SPEAKER_00 0:00

So we're gonna uh get straight into the word of God today. Um I believe that the word of God is the most important um agent in the house of God, amen. Without the word there's no change, it causes change, it provokes hunger for God, it provokes wisdom. Praise the Lord. So I know many men and many uh women who have paid a lot of money to get wisdom, they've gone to the gurus and they've traveled to different countries to get wisdom, not knowing that it was in the Bible all along. Amen. And I know a myriad of men who also paid for peace. They paid, they went on uh journeys, you know, you know, those long journeys to go and find peace, and they didn't know that it was in the Bible. But thank God, you don't have to do that. You can sit down, thank you. You don't have to do that. Um, you were wise enough to hear the voice of God and and um and follow him. Praise God. So today is entitled Um So this is our Soul Winners edition C. I think we've got Soul Winners Edition A, Soul Winners Edition B, and this is C, amen. So today is entitled Unnecessary Weight. Amen. Unnecessary weight. So if we go to Hebrews chapter twelve from verse one.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Okay. Hebrews chapter twelve from verse one says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Amen. That's a nice scripture, isn't it? The Bible says, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Now the Amplified says, Um, therefore, since we surrounded or we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, who by faith have testified to the truth of God's absolute faithfulness, stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with the endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us. Let me explain. Should I explain to you what what he's saying there? Uh the Bible speaks about um the cloud of witnesses. It speaks of cloud of witnesses, it speaks about people who have come before us. All right, they did so good, they did amazing. So Paul was saying there's there's there's witnesses who were faithful, you know, very faithful to the mission, very faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and these individuals, as faithful as they were, all right, they're gone now, and they they carried the work to a certain point, and it's now our responsibility to carry that work on, and we cannot let that thing go. Are you listening? Many people died for us to be here today, they died in the faith for us to be here today. Are you aware of that? Some were killed upside down, some were hanged, some were burned. Alright? I spoke to you about uh one of one of the great men of God in the Bible who was practically cooked alive. Amen. You find them in the book of Revelation, yeah. So he says, We have these great witnesses, and he now impresses on us. Praise the Lord, he impresses on us, and he says something that I find to be very interesting. He says, Because of those witnesses, I want you, he says, I want you to lay aside every unnecessary weight, and then he adds, and sin. Okay, so unnecessary weight and sin, the two different things. Now, to you know, I like giving illustrations that will help you. So I want to give you an illustration that will help you understand what unnecessary weight is. Okay, so one day I was um on my way out and I needed to bring my son with me to this function. So I call him and he he's playing, you know, he's very young, so he's playing with his toys and stuff, and I said to him, Come, let's go. I want you to pick up your your shoes and your socks and follow me. Let's go. You have to go to the car. And so I noticed that he's now picking up um his shoes, and then he picks up his socks, and then he picks up his toys, and then he picks up his other sock, then he picks up his other shoe, and now he's thinking, How am I gonna carry all of these things? How will I carry all of this? And I'm observing, and I repeated again: take your shoes, take your socks, and follow me. And he said, Okay, okay, dad. And he proceeded to pick up the toys first, then he picked up the shoes, then he picked up the socks, but he was taking really, really long. He was there for about three minutes, four minutes. Amen. So eventually I got a little frustrated with him and I left him. So as I left him, and I was going towards the car, I realized that I actually need him for where we're going. So I turned back and went back there, and he was still trying to figure out how to gather everything. By this time, he had already walked away from the chair. He was going to he was coming towards the door, um, the door in which the room in which he was in, and I said, Okay, bring everything. And as he was walking, he dropped everything, and it scrambled, and then he left the shoe, he left the socks, and ran after the toys. Amen. Why is this relevant for this scripture? It's because I asked myself, what is it that caused him after I gave him instructions about three times? What caused him to go for the toys? What was his motivation that pushed him to go for the toys, even though I said bring the shoe and the socks? What motivated him after his dad spoke three times? So I was pondering and pondering, and I came to realize it's