The Process of Sanctification!

So Father, we just thank you for the word that you've put on her

heart. Lord. We thank you for Casey and Charity. Lord, we

thank you for their hearts. We thank you for their love for the Body,

Lord, their love for you. And I just asked that you would

just cause a fresh anointing to fall on her this morning. Lord, would

you just give her an upgrade as she ministers to the Body. Lord,

we just we honor her. We thank you for her teaching gift. We

thank you for the prophetic that's in her life. Lord, We just thank

you for such a blessing to the Body of Christ into this house in Jesus'

name. Amen, Okay, it's green. Am. I only like to

have a microphone because I get all spunky and the microphone makes me feel like

I have something. But that's okay. I'll just I'll use my hands,

but I'm not punching you. Okay, that's not what that is. How

is everybody this morning? It's so oh I see your shirt Beauty for Ashes

right there. So good to be back with you guys. I think the

last time I was here and speaking was in February after the Beauty for Ashes

conference. Yes, so I had some testimonies even this morning. So thank

you for being such a gift each time we come here. It's so interesting,

you know how you in life you have people that you you tolerate,

love you know what I mean, Like you're like, I love you because

you're part of the body of Christ. And then you have people where you're

like, these are my people, these are my people. When we come

here, we feel so I actually have to say to myself on the way

in and on the way out, I'm not supposed to live here. I'm

not supposed to live here. I'm not supposed to live here. God is

not calling me to this, so but I just love it so much.

It's such a place of warmth and fellowship and community. This week in particular

has been really fun. I got the invitation from Justin. Actually, Justin

and I were talking on the phone and we were like, you know,

one of the hardest parts of leading can be that people might think that you

have it all together. Isn't that weird? Yeah? And You're like,

I absolutely do not have it all together. So one of the things that

we have done for each other is Justin came and he did a little cleanup

as we'd like to say with our team in Dallas, and then invited me

to do the same. And as I was praying about what I was going

to share today, I thought, who does that? Like? Who really

says I'm a leader? I'm going to come in. I want to be

completely and totally vulnerable. I want to be transparent. I'm willing to go

where the Lord is going to take us, no matter what that looks like,

whether it's messy or not. And in the best way, it was

messy, right, whether it's messy or not, because I'm so sold out.

I am so sold out to what Jesus wants in my life and for

the Body of Christ. And that's your leadership team, That's who they are.

They do deserve a big round of applause. So I was praying about

what I was going to speak about, as always every time I come here,

I have a message prepared, and then literally like the Morning of God

goes No, not that one. I'm like, what that was so easy?

I already had it all, had some little bullet points that I could

send to Justin and all of that. But as I was praying this morning

and thinking about it and really just taking you guys before the Lord with exactly

what I DoD just said to you, like, what an incredible group of

people, what do you want for them? And I just kept hearing the

word sanctification, sanctification, It's about sanctification, and so I thought, Okay,

I think that's what we're going to talk about today, is sanctification.

Some of you have heard my testimony, some of you have not. I'm

gonna only spend like three minutes on it because I'm about to take you to

a place that you're willingly gonna go right, yes, But before I do,

I want you to trust me because one of my least favorite things is

when people get up on a stage and they're like, my life is awesome,

and if you were as awesome as me, you'd be in the glory

cloud. And you're like, you know, like I was kicking my husband

this morning. I don't even know what you're talking about. Right, I

did say I was wearing my kicking boots today, so y'all watch out.

But anyway, one of the things that makes it hard is when they talk

about these principles and concepts and I don't know what they're talking about, and

I don't know who they are, and I'm not sure that I even trust

them, So as we get started, I want to tell you a little

bit about me. My parents were divorced very early. I was the third

child for my mom by the age of nineteen, by three different men.

My mom is a recreational is currently a recreational drug user, and an alcoholic.

God has done just miraculous work in our relationship. But the environment that

I grew up in lent itself to a lot of chaos, as you can

imagine when someone is a drug user and alcoholics. So we move from place

to place. I never went to the same school for a whole year.

