Disrupt The Cycle // Triggered (Part 7) // Will Heckenbach

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life. Do today's message?

I want to just jump straight in to the Word

this morning.

Can we do that? We're gonna jump straight in the Word.

So I need you to pull out your Bibles if

you have them, okay, because we're gonna spend a little

bit of time talking about a guy named Elijah. Okay,

we're gonna talk about Elijah. And here's a funny fact. Again,

we'll be hot. I'm gonna be telling on myself all sermon.

Is that cool? Can I just telling myself? Keap? I

have always been intimidated about preaching about Elijah because of

Ali Shuh. Okay, now if you don't know, there's an

Elijah and there's a lie Shuh. And I never wanted

to preach about it because I was like, I just

feel like I start to sound silly and I forget

who's Elijah and Suh and I put an emphasis on

the Shah and I just get all lot confused. I'm like,

I'm just not touching I'm not doing it. I'm not

gonna appreciate. But guess what, today we're talking about Elijah.

And we don't even have to talk about Elijah today. Okay,

I want you, Alif shuh see, I'm doing it already.

Get in First Kings and read about him. But today

we are specifically talking about Elijah. All right, if you

got your Bibles, go ahead and open up to First

Kings nineteen is where we're going to be hanging out

for a second. First Kings nineteen three through four. Elijah

was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Bethsheba,

in a town in Judah, and he left his servant there.

Then he went on a loan into the wilderness, traveling

all day. He sat down under a solitary broometree and

he prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord,

he said, take my life. I am no better than

my ancestors who have already died. God used this portion

of scripture. Use this word to speak to your people.

I love you to the mighty imagies. We pray a man.

Now we have now entered into this scene with Elijah,

where he is done. He's thrown in the towel He

is giving up. He's saying, God, I don't want to

live anymore. And if you know anything about Elijah, I.

Started asking, how in the world did we get here, Elijah,

how did we get to a place where if you

look before the scripture, we saw God do some amazing

works through Elijah's flexed his power on her buddy. Okay,

God showed off through Elijah. But yet we come into

the scene right here seeing that Elijah is running away,

he's retreating, he's alone, and he doesn't want to live anymore.

We saw God answer Elijah's prayer over and over and over.

There was a moment where Elijah prayed in fire came

down from heaven and completely destroyed the altar of bail

down to the water and it literally took all the

water completely evaporated up gone power fire from heaven. God

even gave Elijah the victory over four hundred and fifty people,

gave him some sort of super strength. If you don't

believe me, listen, he also gave Elijah a superpower. I

don't know about you. If you know Flash from the

I think it's DC comics. You know, I'm a marble

guy myself. But we got flashed. Okay, literally, there's a

portion of scripture where it says that God gave him

some sort of super speed. The people left, the chariots

went ahead of Elijah, yet God gave him the ability

to have speed to beat them all back. He tucked

in his cloak and he took off running. I almost did,

but these shoes would have come off. However, we're not

gonna do that right now. But I'm saying, but isn't

this crazy? He gave him a superpower. I don't know

about you. What superpower would you want if God was

to give you a super I feel like I want

need to fly. Anybody you don't want to fly? And

hear anybody in the room you want to fly? Okay, cool?

I don't know, Lord, No, Okay. We see God move

in a mighty way through Elijah, like you can't all

the things, and I'm not even listening off everything. Yet

we come in and we see that he wants to

give up. So I ask, what happened? How did we

get here?

Let's read Chapter nineteen, First Kings nineteen, just two verses before,

so we can see what happened.

How we went from power of God to I don't

want to live anymore. When Ahab got home, he told

Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had

killed all the prophets of bail. Hey, it was a

little snitch man. He went home and told Jezebel, oh,

that's crazy. So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah. May

the gods strike me and even kill me if by

this time tomorrow I have not killed you, just as

you have killed them. God moved in this mighty way,

showed off through Elijah. Elijah got super speed fire, came

down from heaven and one message, one message from this person,

and he completely was undone. He completely crashed out. One message,

can we make it real in today's terms? One text message,

one post that they saw on Instagram feed, one song lyric,

one bad dream, one smell, and then we see Elijah

completely crash out. I don't know if we're being honest

and in my hope and desire for us throughout this series,

and we're on week seven, it's so important that we

start to identify what these triggers are. It's important to

identify what is that one message for you? What is

that one thing for you? This is important It would

be such a shame to get out of this whole

series and not even evaluate the things that you're struggling with,

the things that send you to that moment of wanting

to give up. I want to challenge us and encourage

us to keep asking that question what is it for me?

