SPEAKER_00 0:00

I kind of just want to introduce the worship team back up here. Amen. That was amazing, man. I don't know what you women prayed for yesterday, but it worked. That was some good stuff. I gotta kind of settle down a little bit because uh Olivia really preached my message, so I gotta try to re-preach it again. And I don't think I can do it better, so sorry for that. And then also, as you many of y'all know my father did pass away since the last time I spoke, and that was one of his favorite worship songs, and it's just really hard, you know, to recenter everything, but I just feel like the father's in the room is going on. Amen. And I'm so honored and thankful and grateful to be here. Uh I love this church. I love each and every one of y'all. Um, just real quick, I know a lot of y'all know I'm working out of town, so y'all don't get to see. I did not leave the church, y'all. Okay. I'm just working out of town. I'm still here. Uh my wife's over here crippled up, but we're in here. We're doing okay. Uh, my wife did have ACL surgery this week. So thank you, man. There's been so many people that have tried to cook for us already and do all those things. And uh man, it's just been a whole lot. And uh I understand a lot of people didn't even know she was injured. That's because she's tougher than woodpecker lips. That's what I like to say. She she tore her ACL in February, and she ain't missed a day of work yet. And brothers, who could testify we'd be laid up since February. Ain't no way. I'm going to work every day. So she's my pride and joy. I'm thankful that she's here. Uh also, some of my family came in, my brother and my sister. First time we've been together since we lost our dad, so just kind of a special day. Amen. So uh thank you all for being here. This morning, if you want, you can open your Bibles up to Genesis chapter 3. Uh-oh. Genesis chapter 3. You should be easy to find, first book in the Bible, third chapter of the first book. Uh this this series that we've been walking through with Pastor Jared and Pastor Byron, which has been an amazing series, and I think they're really dissecting a lot of the things that's wrong with us and a lot of the things that we're going through and a lot of common problems that each and every one of us have. I think, in order to understand in totality, what everything they've been talking about, we have got to understand Genesis chapter 3. Pastor Jared, correct me if I ever say something wrong, but I'd like to say outside of what Jesus did and what he talked about, there's not a more important chapter in the entire Bible. Not to us. Because in Genesis 3, sin entered the cosmos. And things changed. The whole atmosphere changed, the time changed. Sin and death entered the atmosphere for the first time ever. And what I want to talk about today is what's hidden in the heart. So I would be remiss if I didn't say I'm going to keep pressing on the same nerve Miss Olivia pressed on earlier. Guys, there's going to be a lot of opportunity to get uncomfortable. There's going to be a lot of opportunity to get offended. There's also going to be a lot of opportunity that we can grow this morning. Amen. I want you to understand I'm not trying to offend you. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. I love you. I want the word to offend whatever's going on inside of us, though. Because I need you to understand that this message was written out of a lot of offense. I was very offended when I wrote this message. Because the Lord was working on some things in me. Amen. Because this, I'm telling you, man, this series, we've been walking through it. It's done some things to me. I needed to get back down to the basics. So I feel like no other, no better place to start would be than Genesis chapter 3. And we start to see what I want to look at today is what's man's reaction to the sin. See, what I do think we've talked about a lot so far through this series has been the fruit of the issues. A lot of the fruit of the issues. But I think everybody here would agree that the root of every issue we go through is sin. So we need to go back to the beginning. What caused us to be like this in the first place? What happened? What really happened that caused us to be like this in the very beginning? So I'm not going to read through the whole thing. You're welcome. But I did highlight a couple verses. I want to read verse 7 through 8. If you're with me, Genesis 3, verses 7 through 8. Now watch this. It said, then the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked. And they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees and the garden. And watch this. I didn't put this up here, but I'm just going to keep reading it. