WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.009 What a day to love the Lord. 00:00:03.009 --> 00:00:07.891 Amen, to be able to worship Him once again. 00:00:07.891 --> 00:00:12.890 All of your beautiful red tops. 00:00:12.890 --> 00:00:22.446 If you don't know, fellas, tomorrow is Valentine's Day and if you just found out, you're too late to the game. 00:00:22.446 --> 00:00:23.510 Ain't nothing left out there. 00:00:23.510 --> 00:00:29.248 So if you'll stand with me, we're going to read today. 00:00:29.248 --> 00:00:32.189 We're going to be coming from Psalm chapter 3. 00:00:32.189 --> 00:00:37.049 We're going to be reading eight short verses here. 00:00:37.049 --> 00:00:44.725 If you got it, say amen. 00:00:44.725 --> 00:00:52.268 If you need more time, say hold up, all right, half and half, give it a couple more minutes. 00:00:52.268 --> 00:00:54.838 If you don't have your bible or you don't have an app, you can look up here. 00:00:54.838 --> 00:00:56.000 We're going to have it up here for you. 00:00:56.542 --> 00:01:05.555 Verse one it says oh lord, I have so many enemies, so many are against me, so many are saying God will never rescue him. 00:01:05.555 --> 00:01:12.890 But you, o Lord, are my shield, around me, you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. 00:01:12.890 --> 00:01:17.350 I cried out to the Lord and he answered me from his holy mountain. 00:01:17.350 --> 00:01:22.531 I laid down and slept, yet I woke up in safety, for the Lord was watching over me. 00:01:22.531 --> 00:01:27.841 Verse 6, it says I am not afraid of 10,000 enemies who surround me on every side. 00:01:27.841 --> 00:01:38.602 Arise, o Lord, rescue me, my God, slap all of my enemies in the face, shatter the teeth of the wicked. 00:01:38.602 --> 00:01:42.168 Victory comes from you, o Lord. 00:01:42.168 --> 00:01:45.153 May you bless your people. 00:01:45.153 --> 00:01:46.075 Let's pray. 00:01:46.075 --> 00:01:51.167 Father, we thank you so much for what you've already done in this service. 00:01:51.167 --> 00:02:01.629 Before we even got up this morning to come to this appointed time and this appointed building, you already had a plan for your will to be done here today. 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:04.631 You knew who would be here. 00:02:04.631 --> 00:02:05.239 You knew who would be here. 00:02:05.239 --> 00:02:06.745 You knew who would be joining us online. 00:02:06.745 --> 00:02:10.411 Father, I speak life over those dead, dry bones. 00:02:10.411 --> 00:02:14.188 I speak restoration to the broken homes. 00:02:14.188 --> 00:02:19.389 I speak healing to the sick and life to the dead. 00:02:19.389 --> 00:02:27.311 Let everyone here today be transformed through your word and not leave how they came in. 00:02:27.311 --> 00:02:32.706 In your name, we pray Amen, you may be seated. 00:02:32.706 --> 00:02:35.519 Amen. 00:03:00.506 --> 00:03:14.806 The one thing I love about getting together and taking communion is that it builds unity with us, and I believe that's why Jesus, in a lot of times, would sit in crowds and sit with his disciples, because it was important to sit down together and literally hear break bread. 00:03:14.806 --> 00:03:19.973 And when you're about to take communion, the Bible talks about stopping for a second and examining yourself. 00:03:19.973 --> 00:03:25.913 Bless you, sorry, I don't know. 00:03:25.913 --> 00:03:26.895 Bless you sorry, I don't know. 00:03:26.895 --> 00:03:32.180 And so we call this before we take communion, we want to examine ourselves. 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:44.408 We want to say God, whatever is inside of me, whatever blemishes there are, wash me clean so that I don't sin against you, so that I do you justice and I show you honor by honoring what you did for me. 00:03:44.408 --> 00:03:55.181 So it's like you have to receive the gift before, the gift of cleanliness, the gift of righteousness, the gift of salvation before you partake. 00:03:55.181 --> 00:04:05.651 And when we do this I like to call that y'all know I'm all about self-reflection, self-awareness, self-reflection. 00:04:05.651 --> 00:04:12.024 We must, as Christians, as a church body, be self-aware. 00:04:12.024 --> 00:04:15.271 None of y'all are amening because you're guilty. 00:04:15.271 --> 00:04:20.190 Listen, we have to be very, very self-aware. 00:04:20.190 --> 00:04:22.156 We have to look at ourselves daily, daily. 00:04:22.156 --> 00:04:25.708 Pick up your cross, where we have to look at ourselves daily, daily. 00:04:25.708 --> 00:04:27.279 Pick up your cross daily. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:41.009 Figure out what you can do in your challenge of 17 to do that one small act of faith that you normally wouldn't do Praying God, remove all of me and let there be nothing left but you. 00:04:41.009 --> 00:04:45.930 And that brings me to today's title mirrors. 00:04:47.581 --> 00:04:49.769 Now, there are two types of mirrors. 00:04:49.769 --> 00:04:54.529 The first type we use to self-examine ourselves. 00:04:54.529 --> 00:05:02.649 You look in a mirror, probably if you leave the house, you at least look to see if you don't look like Albert Einstein crazy hairs. 