We had men in and out of our lives, and abuse ran rampant in

our house. I feel like that's such an understatement. We live now in

you know, twenty twenty three, and it's I feel like, just a

lot more hidden, you know. But abuse was I didn't know any different,

y'all know what I mean by that, Like I didn't know that people

didn't get yelled and screamed at for no reason, or things thrown at them,

or beatings for answering the phone the wrong way or whatever. I just

thought everybody's life was like that until one day at school they called us in

and this was really awesome. Took our clothes off and looked at us and

said, oh my gosh, we're going to take you away. We're going

to call CPS. So we had this encounter with CPS. And this was

in nineteen eighty. I'm forty eight, so I was born in nineteen seventy

five. This was in nineteen eighty while I was in kindergarten, and CPS

was a little different back then. So they said to tell you, what,

if you will move, you can keep the kids and we won't remove

them. On one hand, that was really great. We you know,

we were not put into the system. But on the other hand, it

lent itself to just continued patterns of behavior. Makes sense. So I became

I was sensitive. I was a seer and a feeler. I didn't know

what that meant. I just knew I could walk in a room and I

knew who to avoid and when I could feel it, you know, and

I would be like, Mom, please don't make me go to so and

so's housh. You know. So I just began to hide. I figured

out that if you stayed really quiet and you hid, less bad things happened,

right, so it began to hide. But God had given me this

voice in case you can't tell I'm an extrovert, and so hiding for me

was a little difficult, but it also brought safety. So began to make

these intervals and these things about I just won't speak or I just won't do

this, and then I'll be safe. Fast forward and I become a teenager,

and now I'm in a little bit better environment. My mom has been

with the same person for a while, but I am as wild as they

come. You can imagine that if you drank and smoked weed with your mom

from the time that you were about twelve, that you would probably be a

little bit of a wife child. We lived in a small town similar to

Kurville called Princeton, Texas. I had moved out there to have a sense

of safety and comfort, and I was the the wild one at school,

so it was kind of weird. I lived in both worlds, and the

whole point of my testimony today is I wanted to get to this point right

here. On one hand, I was the mascot and I was in with

that group, the in crowd, and then on the other hand, I

was in with the we're gonna party, We're gonna do all the kind of

crazy things, you know, walking home at five am through fields after partying

all night kind of thing. So I ended up being the place where people

would come when they wanted to do bad things. My mom was a bartender,

she was never home, so our house became that way. And I

learned something. Do you want to hear what I learned? You can look

one way on the outside, but you can be a totally different person on

the inside, and you can try people, and you can trick yourself.

You can lie to yourself and say it's really not that bad. I really

just want to have some fun. It's really gonna be okay, And so

you can live a double life. Right, So fast forward, I end

up getting pregnant, and I, you know, am the mascot, which

is far more important than a child's life at that time to me. Can

you believe that those were the thoughts that I had? But my mom said,

if you don't get an abortion, I'm gonna kick you out. You

cannot live here and have a baby. So I have an abortion and go

into this place of deep depression. Somehow God begins to speak to me and

all of that, and I understand that he's real, but now I feel

like I've disappointed him. Do y'all know what I mean? Because I've been

living this double life, right and now I've done this thing and there wasn't

any authentic goodness about my behavior. This external stuff was just a show.

So I was feeling very ugly on the inside. I had some complications with

the abortion, went to the doctor, thought that I might not ever be

able to have children again, and thought, you know what, I'm getting

exactly what I deserve. Have any of you ever had that thought about something

I did, all these bad things, I'm getting exactly what I deserve.

And then that made me angry at God. Well, you know what you

suck? If you do sorry, if you if you do exist, then

you punish, and you're not very kind, And why would I want to

have anything to do with you anyway? Plus I feel like I have to

pretend to be accepted by people who claim to love you. So I'm pretty

peace out on this, and then proceeded to live that way for quite a

while. Met my husband at Happy Hour at nineteen. He had grown up

in a Christian home. Uh huh, he'd grown up in a religious home,

let me say it that way. And then he comes in and there

was no religion about me, and so he was like, whoa, this

could be really fun. Yes, And so I was determined to enlighten him.

He just did not know how dumb he was to be a Christian.

But don't you worry. I'm very intelligent. So I will enlighten you.

So he was already a believer, began to really talk about the things of

the Lord, and y'all, I could out argue any person at that time.

You know. So we end up getting married, and we have this,

we move away. I am trying to fast forward this, but we

have this Bible study. He asked me to go. I go, oh

yeah, I'll go to your Bible study and I'll prove them wrong. These

poor people, y'all would prepare. I don't know how long they would prepare

for, but I would prepare also, and I would come in and I

was ready. I was ready to hammer them. I was ready to tear

a part their theology. I was ready to convince them that they were all

dumb. Here is the part, the worst part. Are you ready.

It was not hard to do it. Was not difficult to tear apart their

theology, and it was not difficult to make them doubt the goodness of God.

Because once we get saved, something happens to a lot of us and

we get stuck and we go Man, I was living this kind of wild

and crazy life and then God shows up and boom, Now I'm saved and

I'm done. That is awesome. Do y'all know what I'm talking about?

