Abhor and Cling

All right, let's turn in our Bibles to Romans 12. We're continuing our series on Romans 12. Let's all stand. We're going to read this together.

Romans 12, verse nine, it says this. Let love be genuine. Oh, poor, what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.

Outdo one another in showing honor. Don't be slothful in zeal, but be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and don't curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Don't be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight, but repent no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible so as far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And everybody said amen.

Amen, amen. Well, last week we talked about, let love be genuine. And I have good news for you that my sneakers today are the real thing. They're the real thing.

I got them at the factory, Nike factory outlet. They were 40 bucks. They're the real thing. So if you don't get it, then you need to listen to the message from last week.

Romans 12, verse 9, let love be genuine. And then what does it say next? It says, of whore, what is evil? And cling to what is good.

As I look at this phrase, of whore, what is evil? That's where we're going to stick. Poor, what is evil, cling to what is good. That's the whole message tonight.

If you're kind of new to every day and you haven't been here the last couple weeks, that's where we're going to lean into this phrase. Of whore, what is evil, cling to what is good. Do you know that the first thing that I noticed about this phrase is in our culture, this whole idea of there's things that are evil and there's things that are good, is kind of up for grabs in our culture. As the culture looks at what's evil and what's good, it's all subjective.

But in the kingdom of heaven, evil and good are actually defined. How many of you know that what happens in our culture right now is because truth is not seen as ultimate and it's all subjective? It's like if you have enough people from a political party that agrees that something is good, then everybody goes, yeah, it's good. And if the other spectrum says no, that that's evil, then everybody goes, yeah, that's evil.

And then they clash with one another. And what I want to call us to is it doesn't matter what CNN or Fox News or your favorite Republican or your favorite Democrat or whatever candidate you like thinks about truth or what they think on a topic or what they think and what their opinion is. Doesn't matter. Do you think the Lord cares?

What your favorite politician thinks about topic's immorality? No, he doesn't actually care what they think. He loves them. He's not swayed by them though.

He's the one that has the monopoly on what is evil and what is good. And I'm so grateful that it doesn't shift and change from generation to generation that there's actually an enduring truth that we can actually have a backbone on, I know what's true and I know it's evil and I know it's good. And that's just, I'm so grateful for that. But our culture says, well, this is becoming normal.

So that is good. This is becoming common. Depending on the circle of friends that you live in and you have, your circle of friends might think, yeah, it's just normal to live in open relationships. So like have multiple partners, that's just a normal thing.

Listen, it's not normal. Despite what is common, despite what your group of friends does, that's actually not normal in the kingdom of heaven. There's a different new normal in the normals defined by what God thinks. And so that's just, that's a freebie from Romans 12 or something.

OK? Of whore, what does evil? What does that mean? What does the word of whore mean?

The word of whore in Greek means to have distaste or disdain or like have an convergence or disgust towards evil. And this disgust, actually, you have such a disgust that you back away in disgust. And that's what this passage means when you see evil. And when you look at evil and when you're aware of evil, you're literally going, I hate that.

I have an emergence to evil. And so what I want to do is I just want to read a couple passages, turn into your Bible's to Galatians 5. And as you turn, I just want to pray, as you turn into your Bible's Galatians 5, verse 16. Lord, we want to love what you love, and we want to hate what you hate.

Just like Jesus prayed or had a theme of his life going, I only do what I see the Father doing. I only think what I see the Father thinking or hear what he's saying and thinking. Lord, that's our heart. If you want to just engage your heart with the Lord before we get into Galatians 5, would you just tell the Lord I want to love what you love?

Just in your own words, I want to love what you love. I want to pour. I want to hate what you hate. I want us to be on the same page.

I want to agree with you. I want to come in alignment with you. In Jesus' name, amen. Galatians 5, Isaiah 50 says, woe to those who call good evil and evil good.

And here in Galatians 5, Paul is writing to us, and there's some good wisdom here. He says, but I say, walk by the spirit, and you won't gratify the desires of the flesh. He's giving us these keys of how we don't walk in sin. Verse 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other. They're not on the same page. So the flesh, which is, is, is, carnality, just like you do whatever you feel like doing, he's going, basically your body that doesn't have any restraint. Your body that just is left to its own devices and just does what it feels like whenever it wants.

