Speaker 1: Are you ready for my first sermon of twenty twenty two?
Speaker 1: You sure you don't know what I'm gonna say? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you sure you're right? Tell him you can't handle the truth. John,
Speaker 1: chapter eight. That's kind of our on subject for today.
Speaker 1: John chapter eight, verse thirty one. Now listen to this
Speaker 1: crazy confrontation between Jesus and the crowd of people who've
Speaker 1: gathered to hear him teach John chapter eight, verse thirty one.
Speaker 1: To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, if
Speaker 1: you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples,
Speaker 1: then you will know the truth, and the truth will
Speaker 1: set you free. And they answered him, we are Abraham's
Speaker 1: descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can
Speaker 1: you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied,
Speaker 1: very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a
Speaker 1: slave to sin. Now, a slave has no permanent place
Speaker 1: in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
Speaker 1: So if the sun sets you free, you will be free. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I know that you're Abraham's descendants. You are looking for
Speaker 1: a way to kill me because you have no room
Speaker 1: for my word. Wooh, you thought it was just your
Speaker 1: closet that was cluttered. No, it's more than just physical
Speaker 1: spaces that we have to clear out. He said, you
Speaker 1: have no room for my word. Wow, this is getting
Speaker 1: intense here, Jesus, I'm telling you what I have seen
Speaker 1: in the father's presence, and you are doing what you
Speaker 1: have heard from your father. Abraham is our father. The answer.
Speaker 1: You are Abraham's children, said Jesus, Then you would do
Speaker 1: what Abraham did as it is, you are looking for
Speaker 1: a way to kill me, a man who has told
Speaker 1: you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham didn't
Speaker 1: do such things. You are doing the works of your
Speaker 1: own father. We are not illegitimate children. They protested, can
Speaker 1: you feel a fight fixing the break out? Kind of
Speaker 1: want to sneak out the room before this gets violent.
Speaker 1: The only father we have is God himself. And Jesus
Speaker 1: said to them, if God were your father, you would
Speaker 1: love me, for I have come here from God. I
Speaker 1: have not come on my own. God sent me. Why
Speaker 1: is my language not clear to you because you are
Speaker 1: unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father,
Speaker 1: the devil. Jesus. Let's uh, let's think this through before
Speaker 1: we say something we can't take back. This is not
Speaker 1: good for your popularity or eating. You know what I'm saying, Jesus,
Speaker 1: little baby Jesus, and General Jesus. Oh man, The truth
Speaker 1: is confrontational. He said, you belong to your father, the devil,
Speaker 1: and you want to carry out your father's desires. He
Speaker 1: was a murder from the beginning, not holding to the truth,
Speaker 1: for there is no truth in him. When he lies,
Speaker 1: he speaks his native language for everybody. Say this out loud.
Speaker 1: He is a liar who is Yeah, So this is
Speaker 1: the message God said to give you for the first
Speaker 1: Sunday Sermon of this year. You ready, He told me
Speaker 1: to you just like this. The devil has held you
Speaker 1: long enough. They didn't believe it when I said it.
Speaker 1: Maybe if you say it to them, look at the
Speaker 1: person next to you, right in their eyeballs, right in
Speaker 1: their pupils. Tell them the devil has held you long enough.
Speaker 1: They didn't believe you either. Maybe you need to say
Speaker 1: it for yourself. Let's try it like this, Say this
Speaker 1: out loud, devil, You've helped me long enough. That felt better,
Speaker 1: and the truth will set you free. Be seated if
Speaker 1: you can stand up, shout you got something inside you
Speaker 1: truth insideing it. It's an amazing thing, you know, the
Speaker 1: way that the devil gets us in these type spaces
Speaker 1: and makes us think that the best part of our
Speaker 1: life is over and there's nothing we can do and
Speaker 1: we might as well not even try. When we say
Speaker 1: the devil is a liar, of course, we don't mean
Speaker 1: that he runs around with a plastic pitch for it,
Speaker 1: telling you stuff that you know on the surface to
Speaker 1: be untrue. The way that he operates is by deception,
Speaker 1: which means that the devil specializes in saying things that
Speaker 1: sound true. He slick with it. He says it in
Speaker 1: such a way watch this, that you don't even know
Speaker 1: it's him saying it, because when the devil talks, it
Speaker 1: sounds like your voice, doesn't it. When the devil talks,
Speaker 1: it sounds the same way as when God talks, because
Speaker 1: it's happening inside of you. God doesn't speak to me
Speaker 1: through out loud voices. Neither does the Devil except sometimes
Speaker 1: when I'm watching the news and stuff. Then I hear
Speaker 1: him just like right out loud, Oh God. But apart
Speaker 1: from that is the devil's job to keep you from
Speaker 1: even knowing. You know, I used to read this verse.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you example of this. Okay, we take
Speaker 1: the Bible and we want a verse of the day,
Speaker 1: and then we don't even read the whole verse of
Speaker 1: the day. We just want the half verse of the day.
Speaker 1: And we start going through scripture like as salad bars
Speaker 1: and I don't like radishes. The problem with that is
Speaker 1: you'll hear a verse and think it's true, and it
Speaker 1: is true, but it's not totally true because it said
Speaker 1: the truth will set you free. How many have heard
Speaker 1: that before? Just raise your hand. I didn't just say
Speaker 1: the truth will set you free. I noticed some of
Speaker 1: you were with me when I was reading my passage.
Speaker 1: He said, you will know the truth, and the truth
Speaker 1: will set you free. But you have to watch culture
Speaker 1: because the enemy will use language that is common in
Speaker 1: culture in order to get you to think you understand
Speaker 1: the concept that really you have become blind to the
Speaker 1: reality of I told my kids the other day, stop
Speaker 1: saying that certain celebrities got canceled in my house. I
Speaker 1: don't like the word canceled because the fact of the
Speaker 1: matter is you use that term all the time, interchangeably
Speaker 1: to mean people are saying something bad about them. I've
Speaker 1: had people say bad things about me. But I'm not canceled.
