Last week was big give Sunday everyone and it was so fun. It wasn't an amazing, you know, we, I think many of you were at the 5.30, the 3 o'clock didn't get the full experience that you guys got of getting to know the final numbers, right? But some of you weren't here and what we experienced last week was so special. I think it was honestly very emotional for Katie and I for many different, it was like a roller coaster of joy, dancing, crying, weeping, like it was just such a fun experience for us as a community.
And we are raising funds for this project that God has put in front of us more than 15 years ago and it's this vision of building a missions base for everyday people, for everyday believers. Because we believe that God is calling everyday people like you and me into the mission field and it's not in another country. It's actually at your 9 to 5 and that you get to be an everyday believer that's on mission that has purpose for your life and that it all starts with actually knowing God and loving him, right? And so as a people that's what we're building and that's what we gave to last Sunday and it was wild because we hired many years ago, we hired a funding initiative consultant, okay?
It was probably like five years ago when we started searching for a building and this funding initiative consultant, we let him go after like two or three months, okay? And the reason why is because just some of the values weren't matching up with what we felt like God was inviting us into in terms of how we would like to raise funds as a community and have that true to the culture that we feel conviction around. And so it wasn't a bad thing, don't worry, it was a good conversation, okay? But anyways, one of the things that we pulled out of that time where we had that consultant on was he said, hey, you can expect to raise what you bring in annually in general giving is what you can expect to raise in a funding initiative.
And so this last year we brought in $1.4 million of general giving which is amazing and that's what we should expect to receive in this funding initiative on a two-year pledge time period. So it's like you're gonna raise $1.4 million over the span of two years. And last week we were going, okay, we didn't feel the conviction to do a pledge like a giving initiative with pledges. We just felt like, hey, we're gonna give what we can to the Lord right now and not drag it out.
And so we felt conviction about that as leaders and we're going, we know that that could actually have a negative impact financially, but we're just gonna go for it. And man, the Lord was so wise in his leadership, you guys. Because, and just honestly, blew our mind because what we did in two months far exceeded what they projected for a two-year time period. They said, hey, you're planning, it's just wild.
You should, you should plan to receive $1.4 million. We doubled it with $2.8 million just wild, my goodness. And I just wanna geek out a little bit. Can we geek out a little bit?
Just get into like kind of the prophetic storyline numbers thing. If you're a guest, just come along for the right, okay? Well, on October 23rd we had this moment where our service went for five hours. It was kind of like, Holy Spirit took over the service and we just let him drive.
You know, we always want to let him drive, but it was just such a special night. At the end of the service, I felt that the Lord said, hey, you need to, before you find a building, and before you raise funds for the building, you need to clear the debt of the room. And so we took anybody that had credit card debt that they couldn't pay. They write their name and their debt on the whiteboard.
We rolled up like old school whiteboard to the front. And then everyone that wanted to cover the debts of their brothers and sisters, we flip over the whiteboard and they write their name of what they're gonna give to clear the debts of their brothers and sisters. Well, that night we raised $419,000, $419,000, $419,000. $419, $419,000.
And immediately after the service, we were getting texts left and right with all of you Bible readers. And people were going, it's Luke 419, it's the Year of the Lord's Favorite. And it's Philippians 419 that God is going to supply your every need according to his glorious riches. And we're going, oh my goodness, that's amazing.
What we didn't know at the time was that our full project cost that we were projecting would be $12 million. That's a lot. And then this last week, so since Sunday, since Sunday, this last week, we got banked terms back. That it's a 35% down on $12 million.
Now, that's if the praise will come in perfectly. Okay, some of you accountants already know where I'm going. So it's 12 million, 35% of 12 million. Do you know what that number is?
420,000, 4.2 million. Okay, I'm gonna skip to the tagline there. 4.2 million. Okay?
I just think it's so, come on, roll with me here. I'm gonna get you it. 4.2 million. Well, October 23, however many months ago, the Lord says, in a moment, hey, you need to raise funds for the people that are in the room, clear their debts, you're gonna give to me.
And I believe that the Lord in his, in his like little story writing authorship, he goes, hey, you're gonna tithe to me, 10% of what I'm going to give you that you're gonna need to raise. See, it was 4.2 million, 35% down payment. 10% of 4.2 million is 420,000, which is 419, 419, generally. I got there.
I got there eventually. So most of you are confused. I apologize. But I just believe the Lord's just writing a beautiful story.
You know, we should feel an affirmation from heaven that the Lord's going, it's a double portion because I'm so delighted in you. You know, it's like, it's Isaiah 61, double portion that God has been doing with us. And he didn't need to do it. You know what I'm saying?
But he was so generous to blow our minds and connect the dots with 419, 419. And I don't understand how that all works, but he's doing these things that fascinate my heart. And I want us to have a fascinated heart of like, wow, really God? Exactly, double of what we should have in way less time and just, you know, in way less time and 419, 419.
