Letting Go of the Orphan Spirit | Jason Cowart

maybe there's something going on in your life, maybe something from your past has drastically negatively impacted how you think about life right now.

But let me just tell you, if it's anything other than son or daughter, I want you to know something.

This is for you tonight.

This is for you tonight.

See, god created us for sonship and daughterhood, not orphanhood.

He created us to be accepted in his kingdom, not rejected in his kingdom.

You all understand this.

We all face rejection from time to time every single one of us but people respond to it differently.

I have a friend named Brandon Greer.

I don't care what you say to this guy.

You can reject him all you want, he's not going to feel rejected.

But then you have some people that they are dying beneath the weight of what other people think about them right now.

Maybe you feel like that.

Maybe that's why you do what you do is because you're terrified of what somebody might think of you if you don't do this specific thing.

But God's plan for you has always been for you to be a part of his family.

John 14, 18 says this I will not leave you as orphans.

I'm coming to you Now.

Just a question that this verse raises to me why orphans, of all the words Jesus could have chosen in that moment, why an orphan?

You ever thought about that?

He could have said sinners, I'm not going to leave you as sinners.

I mean, isn't that our big issue?

Isn't that the thing that separates us from Jesus?

And that's what Jesus came to die for?

Our sins, you know right, that's sinners.

What about lost?

I'll not leave you as lost, I'm coming to you.

What about condemned?

What about separated?

Dare I say the word depraved?

What is it?

What other word could he put in there other than orphan?

I'm convinced, and I have been for a while now, that our biggest need was not being saved from sin, but rather saving from orphanhood.

I believe sin is simply a fundamental misunderstanding and ignorance of who God really is and, as a result, who we really are.

I'm telling you right now if you really got a glimpse of who God was, you stop sinning.

This is a part of the problem is, when we come to church, when we have these moments with the Lord, we get these little glimpses.

I mean, 2 Corinthians 3.18 even says that we're seeing this through a veil, but at some point the veil is going to be taken off.

We're going to get to see God for who he really is.

If they're always going to be taken off, we're going to get to see God for who he really is.

When we're living in sin, we are simply unable to see God for who he really is.

It's an identity issue that we have as a result of this, and we make it about right and wrong.

How many people you know make church about right and wrong, christianity about right and wrong?

Okay, well, if I don't do this, god's cool with me.

If I do do this, then God's cool with me.

Boy, if I do that, god's not cool with me.

And even trends like that.

We come into worship and it's like we just standing there like this, because it's like I don't want God to see me.

You know what I'm saying, like he knew what I do.

He loves me.

You know I don't.

Here's the problem, though.

If it was all about right and wrong and that was the big issue then the law should have fixed it.

The law should have fixed it.

Hey, do this, don't do this.

Problem solved, fam.

That's not what happened, though, is it?

Sin isn't really as much as a right and wrong issue as it is an identity issue.

It's a love and obedience issue.

It's a misunderstanding of the father-son or father-daughter relationship that we were born to experience.

So what's the big issue then?

The big issue is orphanhood, and you know what?

Every single human being since Adam has had to face this same fight with orphanhood, and I think this is why Jesus said orphan and not something else.

You see, sin's ability to distort our view of the Father is that way, so that we can embrace orphanhood, and it's one of Satan's best strategies.

I want you to understand.

The last thing Satan wants you to do is to embrace who God is.

Last thing he wants you to do is see God as the loving Father that we know he is, and so what happens is all of the things that have gone on in your life have specifically been designed by Satan to get you focused on a God who isn't there, who doesn't do what you want him to do, who's not a provider.

That's why you start tithing and you're like I don't know why things are going crazy, like Satan wants you to look at God and say, hey, you said, if I do this, you're going to provide for me, and then not do it.

That's what he wants for you, but y'all, this is where the orphan spirit and rejection live.

Look at this verse in Romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Boy, romans, chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Woo, that's a chapter right there.

It's one of the top ones right there.

So look in verses 12 through 17.

So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh you'll die, but if, by the spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back in fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba, father.

If you continue to read in Romans, chapter 8, you'll see things like this.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It's very simple.

It's very simple.

If life according to the spirit is sonship, then what is life according to the flesh?

It's orphanhood.

You see Satan, as evil as he is, he's a pretty smart cookie and he knows the effects of a father-son, father-daughter relationship.

Ezekiel 28, powerful passage of scripture, powerful chapter, tells us about Satan.

Before his fall, he was on the holy mountain and that he hovered over God, over the throne.

He was the covering angel, he was constantly in the presence of the Trinity, specifically God the Father, god, jesus the Son.

