October 5, 2025 • 49 mins
Some battles don’t announce themselves with fireworks—they show up in quiet promises we break by Friday. We set out to do good, to speak life, to show Jesus in the places we go, then find ourselves watering the very weeds that choke our joy. Today we get honest about the loop of self‑sabotage and how repentance—not guilt, not grit—actually breaks it.
We walk through Romans 7 and sit with Paul’s confession: “I do what I hate.” That honesty opens the door to hope. We unpack the difference between godly sorrow that leads to salvation and worldly sorrow that stalls without change. You’ll hear why confession to God comes first, how accountability with people who won’t lie to you fuels healing, and why cutting off the sources that feed your patterns matters more than making fresh promises. From James 1’s anatomy of temptation to Proverbs 28’s promise of mercy, we map a path that’s clear, practical, and doable: confess without excuses, cut off what trips you, replace it with Scripture etched on your heart, and let your habits and circles align with a renewed mind.
This isn’t a call to white‑knuckle religion. It’s an invitation to step into what the cross has already finished. God doesn’t just forgive; He cleanses. The enemy may rehearse your past, but Jesus has already covered it. If you’re tired of trying harder and ending up in the same place, you’ll find language, steps, and courage to lay it down and leave it down—before you come to the table, and as you walk back into your week. Subscribe, share this message with someone stuck in the loop, and leave a review with one step you’re taking today. Your story might be the nudge someone else needs.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:30):
Father, as I stand in your presence this morning, I
thank you for the blessings thatyou've bestowed upon this house.
For the blessings that you'vebestowed upon the people in this
house, Lord.
Lord, my heart is heavy todaybecause oftentimes we are
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focused on the bad things inlife and not often enough
focused on the good things.
And Lord, today I stand heregiving you praise, honor, and
glory for all of the things.
For the mountaintop and for thevalley, Lord, because I know
without the valley I can't seethe mountaintop.
And without the mountaintop,Father, I can't survive the
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valley.
And today, I thank you forpulling me through these, for
giving me strength and comfortin the name of Jesus.
Father, I pray that as this wordis delivered, that it speaks to
the heart of your people.
Father, that they are preparedto hear the word that you have
prepared for them today.
Father, that they will absorbthe word and make change in
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their life.
There is no better day forsalvation than today.
And I thank you for the cross.
I thank you for the blood.
And Father, I thank you for thegrace and the mercy.
Father, be with me this morningas I deliver this message.
Father, soften my heart so thatI can speak, that you can speak
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through me, Father, that it isnot my words, that they are
yours.
Father, I know that you love me.
But I stand here proclaimingthat I love you.
Guide me today, Lord.
I thank you and I praise you.
I give you all the honor andglory in the mighty name of
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Jesus.
And the church says, So there'sa couple of things that I just
wanted to mention this morningthat I forgot to mention during
announcements.
One was that uh we have theDirector of Children's Ministry
position open.
I've had a couple of people whoare interested who have reached
out to me.
If you're interested in uhdirecting our children's
ministry, reach out to me.
(02:40):
There's no obligation.
All I'm gonna do is send you theinformation, and then you can um
look over that.
I will be starting to schedulesome in-person conversations
this week.
I hate the word interviewbecause it's not like an
interview, but I want to sitdown and talk to you about the
vision and what we wantchildren's ministry to look like
and as it grows.
Um so there's that.
Also, um, I want you guys to bepraying for Pastor Roger.
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He is not feeling well today.
Um I maybe I've worked him toohard, I'm not sure just yet.
But his back is really botheringhim, and it has been for about a
week, and so just continue topray for him.
And then Joe texted me thismorning, he is scheduled for a
surgery tomorrow.
So we just want to continue tolift him up in prayer.
He chose to stay home today.
He didn't want to risk gettingsick and then not being able to
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have the surgery, so justcontinue to pray for him.
But I started writing thismessage earlier this week, and
it's something that I thinkevery one of us wrestle with at
some point in our lives, andit's something that I know that
I have wrestled with even in thepast week, including, you know,
my most of my life, this issomething that I've struggled
with.
And the idea is it's a tensionbetween what we want to do and
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what we actually end up doing,right?
I think a lot of times my heartis good, my mind is even good.
I am thinking the things that Iwant to do, but then I somehow
manage to screw it up.
Amen.
I was I'm talking to myself thismorning.
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Hey, that's okay.
Maybe I need it.
Maybe it's just me and you,Dale.
I don't know, buddy, but I'llpreach it.
You receive it, and then yougive it back to me, okay?
All right.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus.
The Bible calls us torepentance, but oftentimes we
sabotage ourselves long beforewe ever get there.
Amen.
We believe that we shouldrepent, we know that we should
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repent, we look at our sin andwe say it is no good, and we
believe that Jesus Christ is theonly one who can save us, and
yet somehow we forget to do it.
Now, some of us go to bed atnight and Father, forgive me for
the things that I've done today.
I know that I have fallen shortof the glory of God, yada, yada,
yada, but where our hearts don'treally mean it.
(04:47):
Right?
We say these things because itis lip service to the one we
know will save us.
Amen.
I don't know if it's because thebuilding is bigger or what's
going on.
I'm not sure if you're asleep,but I know that I'm not the only
one that does this, right?
You you guys know that as yourpastor, I'm always honest with
you, right?
And you know that I fall shortof the glory of God regularly,
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right?
Amen, glory, hallelujah.
I don't pretend to be perfect,and I don't pretend to be
perfect because I know that if Ido, you will see somebody that
is not real.
When we rebranded this church toorganic church, we said fresh,
real Jesus.
And there was a reason for that.
We wanted a fresh anointing, wewanted a real vision of what the
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church should be, right?
We have to understand that thechurch is not a building, it is
the body, right?
Each and every one of us are thechurch, and we have to remember
that we have to carry thateverywhere that we go.
The hard part for us is thatoftentimes we do carry it where
we should go.
But then we don't show Jesus, weshow the world.
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Hallelujah.
And I struggle with that sooften, and it's my heart is in
the right place, it's the thingsthat I want to do, but it's the
things that I can't do.
Let's be honest.
How many of us have ever prayed?
And you raise your hands withthis one, I don't even care.
How many of us have ever said,Lord, I will never do that
again?
Who?
Lord, I promise you, I willnever do that again.
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And by the end of the week,whoo! Listen, my flesh is weak.
Hey, Shy, can you look up?
Your glasses are freaking meout, man.
She had her head down and I sawshe looked like a furry animal
with glasses on.
I was like, I'm not sure what'shappening.
I'm just kidding.
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I it really did freak me out fora second.
I was like, I don't know whatthat is.
Thought cousin it snuck in.
I wasn't real sure what wasgoing on.
Lord.
What I mean is that we willoften find a way to live inside
of destructive patterns.
Amen.
Destructive patterns are apattern of the flesh.
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That is not a pattern of thespirit.
The spirit wants to do all goodthings, but the flesh wants to
do all bad things.
It wants to do all of thedestructive things.
And we find ourselves in thatpattern.
And what I mean to say when Italk about that is
self-sabotage.
Right?
We say I'm never gonna do thatagain, and then we do it again,
and then we get on our knees andwe pray, God, I won't do that
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ever again.
And by the end of the week,we're doing it again.
Sometimes before we're up offthe floor, we're doing it again.
Listen, you don't often see mecome to the altar on a Sunday
morning.
I usually get that out beforeyou guys get here, right?
I'll tell you what, I was inhere on Saturday morning before
uh the women's meeting, and Ispent 30 minutes just weeping at
the altar.
And I was weeping this morning,and it's not because I feel like
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I I've done anything or that Ineed to come back.
I'm weeping because I don't knowwhat to do for my people today,
right?
I'm saying, Lord, I know theirhearts are hurting, Lord, I know
bad things are happening, butLord, I don't want those bad
things to happen for them.
How do I fix it?
And then by the time I stand upoff the floor, I'm thinking, you
know what?
Forget them.
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Right?
Because we become self-centered.
We're worried about ourselves.
We're not worried, we're nottruly worried about the world
around us.
We're worried about whether ornot we will enter into the
kingdom of heaven.
Amen.
I know I want to go.
Amen.
I don't want to go to hell, Iwant to go to heaven.
The problem is that I can't onlybe focused on my salvation.
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I have to be focused on thesalvation of the people around
me.
Amen.
You know, when we Beth's nothere, I wish she were.
She couldn't catch the vision,she couldn't see it.
And every time we would talkabout it, she would say, I don't
know, Pastor Michael.
And she'd just shake her head.
I don't know, Pastor Michael.
And I remember when the carpetwent on the stage and the trim
was up and she started to seeit, and she's like, Oh my gosh.
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And then the carpet went down onthe floor and she was like, Oh
my gosh.
And then finally she said, It'skind of like that movie, build
it and they will come, right?
The problem was we did it theother way.
Everybody showed up, and then wehad to build it in order to
house them.
Let me promise you something.
This is not the end just becausewe've done this.
God is gonna continue to do goodthings, He is gonna continue to
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grow the body, but He is goingto grow us spiritually.
That's the goal.
The goal is not to build abigger building, the goal is not
to bring more people in.
The goal is the people who arehere enter into heaven.
It's simple.
This isn't rocket science.
The problem is we oftentimesself-sabotage.
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You know, we say sorry, sorrygoes a long way, does it not?
If somebody calls you out onyour stuff and you just say, you
know what, that was me, I'msorry, that goes a long way.
Or you can deny it and you canargue.
That doesn't get you anywhere,does it?
Because what sets you free?
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The truth will set you free,right?
And listen, the only thing thatwe can do is be truthful with
one another, truthful with theworld around us.
Listen, Jesus loves you.
There's no better day forsalvation than today.
Right?
