Call to Freedom | 07/05/2026

All right, y'all cut out the friendliness.

Let's get back to church.

It's a little too much there.

I enjoy doing that.

Do y'all enjoy doing that?

I grew up in assemblies of God and we did it every Sunday after worship.

Go and shake a hand.

We would go do that.

We just need to bring that back, don't we?

Okay.

Thank you, Jesus.

Well, it's good to see you all.

Happy Independence Day, 4th of July weekend.

And okay, Pastor Sharon, go ahead and stand up real quick.

She wins the award, Best Dressed.

And she's proud to be an American.

Where at least she knows she's free.

And she won't forget.

Okay.

Are you serious?

That's amazing, Miss Pam.

My gosh.

My gosh, that's amazing.

Yeah.

If you're in the house today and you're 80 years old or older, you can keep your hand down.

You're welcome.

That wasn't mean, right?

That was funny.

Was that mean?

Sometimes Yeah.

It's protecting our age.

Let's pray.

Lord help me.

Thank you, Father, for your faithfulness, Lord.

And uh I thank you for everyone here today, Lord, sons and daughters that you've called, you have saved, Lord, that you know the plans you have for them.

And we ask for the help of your spirit, Father, that you would heal us, cleanse us, strengthen us, encourage us, but also that you'd refind us, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

And just help us, God.

We can't do any of this without you.

And we ask that you just bring breathe your life, Father, and revival into our lives, in our families, our communities, our workplace, Lord, our church, every area.

And we ask for help to glorify you.

So help us today, Lord, in your name.

Everyone said, Amen.

Miss Tina Watson, will you uh stand up, please?

It's her birthday.

Happy birthday, Miss Tina.

We love you so much.

If you don't know her, she is a she is a mother, she's a spiritual mother, and she really, her and her husband Rick, really devote their lives to see the body set free, to see the body encouraged.

You are such a blessing.

You're you're you're you know, people don't realize when you have greatness around you, you're one of those.

So happy birthday to M C D City.

Love you.

Everyone, we know why we what we celebrate when we have the Fourth of July.

We celebrate, you know, when we signed our independence.

And uh I want to just read this quick summary of this.

It says, America declared independence to gain self-government and protect the colonists' rights for for what they considered uh British tyranny.

And tyranny is is happens when a ruler or a government controls people unfairly, ignores their rights, and makes decisions without their meaningful consent or accountability.

Okay, and I want us to see this is that the the men that did this, it's really interesting.

They were wealthy, and the act of signing this and made this decision did not make their life easier.

Yeah, it's so true.

And I don't know if we actually realized this.

It was you know their life got a lot harder, and and they some were like were persecuted, suffered, died.

It was not like this easy thing.

And I was I was pondering, I might use that fancy word pondering.

I don't know if you noticed that.

I was pondering on this near a pond at our house.

Yeah, it's legit.

Pondering near a pond.

They were doing this thing, they were breaking away from this idea of tyranny, and I want us to hear this is that there's a lot of implications of this spiritually, okay?

And just follow me here.

There's implications of this spiritually where we break away from tyranny, something trying to govern our lives, something stealing, robbing from us, okay.

And it wasn't easy for them, and we get to experience the benefits of their hard decision to suffer for the sake of another.

It would have been very easy, like they had money, okay?

It would have been very easy to pay the taxes, put up with it, preserve your life.

They paid a price.

We get to enjoy that.

And I want you to hear us.

We call ourselves Generations, Generations Church.

There's an idea, and any parents, grandparents here, you know what it looks like to pay a price for the sake of your offspring.

Yeah, yeah.

Right?

And so as we go in this message today, I know that we, you know, we have our personal walk with the Lord, and sometimes our personal walk can be primarily hyper-focused on our well-being.

But I also want us to keep in mind what is the things that we're doing now, what is the decisions that we're making that can bring freedom for our generations?

And ask ourselves, are we willing to pay certain prices, even spiritually?

I'm a dad now, like a year and a half, to a beautiful, strong little baby boy, and it's changed the way I think.

Okay, everyone tells you this stuff, but you don't really know it until you have your own kid.

And and there's certain things of saying, I want to make sure that I pay certain prices for his well-being.

Amen.

Okay.

So Galatians 5.13.

If you want to turn to your Bibles, I'm using the NLT.

It says, For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.

Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

This is interesting.

If you just look at the language and what's said here, we are called to live in freedom.

You know, have you ever been called before and you don't answer?

We've been called to live in freedom.

When God sets us free, he sets us free from something we're born into.

We're born into a reality of a fallen world, a fallen body.

We're dead to sin, okay?

We that wasn't a choice we made, that just happened.

Because of our father, Abraham, I'm sorry, Abraham, Adam.

Okay, I want us to catch this.

We didn't have a choice in the matter.

We are a slave in bondage to sin.

And what Christ did set us free.

But what did it set us free?

It set us free to now choose.

We think sometimes we think, oh, I'm just free now, and I'm just free from sin.

No, we're free to choose.

Good.

Yeah.

Do you know when they when the Jews were were rescued from Egypt, God set them free miraculously?

Do you know some of them after they were set free, they wanted to go back?

What he's saying right here is that you have a choice, you've been called to live in freedom.

And what's amazing here is that sometimes I think we expect it just to happen.

Alright, God, I'm saved.

Now I'm waiting for the freedom to happen.

And I believe what this is saying here is that, hey, you're saved, but now we've got to start making certain choices so you can be free because you're called to be free.

Yeah, I've got it, I've got it.

You're called to it.

And maybe the question is, is are you answering the call?

