Good morning everyone. You all having a great weekend so far? I am really glad to be preaching in this series. For those of you who don't know, we're in the exchange life and we're talking about the nine exchanges that took place on the cross.
And it couldn't be more fitting that it falls across Memorial Day while we are honoring those who made a sacrifice for us. They sacrificed their lives so that we could have freedom to practice our religion the way that we do. And I love the way that we honor them. We wear red, white and blue, we have barbecues, we have music, we celebrate.
We have moments of silence. We pray. We tell stories. We remember them.
We look at pictures. And I think that is wonderful. As a veteran myself and someone who has lost brothers in war and who has fallen grandfathers and great-grandfathers who are in war, it means a lot to me. But I can tell you this with a very sober serious heart that is honorable is what our veterans have done.
It pales in comparison to what Jesus did for us. And the way that we go on celebrating and remembering them tomorrow is the way that we need to live our life for Jesus. Amen. Amen.
And I told you I'm excited to be in this series and it's for many reasons. And one of those reasons, see some of you know this because you've been here for a long time but we have a lot of visitors and we have a lot of new people. So I want to say this is a good glory to God. You see, one of my greatest fears, or actually my absolute greatest fear is public speaking.
Kind of funny, right? I would rather swim in open waters with a shark than stand on stage in front of people. And I've done that unknowingly but I've done that, okay? It's always scary than you could imagine.
But you see what happened was Jesus, what he did on the cross, allowed me to give my fear to God the curse of my anxiety, the curse of my fear, and he blessed me with his joy and excitement. See what happens is I'm sitting there in that chair and I can feel the nerves, the anxiety, the fear is starting to well up and all of a sudden I feel the hand of God go, nope, not today. And I start to laugh and I smile because I know, yes, we're going to applaud for that. Because what God is doing is he is working.
See, when we give him our fear, when we give him our problem, our sin, and exchange, he gives us his victory. He gives us his joy. And so this really means a lot to me personally for that very reason. And this is made possible because of what Jesus did on the cross.
And see, Jesus' last words on the cross were, it is finished. To tell us I. He said it is perfectly perfect and it is completely complete. What Jesus did on the cross contained all that we will ever need to have a blessed, wonderful life here on this earth.
Amen? Everything that we'll ever need emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally, mentally, everything we'll ever need is made possible because of what Jesus did on the cross. 2 Peter 1 verse 3 says, his divine power has given us everything, everything we need for life and godliness. Not something, not just what we need when we're in church, not just what we need when we're doing books, not your Bible study, but everything we need for life.
Where is your struggle? Think about it. Jesus gave you what you need for that. Wherever your struggle is, it doesn't have to be a struggle anymore.
Give it to Jesus. Nothing needs to be omitted from what Jesus did. Nothing needs to be added. Nothing needs to be added.
Again, it was perfectly perfect and completely complete. Turn with me in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, we're going to be spending a lot of time in there today. We're going to start with verses 13 through 14.
And you're going to read along on the screen if you don't have your Bible. It says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written. Curse it as any everyone who is hung on a tree.
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham will cover that more later. It might come to the Gentiles, that is us, through Christ Jesus. So that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Oh, I hope that excites you.
Oh, I hope that charges you. I hope that really gives you hope today. I hope that rejuvenates your strength today. Everything we need, every curse that might have come on us was brought upon Jesus and said, everything that we deserve to have wrought on us, Jesus took upon himself.
All of it. At one time, we cannot imagine what he went through. In Scripture's say, the only time he cried out is when God turned away from him. He felt completely rejected and abandoned by God.
Many of you might recognize that feeling. But let me back up a little bit. Many of you might recognize a good feeling when you walk through that door. If you're not really familiar with the Holy Spirit, you might call it a warm fuzzy.
Well, guess what? That's the presence of God. That's the Holy Spirit. Those of you who walk really closely with God know what I'm talking about.
The real presence of God that you feel through and through. Jesus was as close to God as could be. And the moment he cried out when all the sin of the world of everyone and every time came upon him, God had to turn away from him. And he cried out.
Jesus took every curse upon him so that we could have his blessings. All the blessings that were due to him, he made available to us on the cross that day. To say in short, Jesus was made a curse, so we might receive the blessing. Amen.
Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I want to take a moment and pause here on the screen. As you read through these words, I want you to ask yourself, do I really believe that?
Do I believe that through and the depths of my heart and the depths of my gut? With a show of hands, how many of you believe that statement is true for you? Wow, that's almost every hand. Good, that's great.
I'm going to ask you this again at the end and I hope I see every hand. So let's go back to the beginning of Revelation 3 here. We're going to read in verse 1. And it says, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. Paul says, they bewitched. He's not playing around with that word. He's not exaggerating.
The Greek word there is basqueno. He says there is nothing short of witchcraft going on in the church. A force of evil has come along and has shrouded their eyes, confused their minds. He says an evil satanic force moved in and shut off their understanding.
Now, I know you might be thinking, well, we don't really have a lot of witchcraft going on in this house or in this community. That is true. But we do have an evil force working against us, amen. And he is trying to shut off our understanding, amen?
So we need to take heed to these words being spoken to us in the scripture. This is very serious stuff, brothers and sisters. There is an enemy at work against us every day. You see, they have lost their vision.
They have lost their understanding of what happened on the cross and what was accomplished for them there. You see, Jesus completely defeated Satan. He completely triumphed over him. See, Jesus says, I saw Satan fall like lightning.
And I like to imagine that when Jesus died on the cross, Satan started to be excited. But then he and his demons felt like something was wrong all of a sudden. Because the same way Jesus said he saw Satan fall, I like to think that Jesus banned my peer like lightning in hell. The demons fled from the scene, but Satan couldn't run because Jesus grabbed a hold of him.
Through him on the ground and stood on his skull. Took away his power, took away the keys of life and death. Satan no longer has power. What does that mean for you and I?
Well, he stands against us as our accuser, but he is powerless. And do you know what we have? The power of God, through the Holy Spirit in us. So we stand against us.
Thank you, Jesus. We stand against the accused who is powerless and we are full of the power of the Holy Spirit who has the power of God, amen? So why should we be afraid of the enemy? Why should we listen to him when he lies to us, when he reminds us of our past?
They are behind us. Jesus paid the price. They are gone. Colossians 2.15 says, having this on principalities and powers, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them on the cross.
You see, Satan can never undo the crushing defeat that he received at the cross. Never. But he's smart. He has a cunning strategy.
And that is to keep Christians from realizing what was accomplished on the cross. He can have his focus on the wrong thing. He can have us forget about it and think about other things and problems. Instead, he can have us call on our woe-is-mees.
Anybody have any woe-is-mees? If you're a human, it happens. Let it go, brothers and sisters. See, Satan can't change what happened there, but he keeps trying to keep our eyes shrouded from seeing the truth.
Listen, if you can't see victory, you're going to sit and defeat. Come on. If you can't see victory, you're going to sit and defeat. Well, guess what?
It still happened. The victory for you still happened. Get up. Move out of defeat and go stand on your victory, amen?
Satan is trying to prevent us from taking hold of the blessings that were already won for us. They're already available to us. See, not long ago, Satan tried to take out me and my family. We were driving on our way to church.
We were heading down to radion, and we're about to cross 2502. And there's a stop sign there. But as we were approaching this intersection, the guy coming through it didn't want to stop. Praise God, last minute, he slammed on his brakes.
I burned it and went around him. You know the first thing I thought was? I tried Satan. Because why should I think anything else?
Should I be upset? Oh, no, we almost died. Should I cry? And be bothered by the fact that that was scary?
No. Because once again, Satan failed. Just like he always does. Once again, Satan failed.
But you know what did happen? You know who didn't failed? God. We were part of a miracle.
He saved our lives. So that's what we focused on. My daughters were crying for a minute. They were scared.
And I said, hey, was that scary for a second? Was that all of a sudden? And they said, yes. And I said, but you know what?
God saved us. So instead, say thank you God for saving us. And I did. And we were fine.
We moved on with our lives. We don't have to focus on the well with me because we have the victory, amen? So let's talk about what causes a curse. Let's talk about what causes these curses.
