Slaves to Sin

I love this great quote from Joseph Parker. He was a pastor back in Victorian England back in the 1800s.

He says this, That's this, off with his head. Therefore, you had better not try to preach repentance until you've pledged your head to heaven. I'm preaching repentance today. I might be doing a little bit of preaching, but I'm doing more pastoring here today.

I could be wrong, but I sense Jesus sent me here today to warn somebody in this place or somebody online or somebody on one of these other campuses. You're about to step across the line. You're about to make a decision that you're going to regret. It's going to destroy you. It's going to destroy your testimony. It's going to destroy your family. I sense Jesus is calling. I'm as serious as I can possibly be.

Jesus is calling me to pastor y'all and to preach repent today. Shelby Foote is one of my favorite historians, and he talked about after the Civil War that there were actually slaves who had been freed from slavery. Think about this. They had been owned. They had been beaten. They had been savagely used and abused, and they are free. And yet he said some of them chose willingly to go back and be slaves again.

Explain that to me. A war was fought. A president died so that you could have your freedom, and yet you choose to go be a slave again?

I want to ask some of y'all the same question. Some of y'all who are about to go back to the mess that Jesus saved you out of. A war was fought.

A savior died, and you're about to go back into that mess again? Explain that to me. I don't know if you've been keeping up with El Salvador. I love the story of what's going on in El Salvador. El Salvador used to be the most dangerous country in the world. Now it's one of the safest countries in the world.

Do you know why? They elected this president that came in and built these supermax prisons. They don't take any junk there in El Salvador, and they started rounding up people and sending them to those supermax prisons. Have you read about those prisons? Those prisons are something else. One cell holds 70 people. And they have like, they're no mattresses, no sheets.

They just have these metal slabs stacked four high. You're in this cell with 70 men, and you sleep on that cold steel slab every night. You are in that cell doing what those guys are doing 23 and a half hours a day.

For 23 and a half hours a day, you're just sitting there staring out. Meals the same every day. Pasta, beans. Pasta, beans.

Pasta, beans. I read about one young guy, young fella, that was sentenced to 400 years in this prison. If it were me, I'd be like, give me the death penalty. I don't want it. Just go and kill me.

23 and a half hours for the rest of your life, you're doing that. Now imagine that one day the guards come and they open up your cell and they say, we don't understand this. This is crazy. The president of our country has pardoned you. You're free. And you walk out of that cell.

You're going to be there for the rest of your life. You walk out of that cell. You walk into freedom. You take a fresh gasp of air of freedom. You say, that's enough, and you turn around and say, put me right back into prison.

It doesn't make any sense, does it? You were liberated. You were free.

Why would you go back? That's the same question Paul's answering in Romans chapter 6. Jesus saved you from sin. He freed you from sin. He liberated you from sin. And people are asking Paul, well, good, now that I'm saved, can I go live however I want to live, do whatever I want to do? Paul's asking the same thing. Jesus liberated you from that cell.

Why would you want to go back? So look if you would at Romans chapter 6 verse 15. Well then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning?

Of course not. Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey. You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

Thank God. Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you become slaves to righteous living.

Because of the weakness of your human nature, I'm using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you'll become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.

And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things that you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. Now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

In verse 16, Paul makes an astounding statement about sin. He says, don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey. You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death.

Here's what he's saying. There's some weird psychological addiction to sin. You live in righteousness, you've been saved, you're free, and you step back into sin, it's going to suck you right back into that vortex. In fact, Jesus Christ says the same thing in John 834.

He says, I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. There is a reason why every October and November of every year you see dead deer lying all over the interstate. Do you know why that is? Because at that time of the year, the bucks start being enslaved by their passions. The buck deers start getting enslaved by their lusts and they start running after does. They start running after deer and they don't care about the Mack truck coming down the freeway. They don't care about that. All they know is they got a desire that needs to be satisfied.

Forget about the truck and it flattens them. You need to listen to me right now. There's some followers of Jesus Christ in this place. You're about to step back into sin.

You're going to be driven by your lust, driven by your passion, and I'm telling you, this is not going to end well. And some of you men, I can yell at you until I'm blue in the face and I'm telling you what you know already, but you don't care because you got your nose up in the air, kind of following your senses, and I'm just telling you, this ain't going to end well for somebody here. You need to listen to me. Now there's rationalizations. I've pastored so long, I've heard it all. When I confront men on this and confront women on this, I confront people who I see.

