WEBVTT 00:00:02.239 --> 00:00:07.559 Before time had a name, there was a garden, a 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:12.419 place where heaven and earth walked as one. This 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:17.780 is the Echoes of Eden, where we rediscover ancient 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:27.379 roots and awaken to our eternal purpose. We'll 00:00:27.379 --> 00:00:30.940 just start out. I'll let you introduce yourself 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:34.030 first. anyone who's listening, a little bit about 00:00:34.030 --> 00:01:45.260 yourself. So, history of drugs and you said the 00:01:45.260 --> 00:01:49.019 Bible is the answer for that. Absolutely. Elaborate 00:01:49.019 --> 00:01:53.239 on that. People hear that I think sometimes and 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:59.140 was it a specific scripture that helped you or 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:02.579 what was it that got you out of that addiction? 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:13.759 Yes and no specific scripture. When I met him, 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:21.300 when he entered in my life, inside of me, those 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:23.460 things, the desire for those things went away. 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:28.099 I still messed up on some other things. I struggled 00:02:28.099 --> 00:02:32.300 with lust. I struggled with pornography. But 00:02:32.300 --> 00:02:35.860 I never struggled with the drugs. And I've been 00:02:35.860 --> 00:02:38.740 doing drugs since I was 11 years old. I got put 00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:43.219 in prison when I was 30. born again when I was 00:02:43.219 --> 00:02:52.520 30. That particular thing, he took that desire 00:02:52.520 --> 00:02:56.139 away from me. I don't know. He replaced it with 00:02:56.139 --> 00:02:59.319 something that was much greater. And that was 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:03.479 him. Right. Holy Spirit will take you way higher 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:10.819 than any drug. Oh, 100%. Yes, sir. You know and 00:03:10.819 --> 00:03:12.539 there's certain there's certain scriptures along 00:03:12.539 --> 00:03:16.319 the way that hit and it enhanced all that sure 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:19.500 My favorite Jeremiah 29 11. I know my thoughts 00:03:19.500 --> 00:03:21.439 and plans for you there for good not disaster 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:24.259 I'll give you a future in the hope I realized 00:03:24.259 --> 00:03:27.219 one thing where drugs had taken me which was 00:03:27.219 --> 00:03:30.819 prison yeah, and without anything lost everything 00:03:30.819 --> 00:03:39.659 I had Not that I had that much but the idea Going 00:03:39.659 --> 00:03:45.319 back to something that was so little in content, 00:03:45.580 --> 00:03:48.400 and you paid so much money for, and it only lasted 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:51.060 for a little bit, and it always causes you problems. 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:55.199 This wasn't attractive to me anymore. Right. 00:03:55.900 --> 00:03:58.580 And this is something you said since 11 to 30, 00:03:58.659 --> 00:04:03.599 that's almost 20 years of drug addiction. And 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:05.659 I feel like, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:07.300 but I think we're on the same page with this. 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.379 regardless of the addiction, when you encounter 00:04:11.379 --> 00:04:14.599 Him, and really it goes back to the scripture, 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:20.000 taste and see, when you taste of Him, the stuff 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.620 of this world begins to fade. Can you talk about 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:27.500 your encounter first with Him? What did that 00:04:27.500 --> 00:04:32.660 look like for you? And was this a, obviously 00:04:32.660 --> 00:04:34.939 I know there's some people that walk through 00:04:34.939 --> 00:04:37.500 a program that helps them get rid of drugs. Was 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:40.800 yours an instant thing? Or was yours, did you 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:43.819 just go through a program? Was it a, I can't 00:04:43.819 --> 00:04:48.000 think of the word I want to use. Was it a process 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.819 you had to walk through or was it one of those 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:52.660 things that God did in you and it was like, it's 00:04:52.660 --> 00:04:59.360 no longer? I did not go through a program. And 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:01.720 I'll say this very plainly, I'm not a great big 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:06.839 fan of programs. I can understand that. Because 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:10.259 when I was in prison, I went to some of those 00:05:10.259 --> 00:05:13.819 programs because I was required to. But once 00:05:13.819 --> 00:05:18.740 I realized it, I didn't see anything in those 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:25.300 programs necessarily that changed me on the inside. 00:05:26.579 --> 00:05:29.379 One thing is I'm not going to confess who I used 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:32.779 to be constantly because I'm not that anymore. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:35.699 I see where you're going with that, yeah. 2nd 00:05:35.699 --> 00:05:40.480 Corinthians 5 17 says what any man who if you're 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:44.259 in Christ your new creation creation not not 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:47.639 a remanufactured you not a remodeled you but 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:51.180 a brand -new you old things pass away behold 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:54.720 all things become new I grabbed hopes of some 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:59.399 of that very quickly when it when it was concerned 00:05:59.399 --> 00:06:03.060 in certain things It's funny you bring up that 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:04.680 scripture that was actually the scripture I was 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:07.959 going to use for our conversation. That was the 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:11.819 main scripture of this conversation. In the light 00:06:11.819 --> 00:06:32.220 of the Amplified Version, it says, Absolutely. 00:06:33.399 --> 00:06:36.680 So that's basically what you experienced. Absolutely. 00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:43.639 So I think the problem is that most people have, 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:49.259 and it goes across all denominations, is biblical 00:06:49.259 --> 00:06:55.339 illiteracy. I would 100 % agree. If you want 00:06:55.339 --> 00:06:57.439 to put something together, you've got to read 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:03.180 the instructions. So if Christ, Colossians 3 00:07:03.180 --> 00:07:07.540 1 I believe it is it might be 1 3 or 4 it's he 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:10.839 made everything and there wasn't anything made 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:14.779 that he had made yeah if he if you look around 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:23.800 and see everything he made in in when he I Know 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:27.220 people have a misconception though. We're all 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:30.079 in his image. We're not all in his image If we 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:31.779 were in His image, we wouldn't need to be born 00:07:31.779 --> 00:07:34.000 again. We have to be born again into His image 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.399 because we were raised up in the image of Adam. 