SPEAKER_01: Hey, this is George Davis, and so glad to have you connected with us today.
SPEAKER_01: Do I have an amazing series that's gonna be a blessing to you?
SPEAKER_01: It's called Weapons of Mass Distraction.
SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't say weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass distraction.
SPEAKER_01: In this season, where I believe God wants us to have a fierce focus, the enemy of focus is distraction.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to walk you through and show what I believe are four of the greatest distractions that we face as Christians or just as people in general.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe if we can get our focus right, keep our eyes on Jesus and don't allow these distractions to take us off course.
SPEAKER_01: God's got some amazing things awaiting us in our future.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, one of the very reasons you know God's got something great is that the enemy's trying his best to take your eyes off of the future and look back to the past or look around at something else.
SPEAKER_01: So buckle up, get ready for an amazing word today, because this episode today, this uh portion day is gonna be a great blessing to you.
SPEAKER_01: All right, I got a really good word for you today.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to dive right into it.
SPEAKER_01: If you are here and you're one of our first-time guests, you're you're you're new to our church, we've been on a mission all year long.
SPEAKER_01: God gave us a word for this year that it's a year of fierce focus.
SPEAKER_01: And so we keep coming back around to this place.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I gotta make sure I stay focused.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of the things that we're on an assignment to do is to make sure that we clear the clutter out of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And we literally are just like a watchdog.
SPEAKER_01: We're paying attention to anything that shows up that could be a distraction.
SPEAKER_01: Can I add this?
SPEAKER_01: We're paying attention to anybody that shows up that could be a distraction.
SPEAKER_01: And we're just making a decision.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna be fooled by the devil dish, I'm not gonna be drawn off track, I'm not gonna be headed in the right direction for a while and then take off and go in the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_01: And part of the reason why is because God has promised to us that He's got some amazing things just around the corner and we can't afford to mess it up.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, can I get an amen to that?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody believe that God's got some amazing things just around the corner?
SPEAKER_01: I say, anybody believe that God's got some amazing things just around the corner?
SPEAKER_01: Can anybody believe this?
SPEAKER_01: If God's got something amazing right around the corner, the devil's gonna try everything he can to get you to turn the corner.
SPEAKER_01: He don't want you to end up where you're supposed to be, so he's gonna be trying everything he can.
SPEAKER_01: The other reason why we're staying focused is because we do believe the enemy is plotting our destruction.
SPEAKER_01: He's every day, he's plotting our downfall, and I just make a decision, I'm not gonna give him any territory.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just deciding the devil's not messing my life up because I voluntarily signed up for it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm staying on point, staying focused.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's your declaration, I want you to lift one hand towards heaven, and I want you to make this confession.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I will not be ignorant of Satan's devices.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I choose to give him no space in my life, and I resist every opportunity he throws my way to be distracted.
SPEAKER_01: Say this.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, I fix my eyes on the miracle God has in front of me, and I run my race like a horse with blinders on to ensure I won't be pulled to the left or the right.
SPEAKER_01: I will hit the bullseye.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, I will hit the bullseye.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, I will hit the bullseye and stay fiercely focused on the prize.
SPEAKER_01: If you really believe that, come on, give God a shout of praise.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, if you really believe that, give him a shout.
SPEAKER_01: I'm staying on point, staying focused.
SPEAKER_01: And and I on purpose put that line in there that I'm not just gonna stay focused, I'm gonna stay focused like a horse with blinders on.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever seen a horse running into Derby, Kentucky Derby, or the Preakness, or if you've been out in a park or New York and you see the horse-drawn carriages, they always have blinders on those horses.
SPEAKER_01: And I like to do research.
SPEAKER_01: I went to study it out.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of knew the answer that they don't want them to get distracted, but I want to look up and see what's the real reason behind it.
SPEAKER_01: It's because horses, the way their eyes are set up, they have what almost 360 degree radius.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if I'm looking straight ahead, like you're looking straight ahead, I can see some things out of my peripheral on this side and that side, but I can't see what's going on behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Horses have a vision where they can see almost 360 degrees behind them.
SPEAKER_01: And the danger that may that sounds impressive, but the danger is if you're running full speed ahead in a race and one of your eyes not going back here, or you're carrying some precious cargo in a carriage, and you're supposed to be focused in on what's ahead, and you start drifting behind, and you see something, the horse sees something that spooks it, or sees something that distracts it, it could end up causing harm to the horse or harm to whatever the people are that around it.
SPEAKER_01: So just like the horse, God is saying to us, I need you to put blinders on.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to only look ahead at what I have in store and don't allow yourself to get distracted.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, now last week, if you were here, we we started this off talking about a story over in Matthew chapter 14, where the disciples of Jesus are in a boat, they're trying to travel to the other side, but Jesus shows up and they end up in a storm and the wind is blowing, the waves are crashing, and Jesus comes out there to them walking on the water.
SPEAKER_01: The miracle he's walking on the water.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter looks at him and he says, If that's really you, Jesus, tell me to get out of this boat and walk out there to you on the water.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gave him one word.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Come.
SPEAKER_01: Peter steps out of the boat and is literally walking on the water to go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody shout, Peter's walking in a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: No, you didn't shout.
SPEAKER_01: Shout Peter's walking in a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's walking in a miracle and he's headed toward Jesus, but then he gets distracted.
SPEAKER_01: He gets distracted because he's looking at the results of the wind blowing.
SPEAKER_01: He's listening to the waves crashing all around him.
SPEAKER_01: And because he got his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the circumstance, he started to sink and his miracle was falling behind.
SPEAKER_01: Thing I love about God, though, is even when we start sinking, God will still reach out and grab us right where we are.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus reached out, he grabs him and pulls him back into his miracle.
SPEAKER_01: When I told you last week, the primary reason that allows any of us to get tripped up by distractions is when we take our eyes off of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I go so far as I say it's impossible to get distracted with our eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice I didn't say as long as we come to church, we're gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_01: Because the truth of the matter is, you can come to church and still not have your eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Truth of the matter is you can still be serving in church and not have your eyes on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Can I take it a step further?