00:05:02.649 --> 00:05:07.384 Okay, at least that my parents when I was younger and I didn't know I did it. 00:05:07.384 --> 00:05:12.584 But you're a teenager, you have acne, you're about to step out of the house. 00:05:12.584 --> 00:05:13.990 There's got to be girls somewhere, right? 00:05:13.990 --> 00:05:19.124 So I'd stop by this big mirror they had in the hall and I'd check my face, my hairs and see everything was on point. 00:05:19.124 --> 00:05:20.464 Make sure my. 00:05:20.464 --> 00:05:22.327 Because I used to have a bad habit for some reason. 00:05:22.327 --> 00:05:24.189 I would always button it off by a button. 00:05:24.189 --> 00:05:29.716 So my shirts, they would be cockeyed and I don't know why I did it, but I always. 00:05:29.716 --> 00:05:32.247 I got the habit of checking myself before I wrecked myself. 00:05:32.247 --> 00:05:38.382 I had to make sure that I was good before I could go out and deliver the goods. 00:05:38.382 --> 00:05:39.245 Come on somebody. 00:05:41.869 --> 00:05:52.151 And there's a second type of mirror that this is my personal favorite, you probably have it as a favorite as well is the mirror of where you turn it around and show other people who they are. 00:05:52.151 --> 00:05:57.911 This is a classic. 00:05:57.911 --> 00:06:01.047 This is 95, 99%. 00:06:01.047 --> 00:06:06.709 Because we don't want to see ourselves, we don't want to see what we're doing wrong. 00:06:06.709 --> 00:06:11.367 All we want to do is show everybody else themselves. 00:06:11.367 --> 00:06:13.622 Now y'all go see what your face looks like while I'm preaching. 00:06:13.622 --> 00:06:17.630 Everybody gets a look. 00:06:17.630 --> 00:06:18.273 Everybody gets a look. 00:06:18.273 --> 00:06:23.889 But a mirror is something that shows what is in it. 00:06:23.889 --> 00:06:30.649 If I stand here, I'm seeing exactly the reflection that I'm putting in front of it. 00:06:30.649 --> 00:06:33.990 I am seeing the substance that is in the face of that mirror. 00:06:33.990 --> 00:06:40.572 In this, we have a habit of wanting to show other people their problems. 00:06:40.572 --> 00:06:44.184 Is anybody in the house today guilty? 00:06:44.184 --> 00:06:48.011 Okay, 90% of y'all are lying. 00:06:48.011 --> 00:06:54.262 The rest of y'all, thank you for being truthful. 00:06:54.262 --> 00:06:55.223 The rest of y'all need to be. 00:06:55.223 --> 00:06:57.668 We're gonna have some altar time later Holding the mirror to other people. 00:06:57.949 --> 00:07:05.463 I love to show people how immature they are, especially in an argument. 00:07:05.463 --> 00:07:10.471 I love to show how petty you can be in situations. 00:07:10.471 --> 00:07:15.206 I can tell you you've got some rotten fruit. 00:07:15.206 --> 00:07:16.389 Check your root. 00:07:16.389 --> 00:07:23.202 I can tell you that something is off and you ain't planted right, bro. 00:07:23.202 --> 00:07:29.394 I can tell you oh man, let me give you some wisdom on your marriage. 00:07:29.394 --> 00:07:31.605 I've done it twice, brother. 00:07:31.605 --> 00:07:33.952 Let me tell you you know what I mean. 00:07:33.952 --> 00:07:39.220 I can tell you and show you real well what your mess-ups are. 00:07:39.220 --> 00:07:54.668 I can pinpoint your problem from 30 yards away, your problem from 30 yards away, and I can show you really well how to raise your kids and not get brats, because my kid wouldn't act like that. 00:07:54.668 --> 00:07:57.704 You don't see that. 00:07:57.704 --> 00:08:01.985 Your kid's doing it while you ain't looking, because we all see it. 00:08:01.985 --> 00:08:15.031 How you should speak to your spouse oh, I would never talk to my wife that way until I'm home and she ain't done what I asked. 00:08:15.031 --> 00:08:17.199 Just kidding, just kidding. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:27.112 I'm not a dictator, but listen to me, I could tell you how much better you should be at giving in tithes. 00:08:27.112 --> 00:08:32.990 I could tell you so much of all my good highlights. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:38.885 We live in a day of highlight reels where we post things online, instagram, our little stories. 00:08:38.885 --> 00:08:44.908 You have about maybe five to seven seconds or you could show a little video, but we see all the good stuff. 00:08:44.908 --> 00:08:47.625 Five to seven seconds or you could show a little video, but we see all the good stuff. 00:08:47.625 --> 00:08:50.631 We want everybody to see what we're projecting to be our good, great life. 00:08:50.631 --> 00:08:56.048 We got it all together the perfect wife, the behaving kid that sits and eats all of its vegetables. 00:08:56.048 --> 00:08:57.472 He never talks back. 00:08:57.472 --> 00:09:00.046 He never writes a check bigger than his mouth can cash. 00:09:00.046 --> 00:09:05.909 He's always on point, never acts up anywhere, doesn't get ISS in school, got kicked off the bus for a whole week. 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:07.485 Am I hitting home with anybody? 00:09:07.485 --> 00:09:09.110 Because I just told you all my stuff. 