Sermon Transcript

Isaiah 54, verse 1.

For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.

And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings.

Do not spare.

Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.

For you shall expand to the right and to the left.

And your descendants will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited.

Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed.

Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame.

For you will forget the shame of your youth.

And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.

For your maker is your husband.

The Lord of hosts is his name.

And your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

He is called the God of the whole earth.

For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit.

Like a youthful wife when you were refused.

Says your God, for a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you.

With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.

For this is like the waters of Noah to me.

For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you.

For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you.

Nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord who has mercy on you.

It's a covenant of peace.

O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems and lay your foundations with sapphires.

I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones.

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

In righteousness you shall be established.

You shall be far from oppression, and you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Indeed, you shall surely assemble, but not because of me.

Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.

Behold, I have created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the spoiler to destroy.

No weapon formed against you shall prosper.

and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord.

Father, we just pray right now in the name of your Son, Jesus.

Lord, any place where there's doubt, any place where there's fear, any place where there's hurt, any place where there's no peace in our lives, Lord, I pray that you would come in and enlarge the tent pegs of your presence within us, that you would move to the right and to the left within us, that you would make more room inside of us, that you would drive out oppression and

that you would drive out division, that you would drive out the devil in the name of Jesus Christ.

I pray right now that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell within us, that we would walk in the covenant of peace in the name of Jesus Christ.

So Lord, right now I pray that the devil, that destruction, that deceit, that division would flee at the name of Jesus.

that you would enlarge your tent pegs, that you would move to the right and to the left, that we would make room for you, that we would repent, that anything within our hearts that isn't of you, that we would drive it away from us, that we would turn from it and we'd say, Lord, have your way in us.

Lord Jesus, please have your way in us today.

Anything that is not of you, help us to love what you love and hate what you hate.

Help us to desire what you desire.

Jesus, I just pray for your revelation.

I pray for your Holy Spirit to come and speak to your people today, that we would step into the covenant of peace, that any place where there has not been peace, where there's been chaos, that you would reveal that to us, and that every door the devil has used to gain access to our hearts, to our minds, to our souls, that we would close those doors today in the name and authority of your Son, Jesus.

That there would be peace in this place.

Peace in your people's hearts.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Romans 10.9.

If you want the scriptures today, you can text REVNOTES, all one word, to the number 94000.

You can get the scriptures.

Romans 10.9.

It says this, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You don't just come in and say, oh, yeah, yeah.

I'm saved.

We're all good.

We're all fine.

We're all going to end up in heaven someday.

Like everybody's going.

No, no, no, no, no.

It's if you, have you made that confession yet?

If you haven't made that confession yet, let me tell you something.

This is hard because we just want to believe because some of us, we have friends, we have family, we have people that have died.

Some people have died recently in your lives.

And you just want to believe, like, well, I mean, I don't think, but maybe, I hope.

It's okay to hope, but let me tell you something.

It's a lot better to just live on a firm foundation and know that if you have made this confession, guess what?

You don't have to worry anymore.

There's no fear.

There's no fear.

And so let me tell you something.

If you haven't, guess what?

Today's the day.

I like to do this every now and then.

I invite the whole church.

We just make this confession because more than likely there's one person in here, you've never made this confession.

I'm telling you, I'm preparing you right now.

Today in this house, you can make this confession.

If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

It's so simple.

It's so simple.

Like religion will tell you just step after step after step.

You got to do this and then you got to do this and then you got to do this.

No, no, no.

If you confess with your mouth that the Lord Jesus is Lord of your life and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

It is that simple.

Sometimes we get so caught up in all that.

Well, have they been baptized?

Were they sprinkled?

Did they do this?

Did they do that?

Listen, all that stuff is important.

Those are steps of obedience, but the initial step of salvation is right here.

If you, some of you are like, no, I've never done that, but we're all going to the same place.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

He is the only way.

He loves you.

He made a way for you to step into the covenant of peace.

How simple is it to step into the covenant of peace?

It's this simple, Romans 10, 9.

I grew up in a church where it was like, and whatever, nothing against them.

I mean, sometimes when you're lacking of the Holy Spirit, you lack revelation.

And so then you kind of get caught up in making some of these man-made rules because it's like, well, you got to do this, and then you got to do this, and then if you don't do this, it's like...

I mean, I grew up in a place where it was just like we overcomplicated things.

What did the Pharisees do?

They overcomplicated things.

They made it harder and harder and more difficult for people to step into the presence of God.

What did Jesus do?

He made it possible for people to step into the presence of the living God.

He wants it to be possible for you today.

It's possible.

In the name of Jesus, anything is possible.