They're starting to walk away from Jesus and they're going right back into the same prison that Jesus saved them out of. I hear the same rationalizations. You ready for them? Here's one. I deserve this. I take care of my family. I work hard.

Life's tough. I have a little bit of relaxation in this thing. I've earned this thing.

I deserve it. Here's a second rationalization. Okay, this is my one area of weakness.

In fact, everybody's got an area of weakness. I read my Bible. I go to church. I throw some money in the offering plate. Let me tell you something. If that offering plate is being used to try to assuage a conscience, I'm okay with Jesus Christ because I threw $2 in the offering plate.

Please stop putting your money over there. I don't want this as a tool to make you think you're right with Jesus Christ. And some of you all are doing that stuff. Well, you know what? This is my one weakness.

Ninety-nine percent of my life is right with Jesus. I got to have one area that's mine. Here's another one. I can handle this.

It's pride. I can go online. I know when enough is enough.

I can go online. Just calm down, Chad. I can handle this. In the words of the great theologian, Jack Nicholson, you can't handle this. This is about to get ahold of you.

Here's another one, another rationalization. Nobody will ever know. I've done a pretty good job covering my tracks. Nobody will ever know. God knows. And you're not that good.

In fact, the Bible says in Numbers 32, 23, be sure your sin is going to find you out. Here's the other one. This is the pity excuse, pity rationalization. My situation is different.

So you don't understand. My wife has cancer and she can't meet my needs. I'm different than everybody else. Chad, my situation is different.

My husband doesn't show me the attention he ought to show me. See, everybody's got an excuse, don't they? And we're supposed to do a big pity party.

While you walk back into prison, you go back into sin and you're throwing excuses left and right while you're different than everybody else. The rules don't apply to you. Here's the last one. Everybody's dealing with this. I'm a young red-blooded American male trying to live in America in 2021.

There's billboards all over the place and pop-up ads all over the place. How do you escape this stuff? Chad, relax.

Everybody's dealing with this. See, I've heard all these rationalizations before and I'm just here to warn you. Sin is highly destructive. Jesus loved you and did you a favor by pulling you out of that mess and you're about to go back into it. And Paul says in this passage, sin is not a good thing. Slavery to sin is not a good thing. I want you to look at verse 16. Paul says, hey, this is going to destroy you. Verse 21, hey, this is going to end in shame.

Do you see that in verse 20? You're going to be ashamed of this. Sir, one day it's going to dawn on you.

They were laughing at you when they saw how you acted with a fool you made of yourself to try to act 20 years younger, 30 years younger. You're going to be ashamed one day. When your family doesn't speak to you, when you're a pariah in your family, verse 21, you're going to be ashamed. Verse 21, this is going to end in death and destruction. Verse 23, this is going to end in death. Paul is like he's shaking and saying, are you listening to what I'm saying to you? I think this is harmless. Somebody here, somebody online, somebody in the acoustic chair, you need to listen to me. This is not going to end well.

This might be your last chance to get your head on straight and get your life right and turn back to Jesus Christ because I'm telling you, this is not going to end well. I remember years ago, I read this story. In fact, I read about this again last night to kind of refresh myself, familiarize with this story.

I don't know if you read about this years ago. This lady down in Eastern North Carolina lived down a dirt road in a little mobile home and she loved the bears, the wild bears out in Eastern North Carolina. You know, there's wild bears everywhere out there. And so she started feeding the bears. And people kept telling her, don't feed the bears. That's not healthy.

That's not good. And she's like, you don't understand. They're my pets. They love me. They know me.

I've named them. I'm okay. The wildlife guy came out and said, ma'am, this is illegal. I don't want to write you a ticket.

I'm not here. I'm just telling you, honey, you got to stop feeding these bears. She's like, I got it under control.

I know what I'm doing. She kept telling everybody. She knew what she was doing.

Leave her alone. The bears are her pets. She got it under control until the day they came where the only thing they could find of that lady was a couple strands of white hair, some bones, and some clothes. That was what was left of her.

The bears had eaten that woman. You said, it's a great Sunday day. Why would you ruin a nice, bright, happy, sunshiny day?