We go to church on a Sunday morning, we hear these incredible worship songs,

We get moved, we get wiped out in that moment for that five

minutes, and then we're like, are we going for barbecue or steak for

lunch? Like which one? I'm not beating us up. I'm saying I

have done the same exact thing. We come in. We're looking for an

experience. We're looking for an encounter so that we can fill up enough to

go out for only probably five more minutes. Because y'all don't lie. Some

of y'all have left this parking lot and gotten into a huge fight with your

spouse, or gone and treated someone really poorly at the restaurant or whatever.

Right, what is that? What is that? I go right back to

that high school moment. That's us looking good on the outside. It's us

checking our religious boxes. We're even moved by the power of God sometimes in

the moment, but something's not changing. Where are we at in our sanctification

process? And that is the question. So obviously you can tell. I

did end up accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. Took nine months, Thank

you, thank you. I ended up miscarrying and thought, I really do

need to figure out how I feel about the Lord. You know, I

told you I'd had to the abortion, so I felt like the miscarriage kind

of I deserved it, and then I just wanted to discover. So we

ended up going to church. Got baptized when I was nine months pregnant or

eight months pregnant. Took me. It was literally a never mind, I

was gonna say something mean about myself. It was very large and in charge,

and the baptismal is what I'm saying, you know, it was like

a flotation device in there so anyway, but when I got saved, something

very interesting happened. It was the same thing. I just started checking boxes.

I was passionate for the Lord. I felt like I had been completely

redeemed. I knew that something was different. But now I was super intrigued

by the rules of Christianity. Oh this is super fun. I've had no

rules, I've had no boundaries. I'm gonna check all the boxes. So

you just give me the list of things to do and I'll do it.

I went around, I knocked on people's doors and did something called evangelism explosion

and may of y'all ever heard of that, don't do it? Okay,

sorry, I love you whoever created that program, but there should be some

discipleship with it, you know. But I was so on fire. I

would knock on the door and I would be like, you're really awful and

terrible and bad, but Jesus, and they would be like, oh,

okay, Jesus, you know. And then I'd be like, deuces,

you're on your own, you know. So began to do that. I

got pregnant again. We're knocking on doors. I am trying to have a

quiet time. I've got my whole Like I prayed and what was this yield

or pray one of those acronyms, y'all know what I'm talking about. Like

I was very spiritual, you know, I had all the things lined up

and how I was going to encounter God. Y'all know what I'm talking about.

I'm gonna go after you, God. I mean, forget the fact

that you're holy or good or righteous or desire a relationship with me. This

is my job. I'm in charge. Famous last word, right, So

fast forward. We have our second son. A lot of you know this

part of our story. When he was fifteen months old, he died in

a drowning accident. Worst thing that has ever happened to me. Obviously,

darkest, darkest night of the soul. But in that moment, I was

at a crossroads and I just realized, like, who is this God?

This is hard, this is really difficult. They were not playing church anymore.

I can't just check a box and feel good. This is very wrong

and I don't understand. And I need to know. I need to know

this God that I'm serving, and is he good? Does he care about

me? Why did this happen? I have been checking the boxes. I'm

so good at this thing. Lord, what is up with this? I

remember saying to Casey one morning, I'm at a crossroads. I see it

like I literally see it in the spirit and if I go left, I'll

never come back ever. But if I go right, there is life and

life abundantly and I don't know what it looks like. And I don't even

know if I believe. Do you know what I'm saying like that? Do

I really believe that it can happen? I don't know, but the word

says it can. And so people hate it when I say this, but

I don't care. I was like, I will fake it until I make

it, but not on the outside. On the inside, I will choose

to believe and receive the truth of God's word even if I don't feel it,

and I'll do it until I do feel it, and we'll get there.

And that began my actual journey with the Lord. That began the moment

that I was truly redeemed, that I truly was in relationship with him,

that I truly knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was way

bigger than I could ever imagine or understand, and that he was pursuing me,

that I didn't have to check a box, that he was faithful and

true. But for someone who had been fake on the outside, what does

that look like? How do we do this thing called sanctification. How do

we really walk with the Lord in authenticity? How do we get gut level

honest with him? How do we say this is awful and I don't understand

and hear from him? Are any of you in a place this morning where

you might need to hear from him, where you want to get gut level

honest, where you're done with the whole thing on the outside. I literally

just want you to unzip it and take it off and be real and authentic

and raw with him because he created you and he loves you, and that's

the desire of his heart. So I'm gonna get to the actual message.

Now, are you all ready? All right? Get for y'all? See

why I need a microphone because I get off you know? All right?