00:09:09.110 --> 00:09:17.254 I'm good at showing you you, but it is almost impossible for me to see me. 00:09:17.254 --> 00:09:28.909 Is anyone else really good at examining others Through the prayer chain, also known as the gossip line? 00:09:28.909 --> 00:09:43.215 Y'all ain't taking it today, even though we can try to be a very gifted mirror holder for others. 00:09:43.215 --> 00:09:57.710 We have a serious issue to be able to hold it to ourselves, because I know that if I take a moment and look at me, I'll start to really see the imperfections. 00:09:57.710 --> 00:10:01.187 I'll start to really see all the mess ups that I've done. 00:10:01.187 --> 00:10:07.042 I'll start to see when my mouth popped off and I made my wife upset on her birthday. 00:10:07.042 --> 00:10:16.543 That really happened Because I was an idiot and I wasn't worried about examining myself. 00:10:16.543 --> 00:10:25.110 I was worried about what wasn't going the way I wanted it to go and I let one little thing mess up everything and it just. 00:10:25.110 --> 00:10:34.751 Anybody had a day where you get up in the morning, something's just off and it starts to snowball and you throw and sling dirt on everybody in your trail along the way. 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:37.986 Self-examination, self-reflection. 00:10:37.986 --> 00:10:41.188 We're even better at calling out the generations after us. 00:10:41.188 --> 00:10:46.304 I didn't know until a couple years ago that I was even a millennial. 00:10:46.304 --> 00:10:54.326 I was talking so bad about them I don't know how I missed it, but I did not think I was a millennial. 00:10:54.326 --> 00:10:57.227 I was like a bunch of lazy. 00:10:57.227 --> 00:11:00.067 You know, we are echoes of our parents. 00:11:00.067 --> 00:11:07.687 Hello, whether you like it or not, you are a reflection of where you come from and sometimes that's the main reason why we don't want to look. 00:11:10.201 --> 00:11:11.764 Surely it can't be because of me. 00:11:11.764 --> 00:11:14.049 Surely it wasn't generations ago. 00:11:14.049 --> 00:11:30.211 Surely we don't have anything called the Bible, where these things we hang up on every single day and are dealing with in our culture, in our businesses, in our schools, fighting over sexual immorality and identity and all these other stupid things, when it's so obvious and it's so logical. 00:11:30.211 --> 00:11:31.302 But yet they're trying to. 00:11:31.302 --> 00:11:34.942 I watched a guy the other day get thrown out of somewhere because he didn't agree with what the board was saying. 00:11:34.942 --> 00:11:46.552 The school board, a parent of a kid that goes there, a tax-paying citizen that goes there, was thrown out because he didn't agree with what was being done. 00:11:46.552 --> 00:11:47.373 You know what he was doing. 00:11:47.373 --> 00:11:48.294 He was sitting there. 00:11:48.294 --> 00:11:53.009 He was sitting there doing nothing. 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:56.505 But it can't be because of me, it can't be because of my parents. 00:11:56.505 --> 00:12:09.466 But if you remember also, when it reflects bad, it also reflects good, because we believe the father of Abraham, the father of Isaac and the father of Jacob. 00:12:09.466 --> 00:12:12.293 This is something that is passed on through lineage. 00:12:12.293 --> 00:12:13.942 We reflect where we come from. 00:12:14.826 --> 00:12:20.488 Here's an example of being a reflection, or the way that you may be reflecting something negative into somebody's life. 00:12:20.488 --> 00:12:25.710 If I constantly tell my child that he's never going to be good at anything and he will not succeed in life, guess what? 00:12:25.710 --> 00:12:28.028 He will probably be a bum or a drug dealer. 00:12:28.028 --> 00:12:47.361 If I tell my wife, even though she disagrees with me on how beautiful I think she is, if I continually tell her how beautiful I think she is, she will have a self-confidence about her to where she feels like she is good enough for her husband. 00:12:47.361 --> 00:12:57.847 If I tell you that you will never get out of debt, that debt is just a part of life, you'll think that you can't do it. 00:12:57.847 --> 00:12:59.913 That's why I don't know. 00:12:59.932 --> 00:13:03.590 I told some of y'all I think I mentioned it, but I started delivering groceries because I'm tired of debt. 00:13:03.590 --> 00:13:12.288 So if y'all want some groceries, just holla, holla, and I started delivering groceries to get some extra money on the side. 00:13:12.288 --> 00:13:12.750 Any free time I got. 00:13:12.750 --> 00:13:15.279 I'll turn on the app and I'll go run and get them. 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:16.681 I put on. 00:13:16.681 --> 00:13:18.023 Y'all know who Dave Ramsey is. 00:13:18.023 --> 00:13:20.046 He's the get out of debt guru type guy. 00:13:20.046 --> 00:13:26.895 I play his podcast the entire time I'm driving because I need fuel in my tank to keep going and pushing on. 00:13:27.539 --> 00:13:32.932 You can't expect to come to church on Sunday morning with an empty tank because you haven't been filling it up during the week. 00:13:32.932 --> 00:13:38.991 Out of all the hours that we have in a week, you cannot get what you need. 00:13:38.991 --> 00:13:42.604 You cannot be who you become If you only come, you reflect. 