Because what happens and what I want to introduce to

you guys today is we enter what I'm calling the

crash out cycle. Okay, we're entering the crash anybody have

a crash out before? Can we just acknowledge? Can we

anybody have a crash out? Okay? Almost every hand is up.

If your hand's not up, you've definitely crashed out. Okay,

you might be you more right now? I don't know,

But I want to introduce this idea of the crash

out cycle in what I feel like, when we look

at Elijah, what is happening here? When we look at

our lives, what is happening? Okay? The first thing that

happens in the crash out cycle is a spark. Okay,

the first thing that happens in the crash out cycle

is a spark. Now, the spark, it could be something big,

it could be something small, but What is happening is

the spark. It ignites some sort of emotion in you. Okay,

it ignites a response, whether that be from fear. You

enter into this moment of I don't know whether it

is a message, whether it's a post, whether it is

the smell, whether it is the song, whether it is

whatever that is, whether there's the person. It is a

spark that ignites an emotional response.

And then what we see happen as we go into

this thing where I'm calling the surge.

This is where you start getting flooded with anxiety and

emotions start going wild, and and you begin to start

to think things, and you begin to get into this

what I see the fight or flight.

Anybody ever been there before, where you have a decision

to make. It's either we're gonna fight or we're gonna run.

What happens is you have the spark or the trigger.

There's something that triggers that emotion, and then we go

into this moment of the surge, that anxiety flares up,

You start to make bad decisions, you start to not

be thinking clearly, and then what ultimately the surge leads

to is a spiral. We see ourselves entering into now

what I'm calling the spiral. Thoughts start racing. I can't

do this anymore. Thoughts just start racing through your mind

things that are true, and you start to doubt, and

you start to question, can anybody else just think about

the things in your life? Okay, let me ask you this.

You've ever been on the teacup ride or one of

those things, the things that go spin, spin, spinspin, spinning,

put you a spiral. I do not like those. I

have retired from those rides. I told my kids man,

when we went to the fair, they said, Daddy, can

we go? But no, ask your mama. She's gonna go

on with you. I can't do it, because what happens

in the spiral, when you're turning and you're spinning, you

get so discombobulated. You don't know what's up, you don't

know what's down. And that's what happens when you have

this spark, you have this trigger, your surge filled with emotions,

and then you start to spiral. You don't start to

think clearly. You start to make compromising decisions, just like that.

I'm telling you, when I think of that ride, when

I am done after that thing, I'm like, hold up,

I cannot. I don't know what has happened. I feel sick.

But that's what happens these things. You start to race

through our minds and we're just not clear, and then

happens from there, so we end up at the crash out.

We end up at the crash out. I should have

made a sound effect when that thing did that.

I'm just felt like I needed to make a sound

like we didn't just imagine in your head. Okay, but

this is where we see the results of what has

taken place. We had the spark, we had the surge,

and then we started the spiral, and we crashed out.

This is where we withdraw. This is where we isolate.

This is where we just we check out. We stopped

coming to church, we stopped talking to those friends, we

stop being honest with ourselves. We start we see ourselves

in this moment where we have got.

Ourselves in the crash out cycle.

Now that we have an understanding of what I'm calling

the crash out cycle, I want to look at Elijah's

story now. Okay, because now we've seen Elijah, we've seen

what has happened in One Kings nineteen, I want to

start to see so we can identify this cycle in

his life.

Okay, So we see the spark for Elijah Jezebel's message. Okay,

we see the spark in Elijah's cycle as Jezebel's message. Okay,

saw the power of God did all this amazing things.

And then he got a message. He got a text message,

his phone ding. He looked at it and that was

the spark. Then we see the surge. We see the

surge in Elijah's life. This is where he starts to panic.

He sees the message, he hears the message, and he

starts to panic. He starts to go into this this

flight mode where he's like, I gotta get out of here,

I gotta run, and he runs, he retreats, he isolates,

and then we see the spiral in Elijah's life.

This is where he starts thinking things, I've had enough.