And he's going, hey, when that goes unchecked and you don't parent your body with your spirit and your soul, that actually comes against the spirit's leadership, right? Then he says, but in verse 18, but if you are led by the spirit, so if your soul and your spirit kind of partner up and you start parenting your body, then you're free from the law. Now the works of the flesh, they're evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery and witchcraft, imnity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, and those who belong to Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.

Some of you read that passage, and then you solvers 21 and how it ends. Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, and you kind of went, uh-oh, because you are measuring, am I doing any of these things in the list? And then you start getting really anxious because you just read that you're not gonna inherit the kingdom of heaven. And I want to just encourage you that the simple gospel of Jesus says that your past, present, and future sins are forgiven.

If you want to get out of that, and you wanna get out of your relationship with God, and you wanna go, no, I'm gonna do it on my own way, I'm not gonna surrender my life to God, I'm not gonna have his lordship in my life, and I don't need the blood and the body of Jesus, and I don't need the gospel, and I'm gonna do it on my own, you can make the choice to walk away from God. But if you look at this list, and you go, I screwed up, I failed, but I'm getting back up again, and I'm turning to God, and I hate that, and I'm turning to Jesus, that's proof that you have the Holy Spirit in you, and that you love God. It's actually proof of your salvation, that you go, I hate that, I don't want that in my life, I want God, I don't want that, and you turn, it's like, look, she's a daughter of God. Look, she's got that bounce back in her spirit, when she screws up she keeps on coming back home, and that's proving your salvation in God, okay?

And so I just wanna like, sometimes what happens in these passages is the enemy starts to accuse the brethren, and all throughout the scriptures we see, in the book of Romans and all throughout the epistles, the simple gospel, and we can't allow this one, and I'm not preaching from this passage primarily, so I can get like really into the details, but I want you to know, sourcing the gospel all throughout the epistles answers that fear, all throughout the scriptures, okay? All right, let's look at 2 Timothy 3, verses 2 through 5. And as we look at, as we look at Galatians 5, we're looking at things that God abhors, right? Things that God hates, things that God doesn't like, that's continuing here in 2 Timothy 3 verses 2 through 5.

Says this, you there, say amen if you're there. I'll just start in verse one. Last day is there will be come times of difficulty. People are gonna love themselves.

They're gonna be lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasible, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, but treacherous, reckless, swollen with pride and conceit, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but not being genuine, and denying its power of void such people. My goodness, when we're talking about abhorring what is evil and clinging to what is good, it's important that we understand that this is a love, like this is a phrase of love, because when you love someone, you start sharing what you dislike and what you like. And as children of God, one of the ways that we can love God is we go, I hate what you hate and I love what you love. I cling to good and I abhor evil.

And what I think happens in the Christian life is we look at these lists and we go, yeah, that's evil. We can all agree, right? Like, yeah, those things are evil. And so we take the big sins of sexual immorality and the big sins of whatever it be.

I don't, I will probably get into some of them. And we go, I hate that. We can all agree, yeah, we should hate that. And then there's this big no and we abhor evil.

And that's good that we say no to evil. And there's a repentance there. I think what happens, as we say no to some of these sins that we just read, what happens is we say no, but then we don't say yes to something. And then we find ourselves in the gray between black and white, right?

And as we're in the gray, compromise sets in. And then we dance with sin and subtle sin starts happening. How many of you guys remember Matthew five through seven, Jesus most famous sermon, the sermon on the Mount, right? And so we're talking about all of these like big sins of like public surface sins.

And then Jesus hits us right in the heart and he's just like goes after the jugular. And he's like, oh, he gets right in there and he starts going after underneath the surface sense, right? Where it's easy to compromise underneath the surface when no one is watching. And he starts going after the motives of the heart where we compromise in daily life.

And what I wanna draw our attention to is we can say no to those big things, but then underneath the surface be flirting and hosting and having the door open to compromise and having mixture with sin and things that God actually hates. And we have to call our souls to agree with, yeah, I'm gonna start hating that thing that I've been allowing, compromising my life on. It's like James one talks about keeping a bridal tongue, right? And there's some of us that you go on a business trip and you're hanging out with your coworkers at the bar after the meeting.

