Speaker 1: Now them being here and that baby being here is a miracle.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you.
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you or describe to you the pleasure and the joy from holding your own child for the first time.
Speaker 1: So if you will now go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word while your aches and pains are getting there and your hips are popping and your knees are giving out Thank God you're not Catholic, amen.
Speaker 1: You'd be up and down about 20 times but your thighs would be swollen.
Speaker 1: Now you can't see much on the outside, but if you notice this little house that's up here at the front of the property, when you drove in you saw some things out on the front porch that weren't there before, some things on the back porch that weren't there before, and some of you that go to class.
Speaker 1: Let us go to class over there on this back side.
Speaker 1: You probably noticed you may have been nosy and walked through there's some things going on over here.
Speaker 1: So next Sunday I'm going to stay late after church and if you want to see what your tithes and offerings has done, what you have been planting seed to be done, I want you to go over there.
Speaker 1: I'm going to have the house unlocked.
Speaker 1: I'm going to have all the doors open and you can walk through and see all the drywall, all the good stuff we've done.
Speaker 1: And I want to give a shout out to Mark Vernon and Kendall for being there almost every day.
Speaker 1: And then Brother Joe's came a few times and I think some other people's come up and helped.
Speaker 1: But we understand if you can't come and help, and I told you before, if you want to come and help you can, as long as you don't stand there and talk.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding one bit.
Speaker 1: We're doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 1: You can work your mouth somewhere else.
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding one bit.
Speaker 1: We're doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 1: You can work your mouth somewhere else.
Speaker 1: So if you like doing that kind of stuff they're still doing a little bit of stuff here and there.
Speaker 1: They got a few more walls to take out and stuff and get with Brother Vernon and Brother Mark Paige.
Speaker 1: They can assign you and tell you what to do.
Speaker 1: Kendall said man, I don't know what I'm doing, but they point me to it.
Speaker 1: I can help.
Speaker 1: I said that's me too.
Speaker 1: You don't want me to measure nothing, but I'm a good hand.
Speaker 1: So look at Philippians, chapter one, verses 12 through 14.
Speaker 1: So this is our first Sunday to be in church together in this new year and we're going to talk about some things.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about what is behind you.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about where you are and I want you to pray about and believe in faith for where you're going.
Speaker 1: Because I can give you some facts right now.
Speaker 1: A year from now, you will not be where you are today.
Speaker 1: Something will can give you some facts right now.
Speaker 1: A year from now, you will not be where you are today.
Speaker 1: Something will shift in your life, some things will change.
Speaker 1: There'll be some additions, some subtractions, some movements, some shifts.
Speaker 1: There is a new year every year of new seasons.
Speaker 1: We just experienced right now, after it gets cold, if it does, I don't know, it's supposed to be tonight I wore a sweater.
Speaker 1: I went outside to load up the car and I realized it's 70 degrees.
Speaker 1: But I told my wife.
Speaker 1: I said you know what?
Speaker 1: If old school Pentecostal guys can wear jackets in the summertime, I guess I can wear a sweater when it's 70.
Speaker 1: So Philippians, chapter 1, verse 12 through 14, it says, and I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me has helped me to spread the good news For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ and because of my imprisonment.
Speaker 1: Most of the believers here talking about where he was in chains, the believers that were on the outside of prison, have gained confidence and now boldly speak God's message without fear.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: We thank you for your mercy and your grace.
Speaker 1: We thank you for your presence here today.
Speaker 1: I pray God for a continuation.
Speaker 1: And, lord, if there is somebody here today that has not let the past go and they have chains bound to them and they are not living in freedom, I pray today that, wherever they are and whatever season they are in, that today they have a perspective shift, whatever season they are in, that today they have a perspective shift and they begin to see their life, their obstacles, as opportunity for you to bring glory over their life.
Speaker 1: In your name, we pray Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: So, as After Thanksgiving, my wife she puts out Christmas stuff and I don't know if you pay attention To Christmas stuff, but for some reason Probably because they're not saved they love glitter and it is on everything and everywhere.
Speaker 1: You can't vacuum it enough, you can't clean it up enough.
Speaker 1: You can't wipe it down enough Somewhere somehow.