And it's 10% of the down payment that we're going to need to, like, what? Let's just allow the Lord to like love on us through these profound little things, you know? And we can get a little weird about it, right? Like I'm not basing theology or doctrine off of it, but we're having a good time, right?
It's like, hey, that was kind of fun, okay? My goodness. You know, what the people of God do is that they remember. And we just feel this like we're going to remember June 11th in the future.
We're just going to mark it on our calendar. Like, I don't know if it's double portion or double day or something double days. I don't know where we're going to name it, but it's going in the calendar because we want to remember. And that's what God does throughout all of history with his people.
He says, hey, write it down. Hey, I want you to remember. Hey, don't forget. And you see the nation of Israel.
They come up out of the Red Sea after getting set free from slavery. It's like the lambs are slain and the blood is on the doorpost, which represents Jesus' blood as the slain lamb on the wood of the cross. And they had wood doorposts and they rubbed the lamb's blood. And it's what set them free from slavery.
And they get brought through the Red Sea and their captors, their slave masters get drowned in the Red Sea. And they come up out on the other side and you know what happens? They start celebrating, singing, and they start eating. And they always remember through eating, celebrating, singing, dancing.
That's how we remember. And so June 11th, 2024, we're going to celebrate. We're probably going to celebrate with some communion. We're going to eat together.
We're going to dance. And we're going to sing because that's how you remember. That's what the people of God do when you pray for a breakthrough. That's what the nation of Israel did.
Then you witness the deliverance. You celebrate. And then you put it on your calendar for next year. And I want to encourage us.
That's what it means to actually have that culture of celebration in your families. For you as couples, for you as singles. You just write it down. Put it on the calendar.
Okay? Can we do that? That's what we're doing tomorrow with Juneteenth. See, it's not just even in the Kingdom of Heaven.
It's like how we are designed as humans. That's why we have holidays. So we remember things. Juneteenth, there's this story of the Emancipation Proclamation to Abraham Lincoln.
And this is the Civil War happening. And he declares in the Mancipation Proclamation, in other words, proclamation of freedom. He declares that all the slaves of the South are free. And he declares this, but it takes two and a half years after January 1, 1863 for the news of the Proclamation of freedom to actually reach the ears of the black slaves of Texas.
There's 250,000 black slaves in Texas. And on January 1, 1863, the New York Times. In Texas. And on June 19, 1865, there was a general of the Union Army that came into Galveston, Texas, and announced for the very first time in the State of Texas, you're free.
There's deliverance from your slavery and you are free men and women. That is what we're celebrating. As we celebrate Juneteenth, we're celebrating the freedom for not just the white people of America, but every nation and every time and every tongue walks in freedom and is set free from slavery. And what do we do?
We remember through eating and dancing and singing and blowing off fireworks. Okay? I want to read an old black spiritual that is a tradition to sing on Juneteenth. And it's called Many Thousand Gone.
And it's called Many Thousand Gone because in that day with Underground Railroad and then even after the Emancipation Proclamation, all of those black slaves that were in the fields disappeared. They escaped out of slavery and many thousand gone. That's why it's called Many Thousand Gone. Many Thousand Gone.
Where did they go? They got set free. And I want to read this, the lyrics here from the song. It says, No more auction blocked for me.
No more, no more. No more auction blocked for me. Many thousand gone. No more peck of corn for me.
No more, no more. No more peck of corn for me. Many thousand gone. No more drivers lash for me.
No more, no more. Many thousand gone. No more pint of salt for me. No more, no more.
Many thousand gone. No more hundred lashed for me. No more, no more. No more hundred lashed for me.
Many thousand gone. No more mistress call for me. No more, no more. No more mistress call for me.
Many thousand gone. No more children stole from me. No more, no more. No more children stole from me.
Many thousand gone. No more slavery chains for me. No more, no more. No more slavery chains for me.
many, many thousand gone. We're celebrating freedom day, emancipation, and I just want to preach freedom tonight. I wanna preach emancipation in the kingdom of heaven. How many of you know that we are all born slaves?
We're all born slaves to sin. We're all born broken. We're all born with these natures that are enslaved to selfishness, self-pity, self-righteousness, self-protection, self. We're born with a sin nature and we're enslaved to it.
And many of us are not aware. Maybe you're going, I'm good. I'm just going about life. And maybe you're just like here because your family brought you here and you have to go because it's Father's Day and your dad says that you had to go and you're in the room.
And you're going, I don't know what I think about God. I don't know what I feel about the Lord. I don't know what I think about worship and men. We worshiped a long time and we repeated ourselves many, many times and you're just confused.
But you're going, I feel like I'm good. I don't need God. And then some of us are going, I gave my life to Jesus and I'm still struggling with sin and I kind of feel like a slave. And some of us are going, I just need hope and I'm hitting my limit.
