Speaker 1: Hey haul, Yes, let's do it again. Let's do it,
Speaker 1: let's run it back. I can't wait. Elevation Nights. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be amazing. Been to the East coast, West coast,
Speaker 1: YEP Now I think we need to come to Austin, Texas. Yes,
Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. About Minneapolis, Yes, Kansas City, Missouri, Denver, Colorado,
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, Missouri, for Wayne, Indiana, Toronto, Ontario. We got
Speaker 1: to see you there April eighteenth, April eighteen through twenty seven.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be amazing. Yeah, we coordinated that awesome. But
Speaker 1: make sure you go get your tickets right now. Elevation
Speaker 1: Nights dot com. These nights are seriously like the best,
Speaker 1: the best. Can't explain it. I wouldn't keep doing it
Speaker 1: if it wasn't amazing. You have to experience it. It'll
Speaker 1: be me you Elevation Worship and we'll see at Elevation Nights.
Speaker 1: Elevation Nights dot Com. Get your tickets today, let me
Speaker 1: know if you're going to be there. I want you
Speaker 1: to welcome our EPAM around the world right now, all
Speaker 1: over the world, all over the world. I just stuck
Speaker 1: in that melody all day. Stop it stop it because
Speaker 1: I'm ready to preach. Oh, y'all aren't ready to listen,
Speaker 1: but I'm ready to preach. I y'all be seated. We're
Speaker 1: going to go right into the word. Can I pick
Speaker 1: up where I left off last week? Do the new you?
Speaker 1: Resist the temptation to go forward into your future on
Speaker 1: the old template. Do the new you. It's a little
Speaker 1: series that I'm doing here in the first month of
Speaker 1: the year, and I'll go as long as God leads me.
Speaker 1: But I committed to him to at least do it
Speaker 1: for this first month because I think this cultural phrase
Speaker 1: that we have comes from the pit of hell. Do
Speaker 1: you I mean cool? Yeah, be unique? That's great. However,
Speaker 1: if the you that you are doing is not the
Speaker 1: you that God wants to use, you've got to grow. Amen. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is going to go good. This is going to
Speaker 1: go good today. This word that God gave me last week,
Speaker 1: and I do want to start with where I ended
Speaker 1: last week. Go to Ephesians chapter four briefly as I
Speaker 1: read you this scripture, and then kind of remind you.
Speaker 1: I don't often like to say this is a review
Speaker 1: because then it'll make you feel like you're jumping into
Speaker 1: the middle of a season, and that's not the case,
Speaker 1: especially if you're here for the first time. How many
Speaker 1: of you are in church today really needing God to
Speaker 1: give you some clarity in your life? And then how
Speaker 1: many of you believe put it in the chat as well?
Speaker 1: How many of you believe that that can only come
Speaker 1: from Jesus clarity. Now, we can figure out other things
Speaker 1: other ways, but when it comes to spiritual matters, we
Speaker 1: need Jesus. And that's what Ephesians four is saying, all right,
Speaker 1: in this epistle, epistle is not a wife of an apostle.
Speaker 1: It's a letter breaking out all my preacher humor for
Speaker 1: the first of the year. Look at verse twenty Ephesians
Speaker 1: Chapter four, Verse twenty. I love y'all. Y'all are a
Speaker 1: little slow to say it back, and I love you
Speaker 1: enough to tell you the truth. And that's what we're
Speaker 1: going to do today. This message is going to be
Speaker 1: a grown up adult message, all right. Verse twenty. That, however,
Speaker 1: is not the way of life you learned when you
Speaker 1: heard about Christ, and we're taught in Him in accordance
Speaker 1: with the truth that is in Jesus. Well, now that
Speaker 1: messes up my other least favorite cultural saying, live your truth.
Speaker 1: And Paul just said that I need to learn a
Speaker 1: new truth. And the truth that is new is not
Speaker 1: the truth that is new at all. It might be
Speaker 1: new to you, but the truth is in Jesus, not
Speaker 1: in me. I don't trust my own judgment enough to
Speaker 1: figure out what truth is. There was a time in
Speaker 1: my life when I thought there was a tooth fairy
Speaker 1: that brought me money for my teeth. That's how stupid
Speaker 1: I was. So I figured there's probably something i'm still
Speaker 1: that stupid about today that I haven't figured out that
Speaker 1: is stupid yet. And baby truth doesn't fall out like
Speaker 1: a baby tooth, so it has to be uprooted. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. God is good. God
Speaker 1: is good. God is good. We got to yank it out.
Speaker 1: But he said the way of life. Look verse twenty two.
Speaker 1: This is really really important. You were taught with regard
Speaker 1: to your former way of life, baby Truth, to put
Speaker 1: off your old self, which is being shout the next word, corrupted,
Speaker 1: corrupt by its deceitful desires, to be made new in
Speaker 1: the attitude of your minds, and to put on the
Speaker 1: new self created to be like God in righteousness or
Speaker 1: true righteousness and holiness. And so that's the contrast we
Speaker 1: focused on last week. Corrupted verse twenty two. Put it
Speaker 1: up again, please corrupted, and then verse twenty four created,
Speaker 1: and write them both down if you want to corrupted
Speaker 1: and created. And I'm not saying that there are two yous,
Speaker 1: but I am saying that, according to the scriptural revelation
Speaker 1: here from Paul, as well as my own personal experience,
Speaker 1: there is a choosing every day of my life and
Speaker 1: your life about which one of us is going to
Speaker 1: show up for any given situation. And once you realize
Speaker 1: the power that choice, you don't feel so stuck anymore.
