Transformed - Pastor Sandra Roach

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Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today.

The title of my sermon is Transformed.

And this isn't a new word, it's an essential word for sons and daughters of God.

It's the time for us to walk fully and wholly, holy.

H-O-L-E-Y and W H O L.

Holy and whole in Christ Jesus.

So we're going to talk about that today.

Did you know that God loves you?

And believing that He loves you will lead you into a life transformed by that love.

You know, we get together and we come to church and someone says, Do you know God loves you?

And we go, woo-woo, yeah.

I know God loves me.

I know he loves me.

But when the enemy comes and tries to talk you out of it, anybody ever had that happen?

Anybody ever had a war like maybe two o'clock in the morning and the enemy comes and he starts telling you stuff and starts reminding you of who you once were.

Well, we're we're gonna, we are overcomers.

So God wants to talk about this today.

If we do not fully step into this transformed life, we will accomplish very little in our own life of what God has called us to.

You went through the world, you may have gone to, you know, grew up in a good home, may have gone to college, got an education, or got a really good job or whatever.

And you feel like everything is really good, but your life doesn't just end there.

We step into this place of totally a new person when we receive Christ.

We are no longer who we were firstborn to be.

We are so new and we are so awesome, and people get uncomfortable when I say we're awesome because religion wants us to believe we're not.

Religion wants us to believe that way instead of the truth.

And the truth is you are sons and daughters of God.

It was God's plan from the before the foundation of the world.

Hallelujah.

God made transform made transformation available to us.

It was always his eternal plan for you and for me.

Through his blood, by his love, and through his irrefutable word, all through the word, he tells us who we are and religion and much of the church has tried to make it conditional.

The only condition is stepping into it.

In your lowest point.

Do you believe this?

God has united you.

You are one with Him.

We're no longer out here on our own.

We are one in Christ Jesus.

And we are one in Christ Jesus.

You know what amazes me?

What amazes me for us to know that we are one in Christ Jesus.

When we get that God loves us and his love dwells in us, and we begin to love like he loves, and the way you'll love like he loves is coming into agreement with who he said you were.

What amazes me is how much strife and division is in a church, and people will say they believe it.

Thank you for someone agreeing.

It's true.

All my life I've been in church.

I don't know what it's like to not be part of the body of Christ.

I was raised by a pastor.

We were at church every time the doors were open.

And I'm telling you, every church we went into, there was always some kind of division and backbiting and people trying to get what someone else has and feeling like they could do better at what someone else is doing.

It's always been there.

Why?

Because religion tells us we have to work at being Christ.

Instead of knowing that I am in Christ, then he is in me.

Well, somebody needs to get happy today over this truth.

It continues to say, for our benefit, God made him to be wisdom itself.

Christ made us right with God.

He made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

What mankind could not do through personal discipline and willpower.

Oh, come on.

There's not a soul in here who hadn't tried it that way.

Christ made us right with God.

What?

He freed us from sin.

You are free.

If you are in Christ, you are free from sin.

You don't have to live thinking like you're a sinner.

You don't have to live with the sin consciousness.

You don't have to get up every day hoping today I'm going to get it right.

I'm going to be able to live like Christ.

No, beloved, if you're in Christ, He's in you.

But what we do is, because we think wrong, are you hearing me?

Because we think wrong and we see wrong, we do not believe what is already in us.

Okay, I'm going to do some preaching today, if you don't mind.

Hallelujah.

What mankind couldn't do, Christ did.

He did it for us.

This union in Christ transfers to us the wisdom of God.

Well, I wish I was more wise.

You are.

Wow.

I wish I had wisdom like this person over here.

I wish I knew what they knew you do in Christ.

Tap in.

Tap in.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

That's not, well, I hope I'm going to walk in his glory.

No, that's an expectation.

Hope is, I'm expecting today.

I am expecting today to walk in his glory.

You can't talk me out of it because you see, I'm just walking in who I am.

I'm just, I love this.

I love this, beloved.

We have allowed religion to talk us out of it.

Jesus redeemed our identity, our mental well-being, which brings joy and peace, health and wholeness.

Yes.

That's truth.

This redemption was always to free us from tormenting thoughts of the enemy.

Okay, let me say this.

