November 24, 2025 • 42 mins
*Special Episode* Outside of Sunday Women's Retreat --Part 2 of 2--
I was blessed to share at the Outside of Sunday Retreat in Spring 2025, here is the second recording. Check out Christa Otter's ministry at Outside of Sunday Podcast | Christian
Where do you go when shame lingers and bitterness starts to feel justified? We open 1 John and Matthew 11 to find a path out of the dark and into a life marked by confession, courage, and a surprising kind of rest. I share how keeping short accounts with God lifts the labels we wear, restores joy, and makes space for the Spirit to do the work we can’t force on our own.
We explore why John holds truth and love together—and what goes wrong when we tear them apart. You’ll hear how the Holy Spirit reframes failure, why hatred blinds even when we feel “right,” and how choosing love for a difficult person can actually remove a stumbling block from your own path. This isn’t about pretending pain away; it’s about bringing the raw story into the light so Jesus can carry the weight. Along the way, we talk practical steps: pausing to confess quickly, journaling what the Spirit surfaces, asking a friend to pray, and taking one hidden action of love where resentment wants the last word.
Jesus’ invitation anchors the journey: come, take my yoke, learn from me. If your faith feels heavy, it may be a sign you’re pulling loads he never asked you to carry—image, control, old wounds, quiet grudges. The gentle and lowly heart of Christ meets you there and leads you back to lighted ground. Listen for a fresh vision of grace, biblical clarity on walking as Jesus walked, and a hopeful way to face the people and places that stretch you.
If this message helps you breathe easier, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a quick review to help others find their way back to the light.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:19):
Kiora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for
women to be encouraged by God'sholy word.
I'm your host, Julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Good job, guys.
Look at you all sitting down.
(00:40):
Without even a worship leaderplaying a guitar, you know?
And they're like, time to sitdown.
All right.
So I'm just gonna pray.
We're gonna get into it.
God, we thank you again forthis amazing day, for this
(01:03):
opportunity to fellowship, tohear your word, Lord, to
experience conviction andencouragement and love in the
body of Christ.
God, we're just so blessed tobe here and to be in your word.
Lord, I pray as we just enterinto this new time of looking at
your word and hearing yourvoice, God, would you bring your
conviction to our hearts?
(01:25):
Would you bring your truth andyour encouragement to our
hearts?
God, I pray that you would helpus to be completely open to
what you would want to saytoday.
Lord, that none of us wouldhide from you, that none of us
would feel condemned, Lord, butwe would all feel welcomed by
your grace and your love andyour heart for us, God, because
it is just so big and burstingwith love.
(01:46):
Lord, we don't want to think ofyou any other way.
So we pray that you would justhold us.
Lord, we're weak and we getsidetracked and we get um tired
and distracted, but I pray thatyou would hold us together today
so that we might hear what youhave to say to us today.
We love you, Jesus.
We pray you'd be with us.
Amen.
All right.
(02:14):
So we are actually just gonnacontinue with the book of 1
John.
Because honestly, I was like, Ican't stop.
I love this book.
I wish I had enough time to gothrough all five chapters.
I won't.
I won't do that.
Um, but again, such is such agood book.
So we're just gonna kind ofpick up right where we were.
Um, so if you want to turn tothe book of 1 John, again, it's
(02:36):
at the end of your Bible.
So we left off uh in verse 9.
It says, if we confess oursins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and cleanseus from all unrighteousness.
So remember, we were talkingabout keeping short accounts
(02:56):
with God, learning to confessour sins quickly, learning to
let the Holy Spirit convict usimmediately.
Instead of prolonging the voiceof the Spirit, we want to
embrace the voice of the Spirit.
Um, I was talking with Teklaactually after the session, and
(03:16):
we were talking about how whenyou get into the habit of
keeping short accounts with theLord and very quickly noticing
sin and giving it to Him, itdoes a couple of things for you.
One, it lifts the veil of shamebecause you realize how broken
you are, and you agree with whatthe word says.
So I am broken, I'minsufficient, and I still need
(03:37):
Jesus.
I still need the blood of Jesusevery single day.
I didn't just need it once atCalvary to cleanse me from my
sin.
I need it every day.
So it takes that shame awaybecause that is Satan's goal is
to come in and clothe you inshame so you stay in the dark
and you stay condemned and youstay feeling guilty.
(03:59):
I was I had a professor inBible college say to me once,
there's no such thing, thereshould be no such thing as a
guilty Christian.
And I thought, oh my goodness,because I say that all the time.
It's like, oh, I just feelguilty.
He's like, there should be noguilt because Jesus paid for
your sin and shame and took yourguilt.
So if you're feeling guilt,it's not from him.
Because Satan loves to come inand condemn us.
(04:23):
He likes to tell you thatyou're not enough, that you
haven't grown, that you'll neverbe able to match up what the
word says, you're not as good asher.
That's the voice of Satan thatpushes you away from God.
But the conviction of the HolySpirit is like a warm embrace
where you know that he's gotyou.
Even though you're messed up,even though you're broken, even
though you've just donesomething really dumb, he
(04:45):
embraces you.
That's and it drives youtowards God because it shows
your heart, Lord, I do need you.
I do need you every minute.
And a lot of times it ends inpraise.
Because you come to him broken,he embraces you, you leave your
sin with him, and then you'relike, wow, praise God, because
you're free.
You're free afresh.
The shame doesn't come for you.
Now you're walking again in thelight.
(05:08):
And how essential and importantthis is in our lives, I cannot
overstate.
Because so, back to ourconversation, we were talking
about how that shame is lifted.
The other thing that it doeswhen you keep short accounts
with God is it doesn't becomeyour defining thing.
You don't become like, youknow, the person who's full of
(05:28):
pride or the angry person or theperson, because I feel like a
lot of times we want to put thatlabel as like, oh, I'm really
this or that.
But God doesn't do that.
And I think when you confessthose sins, it takes that label
off.
And you're like, yeah, Istruggle with that, but I keep
giving it to Jesus, so it's notwho I am.
And we need to know thatbecause I think a lot of times
we wear our sins and we defineourselves by our worst moments.
(05:52):
And God doesn't do that.
Other people do that, right?
We love to remember the worstthing that this person did to us
and talk about it, and that'show we think of them.
But God's the exact opposite.
He doesn't, he doesn't defineyou by your worst moment.
So this keeping short accounts,this confession that he's
talking about, it shows us againand again that Jesus is
(06:15):
faithful.
He will not leave you, he willnot forsake you.
He wants to come and wrap hisarms around you and say, I've
got you.
I know this is hard.
Let's do better.
And you can walk forward.
But it gets harder the longeryou wait.
The longer you sit in your sin,or the longer you sit in
whatever mentality you have.
A lot of times when we'rewronged, this happens.
(06:38):
When somebody hurts us, we liketo hold on to that.
And this person did it and itwas not right.
And you see, we get stuck inthat, don't we?
And you can very easily getbitter and think that wasn't
right, it wasn't right, itwasn't right, and you're right,
it wasn't right.
We're in a fallen world and weget wounded.
You have to be able to bringthat to Jesus too, and say, God,
(06:58):
I am hurt and I want to hold onto this, and I want to go and
strangle this person for whatthey did to me.
But that's not the heart of Godfor them.
And you need to confess yourunforgiveness.
You need to confess your heartthat's holding on to something.
Because Jesus doesn't do that.
He doesn't do that to you.
This is so important for ourwalk with God.
(07:20):
It's really, really hard tohave an abundant walk when
you're still holding on to yoursin or your unforgiveness, and
we're not walking in thefullness of the counsel of God
because it consistently tells uswalk in the light, put off the
works of the flesh.
This is where we need to start.
This constant state ofbrokenness.
But you know what's beautifulabout being broken?
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There's so many cracks for Godto fill.
Because you can't accomplishthings on your own.
And you really realize that is,Lord, I really can't love this
person.
I can't do it.
This person is so unlovable, Ican't.
I don't have it in me.
Everything they say bothers me,you know?
We have those people in ourlives.
That gives God an opportunity.
He's like, You can't, but Ican.
(08:05):
So come before me and confessthat and say, God, I don't know
how to love this person, andstart praying for them and
pressing into Jesus.
He will fill you up.
It takes time, it takesconsistency, and it also takes a
lot of humility.
But that's the path that Godhas for us to walk.
And everything else, all of theother spiritual disciplines
flow out of that.
(08:26):
Your prayer life will now beexpanded because you're coming
to God with a clean heart.
Your service will now beexpanded because he's pulling
out all of those roots inside ofyou that were not really great
in the first place.
Because I think even when weserve God, we can come to him
with a heart that is dirty,you're doing it for the wrong
reason.
I hope so-and-so sees me.
(08:46):
They don't really know whatthat, you know, we get we get
mixed up in things, but when weconfess into God and move
forward, all of a sudden nowyour ministry is expanded.
The way that you can love yourfamily is expanded.
God just expands everythingbecause now you're working from
a place of brokenness, knowingthat you're gonna fail and
you're gonna be weak, but he'sgot you.
Instead of thinking, I've gotthis, I'm gonna do better.
(09:09):
It's no, he's got this and he'sgonna do it through me.
And that is the that is theshift.
Because I know we all we're alldifferent, right?
