Releasing Your Potential

Good morning. How's everybody today? Oh, excuse me. Getting in the way already.

Well, I must say a little surprised with the the gift earlier again. Thank you. I love this mug. I didn't really look at anything until I sat down and it says be careful or you will end up in my sermon.

And for those of you that have been here for a while, you know that's true. Matter of fact, I was talking to Seth and Phil before the service just this morning. You guys remember several months ago we had the series all about Phil that coincidentally Pastor Phil like came up with that and it was from the book of Phil Ibbians and I was telling a little bit about what God's laid on my heart this week from the book of Philemon and Phil looked at me and goes, you mean Philamon? I said, what?

He goes, I thought it was Philamon. I said, well, only if you're in France, Philomol. No, I'm just kidding, but Phil you end up in the sermon today. So we're going to, my main passage today is going to be Philemon chapter 1 verses 4 through 6.

And if you don't know where Philemon is, you can kind of flip through the New Testament, find the book of Hebrews and go back one book. Philemon is a very short book, only one chapter, I think around 25 verses. And we're just going to look at a couple of those today and then trust God that he'll teach us what he wants to teach us today. Kristen asked me last night, she said, are you ready for tomorrow?

I said, I have no points, but yes, I'm ready. So I don't have a classic three-point message today, I just really have a point. And I want to talk to you today about releasing your potential, releasing your potential. You know, you may have grown up.

Now what people say, especially when you're a kid, really shapes, shapes your adulthood years. And I'm sure I could be pretty safe to say, and this is not a word of knowledge, but I'm pretty safe to say that there's some here that we're probably told as kids, hey, you'll not amount to anything. You don't have a chance, you're nothing, you're worthless, whether maybe by a friend or a parent. But I want to tell you today that you have incredible potential, not because of anything you've done or I've done, but because of Jesus.

That you have a potential that's unlimited. And so a lot of people might know that or agree with that, but if you think about, I want you to think about, anybody here ever can take physics class? Oh, my goodness. Okay.

In physics, there's essentially two main forms of energy. Now there's subcategories under these two main categories, but does anybody remember the two main forms of energy? There's potential energy and there's kinetic energy. Potential energy is the energy that a body possesses because of its position.

Kinetic energy is the energy of body possesses because of its position. Kinetic energy is the energy of body possesses because of its movement or motion. And as I thought about that, even just hit me, just even before it's here to change the title of my message, the text that says, that's how I'm changing the title of my message to releasing your potential because if you think about potential energy being the energy that a body possesses because of its position, you know you have a position in Christ. And because of your position in Christ, you have unlimited potential in you.

But there's a big difference between potential energy and kinetic energy. See, everybody that's accepted Jesus has the Holy Spirit living in them, unlimited power, unlimited resources. You have God, the Creator, the Universe in you. It's kind of like if in the atom, every atom in the world has the potential in its nucleus of nuclear energy.

But until that atom is split and some movement takes place, that energy is never released. And so the difference between having potential energy, having, knowing, I know I got it, but you know I just feel like there's a lot of Christians today walking around with a nuclear bomb inside of them. And you go to your grave carrying a nuclear bomb with the potential to bring change into somebody's life and just carry it around like no big deal. How would you act if you actually carried a nuclear bomb around?

Would it change the way you walked? Right? You'd probably be, you probably, if I handed Autumn a nuclear bomb, she would probably walk with a continual awareness of what she carried. I submit to you that you carried something greater than a nuclear bomb.

You carried the power of the Holy Spirit that brought Jesus from the dead, seated at him at his right hand. But you walk around with no awareness of it. Like, eh, no big deal. I got it.

So I want to look today. There's one verse I really think is filled by Lehman 1 6 that really gives us some insight on how to release what we've been given. Because that's the question is I have it. How do I release it?

And so if we, if you don't want to open your Bibles or have it up on the screen, what's that say? It's one thing to have faith that's entirely another thing for it to be effective. So we're going to be talking about having a faith that's effective today. If I Lehman 1, let's look at this.

It says this. I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward the same. So here's Paul. Now sometimes Paul wrote to regions, sometimes he wrote to churches.

In this case, he's writing to one individual by Lehman. And it's the only book that he actually wrote just to this one guy. And he said, I thank God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. Now how many people here love Jesus?

