I'm gonna share a couple scriptures, and then I'm gonna I feel like I'm supposed to charge you Not charge charge charge Yeah, God help! Father, I thank you in Jesus name that we would be a people that the world would pursue and not run from. I thank you again that there would stop being so much "we're right and you're wrong" in the church. That we'd stop having our thing, and they have their thing. Then it would all be about your thing. God, I worship you and ask you to put weight on this, God, the reality. You know, it's a perfect picture, this building and getting it done five minutes before this started, and it being brand-new and then having this come as a foundation. You see, the thing about his first love is: God never moves. God never moves. His first love isn't like... The only reason that the first love is forgotten is because junk comes. We allow junk and stuff to cloud the reality of what it means to be in love. We allow works and strife and stress and life and all kinds of things to gain our attention instead of him. That can be as simple as just going about your day forgetting why you have your day. It can be as easy as going to work and forgetting where you are working from. It can be as simple as not ever knowing where you're supposed to work from. And you're always spending your whole life working towards something that he worked for you to have to work from. The gospel is simple, and life crowds it and we go by what we see and sometimes what we see overwhelms what he says. It happened to the disciples when he told them. He said in three days, I'm gonna be raised, I'm gonna die, be raised. He told them at least five times I'm gonna die and be raised. But what they saw in that tree overwhelmed what he said. And sometimes what we're seeing overwhelms what we know to be true. We need to get back to just the simplicity of this thing. Stop making it hard. Jesus said kids, children, God's our Father, we're his kids and he loves us profusely. There's nothing you have to do to earn it However you do have to say yes to it. And it's not yes but, it's yes period. Do you know that if it's not yes, It's yes and no. It says "Let your yes be yes, and your no be no." but if it's yes and no it says it's from the evil one. If all the promises of God are yes and in him amen and they're yes and in him amen the only reason they're no is because you're not in him, and there's no amen. If I have a yes gospel and a no gospel... do you know if you marry yes and no you get kids that are maybe so. maybe Maybe not. That's a problem. This is yes and in him amen However, the promises aren't just to be applied to life so that you have his promises but you don't have him, because you'll never have a promise if you don't have him. Because he is the promise. This thing's easy. We made it hard. It's so easy that I can get it. God gave me a big heart and a little brain. Heidi Baker who is a friend of mine, she went to a meeting one time and there are really smart people there. They speak at like Harvard and... wow, that would be so fun. She speaks, she goes to this place, and she talked for an hour and 20 minutes. All she said was "Too big. Too small." Same thing. Some man in the front row, said, "This is crazy. I'm getting out of here." But he's stuck. He can't move. Too big. Too small. We've tried to gear this thing and head it with our mind, and we've put our mind ahead of our heart. Your heart can take you places your brain can't fit. Your brain gets jammed at the gate that's narrow, but your heart's in there. The only way your heart... The only way your brain gets in, is if you're led in your heart. It says, "Open the eyes of your heart." This thing's bigger and better than we think. I talked to a young lady today just about, just some stuff, but it reminds me of so many talks that I've had with people so many times. The talk I had with your brother about blaming God. And we have this "God's in control" and "God allows." We handle this thing like some crazy weird hot potato. We don't know. We really don't know. God says, "Don't be unwise, but know." And we say "Well, we can't know. Who can know?" and we don't read our Bible. I'm not saying you don't. I'm saying we as a whole, as a church. We don't read because we can't understand, and then we read books because we can't understand The Book, and we get someone else's interpretation of The Book because we don't have a relationship with the Narrator. You're supposed to study to show yourself approved. You're supposed to rightly divide the word of truth. It's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The Bible is the first book that I can understand. It's the first book that I've ever read. Because the Bible's not meant for your brain, it's meant for your heart, but the Bible reads you. You open up that word and you say, "Father. You're my father, my father. Jesus, my father, you. After what Jesus did, my Father, help me. Show me who I am." If I handed you something and said this thing is the most powerful thing in the universe. It could change everything that you know for the better. Everything. It's all powerful It's all amazing. And I handed it to you. It didn't have an instruction set with it, and it didn't have an on and off switch. You would mess with it for a time period and what would you do? Throw it down, that's what we do with life. God gave us an instruction manual of how this thing works, and it works through love.. God made it real easy for us, but we make it complicated. He took 613 laws and ten commandments and said, "They can't, so I'll send my son," And he filled him with the Holy Spirit. Jesus modeled what Christianity is supposed to look like in the beginning.. and then it's supposed to be greater. And we say, "Whoa whoa whoa whoa. That's not what he meant. You're wrong." That's God. Either He's right, or we're wrong. So Jesus said, the same and greater things... Well, how is that possible? Just because your mind can't figure it out doesn't mean it's not possible. It just means it's out of your mind. I talked to this young girl today and I was telling her about... she wants to go into prosthetics. And I said Wow, after I poured out my heart on some things about her being possibly mad at God about some stuff, how Jesus has grown back appendages. Yeah. Imagine that. Imagine someone coming into your meeting without an arm. "Wow what happened?" "Well, I had my arm cut off." "Well, can I pray for you?" "Well, sure." whsssh What would happen? We'd be going bonkers in our brain on the floor, and people say "Well, I've never seen it." You never will if we don't start praying. I remember I was in a grocery store, and I'm walking with my daughter. She's seen so many people healed in public, everywhere we go. She's about 8 1/2 or 9 We walking through and and we're praying for a couple people, you know just having fun. Just shopping. Not going to the store to pray, just shopping, because that's what we do. We shop sometimes. So Jesus is there. Let's not leave him at home. Let's go shopping with him. It's fun. He's got a different list. People say "Well, you know what? I mean, come on brother. I'm not really led. I don't feel led." Go out to a fishing store and get a bunch of sinkers, put them in your pocket. They're made of lead. Reach in there, grab ahold of it and get this thing on with Jesus. Feel led. So we've limited this thing. It sounds funny, but the reality is we think we need God to boom a voice in our head so that we could feel led. Here's my whole thing with that. If you can look at somebody and say Jesus didn't pay a price for them, then don't feel led. Let that be your measuring stick. That'll change everything. And you won't have to feel because Jesus didn't ever say, "I felt led." To be led by the Spirit is not to feel led. It's really good. But if you have to feel led, you'll think according to natural mind, and you have to feel. The feel, it's sense. It's something. When really God's talking all the time. He's the Word of