Listen, tomorrow might be okayif you live to then, but
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ultimately, there is no betterday for salvation than today.
And being able to walkconfidently in that truth and
share it with the world willmake a difference.
Romans 7 15.
This is one of my favoritepassages of scripture because
this is Paul himself speakingthis phrase.
Now remember, Paul wrote much ofthe New Testament.
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Amen.
Paul's like the apostle ofapostles, right?
Like he's kind of like he's gotit together.
And Paul says, I don't reallyunderstand myself.
I wake up with this body everyday, and I'm like, what did I do
to myself?
Like I get up and I go to agiant and I think, Lord, how did
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I end up here?
Right?
The things that I I think, Lord,but he says, I don't really
understand myself.
For I want to do what is right,but I don't do it.
Instead, I do what I hate.
I do what what does hate mean?
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Like, what are the things that Ido that I hate?
I hate when I talk aboutsomebody and I shouldn't.
Right?
I hate when I let people downand I shouldn't.
You know, I I tell my kids thisall the time.
A man is only as good as hisword.
Right?
And a man is only as good as hisword if his word is grounded in
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the word.
Right?
So, like I can tell you thatI'll do whatever you want me to
do.
Yeah, listen, I'll come help youmove, I'll come help you do
this, I'll come.
And as long as I show up, I'mgood to you, right?
I've done what I said that Iwould do, I have fulfilled an
obligation.
But if you come to me and youask me a question and I cannot
give you biblical advice, all Ican do is say, well, I don't
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really know.
Or, well, if it were me, Iwould.
What happens is that we leadpeople down a path of
destruction.
And when we lead people downthat path of destruction, we
don't always see what happens atthe end of the day.
And so I want to encourage youthat as you grow in the word and
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you become more faithful to thepeople around you, that you
understand what that trulymeans.
This is not a verbal commitmentthat maybe we'll follow through
on.
This is a commitment that Iassure you I will follow through
on.
Just short of a hospital stay,just short of a tragic accident,
I will show up.
I will be there for you.
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Paul admits to having that innerstruggle.
If that doesn't give youcomfort, I don't know what does.
Because it means that you're notalone in those struggles.
Amen.
That even Paul, the greatapostle who gave us the majority
of the New Testament, he alsostruggled with those inner
thoughts.
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Self-sabotage is when we knowthe right path, but we keep
undermining ourselves.
This isn't about other people.
This is about ourselves.
See, we we make a commitment oror we say to God we're not
gonna, or we we say we'll dobetter, and then we don't do
better.
All we're doing is hurtingourselves.
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Sometimes it's anger, it'saddiction, self-negative talk.
How many of us have ever beenthere?
Talk bad about ourselves,self-deprecation, right?
Because it's easy to say I'm notgood enough.
Nobody wants me.
Nobody wants to be my friendbecause I did, because I said,
because somebody heard this,they no longer care for me.
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It's easy to say those things,but it is not true.
Most of the time you say it andyou don't even know the half of
the people who care for you.
You don't you can't even beginto understand.
And why can't you begin tounderstand?
Because the world will convinceyou that you have to live in the
negative.
That's where the world wantsyou.
Because if the world can keepyou there, it can sabotage all
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hope for good things in yourlife.
The first step is admitting thatthe struggle is real and that
it's biblical.
Amen.
The first step is admitting thatthe struggle is real, that I
will self-sabotage because thatstruggle is real, and that that
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struggle is biblical.
But we don't just stop there, wedon't admit it and just live
with it.
The second step, and this is themost important, are you ready?
It's repentance.
Do you know how hard that is?
To truly come to the throne ofGod and say, Father, I'm laying
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this down and I'm never gonnapick it up again.
Because oftentimes we pick it upbefore we walk away, right?
But we just carry it in our backpocket for a little while, and
then something happens and wepull it back out, and now it's
our it's our guidebook to lifeagain.
The struggle is real.
We do it to ourselves all thetime.
Listen, I have conversationswith a lot of people and they do
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these things time and timeagain, and I can't understand.
I'm I'm as guilty, but I can'tunderstand how we don't see
God's goodness in all of this.
Because He is giving you theout, He is allowing you to lay
it at the foot of the cross dayin and day out.
You wake up in the morning andyou're carrying it again, lay it
back down at the foot of thecross.
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Sometimes those bad habits arelike a boomerang.
You know, you can throw it realfar, but it ends up coming back.
That's if you know how to throwa boomerang.
I don't.
It just goes somewhere and Idon't ever see it again.
But sometimes when it comesback, we pick it up and we say,
well, then God must have wantedme to learn a lesson from this.
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He wants you to learn how to layit down.
That's the lesson, folks.
He wants you to learn how to layit down and walk away.
Lay it down and say, I don'tneed to carry this because the
weight is too heavy for my heartto bear.
The weight is too heavy.
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2 Corinthians 7 10.
It says, for the kind of sorrowGod wants us to experience leads
us away from sin and results ingood, you guys can read.
Turn to your neighbor and say,salvation.
Do you guys know what salvationmeans?
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We're saved, we have everlastinglife, we have eternity in the
presence of our Heavenly Father.
Amen.
The kind of sorrow that Godwants us to experience leads us
away from the sin.
Do you know what sin does?
It leads you to the fieryfurnace of hell.
Amen.
So God is telling us He wants usto experience the kind of sorrow
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that leads us away from hell andinto heaven.
Amen.
There is no regret for that kindof sorrow.
But worldly sorrow, hear me out,which lacks repentance, results
in spiritual death.
Spiritual death.
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Not physical death.
You could live physically for ahundred years and still burn in
hell.
You can live a hundred years andyou can do all the good things.
You can give to all thecharities, you can be nice to
people, you can never say a badword about somebody.
But if you don't have arelationship with Jesus, you
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don't get to go to heaven.
That's it, right?
And I also want to urge you thateverything that you're doing
today, you will answer for atthe judgment seat.
Amen.
Everything that you do today.
So somebody asked me, and thisis a I you guys know I have a
weird group of people, right?
Like you want to know, so I gota guy, right?
(18:20):
I got a guy.
And I had this fellow ElvisTribute artist reach out to me
and he said, Hey, you're apastor, right?
And I'm like, don't know wherethis is going, but yep.
And he said, Can you answer acouple of questions for me?
And I said, Absolutely.
And we started to talk, and westarted to talk about repentance
and what repentance truly meant.
Now, he is Methodist.
And so life is different in theMethodist world than it is in
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the Pentecostal world, right?
And we all believe the samething.
We believe that Jesus Christ areLord and Savior, and that we
don't get to heaven through anyother way but Jesus.
But they read the scripturedifferently than we do.
And so I was telling him, youknow, repentance to me is laying
something down, turning away,and never picking it back up.
That is true repentance.
But true repentance does notcome without trial.
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That when we're laying it downand picking it up, laying it
down and picking it up, we'relearning and giving, right?
We're releasing control.
I saw some grimaces when I saidreleasing control.
That's hard to do.
Amen.
Because I want to control myfinances, I want to control my
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friendship.
I don't want, I don't want totrust anybody else to do those
things for me.
But if you don't truly trust inJesus to cover all of those
things, you will result inspiritual death.
Amen.
Self-sabotage will always blockrepentance.
James 1, 14 and 15.
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It says, temptation comes fromour own desires, which entice us
and drag us away.
These desires give birth tosinful actions, and when sin is
allowed to grow, it gives birthto death.
Can you go back one more for me?
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It says, temptation comes fromour own desires, which entice us
and drag us away.
Leave it there for just asecond.
Temptation comes from our owndesires.
That means each and every one ofus have a different desire,
right?
Some of us want a new car, someof us want a new house, some of
us just want to be loved, right?
The problem is, is in the famouswords of meatloaf, I will do
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anything for love.
But I won't do that.
For those of you who got it,you're welcome.
For those of you who didn't, I'msorry.
The point is, I would doanything to be loved by the
people that are close to me, butI will not go to hell for them.
Amen?
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Amen.
Okay, temptation comes from ourown desires.
Your desire to have more money.
You are tempted to take timeaway from your family and chase
a career that is a dead end.
Amen.
We find the desires of ourheart, and those desires tend to
lead us away from the things ofGod.
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These desires will give birth tosinful actions because you know
people who love money, they findinteresting ways to get it.
Right?
I told you guys a story a coupleof weeks ago about the guy that
robbed the bank, built like thiselaborate treehouse and then
robbed banks, got away with itfor months, and then finally got
caught.
It's mind-blowing to me that hislove for money would lead him to
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such a crime that wouldultimately result in his death,
not both spiritually butphysically.
And now he has to answer forthat at the judgment seat of
God.
The Bible tells us that the loveof money is the root of all
evil.
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Right?
That's hard to deal with becausewe need it to survive, right?
But we don't have to love it andput it as the center of our
lives.
It's the same with all of theother things that you can think
of in your life.
Sometimes it's addiction,sometimes it's uh it's
relationships.
It can be a myriad of things.
The problem is, is we have tounderstand that we cannot put
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them at the center of our life.
Self-sabotage is when thesedesires begin to dominate us,
and when we listen to the liesthat the enemy tells us, like I
will never change.
Have you ever said that toyourself?
I am stuck in this cycle and Iam never going to be able to
change.
This is my life.
It's who I am.
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It's all that I am worth.
I cannot have more.
When you listen to that lie,know that you are
self-sabotaging.
We keep feeding what we shouldbe starving.
Amen.
My wife loves flowerbeds, youguys know that, right?
She waters her flowers anytimeit doesn't rain.
If it goes more than two dayswithout raining, my wife goes
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out and waters all of herflowers.
But you know when she's wateringher flowers, what else she's
watering?
All of those weeds that aregrowing up in that flower bed,
right?
