From a Slave to a Son

Welcome to the Cross Power Church podcast.

You're listening to a service from our church in Campbell, TX.

We pray this message strengthens your faith and points you to the

cross. Now let's join the service.

Have your Bibles this morning, kids.

You can be dismissed to the back.

We got three classes back there. Just get with with someone and

they will lead you in the right direction.

And we're going to try to get through this this morning fast.

I got a lot to cover. Hey, man, let's stay in the

reading of the word titled this message this morning From a

slave to a son. Can I say that again?

From a slave to a son. You know, we listened today and

slavery was a terrible thing, but yet today we're still in

slavery. We're still slaves, many people,

slaves to the world, slaves to career, slaves to relationships.

I want to kind of teach today a little bit and preach to about

how to how to not be a slave, but how how to go from a slave

to a son. You know, there's many in the

people. There's the many people in the

body of Christ are still slaves because they're they're slaves

to their former life. They haven't been born again.

They haven't sold out to the things of the world.

So it it feels like a little bit of bondage, a little bit of

slavery that goes on in our spirit realm.

Will y'all preach with me today? Galatians chapter 3 and verse 26

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

it says for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ

Jesus. Somebody ought to say man, for

as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

And in verse 28, he says there is neither Jew nor Greek.

I like to throw in Baptist or Pentecostal right there,

Presbyterian, Catholics or Lutherans.

There's neither. We could add that right there.

If you, if there's any place that could be added today that

it was the same thing he was saying, Jew or Greek, there's

neither slave nor free. He goes a little deeper, says

there's neither male nor female. Those of you don't like women

preachers, there's neither male nor female, for we're all one in

Christ, man, If we could just grasp that, if we could just

grasp that we're one in one in Christ, we could come out of so

much slavery and bondage of of relationships, of denominational

things that we're bound to, of things that we have been taught.

That's incorrect. That's not in the word of God.

Or maybe it's there that's been twisted.

We could just come from a slave to a son, he said.

There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female

for you are all one in Christ and if you are Christ, then

you're Abraham's seed boy. That opens up a huge door and

heirs. That means we're going to

inherit something according to the promise over 7000 of them in

this book and in verse four, he says, now I say that the heir,

that's us, right? If we put on Christ.

This really got me when I read this the air.

The one that's going to receive this promise is us.

But as long as he is a child, he does not differ from a slave.

See, there's some things when I'm a child in the Kingdom, when

I'm a child in Christ, I'm still a slave because there's some

things that I have not learned. Well, we'll preach this today

and we refuse to leave them because when we first come to

Christ, we automatically think we know something that that

other people already have learned and known.

But yet he, the apostle Paul said you're a baby.

He said you need the milk of the word.

You can't live on what I chew on every day.

Hello, he says, some of you need some milk, you need a bottle and

I have to stick a pacifier in your mouth.

You're not ready for the things that you're going to have to

chew and digest and grind on a little bit, right?

So he says that a heir, even though you're receiving the

promise many, you're still a child.

And a child does not differ from a slave.

That's powerful, though he is master of all.

That means there's something. We can master all things, but

not if we're still a child. That's why he says he's under

guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

Hello, I've never seen so many Christians that I've been

walking with the Lord since 17 to 55, a long time.

And he's taught me a lot of stuff.

A lot of things I had to learn the hard way.

But it amazes me how new converts automatically know more

than we do today. I'm just going to be honest with

you. They've read the scripture a few

times. They know more.

They're not willing to learn anything, not willing to know

more about their Lord because they think they know everything.

I'm just going to preach it. Verse 3 says, Even so, we, when

we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world.

If you're in bondage, just one of the elements of the world,

you're still a babe in Christ. But when the fullness of time

had come, I heard a great theologian teaching on that the

other day, and he thoroughly confused me.

The fullness of time was when God decided to send forth truth

into the world had come. God sent forth His Son, born of

a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the

law, that we might receive adoption as sons.

Verse 6. And because you are sons of God,

God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts.

Aren't you glad crying out, ABBA Father, ABBA, Father, therefore

you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir

of God through Christ Jesus. What a promise.

Father, we thank you for your word today.

We think it's truth in life. We pray that your word would

change us today, that it would fall upon good ground, Father,

that you just embedded in our hearts and our minds that we're

no longer slaves to this world. We're no longer slaves to

religion, but we are. We are sons and heirs and join

heirs through Christ Jesus. This morning I pray for the

anointing to preach the gospel once again.

