Oh, he has it in a new living translation. I like this one better. Let me do this. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one, Jesus Christ is talking to his father. As you are in me, father, and I am in you, and may they be in us so that the world will believe that you sent me. We all read the top part because it's Passover. I've read it every year at Passover, but sometimes we forget the bottom, the last line, so that the world will believe that you sent me. That's a powerful statement, which also, not that I'm going to add to the word, but doesn't bring to mind our responsibility? That if we are with one with Christ and we are one with God, they may also need to look at us so the world may know. Because we're doing what, we're the physical human examples of what Jesus Christ came and modeled. We are that, aren't we? And so the world may know that Jesus is who he said he was. We need, he based his thought everything on the Father.

Now we are told to be Christ-like, so our minds were there. And can the world look at us and our behavior and our can'ts and see Jesus Christ? That's beautiful. He knows his own. He knows his own. But also, wouldn't you say, because it proves it can be done? It can be done? If it can be done in us, it can be done in anybody. Yes, because he calls the weak and the base. He just didn't call them to stay that way. And that's part of this. It's a team concept.

Holy days, the full holy days.

What's the model he used? He used oil and clean.

Harvesting, didn't he? It's about harvest. It's about farming. We have come so far two thousand years later to what they understood when these words were written. We know harvesting is publics. Winn-Dixie, Aldi, Whole Foods. That's harvest. Trader Joe's. Oh, my wife's favorite. Yes, Trader Joe's. God used that because they were so used to understanding the blessings of a harvest. And the great harvest at the end, it was always a lot more work. I was on the farm, it was a lot more work. Because the big crop came in and usually the end of August 1st, September. Usually middle of September before we got it up. But it's so rewarding. It's so rewarding because okay, it's going to take you through the rest of the year. And you have all this stuff. You know, you guys farm. It's important. God knew it was important. As a matter of fact, He's talking about the kingdom of God, the future kingdom of the thousand-year millennial reign of Christ is going to be an agrarian society. You can argue all you want, but it's in there. And it's not about living house to house. It's talking about some vines. It's talking about some fig trees. And it talks about land. And it talks about the harvester. It's going to be so great because anybody that's ever been on a farm or you've had a garden, you realize if you don't get rain, you know, here you've spent all that time and there's nothing. But if you get rain, it's so juicy when it hits your mouth. You don't even have to wash it off. Well, I guarantee you should. But we didn't use pesticides, so I'd rub it off. And you could eat it. I just harvest some grapes for you. Did you wash them? Yes. I brought you some. This is what he's planning. He knows because it's hard work. But it's good hard work. But imagine, and you guys have farmed, any of you have farmed, if you didn't have to worry about rain, you were going to get the rain at the right time. And get the sun. And it's so abundant, as he talks about in the kingdom that you're here at the feast, that they can't even use all the food. The next thing you know, they're sowing because they can hardly even reap all the food that's out there. There'll be no stealing of food. You won't have that in the kingdom. This is God's mindset. This is what God wants us to picture. But sometimes I've even been to a feast of tabernacles that's hardly even mentioned because we're so far away from the land. We're so far away from the ground. We're so far away from where it all started, even with Cain and Abel. And we're so far away from where it's going to end, where the whole land will be so abundant with food and everything. Think about that as we enter this time, this few weeks before we get into the actual time, and how God used that to picture the harvest of mankind. And that's opened up on the great white throne judgment. And the feasts of Trumpets that will go over here when that day comes. So it's all about being at one with God. And we need our minds so that they are, they want to be. That was the first lesson. And the second one will be shorter. But the first lesson was to be like God and be in this flesh. We have to do one thing, deny ourselves. Deny ourselves. That's what He's asking us to do. He's telling us what's good. But He also tells us what's bad. And for us to be like Him, we need to deny ourselves.

Because that brings us to the second lesson. The second lesson. Because the first one is what? You can't have that. You know what the second lesson is? We have to teach Satan that he can't have that. That he can't have you. That's the lesson, the second lesson we have to have. Is we have to make sure Satan knows he can't have us. Because he wants us. He wants your life.

If he'd kill everyone in this room, he would love to. Guess where? Guess where it'll be? Get rid of some bunch of saints. He'd love to. He wants your soul. Remember the old Charlie Daniels song, the devil went down to Georgia. He was looking for his soul to steal. He was going to bind. He was way behind. He was looking to make a deal. There have been many songs. The devil and Daniel Webster was a famous thing that I read. And it all talks about the devil wanting your soul. What did God say? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. It is referenced at that time. It's like where your heart is. It's your very heartbeat. It's just like it's you. It's you, your soul. And he wants it. But we have to teach him he can't have that. And he can't have a shape. We can't have him shape our character. Because he wants to shape our character, doesn't he? He wants us to say, what's the big deal with those Ten Commandments? Aren't they archaic? They're old. They're not 2,000 years old. They're over 3,000 years old. And anything over 2,000 years doesn't need to be kept anyway. And then why wouldn't God allow you to, you know, step out occasionally on his commandments? Because then you can appreciate when you've gotten yourself in a bind how good it is to worship him. Isn't that right? And then you could actually have more grace.