So how did we do it? And how do we continue to walk through

life in this place of victory? Where did how do we get from there

to being on this I'm gonna sit for a moment because I lest you think

that I'm being prideful? How did I get from there to being able to

sit right here with you and your home and your community, to be able

to talk about what this looks like? Yield that's how we got here.

That's the word for today. Yield. I started to live a yielded life.

And let me just tell you, there is no bigger challenge than living

a yielded life because we come from these backgrounds of hurt and pain and brokenness,

and our response says, I never want to feel that way again.

I never want to go there again. I'll do anything to protect myself and

to stay safe. We make these vows about protection, and it hardens our

hearts. It takes these little pieces of our hearts. There's are you all

familiar with John Sandford? Anybody know who that is, sort of the father

of inner healing, right prophetic movement. Amazing man. But he says that

there are these parts of our hearts that are left unredeemed and unsaved because we're

protecting them. I'm so afraid to be yielded because it might be painful.

I'm so afraid to forgive because it might mean that I'm accepting what this person

has done. I'm afraid. But God can take your fear and he can

minister to those places in your heart. And not only can he, but

that's the desire of his heart. He says I'm so proud of you for

giving me the parts that you have, but let's just move those out of

the way. I want that part. I want that piece that you don't

want to give me out of fear. The word says that we work out

our salvation with what fear and trembling. That is very real fear and trembling.

In John Tinton, Jesus tells us that he came to give us life

and give it abundantly. I've heard this verse misquoted, misused, mistreated so

many times. I've seen it on the you know, don't be offended if

this is you, Okay, maybe I won't say that. I'm gonna say

it. I've seen it on you know, the border to a ranch of

a million acres kind of thing. I've seen it. You know what I'm

saying. But when you read that verse, it means abundant peace, abundant

joy, abundant love, abundant forgiveness. When's the last time that you thought

about having abundant forgiveness that you would walk out in such a way that you

would have no expectations of the other people. Because forgiveness isn't saying I forgive

you, I release you. It's literally saying I lay down every expectation at

the foot of the cross. I completely give you over to the Lord.

Whatever he has for you is what he has for you. But I release

you and I bless you. It transforms relationships. So I told you all

that my mom is an alcoholic and a drug user. Y'all. Can you

see the smile on my face? Though? When I talk about her,

I went through years of just so much anger for her. How could you?

How could you let people do that to us? How could we How

could you let us be abused? How could you let people do things to

your babies and stand by she was pimped out for drugs and we had to

sit in the car. How could you do that? How could you take

us to those places? I was so angry. It was much more angry

when I became a Christian. Actually, isn't that funny? Because suddenly I

was like, I'm so holy and you're so not you know, and I'm

going to make sure that you know all the ways that you're not. And

the Lord came you guys. I did this fast for forty days. I

tease all the time, and I say it was on day thirty eight before

he could break through because my heart was so hardened to her. But I

knew I was supposed to. Y'all know what I'm talking about, right?

What is you're supposed to this morning? I'm supposed to forgive. I'm supposed

to be kind, I'm supposed to have joy, I'm supposed to have peace.

I'm not supposed to have anxiety. All the shoulds, right, Well,

that was mine in that moment. I'm supposed to forgive, but I

cannot do it. I cannot do it. I think I can, And

then she comes home and she's like, here's my lesbian friend. And it's

just that it's convenient. And I'm like, I don't know what to do

with you because I don't know how to engage where you're at, Like I

don't want to walk in condemnation, but I don't know how to love you

either. And I have all these expectations of you. What do I do

with that? How can I really love? And the Lord breaks in you,

guys, and this is the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit comes and the Lord prompts me and says, ask me to see her

the way that I see her. Ask me, and you know, what

I say. I don't want to. I don't want to feel sorry for

her. She's done all these bad things to me. I don't want to

have pity for her. Get real. That is my point. I'm not

gonna stand up here and tell you that it was easy. I'm gonna stand

up here and tell you that I argued with the Lord. I don't want

to. It's hard, it's painful. I might see things that are hard

and painful, but I'll do it. I'll yield. I will yield in

this moment because what I know about the word and about you and your truth

and your character is bigger than this. I know it, and I want

it. But I'm gonna need you to help me, So I yield.

I asked to see her, and I see her. You, guys,

I get this visual of her, and she's just she's wrapped in chains.

And the Lord has a sense of humor and of y'all know he's funny,

right, He's like, Hey, remember that crossroads you were at? Remember

that one where you were like, this is so painful and hard, and

I'm out of the crossroads. Well, he shows me that she's been at

the crossroad, but she chose to go left. She went the way of

destruction, and for her, in that moment, there was no coming back.