And all of a sudden you're in compromise with how you're talking, the language that you're using, the jokes that you're making, the things that you're saying about the guy across the table and you're cutting him down and you're mocking him and you're making fun of him. And if Jesus was sitting at the table, you probably wouldn't be doing it. And if Jesus was sitting at the table, you probably wouldn't be ordering another one. And the compromise starts setting in and the Lord's going, hey, don't give yourself, don't give the enemy, don't give evil an inch.

I want you to not live in the gray, right? It's like with sickness. We just kind of like roll over, I find myself doing this all the time. One of my kids get sick and I'm just like, okay, well, let's get some ibuprofen and some remedies.

And I just have this passive approach to something that Jesus literally upended every single day of his ministry when he was on the earth. He's going, I hate and abhor sickness when it attacks bodies. And I just kind of live with it. How much, how often are we just kind of like, yeah, I just got cold and I'm just gonna like, it's whatever, it's gonna run in the scores.

I know it's a small thing, but I go, I want to have your heart. Like if you don't like sickness and you hate what it does to our physical bodies, I want to agree with your heart. I want to get connected to the hatred that God has for sickness and what it does to us. Anxiety and worry.

We're going, the Lord hates what it does to us. And when you get hit with anxiety and it takes you out, the Lord's going, I have so much compassion for you. And he's loving you and he's not upset with you. And he's going, I want you to hate this thing.

Is it attacks your life? I want you to actually begin to hate worry because the root system of worry is starting to impact how you're treating people around you because you're so stuck in worry that you have no capacity for the people in your life because you're worried and you're afraid and there's fear driving you and you're not even realizing it. And the Lord's going, hey, I want you to have my heart for that thing. I want you to actually vocalize.

You don't like it. Not that you're just gonna live with it. Let's actually change our perspective on it. How about partying?

Like yeah, I'm just kinda doing it. I'm just dabbling. It's just compromise. It's just a little bit of compromise on a Friday night.

A little bit of compromise on a Saturday night. A little bit of compromise because marijuana got legalized recreationally. And all of a sudden, there's you're putting things in your system, substances in your system that's fogging your brain. And you're just thinking it's not a big deal.

And you need to ask the question if Jesus was in the room with me. Would he be lighting up the joint with me? We have to look at this and sometimes I come on and I'm going, no, no, no, no, no, no. You are a son of God.

You are a God pleaser, not a man pleaser. And I'm not making political statements. I'm making kingdom statements and going, let's seek the heart of God. I wanna hate what he hates and love what he loves.

And that's not a political thing. You know, we've got all these things. I hate that there's things in our world that are creating injustices. It's like mass incarceration.

I hate mass incarceration because of what it does to the family and it's not a political statement. It's actually the heart of God. I want God's heart for specific topics. And I'm not trying to go, oh, wow, okay, so he's liberal.

Okay. No, I'm wanting God's heart for justice. And I don't care if it's blue or red, right? And everybody has their, listen, I know that there's multi-faceted topics and I'm probably gonna open a lot of cans of worms and cupboards and I'm gonna finge you.

And listen, God's truth is offensive. It's unpopular. And in those areas of gray, the Lord wants to take us on a journey of getting his heart. And so I wanna acknowledge there's gonna be like, I might say a blanket statement.

Hey, I so know there's such a multi-faceted, like there's these topics are multi-faceted. Okay. When I think about the Lord's heart for the sex industry and the objectification of people that is so interwoven into society that it's just becoming normal to have everybody look at porn all the time. That's a problem.

God hates that we are taking people and we are, it's getting like put into the fabric of society that people are disposable things to be consumed. And the Lord is going, no, people are not to be consumed there to be loved. And God is going pornography and immorality and all these things are actually destroying connection. They're destroying identities.

It's like statistics are all over the place. As you look at those things, as you engage with evil, it's changing your understanding of who you are and it's gonna create insecurity in your own heart. It's gonna create disconnection in your relationships now, even if you're not married. And it's gonna create disconnection in your future marriage or your current one.

It's like, it's all bad news. It's all evil, all of the fruits of pornography is evil. All of the fruits of immorality is evil. There's not a good fruit from all of the seeds of that problem.

And I wanna just call us into, let's just call it what it is. And the enemy wants to keep you in this gray. I was like, it's not that big of a deal. It's not that big of a problem.

And I'm going, hey, let's hate it. You have permission to hate it. And you've been looking for someone to have enough courage to go, hey, you should hate that thing. You've been waiting for someone to call it out and go, you don't have to live in that anymore.

