Deciding to Live | Dr. Jerry Mason

Would you stand with me this morning for the reading of God's

Word? Thank you, Jesus.

Give honor to my Bishop this morning.

Praying for you, praying for your strength.

Amen. Give honor to my pastor.

I know he's not here, but I don't want to fail to honor him.

And it is an honor to stand here in his absence.

It's an honor to stay in here at any time.

But anytime you're asked to stand in the pulpit when that

pastor is not there, I count it double honor of the trust that

they, they put in you for doing so.

I love and appreciate him and his family dearly.

My wife who puts up with me, she's got her hands full, I

promise you. But I love her.

I appreciate her and I, I, I, I set up there in the media booth

this morning early and worship service and just for a, a, a

season just weeping. Not only because of the presence

of God, but I was overcome with a sense of gratitude for looking

at the platform and seeing my wife, my son and my

daughter-in-law. And just overwhelmed with a

sense of gratefulness that that I get to do life not only with

my favorite people, but I get to do life with them.

And they have such a heart for ministry.

And I count that such a blessing today.

And I am so thankful for them and love them so much.

Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse #19 I'm using this short passage

Deuteronomy 30 · chapter mention

of Scripture as our springboard this morning for our topic.

Deuteronomy 30 and 19 says, I call heaven and earth to record

this day against you, that I have set before you life and

death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life that both

thou and thy seed may live, that thou mayest love the Lord thy

God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest

cleave unto him, For he is thy life and the length of days that

thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord swear unto thy

fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them for a

few moments this morning I want to I want to talk to you about

this subject. And this probably going to be

more of a Bible lesson than a a preaching, I suppose, unless the

Lord changes differently. But my topic today is this, and

I believe the topic I didn't, I didn't pick it because of this,

but I believe it is fitting as we prepare ourselves for going

into a new year as a time of reflection and a time of

preparation. My topic today is this.

Deciding to live. Deciding to live.

Lord bless you. You may be seated this morning.

In 1984, Stacy Keach was at a point in his career that many

actors only imagine. He had earned international

respect for his work on stage and screen.

His portrayal of Mike Hammer had made him a household name.

But while his professional life seemed steady, his private life

was increasingly shaped by a long running cocaine addiction.

1 He later admitted he believed he could manage.

That illusion ended abruptly at London Heathrow Airport.

Customs officials discovered cocaine in his luggage, and

Keach was arrested on the spot. Within weeks, he pleaded guilty

to importing the drug into the United Kingdom and was sentenced

to nine months in Reading prison.

For a man accustomed to the pace and privilege of the

entertainment world, the shift was immediate and severe.

Keach later emphasized that he received no special treatment

because of his fame. He lived under the same rules

and routines as every other inmate.

The confinement forced him to confront the consequences of his

addiction in a way he had never done before.

In later interviews and testimony, he described the

experience as a profound reckoning, one that stripped

away denial and let him face left him face to face with the

reality of what his life had become.

After serving roughly 6 months, Keach was released early for

good behavior. He returned to the United

States, entered recovery, and began the slow process of

rebuilding both his professional and personal lives.

Work eventually returned television roles, film, film

appearances, stage performances, and acclaimed voice acting, but

the experience of prison remained A defining Chapter 1.

He chose not to hide. Over the years, Keach has spoken

openly about how that period reshaped him.

He has described it not only as a consequence of addiction, but

as a turning point that forced him towards sobriety and

clarity, as he reflected later in life.

Today, he calls that prison cell the most honest place he has

ever been. It's where I met myself, he said

quietly, and decided to live. This morning I want to talk to

you about 5 things needed to stop living accidentally and

make the decision to live intentionally in your God

calling. 5 truths that are admittedly much easier for me to

say than for either one of us to make a reality.

But despite the challenge and difficulties of embracing them,

if you will follow them, you will realize God's anointing and

God's favor in your life. Life is not easy.

So for us to believe that something is not worth doing

just because it's not easy is a very serious mistake.

We have to embrace those times of discomfort sometimes to grow.

These five truths are this Your past does not disqualify your

future. Your wounds were not meant to be

your walls. Your scars qualify you.

Your pain has a divine assignment.

And five, you must choose to decide to live, starting with #1

this morning. Your past does not disqualify

your future. Robert Downey Junior went from

mug shots to addiction to a Marvel icon in his role as Iron

Man in the 1990s and early 2000s, his life spiralled into

addiction. He was arrested multiple times,

sent to rehab, repeatedly publicly mocked by the media,

Hollywood considered him uninsurable, and finished.

