Sermon Transcript

Psalm 34, verse 8.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Take a taste.

Blessed is the man who trusts in him.

There's a blessing for those who trust in him.

O fear the Lord, you his saints.

There is no want to those who fear him.

The young lion lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

If you're lacking today, you're not seeking.

But I got a feeling you're here today because you're seeking.

And so I got a feeling today that the lacking is about to end.

Everything that you've been wanting, desiring, and you've just been coveting for, it's going to end at the feet of Jesus.

Because when you seek him, you find everything you need.

Let's seek after him today.

Let's pray.

Put your hand up to heaven right now.

Father God, we praise you.

We love you.

Jesus, you're good.

You're real.

You really came.

Holy Spirit, you've been directing the word from the very beginning.

You were there at creation.

You're the spirit of the living God.

You're the same spirit that lived in Jesus Christ.

You're the same spirit that raised him from the grave.

You're the same spirit yesterday, today, and forevermore.

You're the same spirit that healed then and you still heal now.

And so I believe for healing today for somebody.

I believe for faith for somebody today.

You came in and you had no faith.

You're leaving with a shot of faith today.

And it's going to be faith overflowing.

You're going to be a son and a daughter that seek him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Lord, you know my prayer every night when I pray for my kids.

It's the same prayer I pray today for your church.

Lord, let us be sons and daughters that seek you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Lord, give us wisdom.

Give us a spirit of revelation.

Guide us into all truth.

Let us walk with you all of our days.

Let us not turn to the left or to the right.

We are hungry for more of you.

God, give us a holy hunger today, please.

Please, please.

Jesus, I need you.

I got nothing.

I got nothing without you.

Lord, you have everything your people need today.

I pray that anything that you want delivered today, that it would be delivered.

God, just let me be carried along by your Holy Spirit, please.

I submit myself.

I submit my body, my mouth, my mind.

I submit everything to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

I just want to be carried along like the prophets of old, like you say in your word.

I just desire for your word to be spoken above all else.

Because we know when your word is spoken, it's a seed and it never returns void.

I pray it's a seed that continues to lead to supernatural growth of supernatural fruit.

That it would be the fruit of your Holy Spirit and no other spirit.

We bind every spirit that is not from you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, they are submitted to your name.

No other spirit but your Holy Spirit is welcome here.

I pray today will be a shifting moment in the atmosphere.

that somebody will drown out through praise the voice of the enemy, and they'll begin to hear the voice of your Holy Spirit today.

In Jesus' name, all God's people said, amen.

Amen, amen, amen.

Woo, come on, let's go.

Hosea, let's go to Hosea.

Man, just like a good old classic sermon, you can text my Rev notes, but he's already got me in a place I didn't prepare.

Let's go.

Hosea.

Go to chapter 4 first, if you're flipping.

Don't worry up there.

I might get to these notes that I gave you.

Don't worry.

Chapter 4, verse 6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Some of you knew that one already.

Some of you, you helped me finish that one right there.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

If you're getting killed right now, if you're just getting whooped in your life, like you're just getting beat to the left and to the right, let me tell you something, it's for lack of knowledge.

But let's go.

Make a commitment today to say, I'm never going to lack in knowledge again.

What was that psalm we just read?

The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

Let me tell you something.

You know the good thing that you are lacking?

It's knowledge.

If you stop lacking in knowledge, all of a sudden the devil loses his rights to your life when you begin to walk in the wisdom of God's Word.

This is a house where we learn how to walk every day in the wisdom of his word.

Submit yourself to him.

Submit your mind to him.

Begin to open the word.

Some of you, you've been doing that.

We've been soaping through this year.

We're going through the entire first five books of the Bible.

Because guess what?

These are the books that Jesus knew.

And so we've been eating of the word.

And some of you, you're like, I've missed.

I didn't come here in January.

It's February.

I'm already behind.

It's all right.

You can catch up.

All right?

In fact, I think we've still got a few bookmarks left of our soap readings.

Okay?

Get into those.

Start reading them.

We're just, I think we're only up through what?

Genesis 21 right now?

This is a test to see who's been reading.

22. 22.

Corby's been reading more than anybody.

Good for you.

We're reading through.

Why?

Why?

Because the Word will produce knowledge and wisdom.

And what's going to happen?

Your life's going to become more fruitful.

The fruit of the Spirit.

That should be what is being produced in our lives.

And some of you are like, I don't feel like I have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

I don't feel like I have any of those things.

Get into the Word.

As you get into the Word, all of a sudden, the desires of your heart are going to begin to change.

You're going to desire to honor Him.

It's going to shift things supernaturally within you.

It's going to change things around.

And all of a sudden, you're going to start to notice, oh, there's something happening.

There's fruit being produced supernaturally through the Holy Spirit.

This is fuel.

This is fuel for the fruit.

Get into the Word this year.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me.

You're called to be a royal priesthood.

Not just the pastors, not just the small group leaders, not just whoever, you fill in the blank.

