WEBVTT 00:00:00.860 --> 00:00:02.407 He is worthy of our praise. 00:00:02.407 --> 00:00:07.307 Oh, y'all are getting it, y'all are getting it. 00:00:07.307 --> 00:00:08.846 It's only been eight, nine months. 00:00:08.846 --> 00:00:13.868 Slow and steady wins the race right. 00:00:16.681 --> 00:00:22.385 So if you are not standing, and you will stand for the reading of God's word, we're coming from two places today. 00:00:22.385 --> 00:00:26.041 One of them was on this little video. 00:00:26.041 --> 00:00:31.812 It changes the way you see things when you start to live in a place coming from being grateful. 00:00:31.812 --> 00:00:52.412 If you will look in 1 Thessalonians 5.18, it says be thankful, say thankful, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 00:00:52.412 --> 00:00:56.109 Now turn over to Psalm 100, verse 4. 00:00:56.109 --> 00:00:58.524 We just saw it on the screen. 00:00:58.524 --> 00:01:04.733 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. 00:01:04.733 --> 00:01:11.004 Give thanks, say thanks, give thanks to him and praise his name. 00:01:11.004 --> 00:01:11.847 Let's pray, father. 00:01:11.847 --> 00:01:16.561 We are so grateful that you have already shown up here today in our service. 00:01:16.561 --> 00:01:19.265 Your overwhelming presence. 00:01:19.265 --> 00:01:29.075 It heals every broken heart, it changes every attitude, it raises things back to life. 00:01:29.075 --> 00:01:36.349 Father, we thank you and I pray that, as we continue on in the service, that your scripture becomes so alive and real to us. 00:01:36.349 --> 00:01:40.561 Let everyone today leave here with the divine revelation from your lips. 00:01:40.561 --> 00:01:42.304 In your name, we pray, amen. 00:01:42.304 --> 00:01:45.328 You may be seated. 00:01:45.328 --> 00:01:56.524 So if you're with us last week, if you don't know this, you can go on our YouTube channel and our Facebook page and you can see every message that we do every single week. 00:01:56.524 --> 00:02:01.361 It will be labeled and titled by our title that I have for each message. 00:02:01.361 --> 00:02:02.563 So make sure you check that out. 00:02:02.563 --> 00:02:07.450 Make sure if something encourages you, that you send it to someone that needs encouragement. 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:12.606 Sometimes a simple text can encourage somebody and change their entire day. 00:02:14.893 --> 00:02:36.350 So last week we talked about roots of resentment and how that unresolved pain and unresolved hurt can lead to years of silent suffering and the roots can run deep in every area of our life, ruining the good fruits of the Spirit that we long to have, that God longs to have us produce in our lives, hearts and minds. 00:02:36.350 --> 00:02:49.064 Good fruits of the Spirit will every time be ruined by bad fruit if we have roots of resentment growing in our gardens and we can become a prisoner in our mind, in our hearts and even our relationships. 00:02:49.064 --> 00:02:54.906 You may this is reality of life you may wake up every morning and not be satisfied with who you woke up next to. 00:02:54.906 --> 00:02:58.413 You got quiet on that one. 00:02:58.413 --> 00:03:07.448 You may go to a job that you don't like anymore that you maybe at one time you loved it and you felt like you had purpose and you were fulfilled. 00:03:07.448 --> 00:03:10.962 And now you go every day and you're like well, I'm just ready for it to be over. 00:03:10.962 --> 00:03:17.054 Maybe you have children, young or grown, doesn't matter. 00:03:17.054 --> 00:03:22.927 They will always be your babies and they will not start acting like a grownup or mature. 00:03:22.927 --> 00:03:40.965 Start acting like a grown-up or mature A simple word like mature it's short, but it bears a lot of weight and it's lost on the adults of today, even when you have roots of resentment in your heart and deep in your soul. 00:03:40.965 --> 00:03:42.270 It affects even the way that you pray. 00:03:42.270 --> 00:03:48.629 It affects even the way that you pray, how you see others. 00:03:48.629 --> 00:03:55.908 If you're always upset, resentment roots run deep and they will end up making you have an attitude towards somebody that you have no reason to be mad with. 00:03:57.906 --> 00:04:05.725 I told you the story before about the way I was treated by my first wife and how it left me destroyed and I dug even deeper into the drugs and alcohol. 00:04:05.725 --> 00:04:13.807 And then, when I met this wonderful woman and God even spoke to me and said I'm telling you, I tried to tell her and she was like all right, crazy. 00:04:13.807 --> 00:04:16.701 But God, in my mind and in my heart. 00:04:16.701 --> 00:04:23.490 I knew and it came out of my mouth and the pastor's wife at that church at the time was sitting next to me and I said I'm going to marry that girl. 00:04:23.490 --> 00:04:26.274 She looked at me and she said what? 00:04:26.274 --> 00:04:32.067 I didn't know what to do so I just went along like I meant to. 00:04:32.067 --> 00:04:54.250 I was like I'm going to marry that girl, but I didn't realize and understand that the roots of resentment that had buried themselves deep in my heart and soul and in my mind and in my thoughts that I would later take out Anger issues that I had unresolved resentment that I had in my heart on someone who had never been a part of that situation. 00:04:54.250 --> 00:05:02.851 I would copy and paste the way that I was treated over here onto the new person in my life that God had led me to a blessing. 