Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning.
Speaker 1: Good morning.
Speaker 1: Y'all ready to be changed and transformed by the Word.
Speaker 1: Today, the Word of God can penetrate the hardest heart.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, that's the best thing that it does.
Speaker 1: So, if you will stand for the reading, I've got a couple of y'all trained, so we're going to be today coming from 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23 and verse 24.
Speaker 1: If you don't have your Bible today, you're fighting without a weapon.
Speaker 1: So this is what Jesus did and this is a story that is passed on from first accounts of Jesus' life.
Speaker 1: Verse 23, if you got it, say I got it.
Speaker 1: If you don't got it, say hold up, all right.
Speaker 1: Verse 23, it says, for I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself.
Speaker 1: If you don't got it, say hold up, all right.
Speaker 1: Verse 23, it says, for I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself.
Speaker 1: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.
Speaker 1: Then he broke it.
Speaker 1: Say he broke it.
Speaker 1: He broke it into pieces and said this is my body, which is given for you.
Speaker 1: Do this in remembrance of me.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: We thank you so much for your presence.
Speaker 1: Already Already has shown up and began to do what you have already planned to do in this service.
Speaker 1: From our praise to the pulpit, god, it is all your spirit of God.
Speaker 1: Move in the rest of this service.
Speaker 1: Penetrate the hard hearts, change the weary minds.
Speaker 1: Lift up the weak spirits.
Speaker 1: In your name we pray, amen, amen.
Speaker 1: So in April we are going to you need to come and see me.
Speaker 1: We're going to do a baby dedication.
Speaker 1: We have two new babies here.
Speaker 1: Josh is doing his part to go to the church, right here, front row and center.
Speaker 1: They asked to do a baby dedication, so we're going to have a date.
Speaker 1: So maybe you have a secret baby you haven't let anybody see yet.
Speaker 1: If you want to get it dedicated.
Speaker 1: Also in April we would love to do a baptism service.
Speaker 1: That is one of the things that Jesus said we need to do.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 1: If you want to get baptized, maybe you've been baptized but you're saying so.
Speaker 1: If you want to get baptized, maybe you've been baptized but you're saying you know what?
Speaker 1: I still got some things to wash off.
Speaker 1: We'll throw some Don in there.
Speaker 1: We'll get you all clean and ready to go.
Speaker 1: But if you want to be baptized or maybe you've never made that public confession before, and that's what it is about.
Speaker 1: And actually that is when, in Jesus' life, the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove, and that is when his ministry began.
Speaker 1: If you have not received this baptism that we talk about, you're in for a treat.
Speaker 1: If you don't know what I'm talking about, your life will never be the same again.
Speaker 1: That's what we believe here Baptism in water and baptism in the spirit.
Speaker 1: You have questions?
Speaker 1: I am more than willing to take a day and try to just give you the tip of the iceberg of what the Bible says about the power that God has given to us and made available for every single person.
Speaker 1: Now back to our text.
Speaker 1: That was all free.
Speaker 1: So if you want to be baptized, if you want to dedicate a baby, so if you want to be baptized, if you want to dedicate a baby or I've seen it done before, y'all know I'm crazy, I get ideas If you have a child and you've never dedicated them and they could be 15, and you're like they ain't acting right, let's dedicate this kid, we'll anoint him and pray for him right here in the front of church.
Speaker 1: That's your baby.
Speaker 1: So we've been doing a little mini series last week, if you were here, we were talking about the difference in how we pray and we opened up ourselves to to God's spirit, to come in and take inventory of who we are inside and how we pray.
Speaker 1: Now the series, across all of the little sermons, is called Living Dangerously.
Speaker 1: Now, why is this?
Speaker 1: Let's see.
Speaker 1: So if you live now, this is mentally a mind shift and a different lifestyle change that you must live if you want to see God do something in your life.
Speaker 1: If you live a safe, mundane life, chances are you will never discover your potential, you will never be living in your purpose and you will never find true fulfillment in your life.
Speaker 1: No matter how much you love your job, no matter how much you love your spouse, no matter how much you love your kids, you will never truly be fulfilled, because God has designed every person to be walking in a purpose designed inside of his will.
Speaker 1: This type of spiritual walk living dangerously.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of somebody walking up to the ledge.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of Peter when he got to the edge of the boat.
Speaker 1: He knew how to live dangerously.
Speaker 1: Jesus oftentimes would get onto him, but nobody else came to Jesus when they were in trouble.
Speaker 1: Nobody else denied Jesus we have recordings of Nobody else was rebuked by Jesus and said get behind me, satan.
