October 6, 2025
All right. How many you guys have a Bible with you? Anybody? >> Hey, look at you go, sister. How many of you guys have a pen or a notebook? >> Hey, how many of you guys do your own hair? >> I do. , that was just fun. That was me and Mila's joke right there. , hey, I encourage you to I encourage you if you can have your phone out and not be distracted with notifications, , with news notifications, with texts, with social media, with fantasy football gentlemen, , and a couple ladies. , if you can do it on your phone, man, I encourage you to take notes on your phone. Let me tell you something. I have in my notes, I have, , I bet I have eight years of sermons and sermon notes in there. And it's pretty cool because in your phone you can search by word where it's man and it'll pull up stuff I've forgotten about and man that was a cool s that was so it's pretty cool on your phone if you can do it without being distracted. But I encourage you to take notes is my point. I encourage you to write down verses. I I I say a lot of things that maybe I don't even intend to say reference a lot of verses verses that won't be on the screen always. And I encourage you to write them down. I encourage you to go back and look for them yourself. a lot of people say well I don't know how to read the Bible. I don't know where I don't know where to how to do it during the week. I don't know what to do. I'll tell you what you do. You come in Sunday nights, you take some notes, and then you go back and study it all week long. That's that's one thing you can do. , go back and reread those verses and let God speak to you. The Bible says to beware of men who desire to be owners of men. I have no desire to own anyone in here. Okay? But let me tell you, it also says to not be of many teachers. And we live in a day and a time when there's voices, millions of voices coming into your phone, coming into your head, coming into your life. And man, we want to be we want to be of of in lock step. We want to be of mind. And man, everything in my heart is to want to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord. Everything in my heart is to want to help you have breakthrough in your life. But let me tell you, all I can do is tee it up. You got to get up and swing at the club at it. And and so an easy way to do that is write these verses down. Go back and read it for yourself. Don't just take my word for it. Go back and study to show yourself approved. Get it down in your heart. Let God speak to you. Look at the verses before and after. Put it in context a little bit more and see what's happening there and let God speak to your heart. All right. , tonight I want to I want to talk a little bit about what what our objective with church is. , I'm going to I'm going to touch the last few weeks. I always do. Every time I leave here on Sunday night, I think of things I wish I would have said different, things I could have said, things I forgot to say. And it just immediately starts building for the next week. It's this ongoing continuation. And so if you ever think, man, he sure does review a lot or repeat himself a lot, I apologize. It's just a continuation of my heart on a pretty regular basis. And today, we're going to pivot into into the church. And here's what by that. The last few weeks, we've been talking about how the fact that everything is spiritual. And we've established the fact in services before that the spirit of God lives in the body. And this is the body of Christ. That's why getting in the room is a big deal. And everybody in here at some point I've had a conversation with you or you had it with somebody else. It's awesome to be able to go back and watch this sermon tonight if you want to. It's awesome that if you have to be gone, you can watch it. It's awesome to be able to go back and rewatch something, hear it again, but there is no substitution for being in the room. And I can't explain it. I wish I could explain it better. I can't explain why it matters. But but God moves when we get together under his name. And he moves in your heart. And it's not always from this microphone. And it's not always from the music. These are two major components to a service. But let me tell you something. You're the church and God moves in you and through you and you have giftings and you have places and you have roles to play and your presence, man, lifts the room for people. It lifts the room. It gets people get excited to see you or they they get encouraged because you came or they know what you're going through and yet you're still here. And it's a big deal. Something so simple can make such a big influence. All the preparation, all the service, all the hospitality, setting up chairs, making coffees, whatever you can do creates the opportunity in the moment for ministry to happen. We're the church. And so, and so I've been talking about that everything is spiritual and his presence lives here in us and among us when we're together. And we've established the fact that you're either of the Holy Spirit, or you're not. There really is no in between. All right? You're either of the things of God, big G, or you are of little G, God of this world. There's a different mentality. There's a different priority system. There's a different way of thought and way of life and way of thinking. The Bible says you cannot serve God and mammon. You can't do it. We can't put God first and then do what we want to do and then come back to God and check in with him when we want to. Either he is Lord of our life or he's not. And it feels that's a condemning statement. It's not. It's a challenging statement. It's a challenge for you to evaluate your heart and go, man, is there something I'm holding on to? Let me tell you something. I tried to I I always try to walk through this little exercise, I guess you want to call it that or practice to seize the moment to say because you have to surrender, right? That's the that's the part that we have to do is to say, "God, I I I do trust you." There's there's this practical part of it and God