00:05:04.540 --> 00:05:07.062 The Bible says if you find a good woman, you find a good thing. 00:05:07.062 --> 00:05:09.086 Some of the men say hallelujah and amen. 00:05:09.086 --> 00:05:11.833 We know the Bible's true. 00:05:11.833 --> 00:05:23.408 But even though I knew, like when I first met her and got to know her and she if you've met her and talked to her, you know she's sweet, she's very soft-spoken. 00:05:23.408 --> 00:05:27.904 Her laugh, her giggle makes me laugh Like I know I do something good from the pulpit. 00:05:27.904 --> 00:05:34.189 That's kind of funny and gets her attention if I hear a little giggle over there and it brings joy to me when she prays. 00:05:34.189 --> 00:05:35.112 It brings joy to me. 00:05:35.112 --> 00:05:47.148 But this person that God gave me, I was lashing out from unresolved resentment and hurt and pain from my past relationships and I was taking out on something new and good that God was doing in my life. 00:05:49.110 --> 00:05:58.629 If we don't start pulling the negative and the bad and the unresolved resentment up by the roots in the gardens of our heart, we will carry it over to new things that God is trying to bless us with. 00:05:58.629 --> 00:06:08.372 God desires for us to live in a place of freedom. 00:06:08.372 --> 00:06:11.307 He is not about bondage. 00:06:11.307 --> 00:06:16.853 He is about breaking those chains, the change of addiction, the change of resentment. 00:06:16.853 --> 00:06:30.673 So today we're going to be talking about resentment's ugly cousin, envy Speaking of ugly cousins on the 24th of this month I know he's going to see it. 00:06:30.673 --> 00:06:33.663 He's going to be coming here. 00:06:33.702 --> 00:06:34.384 This is the guy. 00:06:34.384 --> 00:06:47.863 I said this before, but I want everyone to know that this is the guy that brought me in after I got out of jail and loved me in spite of my hang-ups, gave me a place to stay, gave me a new church to go to and, god bless him. 00:06:47.863 --> 00:06:49.468 He used him to get me to my wife. 00:06:49.468 --> 00:06:55.423 I told you all this. 00:06:55.423 --> 00:06:55.805 Last week. 00:06:55.805 --> 00:06:59.430 She told me that I am her biggest blonde moment. 00:06:59.430 --> 00:07:06.108 Well, the Lord works all things for the good that love him. 00:07:06.108 --> 00:07:11.432 I'll get in trouble for that one when I get home. 00:07:15.067 --> 00:07:32.047 So if you, if you haven't been paying attention in the last few weeks, or if you have, we have been looking and going through a detox series because there's a lot of unresolved issues in our hearts, minds and lives and our relationships that go unchecked, that go unresolved, and they end up producing bad fruit. 00:07:32.047 --> 00:07:42.988 And then we're left standing with our hands full of this disgusting fruit, because what you sow, you will reap, and sometimes we don't pay attention to what we're sowing. 00:07:42.988 --> 00:07:53.694 And then we wonder where all this nastiness comes from and this disgusting cesspool of thoughts and patterns that we have made and it's our own self-destructive ways. 00:07:53.694 --> 00:08:00.591 We've got to start being self-aware and looking at what we are doing wrong. 00:08:00.591 --> 00:08:02.800 We cannot preach to the world. 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:06.040 We cannot look to the sinners and say you need to get your house in order. 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:14.615 We ourselves will not get ours in order and we have to. 00:08:14.615 --> 00:08:20.225 We have to begin to pluck things out of the garden of our heart by the roots. 00:08:20.225 --> 00:08:31.447 If you've ever dealt with weeds before roots, if you've ever dealt with weeds before mowing, it will not help. 00:08:31.447 --> 00:08:32.450 Sometimes you have to get your fingers dirty. 00:08:32.450 --> 00:08:40.273 Come on, you have to get your hands dirty and pull it out by the root and sometimes by that time it has already produced more seed of. 00:08:40.273 --> 00:08:44.245 Come on, somebody. 00:08:44.245 --> 00:08:45.609 I'm preaching his message right here. 00:08:45.609 --> 00:08:52.912 Sometimes you get the roots out and you go back the next day and there's new growth and you're like what are you doing here? 00:08:52.912 --> 00:09:19.599 I just pulled case Because sometimes, sometimes, the things that we pull out by the roots have already planted new seed that we don't see yet. 00:09:19.619 --> 00:09:24.184 So today the title of my message is y'all have heard of poison ivy. 00:09:24.184 --> 00:09:28.668 Today we're going to be talking about poison envy. 00:09:28.668 --> 00:09:40.482 Now, the reason I decided to title it this is because envy acts like and often portrays the same as, poison ivy. 00:09:40.482 --> 00:09:42.125 How so? 00:09:42.125 --> 00:09:45.472 You're never really sure when you picked up on it. 00:09:45.472 --> 00:10:35.764 When you got it, you don't know where you got it from, you don't know when it happened, you're not really sure how it got on you, or sometimes you don't know how it gets in the places that it got but when untreated immediately, it can spread to other places that it originally did not come in contact with you and it will spread to places that you forgot existed, places that are very dear to you, wow, places that are very dear to you that you never would wish on your worst friend. 