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:43.939 Genesis 3, 5 says that Seth was born and he was 00:07:43.939 --> 00:07:48.439 after Adam's image. So we've continuously had 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:52.019 that image since then. That's why Jesus had to 00:07:52.019 --> 00:07:56.120 come in due time to pay to get the image back. 00:07:58.779 --> 00:08:03.040 All of my life and all of everybody else's prior 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:06.480 to receiving Christ as a genuine Savior, not 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:12.939 just a few words and an altar. You lived in that 00:08:12.939 --> 00:08:17.899 image and everything that was taught to you, 00:08:18.379 --> 00:08:21.420 that you were around, that you saw, it all put 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:24.339 you into a place where you're at. I was around 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:28.720 addiction in my home. You know, drinking alcohol 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:32.440 wasn't a big foreign thing to me. Right. Even 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:35.100 though I went to church with my grandma, I don't 00:08:35.100 --> 00:08:41.559 recall anything at that time that intrigued me 00:08:41.559 --> 00:08:48.200 enough to be born again or even think about it. 00:08:52.100 --> 00:08:56.779 You hit something that I... I know me and Amanda 00:08:56.779 --> 00:09:00.620 has talked about this recently, and I may have 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:02.059 mentioned it to somebody else. I'm trying to 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:05.100 think. But you said something about Biblical 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:10.539 illiteracy. And I think it's important. You know, 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:11.860 one of the scriptures that comes to mind when 00:09:11.860 --> 00:09:14.860 you say that is, my people perish for lack of 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.919 knowledge. When you don't understand something, 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:21.539 you misuse it. It's kind of like, and you've 00:09:21.539 --> 00:09:23.379 heard me... You probably have heard me say this 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:25.500 in here, ministering to teenagers. If you just 00:09:25.500 --> 00:09:27.659 read the Bible to read the Bible and don't sit 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:29.980 down with Holy Spirit, you can misuse that thing 00:09:29.980 --> 00:09:34.399 all day long to hit people with stone. You have 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:38.500 to sit down with the Word to read the Word. I 00:09:38.500 --> 00:09:41.440 don't think people understand that. But I know 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.539 I've told Amanda recently, I said, I feel like 00:09:45.539 --> 00:09:48.720 most of the culture that I've grown up in, Based 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:50.879 off what I heard you say a while ago. You may 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:55.440 agree. You can disagree if you'd like We regurgitate 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:00.559 information Yes, I know I have and before when 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:02.480 we first started ministering a lot of the stuff 00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:05.340 that I look back now that I taught was stuff 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:07.960 that was taught to me without me actually diving 00:10:07.960 --> 00:10:14.059 down into this and It's not until probably the 00:10:14.059 --> 00:10:18.889 past five or six years or so I would say in my 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:21.330 own personal journey where I started digging 00:10:21.330 --> 00:10:28.850 in for myself. It's like the whole idea of I 00:10:28.850 --> 00:10:31.250 taught teenagers in this very building, we're 00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:33.789 sitting in our church, in this very building 00:10:33.789 --> 00:10:35.850 I taught teenagers before when we was involved 00:10:35.850 --> 00:10:38.710 in youth ministry that when Jesus hung on the 00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:42.820 cross, God turned his back on his son. Well, 00:10:42.820 --> 00:10:44.600 if he did that, then Jesus is a liar, because 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:46.220 he said, you all will leave me, but my father 00:10:46.220 --> 00:10:49.919 never will. And my basis on that was when he 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:53.019 says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:10:53.940 --> 00:10:56.679 And I didn't understand that time back in those 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:59.100 days, when someone would have quoted the beginning 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:01.440 of a psalm, those people would have knew the 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:05.700 ending to it. Which if you read that psalm, he's 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:09.519 closer now than he's ever been. He was never 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:13.409 abandoned on the cross. So here I am, as a youth 00:11:13.409 --> 00:11:16.389 pastor, teaching teenagers that he does abandonment 00:11:16.389 --> 00:11:18.629 and can't look at sin, and if he can't look at 00:11:18.629 --> 00:11:23.049 sin, we're all screwed. And this all ties to 00:11:23.049 --> 00:11:25.490 that biblical illiteracy. We just regurgitate 00:11:25.490 --> 00:11:30.610 stuff. We don't understand it because we don't... 00:11:30.610 --> 00:11:34.149 How do I say this? You might put some better 00:11:34.149 --> 00:11:36.490 language. I don't know. But it seems like the 00:11:36.490 --> 00:11:38.389 culture I grew up in was it was all about the 00:11:38.389 --> 00:11:41.929 man of God and the pulpit. Whatever he says, 00:11:42.169 --> 00:11:45.250 that's wrong. You don't question it. You don't 00:11:45.250 --> 00:11:48.450 go read it for yourself. And now we have a generation 00:11:48.450 --> 00:11:53.169 of bottle -fed people. Bottle -fed men who don't 00:11:53.169 --> 00:11:55.669 know who they are because they've really not 00:11:55.669 --> 00:11:58.570 had what you experience an encounter with him. 00:12:00.110 --> 00:12:05.110 So, in the last month, I had something said to 00:12:05.110 --> 00:12:12.590 me. People who said said it to me absolutely 00:12:12.590 --> 00:12:15.629 believed it to be true And they said well God 00:12:15.629 --> 00:12:19.509 won't put on you more than you can bear So I 00:12:19.509 --> 00:12:21.669 asked him I said when was the last time you read 00:12:21.669 --> 00:12:24.690 that? He said well, it's been a while. I don't 00:12:24.690 --> 00:12:28.649 know how long it's not there It's absolutely 00:12:28.649 --> 00:12:32.129 not there I've looked at I've studied it out. 00:12:32.129 --> 00:12:35.529 I want to make sure that I wasn't Exactly even 00:12:35.529 --> 00:12:38.490 a lot self and I believe I'm like you I had to 00:12:38.490 --> 00:12:42.169 go back and change what I believed after I got 00:12:42.169 --> 00:12:44.909 a little deeper. So I said, this is why people 00:12:44.909 --> 00:12:47.710 say that, because it's based off, I think, 1 00:12:47.710 --> 00:12:50.649 Corinthians 10 .13. It says, there's no temptation 00:12:50.649 --> 00:12:52.769 taking you, which is common to man. But with 00:12:52.769 --> 00:12:54.889 every temptation, God gives you a way out, right? 00:12:55.289 --> 00:13:00.129 That's not him putting less than you can bear 00:13:00.129 --> 00:13:02.950 on you or not putting more than you can bear. 00:13:03.330 --> 00:13:07.429 It's the actual idea of, hey, you're being tempted. 00:13:07.710 --> 00:13:10.149 here's your door you don't have that you don't 00:13:10.149 --> 00:13:16.669 have to give into it exactly so in if and i just 00:13:16.669 --> 00:13:19.649 talked to somebody recently last week actually 00:13:19.649 --> 00:13:23.730 and i said if you lift weights and you don't 00:13:23.730 --> 00:13:26.470 ever increase your weight your muscles will never 00:13:26.470 --> 00:13:30.710 grow yeah romans chapter five and second peter 00:13:30.710 --> 00:13:35.049 chapter one tells you the process of what him 00:13:35.049 --> 00:13:38.590 putting on you more than you can bear Put more 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:43.590 on you right? Yes, and their end result is a 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:49.330 copy of yes It builds your patience then patience 00:13:49.330 --> 00:13:53.070 comes into something else and then something 00:13:53.070 --> 00:13:55.970 else comes into love brother in love and the 00:13:55.970 --> 00:14:01.730 end result of pressure Results in a copy of which 00:14:01.730 --> 00:14:04.629 is his kind of love which is the only thing that 00:14:04.629 --> 00:14:15.519 produces real results These are these deep conversations. 