SPEAKER_00: I want to speak this morning on something I felt like God really wanted us to understand.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this statement that Paul makes.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Galatians 5:1.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Stand fast therefore in the freedom by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
SPEAKER_00: And in some translations, it's translated, it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.
SPEAKER_00: It is for freedom that Christ set you free.
SPEAKER_00: When He set us free on the cross from the power of sin and death and shame and guilt, He set us free to walk free.
SPEAKER_00: He set us free that we may live in victory over sin and be free from the power of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we have this possibility of freedom without being entangled in yokes of bondage.
SPEAKER_00: He made it available.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I ask today that you would pour out grace in this place, the empowering presence of Jesus that empowers us to walk free.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I ask that you would you would do your work amongst us today in your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we ask for grace to be evident in our lives, grace to be leading us on, grace to set us free, grace to let us rise above everything that would hold us back.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for the power of the cross that stands forever speaking forever over our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have this possibility of freedom without being entangled in a yoke of bondage.
SPEAKER_00: What's a yoke?
SPEAKER_00: A yoke is things that we feel like we have no choice about.
SPEAKER_00: A yoke is put on a on cattle or oxen, and they don't really have any.
SPEAKER_00: And we have patterns of thinking and reacting that are not from the Lord, all of us.
SPEAKER_00: And there are beliefs about ourselves and about others and about our needs and about our future and about other people and about situations that are lies.
SPEAKER_00: But they're not true in God.
SPEAKER_00: And they can come to us from what our families modeled, what our culture thinks.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes things that happened to us when we were young, someone said something and it went deeper than intended.
SPEAKER_00: All kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: They can be from hurts and walls that we've put up to protect ourselves from getting hurt again.
SPEAKER_00: Things like cynicism, emotional shutdowns.
SPEAKER_00: Some people just use clowning around, attention seeking, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: They're all yokes that are actually yanking us in a direction that's not always whole.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to suspect that these strongholds are there in a few things.
SPEAKER_00: One is when we want control over situations or people.
SPEAKER_00: When we actually just want to control that thing, want to control that person through manipulation, through anger, through restricting their freedom, through locking down a situation, so it has to happen how we want.
SPEAKER_00: James says that this thing right here, our tongue, our words, is like a flame that can set a whole forest on fire.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, that mouth of yours that is designed to praise God, designed to speak freedom, designed to speak life, designed to speak the creativity of God, designed to speak the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we use it against people.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, what is this?
SPEAKER_00: And when it's a yoke, you don't you don't even enjoy doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's just yanking you in this direction of criticism or gossip or bitterness or malice or anger or self-pity or judging others or speaking negativity about life or people or yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's awful.
SPEAKER_00: It's a stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to suspect it when we see behaviors in ourselves that are unhealthy, but we keep doing them anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's excessive distraction with screens, whether it's overthinking, self-seeking, impurity, overspending, overeating, all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: They're just things that are trying to bring comfort where there's pain.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to set us free.
SPEAKER_00: We have to suspect it when it's easier to please people and do what they want than to obey God.
SPEAKER_00: When it's just easier to just, oh well, they wanted me to do this, they wanted me to do that, oh, I had to go and do this.
SPEAKER_00: And it was easier to serve man than to obey God.
SPEAKER_00: That's a stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: God's given us leadership of our own life.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to suspect it when we easily take offense at people or situations or God.
SPEAKER_00: We're quick to offend, quick to tweak, quick to jump to conclusions.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you've actually laid your life down, if you're actually buried with Christ, you actually can't get offended.
SPEAKER_00: And so offense is our old nature, it's pride.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can justify all of these things, all of us.
SPEAKER_00: We all do for many years in many ways, and say someone did us wrong, something happened, we're struggling.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, sin hurts us and hurts other people.
SPEAKER_00: And we can excuse it, or we can get free from it.
SPEAKER_00: They're the options.
SPEAKER_00: They're actually the options.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 23, you were brought at a price, a huge price.
SPEAKER_00: Joel often says, Heaven was bankrupted.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that heaven could spend to redeem your life, it spent.
SPEAKER_00: Do not become slaves to men.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to understand that when we keep patterns of bitterness, when we keep patterns of people wounding us, us taking offense, when we keep patterns that aren't healthy, when we keep patterns of kind of just negativity, we're actually still slaves to whoever caused that offense, whoever said that, whoever did wrong to us.