Let's go to the verse 16.

We're going to skip down a little bit.

And then he says this he says, So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your life, uh, lives, then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.

Verse 17.

The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.

And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires.

These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

This is one of my favorite, more favorite passages in the Bible that affects me personally, is Galatians 5.

Um, it's the chapter that has the fruits of the Spirit, and I think about this a lot, and so I was pondering.

Yeah.

You don't really think that was funny.

I'm disappointed.

It's okay.

I was thinking about this, and I just I looked at this.

You ever take something that you've read a thousand times, but then it's like you feel like you've seen it for the first time?

That's what happened with this verse, and I know it's so simple.

God has called us to freedom.

You got saved, you got a spirit, the spirit of God deposited in you.

You got the spirit of Jesus.

There's places in the Bible that says calls it the spirit of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus, the life of Jesus living inside of you.

And you and you have a part of you that is still part of the fallen nature.

Okay?

It's not that you're not saved, but but a lot we know this, but there's a part of us still that is not perfected.

We don't have that glorified body yet, that body that's that is not bound to sin, that doesn't have a desire for sin.

But right now we have this tension.

Dr.

Randy would call it the now and the not yet, when he teaches on his eschatological stuff.

The now and the not yet.

But when I look at this, I've been tripped up in my Christianity because I've I've thought that there's certain things that just automatically happen when they actually haven't happened yet, and there's certain choices that I'm obligated to make if I truly want to be free.

But then when I'm not free, I don't realize I'm not making certain choices that's causing me to stay bound.

And so Paul, he's he's painting this picture, and the point of Galatians is to show people that they are free from the law.

They have people coming in their church trying to make up, you know, trying to actually just bring back in the old school rules.

Hey, if you want to be saved, you gotta be circumcised.

Paul's like, no, you don't have to do that.

Okay, that's the point.

But he hits this thing and he says, There's a part of us that desires, that craves sin.

So when we say sinful nature, understand this term nature, it means what's natural.

What he's saying is that listen, even though we're saved and we have the spirit of God, there's going to be parts of us where it feels natural to not do what the spirit of God wants.

And what I found myself doing is that I'm I can be led, you know, sometimes I can have feelings and I'm like, oh, that's Holy Spirit.

And sometimes those feelings are not Holy Spirit, but it feels right because it feels natural.

And the problem is that we've been living like this our whole life because we've been living from this flesh.

That's what's natural.

The Spirit of God comes and interrupts what has been natural.

But if we keep living our Christian life with what feels right, we may not actually be walking that path that God has for us.

Because many times the path that God has for us is not going to feel natural because the spirit of God is super boom.

Let's go, let's go into this a little bit deeper.

We're gonna cook something today.

We're gonna get the ingredients out.

How many men in here like to cook?

I love cooking.

I love cooking.

Elizabeth's husband loves to cook.

I like to I watch YouTube with guys cooking.

Now I make manly stuff like meats, you know, and chicken enchiladas from my wife.

She loves chicken enchiladas.

I like to get all the ingredients out on those little glass bowls.

You see the chefs.

Listen, you know what I'm talking about?

The YouTube, they got the black gloves.

We used to get gloves.

I said, Kathy, we need black gloves.

Because I started watching, and she started getting them.

Every time I'll make a bowl of cereal, I'll get black gloves on.

I'm addicted.

No idea what that's doing for the environment.

But there's these little glass bowls, so I saw someone, they would get all the ingredients, all the spices in the exact measurement in the little glass bowls.

Are you know what I'm talking about?

And I went and after I watched the video, I'm like, oh, they got glass bowls.

I bought some.

Then Catherine's like, what's this Amazon purchase?

I'm like, don't worry about it.

Because we're like trying to budget and be responsible, and I get a little bit, you know, happy on Amazon sometimes.

For the July sale, it would be irresponsible not to buy these.

You know what I'm talking about.

But we're gonna cook something this morning, but we need to get the ingredients out, okay?

So I'm gonna go through a couple things and we're gonna build a foundation to build upon.

But Hebrews 3.12, if you want to turn there, you can turn there.

But Hebrews 3.12 says this be careful then, dear brothers and sisters, make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelievable.

I'm gonna read that again because I didn't put it up here.

Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters, make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving.

Make sure that your own hearts are not evil.

I read verses that follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and I just expect the Holy Spirit just to oh, Spirit's leading me this way.

I'm just a puppet of God.

Oh, Spirit of God, I'm just waiting on you just to cleanse me and make me new.

Make sure when you see this, you have the responsibility to personally make sure that your heart is not evil.

Okay?

It's popped out.

It's popped out to me.

Verse 13 it says, You must warn each other every day while it's still today, so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

It's we're in church, we're Bible readers, you can put Bible on audio.

I've I've been doing that some here lately.

It's so easy just to gloss over this stuff.

And it's so easy to be in a service and just tune out.

We got spiritual, you know, ADHD.

And we gloss over stuff.

I gloss over stuff when I read the Bible, and Holy Spirit's been pointing stuff out to me and just saying, David, look at what this is saying.

Make sure, okay, all the spiritful people, you have a responsibility, an obligation.

That means you have the ability.

When the Bible gives you instruction, what God's saying is that you actually have the ability, so I'm gonna hold you responsible to do this.

Make sure that your heart is not actually evil.

Make sure that you're not living from a place of being deceived.

Paul goes into Galatians 5 and he says, you have a sinful nature.

What is going to feel natural to you, what is going to feel right to you personally, what is a lot of times going to be personally satisfying, is not actually the Spirit of God leading you, but it's the sinful nature leading you to sin.