Speaker 1: I'm still called So I don't know if they're annoyed
Speaker 1: with this or not, but I don't let them say
Speaker 1: that in my house anymore. I mean, they still say
Speaker 1: it because like what am I going to do about it?
Speaker 1: But I tell them to stop, all right, just being real,
Speaker 1: I told them they shall not. They did not. No, No,
Speaker 1: they still do it, but I stop saying that. A
Speaker 1: few years ago, I started hearing this phrase, this cultural phrase.
Speaker 1: I didn't know why at first that it sounded good.
Speaker 1: It sounded good on the surface, but to me it
Speaker 1: felt like there was something about this phrase that while
Speaker 1: it sounded very good and even scriptural on the surface,
Speaker 1: I first heard it from somebody. They said, I've got
Speaker 1: to live my truth. I didn't know why. I didn't
Speaker 1: like it, because it sounds good, right, be true to
Speaker 1: my value. I've got to you know, I've got to
Speaker 1: do what I'm supposed to do. More thought about it,
Speaker 1: I started hearing it more and more. How many of
Speaker 1: you have heard this before? Like, I've got to speak
Speaker 1: my truth. I think that's good if what we mean
Speaker 1: by that is I've got to share the experiences that
Speaker 1: I've had In an honest way, I've got to face
Speaker 1: things that I've been through, and sometimes in sharing what
Speaker 1: I've been through that I used to be ashamed of,
Speaker 1: somebody else can be set free. I think that's awesome.
Speaker 1: And if that's what you mean when you say you know,
Speaker 1: live my truth or speak my truth, I think it's good.
Speaker 1: I think what bothered me about it was John eight
Speaker 1: thirty two, where Jesus did not say your truth will
Speaker 1: set you free. Put it back up, let's check just
Speaker 1: to make sure. Then you will know your truth. I
Speaker 1: think why I didn't like the phrase is because it
Speaker 1: made truth sound like shoes. It made truth sound like
Speaker 1: something that you can try on. It's too early in
Speaker 1: the year for this. I should be preaching something like
Speaker 1: you can make it, keep your head off, do it. Duh.
Speaker 1: It bothers me because truth is not choosable. Really, when
Speaker 1: we say, oh, this is my truth, what we're talking
Speaker 1: about is our belief. There's a big difference between a
Speaker 1: belief and a truth. You don't believe me, that doesn't
Speaker 1: make it untrue. What if I believe that all tall
Speaker 1: people are arrogant because I met this tall guy one
Speaker 1: time and he was kind of prideful and cocky. That's
Speaker 1: an experience. It's a personal experience, but that doesn't make
Speaker 1: it an absolute truth. What I'm noticing a lot of
Speaker 1: in my own life. I'm not just talking about people
Speaker 1: culture others. I'm not just talking about magazines or books.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about you and your house. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about me and my heart. A lot of times, it
Speaker 1: seems like I'm tempted to turn a personal experience into
Speaker 1: an absolute truth. Have you ever had a bad haircut? Now,
Speaker 1: y'all be careful about this one, because my dad was
Speaker 1: a barber and he's in heaven, so be nice. Are
Speaker 1: barber's bad? And you're like, this is really stupid. Man.
Speaker 1: We did not come all the way out here with
Speaker 1: the virus going around to hear you tell us this. No,
Speaker 1: you've done it with church before. Oh, church people are hypocrites. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: Charlie was a hypocrite. Charlie was a hypocrite. All men
Speaker 1: and our dogs. No, Mike was a dog. Not you
Speaker 1: till my security I watch how I say that. No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't church people. But now what's what you did?
Speaker 1: You went you went to a restaurant. You had a
Speaker 1: bad server, and now you decided to stop eating. You
Speaker 1: went to one church, you had a bad experience, and
Speaker 1: then you stopped. Not you, you're here, you're here. I'm
Speaker 1: not talking to you, I'm talking to them. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to them. I'm talking to them. You had one experience
Speaker 1: with failure. You set out to do something and it
Speaker 1: didn't work. So then you turned the event, the failure,
Speaker 1: into an identity. I'm a failure. So what I want
Speaker 1: to know today is it a truth or is it
Speaker 1: a trap? Because because when Jesus said the truth will
Speaker 1: set you free, he wasn't talking to drug lords. When
Speaker 1: Jesus said the truth will set you free, he wasn't
Speaker 1: talking to gang bangers. When Jesus said the truth will
Speaker 1: set you free, he wasn't talking to evil wicked. He
Speaker 1: wasn't talking to pagans. He was talking Put Verse thirty
Speaker 1: one back up. There's gonna blow your mind. This blew
Speaker 1: my mind to the Jews who had believed him. He's
Speaker 1: talking to people that believe him, and he's telling them
Speaker 1: they don't have the truth. They only have a certain
Speaker 1: level of belief. And there's a big difference between belief
Speaker 1: and truth. Belief is based on your experience. Truth comes
Speaker 1: from God. Beliefs can be altered, Beliefs can grow and
Speaker 1: expand and should. There was a time in your life.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this. There was a time in your
Speaker 1: life where most of you believed that somebody came in
Speaker 1: your house and gave you money for your teeth when
Speaker 1: they fell out. That made perfect sense to you. It's
Speaker 1: probably worth about five dollars on a pillow. Holly got
Speaker 1: abby up to ten dollars and I cut the tooth
Speaker 1: Faerry out. I just pulled her aside and said it's
Speaker 1: not real. It didn't too expensive. It got too expensive
Speaker 1: for me not to tell her the truth. And have
Speaker 1: you come to the point yet where it has cost
Speaker 1: you enough to be stuck in a belief about who
Speaker 1: you are and what life is and what they did
Speaker 1: pass The devil held you long enough because for some
Speaker 1: some of us, nothing in our life will change this year,
Speaker 1: because we are not sick enough of the way it
Speaker 1: was last year. We are not sick enough of it.
Speaker 1: Yet we are like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Now.