SPEAKER_00: And they're still controlling us whether we ever see them or not.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not necessary, it's not needed for those in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have choice, and this is the freedom for which Christ died.
SPEAKER_00: He overcame sin and death and its grip upon anyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: But just as you have to receive grace, you have to receive what the cross did.
SPEAKER_00: You have to want that freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You have to want to apply that freedom and seek it and fight for it.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8, 2.
SPEAKER_00: For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: That's a big statement.
SPEAKER_00: The law of the spirit of life has made me free from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: What's the law of sin and death?
SPEAKER_00: The law of sin and death is we're just stuck with whatever's happened.
SPEAKER_00: We're stuck with this old nature.
SPEAKER_00: We're stuck with offense.
SPEAKER_00: We're stuck with what happened when we were younger.
SPEAKER_00: We're stuck with what people have done to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul is saying here is you have been made free from that.
SPEAKER_00: I see it like this.
SPEAKER_00: You go to the moon, you're not under Earth's gravity.
SPEAKER_00: You go to space, there's a law of gravity operating on this earth, and it controls what happens on the earth as far as pulling you down.
SPEAKER_00: That's gravity, and we're grateful for it.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just giving an example.
SPEAKER_00: You get away from that thing, you get into space, you get on the moon, you're under a different law.
SPEAKER_00: The law of gravity does not operate there.
SPEAKER_00: The moon's gravity operates, not Earth's.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different law.
SPEAKER_00: This law is still true, but you are no longer under that pull.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm giving you that as an example.
SPEAKER_00: The law of sin does not apply to anyone in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The law of sin and death does not apply to your life.
SPEAKER_00: You are not stuck.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be under that yoke.
SPEAKER_00: It is for freedom that you are set free.
SPEAKER_00: But it has to be applied.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus encountered people, healed them, and said, Go and do something.
SPEAKER_00: Go and sin no more.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of this rut.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of the pattern.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of the old way of doing things.
SPEAKER_00: Something's changed.
SPEAKER_00: Live changed.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to give you a vision for what is possible biblically for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is not mucking around.
SPEAKER_00: He never was, but I'm just saying, in these days, the pressure's on.
SPEAKER_00: As time draws near, as the last harvest is gathered in.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, we can't afford to have just muck in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and apart from that, you don't want muck in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a yoke.
SPEAKER_00: It yanks you around when you need at least to yank you around.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's just get God's vision of what's possible for each of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 45, verse 4 and 5.
SPEAKER_00: This is a messianic sound.
SPEAKER_00: That means it's about Jesus and what he does.
SPEAKER_00: It's a prophecy about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, and in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And your right hand shall teach awesome things.
SPEAKER_00: Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies, and the people fall under you.
SPEAKER_00: I love this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: I could read it every single day.
SPEAKER_00: He's not meandering.
SPEAKER_00: He's not even walking.
SPEAKER_00: He's riding forth.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a king does.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get weary.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't like, oh, that'll do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of tired of dealing with this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's riding forth prosperously.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because of something, because he values truth.
SPEAKER_00: He values humility.
SPEAKER_00: He values righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And he's coming forth to bring that forth in your life and mine.
SPEAKER_00: Truth, humility, and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And he will ride through your life, wanting to lead you into truth, into wholeness, into humility, into freedom, into righteousness, and into victory over sin and brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: And it says his arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the king's enemies.
SPEAKER_00: You know that everything that you struggle with is an enemy of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Fear.
SPEAKER_00: Offense.
SPEAKER_00: Pride.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: That is the enemy of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, his arrows are sharp to set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Sharp to dismantle that thing, to get rid of that lie.
SPEAKER_00: His arm is strong to get you free.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to want him to.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus does not impose himself.
SPEAKER_00: He will not force you into anything.
SPEAKER_00: He waits to be invited.
SPEAKER_00: He waits to be asked.
SPEAKER_00: He waits to be called upon to be cried out to.
SPEAKER_00: Because the fruit of the spirit is self-control.
SPEAKER_00: We invite Jesus and He will never violate that.
SPEAKER_00: He will never force you to be free.
SPEAKER_00: He will never force you to deal with something.
SPEAKER_00: He will not make you be free.
SPEAKER_00: Because he values self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And it says that the people fall under you.
SPEAKER_00: We fall at his feet and cry out for his work.
SPEAKER_00: You know that Jesus wars against everything that wars against your wholeness.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wars.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever seen the eyes of the Lord when he is going to war.