And when he showed that to me, I realized it could have been

me. She just made the other choice, and it broke me open,

and forgiveness came. And then all these expectations of what she should and shouldn't

do, and who she should and shouldn't be, and all of that stuff.

And I'm not talking about, you know, smoking weed with me and

the kids in the car. Obviously there are boundaries and all of those things.

So I'm not talking about permission for harmful things, but I am talking

about it just never occurred to her to do that anymore. I don't know

how to explain it, but when you authentically love someone, they can feel

it, they can see it, and suddenly, the way that you feel

authentically loved by the Lord, you begin and to become that for them.

Right So we are Jesus for the world until they meet him. And so

as I began to authentically love her, she began to change. You guys,

I can't tell you where she's at in her process, but I can

tell you that she says to me, I thank God for you. I'm

like what you have this relationship with the Lord. She wrote me a card

the other day. I got it in the mail. I keep it in

my Bible, and it said, I'm pretty sure you're an angel. We

won't talk about theology, but I feel like God gave me an angel in

you. I just am so overwhelmed by who you are. Don't hear this

to be about me, you guys, this has nothing to do with me.

I'm just the person in her life who says God has changed me and

he can change you too. And if it's for me, it's for you.

Right. Why sanctification? What is sanctification yielding? It's yielding, all

right? So are you willing to yield as we finish this up? I

want you to think to yourself, Okay, let me encourage this. If

your leaders came before the Throne of God this week and said I'm willing to

yield, do you think it could be a possibility that you might have some

things to also yield, That you might not be perfect? And I don't

say that with tongue in cheek. It's just that sometimes we can come into

something like this and we can think, no, I'm pretty good, I'm

in a good spot. I mean, I feel like I've forgiven, and

I don't. I'm not really that angry. And I go to Wendy's and

I smile at the lady. You know. So I think I'm doing pretty

good. I didn't beat my kids today, all of those things, right,

But God has so much more and he wants to take you deeper.

So if you're sitting here thinking not me, this isn't for me, stop,

it is for you. Would you be willing to yield? Lord?

Lords, y'all sit it with me. Lord, I'm yielding to you today.

Whatever you have for me is exactly what I want. Amen. Okay.

So at the beginning of our Christian lives, do y'all ever? So

when I first became a Christian, people would talk about stuff and I would

be like, why they got to use vocabulary I've never even heard of before?

Why do they do that? What are they trying to prove? Right

now? You know, I hold on, let me get my dictionary.

You know, this was before we had cell phones, right you know?

Now, when they say crazy things, I'm like, Google, what does

it mean about third Heaven? Portal? Blah blah, you know whatever.

I'm just kidding Justin. No, I'm kidding. I'm teasing. I'm teasing.

I love Justin and Lisa's so much. We have laughed this week,

we have cried. We've cried a lot this week. We've prayed for you

all this week. They are amazing leaders. They're a gift, all right.

So at the beginning of our Christian lives, we experienced something called regeneration.

Okay. Regeneration is the act of God. That is where He comes

in and he offers new spiritual life to us. It's exactly like what you

think about with a butterfly or something like that. Right, it's regeneration.

It's I'm going to give you something new so that you are born again into

a new creation. Okay. And then we respond to that. You're all

sitting here hopefully maybe not, maybe you're not saved. We'll talk about that,

but we respond to that, and then we experience our conversion. Okay,

So we're converted. And what that means is we were this way,

we were living toward death, and now we are living to life and as

Christ in us. Right, So we now are converted. It literally means

a turning. And then in that moment, something really beautiful happens, and

we become justified. Okay, we become justified, and that means that we're

legally forgiven by God. So we have this encounter, there's regeneration, we

respond, we have a conversion moment, we recognize that we're justified. Most

of us hear some sort of gospel presentation that says Jesus paid it all.

If you were standing before the throne of God. He says, paid in

full. Your debt is gone. Okay, but some and that's justification,

right, So all the shuns regeneration, conversion, justification. But there's a

part, there's something in us that doesn't always get to the next part.

Do you know what the next part is? It is sanctification. But we

can do that because of adoption. Adoption, And that's what I want you

to hear today, is some of us get stuck between justification and adoption.

We're living out here in La La land, saying I'm saved, I'm saved,

I'm saved, But I have no idea who I am. I have

no idea that my father is the creator of the universe, and he's my

father. I'm his son, I am his daughter, I am his beloved.