00:10:35.764 --> 00:10:36.948 It can make you, it can make your life very uncomfortable. 00:10:36.969 --> 00:10:40.701 My wife not too long ago probably some of you saw, usually at church she wears longer sleeves but she had. 00:10:40.701 --> 00:10:47.153 She got poison ivy on her arm right here and it was all over her arm. 00:10:47.153 --> 00:10:47.721 The poor girl. 00:10:47.721 --> 00:10:52.669 She got stuff she was putting on it but it was weeks before it actually cleared up and got clear. 00:10:52.669 --> 00:10:58.711 I have never in my life that I remember gotten poison ivy. 00:10:58.711 --> 00:11:04.711 I can be in the same spot walking through where everybody else does and it will not get on me. 00:11:04.711 --> 00:11:08.304 I can be pulling the same spot walking through where everybody else does and it will not get on me. 00:11:08.304 --> 00:11:13.714 I can be pulling the same weeds in the same garden or out by the tree, which I think is where she said she thinks she might have got it from no clue. 00:11:16.881 --> 00:11:17.644 I got poison ivy. 00:11:17.644 --> 00:11:27.870 I didn't touch it myself Somehow in the sheets of our bed, the arm that was on my side. 00:11:27.870 --> 00:11:30.914 It got me right here in the back. 00:11:30.914 --> 00:11:43.909 I myself did not touch it, bless you, but the bed I was laying in had the residue of the poison. 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:49.212 Oh, that's good, brother, that's good Steve, that's good. 00:11:49.212 --> 00:11:52.442 I never. 00:11:52.442 --> 00:11:59.167 I never came in contact with the poison ivy, but someone that I knew had it on them and they just came close enough to me. 00:11:59.167 --> 00:12:03.051 Matter of fact, I never recall the weird spot on my back right here. 00:12:03.051 --> 00:12:04.687 She never actually touched me there. 00:12:04.687 --> 00:12:07.990 What happened was she touched something and it left residue. 00:12:07.990 --> 00:12:21.692 Then I touched it when I laid there, hmm, and it will always, always, always spread beyond where it first started. 00:12:21.692 --> 00:12:29.573 You know, it would be great if it stayed in one spot and that little dot did its thing, and fine. 00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:44.168 But, like envy, it spreads with no regard to how you feel about it and, as I just pointed out, it can spread to those around you. 00:12:44.168 --> 00:12:51.764 And, as I just pointed out, it can spread to those around you Someone who's never been touched by the poison. 00:12:51.764 --> 00:13:01.424 Your envy, your attitude, your disdain for other people will spread and it will become other people. 00:13:01.424 --> 00:13:03.250 In Proverbs 27, it says it like this. 00:13:03.250 --> 00:13:10.221 Anger is cruel and wrath is like a flood. 00:13:10.221 --> 00:13:14.322 But jealousy is even more dangerous. 00:13:14.322 --> 00:13:22.453 Yeah Right, even more dangerous than you getting angry and being cruel, all the things that can be encumbered by anger. 00:13:22.453 --> 00:13:27.052 The wrath of that is like a flood, but jealousy is even more dangerous. 00:13:27.445 --> 00:13:34.636 Proverbs 14.30 says a peaceful heart leads to a healthy body. 00:13:34.636 --> 00:13:39.955 Jealousy is like cancer to the bones. 00:13:39.955 --> 00:13:54.825 I was talking with somebody one day and they pointed this out, about this certain situation. 00:13:54.825 --> 00:14:01.719 The way that you feel about things or the way that things wear you down, can manifest itself in a very physical way. 00:14:01.719 --> 00:14:08.275 If you're always being sick and always something is wrong with you, you may not have roots out of your heart. 00:14:08.275 --> 00:14:12.669 It can literally manifest itself through the way that you feel. 00:14:12.669 --> 00:14:14.873 A peaceful heart leads to a healthy body. 00:14:14.873 --> 00:14:19.792 Jealousy is like cancer in the bones Envy becomes a woe. 00:14:19.932 --> 00:14:29.485 Is me mentality bones? 00:14:29.485 --> 00:14:29.865 Envy becomes a woe. 00:14:29.865 --> 00:14:55.508 Is me mentality which, in return, it produces a doubtful spirit with deep roots that, by the way of our thinking, leaves us never feeling content, which, in return, leads us to never being thankful for the blessings that God has given us, never being thankful for what God has done in our lives and eventually, it leads us to abandoning of standing in awe of the God that he is, we become very self-centered. 00:14:55.508 --> 00:14:58.452 So what have we learned over the few weeks? 00:14:58.452 --> 00:15:01.839 The battleground is in your mind. 00:15:01.839 --> 00:15:05.313 We have to be aware of rogue thoughts. 00:15:05.313 --> 00:15:12.096 2 Corinthians, 10, 5, it says take captive every thought and make it submissive to Jesus Christ. 00:15:12.096 --> 00:15:17.764 See, the problem is that the roots and the seeds begin to get planted and they start making deep roots. 00:15:17.764 --> 00:15:35.230 Because we're not taking captive the thoughts, we're allowing them to be rogue thoughts and controlling our days, controlling our relationships and getting deep-seated roots into our spirits, and we allow these roots to become so deeply embedded in us and we have unchecked emotions. 00:15:35.230 --> 00:15:36.011 So what does this mean? 00:15:36.613 --> 00:15:37.234 Mark 7. 00:15:37.234 --> 00:15:40.875 If you have your Bibles, turn over or write this down for later consumption. 