And I feel like I'm a slave to all of the desires that are in me and I can't contrive out of control. And I need someone to actually bring emancipation. I need someone to issue salvation. I need someone to declare deliverance and freedom.
Some of us are going, I know that I need freedom but I don't know how to get there. I know that I need freedom but I don't know what way to go and how to actually experience the freedom. I know it's something about God and I have a history with God. But now it's so far in my past that I've forgotten who I really am.
And I want to preach about freedom because you are destined for freedom. You weren't destined to be a slave. You were destined to walk out freedom and it feels good to be free. It feels so good.
Man, the air just smells different when you're free. It feels like everything's lighter when you don't got those shackles on you. And when you really learn what it means to live free and not just know some facts. You know what the church has done is we've convinced people that all you need to do is pray a prayer.
And if you pray a prayer and you believe a couple facts about Jesus, then you get like a new life. And I gotta break it to you. You're not gonna get a new life if you just pray a prayer. And if you just believe a couple of tenants about Christianity.
Do you know that demons believe that Jesus died and that Jesus rose and that Jesus is God? Do you know that demons believe that? So what's the difference between you and a demon and what you think about Jesus? Well, there's one big difference.
The difference between the demons and those that follow Jesus is that those that are followers of Jesus and are born again, those are the ones that go, I don't just believe this about you. I've actually surrendered my whole life to you. I'm taking me out of the throne of my life because I'm sitting here and this is where I've just brought myself up. I'm the king of my own life.
And you actually dethrown yourself when you give your life to Jesus. And you actually surrender your whole life to him. And your whole life is given over to God. That's what it means to follow Jesus.
It's not just like a prayer, agreed with some tenants and then move on with business as usual. No, it's like you're my everything. I give you my whole life, okay? I just wanna be clear at the start of this.
If you think that you're a believer, but you just have agreed to a couple facts, we have to think differently. And you need to actually count the cost and go, am I really a Christian? Or have I just adopted religious tradition? And I've assumed things.
Do I really know God? Those are good questions. Keep on asking those questions. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Romans 6.
Some of us need to know, am I really free or am I not? And some of us maybe grew up in the church, maybe you have been every day for a long time and you're going, I'm still struggling. I don't know how to get free. I don't know what it looks like to get free from this issue and that issue.
And I just wanna make sure that we start at the same place and we're all on the same page. That there's something that Jesus did that it's very, very clear. Okay, Romans 6, verse two. Are you guys ready?
This is what's true about you. That you are set free from sin. Oh, maybe I'll say this before we read this. I said earlier that you were all born with the sin nature and we need set free from the slave master called sin because we're just born this way where we just need someone to save us from the slavery.
Of that self, of sin focus, of our sin nature. Okay, and so we need to get this clear in order for us to walk into our destiny. Okay, so Romans six, you guys have a destiny in God and this is very, very important for you to know. Romans six, verse two, it says this.
How can we who died to sin still live in it? Romans six, six, I'm just gonna keep on dancing here. We know that our old self, our sin nature, was killed, executed, crucified with Jesus in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. So that we would no longer look at this, be enslaved to sin.
For one who has died has been set free from sin. For the death, Jesus died, this is verse 10. For the death, Jesus died, he died to sin. Once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So you now must consider and see yourselves, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Because what happens is when you dethrone yourself and you go, God, you're gonna actually be on the throne of my life. What happens is you had this old sin nature and it actually gets buried into the ground the same way that Jesus' body, when he died, got buried into the grave. Your old sin nature gets pushed into that grave.
That's a picture of baptism. When baptism happens, you go under the water, you get dunked and it's a picture of my sin nature just died and it got buried under the earth. And then you get a new nature. So you're dead to sin.
You need to consider yourself dead to the corpse of sin. Okay. Verse 14. Oh man, this is good.
For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but under grace. Verse 17, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of the teaching which you were committed and having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness. Verse 22. But now that you have been set free from sin, there it is again and you become slaves of God, the fruit that you get leads to sanctification and that's end as eternal life.
Okay. So are you free from sin? Are you not free from sin? Are you free from sin as a believer and a follower of Jesus?
Or are you not? Well in verse six it says that you're no longer in slave to sin. Verse seven says you've been set free from sin. Verse 11 says consider yourselves dead to sin.
Verse 14 says sin will have no dominion over you. Verse 18 says you've been set free from sin and become a slave of righteousness. And verse 19 says you're set free from sin. So are you set free from sin if you follow Jesus?
Yes, that's really, really good news. But you're kind of going, but I don't feel like I'm set free from sin. Well listen, you're set free from sin. That's what it says six times in the same chapter in the Bible.
