HEART SMART | Part 3 | Unmask Your Heart

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Hey.

Hey. Hey.

Heat.

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Heat.

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Hallelujah.

How's everybody feeling today,

>> man? Pastor Mark, how am I supposed to

preach with your handprint on this

thing?

Praise the Lord. Well, hey, if you're uh

new to Grace Summit Church, we say

welcome. My name is Ben. and I have the

opportunity of serving as uh lead pastor

here. And uh we want to get in the word

today. Um you know, the amount I've been

in ministry a long time. The amount of

spiritual opposition that I've been

under the last several weeks,

particularly the last several days, um

is telling me something very clear in

the spirit that this message uh the

devil doesn't want you to hear.

Um, God is doing some amazing things in

this house and in your hearts and in us

corporately as a as a family of

believers. And how many know that uh God

prevails above all enemy opposition?

>> So, you want to know what I'm going to

do today? I'm going to preach the word

of God to you.

>> Pray with me. Father, we thank you,

Lord, for life. We thank you, God, for

revival breaking loose in the souls of

man. Father, we receive you today, Lord.

We're thankful that we serve a risen

savior.

Lord, today I pray by the authority

you've given me in Jesus' name. I bind

every enemy, every opposition, anything

that would oppose your spirit, your

truth, and your word. And Father, I cast

it back to the hell that it came from.

And Father, in this moment, our hearts

are vulnerable before you. Father, we

hear you, we see you, and we receive of

you. Thank you, God, for the anointing

upon your word today in Jesus' name.

Amen.

>> Uh last week, we're in a series called

Hearts Smart. And last week, uh we

talked about the heart, but we also uh

talked about life. And from the

scriptures, we asked the question or the

scriptures asked the question, what is

our life? And we read that we're here

today and gone tomorrow. And God kind of

shifted our perspective a little bit to

get it off of all of the earthly, the

worldly, the the here and now. And God

got us uh focused more on eternity,

the things that really matter. The Bible

says that this life is but a midst or a

vapor in the eyes of eternity. And it

also tells us to set our hearts on

things above.

And so we have that as a foundation that

we're going to stand upon today. But

today, God wants to take us deeper. Say

deeper.

>> I want to ask the question when we're

talking about the heart. Uh what type of

heart

are we offering God?

What type of heart are we offering God?

Don't we use that terminology kind of

cliche in Christianity? Give your heart

to God, you know, and that's even like

kind of our call for salvation to to

give your heart to God. And and while

I'm not taking away from that, uh the

Bible has kind of some greater clarity

on the type of heart that we should

bring to God

for us that are saved.

What heart do we bring

to the altar? What type of heart do we

take into our prayer closet or our

prayer time? And I'll ask this, what

type of heart are we living from?

Proverbs 4 and verse 23

says this, above all else, that's very

strong language coming from scripture.

It says, "Above all else, guard your

heart, for everything you do flows from

it."

Everything you do flows from it.

Everything you do

flows from your heart. And so, couldn't

it be a primary focus of the believer to

say, "What's my heart condition? What

kind of heart am I living from? What

kind of heart am I serving from? What

kind of heart am I even bringing into my

own prayer time or my own study? What's

what's my heart?"

The Bible says that God opposes the

proud but gives grace to the humble.

also says, "A broken and contrite heart

he will in no way despise."

I want you to catch this. There is a

heart

condition that God will despise.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to

the humble. There's a heart condition

that God opposes.

I'm not here today to preach a

sunshine and roses message to you.

Can I just preach the truth? I I got

tired a long time ago of candycoated

sermons.

>> Can we just shoot straight with you?

>> Okay.

That's a warning to me. There's a type

of heart condition that I can approach

God with that God would despise or God

would oppose.

I've just listed two scriptures. There's

many more warnings that we find from

scripture. So when we say give my heart

to God, what's that uh Bible verse say?

To love the Lord thy God with all thy

>> Oh, you guys read it too.

Heart, soul, mind, and strength.

What's the second greatest command?

That's the greatest commandment in the

Bible, by the way. What's the second? Do

you guys know it?

>> Yeah. Live stream. You can't hear them.

To love thy neighbor as thyself. I don't

know why certain scriptures I still say.

KJV King James, love thy neighbor as

thyself. It's so poetic. To love God

with all of your heart.

