Stay Up | Pastor Christy Jones

just need to know that it ain't

over. Amen. Thank you, Jesus. Well,

listen. It is time for the word.

Everybody ready for the word? Oh my

God. I am so excited to be standing in

thestead of the greatest

pastor in the entire world, Bishop Rosie

S. O'Neal. Come on and give it up for

our

[Applause]

pastor. My goodness. All right, y'all be

seated. I'm telling you, I love my

pastor. Just know that. Amen. Amen. And

I have the opportunity to stand and give

God some glory through his word today.

Amen. So, let's jump

in. Has anybody in here ever been

walking too fast and your foot slipped?

Mhm. Well, let me tell you, just the

other day, Cristiana and I were leaving

the dentist office, and I'm fasting out

of the out of the dentist office,

Veronica. I'm walking really, really

fast. And all of a sudden, my foot

slipped off the side of the

sidewalk. I'm telling you, as God is my

witness, the range of emotions that I

experienced in that one

moment was pure panic.

I was scared as I don't know what. So

many things were set in motion because I

was going down.

My whole reputation, Pastor Trev, was on

the line because I was going down. All I

could think in my mind was seeing it on

Facebook. Pastor Christie face down on

the pavement posted on Facebook because

I was going down. My bones were at risk

because I was going down. I'm not

getting any younger. Y'all know that.

And if the truth be told, over the

years, I've added a few extra pounds.

And Cristiana, as well as this little

kid who was watching it, they were at

risk, too, because they weren't going to

be able to pick me up because I was

going down.

The feeling of losing your footing or

heading for a fall just isn't physical.

There's a spiritual going down that can

happen when you lose your footing in

God. Well, I think that there's some

wisdom to be gained by Holy Spirit as we

examine the life of a very familiar

person in the scriptures whose life was

going down because of his various

choices. So, our time together today, I

want us to take a look at the life of

Samson.

Samson is a well-known character. He's a

miracle child because he was born to his

parents at the time they were barren.

Samson comes out different. He's unique.

He's a pretty good kid, you know, pretty

good-looking, really strong. I'm telling

you, this joker could tear up a lion cam

with his bare hands.

And the thing that I loved about Samson

is he had a covenant with God. It was a

Nazerite vow. And in his covenant, he

was not to touch any dead thing. He was

not supposed to be in any certain in

certain environments because he wasn't

supposed to drink wine and he wasn't

even supposed to be in wine making

environments. And he was not and he was

not supposed to cut his hair. Well, God

had told him, just like he's told many

of us through his word and his spirit,

things that we should do and things that

we should not do.

But the issue that we've got to deal

with today as it relates to Samson is

this. For all of his potential, for all

of his gifting, for all of his strength,

and even with a covenant on his side,

how is it that Samson kept going down?

Now, I'm going to tell you something.

This scares me. I don't know. It's It

really does scare me. It grips my heart.

And I'm telling you, it should scare you

as well. I'm not talking about the kind

of fear that paralyzes us. That's not

what I'm talking about. But what I'm

talking about is the kind of fear, the

reverential fear that should create

carefulness for our covenant. Amen. You

got to remember that bishop taught us in

our covenant that we have with God that

there are promises

and privileges. There are rights, you

got it, and

responsibilities. And if you remember

from last week, Bishop shared with us

that there is a cost to covenant. And

she called and she told us that we're

called to speak up for those who'd have

no voices. Amen.

Well, we've learned throughout this time

of living covenant consciously. How many

of y'all have been paying attention and

keeping up? Amen. We've learned that our

covenant should give us confidence.

I'm going to say that again. We've

learned that our covenant should give us

confidence, but it also should give us

clarity, but it most certainly should

give us and produce carefulness. Yeah.

So today's lesson helps us to see

through the life of Samson what happens

when we start putting compromise where

there should be carefulness.

I'mma let you know this. When we do

that, our lives go down. Look at your

neighbor in the face and help me preach

this and say, "Don't go down. Don't go

down. Stay up. Stay up." So what is God

saying to us today? He's telling us stay

up.

Stay up. I've been reading, pastor. Good

gracious. I've been reading Judges

Judges 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13, 14, 15, and chapter 16

probably for the past month and a half.

I've been reading it just over and over

and over again and just outlining

Samson's life. And I'm telling you,

every time I turned around, what I

started noticing was Samson was I'm

going

down. I'm going down.