Okay, let's go one more ingredient.

So we have this responsibility.

Then we have in 1 Peter 5 8, it says, Stay alert.

Everyone says, Stay alert.

Look at your neighbor and says, Stay alert.

Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.

He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

And then in Matthew 26, 41, it says, Keep watch and pray so that you will not give in to temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

Make sure your heart's not evil.

Also, stay alert because the devil's coming.

Prowling like a lion.

Also, watch and pray because temptation.

Because you know what?

The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

We are Christians here today.

You know, I believe all of us could probably agree.

There's things that we desire to do that we don't do.

But then there's another area of that's ground that's very dangerous, is that we think we're doing right when we're not, because it feels natural and it feels good.

Now we're gonna get into the heavy stuff.

Everyone say, No, wait, that sounded like a gun.

I was that was supposed to be a seatbelt.

Everyone's like Independence Day.

I was about to make a joke, the Holy Spirit stopped me.

It felt natural though.

I'm learning, I'm preaching myself today.

Jeremiah 17, 9.

No spoilers.

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things.

There's the theologians' stuff, you know.

I study what really smart people that who devote their lives to scripture and are objectively honest with the interpretations and the meanings of it.

I study what they have to say, okay?

And this is what one of them says.

It says in Hebrew thought, the heart represents far more than emotion, it's the seat of will, decision making in the entire direction of a person's life, including their commitments and priorities.

When Jeremiah calls the heart deceitful, he's describing a fundamental orientation problem.

Sin manifests as the stubbornness of the evil heart.

You ever encounter anyone stubborn?

Don't say your spouse.

I find it funny that Catherine called the men to apologize first.

And then she's like, Women, and then if you have something, you can mention it.

Sin manifests the stubbornness of the evil heart, and the heart essentially defines the person who is.

Sorry, and the heart essentially defines who a person is.

Your deepest self, where you make choices about what matters, operates under deception's influence.

Did y'all hear that?

Okay.

Your deepest self, don't do this thing because I've done this.

Don't just let these words just go over your head.

Don't let it go in one ear and out the other, okay?

Because we come to God and we ask, God, bless my life, make me rich, make me whole, I have hurts, I want you to heal me, bless me, give me calling, I want to have purpose.

We make all these big requests, okay?

And sometimes it's just that listening to that still small voice of truth that can bring us breakthrough.

And sometimes it's not that the door's not, we don't have doors in our life, we just lack the small key that can unlock it.

I believe that today's message is going to be a key for grace, a key for breakthrough, but it's going to be a key for freedom.

Because I ask all the time, please, Lord, I just want to be free.

Has anyone ever prayed that?

Or we just desire that?

I just want to be free.

What does freedom mean?

Oh, I want to be joyful, I want to have hope.

I don't want to feel like I'm in bondage.

I don't want to feel I want to have days where I just feel happy.

You know what I'm talking about?

We want to be free.

Your deepest self, where you make choices about what matters, operates under deception's influence.

You have the Spirit of God leading you, but you have a sinful nature.

What feels natural to you is still intact.

It's still there.

That's right.

Y'all got some back.

Was that you, Tina?

I love it that Tammy's pointing to her husband.

No, it's him.

It's okay.

We're supposed to like cover each other.

She's like, my husband over here.

Don't even know how to put his phone on mute.

That's okay, brother.

You listen, you take your call, man.

I get it.

Jeremiah 17,9.

I'm gonna read this again.

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it's bad it is?

I have a pastor, I have a thing, and I'm not gonna share any names or any specifics, but I've had people come up to me and they've asked me questions like, How do you plan to minister to people's hearts?

The heart is like the idol today.

Minister to people's hearts.

How are you gonna do this?

And here's the thing, I'm not against that statement, okay?

God came to heal the brokenhearted.

Yeah, amen.

But I want you to hear something here.

I always ask God to lead me, and I don't have all the information, all the answers.

You know, I just want you to know that.

I say, Well, Lord, I need your help, and I need discernment because there's many things that I don't know if something's good or not.

It may look good and not be good, but maybe I might not I might not be certain about it, but maybe it is good.

I don't know.

Lead me through discernment.

When people said comments like this to me, something in my spirit threw up a red flag.

And I want you to hear this, okay?

Now we're gonna put two and two together.

I want you to hear this.

If there's a part of us of our heart that's natural and it's it's desires to deceive us, this deception is going to try to trick you into doing something bad, and maybe you've thinking that you're doing right.

But it's also going to trick you that when something's wrong in your life to make you unaware of it or think that it's right, it's going to blind.

You to something that needs to be fixed.

Okay.

If my heart is telling me it's painting a picture of reality.

And it's painting a picture like a mirror for me to look into at myself.

And it's going to tell me, hey, okay, maybe this is some stuff you need to work on.

But if there's other things in my life that needs worked that needs to be worked on, my heart is naturally not going to want me to see those things.

Did y'all catch that?

And so what I will do is my heart, again, we'll just all be in agreement on this.

My heart is going to give me a diagnosis of this is what you need in your life.

This is what you need in ministry.

Okay?

Follow me.

And so if I'm living this, I'm living this life deceived.

And this is what I need, and this is where I'm broken, and this is how I fix my brokenness.

We self-diagnose and then we live our life, and we live our life painting a picture of villains and heroes.

This is what I mean is that when I've had heart issues, and I do have heart issues, I think I need to be ministered to a certain way.

I'll give you a plain example.

One of my issues is the need for man's approval.

And it goes, I worked very hard, I have a successful career, I want to be in shape, I want to be talented, I want to be skilled.

