SPEAKER_00: David Kevin.
SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Kelsey.
SPEAKER_05: Good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_05: Good to see you all.
SPEAKER_05: We're in August now, right?
SPEAKER_05: So is summer officially over?
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: Almost over.
SPEAKER_05: But the kids are going back to school now, right?
SPEAKER_05: Tomorrow?
SPEAKER_05: When I was a kid, with the end of summer, there was a like a minor depression that hit.
SPEAKER_05: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_05: Like, oh going back to school.
SPEAKER_05: Let's go ahead and open up in prayer.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I thank you for this wonderful day.
SPEAKER_05: I thank you for your faithfulness, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, we just thank you for sending your son.
SPEAKER_05: Father, we thank you for sending your son, Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: And we thank you for what that means for us, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: We thank you for your grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_05: We thank your salvation.
SPEAKER_05: And we thank you, Lord, for your church family, Father.
SPEAKER_05: And I just ask for your help today, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: I ask that our eyes and ears will be open to you.
SPEAKER_05: I ask, God, that you'll come and heal the areas that need to be healed, Lord, that you'll strengthen the areas that need to be strengthened, Father.
SPEAKER_05: We thank you, Lord, that you're a God who disciplines those He loves.
SPEAKER_05: And so I ask that you'd help us, Lord, to receive that, to recognize it, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: And I ask for strength and encouragement in all of our lives, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: And I speak just your love and unity, just a breath of life over this church body, over our families, over our homes, over our jobs, over our health, our wealth, every aspect of who we are, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: We just speak the life of Christ.
SPEAKER_05: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: Everyone said amen.
SPEAKER_05: We're going to continue what we started last week.
SPEAKER_05: We were talking from 2 Peter chapter 1.
SPEAKER_05: And a lot of last week, I didn't intend for this.
SPEAKER_05: It was actually foundational in nature.
SPEAKER_05: I was actually hoping to get more through the virtues listed in this.
SPEAKER_05: But I got caught up in the foundation of it.
SPEAKER_05: So we're going to continue what 2 Peter's talking about in this first chapter.
SPEAKER_05: And if you need a foundation and you weren't here last week, I would just encourage you to go back and listen to it because this helps set a platform, a foundation to build this upon.
SPEAKER_05: But we're talking about spiritual growth and we're talking about how to activate spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_05: If we feel like we're lacking spiritual growth, if we feel like we're in a season where, like, you know, it's like, I don't know if I'm doing this right.
SPEAKER_05: I don't necessarily feel anything.
SPEAKER_05: I don't see God moving.
SPEAKER_05: You know, I just feel like I've I've become stale.
SPEAKER_05: We've, I'm sure we've all had experiences like this.
SPEAKER_05: Maybe you're here today, and maybe you personally feel like this.
SPEAKER_05: I just feel stale in my Christian walk.
SPEAKER_05: I don't feel like this is going anywhere.
SPEAKER_05: And the question becomes is when we're dealing with God in this area, there's a lot of things out of our control.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: And that's frustrating.
SPEAKER_05: Like I'm a guy, I love to be in control.
SPEAKER_05: And when we have things out of our control, like I can't make certain things happen.
SPEAKER_05: I can't just cause breakthrough.
SPEAKER_05: I can't just cause a healing.
SPEAKER_05: I just can't cause a promotion.
SPEAKER_05: I just can't cause, you know, and control people and make people do things that I think that they need to do.
SPEAKER_05: And there's certain things outside of our control, and we get frustrated.
SPEAKER_05: But what's encouraging about what 2 Peter does is he says, hey, there is some things within your control that you can actually do that will kick start spiritual activation, spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_05: Amen?
SPEAKER_05: Don't be too excited, everybody.
SPEAKER_05: I know y'all are like summer's over.
SPEAKER_05: Here we go.
SPEAKER_05: So let me go ahead and just reread the first few verses.
SPEAKER_05: It says, This is a letter from Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_05: I am writing to you who share the same precious faith we have.
SPEAKER_05: This is the faith that was given to you because of the justice and fairness of Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.
SPEAKER_05: And he says, May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_05: This is very important here.
SPEAKER_05: From last week we established this that God has provisioned things for us.
SPEAKER_05: He's given us faith, he's given us what we need to be godly, and he's given us promises.
SPEAKER_05: These have been given.
SPEAKER_05: We can be confident in that, okay?
SPEAKER_05: But then he also says, as you grow in your knowledge of God, God's going to continue to give you more grace.
SPEAKER_05: Everyone say more.
SPEAKER_05: This is crucial here, okay?
SPEAKER_05: When we start out, there's already some grace given, all right?
SPEAKER_05: When you receive salvation, you receive the Spirit of God, that's a grace of God, that's a mercy of God.
SPEAKER_05: You've got a little bit of fuel in the tank, but what God is saying here through his apostle, he says, I need you to respond and use up the fuel you have, and it's going to cause growth.
SPEAKER_05: But when that fuel runs dry, if you respond to me, okay, if you're going to put some effort into this, okay, he's not saying save yourself.
SPEAKER_05: All right, so the pressure's off there, but he is saying I need you to respond to some promises.
SPEAKER_05: As you do this, I'm going to supply more grace.
SPEAKER_05: And when I supply more grace to your life, it's God's help.
SPEAKER_05: This is crucial, okay?
SPEAKER_05: Because I'm like a help, I'm a self-help person.
SPEAKER_05: I want to do it myself.
SPEAKER_05: But there's many times I simply need help.
SPEAKER_05: God's saying, I'm going to help you.
SPEAKER_05: In your weakness, I will be strong.
SPEAKER_05: And when I help you, it's going to create peace in your life, stability in your life.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all following me?
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: Then he says in verse 3, by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.
SPEAKER_05: We have received all this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
SPEAKER_05: And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us a great and precious promise.
SPEAKER_05: Um these are the righteous, these are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desire.
SPEAKER_05: The end of this setup before the virtues is that we're trying to escape the world's corruption.
SPEAKER_05: In the last days, there will be a lot of deception.
SPEAKER_05: The spirit of the Antichrist is a spirit of deception.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: It's not like everyone just says, hey, I just, you know, I want to go to hell.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: It's not like we wake up and say, hey, I just want to do some sin today.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times what happens is this good intentions can turn into deception.
SPEAKER_05: And what he's saying is that it's our human desire that's going to cause us to the world's corruption to be corrupted by the world.
SPEAKER_05: I want you to catch this.
SPEAKER_05: Peter doesn't mention demons there, which I find interesting.
SPEAKER_05: He says our human desire.
SPEAKER_05: So we're going to go into this virtues list, and I want us to focus on this.
SPEAKER_05: How can it can I play a part in activating spiritual growth?
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: I feel like this is like a little bit of a pep talk type message, like, hey, you can do it.
SPEAKER_05: You can overcome any mountain in your life.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: So let's go to the this is 2 Peter verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_05: Uh sorry, chapter 1, 5 through 7.
SPEAKER_05: It says, in view of all this, he's just said everything.
SPEAKER_05: God has provided these things for you.
SPEAKER_05: And also God is going to supply you more as you grow and respond to this.
SPEAKER_05: You're trying to we're trying to escape corruption through human desire.
SPEAKER_05: He says, in view of all that, okay, because this is very important because people can misinterpret this and misapply it.
SPEAKER_05: All right, and they can get offended by it.
SPEAKER_05: They don't like it.
SPEAKER_05: Um he says, in view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises.
SPEAKER_05: Everyone say effort.
SPEAKER_05: I um I've I got really into the camp of grace, and I want you to hear my heart on this.
SPEAKER_05: It's called it's called greasy grace.
SPEAKER_05: And the idea is that it doesn't, you don't have to put effort into it.
SPEAKER_05: If you're putting effort, you're just struggling with religion.
SPEAKER_05: If you put effort, you don't understand the love of God, you know.
SPEAKER_05: And I used to, you know, speak that, teach that, and preach that really hard.
SPEAKER_05: The problem was there was not any spiritual growth and change in my life.
SPEAKER_05: I still had sin and I still had destruction.
SPEAKER_05: So the revelation of greasy grace is not going to save you, it's just going to make you feel temporarily better as you get dirtier and dirtier.
SPEAKER_05: Peter says, put all effort into responding to God's promises.
SPEAKER_05: He didn't say save yourself.
SPEAKER_05: He says, God has saved you.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: Peter's a very impulsive guy.
SPEAKER_05: Remember, Peter is very carnal in nature when he's called by Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: He's a sinner.
SPEAKER_05: He confesses it to Jesus at his calling.
SPEAKER_05: I am a sinful man.
SPEAKER_05: He's impulsive.
SPEAKER_05: We see this highs and lows.
SPEAKER_05: Peter, when people come to take Jesus, he's cutting off people's ears.
SPEAKER_05: When people try to say you're a follower of Jesus, he denies Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: Peter is all over the place.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_05: I feel like sometimes I see myself like Peter.