We're going to go through the seven most common causes. Some are going to spend a little more time on others. We'll go through a little quicker. But the first thing we're going to talk about today is idolatry.
The first thing that causes the cause occurs in our life. And this is turning to false gods for help. Something like drugs and alcohol. That might be an obvious answer to everyone.
But we turn to drugs and alcohol for comfort, to numb your emotions, your thoughts, to help yourself have a good time, whatever the wrong reason is. You should be turning to God for comfort. You should be turning to God for joy. You should be turning to God to help fix your problems instead of trying to mask them.
Amen? Here's something that's going to sting a little bit to some people. What about cell phones, laptops, and iPads? Scrolling through the short little video things.
Looking at other people's news, what other people are doing, you're scrolling and what are you doing? Dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. Wasting time that you could be actually connecting with your spouse, your loved ones, your friends, or living a life that you're watching other people do. But what's happening is you're hiding away in your wasting time that you could be spending with God or just having fun in a good way.
I mean, there's a lot of life to experience. We don't always have to be preaching and sharing scripture. We could just be having fun with our loved ones. Making new memories with friends.
Being intentional in your relationships. But instead we turn to things to help us, the things that we turn to that we should be turning to God for, the things that we should be looking to God for. We turn to other things. These are false gods.
And see, idolatry brings with it a curse. The Bible teaches us this. Things like finances. You may have a problem trusting that God will take care of you if you spend more time on ministry and less time working.
So you work as hard as you can to make as much money as you can so that you can make sure that you were set financially. But yet you're not being obedient to God and moving into ministry like he's calling you to. How about education? You can't trust that God's word is enough.
Yes, we need education. I'm not saying that we don't need it. All you young kids do is make, yes. No, that's not what I'm saying.
We need education, but we should not be spending so much of our life in it that we're not trusting the word of God to teach us what we need. Come on. The first two commandments. They'll have no other gods before me.
The next one. They'll make no false idols. The first tool rules he gives us. Yet we are unintentionally, hopefully, doing as far too often in our lives.
Search your heart's brothers and sisters. We go through these seven and say, Lord, do any of these things true for me. Next. False religions.
The second most common cause that brings a curse into our lives. False religions. If you've been actively involved in false religions, then you have invited a curse into your life. Things like Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, and many more.
If you've been a part of that religion, you have unknowingly brought a curse into your life. It invites things that you don't want in there. It is opening a spiritual door that will wreak havoc in your life. And this includes things like secret societies, Masonic lodges and Freemasons.
Yes, they go against God's word. See, God didn't give us his one perfect, true living word and say, take what you want into this and make something close. It'll be okay. No, he didn't do that.
So any religion that's even kind of like it, but different is wrong. Isn't it? Because this is the one true word of God. Now some of you might argue, well, there's different versions of it.
Yes, but they all have the same message. And can I tell you something? If you're worried about the different versions, you really need to be worried about your relationship with the Holy Spirit. That's our interpreter.
That's our disfernary, man. Next. Oh, y'all are going to love this one. Wrong attitudes to parents.
Wrong attitudes to parents. Yes, I went there. I went there because the Bible went there, okay? The Bible teaches us this in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1 through 3.
Children, now for all of you grown-ups. This is still talking about you. Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise.
Then it may go well with you, and you may enjoy long life on earth. Boy, doesn't that sound good? Then it will go well with us, and we will have long life on earth. If God is the one saying it will go well with you, he's the one assuring it.
So would we have anything to worry about? No. And what do we have to do? Honor our father and mother, and obey our father and mother.
This is a very clear teaching. Children who are at home, you must obey and honor your father and mother. Those of you who had just gone off to college, you may say, I'm free. I don't have to do it anymore.
No. Who do you think is paying the bills? Where do you think you're going to go in the dorms' clothes when the semester is over? Back home.
You still need to obey and honor your father and mother. God will bless you and make your life well if you do. Now whenever you leave home, you are no longer under the covering of your parents. It's up to you to get right with God and live a right life, amen?
No. You don't have to be obedient to them in the same way, but they become counselors to you. We should all be very grateful of that, amen. But also we still have to show honor and respect to them.