Speaker 1: I studied all about this scripture today that I'm sharing
Speaker 1: with you about these Jews who believed in Jesus enough
Speaker 1: to know that they were not immoral, ungodly addicts. This
Speaker 1: was not a case of them needing to give up
Speaker 1: their sin. It was a case of them needing to
Speaker 1: give up their story. There's a confluence in the text
Speaker 1: of what Jesus is teaching about in when he's teaching
Speaker 1: it and I really want to teach more this year. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm fine to inspire you, but I'm sure I want
Speaker 1: to get up here and just give you Christian cocaine
Speaker 1: that makes you feel high for an hour and a
Speaker 1: half and then just drops you off. I want to
Speaker 1: give you something that you can that you can carry
Speaker 1: out of here and be strengthened in faith. I want
Speaker 1: to give you food that you can live off of
Speaker 1: for days you can go back and study. So one
Speaker 1: thing about the cliches that we quote is that when
Speaker 1: we understand the context in this passage, Jesus is talking
Speaker 1: to the Jews who believed him, and he is challenging
Speaker 1: their belief that it doesn't go deep enough, which means
Speaker 1: they believed in his signs, but they did not commit
Speaker 1: to his teaching. They liked listening to his message, but
Speaker 1: it was made flesh in their life. The people he
Speaker 1: was talking to are people like me and you who
Speaker 1: believe in him. But he is telling them that it
Speaker 1: is possible to believe and still not be free. Indeed,
Speaker 1: it is impossible for you. This is one thing that
Speaker 1: we all have to understand. It is impossible for you
Speaker 1: to live in a sustainable way above the level that
Speaker 1: you are willing to believe God at, because eventually you
Speaker 1: will either shrink your belief down to the level of
Speaker 1: your experience or allow God to expand your belief to
Speaker 1: the level of his promise. Which one is happening in
Speaker 1: your heart so far this year? I don't know yet,
Speaker 1: pastor has only been a week. That's long enough, you
Speaker 1: know about a weekend. Are you shrinking what you think
Speaker 1: God can do, will do, is gonna do? Are you
Speaker 1: shrinking your belief to the level of your experience or
Speaker 1: are you allowing God watch this to raise your experience
Speaker 1: up to the level of his power. Jesus talking to
Speaker 1: the Jews who believed in him, and he said, if
Speaker 1: you hold to my teaching, if you hold to my teaching,
Speaker 1: be my disciples, then you'll know the truth, and the
Speaker 1: truth will set you free. I remember one January, the
Speaker 1: little boy I walked in on my mom and dad.
Speaker 1: Hold on. I walked in. My mom and dad were
Speaker 1: get we edit this. They were watching how many of
Speaker 1: y'all remembered Jane Fonda VHS workout tapes? They were watching
Speaker 1: Jane Fonda VHS workout tapes? And this is the kicker
Speaker 1: eating a bowl of ice cream. It scarred me for life.
Speaker 1: I walked in and saw them watching Jane Fonda eating
Speaker 1: ice cream. We'll never forget that. Can't remember my kids'
Speaker 1: names most days in the correct order, but I will
Speaker 1: never forget watching them watch a workout eating ice cream,
Speaker 1: because now I think about it every time I preach,
Speaker 1: because I wonder will this work if you just watch
Speaker 1: me do it? And I don't even look as good
Speaker 1: as Jane Fonda. I'm not even that attractive. I'm not
Speaker 1: wearing tights for y'all. And yet there is a sense
Speaker 1: in which we live. Now. This is the life. This
Speaker 1: is how crafty the devil is. If you knew more,
Speaker 1: you could do more. He didn't say, if you would
Speaker 1: know more truth, it would set you free. He said,
Speaker 1: if you hold to my teaching, you will be my disciples.
Speaker 1: Then you will know the truth and truth to say free.
Speaker 1: So if I knew, I would do no no, If
Speaker 1: you would do, you would know if you would do,
Speaker 1: you would know how many of you have had the
Speaker 1: thought in the last two years. I just don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. You thought that I don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. Everybody whose hand didn't go up when I
Speaker 1: asked that question, I need to have a meet, a
Speaker 1: consultation with you, either to cast out that devil of
Speaker 1: lying or to pay you to tell me the future.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask again, because I think y'all are asleep
Speaker 1: on me. How many of y'all have had the thought
Speaker 1: in the life. I just don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: Raise your hand, raise your hand, raise your hand, raise
Speaker 1: your hand, raise it online, raise it online. All right,
Speaker 1: Yes you do, Yes, you do. You know what to
Speaker 1: do with the truth that you have been given. But
Speaker 1: we don't want to hold to the teaching that Jesus
Speaker 1: gave us when it's hard to hear or when it
Speaker 1: makes us confront ourselves. He said to the Jews who
Speaker 1: believed in him, you are so addicted to the lies
Speaker 1: that you don't want to hold on to the truth.
Speaker 1: And you know a lot of times when I'm asking
Speaker 1: God to change me in my life and God is
Speaker 1: telling me to hold on to the teaching. A lot
Speaker 1: of times I picture myself, come here, Elijah. I picture
Speaker 1: it like this simple picture. God gave me, simplest picture
Speaker 1: in the world. I pictured it like this is my
Speaker 1: oldest son. I was telling you about how we work
Speaker 1: out together in the pound, and now listen, I can
Speaker 1: still out bench him, out squad him and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: He's taller than me, but that doesn't mean he can
Speaker 1: take me, all right. The devil is a liar, father
Speaker 1: of lies. When we go in the gym, I try
Speaker 1: to train him not only in weights, but I try
Speaker 1: to train him in truth. Hey man, there's some stuff
Speaker 1: God has put in you, and the lies that you
Speaker 1: believe can become a lit on your life. They can
Speaker 1: become a limitation. But the first thing I got to
Speaker 1: teach you is lie detection. So you'll even know it's
Speaker 1: happening because it'll sound so true. Right, and yet all
Speaker 1: the time Jesus is saying, you will know the truth,
Speaker 1: hold to the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Speaker 1: So here's how. Let's stand over here where everybody can
Speaker 1: see us. You stand there, U stand here. Just picture this.