SPEAKER_01: You can be standing on a stage preaching to everybody else and still not have God as your priority anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It happens all the time.
SPEAKER_01: People get to the place where God used to be their priority.
SPEAKER_01: They used to care about people, then they get caught in money, get caught in pride, get caught in the fame and success of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not enough just to be in the building around the stuff.
SPEAKER_01: We have to make sure in our lives that every single day we just do an audit to make sure there's nothing and nobody that's starting to compete with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get a good amen somebody?
SPEAKER_01: Now we've I told you that there are four different weapons that I believe the enemy uses to distract the masses.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I could easily give you 15 weapons, but there are four in particular that I think he uses against all of us at different times.
SPEAKER_01: And last week we told you about this concept called the strange woman or the strange man.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody run into a strange woman or a strange man this week?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone realize you actually might be that strange man we're talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we told you this concept about the strange man or the strange woman that's all throughout the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: King Solomon is the one who's credited with writing the book of Proverbs, and not once or twice, but listen, eight different times he warns us about the strange woman.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't mean he gave us a scripture here, there, eight different times in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: It's only 31 chapters, eight different times he gives us long passages telling us what she looks like, how to avoid her, what she's gonna try to do, what the end result's gonna be.
SPEAKER_01: Which means, watch this, he is well versed in understanding the dangers of the strange woman.
SPEAKER_01: The crazy part is he warned us and then didn't take his own advice.
SPEAKER_01: The man ended up having 700 wives and 300 concubines, girlfriends.
SPEAKER_01: That's a thousand women.
SPEAKER_01: Every time a woman walked by someone, 700 wives, 300 concubines, let watch it.
SPEAKER_01: Yet he had the wisdom to tell us that getting caught up with the wrong woman can mess your life up.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to teach you a lesson right here.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, here's a lesson.
SPEAKER_01: We don't get credit for simply knowing the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Our lives are only transformed when we govern them by the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Not enough to spat.
SPEAKER_01: I can I can quote scripture, I can tell you all that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I don't get credit for just what I know.
SPEAKER_01: I get credit for what I know and do.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, that means I gotta I gotta not just be a hearer of the word, I gotta be a doer of the word.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Every time, hear me out.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you show up at church, every time God puts you in a position to receive the word, we should always hear the word through this filter.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, what is it you need me to know about this word?
SPEAKER_01: Now don't sit and listen to the word for your neighbor or so-and-so really need to be here for this.
SPEAKER_01: Every time we hear the word, we need to hear it, asking ourselves a question, Lord, what about me do I need to adjust?
SPEAKER_01: Now there's there's some message that hits you right between the eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Some of them may not be right for you, but there's still a lesson in there that we can learn.
SPEAKER_01: But we gotta always have the mindset when I leave here today, I'm going to not just hear a good word, I'm walking out of here to do something with that good word.
SPEAKER_01: One of why I says last week when we talked about the strange man or woman, that dealt with distractions that come from the outside.
SPEAKER_01: And I warned you about paying attention to the distractions coming from the outside.
SPEAKER_01: This week, however, I want to address a distraction that doesn't come from the outside, it comes from the inside through emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: Emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me just set you free because I want you to think here that we're just talking about your situation.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have some emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: All of us, if you're more than a year and a half old, you got some emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: Because intentionally, accidentally, just walking through life, we have the potential to pick up some emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing, though, we don't always realize the price of carrying that emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: That's why God is constantly working with us to get us healed, to let us bring these things to the altar, let us know God, find some freedom, because He doesn't want us to let all this emotional baggage sabotage our relationship, distort who He really created us to be, because there's a price tag for carrying that extra baggage.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like what happens when you know you've probably been here with you at the airport and you stand in line to get ready to check your bag and get on the plane and you're standing behind this one person, they get to the, they're getting ready to go to the counter, and you can look at that bag, you say, Oh, that bag heavy.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, sometimes you get to see that bag heavy, even with the way they're pulling it.
SPEAKER_01: And then they got the little expanded zipper thing, it's already out, it's bulging.
SPEAKER_01: When they get to the front, they tell them put a ball, put put your bag up here on the scale, and they do this boom, and they put it up there, and you see that little scale thing, it's going 71 pounds.
SPEAKER_01: Then they try to flex a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, don't worry about it, I'll just pay the extra cost for it.
SPEAKER_01: I I need all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Then all of a sudden they tell them$200.
SPEAKER_01: Then you know what happens later, they lay that thing down, they unzip, they they don't care, they don't care who's around, they're pulling drawers out of there and shoes out of there, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because I said all of a sudden, when I start realizing what it costs me to have this extra baggage, it was all fun and game, so I realized it's costing me now.
SPEAKER_01: And just like that, watch that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, it's costing us to walk around with all this extra emotional baggage and not bringing it to the altar to be honest about it and letting God heal our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Give me an amen, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What's the cause?
SPEAKER_01: This is this is one of them right here.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot move forward while we're dragging unresolved pain from the past.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot move forward while we're dragging unresolved emotional pain.
SPEAKER_01: While I'm pulling all this pain from the past is going to slow me down from moving forward with God.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 12, 1 says it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down.
SPEAKER_01: Especially, watch this, the sin that so easily trips us up.
SPEAKER_01: And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible here, the writer of Hebrews, is describing this life that we live like a race.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells us in this race called life that there are two different types of distractions that he uses here that can trip us up.
SPEAKER_01: One of them he calls just the sin that so easily trips us up.
SPEAKER_01: And if I can describe what that really is, it's having an understanding that every one of us in here, including me at the stage, you on the back row, you in the overflow room, you on online, every one of us has an area or two in our lives where we are more vulnerable than other areas.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear me out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that you gotta keep messing up in that area.
SPEAKER_01: It can't be, well, I just more vulnerable in there.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I keep messing up.
SPEAKER_01: It can be an area that we're more vulnerable in, but we don't have to give in to it.
SPEAKER_01: It can be an area that we're more vulnerable to, but we don't have to struggle with it.
SPEAKER_01: It can be an area in our lives like sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: It could be pride.