I say that I give my heart to God, but

is my heart given in such a way as to be

received by God or better yet to be

celebrated by God? Because he's father

and I'm son and my hope is that I'm a

good son.

I I want to live all the issues uh in

life flow from my heart and I want to

live my life in such a way and and I

just picture it sometimes I want I want

I want God to be up there with the

angels and be like Michael Gabriel get

over here watch this watch that's my son

with whom I'm well pleased. I want my

life to put a smile on the face of my

God. Amen. And doesn't it feel good when

dad uh celebrates you and says, "Son,

I'm proud of you. Good job. keep keep

going. And man, we get that opportunity

in the spiritual realm. But how quickly

and how easily I can get in the wrong

heart condition to where I even begin to

blame God or get bitter. That's look at

my circumstances. I say, "Well, God,

they they're able to do this. Why aren't

I able to do this?" And I start

comparing my life to other people and I

turn into this selfish little spiritual

brat.

You guys have never done that before,

have you?

Today I want to give you three

conditions of the heart.

Three conditions of the heart. If I had

to title this message, I would call it

unmask your heart.

Unmask your heart. What kind of heart do

we offer God?

Can I give you a spoiler?

It's

often the parts that we tend to hide.

All right, I want to take you somewhere

in scripture today that some of you may

not have been.

This may be a brand new story for you.

It's the story of Hannah.

And while it might be new

to some of us this story,

I can say with confidence

that this portion of scripture is for us

today.

1st Samuel chapter 1. And I'm going to

ask for your forgiveness beforehand

because some of these Old Testament

names are a real struggle to know

actually how they're pronounced.

Matter of fact, we're going to skip

verse one and I'm just going to give you

one of the main characters because it's

genealogy and it's like all these names

and I'm like, I don't know. I'll stumble

over all of them.

Um, but Elena is the uh main character

that we're talking about here that comes

out of verse one. In verse two,

referring to Elcon, it says that he had

two wives.

Well, that's the first mistake he had,

right?

Sheesh. Two wives.

Uh,

>> thank you, Pastor Dan.

careful.

He had two wives. The name of one was

Hannah and the name of the other was

Panina.

Sounds like a sandwich, doesn't it?

Panina.

And Panina had children, but Hannah had

no children.

Now this man used to go up year by year

from his city to worship and to

sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh

where the two sons of Eli Hoffne and

Phineas were priests of the Lord.

On the day when Elc, how do I say it

again?

>> Elena.

Stick with me folks.

On the day when Elena sacrificed, he

would give portions to Pineina his wife

and to all her sons and daughters. But

Hannah, but to Hannah, he gave a double

portion because he loved her, though the

Lord had closed her womb. And her rival

used to provoke her grievously to

irritate her because the Lord had closed

her womb. So it went on year by year.

as often as she went up to the house of

the Lord, she used to provoke her.

Therefore, Hannah wept and would not

eat. And Elena her husband said to her,

"Hannah,

why do you weep? And why do you not eat?

And why is your heart sad? Am I not more

to you than 10 sons?"

Leave it to the man to not understand

what's actually going on.

Verse 9. After they had eaten and drunk

in Shiloh, Hannah arose. Now Eli the

priest was sitting on the seat beside

the doorpost of the temple of the Lord.

She was deeply distressed. Say deeply.

>> Deeply.

>> She was deeply dist distressed and

prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.

and she vowed a vow and said, "Oh Lord

of hosts, if you will indeed look on the

affliction of your servant, and remember

me, and not forget your servant, but

will give to your servant a son, then I

will give him to the Lord all the days

of his life, and no razor shall touch

his head." As she continued praying

before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.

Hannah was speaking in her heart.

Only her lips moved and her voice was

not heard. Therefore, Eli took her to be

a drunken woman.

Eli, what are we doing?

And Eli said to her, "How long will you

go on being drunk? Put your wine away

from you." But Hannah answered, "No, my

lord. I am a woman troubled in spirit. I

have drunk neither wine nor strong

drink, but I have been pouring out my

soul before the Lord.

She says, I have been pouring out my

soul

before the Lord.

All right,

so this Hannah, she

wanted something desperately from the

Lord

and it was a child.

her rival, the other woman

h mocked her.