Tell me that morbid story. I'm here to make your Sunday miserable. I'm here to warn you. Some of you, you're feeding the bear, and God is trying to tell you, I'm just telling you, this is not going to end well. You think you've got this under control. Stop feeding the bear. Stop walking this way.

This is going to end in destruction. Now, the hyper-graced people, you know what I mean by the hyper-graced people? The little one says, we're born again. We're saved. We're covered under grace.

You can do whatever you want because we're under grace. They say repentance is not for Christians. Repentance is for lost people. Christians don't have to repent.

That's what the Bible says. In fact, if you look in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 7, 9 through 10, Paul talked to the church at Corinth about some sin issues they were dealing with. They got their life right with God as a church. And Paul says this to the church, hey, your godly sorrow led you to repentance. Revelation chapter 2, verse 5, Jesus is talking to the church. These are Christians.

The church at Ephesus. And he said, y'all have lost your first love for me. I saved you. You loved me.

You're on fire for me. And now you've started walking back toward the prison. Here's what Jesus says. You better repent.

He's talking to Christians. You better repent. He said, what does it mean to repent? The best, most simple way I can describe this biblical concept of repentance is you do a 180. I'm walking toward sin.

I'm walking toward destruction. I'm about to make some bad decisions and I stop and I do a 180 and I start pursuing Jesus Christ. That's repentance.

I've never been good at geometry. Here's how I used to preach repentance. I'd say, repentance means you do a 360. So I'm walking toward death and sin and wickedness and I do a big circle and I keep walking right toward it. So it's not a 360.

It's a 180, okay? That's what repentance is. I'm not here to be mean to you today.

I'm here to warn you. If the spirit of God is touching your heart, pricking your heart like a surgeon's scalpel and you realize I'm slowly making my way back into slavery, Chad, how do I get out of this thing? The way is repentance and repentance begins with the three most powerful words in the Bible. Here is the repentance. Here is the start of your way back. I have sinned.

It starts with that. I have sinned. 2 Samuel 24, 10, David said, I have sinned. 2 Samuel 24, 17, David said, I have sinned. Psalm 41, 4, I have sinned. Psalm 51, 4, I have sinned. Micah 7, 9, I have sinned. Matthew 27, 4, I have sinned. Luke 15, 18, I have sinned.

That's the start right there. And look, I have sinned. Repentance has to be personal. That's the I. I. I'm going to stop blaming everybody else. It's not, well, she was flirting with me. Well, he pursued me.

My high school fling, he's the one that found me on Facebook. It's always everybody else's fault, isn't it? No, repentance starts with I. This is personal. I did this. Positive, have. Not might have, I think I have. He kind of got me thinking maybe I have. No, no, no, this is I positively. I have done this.

This is not theoretical. I have sinned. That's pointed.

Not, made a mistake, messed up, formed the ball, did a boo-boo. No. This is sin. This is rebellion against the holy God of the universe. I have sinned. It is personal. It is positive.

It is pointed. And listen, some of you, watch this, you are finding yourself getting further and further away from God. You're about to go back to prison. Some of you are already hearing those prison doors shut and God is saying there's a way out and it starts with repentance. I have sinned.

Now, I want you to listen to me. In the Bible, action always follows repentance. See, I want you to look at this verse 19. Verse 19 says this, because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourself be slaves to impurity and lawlessness which led ever deeper into sin.

Now, look what he says right here. Now, you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. It's great that you're saying, I have sinned.

That's marvelous. But now you got to roll up your sleeves and do something about it. And if you're truly repentant, you're going to have to get practical and you may have to say to that man or say to that woman, okay, this is over. Stop calling me. Stop texting me. I'm going to change my number. This is what we're done with this. Don't ever contact me ever again.

You may have to say that. Repentance for some of you may mean that you say to that boyfriend or that girlfriend, this ain't right. We can't keep living together like this. What are we doing?

I claim to be a born-again believer. We can't do this. Somebody's got to move out of the house. Repentance means one of us is going to have to leave but we can't keep living like this. For some of you, repentance may mean you get rid of that app on your phone.

It may mean you get rid of the phone or you get rid of the computer or you cancel the cable service or you cancel the streaming service or you shut down your Facebook account. You say, Chad, okay, that sounds kind of radical, okay? That sounds a little bit extreme. That's not extreme. Let me read to you extreme, Matthew 5, 29. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you for it's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.