00:14:15.539 --> 00:14:21.179 Where do you go with these? Because to me even 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:25.039 when we're sitting here talking a lot of what 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.179 I think about goes back to what you talked about 00:14:27.179 --> 00:14:31.899 about the programs and When you said I forgot 00:14:31.899 --> 00:14:33.700 because I've heard some of this stuff before 00:14:33.700 --> 00:14:36.620 But I forgot it to you said a lot of these programs 00:14:36.620 --> 00:14:39.960 even for addicts and stuff you have to repeat 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:44.100 consciously I am this Well, that's a dangerous 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:47.440 statement if you're not careful. Right. Proverbs 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:50.000 says, so a man thinketh. As a man thinketh, so 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.759 is he. You're declaring all this stuff. And then, 00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:55.840 but here's the problem. You're not only declaring 00:14:55.840 --> 00:14:57.019 it. When you're declaring it, you're hearing 00:14:57.019 --> 00:15:00.500 it again. So there's a two -thing process going 00:15:00.500 --> 00:15:03.159 here. You're repeating it, hearing it again, 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:05.679 continuing to believe it, that I have this problem. 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:11.049 I am an addict. But no, you're not. It's like 00:15:11.049 --> 00:15:13.190 with the people that Jesus encounters, okay, 00:15:13.250 --> 00:15:16.850 think about the woman caught in adultery. He 00:15:16.850 --> 00:15:20.330 doesn't come and beat her up with the sin that 00:15:20.330 --> 00:15:25.110 she's been trapped in. We are the only ones that 00:15:25.110 --> 00:15:27.509 we identify everyone based off their problems 00:15:27.509 --> 00:15:30.669 and their issues, failing to see the Christ within, 00:15:32.250 --> 00:15:34.750 failing to see the person who Christ redeemed 00:15:34.750 --> 00:15:39.879 inside. Now that makes a little bit more sense 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:42.639 here in the beginning of your story about if 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:45.120 you have a bunch of men doing this process, then 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:50.259 they're essentially just trapped in this continual 00:15:50.259 --> 00:15:53.940 swing of things, never understanding there's 00:15:53.940 --> 00:15:58.559 a better way. Christ has done something. And 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:03.519 it amazes me, you take the, I was listening to 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:05.720 a message last night about the woman that he 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:08.639 meets at the well. and about, you know, she basically 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.100 becoming an apostle in that region. Right. Over 00:16:12.100 --> 00:16:15.919 one encounter, Barry. Right. One encounter, one 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:20.740 authentic encounter with him and this woman who's 00:16:20.740 --> 00:16:27.919 been trapped in this cycle. So it hits me funny 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:31.059 when you said that because she had an encounter 00:16:31.059 --> 00:16:33.899 with him but he didn't tell her anything, she 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:37.750 didn't already know. Exactly right. which is 00:16:37.750 --> 00:16:40.490 insane, really, if you think about it. She knew 00:16:40.490 --> 00:16:43.870 everything he said. She just knew that he didn't 00:16:43.870 --> 00:16:47.730 know it. Yeah. But everything, she already knew 00:16:47.730 --> 00:16:52.409 everything about it. So in the midst of that 00:16:52.409 --> 00:16:57.809 idea, when I started reading the Bible, I found 00:16:57.809 --> 00:17:00.570 myself in several different ways. Deuteronomy 00:17:00.570 --> 00:17:04.869 28, if you read it, it's a chapter of blessings 00:17:04.869 --> 00:17:08.289 and curses. And at that time, when I first got 00:17:08.289 --> 00:17:10.430 born again and I started reading the Bible, I 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:11.970 happened to cross that. I just started reading 00:17:11.970 --> 00:17:15.069 and read all the time for hours because I was 00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:17.490 locked up. I mean, I could have done something 00:17:17.490 --> 00:17:21.829 else. I didn't do it. But I found myself in those 00:17:21.829 --> 00:17:24.450 curses in the latter part of Deuteronomy 28, 00:17:24.809 --> 00:17:27.349 even to the point of my children will be raised 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:32.230 by other people. I didn't have much of a grasp 00:17:32.230 --> 00:17:36.680 on the first 13 verses. The biggest part of that 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:41.660 chapter is curses. Verse 13, after he says, if 00:17:41.660 --> 00:17:44.700 you hear my word and do it, or hearken into it, 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:47.940 all these blessings will come fall upon you. 00:17:48.019 --> 00:17:50.140 They'll chase you down. They'll catch you. Right? 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:55.000 And that's been my experience the whole time 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:57.900 I've been born again. I'm not saying I've had 00:17:57.900 --> 00:18:00.279 all yes answers. I'm not saying that the world 00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:03.799 is treating me fire. I'm not saying any of that. 00:18:03.789 --> 00:18:07.349 Right. The idea of God rescuing me and doing 00:18:07.349 --> 00:18:10.170 things in my life that only He could do has been 00:18:10.170 --> 00:18:12.470 prominent. I was sharing something with a guy 00:18:12.470 --> 00:18:15.509 the other day, and I think maybe that's one thing 00:18:15.509 --> 00:18:18.950 that we miss. We like to witness to people about, 00:18:19.369 --> 00:18:21.089 you know, you shouldn't do this or shouldn't 00:18:21.089 --> 00:18:23.950 do that or shouldn't do this when we could tell 00:18:23.950 --> 00:18:27.109 them, say, look, when I received Him, He's done 00:18:27.109 --> 00:18:29.750 this in my life. We're the testimony. Right. 00:18:30.089 --> 00:18:33.390 Said we're over we're overcomers by our testimony 00:18:33.390 --> 00:18:35.609 in the blood of lamb Yes, and but later on it 00:18:35.609 --> 00:18:37.869 says love and not their life the next verse is 00:18:37.869 --> 00:18:40.930 love and not their life under there Yeah, so 00:18:40.930 --> 00:18:45.470 the old person has to die If you're not consistent 00:18:45.470 --> 00:18:47.789 in your living you're never going to be a good 00:18:47.789 --> 00:18:51.849 witness because there's always reason for somebody 00:18:51.849 --> 00:18:54.690 that you're witnessing Because if they don't 00:18:54.690 --> 00:18:58.069 see the change in you hundred percent And a constant, 00:18:58.690 --> 00:19:00.269 consistent change. And they'll know you by your 00:19:00.269 --> 00:19:09.710 fruit. They'll know you by your fruit. Man... 00:19:09.710 --> 00:19:19.410 I just... You think about the one encounter. 00:19:20.890 --> 00:19:22.970 You've experienced an encounter. I've experienced 00:19:22.970 --> 00:19:33.460 an encounter. How do I say this? You think about 00:19:33.460 --> 00:19:35.480 the woman at the well, you think about the guy 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:37.400 who he found on the other shore who's naked in 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:42.220 a graveyard. Cutting himself. Cutting himself. 