Her husband didn't understand her. Her

heart, I would have to imagine, broke a

little bit more. Every year

she gets to the point that she

absolutely breaks before God and she

slips away from the feast that the

family was having. and uh she's around

all of her uh church people and and uh

biological family and and uh so I don't

want you to miss this. She's in church

surrounded by people yet still feeling

all alone.

Have you been there?

Mhm. Broken.

No one understands.

You know

we have this as a reality in humanity.

I can be in a room of people that love

me and somehow feel unlovable and

unloved.

We have in our culture an absolute rise

of depression, anxiety, suicidal

tendencies, all of these things. And if

you ever been on the inside so much and

you look around the room and you go,

"Nobody understands me. Nobody gets it."

Can I tell you that there's one that

does get it? His name is Jesus.

And Hannah finally gets to that place

that enough is enough. And she breaks

and she runs to the very presence of the

God that she knows has the answer.

Bring it into context a little bit.

She's in church. Nobody understands her.

She breaks before God. her mascara's

running.

I don't think they had mascara back

then.

She begins to pray in such a way that's

so real and so raw that her pastor

thinks that she's drunk.

She isn't even making noise. She's just

moving her lips.

And through that, God hears her heart.

And that's what it means to unmask your

heart.

And God meets Hannah,

not just in her pain, but in her honesty

and in her brokenness.

I want you to hear this. God wasn't

taken by her tears. God was moved by her

heart.

By the end of this chapter,

not only does God answer,

but he changes Hannah to the absolute

core.

All right. Three conditions of the

heart. Number one is contrite.

Contrite.

I I'll say this. God heals what we

reveal.

Psalm 51:17.

Psalms 51:17

The sacrifices of God are a broken

spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh

God, you will not despise.

The contrite heart is painfully aware it

cannot fix itself.

A contrite heart is painfully aware it

cannot fix itself. It admits not just

failure but bankruptcy.

You ever been in that place before?

You know that there's no solution on

earth

that can come in and heal the pain or

remove the thoughts or change the course

of life. There's those certain things

that you know only God can do.

Contrite heart is painfully aware that

it cannot fix itself. I It's the place

where pride dies

and humility is born.

Pastor Leonard Ravenh Hill said this. He

said, "God only uses broken things."

God only uses broken things.

I'll tell you what contrite doesn't

mean.

It doesn't mean oops, I got caught.

I'm sorry. Can I just share

salvation for a moment?

Sometimes

we have sinners that are lost

and our best invitation to them is to

pray

to God and say, "I'm a sinner. Come into

my heart. Save me." And I'm not taking

away from that because God does what God

does in the hearts of people. But can I

tell you when the pain gets to a certain

place and the brokenness gets to a

certain place and you find yourself in

that contrite disposition where you

break before God and you cry out to the

only God that can save you, the only one

that can heal you, the there's nobody

else. And when you're feeling that and

like Hannah, you just finally break

before God and you say, "God, save me."

Something different happens.

something deeper

happens. Contrite by definition means

crushed.

It also means ground down. It would have

been a a term that they would have used.

There was lots of uh different things

that they would grind down into a

powder. And that would have been a word

that was used in the language to talk

about things like that. But in this

context, they're talking about the

spirit of man, the soul of an individual

that I've been crushed in such a way. I

don't even look like what I used to look

like. Now I'm nothing but dust. I'm

nothing but powder. I've melted in the

presence of God.

Contrite,

crushed, ground down until the only

thing that's left is honesty.

It's Hannah at the altar.

Too broken for fancy words.

Too desperate to walk in pride. It's

utter brokenness.

And I want you to hear this. Only the

broken break into freedom.

You can write that down. Only the broken

break into freedom.

It's not shallow. I'm sorry.

But it's a deep groan that cries out to

God. Isaiah

in Isaiah 6:5

Isaiah 6:5

said, "Woe is me for I am undone.

I'm broken. I'm lost. I'm hurting."

Have you ever been undone before?

I want you to hear this. Behavior

modification

without heart renovation leaves you

exhausted and unchanged.

Let me say that again. Behavior

modification

without heart renovation leaves you

exhausted

and unchanged.

It's all of our spiritual shortcuts and

our Christian performances.

You can't hide what's really in your

heart.

from an all- knowing God.

But why do we think that we can?

