Overcoming Our Own Self-Destruction

[Music] all right what's up everybody welcome to part one of this brand new series called my own worst enemy want to take a minute to say hello to all of our church family watching live online through itownchurch.com and of course all the correctional facilities across the state come on shirts let's put our hands together welcome each other today so great to have you at church this weekend go ahead and grab something to take some notes with if you haven't already man we always believe that the holy spirit will speak to us as we study god's word i want to make sure you have the opportunity to write those things down as we take this great journey of faith and we were out last weekend we had the chance to take the family down to the beach get a little bit of sun a little bit of fun lots of rest and it was a fantastic time we worshiped together with you online and pastor adam did an amazing job at the 10 o'clock service for someone we watch can we give a shout out to pastor adam great job adam so appreciate him and i had a great time enjoying the family and having fun and right before we left we had our best ever men's event our annual men's night had nearly 800 men in attendance come on somebody in that gray praise god for that god is stirring the men of our church i'm so excited about it great time in god's presence we had an incredible time eating filets from prime 47 afterwards been dreaming about that steak all week long man it was good so good and then we have this tradition of competing afterwards and every year i tell myself i'm not going to compete i'm just going to be a good pastor and i'm going to walk around and i'm going to high-five the guys of our church i'm going to meet some new people and i'm just i'm not going to compete because i don't want to get sweaty and i don't want to get hurt but the theme of our series is that we are our own worst enemy and all of us can identify the fact that there are a few things on the inside of us that if left unchecked would bring about our own destruction can i get an amen in god's house the truth is the truth and for me really being competitive is one of those things for me i love to take care of myself physically but then at the end of the day when competition is infused into the recipe i will forego all safety and completely destroy my body to win because there's nothing better in this life than winning and so i was like i'm not going to do that i'm just going to i've got to go on vacation got to have fun with the kids i don't need to end up in the hospital i am just going to go outside and have a good time and so i got out there and i had forgotten honestly that we always have a three-on-three basketball tournament and we actually had one the last several years in a row we were the defending champs there wasn't a men's night this last year so people started talking a little bit of trash like y'all got to defend your title and maybe you don't have it anymore maybe you're scared to play and all this stuff that's just being said and i was like no i i get behind me satan i will not get hurt i am fine we're just gonna have a nice little night and uh and then one of the guys that has always been on our team came over he's like hey we couldn't handle anymore we just signed our team up and we play right now i was like oh you got to be kidding me so i was like okay here's what i'm going to do i'm going to play in my jordans and in my jeans because if anybody is a sneaker head here you know that you have like lots of basketball shoes but not for playing basketball they're for wearing and so i i had on these basketball shoes that i refused to lace up so we got out there game number one was pretty you know low-key we had a good time won pretty easily and that's no offense to those of you who might be here from the first team it was round one but then i was like i said the competitive juices started flowing a little bit and i started thinking you know i'm gonna mess up my jordans and so i went back inside and did what every responsible sneaker head does i took off my basketball shoes and put on non-basketball shoes because i didn't want to get my basketball shoes messed up so i put on my metcons my crossfit shoes and i laced them up and i got outside round two also fairly easy victory things are going well we get to round three and it's a better team and the competition gets a little bit intense and i fall into that pattern that i preach about where pastors talk trash and i started talking a lot of trash in game three and the fellas on that team really didn't appreciate too much of it and i figured out that i can probably just take care of our overflow problems on sunday morning single-handedly if i just play a little bit more basketball so if someh by some miracle you were in game three and came back to the church the lord loves you so does your pastor let's just forget the past all things become in new praise the lord so we won that game i'm still not injured things are doing pretty good and now we're in the championship and unfortunately when we played in the championship game we were playing against three i-town staff members and their age really averaged somewhere in the mid-20s our team's average age somewhere in the mid-40s and so obviously it's not really fair just to start with and i drew the short stick of having to guard the player on our staff that actually just played professional basketball and retired like a couple years ago and i've never been great with lateral speed like moving side to side is not playing defense really at my thing and i had almost broken my ankle several months ago and didn't listen to the doctors as i normally do and didn't wear the boot or didn't do any of the rehab didn't do anything but i thought i was fine turns out not fine ankle's not great so now i'm trying to guard this guy but i'm ignoring the pain in my ankle because i'm telling myself it's