God. It's impossible for him to be quiet. Our antenna needs to be shifted. Come on guys. We're supposed to be a conduit for God to flow through constantly, but how can he flow through us if we're constantly thinking about stuff that he never thought about? Because most of the stuff that we're going through comes from lies from the enemy. It's all lies. Here, here's a big one. So this girl I prayed for her. I had a word about her knee. Shared with her, prayed for her. "How do you know? How'd you know about my knee?" I said, "Your father," and I started talking about her dad. She goes, "He died two years ago." I said, "Wow." She said, "Why?" I said, "Can I talk to you about something?" "Sure." That's why I was a little late this morning. People are important. Schedules are too. But if I could watch one person get free, that's more important to me. One. I love to speak to thousands of people, but I love to be in front of one. Let's not lose focus on why we're here. I love you, and I'm glad that I get to come pour out my heart, but if I can watch one young lady, one young man, get their heart changed forever... Then I can tell them that they're mad at the wrong God. So I said, "You know," I said. "A lot of people say--pastors pastors say even at funerals-- "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away," and they use that at funerals. It's the most, it's the predominant saying at funerals, the number one saying at every funeral in America. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. What does that mean? God gave him life, which is true, but now God took their life. Problem. This is not a mystery. This is a problem. This is a good can of worms here.We should open it up and squash every one of them. For real. You know, my whole life I was mad. And I thought if there was a god, I want nothing to do with him. And I heard my whole life as a non-Christian as an atheist, "God's in control." Really? Great. If God's in control, everything that happens is God, whether it's good or bad. He's in control, and let me ask you a question. If you really believe he's in control, then why would you pray? If he's in control, why pray? Doesn't matter. That's why we don't pray. And that's why we can't pray with faith because God's in control, he'll out move your faith. This is tragedy. How can we know the will of God if we don't even know how to pray? And how can we pray if we don't know the will of God? And how can we pray if God's in control? I mean, come on. We might mess up what God's gonna do. And if God's in control and you're sick it's because God ordained it, and if God ordained it you better not pray against it. And if you pray against it, you might mess up what God's doing. As a matter of fact if God made you sick, then stop taking your medicine. You might mess up his plan. This is huge man, it's huge. We get that stuff out of Job. We so misinterpreted and messed that thing up. Really. It's a mess. It really is. Satan was after one thing. You know, we teach that Satan had to get God's permission. It's a dominant teaching in the body of Christ. I read my Bible and didn't have anybody teach me that and I didn't see it that way. You know what I saw? I saw Satan coming up and and coming in front of God, and I saw God saying, "Have you considered Job?" I didn't see Satan saying. "Let me get Job," but the church thinks Satan came up there and said, "Well let me get Job then." That's not how it worked. God said, "Have you considered Job? There's none like him on the earth. He shuns evil and He fears me. None like him. Have you considered him?" Satan's like, "You know what? He doesn't just fear you for nothing. The only reason he fears you is for what you give him. Take what he has away, and he'll curse you. The only reason he really loves you... They're just like me God. The only reason they love you is for what you can do for them. They don't love you for you. They love you because they're selfish and they're all about themselves. Let me take what he has, or just take your hand off of him. We'll see. They don't really love you. They love themselves." That's exactly what he said. He said, "All that he has is in your power." Did Satan need God's permission? I don't think so. Satan's the god of this world. He doesn't need permission. So Satan-- bang bang BAP-- starts to thump him. He does. Bang, all of sudden animals are dying. All of a sudden, the wind blows. Blows the house down. Come on. One of the servants saw fire fall and said, "The fire of God fell." The fire of God. Was it God's fire? I don't think so, but did he say it was? How many people when something bad happens say, "I saw God do this and God did this and God did that?" But was it God? No way. It wasn't. Was it the devil? Absolutely. But who do we blame? God. "The fire of God fell and did this..." And Job's like, "What's going on?" What? Satan comes before God again. This is awesome. He says to Satan, "Where do you come from?" God knew where he came from. "Walking to and fro on the earth." I wish He would have put more in there like, "Where you put me. You know where I came from." God gets good pleasure out of watching the devil get frustrated. We ought to too--instead of being frustrated with him. God says, "Have you considered my servant Job?" "Ya, I considered him. Rrrrr." So what happens? Kids die. That's not good.You know what Job says? He tore his robe, and he said, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." God did not take it away. But Job thought God took it away, because of the opinions of others. Very very important, guys. Don't just give somebody a piece of your mind and your opinion of what's going on. Learn, and if you don't have discernment, don't voice it. You'll destroy somebody. And you'll give somebody a beef with God. And all of a sudden everything is God's fault, because if one thing goes wrong and you think it's God, there's all of a sudden 500 things that you're pinning against God. Is this making any sense? It's a huge deal. I was in Switzerland, and I'm sitting there, and I'm talking to a lady and I talked like this. Well they weren't okay with it. They, I mean they attacked me at lunch. I mean these are people I'm staying with. Like, "We don't agree with your teaching." "What part of it?" "All of it." This part, right here. Because they've settled in their heart that what happens is God. And you can't control it, so deal with it. Problem. He's just, he's really smart theologically, so I just be quiet. So I'm not gonna sit there and attack him. God loves him. He just keeps coming. You know I'm listening. I'm a good listener. I want to hear. I just want to pop off. I want to hear God's heart in it, because he'll change a life. And he gets done, and I don't say anything. God says just hold it, hold your peace. Be quiet. Listen, so I'm listening. So then she said, "You know, we lost our baby our daughter, and and she died, and then one night God told me 'I'm the one that took your baby.'" God told her. And I didn't say anything and it was a total twist. And I mean, it took everything to hold back, because I don't want her to be deceived But her husband's there, and they have settled in their heart. And he said, "And I studied my Bible. I studied the Word to find out how that could be true," and he built a doctrine on why that's true. So he studied. He made the word sound like whatever he wanted to, and you can do it too. Satan loves it. People have itching ears. Don't be swayed by every wind of doctrine that comes in but rightly divide the word of truth. You cannot love God if you think God took from you. You can say you do, you have a great, "God loves me" but there's no understanding of it in your life. And you can't live and have your being. You will live frustrated, worried, depressed, angry and mad at God. And you will do the church thing and incorporate Jesus in, and be bound up with lies. Thinking like hell, headed to heaven. To know the love of God is to be filled with the fullness of God. So if