We Are We Label

0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:08.400 Last week, the message was keep it one hundred. I 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.760 want to go even deeper this week. I want to 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:16.120 go even deeper this week. And in order to do that, 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.400 let's go right back to Romans chapter four. I'm excited 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.240 to teach God's word to you. God has been speaking 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.759 to me Romans chapter four. Let me turn off the 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.440 chat here so I won't be distracted, because boy, these 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:33.280 people really need prayer. You should see it. It's just wow. 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.720 I'm glad I did that because Wow, we really need it. 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.560 We really need it. Amen, you need prayer too, buddy, 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.720 Pray for you too, grow up and be a mighty 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:46.879 man or woman of God. I couldn't tell from your 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:53.080 cry which one whatever applies Romans chapter four, you already 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:57.960 thank you Jesus. Romans chapter four. Let's go to verse 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:10.720 number sixteen in the NIV translation of the Later Bible. Therefore, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.240 the promise comes by, Oh y'all, stand up. Y'all too 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:17.880 sleepy sitting for the scripture. Stand up. I thought y'all 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:20.680 were mature enough to be enthusiastic sitting down, But I 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.360 was wrong. Stand up, Yeah, get up, Get up, Get up, 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:26.560 Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Therefore, 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:33.600 the promise comes by therefore, so we know what comes 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.680 and we know how it comes. The promise is what comes. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.240 Faith is how it comes. We don't know when it comes. 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.759 That's the hard part when we're waiting on God by 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.560 faith to do something that he promised by grace. And 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.440 we spoke about that last week from this passage how 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.600 Abraham was one hundred years old when he finally saw 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.920 everything that God had spoken to him. So it's not 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:03.400 too late shout that out. It's not too late. Therefore, 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:05.400 the promise comes by faith, so that it may be 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:11.639 by grace and maybe guarantee. If it's by human effort, 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.160 then it's going to depend on my behavior on any 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.480 given day. If it's by grace, then it is dependent 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.560 on God's character, which never changes. I like what you 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.560 said during the offering. That was good. He said, God's 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.720 not changing. So if you encounter him, you must change. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.519 You need to preach that whole thing before before the 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.040 next time I see you. Now look at this, I 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.040 might preach it today. I might steal that on the 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:43.359 spot and act like I prayed about it. It said 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:44.919 that it may be by grace, may be guaranteed to 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.000 all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:53.200 the law, but also to those who have the faith 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.480 of Abraham, which is a strange faith. He had to 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.840 set out on a word from God without God giving 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.800 him a map or a destination. All God said was 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.160 go to the land, then I'll show you. So the 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.600 faith of Abraham is the faith to keep going, not knowing. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:15.880 How's this going to turn out? When's this going to 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.640 turn around? Is it gonna be all right? Is it 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:21.560 gonna lift? Am I ever gonna feel better? Is it 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.880 going to clear up this time? What's the doctor going 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:28.280 to say next Tuesday? The faith to keep going not knowing, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.440 that's the faith of Abraham. It was also the faith 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.720 to put his son Isaac on the altar and believe 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.360 that God was able to raise the dead, the faith 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.480 of Abraham. It was also the faith to make a 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.680 mistake and still have God move him into the right position. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.040 The faith of Abraham. It's a complicated, complicated faith, but 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.280 it's simple if we believe. Look what it says about Abraham. 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:55.000 He is the father of us all as it is written, 0:03:55.880 --> 0:04:00.960 I have made you a father of many nations. He 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.320 is our father in the sight of God in whom 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:07.400 he believed, the God who gives life to the dead 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:13.200 and calls into being things that were not against all hope. 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:19.279 Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.520 many nations, just as it had been said to him, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:27.840 so shall your offspring be. Let's lift right there from 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:33.200 that verse. Abraham in hope believed, and so became. And 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.120 look at the person next to you and say, I'm 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:45.800 not done becoming. You may be seated. Whoo Hey, y'all 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.560 know what, in the spirit of keeping it a hundred, 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.000 I need to admit something to you. There was a time. 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.320 There was a time about five years ago that I 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:03.520 had gotten so upset with preaching sermons that I thought 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:07.960 were impressive that I lost my focus on preaching sermons 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:13.160 that would be impactful. And through a series of confirmations 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.320 and impressions that God gave me, I realized that I 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.920 needed to spend a little bit more time on preaching 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:24.760 from my heart, not just from my head, to really 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:26.680 flow with the Holy Spirit. I wanted to be a 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:33.960 preacher who was more spirit led than mentally dependent. That 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:35.920 doesn't mean I don't want to think through what I'm 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.920 going to say. God knows. I don't want to get 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:40.640 up here like I'm naked on the first day of 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:45.720 school talking about, Uh, what y'all want to preach about today? 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:50.919 Anybody got a scripture? What y'all think that means? I 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:57.120 don't know. Let's pray. But I want to be in 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:02.320 the flow, in the moment with the Lord, so that 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:06.800 whatever he speaks, that I agree with that because if 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:09.480 I come into agreement with what he speaks, his authority 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:14.880 will be behind it. If I say what I think, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.080 I have no divine backing. So to be in the 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.960 flow with God means that He could give me something 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.080 to say in the moment that wasn't in my notes. 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.359 And that's why when I'm up here, I bring notes 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.479 and I don't look at him. I bring them like 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:33.680 what was the character that had the blanket? Was it Linus? 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.920 And I bring these messy little notes up here. And 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.400 when I tell you these notes are illegible and unusable, 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:45.720 I mean, I don't even know what I wrote when 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.200 I wrote it. It's just therapeutic to write something down. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:54.000 But really, I'm just trusting in God. Can I keep 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.960 it a hundred with you? I need God. I need God. 0:06:58.000 --> 0:06:59.520 I mean I have a structure, I have outline, I 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.360 have a script sure, in fact, I have more scriptures 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.440 than I could preach. But I need God. Yeah, this 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:07.840 is what I want to tell you about that, because 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.360 I'm not trying to teach preaching seminar here today. How 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.960 many of you do not want to be a preacher? Right, 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:17.840 that's a lot of y'all that do. I was shocked 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:24.080 by that. Trust me, don't do that now. It's great, 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.560 It's the great privilege in the world. And it'll give 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:31.560 you a stomach ulcers. So there's that. But look, the 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:33.160 thing that I had to do to become what I 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.120 wanted to be, which is a more spirit led preacher, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.360 was the last thing that I do after all the study, 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.200 preparation and seeking God, whether go on a walk, or 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.240 take a cold shower, or lay on my face or 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.840 listen to Gira, you know, over and over until God 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.720 speaks or listen to Metallica, is Giro won't get the 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:03.760 job done. Start preaching about wrath, whatever it takes, you know, 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.680 I want to say what God wanted me to say. 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:09.640 I really don't need you to feel good when I 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.880 get done. I just need to feel like I obey God. 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.040 Because even if you left and felt good and I 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.160 didn't obey God, I wouldn't feel good when you left. 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:21.640 And that's not fear that you feel good and I 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.240 feel bad because I didn't listen to what he told 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:26.360 me to say. So if we pray for Bobby, we 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:29.480 pray for Bobby. If I say something crazy, I say 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:34.199 something crazy. If they mean me, they mean me. You 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.480 remember Esther said, if I perish, I perish. If they 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.120 cancel me, they cancel me. It's got to be that 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.840 I stay in alignment with God so that I feel 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:53.600 good about myself when you're not around. And so, in 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.880 wanting to be a more spirit led preacher, there's something 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.560 that began to happen, and it was that I spent 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.440 more time praying and stuff ud, reflecting and meditating on 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:03.679 the word of God. And I'm going to show you 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.439 why this is important to your life in a moment. 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.000 But the last thing that I do before I preach 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.880 is decide what the title of the sermon will be. 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:14.720 It used to be the first thing I did. Okay, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.600 I'm gonna preach about this. I'm gonna preach about grace, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:19.880 and I'm gonna call it this and here's the notes 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.800 and here's the points. But as I wanted to be 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:27.119 more spirit led, I had to change certain procedures and processes. 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.280 And I'm not saying that you should do this, because, 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:34.120 like I said before, this isn't really even about preaching. 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:37.200 But this is the method that really helped me is 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:42.040 that I started deciding what to call it right before 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.040 I preach it. And here's the reason for that. The 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.880 moment I decide what the message is called, it determines 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.640 what the focus is going to be, and everything else 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.760 that I was gonna say doesn't apply anymore. So the 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:04.560 moment that I label it, I limit it. And I 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.640 don't want to limit it while God is still giving it. 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.720 You see where I'm going. If I decide too soon 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.960 this is what I think it is, I might miss 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.800 what God intends it to be as it is still unfolding. 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.920 So I don't give a title at Saturday at six pm. 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.480 I don't give all my scriptures Saturday at eight eight pm. 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.720 As a matter of fact, right before we preach. Sometimes 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:36.800 right as we're singing the Lord to give me one 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.840 more scripture, I'll run back, make sure everything's zipped up, 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.720 buttoned up, tidied up, pulled up, tightened up, everything's good. Boom, 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.240 and here's another scripture. But I don't want to cut 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:51.400 God off while he's still talking, lest I miss his 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:57.600 intention because I have my own agenda. I don't want 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.840 to say too soon. Okay, God, this is what I'm 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:01.880 speak on. This is how I'm gonna speak on it. 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:06.200 And God's like, that's not even true. That's just what 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.640 you knew when you sat down to study. So what 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:12.280 if I want to show you something you don't know 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.000 when you sit down to study. What if I want 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:16.920 to show you something that you don't know why you're 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:20.360 reading your scripture to your congregation? What if I want 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.040 to speak something? What if I want to say something 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.680 to somebody's soul that you were too stupid to put 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.680 down in your notes. But see, the Spirit of God 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.560 is smarter than I am, So he can give me 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:38.000 stuff while I'm preaching if I'm open to it. But 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:42.800 if I'm close to it, if I label it, I 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.520 will limit it. And I have a system for this, 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:47.520 you ready, This is a real high tech system. I 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:52.320 have a black folder, and I have yellow notes, and 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.640 then I have how many of y'all love this? Right here. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:12:00.920 I got some post it notes. I got so many 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.640 of them, so it's cheap to change the title. I 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.040 don't want to put it on a parchment where it's expensive. 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:09.200 I don't want to make somebody design a title that 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.720 I'm going to change anyway. So I write it myself 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.120 and as soon as I get done, I stick it 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:18.320 on the folder boom, and I preach right there. That's 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.280 what I do so right before I came out today. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.000 I do this every week. I know y'all care a 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.080 lot about this. This is really interesting stuff, man, it's fascinating. 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:32.600 The last thing I do is label it, because the 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.120 moment I label it, I limit it. Yeah. I might 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.760 have an idea, Yeah I might have a path. You 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.080 might have a hunch. Yeah I might have a lead. 