SPEAKER_05: I'm like hot one day, cold the next day.
SPEAKER_05: I'm like, Lord, ah, help me.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, it's amazing.
SPEAKER_05: It's it's all over the place.
SPEAKER_05: Peter has grown up since then when he's writing this letter.
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: So, in view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises.
SPEAKER_05: Let me go ahead and say something that I've that I'm learning and realizing myself.
SPEAKER_05: It's not been easy to hear for myself, but it's been very life-giving.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times, if we feel spiritually dormant, it's our fault.
SPEAKER_05: God is not lacking, God is not a promise breaker.
SPEAKER_05: God has not called you, set you up to fail.
SPEAKER_05: God's not said, hey, I'm really got plans for your life, but go figure it out.
SPEAKER_05: It's we're do we're we're lay we're not doing something on our part.
SPEAKER_05: And a lot of times what really keeps us stuck and stale is that we refuse to admit it.
SPEAKER_05: This is what I found.
SPEAKER_05: I just can't, I started coming before the Lord, and I just found areas where I just didn't want to admit it.
SPEAKER_05: That was simple.
SPEAKER_05: I started admitting this before the Lord, and I'm seeing life and growth.
SPEAKER_05: God is very spirit, God is spirit, and his ways are higher than ours.
SPEAKER_05: But I've a I've thought about God and I've thought certain things were just ethereal.
SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, I'm never fully gonna be able to grasp it.
SPEAKER_05: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_05: I know God's good, but I just can't grasp it or fully under like, you know, I can't fully just figure it out.
SPEAKER_05: Peter's doing something amazing here.
SPEAKER_05: He's saying, I'm gonna give you something tangible that will cause that supernatural element in your life.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: This is what is very encouraging about this.
SPEAKER_05: This is something tangible.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times we're looking for the big God thing, and he's pointing to the small thing that's gonna bring breakthrough.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: So let's go through this.
SPEAKER_05: It says supplement, which supplement means it means add to.
SPEAKER_05: And before I go more into this, let me just tell you supplement is very interesting.
SPEAKER_05: It's we start out with faith, and I want you to think about this because I've done this, okay?
SPEAKER_05: I I messed this up early on.
SPEAKER_05: Faith is our belief and trust in the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_05: We're saved, we have faith, and when you get saved, that unlocks like a whole new world.
SPEAKER_05: All of a sudden I just sinned again, and there's temptation all around.
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: Sorry.
SPEAKER_05: I I get this faith and I get excited about God, and this is what I do.
SPEAKER_05: Because of my faith, it propels me into something.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all following?
SPEAKER_05: And I in in my mind, I'm like, okay, because of my belief in Jesus, I want to go do ministry.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all catch this?
SPEAKER_05: Because of my belief in Jesus, I believe God's gonna bring me business success, and I'm gonna be very wealthy.
SPEAKER_05: Because of my faith in Jesus, I believe that God's going to save my whole family and God's gonna heal this.
SPEAKER_05: Because of my belief, my faith in Jesus, I'm contending for healing.
SPEAKER_05: All those are noble things, okay?
SPEAKER_05: When down out of the right heart.
SPEAKER_05: But I want you to catch this.
SPEAKER_05: Peter's saying, because of your faith in Jesus, I want this to be your next focus, is moral excellence.
SPEAKER_05: I have there's things that he's gonna have that are just gonna progress in this virtue list, and what I find myself doing is I skip steps.
SPEAKER_05: Now I'm not saying that Peter says you have to just do faith first, and then you know, there's an idea that all these things are gonna be working in our life at the same time, but there is a benefit to looking at this in order.
SPEAKER_05: Why do you say that, David?
SPEAKER_05: Well, because how am I gonna have self-control to do what's right if I don't know what's right?
unknown: That's it.
SPEAKER_05: How am I actually gonna love if I don't first have faith and the power of God working mean you to produce the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_05: Y'all following this?
SPEAKER_05: So there is a benefit to looking at this.
SPEAKER_05: He's saying supplement because of your faith, you're gonna add to this thing.
SPEAKER_05: That's gonna set a course for the next thing.
SPEAKER_05: And what can happen is when we get into certain things, like if I'm working on self-control in my life, I can apply self-control to my health, to my wealth, to disciplines, to exercise.
SPEAKER_05: I can have all these things that I discipline myself.
SPEAKER_05: You can be disciplined and not even know the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: There's lots of people, that's a huge thing in life.
SPEAKER_05: We have all these self-held talk things on like YouTube, like, hey, you could do it, you just gotta tough it up, get up at four in the morning every day, push past the pain, you know, don't blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_05: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_05: We can have discipline and not know anything about God.
SPEAKER_05: See, self-control, what Paul what Peter's talking about here is a product of the Holy Spirit because the discipline is going to produce something that God wants to produce in our life.
SPEAKER_05: Amen?
SPEAKER_05: So he says, supplement your faith with the generous provision of moral excellence and moral excellence with knowledge and knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
SPEAKER_05: All right, let's hit this up.
SPEAKER_05: Faith is the first one.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times what we tend to do is we try to diagnose what's wrong with me.
SPEAKER_05: If you feel like, you know, I'm just feel like I'm at a place, I just feel dry in the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Um, if you're like me, you'll try to self-diagnose.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: And what can happen is, and this is what I found in myself, is that I misdiagnose myself.
SPEAKER_05: And when you misdiagnose yourself, you start trying to put things operationally, you start trying to put effort into things that's not going to produce the change or the fruit that you want.
unknown: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05: You want an example?
SPEAKER_05: I years ago, I I don't have, I still, I mean, I this is still an issue, but it used to be a bigger issue, is that I was very um relational with God in my perspective of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: And I had this idea, I just wanted to be organic, me, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: And I didn't have a value for his word.
SPEAKER_05: I appreciated the Bible.
SPEAKER_05: Every once in a while I read the Bible, and I would do like those little seasonal plans where you just like read the whole Bible really quick, but you don't really fully get any of it.
SPEAKER_05: But then you don't have a thing where you're you're you're consistently taking in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_05: This was a struggle in my life, and I would look at this like this list and I'd say, you know what, I really struggle with knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: I really struggle with knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: And the Holy Spirit worked in my it worked in my life, and he said, David, your problem is not your ability to get knowledge because you love knowledge, you learn stuff all the time.
SPEAKER_05: Your problem is is your faith.
SPEAKER_05: I'm like, why?
SPEAKER_05: Because you don't believe my ways are reliable.
SPEAKER_05: You don't think it's the best for your life, so you're not caring enough to go figure it out.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all catch that?
SPEAKER_05: We can misdiagnose and we can try to discipline ourselves into something when God wants to go deeper to the heart of the matter that will bring true life.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: So faith is a trust in God.
SPEAKER_05: Faith starts with trust.
SPEAKER_05: Faith is this idea that God, you are the way, you're the way to the Father, you are you are the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_05: And Lord, your way is the best way.
SPEAKER_05: It's a simple trust.
SPEAKER_05: Your way is the best for me that my life could ever possibly be.
SPEAKER_05: It's a belief in that.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: And because of that belief, that's meant to produce a commitment.
SPEAKER_05: I said this last week.
SPEAKER_05: Faith is a commitment, but you have to get the belief part first.
SPEAKER_05: You have to get the trust of I believe that you're reliable.
SPEAKER_05: I believe that you are who you say you are, I believe that your word is true, your promises are true, I believe that you're able.
SPEAKER_05: Faith is the foundation of all this stuff.
SPEAKER_05: We can strive and strive and strive and lack faith, and it's all for nothing.
unknown: Wow, wow.
SPEAKER_05: This is what's encouraging.
SPEAKER_05: It says in Romans 4 20, it says Abraham never never wavered in believing God's promise.
SPEAKER_05: In fact, his faith grew stronger.
SPEAKER_05: Abraham's faith grew stronger.
SPEAKER_05: Our faith is meant to grow.
SPEAKER_05: I've really beat myself up sometimes because I see these people with great faith, and I'm like, I'm never gonna be able to do that.
SPEAKER_05: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_05: You might be looking at me right now thinking that.
SPEAKER_05: I was supposed to get a laugh.
SPEAKER_05: That was a very I was supposed to be funny, y'all, but not that prideful.
SPEAKER_05: No, Pastor Pete, I love you.
SPEAKER_05: He never wavered in believing God's promise.
SPEAKER_05: In fact, his faith, it says it grew stronger, and in this, and in this, he brought glory to God.
SPEAKER_05: Check this out.
SPEAKER_05: It says he was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.
unknown: Good, good.
SPEAKER_05: Shall catch this?
unknown: Yes.
SPEAKER_05: He was fully convinced, and he grew in his life that God is able.
SPEAKER_05: You know, sometimes I'll try to be like, God, I know you're gonna do this, and I know it's gonna be on this day, and I know it's gonna be on this way, and then when it's not that day or that way, I'm like, oh man, my faith, I don't know.