Yes! Yes! That's his mentality. And he wants you to have his character, not God, not Jesus Christ. Think about that. Because in John 8 and 44, it says, John says, or Jesus Christ, saying that he's the father of all lives. We just saw that God told us we can't lie. We don't need to lie. Don't bear false witness. Don't lie. Here we have Satan who, Christ nailed it. He's a father of lies. He started it. He knows. He is so good at it. He's the master. And lest you think, I'm strong enough. Oh no, you're not in his league to tell where he's going. How do you think you at your best could pull a third of the angels away from God's actual throne and power by your lies? Because I buy the abundance of his trading. What do you have? Lies. Lies. He pulled a third. That's amazing. So we have to know this is one of his favorite deeds. It's to get us to lie. Well, you don't want to hurt that person's feelings, do you? Remember a guy I worked with, talked about his wife coming home, and said, do these pants make my behind look big? He said, what do these pants make my behind look big? He said, you mean her? Not what you need to say. Oh, bigger? No, we have this opportunity to defy the prince of the power of the air. And we have that chance every single day. And don't you know people that you know are so totally honest that you could trust them with anything? Those people are rare, but they're there. And you know some. They may have other faults, but they'll never lie to you. This is what Christ wants us to be, because he couldn't lie. Right, right. He got Ananias and Sophia, members of the church, to lie about giving money.

He got the first couple, married couple, to turn on each other by lies. You will not surely die.

He wants you. You might as well have a bullseye on your head.

Joe did, didn't he? Joe had a bullseye. You know what? God put it there. He said, go ahead. But he said you can't take his life. God didn't call you to be a Jove. He called you to be who you are and to represent Jesus Christ. But you also must realize you've got a bullseye. Satan wants you. He doesn't need or want he already has everybody else except those who follow Christ. He doesn't need them. He needs you to falter. He needs you to stop acting like Christ. Lose the vision of the coming kingdom of God, exactly what these four holy days are going to tell us about the future. He wants you. He wants you to think they're not important. He's going to lie to you and say, oh, that's not that big a deal. No, it doesn't really help you to get pumped up and study and really look forward and visualize. Sit there in your mind and see some of these things that Christ, like Isaiah, read the scriptures and close your eyes. Or put it on your phone and listen and just close your eyes and try to visualize these things. No, he doesn't want you doing that.

Because four holy days are attack time. And if you start now, you'll get a jump on him. Okay? Just more Bible study, more prayer, and just flat out say, no, not this year. You're not going to get me. You're not going to take my focus off. You're not going to let me go to the feast and then have bad attitude the entire time because I got your attitude. There was a poem written in 1864. And if the world really understood it, because this does most of the world know that the cause of all pain and evil and everything else comes from Satan? No, no, they really don't. But in 1864, this man wrote this poem, and it was used in a movie clip, used in a movie by Kevin Spacey called The Usual Suspects. And he says this line, and I think it's so correct. From the poem, it said, The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. That person's just mean. They're just evil. A woman that just strangled her three kids and so on trial. And we've got a justice system that can't even discern whether, because she might have had some medication that caused her to do it. All three children strangled to death and send her husband out. And we've got a justice system that can't figure that out. Where is that coming from? Oh, that, you know, it's just not. That's just, she just went through these things. She's postpartum, and you don't understand unless you're a woman. Well, I know a lot of women, they love their children. That's evil. That's just flat out evil. And it comes from Satan. And as soon as the world realizes all this stuff, and when he is bound, the world will see. The world will see, and we'll see him for what he is. Okay, last verse. I have three minutes. I have three minutes. How can I do this verse in three minutes? I have to. I have to. Because there's one verse, one verse in the entire Bible that is this whole sermon. I could have just used this one verse, but I was afraid somebody'd call and complain. I only use one verse. But this one verse tells these two lessons better than any other scripture in the entire Bible. And the only one that probably could have written this with such authority would be Jesus' brother James. James 4 and verse 7. Submit to God, period. Isn't that the first lesson?

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If you don't resist the devil, where do you think he's going to be? He's hanging out in your back bedroom. He's hanging around in your back seat. He's just waiting. It's interesting that the Greek word for resist is a military term that doesn't mean build a wall. It means attack back. That's what it means. You're going to have to take it to him. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If you don't resist, he'll go, well, you know, maybe he'll go hanging around. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I can influence this one. Resist the devil. Say, no, you're not going to... I probably look crazy occasionally in my car where I'm driving, because I actually have to say that. And I... No, you will not. And they're going, because I know who's doing, who's putting this stuff in my mind. He's trying to get me, and I must resist. But the first one is submit. Submit to God. It's everything about those Ten Commandments, isn't it? It was everything that Jesus Christ did. He submitted to the Father. I can do nothing, except by the Father. Submit. The Greek word is hypo tasso. Hypo being under, and tasso meaning arrange. Hypo, tasso, I always remember because I think of a hippo being underwater, so it's under. But it means, hypo means under. You arrange yourself under... Who? God. Arrange ourselves under. That's what submit truly means. Arrange ourselves so our whole life is under him, under his law, under this book. And you do that, and you resist the devil. He will flee from you.

And if you'll do those two things, this book, Jesus Christ and God, guarantees you you will be in his kingdom. It's that simple.