The other day I said to her, Isaid, sweetheart, the flower
beds are getting a little out ofcontrol.
They've got a lot of weeds.
She hit me with a frying pan.
No, I'm just kidding.
She didn't really.
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She said, I know, she said, andit's because I keep watering.
Metaphorically, many of uscontinue to water the weeds in
our lives, right?
We water the plants.
We think when we show up atchurch and we do all of the
things, we're watering theplants, and the plants may be
luscious and beautiful.
But do you remember that parablethat Jesus talked about?
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When the seed is sown, thethorns grow up and they choke it
out, the weeds grow up and theychoke out.
You have to weed the flower bed.
You have to be examining yourheart.
What are the things that Ishould not be feeding?
What are the things that Ishould be starving?
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All right.
You ready?
Blaming others instead of owningour own choices.
Amen.
When we begin to blame othersfor the wrong that's happening
in our lives, rather than takingblame on ourselves, rather than
saying this is me and I need tofix it, we can never find true
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repentance.
Listen to me.
I need you to hear me.
Repentance will break thatpattern of self-sabotage.
It cuts off sin at the root.
Amen.
When you truly repent, andrepentance comes with release of
control.
Amen.
When you go to the altar and yousay, Lord, I'm laying this down
at your feet, you are able torelease the control, and
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whatever that negative thing isdies at the root.
And then God begins to water thegood things in your life, and
you begin to see this abundanceof fruit grow.
Can I tell you that the fruitdoes not grow on an unhealthy
tree?
You already know that, right?
You ever picked an apple from adead apple tree?
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Never.
You know, we used to, as kids,we would we would go on bike
rides as a family, and sometimesyou'd see those uh Granny Smith
apples, those little greenapples laying on the sidewalk.
My dad said, eat one.
I don't care.
No, I mean when they're on theground.
You know what I'm talking about?
They're all brown and mushy.
Well, I thought I was gonna besmart and I tried it.
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It was equally as mushy and itwas sour, right?
You cannot get good fruit from abad tree.
Amen.
That means you are not producinggood fruit if you are a bad
tree.
If you are unhealthy, youproduce unhealthy fruit.
There are some people whosefruit is very small, but it's
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still edible.
That is better than the peoplewho are producing large fruit
that it's inedible.
You can produce the largest ofthe fruits.
You know, I think about um inthe Bible, it tells us about the
land of milk and honey, and it'stalking about all of this fruit,
and it's so big that they theydidn't know what to do with it.
And that was good fruit, right?
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But there are people who growfruit like that that's bad
fruit.
And they carry it with themeverywhere they go, and they go,
but look at my fruit.
And you don't know whether ornot that fruit is good or bad
until you take a bite.
And once you've taken a bite,you're locked in.
Amen.
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I'm in a relationship with thisfruit now, and I don't know how
to get out of it.
It's easy to get out of it.
It's throw the fruit away,right?
It's find a healthy tree to eatfrom.
Stop feeding yourself fromunhealthy places.
It cuts off the root of sinbefore it ever grows into the
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death that we know it will growus into.
God's promise is forgiveness.
Amen.
His promise is forgiveness.
1 John 1:9.
But if we confess our sins tohim, he is faithful and just to
forgive us of our sins and tocleanse us from all wickedness.
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But if we confess our sins tohim, not to your neighbor, not
to your friend.
Right?
Listen, I know a lot of you liketo tell me your stuff.
And listen, I love all of you,and I don't mind hearing your
stuff.
But if you're telling me butyou're not telling the Lord, if
you're telling me but you're notbringing it to the altar, you
ain't doing yourself any good.
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What change are you making inyour life?
I've told you before, I can'tget you to heaven.
I can't pray you there, I can'tlead you there.
If I make it, you don't get tocome along just because I made
it.
You have to do it too.
There are days that I questionwhether or not that I'll make it
because I say, Lord, I don'tknow how you can forgive this.
(28:14):
Hot mess express coming through.
Choo choo, right?
Every day I know that there isthis mess inside of me, but then
I think his mercies are newevery day.
Every day.
And I wake up and I say, Lord, Iam gonna do better today.
Lord, I am gonna live for youand not for the world.
And uh I was watching this uhum, well, it's it's political,
(28:36):
I'm gonna share it anyway.
One of the one of thecongressmen said, you know, I
wake up first thing in themorning and I want to follow
Jesus.
And by 10 a.m., I want to chokesomebody, but I still want to
follow Jesus, right?
I feel that way sometimes, butthe problem is, is I'm trying to
reduce the amount of times Iwant to choke people.
Because if I do that, then I amliving for Christ and not for
the world, right?
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And even if I do want to, I wantto be able to love that person
and say, you know what?
I've answered this question ahundred times and there's no
reason I should answer it again.
But I'm gonna just do it.
Because if God is willing togive me grace and mercy, don't I
have to show it to the rest ofthe world?
Don't I have to give that samegrace and mercy to the rest of
(29:20):
the world?
Was that did we do Romans 2.12?
Yes, I'm sorry.
No, is that Romans 2?
What are we on?
No, Romans 2.12, sorry.
I don't know where I'm at now.
What am I on?
(29:43):
Um I I don't know where we'reat.
We're just gonna keep ontrucking, okay?
Roll with me.
God doesn't just forgive you,this is where we were at.
He cleanses you, he wipes theslate clean.
The devil may remind you of yourpast, but God says, This has
been covered in the blood.
Amen.
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Listen, the enemy can remind youof your past.
I've got a past.
I have got a past, and the enemylikes to remind me of that.
He's doing that right now.
He likes to tell you you are notworthy, you do not have, you do
not have position, you don'thave the ability to, and then
God says, but but when I calledyou, when I called You all of
(30:28):
those things were covered in theblood.
When I took you in, when youcame to me, I covered those
things in the blood, and thedevil can remind you, but he
can't take it away.
He cannot take it away.
Whew.
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Romans 12, 2.
She's giving me the one minute.
Don't copy my notes, may havebeen wrong.
Don't copy the behavior andcustoms of this world, but let
God transform you into a newperson by changing the way you
think.
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Then, and only then you willlearn to know God's will for
you, which is good and pleasingand perfect.
Okay.
Today, when we repent, we haveto change the way that we think.
We have to change our identity.
It is no longer of the world, itis of Christ.
Amen.
That is a hard one to do.
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You guys ready?
Your habits have to change.
You can't spend time with thepeople you used to spend time
with sometimes.
You can't put yourself in thesame situations you used to put
yourself in.
Because when God transforms you,He transforms everything about
you.
(31:53):
When you are changed from gloryto glory, He changes everything,
not just one thing.
He is not trying to take awaythat one little thing that you
think is holding you up fromsalvation.
He is trying to change yourheart, your disposition, your
mind, your spirit.
He's saying, allow your flesh todie and your spirit to live.
(32:17):
And yet, we only want one littlepeace.
I know that sometimes when Godspeaks to me, I always tell him,
I say always, I don't alwaystell him, but oftentimes I will
tell him, not yet, Lord.
Not yet.
And he'll say to me, Okay,that's fine, but when?
(32:39):
And then I get into this, well,when so and so, or when such and
such, right?
And then that never happens.
And then I go back to God andI'm like, God, why did you never
do that?
You told me, you showed me, wetalked about, and you never did.
And he says, but do you rememberthat you stifled my move?
(33:04):
Do you remember that you told meto wait?
See, God is a gentleman.
He is not going to force hisdesires upon you.
He is going to show you astraight path in a crooked way.
He is going to take whateversituation you're dealing with
and he's going to straighten it,and you're going to be able to
(33:26):
see it, but you have a choice.
And it's the path that is narrowand clear, or the wide path that
ultimately ends up in turmoil.
Amen.
We have to find practical waysto break the cycle of
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self-sabotage.
Amen.
And the Bible gives us ways todo that.
First of all, we have to confessour sins honestly, and we have
to stop making excuses.
That's Proverbs 28, 13.
I don't know if we have all ofthese ones up there.
And if not, it's fine.
It is.
People who conceal their sinswill not prosper, but if they
(34:08):
confess and turn from them, theywill receive mercy.
People who conceal their sins.
So that means when you come tothe altar, when you come to the
foot of the cross, when you aregiving God whatever it is, you
can't conceal anything from Him.
Now I want to remind you thatGod knows your heart.
He knows your thoughts.
He already knows, but He'swaiting for you to confess it
(34:31):
unto Him.
If you hide it, you will notprosper.
If you confess it, then you willreceive mercy.
Cut off what feeds the sin.
That seems easy, right?
Cut off whatever is feeding thesin.
(34:54):
Jesus said, if your hand causesyou to sin, cut it off.
Right?
Now that's wild thought.
I don't see many of us out therewith machetes whacking off
limbs, right?
It's not necessarily physical.
This is spiritual.
When you have something that iscausing you to sin, if you are
(35:16):
tripped up because you are doingthings and being around people
and acting a certain way,because you've put yourself in
social situations, you have tocut yourself off from those
social situations.
Amen.
You can't continue in thembecause if you continue in them,
you will continue in a life ofsin.
He's showing the seriousness ofremoving stumbling blocks from
our lives.
(35:37):
Right?
The stumbling blocks that stopus from entering into the
promised paradise.
Amen?
Why would we want to miss out onthat?
Why would you want to miss outon a guaranteed paradise for
worldly or fleshly desires?
(35:59):
Replace those desires, replacethose those sins or those
thoughts with God's word.
Psalms 119.
It says, I have hidden your wordin my heart that I might not sin
against you.
And we often talk, I used totell people, and I don't hate me
(36:19):
for this, umbrella of grace.
You don't have to memorizescripture as long as you're in
the word.
I'm gonna tell you, I've changedmy tune on that.