about what's important to him versus what's important to me, and he didn't want to let me down, so he said, I'll carry what's important to you, but also carry what's important to me. Are you listening? So effectively, what's important to me and what's important to him began to clash, but because he loves me and loves his toys, he's stuck in between two worlds. Praise the Lord. This is what we call unnecessary weight. In in your mind at that time, this thing is important. God says it's not as important as you think. Are you hearing me? He says it's not as important as you think. For you, it's really important. So God gives an instruction, and you find yourself, just like my son, trying to you, and effectively, he gave himself a problem that didn't need to be a problem. The instruction was simple. How many people in the Bible has God said, do this? And they went off and done what they thought was the right thing to do, along with what God told them to do. Amen. So unnecessary is not sin, but leads to sin. Are you hearing that? It leads to sin, it leads to you upsetting, not upsetting God, but upsetting the relationship you have with God, frustrating the relationship you have with God. So the Lord has said to you, He said, I want you to be fasting, I want you to be fasting um twice a week. Alright, you fast twice a week, and um usually in your normal schedule, you take medicine for one or two things, and you need to eat before you take these medicines. So you decide I'm going to fast as God said, praise the Lord, but I'm going to, I usually take my medicine at 12, so I'm going to eat a sandwich and then go back into the fast. This on a micro level, you're doing what I've advised against just now. Praise the Lord Jesus. So I'm gonna take you through some text in the Bible which which hopefully will drive a message into your spirit that where you are carrying unnecessary weight. Amen. Because we know what sin is, which I'll touch on, we know what that is, but I want to drive unnecessary weight because I believe that unnecessary weight is what entangles us. Okay, that that's what cripples Christians, the very things that you don't need are the very things you want, or the things that you are used to are the things that you want, but God is not necessarily against it, but it clashes with what He's asked you to do. Praise the Lord. Alright, so let me take you to this very interesting um uh scripture. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Um where should I go first? Anyway is good as long as it's the Bible and not the Quran or some other books. Okay. Alright, Genesis 19. We'll go to Genesis 19. Genesis 19, I want you to jump all the way to sixteen, because we looked at this the other day.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Thank you, sir. Genesis chapter 19 from verse 16 says, and while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Genesis 19, 16, is that what you're reading? What does it say? Okay, okay, yes, yes, yes, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

Thank you, sir. Okay, continue, yeah? Yeah, thank you, sir. Genesis chapter 19 from verse 17 says, So it came to pass when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for your life, do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed. Verse 18. Then Lot said to them, Please know my lords. Verse 19. Indeed now your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life, but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. Verse 20. See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Please let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live. Verse 21. And he said to him, See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. Verse 22. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zor. Verse 23. The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zor. Verse 24. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. Verse 25. So he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. Verse 26. But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Verse 27. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Amen. Now I've I've taught on this before. Um I said to you before that, how how come God said to Lot and his family, don't look back, but Abraham could look at the same place. The Bible says Abraham was looking at the place burning. But Lot was not allowed, and his family was not allowed to do the same. Amen. And if you also look at that text properly, what I find to be interesting is from 16, the angelic beings were urging Lot to deal with this case more urgently. If you read 16. But if you look, if you jump to 26, yeah, it says that Lot's wife was behind him. He was in front, she was behind, and she looked back, he didn't even know. So you gotta read, you gotta really read and look at the details. Should we look at the text again? At verse 26, I think.