Juicy Fruit: Taste The Goodness of A Spirit-Filled Life - Pastor Denny Rodney Duron

Every time we gather in the house of God, it's a moment for God to do new things.

Can I get an amen?

I'm telling you, we are Shreveport Community Church, and community is the strongest, it's the strongest thing God has given us to fight the enemy.

I'm telling you, every single one of us, God wants great things.

And I believe this.

I believe the best is yet to come.

Does anybody believe that in this place?

Come on, say it with me.

The best is yet to come.

You better believe it up in this place.

Well, my name is Denny Duron, and I'm the uh lead pastor here at Treeport Community Church with my wife Sarah.

And we believe this that every answer is in God's word for our life.

How many of you believe that?

Every answer for our life is in God's word.

And we have a great, amazing mission.

Come on, say the mission with me.

Love God will.

I want you to say it louder than that, okay?

Please.

Okay, here we go.

Love God.

Yeah! All right.

It's love, God will.

We have a great mission, and God, God's doing great things.

And I'm really excited about this word today.

Bow your head, let's pray.

God, we love you.

And we praise your name.

God, thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your love and everything that you've given us.

God, allow your word to wash over us and transform us.

Jesus, we thank you for Shreveport Community Church.

Thank you for the needs that are represented in this place.

Wash over us, love us, transform us.

God, we love you.

And help Sam Burns to win the Masters today.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, amen, amen.

All right.

For those of you that don't know, Sam Burns is a Shreveport native, and he is second in the Masters right now.

Come on.

Let's get a Shreveport guy to bring it home.

How cool would that be?

Well, we start a brand new series today, and that series is juicy fruit.

Come on, somebody.

We're starting juicy fruit.

And you say, that's silly.

No, it's not.

Okay, it's not silly.

Because our word of the year is what?

Harvest.

Harvest.

And you cannot have a harvest without some fruit.

Um, we just finished a series, Seeds of Life.

And in that series, we learned that it matters where we sow our lives, where we plant our lives.

And the seed of life is Jesus Christ.

Can I get an amen?

Jesus Christ is King, and Jesus is always in control.

So now the question is this what grows out of a life planted in Jesus?

Well, fruit.

Fruit grows.

Um, have y'all ever had juicy fruit gum?

Anyone in this place?

It's amazing, right?

Like you put it in your mouth, and it's like the best taste ever for like 10 seconds.

And then it's like, this is cardboard.

I'm spitting it out of my mouth.

It's terrible.

And here's the thing that's how we live spiritually so many times.

We invest in things that do not last, that are not everlasting.

I want you to think about your favorite fruits now.

Um, there's this thing called cotton candy grapes at Sam's.

How in the world is that possible?

The grapes taste like cotton candy.

How about honey crisp apples?

Can I get an amen?

Oh, what?

My personal favorite cold watermelon, hallelujah.

And what we do in my family is we put a little salt on our watermelon.

You're welcome, it'll change your life.

It's the greatest thing you've ever had.

But I'm not talking just about regular fruit today.

I'm talking about the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Because the Holy Spirit is the one that produces this fruit.

The Holy Spirit, he is not a feeling, he is not a moment in worship.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Can I get an amen?

He is the Spirit of God sent to live inside of us.

So we don't have to like wonder where is he?

Like searching.

No, if we've accepted Jesus and we've asked the Holy Spirit to fill us, the Holy Spirit goes everywhere that we go.

So it's not us producing all of these things.

No, the Holy Spirit is producing love, joy, and peace.

So we're getting into this the next few weeks.

We're getting into juicy fruit.

Taste the goodness of a spirit-filled life.

I want you to turn with me today to um Galatians 5 and 22.

Here's our foundational verse for this whole um series.

Here it is.

This is what Paul says.

Paul said, the juicy fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

There it is.

I want you, I want you to read this with me.

Put it back up there.

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things, there is no law.

That means you can't get enough of these things.

You can't get enough of it.

But I want you to notice this.

It says fruit, it does not say fruits, because it all is produced from the same root, from the same place.

And the very first fruit is love.

Everyone says love is love.

And it's love on purpose because all of the other fruit, well, it grows from the foundation of love.

And when the Bible says love, it's not talking about what culture calls love, thank God.

It's in scripture, it's agape, it's the highest form of love, and it's set apart from every other kind.

Help studies define agape as benevolence, doing good for the benefit of others.

Agape is the love God has for us and the love that we're to give other people.