You may be thinking, well, if he freed me from the tormenting thoughts of the enemy, how come I'm having all these thoughts about all the things I've done and what I did yesterday and how I looked on someone wrong or how I said something wrong or did something?

Why do I still have that?

I'll tell you why you have it.

You have it because your identity is still in that old dead person, not in Christ Jesus.

When you bury that old identity and walk out of the graveyard of the masses of Christians who have buried that old man or woman, and you walk into the fullness of who you are in Christ, you will no longer struggle.

Oh, come on.

We've got to get this.

We've got to get this.

This is so priceless.

Hallelujah.

So you know, you know what we were taught to say to ourselves.

Now put your seatbelts on because this is gonna, that's gonna kick over uh a religious cow.

And you may not, you may try to get a rope, pull it back up.

We say, Today I am crucifying my flesh.

We're saying that.

We sound spiritual.

We sound real spiritual.

Yes, I'm crucifying my flesh, hallelujah.

And everybody goes, whoa.

Wow, that's awesome.

She's crucifying her flesh.

Well, let me tell you what the word says, okay?

Glory to God.

Galatians 2.

Beginning in verse 17.

But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ, and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law.

Would that mean Christ has led us into sin?

Absolutely not.

Rather, I am a sinner if, listen to this, if, I rebuild the old system of law.

I already tore down.

For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me.

So I died to the law.

I stopped trying to meet all the requirements.

Come on, people, so that I might live for God.

My old self has been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live.

That old man no longer lives.

But Christ lives in me.

Do you hear that wonderful news?

You are no longer that old person.

Christ lives in you.

My flesh was crucified with Christ.

Okay.

I'll keep going.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Understand this, beloved.

The person of sin, who you were before Christ was crucified, no longer is alive.

Do you hear me?

Oh my goodness.

Religion says you can't claim this until you act, you talk, or you do righteous.

You gotta follow the rules in order to say, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

You have to follow the rules.

Beloved, that's law keeping.

The Bible says it's sin to try to keep the law instead of walking fully in the grace of God.

Hallelujah.

So that person, you were, is, no longer.

Why don't you go ahead and bury that person?

Instead of digging that person up and working on it, why don't you go ahead and let it die?

In your mind, it already died on the cross.

Hallelujah.

But this is what God says.

Receive the truth of his righteousness in you and claim it.

Then he comes in and begins to bring change or transformation.

Can this really happen?

Who in here can say, yes, I know that can happen.

It happened to me.

I know it can happen.

Okay, praise the Lord.

When I first got this revelation many, many years ago, that my old sin identity died with Christ.

I started walking in my new identity.

I was so thrilled.

I was walking in my new identity.

I was holding my head up.

I was working in the school system, and I'd walk down the hall and I would say, Girl, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Don't you let anyone talk you out of that.

And you know what?

There would be lost teachers in the hall, and they'd go, come on, girl.

But the religious teachers, you know, those good church-going people, they would say, you better be careful.

Isn't it sad when a lost person wants to get a hold of the truth more than someone who is in Christ?

Come on.

That has to go.

That has to be dealt with in the Church of the Living God.

If we're going to see signs, wonders, and miracles wrought by our hands through Christ in us, then we're going to have to get rid of the old mentality because what you're going to find yourself doing.

I'm sorry, I can't pray for them.

I haven't fasted enough.

I can't pray for them.

I forgot to get up this morning.

I slept late.

I didn't get up in time to have my time with the Lord.

I can't pray for them.

You'll need to call on someone else.

Beloved, Christ is alive in me all the time.

Yeah.

He's alive in me all the time.

Whether I slept late or I got up early and spent two hours with him, Christ is still very much alive in me.

Line them up.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

So I got this in me.

I got it in me.

It became bigger than me.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

I am a daughter of the living God.

I am a fragrance of Christ to the world.

Oh, come on.

Let me tell you, I went to the grocery store one day.

Little girl told me, she said, you just need to pray for me.

And so she was joking.

You just need to pray for me.

I said, okay.

I was I was in the bakery and she was behind there, and I just grabbed her hand.

She had slapped her hand down.

I grabbed her hand and I started praying.

And she said, Oh my Lord, what just happened?

Okay.

Now remember, I'm walking this out.

This is going to be mine.

This isn't casual to me.

This is not casual to me.