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Thank you, sir. Genesis chapter 19 from verse 26 says, But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Did you hear that? My one says, but his wife looked back from behind him. The Bible doesn't give us these details for nothing. So when when I noticed that, that's why I said the scripture gives wisdom. Someone says, Um, behind every great man is a great woman. The Bible doesn't advocate for that. No, no, no, brother. If she's behind you, she will stay behind you. Yeah, remember, she's attached to your kids, so put her in front of you. Do the work of the ministry, but push her forward. Do you understand? Like, um, and then and it's encouraging, you encourage encourage her into the work. Do you understand that? So you take your wife, you put her in front of you. Do you understand that? For many different reasons, and obviously, this is a bracket I'm opening, but for many different reasons. Number one, uh, this word is a is a is a strong word, but for the sake of the teaching, just follow me on that. You want to monitor. This is what Abraham, this is what um Adam failed to do. Adam left her alone. You must be aware of everything, even if this generation calls it controlling, let them call it what they want to. You know where you're leading your family. You must be aware of everything. You must be aware of everything, and you put her in front of you, position her in front of you so you can watch, monitor, and you lead from behind. Are you listening? But that's for marriage sermon, you know. Some of you guys are really writing everything down. I understand because you're you're on your way to getting married soon, so you're just writing it down. At least you're wise to write, amen. You're very wise to write, so but that's not the topic, anyway, anyhow. Praise the Lord. What's the top topic at hand? What are we discussing on the necessary way? So the Bible says that she she was behind him. He didn't even know she had turned into a pillow of soul. And so, what I imagine just from using the the mind that God has helped, my mind that God has helped to develop, I can imagine that she he was running faster. She was behind him. Okay, and she was propelled to look back, and he was he kept on going, holding the hands of his daughters, kept on going, didn't even know that his wife, you know, she's at a funeral. A funeral is happening there. Praise the Lord. But that's that's uh that's on that's Lot's fault. But if we turn the attention on his wife for a minute, this is where we see unnecessary weight. Now, Hebrews chapter 12 says, strip off. It uses that word, okay? Now, I want you to give me synonyms for strip off. Strip off unnecessary weight. Give me synonyms for strip off. Detach. I like that one. Purge, rid, cleanse, prune, strong words. You know, these words suggest that there's before before the detachment takes place. There's a connection. These are things that you're attached to. Do you understand? I was talking to who's about to get married. And he he said to me, I want I need to see you on Saturday. You need to see my wife because you prophesied her. I was like, Really? When? So he told me 2020. You gave me all the details. You told me the country. You told me the height. You told me everything. I said, Really? He said, Yes. So I said to him, Wait, before I meet her, yeah. I said, Did you go on your knees and propose? He said, Ah, man of God. He said, Ah, man of God. I said, what do you mean? Ah, he said, going on my knees in front of a woman. Ah, man of God. No, because he's cultural. He's cultural. Now, I'm not saying that God wants him to go on his knees. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I'm giving you an example of what it looks like for you to strip off, abandon. Are you listening? He he he's finding it difficult to abandon that side of his culture. Okay, to please this woman that is to be his wife for one day. He's struggling with it. So we discussed it for about three minutes. I said, What's the problem? He said, You know our culture, going on the knees. Ah, she should be going on the knees in front of. I said, Man of God. I said, Man of God, I said, that time has fervently passed. I said, That's those times are behind us. Yeah, we can't adopt the mistakes of our parents. Amen. So I said, This is a nice thing. You're giving her something to remember. He said, Man of God, she can remember the ring. He said, Yes, I put a premium on the ring. I said, so be it. So I said, as long as you this is formal, you've proposed, and he said, Oh, yeah, we're meeting each other's families this week and all of that. He said, I said, okay, once that's done, then I'll be happy to sit with you and her. Because before that, I don't know who she is. She's just a person. You're just bringing a person to the restaurant. Amen. But I gave you that example to show you that he was so attached. So stripping off, I could hear it in his voice. He said, Ah, man of God, is it ah it's the pain. It's the pain. And that pain came from the visualization. He when I said it, he saw himself on the knees. He went down and said, Ah, he said, No, no, no, no, no. He said, I can't, I can't go there. Amen. And and you you may find yourself all right in that place with God. You may find God said, apologize. You see, you see yourself, why should I apologize? You start asking yourself all the questions. Why should I always apologize? Why am I the only one that's apologizing? And the enemy takes your mind in the past, you're