will come in and move in our life. Two things I want to establish before we get into it though. These are fundamental beliefs that everybody has to deal with. I've referenced them before, but so it's a review, but it's also I want to build on it. The first one is this. A fundamental belief that everybody has to deal with. Either God created man or man created God. It's one of the two. It's one of the two. And here's the deal. If we created God, then that puts us in the driver's seat. That means we get to make the decisions. We get to set the standards. We get to decide what's right and wrong. We get to decide because we're a democracy and we're all about the vote. And so, if we just vote and the majority rules, then this is what's right and wrong. And the reality is that that is not the case. People can believe it. It's either God is and he created us or he didn't. And here's the other thing. People want to say, "Well, I think there's a lot of gods. There's a lot of ways to go. There's a lot of different gods. All that stuff. And and and I think it's all healthy and it's good. Let me help let me help debunk that for a minute. If there are a lot of gods, okay? And I'm not going to argue that there aren't. We understand that God is the most high God. In fact, when Mary was prophesied to from Gabriel said, "You're going to have a son. You're going to name him Jesus." This is on in the the computer. It's Luke chapter 1. said, "You're gonna you're gonna have and he's going to be the son of the most high God." Listen, Yahweh, he gave us his name. I've said this to you last couple weeks. He said, "This is my name. This is who I am. I am who I am. I'm the one true living God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." That's Elohim. That means that's plural for L. That means there's more than one. That's the Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. In the beginning, God existed. In the beginning, God created. In the beginning, God. And then he came down from this distant creator God. and he became Jehovah, Yahweh, he said, "Look, I'm here. I am who I am." And he has a name and he gave us his name. Okay? And so when when Jesus came, Jesus said before Abraham was, "I am. I'm Yahweh. I'm God. I'm Elohim. I was there in the beginning. I'm the word who was with God, who was God." This is what Jesus said. And it was offensive to all the religious people. So they start picking up rocks to try to stone him. And he slips away. This is who Jesus is. He gave us his name. And so if there's many gods and we can say, "Okay, sure." People have created gods and ascribed gods and that that's us being in the driver's seat. So I'm going to create this statue, this golden statue. I'm going to call him Zeus or Biscuit or whatever you want to name him. And he's the god of the sun or the god of energy or the god of water or whatever it is. And so then we give him these attributes and that puts us in charge, right? And then now we get to make up the rules and we get to decide. But here's the problem with it. If there's a bunch of gods, then there can only be one truth. There still can only be one truth. There still can only be one beginning. There still can only be one ultimate creator. And so when there's an argument of people, and let me tell you, let me help you with something real quick. I'm ranting. I rant. I don't know if I preach. I'm a ranter, okay? But the Bible says to be prepared and be ready to defend or communicate this hope that you have. So some of the times I want to talk to you because I know some of the arguments that people have. If there's multiple gods and lots of ways to God and all this different stuff, there's only one truth. So there can't be multiple ways because if they're ever contradicting, one can't be right and one be wrong. Then there's no absolute truth. There's no anchor to our soul. There's no there's no way to do that. And so when Jesus came, God said or prophesied through Gabriel to Mary and said, "You're going to have a son. His name is going to be Jesus. And he's going to be the son of the most high God. Here's here's fast forward to chapter 8, Regina. Jesus rolls up in a boat on the shore and this demoniac lives on this in this place and sees Jesus coming and runs and throws himself at Jesus' feet and he says this. As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and he fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, "Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Please, I beg you, don't torture me. I want to help you with something." We talked about everything spiritual. This is that heavenly realm. Let me tell you something. That that demon that that was is called Legion had been utterly cast out. There was no hope for him. But let me tell you something. He understood who Jesus was. He recognized who Jesus was. Son of the most high God. Why have you come to torture me? Why have you come to antagonize me, man? Leave us alone. I'm doing plenty of damage here. You got your the places. But he came and he exercised Jesus did his authority in the spiritual realm. But we need to recognize that. We need to understand this is a very powerful principle. Either God created us or we created God. Either there's one true living God or there's a bunch of multiple contradicting ways that we get to make up the rules. And that can't be possible. It can't it can't be light and dark at the same time. It can't be left and right at the same time. And so there's one truth. And that's why we recognize that it's good. Here's the second very valuable principle belief that you have to address. What is what is Yahweh ? What is God ? And this is so powerful. You heard me say this before. Either he's a God who is looking to send people to hell or he is a God who is looking to rescue you from hell because he longs for relationship with you. That is a fundamental massive important thing that you understand and believe. When we recognize and see that Jesus, the visible image of the invisible God, we recognize the heart of God, and we see that God is a God who loves