It got so bad that in the spiral for Elijah,

he said, I don't want to live anymore. Take my life, Lord,

And then Elijah there's a series of events there. If

you don't know the story, I wish I had time

to go through and tell you all about it. But

what happens from here is there's a moment where Elijah

is under the broom tree by himself, completely spiraled, and

an angel appears to him and literally just tells him

to sleep and he gives him some food.

Some of y'all, the crash out could be avoided if

you just eat and sleep. Like, there's a reality that man.

The man might have just been hungry, he might just

need some food. Sometimes it's not that deep. Sometimes it's

not that spiritual when we look at it. This Your

spark could be your stomma growlin Like. I'm just there's

a reality and there's a solution to that. Go get

some food. But if you're not familiar, then what happens

from here is Elijah's met with the angel that he

goes on this journey for forty days by himself and

he ends up in a cave. So we see Elijah

enter this crash out cycle and ultimately his crash out

ends him alone in a cave. Church started with one message.

I don't know if you can relate to this, but

maybe for you, you've you've been on this mountaintop in life

and God is moving and you went to V four

conference or you came to a church service, so you

heard the message from last week and you had a

moment at the altar and you're charged up and God

moved and you got this anonymous money in the bank,

or or a bill got paid off for you, or

something took place.

And you're like yes, and then one thing start to

spiral into a crash out when I think of this

spark because I think sometimes we're like, yeah, but it's

just like one little thing. It was. It was one message, Like,

but there's a really there. The spark is powerful, guys.

When I look at forest fires and things that take place,

all that happened is a little spark can take down

an entire forest, can wreak havoc and destruction. So please

do not discount that one thing in your life that

is getting you to a place of in that spiral

it can be. I'm telling you this is why it's

important to identify and be able to know, because one

spark can destroy what God is trying to do in

your life if we don't deal with it, if we

don't submit it to him. But you got to ask

yourself what it is for you. I can't answer that

question for you. You got to find yourself in this and

figure out what is that thing that keeps coming up?

What is that one thing that just keeps coming up

in my life? And every time I know, so that

way you can deal with it.

I'd be honest as a former drug addict, I don't

go and hang around people that are doing drugs.

I don't because I know that that's just a temptation

that I don't even want to be around. Why in

the world would I go towards the edge and hang

out here when I could easily be like, yeah, I

just actually don't go there because I know myself. I've

identified that and I don't want any problems with that anymore. Okay,

I love what God is doing in my life. I

have no desire to be over there. We have to

identify these things because that one spark can take you out,

take you out, and I want to I want to

expose the enemy's plan for a second. The devil wants

you in that crashout cycle. He wants you in the

crash out cycle and not even realize that you're in

the cycle. He wants you so discombobulated and confused and

trapped in this continuation of a cycle, and you never

deal with it. So then years go by in your

life and you're struggling and you're crashing out by the

same thing. The word says it like this in one

Peter five eight, Stay alert, watch out, because your great enemy,

the devil, he prowls around like a roaring lion looking

for someone to devour. He wants us trapped in this

crash out cycle. He wants us being triggered by that stuff.

He wants us to be in the place where we

get so focused on the negative in our life and

continue to spiral that we don't realize it and we

just continue your cycle after cycle after cycle. Why because

he knows you're a threat. You need to know that

we have a very real enemy that has no power,

no authority over us. Likes to try to trick us

in the think he does because you are a threat.

You are a threat. The purpose and the call that

sits on your life is a threat to what he

is trying to do. He wants to steal, he wants

to kill, he wants to destroy. You're a threat. You

need to know that you have somebody that wants you

to fail. You have somebody that wants you to lose.

You're a threat. You're being triggered because you're a threat.

Chesebel wasn't just after Elijah to just kill him. She

knew the impact he had, the influence he had. She

was after that. Can I say something? She didn't even

kill him. She sent a message, and he went and

hid and walked out of his purpose and walked out

of his call. He stopped influencing people. He was literally

at the peak of being one of the most influential

people at that time, and people look to him and

listen to him. But a message sent him to go

into hiding. Elijah was a threat. You are a threat.

Don't get trapped in the cycle, because what happens when

we were crashing out and we get trapped in the

crash out cycle, we get so focused inward that we

lose focus on what is important to God and us

being able to reach His people. That's what the crash

out does. It keeps us so focused inward on what

is wrong, and we just are trapped in this that

we miss the people that God have placed in our

lives to be Jesus, to be able to invite to church.