But I tend to be that like,okay, I'm gonna do better, I'm
gonna wake up earlier, I'm gonnamake a list, I'm gonna, you
know, and I like to feel likeI'm in control.
But I feel like the longer thatI walk with the Lord, the more
he's like, let go, girl.
(09:30):
Like, yes, be disciplined, yes,chase after my face, but like
be broken because you're gonnamess up.
I can condemn myself a wholelot and be like, oh, you should
have done better.
You know, especially like, Godforbid you have to stand on a
stage like this and put amicrophone and say these things.
Because guess what?
Tomorrow I'm gonna make amistake, and Satan's gonna be
like, see.
And that's God doesn't wantthat for us.
(09:52):
He wants you to walk in thefullness of your calling without
the condemnation that Satanwants to drag you into.
And that is why these versesare so essential, they are
vital, and we can't move pastthem until we really get it.
We have to sink into thisthought, it has to be the roots.
So, really walking with ourSavior, it requires us to die
(10:16):
over and over and over again.
And that's the taking up yourcross and following Him.
The cross is an implement ofdeath.
Take up your implement of deathand continue to follow Jesus
because your flesh needs to die,but it will go down fighting.
But that's what Jesus meanswhen he says, take up your
(10:37):
cross.
This is what you need to do tofollow Christ is to continue to
be broken, continue to allow himto speak into your life.
But brokenness is what Jesusworks with.
He didn't, you know, the peoplethat he got angry with, the
people that Jesus spokeaggressively against were the
Pharisees, the lawkeepers, thepeople that had all the rules,
the religious folk that like topoint the finger at other people
(10:59):
and condemn them, and like to,you know, tithe while everybody
was watching, you know, droppingtheir coins like from a high
distance to drop into theoffering box.
These are the people that Jesuswas enraged against because
they ticked all the boxes andthey did all the right things on
the outside, but their heartswere unclean.
He says that they were full ofdead men's bones.
(11:19):
That's what Jesus said to thePharisees, that they were
whitewashed tombs.
They look great on the outside,but you're full of death.
We can be full of death, I canbe full of death, and think that
I love Jesus and think I'mfollowing him, but my heart can
be a mess.
If we stay broken, if we keepshort accounts with God, it
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keeps us from this.
Because every time that youwant to give so somebody else
watches, the Holy Spirit's like,oh Lord, okay, I'm not gonna
give until I can do it in theright spirit, and then you sit
on it until you can give so yourright hand doesn't know what
your left hand is doing, untilyou can serve, not so anybody
sees you, not so somebody thinksyou're such a good Christian,
(12:03):
but so Jesus is pleased, and youdo it from a passion and a joy
for him, and not because you'retrying to earn your salvation.
It is our hearts, they aredeceitfully wicked, they need to
be continually cleansed andbrought to Jesus.
We need the blood of Jesusevery single day.
It doesn't matter how longyou've been walking with him.
(12:23):
The apostle John had beenwalking with Jesus literally and
then figuratively for a longtime, and he is still saying the
same stuff.
He's still talking about sinand he's still talking about
love.
That's the path that we have tofollow.
So I brought this book upbecause I mentioned it before.
It's called Calvary Road.
(12:44):
If you want to look at it, I'vegot it up here.
Yeah.
A lot of us have like reallyloved this book, but I read it
fresh, and it was like fresh andnew to me.
Um, one of the quotes that hehas in this book says this He
was an English evangelist fromthe mid-1900s.
He wrote this book, and theLord taught him like a whole new
(13:05):
revival.
He was an evangelist that kindof like lost his steam and was
still doing evangelism, butthere was no spirit, and he was
like, There's no power anymorein this, like, what's happened?
And God breathed all this likewisdom into him about returning
to these things, and he wrotethis book as a result.
So this is something he said onpage 34.
He says, People imagine thatdying to self makes one
(13:27):
miserable, but it is just theopposite.
It is the refusal to die toself that makes us miserable.
The more we know of death inhim, the more we shall know of
his life in us, and so the moreof real peace and real joy.
And isn't that the way?
We think that dying to selfsounds terrible, and we avoid it
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and we try and hide, and we'remiserable.
We're miserable.
We might be able to fake it fora little while, but on the
inside, if you really ask us, wefeel hollow.
How can we feel hollow when weknow to have the Holy Spirit?
We get mixed up.
That's why we need thesethings.
We need the cross over and overagain.
And a lot of this can soundoverwhelming.
(14:13):
It can be like, I can't dothis.
You're right, you can't.
But Jesus can, and the HolySpirit can.
And that's the beauty of thegospel is God tells us you all
can't.
We can't.
We can't keep the law.
We can't be perfect, we can'tset all these um, you know,
standards and meet them.
We can't, we're gonna fail.
(14:33):
But that's why Jesus did in ourplace, and he comes to empower
us to walk in his will.
So back to the book of 1 John.
Okay, 1 John chapter 1, we'regonna start in verse 10 and read
a little bit more.
If we say that we have notsinned, we make him, we're
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making Jesus, a liar, and hisword isn't in us.
So there's the humility, truehumility, knowing that you're a
sinner still.
And then he says, My littlechildren, can you imagine
Grandpappy John saying thesethings?
My little children, thesethings I write to you so that
you may not sin.
And if anyone sins, we have anadvocate with the Father, Jesus
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Christ, the righteous.
And he himself is thepropitiation, the sacrifice for
our sins, and not for ours only,but for the whole world.
Jesus asks for our surrender,but he promises to do the work.
That that is the beautifulbackwards nature of the of the
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gospel.
It is so simple, a child canunderstand it, but we complicate
it over and over again,especially as adults.
We grow up and we're like, itcouldn't be that easy to just
believe and repent, and thenJesus like offers you
forgiveness.
And we get really confusedabout like we complicate it for
ourselves and think, oh, well,we also have to do this and this
and this.
That's not what the word says.
(16:01):
And I love, I love how he says,little children.
I can just see him thinking,like, please listen to me,
please listen to me, children.
These things I write to you sothat you may not sin.
He's saying this keeping shortaccounts with God will keep you
from sinning because you'regonna constantly be convicted.
But if anyone does sin, we havean advocate.
(16:24):
And I love when they use theword advocate for the Holy
Spirit because it gives me acourtroom scene and I can
understand it.
You know, where you're the onethat has done the crime, you're
on trial, and the Holy Spirit isyour lawyer.
He's your advocate.
He's the one is standingbetween you and judgment.
And he will advocate for you.
That's the beauty.
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We don't stand alone.
We don't stand alone in oursin.
We don't stand alone under theblanket.
Holy Spirit is there ready toadvocate for us.
And then it says, and then hegives us the gospel again
because we need it again.
Uh he says, Jesus Christ therighteous, he himself, Jesus
Himself in his body is thepropitiation for our sins.
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He paid the price, and not onlyours, but for the whole world.
We need to be honest, we needto be humble and surrendered.
That's our job.
We have to come before God as ahot mess, and then he works on
us and he does the work.
He does the work in us.
So the question is why do wefight him?
(17:29):
Why?
Why do we fight him?
He wants to do good things inus and we fight him and resist
him constantly.
Why do we hold on to our sin?
Why do we hold on to our prideand our possessions or our
reputation or our money or ourtime or our self-image?
We hold on to it.
We're gonna guard them veryjealously, right?
(17:51):
But God says, You need torelease all that into my hands.
Give it back to me.
Then we're gonna read some morein 1 John.
Uh it says in verse 3, chapter2, verse 3, now by this we know
that we know him, if we keep hiscommands.
He who says, I know him, butdoes not keep his commands is a
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liar, and the truth is not inhim.
Again, that's like a take astep back kind of verse, right?
You're like, whoa, John's likethrowing heat when he's writing
this book.
But do you see how he weaves itback and forth between if you
walk in the light, you'll bechildren of light, you won't
sin, and if you do sin, you havean advocate, you have Jesus
Christ.
He's he's like making a cycleof you have God who stands in
(18:37):
the gap, but you have to hold onto him.
But if you sin, and he kind ofkeeps going around and around,
and he's saying the same thingsover and over again, and he
keeps bringing us back toChrist.
He keeps bringing us back tothe cross every time.
He doesn't leave us as a liarwho doesn't have any truth.
If you took this verse out ofcontext and just wanted to teach
on this one verse, you coulddestroy a whole church.
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You could destroy the salvationof thousands of millions of
people.
And that is that is one of thebenefits of reading the entire
Bible and not just picking outlittle chunks of scripture.
Because if you are not familiarwith the whole council of God,
you can get derailed reallyeasily because you have to
understand the context of thebook, why it was written, who it
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was written, what it says, notin just this one section, but
the whole thing.
So we as believers, we need toget back to a really rich Bible
literacy.
This is something that we'reresponsible for because you know
what?
The next time somebody postslike a 30-second video on this
one verse saying how you're likewalking in darkness and you're
just like, oh my gosh, thisperson says I'm condemned.
(19:38):
Am I condemned?
And it like spins you out.
You can go back to the word andbe like, let's read before and
after that verse.
Let's see what it actually saysin this section.
This is a very good case ofthat.
Because you see what John isdoing, who's known as the
Apostle of Love, and you want topull this out and just say,
like, oh, you don't know him andyou're walking in darkness and
you're a liar.
Well, let's keep reading.