all going to be worth it because we're going to win and i'm going to lock this guy down well he's pretty fast and uh and so we get into the game and things are going pretty well at first we're up seven to nothing now the games were going to eight but you know being the wise pastor that i am on like it's the championship game let's play to 11. that was the dumbest thing i could possibly do because we were up seven nothing and we were actually up eight to three so technically we won really if you think about it but but what happened after we scored our eighth point is that josh rhodes stopped blocking out mr blake and blake started rebounding like a mad fool and scoring on us and so no matter how much i encourage him block out josh block out josh block out josh block him out he is killing us he just did not receive the words of his pastor and he kept getting rebounded on and so and then unfortunately von got hot and i was talking a lot of trash to him like you didn't play pro you're not that good and i got him i got him pretty fired up and so that was fun and so then he proved to everyone watching that he was 50 times faster than me and uh by some miracle i actually managed to get around him on an offensive play and he did what you should do he fouled me on my way to the goal but he fouled me so hard i think he broke my thumb it's still throbbing to this day so now my ankle is hurting my thumb is throbbing on one defensive play i messed up my shoulder tweak my rotator cuff now i'm just a mess and i'm like okay it's all out the window self-destruction in full effect at least we're going to win defend the title now the score is 10 to 10 and we are engaged in this battle i missed a game-winner which just really still keeps me up at night because i thought it was going in and uh and then uh vaughn had the ball and i was up in his face he took a shot i got a hand up and he missed but jeff didn't block out this time come on jeff block out and peter got the rebound put it back and we lost 11 to 10. i cannot believe all that pain all that destruction and still got a loss all week long on vacation i woke up and sweats like block out block out somebody get a rebound totally unrelated note we have three openings at i-town staff if you're thinking about getting into ministry we'd love to have you as a part of the team normal leadership culture it's fascinating how every one of us can get in some different type of environment it's unique for each one of us but in those environments we have things inside of us that will bring about our own destruction we can become our own worst enemies and that's what this series is all about here's our theme verse paul said it this way romans chapter 7 yes i know that nothing good lives in me i mean nothing good lives in the part of me that is earthly and sinful the bible calls it the sinful nature we all have that part of us that leads us to self-destruction he says i want to do good but evil is always there so i'm a miserable person some of you feel that way today you're looking at your life and you're thinking i just keep making the same mistakes i keep falling for the same sin i keep doing the same old thing he says who will save me from this body that brings me death the answer praise the lord is god will i thank him for saving me through jesus christ our lord i hope you see as we take this journey together over the next several weeks that you don't have to fall for the same old temptation and for the same old sin every one of us are the same there's something on the inside of us that leads us to destruction we are our own worst enemy but it doesn't have to end that way because god came to rescue us from ourselves and i'm so thankful for that i'm so thankful for how gracious god is that jesus died on our place to forgive us and to set us free we're going to study the character of samson actually over the next four weeks we're going to look at his life because he was legendary for his amazing strength and yet at the same time he was also legendary for his weaknesses and how he continued to give in to temptation and ultimately fell short of what god had called him to accomplish as a deliverer for the nation of israel here's one sentence that best describes samson's life he was an incredibly strong man with a dangerously weak will an incredibly strong man the kind of guy that could kill a thousand people at one time all by himself defending the nation of israel he could take city gates and put him on his shoulders he could accomplish amazing incredible unthinkable feats of strength and yet at the same time he allowed his temper to get the best of him he was always chasing philistine women as we'll see over the next several weeks he had an incredibly weak will a propensity for failure and because of that he allowed it to get the best of him and it really messed up the destiny that god had for his life i think so many of us can relate to him and i think we'll learn a lot as we take this journey together over the next several weeks now the nation of israel in the book of judges is in this cycle of following god and being free and then falling for idolatry of the nations that surrounded them and then they would get oppressed by another country god would raise up a judge to set them free they would follow god for a period of time and then they'd repeat the cycle and so that's where we find ourselves in judges chapter 13 samson is not yet born but a couple of decades have gone by of oppression from the philistines and so the nation of israel is crying out to god again praying for a deliverer and in judges 13 and verse 2 there was this man in zorah a man named manoa from the clan of the day nights he had a wife who was childless unable to give birth and the angel of the lord appeared to her now pause for a minute because i want you to know anytime you see that phrase in scripture in the old testament that speaks about jesus so jesus showed up several