Can I tell you something practical if and I'm not,

let me just be very real. There are things that

you have to walk in and you have to navigate,

and you do need to go to counseling, and you

do have to have the moment to sit and grieve

in all these I'm not saying that, but what I

am saying is, please just be alert and mindful that

if you would just continue to be in this cycle

of a crash out, you might miss the person at

the grocery store that just needs, desperately needs to come

to church. But because you're so focused inward and trapped

in this cycle, we don't invite them the church. They

don't experience Jesus, and I'm not trying to put that

on all of us. But at the same time, we

are called to go out and make disciples of men.

We are called to go and be representatives of Jesus.

So you want to know what we're gonna do. We're

gonna disrupt the cycle today. What I believe we are

going to do as a church is we are gonna

disrupt the cycle. The very definition of disrupt, drastically alter

and destroy the structure of the enemy has a plan

to come in and keep us trapped in this cycle.

But I believe that today we are gonna destroy that structure.

We are gonna no longer believe the lives that the

enemy has got us to believe. We are gonna focus

on Jesus, and we are gonna see lives transformed, including ourselves.

Disrupt the cycle the title of my message, Disrupt the cycle,

John ten ten. The thief's purpose is to steal, kill,

and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

We might have a real enemy that wants to keep

us trapped in this cycle, but we also have somebody

that is greater, the God, the creator of the universe,

who is for us, that wants us to be out

of this cycle, that wants us to be walking in freedom,

wants us to be delivered.

Wants us to be redeemed, wants us to be able

to not be stuck in this cycle and focus on people.

Be able to be the best husband, the best father,

be able to be the best mother, the best wife,

all these things. God wants us that for us, He

has promised, He wants hope for a future. I don't

want to give the enemy too much credit. Man, he lost,

he loses, like come on, it's over, Like we have

the victory, and yet some of us are trapped in

this cycle, but I believe it. Today we're gonna disrupt

the cycle. How are we gonna do this? How are

we gonna do this? We're gonna look to the ultimate example,

and that is Jesus. I'm not gonna try to make

up something and like, oh hell we do this is now.

We are gonna look at Jesus and we're gonna see

his life and his story and his crashout cycle. Oh

you didn't know Jesus. Listen, Jesus had experience with the

crash out cycles a little bit. Okay, Okay, we're going

with it a couple times. We're gonna focus on one today.

Okay, let's look to Jesus Luke twenty two, forty one

through forty four. What you need to know here is

this is where he is going to the garden a

Yosemite to pray.

He's bringing a.

Couple of disciples with him. They fall asleep, he gets mad.

It's a whole thing. We're not gonna talk about that today.

But he knows that the time is near.

He knows that what he has to do, what he

was born in the call and the purpose and the prophecy,

that's on his life. He's about to go and face

what nobody should have to endure for us. He knows this.

He goes and we find him in verse forty one

Luke twenty two to forty one.

He walked away about a stone's throw and knelt down

and prayed, Father, if you are willing, please take this

cup of suffering away from me, yet I want your

will to be done, not mine. Then the angel from

heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently.

And he was in such agony of spirit that his

sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood. Jesus

had experience with the crash out cycle. Let's let's let's

go through the cycle real quick so we can see this. Okay,

we have this spark. This is that moment. He knew

what was coming. He knew and felt and experienced the

weight of what was happening, the burden that was sitting

on his shoulders. He felt it. He knew the time

is near. And then we look at the surge. Okay,

what's the surge in this in this cycle? Right here?

For Jesus, Jesus feels deep anguish, He feels deep anguish.

His sweat becomes like drops of blood. You can't tell

me that there's not a reaction to what is taking place.

There's this surge that has taken place through his body

and it's physically responding. We see the surge, and then

we see the spiral, this little glimpse of a spiral

where he knows what needs to be done and he's

having this moment. But so he's filled with all these

emotions and thinking about what is taking place. The beautiful

thing about Jesus says he's fully God and fully mad.

He felt when we felt. You can't tell me that

there wasn't this emotion of like, oh my goodness, this

is not gonna be fun. Like there's this reality. So

we see the spiral. This is that moment where he's like, yo, God,

if there's any other way. He's starting to think. He

knows it needs to be done, but yet this thought

comes out of that God, is there any other way?

Please take this cup from me? And then we don't

see Jesus crash out. We don't see Jesus crash out.