He hovered over.

He saw this long before God ever said let there be light Now.

That meant from the moment he was created.

He saw day in and day out God the Father perfectly loving his Son.

He had a front row seat to this.

He saw the most amazing love imaginable, this loving father loving his son.

It means that Satan knew why Jesus was sinless.

You ever wonder how Jesus could be sinless.

The easy answer is well, he was God.

Yeah, that's great.

Well, guess what?

Not only does the Holy Spirit remind us that we're sons and daughters, not only does the Holy Spirit remind us of everything that Jesus taught.

When Jesus told his disciples in Acts, chapter one I want you to stay right here because you're gonna be filled with power from on high.

Y'all, it wasn't just so we could be witnessing really good, you know what I'm saying.

Second, peter 1.3 says by his divine power, he's given you everything you need to live a godly life.

So if you want to live sinless, guess what the Holy Spirit is how you do that.

Jesus gave to us the very same nature that he had, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is why there's such a big encouragement in the body of Christ for you to be filled with the Spirit.

And I'm going to tell you right now I don't care if you get the Holy Spirit when you get saved or if it's some second experience.

We can argue all day long and twice on Sunday.

Listen, be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day.

Jesus, you're Lord of my life today.

I don't know what I did yesterday, but today you're Lord of my life.

Holy Spirit, I receive you fresh and new Like come on.

This is a daily prayer for us.

You may have been poured out yesterday.

You need your cup filled up.

Problem is we're trying to get our cup filled on Sunday from Sunday and we're messing up in the week.

We got to daily be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was sinless because of love, and this is big.

Remember.

It's our sin that makes us orphans.

So God's answer was not to beat you into the family, but to love you into the family.

Don't you know that the Lord's kindness is meant to draw you into repentance?

Well, I need to beat them over the head with the Bible.

They ain't going to come to church?

Well then, I'll tell you what?

They ain't never going to come to church With your big old King James version whopping them in the side of the head.

I think he hit me with Luke 3.

No, I don't know what he hit you with.

God's answer his design was to love you into a relationship with him.

Look at John 14, 15.

Ooh, this verse.

Come on now.

If you love me, you keep my commands.

Ooh boy, satan knows that love and obedience go hand in hand.

Love's byproduct actually is obedience, but so many people see obedience as the prerequisite for God's love.

This is all the orphan knows.

The orphan knows nobody wants me while we're God, nobody loves me.

While we're God, nobody wants me around.

Truth is, god loves you and he doesn't expect obedience to come before love.

It's love first.

And here's the problem Is because this is all the orphan knows.

What we tend to do is we say I either am abandoned or accepted based on what I do.

Now, I know nobody in here has ever struggled with this that you feel rejected or accepted based on what you do.

Now, I know nobody in here has ever struggled with this that you feel rejected or accepted based on what you do.

Look, I've been a pastor now for over 25 years.

Y'all like, oh, he looks young, thank you, appreciate that.

Appreciate that If I didn't have this gray hair, y'all boy, I need to get some, just for men's or something.

I don't know what I need, coming here with just a black beard.

You know what I'm saying?

No, I've been a pastor for over 25 years now and I'll tell you right now, I see, constantly, non-stop, every single week, I have to deal with another situation where somebody feels rejected because of what they've done.

And you know what?

I got a lot of grace and a lot of patience for people like that.

Do you know why?

Because that was me.

That was me.

You see, I always thought I could prove how much I loved God by how well I obeyed his commandments.

If I succeeded, then I was loved and I'd proved my love.

But if I failed to obey effectively, I felt rejection because I was certain he didn't want me a sinner.

And what I would do is I would go to church on Sunday.

Yes, as a pastor, because we struggle too, by the way, we're flesh and blood, human beings too.

We got problems too.

We get pimples, like.

We get all that stuff too.

But I would walk into church on Sunday morning and I would feel like trash because of something I did or something I said during the week and I would stand there and worship and I would fake it till you make it because that's what you're supposed to do in church.

Right, you put your little mask on, you come in like you sit in your car.

When you get here for just a minute, like, okay, mask up.

But we come on in and we just pretend to have a relationship with Jesus, rather than just getting here and saying I messed up this week, jesus, a hundred times, and I know, I, god, I know I promised you that I won't do this again and I promised you, like God, if you'll do this for me, that I won't do this again.

I promise you, and I still messed up.

I don't know what's wrong with me.

Let me tell you something the closer you get to Jesus do you know what happens?

The more the disgustingness of yourself.