I'm telling you right here, right now.

You can make this confession with your mouth, and you can say, Jesus, you are Lord.

I believe God raised you from the dead.

Guess what?

You will be saved.

That is stepping into the covenant of peace.

So here, just everyone here.

Yeah, here we go.

Yeah, that's all right.

We praise God that he made it so easy for us.

This is it.

Okay?

So church, even if you've already made the confession, just say it with me.

Just say it with me because it will give somebody else the boldness to say it out loud that's never said it before.

This is your first time?

Great.

Afterwards, come up for prayer.

Come up for ministry.

Just let somebody know so we can celebrate with you and so we can pray for you that you made this confession.

Okay?

Here you go.

Church.

Just follow me.

I believe Jesus is Lord.

And I believe that God raised him from the dead.

It's that simple.

It's so simple.

He's good.

He wanted it to be easy.

But let me tell you something.

You have to understand he's the God of if you.

Like guess what?

You're saved.

And now you're like, well, that's great.

I'm saved.

That's amazing.

So I can go to heaven someday.

Yes.

I grew up in a church where that was it.

Like, you just got in the waters of baptism.

They made it more about, like, baptism is important.

It's a step of obedience.

But they made the baptism, the actual act of baptism, the actual act of salvation.

No, no, no.

If you look at the Scripture, if you confess with your mouth, what do we say all the time?

The power of life and death is in the tongue, Proverbs 18, 21.

It's all in the tongue.

It's all in the mouth.

It's all in the confession of faith.

Will you make that confession of faith?

It starts there with the mouth.

Guess what?

You're saved.

So you don't have to wrestle anymore with, am I, am I not, am I in, am I out?

No, no, no, you're saved.

It's done.

The finished work on the cross, it is done.

It's so simple.

He loves you, okay?

He wanted to make it simple for you.

But then everything else after that, what is it?

It's a step of obedience.

So why do we practice baptism?

Because it's a step of obedience.

Jesus was baptized.

He said yes in the waters of baptism.

We say yes in the waters of baptism because it's a step of obedience.

It's a symbolic act where we die to our old self and we are raised new.

Come on, don't you want that?

Don't you want that?

I want that for you.

When are we doing Baptism Sunday?

Did we decide?

Pastor Andrew?

I don't know where he went.

We've got a Baptism Sunday coming up.

After Easter.

The Sunday after Easter.

You're our very first one that signed up.

Claire!

Yeah!

Let's go!

I just had to highlight you.

I was like, I want to make sure people know.

We play on Baptism Sundays when somebody comes forward and says, hey, I want to get baptized.

And we're like, all right, let's make it a party because I bet other people want to get baptized.

I bet other people want to say yes to Jesus that day.

And so, hey, if you want to say yes to Jesus that day, if you made that confession and now you're ready to step into obedience, that's a first easy step of obedience to say, Lord, I want to do things your way.

I want to die to my old self and be raised new.

So join us, Baptism Sunday, that first Sunday after Easter.

All right, Pastor Andrew will come up with a cool graphic for that.

It'll be up.

It's good.

He made it simple.

But he's the God.

I keep coming back to if you.

If you want to live life to the full, I thought it was just, man, you get baptized, you give your life to Jesus, and someday you'll die and go to heaven.

No, no, no.

If you want to live life to the full, like what he talks about in John 10, you can have life to the full right now.

Some of you are not experiencing life to the full.

I was reading to you about the covenant of peace, and you're like, I have no peace.

I just have chaos.

and I just have hurt, and I just have pain, and I just have rejection, and I just have all these things I keep going through.

Why do I keep going through this?

He wants to walk you out of those places and into a place of peace.

It's a process.

But I'm telling you, it's not just a process, it's a promise.

Okay?

It's a process, but it's a promise.

So he is walking you out in this season.

He's walking you out of the chaos and into a place of peace.

He wants to walk you into life to the full.

He wants you to learn if you.

If you is all about covenant.

John 14.

Look at John 14, verse 15.

If you love me, if you love me.

Some of you are in here today.

You're like, I love Jesus.

I'm fine.

I don't need to get baptized.

I love Jesus.

Okay, that's fine.

I love Jesus.

I don't need to walk in obedience.

What's obedience?

That sounds like works.

If you love me, obey my commandments.

Some of you, I'm not denying that you're saved.

I'm not denying your salvation.

I believe, like if you've made the confession, I've just talked to so many Christians, they get so all bent up about this.

Like if you start talking about obedience, well, that sounds like works-based faith.

No, no, no, this isn't about works.

This is about life to the fullest.

You have to get your mind, ask the Lord to shift your mind into alignment with his word.