Speaker 1: And in the same paragraph, says I will build my church on you Because he can use whatever you got if you're willing to step out of your comfort zone and start living dangerously, walking in him.
Speaker 1: Now, this spiritual walk that I'm talking about, living dangerously.
Speaker 1: This reminds me of giant slayers.
Speaker 1: This reminds me of David when he stepped up and his brothers were saying what are you even doing here?
Speaker 1: His purpose, when he was on the mission to get to where they were in the valley between the mountains, he went to his brothers and his purpose was delivering food.
Speaker 1: He was doing Uber Eats, he was doing DoorDash for his brothers A humbling position to his older brothers because they didn't even want him there.
Speaker 1: But nobody nobody, including the king stepped up and stepped out and decided to live dangerously.
Speaker 1: Stepped up and stepped out and decided to live dangerously.
Speaker 1: I know that God's desire for this church, for this community and for this nation is for people to start living dangerously, getting outside of our comfort zones and being willing to step out and speak up for truth and not let the culture dictate our church.
Speaker 1: This is what giant slayers are made out of living dangerously, not letting fear grip your heart.
Speaker 1: If Jesus is the ultimate example, we can look to the lepers.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 1: The lepers were cast out, not allowed inside of the city.
Speaker 1: They had their own little area where their nasty faces can go out there and sulk in their sorrow.
Speaker 1: They would have to scream out unclean, unclean when people would pass and in this unclean, uncleanliness, jesus touched them.
Speaker 1: Uncleanliness, jesus touched them.
Speaker 1: He was not living inside of the confines of the culture.
Speaker 1: He stepped out and knew what truth was.
Speaker 1: Is that we know that, by the blood of Jesus, by the authority of the Spirit and by our Almighty God, that when we put our hands place, heaven invades the earth.
Speaker 1: Things begin to move, mountains cannot stay in the place they started and giants cannot stay standing in the presence of God.
Speaker 1: This is what people are made out of.
Speaker 1: It's going to get weird for some of y'all.
Speaker 1: If you've never seen it, you don't know.
Speaker 1: I have when I was a child.
Speaker 1: This is the things people are made out of that cast out demons.
Speaker 1: We have made demons into roommates and we are okay.
Speaker 1: We're okay with them invading our houses and making camp in God's domain and we have the authority.
Speaker 1: If you ain't been filled, you ain't got it.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry If you don't understand what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You will if you ever walk up on a seriously spiritual issue like a demon.
Speaker 1: They're real, but we have been desensitized by the culture that we need to fear that it's something scary.
Speaker 1: That's not what it says in my Bible.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that.
Speaker 1: I read that through the authority of Jesus Christ, I say flee and it has to go.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all have been allowing spirits to surround your family and you haven't been speaking to it.
Speaker 1: You've been coddling it.
Speaker 1: All right, let me get back to my notes.
Speaker 1: These are the warriors living dangerously, are the people that storm the gates of hell and take back the territory that it is trying to rob us of, when we have the right and the authority to claim it.
Speaker 1: We do not have to sit back and settle for spiritual mediocrity.
Speaker 1: We will not be the average church.
Speaker 1: We will proclaim over our family, city, states, nation and this world this people belongs to God, this ground belongs to God.
Speaker 1: We will not bow to the demands of the culture.
Speaker 1: We will stand firmly in the truth of God's word.
Speaker 1: We will gladly take up our cross daily and humbly remain broken at the feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And that leads us to today's title.
Speaker 1: It's very simple and it's two words break me, break me, God, break me.
Speaker 1: This can be one of the most scariest prayers that you can pray to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Break me, because then the brokenness comes.
Speaker 1: Be careful what you ask for, because the Lord is real good about answering.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you ask for things and you don't think it's really what you want when you're in the middle of it.
Speaker 1: Now, before you repeat the title or write it down or say, okay, I can start praying that I want you to understand something.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand the weight, the responsibility and the burden that comes with this statement.
Speaker 1: Last week we talked about a new way to pray, to pray boldly, that our prayers are often listen.
Speaker 1: Can we be honest?
Speaker 1: Our prayers are often lazy, they are mundane, they are puny and they are weak compared to the great God that we are serving and pray to.
Speaker 1: You ever read miracles in the Bible?
Speaker 1: And there's like these prayers of stand, like the sun stands, still moments, so that the day can last a little longer.
Speaker 1: We got that now right Hour change, and there's things in the Bible that they speak and they pray about and they ask God for, and they happen.
Speaker 1: And you're like man.
Speaker 1: That is awesome.
Speaker 1: My Bible reads that God's the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1: And here's the problem.
Speaker 1: We have made camps in the mountain range instead of speaking to them to move.
Speaker 1: God blessed his food.