Stop living in that and agreeing with that and repent and turn away from that and actually have a disgust towards it. Because guess what? She or he has a name. She or he has a story.

She or he is loved by God. They are beloved, lost sons or daughters. And I cannot imagine what it took for them to get to the point where they're putting themselves in that position. Or they're actually stuck in slavery.

And you're not aware of it. And you're feeding the cycle of sex slavery all throughout. And you're just, it's a secret sin that's not impacting. No, it's impacting a lot of people.

It's a major impact on our whole society. Man, I just wonder what would happen if the whole church got set free from pornography addiction? How many billions of dollars would be wiped off of the books of all of the internet sites and the websites and the businesses of the sex slave trade and the sex industry? But listen, this is what our culture is even saying right now.

There's people that are saying, this is a justice issue. And they're saying sex workers should not be spoken negatively about. And we're going, you're right. We should be believing for their freedom from the lifestyle that's destroying them.

And we should have compassion and brokenness over and going, I hate what this is doing to them. I hate what it's doing to my family. I hate what it's doing to my marriage. I hate what it's doing to me.

I want to hate what you hate and love what you love. Racism. Our relationship with food. Oh my goodness.

It's like all of us. All right. Listen, the Lord hates that so many of us are getting hit with feeling out of control. And the Lord's going, I hate that bulimia is destroying your soul.

I hate that anorexia is destroying your soul and your identity and your daily life and that you're just struggling with this. I hate that this is attacking you. I hate that you feel out of control with this topic of food. I hate that it's something that's attacking your life and actually causing lack of peace.

And it's destroying your soul. And you're just like trying to make it. Would you get my heart? I'm not upset with you.

That's what the Lord wants you to know. As we're addressing these things, the Lord's not going, I'm so mad at you. And how could you struggle? And how could this be a problem?

No, he's going, I'm the shepherd of compassion. And I've got this staff. And I'm going after the lions. I'm going after the wolves that are going after my sheep.

Would you let me? Would you actually partner with my heart to hate this thing that's actually destroying you? Pride. Little white lies.

Just the little things. Just the little areas of gray. Little white lies. But listen, what happens is this.

When you are seeped in sin and evil, it takes as a believer. I apologize for the tickle that I got. It's when you're a believer, it takes bandwidth to maintain that lifestyle of sin as a believer. It actually takes a lot of energy.

It takes like work to be a child of God and be seeped in sin. OK? It takes bandwidth. So then when you say no, and you have a poor evil, and you turn and you go, I don't like evil anymore.

I don't like this area in my life. I'm going to agree with God. I'm going to hate what he hates, right? Yes.

And if you don't take all of that energy that you were expending over here and turn it into something like clinging to what is good, and you just stick with no. And your no is a strong no. This is what happens. You're living into the law of sin and death because it's mostly like the Old Testament, 613 laws of like don't do this.

And so you focus on not doing things. And you focus on like defense. And you're like playing zone defense on it. You're like, OK, I'm not going to do that.

And I'm not going to do that. And all of a sudden, you're in this gray zone. And you're focusing on all the things that you're not doing. And the result is you're focusing on sin.

And all of a sudden, you just hear that knock on the back door. And you're like, oh, who's back there? And temptation is here. And you're getting carried away by these desires.

And you're like, just dancing with sin. And you're still facing this direction. Even though you're like, I hate this, but I'm available. And the Lord's going, let's not be available.

Because you have all of this bandwidth of energy. You have strength that you are using on maintaining sin. Now you still have the same amount of strength, but it needs to go somewhere. And that goes somewhere, that strength, that bandwidth.

It's like, how many of you guys have ever been in a public coffee shop or something? And you're trying to do all you're trying to do is work. And somebody is like gaming in the coffee shop. And there's no bandwidth on the Wi-Fi.

It's like, why will my website not load? What is happening? Listen, you've got a lot of extra bandwidth. When you say, no to sin, and you can't just live in the gray anymore, you've got to cling to what is good.

Not just, OK, what's the opposite of a pouring or hating? Loving. But Paul doesn't say love good. He says, cling to what is good.

He says, there's a verb here. You need to cling, grab onto, glue yourself to good. Have you ever had a child? How many of you guys who had some of you uncles or aunts?