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? I'll say that again. Where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I what? I hid myself. And the Lord God said to him, Who told you you were naked? Before this moment, this was not Adam's relationship with the Lord God. Now we would come to understand that the Lord God walking in the garden was Jesus manifest, walking in the presence of with Adam. Adam was literally living our dream. Everything we are striving for today, tomorrow, and where we ultimately want to be is right where Adam was. And then sin entered. Sin entered, and look at how his posture changed. Every single thing about him changed the moment he made a bad decision. The moment that his his atmosphere changed, you have to understand the life that we know is not the life that Adam knew. He walked with Jesus in the cool of the day. He was literally living in heaven with no destination for death. Everybody in here knows that we're all destined to death. Adam's the only one that didn't. He was created for eternal life. Death was not handed down until a couple verses after what I just read. So the whole atmosphere, the whole strategy, the whole everything changed in the cosmos in one moment. And I want to look at the reactions of us and the reaction of him. That's what I want to look at this morning. I'm sorry if I'm yelling at you. I'm a little fired up. I'll tell you that worship did something to me, alright? I wasn't going to do all this. Did something to me. But Adam's immediate reaction was to do what? He hid himself. See, I don't want to talk about what you look like. I don't want to talk about what your clothes look like. I don't want to talk about your job, your career, what kind of truck you got, what kind of marriage you, fake marriage you posted on Facebook. I don't want to talk about all that. I want to talk about what's the thing that you're hiding? No, what's the real stuff? What's the stuff if you walk through that door and told somebody that somebody might ask you to leave? That stuff. What are we really hiding inside of us in our corrupt, evil, and broken hearts? Now I understand we are born again, most of us, we are born again Christians, but even David said in Psalms, he said, I was born in iniquity in my mother's womb. I was born into this. Romans 3.17 says that we were, we knew no peace. We were children of wrath. I want to free you of something real quickly. Stop blaming yourself. Stop blaming yourself. You didn't do it. You were born into it. Nevertheless, though, you have to own it. Nevertheless, you have to identify it. Nevertheless, you have to walk in it. You have to walk in a new beginning. You have to walk into being born again. You have to say, I really need a savior. So if we don't go through Genesis 3, you will never understand Jesus as Savior. You might understand him as Lord, but you'll never understand that savior part. So Adam's whole life changed. And the word tells us this. Solomon would tell us this in Proverbs 28:1. Watch this. He says, the wicked flee when no one pursues but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Look at Adam's reaction. What did he do? He immediately fled somebody who was not pursuing him. He immediately hid himself. He hid the issue. He took himself out the equation because he is now, he is ashamed of what he's done. And the thing I used to be the most comfortable in, I can't even be around it anymore because there's something wrong with me, and I don't deserve to be near him. I don't deserve to be with those church people. I don't deserve to come sit up in here and act like I'm living a holy life when I know I'm not. See that those the heart things, the heart issues, is the thing that's going on inside each and every one of us every time we walk in a room like this. Am I lying? Just me? I guess I'm only jacked up one. Y'all want the mic? We all deal with it. And I want to be honest with you, if you don't admit that to other people, you're only doing them a disservice. You're only doing them a disservice. I said the last time I spoke here, I told y'all that. I knew I was going through that because I knew somebody in here was going to need me to be there for them whenever they went through it, and I'll be doggone if last week my pastor didn't go through something I've been through. He's just as close with his father as I am with mine. So we walk through things together. If I just lied and come in here and dapped everybody up, I'm doing great, everything's good all the time. I'd just be a liar, man. That's not why we're here. We're not here to win the dove awards or whatever. What is that what they give out? Dove award? I mean, we're not here for that. We're not, we're not here. This is not the who's who in the Christian world. There's plenty of churches doing that. I pray to God we'd never become one of them. That's the who's who of the Christian world, and that we have a rat race of people trying to achieve things. I pray we would stay a church humble and seated at the altar and the feet of Jesus Christ and saying, I need repentance daily, I need to be cleansed daily, I need to be worked on daily. Lord, there's still some things inside me daily. I'm walking in this 15 years now, I'm more jacked up today than when I started because I know more today than when I started. I see the evil in me, I see the wicked in me, I see the need for a savior every day more than I ever have. And I pray we would stay that way and stay hungry and desperate for Jesus. If the church has lost anything, it's lost its desperation for the risen Christ. We have lied to each other, we have put masquerades on, we have camouflaged ourselves to the point that we don't even know who we are anymore. That's why the church has so many identity issues. That's why we have 30,000 sects of Christianity. 