times in the old testament and we call it the preincarnate christ that just means before he was flesh he actually appeared many times here on the earth and interacted with mankind it's always when you see the phrase the angel of the lord so this is jesus and he says to her you're a barren and childless but you're going to become pregnant and give birth to a son now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean you will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a nazarite dedicated to the lord from the womb we'll get back to what that means in just a minute he will take the lead in delivering israel from the hands of the philistines so this woman is very fired up she goes and finds her husband and tell him about it she said a man of god came to me he looked like an angel of god very awesome i love that phrase i don't know if you find humor in the bible like i do but i laughed out loud when i read that she was like i saw this angel very awesome was the way she described him so i don't know exactly what jesus looks like but she described him as very awesome so if you're wondering what jesus looks like it's very awesome very awesome there you go now what jesus delivered to her was this message your son is going to be set apart for a very special purpose and he's going to live as a nazirite and he asked his mom to take the vow of a nazirite now if you want to read the details about that it's in numbers chapter 6 it outlines actually what the nazirite vow was but taking the nazirite vow is a way for people who are not a part of the priesthood to set themselves apart to experience god in a special way because in the old testament it's not like it is in today's world because of jesus sacrifice all of us can be close to god but in the old testament only the priest could go into the presence of god and so normal people would have to take this nazirite vow in order to be set apart to get closer to the lord and so there were three things that were required of a nazirite vow and these three things were required of samson don't drink alcohol so nothing no fermented drink at all no wine no no spritzers no margaritas no heineken while you watch the game nothing nothing zilch no drink at all now the bible's very clear about the fact that being a drunk and getting drunk is a sin and it will ruin your life it's not very clear about drinking alcohol in general and i know there's a lot of believers who enjoy your wine you like a little jack daniels at the end of the day and i'm not trying to get up in your business what you do and your own conviction between you and god is between you and god but i am here to say if you read the book of proverbs there's like 40 verses that say it'll destroy your life so i don't know why everybody loves playing with fire so much and i know everybody in our catholic community all puckers up when you start talking about touching your wine but i'm just saying pray about it a little bit all right just think about it it only brings destruction then it goes on to say don't touch anything unclean second vow that means no dead animal no dead person you're not allowed to touch anything in the old testament that would make you ceremonially unclean by the old testament covenant and there were like laws of what to do if you read number six if you were in a nazarite vow and somebody just like died accidentally in front of you you had to go through this whole ceremony it was like a really big deal and then the last thing that was required is that you couldn't cut your hair during the vow and so for samson he was to live this way his entire life his hair was never to be cut and when you're in a nazarite vow a season of committing yourself to the lord you wouldn't cut your hair during that entire season and you're probably thinking what does that have to do with anything well basically it was just an outward expression of what was happening on the inside kind of like water baptism is for us when we go down underneath the water and we are raised to new life it's a symbol of how we have died inside to our own objectives and our own motivation our own way of living and we're raised to new life in christ it just symbolizes something and the truth is this whole nazarite vow the hair was an external expression of what was happening on the inside and if you think about it hare has always kind of done that like take oh billy ray cyrus here a little throwback picture that harrison remember the mullet y'all remember the mullet i think a few people are trying to bring it back we're going to pray for you the mullet says i'm ready to do business but i also like to party it's got a message the mohawk it has the message remember mr t i pity the fool come on somebody the mohawk says i don't care what people think about me i don't care what the government says i don't care what authority says everybody that wears a mohawk basically says you i'm gonna do what i want and i love the mohawk for that and then of course you have the perm good old jt man great artist terrible hairstyle this says i don't listen to sound advice anybody have a loved one that went through frosted tips stage come on somebody we pray for him chris cole we love you there's there's freedom there's forgiveness god can make all things new it's it's it's a dark season for us all and then of course we have good old oh that's wrong somebody's messing with me that's supposed to be a picture of george costanza i am bald that's me back when i had hair hey it had so i had that hairstyle up until i shaved it off and i walked up to a building one day and the sun was shining through and i realized my comb together because remember the comb over my generation does the comb together you just comb it and push it all together kind of a mohawk there was too much light going through i was like oh man i'm bald and i went home and shaved it off and never looked back baby never looked back there's george that says