It's Time To Double Down: Decided Not Distracted // Do Not Disturb (Part 4) // 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.

Welcome to Transformation Church. I know I'm not the first

person to welcome you. I hope you got greeted by

every single person walking in this place. But I want

you to know something. You are here on purpose, you

are watching on purpose. God has something for you today,

and I'm just excited to see what he does. If

I haven't had the privilege of meeting you yet. My

name is Will and I'm one of the pastors here

and I'm so excited for what I get to say today,

what God has given me to say. I'm the associate

campus pastor here and man, this week has just said

come on, be expectant because I'm telling you this week,

there's been a lot of challenges that have come against

me and my family this week. And that's when you

know that you are headed in the right direction. When

you're feeling no resistance, when you're feeling like, okay, hold on,

what's going on, you know that you are walking in

the right direction. So I'm excited, man, Before I do anything,

and I got to just shout out our lead pastors,

Pastor Mike and Natalie Todd Man. I love them. Do

we not have the greatest leaders in the world. Man,

he coming back soon, guys, He's coming back soon. I'm excited.

I hope he's rested up, ready to go. I'm gonna

come with a lot of vision. And then also I

gotta shout out my beautiful wife, Kaylee snow Come on,

all right, get this. Her name, her name was Kaylee

snow White, beautiful name, and then she married me and

now is Kaylee snow hecking Buck. And it just doesn't

just doesn't flow that well. But man, Kaylee, I love you.

Thank you so much for all that you do. We

have two amazing kids' story. Pray for the people that

are with them right now. And TC kids Okay, they're

probably just asking a million questions. They really are great kids.

But the question he just wants to know why? Why? Why? Why?

And You're like, eventually You're just like, I don't know, man,

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know why.

Go ask your mom. Okay, oh man, But we have

been in this incredible series. Has anybody in been enjoying

Do Not Disturb? Yeah, come on, this has been just

an amazing series because we gotta listen. We know that

there's a lot of distractions in this life, and so

to be able to come and this just even the

idea when you put do not Disturb on your phone,

you are making a decision to say, yo, yo, don't

bother me right now because I'm focused and that is

the word of the year is focus, and I believe

that this series is really helping us learn and grow

in that. And so man, welcome to week four of

Do Not Disturb. Okay, come on. We have heard a

lot from a lot of different people and all the

things that can be distracting, and so I don't want

to I think it's it's obvious now that we know

there's a lot of distractions in the world. Like when

I even just start to think about it, the very

first one that comes to my mind is our phones.

Our phones is the biggest distraction. It also has amazing stuff.

I'm not trying to shame the phones, okay, but there's

a lot of things. There's a lot of options. Then

we got social media option, we got man, we got Instagram,

TikTok we got I know this Twitter still the thing?

They call it something else now I'm really just not

hip with the name. It's it called x Okay, I

don't know why they changed the name. Name change. Okay,

Well in my space, MySpace still a thing. No MySpace

not a thingky, bring it back. That's where I know.

Those are my people that just cheered from my space. Okay, Man,

you knew though, you knew where you stood with people

with that top four and then they made it to

where it was like a top twenty, and I was like, okay,

now we're just asking everybody but man. And then the

biggest decision. I don't know if anybody else can relate

to this. I had to make like when you got

in a relationship, I meant had to decide is my

best friend or my girlfriend number one? And it was

like I kind of I would like just try to

switch it at times where I thought, Okay, maybe he's

gonna look at it and try to keep it. Anyways,

you knew where should bring back my space. That's what

I'm trying to say. A lot of distractions that we

deal with, oh man, But there's there's a quote that

I think we've said it a few times, but it

rings so true. The devil doesn't need to destroy you.

He just needs to distract you. The devil doesn't need

to destroy you and bring all this stuff against you

if he has you distracted. And sometimes he can distract

you long enough to where you miss out on your destiny.

He can distract you long enough to where you miss

out on what he wants you to do. And so

as I was praying and God like, okay, what is it.

What is the distraction that I'm just even just supposed

to come up against and preach on and talk through.

And y'all, I'm telling you right now, I started getting

flooded with so many things. And I could go this direction,

and I could go this direction, and but then that

word rhymes with this word, and this word starts with

a D, and then I could do this and this,

and all these stuff started flooding my mind, and can

I be honest, couldn't make a decision. I was like, okay,

all right, I need to decide something. And you gotta

remember that was not the only decision I was making

in my life. I also am a husband, I'm a father.

I'm a leader all these things. So that was one

decision of a million other decisions that I was trying

to make. And I looked up this stat and this

is crazy, y'all. We face about thirty five thousand decisions

a day that we need to make, whether it be subconscious,

whether it be going and getting in your car? And

what am I gonna listen to?

What?

Am I gonna keep the volume up? Am I gonna

go to the speed limit today? Am I not gonna

go to the speed limit today? I'm gonna flip that

person off. We're not gonna flip that person off. I

got a TC sticker on the back of my car.