Listen, even if your parents come and ask you to do something that is ungodly, if it goes against the Word of God, I'm not going to tell you you have to do it. But there is an honoring, respectful way to say no. You can say, hey, I feel like this doesn't agree with this. Can we go see our church leadership about this, please?
Okay. And then pray for them. But don't be rude. Don't be dishonoring.
Don't be disrespectful. Everybody with me? I love that. This room is really loud.
Hey, Brennan, what's up? Come on, guys. They haven't even said a building yet. Come on.
All right, listen. If you don't honor your parents, you are opening a door into your life that you don't want open. Okay. The Bible clearly states that it will not go well for you.
Is it one who is establishing the not well for you? God, do you want God against you? No. Honor your father and your mother.
All right, number four, injustice to the weak. Injustice to the weak. The fourth way that curses can flow into your life is injustice to the weak. Listen, God is on the side of the weak and helpless.
We see this echo all throughout the scriptures, Old Testament, New Testament. It is a very, very big deal to God. He is not playing on this one and neither will I. And a prime example of this on a national level today is the issue of abortion.
This is the deliberately taking of life of an unborn child. As a nation, we've been inviting curses in for a long time by allowing this to happen, having it be legal. Nothing is more defenseless than an unborn baby. And notice I didn't say fetus because it's a baby.
The miracle of life happens at the moment of fertilization. Science has proven that a flash of light happens at that moment. That's God's light. God's power.
Life has begun. The miracle has begun. Amen. And praise God that on June 24th, 2022 Roe vs.
Wade was overturned. Amen. Amen. What an incredible thing.
And that is a big deal on a national level. You see, ultrasounds weren't even being used to prove life when that law was made. Isn't that crazy? We didn't even have proof yet we made a law for it.
But on an individual level, some people might be thinking, well, I don't know if we should be talking about that. I'm not sure if we should be speaking to that, especially from the pulpit. That sounds kind of private and personal. Well, I want to tell you something.
In a very respectful pastoral way. I don't care. I just don't care. It's in here.
So you're going to hear it from here, amen? And that's how it is at every GMI church. Even our new one. I know that for sure.
Our ninth one. Praise God. Listen, if you don't like what you're hearing from the pulpit here, then you're welcome to leave. But find another church.
If you do like what you're hearing from this pulpit here today, then cheer. Clap. Shout, amen. This is great.
This is how we're supposed to be when the Word of God is taught against the enemy. Amen. We refuse to allow. We and GMI refuse to allow any of our churches to be watered down.
Hosea force says, my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. We're not going to let that happen in this house. No sir, no man. Even if you don't like it, we're going to tell you the truth.
Pick up a Bible and read. Psalm 139 says, David, from David, he says, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. And then again, Samson says, I was a Nazarite from the moment you made me in my mother's womb. John the Baptist flipped in his mother's stomach when Mary approached when she was pregnant with Jesus.
And Mary became baptized in the Holy Spirit. And if research serves me correctly, she was the first person who was baptized in the Holy Spirit. Powerful works of God are happening in the womb. But listen, if you've been through abortion, I want to say something very clear here today.
I'm not speaking against you. In fact, we are here for you. It is a terrible thing to have to go through. And if you went through it because you believed a lie, because you were forced through it, and because you thought you had no other choice, please come see the leadership of the church.
We want to come alongside you and embrace you and help you. Because what happens to you is sad and that was an attack of the enemy, and we want to help you see the truth. We want to help you confess it and break the curse on your life. We want to help you get the healing that you deserve.
And we want to help you feel the love that God has for you. Because God loves you regardless. That is not who you are, and that's not the end of your story. This is the beginning of a new chapter for you.
God is on the side of the helpless. Number five, the fifth thing that brings a curse into your life is the cursing of the people of God. The cursing of Christians. Saying negative things about other Christians.
Having spoken curses against them. All brothers and sisters of Christ. Even the ones you don't get along with. Maybe even the ones you don't like.
We cannot speak negatively against them. Genesis 12, 3 says, I will bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you, I will curse. And all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. That sounds scary.
God is saying, I will curse them who curse you. I don't want to be cursed by God. Anyone in here want that? No.
Be careful what you say brothers and sisters. Be careful what you say about other Christians. Are we talking about in the church family? Yes.