No, no, you.

When you give your life to Jesus, you, you, John, James, Bethany, Mark, I don't know if there's any of those people out here.

But listen, I'm telling you right now, the Lord is telling you.

You're called to it.

You're called to be a part of the royal priesthood.

Do you understand the calling on your life right now?

Like, is it starting to take place?

Because all of a sudden, that should change and shift everything within you.

All of a sudden, you're like, well, I just need to kind of just get by.

I just need to kind of do the bare minimum and just get by until I get to heaven someday.

No, no, no.

You're called to be a part of the royal priesthood.

Your calling is higher than just, I need to get to heaven someday.

So as long as I say yes to Jesus and I get saved, I can just live like hell right now.

No.

No.

He's called you to life to the full right now.

And some of you, you're like, well, I just, I want to do what it feels right, what feels good.

You're following what?

The desires of your heart.

But until he gets a hold of your heart and begins to transform your heart, guess what?

He's not going to give you the desires of your heart until they begin to match the desires of his heart.

Okay.

Get that.

Hold on to that.

Let him change you.

Let him transform you right now.

Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

It doesn't just affect you.

It affects generations to come.

It's just my sin.

It's just my life.

I can do what I want.

No, no, no, no.

The choices you're making aren't just affecting you.

They're affecting generations after you.

Because if it affects your children, it'll affect your children's children.

It's generational sin.

It's a generational curse.

Break it off right now in the name of Jesus Christ.

Say, I want nothing to do with that lack of knowledge anymore.

I want to walk in wisdom.

I want to walk in spirit and truth.

We said that from the very beginning of this house.

We felt a call to be a house for the Lord that walks in both spirit and truth.

You can find a lot of churches that are really good at walking in one or the other.

And sometimes what tends to happen is they really just kind of veer to one side or the other.

They either get just a little too crazy and a little too out of order and a little too whatever, and it's like, okay, well, I don't want that.

And then all of a sudden you go back to the truth churches, and they're like, it just gets a little dry, and it just gets a little like, oh, this is just, you know, this is all we got, and this is all he does, this is all he, you know.

And it's like, no, no, no, let's find the middle.

Let's find the middle ground where we walk in spirit and truth, and we begin to walk together.

That's the sweet place.

That's the place where supernatural fruit is produced.

Let me tell you something.

If you go to the broad ends of the spectrum, if you go over here to these truth-filled reformed churches, then you got people with good intentions, but they're doing just what we've heard throughout this series.

They're doing the white-knuckle Christianity.

Don't sin, don't sin, don't sin, don't sin.

They're just living in fear.

Don't sin, don't sin, don't sin.

And then every time they sin, they hide in shame because they don't want to be condemned.

Because guess what?

It

When you're living in that kind of place, it feels good if you see somebody else fall because then you're like, oh, good, they got caught, not me.

They look bad, and I look really good right now.

I lived in this.

I did ministry for a long time, and I saw this.

I saw this in the church.

I mean, it was like, you know...

You'd come in, like, to staff on a Monday or Tuesday morning, and somebody would come up to you, you know, and they'd be like, oh, did you hear?

Did you hear about, mm-hmm, yeah, you fill in the blank, whoever it is.

Did you hear about that big megachurch pastor?

Mm, they did.

Mm-hmm, yeah, you know?

And it's like, oh, can you believe it?

And they act like, oh, it's so terrible.

But really, like, you can tell.

You can read right through their words.

They're not being honest.

They're like, mm-hmm, yeah, they suck.

We're awesome.

We're great.

We didn't do that, you know?

We got other stuff that we've buried and that we've hidden, but we haven't been caught yet.

I was a part of that.

And so here I am, just let me repent right now.

Because that was my mindset.

When I saw some of these big celebrity Christians falling, I was like, whoops.

Glad it ain't me.

Glad it ain't me.

And then you go over here to the Spirit-filled churches, and it

Some of them, they get kind of rowdy and crazy, and it becomes a little bit like, well, I just, I feel the Lord telling me this.

But God's word says this.

Well, I feel the Lord telling me this.

But God's word says this.

But I feel and their feelings outweigh the truth of God's word.

And that's where you get into a dangerous place.

And so we said from the very beginning, we're going to be a house that is planted in spirit and truth.

You need both.

Yeah, you can clap for that.

There you go.

Yeah, there's one person that's like, yeah, I like that.

Let me tell you something, we've been in a season where I could feel at the opposite ends of the spectrum this tug of war.

And one side wanted one thing and the other side wanted the other.

And at the very ends of those spectrums, and I just, I was, what did I do?

I just said, I'm going to plant myself right here in the middle, right here in the middle of God's presence.

And I'm going to meet him in spirit and truth.

And I'm going to go to him in his word.

And I'm going to go to him in prayer.

And I'm going to learn to listen to his voice in this season.

And so when the tug of war happens in this world, and they're saying, no, no, you got to do it this way.

No, no, you got to do it this way.