00:15:40.875 --> 00:15:42.985 Mark 7, 21 and 22,. 00:15:42.985 --> 00:15:56.081 It says this, for from within, out of a person's heart, comes evil thoughts, sexual immorality. 00:15:56.081 --> 00:16:02.624 Hello, today's culture. 00:16:02.624 --> 00:16:13.355 Theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride and foolishness All these that I just named. 00:16:13.355 --> 00:16:15.140 Envy is right, smack dab in the middle of them. 00:16:15.140 --> 00:16:22.378 Don't think that being envious of somebody else will not rob you of joy and peace in your life. 00:16:22.378 --> 00:16:30.639 This is the blueprint for our natural, fleshly desires, the way that we are born. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:31.787 We are born into flesh. 00:16:31.787 --> 00:16:33.149 This is who we are. 00:16:35.214 --> 00:16:44.750 From within a person's heart, the Bible says listen, I know we are meaning good when we say this, but we like to say that I'm a good person. 00:16:44.750 --> 00:16:46.933 You know what I mean. 00:16:46.933 --> 00:16:48.616 Or they're a good person. 00:16:48.616 --> 00:16:52.275 You know they don't do anything, they don't lie, they don't cheat, they don't steal. 00:16:52.275 --> 00:16:54.846 You know they never robbed anybody at gunpoint. 00:16:54.846 --> 00:16:55.527 They'd never punched. 00:16:55.527 --> 00:17:00.914 You know somebody in the face that I've seen, but they probably wanted to, but they're still good because they didn't do it right. 00:17:01.375 --> 00:17:07.269 We start doing this way in the balance of oh well, this outweighs this, so it's not that bad, because this is good and this is bad. 00:17:07.269 --> 00:17:25.909 And all of a sudden we get on this weighing scale that we design instead of what God designed, because the Bible says that our heart is full of sinful nature, of lust, of evil desires of a person's heart. 00:17:25.909 --> 00:17:26.250 You are born. 00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:27.837 This is not something you have to go get a degree from at Texas Tech. 00:17:27.837 --> 00:17:30.588 This is not a class that is taught at Rahab's retreat. 00:17:30.930 --> 00:17:43.720 You have to get this out and buff these things out, because it will produce theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envies, even a desire filled with lust is wrong. 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:54.291 That's why Jesus said if you look upon a woman or ladies, you too, if you look upon a man and you lust in your heart, you have already committed the sin. 00:17:54.291 --> 00:18:07.712 That is how important the power of overcoming the thoughts in your mind and taking captive every single thought, because if you do not, it will infiltrate your spirit and it will rob you of what God has for you. 00:18:07.712 --> 00:18:10.171 Every single time. 00:18:10.171 --> 00:18:14.875 This is the blueprint of our natural born fleshly hearts. 00:18:14.875 --> 00:18:26.769 So if we don't pay attention to what seeds are being planted in our hearts and in our minds, we reap the sinful and deadly harvest. 00:18:29.453 --> 00:18:30.275 Now, why is it deadly? 00:18:30.275 --> 00:18:32.819 Because sin always produces death. 00:18:32.819 --> 00:18:35.567 There's no middle ground in this. 00:18:35.567 --> 00:18:37.152 Sin produces death. 00:18:37.152 --> 00:18:39.617 Sin causes separation from us and God. 00:18:39.617 --> 00:18:43.736 Sin is what made the devil get kicked out of heaven. 00:18:43.736 --> 00:18:47.056 Sin is what got Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden. 00:18:47.056 --> 00:18:48.963 It's something going against God. 00:18:48.963 --> 00:18:51.210 Well, our hearts will tell us to lust. 00:18:51.210 --> 00:18:54.657 Our hearts will tell us to be greedy. 00:18:54.657 --> 00:19:00.791 Our hearts will tell us that whatever we desire, it's okay. 00:19:00.791 --> 00:19:10.773 Everyone else feels this way, or I deserve it, but sin always produces death. 00:19:10.773 --> 00:19:27.127 It is what separates us from the Father, and only through the blood of Jesus and the mercy of God can we be made right and enter into his kingdom right and enter into his kingdom. 00:19:27.147 --> 00:19:28.211 This is why I have issued the challenge. 00:19:28.211 --> 00:19:28.813 I said 30 days. 00:19:28.813 --> 00:19:30.799 I'm saying 30 days just so I can add another 30 days. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:38.752 We need to get our minds right and pay attention to the life that we speak or the death that we speak, because children. 00:19:38.752 --> 00:19:44.901 Children speak truth and don't care about other people's feelings. 00:19:44.901 --> 00:20:00.952 But mature adults reserve what their tongue is going to say, even though it's a bitter pill to swallow. 00:20:00.952 --> 00:20:07.955 We do and we just take it home with us and we don't say anything, because we can speak life or death. 00:20:07.955 --> 00:20:13.605 The reason I have challenged this is because we in the church house have stopped paying attention to how we're speaking. 00:20:13.605 --> 00:20:27.230 We think because we say something that has a drop of truth in it, we can flood everyone with this truth that we've manufactured on our own, and it has nothing to do with the word of God. 00:20:27.230 --> 00:20:29.693 It has something to do about validating your feelings. 