I'm gonna be a politician for aminute, okay?
I'm gonna flip-flop on you.
If you don't etch the word uponyour heart, you don't get
anything from it.
You can read it and read words.
There are people every day whosay, I read my Bible every day.
(36:42):
I read 12 chapters a day.
But you learn nothing from thatreading, right?
And there are some people whoread who it takes them three
years to read the Bible fromcover to cover, but when they
get to the end, they'retransformed, changed, made new.
Amen.
Listen, let me tell you, onepassage a day will get you
(37:03):
somewhere if your heart is inreading that passage.
If you're checking off a box, Ipromise you, you are not going
to experience transformation.
You are not going to experiencechange.
You are not going to experiencethe goodness of God.
You are going to experienceselfishness, self-loathing.
(37:26):
All of the things that we'vetalked about, those are the
things that you will experience,and you will blame God for them
because you have not done whatyou have committed to doing.
Stay accountable.
This is a big one for me.
I like accountability partners.
Fortunately, I married one.
My wife said to me the otherday, she goes, You know, I'll
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never lie for you, right?
She told my kids one time, ifyou do something wrong and the
cops show up here for you, I'mturning you in.
She won't lie for anybody.
It's not who my wife is.
She is, my wife is probably oneof the most honest people I've
she won't even lie to me aboutChristmas presents.
(38:07):
Right?
It's just not who she is, it'snot how she's wired.
She doesn't believe that it'sfruitful in any way.
And I'm thankful for thatbecause that means when I say to
her, hey, how was my messagetoday?
She has three answers.
Right?
None of them are bad.
But if she says it was good, I'mlike, okay, it was subpar.
(38:27):
It was just, it was, it barelymade the it barely made the
mark, right?
And I know that about my wife,but she would never tell me you
didn't do a good job, or youdidn't, you didn't preach with
fire, you didn't bring theanointing.
And the reason that she doesthat is because she knows that
message spoke to someone.
Right?
The challenge is, was itgrounded and rooted in the word
(38:49):
of God the way that it shouldhave been?
See, my wife doesn't play gameswith me.
So when I do something that shedoesn't like, she's gonna let me
know.
I've told you guys this, andI'll tell you, this is it's
still something that I carrywith me regularly.
One year early on in ourmarriage, I asked my wife for
Christmas.
She said, What do you want forChristmas?
And I didn't want anything.
That's not true.
(39:10):
I always want something, but itwasn't anything we could afford.
And I said to her, I said, Youmake me a list of everything
that I do in our marriage thatis not fruitful to our marriage.
And on Christmas morning, I wokeup to that list.
It was the hardest thing I'veever read in my life.
The absolute hardest.
I mean, somebody said that wasreally brave of you to ask.
(39:32):
No, it was stupid.
Hear me out.
It was stupid because I knewwhat should be in the letter,
right?
I knew all of the things that Iknew what I was doing.
But I wanted to know if sheknew.
She knew.
She did.
And she wrote them down.
And I look at that, I keep thatlist in the top drawer of my
(39:54):
dresser, and every once in awhile I'll pull it out and I
will look through it and makesure that I am not doing any of
those things any longer.
And do you know why I did it?
Do you know why I was able tomake the change?
Because I laid it at the foot ofthe cross.
I said, God, the things that Iam doing are not fruitful to my
marriage.
That means they are not fruitfulto a covenant that I made with
(40:14):
you.
Lord, I made this agreement inyour name that I would do all of
the best things that I could tocare for this woman who is your
daughter.
Listen, I'll answer to a lot offleshly fathers, but I will not
answer to my heavenly father fortreating somebody poorly.
(40:37):
That's why I won't do it.
Because if I do it, it is notgoing to end well for me.
Amen.
And my wife keeps me accountablein all of the things that I do.
James 5, 16, it says, confessyour sins to each other and pray
for each other so that you maybe healed.
The earnest prayer of arighteous person has great power
(40:59):
and produces wonderful results.
Now, I know that this mightsound counterintuitive, one of
the scriptures that we uhpreached just a few minutes ago.
Confess your sins to each otherand pray for each other.
This is not just go talk aboutit.
Right?
This is when we're up here inprayer.
And you're saying, I'mstruggling with this.
(41:19):
And Pastor Holly's saying, Whatcan I pray for you for?
This is a time to say that.
It is not the time to say thaton the phone, Bluetooth, with
six other people in the car.
Right?
That's not the time.
Because now we're we're runningourselves into the ground.
And did you know that peoplewill think about you what you
think about yourself?
Because you'll say it out loudso often.
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Well, I don't think that I'm avery good friend.
And pretty soon you're not avery good friend.
Right?
That's not how we need to be.
We need to speak the good andthe positive things into our
lives.
Stay accountable.
Find somebody in your life whosimply will not take your stuff.
I have been blessed with a lotof those people.
Florence was wonderful at that.
(42:06):
I tell a story real quick.
Margie and Nick aren't here,that's unfortunate.
Uh, when Margie and Nick gotmarried, Florence was marrying
them, and I was uh helping withtheir technology, and we had
scheduled the rehearsal, and Ihad forgotten.
Now I want to be clear, I was ababy Christian at the time.
Okay.
And Margie called me on thephone and she said, Hey, uh, are
(42:30):
you on your way?
She's like, We want to getstarted.
And I said, on my way, and shesaid, Yeah, for the rehearsal.
And I said, Oh, expletive, fillin the blank.
And I'll tell you it wasn't theS one, it was a bigger one.
Little did I know I was onspeakerphone.
And Florence was standing rightthere.
(42:51):
The audible gasp that she made.
Margie said the look on her facewas terrifying.
And I remember when I walkedthrough the door for that
service, she didn't say a word.
And I remember at the end I waslike, all right, prepare
(43:12):
yourself because you're about toget it.
And she never said a word.
I she never mentioned it to meever.
But she didn't have to.
Because I knew.
And I knew that I let her down,and I knew that what I had done
was not a godly thing.
I didn't need her to punish me.
(43:33):
I didn't need her to belittle mebecause God convicted me very
quickly.
The cross will break everycycle.
Romans 7, 24, 25.
It says, Oh, what a miserableperson I am.
(43:53):
Who will free me from this lifethat is dominated by sin and
death?
Stop for a second.
Oh, what a miserable person Iam.
Are any of us miserable today?
Thank you, Dale.
Buddy, this was just for me andyou today, okay?
It was just for me and you.
And I am a miserable person, notnecessarily to myself, but I can
(44:16):
be miserable to other people.
Some of you look at me and go,he is a miserable person.
And some of you are like, Iwouldn't say it to his face, but
since he mentioned it, what amiserable person I am.
Who will free me from this lifethat is dominated by sin and
death?
I ask myself all the time, howdo I get free from this life
dominated by sin and by death?
(44:38):
And it says, Thank God.
The answer is in Jesus Christour Lord.
So you see, it is in my mind, Ireally want to obey God's law,
but because of my sinful nature,I am a slave unto sin.
Amen.
Now listen, the answer is notyour willpower.
(45:05):
Hear me.
Open your ears real quick.
If you hear nothing else today,it is not about willpower.
You don't save yourself from sinthrough sheer willpower.
The answer is Jesus.
At the cross, he broke all powerof sin.
(45:29):
When that veil was torn, allbets were off for sin.
It is finished, included yoursin.
Your sins are covered by theblood of Jesus Christ.
The problem is, you have to takeit seriously.
You have to understand what thatactually means in your life.
(45:51):
That means that I should not goon sinning.
If Jesus was willing to go tothe cross for my sins, I should
be willing to give up somethingso silly as smoking cigarettes
or talking bad about people.
So that I can honor what God hasdone for me through his son,
Jesus Christ.
Today, if you're stuck inself-sabotage, the call is
(46:13):
simple.
I want you to repent and befree.
Repent and be free.
Don't be ashamed.
Don't let shame hold you backfrom what it is that God wants
to do in your life.
Be willing and ready to run toJesus.
(46:34):
It is time for the church tostop self-sabotaging.
It is time for the church toknow what it means to truly be
saved and to repent.
Some of us will keep living inthat cycle of sin, waiting for
Jesus to break the chains, butJesus won't break the chains
(46:55):
until you surrender.
Jesus will not break the chainuntil you surrender.
Or if you are ready to walk infreedom, I want to invite you to
repent today.
We're going to place some music.
We're going to open the altarfor just a minute.
Now I'm going to do this beforewe do communion, and here's the
reason.
Because we know that in thischurch there is no uh membership
restriction on communion.
(47:16):
I don't restrict communion inany way.
If you are a member of the bodyof Christ, then you belong here
with us.
Amen?
You are welcome here.
However, if your heart is not inthe right place to take
communion, if you are living insin, if you are doing things
that are against the will of Godand knowingly living outside of
the will of God, the Bible tellsus that it is worse for you to
(47:37):
take communion than it is foryou to just sit out.
Nobody's gonna judge you if youdon't get out of your seat
today.
Nobody in here cares.
I don't know your life.
All I know is that you have aright and the ability to be free
from that sin today.
So we're gonna start with analtar call.
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Immediately following the altarcall, we're gonna go into
communion, and what we'll do iswe'll just have everybody go
back to their seat after thealtar call, and we'll do
communion just like we alwaysdo.
We'll start on this side, you'llmake your way up, go back to
your seat, hold your communion,we'll take it together at the
end, okay?
Everybody good?
So I'm gonna pray real quick andthen we're gonna start uh start
that altar call.
Heavenly Father, I just thankyou, Lord, and I praise you for
(48:21):
being in this house today, Lord,and for giving us a desire to
repent of the sins that areovertaking our lives, Lord, that
we might be able to walk awayfrom the self-sabotage that we
have created in our lives.