the peacemaker, you've been the peacemaker for the last 10 years. Why should I apologize? You didn't want to leave behind, strip away unnecessary weight. Are you listening? Now, you not apologizing is not the sin. That's not the sin. Amen. Holding the grudge is the sin. It's what's happening inside your heart, that's the sin. But unnecessary weight always leads to sin. Always. Praise the Lord. Every time you get into a situation where you know you should do something right and you're not doing it, just remember the analogy I gave you of my son. Because that's what you're doing. Do you understand? Now, another thing I want to bring to your attention is that at times, like Lot's wife, you may miss out on the call of God on your life because of unnecessary weight, even though it's not sin. Unnecessary weight is powerful enough to make you miss the opportunities that God has set before you, even though it's not sin. Because we always think sin that will cause us to miss the kingdom. No, Lot's wife, you know, she had unnecessary weight and she missed it. She missed out. Praise the Lord. She completely missed out. And as a result of her unnecessary weight, it killed her and then and then completely torpedoed her family into incest. So you gotta think. The unnecessary weight I'm carrying, what domino effect will it have? Unnecessary weight could be a memory you have of a past encounter. You're way too quiet. You understand? Pastor, every time my ex spins the block, my head gets cloudy. My head gets cloudy, sir. That is unnecessary weight. And your head is getting cloudy because you like it. Right now, I'm not judging you for liking it, that's not the problem. What I'm saying is you have to deal with that thing aggressively. Are you there? Let me hear those words again. Strip, detach, prune. Talk to me about prune. Yeah, tell me about prune. Well, what give me descriptive words, adjectives of on prune. Cut off. So there's this there's sever, there's violence. Yeah. Anything you're cut, whether you're cutting a chicken or a hand, there's violence. Sever. Yeah, I mean, and it's suggesting that there's an attachment. Yeah, that thing, you the chicken is together. So you and that memory prune. You and your pride prune. You and your culture prune.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Because that thing that you're you're you're you're struggling to detach away from, and for I'm gonna open a tiny bracket here, then I'll go back into the scripture. For some of you, and this is the sad, this is so sad. This is this this this one I'm about to mention is very sad. You can you can turn that off. Don't worry. Is it's very, very sad. For some people, in still in the body of Christ, what they need to prune themselves from is the present world. It's the present world. It's the ways of the present world, they're in the body, but they can still be brought into the world. I struggle, I I struggle with this. Yeah, I struggle with how you can be in the faith genuinely. Yeah, I struggle with this, genuinely in the faith, and you still have desires, right? That are not necessarily embedded in your spirit, these are desires to do the things that people of the world do. I struggle, I really struggle with that. If you've really given yourself to Christ, how do you how do you desire? Alright. You know, I just want to have a night out. Okay, alright. You want to have a night out? Explain to me what does what does it consist of? Well, sir, it's just me and my girls. We go out, we go to the club, we drink, you know. It's just we're just having fun, sir. I struggle, I really struggle with that. I struggle with that. I want to go to Cardi B concert. It's just me and my girls. Just I I struggle with that as well. Because I don't understand how you can be. I was speaking to my spiritual father, yeah, and I said to him, I said to him, as I'm spending time with the Lord, yeah, it's making it easier for me to know those who spend time with him. And he said, How? I said, because I've seen that the more God does with me, the more humble I become. So when I meet a man of God who's not humble, I know he doesn't walk with God. I know it instantly. Now you may ask me, how is he doing what he's doing? He could be a charlatan, but that's not my concern. One thing I know, it's it's it's like it's like if you hear somebody speak like us, you'll be like, Do you listen to our teachings? Do you listen to the man? Do you listen to the man of God's teachings? You sound like us. Do you understand? Because you know this person. Okay, let me strip it down to it's you know, to layman's understanding. Okay, a Nigerian knows when another Nigerian is in the room. Is that true? Yes, sir. A Ghanaian will know when another Ghanaian's in the room because of how you guys speak. Praise God. Yeah, once you meet them and they suffer, you know, you know, this is a Ghanaian, amen. So so you don't need to hear much, amen. Sometimes they don't need to talk, it's just the way they carry themselves, the way they dress, the way they you know that this is this is our people. Praise the Lord. Alright, so every country can identify that with their own, not all the time, but majority of the