Speaker 1: It has been how many weeks since the decorations were in this church where we had I think it was the 15th of December where we had the chairs out, the tables out and we had the kids stuff up here, and on the table decorations there was some glitter.
Speaker 1: Well, I guarantee you where you sit right now, look, and we had the chairs covered and glitter still found its way in.
Speaker 1: That's how I know it's sinful.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can try to cover yourself and sin still finds its way in.
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: I told somebody this morning I think that's probably what hell's going to look like.
Speaker 1: There's going to be glitter everywhere and you'll never be able to get it out of your clothes or off of you.
Speaker 1: It'll be everywhere.
Speaker 1: But as I sit there and I watch my wife do the decorations and she puts the stuff out and the glitter starts falling on the floor, I have to keep my mouth shut.
Speaker 1: I learned that the first year.
Speaker 1: Hey, wisdom in the house, come on somebody.
Speaker 1: And I had to sit there and just let it happen to me and I had to take it.
Speaker 1: How many of you in your life you may be there right now that you are sitting there, or you have sat there and life was throwing you every curve ball, every distraction, everything to try to dismantle your faith, and it seemed like you just had to sit there and take it.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you today that there is nobody under the authority of Jesus Christ's name that has to just sit there and take it, that has to just sit there and take it.
Speaker 1: That where you are right now, how you feel, what you see, what looks like may be surrounding you, is not for your detriment, but it is for your benefit.
Speaker 1: And you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control how you see it.
Speaker 1: So the way we see things will change your perspective on your life.
Speaker 1: It will change the perspective on your struggles.
Speaker 1: It will change the perspective on heartbreak.
Speaker 1: It will change your perspective on trials.
Speaker 1: It will even change perspective on your sickness.
Speaker 1: It will change your perspective on trials.
Speaker 1: It'll even change perspective on your sickness.
Speaker 1: It will change your perspective on suffering.
Speaker 1: And today I told somebody.
Speaker 1: I told somebody this morning, I told somebody a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to start naming my sermons after old songs, so today's title.
Speaker 1: They already got it up there.
Speaker 1: Y'all need to learn.
Speaker 1: Reveal a little better.
Speaker 1: Just chill out till I say it.
Speaker 1: Don't put it up there yet.
Speaker 1: It's all right, it's already there.
Speaker 1: Y'all know the song.
Speaker 1: I can see clearly now.
Speaker 1: The rain is gone.
Speaker 1: Well, the rain I think it stopped, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: But I can see clearly now.
Speaker 1: There's a now that comes after how I can see clearly because when we begin to have a perspective shift in our lives and we see things how God sees things, god has not designed us and has planted you and put you where you are, right here, so that you can just survive.
Speaker 1: He's actually designed your life so that he can get the glory and you can thrive where you are, that our life is designed to be full of life and to be full of purpose.
Speaker 1: So ask yourself and be honest, ask yourself this If you're writing notes and you're writing this, I want you to put a little question mark.
Speaker 1: I want you to say honestly, underline it, look back on 2024.
Speaker 1: How easily did life control how you felt and saw things Just in this last year?
Speaker 1: Did you let your circumstances control and manipulate the way you act?
Speaker 1: Come on, church people, where you at Church hurts a real thing because of dumb church people, we can't keep our mouths shut.
Speaker 1: Well, god don't want us to lie.
Speaker 1: He don't want you to always open your mouth either.
Speaker 1: Just saying, just saying just because you got some information don't mean you got to share it.
Speaker 1: Come on, just because you know something don't mean you got to tell somebody you know.
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: Did you let circumstance control or manipulate the way we act, react or respond in this last year?
Speaker 1: Did you let feelings?
Speaker 1: Let's stop for a second and I've said this before multiple times and I'm saying it again so that it will sink in but women have a stereotypical reputation of being emotional.
Speaker 1: But how many of you know that anger is an emotion?
Speaker 1: Fellas?
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: I talked to somebody just this morning about if something wakes me up and it's hitting my body, for instance, let me give you a real life example.
Speaker 1: Me up and it's hitting my body, for instance, let me give you a real life example.
Speaker 1: I love my little baby girl to death.
Speaker 1: She is about to be what's today's date?