About half of you today, love Jesus. All right. So this is for the half that loved Jesus. The other half we'll deal with at the end of service.

How many people love saints? Other believers. So Paul says, I know that you love Jesus and I know that you love people, but I want you to get a little bit beyond just having a faith that brings salvation. In verse 6 he says this, he says, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

You see this word that says may become effective? That's actually written in what's called the subjunctive mood which is the mood of potential and possibility. It means that it may or may not happen. That just because you have something in you doesn't mean that it's actually going to become, go from potential energy to kinetic energy.

It's not going to actually become something unless there's a part that you play and you do your part. And he says, I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective. Well, people say, well, my faith is just between me and Jesus. You ever hear that one?

Well, my faith is kind of personal. Well, I beg to differ. This verse says differently. Because it says that the sharing, the word sharing is the Greek word koinonia which means communion with.

It means fellowship with. It means joint participation with. It actually means to have intimacy and intercourse with. And he's saying that the sharing of your faith might become effective.

Well, when was the last time that you needed to share your faith with God so that something could happen to him? I don't think it's talking about you having a personal faith with God. Now, do you have a personal faith with God? Yes.

But see, God didn't just save you so that you could have a relationship with him and get to heaven one day. He's got a purpose for you here now. See, if the point of getting saved was just to go to heaven, the minute you got saved, you got to heaven. Like, why hang around here?

See, there's more to life than just getting saved. God has a plan to use you to carry something out. And he says that the sharing of your faith, the communication, some of us say that there are some translators. The communication of your faith, the participation, the joint participation of your faith may become effective.

See, a lot of times when we think of, what's the first thing I say, have you ever shared your faith with somebody? What do we think of? Oh, I can't witness. Right?

So sharing your faith involves what we say, but it's not limited to just what we say. Like, a lot of times we think sharing our faith is what we say to people. That's part of it. But you do a lot more witnessing by your walk than you do by your words.

See, Jesus said to the disciples, he says, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall do witnessing. Now he said, you shall be witnesses. See, a life of a witness is what he's expecting you to live once you've been in due to power. And he says that the sharing of your faith.

So what's that look like? Do you realize that there's other Christians that need you to share faith with them? Like, it's just not the unsaved person that needs to know about Jesus. There's believers that you're sitting next to probably right now that are going through something that needs faith shared with them and communicated to them.

Because you've been through something, you've been delivered to something, you've been set free from something that you can pour faith into their life. See, a lot of times the sharing of your faith comes by how you react to a certain situation. Do you realize your kids watch the way you react to things? Do you realize that sharing of your faith can take place at home?

That when you get that phone call that you don't want to get, that when you get a situation that comes up that you just don't like, how do you react to it? The way that you react to that situation communicates your faith and where you are in the Lord to your kids. The way you interact at work. The way that when you get something from your manager that, oh my gosh, you guys an idiot.

Right? Maybe he is. I've been called much worse. Maybe it's true.

But do you realize the way that you respond to your boss at work communicates your faith to your coworker? And you didn't say a thing. He says that the communication, the sharing of your faith may become effective. Look at this word effective.

It's a Greek word, enter gaze. I put it up here because when we think of enter gaze, it's where we get the English word energy. Right? Why we talk about potential and kinetic energy.

This just isn't has energy that resides in you. Look at this. It's active or energy that's powerful in action. It's just not, you realize that this table has potential energy.

This is a lot of you right now. Like a bump on a log. Right? What's this?

Now it's got kinetic energy. Now it's potential. But he says that the sharing of your faith may become effective. That it actually does something.

That it actually changes something. That when you begin to live it out and walk it out, something takes place. It's the same word that the writer of Hebrews uses in Hebrews 4 verse 12. It says, the word of God is alive and powerful or living and powerful sharper than the two edged sword dividing us under soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It says the word of God is alive and powerful. It actually changes things. Do you realize God's word is also has potential and kinetic energy? That what did when Jesus told the parable of the soils?

What did he say? The seed is God's word. They didn't seed form. It has potential energy.

And when it's planted and dies and becomes something, it releases that. And God says that your life should be like the word of God. When I preach God's word, I expect miracles to happen. I expect things to take place.

I expect lives to change because it's not what I say. It's the power that's in the word. And when the words released, things happen. And God says that your life should be the same way.