I mean, I learned multiple instruments, taught myself.

I played all different sports, played sports in college.

I've got degrees in computer engineering, a master's degree, I did a master's degree.

I didn't get the the whatever you call it, the degree, but I did all the courses to be a pastor.

I have this high achievement thing because I just want man's approval.

Okay?

You don't have to agree with that, Randy.

I'm just kidding.

Dr.

Randy, love you.

That's in my heart.

Follow me on this, y'all.

I have lived my life with a desire for approval.

There's a void.

Okay?

And so, when I would go to churches, when I would be in life, I interpreted heroes and villains.

The villains were the people that didn't accept me or let me be or do what I wanted to do or be accepted.

I just immediately, I had y'all come follow me here.

I had a definition of if you love me, then you're going to respect me.

And this is my definition of respect.

If I wanted to do a certain thing, you're going to ask me to do it.

If I want a certain position, you're going to give me that position.

If I want to be talked to a certain way, you're going to show me respect because I need to know that you approve of me.

Are y'all following?

Okay.

And so I want to tell you why I'm saying this.

I've had people in my life that God put there that were very healthy Christians, that were spiritual fathers and mothers in the faith.

And I painted them as villains because they didn't treat me the way I wanted to be treated, because the way I wanted to be treated was founded upon deception.

This is what I'm going to put, I'm going to give you an example.

I had a pastor of a church that I served at, and I worked so hard serving in that church.

And I was talented, and I had talent.

So I started on the worship team.

I served the you, I did all these things.

But I had this thing, this perspective of he doesn't really accept me.

It's this idea of he doesn't really appreciate my giftings and who I am.

And then one time the pastor calls me in and he's and he sits down and meets with me, and he gives me some correction.

He gives me some correction.

He's trying to speak into my life.

He does, he's not mean about it.

He goes, hey, I noticed this.

This is probably something you want to be aware of.

You probably need to not do this.

And I got so offended.

Yeah.

Right?

Follow this.

Because my heart is deceived on what I think I need.

The kind of ministry I think I need.

I painted him as a villain.

And I painted other people in my life as heroes because they satisfied my deceived craving.

Come on now.

Someone all of a sudden promotes you before you're ready to be promoted.

Oh, they finally appreciate me.

No, they're satisfying that fleshly deceived desire you have.

Oh, someone just loves me for me.

No, they're not speaking life to you.

They're not pointing out sin in your life.

What does he let me read Hebrews 13 again real quick for you?

It says, it says, make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turn away from the living God.

You must warn each other every day.

The rebuke of a friend is better than the kiss of an enemy.

We live in a culture today so individualistic, so perfected, that the moment someone says anything critique to us, the moment anyone confronts us with sin or talks to us, we reject them, paint them as a villain, and then we go to the ones that's going to satisfy the deceived heart craving.

And we go to churches.

I'm going to get some people here.

Just remember, I love you.

We hop to churches that's going to satisfy our craving.

We go to big church, we go to a big church, they don't have any spots for me to minister how I want to minister.

So I go to little church because I think they'll just let anybody do anything.

And then when I don't get what I want at little person church, I'm offended.

They don't really love people because they didn't appreciate me.

No, that's your deceived heart posture.

That's your entitlement expectation.

That's your lack of trust in the God who promotes to promote you in his timing.

You have a desire for man's approval.

So I live my life doing this.

I've been coming to the Lord here the last few months, getting brutally honest with him.

And you would think, David, you're a pastor, you should have all this figured out.

No, I don't.

And I'm finding out more and more that my heart is very deceived.

I'm finding out more and more.

We don't use this term evil probably when we pray to God and repent.

This is what I've been doing lately.

Lord, my heart is evil.

I'm realizing there's evil in me that we don't use that term.

But I'm using this term and I'm recognizing there's a part of me that doesn't even want to go there with the Lord.

There's certain things and issues that I know that I got maybe that's more obvious.

And yeah, I'll repent of those things.

I'll go there with you.

I'll accept, hey, that needs some work.

But then there's certain areas that I have behind a locked door.

These areas of in my heart that sin is not so easily seeing.

I can hide it from you.

I can fool you.

But the problem is I'm dealing with the relationship with the God that nothing's hidden from him.

And I have this heart that wants to deceive me to think that I'm better than I actually am.

The problem is, is are we listening to that deceptive heart that feels so good?

It feels natural, but yet it's setting us up for death.

Come on.

It says there is much more we would like to say about this, but it's difficult to explain.

Especially since you are spiritually dull and don't seem to listen.

You have been believers and be encouraged.

You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.

Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God's word.

You're like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.

My son, you know, he still does some milk, but he also does solid food.

But when he does solid food, he has to chew on it.

There's things God desires to speak to us to show us, but we've got to chew on it.

We've got to be willing to go there.

The idea is that I have to be willing not to just assume that I'm okay.

I need to be willing to let God go there and say, what if this is off?

What if your offense, what if your desire and craving for what you think you need is actually wrong?

For someone who live excuse me, for someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn't know how to do what is right.

It's interesting that it's not talking about special revelations here, and it's not talking about the ability to prophesy and do miracles and do deliverance and do all these wonderful things.

Come on, come on.

Okay, yeah.

So good.

They have the skill to recognize.

Notice that it says this spiritual maturity is not just the ability to always do what's right, it's the skill to recognize what is right and wrong.

That's it.

So we go back to this heart posture.

Our very hearts, y'all, and here's the problem is that if we can't get to a point to accept that there is a part of us that is constantly fighting against the Spirit of God leading us to truth and righteousness, it's always going to be in disagreement.