That's really good that you've been set free by someone. You needed someone to set you free. And Jesus came, God in the flesh came to set you free from yourself, set you free from your sin. But I don't feel like it because I'm still struggling.
Well, we're in process. That's true. So where are you free then? You're free in your spirit.
You got this, remember you had this old sin nature and the old sin nature was very proud and loved sitting up very high on the throne. And then you dethroned your sin nature and it died. And now God's sitting there and it's so good having him be the leader. And what happens is that core of who you are, your identity is no longer a sinner.
Now you have a new identity at the core of who you are. It's called a son. You're a son or a daughter of God. But your soul, your emotions, what you feel, what you think, that's still in process.
And your body's still in process. It's like, man, every single night around 930, I'm like, deque, blizzard, chocolate. Sometimes they don't have different, so pie blizzard, but I like it and I want it in and out of season. Now listen, my body's in process.
And my soul, sometimes I'm impatient. Sometimes I'm operating in a way that's not actually according to what's true about me in the spirit. What's happened in the church is most people are walking away from God and walking away from the church because the church has believed that it's all about saying yes to some tenant rather than your whole life being transformed when you follow Jesus. Listen, your destiny in God is not to just be an average person that's a good person.
Stop. Your destiny in God is not to just be a good person, a good American. Your destiny in God is to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Look at Romans A, just flip a page here.
Romans A, verse 29, 28. Well, we'll start 29. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. Look at this.
This is what he's destined us for. Look at what he says about our destiny. It's not to get a good job and get promoted and get a really nice house and go on vacations. No, your destiny is to be conformed and shaped and molded into the image of Jesus.
Your destiny is to start looking like Jesus in this earth. Your destiny is to have your everyday life completely transformed by the renewing of your mind. Like Romans 12 says, where he starts changing the way that you think and it completely changes you as a person. And then all of a sudden, your image, your identity, is all of a sudden just wrapped up into Jesus.
You're conformed. Look at verse 30. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he justified.
And those whom he justified. He also glorified. What does this mean? So it's just like the slaves of Texas.
They were destined to be free men and women. But there was actually a justification legally that they needed to experience. It actually needed to be legalized and issued governmentally. And Jesus did the same thing for us where he goes, I'm justifying you.
I'm setting you free legally. I've actually issued a proclamation. I've declared freedom, emancipation. It is done in the spirit.
And so when you give your life to Jesus, it's finalized. It's finished that you before God are completely justified, which means it's as if you've never sinned before when you come into God's presence. Some of us are going, what does he love me? Does he love me not?
I feel insecure when I come before God in worship. Is he thinking about my sin? Is he thinking about my mistakes? No, it's finished.
He finished the work 2,000 years ago. He says, now it's just as if you haven't ever sinned. When you come into my presence, you've been justified. That's really good news.
I don't have to be second guessing and trying to shift and trying to see what he's going to do. What he's going to say? How he's going to be feeling? I can actually enter into the presence of God.
Fully confident going, hey, here I am. I'm entering into your presence with a boldness. Father, here I am, all of me. Let's talk.
Let's connect. I know that that was not who I am. And I come to you. And I actually want you to be involved in the process with me.
So we're justified. That's good news. And then it says that the inglorified, or another way to say glorified is manifest or like reveal. And so we are justified spiritually.
But there's actually a manifestation of who God is. In other words, it's like he gets revealed through our lives, through our soul, and through our body. As we get transformed, as our life gets transformed, we get changed because your life isn't about you just being a good person. Your life is about your whole identity starting here.
And then it just changing everything. So you've been set free. That's really good. Really?
You've been set free from sin. That's really good news because your destiny is to be in relationship with God. And he knows the thing that will come against you in your relationship with him and creates disconnection is sin. So he goes, this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to set them free from the master of sin that actually creates disconnection. Because I know that the way to transformation is relationship. And so I'm going to remove everything that hinders relationship so that they can actually walk into their destiny. Galatians 5, let's turn there really quick.
And we're almost done. So Thomas, you can come. Galatians 5, I think the question, if you're like me, you're asking, OK, God set me free if I've given my life to Jesus. But how do I walk in freedom?
Is that not the question as a Christian you want to know? Are you like me? And you actually want to know, OK, I know that conceptually what's true is that I've been set free from sin. But I actually want to live it.
I want to experience the freedom. I don't want to just know intellectually. I want the experiential knowledge. I want to feel it.
I want to experience it. I want it to be my everyday life. I'm living in. I'm breathing freedom.
That's what some of us want. Some of us. I think we all want that. Galatians 5, verse 1, says, for freedom, Jesus has set us free.
Stand firm, therefore. Do not submit again to a yoga slavery. The context of this passage is the Apostle Paul is writing to a Gentile audience in Galatia. And as he's writing this letter to them, there's a bunch of Jewish teachers that are trying to get men.