Okay, now get that Mary J. Blind song

right on off your mind. Go on and get

that off your mind. Tell your neighbor,

you ain't going down. You better stay

up. You better stay up. And Lord knows I

thought to myself that Samson must have

had that song on repeat because he kept

going down. Well, let's look at a few

examples from Samson's life where we

find him going down. Look at Judges

Judges 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14 and I'm going to read verses

1 and two out of

NIV. The first example that I see where

Samson is going down. It says Samson

went Judges 14:es 1 and two. Samson went

down to Timna and saw there a young

Philistine woman. When he returned, he

said to his father and his mother, "I

have a I've seen a Philistine woman in

Timna. Now get her for me as my wife."

Now, first of all, the tone of that, you

talking to your mama and your daddy and

you telling your mama and your daddy,

"Go get her for me cuz that that's who I

want." I had issues with that. But let

me ask let me tell you this. I know your

question may be, well now, what does

that got to do with his life going down?

Well, look at verse three, and I'm going

to read this in the NIV. His father and

mother replied, "Isn't there an

acceptable woman among your relatives or

among all your people? Must you go to

the uncircumcised Philistines to get a

wife?" The very first thing that I noted

was Samson was looking in the wrong

place to get his need met.

He was looking in the wrong place to get

his need met. He already knew that he

was supposed to be intermaring with a

Philistine woman. He already knew that

he was looking in the wrong place.

Somebody say he was looking in the wrong

place.

And if you look at how the language is

in verse two, three, he said, his mother

and father said, "Isn't there an

acceptable woman?" what he was looking

at was not acceptable for his covenant.

Look at your look at your person on the

left side of you and say, "Now, what is

what you looking at acceptable?"

You got to ask yourself that question

when you're talking about your covenant.

Is it acceptable for your covenant?

God had already established what kind of

person Samson was supposed to marry. and

his choice compromised and undercut the

carefulness that his covenant required.

You got to be careful what you're

looking at. You got to be careful. Now,

y'all, we got to make Pastor said this,

we got to make a covenant with our eyes.

You can't look at everything. You can't

entertain everything. You've got to be

careful because what you look at will

get down on the inside of you and it'll

start pulling you in places that you

should not be going.

You got to be careful. Can't look in the

wrong place. KCC men,

align men.

You all have made a commitment and a

covenant to stand strong and be

committed to Christ. Amen. You made a

covenant to say, you know what? I am an

aligned man. I'm generous at my core.

Now, let me say this to you. I know that

girl is

fine. I know she fine. I know she's

fine. Amen. But the truth of the matter

is she's not your wife. And God calls

that unacceptable.

And somebody say, "And it'll take you

down." And it'll take you down.

The other thing that I noted, pastor,

from Samson's life, look at Judges

chapter

14:5. The other thing that I noticed

from Samson's life, and make note of

this, that the Holy Spirit showed us.

Verse five says, "Samson went down to

Timna together with his father and his

mother as they approached vineyards."

Now, let's stop right there. Let's stop

right there. Samson, now you already

have a Nazerite vow. You already vowed

that you would not be in

vineyards. This is what you told God. So

the second thing that I noted was his

life went down because he started

lingering in the wrong place.

You've got to be careful where you're

looking. But you also need to be careful

where you're lingering.

And as a Nazerite, he weren't supposed

to be there. He had already swore that

he was not going to be anywhere near any

vines.

Now, let me say this.

I know that we are not I know I don't

want you to think that I'm telling you

that you ain't going to ever be around

people that have no covenant with God

cuz that's not the truth. That's not the

case. On your job, you going to have

some people that are not saved. Amen. In

your and I'm not telling you not to go

to your family reunion because I know

that Aunt Sally ain't saved yet and she

cuss a little bit, dip her snuff and do

her stuff. I get it and you and it's

okay for you to be there. But what I am

saying is this. You've got to be careful

where you do your relaxing.

[Music]

You got to be careful where you lay your

hair, where you let your hair down.

You have to be careful because the enemy

is trying to snatch you out of your

place.

You got to be careful because the enemy

is trying to snatch you out of your

place. But touch somebody and say, "You

better stay up. You better stay up." Now

see, there's a difference between being

cordial and being comfortable.