Speaker 1: This is the truth. This is the Word of God.
Speaker 1: This is the Bible, sixty six books. It's all true,
Speaker 1: from the Book of Genesis to the maps in the
Speaker 1: bat the truth. And I saw it like this, he said,
Speaker 1: give me verse thirty two. Again, the part of the
Speaker 1: verse is so important. If you hold sorry, verse thirty one.
Speaker 1: If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples.
Speaker 1: Thirty two, and then you will know. So you have
Speaker 1: to hold it to know it, not hear it. Hold it.
Speaker 1: That means it is not the word that I preach
Speaker 1: that sets you free. It is the word that you practice.
Speaker 1: And that's where it happens. When I speak, something from
Speaker 1: God doesn't come from me. If it comes from me,
Speaker 1: it's empty calories, all right, it's Briar's ice cream if
Speaker 1: it comes from me. But if it comes from God,
Speaker 1: and it comes through me, and the Spirit of God speaks,
Speaker 1: whether it's in a sermon or in your life, or
Speaker 1: something that God shows you over and over again, or
Speaker 1: something he speaks through your wife. Not every word from
Speaker 1: God comes through somebody with a callar. Not every word
Speaker 1: from God comes on a Sunday morning. But when God
Speaker 1: feaks to you. You know that was harsh. You know
Speaker 1: you're being stubborn right now. You know you just need
Speaker 1: to think. You need to be right right now. And
Speaker 1: when God corrects you with that, well, the Lord doesn't
Speaker 1: to Lord is loving. Did you hear Jesus and John Hay?
Speaker 1: He said, this is your father, the devil speaking through you. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: people are too coddled. We have this coddle Christianity where
Speaker 1: you just come up alongside people and always just teach
Speaker 1: them that God will give you grace every time you
Speaker 1: screw up. What about teaching me how to get better
Speaker 1: so I don't screw up so much? Huh? Is there
Speaker 1: an axe that and shut this thing down at the roof?
Speaker 1: Because I what, I don't just want to pop God's
Speaker 1: promises like pills to take the pain away. I want
Speaker 1: to make progress in my life, to see things how
Speaker 1: they are and to not have to live in denial
Speaker 1: because listen sayings of God. Jesus was talking to the
Speaker 1: Jews who believed him, and they thought they had the
Speaker 1: way of life that honored God and they didn't know
Speaker 1: the truth and it was standing right in front of them,
Speaker 1: and he said, you can't hear it, and if you
Speaker 1: will hold to my teaching on three one two three,
Speaker 1: now that's what sets you free. The problem is, come here,
Speaker 1: bring me out what I gave you earlier from wherever
Speaker 1: it's back there somewhere. I know it is because I
Speaker 1: planned this out. I told him. I said, this is
Speaker 1: so simple. The church is gonna laugh at me. They're
Speaker 1: gonna think, oh, past so didn't have time to study
Speaker 1: this week. He had to bring out the props. But
Speaker 1: I saw it like this because I keep seeing people
Speaker 1: that can't hold the truth, and I wonder why you
Speaker 1: can't even hope. Some of us. We can't even hold
Speaker 1: a compliment for ten minutes. He can't hold it. Some
Speaker 1: of us. The Lord can give us a really good direction.
Speaker 1: We can know that he spoke to us, and we
Speaker 1: can since war God as us and I can't hold.
Speaker 1: Has anybody noticed other than me, your attention span is
Speaker 1: getting almost zero these days? Does that have anything to
Speaker 1: do with the technology by which advertisers are rewarded for
Speaker 1: disrupting our attention and redirecting it to some product which
Speaker 1: they hope for us to buy, or some truth which
Speaker 1: they hope for us to consume. We can't even hold
Speaker 1: the truth in anymore because it's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: have room for truth holding on. So trash put him
Speaker 1: in the shot. They can't see him online. Yeah, y'all
Speaker 1: gotta get a wide shot or something. You know, you
Speaker 1: face me, you face me. They need to do it
Speaker 1: with the cameras. This is the illustration. But son, I
Speaker 1: need you to know that it's really hard for you
Speaker 1: to hear from the Holy Ghost if you scroll six
Speaker 1: hours on TikTok. Sound like an old man right now,
Speaker 1: forgive me, lord, I sound eighty three right now. But
Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell you that you can't hold truth
Speaker 1: and hold trash. So what are we gonna do? What
Speaker 1: are we gonna do? How many need to be set
Speaker 1: free in an identifal and identifiable specific area of your
Speaker 1: life this year? I need freedom, But I don't know
Speaker 1: what you need? Freedom from God does? The Holy Spirit does,
Speaker 1: and really, deep down you do. You know exactly what
Speaker 1: it is, the compulsion, the obsession, the addiction, the torment.
Speaker 1: You know exactly what you need free from You know
Speaker 1: now the scripture says, who you be set free by?
Speaker 1: You be set free by the sun, You be set
Speaker 1: free by the truth. Bye, bye bye. That doesn't mean
Speaker 1: Jesus automatically sets you free just because you believe in him.
Speaker 1: Jesus sets you free as you hold to his teaching.
Speaker 1: And the first thing to hold to his teaching. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw this again on three, give me why shot one? Two? Three?
Speaker 1: Do you see what he did? Do you see what
Speaker 1: he did? He did it at the very last minute.
Speaker 1: He did it at the very last minute. But he
Speaker 1: knew enough that when I threw him the truth, he
Speaker 1: dropped the trash to hold the truth. He almost didn't.
Speaker 1: He was confused for a moment because he thought he
Speaker 1: was doing something important standing up here. But when the
Speaker 1: truth comes. Now, this is the year you've been me.
Speaker 1: You know. The devil has held you long enough. The
Speaker 1: devil has held you. I'm done with you long enough.
Speaker 1: You have been holding all to the hurt long enough.