He eventually became Iron Man, the face of the Marvel Cinematic

Universe and one of the highest paid actors in the world. 2nd

Corinthians 5 and 17 directs our attention to say, therefore, if

any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become

new. I want to make us aware of one

very simple but potent fact today.

God does not revise you. You when you come to God, you

are not version 2 point O God is not upgrading you, He's

regenerating you. God doesn't revise you, he

recreates you. There's a very distinct

difference between revision and recreation.

And by the power of God, when you, when you are in Christ, the

Bible says you are a new creature.

You're not an upgrade. You're not version 2.1756,

you're not having to wait another six months for a

software update. You're not constantly trying to

have to just become better. This is not about you being

better. It's about God in you.

God in you will make you better, but you, by your own power,

cannot do anything. You can make choices, yes.

You can make decisions, yes. But the correction, the change,

the recreation comes from Almighty God.

Isaiah 43 and 18 says, Remember you not the former things,

neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing now it shall spring forth.

Shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the

wilderness and rivers in the desert.

God specializes in futures that are better than their histories.

Let let me say that again just so it soaks in a bit.

I know it's Sunday morning and some of us are already hungry

for lunch and some of us haven't woke up from breakfast yet.

God specializes in futures that are better than their histories.

God cares more about your today and your tomorrow than He does

your yesterday because your yesterday is what He's committed

that He will forget about. He's committed that he will bury

it and say, you know what? I know I'm God, I know I've got

all the memory. I know I don't have to forget.

But he says I'm going to choose to forget your yesterday so that

I can focus on your today. I can.

I feel the Holy Ghost already. God wants to focus on your

today. He wants to focus on your

tomorrow because he cares about you.

Thank you Jesus, somebody say thank you Jesus, Psalms 34 and

19 says many, Everybody shout many, many, somebody say that's

me. Many are the afflictions of the

righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them.

A few. No, not a few, not a small

number out of them all. Ladies and gentlemen, I've come

to tell you today that your scars testify that God just

keeps on delivering this. Life is not about escaping scar

free. It's what you do with those

scars. It's what you do with that past.

It's what you do with your testimony.

And God's a delivering God who just keeps on delivering.

He's a delivering God on a Monday.

He's a delivering God on a Tuesday.

And thank God, on Wednesday midweek he's still a delivering

God. And on Thursday he's still

there. On Friday, he's still there on

Saturday, he's still there every day ending in Y in the English

language. God is still there and he just

keeps on delivering. Thank you Lord #2 Your wounds

were not meant to be your walls. Walls.

Your wounds were not meant to box you in.

Having to pass doesn't mean that that's all you become.

That's a worldly vision. That's not a God vision,

Colossians 313 says forbearing one another and forgiving one

another. If any man have a quarrel

against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Let me just briefly explain what this verse is trying to tell us

this morning and how it relates to your wounds not becoming your

walls. Healing accelerates when

forgiveness is in the lead. Your Your healing speeds up when

you forgive someone else. No one but God could think of

that. Your healing becomes clearer

whenever whatever else is in your life, you decide to let go

of it, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, and if

any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you.

Let me put that in Mason vernacular for just a moment.

If God forgave you, what right do you have not to forgive

someone else? What a powerful statement today

to lead us in our own healing process.

Second Corinthians one and three says blessed be God, even the

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies in the God

of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that

we may be able to comfort them, which are in any trouble by the

comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God.

Now there's a lot of poetry there, so let's break it down

for just a minute. Your pain can and will become

someone else's lifeline. He comforts us that we verse #4

that we may be able to comfort them, but you have to use your

testimony. That's why the wounds were not

meant to be your walls. When you're walled in, your

testimony goes nowhere. When you're walled in, you're

not helping anybody else through what God has helped you through.

I know I'm making some of you is as uncomfortable as a long tail

cat in a room full of rocking chairs right now.

I get it. It pushes us out of our comfort

zone. It pushes us out of the zone

where we like to live. I've got my chair, I've got my

padded seat and I, it's, it's me, my foreign, no more.

I'm comfortable right here. But I'm telling you in the body

of Christ, God's will, God's perfected will in your life.

It doesn't have anything to do with pulpit ministry.