the love of God is what we're supposed to be filled with... Listen, if all the promises are to the believer, if you were the devil, what would you mess with? The belief system of a believer. It's true. So now people are mad at God thinking God did this and God did this and God took. Love doesn't take, love gives. Matter of fact Satan comes to take to steal, to kill, to destroy. Jesus came to give them life that they may have it abundantly. Come on guys. We mess up the sovereignty thing with God and it's such a subject to talk about. "God sovereignly did this." You have to be very careful. My Bible and your Bible says in Psalms 115 verse 16, "The heaven even the heavens are the Lord's but the Earth he gave to the children of men." Listen. Moses was standing. He just brought the children out. Pharaoh's coming. The army's coming. They're upset. They've lost, everybody's lost loved ones. Everybody's lost somebody. You know, the spirit swept through. Do you know? Their children took their gold, now their money's gone. They're not happy. He's coming to get him. They're standing in front of the Red Sea. Moses says, "Watch and see what God's gonna do." God? God says, "Why do you cryeth unto me? You stretch forth your hand. You stretch forth your rod. You do it." It's crazy. Red Sea parts. They go through. When are we gonna stretch forth our rod? When are we gonna stop confusing this thing, being confused? Being disgruntled and being mad at a God that's only good. It says it right after that, in Job, it says "Even though (because Satan comes again) And He says, "Look, even though you incited me against him without cause, even though you made it look like I was the one that pulled the carpet out from under him, he still won't curse me. Even though you made it look like I was the one that did it, he still won't curse me." God didn't take. God didn't steal. God didn't destroy. But Satan loves to sneak in like a snake, bite somebody, then have God take the blame. So that's how I talked to your brother yesterday. "Well I'm so confused." I said, "It's because you blamed God for a lot of things, but he's your father." He just looked to me and said, "How can that be?" "It is," and I have to trust that that just went right in to his heart. "Thanks for sharing that." That's the bomb. So this lady, I said "God, please help me. Put me in front of her somehow," because I'm in their house. And the man was away, and she had her friend staying there, and I was just worshiping and I came out. She's on the couch, and she's crying. This is the next day. God's bigger than you think. You don't have to just attack it. God will do it. He wants people to be free. If you walk in freedom--I'm not talking about talking freedom. I'm talking about walking freedom-- you have something to bring. You can talk a good talk and still be seriously condemned. You can do the miracles and you can do the healing and everything and still be seriously condemned. You could be a man of power. People can look at your life, and you can be twisted up and trash inside, hurting and desperate. We need the love of God. Don't confuse this and don't get it twisted. Jesus is amazing, and he is the visible image of the invisible God. And if you can't see what you think God is in the life of Jesus, you better question who you think God is. Because Jesus was God personified and he never said any of that stuff and he never blamed God for anything. Yet, we blame him for a lot silently not publicly, but if I can crush the silent blame in you, you'll never do it publicly, and you'll never say to your friend, "Well you know, hey, who can know? I mean God, you know. It's a mystery. God's mysterious. He works in mysterious ways." Stop saying that. God's not a magician, and he's not our bellboy. He's our father. I don't like when I hear that stuff. People say it all the time. "Wait, who could know? Well he works in mysterious ways." The only reason it's mysterious is because we don't understand the word and we don't understand truth. And we don't have a relationship with Holy Spirit. I'm not saying he can't work and be bigger than what you thought, because that's true, but it's not a mystery. We just have a picture of who God is and it's mysterious because he's bigger than our box. And we say we don't have him in a box, you just have him in a bigger box. The universe is expanding at 186,000 miles per second in every direction and that God that we say we serve holds it all in the palm of his hand. And he wants to fill you with his fullness, and it's all in the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Satan knows that, so what's he trying to do? He's trying to get your view twisted and off of your father who loves you. It's really true. So she said, "You know, I've been thinking about what you said." And I just have tears, and I said, "I was praying that I would get to talk to you today." She goes, "Why?" I said, "Because you don't believe what you say you do." She said, "No." She goes, "Listen, I know what I heard from God about my baby.". I said, "Okay." She goes, "But I have something else." She said my daughter two months ago came to me, and told me that when she was four she was raped by a family member." She says, "What I'm having trouble with..." And I said, "Stop, let me tell you where your trouble lies. If you believe God did that to your baby, you're confused and you wonder why God would do that to your daughter." "Yeah, why would God do that?" Does it make sense now? "God didn't do any of that, but if you teach your daughter right now..." She's 23. She just came out and told her. "If you teach your daughter that God's knows best, and God's in control, and this is God, she's gonna be deceived forever," and she lost it and she got set free of that thing. This is huge. It's bigger than you think. Is this the Bible Belt? Are we in the... it's really big here. I'm not being mean. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm saying, we like to say it, "God is good.God's in control. Come on brother, God's in control." Stop it. If God's in control, then why would you have the power of life and death in your tongue? You could never speak death. You could only speak life. So I said to this young girl this morning, I said, "I just want you to understand something. If you think that God's in control and God took your father, you can never really love God." "Well. I just got baptized a couple months." "That's awesome. I'm just trying to clear this stuff so that you could have this." So she said, "How did you know about my knee? How'd you know about my dad?" And I talked her about the God, the God of love, the reality of what Jesus paid a price for. He paid a price. Is this making sense? It's huge. "Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking for whom he may devour." And all he needs is agreement and a question: "And what's God? I don't know." And he's looking to devour your understanding of who your loving Father is. And we constantly blame Him for stuff that He never did. Healing is in this thing. Because we don't see healing sometimes. "Well, you know. Hey," and we put it in God's hand and say, "Well, when He wants to He will." That's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, "You speak to the mountain." If the mountain doesn't move, he didn't say make up a reason why it didn't. Every mountain he spoke to moved, and when we speak to it we got a lot to say of why it didn't move, because we have an opinion and we have logic. Jesus never had any of that stuff. Ever. He never said to anybody, "You get some more faith and come back. We'll pray." He never said, "Listen. It's not God's time." Ever. And he never said, "God's trying to build character in you, that's why you didn't. I'm sorry, but hey listen he's doing something in you." Ever. Never. Ever. Ever never ever. There was only one time that it didn't happen through the disciples in Matthew 17. In another place same account with an epileptic boy. Only one time. The disciples