you, pursues you, chases you down, patiently waits for you to get your head out of your honey hole and return to him. He woos you, he brings the Holy Spirit. He's brought labors across your path for years. Some of you are finally responding, but you've had, you could some, everybody here could probably tell me 10, 20, 30 different occasions where God was drawn on your heart or man, it was your mama, it was your grandmama, it was this person that you met in jail that prayed with you, it was this person that randomly stopped your feet. You saw God and yet you still stiff armed it. Man, that's the faithfulness and the patience of God to wait for us. Why? Because he longs to rescue you. He longs for relationship with you. He is He is a God whose heart is to rescue you, not punish you. I'm telling you with all my heart, if I don't say anything else tonight, I I need everyone to understand this and get this. This is so pivotal because if he's seeking to punish us and seeking to cast us off and looking for the opportunity to do that, I don't know how to say trust him. I don't know how to say commit your life to him. I don't know how to say hey, trust that his way is better, man. But we see the character that he is that he would create us that then he would then come and be a present God to Moses and to God's people to to protect that line so that he could come in the likeness of his creation of Jesus and pay the price for us so that we could have restoration back to him. That's who God is. And these are two very fundamental beliefs that set up everything else. So now when we recognize cuz we're a group of people and I think everybody here is in this boat where we acknowledge that God is and this is what Hebrews 11 says. It says that it's impossible to please God. Look at look at 11 Hebrews chapter 11. It is impossible to please God without faith. It takes faith to please God. It is impossible to please God without faith. You must believe that he is. We talked about this the last couple weeks. John chapter 4, God is spirit. you've never seen him. That's why I say that verse so many times in Colossians that Jesus is the visible image. There's historical physical evidence that Jesus was a real man and he either is who he said he was or he was a complete lunatic and crazy. But when we recognize the storyline and see who Jesus is and acknowledge that Jesus was God, it shows us God's heart. But we got to believe that God is and that he exists and that he is true before we can really comprehend and understand and recognize who Jesus is. And when we see Jesus, we see God's heart. So I must believe that he is right. Anybody that wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. What does that say? Number one, that he exists and number two, he's good. God's heart is to reward you. God's heart is to be the reward for you. God heart longs to rescue you from ourselves and our own self-demise and our own punishment and our own consequences and our own mistakes. He longs to rescue you out of it and bring elevation to you in your life. He desires to restore that which we broke. Man, I know there's mixed families and and and and and and poor financial choices and and broken bad decisions and we've paid consequences and and we're still dealing with the ramification of some of those consequences in the natural. Listen to me. We cannot undo those things, but God can heal and restore those things. God can do a massive work in your family dynamic right now. God can do a massive work delivering you from your past and creating opportunities for you that shouldn't be you shouldn't be qualifi qualified for in the natural but he qualifies you and can create opportunities. Nothing is impossible for God. Do you believe that? And here's what I'm telling you. When we open our heart to him, when I say I believe that you are and I see that you're good and I open my heart to him, man, he comes in and he begins to do what God does. Heal, restore, deliver, breakthrough, create opportunity. That's who he is. He wants to establish great friendships, establish great marriage, establish great relationship with your parents or your well parents too and your kids, man. He wants to do things in your life so that he is glorified in your life. Again, I said this last week, sometimes we can get selfish with this gospel because we're the ones that stand to benefit. And I will preach it all day long to try and inspire you because a lot of times our motivation is for us to experience that blessing. But let me help you. God wants to work in your heart so that it's all about him and then he can trust you with those blessings so that your life is only more glory to him and who he is and what he's done in your life. Are you tracking with me? Okay. So, we want to recognize that. , we want to recognize, listen, that God is a God of of grace wherever you're at. , I think it's John chapter 8 maybe. , the story of the prostitute. She she was caught red-handed, caught in the act of having an adulterous relationship and they brought her to Jesus to try to trap Jesus. So, they were completely disrespecting her in every way possible. Again, she's she's making a poor decision, but they bring her to make her a trap for Jesus. They're going to kill her and stone her because that is the law. That is the consequence. And so, they're trying to trap Jesus. They are using her as a as a bait, as a piece of meat, whatever you want to do. There's such disregard for her that they are throwing her in the public square and they're ready to pick up rocks and stone her, but they want to trap Jesus with it first. And here's where I'm going with the story. Many of it, but Jesus says, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." The only one there who is without sin that could cast the first stone was Jesus. And he wasn't picking up any stones or throwing them. And it says that those who were older were the first to begin to drop their rock. Why? Because the older you get, the more you realize you screwed up. You young people think you got it all figured out. You