It doesn't have to do with Sunday school teaching.

It doesn't even have to do with carpet sweeping.

It has to do with you getting out of your walls and allowing

God to use you and your testimony to help somebody else,

because you can be the greatest help to somebody else when you

have similar pasts. You don't have to be identical,

but I can tell you right now, this is human nature.

If I've got somebody that has went through something similar

to me, they're going to be of greater value to me in helping

me through my tribulation than someone that has never walked

where my feet have walked. But that person, that person is

here. That person has to be willing to

allow their pain to become someone else's lifeline #3 your

scars qualify you. I'm pausing for effect on

dramatic effect on purpose because I want that to sink in.

Because there's this lie of the enemy today that if if you're

scarred and pat and you've got a past that that just just haunts

you, that you're washed up, no good for nothing, can't do

anything. Come on, come on.

That's the lie of the enemy. That's not me saying that.

I'm telling you what the lie is. I'm telling you that your scars

qualify you. Henry Ford was fired, bankrupt,

and told he would never succeed. Before founding Ford Motor

Company, he failed twice in business.

Investors called him unreliable and unfit to run a company.

Watch this now. He was fired from his own

company, the Detroit Automobile Company, before Ford.

He was fired from his own company.

I don't really exactly know how that works, but that sounds

painful. Yet he persisted.

He learned from every failure, and he eventually revolutionized

modern vehicle manufacturing with the assembly line.

You, most of you know that story because he chose not to quit.

Hip problems. I've often dubbed myself as a

realist and that can be interpreted as negative

sometimes. I'm not trying to be negative

this morning, but let's just be real for just a moment.

He's not the only one that has temptations to quit.

I would dare say every adult in this room, maybe teenager as

well, has had moments where doing the right thing just

doesn't feel worth it. Because I'm telling you, doing

the right thing. Doctor John Maxwell calls it

High Road leadership. But doing the right thing,

taking the High Road is the hard thing.

I'm not telling you it's easy, but I am going to tell you with

God all things are possible. With Him is our strength.

With God at the helm, with Him leading us, doing the right

thing is not only possible, it's the right thing.

First Timothy 1 excuse me 15 says This is a faithful saying

and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the

world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

That's what the apostle Paul says about himself, of whom I am

chief. Paul is calling himself the

chief Sinner. Paul, let me drive this point

home just a little bit more in case there are people that

aren't aware of this. Paul, the man that wrote 2/3 of

the New Testament, who was formerly named Saul, who hated

Christians. Hated Christians so much he

thought that it was God's edict for him to kill them all.

Now Can you imagine? Let's just put this in 2025,

almost 2026 terms. Can you imagine that somebody

hates you so much that they want to do nothing but kill you every

time they see you? Maybe they've tried.

I've had my life threatened twice, and I'll tell you what,

it's a mental struggle to get over.

When you see them the next time in public, that's a story for

another time. It's two stories for two other

times. But just imagine, if you will,

that person walks into church and sits across the aisle from

you. And just imagine that God saves

that person, fills them with the Holy Ghost, calls them into

ministry, and then the next thing you know, you look up and

they're standing behind a pulpit preaching to you.

Not only is that how good our God really is, that's exactly

what happened to the apostle Paul.

He not only threatened to kill Christians, he was actively

doing it. And then all of a sudden he,

well, he got saved. I'll believe it when I see it.

Lord help our judge mentalness. But the Christians of that day,

the brothers in Christ of that day didn't buy it, didn't

believe it. So Paul disappears for a period

of time. None of this is in my notes, I

just feel compelled to share the story.

Paul disappears for a period of time to to draw himself closer

to God, changes his name, comes back and he is accepted because

he had proof he was able to demonstrate in his life that God

had changed him. But this chief of sinners in his

humility. Paul's not a man that I think of

as as necessarily a super humble person just because his writing

doesn't come across that way sometimes.

But here he is expressing humility by referring to himself

of whom I am chief, talking about sinners.

And he goes on to say, how be it for this, 'cause I obtained

mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all

long-suffering, for here it is. Now watch this for a pattern to

them which should hereafter believe on Him, to life

everlasting. What's Paul saying again?

There's a lot of poetry here. Let me breakthrough the poetry.

What he's saying is your story becomes your platform.

You need to embrace it because it's your story that allows

someone else to understand that they have hope and that they

have mercy available to them. You are the first part of God

that some people are going to see.