Speaker 1: And that is a wonderful thing. I get sick of
Speaker 1: myself sometimes and I begin to believe that this is
Speaker 1: just the way I am, and then somebody comes along
Speaker 1: and says, just do you, And I'm like, great past
Speaker 1: the cheese fries. I went out to Gaston County to
Speaker 1: watch Graham wrestle yesterday. Those cheese fries look good, and
Speaker 1: there were two mes. And my taste buds know exactly
Speaker 1: about those cheese fries, and my waistline knows what my
Speaker 1: taste buds are trying to make me forget in that
Speaker 1: moment where this leads if I do it long enough.
Speaker 1: So I didn't eat the fries. Cheer me on, yeah, Pastor.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I don't do as good of a job
Speaker 1: resisting the fear as I did resisting the fries. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I don't do as good a job about what comes
Speaker 1: out of my mouth as what goes in. Say what
Speaker 1: I want to say, do what I want to do.
Speaker 1: And I'm just doing you, and you do you, and
Speaker 1: I'll do me, and together we'll get divorced in seven years,
Speaker 1: just doing each other. This is what Paul is talking
Speaker 1: about to the church at Ephesus, and to the Church
Speaker 1: at Valentine, and to the church at University City, into
Speaker 1: the church in Nepal, and into the church in the UK,
Speaker 1: and into the Church of your heart. When he says,
Speaker 1: you were taught the truth in Jesus, and so the
Speaker 1: Lord gave me this and it really touched me that
Speaker 1: I need someone to teach me Jesus. He says, you
Speaker 1: were taught a way of life in Jesus. And I
Speaker 1: don't know who taught you about Jesus or who taught
Speaker 1: Jesus to you, but you ought to thank God for them,
Speaker 1: and you ought to thank them, whether that's my mom,
Speaker 1: thank you, whether that's pastor Mickey. He will never ask
Speaker 1: me an offering for ministry that I won't help him
Speaker 1: build it. And so even if the church had twenty dollars,
Speaker 1: if he needed five, if he needed ten, I'd have
Speaker 1: to pray in tongues about it. But I will always
Speaker 1: support him because he taught me Jesus, and I'm really
Speaker 1: grateful that he did. And he wasn't the first one.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the Methodist church where I grew up,
Speaker 1: there were Sunday school teachers who taught me Jesus, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate them so much. And you probably can think
Speaker 1: of somebody right now who taught you Jesus or who
Speaker 1: brought you to church so that you could learn Jesus,
Speaker 1: and you ought to thank God for them. And know
Speaker 1: this is not a selfish and motivated part of my sermon,
Speaker 1: because I'm the one who teaches the Bible. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about those personal people who help lead you to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Is amazing, because I need somebody to teach me Jesus
Speaker 1: because the world is screaming everything else, So to teach
Speaker 1: me Jesus a way of life that is outside of
Speaker 1: this crazy, corrupt, crooked culture, this siloed culture, this panic
Speaker 1: attacks society, this judgmental culture, this cancel culture, this hypocritical cure,
Speaker 1: this materialistic culture, this jacked up it might burn down quick.
Speaker 1: Let's hurry up and praise God while we've still got
Speaker 1: a planet culture. I need somebody to teach me Jesus.
Speaker 1: But I need Jesus to teach me me because in
Speaker 1: all the things that I've learned about him, there's a
Speaker 1: feeling I get some time that I haven't really met
Speaker 1: me yet, that I haven't quite grown into the me
Speaker 1: that I've seen glimpses of. I think I can be
Speaker 1: more free than I am. I think I can be
Speaker 1: more patient than I am. I think I can be
Speaker 1: more intentional than I am. I think I can be
Speaker 1: a little bit less of a control freak. Why did
Speaker 1: you say yes so loud to that you know me?
Speaker 1: We must have grown up together. Takes one to know one,
Speaker 1: Oh man. The control thing is one of those dumb
Speaker 1: things that you believe that you have. You have no control,
Speaker 1: So really, a control freak is an idiot. And where
Speaker 1: we're coming at from the scripture. He says, you were
Speaker 1: taught the truth in Jesus, the truth about what the rapture. Sure,
Speaker 1: but nobody knows the day or the hour. That's not
Speaker 1: something we can figure out. I mean, I can teach
Speaker 1: you some charts and all that, that'd be awesome. I
Speaker 1: can teach you about prayer, and I will tell you
Speaker 1: one thing about prayer real quick as we go, is
Speaker 1: that prayer is your way to get out of that
Speaker 1: default mode that you wake up in in the morning.
Speaker 1: Just like you brush your teeth, Just like we hope
Speaker 1: you brush your teeth and we admonish you to brush
Speaker 1: your teeth. Prayer is that way that you get in
Speaker 1: contact with God. I'm talking about God. So any view
Speaker 1: of me that doesn't start with God is doomed to
Speaker 1: get stuck in an infinite loop of stupid because the
Speaker 1: truth is in Jesus. And that's why I don't want
Speaker 1: you just buying into everything that you hear out there.
Speaker 1: Live your truth. What if your truth is a loop
Speaker 1: of doom? What if God, who stands outside of the
Speaker 1: loop of time and comes from a realm called eternity,
Speaker 1: knows you in a way that if you knew you
Speaker 1: like he knew you, you would stop doing self destructive things.
Speaker 1: You would stop running to people who are limited, trying
Speaker 1: to get an ocean out of a thimble sized personality
Speaker 1: and thinking something's wrong with you. Help me preach, y'all.
Speaker 1: There was somebody who wanted your seat today to use it.
Speaker 1: I love the Lord because he knows me. And last
Speaker 1: week I was showing you from Ephesians four twenty two.