There's a difference between being

cordial and comfortable. There's a

difference between being influenced and

influencing. You need to know the

difference. I can smile with the best of

them. I can smile. I can high-five with

you, but I'm not going to let my hair

down everywhere. And that's what you and

I have to me be aware of. You can't be

comfortable everywhere.

Bishop said it like this. Please get

this. She said, "If you are on fire and

you hang out with ice cubes, sooner than

later, I guarantee you that those ice

cubes are going to win and you are going

to cool off."

Now, I don't know about you, but that's

all I'm gonna say on that. The bottom

line is his life went down. So, he's

looking in the wrong direction.

He's lingering in places where he

shouldn't. And the third thing that I

noticed, go to Judges 14. Look at verse

8 and N. When I tell you his story, woo,

was amazing. Talk Bible. That's right,

Pastor Trip. Verse 8 says, "Sometime

later, when he had went back to marry

her, he turned aside to look at the

lion's carcass. And in it, he saw a

swarm of bees and some honey." Look at

verse n. He scooped out the honey with

his hands and ate as he went along.

The third thing that I noticed that kept

Samson going down was he started

touching the wrong thing.

He's touching something dead that's

violating his covenant.

And you got to ask yourself, what am I

touching that's violating my covenant?

Again, here's the thing. Who in the

world wants to eat something honey eat

honey out of something dead?

It's sweet, honey. It's sweet. It's

sweet, but it's on the inside of

something dead.

Now, let me tell you this. My daddy used

to say it like this. Everything that

looks good to you ain't good for

[Applause]

you. And that was certainly true of

Samson's covenant. You know, Bishop, I

was studying this term. It's a clinical

term, and it's called necrilia.

And it is the practice of having a

strong or pathological fascination with

dead things. It often includes a desire

to engage in intimate interaction and

activity with dead things.

Now I saw your faces. I saw some of us

scrunch our faces up like, "Oh my god,

that is nasty." And you are exactly

right. Physically it is. But the Holy

Spirit said to me, "Don't scrunch your

face up so quickly. And don't turn your

nose up so fast because some of us have

been practicing spiritual and emotional

necroilia.

[Applause]

Somebody hurt you years ago and you

started walking in unforgiveness and now

you've been holding on to that pain and

you're caressing it and you're holding

it and you're playing with it over and

over in your mind. Tell your neighbor,

"It's a dead thing. It's a dead thing

and you need to let it go.

Some of you in here have used to battle

with anxiety and depression, but you

know that God delivered you from that.

But every now and then at the first sign

of trouble or struggle, you start

reverting back to that old thought

pattern in your mind. Instead of

grabbing hold to the word of God and

speaking it out of your mouth, you need

to touch your neighbor again and say,

"Stay up. Stay up. It's a dead thing.

And you ain't supposed to touch it.

But perhaps the most famous example of

Samson going down is found in his

interaction with Delilah. Where he

completely disregards the carefulness of

his covenant. The most familiar part of

his story occurs when he tells her the

secret of his strength and he lays down

in the compromised position on her lap

and she lulls him to sleep and violates

the covenant that he made with God. But

what we've got to pay attention to and

learn from in this story is not the big

fall, but the small, seemingly

insignificant moments of compromise that

led up to this great fall with Delilah.

You see, this lesson really is about the

danger of compromise. Bishop gave me

this definition, and I'm telling you,

amazing. This is what she said.

Compromise is when you have a standard

set, but you expand it or relax it for

something else that you want to do.

Right? I'll say it again. Compromise is

when you have a standard set, but you

expand it and relax it for something

else that you want to do. Compromises

are not always sin, but they're not

wise.

Now say it again. Compromises are not

always sin, but they are not wise.

Bishop shared something else with me and

I'm telling you, just listen to this.

She said, "When you compromise

consistently over time, even if it's not

a sin, listen to what it will do. It

will weaken your ability to stay

upright. It weakens your ability to keep

your word and it destroys your character

because you push the boundaries for your

own convenience and it ultimately kills

the muscle of restraint in

you. You get to a point where you have

said no so much where you've said yes so

much to stuff that you shouldn't have

said yes to that you get in a position

now when you should say no that you

can't.

Think about that for a moment. You get

into a position, you should say no, but

you done say a yes so much till now when

it calls for a no. You don't even have

any restraint at all. This is what the

enemy is looking and trying to get us

into this position to be. But tell

somebody, stay up. You got to stay up.