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:46.299 And just one authentic encounter. And I feel 00:19:46.299 --> 00:19:49.940 like we've built, you've been in ministry, been 00:19:49.940 --> 00:19:53.099 in churches, you've done all this. There's a 00:19:53.099 --> 00:19:57.769 place you can get where it all looks good. But 00:19:57.769 --> 00:20:03.769 there's no presence. And if we don't build a 00:20:03.769 --> 00:20:07.569 place, and I think this is going to be twofold, 00:20:08.109 --> 00:20:11.349 if we don't build a place as a corporate group 00:20:11.349 --> 00:20:13.990 of people that people can come in and encounter 00:20:13.990 --> 00:20:18.970 Him, not the man of God, not the worship team, 00:20:19.170 --> 00:20:24.119 not the... You know what I'm saying. If we don't 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:25.900 build that kind of place, but even further than 00:20:25.900 --> 00:20:29.420 that, if we don't become that place, the representation 00:20:29.420 --> 00:20:32.579 of Christ in the world that we're in, how do 00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:39.079 we expect people to have those encounters? When 00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:41.960 you encounter men, you come from a harder background, 00:20:43.339 --> 00:20:45.599 being with the drugs and all that kind of stuff. 00:20:47.180 --> 00:21:01.099 A lot of men, in prison especially, How do you 00:21:01.099 --> 00:21:05.339 help those men have an authentic encounter that 00:21:05.339 --> 00:21:09.680 makes them want to change? And I'm not saying 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:11.480 you're going to have an answer to that, but you 00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:14.000 know where I'm going with this. I have somewhat 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:20.180 of an answer. So here's part of it. I know it's 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:24.240 part of it. It says, the same power that Ray 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:30.599 Scorsese lived in us. Yes. The idea There being 00:21:30.599 --> 00:21:37.099 a power that exists that took a dead Body yes 00:21:37.099 --> 00:21:41.339 beat before you couldn't recognize him as a human 00:21:41.339 --> 00:21:46.079 being And caused it all to come back together 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:51.099 And be raised and glorified in the midst of that 00:21:51.099 --> 00:21:55.700 he just descended in the head Everybody says 00:21:55.700 --> 00:22:03.109 he took back He did not steal the key. He did 00:22:03.109 --> 00:22:07.630 not steal the key. The enemy had no choice. Hand 00:22:07.630 --> 00:22:11.750 him over. But to hand him to him. You can't steal 00:22:11.750 --> 00:22:13.549 something that belongs to you anyhow. Right. 00:22:14.089 --> 00:22:15.809 And there's a scripture in Isaiah that always 00:22:15.809 --> 00:22:17.450 gets me, and I can't remember exactly where it's 00:22:17.450 --> 00:22:21.329 at, but it boils down to everybody looking at 00:22:21.329 --> 00:22:24.250 the enemy, the devil, and saying, is this the 00:22:24.250 --> 00:22:26.930 one who had all the agents all pull up? Is that 00:22:26.930 --> 00:22:32.190 it? That's it? Yeah. That's all you are? Yeah. 00:22:32.569 --> 00:22:35.089 That's what it said. Is that correct? But we 00:22:35.089 --> 00:22:36.690 go around glorifying and saying, well, you know, 00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:38.710 the devil did this to me, and the devil did this 00:22:38.710 --> 00:22:41.250 to me. How about this? How about just make right 00:22:41.250 --> 00:22:44.329 decisions based on the truth? And you might find 00:22:44.329 --> 00:22:47.470 that the devil has no hold on you. How about 00:22:47.470 --> 00:22:49.430 allowing the Holy Spirit to lead your life? How 00:22:49.430 --> 00:22:52.609 about it? Have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. 00:22:52.829 --> 00:22:56.930 Relations, five, in the New Living Version. It 00:22:56.930 --> 00:23:01.069 says if Holy Spirit controls your life, 522 and 00:23:01.069 --> 00:23:04.430 523, He will produce these kinds of fruits. He 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:07.609 will. He will produce these kinds of fruits. 00:23:09.250 --> 00:23:12.029 And Philippians 2, 12 says, God both wills and 00:23:12.029 --> 00:23:14.869 does His good pleasure through you. The only 00:23:14.869 --> 00:23:18.710 thing stopping it is us. We put the stop on it. 00:23:18.710 --> 00:23:20.670 We put limitations on it. Right, absolutely. 00:23:21.250 --> 00:23:24.009 Because of what? Because of fear. But we're afraid 00:23:24.009 --> 00:23:25.990 what people will think. That's the reason we 00:23:25.990 --> 00:23:28.210 don't worship to the elaborate point we should 00:23:28.210 --> 00:23:31.029 worship Him that He's worthy of. That's the reason 00:23:31.029 --> 00:23:33.549 we don't witness to people the way we should. 00:23:34.289 --> 00:23:37.710 All of it is based on fear because ever since 00:23:37.710 --> 00:23:41.029 we were a child, we were taught that you want 00:23:41.029 --> 00:23:45.970 people to like you. Yes. But in essence, we don't 00:23:45.970 --> 00:23:49.529 need people to like us. We just need people to 00:23:49.529 --> 00:23:52.369 hear the truth. and automatically they'll be 00:23:52.369 --> 00:23:55.269 attracted to us if they are truth bearers themselves. 00:23:56.170 --> 00:23:58.369 Looks like I told our teenagers a couple of Wednesdays 00:23:58.369 --> 00:24:04.029 ago, I think it was, where, you know, Jesus tells 00:24:04.029 --> 00:24:06.390 you, there's a point where he tells the people 00:24:06.390 --> 00:24:11.750 to love others as I've loved you. If we would 00:24:11.750 --> 00:24:14.349 ever get to that point to understand how he sees 00:24:14.349 --> 00:24:18.829 us, then that really frees me to see everybody 00:24:18.829 --> 00:24:22.470 else. through His eyes. And I don't need nothing 00:24:22.470 --> 00:24:26.109 from you. I don't care if you hate me, reject 00:24:26.109 --> 00:24:29.849 me, love me, I don't care because I know the 00:24:29.849 --> 00:24:31.589 value I have in His eyes and that's all that 00:24:31.589 --> 00:24:35.150 matters. And so what does that do to the life 00:24:35.150 --> 00:24:38.230 of us when I'm, it allows us to go to people 00:24:38.230 --> 00:24:41.210 and begin to share our testimony. Why? Because 00:24:41.210 --> 00:24:44.490 if you reject me, who cares? You're not rejecting 00:24:44.490 --> 00:24:46.589 me anyway. You're not rejecting me anyhow. Exactly 00:24:46.589 --> 00:24:49.259 right. And I'm going to pray the Holy Spirit 00:24:49.259 --> 00:24:52.420 still sends somebody else to witness to you. 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:54.000 To confirm what I've already told you. Exactly 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:58.920 right. I've had another thing. Not only do people 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:02.319 believe that lie about you won't put on you more 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:04.299 than you can bear, but they also believe that 00:25:04.299 --> 00:25:07.839 you can't be like Jesus. That's deep. That's 00:25:07.839 --> 00:25:11.079 going to go deep. I've heard it so many times 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:16.220 in the last little bit. Yes. That's Jesus. Here's 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:19.240 a catch that I've realized really specifically. 00:25:19.359 --> 00:25:22.119 It's very plain in the word. There's two plans 00:25:22.119 --> 00:25:25.740 that were from or before the foundation of the 00:25:25.740 --> 00:25:28.539 word. Before he formed all this, there's two 00:25:28.539 --> 00:25:31.900 plans. Jesus is going to be slain. Actually, 00:25:32.039 --> 00:25:35.000 he said Jesus was slain. The Lamb was slain before 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:37.380 the foundation. Before the foundation. And the 00:25:37.380 --> 00:25:39.980 other one is, before the foundation, we were 00:25:39.980 --> 00:25:43.309 predestined to be conformed to the image. I think 00:25:43.309 --> 00:25:45.529 Ephesians 1 -4 even says, he chose us before 00:25:45.529 --> 00:25:47.690 the foundations of the world. Yeah, right. I 00:25:47.690 --> 00:25:50.630 think Romans chapter 8 says something similar. 