we're all dying slowly on the inside all my bald brothers in the house and what i'm talking about so hair expresses something that's happening on the inside and samson was saying i'm dedicated to god he was an incredibly strong man with a dangerously weak will so he had this ability to accomplish incredible things unlimited potential and yet he continued to fall for things he shouldn't have fallen for and i really believe that kind of summarizes a lot of our lives every one of us have the potential to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ever ask think or imagine god wants to do extraordinary things in you and through you in life there is no limit to what you can accomplish in the world around you you are all called to be world changers and history makers by god's power that's at work on the inside of you but at the end of the day so many of us fall short we fall short because we give our passions to the wrong things we give our we give our best our time our focus our dedication it's all oftentimes misguided like it's fascinating to me how so many of us can be so focused on our career we can be bulldogs and we can make wise choices and we can make strong decisions and we can rally people and we can lead and we can get whole workforces of people men and women alike to do amazing things let me go home at the end of the day and we won't lead our kids we don't lead our family we're passive in our marriage it's fascinating to me how we can give our commitment to a diet or a workout program or a hobby would never miss but we can't commit to god's house we can't commit to serving on a team some of us can't commit to a husband or a wife we're just too afraid of commitment so we won't put a ring on the finger we won't settle down we won't engage in the life that god has called us to live we can spend hours researching the right parts for our cars we can spend hours researching the right clubs and the right golf ball and the right shaft if we love golf we can spend hours thinking about the furniture hours thinking about the lawn mower you want about hours thinking about the way we're going to paint our fingernails the hairstyle we're going to have next the color we want it to be the clothes that we want to wear but we can't spend five minutes in god's word it's not that we don't have time and it's not that we don't have capacity it's just that we're misguided in our passions and it's the same for samson he fell short of what god had for him in his life and today i want to talk to you about three different attitudes that we see in samson's life that brought him to the place of self-destruction and these three same attitudes are active in our own lives and the time that we have left let's go to judges chapter 14 and verse 1. it says samson went down to timnah and saw there a young philistine woman and when he returned he said to his father and mother i've seen a philistine woman in timna now get her for me as my wife principle number one or attitude number one that leads to destruction is i want it i want that so samson takes this journey if we go back to our text the bible says he goes down to timnah now we just learned a moment ago that he lived in zorah that's where his dad was from zora kind of represents home and for us in modern times that represents family spiritual community relationships accountability safety the people that god has surrounded you with it's why we do circles you got to have a community of people you're doing life together with who have your back and who love you and who will protect you sampson had that at home but he left it and he walked four miles into any enemy territory to this little city named timna and as he is journeying through the world as he's disconnected from all of the accountability and relationships and safety that surround him he sees what becomes his downfall philistine women now samson had a thing for women but he had a big thing for the philistine women there were just some about them philistines that had his number he was just like whoa baby give me some of that they are fine so fine they blow my mind i gotta i got to have me a philistine woman and so he goes home to his parents and he says you know what i want you to go get her as my wife now this was violating god's covenant with the nation of israel because he said don't worship god's from other nations and don't intermarry with other nations because they will get you to worship their gods it's not that god was trying to keep them from having fun or from getting married it's not that god was saying that other races were inferior to the jewish people he was trying to protect them in their faith and in their relationship with god and i hope you hear that today that god has laws in his scriptures that are not against you they're for you listen young people god doesn't give you the ten commandments because he's trying to keep you from having fun he's trying to keep you safe like if you go around killing a bunch of people your life is not going to get better if you lie and cheat and steal and covet what everyone else has and sleep with everyone else's wife your life will be a mess and god knows that and so god gives us laws to protect us and the same thing was true for samson he wasn't trying to make samson celibate he was trying to make samson safe trying to help him worship god but samson didn't care because he wanted what he couldn't have same thing's true for so many of us we want what we can't have isn't it true even if we don't want it like y'all remember when twinkies went bankrupt i don't know when that was it doesn't seem like it's too long ago but we all freaked out twinkies we all love twinkies we can't let twinkies go bankrupt so somebody bought twinkies and put them back on the shelf and so a couple weeks ago i was at the grocery store and i was kind of hungry and you know how guys are when they shop and they're hungry they buy stupid stuff and i was