Speaker 1: But this year, this year, this year, I prophesied Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, the nassery, the way, the truth,
Speaker 1: the life, we beheld his glory, the glory as of
Speaker 1: the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1: So when the truth came, I had to drop the trash.
Speaker 1: To hold the truth. Oh God, Oh God. Problem was
Speaker 1: you thought this was true because the devil lied to
Speaker 1: you so good. He started telling you your trash and
Speaker 1: you started thinking, and it was truth because he got
Speaker 1: you into an experience, turned it into a belief, and
Speaker 1: now you call it your truth. Look at me, Look
Speaker 1: at me. And then he the devil is so crafty.
Speaker 1: And I don't like to give so much time to
Speaker 1: the devil, but it was in the passage, and that's
Speaker 1: why I'm addressing it directly. Okay, I understand, I don't
Speaker 1: want to give the devil too much credit. But Jesus said,
Speaker 1: the problem of this is that your desires have been
Speaker 1: informed by the lies of the devil, and so it's
Speaker 1: coming from him. So now he's got you locked into
Speaker 1: the truth, will set you free. Well, that means a lie.
Speaker 1: He can keep you bound, but only if he gets
Speaker 1: you to think it's true. So imagine, like Satan means accuser.
Speaker 1: That's the enemy's job. He's the accuser of the brethren.
Speaker 1: So imagine if you're Satan and you can convince somebody
Speaker 1: who God has called his inheritance, somebody who God has
Speaker 1: called his precious possession, his masterpiece, his workmanship a saint.
Speaker 1: Imagine if you can convince somebody that Jesus died for
Speaker 1: that they're worthless, or that they are trash. And maybe
Speaker 1: you do it, I don't know. Maybe you do it
Speaker 1: with the suggestion of rejection. You know, the reason they
Speaker 1: left you is because there's something lacking about you. Now, again,
Speaker 1: let's be balanced. Sometimes relationships end because we could have
Speaker 1: been more responsible, more thoughtful, right, So we want to
Speaker 1: analyze that. But to take the lessons that you could
Speaker 1: learn from the end of a relationship and to turn
Speaker 1: it into a personal judgment. The reason people leave is
Speaker 1: because I'm unlovable. Before you know it, you start to
Speaker 1: treasure the trash more than the truth because this feels
Speaker 1: familiar to you. I always worried about Elijah when he
Speaker 1: was little, because his favorite Sesame Street character was Oscar
Speaker 1: the Grouch. I start praying for him early. I pray
Speaker 1: in tongues, I pray in Latin, I pray in Greek
Speaker 1: and Arabic because it would bother me. All the kids
Speaker 1: would be at the playground, going around and on the
Speaker 1: monkey bars, in the jungle gym, in the sandbox, and
Speaker 1: he'd be looking in all the trash cans. O, they're
Speaker 1: on the blackground looking for Oscar. And I didn't want
Speaker 1: him to turn sixteen eighteen looking in trash cans, you know,
Speaker 1: looking in backwards ways of thinking or thinking that being
Speaker 1: famous is where it's at, when really that's just another
Speaker 1: trash cans, that's diamond studded. There's goal play the trash cans.
Speaker 1: I didn't want him looking for treasure in the trash.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, I need
Speaker 1: Jesus to teach me. I need Jesus to teach me.
Speaker 1: I don't just need him to save me from my sin.
Speaker 1: I need him to teach me his ways, not just
Speaker 1: so I can be saved from my sin. He said,
Speaker 1: if you if you sin, you're a slave descin. That's
Speaker 1: what happens when we there's an interest phrasing the scripture.
Speaker 1: Are y'all good if I go a little deeper on this,
Speaker 1: because I can save it for next week, but I'd
Speaker 1: like to share it with you today. He said, you
Speaker 1: called yourself Abraham's children, and you are technically the descendants
Speaker 1: of Abraham. He was the one God spoke to and said,
Speaker 1: go to the land. I'll show you and the whole
Speaker 1: nation came out of him, even though his wife was
Speaker 1: beyond child bearing years. God can do the impossible, because
Speaker 1: no word from God will ever feel. If he speaks,
Speaker 1: it is true, even if the facts say otherwise. Jesus
Speaker 1: did not say the facts will set you free. He said,
Speaker 1: the truth will set you free. So Goliath might be
Speaker 1: nine foot nine, but the truth is, you come against
Speaker 1: me with a spear. I come against you in the
Speaker 1: name of the Lord. Yeah, sorry, I'm of course. The
Speaker 1: truth is we're surrounded you. Remember the prophet said, there
Speaker 1: are more with us than with them. And he prayed
Speaker 1: God opened the eyes of my servant that he may
Speaker 1: see because the fact said, there's no way out of this,
Speaker 1: but the truth from a point of view that can
Speaker 1: see with spiritual eyes. I'm seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
Speaker 1: So so so so so so so so. There's a
Speaker 1: big difference between facts and truth. There's a big difference
Speaker 1: between feelings and truth. Many of you think, if if
Speaker 1: I feel it is true, or here's worse, if I
Speaker 1: think it, it must be true. I promise you, I
Speaker 1: promise you. I don't even know how smart you are.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you went to Harvard, I don't
Speaker 1: care if you dropped out of Harvard to go to Yale,
Speaker 1: I don't care. I don't care. How much intelligence you
Speaker 1: have in your life. You cannot believe everything you think.
Speaker 1: One scripture set as high as the heavens are above
Speaker 1: the earth, So were God's ways above your ways, and
Speaker 1: his thoughts above your thoughts. The truth will set you
Speaker 1: free if you hold to it. But Jesus was talking
Speaker 1: to people who identified themselves with Abraham. They said, we're
Speaker 1: Abraham's children. He said, you're not acting like you're trying
Speaker 1: to kill me. You believe in my signs, but you
Speaker 1: don't hold to my teachings. You think of me in
Speaker 1: a superstitious way, but you don't allow me to get
Speaker 1: into the bs the belief systems of your heart. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wake you all up today. This is a new
Speaker 1: Year's sermon. New year, new year. No no, no new year,
Speaker 1: new truth, not your truth. Your truth has you trapped
Speaker 1: in the wilderness. He said, if you were Abraham's children,
Speaker 1: you would do what Abraham did. If you were you
Speaker 1: would do if you were you would do, if you
Speaker 1: were identity, you would do behavior identity drives behavior. If
Speaker 1: you see yourself as trash, you cannot hold the truth.