00:25:50.650 --> 00:25:55.390 I think so. Yeah, first chapter of Ephesians 00:25:55.390 --> 00:25:58.089 says it. And then it's something I've elaborated 00:25:58.089 --> 00:26:01.490 on the last little bit. Ephesians 1 -18 says, 00:26:02.210 --> 00:26:04.069 it's Paul's prayer. It's a good prayer for us 00:26:04.069 --> 00:26:07.269 to pray, too. I think we kind of miss it. We 00:26:07.269 --> 00:26:10.650 ask for the eyes of the understanding to be open 00:26:10.650 --> 00:26:13.269 for people. But he said that you might know the 00:26:13.269 --> 00:26:16.309 riches of the inheritance of the saints and the 00:26:16.309 --> 00:26:19.930 hope of your calling. Yes. That's the one thing 00:26:19.930 --> 00:26:22.730 we should be praying for people to understand 00:26:22.730 --> 00:26:26.009 the hope of their calling. And everybody says, 00:26:26.009 --> 00:26:28.109 well, I'm not called to be a preacher. Oh, I'm 00:26:28.109 --> 00:26:31.769 not a worship leader. I'm not a whatever. But 00:26:31.769 --> 00:26:35.470 we're all called. I think it's second Corinthians, 00:26:35.470 --> 00:26:39.529 maybe in five to also since we all have the Ministry 00:26:39.529 --> 00:26:42.759 of Reconciliation. Yes, sir. reconciliation. 00:26:43.099 --> 00:26:45.539 What is that? Well, he reconciled us to the Father 00:26:45.539 --> 00:26:47.859 so we can have the image back. We have to be 00:26:47.859 --> 00:26:51.880 able to reconcile people to help them understand 00:26:51.880 --> 00:26:54.500 that the image they're living in is not the image 00:26:54.500 --> 00:26:57.099 we're called to be. Yeah. You're called to be 00:26:57.099 --> 00:27:00.259 like Jesus. We're called to be like Jesus. And 00:27:00.259 --> 00:27:04.039 so my answer to some of that is, I've got a new 00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:09.500 song that's called, Will You Pray For Rain? But 00:27:09.500 --> 00:27:14.339 in it, it says, you remember Elijah. James chapter 00:27:14.339 --> 00:27:17.819 5 says that he was a man of like passions, just 00:27:17.819 --> 00:27:20.420 like we are. But he prayed, and there wasn't 00:27:20.420 --> 00:27:26.140 any rain for years. So he's just like, I said, 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:28.119 well, if you can't be like Jesus, then be like 00:27:28.119 --> 00:27:31.380 Elijah. And then they go, well, wait a minute. 00:27:31.380 --> 00:27:33.220 He prayed, and there didn't rain. Then he prayed 00:27:33.220 --> 00:27:35.480 again, and it did. And I said, well, Paul said, 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:39.880 whatever you've seen me do and say, You do it. 00:27:40.519 --> 00:27:44.000 Yeah. Well, we can be like Paul then. Yeah. But 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.480 what they were doing, he says, as I follow Jesus, 00:27:47.539 --> 00:27:53.359 you follow me. Yeah. That's their example. It's 00:27:53.359 --> 00:27:56.660 kind of silly when you think about it. And I 00:27:56.660 --> 00:27:59.099 understand Jesus was fulfilling prophecy. He 00:27:59.099 --> 00:28:01.400 was God in the flesh, but he's also 100 percent 00:28:01.400 --> 00:28:05.599 human and showing us what it looked like. Hey, 00:28:05.599 --> 00:28:08.380 you've got scriptures who. where it says Jesus 00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:11.519 withdrew Himself often to pray, to spend time 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:13.420 with the Father. He makes statements like, I 00:28:13.420 --> 00:28:15.880 don't do anything unless I see my Father do it. 00:28:16.460 --> 00:28:18.980 You have Him, before He does anything great, 00:28:19.640 --> 00:28:22.119 as far as what we would consider, you have Him 00:28:22.119 --> 00:28:25.819 being baptized by John, with the words of His 00:28:25.819 --> 00:28:28.000 Father saying, this is my beloved Son, and whom 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:31.740 I will please, before He does anything, and the 00:28:31.740 --> 00:28:33.579 Holy Spirit descending upon Him and remaining. 00:28:35.559 --> 00:28:38.319 Is that not the same picture of what we're supposed 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:41.240 to do? Withdraw often and spend time with the 00:28:41.240 --> 00:28:44.700 Father. And understand that the Holy Spirit remains. 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:49.380 Listen to that voice. Instead of, it kind of 00:28:49.380 --> 00:28:51.460 goes back to what I said earlier, instead of 00:28:51.460 --> 00:28:54.359 running to get a word from the man of God, and 00:28:54.359 --> 00:28:56.039 I'm not putting no discredit on that whatsoever. 00:28:56.180 --> 00:28:59.599 I hope people hear my heart. He wants to speak 00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:05.380 to you. Absolutely. And not just on the big decisions, 00:29:05.440 --> 00:29:08.819 he's there for the little stuff too. If you can 00:29:08.819 --> 00:29:11.700 just listen, if we can just learn how to listen 00:29:11.700 --> 00:29:15.440 to that voice. He said, my sheep know my voice. 00:29:15.980 --> 00:29:18.480 And a stranger they won't listen to. The problem 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:21.079 is, we've listened to strangers way too long. 00:29:21.299 --> 00:29:23.299 We've listened to strangers way too long, so 00:29:23.299 --> 00:29:25.980 we recognize those voices a whole lot quicker 00:29:25.980 --> 00:29:31.259 than we can the voice of him. It's another lie. 00:29:37.900 --> 00:29:43.680 If it if it be that way. You hear that people 00:29:43.680 --> 00:29:46.940 pray if it be that way. Well if you're praying 00:29:46.940 --> 00:29:49.559 for healing it's absolutely God's will. Yes. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.359 Well how do you know that. Well Jesus went about 00:29:52.359 --> 00:29:54.240 healing all that was sick and oppressed by the 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:57.839 devil. He said just what you just said. He only 00:29:57.839 --> 00:30:00.099 did what he saw and heard the father saying. 00:30:00.460 --> 00:30:04.359 Yeah. So it's absolutely his way. He said if 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:08.589 you've seen me you've seen the father. So everything 00:30:08.589 --> 00:30:12.789 he does is God's perfect will, even to the point 00:30:12.789 --> 00:30:16.450 of dying, being crucified and dying on the cross. 00:30:17.210 --> 00:30:22.130 That was his perfect will. And Jesus, in Matthew 00:30:22.130 --> 00:30:26.150 chapter 6, had the disciples pray for that very 00:30:26.150 --> 00:30:30.650 moment. What we call the Lord's Prayer, which 00:30:30.650 --> 00:30:32.470 technically is just a practice prayer. He said, 00:30:32.589 --> 00:30:35.529 when you pray, pray like this. He didn't specifically 00:30:35.529 --> 00:30:38.000 say, I pray like this. You want to hear him pray, 00:30:38.119 --> 00:30:42.519 just go to John 17. That's his prayer. Where 00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:45.440 he says, I pray that they be one with you, like 00:30:45.440 --> 00:31:01.000 me and you are one. And in it, in the Garden 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.819 of Gethsemane, he says, sit right here and pray. 00:31:05.080 --> 00:31:07.799 He'd already told them what to pray. Thy kingdom 00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:11.339 come, thy will be done. What did Jesus say? Not 00:31:11.339 --> 00:31:15.359 my will, but yours be done. Right. What was his 00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:19.420 will? That he die on the cross, that we might 00:31:19.420 --> 00:31:24.500 live. He left his image on the ground, and we 00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:30.539 got to pick it up. It's way simpler than we've 00:31:30.539 --> 00:31:32.599 made it. We've made it complicated. Absolutely. 00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:37.400 We've created doctrines. scriptures that should 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:41.319 have never existed and Holy Spirit didn't have 00:31:41.319 --> 00:32:07.180 anything to do with it. But it's even to kind 00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:09.119 of tie back into the identity portion, even going 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:11.519 back to how you said a lot of the programs are 00:32:11.519 --> 00:32:13.819 built around this idea of repeating confessions 00:32:13.819 --> 00:32:17.900 that are really lies about yourself. I'll push 00:32:17.900 --> 00:32:20.819 back a little bit on something you mentioned 00:32:20.819 --> 00:32:24.160 earlier, and I get flack for this, and it's okay. 00:32:25.220 --> 00:32:26.980 But even if you want to go with the born again 00:32:26.980 --> 00:32:31.720 thing, technically, if people would look at that 00:32:31.720 --> 00:32:33.779 phrase of born again, we've had it in a... church 00:32:33.779 --> 00:32:36.200 culture, and you alluded to it a while ago, we 00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:39.460 just have people repeat a bunch of prayers. And 00:32:39.460 --> 00:32:42.420 okay, you're good to go. There's no discipleship. 