You see, we think that the closer we get to Jesus, we just feel happy and we're just like floating through.

No, that's not the truth.

So if you're here right now and you walked in and you feel like I'm struggling, I feel like I'm trash before the Lord, you and some good company right here.

Paul even said I wish I could shed off my body and just die and go to heaven and be with Jesus, so if you feel like you're trash before the Lord right now, let me tell you something it might mean that you're closer to him than you've ever been before, but here's the beauty of this, here's the beauty of this process of getting closer to Jesus, and you see more of your muck and your filth, and your sin is that, while you see all of this, you turn and look and there's Jesus, and he takes all that away.

There's a great verse in the Bible Boy, I'm way off my notes, but there's a great verse in the Bible.

It says for he knows our frame and he remembers that we're dust.

I don't know what you've done this week, and, man, I feel like there might be somebody in here that's really struggling with this.

I don't know what you've done this week, but don't think for one second that Jesus doesn't know who he's dealing with.

He knows you, he knows your struggle, he knows your brokenness.

The good news is, though, that Jesus knows how to fix it.

So if you're here and you've been trying to prove how good of a Christian you are and prove how much you love Jesus.

I want you to know something it's not love first, it's not obedience first.

Excuse me, I translated this to people too.

If I do what they want me to do, they'll love me.

You know, and especially being a young pastor coming up in ministry, boy, they'd ask you to do the impossible and you'd do it.

Come on, I know you don't know nothing about this, brother.

They ask you to do the impossible and you do it.

And then they come back and ask the impossible, impossible.

And guess what?

You do.

Some point, though, you fail, and when you fail, you feel worthless.

Y'all.

This is the orphan.

John 14, 15 is not an equation or a formula designed so you can prove devotion or earn acceptance.

It is an invitation to something better than not sinning.

I need you to hear this.

What God is offering us through Jesus Christ is not just a solution for sin.

There's something better A family.

It's amazing how we can spend our lives trying not to sin when all he wants for us is to start living like the son or the daughter that he created us to be.

If we could only understand that fixing sin doesn't get you into the family, but that you being in the family is how Jesus fixes sin.

If there's something on your record right now, I suggest you tell two people the big guy and then somebody else here.

What you put in the light is exposed.

I don't want to tell anybody.

If I tell them, they're going to know what I did, yeah, but if you walk out of here and you keep it to yourself, enjoy your darkness this week, all right.

God did design you with a God-shaped hole, but there is a people-shaped one as well, okay.

Well, they're going to judge me.

I'm going to tell you right now.

At Freedom Church, we have a staunch no judgment policy.

Here's what we say If you judge, it just means that you forgot how far God's brought you.

We ain't going to judge somebody.

I had a conversation at church in between first and second services.

They were expecting a beat down.

Nah, they ain't gonna get that from me.

Do I agree with what they're doing?

No, but I just looked.

I looked at this person.

I just said one question is this God's best for you?

No, okay.

Then last question what are you going to do to embrace god's best for you?

You may not be dealing with that sin.

But whatever sin you are dealing with, let me ask you something is that god's best for you?

And if it's not, who you're going to tell tonight to help you get free of it, all right, all that's free, let's moving.

As long as you're operating in an orphan spirit, you'll never experience family.

You might be in the dining room, but you'll never be at the table.

So how does Satan work orphanhood into us?

Well, let me tell you about the patchwork quilt.

I wrote a book called Killing the Orphan Spirit.

It's right here.

There's a web address that I asked them to put up and I'm sorry, I know it's at the very front, my bad, but it's freedomdealcom slash orphan.

You can get a free digital copy of this book.

All right, I could care less about book sales Like y'all ain't Max Licato.

He can have all that.

You know what I'm saying.

I got a whole bunch of books on Amazon.

I got some on Audible.

Knock yourself out.

But if you want it for free, go to that website and download it for free.

Okay, I talk about what happened in my life with this stuff, okay.

So one of the things that God began to show me is something called a patchwork quilt.

Now, most of you probably know what this is.

For those who are, let me just explain it.

Okay, so a patchwork quilt.

Back in the day they used to take all the leftover pieces and bits and stuff and they would sew them together, which my wife is into quilting right now.

It's hard, but y'all, it's expensive.

Y'all hear what I'm saying.

I'm not going to need to catch a loan from somebody in here.

Oh, I spent $40.

What'd you get?

A yard, what A yard.

It's very expensive, but they take these patches and they put them all together and then they quilt it.

It makes a pretty blanket and you hand it down from yin and yang until you're getting all that stuff right.