Speaker 1: And that's where you've been, don't you see it? Every
Speaker 1: time you go to change, there are two lives. When
Speaker 1: you go to change number one, you can't change number two.
Speaker 1: You don't need to either way. The devil has you trapped.
Speaker 1: Oh no, they need to change, They need to do
Speaker 1: it different. They need to appreciate me. No, you need
Speaker 1: to be less needy. Truth, truth to power, and the
Speaker 1: Lord is calling you to freedom. And the devil has
Speaker 1: held you long enough in a lie and a sermon
Speaker 1: can't set you free. Decisions do decisions? Do decisions to do?
Speaker 1: What to be a disciple? Teach me Holy Spirit. Only
Speaker 1: God knows the truth about you. Even your parents can't
Speaker 1: fully see your potential. They're too busy trying to keep
Speaker 1: you from getting in a car rack. I'm serious. There
Speaker 1: will be things in my kids that I can't see
Speaker 1: in them that their heavenly Father can. And it's not
Speaker 1: my job to limit God. There are things that nobody
Speaker 1: has seen you. There are blind talk about bs. You
Speaker 1: got blind spots. You got blind spots. You can't see it,
Speaker 1: but God does. But now you squeeze your whole belief
Speaker 1: into an experience. Well, somebody that God really could use
Speaker 1: would never do this, and that you know Moses was
Speaker 1: a murderer, right, You know, David had one of his
Speaker 1: main warriors killed in battle, the one that wrote the
Speaker 1: little Sami Samius that we like to sing, man after
Speaker 1: God's own heart. You're not trash. You just need new truth.
Speaker 1: And I kind of see some of the things that
Speaker 1: you did before, like baby teeth, baby truth, and it's
Speaker 1: got to fall out for this new thing to grow.
Speaker 1: And there's no truth theory coming around to your house
Speaker 1: to give you ten dollars for it either, all right.
Speaker 1: In fact, the devil is so crafty and he's so lazy.
Speaker 1: He convinces you that you're trash, that you can't trust God,
Speaker 1: that it's over. And then he's so he's so good
Speaker 1: at his job that he delegates it to you, and
Speaker 1: you start collecting evidence for why he's right. You start
Speaker 1: collecting evidence this is not trash from our house. I
Speaker 1: had somebody put this together for me professionally. I don't
Speaker 1: want y'all to see in my trash bag. If he's
Speaker 1: good enough at his job, he will convince you this
Speaker 1: is who you are. This is all you can be.
Speaker 1: This is why that happened to you. Some of you
Speaker 1: people did things to you. You didn't even do it
Speaker 1: to you, and now you feel ashamed about it. How
Speaker 1: in hell do you believe that I'm not cussing? How
Speaker 1: has hell? How has the devil gotten so strategically in
Speaker 1: your mind that you think that somebody did something to
Speaker 1: you and that makes you dirty? The devil is a liar.
Speaker 1: I'm clean. I'm clean and even if I did it,
Speaker 1: I'm still clean because I've been through the waters and
Speaker 1: it's under the blood of Jesus. That's much. That's my truth,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't come from me. Don't do the devil's
Speaker 1: job for him, just finding reasons why you should feel bad.
Speaker 1: Oh well, now I'm just in the market for misery.
Speaker 1: Now he doesn't even have to lie to me. I'm
Speaker 1: on autopilot. I'm just collecting lies to support the truth
Speaker 1: that he told me. And he told me it was
Speaker 1: my truth. And this is how I can go. This
Speaker 1: is all I can do, and this all I'll ever be,
Speaker 1: and this is why it happens. And God's not with me,
Speaker 1: and oh God, twenty twenty two, it's gonna Be twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: Part two. Shut up. If the devil's gonna lie, make
Speaker 1: him log his own hours. Don't have them. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Don't help them. I dare you to
Speaker 1: delete the app. I dare you to block the number.
Speaker 1: I dare you. I dare you to trump touch three people.
Speaker 1: Tell him. I tear you to trump it. I dare
Speaker 1: you to drump it. I dare you to let come
Speaker 1: thrown your bat. The devil has helped you long enough.
Speaker 1: The devil is a liar, and he's on a legs.
Speaker 1: He can't do it forever, and the sun south set
Speaker 1: you free. You gotta drop something to receive something. You
Speaker 1: gotta drop something to do something. You gotta drop something
Speaker 1: to be somebody. I'm a child of God. Baby, I
Speaker 1: got the truth. I've set free. You've helped me. Hey, devil,
Speaker 1: you hear that, get under my feet. You've helped me
Speaker 1: long enough, long enough, long enough, long enough. I'm forty one.
Speaker 1: That's long enough. I'm twelve, that's long enough. I'm six.
Speaker 1: I'm sixty seven. That's long enough. Tired of this, I'm
Speaker 1: tired of trading the truth of God for a personal
Speaker 1: experience and worshiping at the altar of my background. I'm
Speaker 1: tired of shrinking my life to the level of what
Speaker 1: I've seen or heard from others that is possible. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna hold on too. That's like I'm on it, like
Speaker 1: I'm on a ski. I'ma hold on to Jesus. I'ma
Speaker 1: hold on this year and I read where Peter tried
Speaker 1: to hold on and he couldn't ski, so Jesus picked
Speaker 1: him up. If I can't hold onto him, he'll hold
Speaker 1: on to me. But in only it only it only
Speaker 1: happens hm hm, when you decide long enough, because Jesus
Speaker 1: is talking to people who believe him, but they're still
Speaker 1: not free. They're not bad, but they're deceived. You're not bad,
Speaker 1: You're deceived. You have no room for his word. Could
Speaker 1: be your schedule, it could be you got so much lies, y'all.