00:32:42.859 --> 00:32:45.180 There's nothing helping people to understand 00:32:45.180 --> 00:32:49.180 what that actually means and explaining to them 00:32:49.180 --> 00:32:51.180 kind of what we've been talking about is this 00:32:51.180 --> 00:32:55.880 idea that you're in His image. You've been created 00:32:55.880 --> 00:32:59.940 in this after Him. That was the plan all along. 00:33:01.629 --> 00:33:03.769 But if you look at the born -again, people say, 00:33:03.890 --> 00:33:05.789 have you born again? What does that mean? You 00:33:05.789 --> 00:33:08.829 look at the word, it means born from above. Like 00:33:08.829 --> 00:33:14.970 I tell our teenagers, you did not come from your 00:33:14.970 --> 00:33:18.910 mom and dad. You came from heaven. You might 00:33:18.910 --> 00:33:22.269 have come through them. But what does that mean 00:33:22.269 --> 00:33:26.289 to me as a man is that takes away all the excuses 00:33:26.289 --> 00:33:29.009 you can possibly find about, well, daddy did 00:33:29.009 --> 00:33:32.480 this, grandpa did this. These are my family struggles. 00:33:33.240 --> 00:33:36.180 OK, well not if you're drafted in Him. And when 00:33:36.180 --> 00:33:40.099 you come into that realization that you were 00:33:40.099 --> 00:33:43.460 in Christ all along, it's like the whole Adam 00:33:43.460 --> 00:33:45.380 nature. And I think you talked about that a minute 00:33:45.380 --> 00:33:50.000 ago. You have the Adam nature and the Jesus nature. 00:33:50.559 --> 00:33:53.220 Jesus says, I'm the last Adam. There's no more 00:33:53.220 --> 00:33:55.460 after this. This is it. I'm coming to finish 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:58.180 everything. And one of the things that's been 00:33:58.180 --> 00:34:03.259 big to me is, It seems the church world I've 00:34:03.259 --> 00:34:05.319 grown up in has more faith in what the first 00:34:05.319 --> 00:34:09.900 Adam did than what the last Adam undid. And I 00:34:09.900 --> 00:34:13.000 heard somebody mention this other day. He said 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:15.920 the notion and the idea that Adam and Eve in 00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:19.159 the garden can take a bite of fruit and ruin 00:34:19.159 --> 00:34:22.780 the whole thing, but yet Christ can go through 00:34:22.780 --> 00:34:26.579 everything that He did and have a lesser impact. 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:30.920 Something's wrong with this picture. but when 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:34.119 you talk like even what we mean you've been talking 00:34:34.119 --> 00:34:37.800 about you begin to dismantle the religious system 00:34:37.800 --> 00:34:41.360 and the reliance on all this that you have to 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:43.260 go through and it goes back to what we just said 00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:48.900 it's simple just believe in him believe that 00:34:48.900 --> 00:34:52.000 he's already paid that price that you're not 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:55.980 the addict that you're not the that you're not 00:34:55.980 --> 00:34:58.179 the liar, that you're not the abuser, that you 00:34:58.179 --> 00:35:02.360 actually are in Christ. That you're made in His 00:35:02.360 --> 00:35:06.280 image, that Jesus was your model. Not the pastor 00:35:06.280 --> 00:35:10.199 of the year, Jesus was your model. You know as 00:35:10.199 --> 00:35:12.960 good as I do, men will fail. If people put their 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:14.639 hope in me, they're going to get disappointed 00:35:14.639 --> 00:35:17.239 real quick. But if I can get you to point to 00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:33.210 Jesus, He'll never fail you. Then and in Romans 00:35:33.210 --> 00:35:36.389 8 26 it says if you don't know how to pray, you 00:35:36.389 --> 00:35:41.590 know Holy Spirit pray for you. Yes, and And I 00:35:41.590 --> 00:35:43.769 think what we've missed if we've got so caught 00:35:43.769 --> 00:35:46.409 up in speaking in tongues or praying in tongues 00:35:46.409 --> 00:35:48.690 that we've missed the idea of what it says after 00:35:48.690 --> 00:35:53.570 that it says Holy Spirit will pray for you the 00:35:53.570 --> 00:35:59.099 perfect will If Holy Spirit is praying the perfect 00:35:59.099 --> 00:36:02.500 will of God for you and through you. Jesus is 00:36:02.500 --> 00:36:06.380 forever making intercession for us. How in the 00:36:06.380 --> 00:36:10.300 world do we make excuses for failure? That's 00:36:10.300 --> 00:36:13.360 a hundred percent. And why do we keep failing? 00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:18.400 If that kind of power is available, the raising 00:36:18.400 --> 00:36:21.619 from the dead power, Holy Spirit praying God's 00:36:21.619 --> 00:36:23.900 perfect will, mind of Christ in you, mind of 00:36:23.900 --> 00:36:27.239 Christ, it said let this mind be in you, right? 00:36:27.500 --> 00:36:31.139 that was in Christ Jesus, not esteeming everyone 00:36:31.139 --> 00:36:33.239 as better than himself. Now how in the world 00:36:33.239 --> 00:36:36.219 can Jesus esteem anybody better than himself? 00:36:36.780 --> 00:36:39.480 He said, who thought it not robbery being equal 00:36:39.480 --> 00:36:41.900 with God, but come to earth and took on the form 00:36:41.900 --> 00:36:49.940 of a servant, and was obedient unto death. He 00:36:49.940 --> 00:36:54.599 was obedient unto death. And then he was given 00:36:54.599 --> 00:36:57.570 a name above all names. that every tongue would 00:36:57.570 --> 00:37:01.289 confess and every knee back. So how can all that 00:37:01.289 --> 00:37:10.269 exist in us and we just exist? You can't. You 00:37:10.269 --> 00:37:13.829 can't just exist. There's no way you can contain 00:37:13.829 --> 00:37:19.289 that kind of power in these human bodies. He 00:37:19.289 --> 00:37:22.630 did. He could have used his godly power on the 00:37:22.630 --> 00:37:26.559 cross. He said, I could have called legions of 00:37:26.559 --> 00:37:31.599 angels to take me off of this, but in my human 00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:36.300 self -control, because that's what it was. I'm 00:37:36.300 --> 00:37:38.599 sorry. Could it be, and I think there's a scripture 00:37:38.599 --> 00:37:40.699 about this, could it be that love constrained 00:37:40.699 --> 00:37:44.400 him in that moment? Absolutely. And he knew, 00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:48.199 in Hebrews chapter 12 it says, that seeing the 00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:53.309 cross, he looked past it and saw the glory. He 00:37:53.309 --> 00:37:59.550 saw the actual attributes of God past that momentary 00:37:59.550 --> 00:38:02.650 suffering that humanly speaking he did not want 00:38:02.650 --> 00:38:05.690 to endure. Because he said if there's any other 00:38:05.690 --> 00:38:09.429 way, that wasn't the God in him speaking. That 00:38:09.429 --> 00:38:12.090 was the man saying, I'm getting ready to go through 00:38:12.090 --> 00:38:17.150 the rough. I know what I'm saying. I've seen 00:38:17.150 --> 00:38:20.449 what they did with the cattle, and they did it 00:38:20.449 --> 00:38:23.409 more increasingly. much worse with him. Absolutely. 00:38:24.570 --> 00:38:27.269 They said that nobody could really endure that 00:38:27.269 --> 00:38:30.809 period. That beating was enough to kill somebody. 