Beyond the Walls Radio

In Matthew 19 we find Jesus in a discussion with a rich young ruler who allegedly desired eternal life. Said another way, he wanted to know how to return to the life and blessing of the Garden that his great, great, great, great ... grandparents were banished from, in the Genesis story. The young man already had most everything he wanted through financial status and community influence, yet he was admittedly unsatisfied in his own heart. Jesus not only showed him how to find redemption from his own slavery to material wealth, but apparently invited him to become the 12th Apostle of the Lamb (to replace the thieving CFO on staff at that time - Judas Iscariot - who was actively embezzling funds for himself). The central theme of finances in this context are remarkable to consider. Our Redeemer's very birth in the stable was the direct result of the profound generosity of our Father in Heaven. Generosity, among other virtues, remains a chief characteristic we must all embrace in order to truly follow Christ. In this sermon, Pastor Gordon explains why Jesus' invitation for the ruler to become a disciple was preceded by an invitation for him to cease living in dysfunctional dominion (building one's own private wealth) and, instead, sell everything chaining his soul, donate it to the needs of the poor, and follow Christ into the true riches of the eternal life. In the end, a very rich man asked for eternal life, but, ironically, decided it was too expensive. There would be no redemption for anyone without the generosity of our Father God. There is no other path to Heaven but through the gift Father God gave the world in His son, Jesus Christ. There is no way to accept Jesus Christ while rejecting His body on the earth, which is His church. There is no other path to taking righteous dominion than through the grace of giving. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

The Jews had a saying that went like this: "...As a man is bound to provide for his wife, so he is bound to provide for his sons and daughters, the little ones, until they are six years old; and from thenceforward he gives them food till they are grown up, according to the order of the wise men; if he will not, they reprove him, and make him ashamed, and oblige him; yea, if he will not, they publish him in the congregation, and say such an one is cruel, and will not provide for his children; and lo, he is worse than an unclean fowl, which feeds her young.'' (Maimon. Hilchot Ishot, c. 12. sect. 14.) This teaching was inferred from the foundation of the Decalogue, which commanded honor within the context of a family. The explicit command was for the children to honor their parents, but the implicit obligation followed that the parent must obviously care for the affairs of their children and house. This immutable principle of financial stewardship and family fitness applied to all the faithful and obedient Hebrew people who lived righteous before the law of God. This included Mary and Joseph, as stewards of the Christ child, but also later extended to each of the married disciples of Jesus, who, despite being in full-time ministry with Him, had lawful obligations to their own wives and children. The principle obviously extended itself upon Jesus Christ, personally, as the head of His ministry. Therefore, from a strictly Biblical sense of poverty being the result of personal sin, Jesus COULD NOT have been living in true poverty as the result of His personal failure(s) to diligently obey the Law of God in His work ethic, nor could have Mary and Joseph, nor could any of the disciples who followed Christ under the strictest sense of how Scripture defines abject poverty. Along this same vein of thinking, the Great Apostle declared: "But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers." (See 1 Timothy 5:8.) The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown commentary states: "Worse than an infidel—because even an infidel (or unbeliever) is taught by nature to provide for his own relatives, and generally recognizes the duty; the Christian who does not so, is worse (Mt 5:46, 47). He has less excuse with his greater light than the infidel who may break the laws of nature. This truth regarding the concept of abject poverty and one's duty to one's own relate to so much more than mere financial stewardship (but certainly include it) and must be understood even if it requires the modern Christian to repudiate popularly held sacred cows concerning the alleged "poverty" of Mary and Joseph, the "poverty" of Jesus Christ, or the "poverty" of His twelve disciples. When did Jesus TRULY become "poor" and why? Is it true that Jesus was so poor he was "a homeless man" as so many have claimed? Pastor Gordon continues to show the evidences of Scripture to the contrary, and by doing so, provides a basis for the modern Christian to come to faith on something more reliable than the traditions of men. God has commanded for man to take dominion of the earth and subdue it. This requires man to overcome the sins that cause his own poverty. Jesus became poor on the cross and defeated poverty by His resurrection!

The Bible tells us that God paved all the streets in Heaven with gold. Why did He do that? In this sermon, Pastor Gordon continues to clearly explain the truth of the doctrine of the atonement. He specifically explains how the atonement of Christ defeated the three great pillars of Satanic evil (sin, sickness, and poverty) primarily used by the enemy to distract and stop each of us from obediently fulfilling our duty to take dominion and subdue the earth as commanded in Genesis 1:28. The situation we face as the modern church, when it comes to understanding the sacred doctrine of the atonement, is that if we merely agree with Scripture about WHAT Christ accomplished without also understanding WHEN He accomplished it (on the cross), our faith can be completely short-circuited. Many of today's preachers tell us that God paved His streets with gold in an effort to flaunt the wealth of Heaven. Pastor Cary suggests that it was done for a much richer (pardon the pun) lesson. This heavenly paradigm on economics is directly connected to the work of Christ in His atonement on the cross, and connecting the dots between them ignites our faith while walking Earth's dusty roads. God took gold (which He called "good" in Genesis and left as a means of exchange between goods and services) and paved the streets in Heaven with it. Listen now to find out why, and ignite your faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ, release your faith, and begin taking dominion for the Kingdom of God.