So agape, the root word is agapeo, and it's used more than any other word for love in the New Testament because it's God's love, it's divine love, it's supernatural love.

First John says, God is love, God is agape.

And the Amplified says this it's something deeply and refusing to walk away.

It's John 3, 16 kind of love.

For God so loved that he gave.

It's not just saying it, it's an action-based love, and it's so powerful.

It's the same love that we're to love others with.

But here's what's sad, and here's the problem: not everything that looks like love is love.

There's a lot of counterfeit love out there.

So here's my first point today counterfeit fruit is imitation without transformation.

So let me take you all the way back to the beginning because the very first sin was a sin involving fruit.

So God places Adam and Eve in the garden.

And then in Genesis 2.9, the Bible says God placed the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden.

Then Genesis 2.16, he gave very clear, very clear instructions.

He said, Do not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And then in Genesis 3.6, it says, When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it.

Don't miss that.

It looked so good.

It was pleasing, it felt right, but that first bite, it didn't start with the bite.

It started with listening to a voice.

Because the Bible says that a serpent, Satan came, and this is what Satan says.

Genesis 3:1.

Genesis 3:1

Did God really say this?

Is this really what God meant?

And the enemy did not tempt, the enemy first came against the word of Almighty God.

The first thing is he challenges the word of God and gets Eve to doubt the Word of God.

And then she justifies it, she rationalizes it, she lets another voice talk her into something opposite of what God says.

She takes a bite, she's thrown out of the garden.

It leads to death.

Her feelings started over writing God's truth and God's word.

Friends, that is poison.

And that's exactly how temptation works in our world today.

It starts with a thought and then a conversation.

You start listening to the voices.

Everybody else is doing it.

It's not gonna hurt anybody.

This is just who I am.

God would want me to have what I desire.

And then little by little, we start relabeling what God has already defined, and we end up right here in Isaiah 5.20.

Whoa! Woe to those that call evil good and good evil.

Darkness, light, and light, darkness.

When conviction gets replaced with justification, friends, that's not clarity, that's deception.

Have y'all ever seen the TV show?

Is it cake?

Anyone ever seen that show?

It's like a big deal.

But they'll there's like these cake makers, it's a competition, and they'll make something like a Bible, and it looks exactly like a Bible on the outside, but then you cut into it and it's like it's cake.

It's the craziest thing.

I don't know if y'all had a grandmother that had a bowl of fake fruit at her house.

My grandmother had the bowl of the best looking fake fruit that I've ever seen in my life.

I mean, I would hold it, and I just, I was a little kid and I just couldn't help it, but I would just I had I had to take a little bite.

There were teeth marks all in her fake fruit.

It was terrible.

And here's the thing some of these are real, some of them are fake.

The enemy is not gonna tempt you with something that looks so evil, the enemy is gonna tempt you with something that looks so good, that's so enticing.

It's imitation without the transformation of the Holy Spirit.

So I love that Paul doesn't just give us the juicy fruit, the good stuff, he gives us the counterfeit fruit in the same place.

He lists it out.

So I want you to go to Galatians 5 and 16 with me.

Right here, he lists it.

Here's the list.

Here's the Bible.

He says the counterfeit fruit are the acts of the flesh and obvious sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.

I warn you as I did before, those that engage in counterfeit fruit will not inherit the kingdom of Almighty God.

Friends, God has already defined what is good and what is evil.

Thank God culture doesn't define it.

Thank God our feelings don't define it.

Thank God our heart doesn't define it.

God has already defined it.

And the Bible says this our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

What was good back then is good today.

It will always be good.

God has defined it.

And the thing is that culture, it keeps trying to redefine it.

And they define it based on morals and feelings, but they don't start with the truth of Almighty God.

Friends, the Bible existed far before this culture, and it will be fear far after.

We've got to make sure that we follow the truth of God's word.

Come on, give God some praise right now.

His word, it gives it to us.

And Paul lists them, and I'm gonna get into a few of them.

This is what Paul says counterfeit fruit.

He lists sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, meaning, defined anything sexual outside of God's design, one man and one woman in covenant marriage.

And here's what's happened culture hasn't removed sin, it's relabeled it.

So now what used to never be acceptable, now well, it's normal, it's healthy, it's who you are, it's just your truth.

And now what used to convict, it's acceptable.

What used to be so crystal clear.

Well, it's it's so confusing.

Same behavior, different label.

But once you rename it, you start resisting, you start accepting its imitation without the transformation of Almighty God.

