Stop Blaming and Start Growing

In this episode of The Morning Charge, Joshua teaches on the danger of living in blame and the freedom that comes when we begin taking personal responsibility before God. Blame may protect the flesh for a moment, but it keeps us stuck in the same cycles, wounds, reactions, and patterns.

Using scriptures like James 1:23-26, Genesis 3, Psalm 139:23-24, Matthew 15:18-19, Luke 6:45, Hebrews 12:15, Proverbs 28:13, 2 Corinthians 13:5, and Luke 18:9-14, this teaching challenges listeners to stop only dealing with surface symptoms and allow the Lord to reveal the root.

Joshua talks about forgiveness, bitterness, offense, pride, insecurity, maturity, and the importance of asking, “Lord, what are You showing me in this?” instead of always asking, “Who can I blame for this?”

This episode is a call to honesty, repentance, healing, and growth. If the same battles keep repeating in your life, this teaching will help you begin asking better questions and surrendering the deeper issues to Jesus.

Episode Summary

• Blame protects the flesh, but honesty opens the door to healing.
• Repeated cycles often reveal roots that have not been dealt with.
• Adam and Eve modeled the first blame shift in Genesis 3.
• Jesus teaches that what comes out of the mouth flows from the heart.
• Growth begins when we stop blaming people and start letting God search us.