Continuing from last week's message, "Prosperity Heretics and Poverty Heretics - Satan Loves Them Both," listeners discover that in the midst of an entire chapter of the New Testament (contextually dedicated to the practical subject of little more than church fundraising) comes one verse that may have won the most Bible-butchered contest of the ages - 2 Corinthians 8:9. Few verses from the Bible have caused preachers to do interpretive gymnastics more than this verse. Pastor Gordon appeals to reason without caving to popular theological pressures emanating from the parallel ditches (ditches of hyper-prosperity and/or poverty) by carefully laying out the evidence. By carefully reviewing the passage with an eastern paradigm, he slaughters yet another sacred cow in our times: when was Jesus "rich" and when did Jesus become "poor" for our sakes? Put on your thinking caps, lay aside presuppositions, and prepare yourself by embracing objectivity. Jesus did become poor. The Bible says so. Jesus was rich. The Bible says so. But WHEN did these things happen to Jesus "...so that we might become rich"? Further, is it true that when the verse blatantly says the words, "that we might become rich," it isn't talking about money, even though it is written in the middle of a fundraising letter written for the purpose of teaching Christians about the grace for generosity? Inquiring minds want to know! This is a "No Eisegesis Zone."

Much confusion abounds concerning the dominion mandate which began in Eden and was refreshed by Christ during His delivery of the Great Commission. The appropriate repulsion caused by hyper-prosperity heretics, who have misled millions into believing that wealth is an accurate indication of righteousness, has driven many into another ditch of equally disturbing heresy - the perverted lie that poverty is in any way connected to righteousness. On both ends of these exaggerated doctrinal abuses, false assumptions of truth have been repeated so often from their respective pulpiteers that masses of Christians have allowed Biblically unsupportable myths to become mental strongholds mistaken as truth. In this message, Pastor Gordon invites students of the Bible to navigate the hard facts as they are actually presented in the Scriptures. He leaves the cliches behind to carefully consider Satan's recorded resistance against all believers in every covenant since Eden. The Bible teaches four things: 1) Being wealthy does not mean you are righteous. 2) Being impoverished does not mean you are righteous. 3) The sin of laziness brings poverty. 4) The virtue of hard work mixed with faith brings blessings and success. How has Satan primarily resisted all believers? In the two primary dimensions of our twice-born call to take dominion of the earth: by resisting or perverting the property instinct and the sexual instinct.

Justice is a very good thing. Death entered the world in response to the injustice of Adam. Life entered the world in response to the justice of Father God toward Jesus. Because God is a God of justice, death became a necessary remedy for the rebellion of mankind. God essentially predetermined that He would not allow rebellion to continue endlessly, so death made all rebellion a temporary nuisance. Yes, justice is a very good thing. This is also why life entered the world in response to the sinless and just life of Jesus Christ. Because Father God is a God of justice, eternal life also became a necessary remedy for the restoration of mankind. God also predetermined that He would not allow rebellion to infect humanity without countering the plague of eternal death with an antidote for it offered to all mankind. God made eternal life a reality through Christ for those who repent and enter the Kingdom from Heaven. Yes, both death and life were and are extensions of God's perfect justice. Will you be resurrected when the trumpet sounds? Let's look further at whether you are taking dysfunctional dominion as a "once-born" child of Adam or whether you are taking dominion as a "twice-born" child of God.

The New Testament, in first Corinthians chapter ten, reminds us that the Old Testament's invaluable records of the lives of the men and women of antiquity were preserved for our sakes. They are meant to be examples for those of us living in the present, "upon whom the ends of the world are come." How kind of God to inspire men across history to make careful records of the victories and failures of those who came before us, so that we could learn how to avoid reliving their tragedies, and, instead, strive to achieve their victories. In this sermon, Pastor Gordon continues explaining the concept of the "zoe" life of God through the examples set by Amram and Jochebed when confronted by government tyranny.

In the Gospel of John, (5:26) it says, "For as the Father hath ('zoe' in the Greek) life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have ('zoe') life in himself." In this message Pastor Gordon unpacks the remarkable meaning of this truth from John by showing how it relates to Father God initiating the first living person by breathing into his nostrils in (Genesis 2:7). "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being..." Next, Pastor Gordon juxtaposes the pivotal moment when Jesus did the exact same thing for a second-time in world history (John 20:22), saying: "[Jesus] breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld'." Father God's breath of life at creation, and Jesus' breath of life upon the disciples are two moments of extraordinary importance to the Christian world. Both are connected to the primal instincts of the sexual impulse and the property impulse. These two God ordained desires are what makes the world go 'round, and Satan has been trying to exploit them both since the very beginning. Buckle your seat-belts as Pastor Gordon begins a ride through Bible history uncovering a repeating pattern that will help us prepare for our enemy's traps by recognizing his tactics.

Church authorities estimate that approximately fifty billion people have lived on the earth since the Garden of Eden. Every single one of them, along with you and me, inherited the promise of eternal death from their exponentially great, great, great, great, grandparents, Adam and Eve. Then Jesus threw Himself into the grinding gears of the cosmic vending machine of our collective doom in order to provide what He described as "life more abundantly." Most of us have some reasonable idea of what life is, but what exactly is "life more abundantly"? What does abundant life, in the mind of Jesus, actually mean? Find out in part two of this teaching on divine dominion (discussed in show #30 as "Dysfunctional Dominion Demands Death"), and let the abundant grace of God usher you into the abundant life that Jesus made available!