Pastor Shandelle said it like this.

Every time you say yes when you

shouldn't, it becomes harder to say no

when you should.

[Applause]

Every time you say yes when you

shouldn't, it becomes harder to say no

when you should.

For example, you said that you won't

going to ever drink alcohol. And that

was the standard that you and God set

because you realize that your whole

family deal with alcoholism. But now you

see somebody else drinking. So you say,

"Oh, well, maybe it's okay for me to

drink a little something, too." That's

compromised for you because you had your

standard set already. Now you see

somebody else and you're going to relax

it. And I'm going to tell you what it's

going to do. It's going to take your

life down. Tell somebody, "Stay up."

Stay up. Here's another example. You

used to be on fire for the Lord. I mean

in church serving wide open. You are

here when the doors open, before the

doors open. But then you get attached to

certain groups or environments and you

swore it you were going to be the light.

But now you've been doing things that

make you look like what's not the light

anymore.

You started compromising

and it's taking your life down. Somebody

say stay up. Stay up. And this is

exactly what happened to Samson. Every

time he said yes to his flesh, every

time he said yes to touching what he

should not have, every time he said yes

to being in an environment that was

against what God told him, he was losing

restraint. So much so till by the time

he got into this situation with Delilah,

his ability to restrict and restrain

himself was completely defeated. He

ended up losing all of his strength. But

look at Judges chapter 16 verse 19. My

Judges 16:19

God.

Oh, goodness gracious. His His story is

just just I don't even know what to say.

Hold on. Let me turn my Bible. Judges 16

Judges 16:19

verse 19. It says, "After putting him to

sleep on her lap, she called for someone

to shave off the seven braids of his

hair. Delilah had lulled Sam to sleep

with his head in her lap. And then she

called in a man to shave off the seven

locks of his hair. In this way, she

began to bring him down, and his

strength left him. Y'all, this one verse

is the culmination of consistently

choosing compromise over carefulness.

Wow. This one

verse is the culmination of consistently

choosing compromise over carefulness.

This picture shows us a person who

consistently cut corners.

It shows us a person who consistently

participated in gray area activity.

And y'all, we've got to be careful. This

is a prophetic warning to us. We've got

to be careful. We've got to stay up

because the enemy is trying to snatch

you out of your place. But tell

somebody, "The devil is a lie." I'm

going to stay up.

So, how do we stay up? Let me go on to

this. So, how do we stay up? This is

what Holy Spirit said. I'm going to give

you these and then I'mma sit down. This

is what the Holy Spirit said. Number

one, how do you stay up? You got to

respect your covenant.

You got to respect your covenant. Bishop

said it standing right here. You got to

decide. Decide what kind of person

you're going to be. Decide what kind of

Christian you are going to be. You got

to set your non-negotiables.

What are the things that you are

absolutely not going to do? I know

everybody else might be doing stuff, but

no, I'm not doing that. Why? Because

this is what me and God talked about in

my covenant. No, I'm not going over

there and hanging out with those crazy

people over here that's talking a bunch

of trash about the church. No, I'm not

doing that. Yeah, that's good. I'm not

doing that. Look at your neighbor and

tell them, "I'm not doing that."

Set your non-negotiables. What are

things that you are absolutely not going

to do? But what are the things that you

are going to do? I am going to be in

church every Sunday. Absolutely. I'm

bringing my tithe. Absolutely. I'm

sewing into the life of my pastor.

Absolutely. I'm loving on my husband.

Absolutely. I'm not stepping outside of

that covenant. No, I'm not.

You got to respect your covenant. You

got to respect your covenant. And God is

calling for some of us in here today.

It's time for you to make a decision.

What kind of Christian are you going to

be?

All right. Number two, how are you going

to stay up? You got to respect your

covenant. Number two, you got to refuse

dead things.

You got to refuse dead things. The Holy

Spirit gave it to me like this. You got

to refuse to taste, touch, try out, or

toy with anything dead.

I'll say it again. You've got to refuse

to taste, touch, try out, or touch, or

toy with anything dead. That's past

relationships. That's toxic

relationships. That's harmful habits.

Whatever that is for you, you got to

refuse it.

Don't play with it. You got to refuse it

because the enemy is trying to take you

out

and you got to know that.