Like you go, all these decisions you had to think about,

all the decisions you had to make this morning just

to get here. Okay, what outfit am I gonna wear?

Is that match? I don't know? Anyways, lots of decisions

that we have to make in this life. No wonder

we could get so distracted and so caught up with them.

I was thinking that I gotta tell you, I got

the mic, so I'm gonna say this there Sometimes though,

people be complicating the decisions. Okay, there's some things that

really just darn't a big big deal and shouldn't be

like this long, dramatic, like, let's figure out and make

this decision. One of those I'm gonna give you that

one of my top five pet peeves. Okay, so now

you're gonna know about me, all right. Your boy used

to be a little bigger, all right. And I used

to go to raising canes all the time. I'd probably

have it four times a week and it was only Tuesday,

all right, And so I would go, yeah, come on,

come on, shout out canes. Sponsor me. No, don't sponsor me,

that's bad. But I will be in there. Listen, listen.

I'll be in the drive I'll be in the drive through,

and I'll be in there and I'm sitting there and

I just I kind of have my window down and

I hear the person be like, okay, just give me

a minute, give you a minute, okay, all right, O cool,

I get it. You know you're just trying to decide

do you want three piece four? And then like need

a little bit longer. And in my head when you

look at that menu, I don't know if you've been

there before, TC Nation, I don't know it is chicken

or chicken or chicken or do you want bread on

your chicken? Like it is, literally, the only decision you

have to make is do I want coal saw or

extra fries or extra toasts. That's the only decision you

have to make. And it's really an easy decision. I

don't know who be messing with that, Cole Slaw, I

don't know about that. But we over complicate these things

and some things. Is this not that deep? But what

can happen? Can anybody else relate to this? Lots of

the decisions come in your way. And what can happen though,

is we face something called decision fatigue. We face something

where there's just so many things we have to do

that honestly, we get exhausted, we get tired. And that's

when you start making poor decisions. That's when you start

not caring. That's when you start compromising, that's when you

start making bad decisions. Or it's when it leads to

this dangerous word indecision. You get to such a place

of decision fatigue that you actually end up just not

making a decision instead of doing something, You end up

doing nothing. You don't decide on anything, You're just in

the middle, you're indifferent Revelation three sixteen. I love the

way this is said. It says, but since you are

like luke warm water, neither hot nor cold, I will

spit you out of my mouth. Now when we look

at that, I think, I don't know about you. But

I was talking to a friend leading up to this,

and there's some part of me. I don't know why,

but in my mind, hot represents the devil and cold

represents God and all this stuff. But when we are

looking at it, and it's really the thing about it

is cold water. When you think about it, practically, it's refreshing.

On a hot day, you drink water. Cold is refreshing.

Hot is refining. You can use hot water to purify things.

So we have cold refreshing, hot refining. Lukewarm robs you

of both. Lukewarm robs you of both when you're indifferent,

And I want to say, like, this indecision will make

you ineffective. If you're not hot, if you're not cold,

you're just in the middle. You're ineffective. It's time to

make a decision. That's why I'm here. I'm on an

assignment to come to us as a church and say

it's time to decide. It's time to decide. And I'm

not talking just some like okay, like I guess, yeah, yeah,

we'll do that. No, no, no, no, I'm talking a decision,

an unwavering decision. I'm not moving decision, an unshakeable decision,

a resolve, a resilience, I'm not going any where type decision.

There's a scripture that just kept ringing in my ear

as I was just thinking through, like like when I'm

trying to visualize. I don't know about you, but sometimes

I just visualize things as I'm preparing and I'm thinking

about an idea and I'm reading scripture, And there was

a scripture that God just kept bringing up when I

was thinking about what type of decision you gotta make.

It's found in the Book of Joshua. If you have

your Bibles turned to Joshua twenty four. If not, they

will put it up on the screen for you Joshua

twenty four fifteen. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable

to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you

will serve, whether the gods your ancestors serve beyond the

Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites in whose land

you live in. But as for me in my house,

we will serve the Lord. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you do

what you want to do. But as for me in

my house, we have decided that we are going to

serve the Lord. And as I was praying and preparing,

God just continue to give me this visual because here's

what I want to say, Church, whether we acknowledge it

or not, a line has been drawn. There's a line

that has been drawn. There's good, there's evil, there's God's

purpose for your life, and then there's all these distractions

that the enemy will try to use to keep you

from your purpose. And when I look at this scripture,

I just visualize a line literally being drawn, and it's

up to us to make a decision. What side are

you going to be on? Because here's the thing. The

line's here. Whether you acknowledge the line is here or not,

a line is being drawn. As for me in my house,

though we will serve the Lord, a line's been drawn.

And when I read this scripture and I start to

think about it, you got to pick a side. You

have to decide. And let me tell you, there's nothing

for you over here but the world will convince you

that there is stuff over here for you. You will

search over here to be fulfilled and satisfied, only to

be left hopeless and empty. But when we come over

here and we decide God, I'm all in with you,

I'm rocking with you, Jesus, I'm not. I don't want

to go back there. And I looked at this scripture

because this is a powerful scripture that brings to us home.