Are we talking about outside the church family? Yes. Are we talking about on the other side of the world? Yes.
Every brother and sister in Christ. Everyone who is a Christian. Remember what Pastor Sashra Ozurruka said about when we speak? It was very powerful.
If you missed that message, please go back and listen to it. There's such an importance to the covenant relationship that was established there in that verse. God was talking about a covenant relationship. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.
Covenant relationships are very important to God. And as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are in a covenant relationship with one another. If someone speaks out against Johnny, they don't know it, but they're speaking out against me too. And I'm going to come alongside Johnny and we're going to go after them together.
You're welcome brother. You and I are in a covenant relationship with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. And we have a great example of God's covenant relationship with us in the book of 2 Chronicles 20. We have King Jehoshaphat here.
He was surrounded by his enemy. His people were scared. They were terrified. They were outnumbered.
They had good reason to be scared at first. But then he fasted. In fact, he asked everyone to fast. And he prayed and he sought God.
And God said, suit up. Armor up. Get ready to go into battle. And you know what they did?
They put their worship team first. Interesting. But that's the whole other message. The worship team went before the battle took place.
Okay. And as they approached their enemies, they see that their enemies were already slain. They didn't even have to draw their swords in battle. God fought their enemy for them.
How many of you here want God to fight your enemy for you? You're in a covenant relationship with him. He wants to stop getting ahead of him. We have a little placket on that says, God is still trying to write your story.
Put trying to steal a pen. It's true in every aspect of life. We're in a covenant relationship with God. We need to allow him to do his part, amen.
And I would say that careful what we speak against leadership is especially true or careful what you speak against Christians is especially true when it comes to church leadership. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a pastor. I'm not trying to get myself a free pass here. I was living this in my life before I was a pastor.
I believe this long ago. Thank God I was raised in a church. I've been taught this from a very young age. But this is very, very important.
Okay. We need to be careful what we say about those who are in leadership. Those who are serving God. Those who have committed their lives to helping everyone else grow.
Your ministry leads. Your pastors, your elders, your life group leaders, your assistant leaders. Everyone who has dedicated themselves to help everyone else grow spiritually. Be careful what you say about them.
I would even go as far as saying that it's the same thing should be said about your bosses at work. God is providing to you through them, amen. He's the one who put it on their hearts to hire you. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Because God puts you there. Even if you don't like them, you may say, well I don't like anyone that I work with. It's a very toxic environment. Well guess what?
That's why God put you there. So you could be the light. Come on. You hear that?
If you don't like where you're at, you're supposed to change it. Come on. More church today needs to remember what it is to be in a covenant relationship. We're in a covenant relationship with one another and we're in a covenant relationship with God.
All right, number six. This might raise the eyebrows, but it's true. Which doctors? Which doctors?
Now I know this isn't very prevalent in our community here today, but it is not very far south of us in Jamaica. It is very prevalent overseas in Kenya. I remember hearing stories from Miles where he was saying he was in a service with Pastor Reinhard Bonke, and they would be preaching and there would be barrels lined up in front of the stage, all with fire burning in them. And people were lined up behind them just throwing things into these barrels, articles and articles, and things that were being used for witchcraft.
Because casting of curses is very real in other places, and we need to be grateful that we are born here and we don't have to deal with that, amen? But it is very real, and those curses can bring with them very serious consequences and very serious hurts. They are opening a door to some very dark, demonic things, and we don't want any part of that. But here locally, we have things like the Mexican kudan delos, the rolling of an egg to take away a fever.
That's not good. Again, if you've been involved in any of this stuff, you need to come see a pastor here. We need to help you deal with it, amen? You're opening a spiritual door that you don't want opened.
Anything that is exercising a ritual that is not of God is witchcraft. The exercising of any ritual that is not of God. Amen? We receive it?
Good. Number seven, probably the most common cause, the most often used cause to bring a curse upon our life? Our own words. Our own words.
I can't do that. My wife will never be able to get that. My kids are such a problem. I'll never be able to get there.
I'll never be over this. I'm an alcoholic. Sound familiar? Sound familiar?
Be careful what you say. Your words are casting a curse over your own life. You are who God says you are. You can achieve what Jesus says you can achieve, amen?