I lived under the thumb of the lies of the enemy most of my life.

I was raised in church, but I was hoping I might make it to heaven.

Because I would get me in trouble.

Come on.

Really?

Whatever your gift is.

Devil try to steal it, okay?

All right.

But I was determined.

So I went back in the next week.

She's screaming from the bakery.

There you are.

She comes running over, grabs me, and says, I don't know what you did.

But things changed in my life.

Don't you feel the Holy Ghost on that?

She said, I went back to church on Sunday.

I don't know if they believe like you do.

But I still went back because I was feeling him.

Feeling him.

She grabs me and hugs me again.

She goes, Do you all smell that?

Just what have you got on?

I don't know.

It was what I washed in.

Praise the Lord.

It was Jesus.

It was Jesus, the fragrance of heaven.

I am the expression and essence of Christ to the world.

That's who we are, beloved.

Don't let anyone take that from you.

Quit listening to the lies of the enemy.

Oh, hallelujah.

So I got that down in me.

So every day I would look in the mirror and tell myself, girl, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

I could feel the Holy Ghost all over it.

I would say it every time I passed a mirror, I'd go, oh, there you are.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Okay.

I'd open my Bible and I would read the truth about me.

Oh, it changed my life.

Then, after God really got that down in me, I started telling Christians, hey, you realize you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?

I would tell, you're the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

I would go to lunch and there would be teachers around, and they all went to church.

I knew them all, and I'd say, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Well, I was saying it to one of those awesome, powerful religious ones.

I said that to her one day, and she said, Oh, Sandra, you need to be careful.

Be careful.

I said, Why?

She said, Your righteousness as a filth is as a filthy rag.

I said, I got good news for you.

This is the best news ever.

The good news is in Christ, Jesus made me the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and no one will take it.

Listen, they tried every way in the world to convince me I was delusional.

But let me tell you something.

My walk changed.

My thought life changed.

The way I saw people was through the eyes of love.

Not criticism and well, you know how they are.

Oh.

Can you expect anything else?

All of those things the world says, the church says that.

But beloved God wants to change our lives.

Praise the Lord.

Rarely would religious people relent and continue warning me that I was on a slippery slope.

Let me tell you something.

When you know your identity in Christ and refuse to bow to the lies of religious rhetoric, you may not have a lot of friends except the people who believe it.

So find you some friends who believe it.

And run with them and minister to those who don't.

Come on.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

You see, this lie is being sold as truth in the church.

Now, let me tell you something.

It's not the church's fault.

It's what generation after generation after generation after generation was taught.

It's sort of like the lie.

That the gifts of the Spirit ceased.

Well, you can't find that in the Word.

And people want to talk you out of it.

Why?

Because generation after generation after generation, we got some catching up to do.

You know how you catch up?

You get this down in you and you start preaching it wherever you go.

You start preaching the truth.

I love it when uh when someone will say, Pastor, when I came to church, I thought the I thought y'all wouldn't let me in.

Because I've lived a rough life.

And the last person that said that, I got right in their face and I said, I want to tell you something.

You know, when you were at the lowest, you were drunk, you were high, he was in that gutter with you.

Because we preach that Jesus cannot be around sin.

He took it in his body.

Every sin you would ever, ever, ever commit, past, present, and future.

He took that sin in his own body on the cross that we would become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

He came and redeemed us.

When he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

We didn't.

But now we do.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah.

Listen to this.

Romans 12 and 2 says, Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world.

But let God transform you into a new person by changing.

Now listen, by changing the way you think.

Can he do that?

That's what his word said.

Listen, I'm a word person and I always like to lean on the truth of the word.

He will change the way you think.

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

You see, God's will for you has always been good.

God has no desire to condemn you.

Listen, I want to tell you something.

I want our babies, and I want our elementary children, and I want our youth, and I want our parents, and I want our adults and senior adults to all know this truth.

You know why?

Because if you get this down in you, no devil in hell is gonna talk you out of it.

No one can talk.

Listen, if someone comes to me and gives me religious rhetoric, I'll say, really?

And then tell them the truth.

See, if you got a right to tell me a lie, I got a right to tell you the truth.

Oh, somebody come on now.

You see, there are so many people in the church who believe they're loved of God when they're in the service.

But when they go out there, they don't believe they're loved of God.