"Dysfunctional Dominion Demands Death!" Said another way, perverting their job description through sin guaranteed that all things in Eden (and beyond) would die. Death has always been and remains connected to Adam and Eve's refusal to "take dominion" on behalf of God's Kingdom. They chose to take dominion on behalf of themselves, instead. Jesus solved the problem created through Adam's rebellion, when He arrived on the scene in history and retook dominion on behalf of God the Father, for the sake of man's rescue from the threat of eternal death! Jesus walked on the water demonstrating His authority over gravity! He calmed the storm at sea demonstrating His authority over nature! He healed the woman with the issue of blood demonstrating His authority over the human body! He healed the blind, the lame and the leper demonstrating His authority over disease. He cast out demons demonstrating His authority over Satan and his minions. He raised Lazarus from the grave demonstrating his authority over physical, spiritual and eternal death! Jesus refused sin, and thereby refused dysfunctional dominion in the midst of His wilderness temptation, and instead, took divine dominion as God originally commanded Adam and Eve from the beginning. When we become twice-borns through the work of Christ, and enter into citizenship in His kingdom, we too, by His grace, are commissioned to embark on a journey where we partner with Christ in His dominion of the earth. In this sermon, Pastor Gordon continues to juxtapose the Genesis dominion mandate with its New Testament reiteration commonly called "The Great Commission". He declares to us that Jesus' Great Commission did not rescind or alter Father God's original perfect mandate for mankind. What does "taking dominion" look like in your life right now? Are you really taking it? Have you been born a second time? Find out the answers to these questions and more.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth (see 2 Corinthians 4) and used the sporting terms of their Isthmian Games called "the Agones" (from where we derive the English word "agonies") to illustrate the struggle of the Christian life and how we must fight evil and win. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the "Isthmian Games, in ancient Greece, [was] a festival of athletic and musical competitions in honour of the sea god Poseidon, held in the spring of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad at his sanctuary on the Isthmus of Corinth." Paul's Corinthian church family were as familiar with this cultural phenomenon as they were opposed to its cavalier disregard for human life. By learning from the wrestling terminology the apostle used to denote the spiritual battle they faced, Paul, ironically, provided the Corinthian church with the very principles they would employ to eventually defeat the existence of Isthmian Games themselves. The celebration of this demonic festival died out when Christianity finally became dominant in the 4th century AD. These lessons given to the ancient Corinthian church remain as valid today as they were when Paul first taught them. If you live on planet Earth, you, too, are in a struggle for eternity. Learn from Pastor Gordon as he expounds on the teachings of the Chief Apostle, and learn how to win your family's wrestling match against evil!

In Genesis, we learn that dominion was (and remains to be) very important to God. God created mankind to take dominion of the earth, on His divine terms, through the power of His grace. Things went very wrong at the moment that Adam and Eve decided to take dominion of the earth on their own terms, outside the boundaries that God had given them. We correctly refer to that moment of disobedience as "a fall from grace." So here we are many thousands of years later, and we are all reaping the consequences of their decision in Eden to do things their own way. However, we have little moral authority to complain about what they did to the world if we are principally doing the same thing ourselves - living in what Pastor Gordon describes as "dysfunctional dominion." It is true enough to say that it is Adam and Eve's fault that every property owner who wishes to maintain green grass beneath a pine tree will be forced to rake the needles and pick up the pine cones, but our trouble goes far beyond the annoyances posed by routine yard work. The struggle is that every element reaches toward man to kill him. The sun would burn us. The water would drown us. The winter would freeze us. The plants would poison us. The animals would bite us. The wind would drive us. The lightning would electrocute us. The germs would infect us. We struggle across our lifespan (originally created to live forever) just to stay alive on a peaceful planet turned hostile. The incipient death doesn't go away after we accept Christ either. Faith does not eliminate the struggles but serves as a tool to help us overcome them all. Find out how to navigate incipient death and all the struggles that earth dishes out in this excellent sermon on the human condition and its corresponding salvation solution.

We say "carry your own weight" to those who do not accept responsibility for their own obligations in life. The picture of a lazy man wishing to be carted around like a Japanese prince on a koshi throne (with poles affixed to the chair and men at their stations acting as human wheels) comes to mind. Since life is too short for free loaders to demand you carry them around on a cushion, life should also be too short for you to demand that others man their stations on your own koshi throne. Carry your own weight! Do your own duty! Man your own station! Now, put all these ideas right into the middle of church life, and you'll be a better man or woman for it! You must never treat the local church as though it is your koshi throne. Adam and Even should not have treated Eden like one either. Since Eden, the world has been filled with two kinds of people: takers and givers. Most people are just takers. Greed takes and takes and takes. In order to ensure that the world is filled with twice-born righteous children (as opposed to once-born children of the Devil), Christ instituted His holy church. The twice-born experience is God's solution for the dilemma of sin Adam and Eve bequeathed to their own children after they fell from grace. Modern Christians err when they fail to see that original sin was about more than just biting into some delicious-looking fruit. Original sin was about failing to recognize when property did not belong to them. Specifically, original sin was about failing to recognize when something belonged exclusively to God and had been rightfully reserved for Him alone, with no connected moral obligation to share it until and unless He determined so. Eve was a taker. She should have seen the tree as an opportunity to GIVE respect to her Master, Maker and Father. Said another way, when she should have "paid respect" she "took a bite." God was a giver, but He had already given more than enough. The modern church still struggles with this problem when it comes to - you guessed it - the subjects of property and finance. Are you living in dysfunctional dominion like your failed father Adam? Are you just another taker? Or are you obediently walking in divine dominion as your Heavenly Father still instructs? Carry your own weight! Give tithes and offerings to the Lord's work in the local church where you are taught the high truths of God's holy Word. Pay your respects! Crucify your flesh and resist that "taker-spirit" you inherited from your Edenic parents.

