Speaker 1: Last week, the message was keep it one hundred. I
Speaker 1: want to go even deeper this week. I want to
Speaker 1: go even deeper this week. And in order to do that,
Speaker 1: let's go right back to Romans chapter four. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to teach God's word to you. God has been speaking
Speaker 1: to me Romans chapter four. Let me turn off the
Speaker 1: chat here so I won't be distracted, because boy, these
Speaker 1: people really need prayer. You should see it. It's just wow.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I did that because Wow, we really need it.
Speaker 1: We really need it. Amen, you need prayer too, buddy,
Speaker 1: Pray for you too, grow up and be a mighty
Speaker 1: man or woman of God. I couldn't tell from your
Speaker 1: cry which one whatever applies Romans chapter four, you already
Speaker 1: thank you Jesus. Romans chapter four. Let's go to verse
Speaker 1: number sixteen in the NIV translation of the Later Bible. Therefore,
Speaker 1: the promise comes by, Oh y'all, stand up. Y'all too
Speaker 1: sleepy sitting for the scripture. Stand up. I thought y'all
Speaker 1: were mature enough to be enthusiastic sitting down, But I
Speaker 1: was wrong. Stand up, Yeah, get up, Get up, Get up,
Speaker 1: Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Get up, Therefore,
Speaker 1: the promise comes by therefore, so we know what comes
Speaker 1: and we know how it comes. The promise is what comes.
Speaker 1: Faith is how it comes. We don't know when it comes.
Speaker 1: That's the hard part when we're waiting on God by
Speaker 1: faith to do something that he promised by grace. And
Speaker 1: we spoke about that last week from this passage how
Speaker 1: Abraham was one hundred years old when he finally saw
Speaker 1: everything that God had spoken to him. So it's not
Speaker 1: too late shout that out. It's not too late. Therefore,
Speaker 1: the promise comes by faith, so that it may be
Speaker 1: by grace and maybe guarantee. If it's by human effort,
Speaker 1: then it's going to depend on my behavior on any
Speaker 1: given day. If it's by grace, then it is dependent
Speaker 1: on God's character, which never changes. I like what you
Speaker 1: said during the offering. That was good. He said, God's
Speaker 1: not changing. So if you encounter him, you must change.
Speaker 1: You need to preach that whole thing before before the
Speaker 1: next time I see you. Now look at this, I
Speaker 1: might preach it today. I might steal that on the
Speaker 1: spot and act like I prayed about it. It said
Speaker 1: that it may be by grace, may be guaranteed to
Speaker 1: all Abraham's offspring, not only to those who are of
Speaker 1: the law, but also to those who have the faith
Speaker 1: of Abraham, which is a strange faith. He had to
Speaker 1: set out on a word from God without God giving
Speaker 1: him a map or a destination. All God said was
Speaker 1: go to the land, then I'll show you. So the
Speaker 1: faith of Abraham is the faith to keep going, not knowing.
Speaker 1: How's this going to turn out? When's this going to
Speaker 1: turn around? Is it gonna be all right? Is it
Speaker 1: gonna lift? Am I ever gonna feel better? Is it
Speaker 1: going to clear up this time? What's the doctor going
Speaker 1: to say next Tuesday? The faith to keep going not knowing,
Speaker 1: that's the faith of Abraham. It was also the faith
Speaker 1: to put his son Isaac on the altar and believe
Speaker 1: that God was able to raise the dead, the faith
Speaker 1: of Abraham. It was also the faith to make a
Speaker 1: mistake and still have God move him into the right position.
Speaker 1: The faith of Abraham. It's a complicated, complicated faith, but
Speaker 1: it's simple if we believe. Look what it says about Abraham.
Speaker 1: He is the father of us all as it is written,
Speaker 1: I have made you a father of many nations. He
Speaker 1: is our father in the sight of God in whom
Speaker 1: he believed, the God who gives life to the dead
Speaker 1: and calls into being things that were not against all hope.
Speaker 1: Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of
Speaker 1: many nations, just as it had been said to him,
Speaker 1: so shall your offspring be. Let's lift right there from
Speaker 1: that verse. Abraham in hope believed, and so became. And
Speaker 1: look at the person next to you and say, I'm
Speaker 1: not done becoming. You may be seated. Whoo Hey, y'all
Speaker 1: know what, in the spirit of keeping it a hundred,
Speaker 1: I need to admit something to you. There was a time.
Speaker 1: There was a time about five years ago that I
Speaker 1: had gotten so upset with preaching sermons that I thought
Speaker 1: were impressive that I lost my focus on preaching sermons
Speaker 1: that would be impactful. And through a series of confirmations
Speaker 1: and impressions that God gave me, I realized that I
Speaker 1: needed to spend a little bit more time on preaching
Speaker 1: from my heart, not just from my head, to really
Speaker 1: flow with the Holy Spirit. I wanted to be a
Speaker 1: preacher who was more spirit led than mentally dependent. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I don't want to think through what I'm
Speaker 1: going to say. God knows. I don't want to get
Speaker 1: up here like I'm naked on the first day of
Speaker 1: school talking about, Uh, what y'all want to preach about today?
Speaker 1: Anybody got a scripture? What y'all think that means? I
Speaker 1: don't know. Let's pray. But I want to be in
Speaker 1: the flow, in the moment with the Lord, so that
Speaker 1: whatever he speaks, that I agree with that because if
Speaker 1: I come into agreement with what he speaks, his authority
Speaker 1: will be behind it. If I say what I think,
Speaker 1: I have no divine backing. So to be in the
Speaker 1: flow with God means that He could give me something
Speaker 1: to say in the moment that wasn't in my notes.
Speaker 1: And that's why when I'm up here, I bring notes
Speaker 1: and I don't look at him. I bring them like
Speaker 1: what was the character that had the blanket? Was it Linus?
Speaker 1: And I bring these messy little notes up here. And
Speaker 1: when I tell you these notes are illegible and unusable,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't even know what I wrote when
Speaker 1: I wrote it. It's just therapeutic to write something down.
Speaker 1: But really, I'm just trusting in God. Can I keep
Speaker 1: it a hundred with you? I need God. I need God.
Speaker 1: I mean I have a structure, I have outline, I
Speaker 1: have a script sure, in fact, I have more scriptures
Speaker 1: than I could preach. But I need God. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is what I want to tell you about that, because
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to teach preaching seminar here today. How
Speaker 1: many of you do not want to be a preacher? Right,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of y'all that do. I was shocked
Speaker 1: by that. Trust me, don't do that now. It's great,
Speaker 1: It's the great privilege in the world. And it'll give
Speaker 1: you a stomach ulcers. So there's that. But look, the
Speaker 1: thing that I had to do to become what I
Speaker 1: wanted to be, which is a more spirit led preacher,
Speaker 1: was the last thing that I do after all the study,
Speaker 1: preparation and seeking God, whether go on a walk, or
Speaker 1: take a cold shower, or lay on my face or
Speaker 1: listen to Gira, you know, over and over until God
Speaker 1: speaks or listen to Metallica, is Giro won't get the
Speaker 1: job done. Start preaching about wrath, whatever it takes, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to say what God wanted me to say.