30, y'all heard me. From this book. 30,000 sects of Christianity. Unbelievable. Because why? Because we're not telling the truth. The truth of the matter is, man fell in the garden. I was born into that. Like I said, Romans 3 tells me I didn't even know peace before I walked into peace. I thought I knew peace. But I ask you this: does a fish know it's wet? I don't know either. Third time I've asked it. Nobody knows, right? The answer is when you take him out the water, he does. But the whole time he's in that water, he doesn't know what dry is. So until Jesus comes in, pulls us out of the situation, we might think we're walking in peace, Pastor Bayer. But until he pulls us into real peace, you'll never understand peace. You might think that this world's giving you peace and those things that you were achieving, the things you were going after, the things you were fighting for, so you could put that camouflage on and lie to everybody and act like you live in that. You might think that's peace, but when he takes you and pulls you into peace, it changes your whole reality. And you realize how much war was going on inside of you. And the beautiful thing is, you just enlisted in a new war. Amen? Hey, I don't want to go, I don't want to go to church, people that ain't fighting. I don't know what to tell you. I don't want to deal with the lax of days of stuff. Did that for many years. But what sin does, and we see in Proverbs 28, and we see Adam's action, we see the way that he reacted to this. Sin robs you of all the confidence that Jesus gives you. It turns you into a coward. I'm preaching better than y'all cleft. It turns you into a coward. Because now the accuser's got something to hold over your head. Come on, man. Now he's got something. You've given him some ammunition. Now he's got something over your head. Yeah, Zach, yeah, you might want to uh witness to that guy, but what were you doing last night? Whenever we give over to sin, we give him ammunition. We give him an opportunity to hold that thing against us. And because we know it's wrong, because we have the spirit live inside of us, whenever we we know we're walking in sin, we're walking against what God has designed for our will, it makes us cowards because we're terrified. Not that God would find out, but that my church friends might find out. That those people at work, my mama might find out. My wife might find out. Oh my God. Well, let me hide this thing until it becomes an open festering sore. That if I'd have just handled it right in the first place, if I'd have just got some brothers and some sisters around me in the first place, maybe if I'd maybe if I would have told the pastor what's going on in my life in the first place, I wouldn't be sitting here in marriage counseling. Maybe if I was just honest and said, hey, I'm not perfect, and I know Jesus didn't die for me because I was perfect. Maybe he took a cross from me because he knew I could not be. And why can you not be? I just read it. We we f Adam and Eve fell into sin, and sin entered the cosmos, and you were born in a life that could never understand peace without Christ. It's the whole reason why he came here. But it's beautiful because Jesus wasn't even pursuing Adam. Adam was fleeing a man that wasn't pursuing him. Y'all think Jesus didn't know where Adam was hiding? Of course he knew where he went. He was asking that question for Adam. Where are you, son? How do you know you're naked? Y'all ever asked y'all's kids that question? Question, not that specific one, all right? But whatever question. And you already know that they know. Uh oh, he's on to me. He's on to me. I mean, I look, I know, imagine how intimidating I am to two little, two-foot little girls, right? I mean, I'm I terrify them girls, and they know when daddy knows. They still gonna lie, though. How do I know that we need a savior? Because my beautiful, perfect, amazing daughters are evil and wicked in their souls. Y'all can laugh. I'm not laughing. And I love them more than anybody in the world. I love them more than anybody in the world. They are little vipers. They only care about themselves. They only care about do you think they care that daddy worked 70 hours last week to buy them whatever it is they want? They don't care. They just want that thing. And they are beautiful and they are perfect. I know everybody, uh, she's evil. She needs Jesus just like the worst drunk in this room needs Jesus, just like the drug addict needs Jesus. The cop needs Jesus, just like the drug addict needs Jesus, the person with cancer needs Jesus, just like the doctor needs Jesus. It don't matter, father, son, daughter, it don't matter. We all need the same resurrection because we're all dying of the same death. And it all started right here. And if we're ever gonna get to the heart of the heart of the matter, we have to start with what happened in the garden. Because we were not designed or created to live this way. This is God's plan B. This is God coming in fixing what we've broken. But this was not what he designed us for. They were designed for eternal life, and he came and died to restore that, to restore that, to put that back in order so that you can come back into what he created you for. Isaiah says that that Sheol was created for the wicked, and its mouth opens for is wider for the wicked, because its throat has engaged and enlarged itself to take the wicked, and that means that it was not created for you.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Come on, brother, preach.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