So the lord showed me in a, in a dream one night, a patchwork quilt that was standing, like it was like it was hanging in front of me, and as I started looking at the patches, I realized that all of the patches represented moments in my life where I felt rejected.

I.

I was like that's weird.

And then, as I began to study the quilt, I noticed that there was the same string that was going to every single bit, in every single place, and I got all the way down to the string at the bottom and the little string was hanging off the end and I pulled it because that's my personality Some of y'all be like, oh, don't touch it, not me, you know what I'm saying and I pulled it and one by one, the patches began to unravel and they fell at my feet and when I looked up I saw the father standing before me with his arms open.

You see, satan had used every negative experience in my life to distort my view of my dad, and I bet he's done the same with you.

I wrote in the book here.

I'm going to read just a section of it from Killing the Orphan Spirit.

It should be no surprise to us that Satan is so adamant at destroying our view of the father.

It shouldn't be at all.

In fact, you need to recognize as soon as possible that his primary purpose is not just to kill, steal and destroy, but to subvert your view of God the Father.

His real goal is separating you from that love between the Father and the Son that he observed in the eternity before you were ever born, before the world was ever created.

Once we see his why, we can understand his how.

His how is to create in you the spirit of the orphan, of rejection, of deprecated value, of disobedience and repulsion to authority, to manipulate you, to deceive you into not trusting God.

He wants to convince you that God is hiding something from you and he cannot be trusted, much less deserving of our love or obedience.

That is his how, but his why is simple he's desperate to keep you from experiencing the love of your heavenly father that he saw firsthand in the eternity before time began.

So the enemy manipulates circumstances and relationships in our lives to keep us locked into a counterfactual way of thinking and living through rejection and the orphan spirit.

He knows if you see the father he saw all those years while he covered the throne, then you would experience the inexplicable joy, freedom, satisfaction, the salvation, the family identity that comes with simply being one of God's sons or daughters.

Satan is literally hell bent on you never having that clarity and he will stop at nothing to keep that moment from happening in your own life.

So what the enemy does is destroy every connection that you could possibly have with the Father, starting with your earthly father.

He tries to use every moment of your life, every experience, every situation, good or bad.

In the bad moments he will tell you that God abandoned and rejected you.

In the good moments, he'll tell you that God abandoned and rejected you In the good moments.

He'll tell you that you did it without him.

He will use them all to separate you from your father.

To be an orphan means to be fatherless, family-less, abandoned.

To be rejected means to be dismissed, refused, spurned.

Not good enough.

This is what Satan is doing in our lives on the daily.

Well, preacher, I don't think I have a problem with this.

Praise God, praise the Lord.

I have met countless people who are like you.

Know what this really is.

I know who I am in Christ.

Like I'm a son, I'm a daughter, whoo.

But the vast majority of people struggle with this.

So the big question and we learned this in Christian ethics all the way back in college is not why is there evil in the world?

But what's God doing about it?

So what's God doing about this?

God wants to get us back to the original design.

That's what God's doing.

Okay, now we need to know what the original design is.

Robots, no.

Luke 3.38.

I want you to read it, luke 3.38.

It's a genealogy.

It says son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God, your original design, god's original intent for your life was you as a loved son, a loved daughter, and God will not stop this process of restoration until you get back to your original design.

You know why you're here right now.

I didn't have nothing to do on Wednesday night.

Y'all ever heard of something called sleep, not sit out in the rain in traffic?

Why are you here?

It's because you feel you feel him pulling you.

You feel it deep in your soul.

It's him getting you back to your original design.

Listen, the orphan spirit is not a spirit you learn to manage.

Rejection is not a mindset that you learn to deal with and just tolerate.

Okay, it has to die.

It's got to be dead, buried and gone.

That's why the title is so aggressive Kill it.

Now.

Here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to do a little activity with you to determine whether or not you've got this thing All right.

I went through this process.

It all started for me with a simple question.

My pastor asked me one day why do you always want affirmation but never instruction?

Well, number one, you're wrong for that one.

All right, you know what I'm saying.

Like, that's a mean question.

Told him, I didn't know.

I went home.

I had a dream that night.

I dream every night.

Where my dream?

Every night?

People at?

Thank you, jesus.

Uh-huh, y'all probably got ADHD, like me.

So what's up?

Y'all?

It's a superpower if you learn to harness it.

But look squirrel.

I had a dream that night and in the dream the Lord told me.

It's because when you give me affirmation, you're telling me I'm good enough, but when you give me instruction, you're telling me that I'm not good enough.

Okay, so the Lord showed me as I wrote this book.

The Lord showed me a list of 30 things that I struggled with.