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In verse 5, he says, But, ifyou didn't read this, you'd
never know was there.
But whoever keeps his word,truly the love of God is
perfected in him.
By this we know that we are inhim.
He who says that he abides inhim ought himself to walk just
as he walked.
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So again, he's setting thissuper high bar.
Like, okay, you want to callyourself a Christian, walk like
Jesus.
You know, and we're like, ah.
But remember before that hesaid, when you do sin, you have
an advocate, the Holy Spirit whowill undergird you and allow
you to walk.
So it's it's a process wherethese two truths are both true
and they're holding hands.
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So don't separate them, becauseI've heard a lot of people spin
false doctrine separating thesetwo things.
So it's it's either a whole lotof love and no truth, or all
truth and no love.
But here John is putting themtogether.
So this is the beauty, this isthe beauty of this book.
Then in verse 7, he says,Brethren, I write no new
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commandment to you.
So he's saying, you guys knowthis, but an old commandment,
which you've had from thebeginning.
The old commandment is the wordwhich you heard from the
beginning.
So he's saying, You know thegospel, you know Jesus, you know
the truth, but I'm remindingyou, because you need to know
again.
Again, a new commandment Iwrite to you, which thing is
true in him and in you, becausethe darkness is passing away and
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the light is already shining,not is going to shine, but the
light's already shining.
The hope is already here.
Now, here's the next thing.
He who says that he is in thelight and hates his brother is
in darkness until now.
That's a hard one to swallow,too.
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Because now he's starting toget into the nitty-gritty of it,
right?
So he talks top level aboutyour salvation and what your
walk with God looks like, andhe's now coming down a little
bit.
Like, well, if you hate yourbrother, you're also not walking
in light.
And how many of us havestruggled with holding
bitterness against somebody elseor really, really hating
someone, right?
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It's it's very easy becausewe're fallen and we hurt each
other.
Now, John's saying that if youhate your brother, you're not
walking in the light.
So, really good indication.
If you have some sort ofunforgiveness, if you have some
bitterness in your heart, youneed to give that to God.
Because if you're holding on toit and not surrendering it,
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it's going to keep you from allof this good life that he's
talking about.
And I think this is probablyone of the number one ways that
we get stuck is we don't loveour brother.
And we don't love the personthat's difficult.
We keep them at arm's lengthand we avoid them and we like to
talk about them and maybe justlike influence our friends just
a little bit to not like themtoo.
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And don't we do that?
That's walking in darkness.
That's like, okay, I'm justgonna hide again.
I'm gonna go under the cover ofdarkness, and I'm not gonna
stretch out my hand to love thisperson.
And that is really hard.
But you know what?
It's interesting in this book,in this Calvary Road book, he
talks about how God specificallyputs those people in your life
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to chastise you, to change you.
We always want to think, oh, ifonly they could change this and
stop doing that, then maybe.
And God's looking right at yousaying, you know what, babe, we
gotta change some stuff.
Because he sent that person tochastise you so that you could
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be corrected.
And you think, oh, I'm nothinglike them, I don't do that.
Well, have you brought that tothe Lord?
And said, God, what are youtrying to teach me through this?
We don't like to do thatbecause we like to tell the
Lord, make that person suffer.
Keep them at arm's length,Lord, just help them move.
Not just out of my line ofsight.
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But God says, I brought thatperson into your sphere so you
could learn.
I brought that person into yourchurch, into your workplace,
into your friend group, intoyour mommy and me playdate.
I brought that person into yourlife so that you could be
better.
But we don't see it like that.
We think, ugh, if she's gonnabe there, no thanks.
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And God's like, oh, you'remissing out on all the
opportunities to grow.
But again, we love to runbecause we think we know what's
best for us, but God's the onewho really does.
And honestly, if we think aboutit, it's all the way back to
the garden.
You had Adam and Eve, and Godjust said, look at this
beautiful, all these beautifulthings I've given you.
You can eat anything, there'sall these amazing animals, and
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you don't even have to work.
No pain having babies then.
You know, really good life.
He's like, just don't eat fromthis tree.
And Eve's like, I don't know ifGod has my best at heart.
And I think I'm just gonna try.
Don't we do that all the time?
God's like, the lot that I havegiven you, your life is what
I've given you.
Trust me with it.
And we're like, but what aboutthat?
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I think I want that instead.
And we don't want to trust himwith it.
We don't want to walk in thehard things.
We don't want to exerciseforgiveness, we don't want to be
next to the person that bothersus.
But God's like, go be next toher.
Go love her, go put your armaround her, man.
Pray for her.
What's going on in her lifethat she's got?
What kind of wounds and traumais she dealing with?
(25:22):
What kind of people have hurther in the past?
Maybe you can be anencouragement.
Maybe you could be a light.
Maybe you could be a healingbalm instead of somebody that
carries gossip on their tongueand tears that person down more.
But I think, again, John's likedigging.
He's like digging deep, right?
Because this is reallydifficult in real life for us to
(25:43):
do.
And we're avoiders.
We love to just avoid thedifficult things.
Can I just walk across theother street?
But John says that if you hateyour brother, you're not abiding
in the light.
So again, it's like the powerof the word of God as we read
through it, right?
Just continues to point out thethings in our heart that we
need to change.
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We need to journal.
We need to confess.
We need to pray about, we needto ask somebody to pray with us.
Like these are the things weneed to do.
Deep, deep work inside of ourheart.
So in chapter two, uh verse 10,he who loves his brother abides
in the light.
That's where he lives.
He abides in the light.
And there is no cause forstumbling in him.
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I love that.
Because it says, if you'regonna go the extra mile to love
your brother, which is hard,love a difficult person, it
says, what's gonna happen?
There's no cause for stumbling.
You have now removed astumbling block from your life
by choosing love instead ofjudgment.
That is the that is the powerof God because the world doesn't
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do that.
The world avoids, the worldholds grudges, but Jesus says,
press in and love.
And he says, when you do that,then you'll avoid stumbling and
you're gonna walk in the light.
Verse 11.
But he who hates his brother isin darkness and walks in
darkness and does not know wherehe is going, because the
(27:13):
darkness has blinded his eyes.
This is what it is like to notlove everyone, which is a really
tall order again.
But that's why we have anadvocate.
Remember, this is not all onour shoulders, because I know
you're thinking about thatperson, and thinking, especially
if it's like a family memberthat's been in your life like
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your whole life, you're like,but not that person.
But the word tells us here thatif you're holding that hate
towards the person, you'rewalking in darkness and you
don't know where you're going.
That's terrifying because youthink you do know where you're
going, don't you?
You wake up every day and youdo your life, but the word says
you don't know where you'regoing.
(27:55):
You've lost your way, you areoff the path, and now you're
walking in darkness, and youthought that you came with no
sin, and you thought that youwere doing fine, but yet you're
lacking the abundance, andthere's no fruit, and there's no
power, and there's no love, andyou don't know why.
This could be it.
Because you're walking indarkness because you're holding
hatred towards somebody else.
(28:16):
And the word lays it out soclearly for us, and yet we don't
want to look at it.
I don't want to think about it,I don't want to take it that
seriously.
But this is the truth.
And remember the beginning ofthis book, John says the reason
that he's telling us thesethings is so we can walk in joy
and fellowship with God and bein the light.
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And we all decided that's wherewe really want to be, right?
We don't want to walk indarkness.
We want to be on his path.
We got to do it his way.
I want to know where I'm going.
If you, if you, like I said, ifyou're out in the middle of the
field in the middle of the darkand you just start walking, no
torch, nothing, pitch black,you're gonna fall in a hole,
you're gonna twist your ankle,you're gonna walk into a pole
(28:59):
and a tree, you might step on apossum, like stuff's gonna
happen.
And this is what happens in ourlife.
And doesn't it become like adownhill fall when you start to
hold bitterness against somebodywhere everything seems like
it's against you?
Like, and then work is hard,and this person did this thing,
and then my car did this, andit's like it snowballs on you,
and you're like, what ishappening?
(29:19):
Like everything is fallingapart, and you you have no
patience for anyone, and eventhe people that you thought you
loved, you start to kind ofdespise, and you just want to be
alone.
Does this sound familiar?
I can say this because I'vebeen there.
I've walked this path before.
You went astray and you arestumbling around in the darkness
with blinded eyes, it says.
(29:40):
At the bottom of verse 11, itsays that you don't know where
you're going because thedarkness has blinded your eyes.
So you are blind andstruggling.
And yeah, that's what your lifelooks like because you're blind
and struggling.
But you know what all we needto do?
We need to turn around theother way and look at Jesus.
And confess and say, God, Ihave been blind.
(30:02):
I have been struggling.
Help.
I don't know how to love thatperson.
I don't know how to haveforgiveness.
I do not know how to do this.
It seems hard and it makes memad.
But I need your strength.
I need your grace because Iwant to walk in that light.
And that shows surrender andbrokenness.
This is where we need to be.
(30:23):
And then when you are broken,that's when the fragrance comes
out.
You think of the woman with thealabaster box that brought it
to Jesus and she broke it.
That was a picture of her life.
She had nothing.
She had nothing to offer him,but this little box, she broke
it, and the perfume filled theroom.
And she had nothing to offerJesus except her brokenness.
(30:45):
And this is where we're at.