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Real Talk. Real Jesus. Real Life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Morning Charge. This is your moment to slow down, breathe, and get your spirit aligned before stepping into the day ahead. Life moves fast, responsibilities pile up, voices compete for your attention. But before the noise of the world takes over, this is where we come back to what actually matters. This is a place for honest conversations about faith, life, purpose, and everyday battles we all face. No pretending, no religious performance, just the truth. Because following Jesus was never meant to be complicated. It was meant to be real. So whether you're driving to work, you're getting the kids ready, or simply taking a quiet moment for yourself, you're in the right place. This is real talk, real Jesus, real life. This is the morning charge. Let's get down to the to the meat of the morning charge, as we call it. Father, I thank you, Lord, for this message that you put on my heart for today. Lord, I pray that we would just that we would just hear what you want to say today. Father, we'd be able to see through your scriptures, Lord, your holy word. God, the the message that you want to bring forth to us today. Lord, let our hearts be changed, that our minds be changed, that our mindsets be changed, God. Father, I just thank you. Just for your goodness. I thank you for your mercy. I thank you for the grace that you have poured out over my life and the peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, I thank you for those moments, even when things don't even make sense, God, that your peace is there and you say, Hey, just trust me. And we're learning to just trust you, Lord, and follow you. And we just thank you right now. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, this morning, I was sort of pondering with the Lord about where we need to go and some things we've been talking about lately. I mean, really, the morning charge is all about challenging each one of us, including myself, because he speaks to me through me. So everything I challenge you with every day is something he has challenged me with, okay? I would never, I would never ask you something or tell you something that he hasn't taken me through the process of. So this morning is something we need to talk about. It's another aspect to look at our hearts to stop blaming and to start growing, to start owning up to things instead of blaming. You cannot grow spiritually while refusing to take ownership personally of different things that maybe that you said and things that you did. We have to look from within and see where we have gone wrong because we want to just shift blame on somebody else as much as we possibly can, because we don't, we, we don't want to be wrong. We don't want to be the ones to have to take that on. But when you just when you stand up and you own your mistakes and you stand up and you own what you have done or what you have said, it goes a long way with the Lord. And now you have thrown that out there. I know a guy that that that his dad growing up had done some pretty bad things and had said some pretty bad things and was always putting him down and and not treating him well. And when he was in college, he was sitting there and he was stewing over the things that he went through in his life. And he said, and he just he started just listening to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit said, Pick up the phone and call and ask for forgiveness. And he's like, What? That's the most backwards thing I have ever heard. But he said, I want this to end. So we did just that. He picked up the phone, he said, Dad, I just wanted to call and let you know that, you know, I I know I probably wasn't the uh the best to live with growing up, and you know, all the things that were done and said, he said, I just wanted you to forgive me. You know, just just just uh just forgive me. I wanted to ask for forgiveness. He said, and it was total silence on the other end of the phone. And the father just began to weep and he could hear his father crying, and he'd never, I mean, he'd never seen, much less heard his father cry. And he said, Son, no, I'm the one that needs to ask for your forgiveness. He said, I've never known how to uh sit down with you and talk about this, but I know I've been wrong. And he just started just like throwing things out there. He said, I'm the one that needs forgiveness, and they had just a great moment together, and the Lord used that to restore their relationship. See, so it doesn't make any sense for you to call and ask for forgiveness when you didn't, when you didn't do anything, but when the Holy Spirit says, Hey, call and make that right, and you come with a you come with a heart of of here here here I am, and I'm laying myself down, and we need to move past this, the Lord will begin to move in the midst of that. So there's a lot of people that jump on these live streams with me. You want healing, all right? You want, you want maturity in your life, you want to grow in the Lord, you want, you want breakthrough, you want peace. But the problem is, is you continue to blame everybody else for where you're at. You can't blame anybody else for where you are. All right, stop blaming people. Stop blaming, stop blaming the enemy. You're giving the enemy way too much credit for where you are and what's going on in your life. You need to stop that. Stop blaming the timing. Oh, the timing wasn't right. The timing's never right. Stop blaming the seasons you're in. Oh, here we go. Another season. What you need to be asking yourself is, Lord, what do I need to learn in this season? Is there something I should be doing different? What do I need to be doing? When you begin to get real with God, he can begin to deal with the real things on the inside of you. Okay, now I know people can hurt you. Bad things do happen in this life. Spiritual warfare is a real fight. And I know you're gonna go through different storms and different things, and there's gonna be certain things that dump all kinds of trauma and things upon you. Okay, but if you stay in the blame game, you're gonna stay stuck playing the blame game all day, every day. And you're gonna look at the problems and you're gonna blame others. You're gonna look at the problems and keep blaming yourself. You're