00:20:29.693 --> 00:20:33.825 We have to speak life. 00:20:33.924 --> 00:20:39.057 We have grown lazy in checking ourselves how we think, how we act, how we speak. 00:20:39.057 --> 00:20:43.557 We sometimes act as if we've earned our place at God's table. 00:20:43.557 --> 00:20:55.806 That we've really figured things out and this is what the seasoned Christian does, uh-oh. 00:20:55.806 --> 00:21:16.166 We forget that we once were sinners, lost and undone, far from God, and somehow, some way, for some reason, god loved us enough to send somebody our way to show us the love that we really needed to feel. 00:21:16.166 --> 00:21:28.751 Jesus didn't condone sin and he preached the truth, but the people he had the most trouble out of was the church people, because they were so self-fulfilling prophecy. 00:21:28.751 --> 00:21:29.973 They've done it right. 00:21:29.973 --> 00:21:30.875 They've earned their place. 00:21:30.875 --> 00:21:42.974 They wear the right clothes, they know all the scriptures, they say their prayers out loud in the corner for everybody to hear, and Jesus called them out on it, because nobody comes to Jesus, nobody comes to God, through how Christian we are. 00:21:42.974 --> 00:21:48.094 It's to show them real love, because the Bible says that God is love. 00:21:48.094 --> 00:21:52.692 So if we're showing love, we are literally displaying through our actions who God is. 00:21:53.554 --> 00:21:54.717 Jesus said before he left. 00:21:54.717 --> 00:22:00.647 He said this is another commandment that I give you love one another, and through this love, people will know my Father. 00:22:00.647 --> 00:22:16.770 We have to be mindful of what we speak, because we, in a very real sense and when we were singing this song a minute ago and I apologize for I know online it's probably like, oh, that guy's cracking his voice, what's wrong with him? 00:22:16.770 --> 00:22:17.954 I was crying. 00:22:17.954 --> 00:22:20.048 It's called A Move of the Lord. 00:22:20.048 --> 00:22:22.326 If you've never heard of it, just kidding, sorry. 00:22:22.326 --> 00:22:26.753 See, pompous Christian, come on now. 00:22:28.317 --> 00:22:34.714 But when it says that all my shame, all my shame, it no longer matters. 00:22:34.714 --> 00:22:44.093 All the things that I did, it doesn't matter if you did it right up to the point that you came into this house, god still loves you, he cares for you and Jesus came to die specifically for you. 00:22:44.093 --> 00:22:45.770 Why do I know this is true? 00:22:45.770 --> 00:22:49.164 Because he would do it for me and I am the most undeserving. 00:22:49.164 --> 00:22:52.352 Even Paul wrote, who wrote three quarters of the New Testament. 00:22:52.352 --> 00:22:55.638 He said I am the chief of sinners. 00:22:55.638 --> 00:22:59.776 We've got to stay humble before the world that doesn't know who God is. 00:22:59.776 --> 00:23:08.894 They don't care about who God is. 00:23:08.894 --> 00:23:15.684 You can make them care by your humility and the life that you speak, because I know and I understand that I do not deserve where God has raised me up from. 00:23:15.684 --> 00:23:20.882 I don't deserve it. 00:23:20.882 --> 00:23:26.224 We become Pharisee minded and we become Pharisee-minded and we become entitled. 00:23:26.224 --> 00:23:30.644 May we never be so proud to think that we've done so much that we're going to earn our way into heaven. 00:23:30.644 --> 00:23:39.534 When he raised us up and he reached down when we didn't deserve it and he pulled us out of the very mouth of hell. 00:23:40.644 --> 00:23:43.734 Some of you have strayed so far from God. 00:23:43.734 --> 00:23:45.592 You could feel the heat on your feet. 00:23:45.592 --> 00:24:00.296 My feet were constantly on fire so that I could remember what that felt like when God came and found me where I was. 00:24:00.296 --> 00:24:16.753 There are things that God has robbed me from in my memory so that I would not look back with enjoyment, but I remember how low it felt, how much of the conversation that I was crying through the phone in the jailhouse because I had the only number. 00:24:16.753 --> 00:24:24.334 The only number I can remember was my father's, the one person who would not come bail me out. 00:24:24.334 --> 00:24:28.855 That's right, boy, preach it with me. 00:24:28.855 --> 00:24:36.868 And I cursed him out on the phone and I said this is your fault because he kicked me out and I was homeless, living in my car. 00:24:36.868 --> 00:24:38.915 This is your fault that I'm in jail. 00:24:38.915 --> 00:24:44.924 And still, when visitation came, this is your fault that I'm in jail. 00:24:44.924 --> 00:24:51.381 And still, when visitation came, he still showed up. 00:24:51.520 --> 00:24:57.656 When have you passed up a time that God presented to you that you needed to go talk to a sinner and show up again, even after they spoke to you in the way that they did. 00:24:57.656 --> 00:25:18.069 How many times do we pass up opportunities when we feel like we've been whooped and we have every right to never speak to them again because of the way they spoke to us, the way they treated us and you? 00:25:18.069 --> 00:25:24.145 Speaking to them again may very well be the moment they realize what the love of God truly is. 00:25:24.145 --> 00:25:36.205 It's time that the church begin to start acting, thinking and doing like we are the bride of Christ. 00:25:36.205 --> 00:25:39.871 We are not the groom, it's not about us. 00:25:39.871 --> 00:25:43.056 We are the bride of Christ. 