SPEAKER_01: Your issue might be anger.
SPEAKER_01: Your issue might be I would never fall into sexual temptation, but you gossip.
SPEAKER_01: You like to talk about stuff you got no business talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Your area might not be any of those, but maybe you complain a lot.
SPEAKER_01: You're always murmuring, you're always fault-finding, always finding the negative thing.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe your area of greater temptation is, you know, I would never do any of those things.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I keep myself pure, but you're a lie in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Let somebody back you into a corner, you don't feel like you got a way out.
SPEAKER_01: Boop, just pop out a good lie.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's not lying, it's deception.
SPEAKER_01: You know what deception is deception.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't say it actually, but I said enough to leave you thinking this is what it was.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's stealing or thievery, just taking little things that don't belong to you.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is, I'm not trying to judge you because I got my own areas.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is every one of us in here has an area in our life that we tend to be more vulnerable to.
SPEAKER_01: And what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: It means, watch this, when you when you're honest enough to identify your area, you have to recognize I can't play with that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't toy around with that, I don't give any room to the devil because that is for me the sin that can so easily trip me up if I give the devil space.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the other area he said, or other distraction he said, is something called the weight that slows us down.
SPEAKER_01: Which means it's not a sin, but it's a weight.
SPEAKER_01: It's a weight that slows us down and stops us from operating at our God pace.
SPEAKER_01: God has a pace he wants us to run in his life.
SPEAKER_01: He's got things he wants us to accomplish, places he wants us to go.
SPEAKER_01: And if we don't watch it, there are weights and things that can hold us down.
SPEAKER_01: It's baggage.
SPEAKER_01: And we've just been living our lives for so long, and we get hurt, we get offended, we get wounded, and before we know it, we we picked up some emotional baggage.
SPEAKER_01: And at first it doesn't really bother us, it doesn't really distort anything because it's just a little bag, and I can still move at a good pace.
SPEAKER_01: But the problem is when I keep living my life like that and I keep picking up more baggage, I quit a job and they they didn't do me like I thought they should have.
SPEAKER_01: And before I know it, I don't resolve that right.
SPEAKER_01: I got more baggage.
SPEAKER_01: Then you look up, and man, me and my best friend had a fallen out.
SPEAKER_01: Then you look up and I had a loved one that passed away.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm in my 30s and my 40s, and I don't even realize it, but my whole personality has changed because I'm carrying around all this extra weight.
SPEAKER_01: Then before you know it, I just start collecting stuff I wasn't even trying to collect.
SPEAKER_01: And I look up and I got more baggage, and then I'm trying to run my race.
SPEAKER_01: I'm praying all these prayers that don't seem to be answered, things seem to not be working out for me, and I'm mad at God blaming everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: But the real problem is you've gotten saddled down with all this extra emotional baggage and weight.
SPEAKER_01: And until you make a decision to go to baggage claims and reckon I got the wrong bag.
SPEAKER_01: That ain't even my bag.
SPEAKER_01: And start getting, come on, getting rid of some of this stuff that God never intended for you to have.
SPEAKER_01: Once we start to unload all that extra emotional baggage, now we can get back to what God really wants to do in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to give God a good shout and the praise right there.
SPEAKER_01: So now there's several different types of emotional baggage I can talk about, but there are four in particular that I really do believe that the enemy uses to bring distraction to the masses.
SPEAKER_01: The first piece of emotional baggage is something called disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: Disappointment is when life didn't turn out the way you expected.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't watch, we can find ourselves carrying around the baggage of disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't watch, we can we can be saddled.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even see it, but every the way you look at life, everybody else can see disappointment all over you.
SPEAKER_01: Your language has changed, your expectations have changed, the way you talk about other people, even try to discourage them for it might not work.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I wouldn't get too excited about that because it might, but that's not really you talking, that's disappointment talking.
SPEAKER_01: People be quick to tell you how your dream can't work.
SPEAKER_01: Well, just because you didn't do it don't mean I can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: You still there or you gone home already?
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me define again for you what disappointment is.
SPEAKER_01: Disappointment is the gap between what I expected, what I hoped for, what I believe was gonna happen, and the reality of how things actually turned out.
SPEAKER_01: That's the gap.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us experiences it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes there's a little disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: You go to a restaurant, everybody hypes it up, says how good it's gonna be, and you had your expectation here, then the food wasn't that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: Girl, that way that food wasn't even nothing, nothing like they said.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe the food was good, but the service was bad.
SPEAKER_01: Well, see, that that's a little disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: We can shake that off.
SPEAKER_01: But what about when you look up and you're 37 and you thought by now I'd be married, and I plan this out, I have kids already in.
SPEAKER_01: And then you know you start looking around and your girlfriend has gotten married, and this friend's got married, and you thought we'd be raising our kids together, and and the enemy starts whispering in your ear, telling you that it's never gonna work out for you.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, if you if you don't watch it, come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't watch it, the distance between what you thought, how you felt, what you believed for, and what your reality is right now can become a gulf.
SPEAKER_01: And if you start focusing so much on what you don't have yet, what hasn't worked out yet, it can absolutely change your expectation.
SPEAKER_01: And if we don't pay attention to it and do something about it, disappointment ends up being so dangerous because disappointment will quietly reshape your expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says this in Proverbs 13:12.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When hope is crushed, your whole heart gets crushed.
SPEAKER_01: But a wish come true can fill you with joy.
SPEAKER_01: That's God.
SPEAKER_01: I like this one from the message Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Unrelenting disappointment will leave you heartsick.
SPEAKER_01: Watch this, but a sudden good break can turn your whole life around.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I had somebody in here that believed that God actually knows how to bring a sudden good break.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, I didn't say an eventual good break, I mean a sudden good break.
SPEAKER_01: I wish somebody had enough faith and confidence in God that even if you're sitting in the middle of some disappointment right now, you got the belief in your heart that God could step in at any given moment.
SPEAKER_01: He could turn that around even before this year is out.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: I wish somebody believed that before this afternoon that God could step in and do a miracle for you.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing that has had you sad could turn around and you can now become glad.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that had you down in the dump, you can begin to shout and rejoice because your God is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: See, sometimes we get stuck coming to church and I'm waiting on a word.