The church must come to understand the continuing premise aback the New Testament Great Commission, which is first mentioned in Genesis 1:26 as “taking dominion” and “subduing the earth.” Too many in our times have twisted the truths of Jesus into such mystical, otherworldly nonsense that they have failed to obey the most obvious and essential components of church life. For example, a church that does not teach on the physical purposes of sex, pregnancy, and the gift of the natural family has little intellectual credibility to justify getting anyone born spiritually, a second time (born-again), chatting of spiritual family and calling everyone “Brother and Sister so and so” in the congregation, as if spiritual families were not first born physically.  Similarly situated, a church that does not seek to possess and properly steward PHYSICAL, LOCAL LAND for worshiping God on the Lord’s Day has little intellectual strength to talk of a triumphant, SPIRITUAL, UNIVERSAL church with HEAVENLY mansions awaiting them afar off. One spiritual truth must never be taught at the expense of the corresponding physical reality. There is a very reasonable and practical call for Christians around the world to continue taking ground (as-in real, physical property) for the sake of Christ’s Kingdom, and that call is every bit as reasonable as married couples seeking to “get pregnant” with physical children in front of the idea of later getting them “born-again.”  The One True God is not some eastern shaman who feels the need to speak in riddles to flaunt His inexplicable and unreachable wisdom. Father God is not insecure. He requires no riddles to showcase His mental superiority. Jesus, the Son of God, was quite the opposite of an eastern shaman. He declared Himself to be a perfect reflection of the character of His Father, our Creator. He prayed for real-world impact down here on terra firma: “…Thy will be done ON EARTH as it is in Heaven.” Noah did not argue against the command to build a PHYSICAL ark, made of gopher wood (Gen. 6:14), while simultaneously magnifying that the knowledge and design of the ark had been granted to him by God’s SPIRITUAL grace.  Modern preachers routinely demean the value of owning property and are ironically quick to adopt the Western materialistic idea of the small family. But why do modern churchmen do and say such silly, mystical things that abandon God’s natural laws?  We must stop posing the self-defeating arguments against collectively taking dominion as local churches through real-world financial synergy and property ownership, in the name of a fake grace that upends solid doctrine on tithes and offerings. Of course, folks prefer to keep their money and talk only of other more ethereal commands like “lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven”, but shouldn’t that give us pause for thought? If what we argue pets the flesh, greed, and envy of the depraved, shouldn’t it be just a tish alarming to us as potential error?  Just imagine Noah responding to God from a modern cheap-grace paradigm: “I am saved ONLY by SPIRITUAL grace, not by PHYSICAL works. So as much as I appreciate the gift of grace you have handed me (the instructions by which I am being commanded to physically build a wooden ark in lieu of a world-wide flood), I am not going to fall into the trap of ‘works-based salvation.’ I am politely and lovingly refusing to obey you, and decline the building of THIS WOODEN ARK, Lord. After all, I know that the body of believers could never be confined to just one physical man-made wooden structure anyway! You are too great for such a limiting wooden box. You do not live in boats made with hands! Instead, You made us a universal ark that is a spiritual boat!”  No, Noah declared no such gnostic foolishness. He understood that obedience to God was evidence of grace, not opposition against it. What’s lost on so many poor souls today is that Noah was not the only preacher called to build something practical and physical to house and protect repentant people. We, too, are called to possess and build a PHYSICAL place of SPIRITUAL worship! Yes, the church is universal and quite supernatural, but we can only connect to the universal church by joining it in the confines of one congregation we personally serve, in an actual location, on actual property. Individual Christians are not omnipresent, nor are we body-less beings hovering about like a Saturday morning cartoon Casper. Therefore, we worship God in one actual place on the Lord’s Day. We connect to the UNIVERSAL, SPIRITUAL church of the world through ONE, LOCAL, PHYSICAL congregation — a church gathering hopefully conducted under a nice and effective roof, sitting upon land we steward by the grace of God. Perhaps some walls, windows, and insulation may be reached by the congregation’s faith?  These physical structures — places of worship — were what God already clearly said He desired when He handed Moses the blueprints for the physical construction of an eventual Temple. The less-than-ideal but suitably excellent tabernacle spaces needed on the journey toward the ideal stone Temple were also to be stewarded in the same spirit of excellence.  This is still true today!  Every worship space should honor the Lord with the same spirit commanded by Him to Moses when they built the portable tabernacle. The whole world is now journeying toward the return of a victorious King! We have no right to cheapen grace as some mystical excuse to neglect our continuing mission to erect honorable chapels/synagogues/church facilities across the world. In this radio broadcast, Pastor Gordon explains the often-misunderstood difference between taking dominion as obedient members of the Body of Christ and giving generously toward one another. Get ready to learn something and put it in action in your life! Joy comes through obedience to God’s Word! Grace flows when we take and when we give, if the acts of both taking and giving are done through faith.

