June 27, 2025 • 25 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Awakened a Grace. I'm so glad you're listening today.
My name is Chad Roberts, and I believe God has
connected us for a great purpose. You're about to hear
a powerful sermon that I know is going to encourage you.
If you like what you hear, share it with a
friend and subscribe to our weekly devotions and get encouragement
right to your inbox at Chadroberts dot org. My prayer
(00:31):
for you is that this year is the best yet.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Am I saying that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's possible for Christians to be possessed? People have different thoughts,
People debate, people have different ways of thinking on it.
I do not think personally that if someone is born again,
filled with Holy Spirit Christ dwelling within their hearts, I
do not think of believe or can be demonically possessed,
(01:03):
but they can be oppressed. Some of us are walking
around today in defeat. Some of us are walking around
today in shame because there is an oppression over our
lives and we don't understand it. And because so many
of us don't understand this idea of an oppression, we
(01:26):
have come to the terms. We've come to terms that
It's just how it is, and I'll never be free
of this. I'll never break out of it. This is
just who I am, and this is just how I am,
and I have to cope with it. Brother sister, that's
not true. If you want to take notes today, I
want you to note this. First of all, I want
(01:48):
you to note what oppression is.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oppression. Note this is a power.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Or an authority that is being exercised over you, A
power or authority that is being exercised over you for
many of us. For many of us, it goes back
(02:21):
through our family lineage. My own mom has such a
powerful testimony. From the time that my mom was twelve
years old until she was saved at the age of
twenty three, my mom battled thoughts of suicide. There was
(02:42):
constantly something telling her to take her life. Her grandfather
took his own life, and there may be more throughout
the family lineage. But see, there are certain things, there
are certain things of our past, certain things within our
(03:05):
family that tries to attach itself to us. And let
me tell you something. If there are things like that
in your family history, let me tell you you're not alone
and you're not a bad person for it. And your
family is not a bad family because of it. These
are the works of the devil, is what they are.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And Jesus said he came to destroy those works. Amen.
And it can end with you, it can stop with you. Amen.
I never battled suicide.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know why because my mom, by God's grace and
by divine power, broke the cycle.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
What could have so easily gripped me had no hold
on me because it ended with her.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Praise God. Amen.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And see some of us, brothers and sisters, say Amen,
if you're with me right now, some of us are
a lack of not on this and we don't understand
how things so easily attached to us. Some of you
right now, And I'm not throwing stones at you, brother sisters.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I want to help you this morning.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Some of you right now got a daily horoscope on
your phone. Let me tell you that offends God Almighty.
It's called divination, and it's wicked and it's evil. Some
of us, listen, some of you have tarot cards in
(04:33):
your house right now, Burn them.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Get rid of it. You know what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You're opening a door to the enemy to your family.
You're opening a door to the enemy for your children. Amen,
If I told you right now, if I said, listen,
there is going to be a thief in your neighborhood tonight,
would you leave every window open and the door's opened?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Be foolish.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And yet the Bible tells us who Satan is. He
comes to still to kill and to destroy.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Amen. And these things open the door to the enemy.
Some of you got movies in your house right now.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
It has nothing but an oppressive spirit about it. You
need a clean house and get rid of it. You
got you got your windows wide open to the devil.
And we wonder how does he get in? How does
he take hold? Because we open things to him. I've
been told I don't know. I've been told there is
(05:40):
a palm reader, terror, card reader, fortune whatever right here
next to our church.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Are they still open right here?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It's evil, it's demonic. And if you ever listen, and
some of you are freaking out right now because you're saying.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I've done it before, what do I do?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So listen? Renounce it, renounce it, repent of it. Say Lord,
I have watched my signs, I've followed a horoscope, I've
dealt with tarot cards. Lord, I didn't know and I
repent of it right now, and I plead your blood
over my life and over my family, and I break
(06:27):
anything that tried to attach to itself to me through it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
But listen, brothers, sisters, now that you have the knowledge
of the truth, now that you know those things are divination,
forsake them.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You say with Chad, I just I like to know
you know daily. I like to know you know what
to expect from that.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I like to know my fortune, so I just read
it every morning. Is that worth offending God Almighty? I'll
tell you your fortune. Surely, goodness and mercy are following you
all the days of your life.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Amen. What more do I need?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, to give
you a hope and a future. Calling to me, I
will show you great and hidden things which you did
not know.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
God says, Why would we look to the.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Stars when we know the creator of the stars, and see,
that's what Satan wants. Satan wants to put the creation
above the creator because you know what he wants to
steal the worship of God Almighty. And when you're on
your horoscope, you know what he's done. He's stolen the worship.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right away from God Almighty. You ought to forsake it today.