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.679 But I don't know what it is until God is 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.760 ready for me to deliver it. That's what I want 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:55.640 to call this sermon today. Are we label? Are we label? 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.400 Put it in your notes? Don't y'all write down the 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:02.400 titles that I work so hard in agonize over to preach? Yeah, 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.160 look like so what nobody writing it down? Come on, Robert, 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.319 write it down, man, it's a good title. We are 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.960 we label. You got to call a sermon something what 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.280 he preached about today a Bible stuff. He was saying 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:19.600 about God and stuff up there and how God is 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.079 good and all that stuff up there. You got to 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:27.080 call it something. We are somebody say we are we label. 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:36.640 I think a lot of our labels God hates. And 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:39.720 when I say label, you probably think about a label 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.400 that's on some food or a label that's on some medicine. 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.520 Labels are great for products. Don't get me wrong. They 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.600 got ibuprofen in the bathroom and the way I know 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.640 it's not tic TACs is because of what it says 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.880 on the label. I appreciate label when it comes to 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:01.880 keeping me from taking the wrong medicine. I appreciate labels. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:05.480 When Holly puts leftovers in the fridge, she'll often make 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:07.960 a little note and put a little post it on 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.680 the note with a little heart, and it will say 0:14:10.679 --> 0:14:15.480 who the food is for. Elijah pays no attention when 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:20.080 that says for Dad. So now we specified do not touch, 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:22.920 do not move, do not look at this food. This 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:29.960 is for Stephen. The verdict. Now, when I say God 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:34.480 hates labels, I need to counteract that in balance it 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:39.240 by saying that as humans, we love to label. We 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.800 can't live without labels. We'll be popping tick tacks and 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.640 wondering why our head still hurts. This one girl, one 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.480 time she came on the van we're traveling with the 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.600 ministry team, and she was eating Friedo's. She said, I 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.640 hate the way these taste. Somebody said, why are you 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:02.160 eating them? She said, trying to be help. We tracked 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:06.080 that back. We tracked that back. We found out that 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:11.800 somebody sometimes told her that Fridos are healthier than Dorito's, 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:18.120 so she thought it was like the healthy alternative to 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:23.680 Dorito's was called Frito's. And when she was asked, how 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.680 long have you been substituting Dorito's, which you love, with Frido's, 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.200 which you don't like, thinking that it was better for 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.240 you than it really was, she says, since I was nine. 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.400 She was in college at the time. I thought that 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.960 was so sad that she forfeited ten years that she 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.200 could have been enjoying the nacho cheesy taste of her 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.960 beloved Doritos for the Freedo snack, which actually, when we 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.240 read the label, had a higher fat content than the 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.080 Doritos which she loved. So she could have just been 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.520 killing Doritos the whole time. Somebody he deprived this girl 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.400 of her doritos. And I pray you worked through it 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:06.200 once we told her the truth, because for me, I 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:11.480 would need therapy ten years, a decade without doritos, because 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.400 one person planted a seed of deception in your mind 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:17.480 and said this is better for you, and you never 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:21.640 checked it, and you never read the label. It was 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.840 on the label. It said on the back of Frito's, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:33.160 this will make you fat, really fat. It was on 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:38.400 the label. So I appreciate a label when it's by 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.320 the FDA or something like that. Please do not send 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:46.560 me messages about the FDA is a conspiracy of the 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:50.320 Illuminati and came from Star Wars. I don't want to 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:57.120 hear none of it. But I'm saying, like a lot 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:03.320 of the times in our life, we will label something 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:12.480 and limit someone while we are still figuring out what 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.400 it is. And a lot of what God speaks over 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:22.479 your life never happens, not because of your limits, but 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:27.520 because of your labels. There were those in the early 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:32.520 Church that wanted to limit salvation to those who were circumcised. 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:38.000 Paul says, I hate your labels, because in Christ there 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:42.080 is no longer slave, nor free, male nor female, gentile 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:46.159 non gentile. God doesn't run around labeling stuff like you 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.600 label stuff. And the difference between you and God is 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:55.320 you labeled things you didn't even make. You try to 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.080 label stuff that doesn't even belong to you. We try 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.600 to judge other people. So I'm real bothered about it, 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:03.359 and I don't want to talk about it much because 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.640 I get angry and I get unfiltered when I think 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.399 about it. I hate how our culture has become so 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.760 eager to believe the worst about anybody the first time 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:17.720 we hear it. I hate that so something somebody says 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.080 gets taken out of context. Oh, now they're a racist. 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.080 You didn't even see the whole sentence that they said. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.400 You just read a headline, and now they're a racist. 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.200 You're kind of scared to say something to that. We 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.560 do it all the time, and that's not black people, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.359 white people. That can go any way you want to 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.840 put it. We'll call somebody something because we heard a 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:38.439 rumor from somebody that we didn't even verify if that 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:40.439 person was the very thing that they were calling the 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:44.920 other And especially during political season, when you see how 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.040 they make these ads. They are praying on our prejudice, 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.240 trying to get us to believe a snapshot of somebody, 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.960 so we will go out and categorize ourselves as enemies 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.960 of something that we don't even understand. Paul said, don't 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.120 get this twisted. Don't get this twisted in Christ. It's 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.280 not about what it looks like on the outside. It 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.280 is not about what you can identify somebody by that 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.080 you can see and that you can understand. We love 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:17.840 labels because we have limitations on our understanding. So the 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:19.480 only way we can get through our life is to 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.320 safely categorize people, like we try to organize our pantry 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.119 so we can know which shelf to put somebody on. 