You can say, no, it's both.

It's both.

And let me tell you something.

Eventually, those that are living on the outsides, they're going to seek what we're walking in right here in the middle.

There's a church rising up.

There's a church rising up in these last days.

God is raising up churches like this that refuse to bend to one end or the other, and they're committed to walking right here in spirit and truth.

There's churches like that popping up all over.

We're going to be a part of spreading these kind of churches.

We're a church that also, we said a long time ago,

Four and a half, almost five years ago, we said we're a church that cares about church planting.

I believe the Lord is getting ready to release us to plant other churches that walk in spirit and truth.

Be praying for that.

Be praying for the doors that God is going to open.

Be praying in your own life.

What's he calling you to?

There's men and women in here.

You don't even realize the calling to the royal priesthood he's put on your life right now.

There's pastors.

There's preachers.

There's teachers.

There's evangelists.

There's prophets, there's apostles that he's raising up in these last days.

And some of you are like, well, that sounds kind of crazy.

It is a little crazy.

We just walk.

We walk in the word, and we do it his way.

Be ready for what he calls you to.

Start praying.

Start asking him, Lord, what have you called me to?

What have you gifted me for?

There's a gift on your life.

There's no more perishing for lack of knowledge anymore.

We won't forget the law of our Lord.

We're not saved by our obedience to the law.

We're saved by Jesus Christ.

That's really what Paul has been saying all throughout Galatians.

It's not Jesus plus you got to follow the law and you got to get circumcised and you got to do all these things.

It's not Jesus plus.

But I will say this.

Because there's been so many churches that have gone this route of what I would call hyper grace, where it's just like grace, grace, grace, grace.

Everybody loves grace, right?

Grace is great because when you're just preaching this nice grace message all the time, and it's just like, guess what?

That'll grow your church real quick.

It will.

Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.

What about hell?

Don't talk about that.

Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.

What about sin?

Don't talk about that.

Shut up.

Should we be transformed or changed?

No, no, no.

Everybody's fine the way they are, however they feel they want to be.

You just leave them alone.

That's not what God's Word says, but that's where the church went these last couple decades.

We ran away from conviction.

We ran away from truth.

We're running back to the Word.

Because guess what?

We're not saved by our obedience to the law, but he wants to sanctify us.

He wants to set us apart for us to be a people that is holy and set apart for him.

You understand that?

And so what does Jesus say?

He says, if you love me, obey my commandments.

Real love desires to obey, not to be saved, but because we've been saved.

We remind our kids of that.

When Pastor Steph and I have conversations with our kids, when they begin to walk in disobedience, we just begin to remind them of our love for them, our care for them.

We love you guys.

No matter what you do, you're always a part of our family.

We always love you.

We always care for you.

Nothing can get us to stop.

But guess what?

If you want to walk in the blessing, begin to walk in obedience.

Because our kids will be like, why am I getting punished?

You're disobedient

And some of you have never thought of God like that.

But when you step outside the house of the Lord, when you step into disobedience, this isn't a salvation thing.

Eventually, you could say, hey, I reject you.

I want nothing to do with you.

Your heart grows hard and cold when you live outside of his presence.

That can happen.

We don't believe in once saved, always saved here.

Just so you know.

But...

When you step back in to obedience, guess what?

There's a blessing.

There's a natural blessing that occurs.

It's all throughout his word.

Some of you, you're living in fear and anxiety and worry.

You're living in addiction because there's areas of your life that you haven't submitted to him yet.

It doesn't mean... Listen, if you've confessed with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, great, you're saved.

Nobody's questioning your salvation in this moment, just so you know.

I want to be really clear.

That's Jesus plus.

When you're like, oh, are you really saved?

Because you're not doing this and doing this and doing... No, no, no.

Don't get caught up in that.

But don't come to me and be like, my life is so hard and I... But...

And I begin to ask you some things about the decisions you're making and the choices and how you're living.

And all of a sudden we find like, oh, you're living in disobedience.

You're not actually walking in what God has called you to walk in.

He's called you to a higher place to be what?

A part of the royal priesthood.

And you're denying that call on your life right now.

So yes, you're living outside of the place where he protects you.

In Hebrews, it does say he disciplines us like children.

but we don't like to talk about that in the church.

We don't.

When something bad happens, when sickness occurs, when whatever, an injury happens or whatever, nobody wants to hear, I get this.

I get this.

Nobody wants to hear like, what'd you do to deserve that?

What happened?

And I get that.

Listen, those are hard conversations to have.

That's why I'm just encouraging you

Go to the communion table.

Go to the Lord.

Paul lists us off in 1 Corinthians.

He says, some of you are sick and weak and dying among you.

Why?

Because you're not living a life of repentance.

You're not walking in spirit and truth.

And so when you come to the communion table, it's a place of repentance.

When we come here for communion, it's a place to say, Lord, I'm sorry where I've been trying to live my life on my own and do things the way I desire, the way I feel.