Here's another one he lists.

He lists hatred.

Hatred.

Can I tell you there's no place in the Bible that allows a righteous hatred towards a brother and sister?

You can't find it in here.

And what's said is one of the clearest and most serious, most ignorant ways that we see hatred is in racism.

When you reject someone because they're different than you, different background, different culture, different skin, you're not just rejecting a person, you reject someone made in the image of Almighty God.

And God takes this very seriously.

Whoever claims to love God yet hates their brother or sister is a liar.

For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love a God who they have never seen.

So let's be very clear.

This isn't just wrong.

Friends, this is sin.

It's imitation without transformation.

Another thing he lists is is a witchcraft.

Witchcraft?

Yeah, yeah.

Witchcraft.

Entertaining dark spiritual things, opening doors that were never intended to be opened in the first place.

Culture packages it as man, this is this is entertaining, this is this is adventurous, this is fun.

No, here's the thing: you don't mess around with dark things and stay in the light of Almighty God.

And we see it.

Just go look at your Netflix and your Amazon Prime, you know, the TV shows and the movies, just look at some of the titles.

It's celebrated, it's accepted.

And I have I have something to give you today, and it's it's faux free.

Anyone like faux free?

You like free stuff in here?

All right.

The church, it pays so you can have a free subscription to this, but it's right now media, and right now, media, you can take a picture of this.

It's a free subscription, it's wholesome TV shows and movies for you kids, for yourself, and there's all kinds of other Bible studies.

Another one is the Minnow app.

You gotta pay for that one.

But the Minnow app has some incredible things as well.

We've got to be careful what we're accepting in our gate, in our life.

We gotta guard against darkness, imitation without transformation.

Other things, real quick, that society has done relabeling pride, it's celebrated instead of surrendered.

Relabeling idolatry, meaning putting careers and family platforms, relationship above Almighty God, selfish ambition.

I'll do whatever it takes to make sure I'm okay.

And then Paul says this, and things like this.

He doesn't give a complete list, he's pointing to the word of God.

Anything that does not align with God's word, it is counterfeit, it is poison.

But I got some hope in this place.

Anyone want some hope?

You want some hope?

Here's our hope Romans 8:1.

Romans 8:1

There is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

Put your hands together for Christ Jesus.

Come on, no condemnation.

There is grace, there is healing, there is forgiveness through Jesus in repentance.

So if we're walking towards Christ, well, we got to walk in the ways of Christ.

We can't walk opposite of what Paul's listing and doing things that aren't in accordance to Almighty God.

So, what do we do?

I'll just give you some practical steps.

Do not justify it.

Repent.

Say, God, I'm I'm sorry for living life my own way.

I want to live life your way.

But then we turn from it.

It's saying it, but then we move.

We don't take the truth of Almighty God and apply it to our lives, make it fit.

No, we take our lives and apply it to the truth of Almighty God.

That's what we have to do.

And in this, we all deal, we all deal with this and deal with things in our life.

For me, um, sometimes it's like good things that I'm trying to put above God.

Like sometimes it's it'll be ministry work and it somehow slips above God, or or my family and it becomes priority, maybe a dream or a goal, and that's that's called idolatry.

Anything you put above Almighty God is poison.

But whenever I say, God, I want you to be first, I'm allowed to live an authentic, fruitful life with Jesus Christ.

We got to put God first, and it leads to the next thing that love is alignment, not emotion.

Thank God.

So there's a term for this, it's emotional reasoning, and it's the belief that man, if I feel something, it must be true, right?

So if it feels right, it must be right.

If it feels loving, it's gotta be love, gotta be love.

But feelings do not define truth, almighty God defines truth.

Can I get an amen?

But that's the world we live in.

Culture says love is whatever feels right.

I want to read to you what the Bible says love is.

I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 7.

That's what the Bible says.

Right here.

Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it's not proud, it does not dishonor others, it's not self-seeking, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Of years.

Nowhere in there did it say love is easy.

Not once.

Nowhere in there does it say love is following your feelings.

No.

Love is alignment with almighty God.

It's alignment.

I want you to see it this way.

See life.

I'll give you this analogy.

Sea life is like the ocean.

So life is the ocean.

And the currents are our feelings.

Currents pulling us to and fro are our feelings.

Our anchor is Jesus Christ.

I don't know if y'all go to the beach, but I'll go to the beach with my family, and sometimes I'll be out in the water and I'll be playing, and I'll be with my kids, and then I turn to go back to my hotel, and my hotel's like 500 yards down the hill.