And if your right eye causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. That's radical right there. Asking you to get rid of your phone is not radical.

Asking you to cut off your hand and throw it away, that's pretty radical I'd say. And the point Jesus is trying to make here is you can say all you want, I have sinned, I have sinned. Okay, that's fine. What are you willing to do to have fruit that meets that repentance? That's what he's wanting. Well, Chad, I repent but I'm not getting rid of that computer, then you're not ready to repent.

Chad, I repent. But we ain't moving out. We have a nice little apartment.

You know, housing is hard to find in Raleigh. We finally got us a nice little place here. I know we're not married. We'll get married one day. You know, why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?

All that kind of stuff. I ain't moving out. Okay, that's fine. Don't move out but don't tell me you've repented. You've not repented.

Okay, well, things got a little bit hot and heavy with that high school boyfriend online. I need to delete my Facebook account but I'll back off a little bit. Okay, back off but you've not repented. Are you with me?

I understand that. We have parking problems here at Cross Assembly. I'm trying to help the parking problems by getting as many people as mad as possible and you may not come back but you'll at least hear the truth one Sunday and that's this Sunday and I'm just telling you, some of y'all don't realize just how dangerous things are getting and Jesus said, today is the day to repent.

To get right. And some of you, let's see if you clap when I say this, you may have to follow repentance with restitution. This might cost you your job. You may have to go to that boss and say, I got to come clean. Spirit of God convicted me.

I've been embezzling from this company and I want a payment plan, I want to try to pay this thing back, put me on a payment plan or call the authorities if you have to but I got to make restitution. This isn't right. Some of y'all have swindled some stuff from some family members and you know you did wrong and it may be that you have a family party and you say, hey, let's all sit down together, I got to be honest with you, I took this from my mom's estate, dad's estate, that was wrong, I got to make restitution.

You with me on this thing? Repentance sounds good in theory, I have sinned. Okay, but are you ready to do some, here's what John the Baptist called it. John the Baptist, y'all heard of that man before? John the Baptist is screaming at all these people, repent, repent, repent and they were asking him, okay, what do we do to repent?

And then John started getting very practical. If you've robbed somebody, pay them back, if you've done this, you better do that. John the Baptist didn't just say, say, I have sinned, John says, good. Say, I have sinned. But there's some things you're going to have to do to prove that you're truly repentant. Now, some of y'all are like, I don't know if I'm ready to repent. I kind of like this sin I'm in.

I don't know if I'm ready. I like this great story of, you've heard of Socrates, philosopher? They said Socrates was walking down the road one day and this young guy came up and said, Socrates, Socrates, I want wisdom. You're the most wise man around, you're the philosopher, I want wisdom. I think I'm ready to pursue wisdom.

How do I know? And they said they're walking by a river and Socrates says, how do you know? And they said, I've got water.

The guy come over here. And he took the kid's head and held it under water. And the kid is thrashing around trying to get a breath of air and Socrates just kept that guy's head under water. And right when that guy's about to pass out, he pulled his head up out of the water and he said, when you want wisdom as much as you've just wanted air, you'll be ready to pursue wisdom. And I'm saying to you, when you want to walk in freedom and holiness and righteousness, as much as you want the next breath of air that you breathe, then you're ready to repent.

And I want you to do this. Look, we've got to change our idea of repentance. Because here's what y'all are thinking. You're thinking God's mad at you because some lunatic is up here screaming and slobbering at you. God must be mad and repentance must be a bad thing.

Let me tell you something. You know why God wants you to repent? It's not that he's mad at you, it's not that he's a cosmic killjoy and he wants to make life as miserable for you as humanly possible.

It's the complete opposite. God is watching some of you. You're about to self-destruct. God is looking at those little kids in your house and he knows, he knows what's going to happen to those kids. And God, out of his mercy, is saying, I love you so much. I want to grant you the beautiful gift of repentance. It's a beautiful gift. In fact, I have a friend.