What can feel natural to us is against the supernatural.

And we can be deceived living our life, painting a picture, even painting people as heroes and villains, and painting this idea, this is what I need, this is what I don't need, this was not good for me, this is good for me.

What if it's actually the opposite?

What if the thing we've been rejecting was the very life-giving thing that God put there and we reject it because we're deceived by our hearts because it didn't satisfy the natural craving.

Oh, I want to be accepted.

So I've been doing this with the Lord, I've been walking with him, and I've been very honest, coming to him, and I'm just saying, Lord, my heart is way worse than I ever could imagine.

I I don't even I can't I don't even know how bad.

But I'm willing to let you go there.

Wow.

I'm willing to let you go there.

And so what I do is I go through here in Galatians 5 and I look at the fruits of the Spirit.

This is the good stuff, and then I look at the stuff before Galatians 5, this is the bad stuff.

He lists up every we've all read this chapter, he lists a bunch of sins and he lists the good stuff.

And this is what I do.

If I see the bad stuff, I come to the Lord, I confess this, I bring it to him, I don't hide anything.

Internal out, you know, as much as if I identify something wrong or I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I come before him.

But also, if I don't have the good stuff, I come before him.

And this is what God's been doing.

It's amazing.

He's been speaking to me in the form of rhetorical questions.

Anyone ever have that?

God didn't just tell you stuff, he asks you stuff because he wants you to discover it.

So I come to him and I'm like, Lord, I'm in a bad mood today and I'm angry.

And he goes, Why?

I'm like, good question.

And I start thinking about it and I chew on it.

I take time to try to recognize what is going on in my heart.

My wife, I'll give you an example today.

My wife is like my biggest cheerleader, but she also is a voice of wisdom in my life.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like those, I'm not gonna say that's a bad example.

But she she's someone that helps me, but she speaks life, and sometimes life is not exactly what we want to hear, but it's what we need to hear.

And as being a pastor and stuff, she speaks life to me.

And so one of the things she's she was giving me some some good advice for today, but it offended me.

But she was saying, hey, she was saying, David, just you get real intense sometimes, but there's another side of you that's very pastorally.

And the Lord was actually saying this to me before she did, but she said that to me.

She goes, Hey, maybe you don't need to be so rah.

And and what's funny is the Lord was actually saying this to me before she did, and I got so offended.

And I walk out, I walk out of the room to finish getting ready, and I say, Lord, I am so mad at her.

And the Holy Spirit said, Why?

And I'm like, because she tried because I'm the head of the house.

Who is she to talk to me like that?

She's like, Holy Spirit, you're one flesh, and she's helped you a lot to grow and mature.

She's been a voice of life.

Why are you so upset?

Finally, he walked me through this process where I said, Because I'm prideful.

I'm angry because I got pride issues, and I don't want anyone to tell me that I'm not perfect, and I'm mad, and I'm about to treat her like a jerk, and I'm at that moment of choice.

Make sure that your heart is not evil.

I'm about to make her to be the villain.

And the Holy Spirit says, She's got your back, David.

She loves you, she's committed to you.

You've got pride in your heart.

So before I went back and saw her, I repented of pride.

I repented of that.

I repented of anger.

I didn't have to have a talk with her.

Got my mind right.

The women clapping saying, Yeah.

It's the best message I've ever heard.

Supplies to both sexes, y'all.

It was a it was a snare.

It was a trap of the enemy trying to tug at my heartstrings and my vulnerabilities.

Because I seem confident, but I'm insecure.

And I need approval of man.

We try to cover our weaknesses by doing the opposite.

We over you know what I'm saying?

And I get up here and I rah, rah, rah, but everyone needs to be humble, but then I have my tests and I get angry and offended because I've got pride.

And the Holy Spirit's walking me through that.

It's this idea of we think that we're above it because of how long we've been a Christian, maybe how many messages we've heard, how many church services, how many times we've served, maybe we've ministered to people, maybe we've led ministries, but we get this idea that I'm beyond this.

I want you to know something.

Paul's saying is that this is constantly going to be there.

Have you ever overcome something?

It was a struggle in your life, and then all of a sudden it's like years later, all of a sudden you fall back into something, you're like, where did that come from?

Where did that come from?

It's very humbling, but we realize that never went away.

What tends to happen is that there's an incremental process, and it's the idea of you know that whole verse that says, resist the devil and he'll flee.

There's an ongoing thing of resistance and going, drawing closer.

It's like the more that I try to obey the Lord and hear and listen to his spirit and follow his leading, I'll become more sensitive to his voice, and I'll become, I'll have more of a desire to hunger and thirst for righteousness.

But there's a choice to turn to that, to want that, to come in humility.

But I can do the opposite and I can resist the Lord because it's not satisfying the feeling of what I think I need.

And the more I resist, the more his voice becomes dulled in my life.

It's almost to the point where I become so hardened to the Lord that I no longer can hear his voice.

And then all of a sudden I'm living a life completely deceived, thinking I'm living a spirit-filled life, but I'm just continuing in deception.

Building this foundation, building my house on an unsolid foundation.

Because I didn't take the time to truly listen to the Spirit of God.

And God's been merciful to me to put people in my life that spoke life to me, but I saw it as death because I was deceived by a wicked heart.

And yes, I'm fine with people talking about the obvious sins, but don't talk about the motives of my heart.

Don't talk about the real reasons why I do what I do.

And I get upset with people because they don't give me what I want, because what I really want is for the evil desires in my heart to be fulfilled.

So the Lord put a pastor in my life who was life-giving.