What do we see him? Do we see him surrender?

We see Jesus surrender. Yes, he felt the spark. Yes,

there was a surge of all these emotions. Yes there

was some thoughts that he was thinking in the spiral,

but he did not crash out. He came to a

place of surrender. That's how we're gonna disrupt the cycle.

We're gonna disrupt the cycle with surrender. If you write

anything down, write that down. We are gonna disrupt the

cycle with surrender. We're gonna disrupt it. All the things

he was feeling, all the emotions he was feeling, was

disrupted with surrender.

And I can't I get this visual. We see two

totally different scenes. Team, you can go ahead and throw

up the garden in the cave we see, we see.

I wanted to be able to bring two different stories

so that we can see the contrast of these things.

Okay, we see it's pretty dark. Man. Cave is not

looking not looking friendly over here. This is where we

see Elijah's moment.

His crash out cycle ultimately led him to a place

of being in this cave alone.

What we see in Jesus in just in his cycle

and what he does and what I love about this,

here's what I'm gonna say. This is thank you Holy Spirit.

What I want to point out on this side here

is Elijah got to a place where he crashed out.

He had this whole moment, and the Angel came and

found him. It was like, Yo, you need to eat,

you need to drink. Like there's a moment here and

then later on I'll talk about it. But God meets

Elijah here. But what happened over here? Jesus did not

wait crash out and then God come and be like, Yo,

what are you doing? No, Jesus knew when he said

the time was near. When that spark came, he actually

ran over here and retreated and said.

God, I need you.

God. I don't know what to do, like God, I

just I need you to come through in this morning.

And in this moment he knew that he needed to

go spend time with God. The beautiful thing about both

of these is they both end with God meeting them there. Yes, absolutely,

But what if there was a world in which we

actually don't need to have this ending in a cave moment,

lonely and isolated. What happens if with the crash out,

the spark takes place and we are met with surrender

and we come over here and say, God, I can't

do this. I don't know how to raise these kids

by myself. God, I need you. We're going to disrupt

a cycle with surrender. I want to. I was thinking

through and praying through.

Just my story in my life, and I was really

trying to find myself in the crash out cycle. And

let me be honest, I've had many. I had many

crash out cycles, and I still do. Let's just be honest.

There there is reality that there are still moments that

we get stuck in this. But I was thinking in

my life one moment that was really a defining moment

in my life, and I want to show you. I

want to take you through the cycle and I want

I just want to make it real for you. There

was a moment where my spark was I was eighteen

and I got a girl pregnant and I was young,

I was dumb all the stuff, but come be honest,

I was old enough to be a dad. And if

I'm being really honest, I kind of got excited. I

remember finding out and it just it turned from from

fear to excitement.

I was like, dang man, I don't want to be

a dad, Like that's amazing. Started looking at stuff started

thinking baby names, started thinking if it was gonna be

a boy or a girl. And that spark for me

was when I went over to her house and she

sat me down and she said, hey, remember last week.

I said, I went on a retreat with my mom

for a little getaway. She's like, I couldn't tell you,

but I actually went and got an abortion. And that

spark sent a surge of a lot of emotions. Anger, sadness, brokenness, hopelessness.

I was flooded. I wasn't seeing straight. I was so

just broken in this moment. And then I called my

friend and I said, bro, I don't know what I

gotta do. I got to and he said, hey, man,

what if we just get away for a little Let's

let's go to Myrtle Beach. Let's just buy a ticket

and let's get out of here. And so my spiral.

I ran.

I retreated. I didn't go to my friends, I didn't

go to my family. I was so broken that I said, yo,

I just got to get out of here. So I

went and I ran and knew on what I turned to.

My drug use was already bad, but I started even

making it even worse. I started running the spiral had

me thinking thoughts, I don't want to feel anymore. There

was so many emotions and I just didn't want to

feel them anymore, And ultimately that led.

Me to a crash out. My drug use from there

got a lot worse. It wasn't fun party scene doing

my thing type anymore. It was I genuinely just didn't

want to feel anymore.

I ran from everything. I cut off family. I wasn't

the same person anymore. After that. I chose to isolate.

I chose to go sit in the cave by myself.

I didn't run to God. I wish I would have.

Sometimes I think about it, and I'm like, man, what

would it have been if I would have turned to

him and not turned to the bottle, not turned to

the pipe? What would have been? I ask it every

now and then.