SPEAKER_00: It's terrifying to the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: When there's this look in his eyes when he's going after an enemy of his, which is an enemy of yours.
SPEAKER_00: Those things that wreak havoc in people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: He wars over you.
SPEAKER_00: He wars over everything that is warring at your wholeness.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't passive about it.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't just like, oh well, one day they'll be free.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The heart of Jesus is he hates those things that are hurting his people.
SPEAKER_00: He hates those things that are keeping us bound.
SPEAKER_00: He hates those things that are keeping on causing us to stumble and yanking us around.
SPEAKER_00: And he wars against them.
SPEAKER_00: He will attack everything that stands in the way of knowing the Father's love.
SPEAKER_00: Deeply, truly, wondrously.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 1, verse 6 says this, being confident of this, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Father, the eternal one.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh, the one who is writing his story from before time began, has begun a good work in you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's not about to abandon it.
SPEAKER_00: No, he is working to complete it.
SPEAKER_00: He is working to bring you into the likeness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is organizing situations, people, things that come across your path, people that speak into your life, things that happen, situations.
SPEAKER_00: He is bringing them all together to bring you into completeness.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: That just gives me so much trust in the process.
SPEAKER_00: It gives me so much trust and belief that freedom and the likeness of Christ formed in me and you is entirely possible because the Father is at work.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: It says vision for how God sees you.
SPEAKER_00: We need a bigger vision of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We need a bigger vision of how glorious we're going to become.
SPEAKER_00: We need a bigger vision of what holiness could look like in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We need a bigger vision.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just trying to get through the day here.
SPEAKER_00: We are carrying the glory and presence of the Holy One.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church.
SPEAKER_00: Not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big vision.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very big vision.
SPEAKER_00: And it's God's vision for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_00: Just put your name in there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_00: So that he could and would have the authority to sanctify and cleanse us.
SPEAKER_00: The power of the word.
SPEAKER_00: His vision for laying down his life was not so there was like a limping, disorganized, chaotic bride.
SPEAKER_00: His vision for laying down his life was not for a people still bound up and broken, still stuck in cycles of sin.
SPEAKER_00: His vision is for glory, and his vision is for such washing with his word that we don't even have a spot or wrinkle or blemish.
SPEAKER_00: This is not to make you feel guilty, it's to make you feel like you want to run to Jesus and go, do your work.
SPEAKER_00: Do your work in me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be washed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a lifelong work to be made holy, but you need to believe that it's possible.
SPEAKER_00: So what Joel was saying this morning, only believe.
SPEAKER_00: Only believe that it's possible for you, wherever you've come from, whatever the history is, whatever the level of brokenness, the word of the Lord is stronger.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord, and the will of the Lord is stronger than anything any of us have been through.
SPEAKER_00: The will of the Lord, the vision of the Lord is bigger, but we have to cooperate with that washing and realizing that it's the Lord and we don't want to resist Him.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be free, we want to be whole.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be carrying His glory.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: This should excite you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're like nearly bouncing.
SPEAKER_00: Because I read this and I'm like, God, do it! Do it in me.
SPEAKER_00: Do it in me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be yanked by anything.
SPEAKER_00: Only yoke to the Lord, whose yoke is easy and light.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be reacting out of old stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want old patterns.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need any of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I want the mind of Christ and the heart of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 3, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.
SPEAKER_00: But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror of the as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know in one sense this passage is talking about when you turn to the Lord, when you believe in Jesus, the veil is taken away, so you can see that he's the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
SPEAKER_00: But this verb right here is an ongoing verb.
SPEAKER_00: When we keep turning to the Lord, the veil keeps being taken away.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a one-off event.
SPEAKER_00: We keep turning, we keep having the veil removed.
SPEAKER_00: When one turns, when one worships, when one repents, when one yields to the Lord, a veil is taken away.
SPEAKER_00: And what we justified before in ourselves, well, we accept it as normal, well, we accept it as just us.
SPEAKER_00: That's just how I am.
SPEAKER_00: No, the veil's taken away in his presence, and we begin to see this is not my inheritance, this is not for me anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why worship is key.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the word is key, because it is in worship, and it is when we sit ourselves before the word that that veil is taken away and truth begins to come in and go, you know that thing that keeps getting you?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live with it anymore.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't turn to the Lord, if you don't get in his presence, if you don't fill your life with worship and the word, that veil doesn't get lifted.