I'm trying to live how I feel I want to just live.

Lord, I want to repent.

What's repentance?

It's the most beautiful thing.

You were going one way, and you're saying, I'm going to go back your way, Lord.

I want to repent and do things your way.

I want to submit my life to you.

My people perish for lack of knowledge.

Submit to his word.

All right, now let's go to Galatians.

Galatians 5.

Galatians 5, verse 1.

Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty, the freedom by which Christ has made us free.

And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage, a yoke of slavery.

Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.

The people were thinking, we've got to do this to be saved.

No, no, you've already been saved.

And I testify again...

To every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

You have become estranged from Christ.

You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace.

For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love.

Faith working through love.

Verse 7, you ran well.

Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Some of you, you were running well.

Who has hindered you from obeying the truth?

Maybe just, if you're journaling, if you're writing that down, just write that down.

And if the Lord brings a name to mind today, write that name down.

Is there somebody that's been hindering you or who has hindered you from obeying the truth?

Maybe somebody that taught you this hyper grace message that said, you're okay just the way you are.

You never need to change.

You never need to transform.

You don't need to let the Holy Spirit.

Just kind of walk in what you feel like.

Who's hindered you from obeying the truth?

We walk in spirit and truth.

This persuasion does not come from him who calls you.

This isn't from the Lord.

It's not.

In this house, we also talk about this a lot.

You need to learn to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit.

You are living in a spiritual world.

You are.

It's not just what you can see, what you can touch, what you can taste.

Sometimes we just get this idea that this is reality.

This isn't reality.

The world that we cannot see, the unseen world, that's what's truly real.

You live in a spiritual world.

And even those, let me tell you something, even those who are in leadership at the highest positions in this world, even though they may say and speak things like, oh, no, that's crazy, that's hokey.

I mean, my goodness, I grew up at a time in the 90s where evolution was just being pumped everywhere.

Evolution, evolution, evolution.

There's no God.

You just came from this explosion and it was a speck and then you were just a little sea monkey or whatever they want to say.

I don't know.

And it's just like, and you evolved and you just, this is how you got to where you are today.

You came from nothing.

You'll go to nothing.

Life is meaningless.

Goodbye.

That's theology from the devil, just so you know.

There's a creator.

Yeah.

There's a creator that loves you.

He cares for you.

Some of you, ooh, he's breaking that off of somebody right now.

You just got a shot of faith.

You're like, maybe there is a creator.

There is.

Even though the smartest, most intelligent minds today are beginning to come to a place where they acknowledge there is an intelligent designer.

They don't want to name him.

They're not ready to name him yet.

We know who it is.

It's Yahweh.

It's Yahweh.

He was there.

He spoke it into creation.

This is the world I grew up in.

I remember being a little kid and, you know, every little kid, you know, we go through this phase.

Dinosaurs, right?

Dinosaurs are the best.

And I got this dinosaur book I'm going through.

I'm like, I don't know what I am.

I'm four or five years old.

And my dad comes in and he's kind of looking at it and he's like, you can't read this.

It was like just a bunch of evolution stuff, you know, just all kinds of stuff.

He's like, you know, which like praise God.

Like, hey, parents, guess what?

If your kids are reading some stuff that you're like, that doesn't line up with God's word.

That's not what God says.

Throw it in the trash.

Tell the school system or the library, like, yeah, send me the bill.

Like, I burned it.

When I go to the public library with my family, sometimes if I see really inappropriate books out in the kids' sections that no book should be anywhere near kids, you know what I do?

I take it.

Some of you are like, this guy's crazy.

Here's confession time.

I take it, and I go and, like, I throw it either in the trash when the librarians aren't looking, or I hide it.

Like, I hide it behind furniture where it's never going to be found.

I hide it behind heavy bookshelves so I know nobody's going to move.

All right?

All right?

There's some public librarians like, I'm coming after him.

Bring it.

Come on.

The Lord's my shield.

I don't care because I love the kids.

Don't you love kids?

Don't you want to protect their innocence?

Let's do it.

Let's fight for that.

Now, let's go ahead and revival.

If you go out into some public libraries and you see some books that no kids should be reading and somebody catches you doing what I just told you to do, tell them to come talk to me.

My pastor told me.

Send us the bill.

We'll pay that bill all day.

Protect the kids.

Guess what?

Tonight during the Super Bowl, shut it off at halftime.

Because let me tell you something.

Yeah.

Some of you know already.

Some of you know.

The devil's got a message.

He wants to get out there.

He wants to rewire brains.

How do they do it?

They do it through the music.

They do it through the videos.

They do it through the movies.

They do it through TV.

What is a TV?

It's a television.

What is it doing?

It's telling you a vision, the vision they want.

Now, there's some great godly stuff out there you can watch, you can listen to, but you need to be aware in this world.

What's Satan called?

He's called the prince of the power of the air.

How does music and movies and TV, like everything, what's it all doing?

Oh, it's traveling through the air, right?