SPEAKER_05: It's this is this this is the thing, is that he believes and convinced that God is able.
SPEAKER_05: Catch that?
SPEAKER_05: Did y'all hear that?
SPEAKER_05: And that grew over time.
SPEAKER_05: This thing of God giving you more and more grace is that he's not expecting you to just all of a sudden be certain I have no doubts whatsoever.
SPEAKER_05: He's expecting the doubts, he's expecting the questions, he's expecting the areas of weakness where you know where times are gonna be like, Lord, I don't know if you're actually true, and I don't know if you're actually good.
SPEAKER_05: In Mark chapter 9, a man comes and he his little boy has demons.
SPEAKER_05: And he comes and he says, Lord Jesus, I want you to take cast these demons out.
SPEAKER_05: And Jesus asks a simple question.
SPEAKER_05: He says, Do you believe?
SPEAKER_05: And he says, Yes, I believe, but then he says, Help me with my unbelief.
SPEAKER_05: This is a prayer that I really used to not pray, but I've started praying and it's really helping me.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, help me with my unbelief.
SPEAKER_05: I have gone through such wonderful things with the Lord highs and lows.
SPEAKER_05: I've seen God be faithful, I've seen God do the supernatural, and still a storm can come my way today, and I'll still have that momentary, oh my gosh, the world's you know falling, and I'll go right into fear, I'll go right into the very same thing, all the trials I've overcome.
SPEAKER_05: I'm right back there at square one, and I say, Lord, help me with my unbelief.
unknown: Good, David.
SPEAKER_05: That should be encouraging.
SPEAKER_05: God's not expecting you to figure faith out alone.
SPEAKER_05: He's expecting you to come to him so that he can grow your faith.
SPEAKER_05: And it gets to this point, Lord, I know you're able.
SPEAKER_05: And sometimes maybe God don't won't do, maybe he won't do what you think he's able to do and believe he's able to do, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_05: I know you're able.
SPEAKER_05: Abraham had many promises that he didn't see the full fulfillment of those in his lifetime.
SPEAKER_05: But he was still, he was steady in the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: So faith produces this commitment because we trust it.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all catch that?
SPEAKER_05: So if as we go through these, if if we're finding a lack of desire for things and emphasis on things, a lot of times we can go back to is my belief struggling?
SPEAKER_05: Do I actually think that God is the way, the truth, and the life?
SPEAKER_05: Do I think that his ways are the best ways?
SPEAKER_05: Amen?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_05: Alright.
SPEAKER_05: So next, this goes into moral excellence.
SPEAKER_05: Now I want you to catch this.
SPEAKER_05: This is a trust that God is reliable, and therefore, from that trust, that faith, it's meant to produce what?
SPEAKER_05: Moral excellence.
SPEAKER_05: What is moral excellence?
SPEAKER_05: It's the desire for his way.
SPEAKER_05: If I trust that his way is best, the next organic thing should be I should desire it.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all catch that.
SPEAKER_05: Moral excellence.
SPEAKER_05: I've always thought this that moral excellence is the ability to actually be morally excellent.
SPEAKER_05: No, it's the desire for it.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all catch that?
SPEAKER_05: I think sometimes when we as Christians, we're like, well, I believe in God, I gotta start just doing the work.
SPEAKER_05: Well, we haven't even got to knowledge yet.
SPEAKER_05: We don't know what's right.
SPEAKER_05: Right?
SPEAKER_05: The very my faith and rely my faith and reliance in the Lord and wanting his way should produce a desire.
SPEAKER_05: I want to be righteous like him.
SPEAKER_05: And a lot of times what is happening in our life when we're spiritually dormant is that we lack desire, but we're not bringing that inadequacy to the Lord to fix.
SPEAKER_05: I lack desire.
SPEAKER_05: I don't care about holiness.
SPEAKER_05: I don't care about righteousness.
SPEAKER_05: I don't care.
SPEAKER_05: It's not a big deal to me.
SPEAKER_05: Your problem is not self-control, your problem is not knowledge, your problem is not endurance.
SPEAKER_05: What your problem is, is a desire.
SPEAKER_05: I don't desire your ways.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus says, Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be satisfied.
SPEAKER_05: Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness?
SPEAKER_05: Do we really do we wake up saying, I really want to be righteous?
SPEAKER_05: This is another thing I brought before the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I got a problem.
SPEAKER_05: Not only am I dealing with unbelief, I lack desire for your ways.
SPEAKER_05: I have my certain areas that I care about, that's important to me, but holiness is not just a little bit.
SPEAKER_05: Holiness is a completion, it's complete purity with no mixture.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: In in for uh in 1 Peter 1 16, it says, You must be holy because I am holy.
SPEAKER_05: That's God talking.
SPEAKER_05: Holy, perfection.
SPEAKER_05: And then to make matters worse, in Matthew 5 48, Jesus says, But you are to be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
SPEAKER_05: I I I struggle with comparing myself to others, and what I usually do is I say, Well, if I feel like I'm doing better than the people around me, I must be holy.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, talking about you, Bill.
SPEAKER_05: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_05: He says, Uh oh.
SPEAKER_05: But the Lord has been saying, Listen, I I want you to quit looking to your left and right and quit allowing other people and everything that you perceive to be your standard.
SPEAKER_05: I want to Be your standard.
SPEAKER_05: And when I come before him, it exposes my inadequacies and it's brought humility in my life.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: Where I realize we're dealing with a perfect holy God and that he desires for us to go for that and desire it.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: Fully trusting him.
SPEAKER_05: Again, that whole faith part is I trust you, I believe you're reliable, and also I know that you're able and I'm fully dependent upon you to make these other things happen.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: So then this moral excellence, I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_05: Moral excellence is meant to lead us.
SPEAKER_05: This desire to do good, not the ability yet, it's the desire.
SPEAKER_05: We've got to go to the Lord and say, do I have a desire or not?
SPEAKER_05: If you don't, this is your place to go to the Lord about.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I lack desire.
SPEAKER_05: Philippians, let me read this verse real quick.
SPEAKER_05: Philippians 2, 12, 13 says, Dear friends, you will always you always followed my instructions when I was with you.
SPEAKER_05: And now that I am away is even more important.
SPEAKER_05: Work hard to show the results of your salvation.
SPEAKER_05: Now, did y'all hear that?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_05: Work hard to show the results of your salvation.
SPEAKER_05: Obeying God with deep reverence and fear, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
SPEAKER_05: This is one of the most encouraging verses for me in my life.
SPEAKER_05: I thank the Lord every day for this verse.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, you're changing my desires.
SPEAKER_05: This is huge.
SPEAKER_05: People don't go to the heart of the problem, they go right to the actions, they go right to the abilities, and they never question whether I actually want to do this or not.
SPEAKER_05: God can change our desires.
SPEAKER_05: Can't really love my wife like I should.
SPEAKER_05: God can change your desires.
SPEAKER_05: I don't think that I could ever just be someone that's generous and give.
SPEAKER_05: God can change your desires.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times our issues is not a problem with just sin and our ability just to be tougher and have more faith.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times it's a lack of desire.
SPEAKER_05: We have things that we do, we have things that motivate us.
SPEAKER_05: What we need is to get our motivations focused on the thing and faith.
SPEAKER_05: So this is where the gap comes.
SPEAKER_05: This jump from moral excellence.
SPEAKER_05: Look at this.
SPEAKER_05: This moral excellence to learn, to knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: This is one of the most major gaps going on right now, and this is one of the most dangerous things in a believer's life I've even found in my life.
SPEAKER_05: I want you to pay attention here, okay?
SPEAKER_05: When we can start to develop a desire for what is good, okay?
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
SPEAKER_05: Our intentions can be very pure.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I want to please you and I want to do good.
SPEAKER_05: All right?
SPEAKER_05: If if that doesn't lead me straight into the knowledge of God, the word of God, the intimacy with the Lord, the yielding to his ways, the hearing of his voice, the obedience if it doesn't if it doesn't lead to that, a lot of times what it's gonna do is gonna cause corruption and destruction in our life.
SPEAKER_05: And we are gonna be convinced that we're doing God's work.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all hear this?
SPEAKER_05: We think because my intentions are good, and we can be passionate, and we can work hard for these things, and we can fight for things, and we can fight against the very thing that God is trying to do.
SPEAKER_05: Because my intentions are good.
SPEAKER_05: We can be very wrong in a situation and convinced we're that we are the holy, righteous ones standing right before the Lord and not realize how filthy, wretched, and miserable we are, and how wrong we are.
SPEAKER_05: I just read through Judges this week, and I just was reminded of how dark and horrible that time period for God's people was.
SPEAKER_05: And I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_05: There was so much destruction, so much sin, so much death, and it doesn't categorize, it says this over and over, it doesn't say that the people just continued doing wrong because they wanted to.
SPEAKER_05: It says that people continued to do what was right in their own eyes.