And the and the Holy Spirit's been, as I've been doing this, the Holy Spirit's bringing memories that I've forgotten about from a really long time ago.

And it's been saying, You painted them as a villain, they weren't.

You thought you had church hurt, you don't.

You have your own offense.

That was life-giving.

I put you there.

I put you in a season to delay you to teach you humility.

There's certain seasons you weren't ready for promotion, David.

It would have been a curse to your life.

And you treated all these people as villains, and you tried to claim and tell people, I know what church hurt is like.

No, you are offended, David.

Because you got issues in your heart.

It's the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you're not free to carry out your good intentions.

I have thought that I have enough wisdom and experience in the Christian walk to figure this out on my own.

This is my problem.

I think that I have the skills and the intellectual know-how to identify this on my own.

We don't.

Let me read this verse.

This verse has always confused me.

Did I not put up there?

Is that Galatians 5.18?

Sorry.

Let me see if it's no.

Let me go back.

I'm so sorry, everybody.

I didn't put the verse.

I thought I did, but let me go ahead and read this to you.

But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

Have you ever heard this verse?

When you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

The law is the idea of rule following.

And we come into Christianity, a lot of times we see this as I've got to follow rules.

And if I don't follow rules, I'm not right with God.

And the problem is this is a tricky verse to preach on because many misinterpret it and many come out with the wrong conclusion.

This verse is not saying that rules right and wrong no longer exist for a spirit-filled Christian.

This is not saying that we are not to focus on the technicalities.

What this is saying is that the idea and the way to be right with God is not the way that the law provided through rule following.

And even the idea of being made right with God through rule following is impossible.

The purpose of the law was to point out our sin.

I will prove that, I will prove that biblically to you.

Romans 5 20 through 21.

I want you to see this.

It's a lot here, but let me read this.

God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

And we strive and we try to connect with God through works.

That's not the purpose.

But as people sin more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant.

Y'all, if you only knew the depths of the depravity in me that I'm allowing the Lord to reveal to me, I'm allowing him to go there.

It has been gut-wrenching.

It's not been hard because I'm very prideful.

I think I'm amazing.

And I want everyone to think that too.

And I'm a loved son, but I've got issues, and I want those issues to be fixed my way.

And Holy Spirit is doing this beautiful thing, walking me through this, not because he's mad at me.

This is a loving father, y'all.

This is someone who's you know how he gets us to change his kindness.

Okay, he's been walking me.

There's been a gentleness, but he's been saying, David, look at this.

This is not me.

Okay.

In the midst of this, you know what's been happening?

My revelation of his grace, my revelation of his grace is growing.

It I'm realizing this whole time, God, all these years, I've had this junk in my life that I wouldn't even pay attention to.

And you have been kind to me.

You have protected me.

You brought me a good wife, godly woman of God, a good.

Son, a good job, provided you've let me pastor a church.

You are so merciful.

And I've been wretched.

And yeah, I can fool everybody, but my heart has been wretched, resentful, bitter, unforgiving, compromising, rebellious, doing sins, not even feeling bad about it.

Gossiping, slandering, and thinking I'm okay.

Spiritual pride.

Because I live from the foundation of a deceitful heart.

And yet you have been so kind to me.

So kind to me.

I didn't deserve any of this.

And I am way more motivated to be righteous.

Not because I'm I don't feel connected to him.

I feel closer than I ever have.

But the revelation of how wicked I am compared to how loving he is, it's changing something in my heart.

Where I'm like, I don't want this filth anymore.

No.

I don't want to be, I don't want to follow that flesh.

I don't want to satisfy myself.

I don't want that anymore.

Lord, I want you.

You are so kind to me.

I don't want to listen to that evil heart anymore of mine.

I want you to create me a clean heart.

And Lord, I repent for all the junk that I've done.

I confess it to you.

Make me like your son Jesus.

Please stand, church.

Verse 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The key to freedom is not how free we make ourselves.

It's not the fight we make.

The fight has already been fought.

It's humility.

It's not the acts of humility that we can make everyone think we're so humble.

I'm really good at that.

It's the humility that comes before the Lord and is honest and saying, okay, you know what?

I am I I I hate my brother or sister in Christ because I'm offended.

I hate them that because I'm unforgiving.

I want this stuff because I have selfish ambition.

It's going there with the Lord.

Why are you mad?

Why don't you have the joy of the Lord?

Why don't you have the acts of love that it calls for for the fruits of the Spirit?

Why don't we have peace?

If you wake up and you don't have peace, why?

I had this, I was driving to work the other day and I was just in a foul mood.

And I was stressed.

Holy Spirit, he's just been doing this.

He's a master asking me questions.

Why are you afraid?

And I'm just honest.

Well, I'm thinking about our future.

I'm not sure how all this is gonna work out.

Well, doesn't my word tell you not to worry about tomorrow?

Yes.

So why are you worrying?

What is really the issue, David, that's going on?

And finally I got to it.

Lord, I don't trust you.

I don't trust you.

So now I'm afraid, I'm fending for myself.

It's like, David, I'm a father.

I'm your provider.

And so it's not a heart healing, it's repentance.

Lord, forgive me for my lack of faith.

Y'all catch this?

Yeah, yeah, good.

Our heart's going to tell us you need heart healing.

And yes, that is true.

But what we need is heart humility.

I'm about to I'm about to close.

I just want to read one more verse to you.

This is 2 Chronicles 7.14, and it says, Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, notice the progression here.

They'll humble themselves and pray and seek my face and then turn from their wicked ways.

Catch the progression here.

I have tried to start before by turning from my wicked ways.