And why do we keep the charade up so

long?

Why do we try to do behavior

modification in Christianity

instead of really letting God on the

inside of your soul, on the inside of

your heart, begin to speak to you in the

issues of life?

It's about taking the mask off. James

James 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4

and verse 7 says, "Submit yourself

therefore to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from

you. Draw near to God and he will draw

near to you. Cleanse your hands, you

sinners, and purify your hearts, you

double-minded.

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your

laughter be turned to mourning and your

joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before

the Lord and he will exalt you.

Somehow I knew today was just going to

be a quiet Sunday.

I want to say this. Don't mistake

spiritual pain for punishment.

Oftenimes it's preparation.

It's preparation.

What would have happened to Hannah if

she had never been so uncomfortable that

she broke before God?

It wasn't punishment that she was

allowed to feel those emotions and have

those thoughts and feel that pain.

Don't mistake spiritual pain for

punishment. Oftent times it's a setup.

It's preparation to get us in the

spiritual location that God needs us to

be to get us to the breakthrough.

Isaiah 66:2,

Isaiah 66:2

God said this, "This is the one to whom

I will look. He who is humble and

contrite in spirit and trembles at my

word."

This is the one that God smiles upon.

the one that God looks at, he who is

humble and contrite in spirit. Psalm

Psalms 34:18

34:18 says, "The Lord is near to the

brokenhearted and saves the crushed in

spirit."

You know, sometimes we think we're

protecting oursel with the mask that we

wear

when in reality we're suffocating the

chance for a miracle and for

breakthrough.

This okay, this too heavy for you?

I'm just preaching real to you.

You know, I got saved and was saved for

a number of years, had a call of life, a

call of ministry on my life, and had

spent a year in Bible college serving in

my church and had a uh momentary fleshly

failure that put me on a backslide for

six months.

And I've got to tell you, it was the

hardest six months of my salvation. You

know, many of you know I came out of

some pretty crazy stuff. God delivered

me and set me free. And to uh you know,

before I got saved, my conscience was

really seared. I I could sin and not

feel it and not think about it. And and

I didn't have that uh emotional

spiritual sensitivity. But but now after

serving God and walking in freedom and

tasting and seeing that my God is good

and then to get tripped up again and to

find myself as a dog returns to its

vomit, I just went right back to this to

this ugly place and was was caught up

all over again too full of shame to even

go to church

to even answer the phone.

I found myself

in Moskegan, Michigan at a teen

challenge after all of that. And somehow

I knew that God was the only one that

could change me. God was the only one

that could deliver me. God was the only

one that could shift the atmosphere of

my soul and allow me back into that

place of freedom.

I was only there a week or two and and

we had a chapel service and and in that

culture the the music was loud. It was

very uh loud atmosphere and people the

culture was that a lot of people would

come up to the altar during worship and

there would even be prayer ministry

going on right out of the gates. And so

so the service is happening and and I'm

just kind of not in it

because I hurt spiritually and

emotionally and the brokenness on the

inside of me began to grew. The the pain

on the inside of me was very evident and

the desperation for God to touch me was

there. And as I was worshiping and

giving myself to God, I broke. I went up

to that altar

crowded with people and I broke. And God

touched me in such a way that has

changed my life forever. I I began to

weep. My body began to to weep in such a

way that my legs wouldn't hold me up any

longer. And I dropped to my knees and I

put my face on the carpet and my body

convulsed in tears bigger than I could

control.

And it was like the room began to

disappear. And all I could see was the

darkness with my eyes closed. And as my

body's convulsing, it's like God allowed

me to step into that moment and out of

the noise in the room. And I was looking

and and crying and breaking before God.

And off in the distance, this little

tiny door swung open. And on the other

side was full color with blue skies and

green pastures.

And I looked at it and as I fixed my

eyes upon that little door, it caught my

attention. The door came at me and Jesus

stood in the door with a little lamb and

he says, "Come on. Come on." And then I

looked all of a sudden my my heart

everything went to full color and I came

out of it and I stood back up and I

said, "My God, can I tell you? I've

never been the same since that moment."

20 years later, it's still like I'm in

that moment, even thinking about it.

Brokenness before God.

I got tired of pretending everything was

fine. I got tired of of wearing the mask

and spending the energy to to kind of

hold up the Christian performance. Have

you been there?