Matthew six point twenty four says it like this. No

one can serve two masters. A line has been drawn.

No one can serve two masters, for you will hate

one and love the other. You will be devoted to

one and despise the other. You can not serve God

and be enslaved to money. You cannot serve God and

be running over here to that computer looking at pornography

every day. You cannot serve God. No, no, no, no. Let

me just emphasize this. Is there. Grace is there? Mercy

is their forgiveness? Absolutely? Is there any at any point

can you have repentance which means to turn Yes. But

some people are trying to live both. We're trying to

be over here and get satisfaction in the pornography. We're

trying to be over here and get satisfaction from the

drugs and the alcohol and the things that we think

will help us. And some people, I don't know what

it is for you. I want you to be able

to find yourself when when we say yo, there's a

line here and over here, we have purpose, we have

a plan that God has for you. There's love, there's joy,

there's freedom over on this side. What are you running to?

What do you find yourself? Is it money? Are you

trying to serve God in go and bury your money

and your finances and that's your definition of success. Is

it gossiping? Is it talking down to people? Is it

being mean?

Like?

What are you trying? What are you doing over here?

When really we just need to decide God, I'm with

you whatever you want to do, God, whatever you want

to do, I'm all in over here the church. We

have to decide. Can I say it like this? Destiny

demands a decision. Destiny demands a decision. The plan and

the purpose that sits on your life demands that you

make a decision. No longer coming over here and trying

to be on this side and then come over here

I'm gonna come to church on Sunday, but then I'm

gonna go over to that guy's house on Tuesday. I'm

gonna go over here, but then I'm gonna smoke over

here a little bit. We can't keep coming back and forward.

You can't serve too masters. We have to decide. I

want to talk to these people. I want to talk

to the people that think this is cool, the ones

that are standing on the line. It's kind of like

one of them. It's like, yeah, I'm kind of indifferent.

I go to church every now and then, and you know,

but I'm gonna do my own thing though, because you know,

I don't know. Sometime when I hear you follow God,

you got to give up stuff. And I'm not willing

to give up that stuff. But I'm still a good person.

And the whole time, this whole time, you're just you're

riding the line, you're on the fence, you're luke warm,

you're just sitting here in the middle, being ineffective. This

is not the place to be. I say, like, this

Satan owns this. Satan owns the fence. When you're not picking,

when you're going back and forth back the Bible says

you cannot serve two masters. And this is exactly what

this represents. You're trying to serve by It's time to decide,

got to make a decision. And there's a term that

I keep hearing in my mind. Have you ever heard

the term double down? You ever heard that that? The

term double down, it's been used. Listen, I'm not promoting gambling,

but it is a gambling term. Okay. But there is

also a Webster definition of double down. Okay. It is

to strengthen one's commitment to our particular strategy or course

of action, typically one that is potentially risky. And today, church,

I'm coming before you to ask you to make a decision,

but to make a decision to double down. The title

of our message, if you're taking notes, is it's time

to double down. It is time to double down. That's

the kind of decision I'm making. The decision where you're

not gonna be moved, You're not gonna be way, You're

not gonna be like no, you're saying no, I'm ten

toes down with what God said over my life. You

do what you want to do, but as for me,

in my house, we will serve the Lord some of

the greatest moments, movements and miracles that we see started

with somebody making a decision to double down. Some of

the greatest movements that we see started with the decision

to double down. There's one that as I was just

going through and looking at these amazing historical things that

have happened and business decisions and all this, one of

the things that came up that was actually pretty cool

was Frederick Smith. If you're not aware, he started FedEx.

And there was a point where we all know FedEx.

Y'all you get your packages from fedexk Sometimes they be

coming and bowling them up on your porch. I don't

know why they do that. Then there's a couple of times,

man FedEx, if you're listening, I love you. But also

I have a ring camera at my house and sometimes

they break stuff. They just get tossed. Okay, Anyways, FedEx amazing.

Shout out Frederick Smith. Okay. He was in a place

where business wasn't doing so good. This was early on,

and he was in this place where he wasn't doing well,

and he looked at the count He was trying to

get loans to continue to keep the business going, and

he couldn't, and so what he did was the company

actually had five thousand dollars left in the account, and

he believed in the company so much that he took

that five thousand. He went to Vegas and he literally

doubled down in a game of blackjack, won twenty seven

thousand dollars, used that money to secure a loan, and

now today FedEx is worth fifty five billion dollars. Okay.

What I am not saying is to go to Vegas

and double down and spend your money. Okay. What I

am saying is that Frederick Smith believed in something so

much that he doubled down on it, and then we

see that it's worth fifty five billion dollars today, super

successful company is incredible. Walt Disney, any Disney fans in

the building, come on, okay, okay, come on. I expected

a few more for Disney. That's crazy. You got Nickelodeon

people crazy. Walt Disney, early on in his career, went

to go and make the movie snow White, the original.