He said the way that you communicate your life and your walk of faith should change things. See, faith isn't just about getting saved. You realize that we're called to a lifestyle of faith. Like it's just not the day I accept Jesus.

That's the best day of your life. But that's the first day of the rest of your life. Paul says this. He says, as you therefore have received Christ, so walk in Him.

How did you receive Him? By faith. How do we walk in? By faith.

What does he say? He says that, that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, rid as the power of God into salvation, to them that believe to the Jew person also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, because as it's written, the just shall live by faith. See, that you go from one level of faith to another. It's not like I get saved and stay stuck.

You got saved, set free. God's Spirit comes to live in you, and now the rest of your life is this walk of faith. And Paul says that I want that walk of faith when you communicate what God has done in your life, I want it to be effective. I want it to be impactful, that it should make a difference in other people's lives.

Because you're carrying something. You're carrying something so much bigger than a nuclear bomb. You, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus. It is the power of God, miracle, working power of God.

I don't know what to say nothing about the Lord. I might offend somebody. Would you rather they go to hell? Would you rather they live sick the rest of their life?

Would you rather they live on the streets the next ten years? No, you shouldn't. It says that the sharing of your faith may become effective. How?

So how do we do it? How do we have an effective miracle working power filled faith? Imagine that he gives us the answer. That sounds simple.

It says by the what? Acknowledgement or acknowledging it's a noun by the acknowledgement of every good thing that is in you in Christ. So this word acknowledgement, a lot of times we think of a knowledge we're like, what do we do? I see you.

I see you. I hear you. That's not what it's talking about. It's not talking about mental assent or acknowledging a fact.

This is a different word. It's actually the word epic gnosis. And it means precise or exact knowledge. It means having a full or complete understanding.

So here's what happens. A lot of times the knowledge that we have about God is incomplete, right? All of us. It's incomplete.

But, I can say this. All of our knowledge of God is incomplete because he's infinite. But what we can have is inaccurate knowledge of God. See, when your understanding of God is misunderstanding, it affects the way you believe and it affects the faith that you communicate.

See, if I really think that God sends sickness on people, am I going to pray for them? Probably not. If I believe that, well, people are supposed to get saved, we'll get saved anyway. I mean, why witness?

See, if I don't have a complete, inaccurate, and precise understanding of who God is, then it really warps my faith walk. It makes me less effective. So this word, it comes from the word gynosco, which means experiential knowledge. So this is having an experiential knowledge that's actually precise and accurate.

So we never base doctrine on experiences unless those experiences line up with God's word. So God's word is the standard. But what he says, I want you to walk with me and I want you to experience things with me to give you a fuller understanding of who I am. Think about this.

When you went to school, did somebody teach you about the law of gravity at some point in time? Right? You probably had a teacher and they probably said, Isaac Newton was what? Sitting under a tree?

And I don't even know if that's true. But I'm sure Phil's looking it up right now. And you probably got one in class, you know, you got a little bit older and you got in physics class and they said, hey, the acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared. And the more you fall, the faster you fall and you continue to accelerate due to gravity.

So you can know those things, but when did you really understand gravity when you fell out of a tree? Right? You're six years old, you're climbing a tree. And what happened?

You fell down. Oh, that was a fluke. So you do it again. And what happens?

You fall down again. And eventually my experience begins to line up with what I've been taught. And all of a sudden, I can unequivocally say, if you jump off this platform, you will drop. Right?

Why? It just happens. Like, I know it because the book says it, but I also know it because I've experienced it so many times. It's just, that's what it is.

It was like last week. Last week you guys maybe didn't know this, but Seth was feeling sick. Seth preached an amazing message last week. He's like, bro, bro, I don't know.

I don't know. And so part of me is like, don't you pull this on me. Now, you know what I told him? I said, look, when you start to preach, the annoying thing that's in you will rise up on you and you will preach and you'll not feel any sickness whatsoever while you're preaching.

Now, there's not a verse to go to that says that, but I know that in Christ is no sickness. I know that Christ is in me. I know that the Word says that the Spirit that dwells in me will bring life to my mortal body in Romans 8. And I know that God's done it for me time and time and time again.