00:25:43.056 --> 00:25:59.867 Everything that we do, everything, every conversation that we have, whether it ends well or whether it doesn't, we have to be honoring God, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who gives and the one who takes, the author and the finisher of our faith. 00:25:59.867 --> 00:26:06.951 You may be thinking well, I'm okay with my life, I'm fine with the way things are, I don't need to do anything, everything is just how I like it. 00:26:07.165 --> 00:26:11.896 There is a big difference between being content and being complacent. 00:26:11.896 --> 00:26:19.376 I am never satisfied what I get from God. 00:26:19.376 --> 00:26:27.991 He may pop my hip out of place where I can't walk straight anymore, but I'm going to hold on to him until he blesses me again. 00:26:27.991 --> 00:26:36.705 Some of us don't understand or even realize that we're so caught up in agendas and a order of service that we don't tarry before the Lord anymore. 00:26:36.705 --> 00:26:40.433 We don't cling to the altar for a transformation. 00:26:40.433 --> 00:26:44.833 We want to come and check church off of our box so that we can start our week right and feel good about it. 00:26:44.833 --> 00:26:50.173 There's a big difference between content and complacent. 00:26:52.244 --> 00:26:54.247 James, chapter 3, verses 14 and 16. 00:26:54.247 --> 00:26:56.709 James, chapter 3, verses 14 and 16. 00:26:56.709 --> 00:27:05.825 But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't brag and deny the truth. 00:27:05.825 --> 00:27:14.003 Such wisdom does not come from above, but it is earthly, unspiritual, and James here even calls it demonic. 00:27:14.003 --> 00:27:21.564 For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil. 00:27:21.564 --> 00:27:26.166 There is disorder and every kind of evil. 00:27:26.166 --> 00:27:38.047 He compared envious thoughts, jealousy, to the very witchcraft and demonic. 00:27:38.047 --> 00:27:39.130 Demonic is a very serious word. 00:27:39.130 --> 00:27:45.089 Like when my kid was a child, I swore he was a little demonic. 00:27:46.730 --> 00:27:49.493 But we live in a culture that they tell you and they feed you that what you have is never good enough. 00:27:49.493 --> 00:27:54.381 We have a consumer culture that thrives on envy and jealousy. 00:27:54.381 --> 00:27:57.665 We do this with clothes. 00:27:57.665 --> 00:27:59.250 Hey, y'all know me. 00:27:59.250 --> 00:27:59.971 You see my shoes. 00:27:59.971 --> 00:28:00.832 I like shoes. 00:28:00.832 --> 00:28:01.813 I like clothes. 00:28:01.813 --> 00:28:05.777 I like where I can do a little pop, got that shoe going. 00:28:05.777 --> 00:28:10.521 I like them white, fresh and clean White, apparently. 00:28:10.521 --> 00:28:14.164 I just my wife is like why do you even get white? 00:28:14.164 --> 00:28:16.067 It gets so dirty and then you have to clean it. 00:28:16.067 --> 00:28:22.538 I said it just looks so good. 00:28:22.538 --> 00:28:27.131 I don't know anything about underneath the engine of a car, but I like the way they look on the outside. 00:28:27.131 --> 00:28:34.132 Don't come to me if you want something fixed, but you can come to me if you want me to tell you whether it looks good or not. 00:28:34.132 --> 00:28:35.894 I'll tell you. 00:28:37.777 --> 00:28:41.162 With our homes, we get very competitive in this area. 00:28:41.162 --> 00:28:51.769 Well, you walk into someone's house and you measure up who they are based on how their house is. 00:28:51.769 --> 00:28:56.508 We do the same thing with vehicles. 00:28:56.508 --> 00:29:02.874 All it is is a ring of debt around your neck To impress people that you don't even like in the first place. 00:29:02.874 --> 00:29:07.503 That shouldn't have any say or influence in how you live your life. 00:29:07.503 --> 00:29:12.518 You know this is not a self-brag. 00:29:12.518 --> 00:29:13.099 I'm just telling you. 00:29:13.099 --> 00:29:14.182 I'm serious. 00:29:14.182 --> 00:29:17.049 We are on the debt-free journey. 00:29:17.049 --> 00:29:22.076 So much so I had a 2020 Chevy Colorado. 00:29:22.076 --> 00:29:23.557 Sorry. 00:29:23.557 --> 00:29:24.278 Yeah, chevy Colorado. 00:29:24.278 --> 00:29:25.138 I love that truck. 00:29:25.138 --> 00:29:27.260 It was exactly what I wanted. 00:29:27.260 --> 00:29:28.702 On the inside, it was a silver color. 00:29:28.702 --> 00:29:30.265 If you don't notice, I like silver. 00:29:30.265 --> 00:29:32.186 I wear a lot of gray, I don't know why. 00:29:32.186 --> 00:29:40.169 It's just I gravitate towards it, even my shoes. 00:29:40.169 --> 00:29:46.329 And I got to thinking. 00:29:46.390 --> 00:29:47.932 The Bible says that the borrower is slave to the lender. 00:29:47.932 --> 00:29:48.835 That is scripture. 00:29:48.835 --> 00:29:52.262 It's not hyperbole, it's not a good point in my message. 00:29:52.262 --> 00:29:54.813 That is scripture. 00:29:54.813 --> 00:29:59.423 The world tries to get us caught up in getting more debt and more debt, and we get caught up in a credit score. 00:29:59.423 --> 00:30:08.580 What a credit score is? 00:30:08.580 --> 00:30:09.644 It's telling you how much debt you can have. 00:30:09.644 --> 00:30:10.970 Some of y'all don't like this, because it's true. 00:30:13.769 --> 00:30:14.089 So what I did? 00:30:14.089 --> 00:30:15.852 Because I'm serious about living in a freedom that God has designed me to live in. 00:30:15.852 --> 00:30:22.336 I want to have such freedom in my bank account that I one day want to be able to buy someone a brand new car and give it to them free of charge. 