We got Wi-Fi signals and all kinds of stuff.

It's sending these signals.

What are we doing?

We're getting these visions.

Who are we getting them from?

Is it from the Lord or who?

Yeah, you know who it's from.

Most of what you watch, most of what you see, most of what you scroll, you know this ain't from the Lord, this is from the devil.

Shut the vision down.

Don't let it have a place in you anymore.

Don't give the devil a foothold anymore.

Galatians, let's get back to it.

You ran well.

Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

This persuasion does not come from him who calls you.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.

You ever make bread?

It just takes a little leaven, and then what happens?

Leavens the whole lump.

I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.

Some people, man...

I don't know.

Maybe you're new to this house.

Maybe you're brand new.

Maybe you're like, you've been coming for a while.

Sometimes you're like, he gets kind of mad.

He gets kind of angry.

He gets kind of fired up.

And I don't know who he's talking about or what he's talking about.

If you ever think like I'm mad at somebody, I'm not mad at somebody.

I'm mad at a spirit.

There are spirits at work.

Oh yeah, this is where I was a few minutes ago.

That's where I was.

Yeah, now it's back.

You have to learn to discern spiritual voices in this world.

There are spiritual voices always speaking, always talking, always trying to convey a message.

As you're beginning to learn to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit, here's how you discern his voice, through his word.

Let his word be a filter.

So you can't just say, oh, I just, I feel like God told me, and I just, my feelings are true.

No, no, no.

Choose to filter.

We believe God speaks in many ways.

We believe he gives dreams.

He gives visions.

He gives words.

He gives audible words.

He speaks in so many different ways all throughout Scripture.

He's the same God yesterday, today, and forevermore.

So guess what?

He hasn't stopped speaking in all these different ways.

The cessationist movement, I told you about that all-truth movement, right?

What have they done?

They got to a place where they saw kind of like the danger of the far end of the spectrum of those people that said...

Well, the Holy Spirit told me to punch you in the face.

And so that's what I'm going to do.

And they're like, well, that's crazy.

And so the cessationists, this is what I grew up in, they went all the way over here and they said, no, no, no, no, we got to stay away from that.

Only God's word, that's the only way he spoke, and he will never speak any other way again.

Like he'll never give a dream, he'll never give a vision, he'll never speak to his people, he'll never do any of that ever again.

And so we got to stay right over here on this far left side.

And we've got to stay away from anything supernatural.

The gifts, everything, it's all ended.

There's no more apostles.

There's no more prophets.

This is it.

And they're missing out on the beauty and the fullness that God is calling the church to.

Because of why?

Because of fear.

A spirit of fear.

They're not listening to the Holy Spirit all the way down here.

They're listening to a spirit of fear.

Well, what are these guys listening to over here?

I've just been learning about this one lately.

There can be a false Holy Spirit.

He can say a lot of good things, a lot of things that sound good, a lot of things that you're kind of like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good.

In fact, the false Holy Spirit can even prophesy to the desires of your heart.

Oh, if you do this, I'll give you this.

If you do this, I'll... The false Holy Spirit is almost like a genie.

It's almost like

Now, I'm not going to say this is all therapists or counselors, but there are some therapists and counselors out there that do not walk in the Holy Spirit.

They do not walk in spirit and truth.

And what do they do?

They sit in a session and they just tell you what you want to hear.

And this false Holy Spirit is just always telling you what you want to hear.

Oh, they hurt you?

Punch them.

Oh, they...

Whatever.

Oh, that's religion.

That's just religion.

You're free.

You don't need to walk in obedience anymore.

You can do whatever you want, whenever you want.

Do whatever feels right.

Do whatever feels... It's like, be careful.

Be discerning.

Don't fall for the false Holy Spirit.

Don't fall for the spirit of fear.

Find the Holy Spirit right there in the place where he's called you to, to walk in spirit and truth.

Learn to discern the voices.

This is why this year you need to eat of the word because he's going to begin to speak to you in more ways than he's ever spoken to you before.

He's going to give his sons and daughters dreams and visions.

He wants to give that to you.

Put down the phone.

Stop looking for the spirit of this world.

Stop looking for that spirit to answer your questions.

No, no.

Man, some of you, some of you are starting to replace the Holy Spirit with chat GPT.

Be careful.

Be wise.

It can be, I don't care.

It can be fine as a tool.

Hey, show me, you know, the best way to clean my coffee machine.

I don't know.

Whatever.

I don't know.

Whatever you got.

That didn't relate to anybody.

Sorry, that was a bad example.

It's like, oh yeah, amen.

That was stupid.

You know, it's a great tool, right?

It's not a replacement for the Holy Spirit.

I was just talking to a friend recently.

He told me about a friend of his who he's working at a church, and at this church, the head pastor every week is like getting up there, and he said every week he's using a sermon that he has chat GPT write for him.

I said, that's crazy.

And then, you know, this group, they're all guys that go to our church, and they're like, we'll know if you ever start doing that.