Speaker 1: I hope this is not too esoteric, but it really
Speaker 1: helped me that the new you is not something in
Speaker 1: the future. When we talk about new Year, new You,
Speaker 1: we all roll our eyes collectively because knew you and
Speaker 1: new Year. Yeah, they both start with why. But I've
Speaker 1: done this before, so move on with that all that stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm just out here surviving. I'm just doing me. I'm
Speaker 1: just getting by. And as long as we think of
Speaker 1: who we can be in Christ as some future event
Speaker 1: contingent on our human abilities, we will always be limited
Speaker 1: to our moods, our emotions, and our background. Because I
Speaker 1: need somebody to teach me Jesus. But I need Jesus
Speaker 1: to teach me me. Here's why. When I talk about
Speaker 1: you changing, you, think of that in terms of a
Speaker 1: destination at a later date. God doesn't think that way.
Speaker 1: Here's what I showed last week that a lot of
Speaker 1: people reached out to me and said, oh, I love that.
Speaker 1: So in case you missed it, when I say the
Speaker 1: new you, I'm not only talking about you that is
Speaker 1: going to be for your future. I'm talking about the
Speaker 1: youth that God is already very familiar with. And I
Speaker 1: take this not from my own mind, but from Jeremiah
Speaker 1: one verse five. Do y'all know this scripture. This is
Speaker 1: a top ten scripture where the Lord says to Jeremiah,
Speaker 1: I've got a calling for you. I've got an assignment
Speaker 1: for you. You've never done it before. You don't even
Speaker 1: see yourself in this way. You don't imagine that you
Speaker 1: have the capacity to do it. I'm going to put
Speaker 1: you as a prophet to the nations. And Jeremiah is
Speaker 1: about to give God some excuses. But watch what God
Speaker 1: said to Jeremiah before the excuses begin. He said, before
Speaker 1: I formed you in the womb, I knew you now
Speaker 1: for you, the new is out here in the future,
Speaker 1: when I get married, when my kids get out of
Speaker 1: the house, when we're able to get pregnant, when the
Speaker 1: economy bounces back when I get out of this job,
Speaker 1: when they leave this job and I stay when when
Speaker 1: this happens, I will be It's out there. That's one
Speaker 1: way to look at it. You can find plenty of
Speaker 1: people on Instagram that will preach that to you. That
Speaker 1: you know, get on your grind and buy my course
Speaker 1: and then the future you will get girls. The future
Speaker 1: you will have washboard ass a superior intellect and be
Speaker 1: able to understand Jordan Peterson perfectly. The future you is
Speaker 1: going to be amazing. And that's what we normally hear, right,
Speaker 1: is all this height that we pass off as hope.
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, I'm gonna do a new this year,
Speaker 1: and then after three weeks we can't. But God does
Speaker 1: it different. Watch this. Jeremiah is insecure. Jeremiah is inexperienced.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah is surprised. If you're any of those three things,
Speaker 1: this is for you, touch somebody say this is for you,
Speaker 1: This is for you. Now. God doesn't tell Jeremiah, no,
Speaker 1: You're going to be something in the future that I'm
Speaker 1: telling you about right now if you just do it
Speaker 1: long enough. He says this, before I formed you in
Speaker 1: the womb, I knew you so take that knew you
Speaker 1: and put a key on the top of it. Not
Speaker 1: just the new you that people haven't seen yet, that
Speaker 1: you haven't even met yet, not just to you that
Speaker 1: you imagine when you get a real good church high
Speaker 1: a real good church buzz, where's off about twelve minutes
Speaker 1: after you sit in traffic in a church parking lot
Speaker 1: And instead of seeing this as I'm going forward towards
Speaker 1: something that I'm really not seeing how God says it,
Speaker 1: because what's in the future to you is what's familiar
Speaker 1: to God. Well, what's in the future you call it new. Okay,
Speaker 1: That's who I'm gonna be one day when and God's like,
Speaker 1: that's who you already are. That's who you always were,
Speaker 1: That's what I created you to be before SID corrupted
Speaker 1: what I created. Oh God, God got this thing started
Speaker 1: in my life. God set this thing in motion in
Speaker 1: my life. God is the one who set me in families.
Speaker 1: God is the one who set me in time. God
Speaker 1: is the one who set me in a generation. And
Speaker 1: I didn't get to say it to the staff Wednesday
Speaker 1: because I forgot, but I wanted to tell you He
Speaker 1: is also the lord of your limitations, just as God
Speaker 1: is the God of my potential. He is the lord
Speaker 1: of my limitations. It is true that we cannot put
Speaker 1: in what God left out. It is also true that
Speaker 1: most of us have no clue what God has put
Speaker 1: in the new you, the one God talks with, the
Speaker 1: one that makes you want to Sometimes you just kind
Speaker 1: of go. I want to change some things for the better,
Speaker 1: and I think I can. I want some relationships that
Speaker 1: encourage me this year, and I think I have the
Speaker 1: right to ask God for that. Yeah. I want to
Speaker 1: get around some people this year who don't just describe
Speaker 1: bones on the valley floor all the time. I want
Speaker 1: to get around some people this year that speak breath
Speaker 1: into the bones and know how to call out something
Speaker 1: that's on the inside of me. That me is the
Speaker 1: true you, it's the new you. Well that's what we
Speaker 1: said last week. This week I got a title, and
Speaker 1: I'm almost done preaching. Kind of maybe we'll see called.
Speaker 1: I didn't get this title. I got it from the scripture,
Speaker 1: but I also got it from a cereal box where
Speaker 1: you may remember this. If you're a child of the nineties,
Speaker 1: you definitely remember this. If you remember that Jeremy spoke
Speaker 1: in class today, you definitely remember this. If you remember
Speaker 1: Zach Morris's phone and Kelly Kopowski's temptation as a young
Speaker 1: man for you to lust and she was the first
Speaker 1: girl that you ever fell in love with, was Kelly Kapowski,
Speaker 1: you will definitely recognize this. I'll start it, you finish it,
Speaker 1: silly rabbit. I want to preach for fifteen minutes on
Speaker 1: tricks are for kids, because there is no shortcut to this.