What I learned is that it took more

energy

to do the performance than to just

surrender.

Sometimes we find ourselves spending

spiritual energy protecting the mask

while God is looking to heal our heart.

Contrition

is not humiliation. It's liberation.

It's freedom. It's power.

James 4:6, God opposes the proud but

James 4:6

gives grace to the humble.

Grace to the humble. Isaiah 66:2.

Isaiah 66:2

Again, this is the one that I esteem. He

who is humble and contrite in spirit and

trembles at my word.

Let me say this. God is not impressed

with the mask or the performance.

He's moved by a broken and contrite

heart.

So number one is let your heart be

contrite.

Number two is let your heart be

convicted. Say convicted.

>> Conviction is an interesting gift from

God.

It's a gift that makes us uncomfortable

and unable to settle in our selfishness

and in our sinfulness.

It's also an unsettling that comes

through the Holy Spirit that also moves

me to a new place that God is taking me.

It's an uncction, a moving, and it comes

by the spirit. John 16:8

John 16:8

Jesus said, "And when he, the Spirit,

comes, he will convict the world

concerning sin and righteousness

and judgment."

Man, I remember getting in the church

and being very unchurched and not

knowing Christianes yet. Didn't know all

the fancy spiritual words like

sanctification and contrition. What in

the world are we talking about?

I remember hearing the word conviction

and it was talked about and I'm like,

man, before I was saved, I was a

criminal. I've had some convictions.

This doesn't sound like a real pleasant

thing.

Why is God wanting to convict me?

Conviction comes with with cuffs. Can I

Can I say this that it's the exact

opposite in the spiritual realm?

It's God coming and taking the cuffs

off.

It's the warden walking down the hall to

your cell that you've been stuck in and

turning the key and saying, "You're

free.

Go home."

Conviction.

It's the voice of God inside of our soul

that says, "Don't settle for less." It's

God saying, "I love you too much to let

you stay the same."

Look at your neighbor and say, "There's

more."

There's more that God wants for you. And

I'll say this, conviction is proof that

the spirit hasn't given up on you.

Conviction isn't the weight that

crushes.

It's more like a a compass that compels.

Conviction is not God beating you up.

It's God waking you up.

My wife and I, we had an individual

uh that was in our life for many years

and he in our church in Michigan, he

would after I would preach, he he was an

old guy and he

precious,

but he'd come up to me and he'd go,

"Pastor, you're preaching today. I

really got a spanking from the Holy

Spirit."

Said it all the time.

Like the Holy Spirit spanks folks.

That's never had a spanking from God

before.

I'm grown. I don't need no spanking.

Maybe I do. I don't know.

God with conviction. God's not beating

you up. He's waking you up. It's an

awakening. It's a revelation. Conviction

is not condemnation. Can I say this?

Condemnation looks backwards and

conviction compels you forward.

Conviction isn't God's judgment. It's

God's invitation

to you. It's that sense, that whisper,

that that holy ache on the inside of us

that that's that's compelling us, that's

moving us, that's giving us what we need

to get up and get going.

>> We're just we're humans. We we have

this. You ever had an idea, something

good, and then you're kind of on the

fence like I don't know if I really feel

like getting up to go do that, you know,

like I know I should and I kind of want

to. Um, and then somebody else or a

group of people come in the room and

they all want to go do that thing and

all of a sudden you get a burst of

energy like, well, if you guys want to,

I'll go. You guys know that feeling?

That's often times what the spirit

spiritual conviction is like. It's like,

man, I know the good I want to do and it

I want to I want to do it. I really want

to. Conviction is that stirring on the

inside that gets me up and gets me

going.

Catch this. Guilt says, "Stay away.

You're not worthy."

Conviction says, "Come closer. I'm not

done."

Guilt locks us in our past. Shame and

guilt. It binds us up and locks us down.

over conviction frees you up and pushes

you forward.

One man said this. He said, "The heart

that stays tender before God can be

trusted for power."

I look at it this way. I'm very simple

in the way that I think. But conviction

is kind of like the check engine light

in your vehicle.

When I was younger, I used to ignore

those things. You guys ever do that?

I've seen people put stickers over the

check engine light.