They've never done this before. They've never done I'm talking

about the original Snow White, not the one that just

came out. Okay, all right, I'll just get Disney, y'all.

Disney could take you down. Disney, I love you. I

got Disney plus plus. Don't cancel me. I love you. Okay,

I got the plus plus, So the plus I get,

you know, all the stuff Disney got told no. In fact,

they actually like laughed at him when you look it up.

They thought it was such a crazy idea that he

was gonna make this movie. And so he was like,

you know what, Bete, I believe in it so much

that he actually went and took a mortgage out against

his house, paid and funded the movie. And then guess

what happened. The movie blew up, got all the money

in the world. And then now he started investing and

now we see fast forward. That is what put him

on the trajectory to see Disney what you see today,

which is worth two one hundred and eleven point sixty

five billion dollars. Okay, I almost didn't forget the point

the decimal there, and I was just gonna say two

hundred and eleven, But that's disrespectful. Okay. My bank account,

the point represents sixty five cents. This bank account, the

point actually represents sixty five million dollars. So it feels

like I should probably not be disrespectful and point that, Okay,

when your decimal represents millions, you made it all right.

But they believed in it so much and they made

a decision to double down on it in church. We

see this all throughout the Bible, time and time again.

I mean, you look at Noah. My guy was out

there doubling down on the word that God gave him.

He was obedient even when he looked crazy. Here was

no rain, not a drop, but he was out there, building, crafting,

getting his family of ball I'm sure getting made fun of.

All this stuff was happening, but he doubled down and

was obedient to God. And then the rain came. Shadrack me,

shack bendigo. We see this also throughout where they refused,

they doubled down on No this is the God I

serve as for me in my house, we will serve

the Lord. We're not bowing down to your God. And

guess what God protected them in the fire. Daniel the

lions din same thing, doubled down on the God he served,

thrown into the lions, then protected by God. Paul the

apostle who we talked about, who we read the Bible

that he has written, and listen the stuff that he

went through that we know about. He went through a

lot of stuff, down to a snake bite, to a shipwreck,

to beaten, to flog, to thrown in prison, and he's

still doubled down. He made a decision every day to

double down. No, I know what God said. I know

what God said, and what I want to say. The

subtitle to my message what I'm believing today is that

I'm decided not distracted. We are gonna double down as

a church in what God said, and I believe we

are gonna stand and say I'm decided, I am not

distracted when we look at all these things that took place.

Here's the wild thing for me. When I look at

Frederick Smith and Walt Disney, y'all, they didn't have a

guarantee when they made that decision to double down. Like

I'm not saying, maybe they probably made a good financial

business decision, cool, they didn't have a guarantee that it

was gonna work. We have a guarantee. We have a

guarantee when we stand and say God, I am with you.

I don't care what the world is offering me. I

don't care what frustrations I'm going through. I'm doubling down

with you. We have a guarantee. This is what the

Bible says. One of my favorite scriptures, write it down

Ephesians one thirteen through fourteen. And now you gentiles, have

also heard the truth, the good news that God saves you.

And now, Transformation Church, you have heard the good news

that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ,

he has identified you as his own by giving you

the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit

is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance

he promised, and that he has purchased us to be

his own people. He did this, so we praise him

and glorify him. We're backed by God. We're backed by him.

We have promises, we have guarantees. We had the Holy

Spirit to lead us and guide us. And so as

I'm sitting here and I'm like God, so why won't

we double down with this thing? Why is this? Why

is this so tempting? Why is this so difficult for

us in this world to be so hung up of

coming up here? Can I can I just say something?

When we look even in Genesis now that there was.

There was only one distraction in the garden, one thing

that God said, yo, all of this, Adam and Eve,

yours this one thing, don't go over there. And as

you know, they went to the one thing. And now

I just want to acknowledge just the humanity of this, y'all.

We don't have just one thing. There's a billion things

that we wake up and we deal with on on TV,

as we're scrolling, as we're driving. What life brings us,

the temptations that are in front of us. It's actually

kind of crazy. And this does it's, it's, it's it's

and it's again not not in any condemning way. There's

a drift that takes place. You start coming over here,

you don't You don't accidentally drift over here? Can I

just tell you that you don't accidentally. It's a decision

to come over here. This is a drift. You can

start drifting over here. So I was asking, like, God,

but what why is this? Why? Why is it so

challenging to make a decision to double down? Why is

it so why? Why? And I just kept thinking through

all the stories we just looked at, through Frederick Smith,

through Walt Disney, through Noah, through through the Hebrew Boys,

through through Paul, through me, through I know the people

in this room. I feel like the common denominator is opposition.

All of these stories that we hear, we read, all

the greatest moments, movements and miracles that we see that

started with the decision to double down started with opposition.