It's in your son's name we do this.

Amen. He said he sent forth his son

and we can cry out. ABBA Father, I was on a

conversation several years ago with a guy and he said, you

know, my boys are 30 now and he'd give them a lot of stuff in

the rodeo business and trucks and trailers and horses.

And he asked me, he said, your kids are still little.

But he said, when do we come to the point that that we're

father? He said, I want to be father for

a little while because every time I hear daddy, I know it

means it's going to cost me a lot.

Daddy, you have those that call that say, hey, what are you

doing? Yeah, I just, I know it's a what

in the voice I need. Sometimes it's the only time

they call, right? Hey, what are you doing?

My daughter-in-law does that. She admitted it the other day,

Hey, when I say hey, that's what this is talking about here, he

says that we're now sons so we can say ABBA.

ABBA is the closest form of saying daddy.

It moves us from father to it means father in the Hebrew,

Greek, but it's a closeness. It's a, it's daddy father.

See, we're an heir, one who inherits something or who is

entitled to a future inheritance.

That's us through Christ Jesus. If we, if we have claimed him as

our Lord and savior, we are now an heir and a joint heir with

Christ Jesus. We have a lot of promise, but

we're no longer a slave, but a son.

And if you're a son, then an heir of God.

But see a slave, when we look at what a slave was and where

slavery started in Egypt, it was slave labor.

It was hard, hard work. Out of Egypt, the law begin to

attach right to the children of Israel, and the law was a task

master and we couldn't keep it. Many couldn't keep it.

It was harsh punishment even to death when certain laws were

broken. If you don't have anything to

thank the Lord about today, thinking that we're not under

the law, but we're under grace, Amen.

It couldn't be kept, but he came to redeem those.

Verse 5 says that was under the law that we might inherit

something God sent forth his son that we can cry ABA Father in

our time of need, but see in this world today.

And yes, within the body of Christ there's mass confusion

because many say that when Christ came, the law was null

and void. But under the law there were 600

and some odd commandments and there was 10 directly to those

that believe in God and we couldn't keep them.

Hello, we couldn't keep them. But here's what Jesus said about

the law. Let's go to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

I think a lot of people, I hear this all the time.

Well, I don't have to live this way.

I don't have to do this because we're not under the law, we're

under grace. Anybody ever heard that?

That's not what Jesus said we are.

That is a true statement, but that is a prime example of the

word of God being twisted. We are not under the law.

We are under the dispensation of grace on planet earth because

Jesus Christ came and he was the ultimate blood sacrifice, right?

But that does not annul us from the law because Apostle Paul

said had it not been for the law, I wouldn't know how to

live. Amen.

And we'll see what Jesus said about it in in Matthew chapter

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

5. He said, And because you are

sons, because we are sons, God has sent forth his spirit of his

Son into your hearts. Crying ABBA Father.

We cry ABBA father in Matthew 5 here and in verse 17, it says,

do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

That's a powerful statement of the six hundreds of Jesus said I

came that you can do it. For surely, I say to you, till

heaven and earth pass away. He was very serious about this.

Not one jot or title will by no means pass from the law till

it's fulfilled. Whoever, therefore breaks one of

the least of these commandments, and teaches men to do so, shall

be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in

the Kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that unless

your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and

the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of

heaven. Jesus was pretty serious about

the law. He said, I did not come to annul

the law, but see under the law all these things were to be

kept. You could be put to death.

But he said I didn't come to abolish or destroy it.

I came to fulfill the law so that not one jot or title could

be taken out, but see to full to fulfill and obey the

commandments of God. Anybody having trouble obeying

the commandments of God? I'm going to teach you today a

way to do it as a slave to Egypt, as a slave to the law.

And now the children is were walking around in the desert for

40 years, right? Because they were slaves 3 times

over. They were a slave to Egypt

because their mind kept going back to Egypt where their belly

was fed, they had to work, but all needs were met.

Kind of like the modern day American.

Amen. We tend to not worry about the

things of God until we see a shutdown or till we see

something that cost us a little bit and then all of a sudden we

get worried about it, right? We get to praying about it.

We get to seeking God because we're a slave to Egypt.

The children of Israel wandering around the desert, knowing God

had a promise, knowing God had a destination that they were to

arrive at, but yet they even said it many times.