You ought to delete it today.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And you ought to renounce it and say no, Lord,
no more in Jesus' name. You ought to go through
your streaming and you ought to go through. You ought
to go through that stuff and say, God, I am
going to clean it out. You show me what to remove.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
And it's gone in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Now here's what I want to ask, and here's what
I want to answer today. As I said, we sometimes
knowingly and more often than not unknowingly, we open doors
to the enemy. Often it can be with intention, but
(08:30):
more often than not it's unintentional that a door is
open to the enemy.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
What do you do? You renounce it, you repent of it,
you forsake it. But here's my question drilling down more so.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Today, how do I know if an area of my
life is simply a weakness? Now, let me explain, brothers
and sisters, all of us here today, all of us
will have weaknesses. There's not a one of us in
this room today that is not prone towards sin, not
(09:06):
one of us. There's not one of us here today
who's sindless. I remember seeing years ago, back at the
old Anchor bookstore, if.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You remember that place.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I remember seeing a sign that I've never forgotten is
said Christians are not sin less, but we should be
sinning less and less and less. I love that none
of us are sindless. If you reach a point where
you think you're sinless, oh, pride just snuck its way
(09:37):
right in. You're gonna have to deal with that thing.
There isn't any of us sindless.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Let me tell you how.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Charles Spurgeon said it in the eighteen hundreds. Charles Spurgeon
just masterfully said sin reigns, and it dominates in unbelievers,
but sin dwells in everyone, every one of us. Sendwell,
that's why we need God. That's why that's why we
(10:04):
need him so greatly. So for all of us, there
are weaknesses, and there are tendencies. There are sins that
we are prone to. So here's my question, how do
I know when a weakness it's a weakness of my flesh.
And really, what that weakness needs is it needs attention,
(10:26):
It needs spiritual discipline, It needs to be addressed, It
needs intentionality.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Okay, And with.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
That spiritual discipline, what does one Timothy four to seven
teach us? It says training ourselves toward godliness.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I love that verse because you know what that communicates
to me.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Godliness doesn't just happen in my life.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Now maybe you're different, but I don't wake up feeling
godly most days. I don't go through my whole day
automatically feeling godly?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Do you? We gotta work toward that? As a matter
of fact.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Where it says train yourself toward godliness, the Greek word
for train is where we get our English word for jim.
Do you know why I don't go to the gym?
Taco bell has a little bit to do with it.
(11:32):
But do you know why I don't go to the
gym because I'm not disciplined as I ought to be
in that area. But if I were to say no,
I'm going to begin to go to the gym, what's
that going to take to care? Are my good intentions
(11:53):
going to do it? Do you think I'm gonna wake
up and just go.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Let's go to the gym. I may if they're serving
taco bell, I may be there, but.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
It takes intentionality, doesn't it. It takes discipline and the
same way of thinking in spiritual matters. You're not just
automatically going to become godly. You got to train yourself
toward it. You got to spiritually discipline yourself toward it.
(12:30):
You've got to want to want it, You've got to
go after it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
You have to move.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
What does it say training ourself toward you got to
move toward godliness. A young man, just a couple of
months ago asked me a great question.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
A young man. He come up to me after.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
The service and he said, Pastor Chad, will you help me?
Will you tell me how do I become godly? What
a great question, I said, fall in love with godly things,
get yourself around godly people. Those who love godly things
become godly. We got to train ourselves toward godliness. So
(13:14):
I may have an area of my life it's weak,
it's flesh, and what it really needs is I need
to shore it up. I need to put some discipline
toward it. I need to give attention toward it. I
need to not just coast. I need to move toward godliness.
But there are other areas of life. It's more than weakness.