Lord, that we may be able tolook to you, that we may be able
to focus our eyes on you andlift you up today, Father God,
(48:43):
that we may be able to exalt youby laying down our flesh and
living in the spirit.
Father, I thank you forrepentant hearts in this house.
I believe that breakthrough iscoming in the mighty name of
Jesus.
Lives are being changed today,Father God.
People are being made new.
(49:05):
Lord, I just thank you for that.
Bless us as we move from ourseats to the altar, Father.
Move upon our hearts in themighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
Father, as I stand in your presence this morning, I
thank you for the blessings thatyou've bestowed upon this house.
For the blessings that you'vebestowed upon the people in this
house, Lord.
Lord, my heart is heavy todaybecause oftentimes we are
(00:50):
focused on the bad things inlife and not often enough
focused on the good things.
And Lord, today I stand heregiving you praise, honor, and
glory for all of the things.
For the mountaintop and for thevalley, Lord, because I know
without the valley I can't seethe mountaintop.
And without the mountaintop,Father, I can't survive the
(01:10):
valley.
And today, I thank you forpulling me through these, for
giving me strength and comfortin the name of Jesus.
Father, I pray that as this wordis delivered, that it speaks to
the heart of your people.
Father, that they are preparedto hear the word that you have
prepared for them today.
Father, that they will absorbthe word and make change in
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their life.
There is no better day forsalvation than today.
And I thank you for the cross.
I thank you for the blood.
And Father, I thank you for thegrace and the mercy.
Father, be with me this morningas I deliver this message.
Father, soften my heart so thatI can speak, that you can speak
(01:56):
through me, Father, that it isnot my words, that they are
yours.
Father, I know that you love me.
But I stand here proclaimingthat I love you.
Guide me today, Lord.
I thank you and I praise you.
I give you all the honor andglory in the mighty name of
(02:19):
Jesus.
And the church says, So there'sa couple of things that I just
wanted to mention this morningthat I forgot to mention during
announcements.
One was that uh we have theDirector of Children's Ministry
position open.
I've had a couple of people whoare interested who have reached
out to me.
If you're interested in uhdirecting our children's
ministry, reach out to me.
(02:40):
There's no obligation.
All I'm gonna do is send you theinformation, and then you can um
look over that.
I will be starting to schedulesome in-person conversations
this week.
I hate the word interviewbecause it's not like an
interview, but I want to sitdown and talk to you about the
vision and what we wantchildren's ministry to look like
and as it grows.
Um so there's that.
Also, um, I want you guys to bepraying for Pastor Roger.
(03:03):
He is not feeling well today.
Um I maybe I've worked him toohard, I'm not sure just yet.
But his back is really botheringhim, and it has been for about a
week, and so just continue topray for him.
And then Joe texted me thismorning, he is scheduled for a
surgery tomorrow.
So we just want to continue tolift him up in prayer.
He chose to stay home today.
He didn't want to risk gettingsick and then not being able to
(03:23):
have the surgery, so justcontinue to pray for him.
But I started writing thismessage earlier this week, and
it's something that I thinkevery one of us wrestle with at
some point in our lives, andit's something that I know that
I have wrestled with even in thepast week, including, you know,
my most of my life, this issomething that I've struggled
with.
And the idea is it's a tensionbetween what we want to do and
(03:44):
what we actually end up doing,right?
I think a lot of times my heartis good, my mind is even good.
I am thinking the things that Iwant to do, but then I somehow
manage to screw it up.
Amen.
I was I'm talking to myself thismorning.
(04:05):
Hey, that's okay.
Maybe I need it.
Maybe it's just me and you,Dale.
I don't know, buddy, but I'llpreach it.
You receive it, and then yougive it back to me, okay?
All right.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus.
The Bible calls us torepentance, but oftentimes we
sabotage ourselves long beforewe ever get there.
Amen.
We believe that we shouldrepent, we know that we should
(04:26):
repent, we look at our sin andwe say it is no good, and we
believe that Jesus Christ is theonly one who can save us, and
yet somehow we forget to do it.
Now, some of us go to bed atnight and Father, forgive me for
the things that I've done today.
I know that I have fallen shortof the glory of God, yada, yada,
yada, but where our hearts don'treally mean it.
(04:47):
Right?
We say these things because itis lip service to the one we
know will save us.
Amen.
I don't know if it's because thebuilding is bigger or what's
going on.
I'm not sure if you're asleep,but I know that I'm not the only
one that does this, right?
You you guys know that as yourpastor, I'm always honest with
you, right?
And you know that I fall shortof the glory of God regularly,
(05:09):
right?
Amen, glory, hallelujah.
I don't pretend to be perfect,and I don't pretend to be
perfect because I know that if Ido, you will see somebody that
is not real.
When we rebranded this church toorganic church, we said fresh,
real Jesus.
And there was a reason for that.
We wanted a fresh anointing, wewanted a real vision of what the
(05:33):
church should be, right?
We have to understand that thechurch is not a building, it is
the body, right?
Each and every one of us are thechurch, and we have to remember
that we have to carry thateverywhere that we go.
The hard part for us is thatoftentimes we do carry it where
we should go.
But then we don't show Jesus, weshow the world.
(05:57):
Hallelujah.
And I struggle with that sooften, and it's my heart is in
the right place, it's the thingsthat I want to do, but it's the
things that I can't do.
Let's be honest.
How many of us have ever prayed?
And you raise your hands withthis one, I don't even care.
How many of us have ever said,Lord, I will never do that
again?
Who?
Lord, I promise you, I willnever do that again.
(06:18):
And by the end of the week,whoo! Listen, my flesh is weak.
Hey, Shy, can you look up?
Your glasses are freaking meout, man.
She had her head down and I sawshe looked like a furry animal
with glasses on.
I was like, I'm not sure what'shappening.
I'm just kidding.
(06:38):
I it really did freak me out fora second.
I was like, I don't know whatthat is.
Thought cousin it snuck in.
I wasn't real sure what wasgoing on.
Lord.
What I mean is that we willoften find a way to live inside
of destructive patterns.
Amen.
Destructive patterns are apattern of the flesh.
(06:59):
That is not a pattern of thespirit.
The spirit wants to do all goodthings, but the flesh wants to
do all bad things.
It wants to do all of thedestructive things.
And we find ourselves in thatpattern.
And what I mean to say when Italk about that is
self-sabotage.
Right?
We say I'm never gonna do thatagain, and then we do it again,
and then we get on our knees andwe pray, God, I won't do that
(07:22):
ever again.
And by the end of the week,we're doing it again.
Sometimes before we're up offthe floor, we're doing it again.
Listen, you don't often see mecome to the altar on a Sunday
morning.
I usually get that out beforeyou guys get here, right?
I'll tell you what, I was inhere on Saturday morning before
uh the women's meeting, and Ispent 30 minutes just weeping at
the altar.
And I was weeping this morning,and it's not because I feel like
(07:46):
I I've done anything or that Ineed to come back.
I'm weeping because I don't knowwhat to do for my people today,
right?
I'm saying, Lord, I know theirhearts are hurting, Lord, I know
bad things are happening, butLord, I don't want those bad
things to happen for them.
How do I fix it?
And then by the time I stand upoff the floor, I'm thinking, you
know what?
Forget them.
(08:08):
Right?
Because we become self-centered.
We're worried about ourselves.
We're not worried, we're nottruly worried about the world
around us.
We're worried about whether ornot we will enter into the
kingdom of heaven.
Amen.
I know I want to go.
Amen.
I don't want to go to hell, Iwant to go to heaven.
The problem is that I can't onlybe focused on my salvation.
(08:30):
I have to be focused on thesalvation of the people around
me.
Amen.
You know, when we Beth's nothere, I wish she were.
She couldn't catch the vision,she couldn't see it.
And every time we would talkabout it, she would say, I don't
know, Pastor Michael.
And she'd just shake her head.
I don't know, Pastor Michael.
And I remember when the carpetwent on the stage and the trim
was up and she started to seeit, and she's like, Oh my gosh.
(08:53):
And then the carpet went down onthe floor and she was like, Oh
my gosh.
And then finally she said, It'skind of like that movie, build
it and they will come, right?
The problem was we did it theother way.
Everybody showed up, and then wehad to build it in order to
house them.
Let me promise you something.
This is not the end just becausewe've done this.
God is gonna continue to do goodthings, He is gonna continue to
(09:17):
grow the body, but He is goingto grow us spiritually.
That's the goal.
The goal is not to build abigger building, the goal is not
to bring more people in.
The goal is the people who arehere enter into heaven.
It's simple.
This isn't rocket science.
The problem is we oftentimesself-sabotage.
(09:41):
You know, we say sorry, sorrygoes a long way, does it not?
If somebody calls you out onyour stuff and you just say, you
know what, that was me, I'msorry, that goes a long way.
Or you can deny it and you canargue.
That doesn't get you anywhere,does it?
Because what sets you free?
(10:01):
The truth will set you free,right?
And listen, the only thing thatwe can do is be truthful with
one another, truthful with theworld around us.
Listen, Jesus loves you.
There's no better day forsalvation than today.
Right?
Listen, tomorrow might be okayif you live to then, but
(10:22):
ultimately, there is no betterday for salvation than today.
And being able to walkconfidently in that truth and
share it with the world willmake a difference.
Romans 7 15.
This is one of my favoritepassages of scripture because
this is Paul himself speakingthis phrase.
Now remember, Paul wrote much ofthe New Testament.
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Amen.
Paul's like the apostle ofapostles, right?
Like he's kind of like he's gotit together.
And Paul says, I don't reallyunderstand myself.
I wake up with this body everyday, and I'm like, what did I do
to myself?
Like I get up and I go to agiant and I think, Lord, how did
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I end up here?
Right?