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:37.480 Oh he's not qualified, she's not qualified. She's from this family. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.560 Oh they are from that background. We love labels and 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:46.960 God hates them. Not telling you to go through and 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.439 peel off everything on your soup and your green beans 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.200 in your pantry, some superstitious thing like that. I'm saying 0:19:53.240 --> 0:20:00.240 that God hates when we label something in order to 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.560 limit something, Which is why I chose Romans four, or 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.560 why I believe the Holy Spirit chose Romans four to 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.640 talk to us about this today, because the greatest limitation 0:20:10.720 --> 0:20:13.760 on your life right now is not your potential as 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:20.399 your belief. When we look at the Bible stories of 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:24.959 characters like Abraham, we get into this complicated story and 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:28.399 we see one example of his life, and he looks 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:30.320 like a man of great faith. But how many know. 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.639 We could have labeled him a lot of things. We 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:36.919 could have labeled him a liar because he lied. We 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.200 could have labeled him an adulter because he slept with 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:41.000 somebody who wasn't his wife, even though the cultural custom 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:42.440 of the time was very different than ours. We could 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.639 have labeled him a lot of things. We could have 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:46.360 labeled him by the fact that he laughed at God. 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:48.280 We could have labeled him by a lot of things. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.480 But when God labels him, he calls him the father 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.600 of many nations. In fact, it says something that really 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.240 got my attention. You ready for this? It says, Abraham 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:05.840 be believed and so became. Let's look at that with 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.639 our own two eyeballs. I want you to believe it 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:09.919 because I said it. I want you to believe it 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:15.560 because God said it. He said in verse eighteen, Abraham 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:21.359 against all hope in hope believed, and so became. Say 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:27.080 that with me, he believed, and so became he believed, 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:33.080 and so became. I love that. I love it because 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:36.880 you would think he became it so he believed it. 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.000 Once he saw the evidence that God could do what 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.520 he promised, then he believed it. That's how human hope works. 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.760 You know, it needs to see something to believe it. 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:52.280 This is a very different kind of faith, this faith 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.600 of Abraham, the faith by which God justifies us, the 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.320 faith which has an ability to know that I can 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.720 stand in the middle of something that I don't understand, 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.359 waiting on a detail that I don't yet have, and 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.680 still believe in a God that I haven't figured out, 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:13.119 that I can produce a promise that is inside of 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.280 me that I can't even perceive with my senses. I 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:20.600 feel faith in my spirit right now because sometimes I 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:24.280 have to believe things that I can't see, that I 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:29.280 can't feel, but that God has called me to be now. 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.200 Often when we talk about believing, if you go by 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:35.919 culture's understanding of belief in faith, we are believing to 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:40.359 have something. I want to have a better job, I 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.200 want to have a better body. I want to have 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.560 a wife. I want to have a husband, I want 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.800 to have a child. And that's fine because God will 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.560 give you things. He will give you the desires of 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:55.879 your heart. So I'm thirty seven to four. And not 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.520 only will he put the desire in your heart, but 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:02.040 he will fulfill the desire. So He'll put the desire there, 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.199 and he will fulfill the desire. He will give you 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.520 things that you didn't even think you were worthy of having. 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:11.359 Some of us are standing in a place in life 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:15.240 today that we honestly never knew to ask God to 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:18.320 bring us to. I mean, I didn't know to ask 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:21.320 God that I could pastor this church. I made myself 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:23.840 available to him and He did it. But that doesn't 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:25.720 mean that I knew that it was in me when 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.120 I asked God to use me. But here you are, 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:33.080 and here I am, and here we are. Here we 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:41.520 are the greatest thing that God will give you. Faith 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:45.760 for though, is not something that He wants you to have, 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:55.000 someone that he wants you to be. Not what does 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:58.360 God want me to have? Although that is a very 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.560 important thing to your father. To you, Jesus said that 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:05.400 the birds store up, yet they're never far from the worm. 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:07.680 Because your father knows they need them, so he'll give 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:12.920 you a worm. But he is more concerned, infinitely more 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:19.360 concerned about who you are becoming in the process of receiving. 0:24:20.960 --> 0:24:24.000 I don't know who this is for. But if you 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:30.520 get it and God doesn't get you, you will not 0:24:30.640 --> 0:24:37.280 be able to sustain what you obtain, because it's going 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:40.879 to take the same grace and the same faith to 0:24:41.000 --> 0:24:44.280 keep it that it takes to come into it. I 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:46.320 want to lay this foundation. This is so important, This 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:49.560 is so important. In the passage I read, it said 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:57.960 Abraham what believed, and so became against all hope, when 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:02.439 it was so far past his time, when it seemed 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:05.120 like there was no way it would work, when there 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:07.679 was nothing pointing to the fact that he had the 0:25:07.720 --> 0:25:13.040 potential to bring forth this nation. He believed it, and 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:18.600 so he became it. Certain scriptures are not prescriptive, meaning 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:20.600 that they don't tell us what to do. They tell 0:25:20.720 --> 0:25:25.120 us what the character did. That's called descriptive. Not all 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:28.760 Bible verses are telling you what to do. For instance, 0:25:28.840 --> 0:25:32.000 Jonah ran from the Lord, So that don't mean you 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:33.520 go and run from the Lord because you read that 0:25:33.600 --> 0:25:36.000 jonah ran from the Lord is telling you what he did, 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:39.080 I get you a better one. Judas went and hanged himself. 