I get to preach. I feel sick. And the minute I open my mouth and preach God's Word, and it's happened so many times. My experience, you can't talk me out of it.

You can't talk me out of it. One time I can tell you this, Kristen and I went to Columbus, Ohio. She's the only one who can corroborate this story. But I was asked to speak at a church that's been about maybe six, seven years ago.

We left our house. I had no, literally not, like, horse. She's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm going to preach.

I said, and yeah, maybe I had maybe just a list a little. And you know, I just drove four hours. I believe that God would do what he always does because he's done it so many times. I opened my mouth.

I preached. I sat down and guess what? I had no voice. But he's proved himself so many times.

I can't help but to believe that's what's going to happen. And not because I'm anything special. I'm not. I just have a Jesus in me that has unlimited potential.

And he says that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledging of what? Every good thing that is in you, where? In Christ. And here's a part a lot of people struggle with.

I think most believers are more familiar with what they were than what they are. So you spend a lifetime becoming what you were before you got saved. And then when you get saved, things change on the inside. It says that you became a new creation.

It said old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. It says that as Jesus is, so are you in this world. That inside of you, you're born against spirit.

It says that the new you, the new creation is created after God. As Ephesians 4, 24, it says created after God in true righteousness and true holiness. That the new you is so righteous and so holy is just like Jesus. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he says, do you not know?

He's talking about, he said if you have sex with a harlot. He said that two become one flesh. He said why would you give your members to a harlot when two become one? But he says in the same way, he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with him.

So he says that when you get saved and the Holy Spirit moves inside of you, your spirit, he not only lives there, it's not only holy, but your spirit and his spirit are literally one spirit. Now I want you to think, I want you to tell me one bad thing that's inside the Holy Spirit. Does he have any bad habits? No.

Does he have any depression? Does he have any sickness? Does he do any cheating or stealing? No.

He doesn't even have a bad thought. See, here's what happens. The enemy will want to tell you how bad you are. That's what he does.

So that's not what the Holy Spirit does. Seth read last week from John 4, I think it was 14 or 16, but he's talking about the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. John says this in John 16, he says when the Spirit of truth is come, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Three things, sin, righteousness and judgment.

I think this is chapter 16 verse 8. He says of sin because you don't believe in me or because they believe not in me. So when you're an unbeliever, the Holy Spirit's work of conviction is to convict you that you need to believe on Jesus. He says of sin because they believe not only of righteousness because I'm with you no longer and of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.

So he says when you're an unbeliever, the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict you that because of your sin you need to believe in Jesus. But he says of righteousness because I am with you no longer. The work of the Holy Spirit in a believer is to convince you or convict you that you're righteous. See, because that's what's in you.

That's the real you. See, we think the real you is out here. That's not the real you. The real you is the one in here that's been made new.

The one that the Holy Spirit says, you're better than that. I made you better than that. You're righteous. You're holy.

You're worthy. All those things because of Jesus. That's who you are. And that's what he, that's what his job is to convince you.

You think about conviction. It actually means convention. It takes some convincing, right? Because we're so used to the old us.

And he says that you can't share your faith effectively if you're acknowledging who you used to be. He says I want you to acknowledge every good thing that's in you in Christ. Why is that so hard? What's that?

Memories. So Don said that for an atomic bomb to be effective, it has to be armed. So we're, but I believe that what we carry in us, I mean, it's armed. It's armed.

It's ready to go. It's ready to go. You know that the Holy Spirit is on 24-7? That when you're sleeping, he's on.

When you're depressed, he's rejoicing. When you're crying, he, I don't know if he's crying with you, but he's not depressed. I'll tell you that. When you're sick, he's not.

Like, and he's just continually God and everything that's God is in you. And he's ready to go at the drop of a hat. Here's why I think, you know, we're so used to, Jesus said this. He said, my sheep hear my voice and voice of a stranger they will not hear, but I just think we're so used to hearing the voice of the stranger.

It's familiar. Remember a guy named Gideon? I remember hearing Gideon. So in Judges chapter 6, I don't have this up.

Let's read this. If you have your Bibles. So it says, we find Gideon. It says that the angel of the Lord finds Gideon that he is threshing wheat in a winepress because he's scared.

So the Midianites have been oppressing Israel for seven years. So in Judges chapter 6, verse 11, it says this. It says, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the tear of the tree, which was in Oprah. That's not Oprah Winfrey.