Speaker 1: Lord, please let her light me back.
Speaker 1: I prayed that one a lot in high school and junior high.
Speaker 1: Let me pass this test.
Speaker 1: I really prayed that God knew what I was going to pray when I shut my eyes in high school.
Speaker 1: Lord, please, let me pass this test that I didn't study for.
Speaker 1: Let all the things that the teacher said in the class come to my remembrance.
Speaker 1: God, please help my teenager find his brain again again.
Speaker 1: Yes, lord, I receive and believe.
Speaker 1: Give us safe travels.
Speaker 1: All these are great prayers.
Speaker 1: These are amazing prayers and God wants to be involved in the smallest things in your life, such as these.
Speaker 1: But I think we make camp at these places and we forget to keep traveling, because there is more and very important that we come to God on everything, even the little stuff.
Speaker 1: But do any of these prayers actually exercise our faith muscle?
Speaker 1: Think about it.
Speaker 1: Do your prayers require any faith from you anymore more the prayers that you pray on a daily basis?
Speaker 1: Does it any longer require prayer or is it just another thing you check off your list?
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but when God poured this into me last night, that checked me, I was like, well, yeah, I'm praying.
Speaker 1: Of course I have faith, god hears it.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, you understand that he hears it, but you don't believe in anything.
Speaker 1: You're not believing for anything.
Speaker 1: You're not exercising your faith.
Speaker 1: You're praying for these little, small things that God loves to be a part of.
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: God loves to be a part of these little things, but we only end up praying for huge things when we're in trouble.
Speaker 1: We only want to build our faith muscle when we are in trouble and something is wrong.
Speaker 1: This is why I have issued, for several months now, the Challenge of 17.
Speaker 1: Five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading a word, five minutes of praise, one small act of faith every single day.
Speaker 1: One simple thing to invite someone to church.
Speaker 1: We did last.
Speaker 1: I was going to put some photos up here, but I didn't have time.
Speaker 1: They will show up eventually, especially Brother Rusty.
Speaker 1: We did this scavenger hunt for the couples last night and they went to Target.
Speaker 1: So you were represented in Target last night, acting a fool by your church people.
Speaker 1: And listen, whatever you hear or saw online, the guys won.
Speaker 1: So, whatever they say, I'm not saying we have some liars at the church, but me and Brother Rusty know truth.
Speaker 1: So but listen, this challenge of 17,.
Speaker 1: Listen, this doesn't even go to the number 20,.
Speaker 1: Okay, and it's five, five and five, and two or three of these can be done at the exact same time, so you literally can be doing your 15 in five minutes.
Speaker 1: But let's be honest, who's been struggling with the 15?
Speaker 1: Who's been struggling with the 15?
Speaker 1: Now, why is this such a struggle?
Speaker 1: Because we haven't been exercising spiritually and we want to act like giant killers stepping out on the field with the devil, and we haven't been preparing for the battle.
Speaker 1: You see, in the field of waiting, which is going to be a sermon next week, in the field of waiting.
Speaker 1: David was in the field of waiting after he had already been anointed, but he was getting good where he was planted.
Speaker 1: He was getting good where God had him.
Speaker 1: He worked his field and he was slaying lions.
Speaker 1: He was killing bears.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he hit a few squirrels.
Speaker 1: That's probably how he started.
Speaker 1: But before he started defending a people, he first had to defend a flock.
Speaker 1: And sometimes, in your field of waiting, you're asking God to get out of it and you haven't even been fighting the way you're supposed to.
Speaker 1: You're saying God, deliver me from the hands of the enemy, and he's like this ain't your enemy.
Speaker 1: Yet me from the hands of the enemy, and he's like this ain't your enemy.
Speaker 1: Yet this is practice.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: I watched a video the other day and there was a cheetah.
Speaker 1: There was a safari thing going on and this cheetah went in front of the truck.
Speaker 1: They had climbed up on top of this little platform right there and just laid down.
Speaker 1: His little tail was going like this and it was just laying down, chilling.
Speaker 1: There is no fence and protection or nothing.
Speaker 1: The guy's just like in the you can see the seats in front of him he just like with his phone, like this, like man.
Speaker 1: That would scare me.
Speaker 1: And they're half the size of a lion.
Speaker 1: Imagine bears and lions coming up in your territory and this is what happens.
Speaker 1: The enemy comes up in your territory and you put a chain around their neck and make them what happens?
Speaker 1: The enemy comes up in your territory and you put a chain around their neck and make them your pet.
Speaker 1: They're not there to be a part of your family.
Speaker 1: They're there trying to devour the people that God has put you around.