It's not worship service, it's not preaching.

It's you. You are the first you.

You are often the first part of God that somebody is going to

witness, and it's your story that becomes your platform.

Zechariah 46 Then he answered and spaken to me, saying, This

is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, not by might

nor by power, but by my spirit, say at the Lord of hosts.

Our leadership flows from our dependence on God, not our

perfection. To all you self-proclaimed

perfectionist in the house, that's not what's going to make

your life better. Waiting until all conditions are

perfect. I'm sorry to burst your bubble

today. It's not going to happen.

Waiting until the right time, Not going to be a right time.

That's why the Bible declares that today is the day of

salvation. If you're waiting on a right

time, the enemy of your soul is going to make absolutely certain

that there's no right time. There's going to be some

condition, some something interfere and get in your way

that is going to cause you. Well, no, it's not the right

time. Conditions aren't perfect.

It's not about perfection. If you're chasing perfection,

you're chasing mistakes. Stop chasing perfection and

allow your life to flow from dependence on Him.

It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the

Lord. James one and two says, my

brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse

temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh

patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that you may

be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

What nearly broke you is what has made you ready.

God's not chasing perfect people, He's chasing willing

people. He's chasing people that are

interested, people that are devoted, people that want him.

For him moving on to #4 your pain has a divine assignment.

TD Jakes went from small town church to global influence.

I realize his doctrine is different than ours, but just

lay that aside for just a moment.

He started preaching in a small town church in West Virginia

with just ten people. If you know anything about TD

Jakes and if ever seen him on TV or watched anything about him,

you know that his church in Dallas, TX is a former sports

stadium that will see 3040 thousand people.

That's his church size for Sundays and Wednesdays.

He struggled financially, worked odd jobs, faced ridicule for his

preaching style. But here's the most important

thing I want to get across about Mr. Jake's today, because he is

so renowned for his preaching style and his inspirational

style. He battled a speech impediment.

He battled a speech impediment. Let me say it again, he battled

a speech impeder, a man that preaches to 3040 thousand plus,

not including what's on camera battled and inability to talk.

Reminds me of Moses just a little bit.

And I'm not comparing Moses to TD Jakes, but storyline.

Moses was another man that couldn't talk right either, and

God didn't allow him to make excuses for himself.

My point is this, stop waiting for perfection.

All of the insecurities that you have, all of the inabilities

that you have, I'm not saying they're not real.

I'm not saying they're not frightening.

I'm not saying that they're not scary.

What I am saying is that when God calls you, God qualifies you

to whatever that is. I'm not talking calling you to

pulpit miner. I'm talking about your God

calling. Whatever that God calling is

when God calls you to that because this is a body ministry.

God didn't just save six people to preach and teach and

everybody else just have a life. Happy listening.

God has a calling for every single individual that will

follow him, and we're all full of God.

I can't. You don't have to say Amen to

that. But I know it's true.

We're all full of I. I can't because I can't, because

we won't tell him. I won't.

We use the word can't even when we should say won't, to be

honest. But what is it?

I just can't. I just can't.

And God says why? Well, I don't know God.

I just can't. I'm not ready or this isn't

right or this or that. I'm not good enough.

I'm not called. I'm not qualified enough.

I don't know enough. Well, let me tell you something,

and I'm not trying to scare you further away, but let me give

you a little transparency. After standing behind a pulpit

for 3 1/2 decades, I'm having more fun at 51 than I did at 41,

so I'll embrace it. But after standing behind a

pulpit for 36 years, let me tell you something.

This is, I say this unequivocally unashamed.

Full transparency. Today, I still stand here

worried. I don't know enough.

I'm not enough. I'll never be enough.

So if you're waiting for your insecurities to disappear,

you're going to be waiting outside the will of God the rest

of your life. Thank you Jesus, God's not

trying to call you today because of all you know, all that you

are, all of your greatness. And no, God's calling you today

because He sees more in you than you see in yourself.

This leads us to Jeremiah 2911. For I know the thoughts that I

think toward you. It's one of my favorite verses

in the Bible, say at the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of

evil to give you an expected end.

Let me rewrite that just a little bit for us as we enter

2026. God plans to outrun your past.

He's thinking beyond your today and He's looking at your

tomorrow, and His desire for you is to give you what He expects

for you. Thank God He's not stopping

short of just what I expect of myself.