like twinkies man i thought they went out of business praise the lord twinkie so i grabbed some twinkies i ate one of those things i chewed about half of it spit the whole thing in the trash that is the nastiest pastry ever created by mankind they should have gone bankrupt the twinkie needs to die i only wanted it because i thought it was something i couldn't have i don't even like twinkies same thing's true for you they're just things sometimes the devil tempts you with that you get focused on and all of a sudden it becomes this laser-focused issue of i want what i can't have and i have to have it and i want you to know that comes from this word called lust the attitude of i want it comes from the the culture the spirit the perspective of lust and lust isn't just a sexual thing in first john chapter 2 verse 16 it says for everything in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the father but from the world basically these three things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life those are the three areas that you and i will fall anything that you do can be tied back to these three areas when it comes to sin so the first one you have is the lust of the flesh that was certainly samson's problem and that's the one you're thinking about man she's so fine i gotta have i gotta have some of that that's that lust for physical pleasure but it's not just sexual it can also be in alcohol it can be in drugs it can be in food it's anything that brings your body pleasure and you begin to think about it you meditate on it you lust after it and and before you know it it's like the only focus of your life you're thinking i want it i want it i want it i can't live without it i have to have it lust of the eyes is possessions you see that nice car you see that bigger house you see that better boat you see those new pair of jays and you think man i can't live without it i have to have it that's what i want i got to go get it i got to have that in my life it's the lust of the things of this world and then pride sets in of look at all that i've accomplished and look at all that i have achieved look at all that i have amassed look at how great i am these are the ways that we fall and so here is samson lusting after the philistine women and his parents are trying to talk some sense into him back to a story it says isn't there an acceptable woman among the relatives and all of like bro look around you are jacked you're the strongest man ever live you ain't got women problems you can find yourself a woman amongst the people god has ordained for you to find a woman from what is wrong with you but see what happens is when we allow this to be a driver in our lives we don't listen to common sense we don't listen to trusted relationships we don't listen to the principles of god's word we have this laser focus that we have convinced ourselves that's what i want and so that's what i'm going to get he said must you go to the uncircumcised philistines to get a wife but samson said to his father get her for me she's the right one i don't care about anything else i don't care what you say this is what i'm focused on and so verse five they go down together to this city of timna father and mother the three of them are traveling along together and as they approach the vineyards of timnah suddenly a young lion came roaring towards samson the spirit of the lord came powerfully upon him so he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat a couple of problems i have with this verse the first one is probably your reaction to the fact that he killed a lion because if you've been a christian for a while you probably heard stories about people killing lions you're like oh that's a bible thing another lion killing you know david killed a lion too people kill lions in the bible and you think like no big deal that would be because you have not been attacked by a lion in the wild because have you ever had your life threatened by a wild animal you'd be like that is boss man that is amazing i cannot believe because every one of us if confronted with a wild animal wanting to take our lives we would have that fight or flight syndrome but 99 of us would run flight very few of us would be like oh no he didn't you bring that fight over here lyon so samson fights this lion with his bare hand second problem i have with the verse is that the reference point for how easy it was for him is that he tore it apart like a young goat is that a thing does anyone have a reference for how easy young goat tearing is like you know when you were doing your tailgate party on saturday and you tore up that goat seems inhumane i don't know if that was like a normal bible thing people like oh go tearing yeah why is that in the bible like a young goat so i don't know if young goat tearing is easy or hard but apparently the lion and the goat thing is the same to samson so there you go but then the next verse says he neither told his father nor his mother what he'd done so i would like for someone here to explain to me how three people go for a walk one of the three gets attacked by a lion that he kills with his bare hands and the other two people are oblivious to this event in what world is that possible how disconnected are his parents maybe they were in one of those conversations like would you just shut up we're talking samson or maybe samson's just wandering miles away like those parents in walmart like i'm sorry little child do you have family sorry it's happening right now do i need to file a missile missing persons report some of you are those parents like you don't know where your kids are right now pretty sure i checked them in but i'm not sure and how indicative of this of is this of a man to like completely omit massive details of his life in communication to the people he loves come on ladies in the house you all know your husband how many fights at home have started with the husband going i could