Okay, guys, hey.

All right, point number one...

I'm not moving.

I'm right here, right?

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Sorry.

But no, once again, though, why?

Because we're so busy.

We're too busy running, and we don't spend time to just sit with him and ask him, Lord, give me a word.

Lord, show me your heart.

What do you want to do today?

God, I'm seeking you with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Seek him.

You don't need chat GPT.

Chat GPT is a shortcut to the answers you're looking for.

If it's a spiritual question,

Don't take it to ChatGPT.

Take it to the Lord.

Sit with him.

Get in his word.

Now, if you want to look up like a verse, like here's what I do.

I just use ChatGPT as Google.

Give me a verse on, you know, I'm looking, I know it's in Hosea.

What's that verse?

Like whatever it is.

Okay, fine.

Like that's different.

But if you're asking him like,

Well, you better be careful because eventually where it's going to lead to, it gets to a dark place.

Don't let it be, okay?

There's no replacement.

There's no substitute for the Holy Spirit.

Follow him.

Listen to him.

Seek him out.

Here we go.

Verse 13.

Verse 13.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh.

You're free.

That's what the hyper-grace culture did.

Hyper-grace, super-grace, greasy grace, whatever you want to call it, whatever the name.

They just said, oh, we're free.

We can do whatever we want.

I went to Bible college, and I just did whatever I wanted.

And I had some lines.

I had some limits.

But if anybody said anything, I said, who are you to judge me?

Haven't you said that before?

You can't judge me.

Only God can judge me.

I got a tattoo that says it right here.

I don't.

I don't.

No tattoos.

I mean, you can get one if you want, just for me.

Only God can judge me.

No, no.

What are we doing?

We're using our freedom to feed the flesh.

Don't use your freedom to feed the flesh.

Use your freedom to starve the flesh.

Starve the flesh.

In fact, if we go down, we're going to get there in a little bit.

I can't tell you when.

I don't know.

We've got nine minutes left.

I'm going to go hard for nine minutes.

All right?

What does Paul say?

He says, crucify the flesh.

Starve the flesh, crucify the flesh, kill it.

You've been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another.

So sometimes when you see me getting fired up or mad, it's because I feel a spirit trying to get into this house that's trying to bite and devour and cause division.

And so for a season there, I felt the Lord telling me, you got to fight for it.

You got to fight for peace.

You got to fight for unity.

You got to fight for this house that I've called you to.

And so sometimes you're like, man, he's mad.

He's angry at somebody.

I'm not angry at somebody.

I'm angry at a spirit.

We're going to get that spirit out of this place.

And let me tell you something.

I feel that that spirit has left.

And I believe the Holy Spirit is back.

And he never left.

Let me correct that.

He never left.

But there was some division starting to leak in.

And there was some stuff starting to kind of get in and get into the people.

And we were starting to miss what the Holy Spirit wanted to do.

And so when you feel like, man, he's fired up, he's fighting for something, just know.

When the Lord tells me to fight, I fight.

When he tells you to fight, get ready to fight.

Fight for it in prayer.

Fight for unity.

Unity is not conformity.

That's what these two ends of the spectrum, they don't get.

They thought, oh, they need to come all the way over here.

And these guys over here, they thought, no, no, no.

They need to come all the way over here.

They need to meet us there.

No, no, no.

We need to meet in the middle.

And even if we have some differences, even if there's some things that we're not sure on or we're like, oh, maybe, maybe not, are they essentials?

There's a difference.

There's a difference between the essentials and the non-essentials.

That's what Paul is laying out here.

But for some reason, the church has become so divided over these non-essentials and these things that, what are they?

They're preferences.

They're preferences.

Well, I just kind of prefer my church to look this way because this is what I grew up in.

Let me tell you something.

This church right here, this is not the church I grew up in.

Praise God.

Praise God.

I hope, I hope that if some of you are here and you're like, this is the church I grew up in, praise God.

Like that's a spirit-filled house you grew up in.

That's a house that walks in spirit and truth.

There's some of you, whether you come from one end of the spectrum or the other, you're like, man, this doesn't look like what I grew up in, but I know the Holy Spirit has called me here.

And, man, maybe they don't meet all my preferences on this side or this side, but we meet on the essentials.

We meet on the fact that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, died for our sins, died for our sins, and rose from the grave.

And that he said it was better that he leave so the helper could come.

And so we agree on those essentials, that we are a spirit-filled house living on the foundation that Jesus Christ set for us.

And so some of you, if you've been struggling with, well, my preferences, my preferences, I'm just telling you right now, ask the Holy Spirit how much he cares about your preferences.

Get into the word this year and find out his preferences.

That's what we're doing.

When we worship, I say this all the time.

I'll testify to this.

When this house started, we started in a wedding venue.

And then for a while, we were in this place called the Jewish Community Center.

Some of you know it.

They got this great auditorium.

It's beautiful.

It's really dark in there.

And my wife and I, we would kind of sit right in the middle because that was kind of our preference.