SPEAKER_05: Judges was so dark, not because people were just had ill intentions, it was dark because a lot of people had really good intentions and they really cared about what was good and they tried really hard.
SPEAKER_05: The problem was that they were steering the ship, not God.
SPEAKER_05: So we go to knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: Martin Luther King says this nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
SPEAKER_05: My wife uses that in her message, but I stole it.
SPEAKER_05: She gave me the idea.
SPEAKER_05: I love you, thank you, honey.
SPEAKER_05: I just did.
SPEAKER_05: I love you.
SPEAKER_05: And I don't feel wrong about it.
SPEAKER_05: Did what was right in my own eyes there.
SPEAKER_05: If you go online, you're gonna see a lot of people.
SPEAKER_05: We have a generation that does not actually know and understand God's word and God's ways, and they're preaching God's word in God's ways, and they're blind, leading the blind.
SPEAKER_05: And they're very convinced, and we're fooled because they're so passionate and so zealous.
SPEAKER_05: We have people standing up for rights and they don't realize what they're doing.
SPEAKER_05: We have people standing up for all these things and stuff, and they're so zealous and passionate, and they're very wrong.
SPEAKER_05: Because they've got moral excellence, their desires to do good, that's their that's not the problem.
SPEAKER_05: The problem is yielding to the knowledge of God and learning his ways, not our ways.
SPEAKER_05: And sometimes we can be so zealous for the Lord, and we may we might say, Why is there not fruit in my life?
SPEAKER_05: Why don't I see this?
SPEAKER_05: Why don't I see mountains move?
SPEAKER_05: Because maybe we haven't taken the time.
SPEAKER_05: We're passionate, oh, we're presence-based, we're spirit-filled, we're praying, Sha na naan.
SPEAKER_05: We got all the Jason Upton worship songs you could possibly imagine playing all the time, soaking music.
SPEAKER_05: Give me some of it, but we don't know a thing about God.
SPEAKER_05: We're dumb to it.
SPEAKER_05: Hey, explain why you believe this.
SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
SPEAKER_05: One of the common things with this generation, the is, I'll tell you, is we're very informed, but we're very ignorant.
SPEAKER_05: And we make a lot of hard stances and beliefs, and we can't support why we believe what we believe.
SPEAKER_05: I'm reading a book, Sam Chan, it's about evangelizing in our secular world with everyone who's so knowledgeable.
SPEAKER_05: You can't just go up to people and say, hey, this is truth, receive it.
SPEAKER_05: People don't care.
SPEAKER_05: They're like, whatever, reject it.
SPEAKER_05: The way you get to people is you ask questions.
SPEAKER_05: Why do you believe what you believe?
SPEAKER_05: And have them give you a case.
SPEAKER_05: Because a lot of people we just make beliefs and we don't actually know why.
SPEAKER_05: Well, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_05: Why don't you like it?
SPEAKER_05: I just don't.
SPEAKER_05: What's your evidence?
SPEAKER_05: The word of God, when it talks about knowledge, is sharper than any two-edged sword.
SPEAKER_05: That means that the word of God is not gonna fall when you go deeper and deeper into the technical details of the backing of the word of God.
SPEAKER_05: If you look at a lot of other things that are not based on the word of God, the truth of God, what you do is you're gonna go down to a deeper level of it and it's gonna the foundation of it's gonna start to crumble.
SPEAKER_05: It's the same thing like with evolution.
SPEAKER_05: You can start, they have wonderful, they have wonderful arguments for evolution at a base level, but when you start to break it down to the very small details, the argument folds.
SPEAKER_05: There's no there's no explanation for it.
SPEAKER_05: Other than God.
SPEAKER_05: You follow me?
SPEAKER_05: If you act, if you can come up to people, hey, this guy, Sam Chan, he gives an example.
SPEAKER_05: He's in he's in the marketplace and he sees this woman and she's got like a spiritual pendant.
SPEAKER_05: He comes up to her and says, Oh, are you spiritual?
SPEAKER_05: And she goes, Yes, and she and she starts to she shares her a little bit about herself.
SPEAKER_05: She says, I'm actually a witch.
SPEAKER_05: And he goes, Oh, that sounds a little bit kind of dark.
SPEAKER_05: She goes, No, I'm a light witch.
SPEAKER_05: So apparently in witchcraft, there's good bad witches like dark witches and light witches, okay?
SPEAKER_05: It's like the Star Wars, Jedi and the Sith.
SPEAKER_05: And apparently the dark witches do curses and stuff to like hurt people, but the light witches, they're harmonized with like, you know, Mother Earth and they're trying to bring life and goodness.
SPEAKER_05: They're good witches, okay?
SPEAKER_05: She's a good witch.
SPEAKER_05: And he starts, says, Okay, well, what's that mean?
SPEAKER_05: Stuff.
SPEAKER_05: She goes, Well, I just care about life and stuff, you know, protecting birds and life.
SPEAKER_05: He goes, That's interesting.
SPEAKER_05: He's like, Do you believe in abortion?
SPEAKER_05: She goes, Yeah, I believe in abortion.
SPEAKER_05: He goes, Well, how does that harmonize?
SPEAKER_05: And she goes, Well, I don't think that they're well, it's different because they're not actually born yet, they're not bringing any good to society, so it's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_05: And he goes, Okay, so older people maybe who are paralyzed or disabled, should we just go ahead and kill them?
SPEAKER_05: Because they're also not bringing any benefit.
SPEAKER_05: And then all of a sudden she's like, I don't have an answer for that.
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you see, understand this is that the knowledge of God is not going to fall when it's tested.
SPEAKER_05: That's why we call this build your house on a solid foundation.
SPEAKER_05: Brock too, that's solid.
SPEAKER_05: Knowledge of God.
unknown: Good David.
SPEAKER_05: Proverbs 235.
SPEAKER_05: This has been an issue in my life, okay?
SPEAKER_05: And it was an issue not because um I didn't desire knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: I I love knowledge, I love learning.
SPEAKER_05: I have spent tons and tons of hours.
SPEAKER_05: I like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
SPEAKER_05: I spent tons of hours like um reading and studying like back history of these fantasy worlds and like watching people explain them, you know, and after it was all said and done, I'm like, that was a waste of my life.
SPEAKER_05: And the Lord's like, man, you're really good at learning things that does not matter.
SPEAKER_05: Why don't you learn my word?
SPEAKER_05: And I'm just like touche on that, God.
SPEAKER_05: You're right, as always.
SPEAKER_05: Proverbs 2, 3 through 5 says, Cry out for insight and ask for understanding.
SPEAKER_05: Search for them as you would for silver, seek them like hidden treasures.
SPEAKER_05: Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord and you will gain knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_05: This is it started here.
SPEAKER_05: Before I really got devoted to God's word, I asked, Lord, will you change my desires where I will desire your word?
SPEAKER_05: Because I don't, and this is a deficiency in me.
SPEAKER_05: This is something lacking, and I've tried to do the whole discipline thing and just structure it and do a great reading plan, but I lack this.
SPEAKER_05: I need your help, Holy Spirit.
unknown: Yeah, good.
SPEAKER_05: And just be honest about that.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I'm crying out, and then as you go into the word, trust that the Lord is gonna help you learn it because a lot of times when we first get into this, we're gonna struggle with two primary things.
SPEAKER_05: It's gonna be boring and it might go over our head.
SPEAKER_05: It's gonna be boring, we're not gonna really feel anything from it, and a lot of times we won't understand a lot of it, and we'll think, what good is this?
SPEAKER_05: That is the faith step.
SPEAKER_05: And I want you to hear something about the role of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Jesus says this, I'm gonna send you the advocate, and he's the spirit of truth.
SPEAKER_05: He's gonna lead you into all truth, but it says also this I love this.
SPEAKER_05: It says he will remind you of what I've said.
SPEAKER_05: And you can be in the word of God, and you may not feel like you're getting a thing.
SPEAKER_05: And all of a sudden, later that day, you're put into a place of temptation, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit brings that verse to memory, and all of a sudden you've got tools to fight with.
SPEAKER_05: I can't tell you how many times that has happened.
SPEAKER_05: I was like, well, I don't feel like I'm getting anything, and then all of a sudden later that day it's brought to my remembrance because now I've made effort and God is providing grace.
SPEAKER_05: God is providing help when I need it because I responded to his promise.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Are y'all good?
SPEAKER_05: There's no one good, only God.
SPEAKER_05: Boom, gotcha.
SPEAKER_05: I just made that up.
SPEAKER_05: That is so good, right?
SPEAKER_05: Not being prideful about it, but amazing.
SPEAKER_05: 2 Corinthians 10, 5 says, We demolish arguments and every pretension, um, every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_05: And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
SPEAKER_05: This is a beautiful place of scripture.
SPEAKER_05: The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all know this verse, but they are mighty for tearing down strongholds.
SPEAKER_05: The term of strongholds here, this is something in our thinking and our knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: I want you to catch this.