Speaker 1: There is no magical worship button you're gonna press this
Speaker 1: morning that's gonna take the wind in the waves away
Speaker 1: in your life this week. That's how immature people think.
Speaker 1: One of my buddies texted and said, thank you for
Speaker 1: sharing that immaturity leads to instability because I needed to
Speaker 1: hear that because it is in my selfishness and my
Speaker 1: own desires. That's what Paul uses that phrase in the scripture.
Speaker 1: He says deceitful desires. I almost called the message that,
Speaker 1: but I thought it would sound too depressing. Today I
Speaker 1: want to talk about deceitful desires. I thought, though, we
Speaker 1: need to talk about these deceitful desires for a moment,
Speaker 1: because if the me that God sees is not the
Speaker 1: me that I'm stuck in right now? Then what's happening
Speaker 1: in the darkness. He describes to the Ephesian Church that
Speaker 1: we are children of the light, but he also says
Speaker 1: that the darkness keeps the gentiles from living the ways
Speaker 1: of God, and when we copy the patterns of the gentiles,
Speaker 1: we are forfeiting the promise of God. Do you understand
Speaker 1: what I'm saying? So every time you're scrolling through stuff,
Speaker 1: trying to figure out stuff of what other people are doing,
Speaker 1: you are forfeiting the self that God knows in the
Speaker 1: spirit and copying a pattern of the flesh that puts
Speaker 1: you in that doom loop of stupid. So now we
Speaker 1: have to deal with or desires, which are real. A
Speaker 1: lot of Christian teaching will almost put faith as the
Speaker 1: opposite of feelings. You know, we don't walk by feelings.
Speaker 1: We walk by faith. Bible doesn't say that. It says
Speaker 1: we walk by faith, not by sight. So we have
Speaker 1: feelings like even how would you know that there was
Speaker 1: faith if you felt nothing. That's the stupidest thing in
Speaker 1: the world. Preach is good. We don't walk by feelings,
Speaker 1: we walk by faith. But feelings have a place even
Speaker 1: in faith. You know, how do I know what God
Speaker 1: wants me to preach, Well, a certain amount of me
Speaker 1: has to feel I'm not saying that that that's solely
Speaker 1: dependent on It has to be true. It has to
Speaker 1: be from God's word. But there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: in God's word. How do I know this is what
Speaker 1: God wants me to preach for now? Well, there's a
Speaker 1: certain amount of that. I just have to know it
Speaker 1: on the inside, because God knows I'm not going to
Speaker 1: be one of these preachers that just reads whatever is
Speaker 1: on the headlines of the news and comes in the
Speaker 1: pulpit and just gives you another dose of the same
Speaker 1: crap that's already making you nauseous in the pulpit. You
Speaker 1: don't come here for that. So I'm not going to
Speaker 1: do that. I'm not up here to do that. And yet,
Speaker 1: what is the word that God has given us for
Speaker 1: this moment, for this year? What is the word that
Speaker 1: God has given your life for this point in time?
Speaker 1: What is it? How do you know if God's calling
Speaker 1: you to go here or there? How you going to
Speaker 1: know if God's calling you to do this or that?
Speaker 1: How do you even know what you're good at? I mean,
Speaker 1: part of this has to be feelings right, they have
Speaker 1: their place. But now here is how the enemy pickpockets you.
Speaker 1: Here is how the devil gets you to give up.
Speaker 1: Watch this the new self that God knows, the you
Speaker 1: that you kind of suspect us. There, the you that
Speaker 1: you can be for about three days at a time,
Speaker 1: and then you give in. How does he get you
Speaker 1: to give up on that? So easily? Deception? And in
Speaker 1: order to deceive, you have to diminish. Quick story I
Speaker 1: mentioned my mom taught me about Jesus. She also confronted
Speaker 1: this person one time for me and I never will forget.
Speaker 1: Being nine years old going to the trading card shop
Speaker 1: in Monk's Corner at the railroad track, right over the
Speaker 1: railroad track. I bought a pack of basketball cards. I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about basketball cards. This is my first
Speaker 1: pack of basketball cards. I had baseball cards. And I
Speaker 1: open it and there's a Michael Jordan card in the pack.
Speaker 1: The guy's watching me. I'm in there by myself. She's
Speaker 1: waiting in the car, and he goes, hey, I'll give
Speaker 1: you a whole other pack for that one car. I'm
Speaker 1: like a whole pack for a car. Sure, mister. They
Speaker 1: called him mister so like the Andy Griffiths show. In
Speaker 1: here you were mister gee Whiz Gollie hold back for
Speaker 1: a single card? Wow? Because I'm just a kid, just
Speaker 1: a kid. So I opened the next pack. I don't
Speaker 1: recognize any names I knew. Michael Jordan went out to
Speaker 1: the car. My mom said, how'd it go? I said,
Speaker 1: I got two packs? She said, how'd you get two?
Speaker 1: And gave money from one? I said, you never believe it.
Speaker 1: He gave me a whole other pack for one card. Mom,
Speaker 1: she said what was the card? Because she knew this
Speaker 1: man has a book. He knows how much that card
Speaker 1: was worth. And he's grown and my kid doesn't know
Speaker 1: the value of a car, so so so, so she said,
Speaker 1: what was the card? I said, Michael Jordan. She said,
Speaker 1: a Michael Ordon car. How much was it worth? I said,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it was worth, But I got
Speaker 1: a whole pack. My mom went back in that store
Speaker 1: with my Michael Jordan car and the third pack because
Speaker 1: she knew what was it up? Foot? Do you have
Speaker 1: a book? Have you read it? Hawn met Jesus? Did
Speaker 1: you know he's the perfect slockless laugh of God? Did
Speaker 1: you know they marched it up a hill to Calfrey,
Speaker 1: and they died for you, and bled for you, and
Speaker 1: suffered for you, and put the stripe for you, and
Speaker 1: put the mocking for you. And he stretched his arms
Speaker 1: and said, you're worth this once. Did you know that
Speaker 1: when he left to go to heaven, he sent his spirit,
Speaker 1: and that spirit lives in you. No, we don't know that.