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:42.639 Don't do that. You'll read about the man start opening 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:44.199 his bible. He said, God, speak to me, give me 0:25:44.200 --> 0:25:46.040 a word, show me what to do, and he pointed 0:25:46.080 --> 0:25:47.960 in it said Judas went and hanged himself. He said, 0:25:47.960 --> 0:25:50.400 oh God, let me try that again. Flipped again, put 0:25:50.400 --> 0:25:52.280 his finger right down on the Bible. And they said, 0:25:52.320 --> 0:25:56.760 whatever they'll do is do quickly. Don't do that. That's 0:25:56.840 --> 0:26:01.920 old preacher Joe. But look at this. I wonder if 0:26:01.960 --> 0:26:04.159 this dynamic. I know I'm not Abraham. I know you're 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:06.000 not Abraham. I know you're not the father of many nations. 0:26:06.000 --> 0:26:07.720 I'm not the father of many nations. I'm the father 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:10.040 of three kids. And I got my hands full and 0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:13.040 my quiver full, and my quiver is overflowing, and my 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:15.760 cup is flowing over, and everything's running over, and I'm 0:26:15.800 --> 0:26:18.280 grateful and I don't want any more. But I'm saying, 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:24.679 does the dynamic apply that we all become what we believe, 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:32.320 not what God says. If everybody became what God said, 0:26:33.040 --> 0:26:37.760 then everybody would be the righteousness of God. If everybody 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:40.480 became what God said, we wouldn't live a day of 0:26:40.480 --> 0:26:43.879 our life defeated because we wouldn't be addicted, because we 0:26:43.920 --> 0:26:46.560 are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Because 0:26:46.560 --> 0:26:50.679 that's what God said. But it is not what God 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:55.159 said over your life that determines the limit of what 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:59.800 you will be. That limit is determined by your belief. 0:27:00.400 --> 0:27:02.200 And I just want to stand here and tell you 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:06.399 I want to be all that God called me to be, 0:27:08.320 --> 0:27:12.520 all of it. I want to do everything he called 0:27:12.560 --> 0:27:16.040 me to do. I want to walk in everything he 0:27:16.080 --> 0:27:19.240 called me to walk in. I want to give everything 0:27:19.280 --> 0:27:22.160 he called me to give. I want to say everything 0:27:22.200 --> 0:27:24.800 he called me to say. I want to write everything 0:27:24.840 --> 0:27:29.040 he called me to write, every song, every sermon, every conversation. 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:32.560 I want to put it all out here while I'm here. 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:35.280 As long as I'm here, I want to see what 0:27:35.359 --> 0:27:39.960 God can do through me. I want to get to heaven, 0:27:40.000 --> 0:27:42.919 and God show me a whole warehouse of who I 0:27:42.920 --> 0:27:47.200 would have been if I had listened to Him rather 0:27:47.280 --> 0:27:50.320 than listening to the labels of people whose own minds 0:27:50.320 --> 0:27:52.960 were limited. I don't want to get to heaven, and 0:27:53.000 --> 0:27:55.159 God showed me the church. I could have passed her 0:27:55.480 --> 0:27:57.919 if I would have had the faith to stand flat 0:27:57.960 --> 0:28:00.600 footed and say what he told me to say. I 0:28:00.640 --> 0:28:04.359 don't want to get there and regret that God would 0:28:04.400 --> 0:28:07.920 speak something that I would refuse to believe. I don't 0:28:07.920 --> 0:28:13.399 want to go ten years not eating Doritos because you 0:28:13.520 --> 0:28:18.520 told me Fredo's were health food. Now I want you 0:28:18.560 --> 0:28:20.560 to get something in your mind. Let's make this a 0:28:20.600 --> 0:28:24.159 seminar today, because that's all wonderful. Oh, Abraham had faith 0:28:24.320 --> 0:28:27.240 and that's wonderful. And Abraham set out and that's wonderful. 0:28:27.320 --> 0:28:30.560 And Abraham received the promise and that's awesome, and that's terrific, 0:28:30.680 --> 0:28:33.400 and that's spectacular. But if we just do that, this 0:28:33.440 --> 0:28:37.800 is a fantasy football service where none of us do 0:28:37.960 --> 0:28:43.680 anything but watch somebody do something and loosely associate with 0:28:43.800 --> 0:28:50.080 what they did and call ourselves a coach. The Lord said, 0:28:50.080 --> 0:28:54.360 a lot of people's faith is a fantasy realm. We 0:28:54.400 --> 0:28:57.840 don't know how to do this. Believe God? Okay, yeah, 0:28:57.880 --> 0:29:01.040 I believe God. That's great. I believe even God he's 0:29:01.080 --> 0:29:04.040 directing my past. But what does it mean to believe 0:29:05.240 --> 0:29:08.640 until you become in order to do this. We're gonna 0:29:08.640 --> 0:29:11.480 all do this, everybody in the room, everybody on Epham. 0:29:11.640 --> 0:29:14.040 I want you to get one thing. Write it down, 0:29:14.200 --> 0:29:16.720 put it online if you're online, put it in your notebook. 0:29:16.840 --> 0:29:19.160 If you're on a notebook, put it in your phone. 0:29:19.240 --> 0:29:21.520 If you can open your phone and not be distracted 0:29:21.840 --> 0:29:23.800 by the people who have been texting you, who should 0:29:23.840 --> 0:29:26.360 be in church right now, but are busy distracting you, 0:29:26.560 --> 0:29:29.400 trying to snatch this word while God's preaching it. I 0:29:29.440 --> 0:29:31.640 want you to get one thing on your mind. We're 0:29:31.680 --> 0:29:33.920 gonna make this so some you can't leave here today 0:29:33.920 --> 0:29:37.840 and be like, Okay, Abraham is the man. We're gonna 0:29:37.880 --> 0:29:42.160 talk about you. We're gonna talk about you, your label, 0:29:42.680 --> 0:29:46.680 your limits, your faith, your belief because he said we 0:29:46.800 --> 0:29:50.680 are all the offspring of Abraham who believe. So God 0:29:50.680 --> 0:29:52.400 doesn't look through the room and be like, Okay, this 0:29:52.480 --> 0:29:54.760 sermon is good for her. She's at the eleventh grade 0:29:54.800 --> 0:29:57.760 Christianity level. He's at the fifth grade. She's at the 0:29:57.800 --> 0:30:01.400 third grade. He's gonna need some school. God doesn't look 0:30:01.400 --> 0:30:05.520 at the class like that. We all need the same grace. 0:30:06.000 --> 0:30:08.680 None of us need mini grace, bitty grace, any bitty 0:30:08.760 --> 0:30:10.840 little grace. We all need the same grace. So here's 0:30:10.840 --> 0:30:12.959 what I want you to get on your mind. What 0:30:13.120 --> 0:30:17.440 is one thing that you want to be that you 0:30:17.440 --> 0:30:23.240 don't feel like you are right now? I want to 0:30:23.280 --> 0:30:26.400 be not what I want to have. And don't put rich, 0:30:27.520 --> 0:30:32.400 and don't put skinny, and don't put ripped. Put something 0:30:32.400 --> 0:30:35.520 that we can't pull up on TikTok or YouTube shorts 0:30:35.600 --> 0:30:39.960 right now. Put something deeper down. I want to be more. 0:30:41.600 --> 0:30:45.040 What is it? Put it in the chat if you're 0:30:45.040 --> 0:30:51.120 watching online. I believe God is calling me to be more. 0:30:52.480 --> 0:30:55.600 Somebody got one? Shout it out? Okay, okay, I get 0:30:55.640 --> 0:30:59.760 I heard one. Confident, that's a good one. Write that down, 0:30:59.760 --> 0:31:06.960 Hall confident. What loving you said? That's kind of angry? 0:31:07.240 --> 0:31:11.320 Loving You really seem like you need it. I'm just kidding. 0:31:11.360 --> 0:31:18.920 I'm just kidding. I just thought that was funny, loving God, God, confident, loving, 0:31:19.720 --> 0:31:23.360 put it. I want to be more wet. No, no, no, 0:31:23.400 --> 0:31:26.840 you can't pray for that one. She's that comfortable. He's 0:31:26.840 --> 0:31:32.040 that comfortable, because I'm gonna tell you why, because a 0:31:32.080 --> 0:31:36.760 lot of times your comfort zone is what kills you. 0:31:40.200 --> 0:31:42.920 So if God makes you more comfortable, he's gonna make 0:31:42.920 --> 0:31:47.160 you more complacent. Because if you get comfortable, you get complacent. 0:31:48.120 --> 0:31:50.920 So God is never going to design a life for 0:31:51.000 --> 0:31:56.200 you that doesn't require him. He's always gonna give you 0:31:56.280 --> 0:31:58.400 something in your life where you feel like, oh, I 0:31:58.440 --> 0:32:00.920 don't deserve this, I'm not worry worthy of this. I 0:32:00.960 --> 0:32:04.360 can't do this. The moment that stops happening, you stop growing. 0:32:04.400 --> 0:32:08.400 The moment you stop growing, you start dying spiritually. And 0:32:08.440 --> 0:32:10.640 God isn't like that. So he'll say, I know that 0:32:10.720 --> 0:32:13.720 at this point in your life, you've gotten pretty comfortable, Abraham. 0:32:13.880 --> 0:32:16.520 I know you're rich, Abraham. I know you're settled, Abraham. 0:32:16.600 --> 0:32:18.600 But I'm gonna give you a place in your life 0:32:18.600 --> 0:32:21.120 where you don't have that yet, that you still need me, 0:32:21.480 --> 0:32:23.560 so that you can see me for who I am, 0:32:23.880 --> 0:32:25.680 not who you thought I was when you labeled me 0:32:25.720 --> 0:32:31.880 when you first met me. So let's get another one available. 0:32:31.960 --> 0:32:37.480 Hole keep going, all right? You got confident? Whyse I 0:32:37.520 --> 0:32:39.680 wish I could hear every campus right now? I wish 0:32:39.760 --> 0:32:43.160 I could. Okay, it sounds like the Tower of Babbel now, 0:32:43.200 --> 0:32:45.720 so I'm gonna just I'm gonna stop and do a few. Okay, 0:32:46.600 --> 0:32:49.040 So you got one I put down. I made my 0:32:49.080 --> 0:32:51.160 own list before I came somewhere in this yellow legal 0:32:51.160 --> 0:32:56.040 pad full of notes and it said joyful. I believe 0:32:56.040 --> 0:33:00.160 God wants me to be more joyful. I do see 0:33:00.240 --> 0:33:02.880 myself sometimes and I'm like, you know, like, what do 0:33:02.960 --> 0:33:07.480 you have to be so mad about? Stress? It's another 0:33:07.520 --> 0:33:09.120 thing I want to be stressed. I'm stressed a lot. 0:33:09.240 --> 0:33:11.400 So I think God wants me to be more peaceful. 0:33:12.320 --> 0:33:15.320 I do. I believe the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, 0:33:15.320 --> 0:33:17.200 of patience, kind of goodness. Say to this general self control. 0:33:17.360 --> 0:33:19.480 So I believe God wants me to be more peaceful. 0:33:21.120 --> 0:33:22.800 I do. I don't think God wants me to get 0:33:22.960 --> 0:33:25.640 my heart rate up every time somebody doesn't know how 0:33:25.680 --> 0:33:29.400 to drive, because I know it's not me. This a 0:33:29.400 --> 0:33:34.880 bad driver. And funny we label somebody else a bad driver. 