SPEAKER_05: It's not just spiritual demonic stuff.
SPEAKER_05: This is a this is this is a you know intellectual thing going on.
SPEAKER_05: The biggest enemy to your knowledge, and I I was shocked when I started to realize this in myself, is not your lack of desire for knowledge.
SPEAKER_05: It's not your inability not to read the word of God.
SPEAKER_05: That's a faith and a desire issue, okay?
SPEAKER_05: The greatest enemy to your knowledge is going to be the argument, the pretentious arguments.
SPEAKER_05: Arguments means the things that's produced through cognitive process, reasoning, thought.
SPEAKER_05: These are the greatest areas of the greatest enemies in yourself that's gonna be an enemy to the knowledge of God is the things that you've taken time to think about.
SPEAKER_05: The ex the reasons, the justifications, all the research and all the experiences, and you've come to a conclusion, and now you've fortified it like a walled city in your heart, and you're not willing to yield.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_05: When you hear the voice of the Lord, don't harden your hearts.
SPEAKER_05: That's what stronghold is.
SPEAKER_05: Catch this.
SPEAKER_05: This is what Paul says.
SPEAKER_05: Let me read it again.
SPEAKER_05: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times, and this is true, this is part of the call of ministry.
SPEAKER_05: Paul's a five-fold apostle.
SPEAKER_05: Paul is deliberately coming against the lies.
SPEAKER_05: Okay, he's going, he's going out into the world, he is reasoning with people, he's bringing a case for Christ.
SPEAKER_05: But understand, this also applies to our personal walk for us personally.
SPEAKER_05: My greatest enemy for the knowledge of God is myself.
SPEAKER_05: The strongholds that I've built because I've done the time, I've researched this, and I've come to a conclusion about something, and I'm not willing to change.
SPEAKER_05: And the Spirit of God and the truth of God is not able to come through that high-walled city.
SPEAKER_05: Some of the places where the Lord has had to deal with me is these things where I think I'm so right and so amazing.
SPEAKER_05: Because I'm so sure.
SPEAKER_05: Because you know what?
SPEAKER_05: I spent a lot of time researching, and I've got Bible verses to prove why I believe what I believe.
SPEAKER_05: And I got Bible verses.
SPEAKER_05: You see, the Bible is so complex, it is so big, it is so deep.
SPEAKER_05: You can spend your whole life studying it and never even grasp the full weight of it and the depth of it, okay?
SPEAKER_05: Understand this that we can extract information and we can squeeze anything we want out of the Bible if we want to.
SPEAKER_05: In order to get the knowledge and the understanding of God, it has to harmonize with the whole picture.
SPEAKER_05: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_05: I've done this all I've done this too often where I got launched into something and I built a stronghold because I wanted to say this, and I built this stronghold, and the Lord had to come to me, knocking on my door, saying, Hey, you lack understanding of what I really mean by that.
SPEAKER_05: And because I'm so hardened to him, he can't actually bring me truth.
SPEAKER_05: Now, there's certain truths that we know.
SPEAKER_05: I'm not saying we question everything that we know, that the the primary doctrinal things about the Lordship of Jesus, the divinity of Jesus, and all these things, that's that's pretty certain.
SPEAKER_05: But there's lots of areas of our life where we just conclude, hey, I'm right.
SPEAKER_05: So I want to give this practical tip as we're going into the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_05: I want to do this is that by nature, again, Peter says we're trying to escape like the human nature aspect, we're being supposed to be aware of that.
SPEAKER_05: By nature, we're going to search for evidence to establish why we're right.
SPEAKER_05: That's a survival tactic.
SPEAKER_05: The discomfort of feeling wrong, the discomfort of feeling disqualified, the discomfort of that, we don't like that.
SPEAKER_05: We're naturally going to look for evidence to solidify this is why I'm right, this is why my beliefs are true, this is why this is the best thing for me, how I've chosen to live my life, how I've chosen to handle this situation, what I believe perceive.
SPEAKER_05: I've got to look and understand, I've got to prove myself why I'm right.
SPEAKER_05: I had an issue with someone, you know, and I'm really upset with him, and I've got to go to the Bible and I've got to understand, well, this is why I'm right.
SPEAKER_05: And it says this, and that's all I did because I care about truth.
SPEAKER_05: We go to the Bible trying to look to justify we're right.
SPEAKER_05: I would say, do this.
SPEAKER_05: Flip the script.
SPEAKER_05: Because what we tend to do is we tend to give ourselves grace and mercy, and then everyone else, we're very intense about truth.
SPEAKER_05: They're wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong.
SPEAKER_05: But when I look at myself, I don't keep that same standard.
SPEAKER_05: Flip the script.
SPEAKER_05: Go to the Bible to find out what's wrong in me and then have grace and mercy with everyone else.
SPEAKER_05: If you want to spiritually grow, if you want to get the knowledge of God, this is what I did.
SPEAKER_05: I am I I love to I'm very passionate about my stances, and sometimes when I'm getting when someone challenges me and I don't fully have the answer, I get insecure, and when I'm insecure, I lash out more violently.
SPEAKER_05: If I can't outwit you, then I'll intimidate you.
SPEAKER_05: That's a survival mechanism because I'm insecure.
SPEAKER_05: Bark loud, bite little.
SPEAKER_05: Go to the Word of God and say, Lord, I'm searching because I know your word is alive and active, and I'm gonna let it pierce my heart and expose even the tiniest of details that might be wrong.
SPEAKER_05: I'm not coming to prove why I'm right.
SPEAKER_05: I'm not coming to feel better.
SPEAKER_05: I'm coming for you to bring life to me by cutting away, separating the bone from the marrow, the flesh, the soul from the spirit.
SPEAKER_05: The soul being our inner world, our personality, our desires, our emotions.
SPEAKER_05: Sometimes I go to the word to get emotionally full, but I don't let it cut at me to bring repentance.
SPEAKER_05: I pick and choose what I want.
SPEAKER_05: Go in and make it a game.
SPEAKER_05: Say, I'm gonna see what I can find today in the Word of God that can expose what's wrong in me.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Don't be too excited about that.
SPEAKER_05: That was so life-giving, I cannot wait to start my Bible reading plan.
SPEAKER_05: Self-control is the next.
SPEAKER_05: Now I want you to see this progression here, okay?
SPEAKER_05: We trust God, we desire God, and now we're learning about God.
SPEAKER_05: So the next responses is not all of a sudden not to go show everyone how much we know, because knowledge alone will create what?
SPEAKER_05: Pride.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: What do we go to next?
SPEAKER_05: Self-control.
SPEAKER_05: This is choosing his way.
SPEAKER_05: I am I can be the king of I know his way, and I speak his way, and I impress everybody with his way, but then I personally don't choose his way.
SPEAKER_05: Isn't that the problem?
SPEAKER_05: And when Jesus writes these letters to the church in Revelation, isn't that the problem?
SPEAKER_05: He writes to the church in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_05: He goes, Listen, y'all know your truth and y'all do the work, but you've completely left your first love.
SPEAKER_05: You talk the talk, but you're not walking the walk.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Choose his way.
SPEAKER_05: Self-control has been another issue in my life.
SPEAKER_05: I I see areas where I'm very disciplined.
SPEAKER_05: I have self-control, and I look at other areas and it seems impossible, and I'm intimidated, and I don't even try.
SPEAKER_05: Because I don't like to fail.
SPEAKER_05: I feel very discouraged when I fail, and I would rather not feel the pain of failing than actually try.
SPEAKER_05: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_05: I want you to catch this.
SPEAKER_05: And hopefully this will help some of you and maybe set some of you free.
SPEAKER_05: When we start getting closer in the Lord, we start to learn about Him.
SPEAKER_05: Organically, the Spirit of God is going to pull you into this direction of self-control.
SPEAKER_05: Because it's a product of the Holy Spirit, not a product of your self-will.
SPEAKER_05: Galatians 5.
SPEAKER_05: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: It's the ability to control self.
SPEAKER_05: Why do we have to control ourself?
SPEAKER_05: Because our self is not going to want to go the way that the Spirit of God and the Word of God, the knowledge of God, the trust in God, the desire for His way is going to want to go.
SPEAKER_05: So we have to control it.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: Not because we're religious, not because we're just trying to produce our own salvation, it's because we desire God's way.
SPEAKER_05: Self-control is one of these things.
SPEAKER_05: Let me just package it this way.
SPEAKER_05: When I try to take on self-control, I always go for the giant in my life.
SPEAKER_05: I immediately look, what is the biggest thing?
SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, alright, my faith! Here we go.
SPEAKER_05: And I just fail.
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
SPEAKER_05: David, before he fights the giant, he fights the bear and the lion in the secret place.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: Why don't you catch this?
SPEAKER_05: Anytime that I've gotten inspired by God, okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_05: And it's practical things too, okay?
SPEAKER_05: You know, it's it's like I always want to go after the big thing.