gonna look at the problems and you're not gonna be looking for the solutions. Yeah, Nick, we have to take responsibility for our actions. Yep. Help me, Lord. I mean, that's what we all should be saying. Lord, help us take responsibility, Lord, for the things that we have done and we have said. But there is a better way, and that's asking forgiveness. You can grow with the Lord, and He can bring you past situations and things. See, what blaming does is it protects this. Blaming protects the flesh. I push it off over here, I ain't got to deal with it no more. Unfortunately, the very root of the thing is still in here, and it's gonna carry into the next situation and the next situation and the next situation. And this morning, I was listening to, I read the word, I talk with the Lord, you know, and I read uh some different books. I'll listen to audio books and things as I'm walking. And I heard a quote this morning, and I said, wow, that goes right along with what God has been showing me. When people are lame, they love to blame. That was the quote. When people are lame, they love to blame. And I really thought about that. I was like, wow, that really puts things into perspective because there's a whole lot of truth behind that. All right. A lot of people, you stay weak because you're blaming and you're shifting things. A lot of people, you're you're staying immature because you you continue to blame other people. And you're staying stuck right where you're at. God is calling you to rise above the storms. And if you really want freedom, you cannot just keep dealing with these surface issues. If you really want freedom in your life, you've got to get down to the root, see. Yeah, you you don't apply the word. That's right, Brandon. Don't apply the word. Amen. Well, all right, shirt shop. Thank you. Shirt stop shop. That's like a tongue twister for me. Thanks for being in here, man. And I'm here every Monday through Friday. So you won't see me tomorrow. I do have videos up on my page, though. So, but I'll be here Monday through Friday. So catch us Monday morning. Jump back in with us and charge up with us. Amen. If you want freedom, you got to get down to the root of things. You have to get down to the heart of the matter, is what I say. You have to let God expose what is in you that still needs healing. He needs to show you things on the inside that you still need to uh surrender. He wants to bring maturity to you. But in order to do that, then you've got to be in the process with him. You've got to jump in the process. Amen. It's a message tied to store. Oh, okay. Your name is Dan. Dan, I will try to remember that. I usually call everybody by the name because that's just easier for me. Unless I get to know you, like Paul in firm ground coffee. All right, so shirt, stop, shop, Dan. I'm gonna try to remember that. Dan, Dan, Dan the man. Maybe I will uh maybe I'll remember that. Oh, help us, Lord. If I were to take a look inside the book, if you listen to the word and don't live out the message you hear, this is James 1 and 23, by the way. If you listen to the word and don't live out the message you hear, you become like the person who looks in the mirror of the word to discover the reflection of his face in the beginning. Yes, we have shared this before many times, but I want you to catch this. You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the word, but then you go out and you forget your divine origin. But those who set their gaze deeply into the perfecting law of liberty, liberty, are fascinated by and respond to the truth they hear and are strengthened by it. They experience God's blessing in all that they do. And then, if you go on to verse 26, that sums up a whole lot of everything that we talk about. If someone believes they have a relationship with God, but fails to guard his words, then his heart is drifting away, and his religion is shallow and empty. Even your relationship with the Lord is shallow and it's empty. If one presumes to be religious, but doesn't guard his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is useless, is what the good book tells us. So that is that is going to be uh James chapter 1, verse I read 23 through 26. All right, so that's where you can find that. You've got to know who you are and whose you are. Amen. You have to be able to look into the mirror, and you've got to be able to speak rightly about yourself, speak rightly about others. And when you leave the mirror, the mirror of the word, okay, we can see and we can charge up and we can understand things here, but what are you doing the whole rest of the day? Do you go out and forget who you are? You can't go out and forget who you are. This is who you are. This thing tells you who you are. This is your guide to living life. The Lord, the whole gave Jesus left us his Holy Spirit as a guide to be able to live our lives. He left us discernment so we would know how to make decisions. So let's jump into this this morning. Blame, the playing the blame game, that's like one of the oldest tricks in the book. What do I mean by this? We have to go way back to the garden to understand blame. In Genesis 3, when Adam sinned, what did he do? Well, she did it. That's what he did. Eve did it. It was her. And then Eve did what? Well, the serpent did it. That's who did it. Nobody wanted to own up to their own individual part at this point. Everybody wanted to push the responsibility off somewhere else where it could be. It's her fault. No, it's it's it's his fault. The flesh would rather just blame rather than stand up in the truth and repent. See, the flesh always wants to come up and justify what it's done instead of saying, oh, Lord, I see where I have failed. Lord, will you help me and restore me now in the mighty name of Jesus? That is what makes the difference. And what we see in the garden is we see human nature apart from surrender to the Lord. We'd rather try to explain ourselves than examine ourselves. We would rather uh defend ourselves rather than let God correct us when we need to be corrected. We would rather shift responsibility on over here rather than on up to where we went wrong and what happened, asking for forgiveness, standing up, dusting off, moving forward again. But real spiritual growth begins when the pattern in your life breaks, because if it happens here, it's going to happen