We're like, we're not front row people.

We ain't front row people at all.

That's how we did it in ministry our whole lives.

We were just like, maybe the middle, maybe the back so we can get out quick, go to lunch.

Well, it's like, well, we're the pastors now, so we should probably be in the middle, not the back.

We shouldn't leave for lunch until everyone's gone.

This is the life I grew up in.

The life I grew up in was how quick can I get out of church and get home and go get some good lunch.

That's the life I grew up in.

Why?

Because it was dry.

It was dry as hell.

It was dry as hell.

And so we started sitting in the middle of this place, and it was kind of dark.

And, you know, we were just kind of, you know, this is how we worship.

You know, we'd mouth it, you know, watermelon, watermelon, watermelon.

We're singing, whatever.

But then all of a sudden, we kept getting into the Word, and the Lord kept showing us His preferences for what worship looks like.

And you start to read, and all of a sudden, I remember one Sunday, the Lord told me, you've got to go first.

You got to lead from the front.

You want a house that walks in spirit and truth and that truly worships me?

You got to show them how.

I was like, Lord, I don't want to do that.

I'm not a front row person.

What'd he say?

Yeah, I didn't ask.

Shut up.

Gently, gently, he tells me that.

Shut up, get up.

And I remember I went up there

And I kept reading in scripture all throughout the Psalms, raise your hands, raise your hands, sing with a shout of joy, do all these things, clap your hands.

And I was like, Lord, I can't even clap and beat.

And he's like, I don't care.

I don't care.

Just get up and worship me.

And I started doing this stuff, and I felt so self-conscious.

And my wife, she thought I was crazy.

And like, I mean, for the first, I don't know how long it was.

It took a while.

I mean, she would conveniently get there late and be like, oh, there was no room up front by you.

I had to sit, you know, in the back, you know.

But I just kept telling her, I was like, we got to lead from the front.

We got to lead from the front.

We got to lead from the front.

We got to teach our people how to worship him because he's laid it out in his word, his preference, his desires.

He desires to be worshipped.

And so we just kept saying, choices lead, feelings follow.

I don't feel like doing this, but I want to choose to honor the Lord.

And I honor the Lord through my worship, through my voice, through my out of beat clapping, and through my hands in the air.

In fact, I feel in this next season, he's saying, honor me through singing and through dancing, through jumping, through praise.

And I'm like, Lord, I don't really want to dance, or I don't really want to jump up here.

He's like, the people will follow.

I'm counting on some of you guys to get up here near the front when we worship, right?

You know, I've started kind of just, I'll just kind of bounce.

I'm just kind of bouncing, you know.

It always starts somewhere, right?

Even with your hands.

I've seen some of you, some of you, you're kind of like, oh, I could do this.

Nobody can really see I'm doing this.

I can maybe do this.

I can.

And before you know it, your hands are lifted because you know he's worthy.

And so this is, yeah, there you go.

There you go.

He's worthy.

And so I'm telling you, in this house, it's just kind of starting as a bounce.

But pretty soon, it's going to be jump.

We're going to be jump for the Lord, dance for the Lord, dance like David.

Don't care what Michael has to say.

When she saw her husband dancing a fool and she looked down upon him and scorned him and scoffed at him, don't care what Michael has to say.

This isn't a house for Michaels.

This is a house for Davids.

There's Davids rising up in this season, sons and daughters praising the Lord because he's worthy.

Don't forget that.

Worship team, you come up.

I'm going to finish Galatians 5.

I'm going to finish.

5.16, you ready?

Here we go.

Here's the sprint.

We're running.

I say then, walk in the Spirit.

I told you, we're going to sprint.

We're actually going to walk.

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Some of you are like, I just keep going back.

I keep going back like a dog to the vomit.

I keep going back.

Just keep walking in the Spirit.

Just keep going back to him, keep asking, keep learning to listen, keep learning to discern his voice through his word.

For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.

If you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

Who leads your life?

Are you leading your life?

Is your flesh leading your life?

Are your desires, your selfish wants, are they leading your life?

Or is the Holy Spirit leading your life?

Begin to ask him this simple question.

Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do today?

Let it be, start simple.

Just begin to ask him and submit everything to him.

When we have a meeting in this house, when we have a staff meeting, we just ask, Lord, Lord, what's your will today?

Right now we're talking about Easter services and we're like, how are we gonna fit everybody in here for Easter?

And some of the ideas are popping up and we're like, do we need to do two services?

Do we need to go to a bigger place?

At the end of that meeting, I just encourage the staff, just keep praying and just keep asking the Lord, Lord, what do you want?

Let's keep asking him, Lord, what do you want?

I mean, maybe, you know, maybe we'll just fill this place with 400 people at one service.

I don't care.

Some of you are like, I kind of care.

I need some room.

I need some elbow room.

All right, then keep praying for a bigger space, all right?

Let's keep seeking the Lord.

There's a great thing happening here in this house.