have sworn i told you samson just forgot to bring up the fact that he got attacked by a lion it's kind of a big detail so in verse 8 they go back down they're on their way now to the wedding and he turned aside to look at the lion's carcass and then it was a swarm of bees and some honey which he scooped out with his hands and ate it as he went along so he comes back to the deadline the rotting carcass now is full of bugs and probably parasites and other animals have eaten a lion its guts are hanging out and somehow in the midst of all that bees have created a little nest there and there's honey on the honeycomb and samson reaches in with his bare hand and scoops out this honey and starts to eat it how many all know men are disgusting men are just nasty there's just no two ways about it we we eat things off the floor we rarely wash our hands like they're just men are gross they're just gross every single man here has checked a pair of underwear the very same way to see if they are dirty or not then if we determine they're dirty we just put those bad boys inside out and recycle them that's how we do guys are gross guys are gross but here is this disgusting man violating keep in mind a covenant with god as an azerite to touch unclean things all over just a little bit of honey why because this second attitude i deserve it i deserve it i did a good job i killed the lion i'm strong i'm a boss i get to do what i want i'm gonna take what i want eat what i want i'm gonna do what i want and this attitude of i deserve it comes from entitlement so we see things that we desire we this lust grows on the inside of us and then we decide you know what i deserve it i'm entitled to it i've been a good person i've made some good choices i've i've given and i've served and i've i've been a good man at home i've been a good wife i i can i can cut some corners god wants me to be happy i should get to take the edge off of life so now he's falling deeper into this trap verse 10 his father went down to see the woman and samson made a feast there as was customary for the bridegroom the last attitude that leads to self-destruction is i can handle it we tell ourselves man i got this i'm strong if we go back as his father goes to arrange this marriage samson throws a feast that word feast is the hebrew word mischa and it means keg party it means that he threw a big party to get a bunch of guys together and all got smashed they all got hammered they they drank they got drunk out of their minds that's what this feast was and so now he's violated principle number two of don't let any alcohol touch your lips why probably because it was what was customary for the bridegroom and i hope you hear today that we live in a godless culture and so just because everybody does something is a very lousy reason to do it just because everybody else is drinking just because everyone else is getting high just because everyone else is sleeping around just because everyone else has sex before marriage just because the world is saying it doesn't mean it's right it's not right for them and it's definitely not right for you it was not right for samson to go and throw this party just because it was the culture didn't make it okay but he's telling himself i can handle my alcohol i can handle this thing why because i'm strong that comes from this place of pride that says i don't need god i don't need nobody else man i'm tough i can do it i can be strong and so we see this cycle that has the ability to trap every single one of us here today we see something in the world that we want and lust rises up and we say i can't live without it i want that i need it you know what i can rationalize that i deserve it i've been good i work hard i'm entitled to it i can handle it it's not going to hurt anybody nobody even needs to know i i can keep it all on the inside because i'm strong how many times do we walk this path we tell ourselves it's just a little sip it's just one joint it's just a couple of pills it's not a big deal it's just one night just one time just one person i deserve it i've been under a lot of pressure i've had a lot of stress i've been a good dad i've been a good wife i've been a good christian i've served i've given i deserve it i can handle it it's not gonna get me i'm not going to get addicted it's not going to have any lasting consequences i'll skate through this because i'm strong maybe we tell ourselves and i want that i want that relationship ooh he's so fine i know he doesn't serve the lord but man he is he is jacked and he's rich and he's cool ooh she is so good-looking and i know they don't live for the lord but that's what i want i don't care what anybody says i deserve it i've been single a long time and i've been doing what's right i want to be with them i can handle it i won't let them influence me they're not going to affect my faith in fact i'll be a missionary to them i'll get them saved i'll help them find jesus we tell ourselves man i have to have that car i got to have that house i got to have that opportunity i i really need that in my life and i deserve it because god wants me to be happy i can handle the payments it's not a big deal i'll just float this i'll just cut that we'll just float some money around cash out these investments maybe we'll stop tithing but just for a season it's gonna be all it's gonna be all right not a big deal see we fast forward to the end of the story in samson's life where we'll get to in week four we find that his eyes are gouged out his hair has been cut his strength is gone and he's a laughingstock to the nation that he was sent to conquer people are mocking him that he was meant to be a deliverer over you say well pastor that's kind of extreme you're telling me if if i don't do everything right then somebody's going to gouge my eyes out no it's actually far worse than that if you continue down the path that you're on if you continue to fall for the lies if