That's what he wants to do today.

I had a hard time with this for so long.

And so what did I do?

I abused his grace.

I did because I was one of these people.

I just know this.

I know this so well because I was this.

I got saved.

I got baptized.

I was like, only God can judge me.

I was one of those.

I don't have a tattoo, but if I did, it would have been that, all right?

Only God can judge me.

You know, I went to Bible college, and I just, I mean, I was a donkey, you know?

I went to a Christian college, and I was like, I was well known for being a real donkey, all right?

somebody like that that was good I was I was just a jerk to everyone I was like I got grace I can do whatever I want I just acted like I own that school me and my friends we played on the basketball team we thought we were really you know important it's like the lowest division of basketball it's like we're just above like church men's co-ed even some of those teams would have beat us

So we did whatever we want.

We snuck alcohol into the dorms.

We did dumb.

We got grace.

We got grace.

And if anybody said, it kind of sounds like you're going against God's word, we'd be like, that sounds like works.

Get out of here with that.

We're saved by grace.

We're fine.

Let me tell you something.

I don't think I wasn't saved in that moment.

But the more you keep walking down that line, it says that there is a hardening of the heart that happens, a searing of your conscience.

And the more you keep walking down that line, the harder your heart gets until one day you just stop repenting.

Until one day you're just like, no, I'm not going back anymore.

I don't need that.

I don't need him.

I don't need the church.

It's little by little.

It starts slow.

You're like...

I don't need to go to church.

I went to Bible college for four years.

You know how many times I went to church on a Sunday?

I can count it on my hand until I got a job in a church, and then I had to.

All right?

Isn't this crazy?

You're like, this guy worked in a church?

Yeah, I did.

But I'm telling you, it was this mindset, and some of you came in here today with this mindset, and the Lord wants to set you free from it.

It's a religious mindset.

It's not of His Spirit.

Okay, get into the word and you're going to start to see what is of his spirit.

You need to be of spirit and truth.

How do you discern the Holy Spirit's voice in your life?

Through the truth of God's word.

And so some of you, you've probably heard this or you've probably said it, but this is, you know, people would talk to me about obedience.

I'd be like, that sounds kind of Old Testament.

We don't have to obey anymore.

We got the New Testament, the New Covenant.

You're right.

You don't have to, but you will miss out on life to the full.

And then you will be mad at God every time something goes wrong or every time something is off and things are just like not really working out.

And you're like, well, I'm a Christian.

Shouldn't everything be working out?

Shouldn't everything be good?

Why are all these bad things happening?

And then we created this theology that just says, well, bad things just happen to good people.

And sometimes you just can't control it.

Who told you that?

Who told you that?

Because no one is righteous.

But somewhere along the way, you began to believe that you were good, that you were a good person.

And then you couldn't figure out, well, why are these bad things happening to me?

You say you're good, but your life says something else.

Your actions, your words, everything you do is saying something else.

If you love me, keep my commandments.

You say you love Jesus.

I said I love Jesus.

I said it, right?

I said it.

I told people, I love Jesus.

Only he can judge me.

So R.A.

is trying to tell me that I can't come in after midnight.

Don't care what you guys say, you know?

I just, I didn't care.

I was in rebellion.

If you love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever.

The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you.

This is the key to life to the full.

It's walking with the Holy Spirit.

If you remain in me, I will remain in you.

Keep looking at the if you's.

Matthew 6, verse 14.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

It was just a couple years ago.

I was sitting down.

with an older gentleman from our church when we had first started.

And I knew him really well.

We had known each other a long time.

And we were sitting down having this conversation.

And at one point he looked at me and he said,

It just turned to theology.

It turned to God.

It turned to his word.

And he looked at me and he said, do you actually believe that if someone doesn't forgive somebody that they won't go to heaven?

He couldn't believe that I believe what God's Word says.

The Lord got a hold of me about five years ago, and I just started to believe the Lord at exactly what His Word says in a new and a fresh way.

Why?

What happened?

Because I started to turn to Him in obedience.

Because obedience is the sign that you actually love God.

Some of you just say you love God.

But then your actions, your disobedience, guess what?

You don't really love him.

You love yourself.

You love the world.

You love your friends.

You love your boyfriend.

You love your girlfriend.

You love whatever.

You don't really love him.

If you love me, obey my commandments.

Obedience.

is directly connected to love.

And so as I began to get that revelation, I began to realize there were so many passages of Scripture I had just kind of taken lightly or I had disregarded or I had said, I don't think God really meant that.

He meant it.

He meant it.

Every word from the front to the back, He meant it.