00:38:31.969 --> 00:38:33.829 He ended up picking up his cross and carrying 00:38:33.829 --> 00:38:36.170 it even though he was unrecognizable as a human 00:38:36.170 --> 00:38:40.670 being. And then somebody came along and carried 00:38:40.670 --> 00:38:45.469 it for him. That guy who came along is us. And 00:38:45.469 --> 00:38:51.019 still has the audacity on the cross. Look for 00:38:51.019 --> 00:38:54.119 the crowd and say father forgive And you know, 00:38:54.739 --> 00:38:56.420 it was all part of the plan. They didn't know 00:38:56.420 --> 00:39:00.739 they were part of the plan. No, no And then he 00:39:00.739 --> 00:39:04.119 got him hit at his last breath one of the guards 00:39:04.119 --> 00:39:09.079 looked up and says truly I guess man that will 00:39:09.079 --> 00:39:12.139 mess with you. You start thinking about it. I 00:39:12.139 --> 00:39:18.320 mean because it wasn't and this is what I see 00:39:18.320 --> 00:39:23.840 couple questions This is what gets at me. They 00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:27.599 hated me, they'll hate you also. If you really 00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:29.880 look at this, it wasn't the world that was hating 00:39:29.880 --> 00:39:33.179 him and pushing him away. It was the religious 00:39:33.179 --> 00:39:38.280 system. It was the Sadducees, the Pharisees, 00:39:38.360 --> 00:39:41.000 the political and the religious systems of that 00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:45.699 day who hated what he was saying and doing. because 00:39:45.699 --> 00:39:48.559 he was messing with how they believe the scriptures 00:39:48.559 --> 00:39:51.880 said things he comes along and says no you've 00:39:51.880 --> 00:39:55.559 heard it said but I say and messing with their 00:39:55.559 --> 00:39:59.280 world and another thing they were in a place 00:39:59.280 --> 00:40:02.900 of comfort yes they weren't they weren't the 00:40:02.900 --> 00:40:07.880 regular run -the -mill Jews they were they didn't 00:40:07.880 --> 00:40:11.699 get harassed by the soldiers everything like 00:40:11.699 --> 00:40:14.500 that they weren't living in poverty they were 00:40:14.650 --> 00:40:18.110 They were living in luxury. They didn't want 00:40:18.110 --> 00:40:23.670 that luxury to start. And they knew because Nicodemus, 00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:26.929 when he went to Jesus at night, he said, we know. 00:40:27.510 --> 00:40:32.329 He didn't say, I know. He said, we know. So they 00:40:32.329 --> 00:40:50.840 knew surely he was something special. the same 00:40:50.840 --> 00:40:52.079 spirit that raised Christ from the dead, the 00:40:52.079 --> 00:40:55.179 mind of Christ. And I feel like it's still so 00:40:55.179 --> 00:41:01.860 much easier to make excuses of why we are how 00:41:01.860 --> 00:41:04.179 we are, why I'm struggling with this, why I failed 00:41:04.179 --> 00:41:08.340 at this, you name it. I feel like we've made 00:41:08.340 --> 00:41:10.539 it so much easier to make excuses than it is 00:41:10.539 --> 00:41:15.300 to just submit to Holy Spirit. And sometimes 00:41:15.300 --> 00:41:18.360 I would think submitting is the harder route. 00:41:19.769 --> 00:41:23.949 The biggest, I think, the biggest weakness, and 00:41:23.949 --> 00:41:26.510 there's a reason behind it, the biggest weakness 00:41:26.510 --> 00:41:31.010 in the entire body of Christ is the lack of transparency 00:41:31.010 --> 00:41:35.570 with the struggle. 100%. Because it says to confess 00:41:35.570 --> 00:41:38.789 your fault one to another. But see, in today's 00:41:38.789 --> 00:41:41.309 society, it's always been this way. It's hard 00:41:41.309 --> 00:41:44.730 to confess your faults to other people because 00:41:44.730 --> 00:41:49.420 they run a blab and they judge. I know I shared 00:41:49.420 --> 00:41:52.920 something with somebody one time about my struggle 00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:55.880 with pornography. And they never treated me the 00:41:55.880 --> 00:42:01.260 same. They didn't ask me to come back to the 00:42:01.260 --> 00:42:04.139 ministry. They didn't ask me to do nothing. And 00:42:04.139 --> 00:42:11.619 I partnered with them a lot. So you can't just 00:42:11.619 --> 00:42:22.550 share. And not everything, and don't get me wrong, 00:42:22.710 --> 00:42:24.489 not everything is supposed to be shared with 00:42:24.489 --> 00:42:27.769 people. There are some things that only you and 00:42:27.769 --> 00:42:31.409 God have to reconcile. But there are some things 00:42:31.409 --> 00:42:34.070 that regular people, the temptation that's common 00:42:34.070 --> 00:42:36.829 to man. If we understood what kingdom we were 00:42:36.829 --> 00:42:39.650 a part of, when you come to me as a man and say, 00:42:40.610 --> 00:42:42.369 hey, Chris, this is what I'm struggling with, 00:42:42.489 --> 00:42:44.510 then I should have the ability to look back at 00:42:44.510 --> 00:42:46.929 Barry and say, that may be your struggle, but 00:42:46.929 --> 00:42:49.269 that's not who you are. Let's talk about who 00:42:49.269 --> 00:42:53.639 you are. and pull you out of that mindset of 00:42:53.639 --> 00:42:56.280 just repeating that I'm addicted to pornography. 00:42:56.579 --> 00:42:59.039 How many men have dealt with that battle in my 00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:02.880 own life? It's like I tell the teenagers, I'm 00:43:02.880 --> 00:43:05.119 not really interested in talking about your issues. 00:43:05.219 --> 00:43:09.099 I know you have issues. If I as your youth pastor 00:43:09.099 --> 00:43:13.119 can proclaim over you the gospel and who you 00:43:13.119 --> 00:43:17.760 are in Christ and Christ in you, John 17, and 00:43:17.760 --> 00:43:20.619 have you buy into this truth, Divorce yourself 00:43:20.619 --> 00:43:23.940 from this life. As a witness in my own life, 00:43:24.500 --> 00:43:26.000 the Holy Spirit will deal with whatever issue 00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:30.820 you're trying to talk to me about. He's the only 00:43:30.820 --> 00:43:33.980 one that can. Most of the time when we say, hey, 00:43:33.980 --> 00:43:37.460 I'm struggling with this, most individuals want 00:43:37.460 --> 00:43:40.179 to either just talk about it and beat you down, 00:43:40.800 --> 00:43:42.380 or they'll lug it to your face but then do the 00:43:42.380 --> 00:43:44.539 reverse afterwards and go blab all your stuff 00:43:44.539 --> 00:43:46.980 to everybody else or whatever. That's not the 00:43:46.980 --> 00:43:49.750 way it's supposed to be. They'll stamp you as 00:43:49.750 --> 00:43:59.250 just yeah, and that only increases Once you once 00:43:59.250 --> 00:44:03.269 a once people done you that way you're not best 00:44:03.269 --> 00:44:09.829 after that so We and then I say that First John 00:44:09.829 --> 00:44:13.570 I believe is chapter 4 says he did has that this 00:44:13.570 --> 00:44:19.250 hope This hope yeah, not just have this hope 00:44:19.250 --> 00:44:26.630 of new image, new life, new power, new everything, 00:44:28.250 --> 00:44:33.949 purifies itself. So there comes a time, and I'm 00:44:33.949 --> 00:44:35.289 going to backtrack a little bit, he's talking 00:44:35.289 --> 00:44:38.829 about the lack of discipleship and things like 00:44:38.829 --> 00:44:45.230 that. If the world treated babies like we do, 00:44:46.210 --> 00:44:51.099 and I say I call babies, just now regenerate 00:44:51.099 --> 00:44:55.119 brand new creatures in Christ. Yes. If the world 00:44:55.119 --> 00:44:57.739 treated babies like we do, they'd be in court 00:44:57.739 --> 00:45:04.719 from the left. That's man. That's child abuse. 00:45:05.360 --> 00:45:07.780 Yeah. If we didn't teach them how to eat and 00:45:07.780 --> 00:45:12.099 starve to death, then we'd be in jail for murder. 00:45:13.199 --> 00:45:17.199 But we don't teach them how to eat. I had an 00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:20.500 experience in the I didn't get born again until 00:45:20.500 --> 00:45:25.659 1998. I'd say that. I had experience about 1990. 00:45:25.820 --> 00:45:30.880 I went to an altar and I did what everybody does. 00:45:31.860 --> 00:45:33.980 I know something happened because I got healed 00:45:33.980 --> 00:45:38.980 or something physical. I knew something happened. 00:45:39.619 --> 00:45:46.039 Right. But the place I was at, I didn't dig in 00:45:46.039 --> 00:45:51.719 and nobody pulled me in. So I drifted away of 00:45:51.719 --> 00:45:54.260 course the next right that was in 1990 I went 00:45:54.260 --> 00:46:00.059 first in 1998 the next eight years When it says 00:46:00.059 --> 00:46:02.780 what's a strong man's cast out and he comes back 00:46:02.780 --> 00:46:05.300 found the house empty and seven times greater. 