SPEAKER_00: We all know many, many, many believers who just live bound up and broken their whole life.
SPEAKER_00: It's unnecessary.
SPEAKER_00: And the only time you realize there's been a veil that you've been looking through is when it's taken away.
SPEAKER_00: And then you go, Wow, now I can see.
SPEAKER_00: Now I can see that that bitterness is just hurting me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I can see that that reaction or that greed or whatever it is, it's like I don't I don't need to look through that filter now.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says here, where the spirit is, there's freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And people often use that verse.
SPEAKER_00: They quote it completely out of context.
SPEAKER_00: Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom, and they quote it to justify doing whatever they want.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, um, have you actually read the passage?
SPEAKER_00: Because this is in the context of transformation before the face of God.
SPEAKER_00: With an unfold face, we are beholding the glory of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And as we behold Him, we're transformed by the spirit of freedom into a greater measure of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: From glory to glory.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say if our lives aren't being transformed into more likeness of Christ, if your life does not look more like Jesus now than last week or last month or last year, if your life is not in a greater measure of glory than last month or last year, then some veils need to be lifted.
SPEAKER_00: Because our inheritance as sons and daughters is to go from glory to glory into the likeness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Anything less than that, you're shortchanging yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Anything less than that, the enemy's robbing you.
SPEAKER_00: Anything less than that, sin is just wasting your time.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to glory.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 4 verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
SPEAKER_00: The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is calling the church to a life where our minds are stayed on what is true.
SPEAKER_00: They keep course to what is true.
SPEAKER_00: We keep course to what is pure.
SPEAKER_00: We're not like wandering and distracted.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, maybe this is the answer, maybe that's the answer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe if I vent about this, maybe if I gossip about that, maybe if I take it out on this person, maybe if I do this, he's saying, get your mind stayed on these things, whatever is lovely, then we're not defiled with negativity, with cynicism, with worry, with fear, with bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: And the God of peace is with us.
SPEAKER_00: And when we can't do that, it's a signal that something needs, some yoke needs to be broken off us.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 19, verse 17 says it says this, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Have you thought about that verse?
SPEAKER_00: Part of our rejoicing, part of our giving him glory is that we choose to make ourselves ready on earth.
SPEAKER_00: You would be concerned if you turned up to a wedding and the brides just hadn't had a shower, didn't wash her hair, still unkempt, nothing ready, rolling around in whatever she was wearing last year.
SPEAKER_00: Um there is a problem here.
SPEAKER_00: There is a preparation for a wedding that is a picture of our union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that that preparation is on earth because it says it here.
SPEAKER_00: The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: We make ourselves ready by choosing to engage in righteousness and getting ourselves free from unrighteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit, not our own works, the power of the cross, taking that power for freedom and cleaning ourselves, preparing ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_00: Is your heart beating with that desire?
SPEAKER_00: That moment when you see Christ, and you will be like him.
SPEAKER_00: Radiant.
SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
SPEAKER_00: For we shall see him as he is, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't let us get away with, oh well, one day I'll see Jesus and everything will be fixed then.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you actually have that hope, if you actually believe that, then you will purify yourself towards that day.
SPEAKER_00: And the more that we behold Jesus now, the more he's revealed to us, the more we're transformed.
SPEAKER_00: That work is still now.
SPEAKER_00: We become like him as we see him.
SPEAKER_00: I wrote this statement.
SPEAKER_00: Put it somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: I see it every day.
SPEAKER_00: Write it on the mirror.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anything in me that can't be found in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you don't either.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anything in me that can't be found in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Any way of thinking, any way of reacting, any emotion.
SPEAKER_00: If it's not in Jesus, I don't want it in me.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want it in you.
SPEAKER_00: It's big.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way to search your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Let the Holy Spirit search your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Show me anything in me that's not in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what your life is going to be like in a year if you do that every day.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, once on a train, I was going to uni, and every day the train would go past a suburb called Chatswood in Sydney.
SPEAKER_00: And for months and months and months, maybe over a year, I saw this construction site as I went past.
SPEAKER_00: And it just seemed like the builders were just digging around in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And then I couldn't really see them anymore, just this hole.
SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't see much from the train, but I thought it was so odd.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what are they doing all these months?
SPEAKER_00: And then in what seemed like a week, but it might have been two weeks, but it was a very, very short space of time.