And there's this four-year-old. And they just wrap themselves around your leg. And you're trying to walk. And they're like, they love it.

And you take them on a ride. They're just like, koala on your leg. Have you ever experienced that? OK.

My kids do that to me. And that's the picture that God's giving us of clinging to good. Turn your bowels to John 14. James 4-7 says, submit to God which results in resisting the devil and then the devil just starts fleeing from you.

So basically another way to say cling to good. So submit to God. Go after God. Do you know who's good?

God's good. So cling to that which is good. Who's the definer of good? God.

But then the Lord, when He's looking at Matthew 5-7, He knows you can't do it. He knows you can't cling to good in your own strength. How many of you know it's like your fight against sin? You can't do it.

When we read the book of Matthew and we see the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, He starts going after all of those things underneath the surface. And He closes out by basically saying, you have to be perfect. If you can't, you're not going to have it. It's like pretty, that's not good.

It's bad news. And then He goes to the cross. And it's like there's this new and living way. It prays God.

But when we look at our ability to cling to what is good, He knows we can't do it. So what does He do? He says, I'm going to send someone to help you. So John 14, because we're all asking the question, OK, if I'm going to resist, I'm going to hate that which is evil.

And I'm going to say yes to good. And I'm going to cling to good. And my yes is going to be greater than my no because if I have a stronger yes, I don't even have to think about my no. If I submit to God, then resisting the devil just kind of takes care of itself.

If my yes is a strong yes. And how do I do it? That's what I want to know. How do I do it?

How do I cling to what is good? In verse 15, in John 14 says this, if you love me, you're going to obey me. Uh-oh. Well, how am I going to do that?

Because I do love you. But then I'm horrible. I obey you. And then Jesus continues.

And He's saying, I know that you're horrible at obeying me. But I know that you love me. So I'm going to send you someone to help you obey me. And his name is helper.

Imagine that. Verse 16. And I will ask dad, Father in heaven, and He's going to give you a helper. And that helper is not going to leave you.

He's going to be with you forever. And He's the spirit of truth. How many of you know that truth equals freedom? Right?

That truth sets you free. So the Lord's going, I know the way to freedom. And I'm going to give you a helper. And the helper is the spirit of truth.

And truth sets you free. And I want you free. OK. Let's skip over to verse 25.

These things I've spoken to you while I'm with you. But the helper, there he is. He's the gift. The Holy Spirit.

Come to the Father, what's in my name? He's going to teach you all things. And he's going to bring to remembrance all that I've said to you. OK.

This is how it gets worked out practically in life. All right? You have to make the decision. I'm going to hate what God hates.

Once you do that, you just breeze through this gray area. You don't stop the gas station in the gray. You just go right into it like, I hate that. This is repentance.

We talk about this all the time. Right? It's just another way to talk about repentance. And it gets to be a joyful journey.

A joyful journey of freedom and repentance. So I'm going to agree with what God hates. I hate that too. It's literally like what kids do when I say, oh, I do not like Russell Sprouts.

And then all of my kids are like, yeah, I don't like Russell Sprouts either. Right? I don't ever do that. I love Russell Sprouts actually.

But that's what we get to do with stuff. That's what we get to do with evil. We hear what he doesn't like. And we're like, yeah, I don't like that either.

It can be a child like that. I hate that too. And then we breeze right through the gray of like compromise and zone defense. And we go right into like koala, the helper.

We cling onto the legs of the helper. Because guess what? Holy Spirit's always going somewhere. Holy Spirit is always leading us into good works.

So what is James one talks about? It says, don't just be a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word. And guess what? Holy Spirit is always up to something.

He's always going somewhere. And he's going to help you walk out freedom. And he's going to help you walk out truth. And he's going to help you.

And how does he help you? He helps you through teaching you things. And he helps you with reminding you of things. And he helps you with breaking you free through truth.

And so what happens is you go, I'm turning. I'm walking away. There's disgust towards the things that God hates. And now I'm jumping in.

And I just do a free fall into like koala zone. All right? And we cling to God. How does that look impractical like everyday life?

It looks like making a decision I'm breaking up with sin. Sometimes some of us just need to have like a breakup moment tonight. Today is your like August 6, 2023, we broke up. It was like it was ugly.