America is in the midst of an undeniable and ongoing moral decline before our very eyes. But we are not only unraveling as a nation, the average church is unraveling right along with western culture. What is an American pastor to do about it? On one particular morning, Pastor Gordon shares the story of how he was carrying a heavy load in his heart bearing the recent news that a dear friend and fellow minister had been wrongfully fired for acting in obedience to his own conscience and preaching truth from the Scriptures. While driving up the lane toward his church building on the east side of Sioux City, Iowa, he explains how God moved upon him in response to that heart-break, not only for the specific church that had done wrong to their leader, but even more so, for the modern church's sordid state of affairs across the globe. It was as if God entered the car and breathed grace upon him and instantly lifted his burden. What God impressed upon him was both simple and profound: "Be very concerned! Be very prepared! Do not be afraid!"

If Adam returned from the grave and took your place in life right now, where you live, with your job, your home, sleeping in your bed, and driving your car, it is pretty likely that he would be a better business man than you, have a higher IQ than you, have a better physique than you, and accomplish more than you ever will. Based on what we know of him, it is very possible that he could take what little you have right now in life and use only what you left him to turn himself into a millionaire in less than 30 days...but then, he'd still die and go right back to Hell where he came from without repentance, and we have no record that he ever repented for his sins. So what does this hypothetical scenario I just described have to do with you? Well, he was kicked out of the Garden, and you were born outside of it. You have to get back in, and he never will.

In the midst of two books and a combined fifty-five chapters of sacred literature written long, long ago, lies a message of extreme importance to Christians living right now! Bible commentator Walter Brueggemann once wrote: "The story of David and Nathan [2 Samuel 7] discussing the future transition from the Tabernacle of God to a permanent Temple of God, is the dramatic and theological center of the entire Samuel corpus; one of the most crucial texts in the Old Testament for modern evangelical faith." In this sermon, Pastor Gordon juxtaposes 2 Samuel chapter 7, with the direct command of the Lord Jesus Christ, given in Matthew 6:33. Why is David's epiphany and Nathan's witness of it so critical to understand? By the end of this you will know why and never forget it. It is time for you to have the same epiphany as King David!

Without theology man can not explain the existence of life. Men, animals, flora and fauna, from the thin-aired skies to the depths of the oceans, the things we say are "alive" surround us. But what is life? Is it red or green? Is it liquid or solid? Is it matter or energy? No microscope has ever found a substance they could definitively say, "THIS is life! See it?" They never will, either. Because life is both spiritual and natural. Pastor Gordon traces the mysterious substance man can't find from God's breath in the Garden of Eden when Adam became a living being, to a married man and woman whom the Apostle Peter declared "inherit the grace of life together." We don't know everything, but we do know this: whatever happened in that first moment when Adam's lungs were inflated with the breath of God...it has been passed through Adam's progeny and now abides inside of you and me. You are sitting there, reading this, and preparing to listen to a sermon, because the breath of God passed from Adam, long ago, across tens of thousands of his progeny, to you, in this moment. The Apostle Peter explains to us that life is the most basic form of supernatural grace. In 1 Peter 3:7 he calls it the "grace of life." Further, Peter explains that married couples take that mysterious power and create new life every time a woman conceives in her womb. A fresh discovery of this life-grace awaits! The 18th century scholar, Charles John Ellicot, described Peter's doctrine this way: "This 'grace,' this mysterious and divine gift—not apart from one another, but conjointly—they are privileged by the Creator’s primeval benediction (Genesis 1:28) to transmit. They have the power (no Archangel has the like) to bring human beings into existence. And in consideration that such is the dignity and the intention of marriage, a man may well be called upon to revere his partner in the great prerogative." Pastor Gordon declares, "Everything is alive, because He said so. You are alive because He breathed. Whatever it is about Him when He exhaled, something came out of His divine lungs. You are never going to find it, until you stand in front of Him and hear His voice. In that moment, you will hear the sound of life coming out of His lungs. The whole world was made with His words."

Isn't it a tragedy when the church stops confronting sin and calling sinners to authentic repentance? Did you know that when you have TRULY repented, you are the first one to shout "AMEN!" when your past sins are preached against by a man of God? Often times, for fear of offending the unrepentant, who become angry when their past sins are called-out, modern Bible preachers fail to warn the next generation of the sins they should avoid ever committing in their futures. Young people need to be taught how to live, and that requires them to be shown how NOT to live (even if it makes the older and more sinfully experienced crowd upset because they never truly repented and remain self-focused). The age old question every Christian must answer since Adam and Eve is this: Am I taking dominion for my own purposes, or am I taking dominion for the King of Heaven and His kingdom? In this sermon, Pastor Gordon continues unpacking the rich truths of the Bible concerning the difference between the passions of the flesh and the passions of the reborn human spirit. Imagine a world where Christians are driven to bring forth twice-born children of the kingdom as much as they are driven to have sex (the act designed to create once-born children). "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church." - Ephesians 5:31-32

Pastor Gordon expounds upon the Bible and crushes the rebooted Marcionite heresies of our times that have shrunken down the otherwise "Great Commission" into a not-so-great mission of getting people ready to die. Rediscover the "GREAT" Commission for what the early church always knew it was! Learn how you can fulfill it by equipping people to live in the power of the Kingdom of God! Learn why it is impossible to understand the New Testament Great Commission without viewing it through the original version first delivered to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Rather than incorrectly viewing the New Testament as Jesus arriving to end God's old campaign and start something fresh and different, embrace the freedom in knowing that the New Testament is actually an expansion of what God was already doing in the earth before Christ arrived. See Jesus as the Divine Catalyst - God in flesh - who came to redirect a wayward, rebellious people back toward redemption through forgiveness of sins. Learn the ongoing tremendous privilege of creating "once-born" lives through the grace of life given to a husband and wife in marriage (a picture of Christ's church), leading to the triumph of the church, which is given the grace of life to produce "twice-born" sons and daughters of God through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ!