So however many you have on this list, I'm not reading even the whole list.

This is just a subset.

But however many you have, don't be like I had 22.

I had all 30, all right, and probably some extras that I forgot, all right.

So let's talk first.

Love deficits.

Love deficits Everything is performance driven, just like.

Keep a count on your finger when it's you, all right.

Everything is performance driven.

You avoid God for a few days after you sin.

You have intense unforgiveness and animosity towards people, especially leaders in your life, who've taken advantage of you.

Y'all that's just one finger, all right, keep just one.

And if that's your first one, don't make that one a certain finger.

You know what I'm saying.

Make it the pinky, all right, tell my, is this for you, dale, or whatever?

Oh my Lord, I'm glad this ain't a Sunday morning.

Hey, y'all believe in people up in here.

If you're lost, welcome to the family.

Come on, jesus, you have either unhealed wounds from and unforgiveness for, a father who abandoned you or one who was disengaged in your life.

See, it got real serious right then, didn't it?

You have anger at God because he didn't stop people from hurting you.

By the way, if this is a problem for you, if this is a really difficult one for you, that means God would have to violate free will, and that's cool until it's our turn to be violated.

We don't want our free will violated.

Okay, let's talk about authority problems.

You often feel like people are taking or will take advantage of you.

You have a hard time trusting people, especially authority.

You love affirmation, but you despise instruction.

To you, instruction says that you're just not good enough.

What about self-worth, identity issues?

You rarely ever felt good enough.

You often feel overlooked.

You are cripplingly frustrated at where you are in life.

I'm just going to pretend like y'all taking pictures of me, not my list.

No, I'm kidding, it ain't mine, it's all Jesus's not my list.

No, I'm kidding, it ain't mine, it's all Jesus's.

Jesus, the plural Jesus is tough.

It's not Jesus's.

That's weird.

You are see.

It eats your superpower.

You are super.

You are super sensitive, interpreting reality in a way where you're the victim.

You're very critical of yourself.

Oh man, god, forgive me on that one, I'm so mean to myself.

Yeah, I'm a pastor.

Yeah, I planted a church.

Yeah, I lead people to be nice to themselves all the time.

I'm pretty bad to myself.

Your position or your title gives you identity.

We see a lot of that when you first plant a church.

Leadership failures.

You are constantly in competition with other people around you.

You hate delegating because you're probably just going to have to end up doing it yourself anyway.

Come on, show of hands.

Where y'all at?

We going to Starbucks after this baby?

Not, so We'll go to Summer Moon.

It tastes better.

You hold on to hurts from others.

No, excuse me, hold on.

You see, your success is totally relying upon you, y'all.

Okay, we need to take communion again to get us back Character issues.

You have a desperate drive to be known or to be significant.

By the way, this one was a big problem for me and one day the Lord told me well, I got to.

Let me tell you this quick I was in Africa.

If you get a chance to go to Africa, go.

God speaks to you in Africa like he doesn't speak anywhere else.

I can't explain it.

I've been four times now and every single time God said something to me.

It's blown me away.

But one time we were at a little hut church down in the middle of nowhere and there was this little boy that walks up and he just crawls up in my lap during worship and we're just like.

I remember a bishop told me one time, bishop Tudor Bismarck.

He said if you ever get invited to somebody's house, go into their home, lean your hand on their wall and bless their home.

And so I thought if this little kid's going to just crawl up in my lap like this is crazy, but like I'm going to pray and bless him.

The Lord spoke to me something about that little kid.

Afterwards I asked our translator, bosco.

I said hey, who's that little boy?

And he says orphan will give his own name because he's desperate to be known, but a son will give his father's name because he's already known.

You hold on to hurts from others because it allows you to justify your anger towards them.

Meddling preacher, you easily justify in your own life what you oppose in someone else's.

Everything is a struggle where you feel like you never get ahead.

Listen to me, fam, I don't know how long you've been alive, okay, but up to this moment, you've had the oppressive power of the enemy working against you.

These were not mindsets that you woke up and chose to have.

Nobody wants to just be angry and justify it, but they were arrows released, they were cannonballs launched.

They were towers built to lay siege against your soul.

Now, in my own life, while I didn't want these mindsets, I became very good at embracing them and identifying with them and believing them.

So what you need is you don't need another thought telling you that you're an orphan.

You need the same thing that I needed Someone to help you abandon rejection and kill the orphan spirit.

Someone here to tell you that you are a son or daughter.

You just need to embrace it.

So how do we do that?

Here's how we're going to do that quickly.