00:30:22.336 --> 00:30:28.942 That's my heart, but I can't do it. 00:30:28.942 --> 00:30:30.663 If I don't mind, I got to ask my wife first. 00:30:30.663 --> 00:30:44.412 She probably I didn't run that by her you can tell who the spender is and who the saver is I'll spend some money. 00:30:44.412 --> 00:30:47.224 She almost didn't get out of the car with me last night to go in the grocery store and I said you sure you want me to go in there by myself? 00:30:47.224 --> 00:30:47.626 She kind of laughed. 00:30:47.626 --> 00:30:51.480 She's like, yeah, you're right, but that's where my heart is. 00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:59.740 I can't do and be the giver that I want to be, that God has called me to be, until I stop with the debt. 00:30:59.740 --> 00:31:09.551 It changed me to something and it keeps me bound and I drive around like it's freedom. 00:31:13.798 --> 00:31:28.657 So what I did is I took that new truck, I sold it, I found somebody in Houston that would give me the price that I wanted and I downgraded to an SUV several years old and you know what that boy's got? 00:31:28.657 --> 00:31:29.500 Three rows of seats. 00:31:29.500 --> 00:31:32.684 I didn't even know. 00:31:32.684 --> 00:31:35.054 Well, the 2020 was already paid for. 00:31:35.054 --> 00:31:38.843 We paid for it a year and a half after we got it finished. 00:31:38.843 --> 00:31:46.162 But I saw an opportunity where I can even get closer to my goal. 00:31:46.162 --> 00:31:53.132 I put 60, 64,000 miles in that thing and they paid me almost exactly what I paid for a brand new off the parking lot. 00:31:53.132 --> 00:31:55.115 It's like that's y'all's dumb mistake. 00:31:55.115 --> 00:31:59.463 And they wrote me a $7,000 check. 00:32:01.769 --> 00:32:02.411 Now what did I do? 00:32:02.411 --> 00:32:07.836 I didn't go spend it foolishly out of envy of what I don't have when someone else has. 00:32:07.836 --> 00:32:09.458 You know, that's my instinct. 00:32:09.458 --> 00:32:10.078 I'm a spender. 00:32:10.078 --> 00:32:16.464 My instinct is to start looking what other people have or watch YouTube videos of all the cool equipment they got or something. 00:32:16.464 --> 00:32:18.086 You know I'm a photographer and videographer. 00:32:18.086 --> 00:32:22.801 I like cool equipment. 00:32:22.801 --> 00:32:34.864 I love it Probably a little too much, but I didn't make the sacrifice so that I can be dumb and chase after envious thoughts that are natural in my heart. 00:32:34.864 --> 00:32:42.063 I paid off the biggest credit card that we have and knocked it out in one swoop. 00:32:42.063 --> 00:32:47.134 Off the biggest credit card that we have and knocked it out in one swoop. 00:32:47.134 --> 00:32:50.239 It took my breath away because it was such a large amount. 00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:56.375 But sometimes the things that we have to get rid of and sacrifice for it's not pleasant. 00:32:56.375 --> 00:33:00.584 Proverbs says that no discipline at the time seems pleasant. 00:33:00.584 --> 00:33:04.539 But we're not doing it for now, we're doing it for later. 00:33:04.539 --> 00:33:14.675 Sometimes we even get envious with our spouses and kids. 00:33:14.675 --> 00:33:18.633 Oh, I wouldn't talk to them that way. 00:33:18.633 --> 00:33:22.000 I wouldn't do that. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:22.883 They were my kids. 00:33:22.883 --> 00:33:30.453 We strive, and striving to be the best at something is honorable to God In everything you do. 00:33:30.453 --> 00:33:35.619 Do it as if it is unto God himself, because you never know who's watching and it actually could be. 00:33:35.619 --> 00:33:43.531 What good father doesn't want to see his children succeed and prosper and live in blessings that he has available. 00:33:43.592 --> 00:33:49.994 But the problem is when we have the things that God blesses us with and we make it into things that become our idols. 00:33:49.994 --> 00:33:52.882 The best example I have is the children of Israel. 00:33:52.882 --> 00:34:00.152 When God brought them out of Egypt, he gave them the word to go to the neighbors everywhere around them and ask for their gold and silver. 00:34:00.152 --> 00:34:14.001 And they took those blessings and when they were out in the wilderness they were not happy and satisfied. 00:34:14.001 --> 00:34:20.949 Moses was up in the mountain taking too long and someone came up with something like well, why don't we make a calf? 00:34:20.949 --> 00:34:25.103 I don't know why they picked a calf Might as well do. 00:34:25.103 --> 00:34:30.570 An ostrich Holds the same power but they took what God had blessed them with and they molded it into an idol. 00:34:30.570 --> 00:34:33.775 The things that God blesses us with that are material things. 00:34:33.775 --> 00:34:35.536 Yes, it's great to live and bless. 00:34:35.536 --> 00:34:37.476 God blesses his children. 00:34:37.476 --> 00:34:39.777 The children of Israel were the perfect example. 00:34:39.777 --> 00:34:41.275 He blessed them with riches. 00:34:44.130 --> 00:34:50.358 But where we get disconnected is where we start to make those riches into idols and we start worrying about the next paycheck. 00:34:50.358 --> 00:34:54.221 We start worrying about the next because we start chaining ourselves to all these different things. 