And so you just keep driving. It's like

paid nothing for this thing any I'm just

going to keep driving. I don't have any

money for the old mechanic. So you just

ignore the lights and what happens? Your

vehicle doesn't last real long. Right?

And then you're in a real issue. You

guys ever been stranded along side of

the road?

I grew up in an era without cell phones.

That was an issue, right? You're just

stuck on some road. You know, we didn't

have maps. Map Quest. Sometimes we'd be

stuck in a play. I don't even know how

to get out of this place, man. Right?

And all because I ignored the signal.

Because I ignored the light. And how

many times do we find ourselves

spiritually broken down along the side

of the road because we did not yield to

what God was showing us, the conviction

of the Holy Spirit to keep us healthy.

You can ignore it, but that won't erase

the issue.

See, conviction is an invitation. It's

an awakening.

Then we're in position

to receive power for the problem to be

fixed.

Pastor Dallas Willard said this. He

said, "Spiritual formation isn't

pressure from the outside.

It's cooperation with what the spirit is

calling out from the inside.

And let me say this. We're talking about

conviction.

Um, conviction is not policing others.

You can write that down.

Conviction is not

policing others. I think of Romans uh

14:5. It says, "Each one of you should

be fully convinced in his own mind."

Each one should be fully convinced in

his own mind.

Conviction theologically is personal,

not corporate. I'll say that again.

Conviction theologically is personal,

not corporate. When it comes to uh

Christian standards and and why we kind

of have a a culture and do the things

that we do, we have uh standards that

comes from from the Bible. There's

corporate biblical standards that we as

Christians adhere to. But then personal

conviction is very different where the

Holy Spirit speaks directly to you about

something in your life that needs to be

removed or something not in your life

that needs to be received.

Let me just say this.

If God spoke to you and your conviction

is to wear long skirts and never cut

your hair and not wear makeup,

then what I think is that you should

wear long skirts, never cut your hair,

and not wear makeup. But don't expect

every woman that professes Christ to do

the same.

>> I almost started preaching.

If God spoke to you to not drink

alcohol,

don't drink alcohol.

But don't condemn

every Christian that has a beer on the

golf course.

That's personal

conviction.

Can I preach to you this morning? If God

spoke to you and your conviction says uh

by the spirit, God's telling you to get

up early before work every day and read

three chapters of your Bible and pray

for 30 minutes. I think that you should

get up early and read three chapters of

your Bible and pray for 30 minutes.

But don't condemn the brother or sister

that doesn't adhere to your personal

conviction because every person has a

intimate detailed personal relationship

with God. And my fault and I did this

early on in Christianity was I I was

expecting someone to be someplace that

they weren't. I was expecting someone to

be at a certain location spiritually

that they God hasn't taken them there

yet. or maybe they've been refusing it,

but that's between them and God. And

that's not for me to judge. My

obligation, my responsibility is to

love, to encourage. Amen. Now, there's

issues of sin. It's black and white. You

can read about it here. There's issues

to sin. And there's proper ways to

encourage or challenge a brother or

sister that's overtaken with a fault or

a sin.

But what God spoke to me is personal.

Well, I have personal convictions and

I'm not making you adhere to them.

That was a side note.

Hope that was okay to share.

>> Oh man, I lived under my pastor's

personal convictions for years.

>> It was his conviction. No movie

theaters, no dancing, no cards.

>> Man, I grew up playing cards. No cards,

pastor.

But there's a new movie out. I can't go

to the movie theater, pastor.

I did it. Very good little obedient

child of God.

Preaching in suits. Oh my goodness.

Glad that one is gone. Aren't you,

Pastor Dan?

I still have some in my closet. But

man,

>> that's not God,

>> man. We had chapel several days a week.

We'd have Wednesday night. We'd have all

this stuff. And you show up in a suit

and tie, buddy. And I'm like, man, I got

out of there. And uh I just stopped

wearing suits and ties for a long time.

Now, every once in a while, I'll throw a

sport coat on. If I'm doing a funeral or

wedding, I will wear a suit and tie if

that's what they desire.

But I lived under another man's

conviction that had ne it was never in

my heart to do that. But I just adhered

to his conviction. And then after I got

out from underneath that, I prayed and I

said, "God, what do you actually want me

to do? What what are my personal

convictions?" And so I had to get it for

myself. And you have to get it for

yourself. How is God leading you? That's

conviction. And conviction is not

policing other people.