SPEAKER_01: You got a word already.
SPEAKER_01: You know what you need to do now?
SPEAKER_01: Stir your behind up.
SPEAKER_01: You need to make yourself believe, like David said.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my soul, put your trust in God.
SPEAKER_01: You need to remind yourself I served a God who opens red seas, I serve a God who sends manna from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I served a God who protects his people.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: You can get so stuck with your eyes on what hasn't worked that you forget God has still been good to you.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I think about 15 people ought to jump up and give God a hallelujah, anyhow.
SPEAKER_01: I said a hallelujah, anyhow.
SPEAKER_01: Even when it hasn't worked out, I still praise you.
SPEAKER_01: I will bless the Lord at all times.
SPEAKER_01: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you dare let the devil poke you out and make you get quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're looking at what hasn't worked out when God's been blessing you and keeping you and providing for you and protecting you.
SPEAKER_01: Stir yourself up.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing you can afford to do is wait for your circumstances to change for you to finally get happy.
SPEAKER_01: No, it don't take any faith to wait till you see something.
SPEAKER_01: It takes faith to praise God when I have no idea.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have an idea how he's gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: But I still believe him.
SPEAKER_01: Give me an amen, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: See, the thing about disappointment is that disappointment is always trying to stir you up to action.
SPEAKER_01: It wants to stir your emotion to make you move and do something in a fit of emotion.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Never trust yourself to make a life-altering decision during a season of emotional pain.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going through emotional pain, you need to say, I don't trust myself, I don't trust myself right now.
SPEAKER_01: I don't trust myself.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm too emotional, I'm too sad right now, I'm too hurt right now.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the time to change jobs.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the time to I heard the Lord say Moose.
SPEAKER_01: No, you didn't know it was your pain talking.
SPEAKER_01: You're trying to run from the pain.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the time to jump into a rebound relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what's when you're when you're in pain, that's a time to sit still and let God do what only God can do to heal your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The story over in the Bible, well, all of us know about King David, but before he became King David, he was a little shepherd boy, David.
SPEAKER_01: One day he comes out to the battlefield and he sees this nine-foot-plus tall giant who's challenging the armies of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's willing to fight him.
SPEAKER_01: And David said, I'll fight him.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God helped me kill a lion and a bear.
SPEAKER_01: I think he'll help me here too.
SPEAKER_01: And then David overheard, he said, he heard overheard people talking about what would happen to the guy that killed Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: And then they said that they'll be free and they'll they won't have his house won't have to pay taxes.
SPEAKER_01: But then they said something that really got David's attention.
SPEAKER_01: They say, Whoever kills the Goliath is gonna be able to marry the king's daughter.
SPEAKER_01: David said, What?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be in the royal family.
SPEAKER_01: So you know the story, David goes out and he kills Goliath, and Saul gives him his daughter Macal, M-I-C-H-L, Macal, to marry her.
SPEAKER_01: And from the beginning, it looks like they're gonna be had this happily ever after.
SPEAKER_01: Two young people get married, and you know they seem to be in love with each other.
SPEAKER_01: But then something happens because King Saul was struggling in his own emotional issues.
SPEAKER_01: And because he's struggling with his own emotional issues, he's constantly trying to kill David.
SPEAKER_01: He's chasing David.
SPEAKER_01: David ends up on the run, running from Saul for his life.
SPEAKER_01: He refuses to dishonor Saul.
SPEAKER_01: So David's been a man of integrity, but Saul just trying to get back at David.
SPEAKER_01: Said, I know how to get him.
SPEAKER_01: So I gave him my daughter, but I'm gonna take her back.
SPEAKER_01: He takes his daughter back from David and then gives her to another man that she wasn't even in love with.
SPEAKER_01: So now this young girl that was bright-eyed, optimistic, believes she had the whole world ahead of her, all of a sudden now she's been taken from her husband, disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: She's been given to some other man, disappointed, and it starts to change who she is.
SPEAKER_01: Then if that's to make matters worse, her dad and brothers go out to battle one day, they all get killed.
SPEAKER_01: David comes, takes over, and becomes a new king.
SPEAKER_01: And when the first thing David says, I'm going back to get my bride.
SPEAKER_01: He goes back looking for Mikhail.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is though, watch this because disappointment has kicked in, she's a different Mikkel.
SPEAKER_01: The woman that he goes back to get is no longer optimistic, no longer believes we can conquer the world, no longer sees how great God can be in spite of what we've gone through.
SPEAKER_01: Now she's pessimistic, she's negative, she's sarcastic, she's jealous.
SPEAKER_01: And David has a totally different woman because disappointment has reshaped her expectation.
SPEAKER_01: One day David goes out and the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the anointing and the power of God, this box that they had.
SPEAKER_01: And the Ark of Covenant had been taken away.
SPEAKER_01: David finds out where it is, he goes to retrieve it.
SPEAKER_01: He goes with all his folks to retrieve it, and he's got the anointing.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to understand, when the anointing of God shows up in your life, it can fix anything that needs to be fixed.
SPEAKER_01: So David is thrilled, man, because he's no, I'm picking up the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_01: If I can get this back to my house, it's getting ready to change some stuff.
SPEAKER_01: So as he's marching back with the Ark of the Covenant, every few feet, he stops, he starts dancing and praising God.
SPEAKER_01: He's dancing so hard that his outer garment, his kingly garment on the outside, it comes off.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't even bother to put it back on because he's not focused on appearances.
SPEAKER_01: He's just concerned about praising God.
SPEAKER_01: He's praising God all the way every few feet till he gets back home.
SPEAKER_01: And you would think that his wife should have been out there praising God with him.
SPEAKER_01: You would think that she would have been out there marching alongside of him.
SPEAKER_01: Every time he breaks out into a dance, she starts dancing too.
SPEAKER_01: Look at my baby, we're dancing together.
SPEAKER_01: But instead, she's at home because she's bitter and disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: She's looking out the window, and this is what she says.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the king out there acting a fool and dancing in front of all those women.