Speaker 1: We don't know that. We're so busy copy in other
Speaker 1: people's style that we don't even know the spirit that
Speaker 1: came from God because we got so much stuff from culture.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, y'all. I'm Baptist in my heart. I went
Speaker 1: to a Baptist school. Comes out sometimes I'm sick of this.
Speaker 1: They're like walking up in the Devil's card shop and
Speaker 1: helping you get your peace back, your toy back, your
Speaker 1: dream back, your sweet self back, your creative self back.
Speaker 1: I got the book. I looked you up. In the book.
Speaker 1: I found out that you are precious in the sight
Speaker 1: of God. I found out that you are more than
Speaker 1: a conqueror. I looked you up in the book. You
Speaker 1: don't know me, pastor neither to you. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to introduce you to. Jesus. So Jesus can introduce
Speaker 1: you to you the new you knew with a K
Speaker 1: or new with the N both. That's what I want
Speaker 1: you to get this yere, and I will preach through
Speaker 1: every battery they sell in radio shack until you get this.
Speaker 1: Do they still have radio shack? I need to update
Speaker 1: the reference? All right? What order money Amazon? It'll be fine,
Speaker 1: We'll get the batteries. Y'all get distracted by the dumbest stuff.
Speaker 1: How about that when you think of the enemy's tricks
Speaker 1: in God's truth, what comes to your mind in your life?
Speaker 1: The first step if we're going to do the new
Speaker 1: spell it out. Notice evaluate and then the w's are
Speaker 1: not quite as good. But walk in okay, notice evaluate
Speaker 1: walking psychology for all of you who are too stubborn
Speaker 1: to go to therapy. You can't deal with feelings until
Speaker 1: you know they're there. So now one habit I've incorporated
Speaker 1: my life the last five years. Instead of going I'm scared,
Speaker 1: I try to back up and go I'm having a
Speaker 1: feeling of fear, because if I say I am scared,
Speaker 1: that becomes an identity. I'm feeling fear, that's an event.
Speaker 1: The truth is in Jesus. Jesus isn't scare Jesus is
Speaker 1: in me? So I'm feeling fear. But that's the old thing.
Speaker 1: That's the old thing. So I notice it. I evaluate
Speaker 1: it like how I mean you would you would probably,
Speaker 1: I would think, spend time shopping for a pair of shoes.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna spend money on them, you probably would
Speaker 1: spend time figuring out do they fit? And we will
Speaker 1: spend more time evaluating what we put on our feet
Speaker 1: than what we put in our mind, our heart, who
Speaker 1: we let in our phone. So is this from God?
Speaker 1: Is this what God gave me? Or is this a trick? Now?
Speaker 1: How you know if it's a trick, Well, you got
Speaker 1: to have the book value and then you have to
Speaker 1: well you have to actually spend time. You have to
Speaker 1: actually spend time around people who love God. They had
Speaker 1: a thousand E Group leaders. I think that online and
Speaker 1: physical that they encouraged this week. Let's thank God for
Speaker 1: our E Group leaders. Amazing Holly came out and preached,
Speaker 1: we've just been going this week. Man, we've been going.
Speaker 1: We're getting ready. We're getting ready. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what it is that God wants to do, but I
Speaker 1: figure since they're saying the world is going to fall apart.
Speaker 1: A falling apart world needs a built up church, and
Speaker 1: I want to be that. I want to be that
Speaker 1: church ready for all over the world. Praise the Lord,
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. I'm gonna do it with whoever God
Speaker 1: gives me around me to do it. We're gonna build
Speaker 1: something significant for this season of our life in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, if you think about when somebody
Speaker 1: uses a counterfeit ticket, because Elijah shops all the time
Speaker 1: for these shoes, I'm like, how do you know if
Speaker 1: they're real or not? If you get it off this
Speaker 1: side or that side, how is it all verified? And
Speaker 1: all of that. And when when me and my father
Speaker 1: in law and my brother in law Jody, they all
Speaker 1: go to our Greenville campus. Holly's family is all at
Speaker 1: Elevation in Greenville. They better all be there right now,
Speaker 1: because embarrassing if they're not. We went to a New
Speaker 1: York Knicks game and we want We were just spur
Speaker 1: of the moment wanting to go. This is when I
Speaker 1: was dating Holly and her dad. You have to know
Speaker 1: this guy, he's real. He's kind of like he's a
Speaker 1: bull in the China shop. So I said, how how
Speaker 1: are we going to get tickets? And we and he said, well,
Speaker 1: they're too expensive. We'll just buy them off a scalper.