There's ugly crying, but it was beautiful. I'm so glad that relationship with lying and little white lies. I'm so glad that relationship with sexual immorality. I'm so glad that relationship with just trying to be a man pleaser rather than a god pleaser is over.

And then I get to be free from that relationship. And I'm going to cling on to the Holy Spirit as my helper. And what that looks like is I'm going to just a decision. You just make a choice.

I'm done. Done with it. And then you go right into Holy Spirit. Would you help me and be my helper?

And then I need you to remind me what the truth is. And I need you to teach me how to do this. Because listen, there's not enough sermons in the world to speak to your unique circumstance. Like I could preach to your specific struggle.

And it still wouldn't hit the mark because I don't understand the full story that's underneath the surface that's feeding that lifestyle. But he gets it. And he knows the truth to replace the lie. And he knows how to help you.

But you have to be willing to let him help you. And the Lord is going to, hey, who's going to be humble? I'm going to give grace. If you make that choice to break up with this thing, it's such a humble move.

And then you go, and I need help too. And he's like, whoo, grace. God gives grace to the humble. And he's like, I'm going to help you in that process, in that journey.

And even if you fall, but you keep on coming back to me, and you keep on clinging to me, this is in the right direction. We're moving. We're going to go somewhere. Because you're not going to be static anymore.

You remember you bought all this energy. You're like Tigger. You've got a lot of bandwidth. There's bandwidth that was getting spent over there.

And how were you all? What are you going to do with that strength? What are you going to do with that beauty that was underneath the surface, that resilience, that fight, that grit? What are you going to do with that grit that's on the inside of you that you are using to maintain sin?

And now you're going to actually step into kingdom work, good works. And now there's good works that the Holy Spirit's like, hey, come on. Just hop on my back. And you're going to just be like, whoa, we're doing good works.

We're doing things. And now I'm not thinking about myself all the time. But now I'm stepping into becoming love, good works. It feels like it's a new day.

And there's so much brightness and lightness. And I don't have to be thinking about all of zone defense. Maintaining it. I cling to you, Lord.

This is what I was designed to do. Let's all stand. I want to be a God pleaser. Sons of God.

Romans says that sons of God are those that are led by the Spirit of God. I want to be a God pleaser rather than a man pleaser. Hebrews 5 talks about this is what spiritual maturity is. When you're working the muscle of discerning, what is good and what's evil?

We're going to do that in our life all the time. I'm going to discern what's good, what's good, what's evil. And that's what maturity looks like spiritually, being able to discern that and then agree with what God thinks is evil and agree with what God thinks is good. And that's like sanctification.

It's like our process in life. I'm really just talking about what your everyday life looks like with God. And I'm giving some additional language to it, a couple of word pictures. You're going to all be koalas.

That's all. It's simple. I know it's simple. It's like don't like that.

Clean. Well, God thinks it's good. I know that's simple. It's supposed to be simple.

It's supposed to be really simple. It's supposed to not be complicated because the Lord knows you. He gets it. It's like I need it to be simple.

I think it gets to be like a joyful repentance tonight. So as I was talking about some things, there was this good conviction of righteousness of like, yeah, I wasn't designed for what I've been living in. Some of you are going like, I know that I was designed for something greater. It's the righteousness of God getting expressed through my life.

And I've just been living in some compromise and living in the grave. Because I just, some of us are like, I just didn't know. I didn't know what to do. I felt like I didn't know how to, like, what steps to take.

And you're feeling overwhelmed. And you've just felt stuck. And we've all felt like that before. We've all felt stuck.

We've all felt overwhelmed where we feel out of control. And we don't know what to do with it. And the Lord's going, we're going to make it really simple today. We're going to hate that thing that's destroying our lives that God hates.

We're going to then just dive fully into God help me. That's what we're going to do. And so if that's you and you're going, man, I want to. Actually, I just want us to pause.

Let's just listen to Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, is there anything that you're pinpointing in my soul? Man, I'd actually love the whole worship team to just come up. Is there anything in my whole soul that you are going, hey, let's just leave that thing behind.

Let's go. Let's have this break up, a beautiful break up today. Holy Spirit, would you highlight that to me? You could just ask Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, I invite you in. That's the first step. I invite you in. That's all I want us to spread out.

Let's spread out throughout the room. I just want to have a moment for about a couple minutes. We're just going to allow the Lord to partner with the Lord what He wants to do. Why don't you just invite Holy Spirit?