That's it, I have a friend. No, I have a friend, he's a Christian leader and an author and he sent this to me on Friday and it was too late for me to throw it up to the PowerPoint people. So I'm going to read this to you because he said, here's what the Spirit of God showed me in the word of God. And he said, this thing I got from the word of God, it's actually my testimony. I told him, I said, man, I've read that verse a hundred times and I never saw this until right now. I want you to listen to this verse, okay? I'm begging you, please listen to this verse. Acts 8, 36 says, God wants to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways. Do you understand what that verse is saying?

Repentance is not some bad thing that you got to grit your teeth and do, God's like, no, no, I want to bless you. I'm trying to help you out here. In fact, have you ever heard of this term, the Stockholm Syndrome? Have you ever heard of that? You know what Stockholm Syndrome is? It's where if you're a hostage or you're being held captive or you've been kidnapped, you start to identify with your hostage takers or your kidnappers. And something weird happens in your brain and you actually think your hostage takers, your kidnappers are the good guys. And your family who wants you back home, they're the bad guys. That's the Stockholm Syndrome. It'd be like you being taken captive by Hamas from Israel and you're there long enough and you start thinking, you know what, I think those Hamas guys are actually the good guys.

I think my fellow Israelites are the bad guys. That's the Stockholm Syndrome. There's some Stockholm Syndrome going on in this place today. You think sin is fun and it's pleasurable and it's great and that's the life and the world is wonderful and Satan just wants you to have a good time and they're the good guys and God is the bad guy. He's the cosmic killjoy that just wants to make your life miserable and take all the fun out of your life.

That's the Stockholm Syndrome. I'm gonna tell you something. Satan is horrible. Sin is horrible.

Wickedness is horrible. And your father stands there and says, no, no, no, I'm the one that loves you. I'm the lover of your soul. I know how I made you. I know the better way to live your life. Don't listen to your captor.

There's a better way out. Fellas, listen to me. It's a blessing to just enjoy the wife of your youth. Just stick with her. Don't compare it to some skanky image of a woman you found online. Just love the wife of your youth.

It's a blessing. Yeah, but Pastor Chad, you know, we've been married 40 years. Look at her. She doesn't look nothing like she looked like when we were married 40 years ago.

She's not nearly as pretty. That's why I'm struggling. Bless your heart. I know.

We all have our crosses to bear, don't we? I know. We can fight aging. Nobody can fight and win. We're all gonna fight aging. I know.

I get it. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately? You're nothing to write home about. In fact, I'm surprised she stuck with you as long as she stuck with you here.

So, sir, just settle down and enjoy the wife of your youth. We tend to think that people who can smoke whatever they want, sleep with whoever they want, snort whatever they want, they're the free ones. No, they're not. They're the slaves. We're the free.

And I don't know. I'm just the Amazon delivery guy. I'm here to deliver the package. If you wanna open it up, you can open it up. If not, I'm just here to tell you.

There's some people in this place. You're about to go back to prison. It's gonna destroy you. Remember the old saying, the old-timers used to say, sin will take you farther than you wanna go, keep you longer than you wanna stay, and charge you more than you wanna pay. Proverbs 14, 12. There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end is death. And here's one of the biggest challenges when it comes to sin is very rarely do you reap the full consequences of sin the first time you sin. I mean, young people, I'll just be honest with you. It happens, but very rarely will you get pregnant the first time you have premarital sex.

Very rarely will you pick up some kind of disease the first time. And so here's the problem. We do it, we don't see consequences, and we think we've gotten away with it. We've gone online for the last couple months.

Nobody knows about it. I've done a great job hiding my digital footprint. I must have gotten away with it.

This hit me this morning. I think God wants me to say to somebody, don't mistake his patience with tolerance. You think he's tolerating your sin. He ain't tolerating it. He's being patient. He's giving you a chance, but don't mistake it. He doesn't tolerate this. He's being patient with you.

We have an elder here named Dick Van Cleave. He's a Vietnam vet wounded in Vietnam, and he said back in Vietnam, there was this river that separated where we were from where the enemy was. And he said the Army Corps of Engineers, because things were happening so fast, they just built a very quick temporary bridge. And here's what the engineer said. So you can use this bridge to get from point A to point B. It'll save you miles and miles of walking. So you can use this bridge for walking, foot traffic, and maybe an ox cart. That's it.