That's Oprah. Which belonged to Joash, the Abazite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. So here for seven years, the Midianites, every time the Israelites would grow wheat, they would take it. They would grow animals.

They would take them. They were literally living in fear and hiding because of the oppression of this group of people for seven years. It says, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. Gideon is threshing wheat, hiding in a winepress, not even a place where wheat should be threshed.

And the angel says, the angel of the Lord says, he says, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. I'll call that potential energy. And I'll tell you this today, the Lord is with you. The potential is there.

And Gideon said to him, verse 13, oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened? Where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying? Did not the Lord bring us from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. And then the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours.

The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor potential. Now what's he say? Go. And when he goes, what happens?

He doesn't initially do it, but go becomes the kinetic energy. He says, I am with you, you mighty man of valor. It may not look like it, it may not feel like it, you might be living in oppression, but I'm with you, and because I'm with you, you're a mighty man of valor. And he says, well, where's all the miracles?

Where's all the, why don't I see it? God says go. Go in this might of yours. And why is he answering?

He says, oh, sign me up. Now listen to what he says. He says, if I'm not sent to you, so he said to him, how can I save Israel? He says, this is the weakest in the nasa.

And I'm the least in my father's house. My family is a bunch of no goods, and I'm the worst of the no goods. He says, I'm the least of the least. He didn't have a very good opinion of himself.

So what's he do? You read the rest of the story. He says, you know what? He says, if this is true, I need a fleece.

I need a sign. You ever hear this putting a fleece out for God? He says, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put a fleece on the threshing floor, and so tomorrow morning if it's completely dry and all the ground's wet, all know what you're saying is true.

So he gets up the next morning and guess what? The fleece was dry and the ground's wet. And he says, okay, that was one, but how about one more? And he says, how about tonight if I put the fleece out and the fleece is wet but the ground's dry, I'll know what you're saying is true.

And he gets up the next morning and guess what? The fleece is wet and he rings it out. And he says, okay, I'm going to go do it. And so he calls an army and he gets 32,000 people together.

Now the Midianites, I think, had 150 or 180,000, but he gets 32,000, which doesn't seem like enough. And so God says to him, he says, the amount of people you have is too many. You need to get rid of a few. And I want you to say, if anybody's scared, you can go home right now.

So he said, I'm taking volunteers, if you're scared, put your hand up, and 22,000 people left. Imagine that. Two thirds of his army. So now he's down to 10,000 people.

God says, still too many. I want you to take him down to the brook. And he says, whoever gets down and laps water like a dog, those are the ones I want you to take. And whoever gets down on their knees, don't take those.

And so if you read the rest of the story, there was 300 men that laps water like a dog. And so here he is, he's going against armies of 100,000, 200,000 people with 300 men. I want to flip over to chapter 7, verse 9, because I think it's kind of funny, Gideon dismissed all the people that were afraid, but I think at the end he was still afraid himself. He really still wasn't confident what God told him.

Verse 9 says this, chapter 7, verse 9, it happened on the same night that the Lord said to him, arise, go down to the camp, for I have delivered into your hand. Verse 10, but if you are afraid to go down, then go down to the camp with purer your servant. And imagine this. He says, I want you to go down and take this army and with 300 people, he says, but if you're afraid, I want you to get out of the camp with just your servant.

Now imagine that. God says, I want you to go into their camp, go into the enemy's camp, just you and your servant. And he said, and you shall hear what they say afterward, your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with purer his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp.

Now the Midianites, the Amalekites and all the people of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts. And their camels were without number as the sand of the seashore in multitude. These armies, it says, were as numerous as locusts. Their horses and camels were as the sand of the seashore.

This is a big army. It said verse 13, when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, I have a dream, I've had a dream to my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. And it came into a tent and struck it so that it fell an overturned and the tent collapsed.

Then his companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel, into his hand. God has delivered Midian and the whole Midianite camp. God gave Gideon the ability to hear something most people don't get to hear. He got to hear what the enemy was saying about him.

See what happens is what we hear is the voice, what the enemy is saying to us. So all for seven years the Midianites are pressing Israel. I'm sure they're taunting them. They're calling them names.