Speaker 1: If you want to be a giant killer, if you want to start living dangerously and start having the faith that you really need, you need to stop acting like the enemy's coming against you or your friends.
Speaker 1: You can slay a giant in love, right?
Speaker 1: So this challenge of 17,.
Speaker 1: It's very small.
Speaker 1: It's very, very small.
Speaker 1: That is your field that I have shoved you into and said do these 17 things because eventually you're going to need an hour.
Speaker 1: Eventually you're going to need more than what you've been eating on.
Speaker 1: And this is why, listen, the prayers that we have been praying compared to the majesty and the glory and the power and the beauty of our God, do not measure up.
Speaker 1: This is a small challenge of 17, not that significant all at all, and we stay feasting on these small little things and we act like we're really doing something.
Speaker 1: When my child was about five years old, he would, and I don't know if I did it.
Speaker 1: Surely I wasn't that dumb.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but he does.
Speaker 1: He did this thing and I probably did because I think I've seen almost every little kid do it when he thinks he's taking off running as fast as he can, he's going like this and looking down at his feet moving.
Speaker 1: But he's literally going like this.
Speaker 1: He thinks his feet are getting him somewhere because they're moving fast.
Speaker 1: A lot of us get our feet moving really fast but we don't gain any ground and we wear ourselves out and wonder why we have no energy left.
Speaker 1: It is time to stop doing nothing in one spot and start taking steps in faith when God has so, so, so, so much more than the challenge of 15 for you.
Speaker 1: So, so, so much more than the challenge of 15 for you.
Speaker 1: There is so much more.
Speaker 1: There is such deeper waters for you to do, go through and experience.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, write this scripture down.
Speaker 1: This one slapped me in the face too.
Speaker 1: God beats me up before I get here to y'all James and I love James.
Speaker 1: He's very on the point and blunt.
Speaker 1: That's my kind of talk.
Speaker 1: James, chapter 1, verse 22.
Speaker 1: But don't just listen to God's words.
Speaker 1: You must do what it says, otherwise you are only fooling yourselves.
Speaker 1: Have you ever got some great advice and it was awesome and you were like man, that's great.
Speaker 1: I've done that with my finances before.
Speaker 1: Like y'all know, we're trying to get out of debt and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1: So I listen to Dave Ramsey podcast all the time because I need to hear that other people are getting out with small incomes so that I can do it.
Speaker 1: I need to know that they took two years and they got completely out of debt and started building wealth.
Speaker 1: That's my dream.
Speaker 1: I want to get rid of credit cards.
Speaker 1: They're stupid.
Speaker 1: Read Proverbs, it'll tell you.
Speaker 1: And so I listened to this and it wasn't until about six months ago to a year.
Speaker 1: I knew that our finances, we would get it and we would work the whole month so that our money would go out to someone else.
Speaker 1: And that's the problem your money is never actually yours because you're borrowing when you don't have and then after that, you still never have because you're trying to pay it back.
Speaker 1: And this sound advice that I had known about and received was nothing until I started to apply it.
Speaker 1: We do this every Sunday.
Speaker 1: We get something good, or God gives you a nugget from the word, we get a scripture that's like yeah, yes, lord, and then we forget about it by Wednesday.
Speaker 1: We go into Monday and Tuesday and we have no clue what happened Sunday, because it was just something else that we needed to check off our list so that we were in good graces with God.
Speaker 1: This is why we have baby Christians sitting in the pews for 20 years still drinking on milk because we don't apply, we don't do.
Speaker 1: All we do is hear.
Speaker 1: We hear, but we don't do the word and instructions.
Speaker 1: They end up falling on deaf ears.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this a minute ago, we sang would I come to my end?
Speaker 1: The word and instructions they end up falling on deaf ears.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this A minute ago, we sang Lord, I come to my end Out of shadows.
Speaker 1: I see your hand.
Speaker 1: I believe in what you said.
Speaker 1: You're not done with me.
Speaker 1: That song is for every single person in here that, no matter what your life looks like right now, you are not done.
Speaker 1: If you're not dead, you are not done If you still have breath in your lungs.
Speaker 1: Praise him as hard and as long as you can.
Speaker 1: We have to be willing vessels to hollow ourselves out.
Speaker 1: Say spirit of god, show me what you want me to take out or give free range, say god, just empty me.
Speaker 1: I want to be nothing but a willing vessel.
Speaker 1: I want to do nothing but what you want me to do.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this are you ready to stop watching and are you ready to start doing?
Speaker 1: To stop just listening and start doing god's people?
Speaker 1: Are you ready to change the world?
Speaker 1: Does that sound like a big bite to bite off and try to chew?
Speaker 1: If we all do our part, in number in the upper room, in Acts the number was only 120.