There was some sort of challenge and mountain in front

of them. We've all experienced opposition. Show of hands. Who

in here has faced some sort of opposition in life,

A challenge, a frustration, something that you were just like,

I don't know how every hand is in the air

and we can be distracted by opposition. One of my

kind of funny oppositions right now in life, I for

some reason made a decision that I'm going to train

for high Rocks. If you don't know what high rocks is, Yeah,

shout out to the four people that are doing high

Rocks with me. But it is like, it's literally I

don't know why I'm doing it. It's running, working out, running,

working out, running, working out, running, working out, all this stuff,

But right now that's like an opposition that I'm facing.

But there's something about it. This is I know that

if I try. I know that if I prepare, I

know that if I lock in, I can actually face

this opposed opponent. I know that I can face the opposition.

I know that I can go. I know that I

can succeed. And maybe for you it's not it's not

high rocks, okay, because let me be honest, there's a

lot of oppositions that I faced in my life that

I have to deal with that is not some workout,

think real life. Even just this week leading up to

this sermon, my whole family got sick and I was

just like, really, God like, come on, man, I'm out

here like doing the matrix, like trying to dodge the sickness.

And I did. Lord protected me. But there was just stuff,

and there was mental battles. There was all this stuff.

There was things that going on, and there was opposition.

Can anybody else relate to this that there's stuff life

be life in And I don't know what the opposition

is for you. I don't know what the challenge is,

what the mountain is. I don't know if it's frustration

in the season you're in. I don't know if that

opposition is you've been trying to have a baby and

it's just not happening, and disappointment after disappointment. I don't

know for you if the opposition is you actually have

lost a child and now you're navigating grief and you

don't know how you're gonna get through this. I don't

know for you if it's battling an addiction and you're

in a season right now where you're counting your sobriety

days and you're facing this opposite and you're like, how

in the world am I gonna do this? I don't

know what it is, but I know that we can

be distracted by opposition. You don't have to be defeated

by opposition, but destiny can be delayed by the distraction

of it. It can be delayed. We can sit so

long and and just wait and just have this moment.

I don't know about you, but I said, I'll start tomorrow.

I'll start tomorrow. I'll start tomorrow, probably a million times

in a lot of situations in my life, because let's

be honest, instead of facing the challenge, instead of facing

this huge mountain that's in front of us, it is

so much easier not to do anything. It's so much

easier to disconnect from that loved one, instead of really

believing that God is gonna heal him. It is so

much easier to run to that bottle. It is so

much easier to run to that pipe. It is so

much easier to leave that treatment center. It is so

much easier to think because you're in prisoning, God forgot

about you. It is so much easier not to face

the opposition and get so caught up with how is

this gonna happen? I don't understand, Instead of saying I

am doubling down with what God said to me, it's

easier not to move. Here's what I want to tell you.

There is a version of you that is waiting for

you to double down and decide to face that opposition.

There is a version of you that is waiting for

you to face that challenge. There is a version of

you that is willing, is waiting for you to admit

that you need help in your marriage. There is a

version of you that is waiting for you to check

yourself into the treatment center. There is a version of

you that is waiting for you to forgive that person.

There is a version of you that whatever the opponent

is in front of you, that is waiting for you

to take it on head on team. When you show

that picture of me real quick, I want to show

you something. Yeah, let me just I feel like you know,

we gotta come up here real quick. Just come on.

I mean this crazy man. Look at that guy. I

still got that T shirt. I mighta put it on

one day. Why am I showing this picture? This is important.

This version of me was waiting on that version of

me to make a decision so that this version of

me could come and preach this message to you. This

version of me was waiting and pleading and begging and saying,

will you please get healthy? Waiting. You can't convince me.

I do not think God would be up here if

that version of me did not double down in his

health and fitness. You can't convince me. Here's what I

want to say and say like this. A lot of

times you will face opposition in areas you were designed

to occupy. A lot of times you will face opposition

in areas you were designed to occupy. What do I

mean by that? That version of me made a decision

to double down in health, and now I'm occupying a

space in fitness. I have a sponsorship which is crazy,

which is wild. People are reaching out to me for encouragement,

for advice. I'm occupying the space of fitness. Are you

kidding me? That guy had zero idea? But I'm occupying

space now, and I just want to ask you what

version of you is waiting? Yes, I'm talking about doubling

down with Jesus. I'm also talking about there might be

some areas in your life that you just need to

double down in. Double down in your marriage, Stop looking around,

stop scrolling at night, double down invest in your marriage.

Because what if you're supposed to occupy that space and

then go on and help other couples through things. My

hope is alive. Brothers and sisters. You were designed to

occupy the space and encourage and bring life and show

people that it is possible to be sober, that it

is possible to rise from the ashes, that it is possible.

That opposition you're facing is for a reason. I don't

know what it is for you, but if you're facing it,

if there's an opposition in your life, a frustration, something

that every time you go towards it, some of you,

you know, God told you to write that book, and

then you start getting distracted by that. I don't know.

It's not time yet write the book. You're designed to

occupy that space? What words has God given you that

the second you start thinking about it, you start saying,

that's not pass designed to occupy it. There's a version

of you that's waiting. It's waiting for you to decide.