He wants to give you what He expects for you, which is far,

far more wonderful than what we could imagine.

Romans 11/29 for the gifts and calling of God are without

repentance. There's so much packed into this

very short one sentence verse. I don't have the time to to dive

into it theologically. I wish I did.

There's a study just in this verse that needs to be done.

It's so rich with with God's theology.

But let me let me just say these few points.

Failure cannot cancel what God has ordained for you.

Some of you are walking around in the guilt and shame of

failures, and what God is asking you to do is leave that behind,

because if he's forgiven, why shouldn't we?

Your detours cannot cancel God's destination.

Your weaknesses cannot override God's will.

If God has placed something in you, a gift, a purpose, a

destiny, it's still there. Even if life has been messy,

even if you've taken the long road, even if you feel like

you're late. God doesn't revoke what he's

ordained #5 you must choose to decide to live.

Let me show you what this looks like in real life.

I'm giving you some examples of some other people, and I didn't

use those people because I'm promoting them or I support

their lifestyle or anything like that, just because the storyline

is inspirational and I think it fits.

But those people are kind of far off reaching.

We don't know them. Let me share a little personal

testimony with you briefly. Some I've shared before, some

haven't heard it, some I won't. I won't go into deep detail, but

having worked in corporate America for the past 25 years in

growing capacities and positions, I have personally

experienced my share of setbacks, embarrassments, and

occasions that cause me to question who I who am I and what

do I do and why do I do it. It's something I don't discuss

often, mostly because it's not easy to be open about it when

there's so much judgement that comes back from it.

But it's something I'm trying to be better about because it's my

testimony and it's become part of my story.

Over the past 25 years I have lost my job 3 * 2820 ten and

2021. Once due to corporate downsizing

in 2008 and twice due to business politics 2010 and 2021,

which is a price many don't pay. But if someone recently told me

the tallest trees catch the most wind?

Said differently, the coach is most often the 1st to go when

change is wanted. It's unfortunate, but in America

it's just the way that it is. I'm now well past four years of

the most recent of these occurrences and I am mostly

healed. I have scars still.

Some don't understand because to them it's just a job.

So why doesn't getting a new job just automatically heal you?

But to me, it's my calling. Yes, it's how I earn my living.

But when you step into your God calling, that's no longer the

most important thing. Losing it when you're driven to

do nothing but do your best with it is embarrassing.

It strips you of part of yourself, your dignity, your

belief in yourself. The wounds cut deep and they

heal slowly. The scars stay sensitive, and on

some days it feels like the wounds haven't healed at all.

Sometimes certain situations trigger memories that bring the

past back to a life that's not intended to live any longer.

When I lost my job in 2021, my boss at the time flew up from

Atlanta on a Friday to meet with me.

He had never travelled to Mount Carmel on a Friday ever, but I

didn't think anything about it. Side note, my wife did.

I didn't until that day in February, around one O clock in

the afternoon. Fast forward to August 22nd of

this year. My current boss's boss came from

Chicago to Vincennes to meet with my team and me for the day.

August 22nd was a Friday, so of course I thought plenty about

it. This time my wife was gone to

the Ladies Conference and I don't recall even letting her

know. But because my wounds were

already turning to scars and I'm different now than I was four

years ago, Bishop, I took a different course of action.

I wrote on a post it note. He is faithful no matter what,

and I stuck it in my desk drawer.

The origin of that note, I admit to you today, came from a place

of fear. But since that day that by the

way, turned out to be a really good day, it is stayed in my

desk drawer as a testimony of his faithfulness.

After that day, the wounds healed more.

Now I have more scars than fresh wounds.

The emotion that overwhelmed me when I wrote the note came from

a place that no longer deserves to live with me, for we have not

the spirit of fear. When I feel the scar, I still

remember the wounding, but beyond the memories, the scar

indicates that things are different now.

I can still feel it, but it's less sensitive.

I can talk about it now without bleeding and word vomiting all

over everyone with a triggered sense of bitterness that is now

given way to the heart of the healer.

For it's only by him and through him I have had the opportunity

to have these scars. Over four years later.

The scars have led me through into opportunities I didn't even

believe possible. Because He is faithful, I've

come to tell somebody today, mistakes are not eternal.

What's done to you, even when you didn't have any say in it,

doesn't deserve to live with you until eternity.

Sometimes we have to learn to let things go.