Number one discover the narrative.

Discover the narrative.

God has a plan for you.

Guess what Satan does, too.

Okay.

God's narrative has been you, a son or daughter.

Satan's narrative is you as an orphan.

So here's the big question, the big burning question what is lie that satan has been feeding you?

That has impacted every moment of your life?

This is your narrative and let me just tell you right now, if you don't instantly hear something, chill.

It took me a year to figure this out, but what I discovered was this the narrative in my life was jason, you're good.

You're just not good enough.

That narrative will keep you rejected, living as an orphan, fighting to survive.

You need to understand it literarily.

Think about it like literally.

Literally, that's a hard word to say.

Okay, let's go back to English class for a minute.

The narrative is the character's version of reality, which can differ from actual reality.

Your mother-in-law might not really hate you.

It might just be the enemy trying to bring discord in y'all family.

Some of you are like oh, I think she hates me.

Man, I ain't never gonna come back, am I?

All right, you might exhibit items on the list from a moment ago, but these things are often not what's really happening, do you hear me?

It doesn't necessarily mean that's actually what's happening.

Rather, they're what you think is happening based on the narrative.

The enemy's been feeding you your whole life.

The narrative is that lens through which you viewed every moment of your life.

It's been repeated in your life so much that you fully believe it and you fully embrace it now.

That's why it took me a minute to recognize what was going on with that patchwork quilt is because it wasn't just moment where I felt rejected, it was just life.

Number two you replace the lie with the truth.

8, 32, what's it say you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

That's it.

So what is the truth?

God's word is the truth.

Okay, god's word is the truth.

Now listen, a lot of times in church we get caught up with god's rhema fresh word.

But if the fresh word don't line up with the written word, you didn't get a fresh word.

God said I could divorce them.

Maybe we need to have a talk.

What's the bible?

Say God?

God said I need to take this job, even though it's going to take me away from my family.

Are you sure?

What is the truth?

And can I tell you something?

This ain't happy thoughts and wishful thinking.

This ain't fairy dust.

All right, we ain't fighting, captain Hook, and the Holy Spirit is not Tinkerbell.

I'm serious.

We're fighting a spirit over here, you're fighting the devil.

So question for you what does God say and think about you?

Now, I just heard it in my head, not what you think.

He says and thinks about you based on your activities this week.

What does the word say about you?

And what does the word say God thinks about you?

Because, see, there are some verses in there.

There's some.

I mean, this dude is catching your tears in a bottle.

He has his name, your name, carved on his hand.

He knows how many hairs you got on your head.

My wife wife is beautiful.

I love her so much I couldn't imagine a moment without her.

I don't have a clue how many hairs she got on her head.

What does it say?

That God sent his son to die just so you could be his son again?

What's it say that Jesus loves you so much he wants to share his dad's kingdom with you, not just have you in it so he can rule you.

How could God see you as an orphan when, even at your worst, jesus died for you?

I don't know how bad it's been this week, but right now you're not at your worst.

All right.

If you're at your worst, you'd be at the saloon.

You see what I'm saying Matthew 10, 29 through 31.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

And one of them will not fall to the ground, apart from your father, but even the hairs on your head are numbered.

Fear not, therefore.

You are more valuable than many sparrows.

You are loved in spite of your brokenness.

So, plainly speaking, find a bible verse that refutes your narrative and embrace it with everything inside of you.

Good, but not good enough, okay, cool.

Psalm 3410.

If you'll trust me, you'll lack for nothing.

Remember a lie is easier to believe because your flesh is going to agree with it.

Your flesh is going to be like yeah, girl, woo or boy, you might be a boy.

Of all the jokes, that one right the truth.

I got to hurry because it's late.

The truth is harder to believe because it requires overcoming the flesh.

Y'all hear that the truth is harder to believe because you have to overcome your flesh to believe it.

So it's a good thing that God didn't leave you to overcoming the flesh by the flesh, but he gives you the Holy Spirit, who gives you everything you need to live a godly life, including, including subjecting your flesh to the truth.

All right, some of y'all need to have some out loud prayer times, Like you, you.

You about to do something.

You know stupid.

You're like flesh.

You better listen up right now.

You better get in line.

Body.

I remember when I was going through this process, the enemy said something to me.

That was a low blow man, it was just a dirty.

Just a dirty.

No good thing to say.

And out loud I said shut up Now.

Little kids don't say that that's a bad word.

But I said it out loud.

And we were driving, we were riding the car and my wife was driving.

She said I didn't say anything to you and I'm like Jesus, you're going to make me have a fight.

But I said it out loud.