And here's what I want to just at least encourage

you with, is because what can happen is I know

that it just seems overwhelming of like oh my godness,

like okay, but I still like, what do I do?

And then that sounds like a lot. Then I gotta

make a decision, and then can I be it's a

daily decision. It's not like an you have to daily

decide to do a lot of this. There's not just

like a one time done moment or anything like that.

But what does happen? Can I encourage you with this?

Is you make a decision and then the word of

God says that he will give you the desires to

do what pleases him. So I believe, and I've seen

it through my life. I'm living proof that I decided

to follow Jesus. I'm all in. The temptations were still there.

But what happened was I started spending time with God,

and then he gave me the desires of him to

do what pleases him, to give me the power and

everything I need, and brought me the right people. And

then what starts to happen is then you start going

into this place of default. Then this right here over here,

when you're right here, now you stand in this place

and this isn't even an option anymore. You decided God

gave you the desire. Now it's just default. When people

bring out stuff, it's like, yeah, that isn't even a

part of my life anymore. It becomes your default, and

then you step into destiny. It starts with the decision,

and you don't have to do it alone. Hebrews twelve.

Let this encourage you. Here's how we do it. Therefore,

this is the scripture of the year. If you didn't

know here at Transformation Church and the year of focus. Therefore,

anytime you see there for in the Bible is something

I always want to know. Why therefore is there for?

And what you need to know? Therefore is there for?

Because the previous chapter was talking about all the amazing

the faith the people that were doing saying yes to

God and God's faithfulness coming, and they see the faithfulness

of God transpire. And so what this is saying, Now, okay,

we saw all the people that God was doing, these

amazing mote movements, miracles, all the stuff. And now we're saying, therefore,

since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of

witnesses to the life of faith, we've seen it done before.

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down,

especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and

let us run the race with endurance, the race God

has set before us. How do we do this? We

do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion

who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy

waiting him. He endured the cross, disregarding it shame. Now

he is seated in the place of honor, beside beside

God's throne. We fix our eyes on Jesus. When you

acknowledge that there is a line, but you're saying no,

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

How you do that is you fix your eyes on Jesus.

You say, I don't care what you are doing. I

don't care what gods you are serving. I don't care

what parties you are going to. I don't care what

substance you're running to. As for me, in my house,

my eyes are fixed on Jesus. We will serve the Lord.

I'm gonna be obedient to whatever it is that he's

telling me to do. I've decided to double down. So

fixed on Jesus and what he says about me? You

got Can I just tell you this? You gotta know

what this says about you, because a lot of times

when it looks when you start drifting a little bit

and the enemy's tempting you with something or say, man,

I don't know, there's no way you're gonna be able

to face that. This book right here will encourage you,

will give you the words that you need. This right

here is a weapon. Use it. Keep your eyes fixed

on Jesus. One of the ways you do that as

you read this book. Okay, So now I just want

to be able to answer this question because I know,

like it's like, yo, this dude, he's yelling, he's passionate,

it's tarming to double down and all that, like, but

how but really, how do we do this? Though? How

do we do this. When I leave this room, life

is gonna happen. There's gonna be stuffed. There's gonna be

a text message I get, There's gonna be a bill

that I get. There's gonna be somebody that says something

that makes me want to crash out. I don't know

what it is for you, but life happens. How do

we do it? The first way that you double down

is you decide feel like I have said that, I

don't think I need to run it back. You decide, okay,

no more ride in the fence, and then you declare

what do I mean by this? You tell people this

is I'm not saying go and you tell people everything,

and you gotta have to write people around you. But

I'm telling you there are something so powerful when you

tell people, you know what, today I'm actually gonna start.

I'm gonna try to lose weight today. I'm gonna start

this thirty day thing. You know what, I'm gonna call

that counselor I'm gonna go ahead. You know what, we

do have some stuff going on in our marriage right now.

We're gonna fix it, invite through it. There's something that

happens when you declare it. Y'all your boy. When I

got released back ten years ago, I was on Facebook

posting the crate like you know, I mean, with Jesus.

Now I'm gonna reflect the sun s O n su

win like I was saying. But I was declaring, though,

oh my goodness, God, I might have to find this, Okay.

I was literally when I got out, I went on

Facebook and my little hashtag at the end, I don't

think it was an actual hashtag, but it's how I

ended everything was let's light it up. And in my

head and it was like, Yo, I was a former

drug addict, lighted up, and now we're lighting up for Jesus.

I'm one hundred percent after a certain Instead of go

out and never transform life, I'm saying, let's light it up.

Let's light it up for Jesus. All right, you gotta

declare it, you gotta tell people. Third, one daily devotion.

Double down is not a one time event. It requires

us not only to make a daily decision, but we

have this daily devotion where we are seeking God's face,

where we are seeking his word and what he says.

We are continuing every single day to put him first.

Seek first, the Kingdom of Heaven and all the other stuff.