The things that I I think, Lord,but he says, I don't really
understand myself.
For I want to do what is right,but I don't do it.
Instead, I do what I hate.
I do what what does hate mean?
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Like, what are the things that Ido that I hate?
I hate when I talk aboutsomebody and I shouldn't.
Right?
I hate when I let people downand I shouldn't.
You know, I I tell my kids thisall the time.
A man is only as good as hisword.
Right?
And a man is only as good as hisword if his word is grounded in
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the word.
Right?
So, like I can tell you thatI'll do whatever you want me to
do.
Yeah, listen, I'll come help youmove, I'll come help you do
this, I'll come.
And as long as I show up, I'mgood to you, right?
I've done what I said that Iwould do, I have fulfilled an
obligation.
But if you come to me and youask me a question and I cannot
give you biblical advice, all Ican do is say, well, I don't
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really know.
Or, well, if it were me, Iwould.
What happens is that we leadpeople down a path of
destruction.
And when we lead people downthat path of destruction, we
don't always see what happens atthe end of the day.
And so I want to encourage youthat as you grow in the word and
(12:28):
you become more faithful to thepeople around you, that you
understand what that trulymeans.
This is not a verbal commitmentthat maybe we'll follow through
on.
This is a commitment that Iassure you I will follow through
on.
Just short of a hospital stay,just short of a tragic accident,
I will show up.
I will be there for you.
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Paul admits to having that innerstruggle.
If that doesn't give youcomfort, I don't know what does.
Because it means that you're notalone in those struggles.
Amen.
That even Paul, the greatapostle who gave us the majority
of the New Testament, he alsostruggled with those inner
thoughts.
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Self-sabotage is when we knowthe right path, but we keep
undermining ourselves.
This isn't about other people.
This is about ourselves.
See, we we make a commitment oror we say to God we're not
gonna, or we we say we'll dobetter, and then we don't do
better.
All we're doing is hurtingourselves.
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Sometimes it's anger, it'saddiction, self-negative talk.
How many of us have ever beenthere?
Talk bad about ourselves,self-deprecation, right?
Because it's easy to say I'm notgood enough.
Nobody wants me.
Nobody wants to be my friendbecause I did, because I said,
because somebody heard this,they no longer care for me.
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It's easy to say those things,but it is not true.
Most of the time you say it andyou don't even know the half of
the people who care for you.
You don't you can't even beginto understand.
And why can't you begin tounderstand?
Because the world will convinceyou that you have to live in the
negative.
That's where the world wantsyou.
Because if the world can keepyou there, it can sabotage all
(14:22):
hope for good things in yourlife.
The first step is admitting thatthe struggle is real and that
it's biblical.
Amen.
The first step is admitting thatthe struggle is real, that I
will self-sabotage because thatstruggle is real, and that that
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struggle is biblical.
But we don't just stop there, wedon't admit it and just live
with it.
The second step, and this is themost important, are you ready?
It's repentance.
Do you know how hard that is?
To truly come to the throne ofGod and say, Father, I'm laying
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this down and I'm never gonnapick it up again.
Because oftentimes we pick it upbefore we walk away, right?
But we just carry it in our backpocket for a little while, and
then something happens and wepull it back out, and now it's
our it's our guidebook to lifeagain.
The struggle is real.
We do it to ourselves all thetime.
Listen, I have conversationswith a lot of people and they do
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these things time and timeagain, and I can't understand.
I'm I'm as guilty, but I can'tunderstand how we don't see
God's goodness in all of this.
Because He is giving you theout, He is allowing you to lay
it at the foot of the cross dayin and day out.
You wake up in the morning andyou're carrying it again, lay it
back down at the foot of thecross.
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Sometimes those bad habits arelike a boomerang.
You know, you can throw it realfar, but it ends up coming back.
That's if you know how to throwa boomerang.
I don't.
It just goes somewhere and Idon't ever see it again.
But sometimes when it comesback, we pick it up and we say,
well, then God must have wantedme to learn a lesson from this.
(16:08):
He wants you to learn how to layit down.
That's the lesson, folks.
He wants you to learn how to layit down and walk away.
Lay it down and say, I don'tneed to carry this because the
weight is too heavy for my heartto bear.
The weight is too heavy.
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2 Corinthians 7 10.
It says, for the kind of sorrowGod wants us to experience leads
us away from sin and results ingood, you guys can read.
Turn to your neighbor and say,salvation.
Do you guys know what salvationmeans?
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We're saved, we have everlastinglife, we have eternity in the
presence of our Heavenly Father.
Amen.
The kind of sorrow that Godwants us to experience leads us
away from the sin.
Do you know what sin does?
It leads you to the fieryfurnace of hell.
Amen.
So God is telling us He wants usto experience the kind of sorrow
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that leads us away from hell andinto heaven.
Amen.
There is no regret for that kindof sorrow.
But worldly sorrow, hear me out,which lacks repentance, results
in spiritual death.
Spiritual death.
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Not physical death.
You could live physically for ahundred years and still burn in
hell.
You can live a hundred years andyou can do all the good things.
You can give to all thecharities, you can be nice to
people, you can never say a badword about somebody.
But if you don't have arelationship with Jesus, you
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don't get to go to heaven.
That's it, right?
And I also want to urge you thateverything that you're doing
today, you will answer for atthe judgment seat.
Amen.
Everything that you do today.
So somebody asked me, and thisis a I you guys know I have a
weird group of people, right?
Like you want to know, so I gota guy, right?
(18:20):
I got a guy.
And I had this fellow ElvisTribute artist reach out to me
and he said, Hey, you're apastor, right?
And I'm like, don't know wherethis is going, but yep.
And he said, Can you answer acouple of questions for me?
And I said, Absolutely.
And we started to talk, and westarted to talk about repentance
and what repentance truly meant.
Now, he is Methodist.
And so life is different in theMethodist world than it is in
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the Pentecostal world, right?
And we all believe the samething.
We believe that Jesus Christ areLord and Savior, and that we
don't get to heaven through anyother way but Jesus.
But they read the scripturedifferently than we do.
And so I was telling him, youknow, repentance to me is laying
something down, turning away,and never picking it back up.
That is true repentance.
But true repentance does notcome without trial.
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That when we're laying it downand picking it up, laying it
down and picking it up, we'relearning and giving, right?
We're releasing control.
I saw some grimaces when I saidreleasing control.
That's hard to do.
Amen.
Because I want to control myfinances, I want to control my
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friendship.
I don't want, I don't want totrust anybody else to do those
things for me.
But if you don't truly trust inJesus to cover all of those
things, you will result inspiritual death.
Amen.
Self-sabotage will always blockrepentance.
James 1, 14 and 15.
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It says, temptation comes fromour own desires, which entice us
and drag us away.
These desires give birth tosinful actions, and when sin is
allowed to grow, it gives birthto death.
Can you go back one more for me?
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It says, temptation comes fromour own desires, which entice us
and drag us away.
Leave it there for just asecond.
Temptation comes from our owndesires.
That means each and every one ofus have a different desire,
right?
Some of us want a new car, someof us want a new house, some of
us just want to be loved, right?
The problem is, is in the famouswords of meatloaf, I will do
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anything for love.
But I won't do that.
For those of you who got it,you're welcome.
For those of you who didn't, I'msorry.
The point is, I would doanything to be loved by the
people that are close to me, butI will not go to hell for them.
Amen?
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Amen.
Okay, temptation comes from ourown desires.
Your desire to have more money.
You are tempted to take timeaway from your family and chase
a career that is a dead end.
Amen.
We find the desires of ourheart, and those desires tend to
lead us away from the things ofGod.
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These desires will give birth tosinful actions because you know
people who love money, they findinteresting ways to get it.
Right?
I told you guys a story a coupleof weeks ago about the guy that
robbed the bank, built like thiselaborate treehouse and then
robbed banks, got away with itfor months, and then finally got
caught.
It's mind-blowing to me that hislove for money would lead him to
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such a crime that wouldultimately result in his death,
not both spiritually butphysically.
And now he has to answer forthat at the judgment seat of
God.
The Bible tells us that the loveof money is the root of all
evil.
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Right?
That's hard to deal with becausewe need it to survive, right?
But we don't have to love it andput it as the center of our
lives.
It's the same with all of theother things that you can think
of in your life.
Sometimes it's addiction,sometimes it's uh it's
relationships.
It can be a myriad of things.
The problem is, is we have tounderstand that we cannot put
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them at the center of our life.
Self-sabotage is when thesedesires begin to dominate us,
and when we listen to the liesthat the enemy tells us, like I
will never change.
Have you ever said that toyourself?
I am stuck in this cycle and Iam never going to be able to
change.
This is my life.
It's who I am.
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It's all that I am worth.
I cannot have more.
When you listen to that lie,know that you are
self-sabotaging.
We keep feeding what we shouldbe starving.
Amen.
My wife loves flowerbeds, youguys know that, right?
She waters her flowers anytimeit doesn't rain.
If it goes more than two dayswithout raining, my wife goes
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out and waters all of herflowers.
But you know when she's wateringher flowers, what else she's
watering?
All of those weeds that aregrowing up in that flower bed,
right?
The other day I said to her, Isaid, sweetheart, the flower
beds are getting a little out ofcontrol.
They've got a lot of weeds.
She hit me with a frying pan.
No, I'm just kidding.
She didn't really.
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She said, I know, she said, andit's because I keep watering.
Metaphorically, many of uscontinue to water the weeds in
our lives, right?
We water the plants.
We think when we show up atchurch and we do all of the
things, we're watering theplants, and the plants may be
luscious and beautiful.
But do you remember that parablethat Jesus talked about?
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When the seed is sown, thethorns grow up and they choke it
out, the weeds grow up and theychoke out.