00:13:42.604 --> 00:13:46.013 One hour or hour and a half of a Sunday service. 00:13:46.013 --> 00:13:48.607 It will not get you through the week. 00:13:48.607 --> 00:13:58.865 If I tell you you'll never find love, or if you have been telling yourself that you will never find love. 00:13:58.865 --> 00:14:01.043 We're in the love month. 00:14:01.043 --> 00:14:02.347 Tomorrow's the day. 00:14:02.347 --> 00:14:05.143 Some of y'all are in trouble. 00:14:05.143 --> 00:14:07.688 Some of y'all hate it. 00:14:07.688 --> 00:14:09.312 You despise it. 00:14:09.312 --> 00:14:13.330 You want to sleep the entire 24 hours and wake up on Tuesday and it's over. 00:14:13.330 --> 00:14:16.989 Thank God Now I can go get some cheap chocolate, because then they put it on sale at Walmart. 00:14:19.341 --> 00:14:20.967 Good comes from everything, my brother. 00:14:20.967 --> 00:14:25.168 When you speak death, it produces death. 00:14:25.168 --> 00:14:30.937 When you reflect, you're giving out what you get in. 00:14:30.937 --> 00:14:33.578 When you speak life, you're giving out life. 00:14:33.578 --> 00:14:38.375 What you allow to speak into you is what you will be reflecting. 00:14:38.375 --> 00:14:45.738 We keep ourselves in the valley of negativity because we're allowing negativity to navigate our minds and hearts. 00:14:45.738 --> 00:14:48.958 What you allow in is what will come out. 00:14:48.958 --> 00:14:55.398 Jesus describes how we should pray in the way that he challenges us to reflect as we are praying to our Heavenly Father. 00:14:55.398 --> 00:14:58.118 Prayer is oftentimes a reflection of our heart. 00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:03.096 Have you ever been praying or maybe you're praying out loud in church or public, or somebody says, hey, will you pray over the meal? 00:15:03.096 --> 00:15:07.841 And you feel like you're stumbling over the entire prayer and you're like man, I stink at praying. 00:15:07.841 --> 00:15:17.118 That's because you ain't been doing it in private, so you can't do it in public, because what you are and who you are behind closed doors will reflect in public. 00:15:17.118 --> 00:15:21.269 Eventually I seriously got onto myself. 00:15:21.269 --> 00:15:21.917 I'm like man. 00:15:21.917 --> 00:15:22.644 Why am I? 00:15:22.644 --> 00:15:23.773 Because I would pray in my head. 00:15:23.773 --> 00:15:26.956 You ever had things in your head that were great. 00:15:26.956 --> 00:15:35.226 Until you spoke them In my head, I was like, oh Lord Jesus, thunder and lightning, and things happen and mountains move and people are healed. 00:15:35.226 --> 00:15:37.155 And then I speak out loud and I was like, oh Lord Jesus, you know, thunder and lightning and things happen and mountains move and people are healed. 00:15:37.155 --> 00:15:39.258 And then I speak out loud and I'm like I'm an idiot. 00:15:39.258 --> 00:15:41.995 What is going on? 00:15:41.995 --> 00:15:43.494 It was a lot better. 00:15:43.494 --> 00:15:49.282 Up here I have tons of million-dollar ideas until I tell my wife and she's like that's kind of dumb. 00:15:49.282 --> 00:15:52.355 It's all right, girl, I got more. 00:15:53.751 --> 00:15:55.210 But you do it in private. 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:57.230 In public, it begins to reflect. 00:15:57.230 --> 00:16:02.099 If you have no study time in the word, you won't know it when the devil comes and attacks you. 00:16:02.099 --> 00:16:10.179 The reason we sin against God is because we're not digging into the word and hiding it in our hearts and when the enemy comes in like a flood, we're caught off guard. 00:16:10.179 --> 00:16:24.091 It's time for the church people to start reading what we say, we believe, To put and activate the Holy Spirit that is available to every single person under the sound of my voice. 00:16:24.091 --> 00:16:28.842 All you have to do is receive and believe, and the power of God is yours. 00:16:28.842 --> 00:16:34.721 We have the authority in Jesus Christ and through his sacrifice we have been made righteous. 00:16:34.721 --> 00:16:47.669 We are a reflection of God's righteousness when it's filtered through Christ, and you're not reflecting because you're not injecting God in the places you need to be doing, which is behind closed doors. 00:16:47.889 --> 00:16:50.634 The Bible says to find a quiet place. 00:16:50.634 --> 00:16:56.003 Has anybody ever tried to have a quiet place and something? 00:16:56.003 --> 00:17:01.496 Notifications on your phone hello, I turn my phone off. 00:17:01.496 --> 00:17:09.278 I put it where I'm busy, where nobody can contact me except my wife and a couple of staff members from the work board members. 00:17:09.278 --> 00:17:13.236 But anybody else, or any notifications from any app, I don't care what it is. 00:17:13.236 --> 00:17:15.060 Facebook you don't have a hold on me. 00:17:15.060 --> 00:17:17.836 Instagram you don't have a hold on me. 00:17:17.836 --> 00:17:22.756 Youtube I completely took all notifications off YouTube because it was just so overwhelming. 