I want to say one more thing before I move into the really good part of this message. I'm not trying to beat y'all up. Y'all understand I'm just as guilty, if not more, of everything. I stand right there with Paul when he said, I'm the chief of sinners. I'm not judging you. I'm saying we gotta get real with where we're at if we're gonna make any kind of a difference. I wanna say this one thing. I wish I'd have put this on the slide, but I didn't. But to be 99% known is to be completely unknown. Because that 1% is that one thing you don't want nobody to know about. And you've spent your whole life protecting that 1% from anybody ever knowing that thing about you. And if it ever gets exposed, it'll show everybody who you really are. That was pretty good. But to be 99% known is to be completely and wholly unknown. And it's the same thing with the Lord. To be 99% submitted means you are in complete rebellion to Jesus Christ. We have got to accept that, guys. And girls, we ladies and gentlemen, we have got to accept that. If we are in 1% disobedience, we are in full disobedience, violent disobedience to the Lord. If we have not surrendered everything, we have surrendered nothing. Because he doesn't want the stuff that's not a big deal. Until we deal with the things that's going on with us, that's what he died for. He died to redeem you from that thing that's unredeemable. He wants to forgive you of the thing that's unforgivable. And I'm telling you, that thing that you're holding inside, you ain't got to come tell me. I don't need to know. But you need to be real with it. Because I don't care what you think you're doing, you're living a lie. If you think you're wholly committed, but you're holding something back, you're living a lie. You've been deceived. Whatever it may be, we've been deceived. Don't doubt what that devil can tell you. Don't doubt that he won't make you feel comfortable in this church. If you're comfortable, that's probably a problem. So, so we've we've we've talked about this now that Adam, walking in perfection, now has fallen. And now his whole reality's changed. And the man he used to have so much confidence in walking with every day, he's too terrified to even be in his presence. And he makes up some own of his own fake leaves, his own fake holiness. Man, does that not preach a message in itself? That he came up with the tea leaves? He came up with the tea leaves? Who's wearing tea leaves this morning? Come on. Who in here this morning hears Jesus in the back saying, Where are you? Look, I don't care if you're saved, not saved. Don't think he still ain't asking the question. Adam never lost his sonship. He just lost his eternal life. He never lost his sonship. And I'm gonna walk through that in just a second. But we make these leaves, man. We think we got it figured out. If I cover it just the right way, nobody's gonna know. I'm here to tell you, don't fear my judgment more than his. The word tells us. Do not fear the one who can judge you, but fear the one that can condemn you to hell. Do not fear the one that can kill your body, fear the one that can kill your soul. Be honest with God. Man, all I'm asking you to do this morning, you know why I'm being so abrasive? Because I want you to admit it. Man, bring it to his feet. We got more to worry about in this life than that junk that we're holding in our heart. There's people out there that need us. But we can't get to them as long as we're still harboring things on our own. We got to be real, honest, and open. Anybody hear that? Amen. How do we come to this, Pastor Byron? How do we do this? Psalm 119, 9 through 11. This is Adam trying to do his thing. How can a young man cleanse his way by taking heed according to your word? With my whole heart I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Let your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Man, somebody, amen. That right there. If you ain't got nothing to do, I challenge you, read Psalm 119. Man, you're gonna fall in love with this Bible all over again. But your word I've hidden in my heart. Now, here's the deception. Everybody ready for it. Here's the deception. What was Adam's immediate reaction? Hide. What does the word tell us to do? To hide the word. Expose the lie. And you wanna you want the the scripture for that? Is Ephesians 5, 11 through 14. Watch this. It says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather what? And expose them. You need to understand before I The Lord just I felt like this. You're not exposing you. You're exposing the thing that's attached to you. Stop making it personal. You're not exposing the bad things you've done. You are exposing bad things. Are y'all tracking with me on this? You're not exposing you and who you are. You're exposing there's some evil, wicked things inside of me. And guess what? The person you're confessing to probably needs to confess to you too. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by who? The light. Y'all, who is the light? Come on with it. The light. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Too many of us are walking in whole darkness. Whole darkness. I'm telling you, I can't get off of that. If you're 99% known, you're completely unknown. If you're 99% truthful, you're a complete liar. We've got to own this thing. We've got to be honest with this. You know what it is? We've got to be violent with our sin. Man, Christians are not violent with their sin anymore. Violent with it. That's what the scripture tells us. It's what Jesus said. He said, when you see these things in your life, cut them off. Amen? Matthew 17. Cut those things out of your life. Cut your hand off. Cut your eye out. Whatever it is, you deal violently with it, because it's better if you would have a millstone tied around your neck than to deceive a brother. It's better that you would drown in the ocean all alone than to live a life deceiving others. So be honest. Expose what's inside of us. So that we can all grow. One of my favorite pastors, uh, Matt Chandler. Some of y'all know Matt Chandler, some of y'all don't. You know what happened a couple years ago? He got exposed. And you know what happened? He repented. And you know what happened? He was restored. And you know what else happened? I cried this morning listening to one of his sermons that he preached this past week. Christians were made to restore one another, but they can't know you need restoration if they don't know you're broken. If you come in here and lie to everybody and pat everybody on the back and get that big goofy smile, nobody knows you ain't like that, man. They know you're not really like that. I didn't come here to meet who you want me to meet. I come here to see you. The good and the bad. But we are called to expose the sin. But here's what we've done: we're called to expose the sin and hide the word in our hearts. But here's what we do: we hide the sin. And we put on a late church shirt. Get some scriptures tattooed on my own. Put a cross right there. We expose the word. We put our camouflage on. Any hunters up in there? We put our camouflage on. That way, maybe they won't really see me. Maybe they'll let me join their club. Maybe they won't really see who I am. Instead of exposing the sin and hiding the word in our heart to guide us, we will hide the sin. Make sure nobody ever knows about it. And I'm gonna put on the best clothes I can put on, put on the best smile I can put on. My Facebook's gonna look perfect. Man, how many of y'all see those people with social media look perfect next month and uh last month, this month, they all posting pictures with their shirts off? Because you know they divorced. They're going through a divorce right now. Two weeks ago, their marriage was absolutely perfect. They were in Hawaii. This week, over with. Hated each other the whole time. They're not being truthful. They're lying. They're hiding, they're afraid of the exposure because they've attached the issue to them. You're not the issue. You're not being exposed. The evil's being exposed. The enemy is being exposed, and he deserves to be exposed. It's okay, you can clap back there, Tommy. I see you, bro. I want you to know that we shouldn't be violent with our sin. But uh, last couple closing thoughts. I want to run through this. I want to say this. The theft of confession has been one of the greatest atrocities in the church. What I mean by that, we don't confess anymore, man. And we are robbed the church of doing its job for years. A couple months ago, I came in here with the men's life group. And I confessed. I said, man, I think I could be walking into some temptation, brother. I'm about to be traveling, working out of town. I'm in a prominent position on my job. It can happen. I don't want to be foolish. It can happen. You know what they did? Every man put their hands on me, prayed for me, has checked in since then. But you know what they wouldn't have done if I wouldn't have said something? Have a good day, brother. Good. See you again, man. Y'all be good. Why don't we be honest about that? We're going through battles, we're going through trials, we're going through things. You know why? Because sin is shameful. Why did Adam hide? He was ashamed of himself. He was ashamed. All of his courage, all of his confidence left him immediately. He was totally changed and he was totally ashamed of everything that he had done. But I think God is tired of seeing us hide the sin and expose scriptures on ourselves. And I think he'd much rather us be honest about who we are and hide the word in our heart. And who is the word? In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God, and the word was God. And all things that were made were made through him. There was nothing that was not made through him. He was with God in the beginning. He is the word of God. Jesus doesn't want that filth in your heart anymore. He doesn't want it in your heart anymore. I don't need to know what it is, but somebody does. And one of the greatest gifts Jesus gave us was confession to one another. The scripture tells us several times to confess