Speaker 1: Oh, yesterday she just turned another.
Speaker 1: How many?
Speaker 1: Eight, what?
Speaker 1: 12, 13, 14, 15 months old, something like that, I don't know.
Speaker 1: She's over a year and she, before we had a different structure, would be put down to sleep in her own bed, but then she would cry.
Speaker 1: We're trying to wean her off the bottle and we have a recliner in her room so that my wonderful, amazing, god-given wife goes in there, rocks her back to sleep but ends up having to sleep in the recliner because you try to put her down.
Speaker 1: And most of you know, who have had babies before, any kind of gravitational shift from a level of up here to down here, for some reason it wakes them up and she is so loving to let me sleep in the bed and she would go to sleep in that recliner.
Speaker 1: Well, how many of you know, recliners are good at sleeping in a while, but it can be uncomfortable Sometimes.
Speaker 1: You just need a good bed.
Speaker 1: And so then I said well, baby, come on, because I'm a loving husband, you know She'd bring the baby in the bed when that would happen during the night.
Speaker 1: And my loving little crazy child and my loving little crazy child, she is not a, she's asleep, but she ain't still.
Speaker 1: And I woke up multiple times to a karate kick to the side of my head or some sort of flopping where she does with her body up against our pillows and she feels like she has to touch both of us at the same time.
Speaker 1: So when she flops, I wake up to an awful pain of a little tiny hand that smacked me in the eye.
Speaker 1: And so immediately when I'm out of a dead sleep and something is inflicting pain on my body, I am angry.
Speaker 1: And so I can confess to you today that anger is an emotion, because I was all up in my emotions.
Speaker 1: But how many of us we allow the way we feel, we allow our emotions?
Speaker 1: We get caught up in the way things are, the way we see them, and we forget biblical truths and promises that the Word of God says over our lives.
Speaker 1: We get sidetracked.
Speaker 1: This is why Paul tells us to think on things above, to where we stop focusing on all the drama and trauma down here.
Speaker 1: But we can see that God has a better plan.
Speaker 1: He is wiser, he is smarter, he knows more than me, and he knows and he promises that he will work it for my good.
Speaker 1: Now that means that's great on the backside of it, when you're on the other side, but when you're in the middle of it or you're just beginning to go through it, it's hard to internalize this because you can only see sometimes how you feel and it can manipulate the truth of the Word of God and you forget.
Speaker 1: How many of you just let's be honest today how many of you forget the truth of the Word of God when you start going through something?
Speaker 1: Sometimes, sometimes, now, all you other saved people just look around and pray, but sometimes my flesh gets a little louder, a little heavier, weighing me down than what I know is true.
Speaker 1: And so when you begin to go through a circumstance or a season, easily, so easily, we can drift and slide back into old habits, old ways, old mindsets and old ways of thinking and responding.
Speaker 1: How many of you know?
Speaker 1: I've said it before, I'm going to say it again pay attention to this nobody pays attention where you go to church or if you're saved, until things start going wrong.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, when your life begins to shake and crumble and fall apart, eyes are on you and how you respond and how you see it and your perspective on the situation can either bring glory to God or it will put a stain on his name.
Speaker 1: Because I've said it before going into this new year, I'm going to repeat it almost every service we know, we got the challenge of five, five and five.
Speaker 1: Five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading a word, five minutes of praising every single day.
Speaker 1: Find a quiet place to do it.
Speaker 1: If you're on the road, a lot like me let the Bible be read to you.
Speaker 1: Yes, that counts.
Speaker 1: Put on some Spotify worship music.
Speaker 1: Make a playlist your go-to to get you in a better mood.
Speaker 1: If a song speaks to you, save it.
Speaker 1: Write it down, text it to yourself, whatever you got to do, so that when you are in the time of preparing yourself which everyone should have a time of preparing yourself for the day these five, five and five will spark hope and will help stay your light, stay bright in a dark world, because, how many of you know, when you go to work, there's a lot of darkness, there's a lot of traps.
Speaker 1: No, when you go to work, there's a lot of darkness, there's a lot of traps, there's a lot of snares that are meant to hang you up so that someone who doesn't know God will see you in that state and they will be like I don't want to go to church with hypocrites.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all were in this way.