i want it and i deserve it and i can handle it what the end of your life will look like is that you'll become a slave to the addiction that you tell yourself you can handle that substance that alcohol that relationship that sex that you say is temporary and not a big deal it will own you [Music] you'll take a look at the people around you and realize that your marriage has disintegrated and that your spouse no longer wants to talk to you because you've created so much damage in that marriage because you were so selfish and focused on what you wanted in pursuing your own things and you'll have to deal with the reality that a good majority of the reason why that thing is falling apart is all your fault and then you look around and realize that your kids and maybe even your grandkids are so ashamed of you so wounded by you because you weren't emotionally present and you weren't available to them and you weren't the husband you weren't the wife you weren't the father you weren't the mother that they needed you to be you've created so much pain in their heart that they can't even look at you much less spend christmas together with you an addicted and lonely forgotten bankrupt and broke you look back at all the pain that you've caused all the people that you care about and you'll wake up at some point to the reality of it was all the devil working to steal everything from you and that everything you pursued never brought you any of the joy or the fulfillment of the contentment that you ever thought it would i'm here to tell you today that it doesn't have to go down like that your life doesn't have to end that way that doesn't have to be your story god loves you more than you could possibly imagine and if you're on the brink of selling yourself some of these self-destructive lies make no mistake about the fact that this is not a coincidence this is a wake-up call from god himself begging you to come to your senses and stop that path stop that flirtatious relationship stop going out with those people stop drinking that stuff stop smoking that stuff get away from it because it's only going to bring about your destruction god loves you more than you could possibly imagine jesus died in your place so you could be forgiven and set free some of you already in that place and you're thinking man there's no hope for me maybe you identify with paul and you're saying to yourself what a miserable person i am i'm addicted i'm ashamed i've driven people away my life is in shambles who will save me from this body of death i don't think there's any hope for me but i want you to know in verse 25 the answer is always jesus he has come to rescue the worst of sinners and it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter what you've done it doesn't matter how long you've been addicted to whatever you've been addicted to doesn't matter the trail of brokenness behind you it's never too late to become who you might have been god's in the business of restoring broken people with every head bowed and every eye closed maybe this is your moment maybe this entire weekend was just for you because god loves you and wants to rescue you from yourself you and i we are our own worst enemies and if left to ourselves we will always bring about our own destruction but it doesn't have to go down like that today you can surrender to jesus he'll heal your brokenness he'll heal your heart he'll change your life he'll fill you with his presence and with his power if you'll just surrender to him so with every head bowed and every eye closed i want to pray a simple prayer with you that'll help you reorder your life and make jesus first place i'm not going to make you stand or come to the front afterwards i'm not trying to embarrass you i just want to connect you with jesus maybe this is your moment don't let it pass you by if that's you all across the room and you say dave this is my moment today's my day i'm ready to surrender to jesus would you do me a favor just to lift your hand up high to let me know you want to be counted in on this prayer come on right now just put your hand up high all across this place great job yeah yeah that's amazing incredible so proud of every single one of you put your hands down here's what we'll do i'm going to lead you in a simple prayer you can pray it quietly in your heart you just need to meet it just say lord jesus forgive me today for all of my sin i repent i give up control of my life and i make you my lord let your power fill me and strengthen me as i put my trust in you in jesus name i pray god i thank you today for how good you are thank you for your love and thank you for your grace i pray that you'd help each and every one of us identify those self-destructive attitudes that rise up on the inside of us god the lust the entitlement the pride that lead us to very dark places in life in our moments of weakness god i pray that you would help us to cry out to you we thank you that your power is made perfect in those moments and that you're always there for us god as we lean on you as we become strong in you we thank you for the light that we can be to the world around us and the difference that we can make i'm so thankful for that we love you today in jesus name we pray and all god's people said amen amen come on church would you celebrate with those who prayed that prayer today [Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining i town church online today we would love to have the chance to meet you and your family in person at one of our campuses or of course you can join us streaming live online this weekend now for more details about times and locations and even some of our streaming options you can go to itownchurch.com i sure hope to see you soon and god bless [Music]

Channel: ITOWN Church

Views: 780

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: gVaE4O78qKE

Length: 44min 30sec (2670 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021