Speaker 1: I really don't need you to feel good when I
Speaker 1: get done. I just need to feel like I obey God.
Speaker 1: Because even if you left and felt good and I
Speaker 1: didn't obey God, I wouldn't feel good when you left.
Speaker 1: And that's not fear that you feel good and I
Speaker 1: feel bad because I didn't listen to what he told
Speaker 1: me to say. So if we pray for Bobby, we
Speaker 1: pray for Bobby. If I say something crazy, I say
Speaker 1: something crazy. If they mean me, they mean me. You
Speaker 1: remember Esther said, if I perish, I perish. If they
Speaker 1: cancel me, they cancel me. It's got to be that
Speaker 1: I stay in alignment with God so that I feel
Speaker 1: good about myself when you're not around. And so, in
Speaker 1: wanting to be a more spirit led preacher, there's something
Speaker 1: that began to happen, and it was that I spent
Speaker 1: more time praying and stuff ud, reflecting and meditating on
Speaker 1: the word of God. And I'm going to show you
Speaker 1: why this is important to your life in a moment.
Speaker 1: But the last thing that I do before I preach
Speaker 1: is decide what the title of the sermon will be.
Speaker 1: It used to be the first thing I did. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna preach about this. I'm gonna preach about grace,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna call it this and here's the notes
Speaker 1: and here's the points. But as I wanted to be
Speaker 1: more spirit led, I had to change certain procedures and processes.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that you should do this, because,
Speaker 1: like I said before, this isn't really even about preaching.
Speaker 1: But this is the method that really helped me is
Speaker 1: that I started deciding what to call it right before
Speaker 1: I preach it. And here's the reason for that. The
Speaker 1: moment I decide what the message is called, it determines
Speaker 1: what the focus is going to be, and everything else
Speaker 1: that I was gonna say doesn't apply anymore. So the
Speaker 1: moment that I label it, I limit it. And I
Speaker 1: don't want to limit it while God is still giving it.
Speaker 1: You see where I'm going. If I decide too soon
Speaker 1: this is what I think it is, I might miss
Speaker 1: what God intends it to be as it is still unfolding.
Speaker 1: So I don't give a title at Saturday at six pm.
Speaker 1: I don't give all my scriptures Saturday at eight eight pm.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, right before we preach. Sometimes
Speaker 1: right as we're singing the Lord to give me one
Speaker 1: more scripture, I'll run back, make sure everything's zipped up,
Speaker 1: buttoned up, tidied up, pulled up, tightened up, everything's good. Boom,
Speaker 1: and here's another scripture. But I don't want to cut
Speaker 1: God off while he's still talking, lest I miss his
Speaker 1: intention because I have my own agenda. I don't want
Speaker 1: to say too soon. Okay, God, this is what I'm
Speaker 1: speak on. This is how I'm gonna speak on it.
Speaker 1: And God's like, that's not even true. That's just what
Speaker 1: you knew when you sat down to study. So what
Speaker 1: if I want to show you something you don't know
Speaker 1: when you sit down to study. What if I want
Speaker 1: to show you something that you don't know why you're
Speaker 1: reading your scripture to your congregation? What if I want
Speaker 1: to speak something? What if I want to say something
Speaker 1: to somebody's soul that you were too stupid to put
Speaker 1: down in your notes. But see, the Spirit of God
Speaker 1: is smarter than I am, So he can give me
Speaker 1: stuff while I'm preaching if I'm open to it. But
Speaker 1: if I'm close to it, if I label it, I
Speaker 1: will limit it. And I have a system for this,
Speaker 1: you ready, This is a real high tech system. I
Speaker 1: have a black folder, and I have yellow notes, and
Speaker 1: then I have how many of y'all love this? Right here.
Speaker 1: I got some post it notes. I got so many
Speaker 1: of them, so it's cheap to change the title. I
Speaker 1: don't want to put it on a parchment where it's expensive.
Speaker 1: I don't want to make somebody design a title that
Speaker 1: I'm going to change anyway. So I write it myself
Speaker 1: and as soon as I get done, I stick it
Speaker 1: on the folder boom, and I preach right there. That's
Speaker 1: what I do so right before I came out today.
Speaker 1: I do this every week. I know y'all care a
Speaker 1: lot about this. This is really interesting stuff, man, it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: The last thing I do is label it, because the
Speaker 1: moment I label it, I limit it. Yeah. I might
Speaker 1: have an idea, Yeah I might have a path. You
Speaker 1: might have a hunch. Yeah I might have a lead.
Speaker 1: But I don't know what it is until God is
Speaker 1: ready for me to deliver it. That's what I want
Speaker 1: to call this sermon today. Are we label? Are we label?
Speaker 1: Put it in your notes? Don't y'all write down the
Speaker 1: titles that I work so hard in agonize over to preach? Yeah,
Speaker 1: look like so what nobody writing it down? Come on, Robert,
Speaker 1: write it down, man, it's a good title. We are
Speaker 1: we label. You got to call a sermon something what
Speaker 1: he preached about today a Bible stuff. He was saying
Speaker 1: about God and stuff up there and how God is
Speaker 1: good and all that stuff up there. You got to
Speaker 1: call it something. We are somebody say we are we label.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of our labels God hates. And
Speaker 1: when I say label, you probably think about a label
Speaker 1: that's on some food or a label that's on some medicine.
Speaker 1: Labels are great for products. Don't get me wrong. They
Speaker 1: got ibuprofen in the bathroom and the way I know
Speaker 1: it's not tic TACs is because of what it says
Speaker 1: on the label. I appreciate label when it comes to
Speaker 1: keeping me from taking the wrong medicine. I appreciate labels.
Speaker 1: When Holly puts leftovers in the fridge, she'll often make
Speaker 1: a little note and put a little post it on
Speaker 1: the note with a little heart, and it will say
Speaker 1: who the food is for. Elijah pays no attention when
Speaker 1: that says for Dad. So now we specified do not touch,
Speaker 1: do not move, do not look at this food. This
Speaker 1: is for Stephen. The verdict. Now, when I say God
Speaker 1: hates labels, I need to counteract that in balance it
Speaker 1: by saying that as humans, we love to label. We
Speaker 1: can't live without labels. We'll be popping tick tacks and
Speaker 1: wondering why our head still hurts. This one girl, one
Speaker 1: time she came on the van we're traveling with the
Speaker 1: ministry team, and she was eating Friedo's. She said, I
Speaker 1: hate the way these taste. Somebody said, why are you
Speaker 1: eating them? She said, trying to be help. We tracked
Speaker 1: that back. We tracked that back. We found out that
Speaker 1: somebody sometimes told her that Fridos are healthier than Dorito's,
Speaker 1: so she thought it was like the healthy alternative to
Speaker 1: Dorito's was called Frito's. And when she was asked, how
Speaker 1: long have you been substituting Dorito's, which you love, with Frido's,
Speaker 1: which you don't like, thinking that it was better for
Speaker 1: you than it really was, she says, since I was nine.