SPEAKER_01: David's like, What?
SPEAKER_01: You think I was dancing to impress these women?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I was dancing to praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said this, if that bothers you, you ain't seen nothing yet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm really getting ready to cut her up.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you go back and read it, um I'm paraphrasing.
SPEAKER_01: You read the story, some of the saddest words you will ever hear in your life.
SPEAKER_01: It says, From that day on, Mikal never had a child.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't because God struck her barren, it's because all that disappointment had tainted her heart.
SPEAKER_01: See, when we when hear me out, that's why the devil is fighting so hard to get you to keep your mind on what hasn't worked out.
SPEAKER_01: Because if the devil can keep your mind on what hasn't worked out, it can poison the well of your ability to trust God for new stuff.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to know, hear me out, just because it hasn't worked out yet doesn't mean it's not still gonna work out.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so I says, even if it ends up working out in a different way than what you thought, God's got a million and one ways to still bless your life.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, give him a praise in this place, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a second emotional baggage that that can straddle us sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: It's this thing called grief.
SPEAKER_01: Grief is when you've lost something or someone that is significant.
SPEAKER_01: Grief is a real one, man, because it's hard for all of us to wrestle with this thing called grief.
SPEAKER_01: And grief doesn't just pertain to the death of a loved one, it really can be tied to any significant loss.
SPEAKER_01: Grief is literally what happens when something meaningful is taken away from us and our heart doesn't know what to do with the absence.
SPEAKER_01: There's something that's been there, something significant, and it gets taken away, it gets snatched away, it gets lost, whatever the reason.
SPEAKER_01: And now I got this void in my heart and I don't know what to do with this.
SPEAKER_01: And it caused such an ache and such a pain that if we don't handle it the right way, it can mess us up moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: What makes grief so dangerous is that if it doesn't get properly processed, it will get improperly stored.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think dude.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think through.
SPEAKER_01: Is there anything in your life right now that you've been grieving?
SPEAKER_01: Is there somebody you've been grieving?
SPEAKER_01: It's natural.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think something's wrong with you.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm saying we gotta process it the right way because if we don't process it properly, we will store it improperly.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 34, 18 says, The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.
SPEAKER_01: What are you saying, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying God is not intimidated by our pain.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, he's drawn toward our pain, but we gotta be willing, watch this, to yield that pain to him.
SPEAKER_01: Got to be willing to yield it to him.
SPEAKER_01: See, understand this, understand this.
SPEAKER_01: When God was creating Adam and Eve, he's putting all the emotions inside of them to deal with life and to deal with marriage and to deal with children and to deal with expanding the garden, all the stuff he told them to do and dominating and the emotions that Adam needed to sit there all day long and name the animals.
SPEAKER_01: He gave them everything they needed to do all those things, all the emotional ability.
SPEAKER_01: They they can handle that.
SPEAKER_01: What he did not give them though was the emotions that were needed to deal with death.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't give them the emotions that they needed to properly process death.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: He never planned for man to die.
SPEAKER_01: He's all knowing, so he knew man would die, but he never gave us the emotional capacity to handle loss and grief and the pain that comes with it.
SPEAKER_01: Which means this anytime we find ourselves in a posture of grief, the only way to handle it and process it right is we got to take it back to God.
SPEAKER_01: If we ever try to sit in ourselves and I'm gonna handle this my own way, I'm gonna drink myself out of this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just sleep myself out of this, I'm gonna just be reckless for a little bit and live life like I want to.
SPEAKER_01: If we don't process it right, we're gonna store it in the wrong place.
SPEAKER_01: So, so how do we we do this?
SPEAKER_01: We gotta recognize this that God does not rush us through the process of grief, but he also doesn't want us to build a house right there in our grief.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: How do we process grief the right way?
SPEAKER_01: First of all, we gotta acknowledge it.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta be honest about the pain.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going through grief right now, don't feel like a person of faith or you're the rock in the family.
SPEAKER_01: So I gotta make sure I let everybody know I'm okay.
SPEAKER_01: Stop pretending that it doesn't hurt.
SPEAKER_01: If we're gonna process it right, stop minimizing it.
SPEAKER_01: Stop saying I'm good if you're really not good.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God cannot heal the version of you that you keep hiding.
SPEAKER_01: If you keep hiding the real pain, how can God heal something that you won't even acknowledge exists?
SPEAKER_01: Second thing you gotta do after we acknowledge it, you gotta be willing to release it.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta give it to God instead of holding on to it.
SPEAKER_01: How do I do that?
SPEAKER_01: You got to pray it out.
SPEAKER_01: Get here on Saturday morning prayer, get into your prayer time, pray it out, hear me out.
SPEAKER_01: If you have to, cry it out.
SPEAKER_01: Get around some good community, people that love you enough to know the word of God and it'll help you to talk it out.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I highly recommend if you're a member of this church, take advantage of our counseling center, take advantage of being a part of a small group.
SPEAKER_01: Go to our celebrate recovery on Tuesday nights.
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a vehicle that allows you to open up your mouth and stop holding on to that thing all by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: One of the worst things you can do is try to hold on to it.
SPEAKER_01: And I've seen this happen, man.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen people that have lost a loved one, and every year when their mom's birthday comes around or Mother's Day comes around, Christmas comes around, the anniversary when they passed away comes around.
SPEAKER_01: I used to be this person.
SPEAKER_01: We get sad.
SPEAKER_01: I used to get sad for weeks leading up to my grandmother's birthday, weeks leading up to the day she passed, weeks coming out of Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_01: I looked up and over the year I was giving away literally weeks of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And even when people would try to give me scripture, try to help me, watch this.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really want to let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm trying to help somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Without realizing it, I thought I was honoring her death by still being sad.
SPEAKER_01: I actually felt like, man, I can't be happy on her birthday.
SPEAKER_01: And because if I am in a minute, then maybe that means I didn't really love her like I thought.
SPEAKER_01: And the truth of the matter is, especially if your loved one knew the Lord, they're in heaven right now.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing they would want is you sitting around on their birthday and on the day they passed away, and you letting it make you sad.