Romans 14:5, each of you, each should be

Romans 14:5

fully convinced in his own mind. Can I

say this? Worry less about other

people's hearts and let God do surgery

on yours.

All right? So, conviction is personal.

Also, conviction stings.

It can sting. It can feel sharp.

And it can feel uncomfortable

or painful.

I I think of Paul the Apostle uh before

his name was Saul. And uh when he was on

the road to Damascus and and man, he's

he's he's ready. He's going to murder

Christians. Like he's he's the religious

prideful elite and has this thing set

and really thinks he's serving God by

going to kill Christians. And on the

road to Damascus, God knocks him off his

high horse and there's a vision and God

he sees Jesus and God blinds him.

That stung a little bit.

The way my back's been feeling lately be

like, "God, did you have to knock me off

a horse?

Conviction can sting."

And I got to say this that God

approaching Saul,

later known as Paul,

uh he was a radical individual going to

kill Christians. Absolutely radical

personality. And it took God knew that

it took something radical to get his

attention.

God knows what it takes to awaken you.

And that might be uncomfortable when he

does. It's an awakening.

It's an encounter for Paul. It woke up a

calling on the inside of him that he

never dreamed of. And he wrote most of

this New Testament. And he was pivotal

in the formation of the early church.

And the explosion where thousands are

being added daily to those that were

being saved was because Paul got

convicted on a road to Damascus and that

stung him. That shocked him. He was

blind. And God did something on the

inside of him that compelled him to be

who God wanted him to be.

One man said this, "The spirit convicts

not to bury you, but to resurrect the

real you."

So let your heart be contrite. Let your

heart be convicted. And number three is

let your heart be consecrated. Say

consecrated.

>> Consecration is interesting.

It's where your yes to God begins to

unlock everything in your life. If

you're in here and you're going, man,

I'm I'm I hear some of I want I want

more freedom in this area. I want

blessing. I want power. I want your

their contrition.

I'm sorry. Consecration is what begins

to unlock all of the different areas in

your life and allows you to say yes to

God and no to everything else. Romans 12

Romans 12:1

verse 1 and 2 says I appeal to you to

present your bodies as a living

sacrifice

holy and acceptable to God. Says do not

be conformed to this world but be

transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Consecration is uh over and over again

laying ourselves down on the altar

before God.

It's full devotion.

Can I say this? No fine print. It's

unconditional access to God and to every

part of your soul.

Consecration is allowing your heart to

be set apart to only say yes to God.

There's different theologies in church

practice that talk about consecration

and they they treat it like it's a

one-time thing. Matter of fact, there's

consecration services. is kind of this

one-time thing that God is consecrating

you. Can I tell you my experience?

Consecration is a lifestyle that my

life, my heart, my mind, my soul is set

apart for only him and no one else.

It's to say yes to God and no to

everything else. And let me say this,

uh, consecration unlocks capacity.

Consecration unlocks capacity.

You need to know that every uncsured

room in your heart

is a locked door to future blessing,

future anointing,

and future freedom.

God will do more with your surrender

than your strength.

God will do more with your surrender

than your strength.

You ever tried something on your own

strength? like you need freedom, you

need power, you know what you're

supposed to do, and you don't have the

strength to do it. You wear yourself out

trying. Surrender is where you get

freedom.

And the enemy doesn't care if you show

up to church as long as your heart is

never fully unlocked

to God.

Sometimes

some people are only renting their heart

to God on Sundays

when God is after the deed and the title

to your soul.

Got really quiet in here.

Consecration screams that I'm

bloodbought, born again. uh my my heart

has been given and it's legal contract

signed with the blood of Jesus Christ

that I've been consecrated and set apart

to him. I broke before him. I live in

that place of conviction and I'm

consecrated. My heart has been bought

and paid for with a price and I'm his.

That's consecration.

I am not my own.

I've learned that every time I truly

surrender,

God offers me new freedom and begins to

write a new chapter of my life.

And when I fight for control, I end up

stuck.

My heart is

that he owns it. He owns my heart, my

soul. He gets every key to every closet.

every door,

access to every room.

I want to read a scripture. Maybe you've

heard it before. John chapter 3 and

John 3 · chapter mention

verse 16.