time, you'll be able to say, That's my people. Am I making sense? So, because I time spend with God a lot, and when I'm in there, humility is what he drives. He, I mean, drives it. And when I see some other great men of God that I reverence, what I keep hearing about them is humility. Like one great man of God went to visit another great man of God. He gets there now. This he visits this pastor. This pastor has a hundred thousand people turning up for his Sunday service. Yeah, and he says, the one thing I spent the day with him, and the one number one thing I took away from him is that I am not ready to be on his level. So when I heard that, I was like, Oh, I'm interested. Why is he saying that? He said, This, how can you have all of this and be more humble than me who has less than you? That's the question he was asking the man of God. He said, You have your church is like 900% bigger than mine. The auditorium you're in is worth eight eighty million. This is a stadium. Yeah, he said, You are a billionaire. Why are you more humble than me? Do you understand that? He realized that he he he he can't he can't get all of that because his level of humility isn't isn't at the level for all of that. Am I driving this home? So, but I when I heard that I resonated with that, because that's something that I also picked up on. Humility is key. So when I see a man of God or I connect to the man of God, and I'm seeing ego, pride, and he wants to be number one, he wants to be this, he wants to. I said, This guy's not walking with God. I detach, move. Don't want to be close to that guy. Nah, I can't be close to that guy because pride comes before a fall. So when I see a man acting like that, I know that there's a fall around the corner. That guy's finished. God is determined to destroy him. Yeah, after all, he resists the proud and gives more grace to the humble. Praise the Lord. But I don't want to digress. Where was I? Have I taken you too far? Where was I? Pruning, stripping. Strip yourself. What do you think would have happened if um if Lot's wife had stripped herself of the desires of the present world? She would have been there when the angel is saying if she was wise, yeah, because she wouldn't know she was there, she was there when the angel said go this way. Yeah, someone that has abandoned their own opinion, you whisper to your husband and say, Follow what the angel is telling you to do. They're called angels for a reason. Do you understand? Yeah, some wives are the very reason why their husbands went astray. I'll deal with that another time, but you can turn it on now. Can I give you another scripture? Alright, let's look at this. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Maybe we start from 16.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Thank you, sir. Hebrews chapter 12 from verse 16 says, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who highlight this in your Bible.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Yeah, I want you to highlight it. Like mark it and then go and read it at home. Yeah, do do that now if you can. Or if you're using your iPad, you can highlight it from there. Go, go ahead, go ahead. Take us away.

SPEAKER_02 38:16

Thank you, sir. Hebrews chapter 12 from verse 16 says, Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. Verse 17. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

Did you hear that? Esau sold his birthright. Yeah. That is his place to be number one. Yeah. He sold it for food. Now right now it sounds ridiculous, but if you go back and actually study, you will find that it made sense at that time. But the thing with Esau is that Esau couldn't give up the lust of his belly. So he couldn't give up the seen for the unseen. Food is what he could see. The birthright he couldn't see. So for him, it's like, oh birthright, yeah, sure, take it. Do you understand? He couldn't, he just couldn't. Some people are like that. They're too logical. It's like I need to see before I believe. They can't give up that fact. Why would I believe in this? I haven't seen anything. And whilst Jesus said, Blessed are those who believe without seeing, so blessed are those. So Esau gives he get he gave up his birthright now. What I want you to bear in mind here, and this shook me to my core. Yeah, bear this in mind. The Bible says, Esau sought after the very thing that he rejected originally. Then he uses a keyword, which I thought about diligently. Sometimes it's too late to apply the principles. Sometimes, no, there is such a thing as too late. Someone says, with God, it's never too late. Wrong. I can show you many times with God it was too late. Didn't God tell Prophet Samuel, stop praying for soul? It was too late. Didn't God kick Adam out of the garden? It was too late. So there comes a time where you frustrated the grace of God so much, and God looks and says, This is too far. It's too late. An unnecessary weight can take you there. I can imagine before that time, God was warning Esau about his food habits. Your belly will finish you. Your belly, God was warning him. Your belly, your belly, your belly. Amen. Many of you here have warned you several times. I said, stop doing