SPEAKER_00: And in massive high-rise building just went up.
SPEAKER_00: It was so startling.
SPEAKER_00: And it really puzzled me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, if they can build that fast, what were they doing for the last year?
SPEAKER_00: Because of course I know engineering.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord spoke to me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, the bigger the building, the deeper and stronger the foundation had to be.
SPEAKER_00: So it took months and months and months to get that foundation right.
SPEAKER_00: And when the foundation was right, then something could explode upwards.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, some of us just don't want to dig deep.
SPEAKER_00: And get in and get strong foundations.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Lord's like, He's got these plans and visions and glory for us and purposes, but he cannot rest that on faulty foundations.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about you.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking the more power that anything has, the less discrepancy there can be.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in them is holding on course.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is so much speed there, there is so much power there.
SPEAKER_00: It's like there is no wriggle room.
SPEAKER_00: The greater the load, the less tolerance there is for cracks.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the facade is of no consequence to internal strength.
SPEAKER_00: What matters is what's going on inside, in our thinking, in our heart, and the Lord will give us incredible strength if we let Him.
SPEAKER_00: And God often puts pressure on a situation to bring the drossa.
SPEAKER_00: We often pray or sing, you know, God, refine me, purify me.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great song.
SPEAKER_00: It's a great prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that it requires heat.
SPEAKER_00: Requires pressure.
SPEAKER_00: It requires the Lord to take you at your word and bring circumstances around to bring up that wrong thinking, to bring up that lie about yourself or about him.
SPEAKER_00: To bring up that negativity, to bring up that fear, to bring up that bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: And he will he's not afraid to bring the circumstances, the heat, the pressure, the discomfort, whatever it is, to purify a willing heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's a crack in the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: It's causing weakness and vulnerability whether we like it or not.
SPEAKER_00: It causes you to be yanked around by the enemy when you need it least.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be fit for the front line of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And you cannot have six soldiers on the front line.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be strong and fit and able.
SPEAKER_00: But I will say this Jesus is very interested in our hearts and in our words.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to be very interested in your heart and your words.
SPEAKER_00: Of God purifying me.
SPEAKER_00: You have to have coffee with me instead.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 12, verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: But I say to you that for every idle word that men may speak, they will give an account in the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: That scares me.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be giving an account.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be giving an account of every idle word.
SPEAKER_00: What's the word idle mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means two things.
SPEAKER_00: The first is barren.
SPEAKER_00: Something that can't bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Words that don't actually carry life.
SPEAKER_00: When we speak things that are not life-giving to the hearer, we'll be giving an account to the Lord who does speak life.
SPEAKER_00: It also means this in the Greek, it means lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform.
SPEAKER_00: That means those words that are lazy.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't do the work we needed to.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't deal with our stuff.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't sort out the wrong thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And out came the negativity.
SPEAKER_00: Out came the fear.
SPEAKER_00: Out came the worry.
SPEAKER_00: Out came the gossip.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, He's warning us because he's kind.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, you don't want that stuff coming out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get whole people.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 5, verse 22 to 26.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to read it right now, but I would recommend reading it at home.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is saying, you come to worship me, you come to bring your gift, and you have something in your heart against someone, you need to go deal with that.
SPEAKER_00: It's so important to him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, delay worship to resolve relationship.
SPEAKER_00: That is a very big call.
SPEAKER_00: Your gift, he values your gift, he's longing for your offering.
SPEAKER_00: He's longing for what you want to lay before him.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This thing over here is so critical.
SPEAKER_00: That yoke that is yanking you around is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Hold this and sort this.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a process, a very long process, of forgiveness, of repentance, of restoring, of hoping, of praying.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you, you have Jesus on your side.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Holy Spirit on your side.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Father on your side, and they will lead you into freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 12, verse 14 says this: pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I intend for us to see the Lord in increasing measure in this house.
SPEAKER_00: But it requires a pursuit not only of Him, but of relational peace, of holiness.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be lugging round balls and chains from our past, wondering why we can't run faster for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When the power of the cross was to break that chain.
SPEAKER_00: Anything less than what He has for you.
SPEAKER_00: Which is truth, humility, righteousness, holiness, glory, true freedom, true healing, true breakthrough, true wholeness.
SPEAKER_00: Don't settle for less.
SPEAKER_00: You're a son or daughter of the living God, and you have been united with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a race to run.
SPEAKER_00: Let's run.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.