SPEAKER_05: What is the big thing in life?
SPEAKER_05: And I know that's a struggle, and I need self-control to win that that fight, and I go after the big thing.
SPEAKER_05: God is very strategic and he knows our weaknesses, and he he he knows us and he works intentionally in us.
SPEAKER_05: And I want you to catch this.
SPEAKER_05: God works in the small things.
SPEAKER_05: And why does he work in the small things?
SPEAKER_05: And this is what I'm talking about, is that if we can get a little bit of a victory in something that you can do, we can eventually build to the very thing that you think you can't do.
SPEAKER_05: David, if I can get you to beat the lion, then you're gonna have confidence against the bear.
SPEAKER_05: And if I can get you to beat the bear, when the giant comes, you're gonna have confidence.
SPEAKER_05: God will come after these small things.
SPEAKER_05: Catch this.
SPEAKER_05: When we're stepping into this, we take on something small.
SPEAKER_05: For me, I'm sitting there and I'm thinking about the big things, okay?
SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, and I told you a little bit about my testimony last week where I, you know, energy drinks has been a struggle.
SPEAKER_05: It wasn't just that, it was what I was eating.
SPEAKER_05: I mean everything, right?
SPEAKER_05: Living off of popcorn, ice cream.
SPEAKER_05: Well, popcorn's okay.
SPEAKER_05: As long as it's not kettle corn, butter, right?
SPEAKER_05: Organic, non-GMO.
SPEAKER_05: But the Lord, he's been pulling this thing of I've been getting deeper in his presence, deeper in his words, seeking after him, and he's pulling me to these things of David.
SPEAKER_05: We've got to start working in these areas of your life.
SPEAKER_05: About the harvest.
SPEAKER_05: I'm thinking about God coming back soon.
SPEAKER_05: I'm thinking about, you know, we need to take on the Leviathan spirit.
SPEAKER_05: And God's like, no, I need you to stop being a Leviathan and eating everything in your cupboards.
SPEAKER_05: And I and I'm like, I don't want to talk about that right now.
SPEAKER_05: You know, we gotta fast and pray, we got bigger things at hand, and God's coming to be pointing to little things in my life that I actually can respond to.
SPEAKER_05: And it started with, hey, let's start with an energy drink, but then it moved on from there.
SPEAKER_05: But here's the thing is that when you get a small success, there's a psychology to that is that you'll be motivated and confident to go for the next bigger thing.
SPEAKER_05: And so this is what sports teams will do is that there's a psychology that teams will actually schedule preseason games.
SPEAKER_05: Games against a team that is not nearly as good as them, so they can simply get a win.
SPEAKER_05: And this is going to psychologically set the team up with confidence when they go into their season.
SPEAKER_05: I know this for a fact because our col I played college soccer and we would have preseason games, and these really good teams would just beat us really bad so that they could feel better about their season coming up.
SPEAKER_05: Because we weren't very good.
SPEAKER_05: We were the team that they were scheduling.
SPEAKER_05: We need a boost before we go to season.
SPEAKER_05: I know we'll play them.
SPEAKER_05: But this is a real thing.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all catching this.
SPEAKER_05: Little successes can start to breed victory in these areas we think we're never going to have victory.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times, let me encourage you, if your issues pornography, if your issues something huge like this, what is the little thing that God's speaking to that can start building and developing self-control and discipline?
SPEAKER_05: Because maybe you're not going to be able to take on that giant right away, but maybe that is in the plan.
SPEAKER_05: But God's saying, let's work on this line.
SPEAKER_05: What is one little area?
SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's all of a sudden, maybe you don't read God's word at all.
SPEAKER_05: Okay, well, let's start this.
SPEAKER_05: How about read half a chapter a day?
SPEAKER_05: Or just a chapter.
SPEAKER_05: Five minutes.
SPEAKER_05: I'm going to start there.
SPEAKER_05: And I'm going to, and I'm going to I'm going to instill this.
SPEAKER_05: And the next day I wake up, it's a simple few minutes, okay?
SPEAKER_05: I'll even put it on audiobook.
SPEAKER_05: It may not seem like it's a big deal, but psychologically and spiritually, you're starting to set something up in yourself that's going to build confidence.
SPEAKER_05: And the Spirit of God is going to meet you with grace that's going to help you.
SPEAKER_05: Catch this.
SPEAKER_05: The next thing, and this is where we trip up when it comes to self-control.
SPEAKER_05: This is where we trip up.
SPEAKER_05: We think, all right, now I've got to do it perfect.
SPEAKER_05: I've made a promise to the Lord, I've committed, now I've got to be perfect.
SPEAKER_05: That is not how self-control works, and that's not God's expectation.
SPEAKER_05: Is it his desire for you to be perfect?
SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05: That's not reality.
SPEAKER_05: The idea when you understand this is that this is built on a foundation of faith.
SPEAKER_05: A faith in what?
SPEAKER_05: That God is going to be merciful to me when I say yes to his way, and then I fail over and over and over and run back to him.
SPEAKER_05: He's going to forgive me.
SPEAKER_05: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_05: What I'm saying is you're going to fail your way into righteousness.
SPEAKER_05: You guys are so encouraged from this message.
SPEAKER_05: Proverbs 24, 16 says, the godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
SPEAKER_05: Seven is a number for completion.
SPEAKER_05: It's not just seven times.
SPEAKER_05: Well, seven times that's it.
SPEAKER_05: I guess I'm not godly.
SPEAKER_05: No, it's a number of completion.
SPEAKER_05: As we do this, the godly, the issue, the the causality of self-control in our life is not going to be how perfect you are.
SPEAKER_05: It's going to be when you start making effort and you fall and you fail.
SPEAKER_05: And maybe fail for the thousandth time.
SPEAKER_05: You get up, and the idea is get up, is that I'm going to get up and turn to God and run to his throne of grace where I can receive mercy.
SPEAKER_05: Because again, the reason I'm doing this is that self-control is not my own thing.
SPEAKER_05: It's a working of God that I need his help on.
SPEAKER_05: And so when I fail again, that thing I kept trying to do, I turn immediately to him.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, please forgive me.
SPEAKER_05: And please help me, Father, and give me strength and give me self-control.
SPEAKER_05: And I thank you for the blood of Jesus that cleanses me and washes me white as snow.
SPEAKER_05: The trick with self-control is not your ability to get it perfect.
SPEAKER_05: It's going to be will you keep turning to him when you fail?
SPEAKER_05: I feel led by the Holy Spirit to say this.
SPEAKER_05: If your struggle is pornography, and also women and both men, there's a high percentage of people that struggle with pornography.
SPEAKER_05: Is start the fight, and when you fail, go to him right away and repent.
SPEAKER_05: And when you fail, go to him right away and repent.
SPEAKER_05: Don't ever let it become something that's normalized to you.
SPEAKER_05: And as you do this, I want you to know this the grace of God is going to meet you.
SPEAKER_05: It's a desperation.
SPEAKER_05: My faith in is in dependence of you to be able to set me free.
SPEAKER_05: And I'm going to respond to that.
SPEAKER_05: You hearing that?
SPEAKER_05: Because God's desire and plan for your life is for you to be set free from pornography.
SPEAKER_05: God's desire and plan for your life is you to be set free from smoking weed.
SPEAKER_05: And I know it's common.
SPEAKER_05: I know it's becoming legalized, but that stuff's going to destroy you.
SPEAKER_05: It's going to destroy your family.
SPEAKER_05: It's going to destroy your finances, it's going to destroy your health, destroy your future.
SPEAKER_05: Make no mistake.
SPEAKER_05: Do not be deceived by the spirit of the day.
SPEAKER_05: I don't know how ever be set free.
SPEAKER_05: It's all I've done for years and years.
SPEAKER_05: God will set you free, but respond to him.
SPEAKER_05: Make a plan.
SPEAKER_05: Be intentional.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, what are the small things that I can work in my life?
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I want you to heal my marriage.
SPEAKER_05: I'm again, I'm just flowing right now.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I want you to heal my marriage.
SPEAKER_05: Okay, what are the small things you can do to respond to his leading instead of just pointing out what needs to be fixed?
SPEAKER_05: What are the things I can do?
SPEAKER_05: What are the disciplines I can make?
SPEAKER_05: Self-control.
SPEAKER_05: And next, this leads into endurance.
SPEAKER_05: Endurance is where things really get good.
SPEAKER_05: Okay?
SPEAKER_05: This is what separates the men from the boys, the ladies from the little ladies.
SPEAKER_05: Elijah said, what?
SPEAKER_05: Write that down.
SPEAKER_05: A lot of times we build up this foundation of these first four things.
SPEAKER_05: And what we do is our Christian walk is actually cycles of ups and downs of those four things.
SPEAKER_05: It's cycles, I'm hot, I'm cold, but it's cyclical.
SPEAKER_05: And it never progresses from glory to glory.
SPEAKER_05: Catch this.