here and here and here, because there's something much deeper that's going on here. It's unaliving to this every day, is a big part of that. Picking up your cross and following him. Because freedom begins when you begin to, when you get honest, hello? When you would just, when you just get honest and you're vulnerable and you lay it all out there and you're extremely transparent, that is when things begin to happen. If a person cannot be honest, they cannot be free. If you can't, if you're in denial about everything that you're doing, you're not going to be free. You need to break all of that junk off. You need to get down to the heart of the matter, say, this is what it is, Lord. Here's where I am. I know this is a mess. I need your help. You can't heal what you're not willing to acknowledge. You cannot grow beyond what you are excusing. You're coming up with all kinds of excuses. Psalms 139, 23 through 24, search me, O God, and know my heart. See if there be any wicked way in me. This is not a prayer of a blaming person. This is not somebody who is blame shifting. Come and search me and know me, O God. See if there be any wicked way in me. What is on the inside, God? Come and expose. See, that's when things begin to, you really start feeling the pain of it. And you don't want to deal with it because you felt like you've been dealing with it, but you need to deal with it one good time with the Holy Spirit, one good time with the Lord to be able to pull that thing up, forgive and be forgiven and move past the situation. I know it hurts. I know it's painful. I know you don't want to think about that anymore, but it is causing your life to be just pure hell. And if you want to start living as a KCA, a kingdom change agent, one that knows that the kingdom of God is at hand, then you have to pray, just like Psalms 139, search me and know me, O God. You do not get free by continuing to suppress what needs to be, what needs to be come out in deliverance in your life. You're gonna and and you're gonna be free because the first thing starts with honesty. A lot of people aren't free because they're trying to, they're trying to look, you're trying to just look right on the outside. But you're a mess on the inside. Jazz, good morning. Good to see you, buddy. If we continue to look at scripture, we're gonna look in Matthew 15, but if we if we take Jesus and we look at him, once again adopting the lifestyles of Jesus, Jesus dealt with roots. He didn't just deal with with fruit. A lot of people are only dealing with what is showing on the outside. They're not dealing with what is feeding it. Whatever you have feeding your roots comes up and gives you the fruit of whatever is feeding. Whatever's happening beneath the surface is what is being out here on the outside. So if you've got a root issue in something, your fruit's rotten. This one has something, and that has something, and this has something, and that has, and they're all, I mean, you're seeing all these little issues springing up, and all these issues go back down into something. The root of the issue. You're just wanting to deal with, I just need to deal with my with my anger. You're having outbursts, you just want to deal with your anger. That's just a part of the fruit. Oh, you're that that guy, he's just got he's just in a bad mood most of the time. Well, the bad mood is what you see. What is on the inside that's causing the bad mood? Why are you in a bad mood all the time? This person has relationship problems. They're on their fifth marriage. Because the first one this, and the second one that, and the third one this, and the well, you know there's one common denominator here. Maybe it's time to look in the mirror again, and not just the actual mirror, but the mirror of the word, and see how this is supposed to be your reflection, but there's something that's on the inside that ain't jiving, and it needs to be dealt with, and it needs to be plucked up and it needs to be moved on. There's people who are always in constant conflict. There's there's there's constant jealousy and insecurities, and oh my goodness, offense. The spirit of offense is, I feel like it's the number one thing that runs around, but there's a deeper issue that's causing the offense. See the spirit of offense has to have something to play on. But if you if you only want to deal with just the the visible parts, you're never gonna get to the heart of the issue. You're dealing with symptoms. It's almost like taking something for I have I have a headache every day. Well, you take something and it takes away the symptoms, but the next day it comes back. You keep you keep doing this thing to take care of the symptoms when you need to get in there and be like, what's causing this? Because if we if we fix that, no more headache. If you get delivered from this, no more, no more jealousy, no more insecurities, no more offense, no more pride, no more lust, no more anxieties, no more fears, no more doubts, no more hello. Matthew 15, 18 and 19, he said, what comes out of the mouth comes from where? Comes from the heart. What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart. That means the issue is not just the words being stated, the issue is the heart in which those words came from. You can, if you stand and listen, if all of us could just learn to be good listeners, you would begin to hear people's heart. Just let them talk. Let them talk, let them continue to talk, and they'll keep on talking and eventually hear their heart, because in Luke, what, six and forty-five, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We see this all throughout scripture. This and this are tied together. If you only deal with your surface behaviors and your surface issues, you will continue to produce the same, you'll keep reproducing the same bondage that's on the inside, I'd rather say. Not just produce, you're reproducing. Every time you're playing into this, you're feeding that. This feeds that. The rotten fruit feeds this. So what are you feeding on? If you want real freedom in your life, you got to ask yourself, what in the world is feeding this? What in the world is the root of this issue? Why do I continue to go around this mountain over and over and over again? Where have I been wounded? What is going on here? Who do I need to forgive? What lies am I coming into agreement with?