Speaker 1: She was in college at the time. I thought that
Speaker 1: was so sad that she forfeited ten years that she
Speaker 1: could have been enjoying the nacho cheesy taste of her
Speaker 1: beloved Doritos for the Freedo snack, which actually, when we
Speaker 1: read the label, had a higher fat content than the
Speaker 1: Doritos which she loved. So she could have just been
Speaker 1: killing Doritos the whole time. Somebody he deprived this girl
Speaker 1: of her doritos. And I pray you worked through it
Speaker 1: once we told her the truth, because for me, I
Speaker 1: would need therapy ten years, a decade without doritos, because
Speaker 1: one person planted a seed of deception in your mind
Speaker 1: and said this is better for you, and you never
Speaker 1: checked it, and you never read the label. It was
Speaker 1: on the label. It said on the back of Frito's,
Speaker 1: this will make you fat, really fat. It was on
Speaker 1: the label. So I appreciate a label when it's by
Speaker 1: the FDA or something like that. Please do not send
Speaker 1: me messages about the FDA is a conspiracy of the
Speaker 1: Illuminati and came from Star Wars. I don't want to
Speaker 1: hear none of it. But I'm saying, like a lot
Speaker 1: of the times in our life, we will label something
Speaker 1: and limit someone while we are still figuring out what
Speaker 1: it is. And a lot of what God speaks over
Speaker 1: your life never happens, not because of your limits, but
Speaker 1: because of your labels. There were those in the early
Speaker 1: Church that wanted to limit salvation to those who were circumcised.
Speaker 1: Paul says, I hate your labels, because in Christ there
Speaker 1: is no longer slave, nor free, male nor female, gentile
Speaker 1: non gentile. God doesn't run around labeling stuff like you
Speaker 1: label stuff. And the difference between you and God is
Speaker 1: you labeled things you didn't even make. You try to
Speaker 1: label stuff that doesn't even belong to you. We try
Speaker 1: to judge other people. So I'm real bothered about it,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to talk about it much because
Speaker 1: I get angry and I get unfiltered when I think
Speaker 1: about it. I hate how our culture has become so
Speaker 1: eager to believe the worst about anybody the first time
Speaker 1: we hear it. I hate that so something somebody says
Speaker 1: gets taken out of context. Oh, now they're a racist.
Speaker 1: You didn't even see the whole sentence that they said.
Speaker 1: You just read a headline, and now they're a racist.
Speaker 1: You're kind of scared to say something to that. We
Speaker 1: do it all the time, and that's not black people,
Speaker 1: white people. That can go any way you want to
Speaker 1: put it. We'll call somebody something because we heard a
Speaker 1: rumor from somebody that we didn't even verify if that
Speaker 1: person was the very thing that they were calling the
Speaker 1: other And especially during political season, when you see how
Speaker 1: they make these ads. They are praying on our prejudice,
Speaker 1: trying to get us to believe a snapshot of somebody,
Speaker 1: so we will go out and categorize ourselves as enemies
Speaker 1: of something that we don't even understand. Paul said, don't
Speaker 1: get this twisted. Don't get this twisted in Christ. It's
Speaker 1: not about what it looks like on the outside. It
Speaker 1: is not about what you can identify somebody by that
Speaker 1: you can see and that you can understand. We love
Speaker 1: labels because we have limitations on our understanding. So the
Speaker 1: only way we can get through our life is to
Speaker 1: safely categorize people, like we try to organize our pantry
Speaker 1: so we can know which shelf to put somebody on.
Speaker 1: Oh he's not qualified, she's not qualified. She's from this family.
Speaker 1: Oh they are from that background. We love labels and
Speaker 1: God hates them. Not telling you to go through and
Speaker 1: peel off everything on your soup and your green beans
Speaker 1: in your pantry, some superstitious thing like that. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that God hates when we label something in order to
Speaker 1: limit something, Which is why I chose Romans four, or
Speaker 1: why I believe the Holy Spirit chose Romans four to
Speaker 1: talk to us about this today, because the greatest limitation
Speaker 1: on your life right now is not your potential as
Speaker 1: your belief. When we look at the Bible stories of
Speaker 1: characters like Abraham, we get into this complicated story and
Speaker 1: we see one example of his life, and he looks
Speaker 1: like a man of great faith. But how many know.
Speaker 1: We could have labeled him a lot of things. We
Speaker 1: could have labeled him a liar because he lied. We
Speaker 1: could have labeled him an adulter because he slept with
Speaker 1: somebody who wasn't his wife, even though the cultural custom
Speaker 1: of the time was very different than ours. We could
Speaker 1: have labeled him a lot of things. We could have
Speaker 1: labeled him by the fact that he laughed at God.
Speaker 1: We could have labeled him by a lot of things.
Speaker 1: But when God labels him, he calls him the father
Speaker 1: of many nations. In fact, it says something that really
Speaker 1: got my attention. You ready for this? It says, Abraham
Speaker 1: be believed and so became. Let's look at that with
Speaker 1: our own two eyeballs. I want you to believe it
Speaker 1: because I said it. I want you to believe it
Speaker 1: because God said it. He said in verse eighteen, Abraham
Speaker 1: against all hope in hope believed, and so became. Say
Speaker 1: that with me, he believed, and so became he believed,
Speaker 1: and so became. I love that. I love it because
Speaker 1: you would think he became it so he believed it.
Speaker 1: Once he saw the evidence that God could do what
Speaker 1: he promised, then he believed it. That's how human hope works.
Speaker 1: You know, it needs to see something to believe it.
Speaker 1: This is a very different kind of faith, this faith
Speaker 1: of Abraham, the faith by which God justifies us, the
Speaker 1: faith which has an ability to know that I can
Speaker 1: stand in the middle of something that I don't understand,
Speaker 1: waiting on a detail that I don't yet have, and
Speaker 1: still believe in a God that I haven't figured out,
Speaker 1: that I can produce a promise that is inside of
Speaker 1: me that I can't even perceive with my senses. I
Speaker 1: feel faith in my spirit right now because sometimes I
Speaker 1: have to believe things that I can't see, that I
Speaker 1: can't feel, but that God has called me to be now.