When we look at our own children, we don't think, well,

we might think you're annoying, but I was gonna say, we think only

sweet things. But when we look at our own children, our hearts are

for them, right, they are ours, y'all. I have a grand

baby. He is he'll be a year old next month, and when he

is absolutely the highlight of my life. Like I'm telling you something, get

through this parenting gig, because the grandparenting stage is so freaking amazing. All

right, So here's what happens. They come and you're like, oh,

I just your mine, Like I love you so much, every part of

you. I just huh okay, and I do that, oh, you

know, squeeze him. But I don't have to worry about your sleep schedule,

your now you're eating schedule. Who's gonna watch you when I go have

my steak dinner tonight? Any of that. So there's some sort of freedom

that comes with it, right, just this beautiful thing. But what happens

with these precious grand babies is they also know they are yours. It's the

most pure love I have ever experienced. So he is not quite a year

yet. He can't speak, but he wants me to know that I love

him and that he loves me. Will you come up and be my demonstrator.

I want y'all to see. This is going to make you uncomfortable.

Okay, now I want you to see how uncomfortable I'm gonna make you.

But you need to see what he does to me. Okay. He grabs

my cheeks and he goes like this, and it's forehead to forehead because he

in that moment, he wants me to know I am yours and you are

mine. Right, that's our God, I am yours and you are mine.

Forehead to forehead, breath to breath. He breathes his very life into

us. Right, I am yours and you are mine. Why Why are

you walking around not knowing that I haven't just saved you? Although that would

be enough, right If he saved you, your eternal salvation was secure and

that's all he did. Wouldn't that be enough? Thank you God for saving

us? But it's not. He saves us with a purpose because the desire

of his heart is I am yours and you are mine. I am yours

and you are mine? Are you getting it? Say that to him?

I am yours and you are mine? And That's why this sanctification process means

anything. Who cares what you look like on the outside? Who cares?

I don't care if you still cuss. I dropped one or two this week.

Okay, I don't care if you still struggle with this or that.

I don't care. What I care about is, but are you being transformed

from the inside out? Because the love of the Father overwhelmed you because you're

so known, You're so totally known and accepted and loved that you can't help

but respond that you can't help but be moved and drawn and attached forehead to

forehead. I am yours and you are mine, And whatever you want,

I say yes, I say yes. The rest of that stuff will come.

I don't know if I'll ever not cuss. I mean, I'm just

saying I don't know, because I don't want to have a thing that makes

me okay, I don't want to have a thing that makes me acceptable.

I want to know that I'm walking in relationship with the Lord. I'm not

talking about a lack of holiness. Don't y'all don't come and like come at

me afterwards, okay and talk to me about y'all, just don't do that,

all right, I have my boots on. No, I'm just kidding.

I'm not talking about a lack of holiness at all. But what I'm

saying is, are you doing the things that you're doing because you're being drawn

in by the Father and because your heart is exploding from that place? Okay,

all right, don't get stuck there. Let me give you a couple

of verses to go with this. Romans eight thirty. Whom he predestined,

these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and

whom he justified, these he also glorified. Why I am yours and you

are mine. And when you know that and you walk in that place of

adoption, you bring glory to the Father. People who don't know the Lord

say things to you like, I think you're an angel right now, because

you're perfect in any way. But there's something that you have that they want,

and it brings glory to him. John one, verse twelve says,

but as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become

children of God to those who believe in his name. You have the right

to be his child. It's yours. You don't have to earn it.

You don't have to be good enough. Right. He doesn't break off relationship

with you today because you've disappointed him. It doesn't work like that. You

are his. You are his and he is yours, and he's in a

loving relationship with you. He brings correction when we need it. Y'all know

what I'm talking about. Had a moment probably about six months ago. I

was sitting on the bed and I was reading in Revelation, and I just

I got so hit in this corrective moment by the Lord about people being his.

I was judging. I know, y'all don't ever do that, right,

you know, well, if they would just listen to me, cause

I know what to do, blah blah blah blah. Right, And i

got hit in this loving correction. But I'm yielded and so it doesn't feel

like a bad thing. It feels actually really good. And I'm so thankful

for it because it changes me into His image. Romans eight, verses fourteen

through seventeen. For as many are as led by the spirit of God,

these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage

to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out

Abbah Father, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children

of God. Are you not feeling this morning like a child of God?

Are you saying? I hear you, and I think it sounds really awesome,

But I don't feel that way. If that's you, The Spirit bears

witness to that. So let's ask him, Holy Spirit, would you bear

witness to me right now I'm adopted that I am a child of God,

and would you just receive His love for you? Receive it? Listen.