Very, very often.
We don't bring to him a wholelot besides a mess.
And he's like, I can work withthat.
If you can come to me and youcan be broken.
It's when we hold on that wejust, we're a mess.
We get bitter and people don'twant to be around us, and our
life just goes downhill andwe're stumbling around in
(31:06):
darkness.
Jesus has so much more for you.
So much more.
He doesn't want you to bestumbling around in darkness.
He wants you to walk in thelight.
He wants you to come back tothe foot of the cross again
because you need to be thereevery day at the foot of the
cross, looking at Jesus,remembering his perfect
(31:28):
sacrifice that covered your sin,then you can offer that
forgiveness to your brother.
And every time you feel likeit's too much, you look back at
Jesus.
Because that is the key to ourfaith is fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and thefinisher of our faith.
We have to fix our eyes on him.
When we start looking around atour life, at our worries, at
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our fears, we get distracted, westumble, we get to be a mess.
When we fix our eyes on Jesus,we're good.
Because he can point you wherehe needs to go and he corrects
you lovingly and he holds you.
I want to be held.
I don't want to go rogueanymore.
I've done it enough in my life.
I just want to be held.
Like a little baby in the crookof Jesus' arm.
Like that's how I want to be.
(32:10):
Like you just hold me and youfeed me and I'll go where you
want me to go, and I'm like downfor the ride, you know?
But that takes a lot ofsurrender and a lot of humility.
But that's what God asks of us.
I want us to turn to Matthewchapter 11.
This is one that we're probablyfamiliar with, but it is a
(32:32):
beautiful reminder.
Matthew 11, verse 28.
Now, these are red letters inmy Bible, which means these are
the words of our Lord JesusChrist.
These are his words to you thismorning.
(32:53):
You're sitting in this room, hehas appointed for you to be
here.
That means these words are foryou.
He says, Come to me, all youwho labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learnfrom me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you willfind rest for your soul.
(33:17):
For my yoke is easy and myburden is light.
This is a promise from theCreator for us that you can
stand upon and say, This is forme.
I claim this today, Lord.
This truth, I'm I believe itand I will walk in it.
But what is the first thing hesays to do?
Come.
The very first word of thesentence, he says, Come.
(33:41):
Because he can't work with youif you're not there.
You gotta come to him and stopavoiding him and stop hiding.
Come.
Do you feel heavy laden?
Do you feel burdened?
Do you feel exhausted?
Come to Jesus.
And then he has a promise.
I will give you rest.
(34:02):
Now the only way that you canhave rest in the midst of trials
and a storm is because you'releaning on something stronger
than yourself, something that isunshakable, that cannot be
moved, that is firmer than thefoundations of the earth.
That is where you stand, andthat is why we have rest.
Because we know where we'regoing, we know our God, and we
know that he has won thevictory.
(34:24):
So we can rest.
Then Jesus says, Take my yokeupon you.
So a yoke is something thatgroups together two oxen to pull
a load, right?
So if you can imagine you're inthere with Jesus, who do you
think's doing the work?
I think you're just showing up,and he's like, Come on.
He's pulling and his load iseasy because he's God and he's
(34:46):
pulling the weight.
So he's telling you today, stoppulling the weight.
You can't manage.
You can't do it on yourself.
If you throw that yoke aroundme and you, we can do it
together.
But the longer you try and doit on your own, the more you're
gonna fail and be exhausted inthe process.
And then he tells us that he isgentle and lowly in heart.
(35:07):
There are very few times whereGod actually describes himself.
There's a podcast that I taughton Moses where Moses meets God
and he reveals himself to him,and I taught all about this.
But he says that he is gentleand lowly in heart.
That's how he describeshimself.
Who could be more approachablethan someone that is gentle?
Don't you all have somebody inyour life that is gentle?
(35:29):
Miss Carolyn right there is oneof the most gentle pieces of
people.
She's very approachable.
I could tell her anythingbecause she's gentle.
She's not judgmental.
She's sweet, she's kind, andshe's gentle.
And I bet you we all have thatperson that you're like, oh,
that person is just amazing.
That's Jesus.
You see that reflected in thatperson?
That's Jesus.
And the lowliness of heartmeans he's approachable.
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He's not coming like with thisbig.
He's gentle and lowly.
You're like, oh, I can do that.
Then he says, you'll find restfor your souls because his yoke
is easy, girl.
His burden's light.
So if you feel like his yoke isnot easy and his burden is not
light, which we get to thatplace a lot of times, we're
(36:11):
like, it doesn't feel easy andlight, Lord, ask him why.
What am I pulling?
What am I carrying that I'm notmeant to carry?
Is it bitterness andunforgiveness?
Is it shame?
Is it that you've taken on toomuch?
I don't know what it is.
But if you're feelingoverwhelmed and burdened and not
light, come to Jesus.
(36:32):
That's how he starts this.
Come to me.
Come to me and tell me allabout it.
And then be broken andsurrender to him and let him
work.
He wants to work miracles inyour lives.
He wants to transform you.
He wants to give you a paththat guess what the path is lit
by?
His light.
Because he's the lamp and he'sgot a path that's just for you.
(36:54):
And you can't be on that pathif you're stumbling around in
darkness.
We need to come back to thelight.
So the question today is (37:00):
are you comfortable in the light or
does it make you uncomfortable?
If it does, ask him why.
I don't know why.
Maybe you don't know why, buthe does.
He knows why you'reuncomfortable in his light and
he wants to fix it.
Are you willing to know thewhole truth about yourself?
(37:23):
That is also very difficult.
But when you come into hislight, you can say, God, show me
the whole truth about myself.
Don't leave any peace.
I want all the light floodedover me, my situation, my light.
I want to walk in it.
Because nothing can be worsethan trying to do this on my own
strength.
I'm ready.
Flood me with your light.
Are we ready to know and to beknown?
(37:45):
Are we ready to trust again,even though it might be hard?
Are we open to his convictionto call anything sin that he
puts his finger on?
That's another hard one.
Because I think we all knowthat we have these little
pockets of things that probablyaren't great for us, but we keep
doing because we think it makesus feel better, but it really
(38:05):
doesn't.
Bring it into the light.
Bring it into the light.
Because maybe you're wrong, andmaybe God's like, Well, you
just have a your mind is wrongabout it.
Bring it into the light.
You don't know.
Are we willing to stop makingexcuses?
We love to make excuses.
Oh, I can't because of this andthat.
And if this didn't happen, welove to make excuses, but we
(38:28):
can't run into the arms of Jesusif we're holding him at an
arm's length with all of ourexcuses.
Are you willing to have truefellowship with God in the
light?
That's the question.
Are you willing to go there?
Because it takes a lot ofsurrender and it takes the
laying down of your will.
Eve, let's think about Eve forone more minute.
(38:53):
Eve thought that God was tryingto hide all the good things
from her.
That's what she thought.
She walked with him in agarden, in a perfect garden, in
a perfect body, with a perfectman.
Like, I don't think he getsmuch better.
So if you think if only this orthat changed, maybe I'd be
happy.
No, because Eve had it all andshe did not care.
She still thought God wastrying to hide good things from
(39:17):
her.
Do you feel like God is tryingto hide good things from you?
Because He's not.
And often, like a difficultperson, He gives you a gift that
you don't recognize as a gift.
She's like, Lord, thatdifficult person surely can't be
for me.
There's no bow on the top ofthat.
And he's like, Yeah, that's mygift to you, so you can grow.
But we wouldn't see it as agift if we're walking in
(39:40):
darkness.
Eve also thought that she knewwhat she needed instead of
coming to God.
How often do we think we knowwhat we need, but God doesn't?
Eve also thought that she couldimprove upon God's best for
her.
Silly, silly woman, who is alsome.
(40:01):
But as a result, she hid.
She blamed others for her baddecisions.
She misplaced her trust inSatan instead of God.
And she hid from the light andshame.
Now, deliverance from thatshame and walking in the light
is what we can take away fromher life and her mistakes.
(40:22):
That is what Matthew is tellingus.
This is the words of Jesus,come to me over and over again,
come to me, look at me, be withme, walk in the light.
It's quite simple, but it isquite difficult.
But today, everybody in thisroom has an opportunity to look
at all of these things withfresh eyes because God brought
(40:44):
you here to hear these things.
So I would encourage you.
I know it's scary to look atthese things.
I know it's it pushes you tothe edge of your flesh and you
feel uncomfortable.
That uncomfortableness does notmean that it's not for you.
It sometimes is just the thingthat's in the way and you have
to press through.
And God's like, I'm waiting foryou.
I'm waiting for you to reallytrust and press through that.
(41:06):
We need to come together andpray for each other and really
seek this out.
So I want to take some time.
I know not all of us arecomfortable praying.
I know not all of us know eachother, but I want to take the
next 15 minutes to just takesome time to sit on this, to
think about it, to journal, topray, whatever you need to do to
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process, because a lot of timesyou listen to all these great
things and then you go to thenext thing.
But I think God wants thesethings to settle deeply into our
hearts, to put roots down sothey will not be moved.
So I want you to take thistime.
You can spread out in this roomif you want, or go outside, or
grab a friend if you feel likeyou need prayer and you're
comfortable asking somebody, canyou pray for me?