(13:40):
Now say amen, if you're with me right now, let
me tell you who I'm preaching to today. My heart
is burdened today for those christ followers who would say, Chad,
I've tried with all my might. I've tried to walk
away from it. I've tried to break it. I've tried
(14:01):
to be free from it. Chad, I've tried, and nothing
i've tried works. I want to show you today why
when there's an area of our life that's beyond a weakness,
it is in the realm of a stronghold. That means
that your self will can't cut it. That means that
(14:26):
your determination won't do it. That means that your strength
is not enough. Let me show it to you Verse
number four again, Chapter ten of Second Corinthians. What does
it say, but our weapons are not of the flesh,
You say, Chad, I tried self will, Chad, I tried
(14:48):
self determination, Chad, I tried myself strength. Well, brother sister,
you're fighting with the wrong weapon. Our weapons are not
of the flesh, but are of divine power.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Here's the word God's given me to give you.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
You need to go beyond determination into divine power.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Do you see the biblical difference.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
If I address it only in myself, will I'm gonna
fall short. But if I step into God's divine power,
then I'm not fighting it alone. I'm not living in
it alone. I'm not resisting it alone. I've got divine power.
Feeling me. Amen, what a difference that is. And furthermore,
(15:38):
let me tell you about this divine power. Tewod Peter
chapter one, verse three says, his not yours, not mine,
not the Church, God, God Almighty.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
See. Let me tell you God Almighty's invested in you. Amen.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
God wants his favor on your life. God wants his
blessing on your life. God wants his peace up on
your life. God wants That's what Jesus said. He said,
my peace I give you, it's not yours. It's his,
my joy. I give you, not yours. You're not the
source of it.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
God is Amen, and he wants to give it freely.
What's he say?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
who gives generously.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm telling you there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Is nothing inside of God Almighty that stingy. He's ready
to pour it out over your life. The question is,
are you gonna step out.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Of you and step into him. That's the question.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So what does it say two Peter one to three
His divine his Oh, I can't get past that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
His Take hold of it. Take it as the gift
of God.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
His divine power has granted to us all things that
pertain to both life and godliness.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
You know what that means.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
His divine power gives you everything for the natural life
and the spiritual life. Everything you need in the physical,
everything you need in the spiritual, nothing lacking amen.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
His divine power has granted it, is given. It's his authority,
it's his.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And he's granted it to us all things that pertain
to life and godliness. Our weapons are not of the flesh,
but our divine power to do what to destroy, to
pull down, to destroy. In First John, it says that
(17:45):
Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. That
made me scratch my head. I didn't understand it. And
I think the reason I didn't understand it is because
in my thinking, when I thought of the world destroy,
I think like annihilate. I think explosion, I think an
(18:07):
atomic bomb. I think you evaporated, You annihilated, It's gone forever.
So I would ask the Lord, I would say, Lord,
I don't understand this, because if you destroyed the works
of the devil, then why.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Is his works raging right now?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
If you destroyed the works of the devil, why is
he more active than ever before? If you truly destroyed
the works of the devil, why do.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
We see carnage everywhere we look? And you know what,
when I learned the Greek meaning of destroyed, it changed
my life.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Do you know what destroyed means in the biblical Greek word,
it means to nullify. Listen to this, It means to
render useless. And the Lord began to teach me. See,
one day, what's the scripture say, God will bind Satan,
and he'll cast him into the lake of fire forever
(19:08):
and ever Satan's days are short, he'll one day be
thrown into the lake of fire, gone forever. But right
now he's on a rampage. Right now he is the
prince of the power of the air. Right now he
is the god of this world, of this culture, of
(19:29):
this system.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But what does it mean?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
For what does it mean then that Christ came to
destroy the works of the devil. That means that in
my life, listen, the power that Satan once.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Had, he has no more. When Satan used to tell
my mom, take your.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Life, and when God changed her life, he lost that
power in her life. That spirit of suicide that was
over her is now rendered.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Useless, nullified. Amen.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And what that means is that in your life, whatever
has tried to attach itself, whatever has tried to bother.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You and plague you and torment you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
God wants to destroy it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
He wants to nullify it. He wants to render it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Powerless and useless in our lives. What's the difference between
a weakness and a stronghold? A weakness I can give
attention to and I can discipline toward. I can't do
that with a stronghold. Do you know what I have
to do with a stronghold?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I have to have God's divine power.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
To destroy it, to break it, to nullify it, to
make it powerless in my life.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Can we say amen? Today?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Now? Some of you today you struggled and you don't
understand why. Some people can stop drinking, others it's a stronghold.