Why Some of y'all need to be praying out loud, you need to be reading the Bible out loud.

Why?

Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the words of Christ.

Some of you are not able to beat the orphan in here right now because you're not vocalizing what the word says about your situation.

It's time to open our mouth.

You might not can sing, but there's some scriptures up on the wall when we do worship.

Just say them, let it come out.

Here's the next one forgive, all right, see y'all.

Y'all have a good week.

The only path to freedom is forgiveness.

I don't care what it is.

I don't care what it is.

I don't care what it is, I don't care if it's somebody that lied on you or that somebody that killed your friend.

Forgiveness is the only path to freedom.

You have to forgive yourself for believing the lie.

You have to forgive those who orphaned and rejected you.

Let me tell you something right now that'll blow your mind.

Here's what you've got to understand is the same person that rejected you probably they themselves was rejected.

Y'all hurt people, hurt people, but we got to have somebody that's got enough of the Holy Spirit inside of them to stop the cycle.

Maybe you got alcoholism in your family stop the cycle.

Maybe you got alcoholism in your family Stop the cycle.

Maybe you got a history of dads leaving Stop the cycle.

I wrote a list down during this process.

I would meet with my pastor, sometimes daily.

I was messed up y'all, mainly weekly, but I wrote a list one day of every person that I could think of that made me feel like an orphan or rejected me, made a big list and I went down that list with my pastor there and I vocalized Lord, I forgive Gary for hurting me.

And I went down the list.

Some of them, I really genuinely forgave them in that moment.

Some of them I kind of had to repeat it for a few weeks.

You know what I'm saying.

It's like how do you know you've forgiven?

That's a tough one, right?

It doesn't necessarily mean that when you think about that person the hurt isn't there, but this is the best way, I know, to forgive them.

Your anger and hatred turns to compassion.

You're never going to feel like forgiving, because forgiving isn't a feeling, it's a choice.

You have to choose to forgive.

You have to choose to let go.

Forgiveness is not the act of condoning their bad behavior, but refusing to allow it to impact your life any longer.

Let me ask you a question who do you need to forgive right now?

Raise your hand if you heard her name.

Your homework tonight is to forgive that person before you walk out the door.

Oh, no, wait a minute.

That's a trick that you beta switched me.

Okay, I'm sorry for all the questions, but if you don't want to forgive right now, how long are you going to walk in bondage Like how long?

How long Cause you're choosing one of two things.

You're either choosing freedom or bondage.

Look, what they did was horrible.

It could have never happened and it breaks the heart of God.

It does, but how long are you going to let it break you?

Last one is this walking it out, you got to replace the orphan spirit with the spirit of adoption.

Once you deal with a spirit or a thought process, it always comes back to test the doorknobs.

And I'm going to tell you right now Satan just needs the open window.

No, he don't.

You know what he needs.

He needs an unlocked one.

Okay, the more you lean into the Holy Spirit, the stronger the witness of your sonship gets, the easier it is to recognize the trap.

And you know something else y'all, you need a father in your life.

I don't got a daddy.

Listen, look around.

Right now I'm calling on the spiritual fathers in this house to rise up right now, in the name of Jesus, stop sitting on the side and expecting.

Somebody is going to call it out of you.

I'm here calling it out of you right now.

It's time to rise up.

You've got orphans in this house.

You've got orphans in this church.

You've got brokenness in here.

I wasn't a very good father.

Well, why don't you let God do a work in you?

I'm going to tell you right now, somebody in this building, somebody in this church, is waiting on you to deal with your orphan spirit so you can show them the way.

I'm here tonight because I was willing to do the hard stuff and forgive and let go and walk this thing out.

That's the only reason I'm talking around.

That's the only reason this book is out.

I've got people calling me from Scotland, tweeting me from Scotland.

I found your book at the University of Edinburgh.

I read it.

It's changed my life.

It's insane.

How did you even get it?

What boat was this thing on?

How did you even get it?

What boat was this thing on?

But you know what?

None of that would happen if I wasn't willing to walk it.

You need a father.

You always have a father available, even if your earthly father isn't.

You got some here in the church.

Look for the person who's naturally doing fatherly things when they get around you.

I didn't embrace sonship by having sonship modeled.

I embraced sonship by having fatherhood modeled.

You know why?

Because it takes a father to make a son.

You got to keep confessing the truth until you believe it.

There's a phrase I write in the book called Orphan D is dead, one of my interns at New Covenant.

Her name is D'Andrea Such a sweet, sweet, sweet person.