Speaker 1: Ain't that dangerous? It's like no, no no, no, not, you
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. So we buy these tickets and
Speaker 1: we're walking up and it's kind of dark, and so
Speaker 1: we're walking up to the game and I'm like, merle,
Speaker 1: these tickets don't look are they supposed to be printed
Speaker 1: diagonal on? There? Doesn't nicks have a CEA in it somewhere.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that bad, but look kind of fake. We
Speaker 1: get to the thing and we hand him to the
Speaker 1: guy and he laughs. He doesn't hardly even look. He
Speaker 1: laughs he and he goes, guy, you got ripped off. Man,
Speaker 1: Go do what you gotta do at the box office
Speaker 1: or go back to the hotel. This in real. And
Speaker 1: my father in law goes, how do you know you
Speaker 1: didn't even hardly look at that pal And he goes,
Speaker 1: he goes, this is what I do all day when
Speaker 1: you've handled as many real ones as I have. I
Speaker 1: saw the fake ticket in your eyes. You walk like
Speaker 1: you have a fake ticket, You country bumpkin, This is
Speaker 1: New York City. Anyway, cannot be myself in the pulpit.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it feels good, do you, pastor? I promise I'll
Speaker 1: do the holy, the good one, the anointed one. I
Speaker 1: won't do the other one. But now we decide what
Speaker 1: to walk in. And so when he says deceitful desires,
Speaker 1: when Paul says deceitful desires, the key is for you
Speaker 1: to be handling the real thing enough that your feelings
Speaker 1: begin to align with your faith. And when they don't,
Speaker 1: you notice it and you bring it back. Feelings have
Speaker 1: their place. Feelings have their place. How many of you
Speaker 1: agree with me. Feelings have their place. But it's not
Speaker 1: on the throne. Jesus sits there, The book sits there.
Speaker 1: The spirit of God is the seat of my decisions,
Speaker 1: not what I feel, because if I do, I'll end
Speaker 1: up with a pack of crap and trade the goat.
Speaker 1: So if the enemy is diminishing it, he's deceiving you, Well,
Speaker 1: you're not that gifted. And I think it comes in
Speaker 1: this way like, well you don't really matter that much.
Speaker 1: This doesn't really matter that much. I mean, there's one
Speaker 1: time you get who cares. That's how deceitful desires were.
Speaker 1: The desire isn't bad. The way the enemy tries to
Speaker 1: get you to fulfill it is. That's what a deceitful
Speaker 1: desire is. Whether it's a sexual desire, whether it's a
Speaker 1: financial desire, whether it's a desire for success. You can't
Speaker 1: attack the desire and demonize the desire. The first question
Speaker 1: Jesus asked in the New Testament was what do you want?
Speaker 1: So apparently desires are not something to be bypassed in
Speaker 1: our life. The deceit is not in the desire. The
Speaker 1: deceit is what the enemy tries to get you to
Speaker 1: do to get the desire. That's where the deceit is.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you just settle for that, You just scavenged
Speaker 1: for that. All you're ever gonna be is that. All
Speaker 1: you're ever gonna get is that. All you really can
Speaker 1: do is that all you ever have done, is that
Speaker 1: all you ever have been is that you're trash. That's
Speaker 1: why they walked out. You're trash. That's why it hasn't
Speaker 1: happened yet. You're stupid. That's why you haven't built it yet.
Speaker 1: You're an idiot. That's why all your friends make that
Speaker 1: you make this. You sup. But if you are growing
Speaker 1: in Christ. The more you grow in him, you get
Speaker 1: the ability from the inside to notice it, evaluated and
Speaker 1: look him right in his eyes and say, silly devil,
Speaker 1: tricks you should have you should have tried this on
Speaker 1: me before I got back to church this year because
Speaker 1: I'm growing this year. Tricks are for kids, but I
Speaker 1: am a new creation. Hey, Christ, I did the bom
Speaker 1: silly devil. That's for kids. That's kids. There's child's play.
Speaker 1: That's how I thought when I didn't know God. That's
Speaker 1: how I spoke when I didn't know God. That's how
Speaker 1: I came running when I didn't have a liberator named
Speaker 1: sees Us. That's how I struggled in my sin before
Speaker 1: I had his name to call on. I got help.
Speaker 1: Now I got a new self and a new self.
Speaker 1: And the me that God saw an eternity is the
Speaker 1: me that I'm say in the future, and I'm throwing
Speaker 1: into it. Hey, I'm throwing into it. Hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be it because I have it. Yes, Lord, let somebody says,
Speaker 1: silly rabbit, trying to eat kid's food, trying to do
Speaker 1: kids stuff, trying to get people to notice you. What
Speaker 1: are you fifth grade saying I can't change. What is
Speaker 1: this seventh grade? Somebody wrote in your notebook, never changed,
Speaker 1: and you took their advice and raise hell over the summer.
Speaker 1: And here you are still hard, pitching a fin over
Speaker 1: what you didn't get when God has skinned you the
Speaker 1: riches of Christ and the spirit of God and that
Speaker 1: came down. I want to say a pinacoff this ferdid
Speaker 1: these your pelly. I'm growing now. I'm growing out of this.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, I'm growing out of this. I'm growing out
Speaker 1: of this. I'm growing out of this. This addiction will
Speaker 1: not be able to hold me another ten years. I'm
Speaker 1: growing out of this. It might take me some time,
Speaker 1: it might take me some tears, it might take me
Speaker 1: some tough decisions, but I'm growing out of this. I
Speaker 1: will not stay in this prison, not one more dang
Speaker 1: put it forward. Somebody should have told Esau the stew
Speaker 1: is not that good. Do y'all know about Jacob and Esau?
Speaker 1: You do you know about Jacob the god of Jacob.
Speaker 1: It wasn't supposed to be the god of Abraham, Isaac
Speaker 1: and Jacob. It was supposed to be the god of Abraham,
Speaker 1: Isaac and Esau. He was the oldest brother. He had
Speaker 1: the right to the inheritance, just like you have an
Speaker 1: inheritance in Christ. What is it every spiritual blessing in
Speaker 1: heavenly places, reconciliation with God, the ability to be at
Speaker 1: peace with Him and others, the love of God she'd
Speaker 1: have brought into hearts through the holy spheres. You have that.