for what? For healing. Confess that sin. It's okay. I wish I confessed more. One of my best friends is in here. And I'm going to tell you, during COVID, we all went through some stuff, right? COVID was a weird time. I picked up an addiction during COVID. I'm just going to be wholly honest with y'all. I quit dipping tobacco the day I got saved, didn't dip for six years, and then immediately started dipping again. Why? Couldn't tell you. Just did it. And I did it for a little while. And he saw me one day at work. Mind you, he's also my boss. So, but he saw me. And he called me out and I lied. You know what I did? I lied to my best friend. I lied to him. I said, man, no, bro, you didn't really see that. He was like, all right. I'm gonna tell you, we've been best friends for about 10 years. It's been a very uncomfortable friendship. There ain't a whole lot of pat on the back coming, I'm here to tell you, okay? But he he looked at me and he, I'll never forget when I lied to him. Man, that that's the first time that I can remember lying to him. Over something as simple as chewing tobacco. And I took that for a few months. And he's my boss now. I'm avoiding my boss. I am I am evading somebody who's not pursuing me. I'm fleeing from someone who's not pursuing me. What have I become? I've become a coward. Now I'm hiding. I can't even fellowship with my best friend because I've got something in my mouth that he's gonna call me out on. And I'll never forget the day, and I know you remember this. He sent me a text message because I took off running, I saw him coming. I thought I saw him first. We're the biggest dudes in the plant. And he texts me and he said, Man, I just wish you understood that I love you. And I don't care what you're doing, man, but stop hiding from me and lying to me. And that broke me. God, dog, it still breaks me. He said, I just love you, man. I don't care how perfect you are. I love you. Confess it. Let's get real. Let's deal with it. I'm gonna help you deal with it. I'm gonna slap you every time I see it in your mouth. Whatever it takes, we're gonna get it out of your mouth. That's love, that's friendship, that's confession. Sometimes I hate, I hate that he caught me before I confessed. But I'm thankful that he caught me before I confessed because it showed me I have a true friend. Amen. We get the worship team back up. I want to read this one passage rather quickly. But before I do that, I want to say this. In Genesis chapter 3, you know, we just went through what Adam and Eve did. Can anybody relate to that? Has anybody hidden sin? So once again, just me. Anybody ever felt shame?

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

I'm here to tell you. I love each and every one of you in here. And I know y'all tell me, y'all love me. If y'all knew everything I did, y'all would get up and walk out this room. If you knew everything about me, you wouldn't histen to another word I had to say. But my Jesus knows every one of them. And every day his mercies are new for me, just like they are for you. Every day he loves me. He's radically in love with me. He is crazy about me to the point of death every day, and he knows everything about me that you don't. And he still accepts me, and he still redeemed me, and he still took a cross for me, and he's sitting at the right hand of the Father, and he's made my enemies and his enemies a footstool for his feet. He's the only one worthy to redeem you this morning. And I want to show you his nature. Now, this is in Genesis 3. Genesis 3. I want you to see the nature of God. Adam and Eve hiding in full shame, completely ate up with the guilt. I uh we have we have done my best I can to say that you have sin inside of you, and you're probably guilty. That thing that you look at in the mirror and you are ashamed to look at. He knows. I want to free you from something. He knows. He knows. You're only fooling yourself. He knows. And this morning he's crying out, where are you? Where are you, son? Where are you, daughter? Where are you? The nature of our God in Genesis chapter 3 was also for Adam and the wife and his wife. The Lord made tunics of skin and covered them. At their lowest moment. Yes, we know that I skipped over some verses. Amen. There was some correction, there was some discipline. Death entered the cosmos immediately after the correction. Come here, you don't even know how to cover yourself. A father being a father. He loves you. He died for you. That wicked thing in you that you would never admit to another person died for that too. That thing that makes you disgusted at night died for that too. The thing that happened to you, he died for that too. And we're only lying to ourselves. There's no way we'll ever escape God. We will never escape God. We'll never escape the promise He has for us. And this was written about in Psalm 139. I'm sorry, I got to, I have got to quickly do this, and then we're gonna pray it out. But how foolish do we look hiding from God? Man, how foolish do we look hiding from God? Watch this, Psalm 139. It says, Oh Lord, you have searched me and you known me. I'm telling y'all, for about three weeks, that was all I could read. Golly. Think about that for a second. You've searched me and you know me.