SPEAKER_01: Is there some sadness there?
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
SPEAKER_01: But if we process it the right way, every year it ought to get incrementally better.
SPEAKER_01: And the only way that happens, we gotta be willing to release it to God.
SPEAKER_01: Then the third thing we gotta do, if we're gonna heal from it, we've got to reframe that thing.
SPEAKER_01: Let God redeem the story.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Stop asking the question, God, why'd you let this happen?
SPEAKER_01: Why can mess your mind up?
SPEAKER_01: Stop asking the question, what could I have done differently?
SPEAKER_01: What should we be asking?
SPEAKER_01: Ask this question, God, how can you use this for your glory?
SPEAKER_01: And how can you use this to help me grow?
SPEAKER_01: I know you didn't do it, God, but how can you use this to help me grow?
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8 28 says, We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a third piece of baggage that we tend to carry around.
SPEAKER_01: It's this baggage called offense.
SPEAKER_01: When somebody has done you wrong, and you standing on business, and the danger with offense is that we feel justified.
SPEAKER_01: They did me wrong.
SPEAKER_01: They shouldn't have said that to me, shouldn't have done that to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm singing my somebody done me wrong song.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't watch it, we can get so fixated on being angry, being mad at what they did.
SPEAKER_01: They shouldn't have said that, they shouldn't have done that, that it starts to taint our heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna walk you through this because I want you to understand it's not just a bad thing to be offended, it's a dangerous thing to be offended.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 17, 1 said, He said to the disciples, it is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: As long as we are living in community with people, it is going to be impossible to avoid all opportunities to be offended.
SPEAKER_01: If you're living with around at least one other person, ain't married people can say, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Or you're gonna you're gonna have a chance to be offended if there's at least one other people, the person around you.
SPEAKER_01: There's some of you, you you're so different, even if you're by yourself, you might get offended too by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You might look in a mirror and get mad, get mad at yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Have a whole argument in the mirror by yourself.
SPEAKER_01: See, opportunities to be offended are inevitable, but living offended is optional.
SPEAKER_01: Every day you get up, you don't have a chance to be offended.
SPEAKER_01: In traffic at work, family members, we got chances, but living in offense is optional.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 18 19 says it is harder to win back the friendship of an offended brother than to capture a fortified city.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because his anger will shut you out like iron bars.
SPEAKER_01: Understand this offense is dangerous, and living offended, watch this, it has a price tag.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna share with you a little bit about what that price tag is.
SPEAKER_01: But when we find ourselves offended, it often causes us to do things like leave good churches.
SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you how many people left here.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't mad at me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I the word, they love the word, but they let themselves get offended.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of working through the offense, they let offense move them emotionally and they took off.
SPEAKER_01: It'll cause you to quit on good relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Offense will cause you to withdraw from people who didn't even hurt you.
SPEAKER_01: It'll make you build walls instead of bridges, assume the worst about other people's intentions, end up rehearsing the hurt over and over, sabotage healthy relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Offense will make you stay connected to pain longer than you needed to.
SPEAKER_01: It'll make you miss God's voice because you're so focused on what they did to you.
SPEAKER_01: And often, sometimes, hear it out, will open the door for the enemy to attack our lives in ways he would have never had a foothold in.
SPEAKER_01: Can I tell you that's really the goal?
SPEAKER_01: Is that the enemy's trying to get you so messed up with what they did to you that he's trying to get in and have a doorway?
SPEAKER_01: See, I've said this for years.
SPEAKER_01: If the devil cannot get you to sin, the next thing he'll try is to get somebody else to sin against you.
SPEAKER_01: First, he'll try you, he'll try to bait you out with strange woman, strange man, get you to mess it up.
SPEAKER_01: But if you lock that area up, I'm not, I'm not going there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm done living that life.
SPEAKER_01: Next thing he'll do is try to get somebody to sin against you.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody to hurt you, somebody to do you wrong, somebody to talk about you, somebody to write something about you, somebody to post something about you, somebody to misunderstand you.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he can get you now over into offense, now you've opened up a back door for him to come in and do what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_01: There's a story over in the book of Matthew, uh, Matthew chapter 11, a guy by the name of John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: And he's actually Jesus' cousin.
SPEAKER_01: And uh his parents gave birth to him when they were well in age, and God came in and miraculously caused his mom to get pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: And six months into her pregnancy, the angel Gabriel came to a young virgin girl named Mary and announced to her that you're gonna have a baby, even though you've never had sex with a man.
SPEAKER_01: And when she when he finishes telling her, the first thing she does, she gets up, she goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_01: And when she walks in the door, Elizabeth, who's pregnant with John the Baptist, the Bible says he started turning flips on the inside of her stomach the moment he heard Mary's voice.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I telling you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because even when John the Baptist was in the womb, he knew who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to put a marker there.
SPEAKER_01: Even when he's in the womb, he hasn't even come out the womb yet, and he already responds because he knows who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Well then, the Bible says this in Luke chapter 2, chapter 11, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 11, 2, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: When John had heard in prison, everybody shout in prison.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, say it again, shout in prison.
SPEAKER_01: When he heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, Are you the one that's coming?
SPEAKER_01: Are you the Messiah or should we just go ahead and look for somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered and said to them, Go tell John.
SPEAKER_01: Now the King James Version says, Go tell John again.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we already had this conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Go tell John again the things that you hear and see.
SPEAKER_01: Tell them that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preach to them.
SPEAKER_01: And then he has this really weird line right here.
SPEAKER_01: And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.
unknown: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: They come and ask John's disciples, his followers, come and ask Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Uh John told us to come and ask, Are you the one that's supposed to be coming?
SPEAKER_01: Or should we look for somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: Notice Jesus and say, Oh, yeah, please, please make sure John knows I'm the one.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Go and tell them the blind see, the deaf hear, lame are walking, dead are being raised up, the poor have the gospel preach to them.