Speaker 1: Some people's excuse for not coming to church is I don't want to go with a bunch of hypocrites, so what?
Speaker 1: I'd rather go to church with them than go to hell with them.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing Every person, before they give their life to Christ 100%, is a hypocrite when they come to church.
Speaker 1: When I came and played church, I was a hypocrite, but I stayed in church and God got a hold of me.
Speaker 1: Let's not be so quick to judge the hypocrites, because, how many of you know, hypocrites can be some of the biggest, loudest mouthpieces for God to bring him glory and to save this world.
Speaker 1: Did you let your feelings rob you of the promises God had over your life?
Speaker 1: Did it rob you of your faith?
Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul, a man whose life was a series of unpredictable events that God could have had his own reality TV show.
Speaker 1: Over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 1: There was something else Prison out of prison.
Speaker 1: But he wrote these letters, unpredictable to everyone except for God, because God had a purpose on his life.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you right quick, that where you feel like you may be in change right now in your life and you feel bound and in bondage, go ahead and testify of what God's done for you and I guarantee you the change will feel different, because now you are no longer locked inside of that prison with the guards, now the guards are locked in there with you.
Speaker 1: You see the shift in perspective when you begin to see things differently and you may get a flat tire, you may have a broke down car, you may be in the hospital and listen it's very easy for us in the middle of struggle and trials to say woe is me, I can't believe this is happening again.
Speaker 1: But here's what I've learned.
Speaker 1: Anybody else done a lot of stupid man?
Speaker 1: I guarantee you.
Speaker 1: Look that up in Webster's dictionary.
Speaker 1: It's a whole paragraph just about me.
Speaker 1: All the examples.
Speaker 1: You know how they give the definition and they give examples in a sentence.
Speaker 1: They wrote a new book for me.
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of stupid in my life, but how many of you know the stupid in your life can be a setup once you give everything over to God and you look at it differently.
Speaker 1: When I first came out of drugs and I first came off the streets and all these other things, when God began to transform my life, I was ashamed of my story.
Speaker 1: I was ashamed of where I had been.
Speaker 1: I was ashamed of how dirty I was.
Speaker 1: I was ashamed of how I stole from my parents to pay for my drugs.
Speaker 1: I was ashamed of when they would be gone of the parties I would throw and the things we would do in my parents to pay for my drugs.
Speaker 1: I was ashamed of when they would be gone of the parties I would throw and the things we would do in my parents' house.
Speaker 1: I was ashamed until I gave it all to Christ and he took what once was shame and made it a story for his glory.
Speaker 1: There is a difference.
Speaker 1: Here's the devil's game.
Speaker 1: The devil's game is shame.
Speaker 1: He tries to shame you into keeping quiet.
Speaker 1: He tries to shame you into not testifying.
Speaker 1: He tries to shame you into being.
Speaker 1: Woe is me and gloom and doom and everything is always bad.
Speaker 1: Why does this have to happen again?
Speaker 1: But let me tell you something when something is happening to you, allow the Holy Spirit to work through you, because you never know who's around you in this time, watching you through you, because you never know who's around you in this time watching you.
Speaker 1: In this suffering that Paul was going through, he still had the joy of the Lord.
Speaker 1: What is the joy of the Lord?
Speaker 1: It is our strength.
Speaker 1: So if you're in the middle of a season right now and you're going through the whole process and sometimes that process is wringing you out and getting rid of some weight, getting rid of some things that should have left a long time ago but how many of you know, you can't clean a rag until you wring it all out.
Speaker 1: You can't get rid of all the nasty and all the contaminants until you wring it out.
Speaker 1: Paul still had joy.
Speaker 1: When you feel like you don't have the strength, don't look at your lack of strength, but start assessing.
Speaker 1: Where should my strength come from?
Speaker 1: It should come from the joy of the Lord, and it could be.
Speaker 1: Everybody's experienced this in a brand new relationship.
Speaker 1: Oh, everything's good.
Speaker 1: My wife couldn't do nothing wrong.
Speaker 1: She is perfect and she still is.