had messed up yet. I'll talk to your parents. They'll help you understand the difference. Okay. but it says the older ones start to drop the rocks first all the way down to the younger and everybody walked away. And Jesus walked over to her and she he said, "Where are your accusers?" Remember who the accuser of the brethren is? The devil. So when we start accusing people and being accusatory of things, man, he said, "Where are your accusers?" And she said, 'They're gone, Lord. And he said, 'Neither do I accuse you. Neither do I condemn you. And watch. He says, "Rise, go, and sin no more." Here's where I'm going with this point in the story is that we recognize that God is God is a God of love, a God of grace. And I promise you, I don't care how dark of a pit you're in, there will be grace. Listen, Jesus saved her life. Jesus saved her life from what she deserved. It's a perfect picture of God's grace. She did deserve to be stoned because that was the law. They did have a right to do it. But Jesus showed such supernatural wisdom and protected her and saved her life and then went over and helped her stand up, showed some honor and dignity to somebody who's didn't deserve it. This is the character of grace and nature of God. But then what does he say? Hey, go back and have at it. He says, "Go and sin no more. Change what you're doing." So in other words, when we give our life to Jesus, when I say, "Okay, God is I didn't create God. God created me and God loves me and I see Jesus and I put my faith in him." Now there is this part where we have a responsibility to say, "God, I'm following you now." We we this is where that term sloppy grace comes in. Is there grace for all of your crap? Yes. Yes. But it doesn't mean you get to keep living in it. There's a very distinct difference, and I'm getting ahead of myself maybe, but this is one of my major points tonight. There is a difference between disobedience where we we we are practicing the disciplines of following and we mess up because we're learning. We're practicing these disciplines. There's a difference between that and rebellion. See, when you live in a defiance, when you live in a rebellion, see, I'm I'm acknowledging that God exists, but I'm living as if he doesn't exist. Did you hear me? I can acknowledge that he exists, but I live he doesn't exist. Well, what is that, man? If I know that God exists and I come to believe that he is, and it's going to take faith to believe that he is. But what happens is when I put my faith in him and that veil comes down, the truth becomes illuminated. It's becoming more and more alive. Everybody in here could tell me about how, man, you've been growing and you'll give credit to being in the room and all the stuff. Why? Because the truth is illuminated in your life. Why? Because you put your faith there first. Because you submitted and surrendered your heart to God. And God begins to work in your heart and your life. And so all of us are in the process of that sanctification. All of us are in the process of growing. All of us are working through things. And all of us stumble and fall because we are disciples of Christ practicing the disciplines of following Christ. And so we might mess up. We might make a mistake. That wasn't that wasn't what you just did wasn't a representation of the disciplines of Christ. Okay. But we're refining. We're sanctifying. That's different than a full-blown rebellion, a full-blown defiance. Man, I was I traveled this week and it was in the airport and I saw a lot of characters in the big city that we forget about in our small town. And I'll leave it at that. And and listen, what it is is a public listen to me. It is a public display. They don't know this. They're not thinking this. They probably are a little bit, but it is a public display of a rebellion to God. the things of God and what they want to call normaly and humanity or whatever. There is there is a common decency and morality that we all know whether you acknowledge Jesus or not. And then there is a there is a portion of our country that is living in outright bold defiance and rebellion to the things of God. And I'm not sitting here trying to condemn that. I'm simply saying that's what that is. See, that's different than you and me trying to follow Jesus and we put our foot in our mouth. Everybody in here's probably done something dumb today. Okay? , I I had to get my attitude right. I had to get some things in order. And I I don't know how fast I did it. I probably could have done it better. But the point is this, that that we're working through things. We still live. There's a resistance. There's a But that's not a rebellion or a defiance. I know I'm out of order. God, I know you're there. God, help me get in order. Let me come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain your mercy. Find grace in the time of need. That's Hebrews chapter 4. See, that's the privilege that you and I have as disciples, of followers. That's you and I, the privilege that we have walking with the Holy Spirit, walking with God. That's different than a full-blown rebellion that says God's a madeup thing. We came up with God and it and the the God of the Christian people sends people to hell and he's out to get me and all that stuff. It's , whoa. They're going to live in a defiance that way. They're going to live blinded that way. They're going to live broken that way because it starts with knowing that he is and that is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That's what God does. So, a couple things I want to just acknowledge as who we are as a church. And I'm going to get y'all out of here. Okay, we'll hang out for a little bit if we can and get going as the church now. Because we're a group of people that say, "Okay, I believe God is and I believe that his heart is good. That he's for me, not against me, that I'm more than a conqueror. That he's leading me in triumph. that God's created me in his likeness and image. He formed me in his mother's womb, my mother's womb. He knows who I am. He pursues me. He's patient with me. Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. John 3:17. Right? I know God's heart. I see the truth. Now, we're a group of believers that gather together at least once a week. Right? That's what we're here to do. Why? Because we live in a world that has been corrupted. And we have to put an emphasis on truth. I've got to be around other truth-minded people. I've got to be around other people that are pursuing truth. I need your accountability in my life as much as you need my accountability in your life. I am not any more special than anybody in this room. I don't have any more spiritual authority than you have. My gifting is not more powerful than your gifting. They are different, but they all function together. And it's the same Holy Spirit. It's one spirit, one truth, one mission, one purpose, one God, one church, and everybody contributes. Everybody's a part of it. And so, we recognize that God creates, this was my point last week, and the devil corrupts. And so, we've got to understand that when , if you if you question that thought, you go outside and just look at creation, you go, man, creation is beautiful, isn't it? And yet, everything's dying. Why? Because what God creates, the devil corrupts. Man, God's created principles and truths that you and I know. And the devil will twist them and contort them to manipulate and lure you away. He'll take that little bit of truth and he'll just put a different angle on it and it'll mess you up and throw you off. That's why we need each other to hold us accountable to make sure that we're we're seeking truth together. That's why I tell you to go back and study it for yourself. Go back and read it for yourself, man. Let's get together. Let's chop it up. Let's get a coffee and talk about it. Let's sharpen one another. There's got to be proximity for this to be sharpened. Iron on that side of the street and iron on this side of the street isn't going to sharpen each other. Iron has to be close to be able to sharpen one another. And so that's who we are as one friend sharpens another. It's very important when I say the reason I bring that up is because sin is what separates us from God. We're no longer separated from him. And sin is pleasurable for a season is what the Bible says. And so there's this part of us, this carnal part of us where that we want to just live in that defiance and that rebellion or that sloppy grace or well God forgive me. And and so it's it's well this isn't that big a deal. I want to do this. This isn't that big a deal if I don't go. It isn't that big a deal if I do say this. It's not that big a deal if I eat or drink this. It's not that big a deal. And we downplay it. And that's justification for our own behaviors that we know are not the right thing. And it's pleasurable for a season. I remember the fir I heard so much as a kid about drinking alcohol and doing drugs and all that stuff that I remember it's my gosh the first time I ever touched it I'm going to explode I guess because that's how I've that's all I've ever heard and then the first time that I ever did it I thought well that was actually fun right not really but it was the first time and that's exactly how it all starts in our life it starts with the sin as attraction was pleasurable for a season but in the end it leads to death That's what the Bible says. And so what happens is it gets lured that little shiny trickle and it's , "Ah, it's not that big a deal. It'll be fun." And the next thing , there's an addiction. There's a there's a there's a stronghold in your life. There's a I don't know how to do life without this thing in me. Why? Because it got corrupted. Yes, there's freedom and liberty. Yes, you can do what you want. The Bible Paul said this. He said, "All things are permitted in my life, but not all things are beneficial." Sure, you can go there. Doesn't mean it's going to be beneficial. You can, but you probably shouldn't. And that's where common simple common sense and simple wisdom comes in, man. You hear God's voice. You get that check in your spirit. You go in and you go, "This room is not of the Holy Spirit. This is not a healthy atmosphere for me to be in. I'm going to go ahead and excuse myself. You can stay if you want to stay. All things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial." And so, we say, "Man, I want the things of God. I want the life of God. I want the promises of God. I want to grow in God. I want to I I want our church to do this. I want our church to do that." But then we don't have enough discipline to walk away from something because we go, "Well, it's okay if I'm here." And I'm just telling you because we know that God is is all what I'm saying, there's got to be this compelling or this conviction in our life to press on and press forward as believers. What we are doing is seeking to know him. Now, we know he exists and we know he's a rewarder and we know who he is, but I don't know him as well as I could know him yet. There's things that I don't know about Dan yet. and we're becoming pretty good friends. There's still stories I haven't heard yet. There's still things he struggled with that I probably haven't heard. And vice versa. Why? Because it's going to require more time, more growth together, more conversation. Watch more vulnerability, more investment of energy and time. And what happens is the relationship gets better and gets stronger and grows. And everybody in here, we gather together. We're all under the same objectives. To seek him, to know him better. That's number one. Number two, to gain insight and understanding and wisdom. That's what we're here for. And so, sitting under the word is how that happens. I've shared verses with you that some of you maybe have never even heard yet. And if you are taking notes and write them down, you go back and read it for yourself. And what happens is God speaks to your heart because the word is living and active. It's alive. And it it illuminates in your heart and it goes, "Wow." And that's where that shift happens. That's where that change happens. That's where that washing happens. But if you come in here and and just watch the the concert and watch the the guy up there, the the talking head up there, there's not a lot of cleansing that happens, man. You've got to get the word in your life. Remember, we talked in Psalm 119. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. That I not not even for a season, not even for the initial attraction or temptation. Man, I've hidden your word in my heart. So, I know the truth. I recognize the truth. That's why I can say I hear your voice. I'm led by your spirit, man. When God speaks in my heart, that sounds his word. That sounds who he is. I'm out of here, man. That's that still small voice, that subtle conviction in your life, man. Go with it. Trust it. You say, "Well, I don't know. This is going to be weird. People think I'm weird." Yeah, I know it's going to be weird, maybe. But you got to have that conviction, that boldness to say, "I'm going to follow that that we are striving to learn of him and follow his leadership." That's what we're all in here doing. We are striving to know him better and follow his leadership. Man, some of us know him better than others. Great. We can help each other. We can share insights and perspectives and things we've seen. We can help each other grow in our relationship with God. But then we're also all trying to follow him. We're all trying to practice the disciplines of him. We've all made a commitment hopefully that I've made Jesus the Lord of my life. That means he's the boss. So now I'm trying to follow his leadership. I'm trying to practice the disciplines of following him. I no longer listen, I no longer live in rebellion and defiance to God. I no longer have a closed off heart to God. My heart is open to God. And now I am practicing the disciplines. Do how hard forgiveness is? Anybody? Wave of hand if you've had a hard time forgiving and Yeah. how hard it is to pray for enemies? That one's dumb. what ? that one's crazy. Can't call it dumb. It's in the Bible. Don't call it dumb. Okay. But it's , man, , the Bible talks about course joking. It's , well, I don't , I got some some funny ones, man. what ? , and to discipline myself to hold your tongue, to not say what you want to say, to not be led by your emotions, to learn the difference between a spirit-led moment and an emotionally led moment. It's there's so much for us to grow in. But to know that when I'm following, watch where his the Bible, we said this verse a few weeks ago, where his presence is, there's there's fullness of joy. And where his presence is, where his spirit is, there's freedom. So if I can learn to get good, if if each individual can get good at hearing his voice, being led by his spirit, what's going to be the fruit of it? Freedom. Joy. playing church not going to produce it. Learning to recognize him, know him, and be obedient to practice, follow that obedience, you're going to walk in the liberty and the freedom that comes with it. We are practicing the disciplines of following Jesus and not living in rebellion. Let me share a couple more verses with you and and we'll roll out. James chapter 4 4:17. James 4:17 says, "Remember it is sin." And when I say the word sin, I'm talking about separation from God. See, you no longer you no longer That's why we can say, "I'm not a sinner anymore." And everybody here goes, "Well, , I'm just a sinner saved by grace." I know, but you're not a sinner anymore. You were a sinner saved by grace. When you when you fall on your sword and play the victim role and say, "Well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace." You are being soft, making excuses for your bad behavior. How you them apples? You're going to vote me off the island for that one. Okay? But I'm just telling you the truth. And here's what by that. You are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You now have the power of the Holy Spirit operative in your life. You now hear his voice. The word is now alive to you. You now have a community and a family of people around you. You now have what it takes to overcome every obstacle and adversity. You now have the authority to capture thoughts and destroy strongholds in your life. You now have everything you need to live a godly life and escape the corruption of the world we talked about last week. The question is, how bad do you want it? See, the atonement changes everything in your life. Th this this goes back to the multiple God thing. The atonement changes everything. So now, because I'm already loved, everybody say it because you need to hear yourself. I'm already loved. >> I'm already accepted. I'm already valued. I'm already healed. I'm already provided for. That's what the atonement is. It took care of all that. Now, everything that you're doing is not duty and performance. Now, everything you're doing is submission and obedience and following. See, now I'm not doing it to perform. So, God throws me a bone. I'm doing it to steward with the opportunities that God's given me. Now, are you listening to me? See, I don't do righteous things to become righteous. I'm a righteous man who does now righteous things. I I I've been changed. I'm a new creation in Christ. I have a new heart. I have a new spirit on the inside of me. I I have a new outlook. Everything's changed for me. I'm on the winning team now. And here's what's great. And this is our little tagline for Covenant Sports. Already won, man. We're going to play football to win the game. That's why you do any game. You want to play to win. Even a pickup game. You're trying to win the game. That's why you're playing. The point is, as people, we've already won. So now, man, you might stick your foot in your mouth. You might start a business and maybe it didn't work out the first time. Or maybe it's harder than you thought it was going to be. Or maybe you have whatever. Listen, you've already won. You're already in the position to win. You're already in right standing with God. And God has his spirit on the inside of you so that whatever you're facing, he