SPEAKER_00 20:34

You've been lied to somewhere along the way. That's where it starts.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

You gotta get down to the nitty-gritty of what's going on inside of you. Because blame just keeps things focused on somebody else. They this and they that and they this. And then you change groups of people, and there's this other person, and they this and they that, and they're just like that other person. This is just like every other situation I've ever been through. Same old thing, you know, same old song and dance. Well, there is one common denominator in this dance. You're the one out on the dance floor, and you've cycled through many different people. You know, that's the reason a lot of people church hop. They have so much hurt and pains and wounds from past things in here. They'll go to this church and things will be great, and then all of a sudden, that spirit of offense comes in, or the spirit of jealousy comes in, or the or insecurities, or all those see those byproducts of what's going on on the inside, that main issue. And they and they get offended and they leave, and they go over here. And things go great for a while, and then they get offended and they leave, and then they go over here, and then they get offended and leave. And while they're and while they're dancing around, the enemy is using them uh in many different ways because they begin to. To talk about what happened over here and how bad these people were, and what happened over here and how bad these people were, and then it happened over here. And that's so stay away from these places. The spirit of gossip. Woo woo. Do you see how the enemy loves to come in and just destroy? He wants to uproot and dismantle the entire body of Christ. Now, I'm not saying that there ain't no corruption out there because we've seen it, okay? But don't be the person where the common denominator is you, because the more people you talk to, the more people probably know other people, and everybody else has something different to say about the one who's going around and saying things about everyone else. What a mess. That whole thing sounds messy, doesn't it? That's because it is. But blaming other people pushes the focus off of yourself. You have to deal with yourself. Yeah, other people are going to come against you or sin against you. There's going to be people in your life who are going to fail you. There's going to be people that can be cruel or selfish or maybe even have the wrong, wrong heart motives. I understand that. Yeah, they're like little kids for sure. It's like an adult daycare. I don't want to run an adult daycare. No, ma'am. We're not doing that. No, no. But at the end of the day, what you have to ask yourself is what is happening in me because of all of this? What is going on on the inside of me that's causing all of these issues? Because two people can go through similar pain, and each one of them can come out differently. Two people go through the same similar hurts and situations. This one is going to live a life of unforgiveness. This one comes to the realization of forgiveness and forgives and has conversations with people. And regardless how that conversation went, they have forgiven. They have released, they've asked for forgiveness, and now they're living their life and they're moving up in the spirit. This one right here. This one's just hurt and wounded and blaming things on people and blaming things on the Lord and why my life is the way it is. And I'm broke busted and disgusted, and I'll always be this way. And now you've got around other people and you've become like the cancer cell of this group. And now you're just, you're, you're, you're bringing everybody down, and and then and then people that try to talk sense to you, you feel like they're coming against you, like they're better than you, and so now you're even more hurt, and you're not willing to deal with anything. And the more hurts you get, the more back you shrink, and the less you feel, and then well, this person over here, they forgave and they moved on. This person didn't. One's gonna let pain make them bitter. The other one is letting God make them better. You're gonna be bitter or you're gonna be better. There's choices to be made here. One lets pain justify the flesh, and they just continue to feed on fleshy things. The other one is letting pain drive them into their healing because they've had enough, and God, I need you. I need you, Lord. I don't want to go through this anymore. See, Hebrews 12 and 15 says, watch carefully lest any root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble. That one probably needs to be everywhere. If you learn any script scripture, scripture, if you learn any scripture to quote, Hebrews 12 and 15, watch carefully lest any root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble. That lets me know in the word that bitterness, if it's there, will spring up and cause trouble. Roots of bitterness, it just springs up and causes trouble. It's not a matter of will it. Yeah, we're called to love one another, Michael, 100%. And love each other through our hurts and our pains and our wounds and walk with one another. But it is up to each one of us individually to begin to shift and to begin to change and ask the Holy Spirit to help us walk this life out. If you are not ready to change and you are not, I don't do anyone any good if they are not ready to change and they don't want to listen to what I have to say. If you have your ears closed, da-da-da-da-da, I hear Josh mumbling and I don't know what he's saying. I can take you by the hand, I can lead you to the river, I can quote scripture to you until I am blue in the face. I can give you the best advice that's helped me get up and get out how the Holy Spirit has led me and what he has brought me out of and what he has brought me into. But if you don't, if if somebody doesn't want to hear it, it is up to us to share our testimony and the stories of the gospel and share people, serve Jesus to people. But if they ain't gonna drink, there's not a thing you can do for those people. I know that hurts. I know that hurts. But if you get to a point where you've walked and you walked and you talked and you talked and you walked and you walked and you talked and you talked with this person and you brought them on and you've took them by the hand and you've led them, at some point you gotta do like the Lord and say, Well, I you know what?

SPEAKER_00 27:19

I'll be here when you're ready. And I just kind of have to leave you where you're at.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