Speaker 1: Often when we talk about believing, if you go by
Speaker 1: culture's understanding of belief in faith, we are believing to
Speaker 1: have something. I want to have a better job, I
Speaker 1: want to have a better body. I want to have
Speaker 1: a wife. I want to have a husband, I want
Speaker 1: to have a child. And that's fine because God will
Speaker 1: give you things. He will give you the desires of
Speaker 1: your heart. So I'm thirty seven to four. And not
Speaker 1: only will he put the desire in your heart, but
Speaker 1: he will fulfill the desire. So He'll put the desire there,
Speaker 1: and he will fulfill the desire. He will give you
Speaker 1: things that you didn't even think you were worthy of having.
Speaker 1: Some of us are standing in a place in life
Speaker 1: today that we honestly never knew to ask God to
Speaker 1: bring us to. I mean, I didn't know to ask
Speaker 1: God that I could pastor this church. I made myself
Speaker 1: available to him and He did it. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that I knew that it was in me when
Speaker 1: I asked God to use me. But here you are,
Speaker 1: and here I am, and here we are. Here we
Speaker 1: are the greatest thing that God will give you. Faith
Speaker 1: for though, is not something that He wants you to have,
Speaker 1: someone that he wants you to be. Not what does
Speaker 1: God want me to have? Although that is a very
Speaker 1: important thing to your father. To you, Jesus said that
Speaker 1: the birds store up, yet they're never far from the worm.
Speaker 1: Because your father knows they need them, so he'll give
Speaker 1: you a worm. But he is more concerned, infinitely more
Speaker 1: concerned about who you are becoming in the process of receiving.
Speaker 1: I don't know who this is for. But if you
Speaker 1: get it and God doesn't get you, you will not
Speaker 1: be able to sustain what you obtain, because it's going
Speaker 1: to take the same grace and the same faith to
Speaker 1: keep it that it takes to come into it. I
Speaker 1: want to lay this foundation. This is so important, This
Speaker 1: is so important. In the passage I read, it said
Speaker 1: Abraham what believed, and so became against all hope, when
Speaker 1: it was so far past his time, when it seemed
Speaker 1: like there was no way it would work, when there
Speaker 1: was nothing pointing to the fact that he had the
Speaker 1: potential to bring forth this nation. He believed it, and
Speaker 1: so he became it. Certain scriptures are not prescriptive, meaning
Speaker 1: that they don't tell us what to do. They tell
Speaker 1: us what the character did. That's called descriptive. Not all
Speaker 1: Bible verses are telling you what to do. For instance,
Speaker 1: Jonah ran from the Lord, So that don't mean you
Speaker 1: go and run from the Lord because you read that
Speaker 1: jonah ran from the Lord is telling you what he did,
Speaker 1: I get you a better one. Judas went and hanged himself.
Speaker 1: Don't do that. You'll read about the man start opening
Speaker 1: his bible. He said, God, speak to me, give me
Speaker 1: a word, show me what to do, and he pointed
Speaker 1: in it said Judas went and hanged himself. He said,
Speaker 1: oh God, let me try that again. Flipped again, put
Speaker 1: his finger right down on the Bible. And they said,
Speaker 1: whatever they'll do is do quickly. Don't do that. That's
Speaker 1: old preacher Joe. But look at this. I wonder if
Speaker 1: this dynamic. I know I'm not Abraham. I know you're
Speaker 1: not Abraham. I know you're not the father of many nations.
Speaker 1: I'm not the father of many nations. I'm the father
Speaker 1: of three kids. And I got my hands full and
Speaker 1: my quiver full, and my quiver is overflowing, and my
Speaker 1: cup is flowing over, and everything's running over, and I'm
Speaker 1: grateful and I don't want any more. But I'm saying,
Speaker 1: does the dynamic apply that we all become what we believe,
Speaker 1: not what God says. If everybody became what God said,
Speaker 1: then everybody would be the righteousness of God. If everybody
Speaker 1: became what God said, we wouldn't live a day of
Speaker 1: our life defeated because we wouldn't be addicted, because we
Speaker 1: are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Because
Speaker 1: that's what God said. But it is not what God
Speaker 1: said over your life that determines the limit of what
Speaker 1: you will be. That limit is determined by your belief.
Speaker 1: And I just want to stand here and tell you
Speaker 1: I want to be all that God called me to be,
Speaker 1: all of it. I want to do everything he called
Speaker 1: me to do. I want to walk in everything he
Speaker 1: called me to walk in. I want to give everything
Speaker 1: he called me to give. I want to say everything
Speaker 1: he called me to say. I want to write everything
Speaker 1: he called me to write, every song, every sermon, every conversation.
Speaker 1: I want to put it all out here while I'm here.
Speaker 1: As long as I'm here, I want to see what
Speaker 1: God can do through me. I want to get to heaven,
Speaker 1: and God show me a whole warehouse of who I
Speaker 1: would have been if I had listened to Him rather
Speaker 1: than listening to the labels of people whose own minds
Speaker 1: were limited. I don't want to get to heaven, and
Speaker 1: God showed me the church. I could have passed her
Speaker 1: if I would have had the faith to stand flat
Speaker 1: footed and say what he told me to say. I
Speaker 1: don't want to get there and regret that God would
Speaker 1: speak something that I would refuse to believe. I don't
Speaker 1: want to go ten years not eating Doritos because you
Speaker 1: told me Fredo's were health food. Now I want you
Speaker 1: to get something in your mind. Let's make this a
Speaker 1: seminar today, because that's all wonderful. Oh, Abraham had faith
Speaker 1: and that's wonderful. And Abraham set out and that's wonderful.
Speaker 1: And Abraham received the promise and that's awesome, and that's terrific,
Speaker 1: and that's spectacular. But if we just do that, this
Speaker 1: is a fantasy football service where none of us do
Speaker 1: anything but watch somebody do something and loosely associate with
Speaker 1: what they did and call ourselves a coach. The Lord said,
Speaker 1: a lot of people's faith is a fantasy realm. We
Speaker 1: don't know how to do this. Believe God? Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe God. That's great. I believe even God he's
Speaker 1: directing my past. But what does it mean to believe
Speaker 1: until you become in order to do this. We're gonna
Speaker 1: all do this, everybody in the room, everybody on Epham.
Speaker 1: I want you to get one thing. Write it down,
Speaker 1: put it online if you're online, put it in your notebook.
Speaker 1: If you're on a notebook, put it in your phone.
Speaker 1: If you can open your phone and not be distracted
Speaker 1: by the people who have been texting you, who should
Speaker 1: be in church right now, but are busy distracting you,
Speaker 1: trying to snatch this word while God's preaching it. I
Speaker 1: want you to get one thing on your mind. We're
Speaker 1: gonna make this so some you can't leave here today
Speaker 1: and be like, Okay, Abraham is the man. We're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about you. We're gonna talk about you, your label,
Speaker 1: your limits, your faith, your belief because he said we
Speaker 1: are all the offspring of Abraham who believe. So God
Speaker 1: doesn't look through the room and be like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: sermon is good for her. She's at the eleventh grade
Speaker 1: Christianity level. He's at the fifth grade. She's at the
Speaker 1: third grade. He's gonna need some school. God doesn't look
Speaker 1: at the class like that. We all need the same grace.