SPEAKER_05: Because the next thing that God is intentionally going to do to you.
SPEAKER_05: And Peter says, Don't be surprised when he does it.
SPEAKER_05: And James says, count it joy when he does it, is that he's going to put you in trials and storms in life.
SPEAKER_05: And a lot of times it's the very moment where all of a sudden you've had this progression.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I believe in you.
SPEAKER_05: I desire you.
SPEAKER_05: I'm learning about you.
SPEAKER_05: And now I'm choosing you.
SPEAKER_05: And things are feeling good.
SPEAKER_05: I'm choosing God.
SPEAKER_05: I'm having a breakthrough.
SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: Sha na na.
SPEAKER_05: And then all of a sudden a storm hits.
SPEAKER_05: And it rattles your whole foundation.
SPEAKER_05: And everything that you were doing is now a struggle.
SPEAKER_05: And all of a sudden, I don't know if I can maintain this.
SPEAKER_05: And all of a sudden you're questioning God, did you call me to this?
SPEAKER_05: Is this actually you?
SPEAKER_05: And you're questioning everything.
SPEAKER_05: And the Lord intentionally does this to purify what?
SPEAKER_05: The very first thing, our faith.
SPEAKER_05: And He does this to expose things to us that we don't realize was there all along.
SPEAKER_05: I am the king of the highs and lows.
SPEAKER_05: Make big face steps.
SPEAKER_05: I made a big face step years and years ago before I was married.
SPEAKER_05: And I and I had this thing where I changed my life.
SPEAKER_05: I made a decision to follow God.
SPEAKER_05: I'm not going to share the details.
SPEAKER_05: And within the week of doing this, everything that I expected to happen, the opposite happened.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_05: Here we go, God.
SPEAKER_05: And all of a sudden it's like you're like, what has happened?
SPEAKER_05: It was like that.
SPEAKER_05: I'm just running after God.
SPEAKER_05: I'm in a season where it's just like I am burning for the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: I'm full of faith.
SPEAKER_05: I'm worshiping joy of the Lord, all this stuff.
SPEAKER_05: I'm excited about my future.
SPEAKER_05: I make this huge decision, then just room.
SPEAKER_05: And in that moment, I go back to my room in my secret place and I start yelling at God.
SPEAKER_05: I start cussing at God.
SPEAKER_05: I start telling him, You are unfaithful.
SPEAKER_05: You set me up to fail.
SPEAKER_05: I can't believe I even believed in you and followed all this stuff.
SPEAKER_05: And I'm literally cursing God in my prayer life, okay?
SPEAKER_05: And I'm not a new Christian, okay?
SPEAKER_05: I want you to know something.
SPEAKER_05: I'm like in my mid-twenties.
SPEAKER_05: Raised in church, serving in church, and I'm completely frantic.
SPEAKER_05: And I call my mom.
SPEAKER_05: I miss her, she's with the Lord now.
SPEAKER_05: But I call her and I say, and I'm just going off.
SPEAKER_05: My mom doesn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_05: She's in a different state, and I'm just I'm freaking out.
SPEAKER_05: And y'all probably know what this is like.
SPEAKER_05: I'm crying, I'm angry, I'm hopeless.
SPEAKER_05: And she says, David, she was at a Perry Stone church service.
SPEAKER_05: They're having a conference, okay?
SPEAKER_05: She's at the at the church service, she walks out of it to take the call, and I just start going off.
SPEAKER_05: I'm like, I'm like, what am I even doing?
SPEAKER_05: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_05: And she goes, David, I have no idea what to tell you, but I feel like you're supposed to tune in to the service.
SPEAKER_05: And at that moment, I was like, that's the last thing I want to do.
SPEAKER_05: And some of y'all probably know what it's like to be here.
SPEAKER_05: I'm going to do it.
SPEAKER_05: I don't even know why I'm doing it, but I'm just going to do it.
SPEAKER_05: I want to encourage you is that when God has you in a season of endurance, a lot of times it's going to be the thing of why am I even doing this that's going to lead to the breakthrough?
SPEAKER_05: Because I tuned into that service, okay?
SPEAKER_05: And with a minute of coming on, this is a big Perry Stone's a globally known minister.
SPEAKER_05: It's a big, massive service, okay?
SPEAKER_05: I tune into one of their conferences, and after a minute of tuning in, Perry Stone's, it's in the middle of worship.
SPEAKER_05: Perry Stone takes the stage and says, Stop it, stop the worship.
SPEAKER_05: And he goes, I don't normally do this, but someone has just started watching online and hopelessness is trying to overtake them.
SPEAKER_05: And I want you to stretch your hand to the camera right now, and we're going to break off hopelessness upon their life.
SPEAKER_05: And they broke off hopelessness.
SPEAKER_05: And I want you to understand something.
SPEAKER_05: In the midst of me cursing God, in the midst when things got hard, I was on fire for God.
SPEAKER_05: And in my heart, I was so strong in faith.
SPEAKER_05: But the moment a storm hit my life, I'm turning around.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, you set me up to fail.
SPEAKER_05: Why do I even trust you cursing God?
SPEAKER_05: And what does he do?
SPEAKER_05: He doesn't put He doesn't pour down a ball of lightning on me, okay?
SPEAKER_05: He doesn't just burn me up.
SPEAKER_05: You know what he does?
SPEAKER_05: He has kindness and he sends a minister online to stop their conference and service to pray over me.
SPEAKER_05: And when they prayed that hopelessness would break, something jolted in my spirit, and that hopelessness was broken.
SPEAKER_05: And do you know what I realized in that moment?
SPEAKER_05: I realized, Lord, I am so sorry.
SPEAKER_05: That wasn't me.
SPEAKER_05: And yet, in the midst of that filth, in the midst of that junk of me just being completely angry, you know what God showed me?
SPEAKER_05: That was in there all along.
SPEAKER_05: It was a secret distrust of my character and my faithfulness in your life, David.
SPEAKER_05: And I didn't respond to you harshly.
SPEAKER_05: I responded to you as a loving father.
SPEAKER_05: And what did I do?
SPEAKER_05: I was faithful.
SPEAKER_05: To stop us to stop this huge conference all for your sake, and my Holy Spirit worked through your mother.
SPEAKER_05: Endurance is going to test you and it's going to test every aspect, and it's meant to.
SPEAKER_05: It's going to make you question am I is this actually God?
SPEAKER_05: Did I actually hear the Lord?
SPEAKER_05: It's going to take away the desire.
SPEAKER_05: You're going to feel good when you start, but you're not going to feel good in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_05: Did I miss it?
SPEAKER_05: I don't see any fruit.
SPEAKER_05: And also you're going to feel distant from the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: God has not left you.
SPEAKER_05: But God will intentionally make it where you don't hear his voice.
SPEAKER_05: And that's the reason it's going to be go back to this.
SPEAKER_00: I hope David's not going to get mad at me with this, but um he's a nice husband.
SPEAKER_00: I kind of feel like I feel like we need to stop here at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think there are some people in this room.
SPEAKER_00: I think the issue sometimes with modern Christianity is we're not honest with where we're actually at with him.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's like I'm a PK, so I wasn't as crazy as him.
SPEAKER_00: But he was very honest, and I think there's some people who's like, yeah, I was cussing out God last night, or I was irritated about, you know, the storm that God's taking me through.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like there's a grace in the room of pausing here because you guys want self-control.
SPEAKER_00: We all want it.
SPEAKER_00: And we want endurance, but we have to get honest with God again.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, honestly, how honest we've been with him.
SPEAKER_00: And until we get to the place where we say, okay, I haven't been fully living right.
SPEAKER_00: My thought life has not been holy.
SPEAKER_00: I am battling pornography or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: My mouth is running wild.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm watching those X-rated movies, you know, and I'm convicted about it, but it's feeding a desire that is not holy and not godly.
SPEAKER_00: We are not going to see revival, awakening, and the purpose of God for our lives until we get honest with a very loving God.
SPEAKER_00: And I love it because again, my my issues might not have been, I don't think I've ever cussed out anyone.
SPEAKER_00: But I will say this is that when we look at the people that God moved through in Scripture, they had issues that absolutely blow my mind.
SPEAKER_00: They had failures, they had darkness.
SPEAKER_00: How can we call David a man after God's own heart when he was a murderer and an adulterer?
SPEAKER_00: But there is something that is so gracious and kind about the blood of Jesus that this uncreated God meets us where we are at, and he says, I see your struggle, but I also see who I made you to be before the foundation of the world ever began.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't matter our age, it doesn't matter how long we've been Christian, God wants to do a deep work and he wants us to look like Him.
SPEAKER_00: So that when people see us, but not just when people see us, when Jesus sees inside of us, He sees pure waters of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: He sees somebody who's actually overcoming pornography and not just covering it up.
SPEAKER_00: He sees people who all of a sudden there's been this like long gap now that they're not cussing people out anymore behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00: They're not struggling with weed anymore behind the scenes, they're not struggling with drug addiction or even small things, insecurity, comparison, whatever it is, God wants to set the generations free, and he wants to do it with the people in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Is this okay, David?