00:17:24.550 --> 00:17:37.337 And as soon as I'll be trying to dig into the Word and ask God whatever you have for me, whatever gifts you have for me, whatever anointing you have for me, whatever path you have for me, whatever anointing you have for me, whatever path you have for me, carve it out before me, lord, and I will step. 00:17:37.337 --> 00:17:38.556 Whatever you have for me. 00:17:38.556 --> 00:17:46.903 If I didn't pay so much for that phone, I'd throw it. 00:17:46.903 --> 00:17:53.751 But we're not reflecting Christ because we have given up on the crucifixion. 00:17:53.751 --> 00:18:01.817 And I'm not given up on the crucifixion and I'm not talking about Jesus' crucifixion, I'm talking about your flesh. 00:18:01.817 --> 00:18:11.881 If you are not sacrificing your flesh, if you're not filtering what comes out of your mouth come on, it's got to be on a t-shirt or something. 00:18:11.881 --> 00:18:16.238 Church people hurt people. 00:18:16.238 --> 00:18:18.222 We want to talk about the world getting so offended. 00:18:18.222 --> 00:18:26.309 Say something crossways to somebody at church and everybody knows about it. 00:18:26.309 --> 00:18:35.759 The filter system has become the gossip chain and we no longer want to reserve our attitudes, but we want to let them know how we feel. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:42.551 While I'm just speaking truth no, you're just breathing poison Disguised as truth. 00:18:42.571 --> 00:18:49.662 The reflection of who your father is is showing Y'all wasn't ready for that one Prayer. 00:18:49.662 --> 00:18:55.878 Reading your word, digging into there's a reason that I give you that challenge of 17. 00:18:55.878 --> 00:18:56.580 It's very easy. 00:18:56.580 --> 00:19:00.549 I started with 15, five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading the word, five minutes of worship. 00:19:00.549 --> 00:19:12.440 It's because these are baby steps to get you mature in Christ in your house, because I cannot lead you to something and make you do it, because when we're not face-to-face I don't know what you're doing. 00:19:14.391 --> 00:19:18.682 We like to talk about what is it called Accountability partners. 00:19:18.682 --> 00:19:23.779 You have to be your accountability partner because you eventually will be alone by yourself. 00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:26.938 You have to be wise enough. 00:19:26.938 --> 00:19:35.541 You have to be strong enough to say whatever the devil brings my way, I will actively be seeking God's face so that, when he comes against me. 00:19:35.541 --> 00:19:40.582 My Lord will raise a standard, as he always promises and always delivers. 00:19:43.471 --> 00:19:47.622 That reflection, that reflection, what are you reflecting? 00:19:47.622 --> 00:19:49.913 What are you showing? 00:19:49.913 --> 00:19:52.019 Are you giving when God tells you to give? 00:19:52.019 --> 00:19:58.212 You showing, are you giving when God tells you to give? 00:19:58.212 --> 00:20:03.223 Can I tell you, I have passed dudes on the corner that are holding up signs, even though I felt I should give what I had in my pocket. 00:20:03.223 --> 00:20:08.250 You know why? 00:20:08.250 --> 00:20:17.924 Because I let my flesh and my earthly mind, my huge brain, that I got apparently smarter than God. 00:20:17.924 --> 00:20:25.742 And when God told me to do something, I thought up all the reasons why I shouldn't. 00:20:25.742 --> 00:20:30.760 Because, lord, I know he's going to get a drink. 00:20:30.760 --> 00:20:34.837 I know he's going to go buy some drugs. 00:20:34.837 --> 00:20:36.596 I can see him twitching right now. 00:20:39.391 --> 00:20:42.840 How many times has God told us to reflect him and show his love? 00:20:42.840 --> 00:20:44.718 And we're too busy wallowing in our flesh. 00:20:44.718 --> 00:20:49.416 Can we call it what it is? 00:20:49.416 --> 00:20:55.846 If you're disobeying God or you're not living out the fruits of the Spirit, you are living out the fruits of your flesh is, if you're disobeying God or you're not living out the fruits of the Spirit, you are living out the fruits of your flesh. 00:20:55.846 --> 00:21:08.030 Now, this does not say that we all don't have something to work on, because we all do, but we have to start looking at ourselves and stop pointing fingers at other people. 00:21:08.030 --> 00:21:15.251 We cannot tell the world to get their stuff together and stop sinning when we will not be led by the Spirit in our personal lives. 00:21:16.978 --> 00:21:21.913 Jesus tells his disciples and I want to call this a mirror principle in Matthew, chapter 6. 00:21:21.913 --> 00:21:24.242 So if you're taking notes, write this down. 00:21:24.242 --> 00:21:27.575 You can look it up later, but I don't have it up on the thing, but I'm going to read it right quick. 00:21:27.575 --> 00:21:30.131 And this is just how Jesus is telling the disciples to pray. 00:21:30.131 --> 00:21:31.192 It's very important. 