And so I'm sitting down with this man who'd been a Christian much longer than me, believer much longer than me,

And he challenges me in this moment.

He says, do you really believe that?

Like I'm the stupidest person in the world.

And I just looked at him and I said, yeah, I really do.

Because he said it.

If he said it, I believe it.

If he said it, I believe it.

I want you to get that revelation today.

If God said it, I believe it.

If Jesus said it, I believe it.

Get that revelation deep inside you today.

Start to believe God's word more than you believe anything in this world, more than any history book, more than any newscast, more than any social media post.

Start to believe God's word more than anything you've ever heard, anything you've ever listened to, anything you've ever read, any podcast influencer you ever thought they're the expert on everything.

No, God's word.

It starts and stops with his word.

And so I told him that.

And he just couldn't believe it.

And he just kind of looked at me.

He's like, so you think if I haven't forgiven some of these people that have hurt me or some of these people that have done me wrong, that I won't enter into the gates of heaven?

I said, yeah.

I believe that's what he's saying right there.

If you forgive, mend their trespasses.

This is part of the covenant.

If you is covenant language, right?

Start to look for the if you's in God's word.

This week, as you read God's word, begin to look.

Highlight if you.

Underline it.

If you.

You want to get a tattoo, right?

Get if you.

All right?

Get it deep inside you.

Covenant matters.

We are people of covenant.

We're not just people that just, oh, we go church to church, and we just go whichever church has got the best worship, whichever church has got the best coffee, whichever church.

No, no, no.

When you step into a church and you feel the Lord saying, this is your place, this is where I've called you, you're stepping into covenant.

You need to understand God's people are still people of covenant today.

So we need to understand the covenant.

If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

That's covenant.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Some of us, we are holding on to stuff.

We're still mad.

We're still angry.

We're still bitter.

And we're holding on to some stuff because our husband hurt us.

Our wife hurt us.

That old boyfriend, that old relationship, that friend hurt us.

Well, Pastor, you don't know what they did to me.

Guess what?

Forgiveness isn't actually for them.

It's for you.

You get that?

There you go.

One person got the revelation.

Two people, three people, four.

There we go.

It's not for them.

You're like, well, I'm going to hold this over them.

I'm really getting them.

Most of the time, they don't even know you're still mad or you're still angry or you're still bitter.

They're completely oblivious.

In fact, I would challenge you, you know, if you need to have a conversation with somebody and just, like, put some stuff out there, it's good.

Be people with no deceit.

Okay?

Be people with no deceit.

Don't hold back.

Don't go to that person and just pretend everything's fine.

No, no.

Tell them honestly, like, hey, that hurt me.

That wounded me.

Because guess what?

That's a release.

Okay, that's a release.

You don't even need to say, like, I forgive you.

You can if they, like, if you have that moment and you need to forgive them.

But really, forgiveness, you can just do it right here, right now in this place.

You can tell the Lord, Lord, I forgive John.

I forgive Mark.

I forgive whoever it was.

I forgive them for hurting me.

I forgive them for how they harmed me.

I forgive them for betraying me.

I forgive them for what they did.

I forgive them for the abuse.

That's where we get into a really hard place there.

Because we're like, you don't understand the abuse.

You don't understand what I went through.

He understands.

Like he understands.

He was there.

And he hurt.

Like he hurt for you.

You understand that?

He didn't want that to happen to you.

He didn't want that harm to fall on you.

He didn't want that abuse to happen.

But what he wants to do even more is restore you.

He wants to restore you and bring you into the covenant of peace.

He sees where the hurt and the harm took place.

He wants to restore you into the covenant of peace today.

And so he's saying, son, daughter, if you will forgive them, you can be forgiven.

But you can't keep holding on to that anymore.

You can't keep holding on to that.

You want freedom today?

It starts with forgiveness.

You've got to release that.

And I'm telling you, just say it out loud.

What do we say all the time?

The power of life and death is in the tongue.

When you begin to speak it and declare it out loud, it shifts and changes things in the spiritual atmosphere.

It will change your life as you begin to forgive them.

If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

I... That conversation with that... Yeah, with him.

It really wasn't maybe more than a year, year and a half later that he passed away.

And things deteriorated quickly.

And I...

I don't know.

My hope and prayer is that there was a seed, because guess what?

God's word is a seed.

And when you declare it faithfully and boldly, you don't know the life that may come out of it.

And so my hope and prayer today is that conversation I had, even though it was difficult and it made him mad and it made him angry, my hope and prayer is that it was a seed planted in his heart.

And I hope and pray that that seed grew and flourished into the forgiveness that God called him to.

That's my hope and prayer.

I don't know.