this, stop doing this, stop doing that. Calamity after calamity after calamity follows. Then you learn your lesson. Praise the Lord. I'm gonna use this as an example to preach to all of you guys. Amen. And stop looking at him. You won't be offended. Because he's he's raised well. I sat there and I prayed for him. And I said, Go. He he had no record, nothing in his brain for this. Yeah. I said to him, God says, go and apply for banks. Go and work for go and apply for different banks. Amen. He was not qualified. Correct? No, not qualified in the slightest. Amen. I said, go and do it, you will get it. He he went in there, and this is not like he's not on the till on a bank in the bank. No, he's not a running the till. What was your title there? You can just say it. Account. Executive. Account executive. He's a serious guy. Yeah, he's to be reckoned with. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. Okay, so I said to him, Go and apply. No um qualifications. He goes there, he applies, he gets the job. Amen. They took him through the whole process and he was coming back to me at every point. I said, Don't worry, you will get the job. God said it, so you will get it. He gets the job. I attached a contingency. I said, but stop this and stop this. Amen. I said, because you yourself will close the door that God has opened. I said, stop this. My dad always Says when you have a prophet in your life, you don't have an excuse to fail. That's what he says. He used to tell me that when I was a kid, 12 years old. I didn't even know what a prophet was. He said, he would always say, When you have me in your life, you have no excuse to fail. As I grew, I understood. Amen. Because I became what he he was, or he or he is, rather. Amen. So I warned him, he didn't listen. Amen. There was a time he was giving his own testimony, and he was like, Yeah, sir, told me or tell me to do this, and we both know I'm not gonna do that. In my head, I was listening to that testimony. I said, That will be his downfall. Yeah, because some of you think like that. You're not necessarily rude. You'll say, Okay, no problem, and you'll go and do exactly what I told you not to do. That will be you and Iso, pari, pasu. You find yourself in the same place because you're hard-headed, you don't listen. I told him, I said, stop this thing. He continued. He said, Sir, my probation period is ending. I have some targets I need to reach. I'm stressing over them, and that will determine whether I stay or not. When he told me that, God said he's leaving. Now, listen to what God said. God is a strategist. God said, He is leaving, not he's fired, he is leaving, and he left. You know how he left? They fired him. But he left before they fired him. He left. You know how he left? Because he was stubborn. He didn't listen. He walked out the door before they fired him. Because do you know why I said he left? He walked out because God gave him the job. If God gives it to you, no man can take it from you. That is a fact. But the truth, as in no man can take it from you, fact, but the truth is you can take it from you. You are the one that can take it from yourself. So because of his character, his behavior, and I preached on Sunday, I said character is power. Say it, character is power. Character is power. Yeah, power is not demonstration of the supernatural. No, power is in character how you behave. Do you do what God asks you to do? Praise the Lord Jesus. So I told him, and things went astray. Amen. Same with this gentleman here. Same with him as well. Amen. I gave instructions from long ago. I said, stop this. Long ago. So sometimes, sometimes when you guys bring cases to me, after I've told you, I say, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? I told you what to do long ago. Why are you not listening? Amen. I'm sharing this to help you so you don't walk down the road some of these guys are walks down. Okay, he learned the hard way. He also learned the hard way. And I can point out several people. Several. All of them are sitting here. That they have they've had to learn the hard way. Amen. Where were we? Yeah. I was saying that Esau was seeking diligently. Yeah. But this was when the time had run out already. He was running after the Bible. The way the Bible describes it, a blessing. If you can read that again, the way the Bible describes it, I can feel his pain. He said he sought after it earnestly. Read that, read that part again.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Thank you, sir. It says, For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