They're robbing them. They're taking their stuff. As a reminder of anybody, the thief comes not but fortu steal, the kill, and destroy. And so they're continuing to hear that, continuing to hear that.

And they're probably like, we're just a bunch of worthless Israelites. God gives Gideon the opportunity to go into the enemy camp. And now not hear what they're saying to him, but what they're saying about him. See if you could hear what the enemy's saying about you, you'd realize that he doesn't have a chance.

See what he's saying to you is this, you're a loser. You're going to die. It's over. You're going to get fired.

You're worthless. You're such a horrible sinner. You don't deserve anything. That's what he's saying to you.

But if you could sneak into his camp, you know what he's saying about you? Oh my gosh. That woman is the daughter of the king. Oh my gosh, that guy is the child of God.

He's carrying a bomb inside him. She's carrying the power of God with her. She knows her authority. He knows his calling.

She knows who she is in Christ. That's what the enemy's saying about you. Because he knows he's defeated. But that's not what he's saying to you.

What he's saying to you is just a bunch of lives. How different would your walk be if you actually began acknowledging every good thing that is in God is in you? I don't like Christian, you know what Christian is? Church talk.

I don't like church talk. Whitney saying we have this song this morning that says tear down all my religion, right? Shake up. I don't like religion.

I'm going to do a religious thing just for fun. If I say this, God is good, you're going to say, how did you know that? And if I say it all the time, that's not even a Bible verse. Although there are some things in the Psalm of David that says his mercy endures forever, the Lord is good.

Do you say this or do you really realize what you're saying when you're saying it? See, that if you truly believe that God is good and that Jesus is in God and God's in Jesus and Jesus is you and you and you're in Jesus and he's in you by the power of his Holy Spirit, that whatever is in God is where? And you. And if God's good all the time, guess what you are.

You're good, but I don't add good. See what happens? You get hung up in Romans 7 and Paul says this. See in Romans 6 he says that, He says that, See too many churches teach what I call bipolar Christianity.

You know what bipolar Christianity is? It's like you've got two natures. You're jekyll inside on the inside, jekyll and hide. Like you got the new nature, but then you still have the old nature.

And the new nature and the old nature are in this constant battle. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that old things are passed away. The old man is dead, that you've been crucified with Christ, that you're now married to another.

His name is Jesus. That Jesus couldn't have married you if the old man hadn't died because Jesus isn't into polygamy and Jesus is not into divorce. He's not going to leave you either. That He's there forever.

So you take Romans 6 and it says you died, but now you're alive in Romans 7, that, yeah, I still got some things in my flesh and in my brain. And to the degree that I acknowledge the good that's in me because then I get to Romans 8 verse 1 and it says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And you've got to put them all together. Or you end up living a bipolar Christianity.

Well, you're going to go out of here today. You're going to be like, I'm good. And then you're going to mess up. And guess what the devil's going to tell you?

You're bad. And you're going to say, you're right. And then you're going to go through the rest of your week, not sharing effectively your faith. Because you just got talked out of the thing that you already possess.

So you got to realize that when you mess up, yes, you messed up. But in Christ, I'm still good. See, if I'm in Christ and Christ is in me, does He have any sin in Him? No.

See, when I sin, my right standing with God doesn't change. Now, the reason I confess sin is to release the forgiveness that's already on the inside into my body and into my mind to close the door to the enemy. So here's what sin does. Sin gives the enemy an open door into my life.

Confession closes the door. Like, I don't want you to sin. But if you sin, you're still good. And if you mess up, don't let the enemy tell you otherwise.

Because here's the thing. If He can't keep you from accepting Jesus, then the next best thing is to keep you from telling somebody else about Jesus. He's like, well, I lost the first one, but I'm going to be active, keeping them from telling somebody else. I'm going to render them any effective in their faith walk.

And you're going to live a life of any effectiveness and go to heaven. But that's not God's plan, it's will for you. Well, let's just close with this. I don't know what the comment was.

My bad. Let me read this to you. I'd rather read it than say it. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians Church says, I also have to have heard of your faith.

Does that sound familiar? I heard of your faith for the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. That sounds real familiar to fill them on. Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Guess how it comes? In the knowledge. That's precise and accurate knowledge of who?