We wish we could have just stayed in Egypt even though we

were under heavy bondage. Hello.

I've heard Christians say that. Well, I'm just going to go back

over here and go to doing the things I used to do with the

world because it was a lot easier than trying to get those

things off of me. It was a lot easier than than

hoping that God would drop down out of heaven and do something

for me. It was easier for a lot of

people, and they've never tasted the goodness of God, so they

don't know how to step into the realm of those things because

they're a slave to Egypt. And then we become a slave to

the law. The things that the Bible says

we're supposed to do, like the Apostle Paul, and the things we

want to do, we do not, right? We find ourselves doing those

things. But see, there was one way to

get to God, and it was to talk to God.

The only way was a sacrifice of a blood sacrifice, and it had to

be made for an atonement of sin. It had to be laid on the altar.

We couldn't just walk in here this morning and worship God

under the law. There were some things.

Go to Hebrews Chapter 9 and you can go home and read about this.

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

I'm going to read a little bit one through 15 just to tell you

how thankful you ought to be today for grace.

It says Then indeed even the first covenant had ordinance of

divine service and the earthly sanctuary for the Tabernacle was

prepared. The first part in which was the

lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the

sanctuary, and behind the second veil as part of the Tabernacle.

And Hebrews 9, which is called the holiest of all, which had

the golden censor, the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on the

sides with gold. The ark represented what the

presence of God also in the Ark of the Covenant was what it was

Aaron's staff, and it was also the tablets of the 10

commandments. It wasn't just a blessing thing.

It would kill you if you handled it wrong.

And which were the golden pot that had manna Aaron's rod

butted in the tablets of the covenant, and above it were the

cherubims of glory over showing the mercy seat of these things,

which we cannot now speak in detail.

But he says now when these things had been thus prepared,

the priest always went into the first part of the Tabernacle,

performing the services only the priest, but into the second

part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood,

which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed

in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this,

that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest.

While the first Tabernacle was still standing, the priest would

go in to speak with God, and they'd tie a rope around their

foot. And if they weren't found holy

and living right, they would drop dead.

And they had the rope around their foot where they could drag

them out. And and all these things go home

and read about it was symbolic for the present time in which

both gifts and sacrifices were offered, which cannot make him

perform the service perfect in regard to consciousness

concerned only with foods and drinks and various washings and

fleshly ordinances impose impose until the time of reformation.

Let's stay with me in verse 11. I love this right here it says

but Christ came, but Christ came.

Now you can talk to Him anytime. Christ came as a high priest of

good things to come with the greater, more perfect

Tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation,

not with the blood of goats or cares, but with His own blood.

He entered the most Holy place. Say it with me once and for all,

having it tame eternal redemption.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer

sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the impurity of

the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through

eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse

your conscience from dead works to serve a living God?

A lot of Christians need to be reminded your works are not

dead, they're alive in Christ Jesus.

And for this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant by

means of death for the redemption of the transgression

under the first covenant that those who are called may receive

the promise of an eternal inheritance.

See, the first covenant was slavery, could not do it.

But the second covenant was freedom.

I'm so thankful for that today. But see that the difference in

the two. See, people would offer these

things, but yet there was not much change.

They would go out, they would break the commandments, they

would come in, offer, do these things.

But I want you to write this down if you're taking notes

today. Deliverance gets you out of

Egypt, but discipleship gets the Egypt out of you.

See, deliverance will only get you out of the place.

I'm not there anymore, but yet many people come out of that

place, but there's still a slave to it because the mind has not

been yet been renewed. The apostle Paul says I have to

renew the mind daily. I have to take every thought

that comes into this brain. Go try that tomorrow instead of

worrying about all the other mess that you got to do.

Take every thought captive and bring it under the authority and

the submission of the Word of God.

And then he says be ready to punish the disobedience.

Be ready to punish. I was only I was going to a job

one time of the contract and I needed it very badly.

And the man I was talking to on the phone, every word, he was

cussing God, every word. I had equipment on the trailer.

I didn't know how I was going to pay for it.

I was, I've been out of work for a while.

All I know is I heard the voice of God that says, do not be

unequally yoked with this person.

They're cussing me and you think they're going to bless you.

They're cussing me and you think they're going to pay you.

And I called, I said, I can't work here.

I said we're, we're unequally yoked.