00:21:31.192 --> 00:21:37.403 It is a chapter 6, verse 9 through 15. 00:21:37.403 --> 00:21:42.740 It says this, then, is how you should pray Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:44.383 Your kingdom come. 00:21:44.383 --> 00:21:52.883 Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. 00:21:52.883 --> 00:21:56.897 He's talking about a reflection what is in heaven. 00:21:56.897 --> 00:22:00.438 We have the power and the ability to obtain on earth. 00:22:00.438 --> 00:22:06.940 We have the power, through the Holy Spirit, to call things into existence. 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:11.275 There's no pain, there's no suffering, there's no hurt, there's no tears. 00:22:11.275 --> 00:22:12.759 In heaven there is no sickness. 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:18.982 We have the ability in Christ Jesus, who died for us, who then ascended to the Father. 00:22:18.982 --> 00:22:26.076 We have the ability to call down miracles, as it is in heaven, lord, here on earth, let it be done. 00:22:26.076 --> 00:22:32.642 We have that power and we have the authority to be that. 00:22:32.682 --> 00:22:37.558 Reflection In 11, it says this give us today our daily bread. 00:22:37.558 --> 00:22:38.836 My wife loves that verse. 00:22:38.836 --> 00:22:42.651 She said during the fast, when we were kicking out bread she was like not. 00:22:42.651 --> 00:22:47.307 In the Bible it says I need bread, I love my wife. 00:22:47.307 --> 00:22:50.056 Verse 12, it says this and forgive our debts. 00:22:50.056 --> 00:22:50.657 Now, listen to this. 00:22:50.657 --> 00:22:51.540 This is great. 00:22:51.540 --> 00:22:58.624 He's telling him yes, ask God to forgive you of what you owe, because we can never repay what he has sacrificed for us. 00:22:58.624 --> 00:23:01.057 It is a free gift that we cannot earn. 00:23:01.057 --> 00:23:07.558 You cannot work hard enough in the church, you cannot get on the staff of a church, you cannot speak in tongues long until the day that you die. 00:23:07.558 --> 00:23:11.280 And God is saying listen, all you have to do is ask, and it's yours. 00:23:11.280 --> 00:23:14.076 But it says this Listen to this. 00:23:14.076 --> 00:23:20.181 He wrapped it up with this Forgive us our debts as we forgive others who have debts against us. 00:23:21.951 --> 00:23:25.181 We have to be a reflection of forgiveness if we want to be forgiven. 00:23:25.181 --> 00:23:31.923 We are so guilty of asking God to give us things and we don't want to reflect it to others. 00:23:31.923 --> 00:23:39.201 God is trying to give you something so good and so sweet and you won't pass it along. 00:23:39.201 --> 00:23:48.353 And I feel that that puts God on reserve mode until you learn Verse 13,. 00:23:48.353 --> 00:23:56.136 It says this, the mirror principle do it and it'll be done to you, verse 13, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. 00:23:56.136 --> 00:23:58.878 Verse 14, for if you forgive, come on now. 00:23:58.878 --> 00:24:04.659 If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. 00:24:04.659 --> 00:24:07.974 You have to be a reflection of forgiveness or you will not be forgiven. 00:24:07.974 --> 00:24:12.415 This is how serious God is about reflecting who he is to other people. 00:24:12.415 --> 00:24:15.575 This is not a joke. 00:24:15.575 --> 00:24:24.144 Verse 15, it says but if you do not forgive others of their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. 00:24:25.871 --> 00:24:36.634 The reflection principle here, the mirror principle here, that he's trying to lay out, is that if you do not forgive in your heart, you may never have that conversation of forgiveness and redemption. 00:24:36.634 --> 00:24:39.810 But there's something that breaks when you start to have it in here. 00:24:39.810 --> 00:24:51.364 When you allow God to take that emptiness from you, when you allow God to take that bitterness and that contrite heart away from you, something in here begins to break and the devil knows that. 00:24:51.364 --> 00:24:56.657 That's why he wants to get you mad at him, where you always are bitter towards them. 00:24:56.657 --> 00:25:01.265 And when you reflect something, we're all reflections. 00:25:01.265 --> 00:25:06.515 Whether you like it or not, we are reflections. 00:25:06.515 --> 00:25:08.263 If you have bitterness in your heart, you will reflect it and give it out to others. 00:25:08.263 --> 00:25:10.092 If you have anger in your heart, you will reflect it and give it out to others. 00:25:10.092 --> 00:25:14.664 But if you have Jesus, if you have Jesus, you can reflect it and give it out to others. 00:25:14.664 --> 00:25:16.529 But if you have Jesus, if you have Jesus, you can reflect it and give it out to others. 00:25:16.529 --> 00:25:20.734 There is nothing that can stop you when you give everything that you are over to God. 00:25:20.734 --> 00:25:22.840 There is nothing. 00:25:22.840 --> 00:25:24.537 There is no devil in hell. 00:25:24.537 --> 00:25:27.914 We can storm the gates of hell and take it on. 00:25:27.914 --> 00:25:35.557 We have the power and the authority in Jesus Christ To go to his camp and take back what he's trying to steal. 