But now I'm just so confident in what God has

done in my life and the redemption. I look at

my son aro Jains and my daughter's story snow. When

I see grace, I see mercy, I see it new

in a fresh start.

I see it.

I see it. And now I'm in this place where

every time that spark comes up, it is met directly

with surrender. I'm not perfect with it, but you want

to know something. When that spark hits the first thing

my first thought is, God, I need you. It's gotta

be church, It's gotta be our response. We gotta disrupt

the cycle.

God has something so great for us and in you

and in your life and in your future family and

people that are connected to you.

God to disrupt that cycle with surrender first. And I

don't want to.

Ever get up here and preach a message and say surrender,

surrender and it be just some ethereal thing and you

not leave with what we actually do with that, because

I really, I literally this was the one that this

is one of the main things I literally got with God.

And I said, God, I know that the answer to

my question when people ask how do you stay sober,

how do you stay in this place of being just

happy and filled.

With joy and all these things? And the answer is surrender.

Like I genuinely like it's because I surrendered it, O God.

But I want to be able to give practical language

to this so that we know because somebody might be

in a place where you're at the spark, or you're

at the surge, or you're in the middle of the spiral,

or you've already crashed out. I want to show you.

I'm gonna give you four things. We're gonna talk through

them real quick, and then we're gonna just let God

close this thing out. What does surrender look like. The

first thing we have to do is we recognize until

we get to a place where we acknowledge and recognize

what is happening, when we recognize that we are trapped

in this cycle of a crash out, until we just

recognize God, I continue to struggle with this God, I

continue to feel anxiety. God. I continue to.

Wake up in the morning and actually kind of be

disappointed that I woke up. Like, if we're being honest,

if we don't recognize these things, if we don't recognize

that we need.

God, we can't surrender. So the first thing we do

is we recognize. We got to recognize the sparks that

the things that represent triggers, We got to recognize them.

We got to identify them. I'm gonna encourage you if

you haven't yet, please do not get out of this

series without writing down the things that sets you off

and send you into this cycle.

The second thing we do is we repent. This is

where we turn. This is where can I say it

like this?

Sometimes the crash out leads to us sinning, and sometimes

the crash out does not lead to us sinning.

Sometimes when I say repent, it is repent God, I

need forgiveness for doing this. And the beautiful thing is

you are met with forgiveness in that moment.

But sometimes the repent looks like this, God, I'm sorry

I didn't trust you. God, I'm sorry. Like yes, that man.

When I saw that bill it sent me, I started

feeling some type of way. I went down this spiral.

I went down to God, forgive me for not trusting you.

Sometimes we just need to repent for not trusting in

Him and then turn and say, God, I trust you.

I know you're the provider. I know you got me,

I know you got my family. We have to recognize,

we have to repent, then we have to receive. This

is where we receive the forgiveness. This is where we

receive the grace and the new mercies. Because I want

to I want to encourage you no matter where you

are at in that cycle.

Or if this is a future things, I just want

you to remember this at any point from the spark,

to the surge, to the spiral, to even the crash.

You can surrender. You can always receive the grace and

the mercy from Jesus. You can always receive new mercies

from him. You can always wake up in the morning

and say, Man, I missed it yesterday, but God, thank you.

Forgiving me another day today. This last one is important

to me.

I literally I had the three and because at the

end of the day, I just can I let me

say a blanket statement. You receiving Jesus, accepting that free

gift of salvation that he paid a price for us.

Is the most important thing. That is the most important thing.

And I also want to give this other last point

that I feel like is important when I look at

my life and I'm looking at it and I'm saying, Okay,

I recognize it. God, I needed you in this moment

when I repent, when I turn, when I when I

ask for forgiveness, and when I receive and I receive

that forgiveness. The fourth point is resist. Why do I

say this? Why is this the last point? Because there's

a reality that we can have these moments like Elijah,

we can see the power, we can see God move.

We can see fire rain down from heaven and then

a message, and we end up at a crash out.