Speaker 1: So why do we not sing I'm calling on the
Speaker 1: God of e Sau apart from the fact that it
Speaker 1: doesn't rhyme with generations, which is the next line in
Speaker 1: U saw why because he got hungry because he saw
Speaker 1: bull of Was it cereal or stu stu stu? Jacob
Speaker 1: was cooking stew. And it's interesting because all the way
Speaker 1: from Rebecca's womb they've been wrestling each other. Jacob's name
Speaker 1: means deceiver, trickster exactly exactly. And the funniest book in
Speaker 1: the Bible if you know how to look for it.
Speaker 1: And if the Bible is boring to you, you're boring.
Speaker 1: The Bible's not God is interesting, you're basic because that's
Speaker 1: the funniest book. What is the one I gave you?
Speaker 1: In Genesis twenty five where it said about the nations
Speaker 1: wrestling in her womb, the Lord said the nations are
Speaker 1: wrestling in your womb. Two nations, two nature's to you
Speaker 1: to use, wrestling in the womb of what God is
Speaker 1: doing in your life. The old one that was put
Speaker 1: on that is being corrupted, the new one that's the
Speaker 1: real one that was created in the image of God,
Speaker 1: that he sent his son to bring you back to.
Speaker 1: And he said, two nations are in you, two people's.
Speaker 1: One will be stronger than the other, the other will older,
Speaker 1: will serve the younger, give me some more. When the
Speaker 1: time came Verd to give birth. There are twin boys
Speaker 1: in a womb right now. There are twins in the
Speaker 1: womb of your mind, your heart, your desires. I'm not
Speaker 1: preaching this in an allegorical way. It's said in Anythesians.
Speaker 1: I'm illustrating it. I'm illustrating it to you. That's exactly
Speaker 1: what Paul said. And I want you to notice. This
Speaker 1: might be the best part of my sermon. And I
Speaker 1: saved it too late, so you probably won't even hear it.
Speaker 1: But it didn't say make sure you don't take off
Speaker 1: the new nature and put the old one back on.
Speaker 1: The old one was the first one that is mentioned,
Speaker 1: which means that your natural state of mind is not
Speaker 1: your true nature. In order to put on what God
Speaker 1: gave you, you you have to take off what he didn't
Speaker 1: and stop accepting any old attitude as being you, because
Speaker 1: that's not you. Oh I notice it. There I am
Speaker 1: again blaming people. I notice it. There I am again catastrophizing.
Speaker 1: I notice it. There I am again, But I'm not it.
Speaker 1: I notice it, but I'm not it because I have
Speaker 1: learned the truth in Jesus in a new way of life.
Speaker 1: So I'm taking that off and putting this on. I'm
Speaker 1: growing out of that old one, and I'm growing into
Speaker 1: my new one. The future me is God's familiar men.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm becoming. And since my life had its
Speaker 1: origins in the mind and heart of God, nothing can
Speaker 1: stop it. Just ask the stone, what can stop God? Therefore,
Speaker 1: when we look at Jacob and Esau, we see a
Speaker 1: picture of us. We see that they were wrestling from
Speaker 1: the womb. And I told you I'd give you the
Speaker 1: funny verse, and I didn't yet give me next verse.
Speaker 1: The first one to come out with red his whole body.
Speaker 1: It's like a Harry garment. So they named the Misau.
Speaker 1: That's not the funny one. Sounds funny. Who's a Harry.
Speaker 1: They named him Esau, which means red because he was red,
Speaker 1: real creative Isaac. After this brother came out, it is
Speaker 1: hand grabbing Esau's heel. That's Jacob grabbing Esauce heel. That's
Speaker 1: been you a lot of your life too, that's been
Speaker 1: you trying to by. I want to be first. I
Speaker 1: need to be that. Oh no, I need to be that.
Speaker 1: Now watch what happens. He was named Jacob Trickster. Isaac
Speaker 1: was sixty years old when Rebecca gave birth to them.
Speaker 1: The boys grew up. That's the funny verse because they didn't.
Speaker 1: Physically they did. Esau became a skillful hunter. And you've
Speaker 1: accomplished a lot too. No, no, no, you have. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that sarcastically. You've learned a lot, You've become
Speaker 1: a lot, You've overcome a lot, and I want to
Speaker 1: pause and celebrate your progress to this point. I'm not
Speaker 1: setting you up. You got that hesitant clap, like is
Speaker 1: he about to tell us what were really filthy rags? Not?
Speaker 1: But I'm saying it's possible for you to grow in
Speaker 1: your skillfulness and be deficient in your spirit. So es
Speaker 1: he's a good hunter. He's growing up. They're both grown up,
Speaker 1: but they're doing the same crap they did when they
Speaker 1: were little boys. They're still fighting and Jacob is still tricking,
Speaker 1: and Esau is still stupid. I mean, he's good at hunting.
Speaker 1: Man of the open country. Jacob is content to stay
Speaker 1: home among the tenths. Isaac had a taste for a
Speaker 1: wild game, but loved Esau. Rebecca loved Jacob. And I
Speaker 1: watched this once when Jacob was cooking some STU. I
Speaker 1: think it's no coincidence that STU is the beginning of stupid,
Speaker 1: because this is worse than a pack of cards. This
Speaker 1: is worse than any house you ever bought. This is
Speaker 1: the worst deal in human history. Jacob is cooking some stu.
Speaker 1: Esau came in from the open country. Famish. Now, the
Speaker 1: first thing Esau need to do is notice, I'm hungry.
Speaker 1: Right now. I am in no position to make decisions
Speaker 1: right now. I am in no position to respond to
Speaker 1: this email right now. I am in no position to
Speaker 1: have this conversation right now. I'm hungry. I need a minute,
Speaker 1: even if I have to fake like I'm going to
Speaker 1: the bathroom. That's what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stand in the bathroom and call on the God of
Speaker 1: the bathroom, and he'll meet me in the bathroom. He's
Speaker 1: the God of the mountain, He's the god of the
Speaker 1: bathroom too. I'm gonna shut this stall and pray before
Speaker 1: I sell my soul for some stew. She's not that pretty,
Speaker 1: she's not that gorgeous. Not to throw away what God
Speaker 1: gave me. I need a moment to notice. I'm hungry
Speaker 1: right now, trying to make this reel where it can live,
Speaker 1: where you live, Praise God, he said. He said, I'm famished.