00:25:35.557 --> 00:25:40.856 We are a reflection of that power. 00:25:40.856 --> 00:25:43.852 You are a reflection of that anointing. 00:25:43.852 --> 00:25:45.931 You don't have to beg God for it. 00:25:45.931 --> 00:25:47.234 You just got to be willing. 00:25:47.234 --> 00:25:56.317 Be open, be available, be willing to say God, whatever you ask of me, I will do it, amen. 00:25:56.317 --> 00:25:59.105 Whatever you ask. 00:25:59.105 --> 00:26:01.105 That's a dangerous prayer. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:05.550 Next month we're going to be talking and speaking on living dangerously. 00:26:05.550 --> 00:26:12.432 It's time for the church to stop being so reserved in who we are and who we know God is. 00:26:12.432 --> 00:26:17.111 But it starts with self-examination. 00:26:17.111 --> 00:26:21.872 Week one we're going to be talking about search me, oh God. 00:26:21.872 --> 00:26:28.182 Going to be talking about Search me, oh God. 00:26:28.182 --> 00:26:31.369 That is one of the most dangerous prayers because what that does is everything that you are, everything that you have. 00:26:31.369 --> 00:26:34.719 You have to let him see it. 00:26:34.719 --> 00:26:37.722 There it is again. 00:26:37.722 --> 00:26:42.648 But if you do not forgive others of their sins, you will not be forgiven. 00:26:42.891 --> 00:26:44.420 It's a reflection, it's the mirror principle. 00:26:44.420 --> 00:26:47.787 You do and it will be done. 00:26:47.787 --> 00:26:51.867 If you don't do, you don't get it either. 00:26:51.867 --> 00:26:54.480 Not everybody gets the trophy. 00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:56.867 You know what I mean. 00:26:56.867 --> 00:27:03.125 Some of you are like well, man, not everybody gets a participation trophy because you ain't participating. 00:27:04.961 --> 00:27:07.190 Oh, come on worship service where you at. 00:27:07.190 --> 00:27:12.390 We want God to move in our services, but we're not primed up before we get here. 00:27:12.390 --> 00:27:19.960 You know, if you read in the Bible, you look, and when God does something, he does it through his people. 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:22.837 Something, he does it through his people. 00:27:22.837 --> 00:27:31.611 The problem is we have full pews of full vessels that are not emptied out for God to start pouring into. 00:27:31.611 --> 00:27:40.785 If you're filled up with something else, if you're reflecting something else, if something else is filling up your mirror, you will not have the room to reflect God. 00:27:40.785 --> 00:27:44.766 It's a mirror principle. 00:27:44.766 --> 00:27:47.708 When you step, he steps. 00:27:47.708 --> 00:27:56.471 We see this again in James 4, verse 8, and he says this draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 00:27:56.471 --> 00:28:02.152 Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 00:28:02.152 --> 00:28:03.074 I love James. 00:28:03.074 --> 00:28:05.465 He don't pull no punches. 00:28:05.465 --> 00:28:09.230 He's saying if you want to see God, you got to put in the work. 00:28:09.230 --> 00:28:17.249 If you want to see God, you got to get everything out of your life, everything out of the way, including you. 00:28:20.161 --> 00:28:27.912 If Peter, the moron that he was, he was loud mouthed but he was bold. 00:28:27.912 --> 00:28:43.845 He was obscene and apparently violent because he cut off someone's ear, but he thought he was doing a righteous thing because it was to protect Jesus, but he didn't understand the mission that Jesus had to go, so then later he could come. 00:28:43.845 --> 00:28:55.048 Sometimes I'm not going to say sometimes every single time you put your personality traits in the hand of God, he can use you. 00:28:55.048 --> 00:28:59.567 Peter was one of the first ones to preach after the day of Pentecost. 00:28:59.567 --> 00:29:12.030 God used him in spite of himself, because he was willing to put who he was aside and he said God empty me and spirit fill me. 00:29:12.030 --> 00:29:26.310 We have to be willing as a church to say God empty me, spirit fill me, because if not we'll be walking around with salvation but no power. 00:29:26.310 --> 00:29:33.269 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 00:29:33.460 --> 00:29:34.685 Everything is pulling. 00:29:34.685 --> 00:29:36.948 Listen, I don't know what's happening. 00:29:36.948 --> 00:29:39.729 Last Sunday Brother Jim did, or who was it? 00:29:39.729 --> 00:29:44.426 Sunday before Brother Jim came up here and he said something and it was almost straight out of my notes. 00:29:44.426 --> 00:29:45.625 My book is closed up here. 00:29:45.625 --> 00:29:46.924 Today he did the same thing. 00:29:46.924 --> 00:29:54.224 Lord cares about y'all, but he knows also you don't listen very well, so you've got to get it twice. 00:29:54.224 --> 00:29:59.233 You fell for that Like aw. 00:29:59.233 --> 00:30:03.169 Everything is pulling for our attention. 00:30:03.169 --> 00:30:06.369 We live in a day of mass distractions. 00:30:06.369 --> 00:30:08.599 Everything is pulling for your attention. 