prayed and couldn't and they tried and they had authority and didn't. And they came to Jesus and said, "Why couldn't we?" because Jesus did it. He's up on the Mount of Transfiguration comes back down into town and this man comes up to him... and says It's in Matthew 17, so powerful awesome. He says, "I brought my boy to your disciples, and they couldn't heal him. He suffers terribly." Brings him to Jesus. Jesus doesn't say, "Well look, the disciples prayed, I gave them authority in Matthew 10 to preach the kingdom heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils They had the authority, they tried. It didn't work. Look this one. We can't touch." That's not what he said. But we have a lot to say when that happens in our lives We have a lot of opinions to give everybody. Some of them are because we don't want the person to feel bad, so we have to give him a reason. And we bring the Word of God down to our experience and what didn't happen. And a lot of doctrines on healing are built out of what didn't happen. We're trying to protect that, protect past loved ones that died, things that didn't happen, and we're trying to protect that so we can hold it together instead of seeking the truth that sets us free and allowing Jesus to be our model. And Jesus didn't have a lot to say about that at all. The disciples couldn't. He looks at them. Know what He says? "Perverse and corrupt generation. How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring the boy to me." He didn't say... you know what he said? "Corrupt." What's that? Twisted thinking, perverse minds got bent. You got focused on what you weren't seeing happen. "How long shall I be with you? I'm going to the cross soon. You guys have got to get this. Come on. You are my representatives. Now bring the boy to me." We've got a lot to say about that. Jesus never said anything. However when the boy came... Done. He corrects his disciples. He didn't correct the man, because the man didn't have authority. The disciples had authority, so "perverse and corrupt generation" didn't mean this man. This man had no authority to do anything. He brought him to the representatives of power that were there-- his reps. The man did right in bringing him, and when it didn't happen, they got frustrated. Guaranteed. Praying for an epileptic means the epileptic is seizing still and if he's not healed, it's frustrating because it should be. And we pray louder. That doesn't do anything. It's not your prayer that heals the sick. It's your faith. Prayer doesn't heal anything. Lots of people are praying for lots of things. It's your belief. It doesn't say, "These signs will follow prayers." Jesus heals the boy, and the disciples are like, "Why couldn't we do it?" Jesus has one thing to say about that one: "Because of your unbelief." "What do you mean? I had faith. Don't tell me I wasn't believing." If the mountain didn't move, your faith wasn't where it needed to be. I'm not being mean. I'm being straight. People don't even like to talk this way, because then you get people getting all mad, because they "Don't you tell me I didn't have faith." No, I believe you did have faith. But I believe your doubt was bigger than it. Because you can have a mustard seed of faith. Don't tell me that the disciples didn't, because they did, because they were seeing the stuff for seven chapters. They were seeing people healed everywhere. They came upon one and it didn't happen. Don't tell me they didn't have a mustard seed, because they did. Jesus gives the example of a mustard seed and he says, "I tell you this if you have a mustard seed of faith. You will speak to the mountain and the mountain will move and nothing will be impossible for you." He gives an unhinged, unlimited promise. Unlimited unhinged no limitations on that thing. That's awesome. So sometimes we have faith and all of a sudden what we see not happening overwhelms what we know should, and our minds get corrupted and taken away from the simplicity of In God, We Trust. Then I deal with this thing, but I'm not gonna make up a doctrine to validate what's not happening. I'm gonna stick to the truth and the reality of what Jesus said. I'm not gonna tell people, "Well, just believe you're healed brother," and send them on their way. That's deception too. I have people that I go to churches and they're limping. "I believe I'm healed. Don't tell me I'm not." Stop it. You're hurting. Let's pray. "No, no I'm healed, don't you get me to confess that." Stop. It's not just a confession, since if anybody's sick let him call and ask for prayer and the prayer of faith will save the sick. Sozo. Saved, healed, delivered, protected, made whole, kept safe and sound. That's the word "saved". It doesn't mean just "go to heaven." That doesn't even fit there. "The prayer of faith will go to heaven the sick"? "Will save the sick." Saved, healed, delivered, protected, made whole, kept safe and sound. I'm not telling people to not hold on to faith. Please hear me right. I've just had a lot of people that come to me, "Will you pray for me? I know I'm healed, brother." I get it, but it's become a confession outside of belief. Does that make sense? It's not okay. It's not okay. Then Jesus says this: "However, this type only comes out by prayer and fasting." And we've confused that one too. And we said "this type of demon". He wasn't even addressing a demon. He was addressing their unbelief. They asked him a question. "Why couldn't we do it?" "Your unbelief." "This type only comes out by prayer and fasting." What type? The demon? He wasn't even addressing it. The crazy thing is is Jesus never prayed and fasted right there. But he lived a life of it. So that's just a good tool. Are you getting anything out of this? It's huge. We have something. Man, if I pray for somebody, and I don't get to see it happen, I don't give them an excuse.. I tell them "I'll fight with you. And I'm growing in faith." And I'm not gonna waver, and I'm going after this thing with everything I am. And I've devoted my life to a life of prayer and fasting. I fast every other day, not to impress mostly. Why? Because I can't afford to be the logjam. I can't afford it. I live my life in this place, and I'm seeking heaven and I see a common thread through Scripture. Fasting is the thread. Some people say, "Well, I don't like to fast. I like to feast." Well... yeah. One day we'll get there and we'll have a feast. But he's given us a tool. It's important to use it. You all right? Sometimes we blame God for a lot of stuff. Jesus put the ball in our park so that we can run with this thing. If it's all up to God, let me ask you a question: Did he give you a sword? Did he give you authority? Did he give you the name of Jesus? Did he lay down heaven to get you back? Did he give up his son? Did he sow his son as a seed that died and fell into the ground to reproduce after its own kind? Did Jesus give us a rod of authority? Did he give us his name? Did he give us a sword? Did he give us our sonship? Is he our Father? Did he shed blood for us? Innocent blood. Did he give us a cross? Did he say to stand before it or to carry it? What are you carrying? We've pinned it all and put it back on him, and God is saying: I've already moved. It's your move. It's your move, church. Jesus is amazing. And he says that you are. It's awesome. He loves us. He just wants us to believe it. Stop allowing everything to whisper louder than the voice of truth. Stop allowing who you believe God to be--outside of who God says he is--to speak to you louder than his son. All right, I want to talk about Yeah, I just want to talk to you All right in Matthew 5. What time do I gotta be out of here? When? I know "When you're through" is great. Plane. Plane. Think plane ride. Matthew five The Beatitudes The attitudes of being Listen. If your perspective on who God is can't can't register, then people will never see who God is. Let me explain to you. It says in Matthew 5 verse 14, it says, "You're the light of the