Like, how does that happen?

Well, the current has taken me, and here's the danger.

If you allow your feelings and your emotions to lead you in your life, you'll end up places you never intended to go.

You'll end up in places that you never dreamed in a bad way.

You never wanted to end up there.

But here's the deal: if you were anchored, if you're anchored to the truth, if you're anchored to Jesus Christ, if you're anchored to his obedience, well, here come your feelings and emotions, what people say, and you are steady because truth grows you and strengthens you.

But if you just follow comfort and feelings, well, that's not growth, that's just drifting.

We got to be anchored in the truth of Almighty God because the truth will set you free, the truth will grow you.

And so you speak to yourself, you gotta speak truth to yourself.

It grows, you gotta speak truth to the people that are around you.

It challenges them and it grows them.

We see this in the Bible with um Paul and Peter.

So Paul and Peter are the leaders in the early church.

Peter starts leading based on his feelings.

So he's being led by his feelings instead of alignment with Almighty God.

And he cuts out a whole group of people because of his feelings.

He's not hanging with them.

And Paul comes to him and confronts him to his face and says, That's not alignment with Jesus.

Come on, we got to include everybody.

Paul turns and gets back in alignment.

Truth, it's strengthen them.

As a leader, I have to do the same thing.

So as your pastor and and as a leader, first of all, I have to make sure that I am in alignment with Almighty God myself.

I have to say, God, I don't want to be the one leading.

God, I want you to lead.

God, make sure that I'm doing the right things.

First of all, it starts with me.

And then it goes to our staff and our pastors, that we are together.

And in my opinion, our staff and our pastors are the best of the best.

Come on, put your hands together for our staff and our pastors.

We can do better than that.

Come on, put your hands together for them.

Come on, they're amazing.

And we're in alignment.

So we gotta be in alignment.

So we're going towards Jesus.

We have staff values, we have staff goals, we have staff expectations.

And if somebody gets out of alignment, well, it's like we don't let them just stay comfortable and well, just follow your feelings.

Well, that brings us out of alignment.

No, there's moments of truth.

And we sit down in these conversations to get back in alignment because when we're in alignment together with God and each other, that's called unity, and we can do far more together than we could ever do alone.

It's unity in Jesus Christ.

But it starts with yourself, starts with you.

And this is how serious Jesus is about it.

This is what Jesus says.

I love how he puts it.

Jesus says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Meaning you're trying to heal somebody, but you're not healed yourself.

You're trying to help somebody out, but you need to make sure you're in alignment first.

So here's some practical ways.

Real love doesn't start with correcting others, it starts with examining ourselves.

We got to anchor to obedience, anchor to truth, even when our feelings and emotions are pulling us away.

We got to speak truth to ourselves and those around us, even when it's gonna cost us something.

And we cannot give up.

When it gets difficult, don't stop.

Because God is strengthening you, getting you ready for the greatest breakthrough of your life.

Because I'm looking at leaders right now.

Every single one of you are called to be a leader where you are.

Did you know that?

Every one of you.

First of all, you gotta lead yourself in the truth of Jesus Christ.

But then God has called you to lead your spouse, to lead your kids, to lead your friends, to speak truth and love and the unity, it brings us to a place of experiencing the fruits of the Spirit.

Um it brings me to my next point.

You cannot give what you have not received.

You can't give what you haven't received.

Some people are trying to do everything that I'm saying, you have you haven't received it yet.

And this is this is what I'm talking about.

First John 4.

It says, and so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.

Verse 19.

We love because God first loved us.

Can I get a big amen?

Thank you, Jesus.

We love because God first loved us.

So we don't love people first.

We accept the love of God first.

And if we try to love people in our own strength, well, we're always gonna run empty and we start loving like this in performance, in control, in security.

We get in a place of fear of rejection.

And then it's based on how you feel, how people are treating you, how things are going.

And the Bible says this even evil people love like that.

The world even loves like that.

We're called to love with the agape love, the divine love, the love of Almighty God.

We gotta first be filled with his love.

We gotta accept the love of Christ.

And when we're filled with God's love, then we can act divine.

And what is divine?

Well, loving those that hate you, blessing those that curse you, doing good to those that are coming against you.

You say, I can't do that, Denny.

No, you don't have to.

Allow God's love to do it through you.

You get filled with the love of God.

We gotta give what we're filled with, and when that happens, it changes everything.