00:46:05.440 --> 00:46:23.630 Well, okay So, if we would learn to treat young 00:46:23.630 --> 00:46:26.610 laborers just like we would our kids, we wouldn't 00:46:26.610 --> 00:46:34.949 let our kids starve. Nope. We wouldn't. We just 00:46:34.949 --> 00:46:37.789 wouldn't do it. It's like we expect someone who 00:46:37.789 --> 00:46:41.769 just stepped into this today, we treat them as 00:46:41.769 --> 00:46:46.190 if they've been here 20 years. Right. And, you 00:46:46.190 --> 00:46:52.380 know, you take an addict off the s*** Just take 00:46:52.380 --> 00:46:56.840 anybody in this picture, really. And if they 00:46:56.840 --> 00:47:00.099 just started this journey today, they need a 00:47:00.099 --> 00:47:03.420 lot of discipleship. I mean, don't get me wrong, 00:47:03.599 --> 00:47:06.760 I 100 % believe they can have an encounter and 00:47:06.760 --> 00:47:10.300 turn everything. But there still needs to be, 00:47:10.300 --> 00:47:12.719 I believe that's why there's the fivefold ministry, 00:47:13.119 --> 00:47:14.920 the apostles, prophets, teachers. They're there 00:47:14.920 --> 00:47:18.619 for a reason. And not for the, and I love how 00:47:18.619 --> 00:47:24.360 somebody, I forget who said it, but those people 00:47:24.360 --> 00:47:26.820 are not like, I'm over you type. They're one 00:47:26.820 --> 00:47:28.639 of the great, they're supposed to be the greatest 00:47:28.639 --> 00:47:32.679 servants to the body. That's really, I mean, 00:47:32.780 --> 00:47:35.059 I heard someone say this recently say, you know, 00:47:35.059 --> 00:47:37.199 when someone says, I think I'm called the pastor, 00:47:37.320 --> 00:47:38.980 whatever you said, that's awesome. It's great. 00:47:39.079 --> 00:47:41.880 It means you get to out serve everybody. We don't 00:47:41.880 --> 00:47:44.840 look at that in the culture we have right now. 00:47:46.250 --> 00:47:48.250 It's the other way. We look up to them instead 00:47:48.250 --> 00:47:52.030 of whatever. But if we would realize that the 00:47:52.030 --> 00:47:55.730 fivefold is there to help that individual and 00:47:55.730 --> 00:47:57.670 understand that they just started this journey, 00:47:57.710 --> 00:48:02.070 so let me help you. And to me, and I'm sure anybody 00:48:02.070 --> 00:48:03.650 else in a different position could say something 00:48:03.650 --> 00:48:08.090 different. But to me, that should be helping 00:48:08.090 --> 00:48:11.789 people understand who they are and to come out 00:48:11.789 --> 00:48:15.519 of those beliefs of Well, I'm this, and I struggle 00:48:15.519 --> 00:48:19.300 with this. Okay, that may be a fact, but it's 00:48:19.300 --> 00:48:23.440 not the truth. And the truth is actually Christ. 00:48:23.780 --> 00:48:27.539 Christ is the answer to the question. So, when 00:48:27.539 --> 00:48:31.039 you say that, it made me think of Moses. He said, 00:48:31.059 --> 00:48:34.019 I don't speak for him. He said, well, in this 00:48:34.019 --> 00:48:37.699 way, I'll use Aaron. I don't think he ever had 00:48:37.699 --> 00:48:43.099 to speak for him. That's a good point. I don't 00:48:43.099 --> 00:48:45.659 ever, I have to go back and read it, but I don't 00:48:45.659 --> 00:49:16.639 recall that. That's where I found me. I wouldn't 00:49:16.639 --> 00:49:20.780 have chosen it. I would have been the last person 00:49:20.780 --> 00:49:24.980 to take it. But he knew the cause of where I 00:49:24.980 --> 00:49:28.239 came from and why I had a big reputation in that 00:49:28.239 --> 00:49:35.219 area. That he could use me and say, look, some 00:49:35.219 --> 00:49:38.139 of the best confidence I've ever had is when 00:49:38.139 --> 00:49:40.300 you said you've been to prison and you're a drug 00:49:40.300 --> 00:49:43.039 addict, I didn't know, you didn't worry about 00:49:43.039 --> 00:49:46.599 it. He didn't look like that. He didn't sound 00:49:46.599 --> 00:49:50.880 like that. I didn't know that. I didn't assume 00:49:50.880 --> 00:49:55.519 that about you. Right. That makes sense. And 00:49:55.519 --> 00:49:59.980 that's where we should be heading. Yes. Okay. 00:50:01.699 --> 00:50:04.239 So, again, I could do this all day long, but 00:50:04.239 --> 00:50:08.599 to wrap it up, I'll ask you two questions, and 00:50:08.599 --> 00:50:13.539 then I'll get you to pray for the men. The first 00:50:13.539 --> 00:50:15.920 one, what advice would you give to a man who 00:50:15.920 --> 00:51:02.980 feels lost and is searching for who he is? He's 00:51:02.980 --> 00:51:07.500 big enough to do it. He's big enough to do everything 00:51:07.500 --> 00:51:11.239 that's in Romans chapter 8 in your life. And 00:51:11.239 --> 00:51:14.320 he can take you way farther than you'd ever imagine. 00:51:18.480 --> 00:51:20.019 If he can do it for me, I know he can do it for 00:51:20.019 --> 00:51:28.480 me. Last question. If you could tell your younger 00:51:28.480 --> 00:52:25.590 self See, that led me down that idea of being 00:52:25.590 --> 00:52:29.210 that I fell into whatever was around me, just 00:52:29.210 --> 00:52:31.070 to be accepted, because I've been rejected a 00:52:31.070 --> 00:52:34.949 lot in my life. Right. So, you know, especially 00:52:34.949 --> 00:52:38.269 people who have experienced rejection of any 00:52:38.269 --> 00:52:41.010 type in their life. Been there, done that? School, 00:52:41.170 --> 00:52:43.730 I mean, elementary school, high school, school 00:52:43.730 --> 00:52:47.730 life. Most people feel rejected in school. Even 00:52:47.730 --> 00:52:50.130 the ones that you think are so popular. They 00:52:50.130 --> 00:52:51.969 still feel rejected. They still feel rejected. 00:52:52.489 --> 00:52:54.610 They feel rejected because they're going through 00:52:54.610 --> 00:52:57.030 things they didn't they don't know how to explain 00:52:57.030 --> 00:53:02.070 their experience and therefore he baby But kids 00:53:02.070 --> 00:53:04.210 are notorious about pointing out every little 00:53:04.210 --> 00:53:06.489 flaw in every little detail of your life Yes, 00:53:06.510 --> 00:53:08.690 sir, and if they can embarrass you the more they 00:53:08.690 --> 00:53:10.869 can embarrass you the less embarrassments on 00:53:10.869 --> 00:53:24.210 them. Yes, sir That's that's Jesus was He could 00:53:24.210 --> 00:53:29.570 stop a crowd, he could speak to a crowd, a crowd 00:53:29.570 --> 00:53:34.230 would listen to him. He said bizarre things, 00:53:34.449 --> 00:53:39.989 and they still listen to him. So, why would we 00:53:39.989 --> 00:53:42.969 not want to be like him? When we do everything 00:53:42.969 --> 00:53:45.550 in the world to fit in, I've got a song called 00:53:45.550 --> 00:53:48.809 Being Different from my YouTube channel. And 00:53:48.809 --> 00:53:51.230 that's what it's all about. We all try to be 00:53:51.230 --> 00:53:55.260 different. Just like everybody else is. When 00:53:55.260 --> 00:53:58.320 I was younger, it was earrings, and still you're 00:53:58.320 --> 00:54:00.780 a guy and you're hiring. We do all these things 00:54:00.780 --> 00:54:03.699 to stand out, but everybody else is doing them 00:54:03.699 --> 00:54:07.420 too. If we would just be more like him, we'd 00:54:07.420 --> 00:54:10.179 stand out in a way that would be so profound 00:54:10.179 --> 00:54:14.539 that it would influence everybody around us. 00:54:22.440 --> 00:54:24.960 even without this stuff we could have these conversations 00:54:24.960 --> 00:54:29.500 that we do all the time. Could you pray for those 00:54:29.500 --> 00:54:32.199 that's listening and just close us out like that? 00:54:32.980 --> 00:54:35.940 Father, I just thank you Lord that you love us. 00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:39.260 You love us so much that you gave Jesus to us. 00:54:39.619 --> 00:54:42.400 So we could become something or not. I thank 00:54:42.400 --> 00:54:45.460 you for that. Lord, I know there's a lot of people 00:54:45.460 --> 00:54:47.440 who are in positions right now that they want 00:54:47.440 --> 00:54:57.920 to be in. And you're the only person Lord. Let 00:54:57.920 --> 00:55:01.239 them hear this and let them hear some truth that 00:55:01.239 --> 00:55:05.599 we spoken through this time that Pricks their 00:55:05.599 --> 00:55:08.139 ear and their heart and they might just say, 00:55:08.280 --> 00:55:12.619 you know, what must I do to have that? That's 00:55:12.619 --> 00:55:18.880 just a simple just be just receive Christ Believe 00:55:18.880 --> 00:55:21.900 that he is everything he said he was and he can 00:55:21.900 --> 00:55:27.690 be that in us Thank you. Thank you As we turn 00:55:27.690 --> 00:55:29.949 away from all the old stuff we used to do and 00:55:29.949 --> 00:55:33.130 just let our life become new. We'll let it be 00:55:33.130 --> 00:55:35.170 glorified in you. That's our main objective. 00:55:35.389 --> 00:55:39.070 That's our main goal. It's to satisfy you, who's 00:55:39.070 --> 00:55:42.070 the only one worthy to be satisfied. So we thank 00:55:42.070 --> 00:55:44.369 you for it, in Jesus' name. Amen.