Some people can get over guilt, they can walk away
from shame.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Others can't because it's a stronghold. Let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The Lord has given specific things to say today. And
let me tell you, if you're somebody today that there's
a stronghold.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Over your life. There's a power over you.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
There's an authority over you that you've not been able
to break.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Let me tell you right now.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
God will break it today, and Satan will try to
make you feel condemned. But let me tell you what
the scripture says. There is therefore Romans eight one. There
is therefore now, not later, not when you get to heaven.
I'm talking now, no condemnation.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
To those who are in Christ Jesus. You belong to
God Almighty.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
There's no condemnation over you. But neither should there be chains.
Break that stronghold.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Some of you. And this is one thing God instructed
is break the spirit of shame.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
What is shame?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Shame is a painful emotion from guilt. And you know
what the scripture says on three three, The scripture says
that God is the lifter of your head.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
There's some of you today you're so filled with shame.
But I'm telling you God's getting ready to lift your head.
Let him do it. Some of you ate up with guilt.
The scripture says first John three point twenty. Even if
our heart condemns.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Us, God is greater than our hearts.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You know what that means. That means when we.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Say I did it, and there's no getting around it,
I am as guilty as guilty can be. And God says,
when your heart condemns you like that, and your heart
says you're guilty like that, good gospel news. God is
greater than the heart, and he knows everything.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You know what that tells me. That tells me there
is no reason why I can't walk out of here
free today. There's no reason why I can't walk out
of here with bondages broken today. So what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna ask you to stand right now.
We're gonna stand all over the building, and if you say, Chad,
what you have said is resonated with me.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And I don't care what it is. I don't care
what power or authority it is. I don't care what
it is that you've not been able to shake. It
don't matter what it is.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
That we could name a hundred in one things and
it would all land because we all struggle, because we
all battle, because.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
We're all human. But here's going to be the difference.
Some of you are going to go home with freedom today.
Some of you are going to go home and you're
gonna have that thing that's tormented you. You're gonna have
that thing that has plagued you. You're gonna have it
broken off. In the name of Jesus, Did you know that?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm a pastor, husband and father of four who suddenly
went blind in twenty eighteen. Today I teach people how
life is not random, but it is actually orchestrated by
God for a great purpose. Learn more about my story
and awaken to Grace at Chad Roberts dot org.
Welcome to Awakened a Grace. I'm so glad you're listening today.
My name is Chad Roberts, and I believe God has
connected us for a great purpose. You're about to hear
a powerful sermon that I know is going to encourage you.
If you like what you hear, share it with a
friend and subscribe to our weekly devotions and get encouragement
right to your inbox at Chadroberts dot org. My prayer
(00:31):
for you is that this year is the best yet.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Am I saying that.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It's possible for Christians to be possessed? People have different thoughts,
People debate, people have different ways of thinking on it.
I do not think personally that if someone is born again,
filled with Holy Spirit Christ dwelling within their hearts, I
do not think of believe or can be demonically possessed,
(01:03):
but they can be oppressed. Some of us are walking
around today in defeat. Some of us are walking around
today in shame because there is an oppression over our
lives and we don't understand it. And because so many
of us don't understand this idea of an oppression, we
(01:26):
have come to the terms. We've come to terms that
It's just how it is, and I'll never be free
of this. I'll never break out of it. This is
just who I am, and this is just how I am,
and I have to cope with it. Brother sister, that's
not true. If you want to take notes today, I
want you to note this. First of all, I want
(01:48):
you to note what oppression is.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oppression. Note this is a power.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Or an authority that is being exercised over you, A
power or authority that is being exercised over you for
many of us. For many of us, it goes back
(02:21):
through our family lineage. My own mom has such a
powerful testimony. From the time that my mom was twelve
years old until she was saved at the age of
twenty three, my mom battled thoughts of suicide. There was
(02:42):
constantly something telling her to take her life. Her grandfather
took his own life, and there may be more throughout
the family lineage. But see, there are certain things, there
are certain things of our past, certain things within our
(03:05):
family that tries to attach itself to us. And let
me tell you something. If there are things like that
in your family history, let me tell you you're not alone
and you're not a bad person for it. And your
family is not a bad family because of it. These
are the works of the devil, is what they are.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And Jesus said he came to destroy those works. Amen.
And it can end with you, it can stop with you. Amen.