Speaker 1: And we are still preaching and teaching today.
Speaker 1: What happened then?
Speaker 1: What can God do with the faithful few here?
Speaker 1: He can do a revolution and give a revelation from a remnant.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be.
Speaker 1: We don't have to be like anybody else in this community.
Speaker 1: Churches should not be in competition.
Speaker 1: We need to all be going to Christ for salvation and filled with the Spirit and know that God is leading us in every step that we do for salvation and filled with the Spirit and know that God is leading us in every step that we do.
Speaker 1: But the weird thing is and the hard thing is is a spirit of submission, because if you want to make a change first you have to start changing.
Speaker 1: If you want to see things be different in your life, you first have to start being different.
Speaker 1: You cannot hold on to the old you and expect to step into the new that God has pulled you into, because we're supposed to be different when we pass over that bloodline.
Speaker 1: We are supposed to be different, letting go of what was and start living in what God has for us in our future.
Speaker 1: It is not, listen, you cannot invite the devil to sit at the table.
Speaker 1: Anyways, we're going to go on Now, before you get excited and say, yes, I want to be a world changer, I want God to break me.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand the cost that this will cost you.
Speaker 1: Cs Lewis said this God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specifically armed you to go through it, not without pain, but without stain.
Speaker 1: Pain but without stain.
Speaker 1: You see, pain is a part of the process.
Speaker 1: It is, do you not think that when David was in the field, when he was waiting, that he had calluses and marks on his hand from slinging that sling?
Speaker 1: So much I bet I can just see in my mind he's out there with the sheep and they're running around doing their thing and he's got little rocks up there on top of a big boulder.
Speaker 1: I could see him.
Speaker 1: He's stacking them up and he's just back and he's slinging and slinging and slinging.
Speaker 1: After a few times mowing the yard and doing a weed eater, my hands started to hurt right there.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've got calluses and it still hurts and it's like I wasn't out there but a couple hours.
Speaker 1: What is wrong with my hands?
Speaker 1: I can't imagine this was David's job.
Speaker 1: This was David's life.
Speaker 1: I can imagine his hands being bloody.
Speaker 1: He's probably got wraps.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen somebody doing this before?
Speaker 1: They got little wraps and all that stuff on their fingers and they got all this.
Speaker 1: I'm sure David had equipment too that he designed because he was hurting himself so bad, but he was not going to allow the enemy to come in where his sheep were, sometimes in preparation.
Speaker 1: There is pain In the process.
Speaker 1: There is pain.
Speaker 1: Everybody loves the mountain, but we all have to go through the valley.
Speaker 1: If you don't have pain, you will not have progress.
Speaker 1: 1 Peter, we're going to do a little bit of reading here.
Speaker 1: 1 Peter, chapter 4.
Speaker 1: And this is the promise.
Speaker 1: 1 Peter, chapter 4, 12 through 19.
Speaker 1: Anybody ever felt like you've been attacked before You've been attacked.
Speaker 1: You've been attacked.
Speaker 1: You ever been attacked before?
Speaker 1: Peter here is talking about guess what it's going to happen, but guess what God is with you First.
Speaker 1: Peter.
Speaker 1: Chapter 4, verse 12, it says dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through.
Speaker 1: Did you notice there was an S on the end of that Trials?
Speaker 1: Sometimes there's about 16 S's behind it.
Speaker 1: Instead, be very glad for these trials.
Speaker 1: Make you partners with Christ.
Speaker 1: You remember the brothers.
Speaker 1: They had their mommy come and talk to Jesus about sitting at his right hand, and Jesus was like you don't understand the cup you're asking to drink from.
Speaker 1: When you ask for progress, get ready for pain, but trust the process.
Speaker 1: For these trials.
Speaker 1: Make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.
Speaker 1: Verse 14,.
Speaker 1: If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed.
Speaker 1: Wait, a burden is a blessing.
Speaker 1: That's a title, for the glorious spirit of God rests upon you.
Speaker 1: Verse 15,.
Speaker 1: If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble or prying into other people's affairs.
Speaker 1: I think he just addressed a little bit of gossip.
Speaker 1: But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian.
Speaker 1: Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name.
Speaker 1: Verse 17,.
Speaker 1: For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household.
Speaker 1: And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's good news?
Speaker 1: So you're saying, not only am I going to go through fiery trials, but I'm first in line to be judged.
Speaker 1: I don't like that verse 18.
Speaker 1: It says and also, if the righteous are barely saved, come on now, somebody knows somebody who's barely saved.
Speaker 1: Anybody else been there before?
Speaker 1: I've been barely saved.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I go to church.
Speaker 1: Where is it?