Speaker 1: None of us need mini grace, bitty grace, any bitty
Speaker 1: little grace. We all need the same grace. So here's
Speaker 1: what I want you to get on your mind. What
Speaker 1: is one thing that you want to be that you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you are right now? I want to
Speaker 1: be not what I want to have. And don't put rich,
Speaker 1: and don't put skinny, and don't put ripped. Put something
Speaker 1: that we can't pull up on TikTok or YouTube shorts
Speaker 1: right now. Put something deeper down. I want to be more.
Speaker 1: What is it? Put it in the chat if you're
Speaker 1: watching online. I believe God is calling me to be more.
Speaker 1: Somebody got one? Shout it out? Okay, okay, I get
Speaker 1: I heard one. Confident, that's a good one. Write that down,
Speaker 1: Hall confident. What loving you said? That's kind of angry?
Speaker 1: Loving You really seem like you need it. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. I just thought that was funny, loving God, God, confident, loving,
Speaker 1: put it. I want to be more wet. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you can't pray for that one. She's that comfortable. He's
Speaker 1: that comfortable, because I'm gonna tell you why, because a
Speaker 1: lot of times your comfort zone is what kills you.
Speaker 1: So if God makes you more comfortable, he's gonna make
Speaker 1: you more complacent. Because if you get comfortable, you get complacent.
Speaker 1: So God is never going to design a life for
Speaker 1: you that doesn't require him. He's always gonna give you
Speaker 1: something in your life where you feel like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't deserve this, I'm not worry worthy of this. I
Speaker 1: can't do this. The moment that stops happening, you stop growing.
Speaker 1: The moment you stop growing, you start dying spiritually. And
Speaker 1: God isn't like that. So he'll say, I know that
Speaker 1: at this point in your life, you've gotten pretty comfortable, Abraham.
Speaker 1: I know you're rich, Abraham. I know you're settled, Abraham.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna give you a place in your life
Speaker 1: where you don't have that yet, that you still need me,
Speaker 1: so that you can see me for who I am,
Speaker 1: not who you thought I was when you labeled me
Speaker 1: when you first met me. So let's get another one available.
Speaker 1: Hole keep going, all right? You got confident? Whyse I
Speaker 1: wish I could hear every campus right now? I wish
Speaker 1: I could. Okay, it sounds like the Tower of Babbel now,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna just I'm gonna stop and do a few. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you got one I put down. I made my
Speaker 1: own list before I came somewhere in this yellow legal
Speaker 1: pad full of notes and it said joyful. I believe
Speaker 1: God wants me to be more joyful. I do see
Speaker 1: myself sometimes and I'm like, you know, like, what do
Speaker 1: you have to be so mad about? Stress? It's another
Speaker 1: thing I want to be stressed. I'm stressed a lot.
Speaker 1: So I think God wants me to be more peaceful.
Speaker 1: I do. I believe the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
Speaker 1: of patience, kind of goodness. Say to this general self control.
Speaker 1: So I believe God wants me to be more peaceful.
Speaker 1: I do. I don't think God wants me to get
Speaker 1: my heart rate up every time somebody doesn't know how
Speaker 1: to drive, because I know it's not me. This a
Speaker 1: bad driver. And funny we label somebody else a bad driver.
Speaker 1: They're a bad driver. Couldn't have been you? No, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no, confident, peaceful, joyful, loving, generous, patient, Well
Speaker 1: you better be careful asking God for patience. When you
Speaker 1: pray for patience, God sends problems and people. I used
Speaker 1: to think every annoying person that I met was the
Speaker 1: answer to a prayer for patients I prayed in the
Speaker 1: season before I met him. All Right, so here's the
Speaker 1: second question. If I'm believing that God wants me to
Speaker 1: be more joyful, patient, confident. I'm thinking the principle It
Speaker 1: said Abraham believed and so became, not he became and
Speaker 1: then believed. He didn't go take a personality test that said, oh,
Speaker 1: you're the father of many nations and then back into
Speaker 1: that from his God gave him a promise and a purpose.
Speaker 1: He believed that and became it. So here's the second part.
Speaker 1: What would I need to believe to become it? If
Speaker 1: I want to be more joyful and I do, or
Speaker 1: if I want to be more confident and I do,
Speaker 1: or if I want to be more loving and I do,
Speaker 1: or if I want to be more patient and I do,
Speaker 1: what would I need to believe to be it? And
Speaker 1: that good question because if we say, like, well, how
Speaker 1: do I need to behave, then we're trying to do
Speaker 1: it by our own works, and then we forgot about grace.
Speaker 1: And any change that you try to make to be
Speaker 1: what God called you to be that's not empowered by
Speaker 1: His grace, You're not going to sustain it. It's just
Speaker 1: going to be a fad or a phase. And a
Speaker 1: lot of you are here and you are frustrated because
Speaker 1: you can't change you can't change. You bought every book,
Speaker 1: you can't change. You subscribe to every email list, you
Speaker 1: can't change. You got an accountability partner, you can't change.
Speaker 1: You did every Bible reading plan they've got on the Bible.
Speaker 1: Now you're doing Spanish Bible reading plans and you're from
Speaker 1: Kansas and you never even took Spanish in high school.
Speaker 1: And you can't change. You threw everything away, you bought
Speaker 1: it again. You went out and God threw out all
Speaker 1: the stuff that was causing your problems, and I found
Speaker 1: its way back in. You can't change. Any modification in
Speaker 1: behavior that is not matched by a change in belief
Speaker 1: will eventually hit its limit. I'm just telling you. You
Speaker 1: might be able to do it for a month, you
Speaker 1: might be able to do it for a year, you
Speaker 1: might be able to do it for five years, But
Speaker 1: you're just going to be trying to see how long
Speaker 1: can I hold my breath? And the answer is you're
Speaker 1: eventually gonna have to come up for air unless you
Speaker 1: change what you believe. So, if I want to be
Speaker 1: more joyful and I'm currently not, what do I need
Speaker 1: to believe to have more joy? Well, Number one, I
Speaker 1: don't need to believe that it's a sin for me
Speaker 1: to be down, because then I'm gonna beat myself up
Speaker 1: because I'm down. And now, how am I gonna have
Speaker 1: joy when I'm beating myself up for being down? How
Speaker 1: am I going to experience the joy the Lord when
Speaker 1: all I'm doing is wallowing in my own weakness. When
Speaker 1: I want to be more joyful, what do I need
Speaker 1: to believe to be it? Abraham believed and so became?
Speaker 1: What do I need to believe to become what I
Speaker 1: just said God is calling me to be? So if
Speaker 1: I want to be more joyful, maybe I need to
Speaker 1: believe that joy doesn't come from circumstances. Come on, That's
Speaker 1: what a lot of us believe that when a situation
Speaker 1: turns a certain way, we betray our belief in our language,
Speaker 1: they stole my joy, they stole it. Where's your safe?