But what the word of God says is resist the

devil and he will flee from you. Resist the devil

and he will flee from you. Now I hear this

scripture said a lot, and it's powerful. Resist the devil

and he shall flee from you. But if you don't

read the very first part of what this scripture says,

we miss it. It says, submit yourself. Surrender yourself then

to God, resist the devil and he will flee. It

starts with surrender. I look back at my life. There

are so many moments where I was trapped in this

out cycle. Then I was like, man, I could have

surrendered there. I could have surrendered there. And I don't

get hung up on that stuff anymore. But I do

look at the moment where I did interrupt, when I

did disrupt the cycle with surrender. If you heard my story,

I've shared it a million times. I'm gonna share it

two more million times. Okay. I was in the basement

of a jail, and it was the moment where I

ended up in my crash out. I was in there

I was charged. I was convicted ten years of drug use,

and I'm in there and I'm just like, God, what

are you doing? And you want to know where it started,

where it changed when my crash out turned into my testimony,

was when I surrendered. I got on my hands and

knees and I prayed. I said, God, I don't want

to live this way anymore. God, I know you have

so much more for me. God, will you take my

life and use it? I was desperate for him. Can

you put a the cave one more time for me?

The beautiful part of this story, in what I relate to,

is when Elijah was in this cave, there was a

lot of things that took place, and the Bible talks

about there was storms, there was an earthquake, there was fire.

There was all these natural disastrous things chaos that are

taking place. And the Word says that God was not

in that stuff. But in the midst of all of that,

he whispered to Elijah. God met him, and he whispered

to him. And when I found myself in the cave

or my cave was called the shoe special hold unit

is isolation in the basement of a jail, I don't

know which cave is worse. I'm not sure mine. For sure.

I was in this and in the moment where I

was on my hands and knees and I was praying

and I was asking God to please turn it around.

I surrender it to you. It was a whisper that

I heard him say, like, are you done yet? Are

you done yet? Are you tired? Because I got something

better for you. I got something better for you. And

it was in that moment I prayed and I literally

I repented of everything. I gave the laundry, this beataure.

I just started going and listing off all this stuff.

And at the end of the day, my last thing

I said was God, please take my life. It is yours,

and that surrender me disrupting the cycle was met with freedom.

It was met with redemption. It was met with me

meeting the love of my life being married. It was

met with me having arrow James. It was met with

me having sorry snow. It was met with me walking

in my purpose. It was met with me walking in

my colleague. It was he's met with me being sober

for ten years. It was met with Jesus and that's

what he wants to do here today. He wants to

disrupt your cycle. Jesus wants to come into your life.

No matter what you are doing, no matter what you

are going through, you just gotta give it to him.

Whether that be surrendering your life to Jesus for the

first time, course is saying God, I've missed it this week, Jesus,

I'm sorry.

Can we start this over. I don't know where you

are with that, but the solution to whatever you're going

through is surrender. The solution is surrender. He's gonna meet

you right where you are. The last thing I'll say.

The story doesn't stop at the crash. It continues in surrender.

No matter where you're at, He will meet you where

you are. Will you stand all over this room right

now in this moment, I'm gonna I'm gonna invite people.

This is the most important part of the service. I'm

gonna invite people to receive Jesus. So, if you are

in this room, I'm gonna ask that you just pray

in this moment for the people that are about to

give their life to Jesus. Every head bowed, eyes or closed.

I'm gonna ask this question, if you would like to

give your life to Jesus. The greatest decision that you

can never make, the decision that.

Completely changed my life.

The power that was able to take a guy that

was addicted to drugs for ten years and give him

complete freedom.

It's a free gift. All you have to do is

receive it.

If this is you and you want to surrender your

life to Jesus, I'm gonna ask that you slip your

hand in the air. Just put your hand in the air.

If you're watching online, let somebody know right now, raise

your hand in the air.

I see you, I see you. God sees you. I

see you, my brother up there, I see you, I

see you back there. I'm going to ask in this moment,

thank you Jesus. I'm going to ask in this moment

that we are a family.

We all pray together, repeat after me, Father God, thank

you for sending Jesus to die on a cross from me.

I believe he lived, he died, and he rose again.

I admit that I've sinned, but right now I fully

surrender take over my life.

I love you. It's a Jesus name. We pray, and

everybody said a man and amen, can we give it

up for everybody that made that decision to give that

life to Jesus.

Yeah, thank you for joining us today. If you said that.

Prayer and accept it Jesus into your heart, it's the

best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate

with you, and we have some tools to help you

on your journey. Text saved to A two eight two

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To A two A two A two. Be sure to

subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening.

Now go out and live a transform life.