Go chew on that. Maybe it changed his life.

I've heard that voice and I've obeyed that voice.

I've also heard that voice. I said, but I need it.

I'm going owe me $20,000 later, never getting paid.

I learned to listen to that voice more.

Hey man, we tend to not do that. We have to take the thoughts

captive. We had to bring them because

see, deliverance get you out of Egypt, but discipleship will get

the Egypt out of you. The children of Israel, they

were always wanting to go back. I see a Christian testimonies

today and sometimes they act as if they miss that life.

They act as if they want to go back to that.

They act as if that life is is robbing of something and God is

not replacing it. That's because they've only been

delivered. They hadn't been discipled to

get the Egypt out of us. A man the day and age that we

live in, we got to get the Egypt out of us.

The children of Israel always wanted to go back.

We'd rather died over there where we had our needs met.

Christians are like that too. As long as our needs met with

this happy little smiley Christian.

But you let the bank account get a little bit low, you let

something go wrong, somebody offend us and we're no longer

the smiley little Christian that will keep you from going

forward. Can I say that again that will

keep you from not not a lot of people's interested in going

forward in the spirit realm. They only come to God so he can

bless them in the flesh. Hello, Why?

Because they still got Egypt in them.

They hadn't been delivered from Egypt.

I won't delivered from Egypt. It's so true today.

To go forward as a child of God, you have to be delivered

deliverance get you out of Egypt.

I like that don't you? But discipleship, being Christ

like get you out. Gets the Egypt out of you.

Discipleship leads to sonship. Sonship leads to airship.

I was working hard one day had a you.

You want a job? You want to challenge your flesh

today? Go work a couple 1314 year olds

that people in the churches sent you and they want you to work

their little baby. I don't do that no more because

me and that parent don't think alike.

A lot of times when I was growing up, you got paid, you

did the work or else a boot would come your way.

Nowadays you can't even say get to work.

You're pushing them. Amen.

But I was working someone day. We man.

Well, they did good that day. They don't even go here.

No more time has passed. They're grown.

But we're sitting on there and it was hot and we'd done a day's

work, but I'd worked in about 12 hours of Chase knows I used to

not feed them real good. His mother would always call me

when he was much smaller. Did you feed that baby?

I said baby's OK. Look at it.

He's bigger than me. But when I was young, I didn't

like to eat lunch. And he would find something

somewhere. We would eat something.

But I'm sitting there with these 1314 year olds and we were

sitting there. I said, look at that.

What we just did. We built that.

We did. I was proud of what we did.

They did good, you know, And they're sitting there and it's

hot. And I said, man, don't it feel

good to get out of the house and get something done.

And I said, don't it help your manhood a little bit?

One of them said, no, not really.

It just makes me tired. I said it don't feel different

to accomplish something today that you've never done.

Don't it, boy, I'm trying to line up, you know, pretty soon

you just say I ain't sure I can help them.

There's no motivation. It's no different in the body of

Christ. Some people can sit back at the

end of the day and know that they've done nothing for Christ

and it not really bother, not really matter, but it matters to

God. In Ephesians 4 and 11 and 13, he

says until we all come to the unity of the faith and the

knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man.

I don't think the apostle Paul would put that in there if we

couldn't be that to the measure of the stature of the fullness

of Christ. But see, the problem is passing,

passing from sonship, from slavery to sonship.

Hebrews says that there's a great verse in Hebrews that says

that we can approach how many know where that is?

That we can approach the throne of grace.

Thank God because of Jesus, there's now a throne of grace

and he says that we can approach it with boldness in our time of

need. I've noticed there's two ways

that many approach the throne of grace with boldness.

We approach it many with many ways.

It's approached many times. And I think if we could get

this, if we could get that, we're not a slave anymore, but

we're a son of God. But see, the first way is to

approach the throne of grace. If you're in slavery, you can't

approach it with boldness, right?

If you're living in the world, if you're living in things that

the Holy Spirit has tugged at your heart about stopping doing

in your life, whatever it is, you know, we brush it off.

We're not that important. Like I said, we're like the boys

on the tailgate. We just long as it didn't cost

us nothing that day, didn't have to make us tired.

We didn't have to get out of bed, We didn't have to sweat.

We didn't have to show up for work that day.

Spiritually, it's OK with a lot of people.