Speaker 1: Go there on Easter and Mother's Day?
Speaker 1: If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?
Speaker 1: Have you read the verse about if you're lukewarm, God will spit you out of their mouth.
Speaker 1: He would rather you be cold than play church.
Speaker 1: So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.
Speaker 1: If God loves you so much to create you, he will love you so much to protect you and help you to endure.
Speaker 1: If you are suffering, count it a joy.
Speaker 1: My mom last night called me on the phone and she said, stephen, I have been dealing with it.
Speaker 1: When it comes to electronics, she don't know Jesus anymore.
Speaker 1: And she says, stephen, I have been working on this for 10 hours and haven't been able to do nothing.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get this from this computer and make it go to this one.
Speaker 1: I have watched YouTube videos and nobody can help me.
Speaker 1: And I said, mom, I know you're upset, I know this is taking.
Speaker 1: She said I don't have time for this.
Speaker 1: And I said, mom, can I tell you something Don't get mad at me what I said I'm just thankful you're alive.
Speaker 1: To get aggravated like this, oh hush, I'm going to reach through the phone and choke you too, but it's misinformation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, only a mother can do it.
Speaker 1: It's misinformation that if I give my life to Jesus, everything's going to be perfect.
Speaker 1: There's not going to be any more troubles come my way because I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Speaker 1: The devil's not going to come for me anymore to let the Job and it seems that the more faithful you are and Ramsey, Dave Ramsey, talks about this it's that when you're trying to get out of debt and you got that $1,000 emergency fund, everything starts going wrong where you have to dip into it and build back up.
Speaker 1: When you're hard on money, everything falls apart, and when money's flowing good, there's nothing you need.
Speaker 1: When you start living for God and give Christ everything that you are, all of a sudden there's a lot of people that come along trying to test your Christianity.
Speaker 1: You never would have noticed them before.
Speaker 1: But now you're trying to change and it conflicts.
Speaker 1: There's an inner confliction with what you're trying to do, who you're trying to become, and oh, I'm not supposed to give you the finger, but you're driving stupid Like y'all be doing that in traffic.
Speaker 1: I know that's why you don't put the church stickers on your cars, because it's a fleshly fight to keep your spirit alive and healthy in God.
Speaker 1: It's hard, but with trouble comes promise, with pain comes progress.
Speaker 1: Rick Warren says this your greatest ministry will most likely come out of your greatest hurt.
Speaker 1: Hello, greatest hurt, hello.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to leave, but few will submit to being broken, praying for brokenness.
Speaker 1: It's hard, but it leads to true maturity.
Speaker 1: It brings you to a place of sacrifice beyond yourself, a posture of humility that normally you would not have, because we are a proud creation.
Speaker 1: We act like we created ourselves.
Speaker 1: We act like we're the ones in charge.
Speaker 1: Now there's a story of a woman and I say woman, this woman in three of the Gospels they did not give her a name.
Speaker 1: Three of the Gospels, they didn't give her a name.
Speaker 1: In John's Gospel it's the only book that she was named Mary.
Speaker 1: In Luke's Gospel she was even labeled as a sinful woman.
Speaker 1: So here's what happened Mark, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: If you want to write this down or you want to look it up right quick, mark, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: We're going to read verses 3 through 9.
Speaker 1: And in this story it's so significant to me because I remember when I was her Mark, chapter 14, 3 through 9.
Speaker 1: It says while he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard.
Speaker 1: She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.
Speaker 1: Some of those at the table were indignant.
Speaker 1: They were mad, they were frustrated.
Speaker 1: This woman took something that could have been sold.
Speaker 1: It says why waste such expensive perfume?
Speaker 1: Did you hear what they said about the master?
Speaker 1: Why waste such expensive perfume?
Speaker 1: And then they justified it it could have been sold for a year's wages and the money given to the poor.
Speaker 1: This one thing Some scholars believe that she was a prostitute and the reason she had this expensive perfume is because, if you don't know, people back there stink, they didn't have running water and showers and things like we did.
Speaker 1: So a prostitute would spend, they made good money, they would spend a year's wages on this certain perfume and they would dab it on themselves.
Speaker 1: And so when they would walk by the men, they would be advertising, without legally saying anything, that they were available for purchase, purchase, and so for her to spend a year's wages 300 denarii, a year's wages to break on the feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And then it says this so they scolded her harshly.
Speaker 1: Verse 6 says but Jesus replied leave her alone.
Speaker 1: Why criticizing her for doing such a good thing to me?
Speaker 1: You will always have the poor among you and can help them whenever you want to See.
Speaker 1: This is something that was on their mind and actually in some of the other gospels it says that Judas said it.