Pastor Gordon continues unpacking the rich understanding introduced in the previous show entitled "Sex and Property", explaining how permitting those two instincts to run wild, without limits, brought creation to ruin and forced God to kill the whole world. The property instinct and the sexual instinct must remain balanced by God's law or else they become destructive. After the world-wide flood, Noah's great grandchildren had incentive to honor the importance of dominion in line with God's law. They knew what Christians uphold today: wealth, prosperity, and power must be tempered by the warning, "Thou shalt not steal" and "Thou shalt not covet." Sex and fatherhood must be tempered by the warning, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not covet." Abraham came into great wealth, prosperity and power by guarding his life through honesty and integrity in the stewardship of his property instinct. He was the polar opposite of a thief - he was a tither. Yet he was unable to have children. The promise of blessing upon mankind's sexual instinct (created in Genesis 1:28) was unprecedented, so the inability of Abraham and Sarah to participate in it (barrenness) was equally staggering. Despite the fact that the misuse of the sexual instinct could bring a curse beyond comprehension, Sarah's barrenness enticed the couple into sin. Abraham's adulterous act with his mistress, Hagar, resulted in world-wide terrorism still haunting us to this very day. Yet Abraham finally found forgiveness and redemption by putting the principles of John 3:16 in action upside-down, and his willingness to give God his only son born from Sarah became the catalyst of our covenant through Jesus Christ, today. Said another way, "For Abraham so loved God he gave his only son" and "For God so loved the world He gave His only son." Abraham left dysfunctional dominion behind and by finally submitting both his sexual and property instincts, returned to the divine dominion God originally commanded in the Garden of Eden. Are you walking in the kingdom dominion of Christ or dysfunctional dominion of Adam and Eve? Are you a once-born child of Adam or a twice-born child of God? Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

The foundation of Biblical economic theory is appropriately discovered in the book of Genesis. (The word "genesis" is translated "beginnings" in English). In this lesson, Pastor Gordon expounds upon the fascinating duel components that form the basis for Biblical economic theory - the sexual instinct, and the property instinct. Learn how handling the two issues of sexuality and property rights, to this very day, effect the success or doom of all nations. These two instincts (sexual instinct and property instinct) are central to the divine concept of man's obligation to obediently "take dominion, and subdue the earth"(see Genesis 1:28). While learning timeless gems uncovered from Pastor Gordon's efforts to mine-out precious, ancient truths from the Bible, you may also inadvertently learn how to destroy any modern nation without ever firing a single bullet, much less, dropping a bomb. This teaching is essential in light of the purpose of the true church across the world. Only the church has been authorized by the Creator to hold the power and authority to both define and limit the two dimensions of sexuality and property. Without the church, every nation is on a collision course to self-destruct by casting off the restraints placed upon both sex and property, through God's law. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

The same surgeons who perform amputations after a limb is determined to be of no further use (other than bringing death to its owner), are the same skilled physicians, who, at other times, perform acts that bring healing and restoration to their patients. It is always much preferred to save and heal a limb than to amputate it and discard it. There are approximately twenty six prominent places in the Bible where God warns people that they can and will be "cut-off" (amputated) from both their physical and spiritual inheritance should they break their covenant with Him. This warning continued into the New Testament as John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus' public ministry, shouting that the Messiah was coming soon after him, and, among other promises, that the Messiah would burn disobedient men with "fire unquenchable" (see Luke 3:17). Not long afterward, Jesus continued this exact same warning of amputation (that had been first most prominently initiated almost 1600 years earlier, in Exodus 12:15), to all individual persons, declaring: "I am the vine, and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned." (See John 15:5-7.) That same message marches forward well into our own personal presents and futures. Will you choose to be amputated from His grace, or will you choose to be repaired by His grace? This is the question, and the choice is ours. Paul plainly states that the Church is for the repairing of the saints (Ephesians 4:12-14). If one does not regularly attend, one cannot be spiritually repaired. Worse, by rejecting the corporate gathering of the saints, one self-amputates from the Body of Christ. On that final day when Christ "gathers up" and throws "into the fire" those whose proverbial branches were pruned from the Vine, His judgment will simply be a continuance of what amputees first chose of their own volition. He will keep His promises. But mankind will recall that they chose to cut themselves off from Him - to NOT abide in Him - thus, they were unable to be grafted back into Him (the Vine). Having remained separated from His life-giving sap for far too long, they will be discovered long dead, worthy only of the flames. God loves you and wants to repair you. Will you cooperate or self-amputate?