world." There's a movie out there called "Father of Lights" that we did and when I first read that scripture, I thought "It says 'Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.'" Right? I thought "Father of lights" and then when you look, and I made the mistake of reading a commentary. I'm done with them. Really. The commentary said God is the father of the moon and the stars and and the sun and I didn't even think about it and then I'm doing this movie. It's about "Father of Lights", so I'm like: Oh I better give em that one right there. And so I'm like "God you are light, and there's no darkness in you", so I'm just all these scriptures they're having my heart are coming up, and I'm like, "God." It would be neat if we'd ask him instead of asking someone else. It's really good. If we could leave with just that right there, that would be awesome. So it says It says we're the light of the world. Jesus was the light, the light of men. It says he came, and he was the light to all men, right? It's in John 1. It's awesome. Jesus the light of the world. "You stepped down into darkness. Open my eyes, let me see. Beauty..." You know that song. It's awesome. But God said, "I'm the father of lights And you are the light that I'm the father of and if my people would understand that they're all light I'm the father of my people which are lights." So God is the father of lights and we're the lights that he's the father of. We're sons of light. Right? So it says, "You're the light of the world." It says "You're a city on a hill that can't be hidden." So first, you're the light of the world. It's not "This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine." You don't understand. That is bringing it down. It's light of the world. You are called the light of the world. Then he calls you a city on a hill. Right? Meaning like, you light up you light up the whole city. A city that's set on a hill that can't be hidden up on a city Then it says nobody lights a lamp and puts it under a lamp stand, but it gives light to all who are in that house. Now that can mean your church, that can mean your personal house, or that can mean your God's house. So here it says the eye of the body: "The eye is the lamp of the body and if your eye is single, your whole body is full of light." If your perspective is single, you're light, but if the light that is in you is darkness how great is that darkness? So if your light gets confused with what really is light it's trouble. If you're the only one that knows that you're a Christian at your workplace you might just be a basket-headed one. You might just be afraid of sharing it because you get beat up. You might not know really why you're here. You're the light of the world. A city on a hill. No one puts a lamp on the top of the light, but he keeps that thing off so that iIt lights up your whole house. If your house isn't serving God, believe that they will and dare to be a light. It's really huge. It says, "You're the salt of the earth." What is salt? Man. What is salt? It's a preservative. I get it. And they use salt to preserve meat and when the salt lost its flavor, when it lost what salt could do they threw it on the road. That's what they did, and they trampled it underfoot. That's why they said" trampled underfoot" because they put it on the road. They paved roads with it. The dead salt. The salt that was no good. It says that if the salt loses its flavor it's no good. It should be thrown on the dunghill. Pile of poop. No good. It says you are the salt of the earth. You are salty. You are a preservative. You're a preservative. But what if we don't know what we're preserving? And what if what we're preserving is a lie of who we think God is? And what if by doing that we've permeated a lot of stuff with not salt, but flavorless. And we've given God a bad flavor. And then when people see God, they see him through what we didn't see happen. So they get a maybe-he-will maybe-he-won't gospel. And we've allowed circumstances and people and things and issues to speak louder than Jesus Christ. And we go to bed with no blood on our sword, which is tragedy. We put it on a mantle and say "Well, maybe he will maybe he won't. I don't know." And we don't ever use our sword. Pick it up. Pull it out. Use it. Not to hurt people. Your sword's not to hurt people. It's to kill devils and it's to slay lying doctrine. You're a warrior. God has enlisted you. If you said yes, you're in. Don't allow your stuff that didn't happen to cloud it. You all right? "Let your light so shine before men they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Listen to this. Ephesians 5 verse 8. "You were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord." It doesn't say, "This little light of mine." Doesn't say that. "You were darkness." You were darkness. You were darkness. You weren't just in the dark. You weren't just hiding in the dark. You weren't just in the closet. You weren't just here. You were darkness. You were darkness. Total darkness. But now you are light. Are light. Wow. What do people see when they see you? 1 Peter 3:15. Man, come on. That's salt right there. Salt. The reason why people don't ask us about the hope that is in us, is because we look just like the world. And people don't see something different about our life. They see just the churchianity. Christianity, normal Chris... "Yeah, well yeah. I don't go to church." Yeah, I talk to people. "Do you know how much Jesus loves you?" "Well, I don't go to church." "I didn't ask you that." I said "Listen." I start to pour the heart of God out. "But now you are light. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth. Find out what is acceptable in the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them." Do you know how you expose them? Not by pointing them out, because Jesus never held that against them. Jesus walked as light, and it was exposed. How did that happen? Peter: "I fished all night. What do you mean throw my net? Fine." "Go away from me Lord. I'm a sinful man." Jesus didn't say he was. "It's shameful even to speak of those things that are done in secret but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light." What light? The light that you are. People are troubled by this thing. They are. You're not supposed to expose them and say, "Hey you this and you that." It's different. When you're in the world you can't expect them to see what you see. But you also can't expect them to want what you have if they can't see what you are. Therefore he says, "Awake." "Awake you who sleep and rise from the dead and Christ will give you light. See that you walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise." Why? "Redeeming the time, for the days are evil. Don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Redeem the time. What does redemption mean? Redeeming. Redeeming. Bringing it back to the original reason why it was created. Every second was created to glorify Him. So we redeem the time every second of our day, everywhere that we go, realizing who we are in every circumstance that we're in, so that we can redeem it and bring it back to the reason why we even have it. And that's to glorify the God of wonders that lives in us. You are a sign and a wonder to the world. Don't put a basket on your head and hide it. Learn who you are. And run. Don't allow what you're going through and the circumstances that you've been through to speak louder to you than the reality of who Jesus says that you are. Let me tell you something. It's all over the Bible. If this opens up to you the whole thing will illuminate and it will be different. You'll read it and you'll be like, "Oh my gosh. This is everywhere." You open it. "Oh. God! There it is again." And you'll read your Bible and this is the lens you'll see it through. You're light. The reason why you're here. The purpose of why we're saved. We're in this world as a preservative. God desires that none perish, but that all men know him. But how will they know him