Speaker 1: Where's your locks? Where are your protective mechanisms to see
Speaker 1: to it that people don't get to take from you
Speaker 1: what Christ paid for. Joy comes from Jesus, not people.
Speaker 1: Joy comes from Jesus, not events. There are at least
Speaker 1: three of you who have been on a beach at
Speaker 1: a time in your life and been sad on the beach,
Speaker 1: So you found out real quick you can move places
Speaker 1: but still feel the same way or worse that you
Speaker 1: were when you left. Because you know, joy doesn't come
Speaker 1: from a place. Joy doesn't come from a possession. Joy
Speaker 1: comes from God. Now that's the first belief I gotta
Speaker 1: have if I'm gonna be more joyful, Because if I
Speaker 1: have to go to you to get the joy, you
Speaker 1: might not have any either. So now I'm coming to
Speaker 1: you asking you for something that you don't have. Make
Speaker 1: me feel good, make me happy. Oh, you got to
Speaker 1: make me happy. I left them because they weren't making
Speaker 1: me happy. I left that church because I wasn't happy.
Speaker 1: I left that job because I wasn't happy. Your joy
Speaker 1: is your job. I don't care if you'll like me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to Phoenix. I'll be on the other side
Speaker 1: of the country by the time you get mad at
Speaker 1: this message and tweeted me your job. And if you
Speaker 1: don't believe that you cannot access what you don't have
Speaker 1: the rightful permission to perceive. And if you don't think
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be joyful in God's presence at his
Speaker 1: right hand is the fullness of joy at his right
Speaker 1: hand or pleasures Forevermore so, maybe I would need to
Speaker 1: believe that God wants to give me joy that the
Speaker 1: world can't take away. What would you need to believe
Speaker 1: to become more joyful? Maybe I will believe that joy
Speaker 1: isn't an effective circumstance, but it is a product of
Speaker 1: my perspective. Y'all don't want me to teach today Abraham.
Speaker 1: I just talk about him because that'll be easy, and
Speaker 1: we'd be like, oh, Abraham, he is a great man.
Speaker 1: He believed and so became. What are you becoming? Whatever
Speaker 1: it is, it's because of something you're believing. Eating Fredos.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a truth to be a
Speaker 1: belief of people confused it to well, that's my truth.
Speaker 1: I'm just living my truth. That's so stupid. If it's truth,
Speaker 1: it's not yours, it's God's. There's one truth, it's his.
Speaker 1: Oh we'll see that person there, this there, that there
Speaker 1: are another. God hates those labels because moment you label it,
Speaker 1: you limit it. It made me so mad. One time
Speaker 1: somebody told me something about our church, and I know
Speaker 1: they meant it in the nicest possible way, and I
Speaker 1: know they were probably trying to be constructive. But they said,
Speaker 1: elevation is the church where you catch the fish, but
Speaker 1: you don't clean them up. This brother in Christ, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it like that. The label, you know, it's poor.
Speaker 1: He was saying it to me as if like, oh,
Speaker 1: because people come in this church and their lifestyle doesn't
Speaker 1: immediately change. You know, you catch them and we'll clean them.
Speaker 1: That's what he was saying. He was saying, I'll preach
Speaker 1: the word of God that helps them grow. You preach
Speaker 1: the grace that gets them saved. That is the dumbest
Speaker 1: distinction in the history of humanity. It really is. That's
Speaker 1: like saying, Okay, you eat and I'll drink. It takes
Speaker 1: both to live. And I want to declare to you
Speaker 1: today that nobody really changes to become what God made
Speaker 1: them without the grace of God. So we don't get
Speaker 1: grace to become Christians. And oh now I'm saved by
Speaker 1: grace and I'll try really hard to earn it from
Speaker 1: God in the future. That is not how we change,
Speaker 1: not God, not in a lasting way, not in a
Speaker 1: sustainable way. That's ridiculous. That's our label that we want
Speaker 1: to do. Oh he's a baby Christian. Oh he's a
Speaker 1: mature Christian, and we measure that by how much scripture
Speaker 1: they knew. That is not how God labels faith. I'll
Speaker 1: rather you know one Bible verse and do it. Old
Speaker 1: old Preacher James used to say, you can have your
Speaker 1: Bible so marked up, looks like a color and book,
Speaker 1: and it won't get you into heaven. You got to
Speaker 1: come into heaven by the door. You got to come
Speaker 1: into heaven by the grace of God. You've got to
Speaker 1: grow by the grace of God, the same grace you
Speaker 1: were saved in. Don't categorize people so quickly. You don't
Speaker 1: even know if they really said that. You don't even
Speaker 1: know if they really did that. You don't even know
Speaker 1: if that's really how it is. You never even really
Speaker 1: talk to them. You never even really asked them how
Speaker 1: they grew up. You never really asked them why they
Speaker 1: do that. You never really asked them why they dressed
Speaker 1: like that. You never even asked them. You remember the
Speaker 1: lady that came into church and she'd never been to
Speaker 1: church before. She didn't have any church clothes, y'all remember,
Speaker 1: And she was dressed wearing what she had, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't very modest. And when she was in there. Everybody
Speaker 1: was staring at her, and everybody was judging her, and
Speaker 1: everybody was whispering about her. And so afterwards the pastor
Speaker 1: met her at the door and said, you got to
Speaker 1: ask God before you come back here what you should
Speaker 1: wear the church. Now, don't come back here until you
Speaker 1: prayed about what you're wearing. So she came back the
Speaker 1: next weekend. She was wearing the same thing, and the
Speaker 1: pastor said, didn't I tell you to ask God what
Speaker 1: to wear before you came back to this church? And
Speaker 1: she said I did. And he said, well, what did
Speaker 1: God say? And she said, God said he didn't know
Speaker 1: what I should wear to this church because he'd never
Speaker 1: been here before. God hates labels. He hates it. He
Speaker 1: hates it when we think we're righteous because we don't
Speaker 1: do this bad behavior. Well, you got some other bad behaviors,
Speaker 1: some bad beliefs. We can't just judge somebody based on
Speaker 1: a snapshot that we saw. We become what we believe.
Speaker 1: And the problem with a lot of us is our
Speaker 1: basis of belief is in the wrong thing. So our
Speaker 1: faith is weak because we started with a weak belief.
Speaker 1: Who said confident, I want to be more confident. I
Speaker 1: love that one because I was thinking, what would I
Speaker 1: need to believe to be more confident. I probably need
Speaker 1: to believe what the Bible says, that He who began
Speaker 1: a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.