There's people coming to the Lord.

There's people getting filled with the Holy Spirit.

There's people getting saved.

There's people running after Him and learning to walk in His Spirit.

That's what you get to be a part of.

That's what you're called to.

Don't you want to see this entire city come to the Lord and begin to walk in the fullness and the freedom that he's taught you to walk in?

Don't you want that for anyone and everyone?

So that's why I know we're a church that's called to plant other churches that walk in spirit and truth.

We're a church that's called to deliver the gospel, that people can know Jesus and know that he came so they can have life to the full here and now and

and not just when they die and pass on to the next.

There's life to the full today.

It's walking in the Spirit.

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There's a difference between falling and practicing.

Some of you are here today and you feel kind of bad.

You're like, oh, I just, I messed up, I messed up, I messed up.

But let me tell you something.

He knows your heart.

And let me tell you something.

He sees you and he sees that you fell, but he sees that you don't want to practice that life.

He sees a repentant heart, a heart that's soft for him and a heart that desires to walk with him.

And he's saying, son, get up and walk in my spirit again today.

Daughter, get up and walk in the spirit today.

You might have fallen, but I see your heart and your intention.

You're not practicing.

Now there's a difference.

For some of you, you're like, no, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine.

I was born this way.

I can do whatever I want.

It feels good.

I like it.

I want to keep doing it.

You're practicing.

There's a difference between practicing and falling.

If you've been practicing, repent today, even if you don't feel like it.

Sometimes you come to the altar and you're like, I don't really want to change, but I want to want to change.

Pray that prayer today.

Lord, in my heart, I love the things I'm doing.

I love the flesh.

I love serving the flesh.

I love living in the flesh.

I was there in that place.

I remember going back to Bible college on a long two-hour trip out to the most bleak of all places, Norfolk, Nebraska.

after a long weekend of sin, living in my flesh in Lincoln, doing whatever I wanted, whatever I felt like, and I heard this man get on the radio because I was desperate for a word from the Lord, and so I turned on this Christian radio station, and I was like, Lord, I...

I don't even want to change anymore.

And this man got on and said, pray this prayer with me.

And he just said, Lord, I want to want to change.

Pray that prayer today.

I prayed that prayer that day.

And let me tell you something.

He began to change the desires of my heart.

Every area that I just kept going after and serving the flesh and doing whatever I wanted, he began to change the desires.

And I began to actually want to change.

He wants to change your taste for this world.

to line up with His taste for the world.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Walk in the Spirit today.

Crucify the flesh today.

In Romans, Romans 6 says this.

This is Paul.

6, verse 1.

What should we say then?

Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?

That's for those hyper-grace churches.

We can just continue in sin.

We can just do whatever we want.

No, Paul says, certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life, walk in the Spirit.

Walk in the spirit.

You're three parts.

You're a soul.

You're a spirit.

You're a body, a flesh.

Crucify the flesh today.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old man, that old self, it was crucified.

with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.

Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin.

but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey in its lusts, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace."

This week, I just saw this picture.

I saw this picture of this heart monitor.

And it's the old man.

You guys got that heart monitor?

You got that image up there?

It's the old man.

The old man's been dead and buried in Christ.

There you go.

It's beaten strong.

It's going strong.

It's healthy.

And then all of a sudden, one day, the old man meets Jesus Christ.

And you give your life, you say yes to him.

And there's a flat line.

But let me tell you something.

The old man is always looking for the resurrection also.

The old man is looking for that heartbeat to come back again.

And so what do we do?

We walk in the Spirit and we crucify the flesh.

When the old man tries to rise up again, when it's been flatlined for a while, and all of a sudden you kind of feel that heartbeat of desire, that heartbeat of the flesh, you feel that lust of the eyes, that boasting of what man says and does, you feel coveting coming back, you feel idolatry and sorcery coming back, you feel like just that little, what is it?

It's just a little beep.

It's just looking for a little sign of life.

It's just looking for that resurrection.

And you just say, no, no, no.

I've crucified you.

I walk in the spirit and not the flesh anymore.

In the name of Jesus Christ.

You walk in deliverance.

You walk in freedom.

He's the healer.

He's the deliverer.

crucify the flesh.

Let him be flatlined today in the name of Jesus Christ.

Worship team, ministry team, I mean, would you come up?

Would you just be ready to receive anyone if they want prayer that the old man would be buried again?

If they feel like the old man has been trying to get that heartbeat going again, where it feels like desire is being born, where it feels like something from the flesh, something from the heart of the devil, the heart of the enemy is trying to raise up again, we just pray right now in the name of Jesus Christ that it's going to be buried and dead today.

In Jesus' name, there's power in the name of Jesus.

Let's stand and worship.

If you need prayer today, don't miss this moment.

If you need anything today, if you need a miracle today, don't miss this moment.

If you need healing today, repent and come home.

He's the Father.

He loves you.

He loves to see his sons and daughters come running to the altar.

Let's praise him.