You have to weed the flower bed.
You have to be examining yourheart.
What are the things that Ishould not be feeding?
What are the things that Ishould be starving?
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All right.
You ready?
Blaming others instead of owningour own choices.
Amen.
When we begin to blame othersfor the wrong that's happening
in our lives, rather than takingblame on ourselves, rather than
saying this is me and I need tofix it, we can never find true
(24:35):
repentance.
Listen to me.
I need you to hear me.
Repentance will break thatpattern of self-sabotage.
It cuts off sin at the root.
Amen.
When you truly repent, andrepentance comes with release of
control.
Amen.
When you go to the altar and yousay, Lord, I'm laying this down
at your feet, you are able torelease the control, and
(24:57):
whatever that negative thing isdies at the root.
And then God begins to water thegood things in your life, and
you begin to see this abundanceof fruit grow.
Can I tell you that the fruitdoes not grow on an unhealthy
tree?
You already know that, right?
You ever picked an apple from adead apple tree?
(25:20):
Never.
You know, we used to, as kids,we would we would go on bike
rides as a family, and sometimesyou'd see those uh Granny Smith
apples, those little greenapples laying on the sidewalk.
My dad said, eat one.
I don't care.
No, I mean when they're on theground.
You know what I'm talking about?
They're all brown and mushy.
Well, I thought I was gonna besmart and I tried it.
(25:44):
It was equally as mushy and itwas sour, right?
You cannot get good fruit from abad tree.
Amen.
That means you are not producinggood fruit if you are a bad
tree.
If you are unhealthy, youproduce unhealthy fruit.
There are some people whosefruit is very small, but it's
(26:08):
still edible.
That is better than the peoplewho are producing large fruit
that it's inedible.
You can produce the largest ofthe fruits.
You know, I think about um inthe Bible, it tells us about the
land of milk and honey, and it'stalking about all of this fruit,
and it's so big that they theydidn't know what to do with it.
And that was good fruit, right?
(26:29):
But there are people who growfruit like that that's bad
fruit.
And they carry it with themeverywhere they go, and they go,
but look at my fruit.
And you don't know whether ornot that fruit is good or bad
until you take a bite.
And once you've taken a bite,you're locked in.
Amen.
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I'm in a relationship with thisfruit now, and I don't know how
to get out of it.
It's easy to get out of it.
It's throw the fruit away,right?
It's find a healthy tree to eatfrom.
Stop feeding yourself fromunhealthy places.
It cuts off the root of sinbefore it ever grows into the
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death that we know it will growus into.
God's promise is forgiveness.
Amen.
His promise is forgiveness.
1 John 1:9.
But if we confess our sins tohim, he is faithful and just to
forgive us of our sins and tocleanse us from all wickedness.
(27:33):
But if we confess our sins tohim, not to your neighbor, not
to your friend.
Right?
Listen, I know a lot of you liketo tell me your stuff.
And listen, I love all of you,and I don't mind hearing your
stuff.
But if you're telling me butyou're not telling the Lord, if
you're telling me but you're notbringing it to the altar, you
ain't doing yourself any good.
(27:53):
What change are you making inyour life?
I've told you before, I can'tget you to heaven.
I can't pray you there, I can'tlead you there.
If I make it, you don't get tocome along just because I made
it.
You have to do it too.
There are days that I questionwhether or not that I'll make it
because I say, Lord, I don'tknow how you can forgive this.
(28:14):
Hot mess express coming through.
Choo choo, right?
Every day I know that there isthis mess inside of me, but then
I think his mercies are newevery day.
Every day.
And I wake up and I say, Lord, Iam gonna do better today.
Lord, I am gonna live for youand not for the world.
And uh I was watching this uhum, well, it's it's political,
(28:36):
I'm gonna share it anyway.
One of the one of thecongressmen said, you know, I
wake up first thing in themorning and I want to follow
Jesus.
And by 10 a.m., I want to chokesomebody, but I still want to
follow Jesus, right?
I feel that way sometimes, butthe problem is, is I'm trying to
reduce the amount of times Iwant to choke people.
Because if I do that, then I amliving for Christ and not for
the world, right?
(28:57):
And even if I do want to, I wantto be able to love that person
and say, you know what?
I've answered this question ahundred times and there's no
reason I should answer it again.
But I'm gonna just do it.
Because if God is willing togive me grace and mercy, don't I
have to show it to the rest ofthe world?
Don't I have to give that samegrace and mercy to the rest of
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the world?
Was that did we do Romans 2.12?
Yes, I'm sorry.
No, is that Romans 2?
What are we on?
No, Romans 2.12, sorry.
I don't know where I'm at now.
What am I on?
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Um I I don't know where we'reat.
We're just gonna keep ontrucking, okay?
Roll with me.
God doesn't just forgive you,this is where we were at.
He cleanses you, he wipes theslate clean.
The devil may remind you of yourpast, but God says, This has
been covered in the blood.
Amen.
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Listen, the enemy can remind youof your past.
I've got a past.
I have got a past, and the enemylikes to remind me of that.
He's doing that right now.
He likes to tell you you are notworthy, you do not have, you do
not have position, you don'thave the ability to, and then
God says, but but when I calledyou, when I called You all of
(30:28):
those things were covered in theblood.
When I took you in, when youcame to me, I covered those
things in the blood, and thedevil can remind you, but he
can't take it away.
He cannot take it away.
Whew.
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Romans 12, 2.
She's giving me the one minute.
Don't copy my notes, may havebeen wrong.
Don't copy the behavior andcustoms of this world, but let
God transform you into a newperson by changing the way you
think.
(31:09):
Then, and only then you willlearn to know God's will for
you, which is good and pleasingand perfect.
Okay.
Today, when we repent, we haveto change the way that we think.
We have to change our identity.
It is no longer of the world, itis of Christ.
Amen.
That is a hard one to do.
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You guys ready?
Your habits have to change.
You can't spend time with thepeople you used to spend time
with sometimes.
You can't put yourself in thesame situations you used to put
yourself in.
Because when God transforms you,He transforms everything about
you.
(31:53):
When you are changed from gloryto glory, He changes everything,
not just one thing.
He is not trying to take awaythat one little thing that you
think is holding you up fromsalvation.
He is trying to change yourheart, your disposition, your
mind, your spirit.
He's saying, allow your flesh todie and your spirit to live.
(32:17):
And yet, we only want one littlepeace.
I know that sometimes when Godspeaks to me, I always tell him,
I say always, I don't alwaystell him, but oftentimes I will
tell him, not yet, Lord.
Not yet.
And he'll say to me, Okay,that's fine, but when?
(32:39):
And then I get into this, well,when so and so, or when such and
such, right?
And then that never happens.
And then I go back to God andI'm like, God, why did you never
do that?
You told me, you showed me, wetalked about, and you never did.
And he says, but do you rememberthat you stifled my move?
(33:04):
Do you remember that you told meto wait?
See, God is a gentleman.
He is not going to force hisdesires upon you.
He is going to show you astraight path in a crooked way.
He is going to take whateversituation you're dealing with
and he's going to straighten it,and you're going to be able to
(33:26):
see it, but you have a choice.
And it's the path that is narrowand clear, or the wide path that
ultimately ends up in turmoil.
Amen.
We have to find practical waysto break the cycle of
(33:47):
self-sabotage.
Amen.
And the Bible gives us ways todo that.
First of all, we have to confessour sins honestly, and we have
to stop making excuses.
That's Proverbs 28, 13.
I don't know if we have all ofthese ones up there.
And if not, it's fine.
It is.
People who conceal their sinswill not prosper, but if they
(34:08):
confess and turn from them, theywill receive mercy.
People who conceal their sins.
So that means when you come tothe altar, when you come to the
foot of the cross, when you aregiving God whatever it is, you
can't conceal anything from Him.
Now I want to remind you thatGod knows your heart.
He knows your thoughts.
He already knows, but He'swaiting for you to confess it
(34:31):
unto Him.
If you hide it, you will notprosper.
If you confess it, then you willreceive mercy.
Cut off what feeds the sin.
That seems easy, right?
Cut off whatever is feeding thesin.
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Jesus said, if your hand causesyou to sin, cut it off.
Right?
Now that's wild thought.
I don't see many of us out therewith machetes whacking off
limbs, right?
It's not necessarily physical.
This is spiritual.
When you have something that iscausing you to sin, if you are
(35:16):
tripped up because you are doingthings and being around people
and acting a certain way,because you've put yourself in
social situations, you have tocut yourself off from those
social situations.
Amen.
You can't continue in thembecause if you continue in them,
you will continue in a life ofsin.
He's showing the seriousness ofremoving stumbling blocks from
our lives.
(35:37):
Right?
The stumbling blocks that stopus from entering into the
promised paradise.
Amen?
Why would we want to miss out onthat?
Why would you want to miss outon a guaranteed paradise for
worldly or fleshly desires?
(35:59):
Replace those desires, replacethose those sins or those
thoughts with God's word.
Psalms 119.
It says, I have hidden your wordin my heart that I might not sin
against you.
And we often talk, I used totell people, and I don't hate me
(36:19):
for this, umbrella of grace.
You don't have to memorizescripture as long as you're in
the word.
I'm gonna tell you, I've changedmy tune on that.
I'm gonna be a politician for aminute, okay?
I'm gonna flip-flop on you.
If you don't etch the word uponyour heart, you don't get
anything from it.
You can read it and read words.
There are people every day whosay, I read my Bible every day.
(36:42):
I read 12 chapters a day.
But you learn nothing from thatreading, right?
And there are some people whoread who it takes them three
years to read the Bible fromcover to cover, but when they
get to the end, they'retransformed, changed, made new.
Amen.
Listen, let me tell you, onepassage a day will get you
(37:03):
somewhere if your heart is inreading that passage.