It's a painful thing to do. Somebody needs to hear this this morning. You cannot be somebody's savior. There is one savior in his name is Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for you and for me on that cross to give us life and a better one. Amen. Yep, and I ain't gonna keep wasting my time. And my wife says the same things that I say. It's just boom. This one liner. Because you are just wasting your time when you do that. You just are. And you just have to pray for them. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it, Nanny T. You pray for them. You've loved on them, you've tried to show them the way, and you know what? I will be here when God gets a hold of you. Because you cannot be their savior. Somebody needs that this morning. Stop trying to play the role of Jesus in somebody's life. You can talk about him, you can share stories about him, you can show them the realness of how he is and what he has done for your life. But they must come to the realization that Jesus wants a relationship with them and can do the same thing. But there are, yes, Brandy, there are people wanting real change who will hear the words and they will take heed. And I tell you, I love it so much when I see certain individuals jump in here and be like, Josh, I listened to what you said the other day, and I started this, that, and that. And here's what God has done. Glory to God. I'm not gonna sit here and talk to y'all every every day about something that is not going to change your life. This is going to change your life. He is going to change your life. But you got to understand who you are and whose you are. You got to know your identity in him. You got to know what this word says about you, what it says about him, and the life that he has for you before you can begin to walk anything out. Your personal time with the Lord is so important. This is another part of importance, owning up to your issues. And owning up to your issues is not shame, by the way. This is wisdom. When you own up to things, it is wisdom to say, I was wrong, I shouldn't have done that, and I'm going to move forward and we're going to learn from this moment. Please forgive me. I am sorry for the way that came across, for the way that that hurt you. But there's a lot of people that'll hear what I'm saying. And I there there's people that will hear a message like this, and then ultimately they will start feeling condemned. Man, what a harsh word. That's not the point here. You should not feel condemned. Convicted, yes. Condemned, no. A wise person will say, Well, I need God, I need God to to show me who I am. I need God to show me who I am. I need to I need to own up to where I was wrong.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

I need to stop repeating the cycle.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

I maybe I I need to stand up and I need to grow up. It's okay to look in the mirror and tell yourself, you need to grow up. You need to stop having that little boy attitude or that little girl attitude. You're always stomping your feet when you don't get your way, and you always have this, oh, oh, it's me thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

We need to go look in the mirror.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

This is what a wise person says, okay? Because this is wisdom. But when you begin to ask yourself different questions, things begin to happen differently in your life. I need to stop living my life on the defense. Lord, will you help me with this? I gotta stop hiding behind my, you gotta stop hiding behind your excuses. You look at yourself in the mirror and have a talk with yourself. You need to stop doing this and you need to rise above this situation because God made you for greatness. Have a talk with yourself. I've had to do that many times before. Proverbs 28 and 13, he who covers his sins will not prosper. Salah. Let's go home. Y'all have a good day. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. God will have mercy on your life. Yeah, that's it, Catherine. My mic drop, we can all go home. But if you if you continue to cover up your sins, and that's not just the gross darkness of sins that we talk about, the obvious sins. No, no, that is unforgiveness. That is all of the hurt and pains and wounds that you have in here. If you have unforgiveness in your heart, that is a sin, my friends. Mercy wants to meet you in the midst of your confession. Mercy, he wants to give you grace and mercy to help you through it. But until you get to a point where you lay it all out and you say, Here it all is, God, I know I'm dealing with all that. And you may have a lot. Make your big list of things that you're going through, all the hurts and the people who have hurt you. Start making some phone calls, start having some meetings, start asking for forgiveness and forgiving other people. That's going to go a very long way for you because Jesus reiterates it over and over and over in the Bible. Forgive, forgive, forgive. That's it, Michael. My wife wrote a whole song based on that. The love of God leads men to repent repentance. It's his kindness that leads us to repentance. It's his mercy that leads us to grace. And when I find out who I am within you, I can then begin to see your love for me. Honesty is a powerful thing. He wants to honestly, God wants to expose you, expose what's on the inside of you so that he can heal you. He wants you to be healed. That's why these things keep stirring up and coming back around and around and around. You keep letting shame and all this other stuff fall upon you. No, no. That keeps coming back up because God wants to deal with it so much, because he loves you so much, because he wants you to have a healed life and he wants you to bring healing to other people. That's a part of my job is to help you see how much God wants to see you healed, how much he wants to see you whole, how much of an assignment that he has on your life that you are a piece of this puzzle. Stop trying to make yourself something else. Stop trying to form yourself into something else. Get down to the heart of the matter and rise above it and begin to walk out what God has asked you to walk out. Hello? Immature people point their fingers. You did it. He did it. I mean, my kids be shifting blame. My little ones, they're gonna be shifting blame. That wasn't me done that, they done that. No, no, no, they did that. No, no. And you got to be the mediator and you got to come together and you got to reach a commonality here. But the thing is, in those moments, we've got to teach them look, this is not okay. You need to take rid if you did it, take responsibility of it, ask for forgiveness, and let's move on with it. Immature people, they always have a reason of why they are the way they are. I'm like this because my dad was like this. My granddaddy was like this, and will I always be like this. That is why. They always have a reason why they can't change. I can't change because I can't change because my job only my finances will never change because my job only pays me this much. Or I can't, I'll never change because, you know, this is just the way life is. You have bought into so many lies till you cannot see the truth. Your brain has been so wired to so many things that you've heard in your household growing up, to coworkers and people around you, till you've heard it so much, so many places, you just feel like that is life, and that's not. If it goes against this, it's not. So if you filter something that somebody said, I mean, this right here tells me he's close to the brokenhearted. This tells me by Jesus' stripes I am healed. That he is Jehovah Jireh, he is my provider. This thing is full of all kinds of things that.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Oh. Well, what I've been listening to is not right. Well, it's somebody else's fault, though. It's their fault.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