Give Him access to that part of your life. Nobody else knows what that space, that area of your life is. But the Lord knows, and you can give Him access to that place, to that space. So it looks like not waiting for me to tell you to say something.

You can just verbalize underneath your breath like, Lord, I give you access. I let you in. I let you into this space. Maybe you've already been allowing Holy Spirit into that process.

And that's good. The Lord is like, yeah, we've been on this together. And there's this decision that we get. I want everyone, if you have been kind of disengaged, I want you to engage your heart right now.

Everybody listen, I want you to engage your heart. If you're not engaging your heart, wake up and engage your heart. The Lord has something for you. Don't just wait for the service to be over.

God has some, an area in your life, but I'm after this part of your life. I don't want this to destroy your life anymore. Just want you to reengage it. Lord, is there anything that you, you're putting your finger on that you actually don't like how this is impacting my heart, impacting my life.

You can just ask the Lord that question. Highlight an area, highlight a lie, highlight some type of issue that you actually want to have me break up with it. Then you can just ask Holy Spirit. You can just verbalize, Lord, what do you think about this?

What do you think about this issue? I want your opinion. Give me your opinion on this. God, what are the emotions?

You can just, in your own words, you can say some of these questions and then listen to Holy Spirit. But what emotions do you have about this topic in my life? Then you can go right into agreeing with the Lord. Some of you aren't hearing anything, that's okay, but you know biblical truth and you know.

This is what God thinks about this area. You can just say, Lord, I agree with you. I hate this too. I don't like this perspective that's feeding this area of my life either.

Basically what you're doing is coming into agreement with God. You're getting on the same page. And then some of us, I just feel this invitation. Some of you are feeling like, I actually have to physically have my body experience what I'm deciding spiritually.

I have to have my body move so that my whole body can understand the decision that I'm making to break up with this area of my life. You're going, the way that you can do that is actually by moving out of where you're at and physically you can come to the altar or come to someplace in the room, but you're going, I actually, my body needs to understand that this is different now and I'm leaving behind. This area, I'm leaving behind, we're breaking, it's a break up moment and I want you to just come to the front, come to an aisle, just move somewhere throughout the room so that your body can connect the dots. No, I'm done, we're over.

I'm gonna hate what God hates. I'm gonna agree with what God wants. You just can just come all the way to the front. If that resonates with you, we're gonna put in my stake in the ground, just move somewhere in the room, come to the front, whatever that looks like for you.

Thank you, Lord. Lord, we break up with what we've been believing. We actually say that we agree with you, that we don't want this in our life. We say that this is something that we hate too.

We hate what it's doing to us, we hate what it's doing to our relationships. We hate the impact of it on our souls. We hate the impact of it on our future and we just say, we agree with you, we don't want it anymore. We say no to sin.

We just, we delightfully agree with what you think. Thank you Lord, I'm so glad that I get to agree with someone that has broad shoulders and then this is our moment where we can go, I'm clinging to you now. I can't do it on my own. I'm stepping into the shadow of the Almighty.

I'm stepping into your refuge. You can just say it in your own words, these things. You don't even have to listen to me. If you just want to connect with God and you want to talk to Him, don't just block me out.

This is a moment between you and the Lord. Lord, help. I cling to you. Lord, as you're on the move, I want to be on the move with you.

Helper, teach me. Helper, is there truth that you want to speak? Yeah, you can just say to the Lord, Lord, I'm all yours. I'm all yours.

All yours. And you can just ask Him the question, is there anything you want me to know? Is there anything that you want me to know? If you're not hearing anything, that's okay.

Sometimes I don't hear anything either, but just maintain your heart and ask again. Holy Spirit, is there anything that you want me to know right now? Is there a truth that you want me to like grab onto in this moment? This is the last question we're gonna ask the Lord.

Where are we headed? You can ask Holy Spirit that question. Just whisper that question to the Holy Spirit. Where are we headed now?

Remember, you're just clinging on to Holy Spirit, your Helper, you're alomb for the ride. You got all this new bandwidth for the kingdom. You're going, where are we headed now? All around the room, he's gonna start giving you practical things.

Practical things that you're gonna start doing. Practical activities in everyday life that you're gonna start doing practical rhythms. He's gonna start speaking you, giving you keys. We're gonna start doing this.