But see, all the time we're doing that, the enemy's tearing

us apart. Because when we, when we fall

short of the glory of God, when we just walk away from God, when

we miss church on a regular basis, when we don't pray on a

regular basis, when we don't read the word of God on a

regular basis. You can't approach the throne of

grace with boldness because it's in your mind, right, that I

haven't spent time with God. Why would God do anything for

me? I hadn't even been living for

him. I hadn't been doing these

things. So we're approaching this throne

at this time as a beggar. I don't like approaching the

throne as a beggar. It has helped me get over a lot

of things in my life because I don't like to have to come and

beg. God forgive me, I'm not worthy.

But see, the Bible says that's a slave.

But when I'm a son, it says that I can approach the throne of

grace with boldness. God will meet you as a beggar,

but he will also allow you to leave that place of begging and

get up as a millionaire. Amen.

He'll allow you to leave that place that you're just an old

beggar begging for. Always forgiveness to get up to

a place that says, I'm redeemed by the grace of God today.

I'm going to walk in his, in his commandments, and I'm going to

live for God. And at the end of the day, I'm

going to sit on the tailgate and I'm going to look at something

that I've done spiritually for God and say, and God is building

something within me that the enemy cannot tear down.

I'm not condemned as I preached a few weeks ago, because I'm now

in Christ Jesus. I'm not a slave.

Amen to the world because I've become a disciple.

And you can't become a disciple of Christ, which is Christ like.

And a Christian is what Christ like without coming out from

under the slavery. I'm not a slave, but I'm a son.

If I'm a son, I'm an heir. That makes me a candidate.

To do what? To receive the promise.

So today what happens is the grace and the law.

Grace is what unmerited favor. It is God withholding that from

you and I, which we deserve. That is grace.

I'm forgiven if I repent. That is so true.

But what happens if I keep on doing it?

Does grace cover it? You know, who knows the answer

to that? You and I don't.

He said he's faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins

if we repent. When Jesus said repent, when the

apostle Paul said repent, it meant to turn and go the other

way. It didn't say to come back

tomorrow, right? So the forgiveness that I have,

I have to accept it. I have to believe it.

So grace is unmerited favor. But if I keep doing it over and

over again, I'm not judging you. You ask God the question is that

OK, Does grace have me? I can tell you this, if you're

living that way, you're a gambler and it's a high stakes

because it's eternity that you're gambling with because God

only knows that question. God only knows if you truly

repented. But see, our actions can show

that we truly repented if we do not return to it again, right?

It means we're done with it. We've come out from under that

slavery, but you're gambling with a soul for eternity and one

day you could lose. But see the law, There's a lot

of people that live by that. I've quit all the old vices.

Really. That's good.

What are you doing for God? I have this gift.

I had that gift. I have this.

You know, some people want to tell you all the gifts they got.

What are you doing with it? Are you producing fruit with the

gift God give you? If not, it's just a gift that

doesn't produce who? It's getting quiet.

I've quit this and I've quit that and many find justification

under what they quit. Hello.

Why did you quit it? Why did God deliver you from it?

So you can go tell your story, so you can go help somebody

that's struggling, not tell them that I'm not doing anymore.

You say, brother, I've been there.

I'm facing what you're facing. But by the grace of God, one day

I walked out of that old pit of slavery and whom the sunset free

was free indeed. I've walked out of that.

Don't mean that I couldn't be under it again very quickly, but

I've walked out of it. But many people find

justification in what they've quit.

I look at the things that I've quit as I could be right back in

them at any moment if I don't seek God in my life.

But just as Hebrews says, what the law could not do, Christ did

in his fullness by coming, by coming for us.

See, many Christians, they never receive things because they're

like the boys on the tailgate. I think many Christians never

receive things because we don't lay down the habits and the sins

that so easily beset us. Hello.

When God's dealing with us about something in our life, it's for

a reason. And I know most of us here,

we've overcome a lot of those things, but they're still things

that can keep us from being the fullness of Christ.

He said it was the sin that so easily besets us, and there's

even sin the Bible speaks of that doesn't lead to death, but

yet it can separate us from the blessings of God.

But so many times I think we don't receive the fullness of

Christ. Ephesians 4 and and 17 and six

goes on talking about fivefold ministries, about apostles,

prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers in the church.

God longs to give each and every one of those those gifts.