will lead you through it. That's I just said that verse when we were praying a while ago. He leads you. Get this in your heart, your mind. God leads me in paths of righteousness, paths of right living. Why? For his name's sake. Because of who he is and because of who he is in your life, he's going to lead you in paths of righteousness. The Bible says he widens the path beneath your feet. As you're walking, you're thinking, "Man, this sure is a narrow path." That's what the Bible says. It's pretty narrow to think that Jesus is the only way. , you're just being narrow-minded. I know. It's what's crazy about it. It is narrow-minded and it feels a very narrow path that it is. And yet God widens the path beneath my feet. So when I commit to the narrow path, God makes it easy still not to fall off. It's narrow, but God will widen that path beneath my feet. That's who he is. God God He says he will give you I'm I'm full pulling scriptures from way in the archives in my heart. It says he makes your feet hind's feet to scale mountains. See, there's no obstacle, no mountain, no authority that you're facing that God hasn't given you the ability to scale, climb, and overcome or speak to and get it out of the way. That's the position that we carry in who we are. And we're all learning to grow in it. Let me go back to my verse. James 4:17 says, "Remember, it is sin or separation from God to know what you ought to do and then not do it." Has anybody in here, show of hands, known to do something and knew it was right and didn't do it? Okay, we we missed God in that moment. Guess what that means? You're disqualified. Guess what that means? You need a savior. Guess what? I got good news. God's your savior. Jesus is your savior. God sent him to save you. So now as followers the church man there's things in our life as believers man I hear his voice and I know his spirit and sometimes God will speak to my heart and it's oh it's going to be awkward maybe let me pray on it Lord you been there man God puts in your heart man I I don't feel coming to church and God prompts your heart to come to church do it have been easy not to man prompts your heart to buy somebody lunch to give a big offering to something to to bless somebody to do whatever to commit to volunteering to commit to helping. You're , I don't want to. And guess what you're going to do? You're going to do it anyway. Why? Because I've already given my life to this. I'm already in. Where else am I going to go? What else am I going to turn to? And so, I'm all in on that. And so, but when God drops in my heart, I don't want to miss God. I want to be obedient and say, "God, I know that's you. I'm not super excited about it in my flesh, but I'm in because the last thing I want to do is live apart from you. The sa the sac on the other side of that sacrifice is going to be some reward. And what do you mean reward? God's the reward. When we walk in obedience, we're following him. We're walking with the reward. And what's on the other side of that? What is it? Freedom and joy. Man, God puts in your heart to volunteer, to help with kids. Man, it's not the most popular thing. Especially if you're a parent. I got you're looking for a break. So some of you other people that aren't parents that have a clean record, you should be helping help these parents a little bit. Okay? But at the same time, man, we have a responsibility to help. And what's on the other side of your commitment to volunteering? Some freedom. And you go, "Well, I don't want to be there. I'd rather be over here." I'm with it. I get it. But then God's going to do something that I can't do for you. That's what's crazy. You say, "Well, how's it going to happen?" I don't know. He's God. Let him be God in your life. Our job is to be simple obedience. Simple obedience to do what God's told me to do. Okay? Romans chapter 14 verse the second part of verse 23. The whole chapter of Romans 14 is great. If you want to go read it for yourself, I recommend reading Romans 14. The whole book of Romans is great. The whole Bible is great. Romans chapter 14, Paul's talking to believers and he's saying, "Some of you say that one day is more holy than another day. Some of you say certain foods are okay to eat and others aren't. And he said, "But you're all striving to honor God." That's that's the dynamics in the church, man. People have different interpretations of certain scriptures. People have certain convictions, but great. Listen, that's okay because we're all striving to grow. People that are in other church communities, man, they might they might have a different conviction on certain topics within the disciplines of following Jesus. Great. I'd to learn from them and maybe we can help them learn something too. That's iron sharp and iron. We need to be open. Here's who we don't want to be. And what I've seen, I'm going to come back to this verse. We don't want to be the people who are accusing other people in church. Again, when we're accusing, who do we sound ? We sound the devil. And and since the whole Charlie Kirk assassination, everybody that's gets to have a voice now. Everybody gets to have an opinion. Everybody gets to get online. And we have church, listen to me, we have church people telling people to leave their church if somebody didn't say enough or do enough. If I'm the devil, woohoo, that's my playground. I'm going to get these goobers inside the church to turn on each other and make it unattractional now to people who all of a sudden are open to the things of God. We are not going to be accusational. You can have all the opinions you want about maybe what we should be doing and you're welcome to share those opinions with me. We may or may not acknowledge them. We may or may not do them. They may or may not be great ideas. They may or may not be the right timing. And we can have a lot of opinions about what other churches are doing. But it's not my business. I'm not responsible for that. And the last thing I'm going to do is tell somebody to leave a church. Now, if if somebody is stumbling and