Speaker 1: I would be more confident if I believe that God
Speaker 1: started it. If I think I started it, I've got
Speaker 1: to sustain it. I didn't ask to be born. I
Speaker 1: didn't ask to be five nine and a half with
Speaker 1: a pretty good beard. I didn't ask for any of that.
Speaker 1: But God put me here, and I want to see
Speaker 1: what I can be. But I don't want to label
Speaker 1: myself too soon because I'm not done becoming yet. So
Speaker 1: when I sit in the presence of God, I don't
Speaker 1: just want to tell him what I am, because what
Speaker 1: I think I am is what I label myself. And
Speaker 1: when I label myself, I limit myself. Oh I'm not
Speaker 1: good at that. Oh I'm not that kind of person.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm not a morning person. Oh I'm not a
Speaker 1: worship person. I'm so tired of you telling God who
Speaker 1: made you, what label you need to wear. If you
Speaker 1: didn't make it, you can't name it. You don't get
Speaker 1: to label what it didn't make. I am fearfully and
Speaker 1: wonderfully made. That's who I am. So God doesn't label
Speaker 1: me based on what I am loyal to. Why are
Speaker 1: you loyal to a lie? Why would you be loyal
Speaker 1: to something someone said about you over something that God
Speaker 1: spoke about you. We become what we believe. We are.
Speaker 1: We label, we are, We label, we are, we label.
Speaker 1: We label our lives on where we are. God labels
Speaker 1: your life based on where he knows he's taking you.
Speaker 1: So God does not label you by what you struggle
Speaker 1: with Right now. People will, that's fine, let them, don't
Speaker 1: even try to change their mind. The devil will. He'll say,
Speaker 1: you're down this far. Look at you, you're grumpy. Look
Speaker 1: at you, you're broke. Look at who you're living on
Speaker 1: the street. Look at you. You're in prison. Look at you,
Speaker 1: you're in recovery. Look at you you lost it again.
Speaker 1: Look at you, you can't make it. Look at you,
Speaker 1: you're still in debt. Look at you, you can't get up.
Speaker 1: But God doesn't label being based on where him Right now,
Speaker 1: he stands in eternity pass and reaches it to eternity,
Speaker 1: kilts her and says, I've made you a father homedy nations.
Speaker 1: I've made you nor than a conqueror. Believe that. Believe
Speaker 1: that why you believe the Devil's so easy and believe
Speaker 1: God so harm If he set yours child yours child,
Speaker 1: if he said you're forgiven, You're forgiven. I don't care
Speaker 1: what shame's been crawling up on you. I'm bringing right now.
Speaker 1: He's the mighty name of sees so so so does
Speaker 1: God hate your labels? Maybe he does. If you're walking
Speaker 1: around saying stuff about yourself that contradicts what He put
Speaker 1: inside of you. I think God hates you. You're labeled.
Speaker 1: I think God hates some of our labels. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, I believe he hates it so much
Speaker 1: that he will do whatever he has to do to
Speaker 1: peel that label off of you so you can see
Speaker 1: what's really inside. Sometimes we label too quick, and we
Speaker 1: miss what was given. We miss what was given. You.
Speaker 1: Remember how God told Abraham, you're the father of many nations,
Speaker 1: and then he said, and I have given you this
Speaker 1: land for your descendants. Do you know what's so sad?
Speaker 1: They never got to go into it until a whole
Speaker 1: generation had died because of what they labeled themselves in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. When you're in a wilderness, you're not there yet.
Speaker 1: When you're in a wilderness, you have left Egypt. Just
Speaker 1: because you leave Egypt doesn't mean you believe yet in
Speaker 1: what God sees you to be. So here they are,
Speaker 1: and I want you to picture yourself. This is not
Speaker 1: the faith of Abraham. This is the faith of Caleb.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember Caleb, but Caleb was
Speaker 1: that one spy who when they got to the edge
Speaker 1: of what God had spoken to them. And I don't
Speaker 1: know who this is for, but you are right on
Speaker 1: the verge of becoming your best version. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: it again. You are on the verge of your best version.
Speaker 1: Why are you so loyal to the worst version of you?
Speaker 1: Why do you go off on people and say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm just keeping it real. You're not keeping it real.
Speaker 1: You are keeping yourself in a rut. You are keeping
Speaker 1: yourself in the first version. When God says you're a
Speaker 1: new creation, and then people give stupid advice, Oh, just
Speaker 1: do you do you? Okay, that's fine, but do the
Speaker 1: new you, not the old you, not the you that
Speaker 1: was labeled by the experiences of your life up to
Speaker 1: this point. Not the you that's all selfish all the time,
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out how it makes you look.
Speaker 1: Do the new you, Do the new you. Maybe that
Speaker 1: should be the title of this sermon. Do the new you,
Speaker 1: the one that's full of faith. Do the new you,
Speaker 1: the one that's accepted in the beloved. Do the new you,
Speaker 1: the one that knows the Lord is my shepherd, and
Speaker 1: I shall not want Do the new you, the one
Speaker 1: that is transformed by the renewing of your mind. So
Speaker 1: they get right up to the edge of the promised land,
Speaker 1: right up to the edge, just like you right now.
Speaker 1: You've been fighting, You've been frustrated. You've been back and
Speaker 1: forth and one step and two steps, and two steps
Speaker 1: and one step, and why can't I change? And God
Speaker 1: brought you into this moment to change your label, To
Speaker 1: change your label. What you call an end, he calls
Speaker 1: a beginning. What you call over, he calls just getting started.
Speaker 1: What you call breakdown, he calls breakthrough. What you call
Speaker 1: a closed store, he calls an open window. I believe
Speaker 1: God's about to rip the roof off of somebody's life
Speaker 1: today and change your label because watch this, watch this,
Speaker 1: I'm almost done. Can I have five more minutes, five
Speaker 1: more minutes to set somebody free, five more minutes to
Speaker 1: break somebody's change, five more minutes to preach down the glory,
Speaker 1: five more minutes to connect with your faith like a
Speaker 1: jumper cable and get you started and back on the road.
Speaker 1: To believe that you're gonna be everything God made you
Speaker 1: to be, and you're not gonna die in what you started,
Speaker 1: and you're not gonna stay down forever, because this isn't
Speaker 1: even really you. This is not really you. You are
Speaker 1: the head is not to tell my love is not
Speaker 1: pasi has se is. You want to call me something,
Speaker 1: call me bless, You want to call me something, Call
Speaker 1: me saved, You want to call me something. Number thirteen thirty.
Speaker 1: All the voices are saying, we went into the land
Speaker 1: God gave us. There's some things God gave you you're
Speaker 1: not going into. There are some things God gave you
Speaker 1: you're not going into. There are some things God has
Speaker 1: given you. He has promised you, He has spoken to you,
Speaker 1: and you won't become it because you won't believe it.