0:33:35.080 --> 0:33:37.560 They're a bad driver. Couldn't have been you? No, no, 0:33:37.560 --> 0:33:49.320 no, no no, no, confident, peaceful, joyful, loving, generous, patient, Well 0:33:49.360 --> 0:33:52.760 you better be careful asking God for patience. When you 0:33:52.840 --> 0:34:03.400 pray for patience, God sends problems and people. I used 0:34:03.400 --> 0:34:06.240 to think every annoying person that I met was the 0:34:06.280 --> 0:34:08.400 answer to a prayer for patients I prayed in the 0:34:08.440 --> 0:34:13.080 season before I met him. All Right, so here's the 0:34:13.120 --> 0:34:16.880 second question. If I'm believing that God wants me to 0:34:17.000 --> 0:34:21.040 be more joyful, patient, confident. I'm thinking the principle It 0:34:21.080 --> 0:34:25.200 said Abraham believed and so became, not he became and 0:34:25.200 --> 0:34:29.239 then believed. He didn't go take a personality test that said, oh, 0:34:29.239 --> 0:34:32.640 you're the father of many nations and then back into 0:34:32.680 --> 0:34:35.880 that from his God gave him a promise and a purpose. 0:34:36.000 --> 0:34:39.000 He believed that and became it. So here's the second part. 0:34:40.680 --> 0:34:48.560 What would I need to believe to become it? If 0:34:48.600 --> 0:34:52.279 I want to be more joyful and I do, or 0:34:52.320 --> 0:34:54.839 if I want to be more confident and I do, 0:34:55.680 --> 0:34:57.520 or if I want to be more loving and I do, 0:34:58.239 --> 0:35:00.080 or if I want to be more patient and I do, 0:35:01.200 --> 0:35:06.279 what would I need to believe to be it? And 0:35:06.400 --> 0:35:09.640 that good question because if we say, like, well, how 0:35:09.640 --> 0:35:13.120 do I need to behave, then we're trying to do 0:35:13.120 --> 0:35:16.360 it by our own works, and then we forgot about grace. 0:35:17.560 --> 0:35:19.400 And any change that you try to make to be 0:35:19.440 --> 0:35:21.399 what God called you to be that's not empowered by 0:35:21.400 --> 0:35:25.040 His grace, You're not going to sustain it. It's just 0:35:25.080 --> 0:35:27.719 going to be a fad or a phase. And a 0:35:27.760 --> 0:35:30.000 lot of you are here and you are frustrated because 0:35:30.000 --> 0:35:34.760 you can't change you can't change. You bought every book, 0:35:35.239 --> 0:35:39.080 you can't change. You subscribe to every email list, you 0:35:39.120 --> 0:35:43.240 can't change. You got an accountability partner, you can't change. 0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:46.320 You did every Bible reading plan they've got on the Bible. 0:35:46.480 --> 0:35:49.279 Now you're doing Spanish Bible reading plans and you're from 0:35:49.360 --> 0:35:51.960 Kansas and you never even took Spanish in high school. 0:35:52.120 --> 0:35:55.480 And you can't change. You threw everything away, you bought 0:35:55.560 --> 0:35:57.920 it again. You went out and God threw out all 0:35:58.000 --> 0:36:00.520 the stuff that was causing your problems, and I found 0:36:00.560 --> 0:36:06.960 its way back in. You can't change. Any modification in 0:36:07.040 --> 0:36:11.320 behavior that is not matched by a change in belief 0:36:13.480 --> 0:36:18.680 will eventually hit its limit. I'm just telling you. You 0:36:18.760 --> 0:36:20.680 might be able to do it for a month, you 0:36:20.760 --> 0:36:22.560 might be able to do it for a year, you 0:36:22.640 --> 0:36:24.799 might be able to do it for five years, But 0:36:24.880 --> 0:36:27.120 you're just going to be trying to see how long 0:36:27.200 --> 0:36:29.799 can I hold my breath? And the answer is you're 0:36:29.840 --> 0:36:32.960 eventually gonna have to come up for air unless you 0:36:33.239 --> 0:36:38.640 change what you believe. So, if I want to be 0:36:38.760 --> 0:36:42.640 more joyful and I'm currently not, what do I need 0:36:42.640 --> 0:36:46.600 to believe to have more joy? Well, Number one, I 0:36:46.640 --> 0:36:48.400 don't need to believe that it's a sin for me 0:36:48.480 --> 0:36:51.440 to be down, because then I'm gonna beat myself up 0:36:51.480 --> 0:36:54.000 because I'm down. And now, how am I gonna have 0:36:54.160 --> 0:36:58.200 joy when I'm beating myself up for being down? How 0:36:58.239 --> 0:37:00.759 am I going to experience the joy the Lord when 0:37:00.800 --> 0:37:05.279 all I'm doing is wallowing in my own weakness. When 0:37:05.320 --> 0:37:08.480 I want to be more joyful, what do I need 0:37:09.080 --> 0:37:14.720 to believe to be it? Abraham believed and so became? 0:37:15.080 --> 0:37:18.040 What do I need to believe to become what I 0:37:18.200 --> 0:37:21.200 just said God is calling me to be? So if 0:37:21.200 --> 0:37:23.799 I want to be more joyful, maybe I need to 0:37:23.800 --> 0:37:30.480 believe that joy doesn't come from circumstances. Come on, That's 0:37:30.520 --> 0:37:33.400 what a lot of us believe that when a situation 0:37:33.560 --> 0:37:37.320 turns a certain way, we betray our belief in our language, 0:37:37.960 --> 0:37:45.560 they stole my joy, they stole it. Where's your safe? 0:37:46.280 --> 0:37:51.279 Where's your locks? Where are your protective mechanisms to see 0:37:51.320 --> 0:37:55.520 to it that people don't get to take from you 0:37:55.560 --> 0:38:02.440 what Christ paid for. Joy comes from Jesus, not people. 0:38:03.480 --> 0:38:06.640 Joy comes from Jesus, not events. There are at least 0:38:06.719 --> 0:38:08.400 three of you who have been on a beach at 0:38:08.400 --> 0:38:11.120 a time in your life and been sad on the beach, 0:38:11.400 --> 0:38:14.120 So you found out real quick you can move places 0:38:14.120 --> 0:38:16.440 but still feel the same way or worse that you 0:38:16.480 --> 0:38:20.520 were when you left. Because you know, joy doesn't come 0:38:20.520 --> 0:38:24.000 from a place. Joy doesn't come from a possession. Joy 0:38:24.040 --> 0:38:26.600 comes from God. Now that's the first belief I gotta 0:38:26.680 --> 0:38:29.480 have if I'm gonna be more joyful, Because if I 0:38:29.520 --> 0:38:31.440 have to go to you to get the joy, you 0:38:31.520 --> 0:38:34.520 might not have any either. So now I'm coming to 0:38:34.560 --> 0:38:36.839 you asking you for something that you don't have. Make 0:38:36.880 --> 0:38:38.960 me feel good, make me happy. Oh, you got to 0:38:39.000 --> 0:38:40.960 make me happy. I left them because they weren't making 0:38:41.000 --> 0:38:43.120 me happy. I left that church because I wasn't happy. 0:38:43.200 --> 0:38:45.920 I left that job because I wasn't happy. Your joy 0:38:46.719 --> 0:38:52.000 is your job. I don't care if you'll like me. 0:38:52.040 --> 0:38:55.520 I'm going to Phoenix. I'll be on the other side 0:38:55.560 --> 0:38:57.279 of the country by the time you get mad at 0:38:57.320 --> 0:39:01.160 this message and tweeted me your job. And if you 0:39:01.200 --> 0:39:04.600 don't believe that you cannot access what you don't have 0:39:04.680 --> 0:39:08.359 the rightful permission to perceive. And if you don't think 0:39:08.360 --> 0:39:11.279 you're supposed to be joyful in God's presence at his 0:39:11.480 --> 0:39:14.520 right hand is the fullness of joy at his right 0:39:14.560 --> 0:39:19.680 hand or pleasures Forevermore so, maybe I would need to 0:39:19.719 --> 0:39:21.600 believe that God wants to give me joy that the 0:39:21.600 --> 0:39:25.320 world can't take away. What would you need to believe 0:39:25.360 --> 0:39:28.239 to become more joyful? Maybe I will believe that joy 0:39:28.280 --> 0:39:30.440 isn't an effective circumstance, but it is a product of 0:39:30.520 --> 0:39:38.000 my perspective. Y'all don't want me to teach today Abraham. 0:39:38.280 --> 0:39:39.960 I just talk about him because that'll be easy, and 0:39:39.960 --> 0:39:42.080 we'd be like, oh, Abraham, he is a great man. 0:39:42.120 --> 0:39:47.080 He believed and so became. What are you becoming? Whatever 0:39:47.120 --> 0:39:51.880 it is, it's because of something you're believing. Eating Fredos. 0:39:53.840 --> 0:39:56.520 It doesn't have to be a truth to be a 0:39:56.560 --> 0:40:03.360 belief of people confused it to well, that's my truth. 0:40:04.520 --> 0:40:10.440 I'm just living my truth. That's so stupid. If it's truth, 0:40:10.480 --> 0:40:14.600 it's not yours, it's God's. There's one truth, it's his. 0:40:19.000 --> 0:40:23.239 Oh we'll see that person there, this there, that there 0:40:23.280 --> 0:40:28.120 are another. God hates those labels because moment you label it, 0:40:28.160 --> 0:40:32.040 you limit it. It made me so mad. One time 0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:37.200 somebody told me something about our church, and I know 0:40:37.239 --> 0:40:40.840 they meant it in the nicest possible way, and I 0:40:40.880 --> 0:40:44.200 know they were probably trying to be constructive. But they said, 0:40:44.239 --> 0:40:48.000 elevation is the church where you catch the fish, but 0:40:48.040 --> 0:40:57.839 you don't clean them up. This brother in Christ, I'm 0:40:57.840 --> 0:40:59.960 gonna say it like that. The label, you know, it's poor. 0:41:04.239 --> 0:41:06.600 He was saying it to me as if like, oh, 0:41:06.800 --> 0:41:10.320 because people come in this church and their lifestyle doesn't 0:41:10.320 --> 0:41:14.920 immediately change. You know, you catch them and we'll clean them. 0:41:14.920 --> 0:41:16.800 That's what he was saying. He was saying, I'll preach 0:41:16.840 --> 0:41:20.840 the word of God that helps them grow. You preach 0:41:20.920 --> 0:41:25.600 the grace that gets them saved. That is the dumbest 0:41:25.640 --> 0:41:31.879 distinction in the history of humanity. It really is. That's 0:41:31.960 --> 0:41:38.640 like saying, Okay, you eat and I'll drink. It takes 0:41:38.680 --> 0:41:41.960 both to live. And I want to declare to you 0:41:42.040 --> 0:41:45.759 today that nobody really changes to become what God made 0:41:45.760 --> 0:41:50.959 them without the grace of God. So we don't get 0:41:51.200 --> 0:41:54.120 grace to become Christians. And oh now I'm saved by 0:41:54.200 --> 0:41:56.920 grace and I'll try really hard to earn it from 0:41:56.960 --> 0:41:59.560 God in the future. That is not how we change, 0:41:59.600 --> 0:42:02.719 not God, not in a lasting way, not in a 0:42:02.760 --> 0:42:06.640 sustainable way. That's ridiculous. That's our label that we want 0:42:06.680 --> 0:42:09.799 to do. Oh he's a baby Christian. Oh he's a 0:42:09.880 --> 0:42:12.920 mature Christian, and we measure that by how much scripture 0:42:12.960 --> 0:42:17.359 they knew. That is not how God labels faith. I'll 0:42:17.480 --> 0:42:27.000 rather you know one Bible verse and do it. Old 0:42:27.200 --> 0:42:29.719 old Preacher James used to say, you can have your 0:42:29.760 --> 0:42:32.120 Bible so marked up, looks like a color and book, 0:42:32.160 --> 0:42:34.040 and it won't get you into heaven. You got to 0:42:34.080 --> 0:42:36.200 come into heaven by the door. You got to come 0:42:36.200 --> 0:42:38.360 into heaven by the grace of God. You've got to 0:42:38.400 --> 0:42:40.759 grow by the grace of God, the same grace you 0:42:40.800 --> 0:42:46.239 were saved in. Don't categorize people so quickly. You don't 0:42:46.280 --> 0:42:48.200 even know if they really said that. You don't even 0:42:48.239 --> 0:42:49.920 know if they really did that. You don't even know 0:42:49.920 --> 0:42:52.080 if that's really how it is. You never even really 0:42:52.120 --> 0:42:54.279 talk to them. You never even really asked them how 0:42:54.280 --> 0:42:56.319 they grew up. You never really asked them why they 0:42:56.360 --> 0:42:58.480 do that. You never really asked them why they dressed 0:42:58.520 --> 0:43:01.400 like that. You never even asked them. You remember the 0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:03.680 lady that came into church and she'd never been to 0:43:03.760 --> 0:43:06.320 church before. She didn't have any church clothes, y'all remember, 0:43:06.480 --> 0:43:08.839 And she was dressed wearing what she had, and it 0:43:08.880 --> 0:43:11.600 wasn't very modest. And when she was in there. Everybody 0:43:11.680 --> 0:43:14.319 was staring at her, and everybody was judging her, and 0:43:14.360 --> 0:43:17.520 everybody was whispering about her. And so afterwards the pastor 0:43:17.560 --> 0:43:19.279 met her at the door and said, you got to 0:43:19.320 --> 0:43:21.680 ask God before you come back here what you should 0:43:21.719 --> 0:43:23.960 wear the church. Now, don't come back here until you 0:43:24.000 --> 0:43:26.719 prayed about what you're wearing. So she came back the 0:43:26.760 --> 0:43:29.160 next weekend. She was wearing the same thing, and the 0:43:29.160 --> 0:43:31.799 pastor said, didn't I tell you to ask God what 0:43:31.920 --> 0:43:34.680 to wear before you came back to this church? And 0:43:34.760 --> 0:43:38.319 she said I did. And he said, well, what did 0:43:38.360 --> 0:43:41.600 God say? And she said, God said he didn't know 0:43:41.640 --> 0:43:43.359 what I should wear to this church because he'd never 0:43:43.400 --> 0:44:00.400 been here before. God hates labels. He hates it. He 0:44:00.520 --> 0:44:03.279 hates it when we think we're righteous because we don't 0:44:03.280 --> 0:44:06.799 do this bad behavior. Well, you got some other bad behaviors, 0:44:07.080 --> 0:44:10.880 some bad beliefs. We can't just judge somebody based on 0:44:10.920 --> 0:44:17.280 a snapshot that we saw. We become what we believe. 0:44:17.760 --> 0:44:20.480 And the problem with a lot of us is our 0:44:21.080 --> 0:44:23.560 basis of belief is in the wrong thing. So our 0:44:23.600 --> 0:44:26.200 faith is weak because we started with a weak belief. 0:44:27.800 --> 0:44:30.719 Who said confident, I want to be more confident. I 0:44:30.760 --> 0:44:33.400 love that one because I was thinking, what would I 0:44:33.440 --> 0:44:37.680 need to believe to be more confident. I probably need 0:44:37.719 --> 0:44:40.399 to believe what the Bible says, that He who began 0:44:40.480 --> 0:44:44.200 a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. 0:44:45.719 --> 0:44:47.959 I would be more confident if I believe that God 0:44:48.040 --> 0:44:52.560 started it. If I think I started it, I've got 0:44:52.600 --> 0:44:56.560 to sustain it. I didn't ask to be born. I 0:44:56.600 --> 0:44:59.480 didn't ask to be five nine and a half with 0:44:59.640 --> 0:45:02.880 a pretty good beard. I didn't ask for any of that. 0:45:03.800 --> 0:45:06.319 But God put me here, and I want to see 0:45:06.360 --> 0:45:08.720 what I can be. But I don't want to label 0:45:08.800 --> 0:45:12.719 myself too soon because I'm not done becoming yet. So 0:45:12.840 --> 0:45:15.000 when I sit in the presence of God, I don't 0:45:15.040 --> 0:45:17.920 just want to tell him what I am, because what 0:45:18.000 --> 0:45:20.719 I think I am is what I label myself. And 0:45:20.760 --> 0:45:23.560 when I label myself, I limit myself. Oh I'm not 0:45:23.640 --> 0:45:25.760 good at that. Oh I'm not that kind of person. 0:45:25.960 --> 0:45:28.080 Oh I'm not a morning person. Oh I'm not a 0:45:28.120 --> 0:45:31.359 worship person. I'm so tired of you telling God who 0:45:31.440 --> 0:45:34.640 made you, what label you need to wear. If you 0:45:34.760 --> 0:45:38.160 didn't make it, you can't name it. You don't get 0:45:38.200 --> 0:45:42.960 to label what it didn't make. I am fearfully and 0:45:43.280 --> 0:45:54.920 wonderfully made. That's who I am. So God doesn't label 0:45:55.080 --> 0:46:00.719 me based on what I am loyal to. Why are 0:46:00.760 --> 0:46:04.320 you loyal to a lie? Why would you be loyal 0:46:04.480 --> 0:46:08.680 to something someone said about you over something that God 0:46:08.800 --> 0:46:16.879 spoke about you. We become what we believe. We are. 0:46:17.840 --> 0:46:24.560 We label, we are, We label, we are, we label. 0:46:24.880 --> 0:46:29.560 We label our lives on where we are. God labels 0:46:29.560 --> 0:46:32.080 your life based on where he knows he's taking you. 0:46:34.400 --> 0:46:37.200 So God does not label you by what you struggle 0:46:37.280 --> 0:46:40.919 with Right now. People will, that's fine, let them, don't 0:46:40.960 --> 0:46:44.040 even try to change their mind. The devil will. He'll say, 0:46:44.040 --> 0:46:46.960 you're down this far. Look at you, you're grumpy. Look 0:46:47.000 --> 0:46:49.200 at you, you're broke. Look at who you're living on 0:46:49.280 --> 0:46:52.000 the street. Look at you. You're in prison. Look at you, 0:46:52.000 --> 0:46:54.680 you're in recovery. Look at you you lost it again. 0:46:54.960 --> 0:46:57.120 Look at you, you can't make it. Look at you, 0:46:57.120 --> 0:46:59.759 you're still in debt. Look at you, you can't get up. 0:47:00.080 --> 0:47:04.280 But God doesn't label being based on where him Right now, 0:47:04.600 --> 0:47:08.920 he stands in eternity pass and reaches it to eternity, 0:47:09.040 --> 0:47:14.200 kilts her and says, I've made you a father homedy nations. 0:47:14.520 --> 0:47:23.160 I've made you nor than a conqueror. Believe that. Believe 0:47:23.239 --> 0:47:28.240 that why you believe the Devil's so easy and believe 0:47:28.320 --> 0:47:32.520 God so harm If he set yours child yours child, 0:47:32.840 --> 0:47:36.040 if he said you're forgiven, You're forgiven. I don't care 0:47:36.080 --> 0:47:40.040 what shame's been crawling up on you. I'm bringing right now. 0:47:40.239 --> 0:47:51.479 He's the mighty name of sees so so so does 0:47:51.560 --> 0:47:55.200 God hate your labels? Maybe he does. If you're walking 0:47:55.200 --> 0:47:58.160 around saying stuff about yourself that contradicts what He put 0:47:58.200 --> 0:48:00.640 inside of you. I think God hates you. You're labeled. 0:48:02.320 --> 0:48:06.200 I think God hates some of our labels. As a 0:48:06.200 --> 0:48:10.160 matter of fact, I believe he hates it so much 0:48:10.920 --> 0:48:13.600 that he will do whatever he has to do to 0:48:13.680 --> 0:48:16.960 peel that label off of you so you can see 0:48:17.000 --> 0:48:24.040 what's really inside. Sometimes we label too quick, and we 0:48:24.080 --> 0:48:31.080 miss what was given. We miss what was given. You. 0:48:31.080 --> 0:48:33.880 Remember how God told Abraham, you're the father of many nations, 0:48:33.960 --> 0:48:35.920 and then he said, and I have given you this 0:48:36.040 --> 0:48:39.400 land for your descendants. Do you know what's so sad? 0:48:41.040 --> 0:48:44.040 They never got to go into it until a whole 0:48:44.080 --> 0:48:49.520 generation had died because of what they labeled themselves in 0:48:49.560 --> 0:48:54.240 the wilderness. When you're in a wilderness, you're not there yet. 0:48:55.200 --> 0:49:00.279 When you're in a wilderness, you have left Egypt. Just 0:49:00.280 --> 0:49:05.839 because you leave Egypt doesn't mean you believe yet in 0:49:05.960 --> 0:49:09.279 what God sees you to be. So here they are, 0:49:09.320 --> 0:49:11.440 and I want you to picture yourself. This is not 0:49:11.480 --> 0:49:14.200 the faith of Abraham. This is the faith of Caleb. 0:49:14.320 --> 0:49:16.520 I don't know if you remember Caleb, but Caleb was 0:49:16.520 --> 0:49:20.440 that one spy who when they got to the edge 0:49:20.600 --> 0:49:23.080 of what God had spoken to them. And I don't 0:49:23.080 --> 0:49:25.879 know who this is for, but you are right on 0:49:26.160 --> 0:49:30.919 the verge of becoming your best version. I'm gonna say 0:49:30.960 --> 0:49:35.360 it again. You are on the verge of your best version. 0:49:36.320 --> 0:49:39.160 Why are you so loyal to the worst version of you? 0:49:39.840 --> 0:49:41.839 Why do you go off on people and say, well, 0:49:41.840 --> 0:49:44.640 I'm just keeping it real. You're not keeping it real. 0:49:45.800 --> 0:49:50.520 You are keeping yourself in a rut. You are keeping 0:49:50.560 --> 0:49:53.840 yourself in the first version. When God says you're a 0:49:53.880 --> 0:49:58.440 new creation, and then people give stupid advice, Oh, just 0:49:58.600 --> 0:50:04.200 do you do you? Okay, that's fine, but do the 0:50:04.239 --> 0:50:10.960 new you, not the old you, not the you that 0:50:11.160 --> 0:50:14.080 was labeled by the experiences of your life up to 0:50:14.160 --> 0:50:16.880 this point. Not the you that's all selfish all the time, 0:50:16.960 --> 0:50:18.960 just trying to figure out how it makes you look. 0:50:19.160 --> 0:50:22.960 Do the new you, Do the new you. Maybe that 0:50:22.960 --> 0:50:25.240 should be the title of this sermon. Do the new you, 0:50:25.880 --> 0:50:28.080 the one that's full of faith. Do the new you, 0:50:28.280 --> 0:50:31.200 the one that's accepted in the beloved. Do the new you, 0:50:31.440 --> 0:50:33.880 the one that knows the Lord is my shepherd, and 0:50:33.920 --> 0:50:36.960 I shall not want Do the new you, the one 0:50:36.960 --> 0:50:42.920 that is transformed by the renewing of your mind. So 0:50:43.000 --> 0:50:45.600 they get right up to the edge of the promised land, 0:50:46.320 --> 0:50:48.920 right up to the edge, just like you right now. 0:50:49.120 --> 0:50:52.879 You've been fighting, You've been frustrated. You've been back and 0:50:52.920 --> 0:50:56.400 forth and one step and two steps, and two steps 0:50:56.520 --> 0:51:00.280 and one step, and why can't I change? And God 0:51:00.320 --> 0:51:06.400 brought you into this moment to change your label, To 0:51:06.520 --> 0:51:12.120 change your label. What you call an end, he calls 0:51:12.160 --> 0:51:17.080 a beginning. What you call over, he calls just getting started. 