Speaker 1: And then watch what he did because he did not
Speaker 1: notice it. Because he did not notice it, he responded
Speaker 1: to it. And he responded to his hunger now in
Speaker 1: a way that he would hate later. And I've done
Speaker 1: it many times quick, he said to Jacob. Let me
Speaker 1: have some of that red stew. I'm famished. I'm famished.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm feeling hunger right now. But let me deal
Speaker 1: with it the right way. I am what I feel.
Speaker 1: Are y'all getting as much out of this as I am?
Speaker 1: This is a good sermon, Stew right here, look at me, Church,
Speaker 1: give me the verse again. I'm famished, I'm exhausted. That's
Speaker 1: why he was called eat them red Verse thirty one,
Speaker 1: Jacob replied, for some of your birthright. Look, I'm about
Speaker 1: to die you. Sau said, what good is the birthright
Speaker 1: to me? But Jacob said, swear to me first. So
Speaker 1: he swore and oathed them, selling his birthright to Jacob.
Speaker 1: And that's why we're calling on the God of Jacob
Speaker 1: for a single meal. Next verse and final, so Esau
Speaker 1: despised his birthright for some bread and lentil stew. He ate, drank,
Speaker 1: got up left and despised his birthright. I thought that
Speaker 1: strong language. It doesn't say he hated his birthright. But
Speaker 1: when you are hungry, When you are hungry, you will
Speaker 1: make decisions now that will create a life that you hate.
Speaker 1: Later this year, God brought you to Elevation Church and
Speaker 1: our ethanm online to tell you it's not too late
Speaker 1: for you to change. If you're still breathing, you still
Speaker 1: got a birthright. If the blood is still running warm
Speaker 1: in your veins, you have a birthright. And the blood
Speaker 1: that Jesus shed for you purchased it back from the devil.
Speaker 1: So we've got the book and we've got the blood,
Speaker 1: and we have an opportunity this year, this moment, forget
Speaker 1: about it, this very moment. You have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: make an exchange your unrighteousness for his righteousness, your sin
Speaker 1: for his salvation, your no for his yes, your filthiness
Speaker 1: for his purity. You don't see it, your ashes for
Speaker 1: his beauty. This is the greatest exchange that has ever
Speaker 1: been made. Not with Jacob, I'm talking about Jesus, the
Speaker 1: great exchange of love and grace. You don't get it
Speaker 1: through grinding. Tricks are for kids. You don't get it
Speaker 1: through effort. That's for the perfect people. But for the
Speaker 1: children of God. There is a grace for this moment,
Speaker 1: a grace to change you, a grace to call you forward.
Speaker 1: Is pulling on you now, that's why you feel it.
Speaker 1: It's not me speaking as him speaking. I'm teaching you Jesus,
Speaker 1: and Jesus is showing you you how many times are
Speaker 1: you gonna give the enemy your desires and let him
Speaker 1: tell you how to fulfill them? The new you, I'm
Speaker 1: walking in a new way. Ah, it's gonna be step
Speaker 1: by step. Baby, what you thought I could just put
Speaker 1: this new attitude on you like it's my jacket. I
Speaker 1: would if I could. I could sell this jacket for
Speaker 1: a lot of money if it worked like that. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: This wardrobe is only received through your daily walk and worship.
Speaker 1: So I keep hearing the Lord say it. It's an
Speaker 1: old line, but I just got to say it. Beans
Speaker 1: for a birthright, Beans for a birthright. Uh huh. You're
Speaker 1: making trades every day, stew pid trades, y'all laugh at Esau.
Speaker 1: Me and Esau have a lot in common. I've given
Speaker 1: up a lot of stuff too, because I felt it.
Speaker 1: I defied my feelings this week. Everything in me told me,
Speaker 1: you don't have enough songs to record this Friday something
Speaker 1: he said, put it on the calendar and let God
Speaker 1: give you the songs that he wants you to have
Speaker 1: and do what he told you to do. I got
Speaker 1: a question, answer me in the cha Do y'all think
Speaker 1: God knew about those songs before I? Did you think
Speaker 1: God knew about the season you're in before you did?
Speaker 1: Do you think that he knew that you were going
Speaker 1: to need a job before you did? Do you think
Speaker 1: he knew that we would be in a time of
Speaker 1: political how we say this weirdness? Before we did right
Speaker 1: before we were born. He knew what we were born into.
Speaker 1: What I love about the Lord is that there are
Speaker 1: no tricks with him, only a trade. Oh, come to
Speaker 1: the Otar, the fatherest sor this is the trade Spondy
Speaker 1: the fish spa. Oh came wo come to he answer
Speaker 1: the Father? Psalms A fucking n It's folly, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: No one moving. In just a moment, our pastors are
Speaker 1: going to give an invitation for people to receive Christ.
Speaker 1: Be ready. I just want to tell you this before
Speaker 1: I give the service to them. Heads bout ice closed?
Speaker 1: Are you hurting and broken with it? Overwhelmed by the
Speaker 1: way of your sin? Jesus is calling? Have you come
Speaker 1: to the end of yourself to their forgery? From Jesus
Speaker 1: is calling? Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are
Speaker 1: a couple of things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also help us reach others by investing today at
Speaker 1: Elevationchurch dot org, slash gift and thanks again for joining
Speaker 1: us on the Elevation Podcast.