It's gonna come, but we have to seek him first.

Are daily bred every day. We need to be in

the word. We need to be praying, we need to

be just spending time with our Father, because I think

we can acknowledge there's a lot of distractions in this world.

But when we are focused in fixing our eyes on Jesus,

how we do that is a daily, daily devotion. This

one's important. Dependable people. You need dependable people in your life.

And I want to say this. I don't know if

you're aware of this, but anytime I'd say about eighty

five percent of the time when we are saying like

actual practical, when we're preaching messages up here and you

hear stuff a lot of the times, community friendships people

are always a part of the solution. So don't miss this.

There's somebody who keep hearing it, but yet you haven't

taken a step. You need to be in community. You

need that dependable person that can call you out very practically.

If you do not have people, find somebody in an

orange shirt, find a staff, never find somebody wearing a

tribe shirt. Whatever you gotta do, and get in a tribe.

We're not meant to do life alone. When you have

dependable people in your life, they can ask if you're okay,

they can check you, they can say, hey, man, when

you said that, that didn't really represent who I feel

like you are. And when you're starting, like when you're

just speaking out loud and living out loud, there's something

that happens, y'all. I'm telling you right now, if your

boys started going to canes four times a week. I

got some people in my life that I feel like

they would say something like. I feel like at some

point I have insulated myself so much that where it's like,

hey man, I feel like you're supposed to be the

fitness guy. Now it doesn't, you know, I feel like

but it's because I have dependable people in my life.

This last one's important discernment. This is huge. What am

I saying here? Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit lead you will

guide you in times where you're when you're drifting, when

you're trying to figure out, you're frustrated, things are coming up,

you're struggling to make that decision, you're struggling with your

daily devotion. All you gotta do is stop Holy Spirit

lives here, Holy Spirit, Am I supposed to go to that?

Holy Spirit? Man? I don't know that business. It just

seems a little like suspect should I invest in it?

Holy these are real things, Holy Spirit man, I'm struggling

being consistent with date night. Can you help me? Just

figure like little practical things? Holy Spirit was left here,

Jesus said as he was sending it, as sending it

too Heaven. It's better if I go. But don't worry.

I'm leaving you the help or the comfort or the

guide discernment. It's time to decide transformation Church. And one

beautiful thing that I want to say that happens when

you make a decision is you gain clarity, stability, and authority.

You gain clarity. The distractions lose their power when you

are double down. I'm not moving, I'm decided, I'm not distracted.

You get clarity, You get stability. You stop wavering between

the line, you stop wavering and drifting back and forward,

you stop being luke warm, you stop riding the fence.

You get stability in life. And this third one, you

get authority when you make a decision to double down

and you realize the dominion that God has given you

to occupy that space, you gain authority. And when I

was just really praying through this, I was just trying

to I'm super passionate about this. I've seen the power

and the weight of decisions, and I've seen the power

and weight of indecision. I've delayed there there. I just

I believe that I delayed destiny. And yeah, it's just

one of my own personal thoughts, like, man, what if

I would have like, doesn't matter. God has restored, He

restores everything that the enemy tried to take. But why

am I so passionate about this? Why? And I and

I just started like really thinking through my life and

the journey I've been on, and y'all, I try to

just live super authentic and on display and show you

like what God is doing both past and present in

my life. And and I really was just praying through

and I just I wanted to share honestly, probably the

most vulnerable, the most vulnerable part of my life. That

is a very real depiction. There was a version of

me that was so distracted by opposition that I just

could not move. And I want you to see this,

this video that you're going to see, it's literally is

me in the height of my addiction. It was supposed

to be a video that was going to be this

like comeback story, and it slowly turned into a goodbye message.

But I think this is important for you to see

what happens when I was facing this opposition and I

was afraid to move team. You know, I don't know.

Why I keep recording things, because the intent of me

recording from the beginning was, you know, and hope that

things would get better and I could watch the progression and.

See how good things are.

M hmm, They're not.

They're not good at all. You're not running on empty.

I just don't know how much longer I can let

me pretending that everything's okay. I was so happy when

I was a kid, and look at me now. Every

day is a struggle and I'm literally I'm drawing up late,

and for some reason, something does happen to me and

I give into the thoughts of, you know, ending it,

which is very possible, because.

I'm just running out of strength to say no to that.

If something does, though, I just want my family to know.

There was nothing. There was nothing you could have done.

There's nothing anyone.

Could have done.

I'm in a very, very dark place right now, and

I don't want.

To get out.

This is just a battle that I'm losing right now,

and I really hope I don't lose permanently, because I

would love to. I don't love to help people and

get out of this place I missed.

M m M.

I will. I will cover him at the end. I

promise God is moving. There's nothing that's impossible for him.

There's nothing that's impossible for him. This version of me

was waiting, was waiting on that version of me to

stop messing around that the world was saying would bring

me satisfaction. This version of me was waiting on that

version of me to stop searching and trying to find

fulfillment and everything else but the one thing, the one

thing that offers eternal life, the one thing that offers

joy and freedom that cannot be taken.