Speaker 1: But how many of you know, in April we're coming up on 10 years of marriage and after 10 years of being married, the things I once thought was cute now sometimes annoy me.
Speaker 1: Hello, when the new wears off, life gets a little real.
Speaker 1: The same applies with having a relationship with the Father.
Speaker 1: When you first come to God, it's like oh, everything is good, I'm going to tell everybody.
Speaker 1: But then you later all of a sudden think when you first came to Jesus, nothing could touch your joy.
Speaker 1: There wasn't going to be anything that was going to steal your joy.
Speaker 1: But how many of you know, over time you get used to that.
Speaker 1: How many of you know, when you're in in a relationship you can get used to that and you gotta work for it.
Speaker 1: You gotta work for it.
Speaker 1: You gotta make it work because you don't stick around just because things are good.
Speaker 1: You stick around because you love deeply, with no strings attached.
Speaker 1: I try to tell my son this that love isn't something you feel, it's something you do every day.
Speaker 1: Some people try to say, well, if you got to work at it and you're fighting and doing this and doing that, well, you must not really be in love.
Speaker 1: That's not true.
Speaker 1: Real love sticks it out after the fight.
Speaker 1: Real love will make you go and hold her and hug her or give her her space, whatever she needs.
Speaker 1: I feel the wisdom of the Lord coming down into place.
Speaker 1: Whatever she needs, all right, fellas, take some notes.
Speaker 1: If you don't take notes, you should now.
Speaker 1: Whatever she needs to make it right, so that she knows and that he knows that you are sorry for what came out of your mouth and the way it was presented.
Speaker 1: How many of you know you can say something five different ways and if you say one wrong presentation, the whole thing is blown.
Speaker 1: Presentation is key.
Speaker 1: Write that down.
Speaker 1: The way you say it, the way you live your life, is key.
Speaker 1: Presentation is key Presentation.
Speaker 1: People are watching you and, most of all, the Lord is watching you, but he cares for you.
Speaker 1: He desires for joy and peace.
Speaker 1: Paul found this in the perspective shift of how he saw his situation when he was.
Speaker 1: Come here, listen to me.
Speaker 1: He teaches us that you cannot control what happens to you, but you can control how you see it.
Speaker 1: Paul had a clear vision in Acts 23, 11 to take the gospel to Rome.
Speaker 1: This is the epicenter of political and culture influence, like they were everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yet when Paul finally arrived in Rome, it wasn't a celebrated preacher, but he was a prisoner, chained, awaiting trial and possibly execution.
Speaker 1: You think you had a bad day.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been in a place where you knew God had you and it felt like you could not get your footing to actually do what God had called you to do in that place you knew you were supposed to be?
Speaker 1: A lot of us listen to me in this new year.
Speaker 1: A lot of us will blame the devil for godly positions he puts us in.
Speaker 1: Let me explain.
Speaker 1: We like to blame the devil when things are bad, but if we listen to Paul, he had every right to do the same, but yet he didn't give glory to the devil.
Speaker 1: He said that in my chains.
Speaker 1: Now I have had an opportunity I never would have had to share the gospel when you are right now.
Speaker 1: Stop giving credit to the devil and start looking for opportunity that God will get the glory out of where you are.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's going to be easy.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact.
Speaker 1: Jesus promises us to suffer.
Speaker 1: It rains on the just and the unjust.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all felt some of that rain coming in this morning.
Speaker 1: Ain't nobody that came to that parking lot while it was raining?
Speaker 1: Because they were more holy than everybody else.
Speaker 1: It didn't rain on them.
Speaker 1: There wasn't nobody that came out from their car while it was pouring down rain.
Speaker 1: That was the dirtiest, nastiest sinner.
Speaker 1: It still rained on them.
Speaker 1: The same for salvation.
Speaker 1: Everybody needs it.
Speaker 1: Everybody has sin.
Speaker 1: But your perspective of where you are should change as you mature in Christ.
Speaker 1: What is the mission and vision of this church Spiritual Maturity.
Speaker 1: We've got to have some mature people back in the church house.
Speaker 1: We've got to get up off the milk and this year I hope you find the meat.
Speaker 1: Man, I'm talking a lot about food while I'm fasting.