(41:50):
Grab them and say, Hey, can wejust take a really quiet walk?
Can you pray for me?
So let's do that.
Um, and then Krista will callus back together when it's time.
Um, I'm just gonna hang aroundover here.
If you want me to pray for you,I'm available.
Krista's here, she'll pray foryou.
Jasmine's here.
Like, there's loads of peoplehere that would love to pray.
So if you just standing aroundlooking like, somebody please
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pray for me, just walk over tosomebody and say, Hey, can you
pray for me?
Yeah.
Any anything else?
Okay.
So let's let's do it.
Kiora, and welcome to Whispers of Grace, a place for
women to be encouraged by God'sholy word.
I'm your host, Julie Colbeth,and I am overjoyed to dig into
the Bible with you today.
Good job, guys.
Look at you all sitting down.
(00:40):
Without even a worship leaderplaying a guitar, you know?
And they're like, time to sitdown.
All right.
So I'm just gonna pray.
We're gonna get into it.
God, we thank you again forthis amazing day, for this
(01:03):
opportunity to fellowship, tohear your word, Lord, to
experience conviction andencouragement and love in the
body of Christ.
God, we're just so blessed tobe here and to be in your word.
Lord, I pray as we just enterinto this new time of looking at
your word and hearing yourvoice, God, would you bring your
conviction to our hearts?
(01:25):
Would you bring your truth andyour encouragement to our
hearts?
God, I pray that you would helpus to be completely open to
what you would want to saytoday.
Lord, that none of us wouldhide from you, that none of us
would feel condemned, Lord, butwe would all feel welcomed by
your grace and your love andyour heart for us, God, because
it is just so big and burstingwith love.
(01:46):
Lord, we don't want to think ofyou any other way.
So we pray that you would justhold us.
Lord, we're weak and we getsidetracked and we get um tired
and distracted, but I pray thatyou would hold us together today
so that we might hear what youhave to say to us today.
We love you, Jesus.
We pray you'd be with us.
Amen.
All right.
(02:14):
So we are actually just gonnacontinue with the book of 1
John.
Because honestly, I was like, Ican't stop.
I love this book.
I wish I had enough time to gothrough all five chapters.
I won't.
I won't do that.
Um, but again, such is such agood book.
So we're just gonna kind ofpick up right where we were.
Um, so if you want to turn tothe book of 1 John, again, it's
(02:36):
at the end of your Bible.
So we left off uh in verse 9.
It says, if we confess oursins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and cleanseus from all unrighteousness.
So remember, we were talkingabout keeping short accounts
(02:56):
with God, learning to confessour sins quickly, learning to
let the Holy Spirit convict usimmediately.
Instead of prolonging the voiceof the Spirit, we want to
embrace the voice of the Spirit.
Um, I was talking with Teklaactually after the session, and
(03:16):
we were talking about how whenyou get into the habit of
keeping short accounts with theLord and very quickly noticing
sin and giving it to Him, itdoes a couple of things for you.
One, it lifts the veil of shamebecause you realize how broken
you are, and you agree with whatthe word says.
So I am broken, I'minsufficient, and I still need
(03:37):
Jesus.
I still need the blood of Jesusevery single day.
I didn't just need it once atCalvary to cleanse me from my
sin.
I need it every day.
So it takes that shame awaybecause that is Satan's goal is
to come in and clothe you inshame so you stay in the dark
and you stay condemned and youstay feeling guilty.
(03:59):
I was I had a professor inBible college say to me once,
there's no such thing, thereshould be no such thing as a
guilty Christian.
And I thought, oh my goodness,because I say that all the time.
It's like, oh, I just feelguilty.
He's like, there should be noguilt because Jesus paid for
your sin and shame and took yourguilt.
So if you're feeling guilt,it's not from him.
Because Satan loves to come inand condemn us.
(04:23):
He likes to tell you thatyou're not enough, that you
haven't grown, that you'll neverbe able to match up what the
word says, you're not as good asher.
That's the voice of Satan thatpushes you away from God.
But the conviction of the HolySpirit is like a warm embrace
where you know that he's gotyou.
Even though you're messed up,even though you're broken, even
though you've just donesomething really dumb, he
(04:45):
embraces you.
That's and it drives youtowards God because it shows
your heart, Lord, I do need you.
I do need you every minute.
And a lot of times it ends inpraise.
Because you come to him broken,he embraces you, you leave your
sin with him, and then you'relike, wow, praise God, because
you're free.
You're free afresh.
The shame doesn't come for you.
Now you're walking again in thelight.
(05:08):
And how essential and importantthis is in our lives, I cannot
overstate.
Because so, back to ourconversation, we were talking
about how that shame is lifted.
The other thing that it doeswhen you keep short accounts
with God is it doesn't becomeyour defining thing.
You don't become like, youknow, the person who's full of
(05:28):
pride or the angry person or theperson, because I feel like a
lot of times we want to put thatlabel as like, oh, I'm really
this or that.
But God doesn't do that.
And I think when you confessthose sins, it takes that label
off.
And you're like, yeah, Istruggle with that, but I keep
giving it to Jesus, so it's notwho I am.
And we need to know thatbecause I think a lot of times
we wear our sins and we defineourselves by our worst moments.
(05:52):
And God doesn't do that.
Other people do that, right?
We love to remember the worstthing that this person did to us
and talk about it, and that'show we think of them.
But God's the exact opposite.
He doesn't, he doesn't defineyou by your worst moment.
So this keeping short accounts,this confession that he's
talking about, it shows us againand again that Jesus is
(06:15):
faithful.
He will not leave you, he willnot forsake you.
He wants to come and wrap hisarms around you and say, I've
got you.
I know this is hard.
Let's do better.
And you can walk forward.
But it gets harder the longeryou wait.
The longer you sit in your sin,or the longer you sit in
whatever mentality you have.
A lot of times when we'rewronged, this happens.
(06:38):
When somebody hurts us, we liketo hold on to that.
And this person did it and itwas not right.
And you see, we get stuck inthat, don't we?
And you can very easily getbitter and think that wasn't
right, it wasn't right, itwasn't right, and you're right,
it wasn't right.
We're in a fallen world and weget wounded.
You have to be able to bringthat to Jesus too, and say, God,
(06:58):
I am hurt and I want to hold onto this, and I want to go and
strangle this person for whatthey did to me.
But that's not the heart of Godfor them.
And you need to confess yourunforgiveness.
You need to confess your heartthat's holding on to something.
Because Jesus doesn't do that.
He doesn't do that to you.
This is so important for ourwalk with God.
(07:20):
It's really, really hard tohave an abundant walk when
you're still holding on to yoursin or your unforgiveness, and
we're not walking in thefullness of the counsel of God
because it consistently tells uswalk in the light, put off the
works of the flesh.
This is where we need to start.
This constant state ofbrokenness.
But you know what's beautifulabout being broken?
(07:43):
There's so many cracks for Godto fill.
Because you can't accomplishthings on your own.
And you really realize that is,Lord, I really can't love this
person.
I can't do it.
This person is so unlovable, Ican't.
I don't have it in me.
Everything they say bothers me,you know?
We have those people in ourlives.
That gives God an opportunity.
He's like, You can't, but Ican.
(08:05):
So come before me and confessthat and say, God, I don't know
how to love this person, andstart praying for them and
pressing into Jesus.
He will fill you up.
It takes time, it takesconsistency, and it also takes a
lot of humility.
But that's the path that Godhas for us to walk.
And everything else, all of theother spiritual disciplines
flow out of that.
(08:26):
Your prayer life will now beexpanded because you're coming
to God with a clean heart.
Your service will now beexpanded because he's pulling
out all of those roots inside ofyou that were not really great
in the first place.
Because I think even when weserve God, we can come to him
with a heart that is dirty,you're doing it for the wrong
reason.
I hope so-and-so sees me.
(08:46):
They don't really know whatthat, you know, we get we get
mixed up in things, but when weconfess into God and move
forward, all of a sudden nowyour ministry is expanded.
The way that you can love yourfamily is expanded.
God just expands everythingbecause now you're working from
a place of brokenness, knowingthat you're gonna fail and
you're gonna be weak, but he'sgot you.
Instead of thinking, I've gotthis, I'm gonna do better.
(09:09):
It's no, he's got this and he'sgonna do it through me.
And that is the that is theshift.
Because I know we all we're alldifferent, right?
But I tend to be that like,okay, I'm gonna do better, I'm
gonna wake up earlier, I'm gonnamake a list, I'm gonna, you
know, and I like to feel likeI'm in control.
But I feel like the longer thatI walk with the Lord, the more
he's like, let go, girl.
(09:30):
Like, yes, be disciplined, yes,chase after my face, but like
be broken because you're gonnamess up.
I can condemn myself a wholelot and be like, oh, you should
have done better.
You know, especially like, Godforbid you have to stand on a
stage like this and put amicrophone and say these things.
Because guess what?
Tomorrow I'm gonna make amistake, and Satan's gonna be
like, see.
And that's God doesn't wantthat for us.
(09:52):
He wants you to walk in thefullness of your calling without
the condemnation that Satanwants to drag you into.
And that is why these versesare so essential, they are
vital, and we can't move pastthem until we really get it.
We have to sink into thisthought, it has to be the roots.
So, really walking with ourSavior, it requires us to die
(10:16):
over and over and over again.