Listen up. The Jewish teachers are trying to get the men that want to follow Jesus to get circumcised. It's a bad day. It's a bad day if you're a grown man and you have to have that surgery with no modern medicine.
None of you think that's bad day. See, your piano playing was too soft and it's just like you need to give me something like circumcision, Thomas. No, I'm just playing. It's like, what does that sound like?
Play circumcision. Go. I'm just going to go. OK.
You get this. No. You can play what you were playing, Thomas. That was good.
Yeah, OK. That's hilarious. Sorry. OK.
OK, so back on track. So the Apostle Paul is going, hey, he's addressing this problem because there's religious leaders that are trying to put religious stipulations on the gospel. And they're basically saying, if you want to get right with God, if you want to walk in God's design and walk in your destiny, then you have to deal with what the outside appearance. You actually need to receive circumcision, which is like a behavior modification.
It's like, hey, you have to change the outside to actually see inside transformation. And I believe what the church has fallen into in so many different moments is we've bought the lie that behavior management and religion is the key to freedom. And we've bought this lie and the Apostle Paul is going, no, no, no, no. I've set you free from sin.
And I've set you free from sin so that you can be free from the law of just trying to do it in your own strength and trying to have it be an equation. Because so easy, many of us are going, I just want it to be a plus b equals c. I want it to be 1 plus 2 equals 3. And I want to figure it out and just do freedom.
I want to get crack the code on freedom. Are you like me and you're going, Lord, what does it look like to fully be free in my everyday life? And we want it to be like strategic math. And the Lord's going, I have a different way.
I want to show it to you. I have a different way of freedom. Turn in your Bibles just a page. Or maybe it's on the same page.
Galatians 5 verse 16. Galatians 5 verse 16, Paul is continuing. And he says, this is what it looks like to walk out your freedom. I want you to pause it.
And before we read it, that picture that Paul said in verse 1 is this picture of a yoke of slavery. That's the language that he used. Did you see that on your page in the Bible? It's said a yoke of slavery.
And all of his audience that he's writing to totally understand what he's talking about, right? Because they're in this agriculture culture in society. So they know a yoke is what goes on in ox. And it's what plows feels.
And so the Apostle Paul is saying, you will be in a continuous plowing of slavery for your entire life if you try to do freedom through religion. You will be plowing from the beginning of your relationship with God to, I've been suffering from sin, into trying to live that out through your soul and your body. You're going to be constantly plowing ground. And you're never going to experience fruitfulness because you're always going to be plowing, always going to just be trying harder.
How many of you have been trying harder to overcome the problem that you're experiencing every single week, every single month? And some of us are going, I'm fine, I'm fine. And if you pause and realize and thought about it, and you count it how many times you are struggling daily with that issue, you would be shocked and appalled. Where you're going, I'm not fine.
I'm actually not doing good. I need somebody to save me. I need somebody to set me free. I need deliverance.
I need a moment where there's a complete God moment. I need change. And I want to cast vision for it. It's not just going to be a moment.
It's going to be a lifestyle. And that's what we're hungry for. I don't want it to just be a moment of freedom. It's like the slaves of the South.
It was a process to get slave mindsets, like the Israelites coming out of the Egyptian slavery. It was a process to get slave out of their minds. And to actually step into their identity and actually think as sons, think as daughters. And look, this is Paul's strategy.
Look at this. Verse 16, but I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Some of us are going, how do I get free? How do I get free?
How do I get free? Well, the first thing that you need to know is you already are free. Good news number one. Now, how do you walk in your freedom?
Walk by the spirit, and you just won't gratify the desire to flesh. It's just an outflow happen, right? 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, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under religion. You're not under behavior modification. You're not under trying and trying and trying and trying and trying in your own strength to be good. Verse 19, now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, imnity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, wow, it's a lot.
Orgees and things like these, I warn you, as I warn you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Now, some of us are going, well, if I did jealousy once, am I going to inherit the kingdom of heaven? Listen, when you gave your life to Jesus, God gave you a new nature, a new spirit, and He's washed all of your sins away from you as far as the east is from the west. That's not your identity anymore.
That's not who you are. So what defines you? Some of you need to hear this because the enemy is bringing accusation to you, challenging you on if you're actually saved and born again. If you bounce back and go, this isn't who I am, it's not what I want.
And you bounce back out of sin and you go, Lord, I hate this, and I want you, do you know that that's the testimony of the Holy Spirit being in you? If you weren't bouncing back and going, I want you, God, you wouldn't have the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. The Holy Spirit that's inside of you, that's going, I want God even after I've failed, is a big spotlight on, you have the Spirit of God on the inside of you. Stop letting the enemy of accusation, shower you with accusation, keeping you in sin focus, leave that behind and start going, Roman six, I'm free from that, what the heck was that?