But it's easier to sit on the tailgate and say God didn't give

me that. I've never read where God

wouldn't give it. He said when he ascended on

high, he give gifts to men. So if he give it, I got to

receive it. And I can't just receive it and

look at it. I got to open it.

Hey, man, I got to see what's in it.

And most time when God gives you a gift, there's a little

instruction in there about what you're going to have to do to

operate in this gift. Hey, man.

And the gift will change your life.

The gift will change your life. But it's easier to sit well like

that. It's easier to sit on the

tailgate. It's easier to not get up.

It's easier to not do anything. But many don't receive the gifts

because they returned to bondage.

As I read in Galatians 4 it's we're in this week beggarly

elements to whom? Let's go.

Let's go back to that. I want to read it again.

Galatians 4. We're in the week beggarly

elements. Where'd we stop at a while ago

8. I think it's five.

I'm looking 4 to redeem those under the law, Galatians four

and five, that we might receive adoption of sons as sons.

Because you are sons. God has sent forth the Spirit

into our hearts, crying ABBA, Father, therefore you're no

longer a slave, but a son, And if a son, then an heir of God in

Christ Jesus. But then indeed, when you did

not know God, you serve those which by nature are not gods.

Anybody ever been there, anybody ever had a God in their life,

but it wasn't a God at all. But now after you have known

God, they he explains the difference here.

But now I know God. Now I know better, right?

I know God. But now after you have known God

and and look how deep the look how deep Paul says here, he

says, or rather now you are even known by God.

How is it that you turn again to the weak, beggarly elements to

which you desire again to be in bondage?

Anybody ever been there? You observed days and months and

seasons and years. I'm afraid for you lest I have

labored in vain, Apostle Paul said.

I haven't preached all this stuff to you.

You ought to know better. You known by God.

God loves you. You ought to know better.

But why do you want to go back to Egypt?

Many go back to Egypt because they ain't been discipled.

Many today ain't been discipled because they're unwilling to

learn, because they think it's salvation.

They know the whole Bible. Somebody say, man, I remember

the day I was a beggar. How about you?

But I came up a millionaire. You remember the day.

Maybe you went down sick, but you come up well, you went down

addicted, but you're free. Discipleship will teach you how

to never go back to Egypt, come out of slavery into sonship.

Romans 6, let's read. I'm giving you the word this

morning. Reading a lot of scripture here,

but Romans 6, Romans 6, go home and read the whole chapter.

But I'm going to read here in verse 15 and I'm going to start

in verse 15 from slaves of sin, the slaves of God, what the

title of my of it says here, but it's a different type of

slavery. It's a freedom.

Apostle Paul says what then? Shall we sin because we are not

under the law, but under grace? Certainly not.

Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey,

you're that one slaves whom you obey, whether a sin leading to

death or of obedience leading to righteousness.

Could God be think that though you were slaves of sin, yet you

obeyed from the heart? How do you remember the day you

obeyed from the heart and got it out of your mind?

I'll never forget a rodeo. One time this big old, tough,

stout bulldog came to God and came to the Lord, came to know

Jesus. And we was waiting for this big,

old powerful testimony. There was a lot of people there.

I thought, man, this guy was a heathen for the world.

I want to hear him preach. And he got up there and he

looked around. There's a lot of people there

that day. Coy put him front and center and

they, he said, he said, you know, it's, it's really easy to

serve God and to become a Christian.

He said all I did was take him out of here and put him in here

and he walked and sat down. I thought that's powerful.

That's what a lot of people need to do.

Take him out of your head. Quit talking yourself into not

obeying. Many people talk their self into

not obeying and you can get on YouTube and find a teaching of

why you shouldn't obey the Bible today.

But he says here of obedience leading to righteous but God be

think that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed

from the heart. I challenge you today.

Obey from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were

delivered. I love that people need

delivered from their doctrine today.

And having been set free from sin, you become a slave to

righteousness. Hold on, pastor, you said we're

not slaves, we're a son. We're slaves to righteousness.

I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.

For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness

and of lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present

your members of slaves of righteousness for holiness.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to

righteousness. Didn't think about it much.

What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now

ashamed? Was there any fruit in that?

For the end of those things is death.

But now, having been set free from sin, having become slaves

of God, you have your fruit of holiness and the end everlasting

life. In verse 23, one of the most

educating scriptures in the Bible that we just can't get.

It's like 2 + 2 is 4, but we can't get the scripture.