Stop speaking curses over yourself. It is not right. Be careful of the words that come out of your mouth, even in joking, even in passing, even when complaining, even when you're tired, even when the coffee hadn't kicked in yet. All the time.
Be careful of the words you say. Proverbs 1821 says, this is from scripture. God is saying this. Life and death are in the power of the tongue.
Your tongue, not just people with a microphone. What you say over your children, your friends, your family, your boss, your finances, your health. You can also be said the blessing and curse are in the power of the tongue, amen? All right.
Now how many of you are all glad and grateful that Jesus paid the price on the cross and took all of our curses so we could have his blessings? Let's give it up for Jesus. Yes. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus. All right. This is the end of the first part. You ready for the second part?
It will go much quicker, I promise. All right. So Galatians 3, 13 through 14 tells us that Jesus was made a curse in our place so that we might receive the blessing of Abraham. Now we're going to explain that in just a minute, but we need to all be really excited about this.
And you ask yourself, do I believe that I had the same blessing as Abraham? Because if you don't, we need to change your heart, amen? We're going to do that today. So let's look at how we are to be blessed.
Let's look at how we are to be blessed. And what ways was Abraham blessed? There are actually a number of different ways that he was, but I believe that Genesis 24 1 sums it up very well. It says, now Abraham was old, advanced in age.
And the Lord blessed Abraham with good memory. The Lord blessed Abraham in a few ways. No, no, the Lord blessed Abraham in every way, every way. Tell me about a problem in your life.
The Lord blessed Abraham in that way and he's called it for you. Jesus took our curse so you could have the blessing in every way. Amen. Do you get that?
Do you really believe it in your heart of hearts? The blessing of Abraham then covers every area of my life, of your life, every area of our lives. And that blessing was made available through the exchange that Jesus made on the cross. Oh, thank you Jesus.
He took mine and your curses and he gave us the blessings of Abraham. Blessings from heaven. All right. So we have covered all the curses.
A lot of dark doom and gloom. Are we all ready for how to be released from these curses? Yes. This is the part we've been waiting for, right?
All right. We're going to go through four hours. The four hours to be released from the curses. Number one, recognize.
You need to recognize that you've been doing something that's brought a curse upon your life. And hopefully some of the things we just went over helped shed a light on those things and you're going in. Yeah. A couple of those were for me.
Hopefully only a couple, right? All right. So if you have, you need to recognize it. Don't be too prideful.
Don't be too pride getting away of your blessings. Amen. Number two, repent. Repent to God of what you have done.
Tell him you're sorry. Tell him that you confessed and know that what you did was wrong and it's a sin. Apologize to him. Have a change of mind and a change of heart.
I just try to combine those two words there. Have a change of mind and a change of heart. Say, Lord, I don't want to do that anymore. I believe it is wrong.
I want to live your way, Lord. Confess the Father God, amen. Number three, the third are. Reject the sin.
Make a public declaration. This sin is not for me. I renounce pride. I renounce anger.
I renounce lust. I renounce gossiping. I renounce any sin that you are struggling with it. Reject the sin.
Reject the sin. Say, I have been saved by the blood of Jesus. Declare this over yourself. Actively pray it out loud.
Say, my faith is in his atonement. It's not my actions. He already did the action. Say, you can't have me Satan.
That sounds kind of silly. It's in a matter. No, declare it over your life. Because he wants you to think you shouldn't say this out loud.
He wants you to feel like it's a little silly to say. Say it over yourself. Say it over your family. Say it over your finances, your job, your mental health, your emotions.
You can't have me Satan. You can't have my family. On the cross, Jesus took every curse that was due to me that I might receive all the good things that were due to him. Declare that to Satan and remind him of his future.
Psalm 107, 2 says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. You are the redeemed of the Lord. So say so. When Satan reminds you of your problems, when you feel like you're in a struggle, say, no, I am redeemed.
You can't have me Satan. Number four, resist. Resist the sin. Resist the temptation.
Resist the emotions that you think are yours. No, put them in check. Resist the thoughts that are in your head. They're not yours.
Put them in check. Just resist them, amen. James 4 says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Jesus said so, so he has to.