And it brings, it brings, listen, you're striving to be someone you already are.

Wow.

And it brings anxiety and it brings anger and frustration because you're trying to be what you already are.

You're trying to measure it up.

Measure up to who you already are.

Oh, come on.

Hallelujah.

So I want to rip off the blinders.

Don't you just want to do that?

Don't you just want to go up and rip off some blinders?

Just sort of like during COVID.

I wanted to rip off some face mask.

And now I've found out, well, you should have.

Listen, I'm not buying this, I'm not buying this, and yet, yeah, you've got it.

Oh, it oh, it's bad.

Oh, it's bad.

We gotta, we gotta mask up.

Well, let me tell you, the church is saying, oh, you gotta put the blinders back on so I can be powerful over you, so I can control you.

I don't want to teach you how to think.

I want you to think like me.

Beloved, that is a lie from the enemy.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in your mortal body.

He gave you the mind of Christ.

We all can think like him.

You don't need to call 911 pastor.

Do you know how many churches want you to believe that?

You know what happens when people teach you how to think or what to think instead of how.

They're wanting you under their thumb.

And I could say that a thousand times, and there are churches full of people who are under the thumb of the enemy.

It's truth.

Okay.

You see, you couldn't earn this position.

He never wanted you to try to earn what's already yours.

Oh, come on.

You may be thinking, Pastor, you've preached this before.

Yeah, I have.

And let me tell you what, every time I'll say to the Lord, I preach that, Lord, he said, Well, remember what I told the apostle Paul.

It's found in Ephesians 4 13.

This will continue until we all come to the unity in our faith and knowledge of the Son of God that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

What a are you kidding?

Listen, the church should have invested in identity more than you're going to hell.

You're going to walk as Christ in the world.

What would it, where would the church be?

Imagine this.

Just put on your uh just put on your imagination, sanctified imagination hat, which you wear already.

I'm just trying to get it to come to life because some of you have believed life so much that you don't know that you have a sanctified imagination.

And he shows you pictures and he shows you things and he shows you his very own will.

And you, because you're religious, you are careful that you're not dreaming something up.

I want to tell you something.

I'm a dreamer in Christ.

I dream with God all the time.

Oh, hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

Now I want you to imagine what the church would be like after over 2,000 years.

We've been walking in our identity.

Imagine what the world, but the devil says, listen, I gotta get a hold of this church thing.

I gotta talk them out of who they are and into what they're not.

I gotta talk them, they're gonna have to work and wear them out.

Many will leave the church, many will leave hurt because someone told them you're not good enough.

Someone told them that you're full of devils.

Well, let me tell you, if I meet someone that's full of the devil, I'm just gonna give them the love of God and they're gonna see something different.

Come on, come on, before I'm ready to cast the devil out, I'm gonna show them that God loves you unconditionally no matter what.

You didn't have to measure up to the love of God, he sent his son on the cross.

I want to remind you that the cross was enough.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.

So this is so good.

I am so preaching a good sermon today.

Do y'all realize that?

Somebody needs to, somebody needs to say, Pastor's preaching today.

And she's getting it, she's getting it today.

Let me tell you something.

Transformation comes when you change the way you think.

He said, Jesus said, let this mind be in you.

He said it through Apostle Paul, but he was the one talking.

See, we get in our mind, oh well, you know, I used to, I used to be in church with a woman.

She was uh in ministry, and she said, You know, the apostle Paul is gonna have to answer a lot from me when I get to heaven.

I'm thinking, girl, I don't want to be around.

When I don't want to be in that neck of the woods in heaven, when you start having him answer to you, because God's gonna change your mind before that.

I didn't say anything.

I was a good girl then.

I believed all the lies of the enemy, but I didn't believe she was gonna bring the apostle Paul to task, okay?

I wasn't that dumb, okay?

Hallelujah.

A transformed mind will bring about transformed lives.

This is true.

God wants to change the way you see yourself.

Transformation comes when you get your eyes off of you.

Come on.

Quit looking and condemning you and put your eyes on Jesus.

Oh, come on.

Look into the eyes of love.

It'll make you see everything differently.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

Stop looking at what you think you are and look at who you absolutely are in Him.

You see, God wants to deliver us from delusional thinking.

Do y'all know what delusional means?