Speaker 1: And then it says that Judas said it because he was a thief and was actually pocketing money.
Speaker 1: One of the disciples gets real detailed on who was doing what In verse seven.
Speaker 1: You will always have the poor, but you will not always have me.
Speaker 1: In verse 8, it says she has done what she could and has anointed my body for burial ahead of time.
Speaker 1: Verse 9 says I tell you the truth Wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman's deed will be remembered and discussed.
Speaker 1: And here we are.
Speaker 1: And in Luke, chapter seven, verse 38, it's the same story.
Speaker 1: There's a little more detail.
Speaker 1: Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping.
Speaker 1: Now I want you to imagine this.
Speaker 1: Someone who obviously has a reputation, so much so that three of the gospels were so disgusted by her that she didn't even deserve a name, and in one of them she was only called a sinful woman.
Speaker 1: So there's no telling what she had done, what she had been a part of.
Speaker 1: And it says this in Luke, chapter seven, verse 38,.
Speaker 1: Then she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping.
Speaker 1: Her tears fell on his feet and she wiped them off with her hair.
Speaker 1: Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume.
Speaker 1: Did I not just say a minute ago they didn't have the same kind of water system that we have?
Speaker 1: Did I not just say a minute ago they didn't have the same kind of water system that we have Now.
Speaker 1: If you remember the story of Jesus, where even the one of the twelve that was about to go and betray him he still washed his feet, and this time and day there was not a shower system like we have now.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, if you read a lot of the places where Paul spent his time writing, they said it was the lowest of the low and everything flowed down and waste would go through his cell.
Speaker 1: This is the system that was set up here.
Speaker 1: So when you have someone kissing your feet because they love you so much, when something that costs them a year's wages, I think, the average household income listen in to Ramsey, they know all this stuff and give the stats, but it's like, I think, $45,000 to $55,000 a year Imagine taking what you earn in one year and spending it for something that you had other ideas for, that had another purpose to further your sin, and in an instant you could not contain your sinful nature any longer and you broke something so valuable and poured it on Jesus.
Speaker 1: Some of the other gospels said that they poured it on his head.
Speaker 1: Here she's pouring it Her tears.
Speaker 1: Are you ever seen little drops of rain hit something that's really dusty and it has those little spots.
Speaker 1: That's what I imagine his foot looked like, his feet looked like, and she cried little drops, run down and started cleaning his feet.
Speaker 1: This woman understood the power of brokenness, she understood the important and she knew where to go to break.
Speaker 1: See, if you've ever been dealing with something for too long and you hold it all in, eventually you will have a breaking point.
Speaker 1: Choose the feet of Jesus.
Speaker 1: There are things that can overwhelm you.
Speaker 1: It could be things from your childhood, it could be things that happened to you last week, but we serve a God that loves you so much that he's saying it's okay to be broken.
Speaker 1: It's okay to be broken, it's okay to be broken, and actually he loves when we remain broken, because we never become arrogant and have a haughty spirit.
Speaker 1: We have a compassion for people that we wouldn't have had normally, because we understand what brokenness looks like.
Speaker 1: We understand what brokenness feels like, and some of us are so hard-hearted in the church that we haven't felt brokenness in our and some of us are so hard-hearted in the church that we haven't felt brokenness in our spirits in so long.
Speaker 1: And we wonder why God doesn't move in our lives and our services.
Speaker 1: It's because the people of God have stopped being broken.
Speaker 1: Most of you know my story, but I don't know if I've ever told this before.
Speaker 1: This is a part of my life where I felt lowest of the low, where I felt that I had been broken to a point that I could not recover.
Speaker 1: Most of you know I had a meth addiction.
Speaker 1: I was arrested and when I got out of jail in the time being in jail, I believe God allowed me to be in there long enough to make the relationship with my father right, because I couldn't remember my mom's number, but I knew my dad's and he told me if you ever go to jail, you're getting yourself out.
Speaker 1: And so through this period of time I did.
Speaker 1: I had to sell my car to the bail bondsman to get out, and when I got out there was something missing that I'd had for several years of my life.
Speaker 1: An addiction was gone.
Speaker 1: I dried up, but I didn't know how to function anymore.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how my life was going to work now that I didn't have that crutch, that I didn't have that chain on.
Speaker 1: And there's two instances.
Speaker 1: One y'all know I play guitar, obviously, and when I would be high on meth I would sit and I would play and I would play and I would play because I couldn't feel my fingers, I would never hurt.
Speaker 1: And if you've ever tried playing guitar those little tiny strings on the bottom, these little shiny ones right here you ever seen any of those movies where somebody gets somebody behind the neck and starts choking them with a little wire?