I don't know where he stands on Judgment Day.

But I know that the funerals that we do in life, anytime I do a funeral, I don't think about, man, where that person is.

Everybody wants to know, like, just, oh, give them comfort.

Give them comfort about that person is in a good place.

I'm not the judge.

The funeral isn't really about them.

It's about the people sitting in the room.

What are you going to do with your life?

What are you going to do from this moment on?

How are you going to deal with the cross?

Have you made that confession?

Have you said yes to Jesus?

Have you stepped into the life he's called you to?

That's really, when I do a funeral, some of you are like, oh, I just want somebody to come and talk about how great I am at their funeral and how awesome I was and that I'm in heaven.

Don't ask me to do your funeral.

I mean, I'll say good things, like I will, but like,

But really, my mindset is we trust him because he's the judge and he is fair.

In fact, he is beyond fair.

He is loving and kind.

He's a good God.

He's a good father.

He's not looking for ways to keep people out of heaven.

Do you understand that?

He's not up there like, nope, I don't want them in.

No, no, he is begging his children, his people that he created here on this earth to say yes to him.

He is begging.

He loves it.

He's not up there like, no, no, I want to keep them out.

No, no, no, he loves you.

He wants you in.

So don't worry about that part of it.

I'm more worried about the people in the room.

What are you going to do with Jesus Christ?

Will you say yes to him?

Will you follow him?

Do you understand that this life is temporary, that it does not last, that either he's coming back or you will leave this world and you will see him.

Either way, you'll come before him and you'll stand before him in judgment someday.

And when he brings up the covenant of peace.

Will you be able to say, yeah, I forgave?

If you step in to the covenant of peace today, say yes to Jesus and say yes to every word of his word from the front to the back.

Jeremiah 29 verse 13.

What's it?

It's the tattoo, right?

What is it?

If you, there you go.

If you, I'm telling you, it's all throughout Scripture.

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

Some of you are like, I don't know, God.

I've never heard him.

I don't think he's real.

If you will look for him wholeheartedly, you will find him.

Are there some things that are still dividing your heart right now in this world?

Are there some things drawing you away?

Are there some things pulling at you in this world that you keep giving more of your time, more of your talent, more of your treasure to?

If you will draw near to him in James, it says what?

He will draw near to you.

If you, this is covenant language.

This is a promise.

This isn't just like a maybe.

This isn't just a kinda.

This isn't just like a, you know, when your kids ask for something and, you know, you're like, oh yeah, I promise we'll do that.

And you're like, I'm not doing that, you know.

God is a better father than us, right?

God, you know.

My kids, they do stuff like this all the time.

They used to try to get me to say, like, do you promise?

Do you promise?

I'm like, I can't.

I can't.

All right?

I can't because I can't promise that.

I hope.

I hope we can do this.

You know, I'd love if we could, but I can't promise.

But God the Father, there's some promises all throughout his word.

It's covenant language.

Do you understand that?

He's a better father than me.

He's a better father than you.

He's a better father.

He's a better parent than each and every one of us in here.

How many times do we make promises and we don't follow through?

He's going to follow through.

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

He's going to reveal himself to you.

He wants to reveal himself to you in this season.

Get into the word.

If you don't know where to start, we've got these soap bookmarks.

It's a scripture a day.

Just start going through one chapter of scripture a day.

That's a way that you can look for him wholeheartedly.

If you draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

Those are covenant words.

That's a promise.

So you might not feel God right now.

You might not sense him.

You're like, where is he?

He seems far from me.

I don't think he wants anything to do with me.

Are you drawing near to him?

Or are you just kind of making him an afterthought until you really need him?

Are you just using him as your insurance provider?

Do you know how good of a relationship I have with my insurance provider?

Do you know how often I call him when I need something?

Are we in a really good relationship?

Are we close?

Are we friends?

I mean, I like him.

He's nice.

We don't hang out on the weekends.

God doesn't want that for you.

He doesn't want that for your relationship.

He's not your insurance provider.

Some of you keep using him like your insurance provider.

He's not Safeco.

He's not State Farm.

Some of you, you're like, oh, I need him.

I need him.

My life has fallen apart.

Now I'm going to go to him.

And he's like, yo, yo, we're actually in Covenant.

You're my bride.

We're married.

We're married.

You're the bride of Christ.

Do you understand that?

You're the bride of Christ.

He's not Jake from State Farm, all right?

Come on.

Don't do it.

Don't treat him like that.

But we keep treating him like that.

It's like, stop it.

This is kind of funny, but nobody's laughing, and I'm like, oh, this is too serious for some people.

This is hitting home for some people.

That's good.

That's good.