God, you set me free from that sin, that's not who I am. Lord, thank you that I'm free. Lord, thank you that I'm not on the throne of my life anymore that you are, I'm so glad you're in throne, I'm so glad that you set me free from the slave driver of sin and orgies and drunkenness and jealousy and strife and divisions. I'm so glad that that's not the king of my life, you're the king of my life, that's not who I am, I'm gonna walk out my identity that you gave to me.
This is your destiny in God, to know who you are and then live into it, how do I live into it? We're reading that right now. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, joy, self-control, against all these things, there is no religious law. And those who belong to Jesus have crucified and buried the sin nature with its passions and desires, it's really good news.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Some of you just need to start walking, you've been sitting way too much, I feel like a sympathetic word for somebody tonight. You've been sitting so much that you're gratifying the desires of the flesh because you've been sitting a lot. You need to start prayer-walking, I'm just like in really practical, you need to get off your butt, start walking and just start talking to God.
That's a word for somebody, I'm telling you, this is actually a word for you, stop sitting so much, start walking. Leave the house, go on prayer walks with Jesus, okay? Oh, that's cool. Let us now become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another, amen.
Maybe you're like me and for most of your Christian life, you have been looking at this list of the fruits of the Spirit and it's kind of like a pop quiz whenever you open a glacial spine. It's like, how am I doing? It's like, oh shoot, you know, it's like patience and taint. Kindness, you know, like gentleness, okay, you know, and you start measuring yourself against a list of fruits of the Spirit.
I started thinking about this and I'm going, what's the difference between a fruit and a vegetable? Many of you guys know this, seeds, right? The difference between vegetables and fruits is that fruits have seeds to them. And I just started reflecting that most of my Christian life, what I've been doing is I've been trying to produce all of these fruits in my own strength.
Where I look at the list and I measure myself against the list and I'm going, yeah Lord, I wanna be more patient. So I'm gonna focus on being patient, I'm gonna do it in my own strength. Because again, try harder at patience. How has that worked out for you?
It has not worked out for me. Maybe for you, if you're really disciplined. We try to, then we try to go, I'm gonna try to seed all of these things in my life. And the reality is this, as Paul is talking about, this is how you walk out for you.
You know what he's teaching us? He's going, you're not the one that sews seeds of the fruit of the Spirit, God with you. He's the one that is sowing those seeds into your life and you don't have to try to produce the fruit. It just happens.
Okay, but how you be with him? But how you talk to him? But how you let him love on you? But how you let him reveal his patience to you?
You let him be kind to you. You let him be faithful to you. Okay? See, we've tried to make it an equation of religion and it's all about connection and relationship.
This is what it looks like. I was reflecting on our three-year-old daughter Nazareth. Okay, listen up, this is important. If you don't remember anything, I just want you to remember this image because I think it connects the whole thing.
Out of nowhere, multiple times a day. Our three-year-old Nazareth will come up to Katie and I and she'll just stop us. Like it'll be out of nowhere and she'll just stop us. And she is just gushing and she goes, Daddy, I love you.
And she has this broad smile of, Daddy, I love you. And then I go, I love you too, Naz, you know? And it just like hits us every single time when Nazgy says it. And I start thinking, where did that begin?
How did this start? And I start realizing that Katie and I, for three and a half years of Nazareth's life, do you know what we've been doing? As her parents, as her father and her mother, we've been sowing seeds of love day after day, moment after moment, in the hard times and in the good times we've just been showering her with love. And she's just been receiving it the whole time.
And now she doesn't need to think about, okay, I'm gonna try to love mom and dad. Now, dad, I love you. No, it just comes out of her. She just, the fruit just is there.
This is how the kingdom in your life gets expressed. You invite God into your everyday life and you go, Lord, I'm gonna let you love me. I'm gonna let you shower me with your kindness. I'm gonna let you shower me with what you say over me.
I'm gonna let you shower me with your faithfulness. I'm gonna invite you into, I'm gonna walk with you in the spirit, walk in the spirit, in the Greek. It's just walk in spirit. It's just like, you're together all the time.
How do you walk in freedom? You invite him into all of it. But isn't, that's, that feels like, I wanted it to be like A plus B, we'll see. I want it to be religion.
And the Lord's going, no, it's connection because I know exactly what you need. I know you need connection with the Father. This is what freedom looks like. Letting him love you and all of a sudden.
See, what happens is many of our problems that we struggle with in sin, this is the last thing in the second. Many of our sins struggles. Do you know what, that it's a deficiency in one of our understanding of the character of God and his truth that he has for us? It's actually, there's like sin struggles.
And if you got to the core of the core of the core of what the problem is, it's like, oh, I don't know the Lord as in his delight at me. And I'm looking for it from somebody else. And I'm getting disappointed. And then as I'm disappointed, I get into self-pity.