if we're all trying to go for the jugular vein to get people to pray a prayer that we don't even understand. What are you trying to say? I'm trying to say we need to know him, because when we see him we'll be like him. We say, "As he is, so are we in this world." We say that in all authority. What we don't understand is that John is talking about love. And as he is love so are we in this world. Don't take it out of context. It's talking about love. It's the love chapter. It's a lot of love in there. It's awesome. So remember I told you, I don't know who was...this the first time you've been here to see me. Okay, all right, well I'm going back. You know part of my testimony, and I just want to share something. My drug addiction was 22 years, my atheism was all through my life, and I was suicidal and I met somebody, I went to church through a set of circumstances and he told me to give Jesus my life and I came home and my girlfriend had taken my daughter and ran and went. My daughter is 7 1/2. My girlfriend's nine years in. She's not a Christian. She's an atheist. I came home. I got on the phone. I said, "Tell mommy that daddy found God," and my daughter said, "What's he like?" and I said, "I don't know, but I met somebody that does." So I told her everything's gonna change and that first night, I'm out on a crack binge-- first night, that I incorporated Jesus in. It's not incorporated. It's surrendered. So, I had a band and it was a heavy band, one of them. We had all of our own music. We were actually pretty good. We had all originals. I was friends with some bands like a band "Sevendust" and different bands that are big and we were trying to press to get a recording contract, you know. I mean it's the dream of every band. You know, it's one in a million shot. So we had some pretty good stuff, and I sang, and it was heavy. So all these guys is my band they're not Jesus people. But even though I'm out on that crack binge, I'm like something's... I can't stop now! See, before I didn't care. But now I care. And I can't stop. Here's the deal. If you're troubled by something that you're doing, it means that your heart's changed. People come to me and they're like, "Man, I did it again." Oh praise God man." "What?" "Thank God that you care. It shows me that your heart's changed, and you want change. Here's who you really are..." "What? You're kidding, right? You did it again? How could you!" It's not the way to counsel somebody. So, my guys came over for the band practice and they're like "Hey, man, what's up?" This is two days later. I've been out on a crack binge. I'm upstairs. We have band practice in my basement. I'm like, "Dude!" I'm like "Guys, you're not gonna believe this." They're like. "What? Man, what's up?" We're getting high. I said "Man, I gave my life to Jesus man." "Like what? Dude, shut the..." All that stuff. It's in my house, in my basement. They're all like, "You're crazy, man. What's wrong with you?" "I'm telling you, man. I wanted to kill myself the other day." "Why would you do that?" Dude, I don't know man. But I don't want to kill myself anymore man.. Give me a hit." Promise. So I was asking them-- give me some. You know I'm partying with them, I'm drunk, you know. "I'm telling you guys, man. Jesus is amazing." They're like, "Dude, stop saying that." I'm like, "I'm telling you man. It's real." They say, "Listen, man: enough." And three of the guys bailed. They took their stuff and left. "Look we're done. You're crazy, man. You lost it." "No, I'm telling you man. He's real." But one of them stayed. I'm like, "Man. Thanks for not leaving me." He goes, "Look, dude. I love you man. I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe in you." And I said, "Thanks, man. Thank you." So that night, I'm out again. Two days later, he shows up. Just me and him. His name's Bobby. He's like my best friend in the whole world. Virtuoso musician. I mean like Joe Satriani. Like crazy gifted guitar player self-made. He's a father: a 3 1/2, a 7 year-old kid, just 7 1/2. 3 1/2 and 7 1/2. He's a stay-at-home dad, his wife works. They own their property, so she's only just paying utilities. She wants to work. Gosh crazy, man. He has such an opportunity you know to study and do all that stuff. He come over next time I said, "Hey, man. Jesus loves you so much dude." "Thanks, man. I appreciate it, man. Come on. Let's jam dude. Here, man I brought some good stuff." And he whips out a bag of dope, just rolls up a joint, and we smoke it together. High. "Man, I'm telling you, man. God loves you so much dude." "Listen man. That's enough. That's like a lot right now. You're over the top, man." I said, "Well, I'm always over the top, man. Come on, man. You know me." You know, and I'm telling him. I'm out-- crack binges just keep going, big time. Now I'm upstairs screaming at my girlfriend and my daughter. Raging, punching stuff. Coming down into my basement. You can hear everything It's a single-wide trailer with a basement underneath of it. I come downstairs. "Hey, brother. How you doing man? Jesus loves you so much, man. You're amazing." "All right, man, thanks. I appreciate it man." Five and a half months that carried on. And he would tell me. He'd sit there and listen to me. "Listen, man. I don't want this Jesus thing. It's not even really real to you." I'm like, "It is, man. I'm telling you." "Okay." He's real nice, real calm. So that night, I went out and I got shot at in a crack deal. It was the very night after band practice. I'm out. Get shot at from 10 feet away. God speaks to me. Now God speaks to me. That changes things. He speaks to me. I went out and tried to get high. I couldn't. I come home, my girlfriend's up. She's sitting on the couch angry, and she told me to get out. So that night I left. So I made the decision to go to Teen Challenge. But Bobby's my best friend in the whole world you know, so I got to talk to him. I'm like, I call him. I said, "Dude. You're not gonna believe this man." He said, "What?" I said, "Last night I went out. I got shot at from ten feet away and God spoke to me." He's, "Come on, man. What do you mean, shot at?" "Well, I picked up this kid and I told him I was a cop." He goes, "Really? Why would you do that?" I said, "Man, I needed to get my drugs." He goes, "Man, you need help." I said, " I do man.. I'm gonna go away to a program." He goes "Oh, you're going to a rehab." I said, "Yeah, dude." He goes, "Oh, dude. That's so awesome." Man, you need to get right. You need to get okay." You know, not right with God. Just okay. And I said to him, "Dude. I got to go away. I leave in three days. Is there any way we can hang out?" He goes, "No man, but I'll see you when you get back. Rehabs are 28 days." I said "No, man. This program is not just a rehab. It's about Jesus." He says, "Man, why are you doing that man? He's not real. Why would you do that?" "See, because I need to know who he is man. Cuz I don't know. I'm not a father to my kids. I'm not... I'm not anything." He's like, "Man. You're a good father, man. Just, you got to stop using drugs." I said, "Man, do you hear how I'm screaming and yelling?" "Yeah, man, I grew up with that my whole life. I understand. But look how I turned out." And he was a good guy dude. I mean a good guy. Good. So I said to him, I said, "Man, can we hang out man?" He goes, "No." I go, "Man, this is a year. I gotta go." "What?" "I gotta go away for a year. It's mandatory. I gotta go away for a year. I can't even see my girl. She hates me. I probably...she's not gonna be here when I get back, dude. My daughter is sad." He goes, "You're really gonna leave your daughter for a year?" I said, "Man, I'm not even a father to my kid, dude. You hear how my life is." He goes, "Ya, you just need help. Man, you know what? You go. We'll play music when you get back." He goes, "I love you man. I don't believe in Jesus, man, but I believe in you." This is the day before I left. I said, "Man. All right, dude. I can't call you or write you or