Be confident in that. Rest assured in that. Have peace in that. Have assurance in that.
Jesus said so. He's not a liar, is he? No. We don't want to call Jesus a liar.
He said resist the devil and he will flee from you. You have to fight for what is yours, brothers and sisters. You have to resist that sin. Resist that temptation.
Resist the lies. Resist the emotions that are trying to consume you. Resist the thoughts that are in your head. Resist the things that are heavenly and pure and good, amen?
Say I'm not going to allow that in my life anymore. Because Jesus was made a curse so that we might receive the blessing. How many of you all believe that now all the way through? That's a lot better.
That's what I'm talking about. All right. We're going to close a little bit differently today. We're going to do something that's called responsive reading.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to read some statements out loud. I'm going to read them first. And while I'm reading it, what I want you to do is soak it in. Shoe on it.
Let it really soak into your heart so that you believe what you're about to say out loud with me. I'm going to read it first. We'll read it together. And then I'll move on to the next one.
I'll read it first. We read it together. But I don't want you to just recite this. I don't want you to just go through the motions.
Remember the song we sang? I'm sorry, Lord, when I just gone through the motions. Don't let that be today. As I read over these statements, take them in.
And when you say them, declare them as your truth. Say them loud. Okay? Declare them for you.
Declare them for your family. Say them with gusto. And I want you to all stand when we do this. Okay?
Because we're taking a stand in our lives. We're taking a stand for God's kingdom. Amen? Why?
We're going to declare things that are going to change and everyone of our lives here today. We are going to declare statements that are going to remove persons from our lives. Is everyone here want that today? We're going to do this together.
It's one body. This is gonna be so powerful. I'm going to read the first one Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that you are the Son of God and the only way to God the Father.
Everyone believe it. Let's read it together. Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you are the Son of God and the only way to God the Father. I'm going to read this.
I believe that you died on the cross from my sins and rose again from the dead. Are you ready? I believe that you died on the cross from my sins and rose again from the dead. I believe that on the cross, you took any and all curses that might come upon me and instead gave me your blessing.
Are you ready? Let's go. I believe that on the cross, you took any and all curses that might come upon me and instead gave me your blessing. Thank you, Jesus.
And now, Lord, I come to you for deliverance from any such curse. Are you ready to declare this? And now, Lord, I come to you for deliverance from any such curse. I repent of any sins that have caused it to come upon my life, whether committed by me or by my ancestors.
Do y'all believe this? Let's declare it. I repent of any sins that have caused it to come upon my life, whether committed by me or by my ancestors. I receive your forgiveness.
I renounce this area of my past life. I want nothing to do with it and renounce any and all thoughts and actions associated with it. It has no place in my life anymore. Who are we already for this?
Let's say this together. I receive your forgiveness. I renounce this area of my past life. I want nothing to do with it and renounce any and all thoughts and actions associated with it.
It has no place in my life anymore. Woo! Come on. It gets better.
I now take my stand against the devil and all his pressures and everything he wants to do against me. Are you ready to take this hand? Let's do this. I now take my stand against the devil and all his pressures and everything he wants to do against me.
In the name of Jesus, I resist him. I refuse to submit to him any longer. Let's say it. In the name of Jesus, I resist him.
I refuse to submit to him any longer. Amen. In the name of Jesus, I now release myself from any curse over my life. Are you ready?
In the name of Jesus, I now release myself from any curse over my life. Because of what Jesus did for me on the cross and His name, I release myself. And I receive the release now by faith with Thanksgiving and praise. Will you ready?
Let's read this. Because of what Jesus did for me on the cross in His name, I release myself and I release the release now by faith with thanksgiving and praise. Hallelujah. Almost, hallelujah.
Lord, I thank you now. I praise you now. I believe in you now. You ready?
Let's say it. Lord, I praise you now. I praise you now. I believe in you now.
And finally, last one. I believe you are faithful. I believe you are doing what I have asked you to do. I commit my life to you.
From now on, I know your blessing will rest upon me. Let's read this together. I believe you are faithful. I believe you are doing what I have asked you to do.
I commit my life to you. From now on, I know your blessing will rest upon me. Amen. Amen.