And that was the focus.

And I fail time and time again.

Because my focus is, David, turn from your wicked ways.

I can't do it.

I can't do it.

My sinful nature is it desires and craves that.

It says, humble themselves, humble yourself.

That's the first thing.

We have been wrong.

There's people in our life, yes, we've been cheated, but listen, how much more have we been forgiven of?

How much more have we been forgiven of?

Humble yourself.

Okay, Lord.

I've been sinning and I'm not been sorry about it.

I I repent for that, by the way.

Lord, that spiritual pride, that's hardness of heart.

That's that's what this is talking about.

That if you continue on this and you don't go there, you're gonna get hardened.

Messages like this are not gonna do anything for you.

And this is what I had.

Humble themselves and pray.

Still no turning yet.

We're just coming before the Lord.

Lord, I'm a sinner.

You know that parable of it's the church leader and the tax collector going to the temple to pray?

Yeah, yeah.

One of them is thinking about how great they are.

I've got my life in order.

The other one is, Lord, I'm a sinful man.

I'm wicked.

Please forgive me.

Who's the one that leaves closer to God?

Yeah, good, good, even.

He opposes the but gives grace to the humble yourself and then pray.

Go to your father.

It's time to talk to God.

Some of you're trying to do the man's works.

Man's works is always going to produce shame and condemnation because you're going to fail, you're going to fail, and you're not going to want to come to your father.

You're going to feel ashamed.

I'll just tell you this because I've done this cycle over and over and over.

I don't even want to pray because who am I to come pray to you?

This is what this has been doing to me.

I almost get excited about it now.

Lord, I found something else wrong with my heart.

Please come fix it.

Dad, Dad, look what I found.

It's not good.

Get it.

This is not up to me to fix.

This is up to Father God to fix.

Because He's the one that's able.

That's His spirit deposited inside of us, church.

I've got insecurity issues, Lord.

I'm insecure.

What's going on?

Lord, I'm ashamed to proclaim your name in public sometimes.

Lord, there's something in my heart wrong.

Please fix it because I can't.

It is so free.

Not justifying sin.

None of it's right.

It's wrong.

Humble yourself and pray.

Seek my face.

When you seek the face of Christ, you want to know what he looks like.

When you seek the face of Christ, you're going to start to understand what righteousness looks like.

You're going to start to care about the details and the technicalities of the law.

Because it's going to expose what's wrong.

And then turn.

I can't do anything without you, Lord.

This has been so freeing to me, church.

Oh.

Lord, I can't do this without you, but I am going to partner with you.

I'm going to make sure everything I can do, I'm going to make sure.

Have a heart check.

You know what I do a lot?

I've gotten really good at praying.

And I can babble off prayers, and you think, oh my gosh, this guy's like in the seventh heaven.

I cannot be connected to what I'm praying.

I can blah blah blah blah fire of God follow this.

And I can have no actual, I cannot be thinking about what I'm saying.

Are y'all following me?

I'm following a script.

Do you know how disrespectful that is to the Lord?

Jesus says this, he goes, I don't want you babbling.

I want you connected.

I want you actually talk to me.

This has been convicting to me.

I because I can do this all day.

It's like, no, David, I want your prayers to be like, look at me when you talk to me.

I'm like, I can't see you, your spirit.

Touche.

These things we do, Lord, I want to see your face.

I want to see your face.

And then turn from your book, and he says, I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and restore their land.

Church, your sons and daughters, and God wants you to be cleansed.

But he's not looking for you to do it.

Because we don't have the power to do it.

And Father God is coming and he's gentle and kind.

I didn't think that about him before.

So I guarded myself from God.

I guarded those areas that I don't want to think about, acknowledge.

I let him in there.

He's patient and he's kind.

He wants you to be free.

He wants you to open that door and let him into those sensitive areas.

Holy Spirit.

We make room for you in our lives and our hearts, Lord.

We open the door, Father.

Forgive us, Lord, because we are sinful.

Forgive us for the things that we've entertained and ignored.

Forgive us for the hardness of our hearts, God.

Forgive us for closing you off.

Forgive us for thinking that we're better than we actually are.

I thank you, Lord, for these wonderful people here today, Father.

I thank you that they're called and appointed and anointed for such a time as this, Lord.

Holy Spirit, I ask that you would help them have a revelation of your grace.

And I ask, Lord, that they would feel safe to allow you in those vulnerable areas of their life.

We come out of agreement.

We repent for coming into agreement with condemnation and shame.

We for Lord forgive us for trying to do this all on our own.

Help us, Holy Spirit.

Help us, Holy Spirit, in every area of our life.

There's a man here today, I'm not going to call you out, but you carry really heavy shame.

And people wouldn't think that you carry heavy shame because many things look right on the outside.

But you have a hard time talking to God for real.

And the Lord says, I miss you.

Father says, You used to pray to me a lot, and there used to come to me a lot, but I miss you.

And I miss your request.

I miss you talking to me in your car.

Actually, it's a what was a white truck.

I missed you talking to me.

Ford, white truck.

You would drive and you would talk to him.

The Lord says, Come back to me, my son.

There's someone here with a there's a shoulder issue on your right shoulder.

There's pain.

Is that someone here?

You have an issue in your right shoulder.

Please raise your left hand.

There's someone back here.

If someone, okay, she's raising her hand.

Is that someone else right here?

If you can put your hand up.

We're gonna lay hands on these people with their hand raised, and we're just gonna speak right shoulder right here.

Let's put their hands on Pastor Garna.

Is there anybody else?

There's pain in your right shoulder.

If we got a guy right up here, brother.