Well, I looked it up and I'm gonna read it to you.

It's holding a fixed belief that is completely untrue, not supported by evidence, and contrary to reality.

Beloved, if you have a Bible, you look at that Bible and you know that it is the only sure truth.

Because the only sure truth is God's truth.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

It's not perverted truth, but we hear perverted truth.

I want you to hear me say this before I go any further.

I love the body of Christ.

I am part of the body of Christ.

I love the body of Christ.

I think the body of Christ is wonderful.

But my heartbeat is to see the body of Christ get out from under the foot of the religious devil and become who we are.

I want that.

That is when I found out when my spiritual father, my pastor, he taught this for three years.

I've learned some things since he taught that.

That I believe when he got to heaven, the Lord said, You didn't tell him the whole thing.

But it transformed and changed my life.

There were people that left the church during that time.

I don't want to hear this anymore.

Someone said to me, I'd like to know when Pastor is going to quit teaching on this whole identity thing.

So because I loved him so much, I ran and told on him to the Lord.

I said, Lord, you hear what they're saying.

What say you?

He said, tell him, the Lord says when you get it, he can quit preaching it every Sunday.

I also had a woman in the choir.

That church, they had about, well, I don't know, eighty, ninety, hundred, who knows?

There was a bunch of people in that choir.

You could have had a church off the choir.

Anyway, they were all up there, and when I got filled with the Holy Ghost in a Baptist church, let me tell you something, Baptists are hungry for God.

Yeah.

And I got baptized in the Holy Ghost, and I would we'd start worshiping, and I'd lift my hand.

Sometimes.

Listen, you all think you can't feel the Holy Ghost when one of those great big pipe organs are being played?

Well, yes, you can.

I remember I'd be walking up the steps they had me sit on the back row.

I'd be walking up those steps and that music, and about the second step, the Holy Ghost would arrest me.

And I would start this, and the woman, she was a she was a powerful religious one.

She came to me and she said, I want you to quit raising your hands like that.

That's not God.

Well, it hurt my feelings back in the day.

And I told on her to the Lord.

Yeah, he had me running to him all the time.

So I said, Lord, what it what what about that?

What about that?

Do you want me to keep my hands down?

He said, No, here's what you say to her.

The next time you see me doing that, you tell the Lord and see what he says.

That subject.

She never brought it up again.

So I think she heard an audible voice from God.

Hallelujah.

See, listen, let's let's kill, let's die, let's burn up old delusional thinking once and for all.

Christ is coming for a powerful church without spot or wrinkle.

When the world sees what we carry, they will be hungry for God.

I don't go out into the world going, you know, I just want to go incognito.

I, you know, I just I just, you know, I get up and I start praying and getting in the word.

When I get out, I want to be loaded.

Yes.

Come on.

I want someone to say, what is it about you?

Oh.

Come on.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Behold him.

Oh, hallelujah.

I remember when we were in the Baptist church, we sang this song, Behold the Lamb.

Well, you couldn't keep your hands down.

I couldn't.

We're singing Behold the Lamb, Behold the Lamb.

Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.

Oh my goodness, what a word.

What a word.

How could you hold it back?

How could you stop from worshiping the Lord?

How could you contain the power of God that's in you by looking unto Jesus?

Oh, hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

So, 2 Corinthians 3 and 18, listen to this glorious message.

And we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image.

Oh, come on.

From one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is spirit.

Hallelujah.

We're being transformed from one by looking at him, by keeping your eyes on him.

Don't look at what's going on in the world.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

Come on.

My faith is in him.

I get more faith when I look at him than anything else.

I'm beholding him in the word.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

That's what happens when we behold him, we become like him.

Oh, hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.

Listen to this.

Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

Stop.

You know what that weight is we're supposed to shake off?

We think, oh, I've just got to quit sinning.

I just I went on a I went on a diet plan one time.

And I'd read that and I'd say, Lord, help me get this weight off.

Shake off.

Lay aside every weight.

Lord help me.

Lay aside every weight.

But the weight he's talking about here, it's the weight of the law trying to draw you back into living a sin conscious life.

Oh, hallelujah.

Now let's keep going.

Oh hallelujah.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hallelujah.

Looking unto Jesus, beholding the love he has for us.

He endured the cross.

He took the shame.

He took our shame.