And that's the taking up yourcross and following Him.
The cross is an implement ofdeath.
Take up your implement of deathand continue to follow Jesus
because your flesh needs to die,but it will go down fighting.
But that's what Jesus meanswhen he says, take up your
(10:37):
cross.
This is what you need to do tofollow Christ is to continue to
be broken, continue to allow himto speak into your life.
But brokenness is what Jesusworks with.
He didn't, you know, the peoplethat he got angry with, the
people that Jesus spokeaggressively against were the
Pharisees, the lawkeepers, thepeople that had all the rules,
the religious folk that like topoint the finger at other people
(10:59):
and condemn them, and like to,you know, tithe while everybody
was watching, you know, droppingtheir coins like from a high
distance to drop into theoffering box.
These are the people that Jesuswas enraged against because
they ticked all the boxes andthey did all the right things on
the outside, but their heartswere unclean.
He says that they were full ofdead men's bones.
(11:19):
That's what Jesus said to thePharisees, that they were
whitewashed tombs.
They look great on the outside,but you're full of death.
We can be full of death, I canbe full of death, and think that
I love Jesus and think I'mfollowing him, but my heart can
be a mess.
If we stay broken, if we keepshort accounts with God, it
(11:40):
keeps us from this.
Because every time that youwant to give so somebody else
watches, the Holy Spirit's like,oh Lord, okay, I'm not gonna
give until I can do it in theright spirit, and then you sit
on it until you can give so yourright hand doesn't know what
your left hand is doing, untilyou can serve, not so anybody
sees you, not so somebody thinksyou're such a good Christian,
(12:03):
but so Jesus is pleased, and youdo it from a passion and a joy
for him, and not because you'retrying to earn your salvation.
It is our hearts, they aredeceitfully wicked, they need to
be continually cleansed andbrought to Jesus.
We need the blood of Jesusevery single day.
It doesn't matter how longyou've been walking with him.
(12:23):
The apostle John had beenwalking with Jesus literally and
then figuratively for a longtime, and he is still saying the
same stuff.
He's still talking about sinand he's still talking about
love.
That's the path that we have tofollow.
So I brought this book upbecause I mentioned it before.
It's called Calvary Road.
(12:44):
If you want to look at it, I'vegot it up here.
Yeah.
A lot of us have like reallyloved this book, but I read it
fresh, and it was like fresh andnew to me.
Um, one of the quotes that hehas in this book says this He
was an English evangelist fromthe mid-1900s.
He wrote this book, and theLord taught him like a whole new
(13:05):
revival.
He was an evangelist that kindof like lost his steam and was
still doing evangelism, butthere was no spirit, and he was
like, There's no power anymorein this, like, what's happened?
And God breathed all this likewisdom into him about returning
to these things, and he wrotethis book as a result.
So this is something he said onpage 34.
He says, People imagine thatdying to self makes one
(13:27):
miserable, but it is just theopposite.
It is the refusal to die toself that makes us miserable.
The more we know of death inhim, the more we shall know of
his life in us, and so the moreof real peace and real joy.
And isn't that the way?
We think that dying to selfsounds terrible, and we avoid it
(13:50):
and we try and hide, and we'remiserable.
We're miserable.
We might be able to fake it fora little while, but on the
inside, if you really ask us, wefeel hollow.
How can we feel hollow when weknow to have the Holy Spirit?
We get mixed up.
That's why we need thesethings.
We need the cross over and overagain.
And a lot of this can soundoverwhelming.
(14:13):
It can be like, I can't dothis.
You're right, you can't.
But Jesus can, and the HolySpirit can.
And that's the beauty of thegospel is God tells us you all
can't.
We can't.
We can't keep the law.
We can't be perfect, we can'tset all these um, you know,
standards and meet them.
We can't, we're gonna fail.
(14:33):
But that's why Jesus did in ourplace, and he comes to empower
us to walk in his will.
So back to the book of 1 John.
Okay, 1 John chapter 1, we'regonna start in verse 10 and read
a little bit more.
If we say that we have notsinned, we make him, we're
(14:55):
making Jesus, a liar, and hisword isn't in us.
So there's the humility, truehumility, knowing that you're a
sinner still.
And then he says, My littlechildren, can you imagine
Grandpappy John saying thesethings?
My little children, thesethings I write to you so that
you may not sin.
And if anyone sins, we have anadvocate with the Father, Jesus
(15:19):
Christ, the righteous.
And he himself is thepropitiation, the sacrifice for
our sins, and not for ours only,but for the whole world.
Jesus asks for our surrender,but he promises to do the work.
That that is the beautifulbackwards nature of the of the
(15:39):
gospel.
It is so simple, a child canunderstand it, but we complicate
it over and over again,especially as adults.
We grow up and we're like, itcouldn't be that easy to just
believe and repent, and thenJesus like offers you
forgiveness.
And we get really confusedabout like we complicate it for
ourselves and think, oh, well,we also have to do this and this
and this.
That's not what the word says.
(16:01):
And I love, I love how he says,little children.
I can just see him thinking,like, please listen to me,
please listen to me, children.
These things I write to you sothat you may not sin.
He's saying this keeping shortaccounts with God will keep you
from sinning because you'regonna constantly be convicted.
But if anyone does sin, we havean advocate.
(16:24):
And I love when they use theword advocate for the Holy
Spirit because it gives me acourtroom scene and I can
understand it.
You know, where you're the onethat has done the crime, you're
on trial, and the Holy Spirit isyour lawyer.
He's your advocate.
He's the one is standingbetween you and judgment.
And he will advocate for you.
That's the beauty.
(16:44):
We don't stand alone.
We don't stand alone in oursin.
We don't stand alone under theblanket.
Holy Spirit is there ready toadvocate for us.
And then it says, and then hegives us the gospel again
because we need it again.
Uh he says, Jesus Christ therighteous, he himself, Jesus
Himself in his body is thepropitiation for our sins.
(17:07):
He paid the price, and not onlyours, but for the whole world.
We need to be honest, we needto be humble and surrendered.
That's our job.
We have to come before God as ahot mess, and then he works on
us and he does the work.
He does the work in us.
So the question is why do wefight him?
(17:29):
Why?
Why do we fight him?
He wants to do good things inus and we fight him and resist
him constantly.
Why do we hold on to our sin?
Why do we hold on to our prideand our possessions or our
reputation or our money or ourtime or our self-image?
We hold on to it.
We're gonna guard them veryjealously, right?
(17:51):
But God says, You need torelease all that into my hands.
Give it back to me.
Then we're gonna read some morein 1 John.
Uh it says in verse 3, chapter2, verse 3, now by this we know
that we know him, if we keep hiscommands.
He who says, I know him, butdoes not keep his commands is a
(18:14):
liar, and the truth is not inhim.
Again, that's like a take astep back kind of verse, right?
You're like, whoa, John's likethrowing heat when he's writing
this book.
But do you see how he weaves itback and forth between if you
walk in the light, you'll bechildren of light, you won't
sin, and if you do sin, you havean advocate, you have Jesus
Christ.
He's he's like making a cycleof you have God who stands in
(18:37):
the gap, but you have to hold onto him.
But if you sin, and he kind ofkeeps going around and around,
and he's saying the same thingsover and over again, and he
keeps bringing us back toChrist.
He keeps bringing us back tothe cross every time.
He doesn't leave us as a liarwho doesn't have any truth.
If you took this verse out ofcontext and just wanted to teach
on this one verse, you coulddestroy a whole church.
(18:57):
You could destroy the salvationof thousands of millions of
people.
And that is that is one of thebenefits of reading the entire
Bible and not just picking outlittle chunks of scripture.
Because if you are not familiarwith the whole council of God,
you can get derailed reallyeasily because you have to
understand the context of thebook, why it was written, who it
(19:18):
was written, what it says, notin just this one section, but
the whole thing.
So we as believers, we need toget back to a really rich Bible
literacy.
This is something that we'reresponsible for because you know
what?
The next time somebody postslike a 30-second video on this
one verse saying how you're likewalking in darkness and you're
just like, oh my gosh, thisperson says I'm condemned.
(19:38):
Am I condemned?
And it like spins you out.
You can go back to the word andbe like, let's read before and
after that verse.
Let's see what it actually saysin this section.
This is a very good case ofthat.
Because you see what John isdoing, who's known as the
Apostle of Love, and you want topull this out and just say,
like, oh, you don't know him andyou're walking in darkness and
you're a liar.
Well, let's keep reading.
(19:59):
In verse 5, he says, But, ifyou didn't read this, you'd
never know was there.
But whoever keeps his word,truly the love of God is
perfected in him.
By this we know that we are inhim.
He who says that he abides inhim ought himself to walk just
as he walked.
(20:20):
So again, he's setting thissuper high bar.
Like, okay, you want to callyourself a Christian, walk like
Jesus.
You know, and we're like, ah.
But remember before that hesaid, when you do sin, you have
an advocate, the Holy Spirit whowill undergird you and allow
you to walk.
So it's it's a process wherethese two truths are both true
and they're holding hands.
(20:41):
So don't separate them, becauseI've heard a lot of people spin
false doctrine separating thesetwo things.
So it's it's either a whole lotof love and no truth, or all
truth and no love.
But here John is putting themtogether.