SPEAKER_01: And make sure you tell John this the person that doesn't let himself get offended because of me is gonna be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: The opposite is if John sits there and lets himself be offended, he's not gonna have the blessings, he's gonna probably mess some stuff up in his life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me tell you what happened.
SPEAKER_01: John is in prison.
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison because Herod Antipas has married his brother Philip's wife, and John has come and told him that it was illegal.
SPEAKER_01: It's not right for you to have your brother's wife.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Herodias didn't like it.
SPEAKER_01: So Herod Antipas throws John in prison, and then one day he has this drunken party.
SPEAKER_01: He throws his big party, everybody's drunk.
SPEAKER_01: And Herodias has a daughter, and the daughter comes and she dances for Herod Antipas.
SPEAKER_01: And she danced, I don't know what the dance was, but I don't even want to know because it's a distraction.
SPEAKER_01: Because whatever the dance was, Herod said, Girl, you do that dance one more again.
SPEAKER_01: I will give you whatever you ask for, up to half my kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of a dance could it have been?
SPEAKER_01: That'll make a man, make a man promise half of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody shout, that's a dance right there, right?
SPEAKER_01: She dances for him.
SPEAKER_01: And Herodias had already told her daughter, if he asks you what you want, tell him you want John the Baptist's head cut off and brought in here on a plate.
SPEAKER_01: True story.
SPEAKER_01: He sends the executioner, cuts off John's head, and they put it on a plate, a platter.
SPEAKER_01: And they come out, I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_01: They walk around and parade.
SPEAKER_01: His head, blood, guts, his head on a platter.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what I didn't tell you is that Jesus had previously said, Of all the men born on planet earth through the womb of a woman, there has never been anybody greater than John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing if I come up with that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said it.
SPEAKER_01: You know what Jesus was saying?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was saying John the Baptist was greater than Moses and Noah and Elijah and Elisha and Daniel and Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: He's greater than all of them.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the question: How does a guy that Jesus says is the greatest man ever born ends up dying with his head cut off, embarrassed at a party?
SPEAKER_01: Because we do we do know God knows how to rescue you if you're in prison, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because when when Daniel was in the lion's den, didn't God show up?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, when the three Hebrew boys were in the fiery furnace, didn't God show up?
SPEAKER_01: When Peter was getting ready to be killed the next day and he was in prison, didn't God show up in the middle of the night and break him free?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, man, when Paul and Silas were in jail at midnight because they weren't complaining and offended, they were praising God.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't God show up to set them free?
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: How does John the Baptist end up with his head cut off?
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you how he got offended and he wouldn't fix it.
SPEAKER_01: What is he offended about?
SPEAKER_01: He's offended because he knows who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Three different times in the book of John when Jesus is walking toward him, John chapter 1, chapter 2, he saw Jesus come.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: The next day he got up again and said, Oh, behold the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_01: Since he was a baby in the womb, he knew who Jesus was.
SPEAKER_01: Why is he asking this question now?
SPEAKER_01: Because he's in prison and Jesus is not doing anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that where offense comes from?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's not doing what we thought they should have done.
SPEAKER_01: He's expecting that Jesus should go ahead and establish your political kingdom and come on, go ahead and put together a group of zealots together and break me out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And because his disciples come to visit him and say, Well, what is Jesus doing?
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's out there praying for people, and he had another speech out there on the mountain talking about beatitudes.
SPEAKER_01: He's not doing, watch this, what John thought when he thought it.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of John saying, Lord, search my heart, he's mad because Jesus didn't do what he wanted him to do.
SPEAKER_01: How many times do we get offended because we can't manipulate somebody else to do what we want them to do when we want them to do it?
SPEAKER_01: And all I'm telling you here, here, here it is that offense is not something you can just sit in without it corrupting your heart and maybe infiltrating areas of your life where the devil might now have a foothold that you didn't plan for to have.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just hear me out.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just come to church lifting your hands, singing all these songs, and there's people you don't even speak to in your church.
SPEAKER_01: And then you're proud of them.
SPEAKER_01: I don't fool with them no more.
SPEAKER_01: And can walk right past them in the lobby because you've allowed your heart to be offended.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, it's a trick of the devil, it's baggage.
SPEAKER_01: And it's time to release it and let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Lift one hand towards heaven and say, I make a commitment today.
SPEAKER_01: Say it like me, I make a commitment today.
SPEAKER_01: I will release it and let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Say it again, I will release it and let it go.
SPEAKER_01: One more time, I will release it and let it go.
SPEAKER_01: If you really believe that, give God a shout of praise, man.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, give him a shout.
SPEAKER_01: But here's my last piece of baggage that tends to trip us up.
SPEAKER_01: Enemy tries to use this thing called loneliness.
SPEAKER_01: When you feel unseen, disconnected, or unsupported.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody cares about me.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody's really here for me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here for everybody else, nobody's ever here for me.
SPEAKER_01: And the enemy starts playing that mind game with you, making you think that everybody else has walked away from you.
SPEAKER_01: The danger with loneliness is that if you don't watch it, it can leave you vulnerable to the wrong connections.
SPEAKER_01: Loneliness is always trying to make you find a substitute group of people that might be the wrong group of people.
SPEAKER_01: If not handled properly, loneliness will make you open the door to people that God never sent your way.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 68, 6, the Bible says God places the lonely in families.
SPEAKER_01: So what you see is he really does use community to help help ward off our loneliness, but it's got to be the right people.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't say God sets the lonely around other people.
SPEAKER_01: He said he puts the lonely in families with people you can count on, people you can trust.
SPEAKER_01: See, you gotta guard your heart during seasons of loneliness and only pull people close to you that you know are God sent and that you know are living a godly life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you get lonely and decide to take that phone call, respond to that text message, say okay to that DM.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's not really the one for me, but I'm just gonna go have somebody go hang out with right now.
SPEAKER_01: Before you know it, your emotions get caught.
SPEAKER_01: You got baggage.
SPEAKER_01: And you look up, you got damage.
SPEAKER_01: All because the enemy took advantage of your vulnerability in a season of loneliness to let you open the door to somebody who wasn't from God.
SPEAKER_01: And hear me, I don't, I'm not even just talking about romantic relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go pick up that old set of friends.