If you're checking off a box, Ipromise you, you are not going
to experience transformation.
You are not going to experiencechange.
You are not going to experiencethe goodness of God.
You are going to experienceselfishness, self-loathing.
(37:26):
All of the things that we'vetalked about, those are the
things that you will experience,and you will blame God for them
because you have not done whatyou have committed to doing.
Stay accountable.
This is a big one for me.
I like accountability partners.
Fortunately, I married one.
My wife said to me the otherday, she goes, You know, I'll
(37:46):
never lie for you, right?
She told my kids one time, ifyou do something wrong and the
cops show up here for you, I'mturning you in.
She won't lie for anybody.
It's not who my wife is.
She is, my wife is probably oneof the most honest people I've
she won't even lie to me aboutChristmas presents.
(38:07):
Right?
It's just not who she is, it'snot how she's wired.
She doesn't believe that it'sfruitful in any way.
And I'm thankful for thatbecause that means when I say to
her, hey, how was my messagetoday?
She has three answers.
Right?
None of them are bad.
But if she says it was good, I'mlike, okay, it was subpar.
(38:27):
It was just, it was, it barelymade the it barely made the
mark, right?
And I know that about my wife,but she would never tell me you
didn't do a good job, or youdidn't, you didn't preach with
fire, you didn't bring theanointing.
And the reason that she doesthat is because she knows that
message spoke to someone.
Right?
The challenge is, was itgrounded and rooted in the word
(38:49):
of God the way that it shouldhave been?
See, my wife doesn't play gameswith me.
So when I do something that shedoesn't like, she's gonna let me
know.
I've told you guys this, andI'll tell you, this is it's
still something that I carrywith me regularly.
One year early on in ourmarriage, I asked my wife for
Christmas.
She said, What do you want forChristmas?
And I didn't want anything.
That's not true.
(39:10):
I always want something, but itwasn't anything we could afford.
And I said to her, I said, Youmake me a list of everything
that I do in our marriage thatis not fruitful to our marriage.
And on Christmas morning, I wokeup to that list.
It was the hardest thing I'veever read in my life.
The absolute hardest.
I mean, somebody said that wasreally brave of you to ask.
(39:32):
No, it was stupid.
Hear me out.
It was stupid because I knewwhat should be in the letter,
right?
I knew all of the things that Iknew what I was doing.
But I wanted to know if sheknew.
She knew.
She did.
And she wrote them down.
And I look at that, I keep thatlist in the top drawer of my
(39:54):
dresser, and every once in awhile I'll pull it out and I
will look through it and makesure that I am not doing any of
those things any longer.
And do you know why I did it?
Do you know why I was able tomake the change?
Because I laid it at the foot ofthe cross.
I said, God, the things that Iam doing are not fruitful to my
marriage.
That means they are not fruitfulto a covenant that I made with
(40:14):
you.
Lord, I made this agreement inyour name that I would do all of
the best things that I could tocare for this woman who is your
daughter.
Listen, I'll answer to a lot offleshly fathers, but I will not
answer to my heavenly father fortreating somebody poorly.
(40:37):
That's why I won't do it.
Because if I do it, it is notgoing to end well for me.
Amen.
And my wife keeps me accountablein all of the things that I do.
James 5, 16, it says, confessyour sins to each other and pray
for each other so that you maybe healed.
The earnest prayer of arighteous person has great power
(40:59):
and produces wonderful results.
Now, I know that this mightsound counterintuitive, one of
the scriptures that we uhpreached just a few minutes ago.
Confess your sins to each otherand pray for each other.
This is not just go talk aboutit.
Right?
This is when we're up here inprayer.
And you're saying, I'mstruggling with this.
(41:19):
And Pastor Holly's saying, Whatcan I pray for you for?
This is a time to say that.
It is not the time to say thaton the phone, Bluetooth, with
six other people in the car.
Right?
That's not the time.
Because now we're we're runningourselves into the ground.
And did you know that peoplewill think about you what you
think about yourself?
Because you'll say it out loudso often.
(41:43):
Well, I don't think that I'm avery good friend.
And pretty soon you're not avery good friend.
Right?
That's not how we need to be.
We need to speak the good andthe positive things into our
lives.
Stay accountable.
Find somebody in your life whosimply will not take your stuff.
I have been blessed with a lotof those people.
Florence was wonderful at that.
(42:06):
I tell a story real quick.
Margie and Nick aren't here,that's unfortunate.
Uh, when Margie and Nick gotmarried, Florence was marrying
them, and I was uh helping withtheir technology, and we had
scheduled the rehearsal, and Ihad forgotten.
Now I want to be clear, I was ababy Christian at the time.
Okay.
And Margie called me on thephone and she said, Hey, uh, are
(42:30):
you on your way?
She's like, We want to getstarted.
And I said, on my way, and shesaid, Yeah, for the rehearsal.
And I said, Oh, expletive, fillin the blank.
And I'll tell you it wasn't theS one, it was a bigger one.
Little did I know I was onspeakerphone.
And Florence was standing rightthere.
(42:51):
The audible gasp that she made.
Margie said the look on her facewas terrifying.
And I remember when I walkedthrough the door for that
service, she didn't say a word.
And I remember at the end I waslike, all right, prepare
(43:12):
yourself because you're about toget it.
And she never said a word.
I she never mentioned it to meever.
But she didn't have to.
Because I knew.
And I knew that I let her down,and I knew that what I had done
was not a godly thing.
I didn't need her to punish me.
(43:33):
I didn't need her to belittle mebecause God convicted me very
quickly.
The cross will break everycycle.
Romans 7, 24, 25.
It says, Oh, what a miserableperson I am.
(43:53):
Who will free me from this lifethat is dominated by sin and
death?
Stop for a second.
Oh, what a miserable person Iam.
Are any of us miserable today?
Thank you, Dale.
Buddy, this was just for me andyou today, okay?
It was just for me and you.
And I am a miserable person, notnecessarily to myself, but I can
(44:16):
be miserable to other people.
Some of you look at me and go,he is a miserable person.
And some of you are like, Iwouldn't say it to his face, but
since he mentioned it, what amiserable person I am.
Who will free me from this lifethat is dominated by sin and
death?
I ask myself all the time, howdo I get free from this life
dominated by sin and by death?
(44:38):
And it says, Thank God.
The answer is in Jesus Christour Lord.
So you see, it is in my mind, Ireally want to obey God's law,
but because of my sinful nature,I am a slave unto sin.
Amen.
Now listen, the answer is notyour willpower.
(45:05):
Hear me.
Open your ears real quick.
If you hear nothing else today,it is not about willpower.
You don't save yourself from sinthrough sheer willpower.
The answer is Jesus.
At the cross, he broke all powerof sin.
(45:29):
When that veil was torn, allbets were off for sin.
It is finished, included yoursin.
Your sins are covered by theblood of Jesus Christ.
The problem is, you have to takeit seriously.
You have to understand what thatactually means in your life.
(45:51):
That means that I should not goon sinning.
If Jesus was willing to go tothe cross for my sins, I should
be willing to give up somethingso silly as smoking cigarettes
or talking bad about people.
So that I can honor what God hasdone for me through his son,
Jesus Christ.
Today, if you're stuck inself-sabotage, the call is
(46:13):
simple.
I want you to repent and befree.
Repent and be free.
Don't be ashamed.
Don't let shame hold you backfrom what it is that God wants
to do in your life.
Be willing and ready to run toJesus.
(46:34):
It is time for the church tostop self-sabotaging.
It is time for the church toknow what it means to truly be
saved and to repent.
Some of us will keep living inthat cycle of sin, waiting for
Jesus to break the chains, butJesus won't break the chains
(46:55):
until you surrender.
Jesus will not break the chainuntil you surrender.
Or if you are ready to walk infreedom, I want to invite you to
repent today.
We're going to place some music.
We're going to open the altarfor just a minute.
Now I'm going to do this beforewe do communion, and here's the
reason.
Because we know that in thischurch there is no uh membership
restriction on communion.
(47:16):
I don't restrict communion inany way.
If you are a member of the bodyof Christ, then you belong here
with us.
Amen?
You are welcome here.
However, if your heart is not inthe right place to take
communion, if you are living insin, if you are doing things
that are against the will of Godand knowingly living outside of
the will of God, the Bible tellsus that it is worse for you to
(47:37):
take communion than it is foryou to just sit out.
Nobody's gonna judge you if youdon't get out of your seat
today.
Nobody in here cares.
I don't know your life.
All I know is that you have aright and the ability to be free
from that sin today.
So we're gonna start with analtar call.
(48:00):
Immediately following the altarcall, we're gonna go into
communion, and what we'll do iswe'll just have everybody go
back to their seat after thealtar call, and we'll do
communion just like we alwaysdo.
We'll start on this side, you'llmake your way up, go back to
your seat, hold your communion,we'll take it together at the
end, okay?
Everybody good?
So I'm gonna pray real quick andthen we're gonna start uh start
that altar call.
Heavenly Father, I just thankyou, Lord, and I praise you for
(48:21):
being in this house today, Lord,and for giving us a desire to
repent of the sins that areovertaking our lives, Lord, that
we might be able to walk awayfrom the self-sabotage that we
have created in our lives.
Lord, that we may be able tolook to you, that we may be able
to focus our eyes on you andlift you up today, Father God,
(48:43):
that we may be able to exalt youby laying down our flesh and
living in the spirit.
Father, I thank you forrepentant hearts in this house.
I believe that breakthrough iscoming in the mighty name of
Jesus.
Lives are being changed today,Father God.
People are being made new.
(49:05):
Lord, I just thank you for that.
Bless us as we move from ourseats to the altar, Father.
Move upon our hearts in themighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
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