When we were children, we would attend the local carnival for fun, food and entertainment. Remember entering that funny mirror area in exchange for a ticket or two? It was fun because the mirrors did not accurately reflect what we knew we actually looked like. It was hilarious to view ourselves in a deliberately distorted way. It was supposed to be a joke. Well, the modern church world is apparently filled with adults who resent seeing an accurate reflection of their true spiritual condition. (Too frightening?) They actually WANT someone to distort their true image and make them look better than they really are, and the modern church has turned itself into a spiritual carnival of fun, food and entertainment. But when eternal lives hang in the balance, it isn't funny anymore. Enjoy listening, as Pastor Gordon explains how the Bible calls itself a "mirror" that enables us to correct ourselves by the grace of God, and find out the three things necessary in order to get more grace in a time of need!

Outside (extra) the church (ecclesiam) there is no (nulla) salvation (salus). Let's talk about cathedrals, temples, churches, and architecture for a little bit. Today, in Iraq, like in the book of Acts, churches have been driven underground into houses and caves. In many cases, Christians have been forced to flee their churches and homes, running from the wrath of militant Islam. But in America there is a movement that meets in homes for an entirely different reason...they don't want to submit to Biblical authority! Find out more about why this is a dangerous trend you should avoid at all costs, in this hard-hitting, fiery, stirring, prophetic, and passionate sermon! What was the first lesson that Saul of Tarsus had to learn before God could use him at all? The same lesson you have to learn.

"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne" declares the psalmist (89:14). The writer of 1 Timothy 6 reminds finite men that the brightness of His seated glory makes it very difficult for such mortals to dare approach His Majesty's universal throne of grace. Isaiah the prophet was commissioned inside this radiant throne room. He described the experience as fearful to behold for both mortals and immortals. Isaiah was overwhelmed with his own personal impurity and asked for angelic help to burn his lips, cleansing them from their impurities with a hot coal (6:6-7). The same Seraphim (who also required tongs to touch such a hot coal) are also described by Isaiah as needing to shield their own faces with two of their six wings (6:2) so as to dim the inexplicable radiance of Father God seated upon it. Despite all the splendor and trembling properly caused within His thundering throne room, the writer of Hebrews tells every Christian that he should boldly enter this place to obtain mercy and grace in a time of need. What is one to do who has read all these things about such a spectacle as the throne room of God Almighty? The moderns can often be heard suggesting that a believer need merely kick open the doors and waltz in with confidence, but do they tell a half-truth? If they do, then Pastor Gordon gives the whole in this exciting message. Do you fear God? Do you need to obtain mercy? Do you need to find grace? Do you have a time of need? Then you need this sermon in your heart and mind.

The Bible describes the collection of true disciples of Christ on Earth as "the Body of Christ." It further describes the flow of divine saving grace as having a sideways circulation from person to person within the body. Moreover, the same Scriptures that tell us we were all "saved by grace" also expressly states that we were "saved by the blood of the Lamb." As blood is to the life of a human body, grace is to the ongoing eternal life flowing in the Body of Christ. As the human heart beats 100,000 times per day, it turns out that the heart beat of God beats once every 7 days. Was there something prophetic hiding inside the Levitical law (17:11) when Moses wrote: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls."?

If you were consigned to live out your life over the next six months without the ability to see your own reflection under any circumstances, would the quality of your social life improve or degrade? Have you ever considered the unseen appearance of your spiritual self? What about the corresponding struggle that results between you and Christ's church when you do not look into your own spiritual mirror and properly respond to the reflection staring back at you? We can deduce three things from the Bible: 1) We need to enter into the high throne room of our Creator God in order to obtain mercy in troubled times. 2) The Bible is the only spiritual mirror offered to humankind that enables him to see his accurate reflection. 3) If we do not respond to the mirror God gave us, we will not be granted access to His throne room.

There is a reason that Jesus asked "Who touched me?" amidst a pressing crowd. The disciples were perplexed knowing that so many were crowding around him. "I felt virtue leave me!" said the Lord. Grace was flowing sideways into one person amidst the large crowd. There was a woman who reached out and snatched some healing. This woman of faith found Jesus amidst a pressing mass of people. Understanding the pathway and direction of God's power in every Christian's life is very important. Realizing that each of us were uniquely designed to function in a particular place and position within God's church - His crowd - is essential for our success. We still find Jesus in the crowd. Jesus is waiting to bless you, and you'll find Him in the group, too. You'll specifically find Him standing with His church every Sunday morning. "Wherever a group of you are gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst of you," said Jesus in Matthew 18:20. From that hour to this, grace is flowing sideways through His delegated authorities of the church.

Grace flows sideways! Understanding the pathway and direction of God's power in every Christian's life is very important. Realizing that each of us were uniquely designed to function in a particular place and position within God's church is essential. Apostle Paul shared that the relationship between a husband and wife revealed a mystery concerning the working of God's church. Peter said a husband and wife were co-heirs together of the grace of life. The power to create life is held by a man and woman within the marriage covenant in order that a person might be born the first time. The power of eternal life is held by and through the church - the body of Christ - in order that a person might be born again - a second time.

A beautiful corporate worship space was not the idea of mere men. The Great Commission taken in comprehensive context places explicit responsibility upon believers to own physical property and build appropriate buildings where disciples can continue to honor God by gathering weekly for corporate worship and declare the Gospel of His kingdom to the whole world from those strategic, decentralized, sanctified, set-apart, and holy locations. Moses was entrusted with blueprints explaining exactly how to construct a worship space for the Hebrew people under their particular covenant, and it cost everyone involved treasure and sacrifice given out of respect for God’s command that a proper place of worship be built. While we acknowledge that our new covenant does not necessarily require us to construct an exact replica of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, it does extend the same principles to our present-day pursuit of an honorable gathering space for worshiping God as a body of believers on the first day of the week. Ironically, a single lonely verse (1 Corinthians 6:19), where the Apostle Paul rebukes believers who are sinning sexually and makes a point to illustrate how tremendous the price was for Christ to save our lives, is used by people in our time to erringly suggest we "don’t need church buildings." This is, at best, very poor interpretation of the Bible, and at worst, denigrating to the price Jesus truly paid to establish His kingdom via the church.