There are so many people that are full of shame.

He took your shame on the cross.

Every drop of blood was poured out of his body to rid you of a sin conscience, to rid you of shame.

You no longer have to live under shame.

Oh my goodness.

He took it.

He took our sin for the joy.

You know what that joy was?

The joy that he got by taking our sin, despising the shame for you and I.

We're his joy.

You and I are the joy of the Lord.

We are his joy.

Listen, he doesn't say, I went to the cross and I paid the price, but you gotta, listen, you got some things you gotta do here now.

When you get saved, now I'm gonna give you a list of things.

Oh my goodness, you all have heard me tell this before.

I was in a youth pastor.

And there was a there was a big old boy, he was, I don't know, he was probably six foot five.

He was a tall, skinny boy.

He was in the youth and he he was inner city, know nothing about God kind of guy.

And we went on a retreat up here in the mountains, up at, I'm driving.

Man, when I think of what I did when I'm young, I think I don't have to do those things now.

I had a 15-passenger van packed full of young people, loud, and I'm going to the toppest, highest point on the mountains, and I'm like this, and I'm going, Jesus.

And so the first night we're there.

And I begin to talk about Jesus and his love.

Let me tell you something.

You can talk to an inner city young person and you can say he loved you.

He's not moved by what you've done with your life.

He loves you.

And he gave himself for you.

The message was so powerful that he sat there and he cried and he asked me to come out on the deck.

And his friend got saved out on the deck because they were embarrassed.

Everybody else in the youth group was saved.

And so they called me out and he said, I want to, I don't know what you call it, to I want to, you know, the whole Jesus thing.

I said, You want to give your life to Christ?

He said, Yeah.

His friend said, Yeah, me too.

So I prayed with him.

I said, I said, Do you feel that?

Do you feel?

He said, Yeah.

So he said to me, Can you give me a list of things that are sin?

I said, Oh no, I don't have to.

No, you have the Holy Spirit in you.

The Holy Spirit will tell you when something's sin.

A few days later I I heard from him.

He called me and he said, Oh, it was bad.

It was bad.

I said, What?

He said, I started talking like I used to.

And he said, all of a sudden, I felt something in me, and he had tears.

He said, I felt something in me.

He said, I ran to the bathroom and I said, I've lost it.

I've lost it.

No, you're not lost it.

He said, I asked him to forgive me.

And I said, and he did.

See, I had to tell him he did.

And he did.

Well, he found out if God's not going anywhere, you're his.

You're mine.

I'm not going anywhere.

Oh, hallelujah.

So he found out that we don't give out a list.

Church, hear me say this.

Don't you look at someone and say, well, look what they did.

Christ never said that.

You did.

Religion says that, okay?

Christ died for us that we could become like him.

Hallelujah.

When you keep your eyes on Jesus, you will be transformed by his love.

His love changes everything about you.

If you're struggling today, get your eyes back on Jesus.

Oh, hallelujah.

Listen to this.

I want to talk to you about one more thing.

These are just things that were in my heart that are big and that I'm seeing in the church, and I'm seeing people struggle every day with their identity.

And it breaks my heart because it's not that hard if you'll just receive it.

John 15, 4 and 5 says this abide in me and I in you.

As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.

Okay.

So we made abiding a work.

I'm sorry I can't talk today.

I'm abiding in Christ.

I'm working on abiding in Christ.

I'm trying to stay hooked up.

Now, some of you, some of you may think she's gone off the rails.

You better believe it.

I am no longer that person that can be fooled into thinking I am a sinner.

I want to tell you, I'm a saint, and I may sin from time to time, but I am still a saint.

Hallelujah.

Listen to this.

This abiding in Jesus and him abiding in me is a seamless union we have with him as sons and daughters.

Seamless union.

I am one with him and he with me.

This is such good news.

Glory to God.

It's not another thing we work at.

If I can just try to abide in Christ, I'll change.

I used to read John 15 and say, Lord, help me.

Help me.

I want to abide.

And I would read it over and over and over again.

As if if I read it a whole bunch, I could, it would just come on me.

If I just kept reading about abiding, I'm gonna, you know, this week I'm working on it.

I'm going to abide in Christ.

No, I'm not watching TV.

I'm gonna fast.

I'm I'm gonna abide in Christ.