unknown 35:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

He knows that thing. He knows that thing. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You will stand, you understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is so high I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit? This is a man trying to flee the presence of God, but being honest and saying, I can't. I can't run anymore. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. If I take wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. If the darkness would fall on me, the light would be about me. Come on. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide you, but for the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike alike to you, for you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. There's nowhere we can run. I ask you all to stand this morning. Thank you for letting me come back. For y'all that don't know, I'm not the pastor here. So don't be let down too much. I'll just give you that break so you understand that they got some other ones here, okay? And they're gonna be back next week. But I'm just so thankful to be here. I'm thankful for you. All I'm asking, all I'm asking is just be real with yourself. Just be real. Whatever you think is the smallest issue will turn into the biggest problem. Cataclysmic. You know, Judas allowed his love of money to cause him to turn Jesus in. Judas didn't crucify that little bitty thing that was just all you're like, man, we could just sell the perfume. I mean, why not make some money out of it? He didn't kill it, he didn't cut it off when Jesus called it out, and then eventually what did he turn him in for? Money. Is your thing your love of money? Is it pornography? Come on, I'm gonna call it out. Is it lust? Is it anger? Is it pride? Is it idolatry? Is it LSU football? I don't care what the thing is. What are you willing to put to death this morning? What are you willing to put to? I'm not asking you to die. I'm asking you to help put that thing to death this morning. Cut that thing off. Kill that thing that's trying to kill you from the inside out. I'm telling you, Jesus Christ did not come from heaven and die on that cross so you can barely get by. He died to give you victory over sin. You have a full victory over sin, not because of anything you've done, but because of everything he did. You do not have to live a life of fear, you do not have to be ashamed, you were redeemed, you were loved, you were made new, and the only person stopping you from walking in that is you. So this morning, we're gonna go into prayer. I don't care if you're 15 or if you're 75 years old, if you need Jesus this morning, get your butt down here and find him. I love you. Y'all crazy. We're gonna go into prayer, and then they're gonna sing this amazing. Look, I'm telling y'all, Olivia did not have my notes. She had no idea what I was talking about. Preach the message before me. And if that song is not the perfect song for what we're about to do, Lord, make my hands pure and holy. Lord, don't change this thing into not being sin anymore. Change me. Clean me, create in me a clean heart. Cast me not from your presence. Don't throw me out, Lord. Continue to work on me. I got some things broken in me. We're about to sing a song that's gonna bring you into that moment that you can lay that broken thing down at the altar. You need to have a garage sale for your soul this morning. You need to clean that clutter out. Get that garbage out your attic that you don't need, that you're just holding on to, and you don't want nobody to know you bought a rainbow vacuum cleaner. Terrible investment. I did it. Terrible investment. But you got some rainbow vacuum cleaners hiding in your spirit this morning that need to be cast out and thrown to the road where it belongs. Amen. Stop chasing garbage trucks. I love you. We're gonna pray it out and we're gonna go into worship. Please come to the altar if you need prayer. Please. And if you don't want somebody to pray with you, swat them off and get right with the Lord one-on-one, man. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this moment, Lord. I thank you for this morning. Lord, I thank you for conviction, Father. I thank you for your spirit, Lord. Father, if nothing else happens, God, I pray this morning that it would hurt again. Lord, let the conviction hurt again. Just want to meditate on that for a second, Lord. God, we've got evil and wicked things going on inside of us. I pray that those things would hurt us again. I pray that those that shame of that thing would lead us to you. Not to hide ourselves and come up with our own clothes and act like we're living something we're not, but Lord, to allow you to cover us in righteousness. Lord, you cloth us in righteousness. All of our filthy deeds, all of our great deeds are just filthy rags in your presence, Lord. God, give us new rags. Create clean hearts in us, cleanse our hands, Lord, so we can go do the holy work of your kingdom. Father, remove the sin from our hearts. Remove the lie that the enemies told us, Father. Give us our confidence back this morning. That God, we can walk out into the world and know that we're walking in victory. Lord, we love you. Lord, we give you honor, praise, and glory in Jesus' name. Amen.