So this is the beauty, this isthe beauty of this book.
Then in verse 7, he says,Brethren, I write no new
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commandment to you.
So he's saying, you guys knowthis, but an old commandment,
which you've had from thebeginning.
The old commandment is the wordwhich you heard from the
beginning.
So he's saying, You know thegospel, you know Jesus, you know
the truth, but I'm remindingyou, because you need to know
again.
Again, a new commandment Iwrite to you, which thing is
true in him and in you, becausethe darkness is passing away and
(21:24):
the light is already shining,not is going to shine, but the
light's already shining.
The hope is already here.
Now, here's the next thing.
He who says that he is in thelight and hates his brother is
in darkness until now.
That's a hard one to swallow,too.
(21:46):
Because now he's starting toget into the nitty-gritty of it,
right?
So he talks top level aboutyour salvation and what your
walk with God looks like, andhe's now coming down a little
bit.
Like, well, if you hate yourbrother, you're also not walking
in light.
And how many of us havestruggled with holding
bitterness against somebody elseor really, really hating
someone, right?
(22:07):
It's it's very easy becausewe're fallen and we hurt each
other.
Now, John's saying that if youhate your brother, you're not
walking in the light.
So, really good indication.
If you have some sort ofunforgiveness, if you have some
bitterness in your heart, youneed to give that to God.
Because if you're holding on toit and not surrendering it,
(22:29):
it's going to keep you from allof this good life that he's
talking about.
And I think this is probablyone of the number one ways that
we get stuck is we don't loveour brother.
And we don't love the personthat's difficult.
We keep them at arm's lengthand we avoid them and we like to
talk about them and maybe justlike influence our friends just
a little bit to not like themtoo.
(22:49):
And don't we do that?
That's walking in darkness.
That's like, okay, I'm justgonna hide again.
I'm gonna go under the cover ofdarkness, and I'm not gonna
stretch out my hand to love thisperson.
And that is really hard.
But you know what?
It's interesting in this book,in this Calvary Road book, he
talks about how God specificallyputs those people in your life
(23:12):
to chastise you, to change you.
We always want to think, oh, ifonly they could change this and
stop doing that, then maybe.
And God's looking right at yousaying, you know what, babe, we
gotta change some stuff.
Because he sent that person tochastise you so that you could
(23:33):
be corrected.
And you think, oh, I'm nothinglike them, I don't do that.
Well, have you brought that tothe Lord?
And said, God, what are youtrying to teach me through this?
We don't like to do thatbecause we like to tell the
Lord, make that person suffer.
Keep them at arm's length,Lord, just help them move.
Not just out of my line ofsight.
(23:56):
But God says, I brought thatperson into your sphere so you
could learn.
I brought that person into yourchurch, into your workplace,
into your friend group, intoyour mommy and me playdate.
I brought that person into yourlife so that you could be
better.
But we don't see it like that.
We think, ugh, if she's gonnabe there, no thanks.
(24:20):
And God's like, oh, you'remissing out on all the
opportunities to grow.
But again, we love to runbecause we think we know what's
best for us, but God's the onewho really does.
And honestly, if we think aboutit, it's all the way back to
the garden.
You had Adam and Eve, and Godjust said, look at this
beautiful, all these beautifulthings I've given you.
You can eat anything, there'sall these amazing animals, and
(24:41):
you don't even have to work.
No pain having babies then.
You know, really good life.
He's like, just don't eat fromthis tree.
And Eve's like, I don't know ifGod has my best at heart.
And I think I'm just gonna try.
Don't we do that all the time?
God's like, the lot that I havegiven you, your life is what
I've given you.
Trust me with it.
And we're like, but what aboutthat?
(25:02):
I think I want that instead.
And we don't want to trust himwith it.
We don't want to walk in thehard things.
We don't want to exerciseforgiveness, we don't want to be
next to the person that bothersus.
But God's like, go be next toher.
Go love her, go put your armaround her, man.
Pray for her.
What's going on in her lifethat she's got?
What kind of wounds and traumais she dealing with?
(25:22):
What kind of people have hurther in the past?
Maybe you can be anencouragement.
Maybe you could be a light.
Maybe you could be a healingbalm instead of somebody that
carries gossip on their tongueand tears that person down more.
But I think, again, John's likedigging.
He's like digging deep, right?
Because this is reallydifficult in real life for us to
(25:43):
do.
And we're avoiders.
We love to just avoid thedifficult things.
Can I just walk across theother street?
But John says that if you hateyour brother, you're not abiding
in the light.
So again, it's like the powerof the word of God as we read
through it, right?
Just continues to point out thethings in our heart that we
need to change.
(26:04):
We need to journal.
We need to confess.
We need to pray about, we needto ask somebody to pray with us.
Like these are the things weneed to do.
Deep, deep work inside of ourheart.
So in chapter two, uh verse 10,he who loves his brother abides
in the light.
That's where he lives.
He abides in the light.
And there is no cause forstumbling in him.
(26:26):
I love that.
Because it says, if you'regonna go the extra mile to love
your brother, which is hard,love a difficult person, it
says, what's gonna happen?
There's no cause for stumbling.
You have now removed astumbling block from your life
by choosing love instead ofjudgment.
That is the that is the powerof God because the world doesn't
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do that.
The world avoids, the worldholds grudges, but Jesus says,
press in and love.
And he says, when you do that,then you'll avoid stumbling and
you're gonna walk in the light.
Verse 11.
But he who hates his brother isin darkness and walks in
darkness and does not know wherehe is going, because the
(27:13):
darkness has blinded his eyes.
This is what it is like to notlove everyone, which is a really
tall order again.
But that's why we have anadvocate.
Remember, this is not all onour shoulders, because I know
you're thinking about thatperson, and thinking, especially
if it's like a family memberthat's been in your life like
(27:34):
your whole life, you're like,but not that person.
But the word tells us here thatif you're holding that hate
towards the person, you'rewalking in darkness and you
don't know where you're going.
That's terrifying because youthink you do know where you're
going, don't you?
You wake up every day and youdo your life, but the word says
you don't know where you'regoing.
(27:55):
You've lost your way, you areoff the path, and now you're
walking in darkness, and youthought that you came with no
sin, and you thought that youwere doing fine, but yet you're
lacking the abundance, andthere's no fruit, and there's no
power, and there's no love, andyou don't know why.
This could be it.
Because you're walking indarkness because you're holding
hatred towards somebody else.
(28:16):
And the word lays it out soclearly for us, and yet we don't
want to look at it.
I don't want to think about it,I don't want to take it that
seriously.
But this is the truth.
And remember the beginning ofthis book, John says the reason
that he's telling us thesethings is so we can walk in joy
and fellowship with God and bein the light.
(28:37):
And we all decided that's wherewe really want to be, right?
We don't want to walk indarkness.
We want to be on his path.
We got to do it his way.
I want to know where I'm going.
If you, if you, like I said, ifyou're out in the middle of the
field in the middle of the darkand you just start walking, no
torch, nothing, pitch black,you're gonna fall in a hole,
you're gonna twist your ankle,you're gonna walk into a pole
(28:59):
and a tree, you might step on apossum, like stuff's gonna
happen.
And this is what happens in ourlife.
And doesn't it become like adownhill fall when you start to
hold bitterness against somebodywhere everything seems like
it's against you?
Like, and then work is hard,and this person did this thing,
and then my car did this, andit's like it snowballs on you,
and you're like, what ishappening?
(29:19):
Like everything is fallingapart, and you you have no
patience for anyone, and eventhe people that you thought you
loved, you start to kind ofdespise, and you just want to be
alone.
Does this sound familiar?
I can say this because I'vebeen there.
I've walked this path before.
You went astray and you arestumbling around in the darkness
with blinded eyes, it says.
(29:40):
At the bottom of verse 11, itsays that you don't know where
you're going because thedarkness has blinded your eyes.
So you are blind andstruggling.
And yeah, that's what your lifelooks like because you're blind
and struggling.
But you know what all we needto do?
We need to turn around theother way and look at Jesus.
And confess and say, God, Ihave been blind.
(30:02):
I have been struggling.
Help.
I don't know how to love thatperson.
I don't know how to haveforgiveness.
I do not know how to do this.
It seems hard and it makes memad.
But I need your strength.
I need your grace because Iwant to walk in that light.
And that shows surrender andbrokenness.
This is where we need to be.
(30:23):
And then when you are broken,that's when the fragrance comes
out.
You think of the woman with thealabaster box that brought it
to Jesus and she broke it.
That was a picture of her life.
She had nothing.
She had nothing to offer him,but this little box, she broke
it, and the perfume filled theroom.
And she had nothing to offerJesus except her brokenness.
(30:45):
And this is where we're at.
Very, very often.
We don't bring to him a wholelot besides a mess.
And he's like, I can work withthat.
If you can come to me and youcan be broken.
It's when we hold on that wejust, we're a mess.
We get bitter and people don'twant to be around us, and our
life just goes downhill andwe're stumbling around in
(31:06):
darkness.
Jesus has so much more for you.
So much more.
He doesn't want you to bestumbling around in darkness.
He wants you to walk in thelight.
He wants you to come back tothe foot of the cross again
because you need to be thereevery day at the foot of the
cross, looking at Jesus,remembering his perfect
(31:28):
sacrifice that covered your sin,then you can offer that
forgiveness to your brother.