Many people can't get the scripture it says for the wages

of sin is death, but the gift of God is what eternal life.

See the only way this happens. I believe it's the hardest thing

that I've ever done. Anybody ever had to lay down

habits because you felt God telling you that'll kill you,

that'll, that'll, that'll ultimately kill you or that

habit or, or you knew you was just drinking what you want to

drink, getting in a vehicle and driving it.

Maybe he's going to kill somebody else and you heard the

voice of God saying don't do that.

You don't need to do this. Or maybe it was when somebody

makes you mad, you just free flow with the tongue and you

hurt people and and these things or you get mad and all the I'm

going to meddle a little bit now, but this will change your

life. See the only way you become not

a slave to those things and there's people battling them for

years and we look at the how we get our eyes on the thing.

We get our eyes on all the things in our life that aren't

lining up with the word of God. And they're a bunch.

But you know what I got to do every day I've learned it's the

hardest thing I've ever done. I'll never I'll never forget

when God called me in the ministry full time at one place.

I didn't want to hear one place I wanted to preach, but not in

one place. I had new pastors, I had friends

and and now today it's still it's just like eras are being

fired man five times this week. See what the Satan is not just

attacking the church, he's attacking the the leadership,

he's attacking the pastors and their wife 55 divorces in the

body of Christ as pastors. I've heard of this week this

week because see if he can get me to fall.

He can get you to question shouldn't be that way because

I'm going to fall if I get out from on the grace of God and and

every day you're going to fall. There's habits you don't like.

There's things you don't like in your life.

You're going to go back to in the flesh, but the only way that

I found to be a son and not a slave you as we stand our feet

today I want you to hear me if you've heard anything I say

today is your eyes are closed and your heads are bad.

If there's any way that we're going to be not become a slave

to Egypt, if we can deliver ourself, you know, I know people

that's delivered their self through of things just by

thinking on it with with positive talks.

That's a great thing. It can be delivered.

But see, the Egypt will still be in you.

But I'm going to tell you, get your eyes off of whatever it is.

Think about the things today that God's told you.

It's got to go. It needs to go.

The reason God wants us to go is to make room for something

better that he's going to give you.

He wants it to be better. Amen.

Because see as salvation sticks with us as it as it doesn't just

just leave us. We can all we can go back and we

can repent and we can change that salvation's there.

But see, the Helper, the third member of the Godhead, the Holy

Spirit, He tells you it's wrong. And when you walk out and you go

to do in the whatever it is or your mind wandering, I'm not

just talking about the fleshly sins, I'm talking about just not

obeying God can become a sin in your life.

But see, when you do that, the Holy Spirit, he begins to

withdraw. And then we have to go back to

this place of repentance. And then we have to work our

step, get back to where we're hearing from God and where we're

knowing what God wants us to do. But I'm fixing to give it to you

the only way. That I have found not to go back

to Egypt, not to go back to Egypt.

And it's the hardest thing. We, we put things on the altar

many times. The thing that we think is

keeping us from serving God. The thing that we think is

pulling us down. But I challenge you.

The hardest thing that you will ever do, I have found in my

life, is to put me on the altar, to lay down my life.

That's the hardest thing. And then you will not be a

slave, but you will be a son. It's here that I become free to

worship. It's here that I become free to

praise and free to lift up holy hands.

It's there on the altar. Would you tell him I'm going to

put myself on the altar? I'm going to forget about the

vices and the habits today, and I'm going to put myself on the

altar today. Just as Abraham offered up

Isaac. He didn't pull no punches.

He said this is what you require, God.

This is what I'm going to give so that I can come from a flood,

a slave to a son, from a son to an heir.

How many would come today and say, I want to put myself on the

altar? I put some things on the altar,

pastor. But today I want to lay down my

life. I want to hear the voice of God.

I want to respond when I hear him call.

I'm tired of the battle. I'm tired of the struggle.

I want to lay down once and for all my life.

To put me on the altar is the hardest thing because see, when

you put yourself on the altar, your will dies, Your will

changes by the Holy Spirit. I've never seen a time that

God's children aren't willing to put their self on the altar.

We put our wants on the altar, but what about our self?

Thanks for listening to the Cross Power Church podcast.

May you know that true hope, peace, and salvation can only be

found in Jesus. If you're near Campbell, TX, we

would love for you to join us in person.

You can find service times at crosspowerchurch.com.