I never battled suicide.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
You know why because my mom, by God's grace and
by divine power, broke the cycle.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
What could have so easily gripped me had no hold
on me because it ended with her.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Praise God. Amen.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And see some of us, brothers and sisters, say Amen,
if you're with me right now, some of us are
a lack of not on this and we don't understand
how things so easily attached to us. Some of you
right now, And I'm not throwing stones at you, brother sisters.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I want to help you this morning.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Some of you right now got a daily horoscope on
your phone. Let me tell you that offends God Almighty.
It's called divination, and it's wicked and it's evil. Some
of us, listen, some of you have tarot cards in
(04:33):
your house right now, Burn them.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Get rid of it. You know what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You're opening a door to the enemy to your family.
You're opening a door to the enemy for your children. Amen,
If I told you right now, if I said, listen,
there is going to be a thief in your neighborhood tonight,
would you leave every window open and the door's opened?
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Be foolish.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And yet the Bible tells us who Satan is. He
comes to still to kill and to destroy.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Amen. And these things open the door to the enemy.
Some of you got movies in your house right now.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
It has nothing but an oppressive spirit about it. You
need a clean house and get rid of it. You
got you got your windows wide open to the devil.
And we wonder how does he get in? How does
he take hold? Because we open things to him. I've
been told I don't know. I've been told there is
(05:40):
a palm reader, terror, card reader, fortune whatever right here
next to our church.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Are they still open right here?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It's evil, it's demonic. And if you ever listen, and
some of you are freaking out right now because you're saying.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I've done it before, what do I do?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So listen? Renounce it, renounce it, repent of it. Say Lord,
I have watched my signs, I've followed a horoscope, I've
dealt with tarot cards. Lord, I didn't know and I
repent of it right now, and I plead your blood
over my life and over my family, and I break
(06:27):
anything that tried to attach to itself to me through it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
But listen, brothers, sisters, now that you have the knowledge
of the truth, now that you know those things are divination,
forsake them.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You say with Chad, I just I like to know
you know daily. I like to know you know what
to expect from that.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
I like to know my fortune, so I just read
it every morning. Is that worth offending God Almighty? I'll
tell you your fortune. Surely, goodness and mercy are following you
all the days of your life.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Amen. What more do I need?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.
Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, to give
you a hope and a future. Calling to me, I
will show you great and hidden things which you did
not know.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
God says, Why would we look to the.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Stars when we know the creator of the stars, and see,
that's what Satan wants. Satan wants to put the creation
above the creator because you know what he wants to
steal the worship of God Almighty. And when you're on
your horoscope, you know what he's done. He's stolen the worship.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Right away from God Almighty. You ought to forsake it today.
You ought to delete it today.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And you ought to renounce it and say no, Lord,
no more in Jesus' name. You ought to go through
your streaming and you ought to go through. You ought
to go through that stuff and say, God, I am
going to clean it out. You show me what to remove.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
And it's gone in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Now here's what I want to ask, and here's what
I want to answer today. As I said, we sometimes
knowingly and more often than not unknowingly, we open doors
to the enemy. Often it can be with intention, but
(08:30):
more often than not it's unintentional that a door is
open to the enemy.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
What do you do? You renounce it, you repent of it,
you forsake it. But here's my question drilling down more so.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Today, how do I know if an area of my
life is simply a weakness? Now, let me explain, brothers
and sisters, all of us here today, all of us
will have weaknesses. There's not a one of us in
this room today that is not prone towards sin, not
(09:06):
one of us. There's not one of us here today
who's sindless. I remember seeing years ago, back at the
old Anchor bookstore, if.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
You remember that place.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I remember seeing a sign that I've never forgotten is
said Christians are not sin less, but we should be
sinning less and less and less. I love that none
of us are sindless. If you reach a point where
you think you're sinless, oh, pride just snuck its way
(09:37):
right in. You're gonna have to deal with that thing.
There isn't any of us sindless.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Let me tell you how.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Charles Spurgeon said it in the eighteen hundreds. Charles Spurgeon
just masterfully said sin reigns, and it dominates in unbelievers,
but sin dwells in everyone, every one of us. Sendwell,
that's why we need God. That's why that's why we
(10:04):
need him so greatly. So for all of us, there
are weaknesses, and there are tendencies. There are sins that
we are prone to. So here's my question, how do
I know when a weakness it's a weakness of my flesh.