It's my mom and dad's fault I am the way that I am. It's my it's my my spouse's fault that I am the way why I'm so bitter the way I am. No, that's not it. Your spouse probably bitter too, because you bitter. That's why it's important for each one of us to go look in the mirror. Go look in the mirror and have a nice hard assessment of where things are right now in your life. You got to be able to get to a point and say, I need to repent for this. Lord, I want to grow past this. Lord, I know there needs to be a change. Will you come and do it on the inside of me? And then consistency, we talked about consistency earlier. Consistency is showing up tomorrow, even when you don't feel like it, and say, I need to repent for this, this, and that. Lord, help me to continue to grow today. Lord, help me to change today. Father, I need healing, Lord. Father, will you help me not go around the mountain again just like you told them to turn and go north? Lord, I want to turn and go north. I do not want to go around this again. Teach me what I need to learn right now so I don't go around this way again. Second Corinthians 13 and 5. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Look at yourself and see who you are. Are you somebody who's in the faith? Are you lacking a whole lot of that? Examine yourself. The scripture tells us many times: examine yourself, examine your heart, examine yourself. Hello? Well, that must mean I need to go and I need to examine myself. Stop examining everybody else's heart. Oh, goodness. We well, we we know best about somebody else. Well, if somebody else would just change their outlook and change this, and if they'd do that, it's always somebody else. It's never getting to the heart of yourself. So stop trying to uh examine everybody else's heart. Stop trying to examine your spouse's heart. Stop trying to examine your pastor's heart or your church or your parents or your boss or your children or stop trying to look at everybody else's heart and start examining your own. Maturity, if you're one that's becoming mature, you stop asking, who can I, who can I blame for this? Who is to blame for this? And you start asking, God, what are you showing me in this? And what's on the inside of me that needs to shift? Because something needs to shift. If you want God to take you into a season of prosperity, into a season of purpose, into a season where you feel like you're rising above situations, you got to go look at yourself and say, what do I need to learn here? Well, what do I need to see here? Because he has a better way for you. What if we take an example? I'm winding down here. What if we took the example of the Pharisee and the tax collector? What do we see when we look at this story in Luke? It's Luke 18, 9 through 14. Don't y'all forget, I will, of course, be putting up the morning charge notes from today on the Branjo Collective blog around 11 a.m. Central time. So if you want the scripture, scripture references, my goodness, scripture references from this morning, don't forget, morning charge notes, Branjo Collective blog, mark that down, 11 a.m. every day, Monday through Friday. Okay. Luke 18, 9 through 14. If we look at the story, one man stood there listing why he was better than others. The other one stood there aware of his own need for mercy. The Pharisee was comparing, the tax collector was repenting. And Jesus made it plain which one went home justified through that story. God responds to those that are humble. He does not respond to those that continue to suppress things down. When you allow it to bubble up and you begin to take care of things and you humbly come before him, he will respond to you. But if you're just trying to protect yourself and take it all on yourself and suppress things yourself and just you're holding on to it, he can't do anything with that. I can't do, I can't help you with anything like that. But somebody who's ready to release and let go and rise above it, I can help you with that. But if you keep blaming other people, you're going to keep repeating the same old things, the same old cycles that are trapping you. It's the same old traps, same old cycles. If it's always everybody else's fault, you're never going to change. And if you never change, the same fruit is going to keep growing. And if the same fruit continues to grow, well, the same pain is going to keep coming back and getting you, and the cycle is going to repeat. It's everyone's fault. No change on the inside. No change on the inside, old rotten fruit is going to continue to grow. If the same old rotten fruit continues to grow, the same pain is going to come and it's going to continue to cycle around and around and around. What you refuse to own up to, you are likely doomed to repeat that again and again and again. All your anger, relationships, money problems, that victim mentality, that thinking issues you