I don't know if y'all know this, but it's all of our first time

on earth. It is our parents, our grandparents, us, it's our

first time. We're not experts, right. We spend the rest of our

lives trying to walk out in this truth right here that I'm talking about.

I don't know anybody who has it all together. We want to live like

children of God, with this pureness of heart, with this desire to be

with Him. This is the real application of the Gospel. This is it.

This is the journey with Him. This is what you wake up for

day today today. I think amazing moments. I think when you come here

and you get hit with the power of God, or you have an encounter

or an experience or whatever, are incredible, but don't miss out on the

day to day that His desire is to know you, is to be with

you, is to encounter you in the secret place. Is to draw you

near, is to put his forehead with yours. Is to say I am

yours and you are mine. And that's intimate. That's intimate. This is

extra. That is the juice, right, that's the stuff. A great

message isn't gonna change your life. I'd like to say that it is right

now. I'd like to say that I have the best message you've heard all

year, and you're gonna leave here and be transformed. It doesn't work like

that. It just doesn't work like that. Being in a great church isn't

going to change your life. I'd like to say that coming here every Sunday

and worshiping together and all of that is going to change your life. These

are things that the Lord uses. But what is going to change your life

is none of this external stuff. I know that I'm beating a dead horse,

but I want you to hear it like I want when I leave here,

I want you to go. I don't even remember her name. But

what happened for me that day is that I recognize how intimate the Lord is,

how much he loves me, and the desire of his heart to be

in relationship with me, and that all that other stuff is amazing, But

it's just the extra He He is what I'm after. Here's the good news.

You don't have to strive. You don't have to check the boxes and

have your prayer journal out and do your acronyms like that. It's time.

That's what you need is time. You need time in the secret place with

Him. You need time and his word. You need time where you approach

the throne of God and you say, I'm going to open up today to

Psalm's Lord and I want to be with you. I want to encounter you

right here, right now, and I'm making space and I'm making room.

What do you want me to know about you? I know that you know

this. But if we talk on the phone and I do all the talking,

that's not really a relationship. Right If whenever we do talk, I

only tell you all about me, that's not really a relationship. You'll know

a lot about me, But well, I know very much about you.

No, get to know this God, the one who says I am yours

and you are mine. Get to know him. Whose are you? If

you're an adopted son or daughter of the king, who is the king?

What privileges come with that? And I'm not talking about stuff. I'm talking

about freedom, authority, anointing, All of the things. Being who you

are, who you were created to be, comes in that place of knowing

Him. So when you show up and you hear a good sermon, or

you listen to a podcast, or you watch a YouTube video, again,

that's all extra that is not getting to know Him. Don't lie to yourselves

and say I know God. I took this class on Wednesday, I was

at church on Sunday. I listened to you know this really great podcast and

I watch for youtubes this week. I know God. That's all head knowledge,

that's all cognitive knowledge. Are you encountering and experiencing Him through the Word,

through prayer, through time alone, through the secret Place? None of

this is in my notes? Is that not hilarious? So let me figure

out where I am? Okay, So here we go. How what is

that accomplished by God the Father? Go read Jude one. You want to

see how that's accomplished. It's by God the Father, by God the Son

Hebrews two eleven, by the Holy Spirit. Go read all of Romans.

Okay, that's your task there, all of Romans, and by the word

of God. John seventeen seventeen says, sanctify them by your truth. Your

word is truth. When I first became a Christian, I did not know

how to have quiet time. I asked everybody, how do you know the

Word? How do you know the Lord? What do you do in your

quiet time? I was so hungry and again I wanted to check the box

right. And it took me a long time to come to this place where

I where I figured out, so to speak, how to encounter the Lord

in the Word. And so now what I do is I go really slow.

I'm actually doing a mentorship group right now. And I kind of giggled

because I wrote this week and we got through Are you ready? One verse

for the whole week? One verse in Philip for the whole week? Because

there's so much meat, there's so much meat? Why why go fast?

Why why do we have to have five songs in a proverb? Every day?

Right? Freedom? God's like I want to encounter. You come,

spend time in this verse, and let's see what happens in your heart.

Let's see what's stirred up. Let's see what you can lay before me.

Let's see what yieldedness looks like. You know what the verse was this week,

Philippians one, verse twenty, where he says, I have a hopeful

expectation. I get so excited about hopeful expectation. Right, y'all, I'm

going to preach another sermon after this one, okay about hopeful expectation. No,

I won't. Maybe we'll see. But what I love about the word

is that you're not called to perfection. You don't have to come clean and

pure and ready with your little boxes. You just come and you just yield.