And really, what that weakness needs is it needs attention,
(10:26):
It needs spiritual discipline, It needs to be addressed, It
needs intentionality.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Okay, And with.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
That spiritual discipline, what does one Timothy four to seven
teach us? It says training ourselves toward godliness.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
I love that verse because you know what that communicates
to me.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Godliness doesn't just happen in my life.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Now maybe you're different, but I don't wake up feeling
godly most days. I don't go through my whole day
automatically feeling godly?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Do you? We gotta work toward that? As a matter
of fact.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Where it says train yourself toward godliness, the Greek word
for train is where we get our English word for jim.
Do you know why I don't go to the gym?
Taco bell has a little bit to do with it.
(11:32):
But do you know why I don't go to the
gym because I'm not disciplined as I ought to be
in that area. But if I were to say no,
I'm going to begin to go to the gym, what's
that going to take to care? Are my good intentions
(11:53):
going to do it? Do you think I'm gonna wake
up and just go.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Let's go to the gym. I may if they're serving
taco bell, I may be there, but.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
It takes intentionality, doesn't it. It takes discipline and the
same way of thinking in spiritual matters. You're not just
automatically going to become godly. You got to train yourself
toward it. You got to spiritually discipline yourself toward it.
(12:30):
You've got to want to want it, You've got to
go after it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
You have to move.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
What does it say training ourself toward you got to
move toward godliness. A young man, just a couple of
months ago asked me a great question.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
A young man. He come up to me after.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
The service and he said, Pastor Chad, will you help me?
Will you tell me how do I become godly? What
a great question, I said, fall in love with godly things,
get yourself around godly people. Those who love godly things
become godly. We got to train ourselves toward godliness. So
(13:14):
I may have an area of my life it's weak,
it's flesh, and what it really needs is I need
to shore it up. I need to put some discipline
toward it. I need to give attention toward it. I
need to not just coast. I need to move toward godliness.
But there are other areas of life. It's more than weakness.
(13:40):
Now say amen, if you're with me right now, let
me tell you who I'm preaching to today. My heart
is burdened today for those christ followers who would say, Chad,
I've tried with all my might. I've tried to walk
away from it. I've tried to break it. I've tried
(14:01):
to be free from it. Chad, I've tried, and nothing
i've tried works. I want to show you today why
when there's an area of our life that's beyond a weakness,
it is in the realm of a stronghold. That means
that your self will can't cut it. That means that
(14:26):
your determination won't do it. That means that your strength
is not enough. Let me show it to you Verse
number four again, Chapter ten of Second Corinthians. What does
it say, but our weapons are not of the flesh,
You say, Chad, I tried self will, Chad, I tried
(14:48):
self determination, Chad, I tried myself strength. Well, brother sister,
you're fighting with the wrong weapon. Our weapons are not
of the flesh, but are of divine power.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Here's the word God's given me to give you.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
You need to go beyond determination into divine power.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Do you see the biblical difference.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
If I address it only in myself, will I'm gonna
fall short. But if I step into God's divine power,
then I'm not fighting it alone. I'm not living in
it alone. I'm not resisting it alone. I've got divine power.
Feeling me. Amen, what a difference that is. And furthermore,
(15:38):
let me tell you about this divine power. Tewod Peter
chapter one, verse three says, his not yours, not mine,
not the Church, God, God Almighty.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
See. Let me tell you God Almighty's invested in you. Amen.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
God wants his favor on your life. God wants his
blessing on your life. God wants his peace up on
your life. God wants That's what Jesus said. He said,
my peace I give you, it's not yours. It's his,
my joy. I give you, not yours. You're not the
source of it.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
God is Amen, and he wants to give it freely.
What's he say?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
who gives generously.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I'm telling you there.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Is nothing inside of God Almighty that stingy. He's ready
to pour it out over your life. The question is,
are you gonna step out.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Of you and step into him. That's the question.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So what does it say two Peter one to three
His divine his Oh, I can't get past that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
His Take hold of it. Take it as the gift
of God.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
His divine power has granted to us all things that
pertain to both life and godliness.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
You know what that means.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
His divine power gives you everything for the natural life
and the spiritual life. Everything you need in the physical,
everything you need in the spiritual, nothing lacking amen.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
His divine power has granted it, is given. It's his authority,
it's his.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And he's granted it to us all things that pertain
to life and godliness. Our weapons are not of the flesh,
but our divine power to do what to destroy, to
pull down, to destroy. In First John, it says that
(17:45):
Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. That
made me scratch my head. I didn't understand it. And
I think the reason I didn't understand it is because
in my thinking, when I thought of the world destroy,
I think like annihilate. I think explosion, I think an
(18:07):
atomic bomb. I think you evaporated, You annihilated, It's gone forever.