I don't know if y'all know this, but I got five kids.

Come on, I got five kids.

I got 17-year-old all the way down to a seven-month-old.

We're dealing with all the emotions all at one time.

It's great, it's awesome.

I love it.

And here's the thing whenever I'm empty with the love of God in my household, one little thing happens, and I translate it as everything's going wrong, everything's falling apart when I'm empty and the love of Almighty God.

Well, I can't stand anybody, I'm angry at everyone, and I'm looking through the lens of everything's gloomy and doomy.

It's just bad.

And I don't live like that.

So whenever it feels like that, I know, oh, I gotta step back.

I gotta fill myself with the love of Almighty God.

How do I do that?

Well, my sermon last week, that's my go-to.

I look at Almighty God and I say, God, you're bigger than anything that I'll ever face.

God, you're in control.

God, you're the author and you're the creator.

You can take care of my little situation because you take care of everything else.

God, you are number one.

I could I put God in his rightful place, number one.

Then I start on my gratitude list.

God, thank you, I got another breath.

Thank you, I got another day.

Thank you that I got my family and my friends.

Thank you for my church.

God, thank you for the opportunities.

Thank you for the dreams and desires in my heart.

And then I like to speak in tongues a little bit.

I like to speak in my heavenly prayer language, in my car or walking down the street, and the love of Almighty God, it begins to rise.

And then it can spill out in those crazy situations, those moments where it doesn't make sense.

Well, God's love, it can take control.

We got to fill ourselves so that we can give to others.

And there's a verse that literally says everything that I just said, Romans 5:5.

Romans 5:5

The Bible puts it best.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, given to us freely.

This is not about shame, not about condemnation.

This is about receiving the love of Almighty God.

Nothing you earn, but you receive it.

And then we can get to our last point, and the band can come up.

I'm closing.

Here is my last point today.

Love is the root of everything.

Love is the root of everything.

Paul says this, 1 Corinthians 13.

He lists like this incredible spiritual list.

It's like amazing.

He says, if I speak in tongues, if I have the gift of prophecy, if I can fathom the mysteries and the knowledge, faith that can move mountains, that's a pretty big deal.

If I give all my possessions to the poor, so this incredible list, and he says, you can do all of that, but if you do not have love, you have nothing.

If you don't have love, you have nothing.

You can do all things right and still feel empty.

Because here's the bottom line: I want you to get this.

Love is the root for all the other fruit.

It's the foundation where everything else grows.

So no love.

Well, no real peace, no real joy, no real patience.

And you can't do this on your own.

You can't try your way to it, you can't earn your way to it.

The only way that you have access to it is you connect to Almighty God.

Jesus says it best.

John 15, 5.

I'm the vine.

You are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

So if we connect to God, well, we have access to things that we can never do on our own.

But if we're not connected to God, we can do nothing.

Poison, counterfeit, death, but with God, the life abundantly.

So here, the objective is not, God, give me a great life.

God, it's all about me.

Like, God, help me to have a great time.

No, friends, all that'll happen as a result of you being connected to Almighty God.

You've got to be connected to the life source, connected to Jesus Christ, connected to the vine.

And when that happens, well, love flows freely.

There's peace that passes understanding.

Joy begins to rise because it's not your strength, it's the strength of Almighty God.

So here's the question.

The question is not, do I have enough love?

No.

The question is: Am I connected to the source of love?

Am I connected to the Holy Spirit, to Jesus, the source of Almighty God?

Today we have a very special gift for you.

When you leave this place, we're gonna give you a packet of juicy fruit gum.

You're welcome.

It's gonna be great.

Right there for you.

And as you go, you're gonna, it's gonna delight you, okay?

Put it in your mouth, it's gonna last about 10 seconds, then you're gonna spit it out because it's gonna be terrible.

It doesn't last.

But I want you one more time, I want you to think about your favorite fruit.

Maybe it's like a big old juicy plum.

I don't know if you like them plums.

You take a bite of that, and it's like all over your face.

It's like the best.

What makes the best fruit?

What's not what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside.

And here's the thing what makes the best fruit is the water content.

There's high water content.

I mean, that's the that's the best fruit.

And here's what I'm telling you today.

You've got to stay connected to the living water of the Holy Spirit.

You stay connected to the vine, but then the Holy Spirit, living water flows through you.

You have a life greater than what you could ever imagine.

The objective isn't, God, give me the best life.

God, you're more than enough.

I want to be connected to you.