It's not designed to hold anything else than that. It'll collapse. He says, we were told that. And then one day as we were talking, he said, some young officer gets in a Jeep. He wasn't there when the Corps of Engineer guy told us this. He takes this Jeep, and he said, we start seeing him go over that bridge, and we're all screaming, stop, stop, stop. And he drove right across the bridge, and it did not collapse.

So we thought, well, the engineer was wrong. He can support Jeeps. So he said, we just started using that bridge all day long for Jeeps and heavy equipment. He said, one day we're on the other side of the bridge, and we found out that there's an enemy offensive happening, and they vastly outnumber us, and we better evacuate. He said, so we start evacuating, and we start evacuating across the bridge. And do you know what happened while we're trying to evacuate? The bridge finally collapsed.

He said, we lost 60 men that day because the bridge finally collapsed. Some of you have walked back into prison, you're going back into sin, and nothing has collapsed yet, and you think the grand engineer doesn't know what he's talking about, and I think God sent me to tell you it may not happen today or it may not happen tomorrow, but that bridge is going to collapse one day. And today's your day to get right with God. I've been talking to Christians. Let me talk to those of you who don't know Jesus online or in this place today.

Can I take a quick time out and go a different direction here? The Bible calls Jesus... Do you know the name Jesus? It means the one who saves.

Saves from what? Here's what the Bible says. Call him Jesus because he will save people from their sins. If you're not born again, if you don't know Jesus Christ, you are now a slave to sin, you'll die in your sin, and you'll spend eternity in hell in your sin. And Jesus says, I have come to deliver you.

The thief comes to kill, steal, destroy. I've come that you may have life. If you've never repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus, everybody's standing on me right now. If you're not born again or you're not sure that you're born again, I want you to do this right now.

Hey, don't just repeat words. Repeating words does not save you. Jesus saves you. I want you to bow your head and I want you to say this to Jesus if this captures what's going on in your heart.

I want to help give you the words, but this has got to come from your heart. Say this to Jesus. Jesus, I am a sinner. I deserve to be punished. But I believe you died for my sin. I believe you were buried. Say this to Jesus. I believe three days later you came back to life.

This is so important. Say to him, I repent of my sins. I have sinned. I repent of my sins. I turn from my sins. However you want to say it, I turn away from my sin. Jesus, I turn to you. Please forgive me of all my sins. Come and take control of my life. Take me to heaven when I die. You say, that's it?

That's it? The Bible says all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. In fact, let's do this. Just do this. As your first act of faith, now that you're a born-again believer, if you're online or whatever, you just prayed that prayer, there's a way you can type and let the moderator know. The Bible makes it very clear, there are no secret disciples.

You've got to start telling people. Why don't we just start by telling whoever online that I just gave my life to Jesus? I believe this. I believe Jesus Christ wants to give victory over sin in this place today. I'm going to tell you right now how I ended last service. I ended last service by saying God has just spoken a word to my heart for those of you who are struggling with sin.

That word is a word that I've said so many times you're getting sick of it. It's chazak, be bold, be strong. You keep telling me, sin is so powerful, I can't overcome this, porn is bigger than... That's a coward talk, that's weak talk, that's defeatist talk. The Bible says greater is he who's in you than that porn problem, that addiction, that adultery. So rise up, be bold, be strong.

Let's fight this thing tooth and nail and let's get some victory in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you need victory over sin, for the next few moments we're going to open the altar for you to come forward and say, I have sinned. I'm going to say this, not everybody who comes forward praying I have sinned is a pervert, okay?

It's not all sexual stuff. I keep harping on that. Some of you all, the Spirit of God has convicted you, the words you speak are reprehensible. You better repent of the words you've been speaking.

The way you're treating others in your family is reprehensible. You need to say, I have sinned. So I'm telling you, there's a whole host of sins that we need to say, I have sinned and repent of. So in a few moments, we're going to give you a chance just to come forward and get victory over that sin.

I just had a testimony of more people. I don't know what God's doing. In the last month, we've had seven people with major illnesses supernaturally healed at cross-assembly. I don't know what the Holy Ghost is doing.

He's doing something. Last service, we had people being prayed for. And God just supernaturally touched them and healed them. So if you need victory, I'm going to say victory in two ways, victory over sickness or victory over sin, you want to repent and get right with God and accept his forgiveness. I want you to come. We're going to stand right here. We're going to pray victory over sickness and victory over sin. Is there anybody in this place or is everybody healthy and right with the Lord? Okay, good. Come on down.