The personification of truth and grace sat down next to Father God in Heaven - in universal kingdom authority - and He commissioned supernatural gifts sent from Heaven to the earth. These "grace packages" were sent in the form of anointed Bible preachers who are set within your local church by the will of God. Are you partaking of the grace uniquely given them by Jesus Christ for your benefit? In this sermon, Pastor Gordon explains the first startling act of Jesus Christ which began immediately after He ascended to Heaven and sat down upon His throne. Teaching from Ephesians chapter four, in juxtaposition with Romans chapter ten, Pastor Gordon explains how the grace of God is for the "repairing of the saints." No wonder Satan hates the church and works overtime to diminish its true importance in the life of Christians!

Someone asked, "What is God doing today in our world? What is God doing in the midst of America's confusion and troubles today?" Here's the answer: He is building strong local churches! What does a strong local church look like? How is it possible to truly connect your life to the greater cause and commission of the Universal Church through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? In this fascinating sermon, Pastor Cary explains why Jesus declared: "I am the vine."

What does the Bible mean in Ephesians, the second chapter, when it says, "He made us alive TOGETHER in Christ"? What about when the Scripture says, "He raised us up with Him and seated us [TOGETHER] in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"? What about when the same letter closes with a similarly situated description of us "being joined TOGETHER" and "being built TOGETHER into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit"? It sounds an awful lot like we need each other? We apparently need to be "TOGETHER" in order to fully experience the Christian life offered by the Lord Jesus' resurrection! Find out just how important the grace of the local church assembly is to your citizenship status in Heaven in this careful look into the juxtaposition of Ephesians chapter two and Romans chapter ten. Is Christianity mostly about you, alone, in your personal relationship with Jesus? Has the modern church overemphasized our "personal relationship with Jesus" at the expense of reverence for the local church established by Jesus? Can this error be eternally deadly? Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

What does the Bible mean when it says we were raised up together with Christ to sit with Him in heavenly places? Didn't Noah save your soul so you could be born the first time, enabling Jesus to provide for your salvation the second time, thereby making you a twice born? Find out why Jesus said that the last days would be "as it was in the days of Noah." Noah found grace in the sight of God and so must we all. We are saved by grace! Outside the ark there was no salvation. Outside the church there is no salvation. Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus!

The implicit promise of eternal life was given on condition of obedience in Genesis 2:17, but the tool used to deliver the promise was the tree of life described in Genesis and Revelation. God created a mechanism for salvation by the tree hewn for the construction of Noah's ark. God created a mechanism for salvation by the tree upon which Christ was crucified, and He constructed the church by that tree. The tree of life will provide the nutrition necessary for eternal life in Revelation 2:7. The ark was the tool of salvation from the floods. The church is the ark of salvation from the coming wrath. There was no life outside the ark. There is no grace outside the church. There is no life eternal outside the fruit of the tree of life. There is no resurrection without the tree of His crucifixion.

God created the time dimension. God also created our biological systems, which require nourishment within very particular parameters and within certain intervals of time. For example, if the human body does not receive proper hydration by drinking water within a four day period, it will die. Also, we know that if the human body does not receive proper nourishment by eating food within a seventy day period, it will also die. With this reality of life as the backdrop, Jesus entered history and stood upon the baked earth of ancient Palestine declaring: "Man does not live by bread alone!" Listen while Pastor Cary elucidates upon this remark of Jesus taken from Matthew chapter four, teaching: "There is a universal clock placed into creation, and Jesus Christ must become the Lord of your schedule!" Learn how to partake in regular intervals of the life-giving and nourishing grace that comes from Heaven through Christ's church. Are you living by the words that proceed from the mouth of God? Do you know how, why, and where these words proceed? Find out here!

From the beginning of creation, God said it was "not good that a man should be alone." The writer of Proverbs reiterates that a man who "isolates himself is not wise." When the local church is neglected, man returns to that former state of "not good" and the consequences could not be more serious. The story of the created universe is the source of these five truths: 1) The origin of all that exists came from the number three (as opposed to a number one). God, in three persons, created the world thus we deduce "three was not enough." 2) We are created in His image and after His likeness. 3) Every human being, without exception, requires others. 4) The corporate gathering of the church of Christ was in the mind of God during His creation of the universe. 5) There is no salvation outside the church as there was no salvation outside the ark of Noah during the flood.

Extra (outside) Ecclesiam (the church) Nulla (there is no) Salus (salvation) is the historic doctrine of the church passed from the Chief Apostle Paul through Cyprian (258 AD) Luther (1490 AD) Calvin (1560 AD) and beyond. The church is the created means of man's access to grace in this world. Grace flows through the local church. He is the vine, and we are His branches...but only when we do not self-amputate. With the near disappearance of this sacred teaching of the Bible, grace may be at an all-time low in church history. Receive grace afresh as this rare teaching series from Pastor Cary Gordon begins Beyond The Walls.