So I would ask the Lord, I would say, Lord,
I don't understand this, because if you destroyed the works
of the devil, then why.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Is his works raging right now?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
If you destroyed the works of the devil, why is
he more active than ever before? If you truly destroyed
the works of the devil, why do.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
We see carnage everywhere we look? And you know what,
when I learned the Greek meaning of destroyed, it changed
my life.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Do you know what destroyed means in the biblical Greek word,
it means to nullify. Listen to this, It means to
render useless. And the Lord began to teach me. See,
one day, what's the scripture say, God will bind Satan,
and he'll cast him into the lake of fire forever
(19:08):
and ever Satan's days are short, he'll one day be
thrown into the lake of fire, gone forever. But right
now he's on a rampage. Right now he is the
prince of the power of the air. Right now he
is the god of this world, of this culture, of
(19:29):
this system.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
But what does it mean?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
For what does it mean then that Christ came to
destroy the works of the devil. That means that in
my life, listen, the power that Satan once.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Had, he has no more. When Satan used to tell
my mom, take your.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Life, and when God changed her life, he lost that
power in her life. That spirit of suicide that was
over her is now rendered.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
Useless, nullified. Amen.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And what that means is that in your life, whatever
has tried to attach itself, whatever has tried to bother.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
You and plague you and torment you.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
God wants to destroy it.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
He wants to nullify it. He wants to render it.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Powerless and useless in our lives. What's the difference between
a weakness and a stronghold? A weakness I can give
attention to and I can discipline toward. I can't do
that with a stronghold. Do you know what I have
to do with a stronghold?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I have to have God's divine power.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
To destroy it, to break it, to nullify it, to
make it powerless in my life.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Can we say amen? Today?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Now? Some of you today you struggled and you don't
understand why. Some people can stop drinking, others it's a stronghold.
Some people can get over guilt, they can walk away
from shame.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Others can't because it's a stronghold. Let me tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The Lord has given specific things to say today. And
let me tell you, if you're somebody today that there's
a stronghold.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Over your life. There's a power over you.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
There's an authority over you that you've not been able
to break.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Let me tell you right now.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
God will break it today, and Satan will try to
make you feel condemned. But let me tell you what
the scripture says. There is therefore Romans eight one. There
is therefore now, not later, not when you get to heaven.
I'm talking now, no condemnation.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
To those who are in Christ Jesus. You belong to
God Almighty.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
There's no condemnation over you. But neither should there be chains.
Break that stronghold.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Some of you. And this is one thing God instructed
is break the spirit of shame.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
What is shame?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Shame is a painful emotion from guilt. And you know
what the scripture says on three three, The scripture says
that God is the lifter of your head.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
There's some of you today you're so filled with shame.
But I'm telling you God's getting ready to lift your head.
Let him do it. Some of you ate up with guilt.
The scripture says first John three point twenty. Even if
our heart condemns.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Us, God is greater than our hearts.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You know what that means. That means when we.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Say I did it, and there's no getting around it,
I am as guilty as guilty can be. And God says,
when your heart condemns you like that, and your heart
says you're guilty like that, good gospel news. God is
greater than the heart, and he knows everything.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You know what that tells me. That tells me there
is no reason why I can't walk out of here
free today. There's no reason why I can't walk out
of here with bondages broken today. So what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna ask you to stand right now.
We're gonna stand all over the building, and if you say, Chad,
what you have said is resonated with me.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And I don't care what it is. I don't care
what power or authority it is. I don't care what
it is that you've not been able to shake. It
don't matter what it is.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
That we could name a hundred in one things and
it would all land because we all struggle, because we
all battle, because.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
We're all human. But here's going to be the difference.
Some of you are going to go home with freedom today.
Some of you are going to go home and you're
gonna have that thing that's tormented you. You're gonna have
that thing that has plagued you. You're gonna have it
broken off. In the name of Jesus, Did you know that?
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm a pastor, husband and father of four who suddenly
went blind in twenty eighteen. Today I teach people how
life is not random, but it is actually orchestrated by
God for a great purpose. Learn more about my story
and awaken to Grace at Chad Roberts dot org.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.