Come on down. I mean this. I'm going to ask elders, deacons, and pastors, if we don't have all day, I want you to go person by person and just start praying over people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be physical victory.

It may be spiritual victory, victory over sin, victory over cancer. Let's just start praying over people right now as they come forward. Would y'all do that? Let's just start praying. Now here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to give you the road map here. We're going to pray for the next few moments. You understand you have to pray for two and a half hours for God's power to fall.

Spirit of God can do this in two seconds, okay? We're going to pray for the next few minutes. And then after we pray, we're going to shift and praise. And then after we get through praising, if you want to stick around a little bit longer, stick around a little bit longer, okay?

Does that make sense? Let's come right now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Elders, deacons, pastors, let's start praying for people right now. I want to say it again.

People always ask me, what are we supposed to do? You pray for these people right now. Would y'all do that? Just stretch forth your hands and let's pray right now. Victory in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come right now. Elders, deacons, pastors, and their wives, come, come, come, come, come.

I'm going to ask small group leaders. We need some help praying for people. Joe, where are you at? Joe, I want you to start praying for people right now.

Let's just start praying in the name of Jesus. Thank you for your love. We thank you for your love.

We thank you for your love. We don't have all day. You got to just go person by person. Just start praying with people real quickly.

You just need your availability. Just put your hands on people and pray over people right now in the name of Jesus, claiming victory right now. Jesus, Jesus. Hey, y'all stick around up for it. Don't leave.

Spirit of God, I'm not done yet. Just stick around for a few more moments. We're going to sing and praise in just a second. Don't leave, don't leave, don't leave. Jesus, Jesus.

Hey, right now. Let's just start praying right now. Victory in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We speak victory over everybody, victory over sickness. I cancel the assignment of the enemy that has come against these men and women. I proclaim in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, your hands are to be off of these men and women in the name of Jesus. These are men of God, women of God, children of God, sons of God, daughters of God. They belong to the Lord Jesus Christ right now.

We speak this over them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, listen to me. Let me tell you something God has been teaching me that you need to learn right now. I've been learning this. God is teaching me to thank Jesus for the victory before I say the victory.

Does that make sense? See, some of y'all say, I'm going to wait until I see the victory before I praise the Lord. I'm going to wait until I see the miracle before I praise the Lord.

And it don't work that way. You thank Jesus for the answer prayer before you see the answer prayer. How many of y'all believe God is giving victory right now, even if you don't see it, even if you don't feel it, He's giving victory right now. So can we lift our hands and lift our voices and thank God for the victory before we even see the victory?

Let's sing this. My God will never fail. My God will never fail. I'm going to see your victory. I'm going to see your victory.

For the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm going to see your victory. I'm going to see your victory. For the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm going to see your victory. I'm going to see your victory. For the battle belongs to you, Lord.

I'm going to see your victory. I know y'all weren't planning on singing this part so let's see if we can kind of flow right now. Some of y'all have been attacked by the enemy and you said where was God? Some of y'all have gone through some bad stuff and you said where was God? Let me tell you how powerful God is. He can take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it around and bring good out of it.

That's how big and powerful He is. Y'all believe that? Hey let's see if we can sing that right now if you can. If you can't just fake it or whatever let's sing that to the Lord right now. You take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good. You turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good.

You turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good. He didn't cause that divorce. He didn't cause that addiction. He didn't cause that little infant to die. But He is so big and He can turn it around and He can do something amazing in your life and that's what He's doing right now.

Whether you know it or understand it, He's doing it. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna end with what I just told you. Some of you who are struggling with sin, porn and the enemy and depression and anxiety you're leaving here today or you're right now afraid of it.

I'm gonna say it again till somebody gets it through their skull. Greater is He who's in you than that depression, that anxiety, that porn, that addiction. The resurrection power of Jesus is in you right now.

So as you leave this place, as you leave this place, chazak, beyamats, ata arad, ya adakhet, khi imeikha, adonai, ela hecha, behor, asher, tehelach, which is Hebrew for be bold, be strong. Y'all gonna be afraid? You'll be terrified of anything this week.

Why? Because the Lord your God is gonna be with you everywhere you go. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change the world for Jesus Christ.