And then everything else is covered in your life.

So I just have a couple next steps for you.

And here they are.

Take inventory of the fruit in your life.

What are you producing in your life?

Take inventory.

Stop eating the counterfeit fruit.

If it takes you away from alignment of Almighty God, it's poison.

Receive God's love daily, not occasionally, friends, daily.

And choose obedience over feelings, even when it costs you.

And it might cost you in your your own way, but the end result is greater than what you could ever imagine.

I've just been thinking about the Katinas as I'm preaching this sermon.

The Katinas are my favorite singing group that there are.

I just I've loved them since I was a little kid.

And they've been here before, it's Five Brothers.

They sing harmonies, play all the instruments.

A lot of you know the Katinas.

40 years ago, the Katinas were offered a um a record contract by Clive Davis.

Clive Davis is one of the biggest record producers of all time, produced people like Whitney Houston and countless others.

There's documentaries on him.

They said in his office, the Katinas 40 years ago signed a record deal with Clive Davis for eight for eight albums and millions of dollars.

Everyone's like, they've made it! This is amazing.

The very first song that they asked them to sing did not align with the values of what God has called us to live.

So they brought it back and said, Hey, we can't sing this.

They said, sing it or you're done.

They prayed for two days.

And when they came back, they said, Hey, we're finished.

And they slid that contract back across that table.

They were done.

Can I tell you, for 40 years, the Katinas have traveled around the world preaching and singing the gospel.

There have been thousands and thousands of people that have come to know Jesus because they have stayed in alignment with Almighty God.

So many of the groups that go secular, it just ends in a train wreck and devastation.

I want to tell you the miracle of five brothers that have stayed together for over 40 years.

And now they have children, they have a family, and all of them are following Almighty God, something greater than they could ever imagine.

Why?

Because they stayed aligned and they valued what God said above what culture says.

What?

Are you kidding?

You're gonna give up a contract?

That is success.

Not in my book, it isn't.

If it takes me away from alignment of Almighty God, I'm done with it, I'm finished with it.

Yeah, it might look like I'm giving something up, but it's gonna end better than you could ever think.

I'm staying with Almighty God.

Come on, get on your feet right now.

Pray for you this morning.

I'm not asking you to do something.

I'm not asking you to do something this morning.

I want you to receive something.

You get that?

I want you to receive the love of God.

I want you to connect to the vine.

I want the Holy Spirit to be able to fill you today.

This is your moment.

It's not like this is a checking off to-dos and all the no, we receive God's love.

And how great is God's love.

God's love is more than enough.

Bow your head.

Today, if you say this, you say, I want to receive the love of God.

I want to connect to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

You say, I want to receive the love of God.

I want to receive the Holy Spirit today.

This is my moment.

I want to receive His love.

I just want you to raise your hand if you say that today.

I want to receive His love.

I want to receive the Holy Spirit.

I want this moment to be my moment.

Everyone, bow your head.

I want you to lift your hands as a sign of surrender.

Bow your head and lift your hands.

God, I pray for every hand that is lifted in the name of Jesus.

Thank you that you are the answer.

Thank you that you are more than enough.

Thank you the power that fills us so we can do anything good.

Lord, we give you all the praise and glory.

And right now, I pray you fill my friends with your power.

God, fill them with your love.

Everyone say, fill me with your love, God.

Everyone say, fill me with the Holy Spirit.

Say, I accept the Holy Spirit.

God, fill them.

God, give them your love.

Give them your grace.

And God, I pray that as we go after things that we think are the great ways that go against your way, God, I pray that we'll get rid of them.

They're poisoning our life.

And I pray that we'll pick up what is everlasting.

God, what will change us.

Lord, we want you.

Everyone just say, I want you, God.

Say, I want you, Jesus.

Say, fill me, Holy Spirit.

Bow your head, lift your hands, and we're gonna worship.

And during this worship, I just want you to keep saying it, God, fill me with the Holy Spirit.

God, fill me with your love.

Come on, this is your moment.

Let's worship together.

Thank you for connecting with us today.

The first step to a new life in Christ is receiving the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

If you have never received Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, repeat this prayer after me.

Jesus, I believe you died on a cross and rose again for me.

I ask that you come into my heart and be the Lord of my life.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Whether you committed your life to Jesus for the first time today or are already on your journey of faith, we would love to stay connected with you.

Please visit SCchurch.com and follow SC Church on all social media platforms.

And remember, the best is yet to come.