Speaker 1: Woo Friday, after we kind of wrapped up a little bit, we were standing there and talking and somehow we ended up on food and I heard my stomach.
Speaker 1: I'm like man.
Speaker 1: We've got to change the conversation.
Speaker 1: But in our key text, despite his change, paul saw his situation not as a setback but as a set up for the gospel to advance in ways that he had never imagined.
Speaker 1: Every guard chained to him became an ear to hear the gospel.
Speaker 1: In your situation right now, in your season, right now, who has God allowed to surround you and be around you?
Speaker 1: That needs to hear the gospel?
Speaker 1: But instead they hear complaining.
Speaker 1: Listen to me.
Speaker 1: If we are people of God and our life belongs to Him and he is the sovereign Lord over our lives, whatever suffering he allows us to endure, take it and let's go.
Speaker 1: Whatever suffering he allows us to endure, take it and let's go, because he is an all-sovereign God.
Speaker 1: He sees us.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something Paul couldn't control his circumstances, but he could control his perspective.
Speaker 1: That's about the fourth time I've said that.
Speaker 1: Please listen, change your perspective of where you are in your life.
Speaker 1: I promise you there's always somebody who's got it worse.
Speaker 1: There's always somebody who's sicker.
Speaker 1: There's always somebody who's had greater loss.
Speaker 1: There's always somebody who's lost their job.
Speaker 1: There's always this, this and fill in the blank with whatever Always somebody that can one-up you on how bad the life is.
Speaker 1: But let's start, as believers, beginning to one-up each other on how good God is, when we begin to realize that the dark place right now in your life isn't a place where you've been abandoned by the Father, but it is a place for you to shine the light, the gospel of Jesus Christ, into a dark place.
Speaker 1: You may see nothing but darkness around you.
Speaker 1: You may feel the weight of life on top of you, nothing but darkness around you.
Speaker 1: You may feel the weight of life on top of you, no light in sight.
Speaker 1: You feel like life has buried you alive.
Speaker 1: But when you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders, you see nothing but darkness around you.
Speaker 1: You feel like you've been buried.
Speaker 1: Understand something, child of God, you have not been buried, but you have been planted.
Speaker 1: You have been planted right where you are.
Speaker 1: Are you allowing God to get glory from your life or are you making grumbling your God?
Speaker 1: Romans 8, 28.
Speaker 1: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Speaker 1: Even in our darkest moments, god is weaving our stories for our good and his glory.
Speaker 1: If your life belongs to Christ, then should we not live like it?
Speaker 1: Christ, then should we not live like it.
Speaker 1: Should we not have the attitude like it?
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things I see in the church church is the body is that we live in a constant state of unforgiveness and we feel justified.
Speaker 1: Now, here's what I'm not saying, so don't hear what I'm not saying.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you have to be, that's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But if something inside of you is triggered when you see them or they do something that gets under your skin and you are triggered and it puts you in a mood, you have not truly forgiven them.
Speaker 1: If they can still trigger you with their stupidity, you have not truly forgiven them.
Speaker 1: I'm not just pulling this out of thin air.
Speaker 1: Most of you know I have an ex-wife.
Speaker 1: I don't like her.
Speaker 1: That's why she's an ex-wife.
Speaker 1: We're not hanging out with our families, we're not doing this and that.
Speaker 1: Like she is at a distance and thank the Lord, it's not me.
Speaker 1: But I had a season where I blamed everything that was probably 50-50 my fault and her fault on her, until God got a hold of me and I gave him everything and realized it doesn't matter what she did wrong or what she did wrong.
Speaker 1: I was wrong.
Speaker 1: And when I begin to see myself as being wrong and realizing that I was in the wrong, in spite of what she had done, she's never asked for forgiveness, never asked for anything.
Speaker 1: I don't care, it's not about her, it's about my relationship with me and God and it was blocking me and God.
Speaker 1: So she would do things, she would take certain things and it would get under my skin and it would trigger me.
Speaker 1: And then guess what?
Speaker 1: Now the person that I don't want anything to do with has control of my emotions and I let her control who I was and I would react and respond and feel in my spirit and in my mind in a way that was not godly anymore.
Speaker 1: My flesh would take over my mind in a way that was not godly anymore.