SPEAKER_01: You're moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing behind you that's worth going to pick back up.
SPEAKER_01: If God decides to bring that friendship back around, let them come catch up with you.
SPEAKER_01: You're going somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Let God do a work in them, let them come catch up and get interested in where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: Don't stop what God is doing in your life and go back and pick up something that now has the potential to take you off track.
SPEAKER_01: Understand this: you are seen, you are loved, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: You are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: God is with you, God is for you.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to challenge you, man.
SPEAKER_01: Get plugged in community here at your church.
SPEAKER_01: One reason why we stress, get involved on the dream team.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just because we need your help.
SPEAKER_01: Dream team is a family.
SPEAKER_01: You get on a team, people are gonna care about you.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna ask you how you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: It allows you to be seen, it allows you to be known.
SPEAKER_01: Get plugged into a small group.
SPEAKER_01: When small group is done right, they will fight for you.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot tell you how many people I have had tell me that they actually feel closer to their impact church family than some of their blood family.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because blood or family is not determined by if we got the same blood or same last name.
SPEAKER_01: Family is determined by who shows up when you need them the most.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, give God a shout in this place, man.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! Come on, that's good, man.
SPEAKER_01: That is good.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your hands in this place.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take a moment and just thank God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't leave out yet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not done.
SPEAKER_01: Don't leave out just yet.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, lift up your voice and just thank God.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being so good.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your goodness, your mercy endures forever.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lamp unto our feet and a light into our pathway.
SPEAKER_01: God, we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: We're shaking off the baggage and we're walking free in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're in this place and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: It's not enough just to come to church, not enough to be around church people.
SPEAKER_01: There has to be a day in our lives that we can look back and say, that's the day I gave it all over to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thing about God is that God does not ask you to be perfect.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't even ask you to write out a confession of what you promised to fix in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So many times we think, I gotta fix myself and then come to God.
SPEAKER_01: It's the other way around.
SPEAKER_01: God knew we could never fix ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: He knew that on our best day we still would never be good enough to earn a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: So he sent his son Jesus to do the hard part.
SPEAKER_01: He lived a sinless life.
SPEAKER_01: He was crucified illegally as a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: And when God raised him from the dead, he opened up a doorway for us to have a relationship with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But we can't come to God based on our own goodness.
SPEAKER_01: You can't come to God and say, Well, I don't do any wrong and I try to help people.
SPEAKER_01: That's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: We can only come to God on this one basis.
SPEAKER_01: I surrender my whole heart, my whole life to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I give him permission to be Lord of my life.
SPEAKER_01: He's the pilot now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the co-pilot seat.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going where he wants me to go with this life for the rest of my days.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's what you're willing to do, no matter how messed up you think you are, God will take you just like you are right where you are.
SPEAKER_01: And he'll bring you into this amazing relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Not religion, he'll bring you into this relationship, but he'll love you enough to love you where he wants you to go.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here today and you're finally ready to surrender it all to Jesus, I'm gonna pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna embarrass you.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a church we're gonna ask you to stand up and come here to the front.
SPEAKER_01: But right there at your seat or right there in the overflow room or right there online, I want to pray a simple prayer with you.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're in this room or you're in the overflow room, in a moment I'm gonna have everybody by their heads.
SPEAKER_01: When we do, there's a little card in the seat pocket that just says, say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When we bow our heads, if you're ready to surrender your life to Jesus, grab that card and hang on to it.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What's gonna happen next?
SPEAKER_01: Well, everybody has a head bowed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna count to three.
SPEAKER_01: When I get to three, I'm gonna ask you to just lift that card in the air.
SPEAKER_01: Just raise the card in the air saying yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I've already told you, I'm not gonna ask you to stand up, not gonna ask you to say anything that can embarrass you, but I'm just gonna lead you in a simple prayer right there at your seat.
SPEAKER_01: And this confession of faith will change everything in your heart and start a revolution from the inside out.
SPEAKER_01: So go ahead and bow your heads all over the room.
SPEAKER_01: If you're ready to surrender to Jesus, reach out and grab that card, hang on to it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna count to three in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: When I get to three, lift that card up as high as you can.
SPEAKER_01: Can I say this?
SPEAKER_01: Lift it up as quickly as you can.
SPEAKER_01: Because the devil is right now trying everything he can to talk you out of this moment.
SPEAKER_01: But how do I know if I should grab that card?
SPEAKER_01: If something is telling you that you need to get in on this, that's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead and listen to him, grab that card, and getting ready to count to three.
SPEAKER_01: When I get to three, lift that card as high as you can.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: One, two, three.
SPEAKER_01: Lift it up, lift it up, lift it up, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: All over the room, I see cards going on.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: See that card there, thank you, another card there, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Beautiful, thank you, another card there, three, four cards, five cards, another card there, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: All the way in the back.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else before we pray?
SPEAKER_01: This is it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna ask you to stand up, but I am gonna ask you to be bold enough to lift that card up in the air.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, if you raise that card, I want you to just whisper this prayer right there at your seat.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Dear God in heaven, thank you for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sending him to die in my place.
SPEAKER_01: I know he paid the price for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: But I also know you raised him from the dead, and he's alive right now.
SPEAKER_01: So, Jesus, come into my heart, save me, forgive me, make me brand new.
SPEAKER_01: I surrender my life to you for the rest of my days, and according to the Bible, I am right now born again.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Did you just make a decision for Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_00: We're so excited.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me, we're clapping for you, and we believe that you've made an important decision today.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to help you on your journey.
SPEAKER_00: So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.
SPEAKER_00: But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you on the journey ahead.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our first weekend service every month, and you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen, sign up for that.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, um, or any of our ministers would.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still gonna watch our service.
SPEAKER_00: But download that book, it's free.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.
SPEAKER_00: If you're just checking this out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.
SPEAKER_00: But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values, and so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.
SPEAKER_00: Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.
SPEAKER_00: It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here, and there's a lot of events on there as well.
SPEAKER_00: But you can give through that app, it's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're so excited you joined us today.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.