It's a good one.

says, "For God so loved the world that

he gave his one and only son

that whoever believes in him shall not

perish but have eternal life. For God

did not send his son into the world to

condemn the world, but to save the world

through him.

Whoever believes in him is not

condemned, but whoever does not believe

stands condemned already because they

have not believed in the name of God's

one and only son." Listen to verse 19.

This is the verdict. Light has come into

the world, but people love darkness

instead of light because their deeds

were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light

and will not come into the light for

fear that their deeds will be exposed.

But whoever lives by the truth comes

into the light so that it may be seen

plainly that what they have done has

been done in the sight of God.

It's letting the light of God shine in

every dark corner of my soul.

[Music]

takes more energy

when God's trying to open the door for

you to be on the other side trying to

hold the door knob and keep it closed

than to just surrender and say, "God,

please come in and clean me out."

It takes more energy for the Christian

performance week after week

than to just giving yourself to God.

[Music]

God's not blessing who you pretend to

be.

God's blessing the real you.

And God will heal what you're willing to

reveal.

[Music]

Can I say this? You don't have to

audition for church. You don't have to

audition for Christianity.

You get to break before a loving God and

be received and accepted.

The real you connects with a real God

with all of your real problems and your

real sinfulness and all of those things.

And you really truly get saved. You

don't have to wear the mask. You don't

have to do the performance. You don't

you're not on audition. The the real you

gets to get really saved and really

delivered and really healed and really

free.

>> Anyone with me?

And I want to say this

because I've had this experience

and I've given this part of me to God,

but this part I'm not sure.

I'm not comfortable.

And I've looked back and evaluated what

was it that was holding me back.

What was it that kept me from really

just giving myself to God? And it was

fear, sometimes shame or guilt that kept

me holding the mask or kept me holding

the door and saying, "Uh-uh, it's too

ugly in here, God. It's too dirty.

It hurts too much, God. Let's not go in

that door."

[Music]

I wore myself out

trying to keep up with the performance.

Can I tell you what a day it is when you

just come before God

recklessly,

without reserve,

no fine print, and you just say, "God,

I'm I'm I'm yours.

I'm all in." And that's what God's

calling us to today.

What I've learned is that God's arm is

longer than my history

and stronger than my pain.

And personal revival starts

with honesty,

with raw and real. It starts with

surrender. You know, Eli thought Hannah

was drunk

and God knew the difference between

performance and pain.

Even though the people in her life

couldn't see it, God saw the brokenness

and heard her heart and came to her

rescue. God is near the brokenhearted.

Sometimes we have to just let go and let

ourselves break. Sometimes we just got

to uh let our let the mascara run.

Sometimes we've got to we've got to just

realize that it doesn't matter who's

around or what's going on. Sometimes I

just got to get with God. I've just got

to break because I have a real need and

I have a real solution. And if we're

willing to really break before God, I

know that we can get there that God will

hear me.

I'm going to ask the worship team to

join us up here

today. I believe that deep is crying out

to deep.

And I want to tell you this, you don't

have to have it all together to serve

God.

[Music]

You do have to be honest with the real

God.

And God will not heal your mask.

He'll heal the real you when you

surrender your mask.

If that's you, if you're just wore out

and you're tired,

tired of saying everything's fine when

it's really not.

If you're tired of the performance,

tired of doing maintenance

and you're ready for a very real miracle

right here in this moment, you can

surrender before a loving God. Would you

stand to your feet with me all over this

house? In just a moment, we're going to

open the altars.

Our prayer team is going to be up here

to pray with you.

Can I say this? Some of you might need

to just kneel right where you are.

and pray. But I want to ask you to not

lo leave this moment without allowing

God

into every part of your soul.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for life. We

thank you for freedom.

We thank you for power.

And Lord, we're thankful today that

there is nothing too big for you.

There's no pain too strong for you to

handle.

God, there's no shame or no guilt, no

embarrassment, God, that you won't

remove.

And so, Father, today we lay down our

masks. We open the doors.

Father, we surrender ourselves into your

lordship.

Father, we pray and ask that you fill

every part of our soul. You fill our

hearts, fill our minds,

that we would be set apart for you.

So Lord, we thank you for it now in

Jesus name. And God's people said,

"Amen." The altars are open this morning

for every need. Won't you come

[Music]