nothing." He goes, "Are you serious?" "They won't let me have any contact outside of it." He says, "Man, I tell you what. I believe in you. When you get back, we'll jam." So I was getting ready to leave for Teen Challenge, you know. You gotta just leave everything, man. Just go. Submit to God. That's where the devil's resisted. You submit. So I go, and I call him, and I said, "Hey man. I'm getting ready to take off and I just wanted to say goodbye to you and I got his answering machine. I left a message. I love you man. I'll see you when I get back. You're my best friend in the whole world man. I love you, and and I'll see you when I get back man." He didn't answer. So I'm at Teen Challenge, you know, and I'm there and I'm like man. And he's my best buddy. Anybody got any best friends? They don't know Jesus...like friends that don't know Jesus that you really...? Man. Nobody, huh? You need new friends. There's a lot of truth to what I just said. Don't diss the old ones. Just don't think you're gonna be unclean by associating with people. Just know who you are, so you can be light. So I get this...I'm at Teen Challenge, and I'm three days in. I've submitted to God. I'm not gonna make 12 30. Just get me out of here on time to make the plane. Okay? Sorry. Ain't gonna happen. Pray for translation so I can get there and my bags, too. So I get this call up at Teen Challenge and I'm three days in, and it's my pastor. And this guy named Maurice. He's in the office and his name's Mo. He's a counselor up there. He's a 27-year IV cocaine user. Every vein has a track-- his toes, everything. His neck full of tracks. He's a testimony of what God can do. He's been through Team Challenge four times. Now he's a counselor, has an anointing for talking about truth. Just awesome. So he's like, "Todd, you need to come in here." He's got this weird face. He's looking at me like "Hey sit down." "What's going on man? I said what's going on?" He goes, "Just talk to your pastor." I go "What?" Dan's on the phone. He goes, "Hey Todd. I need you to do me a favor. I need you to listen very carefully." I said, "What's going on? What's going on? Is it Jackie? Destiny? What happened? He goes. "No." He said, "Bobby." I said, "What?" He said, "He had a brain aneurysm." My best friend man had a brain aneurysm, and I'm like "What's going on?" He goes, "He's in a coma." I went, "No. No. You kidding man. This is not happening." He said, "It did. You can't leave." I threw the phone down. I went upstairs. I'm three days into this new life, man, and I am not understanding this at all. He's my best friend. I go up in this room and this kid follows me upstairs. And I just want to be alone man. Just leave me alone. I'm going to the prayer closet. I'm a fighter. You're not gonna. It's not good to get in my face at that point at all especially now. You know I'm I'm in the room and this guy comes up and he's in the room with me, and he's a fruit tester guy. He's a in your face guy. He's a guy that's been on me for three days. They won't leave you alone, and he comes up to me, and he goes, "Dude, It's not that bad," and he has no idea. And I went, "Aaar" and I screamed and God entered the room and peace went whooo and knocked me to the floor and knocked him to the couch. It was the first encounter with the God of peace that I had in my life, and God said, "You're not going anywhere." And I stayed there, and I didn't go and me and that guy became best friends. It's crazy. Only God can do that. So I'm there for two months. I have an encounter with Jesus three nights in a row. And the third night he told me to go home. I left 10 months early. I came home. My girlfriend had come to Christ when I was in there, and we got married four days later. It's powerful awesome testimony. But I went up to see Bobby, because he was in a coma, and he's in the nursing home and his brain--they cut away his skull so that the aneurysm had his skull out to here. And he's not home. And I go into the room and I see him lying there on life-support And I'm like, I don't understand healing. All I know is that I was lost and now I'm found, and he's lost. See we don't understand. You don't get it. We don't understand. We think that this is all some nicey-nicey thing. It's not okay when this thing happens in your life at all. Cuz Bobby the last day I talked to him told me, "I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe in you man." There was nothing for him to believe in in me. And he's laying there dying and his wife's there. She's not a believer either. Matter of fact, Bobby said if one of us dies sooner we'll come back to each other as a ghost and all that stuff. And I said, "Betty, I'm sorry." "Sorry for what?" She's wrecked. That's her husband. He was the nicest guy ever outside of Jesus. And I said, "I'm sorry." She goes "For what?" I said, "I didn't represent him." "Represent who?" I said, "Jesus." She goes, "Jesus? Jesus. Look at him." And I said, "I'm sorry." She said, "Stop it." She walked away from me, and I just sat there and cried. And oh my friend that's not home and the hypocrisy my five-and-a-half months went all through my whole... I can't even explain. It was just like everything that I did. "Hey man, take a hit. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you." All that stuff went right through me. No light in it at all. The light that was in me was darkness, and how great was that darkness? It was so dark that I have a man that's lying here in the bed that's not gonna live, that has no idea what light really was. And I was the source of light for him and all I was was darkness, because it was all about me still. Life is not a guarantee and you have the ability to live in such a way that everyone around you will know who you represent... or it can be all about you. So I said, "I'm sorry," and I sang "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Echoed through the halls of this place. Betty was Bobby just stayed dead stare. Comatose, had no idea. People have told me, "Well, you know people in comas can hear." I get it. But it marked me. It seared me in such a way that I will not be a hypocrite. I left there. And Bobby died the next day and that really really wasn't okay. And the wife called me that day and said, "Todd?" I said, "Yeah, I'm sorry." "Stop saying you're sorry. Bobby's gone now, but he's gonna come back and..." I'm like, "Oh..." Some of you have a Bobby in your life. Trust me. You do. You have people at your work that don't believe, and you shut this thing down because you don't want to offend anybody. I'd hate to have you go and stand in a sheep line and look at a lot of people that are goats because you never walked out sheepness. Now I'm not being mean and it's not legalism, and it's not accusation. It's the truth that sets you free. She said, "You were Bobby's best friend. He would have wanted you to speak at his funeral." I went, "Oh, God. I don't know what I would say." She said, "He would have wanted it. Just think about it and call me back, please." I get off the phone. God says, "You're speaking at his funeral." I said,