This is what we're gonna give ourselves to. This is where we're headed. These are the good works that I have for you. Lord, where are we going now?

Lord, we say that with joy in our hearts. Gladness in our soul. Give you my hope. We're gonna have your way.

Give you my heart. Have your way. Oftentimes what happens is the enemy will check in on us. Some of us are feeling ashamed because it's been something that we've already said goodbye to in the past and it's just come back.

What the enemy will always do is he'll just kind of check the ground that you've taken with the Lord. He'll just knock again. See if he can come back. If lies can come back, if sins and mindsets can come back, it doesn't mean that what happened in the past wasn't authentic, it wasn't real.

Just means that you forgot, just like the nation of Israel over and over again. The Lord's going, hey, I'm giving you a helper and he reminds you, you were just kind of doing it in your own strength. You need to cling to someone. Simple obedience changes history.

Simple obedience changes family lines. Simple obedience is a way, it's like God's love language. If you're a lover of God, he loves obedience. Holy Spirit's gonna help you.

Holy Spirit's gonna help you. And you're gonna start being on the offense rather than playing his own defense now. So that when the enemy comes to your house again, you're gonna go, oh my goodness, that's so funny. I don't even hear anything.

I don't hear the enemy anymore coming to my back door. I just like, I thought I heard something, but I always go to the door that Jesus is knocking at. Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart all the time. And you just get to go, always go to the Lord.

And the enemy's gonna knock on that door and say, hey, is the old person here? Is the old Josh here? The old, whatever your name is here. And you just get to celebrate with joy and go, man, that used to be me, but that's not me anymore.

He is gone. She's gone. She doesn't live here anymore. I'm a new creation.

That's not who I ever was. The Lord knows who I am. And he keeps on reminding me of the truth. He keeps on reminding me of the truth that has set me free.

I'm a free man. I'm no longer a slave to that thing. And you screw up and you fail and you just get back up and you go, Lord, thank you, that that's not who I am. Thank you that I'm free.

Thank you that I don't have to take a time out for the next week away from God. I just speak, many of you young people and college students, and those in your 20s, you keep on taking time out. You got to stop taking time out away from God. You need to start running to God.

When you screw up, run back to the Lord. Stop taking breaks from God because of guilt. It's destroying your heart and it's destroying your life. Right when you, if you fail, you turn right around and you go, God, I hate this, I want you.

And you don't go into a cycle for days and days and days of entering into gluttony and immorality. You don't get into a cycle and you don't just start going into that deep, dark place. You got to stop that. God hates what that is doing to you.

When you screw up, it's like Pavlov's dog, the bell rings. My goodness, I sinned, turning right to God. You don't have to cover yourself like Adam and Eve. It's going to not work.

Stop trying to hide behind the trees of your sin. Just, he's walking in the garden and you're going to meet him. He's walking and he's going after you and you're going to come running, right? You're going to go right to the Father who loves you.

Lord, help. You're clinging to the helper. That's your way forward. Don't you ever go back.

Don't go back into the cycle. Don't go back into guilt. Don't go back into just those horrible cycles of days and days and days of sin and immorality. No more.

You're going to God. You're leaving that thing behind. You're clinging to the Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

Let's all stand. I want to commission you out. Thank you, Lord. Lord, I thank you.

I send out those that have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Lord, I send out sons and daughters that have been set free from guilt, from shame, and condemnation. Lord, I thank you that you've set every single person free that's given their life to Jesus, that you've set them free from the bondage of slavery to sin, and that as they go about in their everyday lives, they have good news, and they get to just joyfully be on these good work, exciting projects with Holy Spirit. Lord, I thank you that tonight wasn't about sin focus.

That tonight was this joyful breakup, and then this koala moment of clinging to you and actually being on exciting journeys. Lord, I just thank you that you have good for them, good works ahead. They've got so much energy, so much bandwidth. Lord, put people that don't know Jesus in their lives this week.

Lord, I thank you for divine appointments. We're going on the offensive. We're not going on the defense. We're going on the offensive.

We're bringing people into the kingdom. We're messengers of the gospel. We're messengers of the good news. We got good news on our lips, seeds in our hands, and we're gonna sow the seeds of the kingdom.

In Jesus name, I just commissioned you out as messengers of the gospel. And everybody said amen.