Shame is not a life sentence. Failure is not fatal.

God specializes in using the broken, the humbled, and the

restored. Your past is not your prison,

it's your preparation. I said your past is not your

prison, it's your preparation. Psalm 147 and three says he

healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

God is not afraid of your broken places.

He still heals today. John 1010.

The thief cometh not before to kill, and to to steal and to

kill and destroy. I am come that they might have

life and that they might have it more abundantly.

God's goal, ladies and gentlemen, is not just survival.

God's goal for you today is abundance, but it's abundance

that only comes when you cross the line to get out of your

walls. Because as long as you stay

confined in your walls, He has stolen something from you.

Opportunity, God's will, God's call, He's stolen that from you

because you're keeping yourself right there.

It's step out. It's a sad reality today, but I

want to alert you to this fact that most people don't choose

their life, they just end up in it.

That's not God's will. We need to understand there's a

big difference between accidental living and

intentional living. Accidental living wakes up,

reacts to yesterday, survives today, and hopes tomorrow's

better. I'll tell you what I tell my

team all the time. Hopes, not a plan.

Intentional living wakes up, decides, and then walks forward

with purpose, even when the past still hurts to in the future

isn't fully clear. When a person decides to live,

they stop letting circumstances write their story and they start

partnering with God to author the next chapter because that's

what that's really what he wants.

He wants to partner with you for the next season of your life,

the next chapter of your life. Stop allowing it to happen and

let's make things happen with God.

That moment, that decision is where everything begins to

change. Maybe that moment for someone is

today. I'm closing this morning.

Brother Alex will come to the piano.

Overcoming shame, fear of failure.

Fear of embarrassment in the often crippling effects of

getting it wrong can feel like trying to climb a mountain with

no strength left in your legs. Shame whispers that you're

disqualified. Fear insists that you'll mess up

again. Embarrassment convinces you that

everyone is watching, waiting for you to fall.

The memory of past mistakes wrap around yourself like your soul,

like chains, making forward movement feel not just difficult

but impossible. Something shifts the moment you

decide that you're done merely surviving.

When you reach that sacred point where you say it's time to live,

truly live, and it's time to live according to God's divine

call, purpose, and direction, everything changes.

That decision doesn't magically erase your past, but it reframes

it. It doesn't remove your scars,

but it transforms them. Because when God begins to heal

you, you stop bleeding from your wounds.

The open bleeding places that still hurt when touched, you

start leading from your scars. And scars tell a different

story. Wounds say I'm still hurting.

Scars say I've been healed. Wounds say I'm not ready.

Scars say I survived what was meant to destroy me.

Wounds say I'm ashamed. Scars say God redeemed me.

When you lead from your wounds, you lead from pain, insecurity,

and self protection. When you lead from your scars,

you lead with wisdom, humility, and authority.

You lead with the quiet confidence of someone who has

been through something and came out with a testimony instead of

a tombstone. And here's the beautiful truth,

ladies and gentlemen. God never wastes a wound.

Your wounds don't scare him. He knows how to use them.

He knows how to heal them. He knows how to use them to

declare His purpose. Would you stand with me today?

God transforms it into a scar, A healed place, and then uses that

scar as evidence of His grace, His power, and His faithfulness.

There are many in this room today that have beautiful

testimonies, God's deliverance, God's power to change.

Those are scars. Those are testimonial evidences

of God's grace. Your scars become your

credentials. Your scars become your ministry.

Your scars become your message. So yes, overcoming shame and

fear may feel impossible, but it becomes inevitable when you

surrender your story to the One who specializes in resurrection.

When you choose to live according to God's calling, you

stop hiding the places that you were once ashamed of, and you

start using them as proof that God still heals.

He still restores, He still redeems, and he still calls

imperfect people into extraordinary purpose.

That's when you stop living as a prisoner of your past and start

living as a steward of your testimony.

You stop leading from pain, start leading from power.

You stop bleeding and start building.

Some of you have been surviving for years.

I think God is asking us today to start feeling a little

different about His call. He's asking us to decide to

live. Would you lift your hands today

as we prepare to sing a song this morning?

Season of worship and reflection and and allowing God to minister

into our hearts and our minds. Somebody choose today, Somebody

choose today. Make one small step today to

choose to decide to live intentionally in God's call and

God's purpose for your life. Fear is not your future when you

put God at the helm.