He found no place for repentance. I don't want you to get to that place. Because of unnecessary weight. So before I close, I want you to scan in your spirit if you've got that. Let's go back to Hebrews 12:1.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Thank you, sir. Hebrews chapter 12 from verse 1 says, Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Alright, so this is where I'm gonna close, okay? It says, stripping off every so I'm reading the amplified, yeah? So you can take a look at that version as well at a later stage. It says, stripping off every unnecessary weight, and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us. Are you listening to that? It says the sin easily and cleverly entangles you. So this thing has intelligence. Sin has a way of studying you and trapping you. So you also must be clever when you're dealing with sin. Amen. If you know something is tripping you up, put measures in place, okay? Even if those measures seem crazy, put those measures in place because that is what will promote and push your relationship with the Father. God cannot work with a person who has not given up all of him. You've given up 90% of you, but your hand is still in the works of evil. He cannot work with you properly. You have to give it all up. Say everything, yes, because he gave up everything first. That's right, that's right, that's right. Jesus had no choice, he gave up everything first. When I say he had no choice, I mean he he gave up his right to have a choice. Amen. And he was not killed. I'll teach you about that another time. He was not killed, he gave up his his ghost. He said, Father, into your hand I submit my spirit. Does that sound like someone was killed? No, he said, Now I'm ready to go. He released his own spirit and he went to the father. Well, he went to hell, actually, really. Praise the Lord. Read it again, bless it. Read the Amplified. I like the Amplified. So easily and so cleverly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

Thank you, sir. Hebrews chapter 12, from verse 1, the Amplified Version says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, who by faith have testified to the truth of God's absolute faithfulness, stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us. Let us run with endurance and active persistence, the race that is set before us.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

So I love I love how he breaks it down, and this is where I will adjourn. He says, Um, this sin so cleverly, all right, so easily and so cleverly entangles us. Then he says, So let us run the race. Now let's look at those two things, all right? He says, Sin entangles, which keeps you in the same place. He says, get rid of that so you may run the race. So as long as you're struggling with sin, you're not running the race. You haven't started running, brother. You're in the same place, you're just there, you're just standing. Yeah, you're just in the same place. You're there, the gun has gone off. Bow you're you're stuck, you can't move. Everyone's running, running. He says, Let us have endurance and patience. Some of us are running with style, rhythm, understanding. Do you understand? Taking our time, controlling our breathing when we're running. Because we know this is a marathon, not a race. Do you understand? Yeah, so you I'm working on my endurance, I'm taking my time, on my relationship with God. So you may be the other guy that was next to me. The gun has gone up. I'm looking back, you're still there. Yeah, I spoke about this on the fight of faith. So the Holy Spirit is in the in the stands. He's saying, Go, run. You're looking at him as I'm stuck. He said, get out of the entanglement. Say it, I'm coming out of the entanglement. The entanglement of sin. I'm coming out of the entanglement of sin. I have to keep driving purity. I have to. We have to drive purity. We have to. Amen. Whether the church is full or empty, we drive it anyway. We drive purity. Purity is the way, all right, in which God can be one with man. He's a holy God, he will not commune with unholy people. No. Sit down. Sit down. Jesus going to sit down with wine drinkers and drunkards and tax collectors. He didn't do that as a habit, he did it as a means to an end. Let's get that correct, okay? Jesus went there to win them. He didn't go there as they are my friends. You understand? That's why I'm saying God will not commune with unholy people. Do you understand? He will not. So if you desire to be used, just wave at me just for a second. And if you desire to commune with God, raise your hand to walk with him. That is, have a tight relationship with him. John, you don't you don't want to have a tight relationship with God? No, you should show you're in the church. You show enthusiasm. I want a relationship with God. You raise your hand and say, I want a relationship with God. Yes, I want a relationship with God. Put your egos aside. We're talking about God here. If you want a relationship with Him, what do you do? What do you do? You actively and it's a decision. You make a decision. You know you can take out your notepad and map out how you're gonna outsmart sin. You know you can do that. You know, you know, okay, you know the problem between you and your partner is the moment that person holds your hand in a certain way, things go to Mars. Yeah, they're just just gone. So, what do you do? You you put a law in place, you say, but don't touch my hand again. The problem is you don't want it that bad. You don't want it that bad. You're too in love with the present world. You know, you know, alright. There's a great man of God that said he ridded himself of TV. There's no TV in his house. He said it's just him and newspapers. No, no, in fact, there was no newspaper, there was nothing in the house.