have, all the pride and the lust and the comparisons, all the church hurt responses, hello, family conflicts, leadership failures. The cycle does not break. The cycle does not break when you when you explain it well. The cycle only breaks when you surrender it to the Lord and you say, I gotta move past this. Stop living on the surface and get down to the heart of the matter on things and let God deal with what's in your heart. And he's trying to show you. You continue to run into issues. That's what it's time to do. The moment you stop blaming people and blaming others can be the moment that you can that you start to grow. Stop blaming other people and start growing in the Lord today. So if this is you, and yes, some of these pains are real. I know they are, and you're tired of going through them. If you're tired of going through them, today's the day to deal with them. Today's the day to lay it out there and deal with it. Because you've come to a point you want freedom. I know you do. There's not a single person out here that doesn't want freedom. You want freedom, you want healing, you want growth. Well, you got to stop making your whole life about who has hurt you and You need to start asking God what still needs to be healed on the inside of you. Stop pushing it off on other people. So list that out. Where in my life am I still playing the blame game? Where in my life am I still playing the blame game? And what issue or issues have I only been dealing with at the surface? What what what symptoms have I been trying to take care of? And what root is feeding those symptoms and causing my tree to grow some rotten fruit? Ask yourself those questions today, because that is how you're going to press in and press through all of this. Amen? Father, I thank you so much for what you show us through your word each and every day here on the morning charge. God, I ask right now, Lord, that you would come and search us and know us, see if there be any wicked way in us, God. Show us where we have been blaming, God, instead of getting before your face and saying, God, how can I grow with you? God, show us where we have been defending ourselves instead of just bringing it all up and repenting, God. Show us, God, where we've been dealing with symptoms instead of getting down to the root of the matter. God, show me where bitterness and pain and pride and fear and insecurities are still lying underneath the surface. God, will you allow it all to just bubble up within us today? Lord, let it all bubble up to the surface. And God, as it does, let us just release all of that to you. Just let it continue to bubble and bubble and bubble and just release it to the Lord this morning. Just let it all go and let it all out right now, Father. Lord, I call it all the way up and all the way out right now. Father, I pray, Lord, that we would get down to the root of what's going on the inside of us right now. Father, Lord, forgive us for every excuse we have made. Forgive us for every finger that we have been pointing outwardly, God. Lord, forgive us for every place that we have covered up instead of confessed and allowed it to be released through our lives right now. Holy Spirit, I pray, Lord, that you would come and bring newness and a freshness and freedom. Freedom. Freedom is what we call forth in people's lives this morning. Lord, that they shall not walk the same, that they shall be set on the path of righteousness today. Holy Spirit, move forward in people's lives right now, God. Bring healing to our roots. Bring freedom, God, in the place where there have been cycles. Lord, bring humility where there has been pride in our lives right now. Holy Spirit, Lord, will you just move? And will you stir up our hearts today? Stir up our hearts today. Just like a hose that goes in somewhere. There's been sediments on the bottom. And when you turn that hose on full blast, all those sediments begin to bubble to the top. Lord, do that. The things that have been sitting still and stagnant. Let them bubble up to the surface today. Let this be the day where blame breaks in people's lives and growth now starts to begin. And something new and something fresh begins to grow in people's lives right now. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. That's today's morning charge. Before you move on with your day, take a moment and let what you've heard settle into your heart. Faith isn't just something we talk about, it's something we live out in the ordinary moments of everyday life. Wherever today takes you, remember this: you don't walk into it alone. God is already ahead of you, working in ways you may not even see yet. Stand firm, walk in wisdom, lead with love, and don't forget who you belong to. Until next time, keep your heart anchored, keep your faith strong, and keep living out real talk, real Jesus, real life. We'll see you on the next morning charge.