0:51:17.520 --> 0:51:22.279 What you call breakdown, he calls breakthrough. What you call 0:51:22.360 --> 0:51:26.400 a closed store, he calls an open window. I believe 0:51:26.440 --> 0:51:29.640 God's about to rip the roof off of somebody's life 0:51:29.680 --> 0:51:37.040 today and change your label because watch this, watch this, 0:51:37.840 --> 0:51:40.560 I'm almost done. Can I have five more minutes, five 0:51:40.560 --> 0:51:43.279 more minutes to set somebody free, five more minutes to 0:51:43.320 --> 0:51:46.560 break somebody's change, five more minutes to preach down the glory, 0:51:46.800 --> 0:51:49.319 five more minutes to connect with your faith like a 0:51:49.440 --> 0:51:52.680 jumper cable and get you started and back on the road. 0:51:52.960 --> 0:51:56.719 To believe that you're gonna be everything God made you 0:51:56.840 --> 0:51:59.880 to be, and you're not gonna die in what you started, 0:52:00.400 --> 0:52:03.080 and you're not gonna stay down forever, because this isn't 0:52:03.120 --> 0:52:06.359 even really you. This is not really you. You are 0:52:07.960 --> 0:52:10.480 the head is not to tell my love is not 0:52:10.680 --> 0:52:17.640 pasi has se is. You want to call me something, 0:52:17.920 --> 0:52:21.239 call me bless, You want to call me something, Call 0:52:21.320 --> 0:52:31.760 me saved, You want to call me something. Number thirteen thirty. 0:52:32.880 --> 0:52:36.240 All the voices are saying, we went into the land 0:52:36.360 --> 0:52:38.839 God gave us. There's some things God gave you you're 0:52:38.840 --> 0:52:41.239 not going into. There are some things God gave you 0:52:41.239 --> 0:52:43.640 you're not going into. There are some things God has 0:52:43.719 --> 0:52:46.600 given you. He has promised you, He has spoken to you, 0:52:46.800 --> 0:52:49.359 and you won't become it because you won't believe it. 0:52:50.440 --> 0:52:52.680 You say, I want to be more disciplined. Well do 0:52:52.800 --> 0:52:54.880 you believe that greater is he that is in you 0:52:54.960 --> 0:52:57.560 than he that's in the world, because if you believe that, 0:52:57.880 --> 0:53:00.799 you can become whatever you need to be. Don't say 0:53:00.800 --> 0:53:04.799 I'm lazy, don't say I'm a procrastinator. I was, but 0:53:04.880 --> 0:53:07.960 I'm not doing that version of me anymore. I got 0:53:07.960 --> 0:53:12.200 an upgrade from the manufacturer my goal just plus, there's 0:53:12.239 --> 0:53:23.960 a down law, Caleb saying, Caleb silence the people standing 0:53:24.000 --> 0:53:27.520 on the edge of the blessing and said to Moses, 0:53:27.600 --> 0:53:35.440 let us go up at once and occupy it, for 0:53:35.680 --> 0:53:55.759 we are hold on, we are. I came today to 0:53:55.960 --> 0:54:05.400 change your label. God said, today is the day you'd 0:54:05.520 --> 0:54:14.840 change you're labeled. See we are weak, but He is strong. 0:54:15.880 --> 0:54:21.319 We are we label But if you know God is 0:54:21.520 --> 0:54:28.160 able to do immesserably more than we ask. Don't label 0:54:28.200 --> 0:54:32.840 it yet, dolabel it yet, dolabel a yet. God's not 0:54:33.280 --> 0:54:41.480 through with you yet. Who receives it, Who receives it, 0:54:41.640 --> 0:54:45.200 who receives it? I'm one of those Christians. I'm not 0:54:45.480 --> 0:54:49.720 done becoming. I plead the blood. I breathe the blood. 0:54:50.040 --> 0:54:58.200 I plead the blood. I plead the we are well abled, 0:54:59.000 --> 0:55:04.360 we are well abel. I'm going in, I'm going forward, 0:55:04.600 --> 0:55:08.040 I'm loving in it, I'm walking in it. I'm flowing 0:55:08.160 --> 0:55:18.600 in it. We are well able. I'm little, but I'm able. Eh, 0:55:18.760 --> 0:55:22.920 I'm crazy, but I'm able. I got his spirit, I 0:55:23.000 --> 0:55:26.440 got his promise. That's what I believe. If he called me, 0:55:26.800 --> 0:55:33.880 he'll complete it. I am well, Abel, and I am finished. 0:55:34.160 --> 0:55:36.160 Stand up on your feet and clap your hands for 0:55:36.239 --> 0:55:41.040 the word Holley. Put a praise on it. Don't slip 0:55:41.080 --> 0:55:43.840 out the back. Put a praise on this word. We 0:55:44.080 --> 0:55:58.799 are well Abel. You want to die out here in 0:55:58.840 --> 0:56:02.600 this wilderness of what you think you are? Do you? So? 0:56:04.560 --> 0:56:12.600 We're gonna believe better. Baby, We're gonna eat Dorito's. I'm 0:56:12.600 --> 0:56:14.840 gonna lick the cheese off of this dorito now I 0:56:14.880 --> 0:56:19.560 found out I can eat it. They say you are 0:56:19.600 --> 0:56:23.640 what you eat, and a lot of us have weak 0:56:23.680 --> 0:56:30.800 faith because we eat weak information, weak data, weak beliefs. 0:56:32.719 --> 0:56:36.640 You gotta eat better, baby. FreeDOS are making you fat. 0:56:37.640 --> 0:56:44.560 And it's not FDA approved. The Faith and Destiny Administration 0:56:45.680 --> 0:56:51.799 does not approve all of your doubts and condemnation. So God, 0:56:51.800 --> 0:56:56.440 in this place today and all over the world, I 0:56:56.640 --> 0:56:58.880 just see you with walking around with post it notes, 0:57:01.640 --> 0:57:05.719 just given new labels to people for the rest of 0:57:05.760 --> 0:57:12.880 their life. New labels, no limits, new labels, no limits. 0:57:13.960 --> 0:57:17.360 I only chose Abraham to preach this message because he 0:57:17.480 --> 0:57:21.040 was so old. I thought if God could do it 0:57:21.080 --> 0:57:25.040 through him after a century on this earth, that he 0:57:25.080 --> 0:57:35.480 could do it for me and you too. Don't label 0:57:35.520 --> 0:57:38.840 it yet, even the situation you're going through yet, don't 0:57:38.880 --> 0:57:41.720 tell people yet that it was a betrayal. It might 0:57:41.800 --> 0:57:45.400 be right now, but it might also be an upgrade 0:57:45.920 --> 0:57:52.320 in the making. Don't label it. When you were telling 0:57:52.320 --> 0:57:54.400 me how you felt the other day, I was like, 0:57:54.520 --> 0:58:00.120 stop right now, this story is to be continued. That's 0:58:00.120 --> 0:58:02.919 how we see it right now. That's not how God 0:58:02.960 --> 0:58:09.200 sees it. Your labels are limits, and God wants to 0:58:09.240 --> 0:58:14.520 redeem some things that you will not release. Damn. So 0:58:14.640 --> 0:58:16.160 right now I want you to buy your head, close 0:58:16.160 --> 0:58:18.760 your eyes all over the room. Let's just have one 0:58:19.480 --> 0:58:28.479 minute of ministry by the Holy Spirit, not by me. Lord, 0:58:28.480 --> 0:58:30.480 show me something about me where I need to change 0:58:30.520 --> 0:58:34.880 the label. Show me something about me that I don't 0:58:35.000 --> 0:58:42.520 like that you intend to use. Show me something I 0:58:42.560 --> 0:58:49.080 need to believe to become who I really am. Show 0:58:49.120 --> 0:58:54.800 me that Lord. Only the Lord gets to label you. 0:58:56.240 --> 0:59:00.880 It is He that made us, not we ourselves, for 0:59:01.000 --> 0:59:07.000 we are the clay, he's the potter. Abraham didn't look 0:59:07.080 --> 0:59:10.720 like the father of many nations, didn't feel like the 0:59:10.720 --> 0:59:15.800 father of many nations. Doesn't mean he wouldn't. Hey, Hey, 0:59:16.240 --> 0:59:20.520 sometimes I know you don't feel like the best dad, 0:59:20.640 --> 0:59:25.840 the best mom, the best person, the best Christian. Just 0:59:25.880 --> 0:59:29.720 because you don't feel like that doesn't mean that God 0:59:30.400 --> 0:59:33.960 has become frustrated with you. And he's not casting you off, 0:59:34.440 --> 0:59:38.840 So why would you He's not through, So why would 0:59:38.920 --> 0:59:44.240 you be Lift your hands? Lord? I receive what you 0:59:44.320 --> 0:59:50.680 speak over me. That's what I receive. What you say 0:59:50.720 --> 0:59:54.800 about my situation. I come into agreement with you right now. 0:59:55.560 --> 0:59:58.320 What would it take for me to be more peaceful? 0:59:58.520 --> 1:00:00.800 What would I have to believe? Somebody said, I want 1:00:00.800 --> 1:00:03.280 to be more peaceful? Well, what would you need to believe? 1:00:03.560 --> 1:00:06.800 You would need to believe that all things work together 1:00:06.960 --> 1:00:09.880 for the good of them that love God. And if 1:00:09.880 --> 1:00:13.560 I focus on loving God and called according to His purpose, 1:00:15.400 --> 1:00:17.800 then not that shall be able to stop me. We 1:00:17.960 --> 1:00:24.640 are well able. Christ lives in us. We are well able. 1:00:25.640 --> 1:00:27.800 Put that label on your life. God is able to 1:00:27.800 --> 1:00:31.920 do anything that he wants to do. Heads bowed, eyes closed, 1:00:31.960 --> 1:00:34.200 You can put your hands down for a moment. There's 1:00:34.200 --> 1:00:37.520 somebody in this place and God wants to change you 1:00:37.600 --> 1:00:41.200 today and make you a new creation in Jesus Christ. 1:00:42.000 --> 1:00:45.360 This is my favorite moment that I ever have of 1:00:45.480 --> 1:00:49.800 doing ministry because now this isn't about you writing down 1:00:49.840 --> 1:00:52.800 something in a notebook. This is about you having any 1:00:52.800 --> 1:00:55.800 eternal change. And there is somebody, there's at least one 1:00:55.840 --> 1:00:59.520 person watching me online or here in this room that 1:00:59.600 --> 1:01:03.120 today he is today, that God wants to change your 1:01:03.240 --> 1:01:07.600 name and change your life and give you his grace. 1:01:08.480 --> 1:01:10.680 So right now, in this moment, I'm going to pray 1:01:10.680 --> 1:01:12.400 a prayer. The whole church is going to pray this 1:01:12.480 --> 1:01:15.360 prayer with me in agreement, and it's for the benefit 1:01:15.400 --> 1:01:17.760 of those who want to give their life to Christ. 1:01:18.160 --> 1:01:22.080 This is not a magic prayer, this is not an incantation. 1:01:22.800 --> 1:01:27.480 It's a confession of faith to tell God that you 1:01:27.560 --> 1:01:30.200 know that you're a sinner and that you receive his 1:01:30.320 --> 1:01:32.240 grace to save you. The Bible says that if you 1:01:32.280 --> 1:01:35.280 confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe 1:01:35.320 --> 1:01:37.240 in your heart that God raised him from the dead, 1:01:37.880 --> 1:01:41.120 you will be saved. Right now, in this moment, heads 1:01:41.120 --> 1:01:43.920 bowed eyes close. If that's you, I want you to 1:01:43.960 --> 1:01:49.680 repeat this prayer after me. Heavenly Father, I am a 1:01:49.720 --> 1:01:56.120 sinner in need of a savior, and today I receive 1:01:57.160 --> 1:02:04.280 Jesus Christ as my savior and Lord. I believe Jesus 1:02:04.400 --> 1:02:09.720 died so I could be forgiven and rose again to 1:02:09.800 --> 1:02:15.480 give me new life. I receive this new life. This 1:02:15.680 --> 1:02:20.280 is my new beginning. I am a child of God. 1:02:20.920 --> 1:02:22.600 On the count of three, shoot your hand up. If 1:02:22.640 --> 1:02:25.280 you prayed that one, two, three, shoot them up. Shoot 1:02:25.280 --> 1:02:28.320 them up online online, let us go into chack. God 1:02:28.320 --> 1:02:32.480 bless you. Amazing, amazing. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, 1:02:32.520 --> 1:02:34.600 there are a couple things I'd love for you to do. 1:02:34.720 --> 1:02:39.080 Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You 1:02:39.080 --> 1:02:41.520 can also help us reach others by investing today at 1:02:41.520 --> 1:02:45.560 Elevationchurch dot org. Slash GiB and thanks again for joining 1:02:45.600 --> 1:02:47.200 us on the Elevation Podcast.