"Oh, my gosh, what am I going to say? What am I gonna say?" He said, "What were you to Bobby?" I said, "A friend," and he said, "Think about it." I went, "I wasn't a friend." He goes, "That's right. I want you to talk about what it means to be a friend." The pastor, this guy from the funeral home calls me. I mean they don't have a pastor. It's the funeral home. He says, the guy that they're getting to do the funeral has to be licensed to do it. He says he goes, "Uh the family wants you to talk. What are you gonna talk about? I said, "Man, I was a hypocrite for five and a half months and I was the only one that could speak into Bobby's life." Because see Bobby didn't have association outside. He didn't talk. He was like a hermit. He was the guy that didn't talk to anybody. I was the only one he talked to communication wise. The only one. He didn't even talk to the other guys in the band hardly at all. He talked to me. Cuz I made him talk. "Hey, man how you doing?" "Okay," you know and move from being quiet to talking to me all the time. So I said, "I was lost man and now I'm found, and I was blind and now I see. And a real friend walks out what he knows to be true in the midst of everything because God's his friend. And I'm a friend of God. And greater love hath nobody than he'd lay his life down for his friend, regardless of his opinions, or his feelings. He goes, "That's good enough for me." So I went there to the funeral. There's about 40 people there. It wasn't packed. There wasn't a lot of friends. Family members. No believers there. And Bobby's two kids, Brie and Nate are sitting right here. Both of them, and I'm standing here. And their daddy is open coffin behind me. And they come up to that coffin and little Brie three and a half, she doesn't know any better, "Daddy." And he's not there. "Daddy, wake up." Man, that's hard. And I'm there and I'm watching all this and I go by and I look at Bobby, and I'm not guilty or ashamed or condemned. I'm marked. I'm marked. Nate's just sitting there. Just looking. He's just zoned. He's gone. It's his dad. And I have to speak and have to look at these kids and tell them. And this is the hardest thing I've ever done. Ever. I said, "Listen. There's only one name under heaven that man can be saved, and the last time I talked to your daddy He told me that I don't believe in Jesus, but I believe in you, and I didn't represent Jesus So I can't tell you where your daddy is right now. That's the hardest thing ever. We've got this life, that's very short. We're here to leave a legacy. You're not here for you. You're here to leave a legacy. Don what it looks like for someone to be possessed by God. You're not here to make a name for yourself. This thing is way more than an Easter story, way more than Christmas. This thing is called Christianity, and it's beautiful. It's light. It's Christ in us. The pastor, the guy that did the funeral came up, and he said, "Son." He goes, when I talked about what it meant to be a friend. A friend walks out what he knows to be true regardless of what his other friend doesn't see. A friend lives out loud in front of his friend, because he knows the truth that'll set his friend free, and I was not a friend to somebody that I called my best friend. And I'm sorry. And the the man came up, and he goes, "Okay." I'm just done. I'm toast I'm crying. Bobby's not there. His shell is, but he's not. And the pastor came up and said "This was beautiful. How many of you don't know Jesus?" and like 20 people, half of the funeral, gave their life to Jesus that day. Listen, that's beautiful, but I want to ask you this. I'm gonna end with this. You guys got to get me out of here. I don't want to be late. I really love you guys. I really do. Oh, Jesus. Go to 1st Peter, I'm gonna read it. It says, "And who is he (in 13) that will harm you if you become followers of what is good, but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you're blessed. And don't be afraid of their threats nor be troubled but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers those who revile your conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it's better if it's the will of God to suffer for doing good than to suffer for doing evil." 2nd Timothy 2 "Therefore my son be strong in grace that it's in Christ Jesus, and all things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who'll be able to teach others too. Therefore you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ for no one entangled in warfare entangles engaged in warfare entangles himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. If anyone competes in athletics he's not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. A hard-working farmer must be a partaker of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ, the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel which I suffer trouble as an evildoer even to the point of chains, but the Word of God is not chained." Watch this. This is so awesome. "Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying, 'For if we died with him we shall live with him if we endure, and we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him, he will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself.' Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect." What does that mean? That means with the world and the way that the world sees things, and the way that people see things, I endure all things for your sake. I endure all things. I handle things in Christ as a believer with the union that I have with my God with the reality of who God is in my life in front and on display with everything, because I've engaged myself in warfare. But I don't get entangled with that stuff because I've engaged myself, my heart, with the King. I am competing in a race that I always win in, and I've submitted myself to the King. In 1st Peter it says, "Don't neglect this very thing." You know what we need to do? We need to be ready to give people a reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear. That when people come up to you and say, "Man, why are you so full of hope? What's this thing you got going on? it's amazing. I want what you have. What is it? Can you give it to me?" That's what Christianity is supposed to be. We're supposed to have people coming up to us asking us. Don't let there be a Bobby in your life. Don't let people go that way. Today is here. Today is here. I charge you Body of Christ to be who God created you to be. Stop watering down this gospel and Give yourself to this king and let him. love you so that you can love others. Love God with everything that you are so that you can love yourself, because God loves you, so get over you. He does. If you get over you and you can love you, then you can love your neighbor. and you won't walk that way. Why? Because you've surrendered to the king. And if there's a branch that you have that's not bearing fruit let God cut it off. Let him cut it off. Why? Because it's not bearing fruit. Who wants to enter into the kingdom of heaven with a fruitless branch? Let him cut it off, because in the law of pruning, what happens is when you prune something, two grow out. When you prune those two, four grow out. So we should be short bushy trees that bear much fruit, and that your fruit remains. Because the same sap that's in the vine is in the branches. The reason why a branch doesn't bear fruit is because sap has been cut from that thing. Get rid of it. Throw off every weight and sin that so easily ensnares us. Endure hardship as a good soldier enlisted. Let me please him who enlisted you. The deal is you don't have to do anything to please your director, your general. God is pleased because you say yes and if you live out of the yes and amen of God, you won't have a yes and no gospel to where they marry and have maybe so children. It's a yes and in him amen. Father, I thank you for grace upon this bride. God, I thank you would empower us to be who we're created to be. That you would give us strength to endure hardship because really, it's not really that hard. That you would help us to see that what we're going through is a very light affliction compared to what we really have. Not what we're gonna get, but what we really have. God help us to get our eyes focused and fixed on you, the author and finisher of our faith. God, I thank you that we would receive with meekness this implanted word that is able to save our souls. Father I thank you for everyone in here being marked with truth and grace and love and light and mercy and passion and awesomeness, that Jesus, we may represent you well, and that everybody would get to see you one day because they see you in us today. Grace and mercy in Jesus name. And all God's people say amen. Amen. Bless you. I love you. I gotta go. Gotta let me go. Let me go. Let me go. Bless them. Jesus bless them. Amen. Sorry I ran long. Got to run.