That's what you do. So I feel like you're at your own crossroads

right now today. I hope that you're at a crossroads today. I hope

that you came in and said, WHOA, I want to be different.

I have a choice today. I have a choice to continue in patterns,

in the things that make me feel good on the outside, or I have

a choice to be sold out, sold out to what he has for me

and what he wants to do in me because nothing else is really important.

I don't think we're going to get to the end of their life in our

lives and think I wish I would have done one more crunch. I'm not.

I can tell you I wish I would have run one more mile.

Nope, not me, not me. But I do think we'll get to

the end of our lives and say, do I know him? Am I

sure? Not out of fear. But have I spent any time knowing the

father? That's far more important. I am with you. I have every

excuse in the world not to do it. I gotta get this done.

I gotta get my workout in, I gotta get dinner prepped before I go

to the office. I gotta get the We've been selling our house. You

guys, y'all know what you have to do to have people come in and

look at your personal bedroom. It's so weird, right, So I gotta

make my bed every day and wipe everything down and all of that. But

does it keep me from being with the father? Because if it does,

who cares? Right? Who cares? I'm not trying to be little the

things that we have in our life. I'm just trying to get us all

to get to this place where we go, Oh my gosh, you're right.

I just put all the things of the world in front of it.

If morning is not your time, it's not always my time. I love

to do it at night. I know this is gonna shock y'all, but

you can binge Netflix anytime, anytime. Those shows will still be there.

Have you spent time with him first? Not in a legalistic way, but

he's calling you, He's drawing you. He wants to be with you.

He wants to put his head to yours and say I am yours and you

are mine. Are you responding to it? Okay, enough about that?

What does it look like to yield? God speaks through the Holy Spirit,

through the Bible, the Word, through prayer, through circumstances, through the

Church. He speaks in many ways. Are we listening to that? And

he pursues a continuing love relationship with you? Here's the deal. Those unredeemed

parts of our hearts are our wounds. There are hurts and our hang ups.

So if you feel like don't, you don't have to raise your hand.

But have any of you felt like I hear what you're saying, but

I've done all that, and I still just don't feel like I am that

close to the Lord. If that is the case, there's some stuff,

maybe some inner vows or some lies that you've been believing that need to be

rooted out. And that's where prayer ministry comes in. The point of prayer

ministry isn't so we can look at our belly buttons and go what to me?

What a mean? What a me? And we're not chasing fruits so

you can be a better person on the outside. The point of prayer ministry

is to say, what's getting between you and Jesus, what's getting in the

way from you, not from him? Let's remove it. Doesn't that sound

like freedom? Yes? Amen, God is inviting you. He's inviting you

today into a deeper level of His presence, And so wain, would you

come up and just play keys? And I would love to just allow some

space for that. I have no idea what time we were supposed to end.

I forgot to ask, are we good? Do we have a few

minutes to do this? Okay? All right? So if you would be

willing, whoever is on lights, would you dim the lights? Can we

I'm super bossy today? Like it would be great if you ask these things

ahead of time. Huh, there we go. Thank you all right.

So, if you would be willing just close your eyes, would you just

take a deep breath in, bring your bodies just to submission. Holy Spirit,

we invite you into this intimate place of our hearts right now. Would

you invite him in? Come? Lord, Come and God? Would you

take inventory? Would you show me the areas that have not yielded to you?

Hello, God, to speak to you. Sometimes it's a picture,

or it's words, or it's a feeling. But Lord, I want to

tune in. God. I thank you for showing me this. I recognize

that I'm at a crossroads in this particular situation today, and I want to

yield it to you and just tell him what you're afraid of? What's kept

you from yielding this to him? What are you afraid of? Lay it

at his feet? Jesus, I give you this fear. Would you be

willing to literally say, whisper it so your neighbors don't hear what you are

going to give him, what you're willing to give him, To yield to

him right now, Jesus, I yield, and I don't have it all

together, and I don't know the right answers. But you do, God,

you do. Lord, You're trustworthy. If you need to yield your

marriage to him today, would you be willing to do so? Lord,

I yield my marriage to you. Do the work in me, God,

do the work in me. I yield to you. I yield my singleness.

I yield the desires of my heart. I yield my hope deferred.

I yield. I yield my unforgiveness to you God. OR been hurt and

have been hanging on and it's kept me from you. God. I forgive.

I forgive. Lord, I thank you. I'm asking for a divine

exchange Lord, these things that I've yielded to you, God, completely trusting

you. Would you let us leave here with hope today? Thank you for

listening. For more messages and other resources, please subscribe to this podcast or

go to our website at www dot Cross Kingdom dot org