Speaker 1: You say, I want to be more disciplined. Well do
Speaker 1: you believe that greater is he that is in you
Speaker 1: than he that's in the world, because if you believe that,
Speaker 1: you can become whatever you need to be. Don't say
Speaker 1: I'm lazy, don't say I'm a procrastinator. I was, but
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that version of me anymore. I got
Speaker 1: an upgrade from the manufacturer my goal just plus, there's
Speaker 1: a down law, Caleb saying, Caleb silence the people standing
Speaker 1: on the edge of the blessing and said to Moses,
Speaker 1: let us go up at once and occupy it, for
Speaker 1: we are hold on, we are. I came today to
Speaker 1: change your label. God said, today is the day you'd
Speaker 1: change you're labeled. See we are weak, but He is strong.
Speaker 1: We are we label But if you know God is
Speaker 1: able to do immesserably more than we ask. Don't label
Speaker 1: it yet, dolabel it yet, dolabel a yet. God's not
Speaker 1: through with you yet. Who receives it, Who receives it,
Speaker 1: who receives it? I'm one of those Christians. I'm not
Speaker 1: done becoming. I plead the blood. I breathe the blood.
Speaker 1: I plead the blood. I plead the we are well abled,
Speaker 1: we are well abel. I'm going in, I'm going forward,
Speaker 1: I'm loving in it, I'm walking in it. I'm flowing
Speaker 1: in it. We are well able. I'm little, but I'm able. Eh,
Speaker 1: I'm crazy, but I'm able. I got his spirit, I
Speaker 1: got his promise. That's what I believe. If he called me,
Speaker 1: he'll complete it. I am well, Abel, and I am finished.
Speaker 1: Stand up on your feet and clap your hands for
Speaker 1: the word Holley. Put a praise on it. Don't slip
Speaker 1: out the back. Put a praise on this word. We
Speaker 1: are well Abel. You want to die out here in
Speaker 1: this wilderness of what you think you are? Do you? So?
Speaker 1: We're gonna believe better. Baby, We're gonna eat Dorito's. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna lick the cheese off of this dorito now I
Speaker 1: found out I can eat it. They say you are
Speaker 1: what you eat, and a lot of us have weak
Speaker 1: faith because we eat weak information, weak data, weak beliefs.
Speaker 1: You gotta eat better, baby. FreeDOS are making you fat.
Speaker 1: And it's not FDA approved. The Faith and Destiny Administration
Speaker 1: does not approve all of your doubts and condemnation. So God,
Speaker 1: in this place today and all over the world, I
Speaker 1: just see you with walking around with post it notes,
Speaker 1: just given new labels to people for the rest of
Speaker 1: their life. New labels, no limits, new labels, no limits.
Speaker 1: I only chose Abraham to preach this message because he
Speaker 1: was so old. I thought if God could do it
Speaker 1: through him after a century on this earth, that he
Speaker 1: could do it for me and you too. Don't label
Speaker 1: it yet, even the situation you're going through yet, don't
Speaker 1: tell people yet that it was a betrayal. It might
Speaker 1: be right now, but it might also be an upgrade
Speaker 1: in the making. Don't label it. When you were telling
Speaker 1: me how you felt the other day, I was like,
Speaker 1: stop right now, this story is to be continued. That's
Speaker 1: how we see it right now. That's not how God
Speaker 1: sees it. Your labels are limits, and God wants to
Speaker 1: redeem some things that you will not release. Damn. So
Speaker 1: right now I want you to buy your head, close
Speaker 1: your eyes all over the room. Let's just have one
Speaker 1: minute of ministry by the Holy Spirit, not by me. Lord,
Speaker 1: show me something about me where I need to change
Speaker 1: the label. Show me something about me that I don't
Speaker 1: like that you intend to use. Show me something I
Speaker 1: need to believe to become who I really am. Show
Speaker 1: me that Lord. Only the Lord gets to label you.
Speaker 1: It is He that made us, not we ourselves, for
Speaker 1: we are the clay, he's the potter. Abraham didn't look
Speaker 1: like the father of many nations, didn't feel like the
Speaker 1: father of many nations. Doesn't mean he wouldn't. Hey, Hey,
Speaker 1: sometimes I know you don't feel like the best dad,
Speaker 1: the best mom, the best person, the best Christian. Just
Speaker 1: because you don't feel like that doesn't mean that God
Speaker 1: has become frustrated with you. And he's not casting you off,
Speaker 1: So why would you He's not through, So why would
Speaker 1: you be Lift your hands? Lord? I receive what you
Speaker 1: speak over me. That's what I receive. What you say
Speaker 1: about my situation. I come into agreement with you right now.
Speaker 1: What would it take for me to be more peaceful?
Speaker 1: What would I have to believe? Somebody said, I want
Speaker 1: to be more peaceful? Well, what would you need to believe?
Speaker 1: You would need to believe that all things work together
Speaker 1: for the good of them that love God. And if
Speaker 1: I focus on loving God and called according to His purpose,
Speaker 1: then not that shall be able to stop me. We
Speaker 1: are well able. Christ lives in us. We are well able.
Speaker 1: Put that label on your life. God is able to
Speaker 1: do anything that he wants to do. Heads bowed, eyes closed,
Speaker 1: You can put your hands down for a moment. There's
Speaker 1: somebody in this place and God wants to change you
Speaker 1: today and make you a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: This is my favorite moment that I ever have of
Speaker 1: doing ministry because now this isn't about you writing down
Speaker 1: something in a notebook. This is about you having any
Speaker 1: eternal change. And there is somebody, there's at least one
Speaker 1: person watching me online or here in this room that
Speaker 1: today he is today, that God wants to change your
Speaker 1: name and change your life and give you his grace.
Speaker 1: So right now, in this moment, I'm going to pray
Speaker 1: a prayer. The whole church is going to pray this
Speaker 1: prayer with me in agreement, and it's for the benefit
Speaker 1: of those who want to give their life to Christ.
Speaker 1: This is not a magic prayer, this is not an incantation.
Speaker 1: It's a confession of faith to tell God that you
Speaker 1: know that you're a sinner and that you receive his
Speaker 1: grace to save you. The Bible says that if you
Speaker 1: confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe
Speaker 1: in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
Speaker 1: you will be saved. Right now, in this moment, heads
Speaker 1: bowed eyes close. If that's you, I want you to
Speaker 1: repeat this prayer after me. Heavenly Father, I am a
Speaker 1: sinner in need of a savior, and today I receive
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ as my savior and Lord. I believe Jesus
Speaker 1: died so I could be forgiven and rose again to
Speaker 1: give me new life. I receive this new life. This
Speaker 1: is my new beginning. I am a child of God.
Speaker 1: On the count of three, shoot your hand up. If
Speaker 1: you prayed that one, two, three, shoot them up. Shoot
Speaker 1: them up online online, let us go into chack. God
Speaker 1: bless you. Amazing, amazing. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple 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 GiB and thanks again for joining
Speaker 1: us on the Elevation Podcast.