And then I found out I stepped into abiding in him always.

Somebody give God a shout of praise here.

Some of you are afraid you're going like this.

You're acting like everybody else, but you're doing this because you don't want the Lord thinking you're clapping.

I want to be careful with this, okay?

I want to be careful.

I don't want to be caught on the wrong side of it.

You see, because you are already one with him, you continually abide in him.

Somebody take a big deep breath.

But Pastor, you don't know.

I really struggle.

Well, abide in him.

Well, how am I gonna do it?

You are.

You are just acknowledge that you are.

See, it's retraining your mind.

Your mind's going, it really is.

I walked around for a long time, because I was thinking wrong.

And then I got a hold of the truth.

I began to abide in him when I said, yes, Lord, and walked fully into who I am as a daughter, not as a pastor, as a daughter.

Y'all should thank God you've got a pastor that's teaching you the truth.

Here's another thing.

When you find out who you really are, people will say it's prideful.

They will.

They'll say, Well, you know, you're sounding, you're sounding a little prideful.

No, I'm telling you who we are.

It's the truth.

All the other stuff leads to pride.

Whenever I do something and I do it well, I'll say, I want you to look at you, God.

I want you to look at what you did in me.

I don't think I can do anything apart from him.

But you see, I will never be apart from him.

That's those who are apart from him that are trying to do what we're doing, but they don't know him yet.

They'll not bear any fruit.

But when you step in and you realize I am abiding when I pray for you, I am believing for something to happen now.

You think I brought that precious couple up here?

Oh, wouldn't that be a nice idea?

No.

I brought them up here because I wanted you to be part of what you're gonna see happen.

Oh, hallelujah.

Oh, praise the Lord.

Salvation opens your eyes to truth.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Apart from the way, you can do nothing.

You just can't.

But because you're in him, you abide in all that he is, and you will bear lasting fruit.

Now, I the Lord told me, he said, tell him the last thing.

I got more.

I'm not preaching it today, but don't think I'm gonna quit preaching that, okay?

I was driving here, and he said, you know, the church needs to understand, they're like the woman who was bit over, and she came to Jesus, and she said, If I can touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole.

She pushed her way through and she touched his garment.

And he went, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

He looked around to his boys.

He said, Hey guys, somebody just touched me.

They said, uh, yeah.

Everybody around you was touching you.

Somebody touched him.

He turned.

You know what he called her?

A daughter.

Oh, come on.

Mic drop.

God said, I feel the spirit of God moving on this, because you need to know this.

When my sons and daughters, if I can touch him.

I've already been touched.

He went to the cross to live in me.

He's touching me all the time.

I'll be made whole.

I'm gonna tell you something.

Because the Lord is asking me to tell it.

Last night we were praying for my precious Holly, my precious daughter-in-love.

I don't have daughter-in-laws, I have daughter-in-loves, because they're daughters to me and I love them.

And the Lord reminded me that on the day Tim, our son, was born, I held him up and I said, Lord, I was in the room alone and they brought brought him to me.

And I said, Lord, I dedicate this boy to you for the rest of his life.

And I ask that you prepare now the one who will walk by his side.

The whole time he was growing up.

And they say she has cancer.

And I said last night, and I said it again this morning, Lord, you had me pray for her every day he was growing up.

Every day I prayed.

I didn't know her.

But I knew that she was somewhere.

God was preparing her.

I didn't know that she was going to be born to a godly praying woman.

I didn't know that.

I didn't know that one day in my living room I'd be getting ready to go preach at a conference.

And I told Tim and Holly to pray for me.

And Tim prayed, and then Holly came over and she began to pray.

And I said, That's her.

I heard her pray.

It wasn't this kind of praying.

It was this kind of praying.

And I said, and and I said, This is her.

This is her.

This is her.

This morning I said, Lord, you wouldn't have me prayed for her all those years if the devil is going to take her out with cancer.

And I called her healed completely whole.

I called her, you can't talk me out of it.

Cancer, cancer will not get my daughter.

Cancer will not have her.

Cancer has no place for her.

Cancer has no grounds to stand on.

Cancer cannot touch a daughter of the living God.

Cancer can't touch the one I spent years praying for.

No, cancer.

I say no to cancer.

You can have her in Jesus' mighty name.