He loves you.

You're his bride.

Some of you are like, I'm a man.

How dare you call me that?

It's the Bible, all right?

Take it up with him, okay?

He calls the church the bride.

He also refers to men and women as sons.

They claim sonship in the kingdom, okay?

Just chill out, yeah.

Amen, amen.

Chill out.

There's another tattoo.

Chill out.

If you chill out, things will go well for you, all right?

Don't treat him like your insurance provider anymore.

Some of you, you came to him today.

You came into this room today because guess what?

You needed the insurance policy.

Like things are burning down in your life.

Things are falling apart.

And guess what?

He's not mad at you.

But he's saying, I want more.

I want more with you.

I want more time with you.

I want more of your heart.

I want more of everything.

I want you to give me everything because I got so much more for you.

If you'll quit living a divided life, if you'll quit trying to be friends with the world, you cannot be friends with the world and friends with God.

If you're a friend with the world, you're an enemy of God.

Read the book of James.

You need a place to start.

You need a place to start to draw near to him today.

Read the book of James.

Some of you are here today because you needed your insurance policy and things are burning down.

But let me tell you something.

He wants to invite you into relationship, into covenant relationship.

Because isn't it a lot better to live in covenant with the one who can repair everything, who can protect everything?

You've been living outside of his protection.

And guess what?

Everything is burning down around you.

And you're like, what's going on?

I'm a Christian.

Well, you're not living like it.

You're not walking in obedience.

If you love me, obey my commandments.

You're living in disobedience.

It's like a husband and a wife, a young man and a young woman that get married.

And then the wife says, all right, this is great.

Perfect.

We can do our taxes together, but I'm going to go travel to Rome, travel to Spain.

You know, there's some good looking guys over there.

That's really, that's how we treat God.

We chase after the world.

We say we're married, but then we chase after the world.

Are you really living in covenant with the living God?

The covenant that he has invited you into.

And then everything starts burning down around you.

And guess what?

It's because you're not home with your husband where you should be.

You're living out on your own and you're getting robbed.

You're getting treated poorly.

You're getting abused.

And you're like, why is all this bad stuff happening to me?

I thought when I got married, nothing bad would happen.

Your husband's back where he said he would be and you're out living in the world.

Go home.

Go home to the king.

He loves you.

He does.

Pastor Stone said this word and it was spot on.

There was so much gentleness in the room today.

The Holy Spirit is gentle.

He is gently inviting you back in.

I know sometimes I preach and I don't sound very gentle.

I'm sorry.

I just want to invite you into a place of gentleness, though, today.

Because I sense that gentleness in the worship.

I could sense it.

I could sense him meeting people.

I could sense him just embracing and hugging people and just loving people.

He loves you.

He cares for you.

But you have to understand covenant.

And some of you are like, why are all these bad things happening?

Because you haven't been living in covenant.

You've been breaking covenant.

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

My prayer today is that we would go and we would look for him.

That when we leave this place, this wouldn't just be the only place that we look for him.

That when we lay our head down at night, we would look for him.

We would speak to him.

We would listen for his voice.

When we wake up in the morning, we would ask him, Lord, what do you have for me today?

What do you want to show me today?

When we open up the scriptures and we don't know where to turn, just ask him, Lord, where should I turn today?

He might give you a page number.

He might give you a book.

He might give you a chapter.

And just go and look.

His word is living and active.

He wants to speak to you.

He is the word.

Jesus is the word made flesh.

And so when we open the word, we are actually meeting with Jesus Christ.

Do you understand that?

You are meeting with the living God, God in the flesh.

He wants to meet with you today, every day.

I will be found by you, says the Lord.

I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes.

I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.

That sounds a lot like that parable I just said about that wife that got married.

And then she went and she ran around with a bunch of people away from her own land that God had called her to.

And she thought she was free, but what was she doing?

She was living in captivity.

Some of us were like, well, I'm free to do whatever I want, whenever I want, whatever I feel like.

Try to stop whatever that thing is that you've been doing, that you've been living, and then see how free you really are.

You begin to realize, oh, I'm not free.

I'm a slave to this.

Money owns me.

Sex owns me.

This relationship owns me.

I couldn't quit even if I wanted to.

With the power of the Holy Spirit, you can quit and you can walk away from the world.

You can.

He wants to empower you.

Will you invite him in today?

He wants to speak to you.

His words are life.

Deuteronomy 11, verse 13.

And it shall be that... Yeah, there you go.

We're kind of awake.

And it shall be that... Yeah, round two.

Earnestly...

Obey my commandments, which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart, with all your soul.

Then I will give you the rain for your land and its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain your new wine and your oil.