And then I need to medicate myself pity because I think that I deserve. And then all of a sudden now I'm into sin. And it's going, do you know that the core of that is you feeling like you're not enjoyed? Do you know that the core of that is you don't feel like you're desired and you need to allow the Lord to actually get up into all of those places of pain and let you like, start walking with him and letting him get into those spaces?
It's walking in the spirit. Unless the flesh just take care of themselves when you allow him to shower you with love. It's all stand. I believe that tonight is actually a man's of patient day for some of us.
And to be honest, I feel like the enemy is going to try everything he can today to try to deflect and defer and try to push us in a different direction. But I want to like go hard left turn into, this is a moment for some people in the room. I believe that the Lord is going, many of us have been living in slavery and living as slaves to the demonic, living as slaves to just the way of the world, living in this place of there's been a master over my life, I'm feeling oppressed, I don't have hope, I'm in depression, I'm in discouragement, I'm in this place of I don't know why I'm alive. And the Lord's going, I see you and I love you and I know you and there's a destiny on your life.
You have purpose for every breath that you're breathing. You are just to live life and have day by day by day, by day, go on and on and on with no hope and no love and no experiential knowledge of God in your life. And the Lord's going, I'm after you. And even if it's one of you or two of you or 10 of you, the Lord is after your heart.
He has you in the room tonight because he's going, I wasn't planning on doing this today, I wasn't planning on preaching on this today, it was gonna be a whole other message, but the Lord is going, I have you in mind, and I'm after your heart, I love you, and I delight in you even when you don't feel it, even when you haven't been aware of it, some of us have walked away from God, and the Lord is going, I have you in mind. Even as you walked away from me, you've been far off, and the Lord is going, I've been loving you, even as you've been rejecting me, even as you've completely lost touch with me, maybe you're going, I never even knew God, and the Lord's going, yeah, I know, but I've always known you, I've always had my eyes of love on you, I've been watching you, and you're going, but I've had all these bad things done to me, and the Lord's going, I was crying and filled with compassion, and there is a day of justice coming for all of those wrong things done to you, and I'm full of zeal and passion for that, and you're going, I haven't even told anybody about the things that were done to me, and my disappointments, and my discouragementsments, and the horrors of my past, and the Lord is going, but I saw it, and I was there, and it wasn't okay, and I'm a God of justice, and I want you to not be defined by what was done to you, I want you to not be defined by sin that has so easily tangled up your life, but you are designed and destined to be free. You are meant to live a life of slavery, you are meant to live a life where you're just oppressed, and that's your lifestyle, and you just live under it, under the cloud for your entire life, Jesus is going, you're the one that I came for today. Jesus is going, you're the one that I want, you're the one that I need to get cleaned up, don't I need to get better, don't I need to figure it out before I come to you, and the Lord's going, I'm after you, I'm after the one, I came for you, you need a doctor, I came because you need a doctor, you need deliverance, I came to bring you for you.
That's after your heart tonight, I just want us to close our eyes. If that's you, and as I'm talking, you're going, this is me, as pastor is talking about all of this stuff that's been attacking my life, and I feel like I'm distant, and I feel like I've been in this cloud, and I don't know up from down, and there's been, there's a whole spectrum of us in the room. And the Lord's going, you're the one I'm after, you're the one my finger is on you, my eyes of love are on you, and you can feel it because your heart is beating, and you know you need it, you know that you need him, you know that you need relationship with God, this is your moment, God has been dreaming about today, on Father's Day, 2023, that you would always have a memory, that you encountered the Father today, and God is going, I'm after you, I love you, I love you, but Lord, I don't even feel like I have it all together, I love you, I love you, and the Lord's going, you're the one, I love you, and it's many of us, it's not just one person, it's many of us, and the Lord's going, I'm gonna bring freedom, I already want freedom, and you're going to experience it today. Whatever it is, if you felt like, man, I've been getting attacked, you've been feeling oppressed, maybe you're just going, I just feel, I've been so far away, and I just wanna come back home.
Today's your day. You don't feel like you have it all together, that's same. We're all in process, but the Lord is saying, enough is enough. Today is your freedom day.
Today, you need to know that you are going to move forward in freedom, and you're dethroning whatever has been on the throne of your everyday life, and you get to have a surrender moment today, and going, Jesus, you take the throne, I don't wanna be on the throne of my life anymore, I don't wanna call the shots, I don't wanna just have it my way, I want your way once again, I wanna give you my life again, or maybe for the very first time, I'm giving you my life, and if that's you, if that's you and your heart, you're going, I want you at the sinner, I want you at the throne of my life, I want today to be that day, I want you to leave your seats, and just come to the front right now. I don't ever do this and every day, I don't ever do this, but today is a day where enough is enough, I want you to come to the front, if that's you. Come on, let's go. Let's go.
Let's go. Listen, if that's you, I want you to come right to the front. Let's go. Yes, just come to the altar.