Lord, we just speak healing right now in the name of Jesus over them, healing over their shoulder.

Whatever the issue is, Lord, if there's things out of alignment, if there's tendons, things torn, Father, we speak the healing power of Jesus Christ over them.

Every ligament, every muscle, every some people, there's multiple people.

Your mouth hurts, like your gums.

Your gums, like your teeth.

Is there some people here where your mouth's like hurting?

I even felt it along the right side, like the back.

Is that is that both of you all?

Um will someone lay your hands on them?

Just these people in the back, let's surround them.

Come on, church.

We all got the ministry and the spirit of God inside of us.

Yes.

Father, we just speak the healing power of Jesus Christ, Lord.

We call all the pain to go away, whatever the issue, whatever the cause.

Father, we ask you to completely heal that.

Heal their gums, their mouths in the name of Jesus.

And we thank you for that, Lord.

Um, there were two people, you didn't raise your hand, but that applied to you too.

Is there two more people that you have pain in your mouth right there?

There's one.

And who else?

Who?

Is that hurting?

Let's lay our hands on Elizabeth right here.

Father, complete healing over their mouth.

All pain gone in the name of Jesus.

All pain gone.

Um, someone's been having insomnia here, and it's also affecting your like reasoning, your memory, like your brain.

You got brain fog because you've not been able to, you've had like insomnia.

Is that somebody here today?

That's you right there.

Let's raise your let's lay our hands on her right here.

In the name of Jesus, Father, we thank you that you are the restorer of sleep and rest.

We thank you that you restore sleep and rest, Lord.

So we just rebuke insomnia, Father.

We say, get off of her in the name of Jesus, and we just speak complete rest.

And we say that she's gonna take a wonderful nap, but she's gonna sleep so well tonight and have a deep sleep, and we just rebuke brain fog and we speak clarity of mind in the name of Jesus.

Um, there's another woman here that when I called when she raised her hand, you said, Well, I think that's me too, but you didn't feel qualified to raise your hand.

Who is that with the insomnia stuff?

You've not been sleeping well and you didn't want to raise your hand.

Okay, there we go.

The Lord says, This is beautiful because it's not just a prayer for healing.

The Lord says, I care about you so much, way more than you've realized, and I'm not leaving you behind.

Father, we thank you, Lord, that there's more going on than just healing, but we speak healing to her sleep.

We rebuke insomnia, but Father, we thank you that there's more going on to the story.

The Lord says, Elizabeth, you're in a season where I'm displaying my glory and my kindness over you.

I am going to show off.

I am going to show I feel the Spirit of the Lord on it.

I'm going to show off with you, my sweet daughter.

In the name of Jesus.

In the name of Jesus.

Pastor Pete, Dr.

Randy, I want you to stand behind him, please.

Um, he's like, David, what are you doing, brother?

Uh, Brother Patrick, the Holy Spirit just told me to bring you up here.

You're in a season of calling and you're a season of coming out.

And the Lord says there's an assignment that you're going to be stepping into.

So, Father, we speak that assignment.

We thank you for Patrick, Lord.

We honor him, Father, for the gift that he is and what he's called to be, Lord, and we say yes to that in the name of Jesus, Lord.

And we just say, as he steps into this, Father, we say, open doors over them, Father, with the direction of their life, Lord, open doors over them financially, even location, God.

We thank you, Father, that you are establishing things for such a time as this, God.

We thank you, Father, that this is a time of calling and purpose, Father.

We thank you that this is a profound season over his life in the name of Jesus.

Thank you, Lord.

As we were praying for you, uh, I saw a boiling pot, and the pot was just roiling and boiling, and what was coming to the surface was new horizons, new destiny, just a a breakout.

It's like a it's like all of a sudden when a pot boils, it just explodes.

And I just see that coming forth in your life, and it's just an explosion of of the of the power and the majesty and the and the uh the the very vibrancy in and the Lord would say, This may seem strange because of your season, but the Lord would say, This season is a season of breakout.

This is a season of breakout for you, and even what was already just prayed for you.

Uh, new, new, new, says the Lord, in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah, Father.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Okay, um, let's lay our hands on Rick Watson here.

In the name of Jesus, we speak sight to his eyes.

In the name of Jesus.

We thank you that we that you love Rick.

We thank you that he is called Father, he's obedient and faithful.

We ask for complete healing and restoration to his sight.

And we also, as Pastor Pete's there, and hands are on him as well, we speak restoration to his sight, complete healing, sight restored to his eye.

And as Sharon is touching Pastor Pete's shoulder, we ask for healing over her, complete restoration to her complete body and healing and restoration.

And as Tammy's touching Rick, Lord, I pray that glory would go through her, completely heal her body in the name of Jesus.

Um, church, we love you so much.

I really want you to be encouraged from this, okay?

Um, this the church environment, the church family is one of the places you're supposed to feel the safest and the most encouraged.

We've got to get beyond this thing of human acts, human works.

That doesn't mean that we're saying sin is okay.

We are never saying that, but we're all recognizing that we got junk.

Okay?

You can have your life together, you can have a full bank account, the best clothes, and everyone thinks you're amazing, and still have filth in your heart.

Okay?

Bring it before the Lord.

He's here for it, and it's his job and ability to make you into a new creation.

Let him have that responsibility.

Amen.

Listen, we love you.

Also, we have some wonderful snacks that Chelsea and people put out.

It was leftover desserts.

We have some cookies, brownies, and things like that.

So if you want to visit a little bit, get you some sweets, it's right out there.

We love you.

Have a good week, okay?

Amen.