SPEAKER_00: Because and I can we just close our eyes all over this room because I love this message.
SPEAKER_00: There is an activation, that's what he said.
SPEAKER_00: There is a partnership that we get to do with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to be honest and say, God, I don't desire you like I should.
SPEAKER_00: God, I don't always desire to read your word like I should.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'm kind of captivated with the world.
SPEAKER_00: I actually am a little obsessed with the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually so insecure that I really want to look like the world more than I want to look like you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really want to look set apart and different.
SPEAKER_00: And again, this is not a thing of condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a thing of God's mad at you, he's angry at you, he's not with you, he's not for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is because God knows what he has planned for you, and he's not willing to keep you where you're at in compromise so that you never get to be who you were created to be and walk in what you were created to walk in.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you're just saying, Okay, God, I want to get vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I was in college and I was going through some stuff, and I just had stopped feeling his presence, and I was so broken.
SPEAKER_00: And I just got honest with God and I said, I know it says in the Bible that your love is better than life, but I don't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I know that I'm supposed to love you the most, but I don't think I do.
SPEAKER_00: And I started this journey of just being honest with God again, and I didn't feel anything at the beginning, but he eventually met me right where I was, and he caused my heart to come alive again.
SPEAKER_00: And I think he wants to do that with the people in this room this morning.
SPEAKER_00: He wants your heart to come alive again.
SPEAKER_00: He wants you to feel his love and feel his presence, and he's going to breathe on you and give you desire for the things that he desires.
SPEAKER_00: And as we say yes to him and as we ask him to come, all of a sudden those worldly desires are gonna start to break off of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna feel a desire to love him again in a fresh way.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna feel a desire again to pursue holiness in a fresh way.
SPEAKER_00: David, can you just pray for them?
SPEAKER_05: One of the best things we can do is pray the word of God if we're unsure.
SPEAKER_05: This is Psalm 119, 33 through 40.
SPEAKER_05: It says, Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end.
SPEAKER_05: Give me understanding so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.
SPEAKER_05: Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
SPEAKER_05: Do you hear that part?
SPEAKER_05: Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, I pray that we would find delight in the path of your commands.
SPEAKER_05: I ask that we would turn our heart, Lord, to your statutes and not towards selfish gain, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Forgive us for the areas where our primary motivation, Lord, has been our self, our desires.
SPEAKER_05: Forgive us, Father, where we've been nearsighted and blind, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: We've been living for today, not recognizing tomorrow, is right around the corner.
SPEAKER_05: I ask, Father, whole I just ask, Father, that you'd give us your Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness.
SPEAKER_05: I pray that you'd strengthen us, Father.
SPEAKER_05: I pray that you'd bring revival in our lives, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: I pray life to the dead bones in our life.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, we're sorry for being fake with you.
SPEAKER_05: We're sorry for ignoring you.
SPEAKER_05: We're sorry for only coming to you when we want something.
SPEAKER_05: And we ask that this would be real.
SPEAKER_05: We ask that you'd help us.
SPEAKER_05: We ask that this would be real, our commitment to you, our life with you.
SPEAKER_05: And I ask that you'd help us not waste our life.
SPEAKER_05: And I ask you help all of us, Lord, to be productive and useful, Lord, in our knowledge of you.
SPEAKER_05: I want to break off a um, this is what I hear from Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: It's a vagabond spirit, and it's a wandering spirit.
SPEAKER_05: Um, this is something that it causes you always to be wandering, and you never get planted long enough to belong or to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_05: And this is birth from hurt.
SPEAKER_05: Understand the hurt of discouragement, the hurt of betrayal, the hurt of being overlooked, the hurt of plans that fail.
SPEAKER_05: It causes you to wander, and what you do is maybe you still go to church, but you never fully get planted in.
SPEAKER_05: It's always, I hop here, I hop here, and I'm never there long enough to belong.
SPEAKER_05: And the Lord is wanting a place for his people to have a home and a calling and a plan and a purpose.
SPEAKER_05: I just want to break this off in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: We rebuke you, you wandering spirit, but even we pray healing to the wandering heart because it's self-preservation.
SPEAKER_05: I would rather not get wounded.
SPEAKER_05: So, what is I'll keep everything shallow level.
SPEAKER_05: And when things start to get real, when things get hard, I'm gonna abandon ship.
SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna hide and I'm gonna go to big churches and hide in the big crowds.
SPEAKER_05: I break off a wandering spirit in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: I rebuke you and bind you, and I say, get off of them, and we speak the plans of God and the future of God over them in the mighty name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Do you have something else?
SPEAKER_00: I just just with all of this, I God is pricking hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's an odd word, but it's like He's just He's just causing your heart to be soft again.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, and I love being grounded in a church because we need that church community.
SPEAKER_00: I am so serious when I say this.
SPEAKER_00: You can get to a place in your life where that bondage is your testimony instead of your trial.
SPEAKER_00: You can get to a place genuinely where you're able to look back years from now and say, look what God did.
SPEAKER_00: He delivered me, he restored me, he set me free.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what we are contending for.
SPEAKER_00: That is what that is the testimony of Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Peter the hothead, who cussed people out, he was so vehement about his denial of Jesus, he started cussing too.
SPEAKER_00: But he came to a point in his life where his failure was not final, and God pulled him out of the Darkness into his purpose, and he was able to look back and say, I'm not that person who I used to be, and that's what God wants to do over you.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's testimony can be your testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Every person who had a moral failure in scripture when they repented and turned from God, there was a supernatural work where they were able to say, I am not that person anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I am not defined by my failures.
SPEAKER_00: I am not defined by my weakness.
SPEAKER_00: I am not defined by my past.
SPEAKER_00: And that same spirit is in the room today to set us free.
SPEAKER_00: You might be in the middle of a test and a trial, but I I hear this.
SPEAKER_00: It is time for that test and trial to become your testimony.
SPEAKER_00: And you are right on the verge to hang on.
SPEAKER_00: God is pricking hearts because he wants to set you free and sanctify you.
SPEAKER_00: Did you have something to come on out?
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_03: There's some of you in here that have a wrinkle in your life, a delay in your life, a disruption in your life.
SPEAKER_03: But wrinkles and delays and disruption does not change God's plan and purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_03: I see in the spirit, I see a train coming down the road.
SPEAKER_03: And it's still gonna reach its destination despite what's happening in your life.
SPEAKER_03: It does not matter.
SPEAKER_03: You hear me tonight, today?
SPEAKER_03: It does not matter what the wrinkles are, what the delays are, the train will be on time.
SPEAKER_03: You hear that?
SPEAKER_03: The train will be on time.
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: For thirty-something years, whenever God prophesies a train, I've heard it many times.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_02: Talking about people's trains, our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what the Lord would say The train is coming, but there's no baggage car on the train.
SPEAKER_04: You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
SPEAKER_04: Whom have I in heaven but you?
SPEAKER_04: And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
SPEAKER_04: My flesh and my heart may fail.
SPEAKER_04: But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
SPEAKER_04: Let this be an encouragement to you that everything that David talked about this morning is so right on.
SPEAKER_04: And it does depend on you to a certain degree.
SPEAKER_04: But this psalm tells me it depends on God.
SPEAKER_04: He is faithful.
SPEAKER_04: His faithfulness is what we can depend on to help us.
SPEAKER_04: All we have to do is to be willing.
SPEAKER_04: Let us have a willing heart.
SPEAKER_04: Let God be our strength and our portion.
SPEAKER_05: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Y'all doing good?
SPEAKER_05: Well, um, we're gonna be starting back.
SPEAKER_05: School, hooray.
SPEAKER_05: Um, we love you all very much.
SPEAKER_05: God is doing something in our church body, he's bringing um revival.
SPEAKER_05: And before I dismiss, uh let me go ahead and say this.
SPEAKER_05: We're gonna be starting Wednesday services back, probably like mid-August, but it's gonna be different before you clap.
SPEAKER_05: It's gonna be different.
SPEAKER_05: It's not gonna be this just open service for everyone, it's gonna be intentional, and this is a leading of the Lord, and I'll explain later.
SPEAKER_05: We're gonna have intentional equipping and training for different things.
SPEAKER_05: So there'll be like classes and stuff you can register for.
SPEAKER_05: There's gonna be worse production, but we're also gonna be doing outreach some on Wednesdays as well, and having people enter um do intercession while we're out there, you know, witnessing things like that.
SPEAKER_05: So it will be a little bit different.
SPEAKER_05: I'll give you some more, but that'll be happening around mid-August, okay?
SPEAKER_05: Listen, we love you all.
SPEAKER_05: We pray the peace and blessing of God over your life.
SPEAKER_05: Go have a wonderful week.
SPEAKER_05: Good luck and blessings on getting all the kids back in school and everything.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: Okay, see you all later.