This version of me, the version that is a father

to Rowin's story, the version I got to marry the

love of my life, Kayleie. The verse that gets to

stand with some of the most amazing people in the

world at the most amazing church of the world.

I get to be here. But it all started when

that version of me made a decision to double down

on what God said. If you don't know the story fully,

all you need to know is that I was sentenced,

I was guilty. I did my time. But God saw

fit when I was serving out my time to come

and find me in the basement of a jail. And

I just remember just crying out God, I need you,

I'm tired, And I just remember the question posed to me,

So are you done? Are you done yet? And in

that moment, I realized, Yeah, God, I am so done

with what is over here. I am so done with

what the world has tried to trick me to believe,

the distractions. And so I decided I am not gonna

be distracted anymore. I decided to double down on this

life with Jesus. I said a prayer, and at the

end I said a man, and something shifted, something changed,

something was sparked. But I started with a decision. Will

you close your eyes and bow your heads with me?

I want to do two things here. I want to

do two calls. The first one the most important one.

I believe that there are people in this room, people

that are watching. You've been searching in all the wrong places,

You've been trying to find it somewhere else. But I'm

here today to say that Jesus wants to be the

lord of your life and it's free. And so in

this moment, as all heads are bad and eyes are closed,

if you've never received Jesus before, you want to just

declare that you want to rededicate your life to him

and receive Jesus and say, I'm all in. I'm gonna

ask that we all pray this prayer out loud together

for the benefits of others. Dear God, thank you for

sinning Jesus to die and across for me. I admit

that I've made mistakes. Jesus. I believe you lived, you died,

and you rose again just for me. Will you change me,

renew me, transform me. I am yours and the Jesus name.

We pray, Amen and Amn y'all. If you just made

that decision, will you just slip your hand up in

the air, If you just made that decision, I see you,

I see you, I see you, I see you, I

see you, I see you. It's the best decision that

you will ever make. Life doesn't automatically get perfect overnight,

but I'm telling you right now, it gets a whole

lot better because you don't do it alone. It's the

best decision you'll ever make, and do me a favor.

And if that was you text the word save to

a two eight two eight two. We just want to

come along side you. Tell somebody beyond texting the number,

tell somebody and honestly, guys, the other thing I want

to do, and I feel so strong about this, I

want to have a moment. I invited the worship team

back up here. I want to ask a question. This

is the second call. If you have felt anything in

this message or Holy Spirit prompting you an area that

you know you need to double down in. Maybe for

you it's doubling down in your marriage. Maybe for you

it's doubling down in your sobriety. Maybe for you it's

doubling down in that business. Maybe for you it's doubling

down and believing for the miracle that God is gonna

do and perform in that loved one's life. I don't

know what it is for you. Maybe for you, you

double down with Jesus today. Maybe for you need to

say no, God, I'm re upping the double down today.

I want to ask that you come forward I want

to ask that you come forward. We're just gonna worship

together and then we're gonna get out of here. But

I want you because I would love to pray for you,

because I believe that God is going to meet you

in this decision. I believe that the moment I decided

to follow Jesus things started. There was a spark that

happened that ignited something that ignited my purpose. And I

believe that that is what God wants to do here today.

Even if you don't want to come down to the

altar and maybe it's getting crowd, I'm telling you just

even just shift a little bit. You know, you don't

want to come down, that's cool, but you know, like

just take a little step and say, I'm doubling down.

Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord God. Right now, Lord,

I pray over every single person that is making their

way down here, that is down here online. He see

nation people that are saying, I'm doubling down. I'm decided,

I'm not distracted. I'm going all in with you right now. God.

I pray You're blessing over them. I pray favor over them.

I pray peace over them. God. I pray for that

young lady. He's husband that is facing God. You know

exactly what he's going through. God. I pray protection over him. God.

I pray for protection over any of my incarcerated friends

that are listening right now, that you will give them peace. God.

I pray for every person that is down here, that

you will give them peace. God. It's no turning back.

That's the decision we'll making. We're not turning back. We're

not looking behind us. Because as for me in my house,

we will serve the Lord. Say that with me Transformation Church.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

There's no turning back. There's a story in the Bible

where Paul and Silas were in prison and they were beaten,

and they were thrown in there, and instead of being

so discouraged and looking at their surroundings, instead they started

crying out to God. They started worshiping God. And then

the prison doors swung open, the chains fell down, the

jailer got saved, the jailer's family got saved. And I

believe in this moment, as we worship, as we are

deciding to double down. I'm believing that God is gonna

move in your life. I believe that there are people

that you're praying and believing for miracles for that are

not in this room, that you are standing in the

gap for. I believe that that same power that rescued

me in that jail cell is in this room right now.

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. Tech saved to A two eight

two A two and to find out more about TC

text connect to A two eight two eight two. Be

sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends.

Thanks for listening. Now go out and live a transform life.