And I will send grass in the fields for your livestock that you may eat and be filled.

Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them."

lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you and he shut up the heavens so that there be no rain and the land yield no produce and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

This is covenant language.

Some of you, you're here today and you're like, why am I always lacking in every area?

Why am I always lacking?

Why is there no peace?

Why is there chaos?

Why is there no provision?

If you, that's the answer.

Where is it that you've stepped into disobedience in your life?

This is not a salvation issue.

This is a life to the full issue.

I'm not saying you're not saved.

You're like, how dare you?

No, no.

I do dare.

But I'm not saying that you're not saved.

This is a life to the full issue.

Why are you struggling?

Why are you going through this?

Some of you are like, we're in a 1 Peter series.

Shouldn't we be talking about Peter?

Now we go to Peter.

1 Peter 4.

Go to 1 Peter 4.

And so we came up with this bad theology.

Well, just bad things happen to good people.

I'm a good person.

But you walk in disobedience to his word.

And you keep telling people that you're a good person.

I'm a Christian.

But I just, you keep walking in disobedience.

Go to 1 Peter 4.

And then some of you, these bad things happen.

And then you start to tell people, like, well, I'm just, I'm suffering for the gospel.

No, you're just suffering because you're disobedient.

No, I'm just, I'm just suffering, like, this is, you know, Christians are supposed to suffer.

Not for stupid reasons.

Like, he's a good father.

He loves you.

Some of you, you're suffering right now, and he actually uses much nicer language than I would.

Like, he,

he looks at you and he's like, I'm inviting you into something better.

You don't have to keep living in this place anymore.

You keep hurting yourself.

You keep harming yourself.

You keep living in this place of just isolation and destruction and just pain and poverty and sickness.

And the devil's made you believe like, well, I'm just supposed to suffer because I'm a Christian.

And the Lord is actually saying, no, no, no, son, daughter, if you would begin to step in obedience to me, like, yes, there will be suffering for the gospel, but it won't look like this.

This is suffering for selfishness.

If you're taking notes today, you can write that down.

Am I suffering for the gospel or am I suffering because I'm selfish?

And I want to live to serve myself.

That's what he says here in 1 Peter 4.

Dear friends, verse 12, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange were happening to you.

Instead, be very glad for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.

If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed.

If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ.

Oh, is that another if you?

Yeah, it is.

If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, some of you are being insulted, but it's not because you bear the name of Christ.

It's just because you've made bad friends or you've made bad decisions.

You put yourself in a situation that you don't need to be in.

But if you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed.

This is covenant language.

If you, you will be blessed for the glorious spirit of God rests upon you.

If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs.

You're a believer.

You're in jail because you murdered somebody.

Does it make sense to be mad at God?

God, why did you do this to me?

No, no, no.

You broke one of the most simple commands.

Do not murder.

It must not be, and these are just a couple of examples, it must not be for stealing.

My wife and I, we have this conversation with our kids.

If they do something, if they step into disobedience, there's going to be punishment.

There's going to be some kind of discipline.

Why?

Because we care about them and we love them and we want to correct them back onto the right path.

What did I say before?

God is a better father than any of us in here.

He's a better parent than any of us in here.

So some of you right now are suffering and you're saying, well, this is just, you know, good people just suffer.

And God is actually saying, no, no, no, you're suffering because I'm trying to actually correct your life and show you there's a better way.

You're bringing suffering into your life that you were not meant to walk in.

if you would actually just walk in obedience to my word, your life, you would walk in the blessing and not the curse.

You're actually walking in a curse right now because you refuse to listen to me and obey.

Making trouble or prying into other people's affairs.

Some of you, you love gossip.

You love prying into other people's affairs.

You love hearing about it.

You love talking about it.

And then all of a sudden, one day, you just got all this drama and all this division in your family or in your friend group, and everybody's mad at you.

Everybody's angry at you, and you're like, oh, that's just my lot to bear in life.

I'm a Christian.

I'm supposed to suffer.

And God is saying, no.

Son, daughter, quit bringing trouble upon yourself.

You are walking in disobedience.

Learn to discern in this season suffering because you are a Christian versus suffering because you are disobedient.

You will reap what you sow.

Some of you, you have sown seeds throughout your life and now you are reaping a harvest.

You've sown seeds of rebellion and now you're reaping a harvest of having rebellious children.

And you're like, God, why?

Why am I suffering?

Why?

I'm such a good person.

It's like, yes, you're walking with him now.

You're walking in obedience to him now and you're like, why is this happening?

But

You're suffering because you sowed seeds a long time ago of disobedience.

And so now you're reaping that harvest.