Of Him. Like Paul says, I want you to have a spirit of wisdom. I want you to have a spirit of revelation. The way you get it is in the knowledge, having accurate knowledge of Him.

That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of this calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe? So you're carrying all these things. So Paul says there's a hope that you would know what is the hope of His calling.

Gideon had a call on his life. It says, you mighty man of valor, while he was sitting in fear, brushing wheat. See, God has a call for you. God has a call on his life.

God says, the way the Father sent me, I send you. He says that you may know the hope. What is the good expectation of God's call on your life? He has a call for you.

He says that you may know the riches of the glory of the inheritance that's in the saints. That God has an inheritance? Somebody has to die for you to receive an inheritance, right? Do you know if somebody died for you, so you could have an inheritance?

Do you realize his inheritance is actually in the saints that's in you? He's actually placed the kingdom in you. So that you may know the power, his power toward us, the same power that he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated with the right hand. Paul says, and later in chapter 3, he says that God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

It's in you. God's power is in you. God has a plan for you. God has already given you.

We're not going to read this because we're going to close. Let's stand up. We're going to close. I just want to pray for you today.

I'm not going to have an older call per se, but I want you to know that I'm here. If you need personal prayer, love to pray for you. I want you to know this. You're carrying around the most amazing gift that you could ever carry.

His name is Jesus. And he lives in you by the agency of the Holy Spirit. I don't want you to walk around life not recognizing what you carry, but when you walk into work, you carry the very presence of God. When you walk into your home, you carry the presence of God.

When you walk into the supermarket, you're carrying the very presence of God. This week, I'll just share this with you before I pray because sometimes I wonder why it can be so dumb. How can I know God's word, but be so stupid at the same time? We switched payroll companies two weeks ago.

And for 10 days, this company could not figure out how to get the general ledger so I could push it into my computer system. And it was about 4,000 lines long. And I told them I wasn't going to do it. I didn't have time to do it.

I wouldn't do it. And so I finally got down to it. I had to get it done and they couldn't do it. And I couldn't figure it out.

And I prayed Tuesday night before I went to bed. I said, God, you know all things. You know how to do this. And I woke up in the middle of the night, had a couple ideas.

I got up the next morning, had it done in 4 hours. But the company that invented the system couldn't do in 10 days. Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. Because I know that he knows.

And if he knows, why did I ask sooner? Friday night. I finally get to the point of getting the payroll in for our employees to hit Monday. It's a new system.

And at 6.30, Friday night, everybody's gone. If I don't get this in, nobody gets paid. Again, I can't figure the taxes out on it. I just spent 2 hours trying to figure this out.

And guess what I forgot to do? I forgot to ask God for some wisdom. So at 6.30, I said, God, I don't can't figure these taxes out, but you know how to do it. Can you show me?

And he said, this is no lie. I said, type in the word tax. In this bar. And the report came up.

Like, I think he created that report on the fly. Because it wasn't there before. And literally, in a matter of 5 seconds, I had what I spent 2 hours trying to find. And again, like, how can I be so dumb?

I've got to remind you that you have, on inside of you, access to the mind of Christ. All his wisdom, all his knowledge, all his insight, all his understanding, he's got to ask. So here's my prayer for you today. I want to pray for you.

If you have a need, you can just slip up your hand. I just want to pray that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and understanding and the knowledge of him. That you're maybe you're facing a need, that you don't know how it's going to be met. You're facing a situation, you don't know how it's going to turn out.

Maybe you have, maybe you have, maybe it's complicated. Maybe like all the pieces don't fit together. And just like, I just, I can't figure this thing out. I can't see the force for the trees.

God knows the answer. Father, right now, Lord, we come to you in the name of Jesus. Lord, the name that's above every name. Lord, your word says that, that where you are, that confusion doesn't exist.

So Lord, we bind any spirit of confusion. We bind any spirit of in, in, in effectiveness, whatever it is that the enemy is bringing against. Lord, I just lift up each situation today. I lift up each person.

Lord, that said, Hey, I have something I need wisdom and revelation beyond what I possess. And Lord, I'm carrying that in me right now. Lord, I just pray a release of that in Jesus' name into the situation, every situation, Lord, that you would give supernatural wisdom and insight on what to do, how to solve it, how to fix it, how to come out of it, and that you would receive the glory from it. In Jesus' name.

Amen.