Speaker 1: I think that's what that is, because it cuts through my fingers like that.
Speaker 1: And this time I sat on my dad's couch and I leaned back and I'm, and my fingers hurt so bad.
Speaker 1: I began to cry and I said I'm never going to be able to play again Because the pain I started to feel things again that I hadn't felt in a long time and I didn't know how to receive that anymore.
Speaker 1: I thought, just because it was painful, it was going to be over anymore.
Speaker 1: I thought, just because it was painful, it was going to be over.
Speaker 1: I thought that, just because I was feeling something that I hadn't felt in a long time, there was no hope for me to ever to do what I played in church my entire life, something I started on drums.
Speaker 1: I taught myself guitar and God blessed me with musical talent and I thought that I had ruined it and squandered it and the prodigal son had come home and there was nothing, nothing for me to do anymore.
Speaker 1: What was I gonna do now?
Speaker 1: Just because I felt, and I could feel again something that the enemy had tried to numb in me, I now play with a passion that I didn't know before.
Speaker 1: And there's another time where I was helping my dad in the yard.
Speaker 1: Y'all ever have a weed eater.
Speaker 1: They don't work half the time.
Speaker 1: You buy them new and by one season it's like why'd I even spend money on this again?
Speaker 1: I just get out there with scissors and I'm sitting out there helping my dad and I've got this weed eater and I am pulling and I am pulling.
Speaker 1: You ever get so mad when you're trying to pull.
Speaker 1: You start a lawnmower and for some reason it catches and it only goes to right there and it makes you madder.
Speaker 1: I am, I'm pulling, I'm giving it everything I got and something inside my spirit broke over a weed eater.
Speaker 1: This was the first experience I had had outside of jail where I didn't have drugs in my system, and it broke me.
Speaker 1: God used a weed.
Speaker 1: If he can use a donkey, he can use a weed eater If he can use a donkey, he can use a weed eater and something in my spirit broke and I threw it down on the ground and I ran to my room and I'm talking about like I'm ugly running and crying I'm like that's how I'm doing All the way to my room and I flopped down on my bed and I'm like God, I don't understand what is happening to me, and I am sobbing uncontrollably.
Speaker 1: I'm nasty, crying, I'm pouring out my heart to God.
Speaker 1: I'm saying I can't start a weed eater.
Speaker 1: It's like 89% of the rest of America, but to me it was every emotion I was dealing with, every weight that I felt was breaking me down.
Speaker 1: It was so heavy that a wind eater set me off and I went to my room sobbing and at this moment in time my father was going through something very personal, very deep.
Speaker 1: He was hurting so bad and his son was dragging him through the ground with addiction and acting like an idiot.
Speaker 1: And while I'm sobbing on the bed and I'm saying, god, what is wrong with me?
Speaker 1: I can't deal with this anymore.
Speaker 1: I can't stay sober, I feel a hand on my shoulder and I hear somebody start crying with me and I hear a man praying over me and he starts praying over me and then he starts praying over himself and you got two grown men back here crying and sobbing uncontrollably because in the middle of your brokenness God will send you someone.
Speaker 1: In the middle of your brokenness.
Speaker 1: Don't let the enemy try to make you feel like you are alone, because you are not.
Speaker 1: Do not let that's the biggest trick of the enemy to separate you from the herd and make you feel like no one will understand, or they will look at you wrong or they'll talk to you different and they won't want you to come around.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, the pastor here at this church understands that you will not be turned away.
Speaker 1: You will be prayed for, you will be loved, because we've all been to a place of brokenness and two grown men sit there and cried and begin to pray for each other and this brokenness.
Speaker 1: Y'all know I cry a lot from the pulpit because that brokenness remains in me.
Speaker 1: I never want to get to a place that my heart is so hard that I can't feel that when the Spirit moves and starts to do something and he's trying to do it through me, that my heart does not block what he's trying to do and it's in the middle of this brokenness that God can start to rebuild.
Speaker 1: It took the brokenness brokenness that God can start to rebuild.
Speaker 1: It took the brokenness, it took the breaking of me for him to reform and remold who he was making me to be.
Speaker 1: The brokenness is not to hurt you, it is to help you.
Speaker 1: He will never break you and leave you in the dust.
Speaker 1: He will rise you up from the ashes Bigger and better than you could ever dream of.
Speaker 1: I remember when Richard passed and I went over that corner, over there, and I felt the exact same way, the exact same way, the exact same way, and I said God, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And he said don't forget this feeling, don't forget to remain broken in my presence, don't forget to remain broken at my feet, because in that brokenness, in the pain, he is molding you into something that you never could have dreamed of.