00:30:08.599 --> 00:30:13.949 We struggle so hard reflecting God because we have so many distractions pulling at us. 00:30:13.949 --> 00:30:29.087 But we need to and we have to be still and know that he is God when we calm our minds and give true focus to God, ridding ourselves of all distractions, finding a quiet place to pray and read. 00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:33.846 The challenge of 15, listen, 15 is not hard and two of them you can do at the exact same time. 00:30:33.846 --> 00:30:41.171 It's a small step to get you to want to go deeper. 00:30:41.171 --> 00:30:42.865 You know what I found in the word. 00:30:42.865 --> 00:30:45.008 First of all, I love how alive it is. 00:30:45.008 --> 00:30:49.510 You ever read a passage you read 10 years ago and you're like, how did I not see this before? 00:30:49.510 --> 00:30:51.083 You read something? 00:30:51.083 --> 00:30:54.385 And you're like, wow, this is for me today and I know I know this scripture. 00:30:54.385 --> 00:30:59.826 I didn't go through this five years ago and I know I read the Bible at least once through by then and God is just pouring it out. 00:30:59.826 --> 00:31:07.724 He cares for you that much that he put life in his words so that you can bear them. 00:31:08.645 --> 00:31:10.490 Finding a quiet place and praying. 00:31:10.490 --> 00:31:16.071 Listen to me, church, if you want to see miracles happen in salvation people coming to know Jesus. 00:31:16.071 --> 00:31:22.791 I want to wear this baptistry out over here because people are coming to the knowing salvation of Jesus Christ. 00:31:22.791 --> 00:31:28.807 I want people to come and know Jesus every month. 00:31:28.807 --> 00:31:30.791 We can't afford the water bill. 00:31:30.791 --> 00:31:31.680 They're coming so much. 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:36.548 That happens when you start doing your work. 00:31:36.548 --> 00:31:40.194 Didn't expect that one, did you? 00:31:40.194 --> 00:31:45.310 That happens when we start stepping up and doing what God has called us to do. 00:31:45.310 --> 00:31:55.486 If you only pray, you don't have to lift a hammer, you don't have to mow a yard, you don't have to preach a sermon, you don't have to pick up an instrument. 00:31:55.486 --> 00:32:03.914 All God wants for you to do is give him everything and you, as a collective body, we will change this city. 00:32:04.277 --> 00:32:08.808 Saturday morning, yesterday morning, we had and it was cold, oh my goodness, I couldn't feel my hands. 00:32:08.808 --> 00:32:18.987 It was cold, it was wet, it was rainy and we went over to First Assembly on 4th Street and there I don't know, maybe 100 people there, maybe a little more, but we had 30 groups of people. 00:32:18.987 --> 00:32:22.885 There were numbers all along the sanctuary 30 groups of people and every single. 00:32:22.885 --> 00:32:24.823 All along the sanctuary 30 groups of people and every single one. 00:32:24.823 --> 00:32:33.871 What happens is they map out 30 entrances into Longview and they hand out packets for each one and they give us stakes for the ground. 00:32:33.871 --> 00:32:43.692 It is time the church of God start laying stakes where it's God's ground, the enemy. 00:32:43.692 --> 00:32:58.710 For too long we have allowed him to advance to where now he's in the church and we stay so occupied defending him off daily on petty things. 00:32:58.710 --> 00:33:03.009 He gets us distracted and we start moving further away from God and we don't even realize. 00:33:03.009 --> 00:33:09.469 You have to find a quiet place. 00:33:09.469 --> 00:33:12.645 We went with our group over there. 00:33:12.645 --> 00:33:21.449 There's two things that we're praying in this group we are speaking and binding the devils of witchcraft. 00:33:21.449 --> 00:33:27.746 You don't think it exists In Longview, texas. 00:33:29.224 --> 00:33:31.747 We had to move locations at the last minute. 00:33:31.747 --> 00:33:34.486 They thought they were going to be slick. 00:33:34.486 --> 00:33:43.646 They gave us a talk about being followed and sexual impurity and immorality is running rampant. 00:33:43.646 --> 00:33:44.088 Don't believe me. 00:33:44.088 --> 00:33:45.385 Look at any commercial today. 00:33:45.385 --> 00:33:50.951 They're trying to implement us to where it's nothing. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:53.726 Sin is still something. 00:33:53.726 --> 00:33:56.807 You can get mad at me. 00:33:56.807 --> 00:33:59.507 Listen, you are welcome here. 00:33:59.507 --> 00:34:05.191 If you are a homosexual, god can get a hold of you like he got a hold of me. 00:34:05.191 --> 00:34:12.047 God can change your life like he changed mine, but sin is still sin. 00:34:12.047 --> 00:34:14.967 It is still sin. 00:34:14.967 --> 00:34:18.592 It doesn't matter how you paint it up, it doesn't matter what you try to make it look like. 00:34:18.592 --> 00:34:19.579 It is still sin. 00:34:19.579 --> 00:34:21.224 And a turd painted is still a turd. 00:34:21.224 --> 00:34:26.324 I'm sorry, that's the only thing that came to my mind. 00:34:26.324 --> 00:34:28.164 And sin is disgusting. 00:34:28.164 --> 00:34:29.889