Number three, how do you stay up? You

have to recognize the ex the escalation

of compromise.

You have to recognize the escalation of

compromise. Here's what he said to me.

You need to know that any compromise

that you make is going to carry you

further than you intended to go, keep

you longer than you intended to stay,

and cost you more than you intended to

pay.

You need to know that this compromise is

going to take you further than you want

to go. You see, the enemy is not just

trying to mess up your day. That's not

what he's trying to do. He's trying to

erase your face.

He's trying to take away your legacy.

And you need to wake up and stay up.

[Applause]

That's a cost you don't want to pay.

He ain't just trying to take your

marriage. That's not what he's trying to

do. He's trying to destroy legacy.

You and your spouse loving on each

other. That's a picture of Christ loving

the church. So, he wants to erase that

so people can go down. But tell

somebody, "Stay up." Stay up. Number

four, what you got to do if you're going

to stay up, you got to remember what's

at stake. You got to remember what's at

stake. Y'all, we run the risk like

Samson of losing our hair, losing our

anointing, losing our witness, losing

our power, losing our strength, and

losing our vision. There's so much at

stake.

And you got to be aware of that.

This ain't the time to be sleep.

Now, I know these lights are dim in here

and it's, you know, a a nice environment

and you feel comfortable and you feel

like you can just close your eyes. This

is not the time to close your eyes.

This ain't the time to lay your head in

Delila's lap. This is the time to stay

up

cuz the enemy is trying to destroy us.

But somebody say, "The devil is a lie."

The devil is a lie. And then number

five, pastor. Oh my god. Number five.

This one hit me like a ton of bricks.

Listen. Woo. Number five. If you are

going to stay up, you got to reach out

to God for help. Yeah,

you got to reach out to God for help.

Let me tell you, look at this. Check

this out. Judges chapter 16, last verse,

Judges 16 · chapter mention

verse 28 says, "Then Samson prayed to

the Lord. Sovereign Lord, remember me.

Please God, strengthen me just one more

time and let me with one blow get

revenge on the Philistines for my two

eyes." Let me tell you something. Pastor

Ni and I were on the phone yesterday and

we were talking. She said, "Chris," and

I know she's watching. Hey, girl. So,

she said this to me. She said, "Listen,

you got to understand the Sam Samson

thought that he had lost everything."

But you know what he did not lose? He

didn't lose his

voice. He didn't lose his voice. He

could cry out to God cuz that's what

that word pray means. He could cry out

to God. So, let me tell you something.

Some of you may be sitting in here right

now and you're listening to this message

and you're saying, "You know what? I

hear what you're saying, but my life is

already gone down. I'm not going down.

It's already gone down." I want to

encourage you. Cry out to God. Cry out

to God because the good news is God

strengthened Samson. He strengthened

him, y'all. He strengthened him and

Samson began to get in that position and

he knocked that mess down. And I know at

the end it looked tragic, but it really

wasn't. Because the good news is God

will help you.

[Music]

[Applause]

Cuz see, the enemy will try to hit you

with condemnation, make you feel like

your story is over. But I'm here to let

the devil know the devil is a lie. Your

story ain't over, baby. The fact that

you sitting in here right now with a

mind to even listen lets me know that

God's got you.

But you got to reach out to God for

help.

You got to reach out. And you still got

your voice.

Tell somebody, I still got my voice. I

know the devil been messing with me, but

I still got my voice. I still got a

connection with God. I still can cry out

to the Lord, and he will hear

me. Yes, he will.

Don't let the devil fool you, back you

into a corner, make you feel like all

hope is lost. Cam, all hope ain't lost.

Baby, you still got your voice. You

still got your voice, Lena. You still

got your voice. You still got your

voice, Maya. You still got your

voice. And you need to remind your

circumstances and remind the devil, I

still got my voice. I know I messed up.

I know I did some stupid stuff, but I

still got my voice. I still got a

connection with God. And he promised me

that he wouldn't leave me nor forsake

me. That he would be with me until the

end. And you need to know that.

[Applause]

That's all I came to tell you

today. Don't

compromise. Don't

compromise. Make it your business that

you are not going to compromise. that

you going to respect your covenant, that

you going to do what you need to do and

refuse dead things,

[Music]

and you going to stay up

and you going to stay up. Heads are

bowed, eyes are closed.

Believers, let's pray. up.