I think that there's, listen, I think there's a couple more, I'm not trying to manipulate anyone, I think there's a couple more, that the Lord wants to bring to the front, because you're going, now's my moment. You don't have to, you can just do whatever when you come to the front, I feel like there's a couple more, where you're going, yeah, I just care about what people think and the Lord's going, hey, it doesn't matter what anybody thinks, this is about him, it doesn't matter what anybody's opinion is, you're gonna get to celebrate, it doesn't matter what anybody's thinking about. We're gonna throw away the fear of man and give it to the Lord, listen, there's a bunch of ladies, but I know that there's a man in the house where it's like, yeah, this is my moment. You're going, this is my moment, my heart is beating out of my chest and the Lord's going, I've got my eyes on you.
This is not a call for ladies, even though it's for daughters. Come on, thank you Lord. I'm just gonna leave a little bit more time. And it, yeah, thank you Lord.
I want all the ladies to stand up. If you're a spong, I want you to stand up. I love the humility, but the Lord is going, no, you're gonna stand in your rightful identity. This is who you are, you're so loved, you're so delighted in.
The Lord's going, hey, all of the past, there's been an, it's finished over you. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. I'm gonna start praying and if you want to, if you still want to come up while I'm praying, we're not gonna give a round of applause, we're just gonna pray.
And if you're going like, I just would prefer not all the attention, that's fine. I just don't feel like there's a minute in the house that are supposed to come up. So I'm gonna start praying and you can come up whenever you want to, okay? Nobody's mad, nobody's upset.
This is like, this is really, really good. This is freedom day. This is the turning day. This is the day of turning, Lord, we just say, this is our moment of turning, turning from every other lover, from every other affection.
We can just have people leaders in the house, you guys can come and pray, deacons come and pray over these ones. Lord, we say that you are the God of freedom. You are the God that has set our brothers and sisters free. If you're going, hey, I want to give my life to Jesus, you can just put out your hands in front of you and you can give your life to Jesus.
You can say, Lord, I give you my life. I turn from every other lover in my life. I turn away from my old life and I give you my life fully. I surrender my whole life to you.
You're now the king of my life. I'm no longer the king or queen of my life. You're the king. I give you my whole heart.
I give you my whole life. There's no turning back. It's all of me for all of you. And the Lord wants everyone to know this responding.
The Lord delights in you. And he's saying, there is going to be history that we're gonna build. We're gonna build history of affection, history of love relationship, history as we walk together. We are going to walk the rest of our lives together.
We're not just gonna go in and out of season, kind of being distant, kind of being far away. No, we're gonna just be close the whole way through. We're gonna be close. We're gonna be connected.
The Lord's going, I've been waiting for this day. I've been waiting for this day because I'm a proud father. I just see the Lord going, I'm a proud father. I'm such a proud father.
When I look at you, son, I'm so proud. When I look at you, daughter, I'm so proud. Look at you. Look at your courage.
Look at your boldness. I delight in you. Look at how you've bounced back and you've come back home because you always knew that I loved you. You always knew that I'd be putting on my running shoes, going after you even as you've walked away.
It's my delight to love you. Thank you, Lord. We're just gonna, I just want ministry time to happen a little bit. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. You can just pray and prophesy, just declare God's heart over these ones at the altar. If you're not responding at the front, just wanna encourage you to start conversation with Holy Spirit and go Holy Spirit, I want to walk with you. And you can just start connecting with Him.
Lord, I wanna walk with you. In this journey, I've been trying to do it in my own strength. You can just start a conversation with Holy Spirit. Wherever you're seated, wherever you're standing, just engage your heart.
Stop being a spectator and just start connecting with the Lord. This applies to everyone. It's not the people that are just up at the front. This applies to every single person in the room.
Lord, I wanna walk with you. I wanna live by the Spirit. Lord's gonna give you, like remind you of something that you've been walking through and He's gonna go, I wanna involve in that. I wanna be in process together in that area of my life, that area of your life.
Thank you. Lord, we thank you that you are the God that showers us with love. And that as your people, we get to receive who you are as we walk by the Spirit. Lord, as we walk by the Spirit, we thank you that we don't have to gratify the desires of the flesh.
And that just won't happen as we walk with you and as we talk with you. Lord, we thank you that there's walking and talking that is in store for us as a people. Lord, we thank you for a lifetime of walking in the Spirit. Lord, we thank you that you truly have set us free, that it was emancipation, has been proclaimed, as you came through that grave and you broke through the grave and that you finished it on the cross and you ascended into heaven to prove that we are free.
And so Lord, we receive your freedom and we wanna walk in it in the Spirit. We thank you for all of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, just happening as we grow in relationship with you. We love you. Truth really does set us free.
We thank you for the truth of you. In Jesus' name, everybody, say amen.