Speaker 1: When I was holding that trash back, I felt like,
Speaker 1: in your trash back, there might be offenses, there might
Speaker 1: be memories. You like to lie to yourself. After a while,
Speaker 1: it excuses you because if you're trash, you get to
Speaker 1: act like it. If you are nobody, you don't have
Speaker 1: to do anything to do. If you're a child of God.
Speaker 1: That means, well, now, thank you, will want to live
Speaker 1: like it. I'm still naive enough to believe that there's
Speaker 1: at least thirty people in this room, or maybe even online,
Speaker 1: or maybe even at one of our other locations. La
Speaker 1: Norman's having an anniversary today. Maybe it's Lake Norman who
Speaker 1: are ready to trade the trash for the truth. Who
Speaker 1: don't want to run around the playground another year looking
Speaker 1: for Oscar? Yeah, who don't want to spend another forty
Speaker 1: years in the wilderness. It's long enough. The wilderness. What
Speaker 1: does that have to do with John chapter eight? That's
Speaker 1: the Old Testament, the wilderness. Not really, It all goes
Speaker 1: together because Jesus is teaching at the festival called the
Speaker 1: Festival of Tabernacles. That's the context of John. A remember
Speaker 1: when he fed the five thousand and John six five
Speaker 1: thousand men and women and children? Pretty cool. John chapter
Speaker 1: seven is really different though, because John chapter six is
Speaker 1: about how God feeds you. John chapter seven and eight
Speaker 1: is about how God frees you. So if I just
Speaker 1: sit around asking God feed me, feed me, feeding me,
Speaker 1: feeding me, bless me, bless me, bless me, blessed me,
Speaker 1: pay it off, pay it off, pay it off, payd off,
Speaker 1: fix and fix it, fix it, fix it, make away
Speaker 1: and make a make me go go away. That only
Speaker 1: gets you so far. You can believe that God does
Speaker 1: those things for you, and he will. But now it's
Speaker 1: about freedom. I want to be free this year. I
Speaker 1: want to be more free of what people think about me.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know. I can get there not.
Speaker 1: I still think all those things, you know. I hope
Speaker 1: they like it. Nobody said anything, Is it okay? Isn't
Speaker 1: it a I mean, I'm I'm not saying it, but
Speaker 1: I've been I've been a slave to that long enough.
Speaker 1: I'm sick of it. It's boring, it's old. I know
Speaker 1: how that movie goes. They don't pay attention because they're
Speaker 1: thinking about themselves. I'm sick of that. I'm sick of
Speaker 1: being a slave to my feelings. I'm sick of that.
Speaker 1: I'm sick of being a slave to cynicism. I can
Speaker 1: tell you thirteen ways it's going to go wrong. I'm
Speaker 1: sick of that. Been there, done that, bought the T shirt,
Speaker 1: took it back because it didn't fit. I'm sick of
Speaker 1: being cynical. So what does the wilderness have to do
Speaker 1: with if the truth will set you free, you will
Speaker 1: be free. Indeed, well, when Jesus went to this festival,
Speaker 1: the Festival of Tabernacles or the Festival of Shelters, it
Speaker 1: says it's a week long festival. He comes right in
Speaker 1: the middle of the festival, and it was a festival
Speaker 1: after the harvest, where they came together to celebrate and
Speaker 1: commemorate when God brought his people out of Egypt and
Speaker 1: then in the wilderness, they decided to believe the report
Speaker 1: of the spies that said we can't go in, rather
Speaker 1: than to believe what God had spoken and take the
Speaker 1: land by faith. That's the context you follow me, that's
Speaker 1: the context of John chapter seven and John chapter eight.
Speaker 1: So as Jesus is teaching this truth, it's in the
Speaker 1: middle of a festival. We're in order to commemorate this
Speaker 1: time when God led his people through the wilderness for
Speaker 1: forty years, they stayed in Egypt four hundred years. They
Speaker 1: came out through the wilderness and were only supposed to
Speaker 1: be there for eleven days. Look at this. In Deuteronomy
Speaker 1: chapter one, it says, these are the words that Moses,
Speaker 1: the servant of the Lord, spoke to all Isra in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. Everybody say wilderness, the wilderness east of the Jordan,
Speaker 1: and then there's a bunch of different places that it mentions.
Speaker 1: But I want you to see this next verse verse two.
Speaker 1: Put it on verse two. Please. It takes eleven days
Speaker 1: to go from Horeb, the mountain of God where the
Speaker 1: covenant was given to katish Barnea. That's where he sent
Speaker 1: the spies out to go into the land. How long
Speaker 1: does it take to go from Horreb the mountain to
Speaker 1: the promised land? Eleven days? You could almost skip right
Speaker 1: over that and it would be insignificant, and I could
Speaker 1: have stopped this sermon while we were shouting. But I
Speaker 1: need to show you this because it is the context
Speaker 1: of freedom. It is the context of freedom. It takes
Speaker 1: eleven days to get from where they were to where
Speaker 1: God was taking them by the Mount Sierraro. But look
Speaker 1: at verse three. In the fortieth year is when Moses
Speaker 1: prepared them to go in. How did they turn an
Speaker 1: eleven day journey through the wilderness into a forty year
Speaker 1: wandering where they were stuck because of what they believed,
Speaker 1: because they would not believe the truth. The truth is,
Speaker 1: we can do it if God is for us. Our
Speaker 1: enemies don't stand a chance. The truth is, God is
Speaker 1: melting down your enemy's defense even as we speak. If
Speaker 1: God is for you, who can be against you? That's
Speaker 1: the truth. Ah. But the facts, the facts, oh, they're
Speaker 1: bigger than us, they're stronger than us. We can't do it.
Speaker 1: We're not prepared for this. You are staying in frustration
Speaker 1: forty years because of what the facts are saying to you,
Speaker 1: when faith could get you there in eleven days. After
Speaker 1: forty years, Joshua led the people there. But it didn't
Speaker 1: have to take forty years, and it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: take you forty years. And you'll have to pass it
Speaker 1: on to your kids, and you'll have to live like
Speaker 1: this until you die and hope to get to heaven
Speaker 1: one day and imagining glory if the sun sets you free.