they're in sin and they're overtaken with sin, we have a place as brothers and sisters to come alongside and go, "Hey, man. Can we get a coffee? I'm a little concerned about you. I think this is getting it's gotten too far. It's gotten too unhealthy. And let me rescue my brother before he gets eaten by sharks. Okay, if you see somebody run off a cliff, you need to get involved. But just because they're over there dancing doesn't mean you need to get involved. That's my little analogy there. Okay, look at Romans 14. Paul's saying, look, some of you guys say it's okay to eat certain things and others not. One day is better, another day. And then he ends ends the chapter with this line. If you do anything you believe is not right, you're sinning. All right, show of hands. How many of you guys have ever done something you knew wasn't right, but you did it anyway? Okay, so you need a savior. Who will save me from this wretched man that I am? Is what Romans says in chapter 7. Man, Jesus is. But here's my point, okay? We're all striving in the same way, man. We've all known to do something. We didn't do it as believers. That's why that's why we're stronger and better together. That's why we can help cover one another because there's a lot of love in this room and a lot of godly love and we're growing to love God loves and there's a help and the support and the strength to being in here together. That's what we need because everybody in here has done things that they knew they shouldn't have done and everybody here has knew what they ought to do and didn't do it. So, as believers, forget before when you were a full-blown heathen. Now you're a Christian and we still stumble with this. Okay? That's why we got to have a little bit of grace for one another. Let's be a little bit patient. But don't be sloppy. We've repented. Go and sin no more. I see. Now Dan can have a voice in my life because I don't want to live that way. So if he wants to call me out in accountability, I let him have that voice in my life. If he sees something, he's got my back. I can't. Titty Jake said it this. He goes, "I can see everybody in the room but myself." That's a pretty strong line. So I can have an opinion about all y'all, but I don't see me. Right? Meanwhile, you're seeing me. So here's the deal. If you see something me, I can't I got blind spots. I got stuff I can't see. And so, man, that's where we help one another grow and be the best that we can be and help one another practice the disciplines of following God. Okay, here's our objective, and I'm done. Number one, we're striving to know him fully. That's why you're here. You are striving to know. See, you already know him. You already recognize him. You already believe that he exists. You already know he's good. Now, man, I want to know him intimately. I want to know him backwards and forwards. I want to know his heart. I want to know how he's thinking. I I want to know God. I want to I want to I want him to be my best friend. I want to be my heavenly father. I want him to be my lord and king. I want to know him in every way, shape, possible form that I can know him. And secondly, we are all striving to lay our life down fully. I want to know him fully and I want to lay my life down fully. That's why I lead you through that little moment. Man, there's things that I need to surrender. Why? Because I haven't laid them down yet. Those are the things I to hang on to. Those are my happy place and they're killing me. But they're my happy place. Those are the things I want to hold on to. Those are the right. And so what we're all striving to do is to know him fully. So man, if Brandon gets a revelation, I want to hear about it, man. I want to go read. I'm going to go look for myself. And at the same time, I need his help because I'm trying to lay my life down fully. , hey, bro, I got your back. Listen, we can do this. Okay, man. Cool. That's what the church is. That's the value and the benefit of it. All right, let's pray. God, we thank you for the privilege to be in your house again tonight. God, I know that your word's gone forth and it can never return to you void. We acknowledge that you are the one true most high God. There is no other God. You have no rival and you have no equal. We recognize that Jesus is God. We believe in our heart that you conquered death and the punishment of sin. And we confess the lordship of Jesus in here. Right where you're sitting, right where you're at, man. It's an acknowledgement of who God is. God, you can right where you're sitting. I believe you exist. I believe you came in the likeness of man. I believe that Jesus was God. I believe you paid the price for my penalty for my sin in death. The wages of sin is death. And I confess that Jesus is Lord. I know that you conquered death with the resurrection. I believe it. I believe that you created me. I'm not creating you. I believe that your way is better, not my way. So, I want to learn your way. Listen, that's our prayer every day. That's our prayer tonight. God, we pray that we would learn of you and learn of your way, knowing that it's better. Father, I pray your blessing on every home in here, God, as they go back and they look at these verses, as they spend time in the word, as they spend time seeking you, spending time knowing you, God, I ask you to reveal yourself to us in a new, fresh, real, powerful way. God, we seek you and we want your presence here. God, we're nothing without you and we ignore it. So God, we welcome you to our homes. We welcome you in our marriage. We welcome you in our finances. We welcome you in our life. And God, especially when we get together, God, we welcome you in our midst. God, we want to walk in the liberty and the freedom with which you've paid for. We want to walk in your truth. God, help us to know your truth. Right where you're sitting, open your mouth and just tell God, "I want to know your truth. I want to live your truth. I surrender my way to your way, God. Your way is better. and I acknowledge it tonight in Jesus name. Amen. [Music] [Music]