And every time you feel likeit's too much, you look back at
Jesus.
Because that is the key to ourfaith is fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and thefinisher of our faith.
We have to fix our eyes on him.
When we start looking around atour life, at our worries, at
(31:49):
our fears, we get distracted, westumble, we get to be a mess.
When we fix our eyes on Jesus,we're good.
Because he can point you wherehe needs to go and he corrects
you lovingly and he holds you.
I want to be held.
I don't want to go rogueanymore.
I've done it enough in my life.
I just want to be held.
Like a little baby in the crookof Jesus' arm.
Like that's how I want to be.
(32:10):
Like you just hold me and youfeed me and I'll go where you
want me to go, and I'm like downfor the ride, you know?
But that takes a lot ofsurrender and a lot of humility.
But that's what God asks of us.
I want us to turn to Matthewchapter 11.
This is one that we're probablyfamiliar with, but it is a
(32:32):
beautiful reminder.
Matthew 11, verse 28.
Now, these are red letters inmy Bible, which means these are
the words of our Lord JesusChrist.
These are his words to you thismorning.
(32:53):
You're sitting in this room, hehas appointed for you to be
here.
That means these words are foryou.
He says, Come to me, all youwho labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learnfrom me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you willfind rest for your soul.
(33:17):
For my yoke is easy and myburden is light.
This is a promise from theCreator for us that you can
stand upon and say, This is forme.
I claim this today, Lord.
This truth, I'm I believe itand I will walk in it.
But what is the first thing hesays to do?
Come.
The very first word of thesentence, he says, Come.
(33:41):
Because he can't work with youif you're not there.
You gotta come to him and stopavoiding him and stop hiding.
Come.
Do you feel heavy laden?
Do you feel burdened?
Do you feel exhausted?
Come to Jesus.
And then he has a promise.
I will give you rest.
(34:02):
Now the only way that you canhave rest in the midst of trials
and a storm is because you'releaning on something stronger
than yourself, something that isunshakable, that cannot be
moved, that is firmer than thefoundations of the earth.
That is where you stand, andthat is why we have rest.
Because we know where we'regoing, we know our God, and we
know that he has won thevictory.
(34:24):
So we can rest.
Then Jesus says, Take my yokeupon you.
So a yoke is something thatgroups together two oxen to pull
a load, right?
So if you can imagine you're inthere with Jesus, who do you
think's doing the work?
I think you're just showing up,and he's like, Come on.
He's pulling and his load iseasy because he's God and he's
(34:46):
pulling the weight.
So he's telling you today, stoppulling the weight.
You can't manage.
You can't do it on yourself.
If you throw that yoke aroundme and you, we can do it
together.
But the longer you try and doit on your own, the more you're
gonna fail and be exhausted inthe process.
And then he tells us that he isgentle and lowly in heart.
(35:07):
There are very few times whereGod actually describes himself.
There's a podcast that I taughton Moses where Moses meets God
and he reveals himself to him,and I taught all about this.
But he says that he is gentleand lowly in heart.
That's how he describeshimself.
Who could be more approachablethan someone that is gentle?
Don't you all have somebody inyour life that is gentle?
(35:29):
Miss Carolyn right there is oneof the most gentle pieces of
people.
She's very approachable.
I could tell her anythingbecause she's gentle.
She's not judgmental.
She's sweet, she's kind, andshe's gentle.
And I bet you we all have thatperson that you're like, oh,
that person is just amazing.
That's Jesus.
You see that reflected in thatperson?
That's Jesus.
And the lowliness of heartmeans he's approachable.
(35:51):
He's not coming like with thisbig.
He's gentle and lowly.
You're like, oh, I can do that.
Then he says, you'll find restfor your souls because his yoke
is easy, girl.
His burden's light.
So if you feel like his yoke isnot easy and his burden is not
light, which we get to thatplace a lot of times, we're
(36:11):
like, it doesn't feel easy andlight, Lord, ask him why.
What am I pulling?
What am I carrying that I'm notmeant to carry?
Is it bitterness andunforgiveness?
Is it shame?
Is it that you've taken on toomuch?
I don't know what it is.
But if you're feelingoverwhelmed and burdened and not
light, come to Jesus.
(36:32):
That's how he starts this.
Come to me.
Come to me and tell me allabout it.
And then be broken andsurrender to him and let him
work.
He wants to work miracles inyour lives.
He wants to transform you.
He wants to give you a paththat guess what the path is lit
by?
His light.
Because he's the lamp and he'sgot a path that's just for you.
(36:54):
And you can't be on that pathif you're stumbling around in
darkness.
We need to come back to thelight.
So the question today is (37:00):
are you comfortable in the light or
does it make you uncomfortable?
If it does, ask him why.
I don't know why.
Maybe you don't know why, buthe does.
He knows why you'reuncomfortable in his light and
he wants to fix it.
Are you willing to know thewhole truth about yourself?
(37:23):
That is also very difficult.
But when you come into hislight, you can say, God, show me
the whole truth about myself.
Don't leave any peace.
I want all the light floodedover me, my situation, my light.
I want to walk in it.
Because nothing can be worsethan trying to do this on my own
strength.
I'm ready.
Flood me with your light.
Are we ready to know and to beknown?
(37:45):
Are we ready to trust again,even though it might be hard?
Are we open to his convictionto call anything sin that he
puts his finger on?
That's another hard one.
Because I think we all knowthat we have these little
pockets of things that probablyaren't great for us, but we keep
doing because we think it makesus feel better, but it really
(38:05):
doesn't.
Bring it into the light.
Bring it into the light.
Because maybe you're wrong, andmaybe God's like, Well, you
just have a your mind is wrongabout it.
Bring it into the light.
You don't know.
Are we willing to stop makingexcuses?
We love to make excuses.
Oh, I can't because of this andthat.
And if this didn't happen, welove to make excuses, but we
(38:28):
can't run into the arms of Jesusif we're holding him at an
arm's length with all of ourexcuses.
Are you willing to have truefellowship with God in the
light?
That's the question.
Are you willing to go there?
Because it takes a lot ofsurrender and it takes the
laying down of your will.
Eve, let's think about Eve forone more minute.
(38:53):
Eve thought that God was tryingto hide all the good things
from her.
That's what she thought.
She walked with him in agarden, in a perfect garden, in
a perfect body, with a perfectman.
Like, I don't think he getsmuch better.
So if you think if only this orthat changed, maybe I'd be
happy.
No, because Eve had it all andshe did not care.
She still thought God wastrying to hide good things from
(39:17):
her.
Do you feel like God is tryingto hide good things from you?
Because He's not.
And often, like a difficultperson, He gives you a gift that
you don't recognize as a gift.
She's like, Lord, thatdifficult person surely can't be
for me.
There's no bow on the top ofthat.
And he's like, Yeah, that's mygift to you, so you can grow.
But we wouldn't see it as agift if we're walking in
(39:40):
darkness.
Eve also thought that she knewwhat she needed instead of
coming to God.
How often do we think we knowwhat we need, but God doesn't?
Eve also thought that she couldimprove upon God's best for
her.
Silly, silly woman, who is alsome.
(40:01):
But as a result, she hid.
She blamed others for her baddecisions.
She misplaced her trust inSatan instead of God.
And she hid from the light andshame.
Now, deliverance from thatshame and walking in the light
is what we can take away fromher life and her mistakes.
(40:22):
That is what Matthew is tellingus.
This is the words of Jesus,come to me over and over again,
come to me, look at me, be withme, walk in the light.
It's quite simple, but it isquite difficult.
But today, everybody in thisroom has an opportunity to look
at all of these things withfresh eyes because God brought
(40:44):
you here to hear these things.
So I would encourage you.
I know it's scary to look atthese things.
I know it's it pushes you tothe edge of your flesh and you
feel uncomfortable.
That uncomfortableness does notmean that it's not for you.
It sometimes is just the thingthat's in the way and you have
to press through.
And God's like, I'm waiting foryou.
I'm waiting for you to reallytrust and press through that.
(41:06):
We need to come together andpray for each other and really
seek this out.
So I want to take some time.
I know not all of us arecomfortable praying.
I know not all of us know eachother, but I want to take the
next 15 minutes to just takesome time to sit on this, to
think about it, to journal, topray, whatever you need to do to
(41:28):
process, because a lot of timesyou listen to all these great
things and then you go to thenext thing.
But I think God wants thesethings to settle deeply into our
hearts, to put roots down sothey will not be moved.
So I want you to take thistime.
You can spread out in this roomif you want, or go outside, or
grab a friend if you feel likeyou need prayer and you're
comfortable asking somebody, canyou pray for me?
(41:50):
Grab them and say, Hey, can wejust take a really quiet walk?
Can you pray for me?
So let's do that.
Um, and then Krista will callus back together when it's time.
Um, I'm just gonna hang aroundover here.
If you want me to pray for you,I'm available.
Krista's here, she'll pray foryou.
Jasmine's here.
Like, there's loads of peoplehere that would love to pray.
So if you just standing aroundlooking like, somebody please
(42:12):
pray for me, just walk over tosomebody and say, Hey, can you
pray for me?
Yeah.
Any anything else?
Okay.
So let's let's do it.
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