00:34:54.221 --> 00:35:12.666 And something I really want to point out is that and I've said this so many times and I'm wrong for it, I have said so many times and I'm wrong for it, I have said so many times that life is about balance. 00:35:12.666 --> 00:35:13.289 It's not, it's about focus. 00:35:13.289 --> 00:35:14.815 It's like Sister Judy and them. 00:35:14.815 --> 00:35:24.523 They used to do clown stuff over missionary trips and they were saying about the plates, they put it on the poles and you know they were doing clown stuff and they were putting plates on the poles and they would spin, spin and spin and then eventually one would get away from you and fall and crash. 00:35:24.523 --> 00:35:34.737 Now, if I took all of those away and put only one pole and one plate and left the focus where it should have stayed the whole time, the plate would not fall. 00:35:38.851 --> 00:35:43.617 We get so distracted with material things in our lives or getting the next thing in our life. 00:35:43.617 --> 00:35:51.494 Or I wish I had what they had, or I wish I had that car, I wish I had that house, or I wish I was married, I wish I wasn't single, or I wish I was single. 00:35:51.494 --> 00:35:52.338 Y'all got it made. 00:35:52.338 --> 00:35:58.775 You know, there's both sides of the fence, two sides of every coin, but every envious thought that you have is planting a seed in your life. 00:35:58.775 --> 00:36:06.692 It's robbing you of what joy you could have. 00:36:06.711 --> 00:36:11.141 Because we're not living content in where we are, and this is the problem. 00:36:11.141 --> 00:36:13.063 We allow things to become the rulers over us. 00:36:13.063 --> 00:36:16.286 This becomes a breeding ground for destruction among the believers. 00:36:16.286 --> 00:36:16.527 Why? 00:36:16.527 --> 00:36:18.978 Because life is full of reminders of what we lack. 00:36:18.978 --> 00:36:24.139 Everywhere you look, you see that somebody's got it better. 00:36:24.139 --> 00:36:32.338 You look on Instagram and there's reels and reels and reels of people on trips and I'm like where do y'all get this money? 00:36:32.338 --> 00:36:33.300 Where do you get the time? 00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:34.141 Where's your job? 00:36:34.141 --> 00:36:39.155 Life is full of reminders of what we lack. 00:36:39.155 --> 00:36:41.715 There's also there's always someone who is more successful. 00:36:41.715 --> 00:36:49.699 There's someone who's more successful, there's someone who's more talented, there's someone who's more attractive, there's someone who is more advanced at their job and they have better success at whatever they're doing. 00:36:49.699 --> 00:36:54.094 There's always something going on in their career that they're oh, they got this raise and I'm still stuck at this. 00:36:54.094 --> 00:36:59.297 Well, if God loved me, he'd raise my pay. 00:36:59.297 --> 00:37:09.367 Well, if he loved you so much, he would first raise your patience. 00:37:09.530 --> 00:37:10.842 Paul found the secret of being content in Philippians, chapter four. 00:37:10.842 --> 00:37:12.536 We're gonna read it real quick 11 through 13. 00:37:12.536 --> 00:37:20.235 It says not that I have ever been in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 00:37:20.235 --> 00:37:24.052 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. 00:37:24.052 --> 00:37:26.494 I have Christ as my focus. 00:37:26.494 --> 00:37:49.117 As long as I stay focused on God, that I can do anything. 00:37:49.117 --> 00:37:58.518 With that in mind, you need Christ to not only overcome but to thrive in any context, wherever you are. 00:37:58.518 --> 00:38:09.282 You are not just there to exist, you are there for a purpose, and I say this over and over again comparison kills calling. 00:38:09.282 --> 00:38:18.878 It doesn't matter if you're a pastor and you compare your ministry to other big churches who have all the funds they need and oh, look at what they got. 00:38:18.878 --> 00:38:19.621 Who cares? 00:38:19.621 --> 00:38:22.697 Grow where you are planted. 00:38:22.697 --> 00:38:25.951 Allow God to use you where he has put you. 00:38:27.795 --> 00:38:32.923 Now four ways, real quick, four ways to battle against the poisons of envy. 00:38:32.923 --> 00:38:35.373 First, you have to acknowledge that it even exists. 00:38:35.373 --> 00:38:38.971 If you're not aware of it, if you don't define it, you can't defeat it. 00:38:38.971 --> 00:38:42.637 Admitting that we are experiencing envy can be threatening. 00:38:42.637 --> 00:38:50.637 We don't want to admit we have a problem, but this, right here, is putting the shovel in your hand to where you can start really digging. 00:38:50.637 --> 00:38:55.132 Number two is recognize that pride is the flip coin of envy. 00:38:55.132 --> 00:39:00.179 When you realize you have envy, you want to overcompensate with the things you have going on in your life. 00:39:00.179 --> 00:39:05.472 Well, I used to have a 2020 Chevy Colorado. 00:39:05.472 --> 00:39:08.496 Now I don't. 00:39:08.496 --> 00:39:16.954 You know, it's tempting, but it's also counterproductive to counteract envy with pride. 00:39:16.954 --> 00:39:21.541 Pride can do just as much damage as envy can. 00:39:21.541 --> 00:39:26.246 Sure, he has a nicer car, but I'm better looking. 00:39:26.246 --> 00:39:34.998 Lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, someone comes with a better car and they're better looking. 00:39:34.998 --> 00:39:40.255 It always happens, and right in your face. 00:39:41.869 --> 00:39:46.621