Speaker 1: My flesh would take over.
Speaker 1: And so now, when something arises I know I'm a pastor.
Speaker 1: Now nothing ever happens bad anymore.
Speaker 1: Right Now, when things happen, I pray for her that God will help her see the error of her ways, and if she doesn't, that's okay because I don't have to respond.
Speaker 1: There was a shift inside of me.
Speaker 1: It gave me control back of me and I forgave her, even though she didn't ask.
Speaker 1: It's not about the person asking.
Speaker 1: It's about the release inside of you, here, in your spirit and in your mind, that you forgive what has been done wrong and move on.
Speaker 1: And now what she does, in spite of what she does, and our relationship is good.
Speaker 1: Now it's not.
Speaker 1: You know, there's nothing crazy and bad, but there was a season where it was like every little thing all the time, and it wasn't until I found the freedom and stopped getting upset and really forgave her for being mean, no matter what I deserved, what I didn't deserve.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the point.
Speaker 1: The point was I needed to learn to forgive, and God was teaching me something.
Speaker 1: And so, as a Christian, if my life belongs to God, even with the people that know exactly where my buttons are.
Speaker 1: I still have to be Christ to them.
Speaker 1: Did you hear me?
Speaker 1: Even the people that get under your skin, that don't treat you right, they do you wrong and you want to just write them off.
Speaker 1: Writing them off is not Christ.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be buddy-buddy with them, but you are called to pray blessings over your enemies.
Speaker 1: That's scripture.
Speaker 1: That ain't my opinion.
Speaker 1: That's a hard thing to do.
Speaker 1: When you shift your perspective on your enemies and you begin to pray blessings over them, watch what God begins to do in your life, in your heart and in your mind.
Speaker 1: James 1, 2 through 4.
Speaker 1: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come opportunities of growth for yourself and glory for God.
Speaker 1: Growth for yourself and glory for God.
Speaker 1: Look at every obstacle as an opportunity to show Christ, even when you don't agree with how things are going.
Speaker 1: If you don't like how it feels, know that God knows more than you and can see things that you cannot.
Speaker 1: We must trust Him with all of our heart.
Speaker 1: We sang a song earlier.
Speaker 1: I trust in God that song.
Speaker 1: I sing it even when I don't feel it.
Speaker 1: When we allow our feelings to rob us of biblical truths of who God is and his sovereignty.
Speaker 1: Rob us of biblical truths of who God is and his sovereignty.
Speaker 1: We make our suffering into an idol and we bow down to it.
Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians 4,.
Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18.
Speaker 1: For our present troubles are small and won't last very long, yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever.
Speaker 1: So we don't look at the troubles we can see now.
Speaker 1: Rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
Speaker 1: We talked about this earlier Looking at things above.
Speaker 1: Stop being so focused on the troubles, trials and tribulations right in front of you, but know who God is and trust that he is still good in spite of when your life feels bad.
Speaker 1: So we don't look at the troubles we can see now.
Speaker 1: Rather fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen, for the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Speaker 1: How many of you in the house today?
Speaker 1: You've been on this earth for a while and you understand more than these youngsters in here that life passes so quickly.
Speaker 1: It seems to be in the blink of an eye.
Speaker 1: Make good use of the time you're given.
Speaker 1: Paul reminds us not to focus on our temporary troubles, but on the eternal glory they are producing.
Speaker 1: Jesus said you will have troubles, so why not let God get the glory for them?
Speaker 1: If you're going to go through troubles anyways, if you're going to have problems, tribulations, struggles and seasons of life that you feel like you just will never get out of, why not go ahead and let God get the glory?
Speaker 1: As we close?
Speaker 1: I want you to remember this Things will pass.
Speaker 1: This season, this trouble, this drama, this pain, this hurt it will pass.
Speaker 1: So, as a believer, today, I want to challenge you with something.
Speaker 1: I want you to say it out loud this will pass.
Speaker 1: Say it again this will pass.
Speaker 1: Then we should act like it.
Speaker 1: If we know this is true, then why are we not stepping out in faith and under the authority of the name of Jesus Christ and understand that this will pass?
Speaker 1: I'm not going to live my life in bondage of what was done to me.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to live my life in bondage to sickness.