But guess what?

You can fight for it.

You can fight for the harvest.

You can correct it.

You can change things now.

And you can start sowing into a different future.

You can start sowing seed into a different future for you, for your family, for your kids, for your grandkids.

And God, in his supernatural grace and mercy, will actually begin to restore things and heal things quicker and faster than if you just tried to figure it out on your own and correct it on your own.

No, he's a God of grace and mercy.

And so I just believe there's sometimes, Pastor Steph and I, we will have these conversations and we're like, man, why is this happening?

Why is this happening?

And I feel the Holy Spirit kind of draw me back to different places, different decisions, different moments.

And I'll kind of remember like, oh, yeah.

I mean, I sowed rebellion.

Before I started walking and learning to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in my life about five years ago.

I said I was a Christian, but I walked in a lot of rebellion and a lot of disobedience.

I sowed a lot of seeds, and sometimes those seeds you are reaping a harvest for later on.

And so I just want to encourage you.

You might be reaping a bad harvest right now, but start sowing for the next harvest.

Start sowing the seed of God's kingdom right here and right now because you know this season is going to end and there's another season coming.

So sow a better seed of his word for the next season.

There you go.

If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs, but it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian.

Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name.

For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God's household.

I thought only God could judge me.

No, it begins in God's house.

It begins within each and every one of us.

When we come to the table of communion, look inward before you look outward.

Ask the Lord, reveal any unclean thing within me that you want to show me, that you want me to repent from, that you want me to walk away from, any place where I've become a friend to the world and not to you, Lord.

Let communion be a time where you look inward and not outward.

Judge yourself.

so that you don't have to stand someday before the judge and hear anything else other than, well done, good and faithful servant.

Judge yourself now.

Judge yourself by God's word.

When you read the word, ask him, Lord, reveal to me anything you want to show me, you want me to be cleansed from, you want to renew my mind from.

He wants to cleanse you and renew you in this season.

He wants to transform you.

It must begin with God's household.

And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's good news?

Obedience matters.

And also, if the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?

So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you.

Worship team, would you come up as we get ready to close?

So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right.

Check yourself.

Check your heart.

Check everything against the Word of God.

And if you're suffering in this season, but you go to Him and He reveals to you, no, no, no, you're walking in obedience.

You're doing exactly what I've called you to.

You're suffering because they hated me first.

And so they're going to hate my sons and my daughters.

If that's the reason you're suffering, then keep on doing what is right and trust your lives to the God who created you for he will never fail you.

He's the God who created you and he'll never fail you.

He loves you.

He's for you, not against you.

Some of you, you made that confession today.

You said yes to Jesus.

You said yes to believing in everything he has for you.

What did you do?

You stepped into covenant today.

And so you might not fully understand the covenant.

Just begin to ask him.

Begin to pray to the Father.

Lord, please reveal to me your covenant.

Reveal to me your heart.

A simple prayer that we pray a lot in our home is teach me to hate what you hate and love what you love.

And then I pray this over my kids every night.

God, I pray that they would learn to love you with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, that they would follow you all their days, that they would not turn to the right or to the left, but that they would just love you and walk in obedience to you.

Just begin to pray some of those prayers.

Just say, Lord, teach me your ways.

Your ways are better than mine.

Your ways are better than the world's.

I want to walk in everything that you have for me.

Ministry team, would you come up?

Just be up here.

Be ready to receive people.

If you need to repent today, if you need to confess to somebody, if you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you feel like you need that moment today, there's people that will pray with you.

They'll walk with you through that.

They're not here to judge or condemn.

They're just here to love and encourage and build up to remind you that there's a God that created you and that will never fail you.

And He's calling you into a higher place in this season.

He's calling you into the covenant of peace.

Yeah.

Yeah, let's pray.

God, any place that we've missed it with you, that we've been in disobedience, I pray that you would reveal that right now in the name of your Son, Jesus.

I pray your Holy Spirit would just move throughout the room, that you would just speak, speak a word, speak a moment, give a memory, give an image, whatever it is.

If there's something that you want to set somebody free from today, maybe it's forgiveness, Lord.

I just pray that somebody would just pray for forgiveness today.

That they would just speak the words out loud to forgive that person that hurt them, that harmed them.

That they would let go of that bitterness and anger.

God, whoever it is, I just pray that you would just show that to them today.

Give them an image in their head.

Lord, we forgive every person that's harmed us and hurt us.

Lord, just as you've forgiven us.

And we just thank you for the gift of forgiveness.

We thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus.

That he came, that he died for us.

God, we thank you for new life and life to the full.

So now we just come and we just praise your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Let's stand and worship.