unknown 57:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:18

No, I read it. He said there's there's not newspapers, there's no TV. He said, Because I would watch TV, I would read newspapers, and it will make me uh anxious about the future, and I can't minister. So I realize that's where the enemy is trapping me. TV's gone, TV out the house. You will not die. No, this is the generation you've come up in. You will not die. Do you know if you make a decision to delete all social media platforms, you won't die? Is that breaking news to you? No, some of you have a serious case of FOMO. No, it's not a d it's not even a d is FOMO. You just want you're missing out. What am I missing out on? I don't know. You have to see everything, you have to read everything. Brother, delete all those apps on your phone if you have to just stay with the call log. No, no, listen, listen. Even even I had this app called My Fitness First. You know, have you heard of that? My fitness. You get on there, my fitness pow, that's it. You you get on there, and there's some strange ads of women wearing things, you know, and she's doing this the fitness. I said so. What are we doing here again? Uh-huh. What are we doing here? I downloaded this thing for fitness, and there's a woman that's why you she's doing stretching. Doing a lunch on the on on the app. Now, some of you may say, I'm a person, you're taking it to you from it, just a lunch. That's why you're falling. That's why you're falling. Because it's just a lemonage. Which comes into lunch. I used to be a rapper. It's crazy. So delete those things, get rid of all of them. My fitness power gone. Do you understand? AI, whatever. Oh, this is from it's for my uni delete. If if it's trapping you, delete and make up your mind. Don't say, Oh no, this will be a temporary thing. No, until rapture. Because guess what? If it's tempting you now, in 10 years' time, it will tempt you again. Let me break that myth for you to think that you will get stronger over the years, and one day you will turn up to your temptation and you will not fall. That doesn't exist in the Bible. If that thing is a temptation to you now, you can spend 50 years with God and come out and fall again. Yes, because you have a physical body, yeah, you have a physical body. The church is way too quiet. It's because I've killed those demons. Take out your phone now and delete those apps now. Yeah, do it, do it now. We're doing practical things. Yeah. Do you not know you're a holy man? Yeah. Yeah, you're a holy man. Take out your phone and delete them. Go through your gallery if you have pictures of naked women in your gallery, delete them now. Yeah. Strange pictures of men, you know, with the fake fingers open, go and delete them. Do it now. Go on your phone. Go again. Look again. So you don't get tempted. It's the ones that sit there as if nothing has gone on. They're the ones that text me the most. Please, I know who you are. Please go on the phone and delete what you need to delete. After this, I'll talk to God. I'll say, God, I did my job. I did my part. My wife is a witness. I hold myself to the same standard. Do I not? I hold myself to the same standard. I don't play, I'm not playing with that. That is me and God's I it's I don't know how to explain it. It's the love of Christ. Yeah. It's the love of Christ. If I have to take that T I have, I don't know, maybe five TVs in my house, five or six, I don't know. And counting. Yeah. I have a lot of TVs in my house. If I have to remove them all from different different rooms, all of this stuff, they'll be gone. I'll sell them on eBay. Yeah. And no, I will not give it to you. I will not give it to you. Hey man. Let's finish off this beautiful verse. It says, um let me read that amplified. Sorry. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence. The race that is set before us. So to end, did you know that there's a race ahead of you? Did you know that that God, you don't have to be a pastor? You can be an usher, you can be a normal person in the church, but there's a race set in front of you. And God is expecting you to run that race. Are you listening? He's expecting you to run that. Run the race with courage. Be courageous. And perfect your courage and faith with patience. Be patient with yourself. In that race, you may be running and you fall on the floor. Get back up, dust yourself off, keep running, keep going. Amen. Keep going. You may have fell yesterday. My sister, my brother, get up. God loves you. Get up and continue running. Amen.

unknown 1:03:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:59

Praise God. Thank you. God, God bless you. Thank you for listening to Pastor Max's teachings. Make sure to subscribe and for more information, find us at Faith and Victory Wallach.