Speaker 1: This will pass.
Speaker 1: Whether on this side of glory or the other, my chains will be broken, the strongholds will be loosed at the mention of the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: So shift your perspective.
Speaker 1: I want you to see clearly this year and stop Listen.
Speaker 1: Have you ever said this?
Speaker 1: I have, I'm guilty.
Speaker 1: Well, it can't get much worse.
Speaker 1: Come on, some of y'all might hit Monday morning with that on the tip of your tongue.
Speaker 1: Well, it can't get much worse.
Speaker 1: I want you to change from it can't be much worse to it could be much worse.
Speaker 1: Same season, same situation, same problem.
Speaker 1: Same baby mama drama, whatever.
Speaker 1: Fill in the blank with whatever you got.
Speaker 1: Same season, same situation, same problem.
Speaker 1: Same baby mama drama, whatever.
Speaker 1: Fill in the blank with whatever you got.
Speaker 1: Come on now.
Speaker 1: Same problem that was with you when you came in the door.
Speaker 1: Guess what it's going to be there when you leave?
Speaker 1: I hope it's not sitting next to you.
Speaker 1: Why are you looking around?
Speaker 1: Mind your business, but all the things that have tried to define you, of who you are in Christ, that have told you that you're too messed up to be, you're too used to be used, too messed up, too used to be used.
Speaker 1: No, the Word of God tells me different.
Speaker 1: The Word of God labels me as a child of the one true King and as being the King's son.
Speaker 1: I now have the right and authority that Jesus himself told them in the New Testament that you will.
Speaker 1: You will do greater than I have done.
Speaker 1: Not only that next week, if you got some questions about the Holy Spirit, you need to be here.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about who he is, why he exists and what the Bible says not man's opinion, not denominational theology, but what the Word says.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and tell you I came up with this this morning, I was, I was, I was praying and I was, I was getting ready for the service.
Speaker 1: And I'll say it again Sunday because it's in my notes so you'll hear it again.
Speaker 1: But it just, it was like a.
Speaker 1: It was a.
Speaker 1: You know how Jesus used to say things to people and it was so dumbed down so it would make sense like a biblical principle or a godly design.
Speaker 1: And he, just like he, made it so simple for everyone to understand how many of you got.
Speaker 1: Your vehicle is so old, there is no power steering, or maybe, or maybe it's not that old, but it needs something done where the power steering can be reinstalled.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit hey man, come on somebody.
Speaker 1: That guy was preaching it better than I was.
Speaker 1: But if you've ever had a car without power steering, it is hard to make that turn.
Speaker 1: You got to grip that thing, especially the ones that have the big old skinny wheel on it, some of the older trucks.
Speaker 1: You grab that thing, you just turn around, boy, you're cranking it and riding that car, that truck, without the power steering.
Speaker 1: You know that it'll drive just like any other car and get you where you need to go, but it sure is a lot easier with the power.
Speaker 1: You hear me Not being filled with the Spirit.
Speaker 1: Speaking in tongues is not going to make you go to hell or heaven, but man life is a whole lot better when there's power, being able to direct you and guide you when there's power, when there's power.
Speaker 1: So be here next Sunday because I believe next Sunday we're going to have a service of power and I think a part of the reason why the church has become so ineffective in the community is because we've unplugged so that we can begin to unplug our own church and there's no power in the body anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying they can't be a healthy church with sound doctrine, good theological teaching, but we don't need to lock up the Holy Spirit and make him be our pet.
Speaker 1: He is the authority in our lives, he is the power.
Speaker 1: The power, as we're going to look in the book of Acts and then on, there are spiritual gifts that came from that downpour.
Speaker 1: The disciples did not understand, the followers of Jesus didn't understand, until the Holy Spirit came into the upper room and showed up in a way that they had never seen before.
Speaker 1: And I believe, through this study, god is going to show up in a real way, not only in this church but in your personal lives, in a way that you have never seen before before.
Speaker 1: But it starts with first having a perspective shift so that when the Holy Spirit does lead us, we can clearly see where he is leading us, what we need to say, where we need to step and sometimes to not say and not step is some of the most crucial moments.