I love her dearly but she struggled with the orphan spirit and from time to time she would text me with an issue and I would just text her back Orphan D is dead.

Stop calling him God and start calling him father.

I'm giving you all some practicals here.

Come on, eat it up, God I.

Just it's so funny, most Christians can't pray if you take the word just out Just Lord I, just calling on your mercies, god, heavenly Lord, god, father, I mean, it's eight pound baby Jesus.

Like seriously, god told me.

He said one day in prayer.

He said, hey, stop calling me God, but aren't you Yahweh?

No, he says, start calling me Father.

No, I'm not to the place where I'm like, oh Daddy, god, I can't do all that.

Sky Daddy, I can't do that, I can't go that far.

It's probably because I'm a Gen Xer, maybe that's what it is.

But start calling him father.

You have to rewire some bad habits to begin seeing God for who he really is, and this is just a tangible way to start that process.

Listen to me as orphans, we're survivalists.

If you're here tonight and this has just hit you, you're surviving.

I want you to know something Us sons and daughters were victorious.

So here's what I'm gonna ask you to do.

Would you just bow your heads for just a moment right now and close your eyes?

And the only reason I ask you to do this is simply because I want you to have a moment with just you and the lord and not let any distractions impact you right now.

That's the only reason.

There's nothing magical about bowing your head and closing your eyes.

But I'm gonna read some confessions right now and as I them, if this is really speaking to you tonight and you believe that this is something that not only have you been struggling with, but something that you know the Holy Spirit wants to deal with in you tonight, here's what I want you to do as I read these.

You don't have to yell it across the room, but a confession, by definition, means the air is coming out of your mouth.

You confess it with your mouth, so I want you to just repeat these things after and again, we're not doing some kind of community reading here.

You don't have to say it loud, just let air come out of your mouth.

I choose today to be free from rejection and an orphan spirit.

I confess I've acted in ungodly ways towards people, especially authorities in my life godly ways towards people, especially authorities in my life.

I confess I've placed my hope in people and not in you, god.

I've craved their affirmation over yours.

That's just idolatry.

Forgive me, lord.

I've received my identity from them and not from you.

As a result, they failed me, as people do.

It's caused me to judge them and even you.

By rejecting these people and authorities in my life, I've rejected you, god.

I put animosity between me and them, and between you and I as well.

No matter how they acted, I was the one that allowed rejection and the orphan spirit to take root.

I confess that is sin.

I confess I've allowed rejection and the orphan spirit to guide my thoughts and actions and to hijack my future.

I've carried a chip on my shoulder.

I've resorted to anger, lying, manipulation, rejection, fear, anxiety and aggression when challenged.

I confess these as sin.

I've responded completely out of my hurt.

I confess this as sin.

I want to be free from these things.

So I forgive all those who've hurt me, be it their intention or not, be it people whose hurts I remember or not.

I ask for your forgiveness, father, and as you forgive me, I also forgive myself.

I fall out of agreement with the lies I've believed, lies that have made me feel rejected and orphaned.

I renounce rejection and an orphan spirit, rejected and orphaned.

I renounce rejection and an orphan spirit and I receive the spirit of adoption.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Come on now.

This is your opportunity, right now.

You've gone from orphan to son.

You've gone from orphan to daughter.

This is time to thank your father, time to praise him, time to bless his name.

God, you are good, your mercy is due and due her forever his name.

God, you are good, your mercy is due and due forever.

You gave everything for us, god.

You traded your son for us, god, all the hurts and all the pains that we've experienced in our lives, the rejection, the orphaning, all of this that Satan has thrown at us.

God, we've renounced that and now we stand fully and totally in sonship and in daughterhood before you tonight, father, I confess you not only as my God, not only as my Lord, not only as my Savior, but my Father, we thank you.

Thank you, lord.

We're going to take a moment here and we're going to worship.

This is an opportunity for you to embrace this new identity you have as a son or as a daughter.

Worship is probably going to feel a little different in this one, and it's possible that you're here tonight and, while you've heard a good argument, you still feel like there's something inside of you that needs to be dealt with.

I know we're going to have a prayer team here that you'll be able to come pray.

Here's an altar.

I'm going to tell you right now I don't take an altar.

Your heart is an altar and if what you just confessed you mean, god means it and you're free.

But you might want to come to this altar and just take a moment with your father.

Whatever it is, I invite you to respond in the way that the Lord leads you.

Are you hurting and broken within, overwhelmed by the weight of sin?

Jesus is calling.

Have you come to the end of yourself?

Do you thirst for a drink from the well?

Jesus is calling.

Oh, come to the altar, the Father's altar.