Speaker 1: You will be free if you hold to the teaching,
Speaker 1: If you hoe to the teaching and stop holding to
Speaker 1: the trash. The moment you do this, God it's gonna
Speaker 1: start doing this. And what what you've wandered in for
Speaker 1: forty years, God can bring you out of in eleven days.
Speaker 1: Let he that has an ear hear what the spirit
Speaker 1: is saying. Today. The devil has held you long enough
Speaker 1: in your truth. It's time for God's truth. Let this
Speaker 1: year be the year where you trade trash for truth.
Speaker 1: Let this year be the year that you let the
Speaker 1: surgeon get inside of you and tell you what needs
Speaker 1: to be cut out. You keep doing surgery on yourself.
Speaker 1: That's why you bled all over us all twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Let this year be the year the great physician writes
Speaker 1: your prescriptions. I'm gonna spend more time. I'm going to
Speaker 1: tune my heart to truth this year, God help me.
Speaker 1: In music, they call it a four forty, that standard
Speaker 1: tuning play that a note above middle CLJ. Let him
Speaker 1: hear what it sounds like. This is that's the note
Speaker 1: that you tune the instrument to. The Lord wants you
Speaker 1: to start your day tuning your heart to truth where
Speaker 1: you can hear most of our days. Hit a bunch
Speaker 1: of keys where it sounds ugly l J. You start
Speaker 1: your day tuning your heart to so much trash, Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,
Speaker 1: so much so much trash that no wonder, it sounds
Speaker 1: like chaos before you've even had your caffeine. So this
Speaker 1: year starts with what God says. I'm not walking around
Speaker 1: in circles forty years. What God can bring me through
Speaker 1: in eleven days, I'm not doing it all right? So
Speaker 1: what is God teaching you right now? What did he
Speaker 1: teach you the hard way last year? You're gonna hold
Speaker 1: on to the lesson or live in the pain of it. Father,
Speaker 1: your word is truth, and you're seeking worshippers who will
Speaker 1: worship you in spirit and in truth. You brought your
Speaker 1: people out of Egypt, only for them to wander in
Speaker 1: the wilderness for forty years. And I'm afraid that happens
Speaker 1: to so many of us. That we believe in You,
Speaker 1: we believe in God, we love you, we want to
Speaker 1: trust you, but we got so much trash that we
Speaker 1: think is true, so many feelings that we put our
Speaker 1: faith in, so many fears that we receive as evidence. Well,
Speaker 1: this year, Lord, you told me to make a declaration
Speaker 1: from this pulpit, and I'm gonna make it now to
Speaker 1: everybody who will hear this message. Whenever they hear it. God,
Speaker 1: if it's right now, if it's in a week, if
Speaker 1: it's in five years, the devil has held you long enough,
Speaker 1: the lies have held you long enough. That's it now,
Speaker 1: that's it. We speak the truth of Jesus Christ into
Speaker 1: your life, that you are more than a conqueror through
Speaker 1: Him who loves you. We speak the truth of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ in your life. That greater is he that is
Speaker 1: in you than he that is in the world. We
Speaker 1: speak the truth of Jesus Christ into your life that
Speaker 1: you don't have to stay in guilt and shame, just
Speaker 1: holding clutch and tight to the events of the past
Speaker 1: or the bitterness over what was done. If the Son
Speaker 1: shall make you free, you shall be free in Indeed,
Speaker 1: so everybody who wants to put your faith in this
Speaker 1: word of God, say, that's enough. All the lies that
Speaker 1: have been terrorizing your mind, things that have happened will happen.
Speaker 1: That's enough. The Son has set me free. And I'm
Speaker 1: holding on to what God showed me going into this
Speaker 1: next moment, this next tomorrow, this next season, and I
Speaker 1: am free. Indeed, everyone's standing hands lifted high, just like
Speaker 1: You're releasing all the things you're worried about. You're releasing
Speaker 1: all the things you can't control. You're releasing all the
Speaker 1: things that you can't see, that you can't make sense of.
Speaker 1: I'm releasing that, and God, I want to hear truth
Speaker 1: from you. Yeah, I want to hear truth from you.
Speaker 1: I don't want to let my trauma become my truth.
Speaker 1: I don't want to let my trials become my truth.
Speaker 1: You are my truth, my way, and my life. Father.
Speaker 1: See how our hands are right now, that's how we're
Speaker 1: coming before you, wide open to you, our father, who
Speaker 1: are in heaven. Hallow it be your name, your kingdom. Come,
Speaker 1: Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord,
Speaker 1: We don't just want you to feed us this year.
Speaker 1: We want you to free us this year. Now we
Speaker 1: need you for it. We don't know what's true. There's
Speaker 1: so many accounts and so many scrolls things to scroll through.
Speaker 1: We need you, you, you, you, you, you you. Let
Speaker 1: your word be our mirror. Let your promise be our
Speaker 1: north star. Your word is truth, and we're holding on
Speaker 1: for dear life this year in Jesus' name, our teacher,
Speaker 1: our preacher, our savior. If the sun makes you free,
Speaker 1: you will be free. Indeed, I need you to find
Speaker 1: eight people and tell them the devil has held you
Speaker 1: long enough. Find eight find out the devil has held
Speaker 1: you long enough. In the God of all grace, after
Speaker 1: you have suffered a little while. Come on, it's been
Speaker 1: a little while. Come on, you cried a little while,
Speaker 1: stayed a little longer than you should have. Somebody declaring, demo, hey,
Speaker 1: devil out, you've helped me. Long it out not drop
Speaker 1: a praise on his head, drop it right now, right now,
Speaker 1: right now, right now, right now, Come on. Twenty two
Speaker 1: seconds of pride, NY two, putty, what pled Come on?
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, come up, give that prize. Well,
Speaker 1: if you join today's podcast, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash GiB
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast